All Music
January 7, 2024 - No. 1631
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Satan’s Schemes” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Satan’s Schemes” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1631January 7, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1631 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: You know, I’ve had some thoughts come to me, and I’m just gonna trust the Lord with them this morning. My mind went to a, basically, a phrase that came out of something that Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers in 2 Corinthians, and I’m just gonna use it as a kind of a kickoff point.
It’s evident from the context that the church there had had to deal with something in a particular person that was very serious, morally, whatever it was. They had to really, you know, deal with it very plainly. And I don’t know what form of discipline they, whether they dis-fellowshipped the guy or whatever it was, but whatever had happened in between 1 and 2 Corinthians, the person had repented.
And so Paul was concerned that, you know, we need to know how to move forward here. We can’t just sit there and let this situation hang. You can’t just sit there and look at this brother like a second-class brother, and, you know. There was a certain amount of fallout and the sense of, where do we go from here? And so, this is in, he encourages them to encourage the brother, to receive him, to love him, to forgive him. And Paul says, I’m right there with you, I forgive him. Let’s put this in the past and move forward.
Isn’t that a good thing? The devil really loves to cause us to cling to the past and just stay there. And, you know, you feel discouraged because of what you were, or what something had happened or something that somebody did to you. And you know, God help us, we need to leave the past in the past, learn how to lay it at the cross and start every morning fresh and new with the Lord. Wouldn’t that be a good idea? Yeah, God wants to set us free.
Of course, we know the devil has other plans. And so, in the context of this, Paul says, I have, in verse, where is this someplace in verse 11-ish, somewhere near there, I have forgiven in the name of Christ, and the sight of Christ, for your sake, in order, now for what purpose? Why is this important? “In order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.”
And you know, I’ve thought about this because, you know, we’ve had a lot of emphasis at times recently about being awake and alert and all of that, and because the devil is a roaring lion, we know the scripture pictures him in one place as a dragon who deceives the whole world, and sometimes it’s easy to think of him in this sense of an open onslaught of some kind. There’s an attack that’s coming from out here, and it’s just, you know, it’s a forward attack. But I think God wants us to realize in a deeper way and learn a little bit more about the enemy.
You know, when you’re going to war, now we got a lot of military folks. I’m not one of ‘em, but, you know, if you are at war, and you’re going to war with an enemy, don’t you think it’s a good idea that you learn something about the enemy? Yeah, you don’t just charge off and grab your weapons and go to war, you wanna study as much as you can, learn as much as you can about them. What’s their motivation? How do they operate? What are their weaknesses? What are their strengths? How can we use this information to our advantage so we can accomplish what we want to in the war?
And you know, I was thinking about this in the context of dealing with the devil and all of his influences in our lives. It’s wonderful to have this idea, I need to be alert for the devil, But if we don’t know how he operates, if we don’t understand his tactics, and what makes him tick, you know, there’s gonna be times that he sneaks up. and he’ll pull something, and we’re not even aware what’s going on behind the scenes.
We need to realize, again, like we’ve said so many times, that we’re not living in just the world that we detect with our senses. There is a spiritual kingdom around us that is devoted to undermining everything that God says and everything that He does. And we are in a war against him every single day on a personal level, on a level of an assembly.
And there are things that he wants to do. And Paul was concerned here that the devil could continue to stir the feelings up that came from this circumstance, and keep on trying to divide the people, and just basically interfere with the presence of Christ.
You know, Burton read the other night from Psalm 133 about the blessedness of people who dwell together in unity. Well, do you see how in this instance, the devil would’ve used things that had happened to create, to continue to create a sense of division in the people?
And so that was the issue here, but the thing that drew me to it was the fact that Satan is not just, doesn’t mount just frontal assaults. But he has a lot of tricky behind-the-scenes ways of working on us, and I believe God wants to shine the light in our lives in deeper ways, don’t you believe that? Don’t you believe that God wants us to understand?
I mean, suppose you are defending your house. And you got the whole family geared up to watch that front door. Nobody’s getting in here. But what happens if the back door’s unlocked? And I think in more ways than we realize, we’ve got back doors in our lives that God wants us to be more aware of, and just, you know, be more alert and more knowledgeable as Christians.
You know, as I thought about this, I don’t know, Lord, have to help me with this ‘cause I thought about looking at all a lot of this from the devil’s point of view. Some of you may have read, a few of you may have read, what was it, the book by C.S. Lewis, “Screwtape Letters.” Few, I’ve heard one yell, and see a couple of heads nodding. And you remember what it was? It was kind of a fictional story, but it was meant to shine light on human nature and our vulnerabilities, the openness that exists in human lives because of sin, because of our separation from God.
And the premise of the book, I won’t spend a lot of time, but the premise of the book was a demon, or a devil who was experienced was writing an exchange of letters with a junior devil, who was trying to learn his trade as how to attempt and undermine human beings. And so they’re going back and forth, and it’s the discussion of human nature. And says, Here’s something you need to know about human nature, here’s how you get to ‘em.
Don’t you realize? Don’t we realize that there we have an enemy who has studied us? Their assignment, their nature drives them to do everything they can to learn everything they can about us and our vulnerabilities. Wouldn’t it be a good thing if we kind of knew more about them so that we could be more ready? Certainly not a point of fearfulness, but rather of our ability to be alert and of sober mind.
Because sober mind doesn’t just blow off everything and think, I can just skate along, I’m smart enough, I’m good enough. My God, do we need Him? As soon as you start down that road, you’ve already walked onto the devil’s territory, without realizing it. And I think God wants to teach us, and grow us up in this area so that we can overcome. ‘Cause here, Paul was saying, We’re not ignorant. We’re not unaware of Satan’s schemes.
You have that same expression over in Ephesians 6, where the schemes of Satan are referred to, Paul talks about the warfare, and so forth, is where that scripture so many times. But it says, “Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power put on the full armor of God.” Why? “So that you can take your stand.” It doesn’t say against the devil’s frontal assault, it would include that, but rather his “schemes.”
God wants us to be so alert and walking with Him in such a way that when the Satan tries to slip up on us, we can know it, detect it, and learn how to take our stand and overcome. Anybody here need this? Yeah, I sure do.
Now, just think about this from the devil’s point of view. You know, let’s take a spirit who’s been around all this time through human history. And there was a time when he could look around and say, Well, you know, we’ve got a whole world. I know my existence is, you know, there’s a judgment coming, but that’s way down the line. My existence now is trying to, trying to gratify my nature and my desires through human, flesh and blood human beings.
And I see the world as just a great big smorgasbord, a great big cafeteria. You got people out here that don’t have a clue. All they’re doing, their whole world is what they can see and taste and touch, they got earthly desires. Man, I’ve got 1,000,001 ways that I can get hold of them and use them and make my home in them in many cases. And so let’s just go to town. Let’s just analyze each person and find out what makes them tick, what’s important to them, and all we have to do is tempt them. They’re blind, they’re separated from God, let’s go to it.
And that’s pretty much the way the world was, wasn’t it? And it looked like from their point of view, man, we got this world, you know, conquered. We serve somebody who has deceived the whole world, and this whole world is his kingdom. He rules over it. Of course, I know that pesky old God, He interferes every now and then. And we don’t like that much. And we know there’s something coming, we just don’t know what it is, but right now, we’re enjoying ourselves.
And boy, you know, when I get through with this one person that I’m living in and I get all my desires satisfied, and I use them up, guess what? They die and they go on, but I get to move to the next generation. And I probably got somebody in their family that’s learned their ways, is like them, you know, has learned how to see the world through their eyes. I’ve already conditioned them, and I can just simply step out of them and move into their life and take them over, and it just goes from generation to generation. Man, life is good. Obviously, you know, I’m talking from the devil’s point of view here.
(laughs)
And then. Oh, I remember that day, though, when I was, some of my friends and I were hanging out in a region called Galilee, and we were having a blast just living our lives, and living through people, and making them do all kinds of stupid stuff, foolish stuff, sorry about that. And there they were, and so, and here we were just minding our own business, all of a sudden somebody comes and we recognize him.
Oh my God, I know who that is, that’s Jesus, the son of God! Have you come to torment us? Leave us alone. Go away, Jesus, we know who you are. And of course, Jesus would come along and drive them right out, and all of a sudden they’d have to go find someplace else, somebody else to mess with. But you know, basically still, the great amount of the population was still in a position where the devil just had open season. All he had to do was appeal to human nature, in some fashion, find the weakness, and just move in and gratify his evil nature through human flesh.
That’s what this world is about. Folks, that’s what this present age is about. My God, we need to be alert and awake and aware, as we never have. Well then, of course, Jesus, they began to mount all kinds of opposition against Jesus. We gotta stir up these religious leaders. We already got them in our pocket. They don’t know it. They think they’re serving God, but we know better. We’ve actually taken all of the things that God showed them, and we’ve brought it down to a nice comfortable religion where people feel good about themselves, they feel righteous in God’s eyes because of what they do, and they look down on other people, man, we got them in our back pocket. So, we need to get rid of this Jesus. We need to do whatever he’s got planned. We gotta get rid of him.
And so of course they did, without realizing that that was God’s plan. (laughs) And so they had the big party. Man, we gotta party, because we just put him in a grave. We insulted him, we abused him, we ridiculed him, and there we have the victory, man, it was our day, and we were rejoicing, until three days later. All of a sudden he bursts forth from that grave, and there’s not a devil in hell that could keep him in there. Oh, my God. What’s happened?
And all of a sudden they realized. His plan is the one. This is the plan he’s carried out. This is why He came. Now He’s in a position to do something, to reach out to men who are helpless and lost, have no hope in this world. People that were just totally vulnerable to our rule and reign. And here we are, and here’s this Jesus. And not only has he come forth from the grave, he’s ascended to a throne. And then we’ve got all these people that are left behind, and all they’re doing is waiting, and we gotta come up with a plan, we gotta do something.
And then, the power of God’s Spirit comes down upon the people on the day of Pentecost. And they’re standing there in the temple, I’ll debate that with you if you want sometime. But they’re standing there in the temple. And all of a sudden the power of God shakes the place. And His power, His Spirit rests upon these ordinary people, fishermen, some of ‘em. Tax collector. And there they are.
And suddenly the one who was the biggest failure steps up. Something’s changed. What’s going on? We had this guy licked, we had him beat. We would put him on the sidelines. He thought he was done. And now here he is, the very one who’s standing up with power and declaring that Jesus says, Lord, the salvation has come.
You’ve stood, you’ve taken your place. People are listening. You’ve taken your place against God. You killed his anointed. There, and His plan is, is something that’s, and you’re on the opposite side. His plan is in motion. You’re His enemies. Oh my God, what do we do?
And so you know the story of how God, God spoke through Peter. “Repent, be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And on that day, 3000 people escaped Satan’s clutches and his kingdom. Praise God!
And the devils are sitting there, Oh my God, we gotta do something! And then day by day goes on, and people are coming to the Lord, and they have that occasion when Peter heals the cripple at the temple and has a tremendous opportunity to preach the word. We’re gonna do something, let’s arrest him. Threaten him. And they do.
And the people call on God and they say, look, finally, we know that what’s unfolding is your plan. Give us courage to stand against this. The enemy is mounting. You see, the devil’s just reacting. We’ve got to oppose this by every means possible. And so God pours out his Spirit and there’s, for a while there’s nothing much they can do.
But you know, you see the demon’s just doing everything in their power, and God begins to allow them to persecute, to oppose openly. And so people have to stand up. And there were some that, like Stephen and James the Apostle who were killed. And others were scattered. And all the things that happened. We all know the story.
But do you see the hand of Satan? Of course, obviously at this point, he is doing everything in his power to oppose, this is a frontal assault, we’ve got to attack these people, get them to give all this up. We gotta defeat them. And it didn’t work, did it? Because God gave His people the courage to die if necessary.
That’s how real, that’s how real this has to be. That’s how real the kingdom of God has to be, that our lives in this world cease to be worth hanging onto if it means giving Him up. And so God had a people.
And you can see how the devils would get together and say, Man, we gotta do something. We’ll keep up the pressure. Because that affects some people. They’ll give up. I mean, we see that there are people who kind of come on, and they like some of the ideas, they like the idea of forgiveness of sins and going to heaven one day, but they haven’t really, really given their hearts to it. And they’re just trying to take on this stuff that makes them feel better. But they’ve never really, really received His Spirit, never had that changed heart on the inside. We can get rid of some of them if we’ll just put the pressure on.
I mean, you remember Jesus words about those that were with the seed that landed on the shallow soil. When persecution arose, they were outta there. But time went along. And still, there was a reality in hearts of people. Can you see what the devil would be trying to do? We’ve got to somehow undermine the message itself. We’ve gotta introduce false doctrine.
You remember our master was tempting Jesus, and Jesus came back at him with the word, didn’t he? Satan tempted him with, you know, you’re hungry, make bread if you’re the son of God. And he said, it’s written, man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
And the devil says, aha, this is somebody who knows the word and goes by the word. I better use the word if I’m gonna get to him. And so he used the word. But he twisted it, didn’t he?
And so the devil, one of the devil’s main tactics early on in the church in the New Testament was to begin to introduce false doctrine. He would take something that was true, but he’d take it out of its context and away from its original purpose, and suddenly it would be something that would divide people. that would bring people into a place of ignorance and a place of vulnerability to their power.
My God! God wants us to have such a grasp of His word in balance, so that we can stand, and we can recognize every trick of the enemy. I’ll guarantee there’s people right here, right now, that Satan has more influence and more hold in our lives than he should. And God wants to set his people free, starting with me. I need to be set free from his lies, from his tricks, things that he plants in my mind and my heart, because he’s studied me all my life. He knows my weaknesses. He knows how to get to me. And I’ll tell you, we’ve got a God Who is faithful to His people.
And let’s just, I thought about using Ephesians 6. We’ve obviously gone through this from many points of view, but this is from the devil’s point of view now, remember? So we’re talking about the devil’s schemes. So our struggle, of course, he says, as we’ve often pointed out, is “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Okay?
So your problem is not people. If you got a problem with somebody, you better recognize there’s something behind that. That’s the real issue. The devil will come at you and at me in every possible angle, using every possible tactic, based upon our weaknesses. I don’t know. You could obviously spend a lot of time and many messages exploring this kind of subject about how the devil works, basically what it’s about. But I feel like I want to get to one particular area that’s very important. Alright?
“Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the evil day,” not if, but “when the evil day or day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.”
Has there ever been a time in the history of humanity when truth has been under attack? Here we are. There’s no such thing as truth to a lot of our culture. More and more of our culture does not see absolute truth as anything to be concerned about. There’s no such thing. I got my truth. You got your truth. We got what appeals to us and what seems right to us, and it’s all good. And don’t you dare suggest otherwise, otherwise, you are the bad guy. And I am tolerant of everybody who agrees with me. That’s the spirit behind so much of what you see out there. I’m very tolerant. And if you don’t agree with me, you’re intolerant.
Well, (laughs) we need to realize, and God’s people and young people growing up today, because you’re exposed to all this culture. You’re exposed to things that are far worse than we grew up with. And you got people that, you know, and Satan will plant people in your path and in your life who will try to plant in you a relativism where there is no absolute truth. You need to follow your heart.
Well, scripture says, one follows his heart is a fool. Because the heart, man’s heart is evil. The one we’re born with is evil. That’s why we need a new one. And God’s plan is to deal with all of these issues, and to give us a full and complete salvation. Thank God!
It’s salvation too, it’s not a self-help program. It’s something where I have to give myself completely to Him and trust in His power to save me because I have none.[/ultimate_modal]
January 14, 2024 - No. 1632
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Satan’s Schemes” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Satan’s Schemes” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1632January 14, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1632 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Scripture says, one follows his heart is a fool because the heart, man’s heart, is evil. The one we’re born with is evil. That’s why we need a new one. And God’s plan is to deal with all of these issues and to give us a full and complete salvation. Thank God!
It’s salvation too. It’s not a self-help program. It’s something where I have to give myself completely to Him and trust in His power to save me because I have none.
Oh, we’ve gotta have this sense that there is truth that we need to recognize. This is how it is, this is what God says and that trumps everything else. I don’t care how Satan packages it, makes it appealing, ‘cause folks, if there’s some part of your nature that has a hold on you, whether it’s a bodily lust or whether it’s pride or whether it’s trying to obtain something or gain a position in the eyes of others, Satan will pull on that and he will give you a rationale that will make it seem okay.
You know what a rationale is? You’ve already decided something, but now you gotta come up with a reason so it makes it seem okay, instead of it being rooted 100% in the truth. And God calls us to walk in the light, to walk in the truth. So that becomes the central thing right there. We’ve got to recognize there is such a thing as absolute truth and we need the Lord to reveal it to us and to give us a heart that surrenders to that truth. Even when, especially when it shows our own need. Praise God
But the second thing I think is where my mind went to more than any other, when I was thinking about all this. The belt of truth buckled around your waist, but with the breast breastplate of righteousness in place.
Now, what is righteousness about? Think about what that means. It means being right with God. It means God regarding us as right with Him. Sin has absolutely built an impenetrable barrier between us and God, impenetrable to us. All you have to do is go back to the, to what the Lord showed Isaiah, who all of his experience was down here and he thought of some people as good and some people as evil and all of that.
And then all of a sudden the Lord captures him up and he sees the Lord, high, lifted up, utter purity. In one moment He knew the truth about, not just about the Lord, but about himself, didn’t he? Oh my God, if we’re gonna walk in truth, we’re gonna have to see that as a starting point.
But here is the situation God is dealing with. He is determined and has purposed and will successfully call a people out of this and make them fit to live in a place like that. Do you need the Lord? Oh my. That’s the only hope that I have. You can come here and be faithful and sing all the songs all your life and miss out completely on this. We need the Lord to do a saving work and to give us an understanding of righteousness.
So, what’s the Lord’s plan in this? We find out, and Satan certainly is better, knows this better than a whole lot of professing Christians, that when Jesus died, he paid it all. Once for all he died for those that God is calling into His kingdom. When he laid down his life, he went there in my place. That gives God the freedom to have punished my sin in him.
And when I come to Him with an open repentant heart, He has the power, the right to blot out all of my guilt, to remove the barrier that separates me from Him. I think the devil knows far better than we do, that salvation and God’s purpose is all about a relationship, an open, pure, free relationship between us and a holy God.
Okay, well if you’re the devil, what are you gonna be doing? You gotta undermine that somehow, don’t you? And so plan A is to undermine that idea, to so focus on being the accuser of the brothers that you focus the person’s attention on their need. And somehow it just can’t quite be applicable to me. Oh, this is wonderful for brother and sister so-and-so, but poor old me. Look at me, I’m such a, I’m so bad that I could never….
And somehow he undermines the confidence, the ability to let go and let God have his way in this, to understand that God meant what he said, that we have that right and that privilege of calling upon Him. Now, we don’t call upon Him saying, I’ll try harder. We are coming to get a righteousness that we did not earn, could never deserve.
But it means putting our lives 100% in His hands, saying, God, you are gonna have to fix what’s wrong with me. And what’s wrong with me needs not just fixing, it needs replacing. I need a new heart and a new life. And I just give myself, I humble myself in your hands. We talked about that, you know, humbling ourselves in the mighty hand of God. This is involved in that.
But oh, the devil is gonna do everything in his mind, in his power to come to an individual and blind them to the reality of this truth, at least as it applies to them. And you know, one of the best ways, one of the best tools he has, you know, I can just see the devil saying, you know, we knew how to handle it when God came to Moses and then tried to pass all that knowledge and that revelation on to God’s people. Look how we fixed that.
Yes, I know there was a whole lot of idolatry along the way, but there were still people that were so married to that law that we knew we had to do something. God wanted a relationship. And so the way we’ve got to fix that is we’ve got to turn that into a self-righteous effort. We’ve got to corrupt the message so that people don’t understand how the relationship is meant to happen.
And you call it legalism. And you’ve got a lot of churches who have devolved into a system where I have got to measure up, here’s what God expects of me. And I am constantly falling short and repenting and then trying harder and trying, you know, falling short and repenting and that’s my life. But I gotta do it because that’s what He expects. Yeah, I think you’re the only one.
But do you see the work of Satan in that? Do you see how he is corrupting the message? There’s no question what God wants and what holiness really is about. That’s not the issue, but the how do you get there is the issue.
And so here’s Satan saying, I have got to undermine the gospel. I’ve got to attack this person. In some cases, you have a person who has never really come to faith, but some people have really come to faith. God has a remnant of people who actually know Him, but they’ve fallen under the influence of people who sound good because they’re talking about the holiness of God and all these things but they don’t really have the gospel. They don’t understand God’s plan and how it works.
And so here’s the devil, undermining. My God, do we need a revelation of the finished work of Christ? Do we realize that if there is a genuine heart repentance and faith in His saving power, that we can stand before Him as if we had never sinned? It takes a divine work in the heart to come to that place where we can be His and know that we’re His, know that we’re accepted in the Beloved. He who knew no sin became, was made sin for us. Why? So that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Now, one interesting thing about that, that we might become, that’s again, that is that Greek present tense. So it’s in one sense we have a standing before God that is secure but yet become the righteousness of God tells you that there is a process that follows that, okay?
And the devil has all kinds of ways of trying to get somebody who has maybe come to that place. Yes, I believe in the finished work of Christ. I believe that when Jesus died, he took the law with him. We’re not under the law anymore. Praise God, we’re under grace.
Oh my God, the devil says, what am I gonna do now? They believe in the finished work of Christ. I’ve gotta come up with something. I know what. I will use the, “it’s all taken care of” doctrine. Anybody ever heard that one? Because now I can work on a person who has weaknesses. They can look in the word and say, nowhere does it say I’m gonna be perfect, but it’s all taken care of. All of my sin has been put on him. Therefore, God understands. I can just, I mean, I’ll stay outta something that’s gross. I won’t go out and murder people or rob banks, but you know, God understands that what I’m made of and He’s already taken care of it.
So pretty soon, without meaning to, the devil can take somebody whose particular weaknesses he has nurtured and somehow create a justification where it’s okay. God help us. Is that what Jesus died for? You know, we have been set free, but why? Have we been set free so that we can now be free to give vent to our nature? Oh, but it’s a small private little thing. It is not hurting anybody. I mean, nobody knows where I go on the internet and the stuff that I look at and the things I think about, that’s just all being, it’s private.
And the devil’s sitting there feeding, feeding all these things that he’s cultivated in us, the weaknesses that we all have, every one of us. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. But he’s sitting there, I’ve got to keep feeding this. And right now they’ve got this idea. They understand that Jesus paid it all, but now I’ve got to somehow keep my hold on them. Alright, let’s come up with a rationale that makes that seem fine.
And this is the one where it’s all been taken care of at the cross. So I can just, I’ll do the best I can. I’ll say I’m sorry when I’m done, but basically I’m allowing something to go on in my life. That’s what it boils down to. So you got one person who’s living for, supposedly for the Lord, but yet they’re allowing things.
And, I’ll tell you, when does the devil come to you most readily? When does he succeed with you most readily? When you’re sitting here in the congregation and the Lord is present? Or is it when you’re off by yourself? You might even be in the wrong place or around the wrong people. Or you’re tired, man, you’re worn out.
There’ve been a lot of battles in history where somebody, some one particular army just came in and won a great victory. What did they do afterwards? They went and had a party. And how many times have they wound up being the ones defeated because they weren’t watching. They were giving vent to their night, to their nature, and letting down their guard because they had just come off a great high victory.
How many times, how many people, I won’t ask you for a raise of hands, I wonder how many of us have come through a time when it’s been a time of battle or a time of victory, a time of, you know, being around the Lord and things, you know, going His way. And then you ever had the devil come to you right then and kind of steer you back into ways of thinking and doing that aren’t good? Yeah, I certainly have.
You think the Lord wants us to become more aware of those things and experience more of His victory? Do you think the righteousness that He’s talking about is just this legal standing that I have before God? Or does He actually want to produce real righteousness? And if so, how?
You know, you still got this legalism, like I said, where someone can come to the place where, yes, I know I’m the Lord’s, but oh God, I gotta live up to it. And all of a sudden it becomes saved by grace and kept by works. How’s that work out for you?
You know, you read again, you read Romans seven, you discover how Paul learned the hard way, it doesn’t work if I try to serve God. I don’t care how zealous I am to keep God’s law. It ain’t happening because I got something in here that just won’t let me. Oh God, who’s gonna set me free? Who’s gonna deliver me from this body of death?
And that’s when he realized that’s not God’s plan. It was never God’s plan just to save us, wipe out our sin debt, and give us a ticket to heaven and then say, go for it and just try to live for me, ‘cause it’s all taken care of, don’t worry.
But here’s Paul saying, it matters that I serve God, but I can’t seem to do it. How is this supposed to work? And then he realizes the righteousness of the law, the righteousness of the law, the purpose that was intended for in the first place is fulfilled in me. Ah, how does that happen? “Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Wouldn’t it be a good prayer to say, Lord, please shine the light, shine the light. Show me where the devil is getting an advantage over me. Show me how to recognize him and what to do and how to defeat him. That’s a pretty good description of the Christian life, folks. Walking in the light. But walking in the light, that’s terrible because that’s gonna show all the bad stuff in me and then I’m gonna feel bad. That sound like the way the devil would have us react to that?
So he recognizes that truth. He says, I got to do something. I gotta undermine that somehow so that people are just afraid to walk in that light because I need light that’s gonna show my need. I need to have an honest heart that says, Lord, I know I need you. You know everything that’s lacking in me. That’s why you saved me. You gave me the certificate, if you will, of righteousness, but now you’re working to actually make it happen.
And I don’t know how to do that. I don’t even know what’s wrong with me, let alone have the power to do anything about it. But I know You do. And I don’t want anything to come between us in this process. I want to just walk with You, be willing for You to shine the light wherever it needs to be shined, rest in that knowledge and that truth, not be anxious.
Oh my God, I should have, you know. You see how the devil’s going to, comes in so many different ways to undermine all of this. When God wants that person just to walk with Him, and then we discover something that’s wrong. Now what? “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.”
Now is that just sort of an automatic thing? There’s actually a part that we play. And that’s where he goes into at the end of that passage. “If we confess”…. Again, what does confessing mean? Is it just admitting? It’s an agreement with God.
You see here, somebody’s walking in the light wanting to experience His righteousness, knowing that they don’t have any power, not afraid to face the truth. Oh, the devil’s getting scared when he sees all this begin to happen. He’s terrified because he knows what’s real. We’re the ones who misunderstand and listen to his little suggestions that kind of undermines this in one way or another.
But we’re walking in that, we’re wanting Him to show us our needs and then to help us with them. And that’s going to involve us coming short. That’s what a need is, if I’m less than He wants me to be, is that not a sin? Is that not something that’s wrong? Does that not need help?
So, what do I do? I go right back to the cross. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Oh, but I messed up. I have got to get it straight before I can face Him again. Where does that thought come from? You see how the devil just, he’s gonna be sitting, he’s gonna be parked out there desperately trying to undermine every little thing that happens in our lives. And all God wants is this free open relationship.
We first of all, trust him with our soul. We depend on the cleansing power of what happened at the cross, we stand on that foundation, we’ve got righteousness right here. It’s not just what happened then, but it’s what He’s doing in me right now. And yes, there are things that are gonna come up that we haven’t got there to the future yet, but that’s in His hands. I don’t have to worry about that. I just walk with Him right now, let Him deal with what He’s dealing with right now and grow and be honest with Him.
And when there’s something that’s wrong, I bring it. I don’t wait. I bring it right to Him right then. And the fellowship never has to be broken. Can’t you just hear the devil screaming when a child of God wakes up and realizes such simple truth and begins to walk in it?
But I’ll tell you what, I pray that God will, God will help us with these things, help me. And not to feel condemned because I’m not down the road somewhere. And not to worry about the past or be out with this person or that person, just to say, Lord, here I am, I’m in Your hands. You know what I need, and I know I’m confident in Your love because You called me knowing what I am.
I don’t have to produce righteousness. What I need to do is learn how to submit to Yours and trust You to give me the strength and the knowledge and the wisdom to be able to recognize the enemy when he starts talking to me, when he starts maneuvering me to go down that street and I’m not ready. When he puts me in with these people, and I start listening to their way of thinking and their way of doing stuff, to help me to recognize what’s going on, recognize the voice of the enemy. See beyond the outward circumstances and see a sneaky enemy that isn’t always going to mount an outward offensive. He’s gonna try to sneak in that back door every weak place that we have.
But we can walk with Him with confidence because of the cross, because of His promise to walk with us to the end of the road, because His promise that we can walk in the light in a place of fellowship acceptance with Him. But He counts us as a righteousness, as Jesus himself. Praise God!
Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all learned these things to the point where they became the operating principle of our lives? Anybody here need Him this morning? Well, He’s available and He longs to walk with every one of us and teach us how to recognize the tricks of the enemy and to be able to stand against them and say, wait a minute. I understand what righteousness means. I’ve got this. You can’t get to me, devil. You can accuse me all you want, but I have an answer for every accusation. I know I need a Savior, but I got one. Praise God!
And I’m looking forward to standing with beside Him one day, not because I deserve it, not because of anything I’ve ever done, but because I just put myself in His hands and let Him save me. And I walked with Him and He was faithful. Praise God!
May God help us to recognize Satan’s devices, schemes, and learn how to stand against them. Learn how to recognize them as the biggest thing, I think, and understand how he works so that we can more effectively stand our ground. And the Lord’s gonna help us, isn’t he? Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
January 28, 2024 - No. 1634
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Solid Footing” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Solid Footing” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1634January 28, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1634 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: God has to shine the light on all kinds of things in us that just aren’t like Him. And you know, we need to be more than okay with that. We need to say, yes Lord, I know that I’m not like you in so many ways, and I’m not gonna cower in fear about that or think that that just, oh, that spoils the whole deal. I’m not bad. I’m not good. Guess what? That’s why we need a Savior.
But, oh, how patient, how patient He is. You know, the old song where He took six days to create the creation and, but God’s still working on me. Oh, how patient He must be. (laughs) God’s still working on me. It takes a lot more than six days to work on us, but oh, we’re the center of way, of His purpose is to bring forth a family that’s like Him.
You know, Paul prayed something that we’ve alluded to before. When he was writing to the Ephesians, he wanted three things for them. He wanted knowledge, he wanted understanding, and he wanted wisdom. Well, folks, we’re pretty ignorant when it comes to the things of God. And we would like to just come to God and think, oh, praise God, He’s accepted me, and He lives in me, and life is gonna be beautiful.
That’s not what the Bible says. That’s not what Jesus said. In the world, you will have trouble, but be it, but cheer up, take heart. I’ve overcome the world. So part of the knowledge is the knowledge of what God has to do, to do what He, to carry out this thing we call salvation. How can He just leave us in the condition we are and allow self to rule and call it salvation? Does He not have to show us things? Don’t we need to, the, don’t we need the knowledge of that fact?
That this is what salvation involves. We have, when we come to Him, we are handing our lives over to Him and saying, God, fix me, change me. Do whatever it takes so that I can be with you one day. Well, we need to live with that knowledge. That needs to be part of our thinking where we, that’s our worldview. That’s how we understand life.
And of course, understanding, so the knowledge is the “what.” The understanding gets into the question of “why.” Do you know why you need all this? Do we understand that? Do we get it? That there’s so much that’s not of Him, that’s not like Him, that He has to do something about it.
You know, if we know this, and if we understand the why, it’s a whole lot easier to come to the wisdom part. Because then we know, then we can say, okay, God, how do I handle this? You told me what you’re doing. You helped me to understand and to measure why, but now I need help, Lord. How do I actually deal with this in practice?
And then the Lord begins to teach us. Every time you come to a place where your nature wants to rise up and do its thing, you need to learn to bring it to Me. You need to come to Me from the depths of your heart and look to Me and believe actively that I will give you the strength.
Because every time our nature rises up, it presents us with a choice, doesn’t it? Will I simply cooperate with my old nature and find a way to justify that? Or will I say, God, I need your help. And then choose to access that help and choose to believe that He means it when He says He’s gonna help us?
That’s where we stop short. We think, oh, I’ve got to deserve His help. Get real. I need His help, because I’m helpless, and I don’t, I don’t deserve it. I’m broken. You know, like we said this morning, but oh, there He is to help me in my time of need. But oh, if I’m gonna have a relationship that, with God, that could be defined as peace, do I not need to be completely on board and have knowledge, wisdom, understanding, of what’s going on and be on board with it like Jesus was? Yeah.
I mean, here was Jesus. He didn’t have anything wrong with Him. And yet there He was. His whole being had been surrendered to the will and the purpose of the Father. He did it based on the love that we’ve, was read about this morning. That was the motivating factor.
And here we are called to be, to come into that relationship that’s full of peace. Folks, I don’t want to be at war with God. But how many of us find ourselves in that place, when we’re just complaining? I don’t like this, I don’t like that. Why does it have to be this way? Why do I, you know, why this, why that? And so many ways that the enemy can get into our minds and begin to mess with us.
And again, he knows how to push our buttons, doesn’t he? But if Satan is able to push our buttons, doesn’t that prove we got ‘em? We need to say, Lord, help me to understand how this is working, what’s going on here, and help me to meet that thing with truth and surrender whatever the issue is into your hands and agree with you. Let’s keep the peace here. Let me not get in a place where I’m really complaining against God.
That’s a weak place to be able to stand up to the devil, isn’t it? And how the Lord wants to share that same peace, incredibly, that incredibly resided in Him when He was facing the cross. Wow. God help us. But He is, and He loves us, and He wants to help us. That’s His whole heart, the love that was read about this morning. This is, this defines His relationship with us, and we need to believe it. We need to, we need to act like it’s really true, because it is. Praise God!
So anyway, that was the sense that I was getting out of this peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the fact that it leads into the process by which God actively changes us, and we need His help, but we need to be absolutely in agreement with Him if we’re gonna have a solid standing and to be able to stand against the devil when he comes.
Otherwise, we’re gonna wind up joining the devil and fighting against God. How’s that work out? You know, we can get ourselves in a dark place, but may God give us that sense, when we wake up and we don’t feel good or something bad has happened, some, there’s some challenge that’s come to our lives, to be able to sit there and say, Lord, I’m in your hands. I’m trusting you, not just when the sun is shining, but when the wind is blowing and the storm is raging.
You know, there’s a line in a song that’s sung, I have peace in the raging storm. And we sing that in a, like it’s this wonderful, out there thing. And then how, what happens when we get in our storm though?
And the Lord has to send storms, doesn’t he? The only way that our old nature loses its power is when we get in a situation where it wants its way, but we know enough and God gives us the strength and the faith to call upon Him and to find the strength in Him to say, no. What happens? God’s life and nature gain a stronger hold in our lives and the other loses.
We’re talking about dying to something. It is not that the thing dies. It’s that we die to it. And it’s, and we stop listening to it, because now we recognize what’s going on, and we know that I don’t need to be, I don’t need to be ashamed, in one sense, I don’t need to be shocked and surprised at how terrible I, you know, all the terrible things I discover in myself. I don’t need to wallow in all that junk. I just need to say, Thank you Lord. Thank you for the light. Thank you for loving me enough to put me in a situation where I see the truth, but I can bring it to you and know that you love me just as much as on when I feel good on a good day.
Your love hasn’t changed a bit. In fact, this is an expression of your love. In a way, it’s a much more practical expression than just, oh, do I feel good today? Isn’t the Lord good? I thank God there’s times like that. But I wanna be in a position where I can thank Him. I can, my heart doesn’t get, the peace just doesn’t go away, because things don’t suit me in my flesh. I wanna be able to say, Lord, I love you. I thank you, I trust you.
You will keep in perfect peace, the one whose mind, whose heart, whichever it is, is steadfast, doesn’t change with the changing circumstances. Why? Because they trust. Do we really trust the Lord? We say we do. But when it comes to the practical everyday stuff that God has to do to change us, are we really trusting Him?
And I certainly, I’m conscious when I say that, more and more, that the Lord never tells us things like this to make us feel bad or condemn us, but to help us to understand and grow. Anybody here need to grow? Yes. Yeah. We all do. And the Lord is so merciful and faithful.
So, God’s gonna send battles. But boy, has He have given us a place to stand. Lord, I am 100% in harmony with You. And that’s, that gives me a solid place to stand.
Well, there’s so much more that you can say, but obviously, one thing that’s obvious is that this peace is not just simply a vertical quiet in the, in a cave kind of thing, is it? No. It’s just like, the love of God is meaningless if we don’t love one another. Okay? Well, the peace of God is the same way. If we’re gonna have, really have the peace of God, we’re gonna have to have a unity among ourselves where it’s not just a, hi, how are you doing? And (groans) you know? Under the surface, there’s this something going on.
And boy, does the devil, you think about, if you were the devil working, what would you do? How would you attack God’s people? Okay, now I got this thing with me and the Lord. We’re getting there. I’m learning. I’m learning to say, yes, quicker. There’s more of a peace there. Ooh, I gotta do something.
This is the devil talking. But I know some things about that person, and I know how to get things going with somebody else. I know how to provoke the feelings and bring up things that have happened and bring up things that are just different. And I don’t like this about that person. You know, that’s called human nature.
But if God can’t give us victory in that area, I mean, are we really standing on peace? If it’s just this quiet little peace when we’re alone, but we’re this constant strife when it comes to other people, is that really the peace that Christ came? Do you think that’s how He went around? Did you hear what Peter said about me? Look at that, I just don’t approve of the way they did that. I mean, in that kind of a spirit, you know what I’m talking about.
There was a time to speak truth in God’s Spirit, but that’s not what we’re talking about, is it? You know, I mean, you know the difference, if you’re at all honest. But I’ll tell you, God wants to bring His people to a place where there is a unity and there is a oneness that He blesses.
I’ll tell you, the devil is scared to death that God’s people will actually come to that kind of a place. He knows that the presence of God is powerful when people are at peace with one another and with God. Is that not what we need? I need it. Amen. And I pray that God will open our eyes and our hearts and give us the grace that we need to recognize issues that God wants to set us free from.
You know, we had a brother many years ago, I can’t remember his name now, somebody I’m sure can tell me. This goes back 50 years or more. And he would come mostly to our conventions, but every once in a while, he’d show up. Well, he had a saying that stuck. And if I can remember how he said it exactly, it says, “You are wrong, if you’re right, if your spirit is wrong.”
And you understand what he’s saying? We can be in a contention, if you will, about something that happened or your opinion, your feelings about something. You can have a debate, if you will, where you are convinced that you are in the right. You see it the way it’s supposed to be. The other person is just wrong.
Well, let’s suppose for a minute that, technically, you’re right. Okay? But if your spirit is wrong about it, you’re wrong. God is not so interested in technicalities of rightness as we determine it down here. God is looking for a spirit that is right. May God give us that kind of a heart, where we recognize, if there’s something in me against somebody and I tend to see them, I tend to react in a nonpeaceful way, non-loving way, is there not a need?
Do I dare to say, well, it’s their fault, if they would straighten up and change, everything would be good, because I’m right. Do you not see the problem with that? If my spirit isn’t right, then I’m not right. You remember this, the passage in Romans that we’ve used so many times about how we present ourselves as that living sacrifice, that corporate sacrifice, and then God begins the process of changing us by changing the way we think, leads straight into the body of Christ.
But then it goes into a lot of other issues. One of them is this. If it’s possible, to the extent it depends upon you, live at peace with everyone. Whoa, now you’re stepping on toes. I got that neighbor and, man, I don’t like him a little bit. Does that justify having an angry spirit toward them? Don’t we need to pray for people? Jesus said, Pray for your enemies. And there’s times we can stand up and speak the truth, but God help us to have a right spirit.
Yes. If the devil can move us off of that place where there is a reservoir of peace here, then we’re in a weak place. We’re in a vulnerable place. And God longs to take us to deeper ground, higher ground, I guess is the word. We have been called to a relationship that could be defined as the peace of Christ, where things that would divide us have been brought to the cross, where we stop blaming other people for things that we don’t like and start looking on the inside, where if there are things that we would like to change and would prefer they were different because of some personal feeling about it, we’re willing to say, Lord, they’re yours and I love them. I receive ‘em. They have to receive me too, and I’m imperfect.
Of course, we don’t stop and think about that half the time, do we? But may God help us to have that peace rule. Now, I know that this has been pointed out in the past, but that expression, let the peace of God rule, this is ruling like an umpire, ruling, like a, you know, the, I can’t even think what it is. What is it in basketball? Anyway, the referee. Yeah. Okay?
You know, they don’t, they, it’s not supposed to just go out there and slug it out and do whatever they please. There are rules, and you got a referee that can blow the whistle and raise his hand and stop the game and deal with a foul. You know, God has given us something in our hearts, if we’re His, that if we will learn to listen to it, we’ll get a pretty good idea of where things are at.
Now, yes, I know that our peace can be attacked and all of that. That’s another scripture that we’ve heard so many times. I’ll probably just refer to it, but that’s all right. But God help us to come to a place where we’re willing to look inside. And instead of looking out here and blaming and reacting and allowing the devil to push our buttons, we’ll say, Wait a minute. What’s this saying in here? This is what I need to go. Is the referee calling a foul here?
Now, of course we’d say, yeah, he’s calling it on them. (congregation laughing) No. If we don’t have peace in here, then there’s something that’s gone, going on in us that’s other than what the Lord wants. And He wants us to bring that to Him and change us so that we are the way we’re supposed to be.
We will never have unity by trying to straighten each other out in that kind of a sense. But the more we learn to humble ourselves before Him and look to Him, we’re gonna have a place to stand when the devil comes. We’re gonna be able to raise that shield. We’re gonna be able to do what we need to do and fight with that sword ‘cause we’ll have a conviction.
Then what comes out of our mouth will be the word of God as it was with Jesus, because that truth is in here, and the righteousness is here, and the peace is here. Now, we can stand and say, Devil, I’m standing. I believe God, and I’m standing on His word.’ And it’s written, by the way, praise God.
I guess the scripture that I, half of you have probably thought about by now is where Paul says, don’t be anxious, don’t be fearful. Isn’t that how the Lord, how the devil, rather, pushes buttons? I mean, think about it. If you were the devil, what would you do when you go to attack a Christian? You know things that bother them. You know things that they’re afraid about. So you’re gonna constantly throw thoughts in their minds about this and that and the other thing, try to get ‘em so absorbed in that they just, they’re just swallowed up by it.
They’re paralyzed spiritually, where the Lord tells us to stop, to bring them to Him in a way where we cast that upon Him. And what happens? The peace of God, which passes all understanding, exceeds it. It goes beyond what you can even, what you can even understand to figure out. It goes beyond that. What does it do? It keeps your hearts and your minds in Christ. Praise God!
I need that, don’t you? I need my heart. I need my mind, but I’m gonna have to be willing to go to Him in those times when I sense this, the attack of the enemy on my peace. Man, this is a pretty good indicator, isn’t it? What’s going on in here? God wants, do you think God wants His people to be, (groans) in a constant state of unrest and fear, anxiety, unbelief? God wants us to have that same rest, that peace that Jesus said.
Why did He say, I give you “my peace”? Do you think He was anxious and upset and worried about how things were gonna turn out? He knew. He knew, if I just trust my Father and do His thing exactly the way He wants it, He will help me to do it, and it, the result is gonna be worth everything.
But that’s true for us too, right here. God wants us to be so much His people, so much like Him, that He can begin to come in His presence in a deeper way. We can be what He wants us to be. We can stand in this hour, because we are standing against powers and principalities, but we have One in us that has already won the victory. He reigns over sin and death, and He is bringing us in to share in that victory.
He has not only raised us from the dead with Him, He’s seated us on a throne. Did you remember that? Ephesians 2. We don’t occupy a place of, oh, poor me. Oh, look at me. We have a place where we can come to Him and be cleansed and sit there on a throne and say, devil, I don’t have to listen to you. God has filled my heart with a peace, and I embrace that.
I refuse to allow you to divide me from people, to put something in my heart that’s gonna bring me down and create division. I refuse to do anything that’s gonna cause me to complain about what God does and what He’s, how He does things in my life. I know I trust Him. I trust Him with my eternal soul, I’m looking, well, it’s eternal now that He’s given us life. Nothing eternal about it otherwise, but anyway, praise God!
I’ll tell you, isn’t God good? Don’t we need this peace? Yes. Don’t we need to have our feet shod with that preparation, the readiness. This translation says, the readiness. Are we ready? Do we listen when the peace says, whoops, something’s going wrong here? Do we come to say, and say, The Lord, help me to understand right now what’s going on and help me to take the stand I need to take, and I know you’re gonna help me because you love me.
If Jesus went to the cross for us, is God gonna withhold anything else that we need? No. Of course He’s not. That’s what the scripture says. So we have every reason this morning to rejoice and just praise God for His goodness![/ultimate_modal]
February 4, 2024 - No. 1635
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Examine Yourself” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Examine Yourself” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1635February 4, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1635 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: This is one of those times when I feel my need of the Lord in a very special way. I’ve had a lot of thoughts and I’m just trying to trust the Lord to organize them and I’ve also had the enemy oppose in a very powerful way, in a lot of ways. I’m glad he was defeated at the cross, aren’t you?
[Congregation] Amen.Thank God. And I don’t know exactly. I’m gonna go ahead and start and just kind of lead into where I want to head. But you know, at the deacon and elders meeting the other night, we were speaking for a little bit about the condition of the world. And we see the fulfillment of where we know the Lord has shown us, things are headed, that the enemy is loosed and being allowed to appeal to everybody that has an open heart to him. And that’s most of the world. They’re drinking in his lies. And we see it on every hand.
And one of the manifestations of that is what we see in what is called the Christian church. And there’s so much in the world, and this is not about us or in any of that sort of thing, it’s just in a general sense. I don’t think the apostles, if they were suddenly to arrive on earth today, would even recognize most of what is called Christianity. There is such a spirit of deception in it, and it reflects all of Satan’s efforts to hinder and to block and to keep people from the reality of what God did through Jesus Christ.
And I believe that God has promised, Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail.” So we know that the promises of God are true. And yet, in the midst of that, we know that we need to proclaim God’s Word without compromise, without worrying about pleasing people. We need to be willing to stand up.
That’s what’s happening in churches. You’ve got churches everywhere. Sometimes there are people who have a sense of knowing what the Lord wants, but they’re afraid. Pastors are afraid to preach because they’re gonna lose their people, they’re gonna lose their budget, they’re gonna lose their salary. The system just is geared to pleasing people and wanting to build a crowd and build numbers.
And God help us, to have no other aim except to say, Jesus, You do Your work and use this poor, weak, unworthy vessel and these poor weak, unworthy vessels. Just come and dwell in our midst and call Your people together. Share the Word of God, build it into people’s hearts and lives. And then when the harvest is fully ripe, then come and reap. And that’s what’s happening. And I wanna be a part of that.
I was thinking back to the beginning of what God did. God made Himself known in an incredible way through the ministry of Jesus, didn’t He? Three, three and a half years, whatever it was. And there was a tremendous, powerful revelation of God and His presence. And yet the interesting thing is that how many people were there that recognized the miracles, gloried in them, followed Jesus for a time, who wound up not following Him, walking away in unbelief. It’s a picture of the real condition, the real need, in the hearts of men, that people could see all of that and walk away.
I’ll tell you, Satan has a strong hold in people’s hearts and it takes supernatural power to break that. And it takes a willingness on the part of those who hear the Word of God to receive it, not as some little sweet message that makes my life here better, gives me a hope of heaven someday. But for all that it is, an uncompromising call to leave the world, to lay down our lives and to give them to Him.
And people over and over wouldn’t hear that. They would follow Him because He fed the 5000, they saw the tremendous miracles that He performed. And wow, we need this guy. He can fix our problems. Let’s make him a king. You read in, what is it, John 6, you have that account? And then others who were following Him because they saw the signs and wonders and oh, what can we do so that we can work the works of God? All kinds of motivations that came, not from a heart that truly wanted God on His terms, but one that wanted to somehow use God and use His power to enhance self. That was what was really going on there.
And so when Jesus put the terms of the gospel in ways that were hard to understand, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, by which He meant believing on Him, a heart level faith in what He did and what His body meant when He sacrificed it on the cross, that was what was behind it. But He put it in terms that would cause natural people, who were looking to gratify natural desires, it caused them to reject that and to say, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? And they left Him and walked no more with Him.
And of course, He turned to the disciples, He wasn’t anxious about it. He said, will you also go away? I’ve heard it said that there were only 12 left. Well, that’s not true. We know from Acts that there were more than that. But still that was His focus, was the 12 that He talked with. And Peter said, “No, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” There was something that was real in the heart. We need it.
[Congregant] Yes.Folks, this is an hour, if you don’t have the real deal, you don’t have what you need.
[Congregant] Yes.I mean, it’s always been that way.
[Congregant] Yes, yes.But that’s the condition right now in the world. We see the world, I mean, if you don’t have the real deal in your heart, this world, the spirit that’s in this world will overtake you. It’s that simple. We need the real thing. Thank God He’s more than willing to give it. He’s more than willing to become that reality to us.
So we see the victory that was won. We see how the devil thought he’d won by crucifying the Lord and then absolutely engineered his own ultimate defeat. And oh, the forces of hell that screamed in terror when He rose from the dead as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Praise God! The ruler over death and hell itself and the grave and sin, all of that had lost its power because of what He did.
And He came forth with a mandate from the Father to spread that good news to all the kingdoms of the world, to all of the world and to gather up people for His name. And of course we know that this confirmation, if you will, of the covenant that God had promised through His Son, the new covenant, the everlasting covenant, the only one that’s in force, in spite of what some people think. This is what’s all about.
But God absolutely continued to confirm the covenant. If you will look, you will see that there was a period, probably again, three and a half years, I’m estimating, in which God powerfully confirmed the covenant, starting on the day of Pentecost, as Peter stood up in the temple and proclaimed the Word of God with such authority and power that the number grew to 3000 people in a day.
You talk about Jesus coming, you think Peter had the power to do that? No, no man has the power to do anything in the kingdom of God. We absolutely have no power. It’s either Jesus in us or we’re just playing church. And I pray that God will, in spite of all that’s wrong and all that’s lacking in us, will absolutely work to proclaim words that have the power to change destinies. ‘Cause if we don’t have that again, what do we do have?
And so Peter, with an uncompromising voice, said, “Repent, be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost.” And so that life, the purpose of the gospel is not to simply impart better ways of living. It’s to impart a new life. And there were people who drank that in, who were born into a kingdom that can never pass away.
And it didn’t stop there, did it? They continued to meet together, to fellowship together, they met one another’s needs in a practical sense and God’s presence was just powerfully among them.
And you remember how Peter preached again in the temple courtyards after the man was healed. And again, there was such power that the number continued to grow. And they threatened Him. They knew they couldn’t say, they couldn’t really speak against Him because there was a miracle that everybody knew about, but don’t you dare talk about this man. Don’t you dare preach about Jesus anymore.
And what was their response? To go back and say, oh my God, we better change our tactics here. We better tuck it in here. No, they went back and said, oh God, you’ve purposed all of this. Give us courage. Give us boldness, stretch forth Your hand. I mean, it was a call for God to go into action. It was not a defensive posture they took; it was an offensive. We’re here for the kingdom of God and that’s all that matters. And we’re gonna strike out and we’re gonna defy Satan’s efforts to intimidate us, God, but we need You. We don’t have what it takes. This is not a committee deal. This is a deal where either You’re gonna come and help us or we’re not gonna have what we need.
And God came, didn’t He? The Lord came in power and they were filled with the Holy Spirit again. That wasn’t a one-time thing, was it? That’s something we need all the time, may God help us. But anyway, you saw this tremendous power and nothing could stop it and the church continued to grow as the Lord added.
Well, now you know, last couple of services in particular, we’ve sort of looked at some of these things from the devil’s point of view. What do you think he was doing? I mean, obviously, the demons were looking on and wringing their hands, we gotta do something. But there came a day when the Lord said, all right, the demonstration has happened, now let the Word go forth. And you began to see things like persecution.
But one thing was really notable, right at the beginning, because up to this point, there was not a single person that the devil had been able to plant among the people of God. He hadn’t been able to deceive any of them. There was perfect unity. Praise God! Boy, it’s awesome when that happens, isn’t it?
But then there came a time when all of a sudden, Satan was able to get to a couple, man and a woman. And they were helping one another by giving property, selling property, bringing the proceeds for the needs of the people. And the problem was not that they sold property and only gave part of it. The problem was that they lied about it, isn’t it? The devil put it in their hearts to lie and to put self ahead of what they had professed to do before God. They were lying to God and presenting themselves as one of us.
And what happened? God struck them dead. That’s how powerful God’s presence was. How would you like it to be that today, if we would come in here and be a hypocrite? You remember how Brother Thomas used to talk about a boy in Sunday school and the teacher asked, why isn’t it like that today? And he finally spoke up and said, because there wouldn’t be anybody left. Well, I pray that God will give us a heart that’s not like that.
But you see what the enemy was beginning to do. From his point of view, he said, I’ve got to get in there. I have got to do something to compromise the message, something to get hold of people’s lives ‘cause I remember how Jesus said when He went to the cross, the devil’s coming, but he doesn’t have any hold on me. But see, I’ve been working on a whole lot of people and I got strong holds. And so the way I can get in there and compromise all of this, I can begin to put people in there.
Now, I can’t keep everybody from being interested, but oh, when they are, I can get ‘em in there and I can plant people in there that really have never given their hearts to the Lord. I can begin to put people in there and then I can use them and they will compromise the testimony of the church. People will look on and say, well, if that’s what it means to be a Christian, I don’t want it.
And oh, I’ll tell you something else we can do. We can raise up ministries, we can raise up, we can look for gifted speakers, charismatic leaders who can step up and preach what they call the gospel, only it’s not gonna be the actual message. ‘Cause we’ll do the anointing and we’ll make it seem like this is wonderful, we are honoring Jesus in all that we’re doing.
And so you see, as the New Testament unfolds, it’s not all sweetness and light. It’s not all, in the sense that it’s not all, here’s how everything’s going so great. And here’s how you grow and we’re all this sunshine, you see the efforts of the enemy to compromise the gospel in so many ways. He didn’t just oppose it through persecution, he opposed it through infiltration and compromise.
And so, so much in the New Testament is written by apostles who had gone out and preached the Word and had gathered people together. But it quickly became evident. The question was raised. How many of them are really believers? How many? What do you think would be the answer to that if you looked at the American church, particularly. It wouldn’t be good, would it? Now God’s got His people, they aren’t saved because of religious systems, they’re saved, I think, in spite. But God has reached a people.
This is not about us and who we are and who we think we are, this is about Jesus. If we’ve got anything it’s Him. There’s no glory to us at all. God is so merciful to call people like us, isn’t he? Wow! If we’re honest and we look in the mirror and we think about all this and what God has done for us, we have nothing we can do except bow down and worship Him. He alone deserves the glory.
But what you see, is an outflow of what Jesus warned about when Jesus talked about the coming age and what the world was gonna be like and what the church was gonna be like in the world. He didn’t just picture what we saw right after the day of Pentecost, did He? He pictured a world where there would be all kinds of things happen.
He warned about deception, didn’t He? He warned that there would be false prophets and false Christs. He warned that there would be deception signs, lying signs and wonders, things that would be so powerful that they would deceive the very elect if it were possible.
Now, what do you think about anybody that stops short of that? Man, it’s what we see happening. It’s swallowing up our world. And I believe with all my heart that God wants to get His people ready. But I believe there’s also this sense that if you don’t know the Lord, if there’s anybody here that, or that hears this and that’s not a certainty that you know the Lord, where do you think that leaves you?
Think about Jesus and some of the things that He said. You remember how in Matthew 7 He talks about the two gates and the two ways? He says, “Don’t enter the wide gate.” The wide gate is one, number one, it leads to destruction. And even though there are plenty of people who walk on that particular way, it doesn’t lead to a good place. It’s a wide gate. It’s where you can take all kinds of things in with you.
And when you see a lot of other people going a certain way, spiritually speaking, religiously speaking, it’s awfully good or easy to say, well, I’m just like them. I’m in agreement with them. Everything’s gonna be all right.
And you see Jesus also talk about a narrow gate and a narrow way. In other words, it’s not something that’s just easy to go into. You gotta lay everything down to get through that gate, nothing else will fit, but us, just laying down our lives and saying, I’m willing to walk with You. This is not a popular way. The devil’s gonna create a popular version of so-called Christianity and seduce and deceive multitudes of people. Not going to, he has.
But you go into the end of that passage and you talk about what Jesus, the truth that Jesus brought out, said, why do you call me Lord? I better go over and read that. Let’s go over to Matthew 7. So many scriptures come to my mind, and I’m just, I don’t know how in the world to get to all of the different things. But I don’t wanna say one word that the Lord isn’t in either.
Matthew 7. Because He comes down after talking about the wide gate and the narrow gate, and then the false prophets. But down in verse 21, He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Now, you would think if somebody walked with, took on a church life, a religious life, they started to call Jesus Lord. They say, I believe in Him. I’ve prayed the magic prayer. That would be good, wouldn’t it? But, oh, what a compromised gospel has been put out there that never touches the need of the heart.
And so Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” There has got to be a fruit of a divine work in the heart. ‘Cause you and I can’t do His will in our own strength, can we? That’s the whole point of salvation. So we’re talking about today how God needs to work in us and we need to let Him. We’re the branches and He’s the vine. He’s got the life. The only thing that can produce fruit is Him in us.
So here we are. Here are people who think they’re doing right, who think they can do all these things. “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many miracles’.” Wow. I don’t know whether they did or just thought they did. But you’ve got all kinds of people who spend their lives in churches, they will make a profession of being followers of Jesus and not only in the view of others, but in their own minds, they are believers expecting to go to heaven when they die.
And here’s Jesus saying, “No”. Just let that settle in. Is that what it takes? “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers.’” What an amazing thing for Jesus to say.
Oh, how we invest so much in appearance. But you see, God doesn’t look on the outward appearance, that’s what man does. God looks at the heart. And He’s looking for a people that He can call into that narrow way. Oh my God, what a horrible thing it is to imagine that somebody could say, I’m a Christian, I go to such and such a church. I went forward, I accepted Jesus, you know, the usual formula. And yet nothing really changed, nothing down here, it’s all an outward profession.
And somehow, because of the deception of Satan, they are able to live out their lives, die, expect to go to heaven and find out only then that they’re not. What a tragedy. Jesus was asked on one occasion, are there few that be saved? Only a few people gonna be saved? Said, “Enter into the narrow gate. Many will try and not be able.”
Think about that. People who actually want to come to the Lord. There’s some part of them that wants to come, and yet they’re not really able to come God’s way. This is a serious matter.
And think about probably the worst, the most thought-provoking, heartrending example of all that we’ve used many times over the years. And it comes from the title of the ministry, the “Midnight Cry.” When Jesus used the custom, I think we mentioned this recently, but Jesus used the custom of these friends of the bridegroom, the maidens. Anyway, there were women that were literally to go out and meet the bridegroom, conduct him into the beginning of the whole ceremony.
And it was something that happened at night and so they needed light. And Jesus said five of them were wise and five were foolish. Well, what was the difference? They all had lamps. Everyone was there for the right purpose. Everyone even had a lamp. From the outside, everything looked valid, looked genuine. But when the time came, the foolish ones, they hadn’t taken any oil and there they were, unable to fulfill the purpose. They had everything on the outside, but they didn’t have what it took for that light to shine.
My God, what an amazing, and of course the worst thing about that was, it was too late at that point. That’s the sobering thing about this truth. You’ve got so many people that the devil has somehow been able to deceive in one way or another through false doctrine, you name it, or something in their lives that hasn’t ever been surrendered. The devil has been able to keep people in such darkness and such deception that they only find out when it’s too late.[/ultimate_modal]
February 11, 2024 - No. 1636
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Examine Yourself” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Examine Yourself” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1636February 11, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1636 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: What Jesus, what Paul said at the end of 2 Corinthians 13 is kinda what came to me. And I’m just gonna read it and I don’t know how the Lord’s gonna develop it, but, but Paul is concerned. I mean, he’s gone through all the truth about how God used him, what God did to verify the message and how he preached it with all that he had. And yet, all these deceiving voices would come in and all these issues.
And it raised a question in his mind. And so in verse five, he says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you unless of course you fail to test?” Examine yourselves. So there is a responsibility on the part of an individual to say, am I really a Christian?
How easy is it to come along and come in and sort of try to be a Christian? There’s something, there’s some effort, and yet, you never quite get in. Jesus speaks of passing from death to life. It’s like going through a door. And you literally, at one moment, you are in the realm of death headed for destruction. But then there is a work of God and there is an agreement, a surrender to that work of God. And suddenly, you’re stepping over here and you have passed from death to life.
But every person is responsible for themselves before God. There will be no secondhand Christians in the kingdom. You can’t say, My parents knew the Lord and I went along with them. I’m good. Every individual is going to have to have that divine encounter with Jesus Christ where they pass from death to life. There’s no way around it.
Now you think about the example that Jesus gave, the Parable of a Sower. And how simple that picture is, but how profound, where you see, on the one hand, a sower going out to scatter seed. And of course, he scatters some on, on hard paths where people have walked and naturally, it doesn’t grow. But then there are three other kinds, three other places where he sows seed.
One of them is on rocky soil where there’s a little bit of soil on the surface, but down underneath, it’s hard. And then he goes to another place and he sows it. But along with the stuff that sprouts up, there’s thorns that come up and you don’t get any kinda crop. And it’s only on the fourth kind, the good soil where there’s a crop that’s produced.
And Jesus explains it. There are people who hear the message of the gospel and they respond quickly. Oh wow, that’s great. But what happens is Jesus said, when trouble comes, when you start having to pay the price, you start realizing what really is in involved. Paul said, to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.’
How is Satan gonna be overcome? By the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony and what? Love not their lives so much as to shrink from death. Oh, I didn’t know about that. You see what’s going on with hard places down under there where the roots can’t go out and get any moisture? You got places down in people’s hearts and wills that will not yield.
What they’re doing is serving self. And what’s going on when they hear this message of eternal life, praise God, that’s wonderful. And what they’re thinking about is, I’ve got a chance to live forever. It’s self, saying, My prospects are not limited to what I can get out this world. I believe this message and I’ll be a little bit religious and I’ll be a good person and I’ll get to go to heaven and self will get to gratify itself forever and ever. And it’s complete blindness and hardness of heart.
I’ll tell you, there’s gonna have to be a surrender. I mean, we’ve said these things many times, but I sense the Lord wanting to challenge people. Have you ever surrendered? I’m glad for everyone that comes. I’m glad for everyone that hears. But here’s Paul writing to a Christian Church and saying, Examine yourselves. Is that wrong to say that?
What a tragedy would it would be for someone to come here and go along and say, I’m trying, I’m trying to live a better life. I’m trying to do this. I’m trying to do that. But have you ever… Have you ever really entered in? Has Christ become your Lord?
So many examples in scripture, but one of them of course is so-called rich young ruler. Here was a man who was much blessed in the world and yet, there was something about him that wanted to please God. And he had obeyed God as much as he knew. And so he comes to Jesus and said, What do I lack? I’ve heard you talk about this eternal life. What do I lack to have that?
And of course Jesus told him about the commandments. He said, I’ve observed all those from the time I was a boy. What else, what do I lack? It was only one thing. Sell what you have, give it to the poor. Come take up your cross and follow me. So what was the problem? That was his God.
Folks, for those who hear the message of Christ that demands that we surrender our lives to him and they’ll go along up to a point, what’s really happening is there is an area that is your real God. There is an area where you are going to do your own will. And what you’re saying is, I know that Jesus died because of this, but I’m gonna clinging to this. This is more important than Jesus.
Folks, if there is anything in your life that’s more important than serving Jesus, than you are lost and you need him. And it’s not just, I don’t believe the Lord is giving out this to scare people in a negative, in the wrong sense. He’s not giving it out to cause somebody who’s a believer, who’s struggling to suddenly say, Oh my God, mayby, I’m not really.
I’ll tell you, if there is something in you that wants to serve God and you’re struggling, God’s put that want in you, and you look to him, yes, we are works in progress. Yes, we need the Lord. Yes, salvation is an ongoing thing, but there is a difference between somebody who has surrendered their life into God’s hands and His Spirit has come to reside on the inside and someone who is trying to be a Christian.
There’s no such thing as trying to be a Christian. The only way you and I can become followers of God is to let him do a supernatural work in our hearts.
And we all know the scripture that talks about Nicodemus. He was an important man, a ruler among the Jews. In fact, he helped bury Jesus. So I believe the Lord touched him, don’t you? After Jesus had died on the cross, he was one of the ones that helped bury him. But he came to Jesus, snuck in at night and Jesus said, Unless you are born again, you can’t see. You can’t enter the kingdom of God. You can’t see the kingdom of God. He made two different statements.
And of course, he had no idea what Jesus was talking about. Can a man enter his mother’s womb again and be born? It’s not the number of births in that sense. Folks, every one of us was born with a life that animates these physical beings. We are living beings who happen to live in these bodies. We already have been born.
But the reality is flesh and blood, what we were born in Adam can never be a part of that kingdom. Following Jesus is not a matter of coming in and conforming your life to a religious culture, embracing beliefs, all of those things. It’s absolutely a birth that comes from above where we present ourselves and we are His and we surrender all of our needs, all of our sins, all of our inabilities, every issue of our lives, and say, My life no longer belongs to me. I hand it over to you for you to do in me the only thing that will enable me to be a part of that one day. You’re going to have to plant your Spirit, your life in my heart. It’s gonna have to be there.
And I’ll tell you, that’s the key. If God has done that to you, there’s gonna be something in you that even when things, even when you’re struggling, even when you’re going through a period of time, there’s something there that won’t let you just keep on going forever. There’s something in you that will respond when God shines his light.
Doesn’t the Word go on and talk about how, those who do evil do what? In John 3. What does somebody whose heart is still attached to this world and to their life and their earthly desires, they love light, right? No, they hate the light. They won’t come to it. But those who are the Lord’s, even though we have needs, we’re gonna see things we don’t like. But yet, there’s something in us. What is that? God has put something. It’s not just information in the mind, not just human willpower. It’s God has planted His divine life in the heart. And there is something that holds those who have given their hearts to him.
Have you? Has that transaction ever taken place? Folks, we need the Lord. I don’t even know how to preach this except to put it out there and say, if there is anything in you that wants the Lord, but you’re not sure… Well, in the first place, if there is something, if there’s a genuine desire in you for the Lord, you need to take heart. ‘Cause you wouldn’t have that if God hadn’t put it there. And that’s an awfully good indication that God loves you and wants you to come to Him.
I’ll tell you people who hardened their hearts, I remember Brother Thomas talking about a man that he talked to one time and tried to witness to him and the man told him about an incident in his youth where he had just run up on some philosophy that was atheistic, whatever it was. And something had happened. He had embraced that. And he had embraced it in such a way that from that moment on, he had no desire, whatever. You could talk to him, there was nothing in here that reached out, nothing that wanted the Lord.
Folks, if there’s something in anybody here who is unsure, who doesn’t know how to answer Paul’s question, if there is something in you, God is calling your name and our destiny rests upon our response when God reaches out.
Is this the truth? Your destiny rests upon that response. God’s not gonna just pick you up and plunk you in the kingdom. He wants a heart that reaches out and says, God, I need you. I acknowledge my sin. I acknowledge my need. I don’t come because I’m trying hard. I don’t come because of this or because of that. I come as a broken lost sinner who has no power to help himself or herself. I come as somebody who is unworthy. I need one thing and that one thing is mercy. But I’ve heard the good news that you come, that Jesus, Jesus won it all.
He won it all, didn’t he? He did everything that was necessary for me to become Your child and live with You forever. And so I hand my life over to You.
So see, it’s one thing for us to wrestle and for us to look to God for power to overcome areas of our lives. But where’s your heart? Which side is your heart on? Are you one that comes to the light that says, Oh God, I want you to show me?
You know, you read the whole book of 1 John, I’m not gonna go through it, obviously. I think we’ve said just about enough of what we need to say. But the whole book of 1 John was written so people could know that they knew, they could know that they were the Lord’s.
And one of the first things he talks about is coming into the light, walking in the light, those who don’t walk in the light, those who are trying to skirt around and trying to protect self in some secret way and hanging onto their own goodness and their own efforts and never really letting go. They’re never willing to come to the light and say, God, show me the truth.
And I’ll tell you, if you’ve got a heart that wants the truth, that’s a pretty good sign. If you’ve got a heart that has a heart level loving connection with others who have been born of his Spirit, that’s a pretty good indicator too, isn’t it?
And you go through and you will see all these things, but you see, you come into chapter three, I believe it is, and you’ll find out there’s somebody who just continues to live a life that’s indistinguishable from the world. They claim to be Christians that come in here and yet they’ll go out and they’ll go, they’ll run with the same people, they will do the same things, they will go to the same places and their life just continues to serve their flesh, their self. And all you see is somebody that’s part of the world.
Uh uh. That person doesn’t know the Lord. And my prayer today, and I don’t believe it’s my prayer. I say I fought some of this. But I believe it’s the prayer of Jesus himself, even if he doesn’t come today or doesn’t come in the next little bit and we live on our lives and we die, this question is still a 100% relevant. There is no purpose in this world existing except for you to surrender your life and be made into a new creature, be born of his Spirit and changed so that we become like him.
Understand that’s a process. But if you fall short of that, you have missed everything. What’s it worth to have Jesus? Everything. If there is one thing in your life for that one man, it was his riches. You remember what Peter said, Who then can be saved? And what, what was Jesus answer? With man, it’s impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
And if what’s holding you back is looking at your own inability in your own life, Jesus didn’t come for righteous people, he came for sinners. You qualify. If you are in need, God has the power through Christ to save you from the uttermost. Don’t you look in the mirror and say, That’s a reason for me to hold back. I just can’t really believe he could save somebody like me. Look at what I’ve done. Look at what I am. You are the one who came to save.
Oh, praise God! There’s something, there’s a joy that fills his heart to be able to reach down to the lowest of the low and pull him out. If he can save Saul, the Jew, he can save you.
But I just pray today that God will touch somebody’s heart and His promise, there are promises in the word about seeking Him. Folks, if there is something that He has put in your heart, that’s a feeling of need, a desire, whatever it is, that’s Him drawing you, Him working in you to bring you to that place. You have every right to seek Him from your heart, to help you, to bring you through, to do whatever it’s needed, whatever’s needed, You will seek me and find me when? When you search for me with all your heart, God has promised to meet a seeking heart.
If this question is not one you can answer, then I would say before God, you seek Him from your heart until He brings you to that place. Think of the one who wrote these words and his testimony was, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day. That’s the kind of confidence that God wants. It’s not a confidence in me. I’m a good person and I’m good enough and I’ve earned my way. It’s, I have let go and he has saved me, and to him be all of the glory.
That’s what he wants for every person who hears his word. Don’t you dare stop short. If you can’t answer the question that Paul asked, I would call on you in the name of Jesus, he would call upon you, seek him with the depths of your heart until God bears witness. What does the word say? The Spirit bears witness with our hearts, with our spirits that we are children of God.
That’s not feeling of euphoria. But I’ll tell you, there’s something that’s down here that’s real. When we have peace with God, when the war is over and we stop fighting for self, we lay down our arms and we give Him our lives and He comes in and he sits on the throne that’s in your life and in your heart. There’s something that happens. There’s a peace that comes in that’s real.
And there’s a witness in our own hearts that we have let go and we belong to Him. And there’s a witness on His part when He gives us His Spirit, that’s the witness that we are His. And his promise is He will never leave you, never forsake you, never stop working. All the things that you see that are wrong, He is well able. He is able to save completely those who come to God by him. Why? Because he ever lives to pray for you.
We have an awesome Savior, but I’ve got to come back to this thing. You have the right. Examine yourselves whether you were in the faith. If that raises a fear and a concern in your heart, I would call upon you to seek Him with all of your heart today. There is nothing more important. I believe there’s somebody, I don’t know, this is in God’s hands.
But if you have never entered in, if you’ve never crossed that divide, if you’ve never been born of His Spirit, you need to cry out to Him until He answers. He will give you the faith you need. He’ll give you the ability to repent. You’re gonna have to respond. You have a part to play, and if it’s not in your heart to do it, and you’re holding back on something that’s the real God of your life, you’re gonna have to come to a place where you’re willing to let that, let all of it go and put your hope in Him. And I’ll tell you, when you do, He will make you His child.
I just pray for anyone who hears this and doesn’t have a good answer to Paul’s question, that God will just do whatever it takes to bring you to that place where you let go and let God have your life. There’s so many things that people value and they seek in this world. Could anything possibly be more important? It’s appointed to men, once to die. And after this, the judgment.
I wonder how many people are gonna be standing there looking back and realizing there was a time when God spoke and they held back. They were trying to hold onto this. It was something that held them back. That’s the devil’s business, manufacture a reason for you to not step forward. But I’m gonna listen to my Savior. I’m gonna put my hope and trust in one who loved me enough to die for me unworthy though I am. It’s worth everything to be born again.
And I just pray that God will just take this word. You have the right to call upon Him, and the moment you call upon Him in heart, faith with God’s power helping you, I’m not talking about some big experience necessarily, but there’s gonna be a transaction that happens between you and God.
Being born is an event, isn’t it? Passing from death to life is an event. We need to make sure that we have made that transaction. We have crossed that divide, and I just pray that anyone who hears this and is struggling to answer that, as I say, you call upon God until He answers, until He gives you peace of the witness in your heart that you belong to Him. You’re in God’s hands. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
February 18, 2024 - No. 1637
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Ready for a Dark Hour” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Ready for a Dark Hour” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1637February 18, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1637 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! I was waiting for somebody else. This is good. I appreciate this so much. And I hardly to know where to, what to say in addition to all that’s been said. What a critical time we live in. And I just pray that God will just come and lift us out of our own weaknesses, our own inabilities, to the extent that we’re just going through the motions.
And like’s been said, getting just enough to get by and living our lives and, and not being engaged. I pray that God will lift us out of that. Don’t you believe that’s what He wants? I know the thoughts that I’ve had, it’s like, Lord, are you sure? I’ve said these things over and over and over and over again, but how many of you believe that we need to hear things many times? That growing up in Christ is not a classroom deal where we just hear it and believe it with our heads, but God is putting us in places where we need to walk in what we have heard.
And that means certainly if you’re one of these that’s really not ready, God help you to wake up to realize this is not just religious doctrine trying to get people to join a particular religious group. This is the God in heaven who sent the Son of whom we sang this morning to open heaven’s door for you. Are you really, do you really want to cling to this life? Is it worth so much to throw it all away and to spit in his face and say, I don’t care what you did, it’s my life I’m gonna do as I please. Oh my God, oh my God!
But I think the thoughts that I’ve had have to do with the Lord’s people and us being what we need to be because we can’t just preach to people who don’t know the Lord and then we’re kind of muddling through. You know what I’m talking about? God help us.
I don’t know how many of you saw “The Chosen” in the theater this weekend? I know a number of you did. I’m sorry the rest of you didn’t. I realize there was a lot of advertising in it, but we sat there a while. But it was worth seeing. And there were some powerful scenes.
And what it really depicted, the humanity of, and what this whole series has is you’ve seen the people and not just the little, the storyline, but you’ve seen the humanity of the people that God called. They were very ordinary.
You know, if you’re gonna build a human organization, you don’t do it like Jesus did. You go and you find the most gifted people and you sort through them and you find out who’s good with money, who’s good with this, who’s good with that. Let’s get the best speakers. Let’s get the best organizers. Let’s get a committee and a five year plan.
And you know, humanity has its own ways of doing things, but that is all based upon the idea that we have the ability to do what needs to be done. Folks, we don’t have what it takes outside of Christ. I don’t care who you are.
And you look at the ragtag bunch of folks that the Lord gathered: fishermen, a tax collector, a revolutionary and several others. I mean, you talk about the wrong people from the world’s point of view. And yet God called them. Do you believe God has called us? See, the whole point of that series is chosen. God chose certain people. And he worked in and through them, but boy, it takes a lot of work on his part to get his work done.
But folks, we need to realize that the things that we’ve said, I don’t think they’re as real to us as they need to be. We’re not in a warfare of just human society. This is not a matter of politics and fixing the world and fixing life here. This is a warfare not against people. It’s not flesh and blood. There is a power. There is a satanic kingdom that rules over the hearts of men in this world and has blinded their minds to the things that we were singing about this morning.
And if we are going to be the ones that God has chosen as he did in that day, he chose them to live in a dark and difficult time, but to serve him and to be used of him, to absolutely establish the kingdom, to carry the message, to demonstrate God’s power, whatever was appropriate for the hour in which they lived.
Has not God called us to live in this hour? Yes. Amen. Are we simply meant to go through our daily routine and wait for Jesus to come? Or does He want to have a people in whom and through whom He can live?
And folks, we don’t have any idea. We do not have any idea what that takes. I mean, we can be like Peter. We figure we got it made. We know what we stand for and we’re good. Don’t need to pray. I already know I love him. I’d die for him. Only he didn’t have what it took, what was needed, did he?
And I sense that this is what God is doing because we can affirm these things. We can hear them. We can say, yes, I agree with that without having a clue about our own selves and our own need. We think, I know how to do church, I know how to live. I know how to be the kind of person that you, I even know the gospel. I can share it with somebody. But if it’s just you and me doing it in the energy of flesh, it absolutely will accomplish zero.
And Lord have mercy, God order my thoughts this morning. How many times, I’m gonna use scriptures we’ve heard over and over and over again, but I believe God wants us to hear them fresh. I need it. I sense my need.
But you know what, Jesus gave the parable of the vine and the branches the last night he was before his crucifixion. And he gave this parable about how the Father is the husbandman, I’m the vine, you’re the branches. And the object of all of that was fruit, wasn’t it?
And there were some who bore no fruit. And I don’t wanna stop, I don’t wanna focus on that so much. But I mean, there are people who have an outward attachment to Jesus, but there’s no evidence of life coming from him into them. And there’s no result in their life. So, what happens to them? They’re broken off and thrown into the fire. Is that sober? We better have something on the inside. We’re gonna have to be born of His Spirit. We’re gonna have to have His life in us.
But the point of the life is to do what? It’s to produce fruit. There are results that are meant to happen when God lives by His Spirit in us. There are things that are supposed to be produced. How many of us can produce the things that God wants to produce in this hour without him? Well, he said “Without me, you can do nothing.”
But there is one part of that where Jesus said, “Those who bear fruit,” what does he do? He prunes. How many of you got things in your life that don’t really, that get in his way? We’re doing this and we’re doing that. And it’s not really part of what he wants. I mean, Jesse mentioned it. I mean, we can have all kinds of chains around us. We can have all kinds of things in our lives that just get in the way.
And I believe with all my heart, that God is instituting things in our lives today that are designed to bring us to an awareness of those needs. And so the question is, what do we do when that happens? Do we understand? Do we agree with him? Do we say, thank you Lord, for showing me my need?
I had a number of scriptures and I’m not gonna, I don’t think it’s necessary to go through a lot. But I know Paul certainly is an example. And in 1st Corinthians in the first chapter, Paul is talking about how out of touch and outta step and out of harmony with the world’s ways the gospel is.
In the first place the message is foolishness to everybody that is blinded by the devil. They can’t understand it. It takes divine revelation to the heart for anybody to get it. And we need that. And I’ll tell you, if it’s a question in your mind, you cry out, you seek God, God will open your heart and your understanding. But if you don’t, if you close your heart and say, no, I’m good. I’m just, I don’t get it. So I don’t care. You’ll go on and perish. But anyway, the world’s wisdom cannot figure it out.
And then Paul says this, and I was thinking in terms of the call of the apostles. “Brothers and sisters,” verse 26, “think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one can boast in his presence.”
Praise God! You know, that opens the door for all of us. We don’t have to present him with our qualifications. ‘Cause I have none. Praise God! Thank God everything that I need is what He gives to me. And I need to have a willingness to receive it and to let the other go.
You know, I was, I think it was meant to be a lesson, but also a little bit of amusement in it. When Jesus was in the film, was getting ready to send the disciples or send the apostles out. He chose them, by the way, and talked about that. But now he’s gonna commission them, impart power to them to go out and heal. And he sent them out two by two.
Well, now the scripture doesn’t tell us how he paired them off, does it? But the folks that put this together came up with, what I think is probably a very good idea to portray it. He had, one of the pairs was Matthew, the former tax collector, and Simon the zealot.
Now, you know what a zealot was? They were the revolutionaries. They were the guerilla forces that were fighting against Rome. Now you remember the guerilla armies that were faced in Vietnam and others, these little militia groups that want to go out and fight against the order. Well, that was him. He fought against Rome. And now here’s Matthew whose career was colluding with Rome and collecting taxes for them. So now Jesus puts them together and said, I want you two to go out together.
Folks, if we’re gonna serve the Lord, we’re gonna have to let our past go and receive one another and simply let Christ wipe the past clean, let it go and receive one another where we’re at and simply go forward. What a simple lesson that that portrayed!
Oh how many things we’re clinging to in our ideas, and our earthly ways. God, if God’s gonna use us, He’s gonna have to cleanse us from a lot of stuff that we cling to, our own ideas and our own ways.
You know, we have this statement that if you’re part of the, well, we’re all part of the digital age, but we all have these digital devices, whether they’re a computer, tablets, phones, and we have the saying, a “default setting.” You know what that is? Every one of these devices, if you start it, it’s been turned off, now you start it, there are a whole lot of things that are already set by default. You don’t have to see, now how do I do this? How do I fix the screen? How do I fix the sound? You know, it’s all there. What’s gonna show on my screen? All of those decisions have been made.
Folks, I don’t know how well we realize that our default setting gets in God’s way. Do you think there are things we don’t even realize when we get up in the morning that are our ways of doing things, our ways of thinking, our ways of acting, planning, reacting that don’t come from the Lord? I wonder how many things God has to put us through, circumstances, and those circumstances are designed not to defeat us. Not because he’s mad at us, not for any other reason than to help us to recognize our default settings that need to be recalibrated. We need a new default so that we can be useful to him.
Here was Jesus giving the perfect example of somebody who was perfectly in harmony with his Father. He wasn’t a robot, but there was a conscious, willing cooperation with his Father. And his Father provided the power and it was a perfect partnership. That’s what God wants from us. But oh, do we get in his way?
And we see obviously what the devil wanted to accomplish with Peter. How many, these are examples we’ve used over and over, but God help us to see them a deeper way. The devil wanted to take Peter down and make him just go back to fishing. Be done with it. I’ve messed up. I’ve closed the door.
What was the Lord’s aim in this when he warned Peter that he was about to, he was gonna betray him. He said, but, but. Thank God for that but. “But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.” That’s step one. But then what? After you, yeah, after you’ve been, you come through all this and you’ve been converted or changed, strengthen your brothers.
There are things happening in our lives right now that we would prefer that they not happen. They bring things to light that we would rather deny, not face. And here’s God’s heart looking down at us saying, “I have called, I have chosen these people. They’re mine. I’ve called them to live in Earth’s darkest hour and I have things that I want to accomplish.”
There are people that, that grow up in here that need to see more from us. They need to see more of Jesus and a little less of us. And we don’t even know it. We’re clueless so much of the time. And God has to allow circumstances in our lives to bring us to a place where it’s Him living in us and not us.
Oh, how many times do we have things come up and we feel and we find human nature kicking in by default? And what’s our reaction to it? Resistance. Resistance, denial. I’m just gonna pretend this isn’t there. I’m gonna push it down and hope nobody notices.
God wants to break the chains. He wants to set us free. He is allowing things that show us our needs so we can come to Him and say, thank you. Thank you, Lord, for loving me enough to show me the truth about myself.[/ultimate_modal]
February 25, 2024 - No. 1638
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Ready for a Dark Hour” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Ready for a Dark Hour” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1638February 25, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1638 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: There are things happening in our lives right now that we would prefer that they not happen. They bring things to light that we would rather deny, not face. And here’s God’s heart looking down at us saying, I have called, I have chosen these people. They’re mine. I’ve called them to live in earth’s darkest hour. And I have things that I want to accomplish.
There are people that grow up in here that need to see more from us. They need to see more of Jesus and a little less of us, and we don’t even know it. We’re clueless so much of the time. And God has to allow circumstances in our lives to bring us to a place where it’s Him living in us and not us.
Oh, how many times do we have things come up and we feel, and we find human nature kicking in by default? And what’s our reaction to it? Resistance. Resistance, denial. I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna pretend this isn’t there. I’m gonna push it down and hope nobody notices. And God wants to break the chains. He wants to set us free.
He is allowing things that show us our need, so we can come to Him and say, Thank You. Thank You Lord, for loving me enough to show me the truth about myself. The thing that I’m afraid to face. The thing that I’m afraid to admit. It’s gotten quiet. It’s a lot to think about, isn’t it?
Are there circumstances in your life right now that you’re having to face and all of it, and you don’t feel able to face? Do you think maybe, just maybe the Lord is deliberately allowing us to be in those things where we don’t have control and we aren’t enough, we don’t have the answers to what we need?
I see God’s mercy to do that, because are we able? Does anybody here have what it takes based upon the life of Adam in you to stand in this hour and accomplish anything for the kingdom of God? Not one of us has it. We are everyone in the same position. We need one thing from God, and that’s what He offers in Jesus Christ, and that’s mercy.
Look what He goes on to say about all these people that He’s called. He said, “It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus.” It’s because of God. If He’s called you, it’s because God started the ball rolling. Can we not bow before Him and worship Him and say, God, touch my heart. Do whatever it takes so that I can be Yours and not mine. Lord, help me!
“It’s because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. That is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption,” everything. It’s just one of those many Scriptures that talks about everything that we need is there. It’s in Him.
It’s been mentioned this morning about holiness and defining some of the things that that means, but oh, what a process it is. Holiness essentially is being separated from what we were to God. Cleaned up to where we’re useful to Him. How can we carry on with dirt, spiritual dirt in our lives and then put on a smile and sing the songs and clap and raise our hands and just go on. And can God use that? God wants to express His life and power in us.
He doesn’t do it because we are good, we are capable, we’re strong, we’re any of those things. He is looking for a people who can just stretch forth their hands and say, Oh God, do whatever it takes in me to break the strongholds, to change my default setting, so that when I boot up in the morning, it’s You living in me and not just me. Okay, what am I gonna do today? And just going on in our own strength and for our own purposes. God help us. God help us to understand things that are happening.
And you know, one of the things, one of the thoughts that came to me is this. I have no doubt that in each of our lives there are things that will rise up under just the right circumstances. And it’s, you know, I preached a message one time, “That Thing,” and it’s just, had such a depth of hold, that the only thing we seem to know to do with it is to push it down. Try harder, deny it, pretend it’s not there, instead of bringing it out into the light.
It’s like, God in heaven can’t even fix this one. Now, we would never, we know not to say that, but isn’t that what we are really saying by our actions all too often? God in heaven can’t even fix this one. I don’t deserve it. I don’t, you know, 1,001 lies the enemy is quick to inject.
And here’s God looking to shine a light on a need, not so that we will be discouraged, not so that we will throw up our hands and give up, but so that we will bring that to Him, so that He can set us free and cut those chains. Bring them into the light and say, It is what it is. I just surrender into Your hands, Lord, do what You have to do to fix me and to change my heart. Oh my God.
Is this something that you think I’m exempt from? Oh my God. See, that’s the point. See, if God is gonna use a people, it will be people that know what it’s like, that have got real things in their hearts. I don’t care what your background is.
You know, the thought I had was, It’s so easy. The devil loves to, when something rises up and you sense a need and a bondage maybe in your life, or a characteristic of your personality, and it just keeps getting in the way, it keeps, and God tries to shine the light on it. And how easy is it for the devil to say, Well, what about them? I’m jealous, if I had, they have it so easy. If they’d been through the things that I have in my life. Then on and on, and you know, you fill in the blanks.
I’ll tell you, I don’t care what your background is, what your life, earthly life has been about, these issues are about every single one of us. And as we said so many times, everyone is unique. We each have our own call and our own place. And God has allowed the things that have happened in our lives to shape us for the ends to which He has called us.
But oh, that God help us to learn how to get out of His way, when He shines the light, not to draw back, but to recognize, this holiness, this ability to be God’s vessel in this hour comes entirely from divine work. It’s of God that we’re in Christ, but He’s the one that’s made to us all that we need. I need Him.
And there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t realize I need Him more than I thought I did. I thought I had gotten this far. And oh my God, there’s this thing, it rises up and it wants to take control. And this is, I just, I react this way, I think this way, I plan this way, I do this way, whatever it is, it just covers the gamut of human nature. May God give us a practical victory. And what do we do? You know, when these things happen, that’s a critical thing.
So anyway, Paul talks about this, and he’s talking to the believers. And then he says, “Therefore, as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Now, I’ve got this underlined, I had not ever really underlined this next statement before or the beginning of verse two. “And so it was with me, brothers.”
Do you catch that? This isn’t just about the ones to whom Paul was writing. This is Paul saying, Yeah, I’m in the same boat. I’ve got the same need. God didn’t call me because I was special. He called me to take a part, to take away all the things that made me special to people and to get me down to the point where it could be Him and me. Not through my strength, not through any goodness of, of my own. He’s brought me to a place where I could be usable to you.
And I don’t care who you are, how low, how high, as far as earthly measurements are concerned. Paul is basically saying, We occupy the same place. We have the same need, to let go and let God have His way, and be willing to let Him touch the things in our lives that get in his way, that are part, as I say, of our default setting.
Okay, “Brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness, with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” Why? “So that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”
Not everybody’s called to preach, to teach, but every believer is called to live out the life of Christ. Wouldn’t it be something, if your words, you could literally speak words. I don’t mean, Yea, I say unto you, I mean just ordinary words, and they’d be God speaking through you to somebody, without you even trying.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if God could bring us to that place where we could speak life to people? It’s not just, Be encouraged, you know, on a human level, but I’m talking about that we could be in such tune with God that we could speak words in a matter-of-fact tone, and they make an eternal difference.
But you know, the Lord, in order for that to happen, God’s gotta do some pruning, doesn’t He? He has got to get rid of things that hinder. And I’ll just mention in passing the Scriptures that we use so many times, because it has to do with Paul and how God dealt with Paul. And how he begins in 2 Thessalonians talking about what God had allowed him to go through, where he despaired of life, remember? It was so difficult, so tremendous, so tremendous.
Anyway, what he was going through, that he thought he was going to die. He was willing to do it, but I mean, he really thought it was over. But then he reveals something that we need to get. Number one, he didn’t just look at this as, you know, like, God’s judgment against me, or the devil’s winning or anything. He said, There’s a purpose in this. God’s allowed this. You understand?
The thinking that you see manifested in this. God’s allowed this. He’s allowed it for a reason. If He wants me to die, praise God, that’s even better. But, if I’m still to live here, He is teaching me something in this circumstance that I need to get. What was the lesson? Not to rely on my own strength, but on His.
Now, do you see what the Lord was saying there? Paul, I’ve called you and you don’t even understand the degree to which you are still relying on your own natural ability here. And I have got to get your attention. I can’t just pull you into a classroom and explain it to you. See, we hear this a lot, but this is not the kind of thing you can just learn and hear and then you got it. This is the kind of thing where God is going to have to take us through life experiences that reveal what’s lacking in us, what’s needful in us, but also that reveals His loving purpose in it, so that we can see beyond the thing.
We don’t have to sink into a pool of self-pity, or anger, or all the human emotions. We can say, God, thank You. You saw something in me that I wasn’t aware of. I love You. I thank You for it.
And isn’t that what we pointed out so many times in chapter 12, when there was a danger of pride and the Lord allowed something, allowed an attack of the enemy. And Paul went to the Lord about it, but I see in his spirit a desire to do God’s work. That was the heart of it. God, You’ve called me, I want to please You. I want to do what’s right. And in that context, God revealed the purpose for which He had done it. That it wasn’t just some random thing, God saw a need.
Is there any need in your life that God might consider? It doesn’t have to do with people that just get up here. It has to do with every single believer. Is there anything that God knows about in your life and He’s allowing something to happen right now? What does He want? Wouldn’t that be a good example to say, Oh God, help me, help me to understand what I need to know? Paul was essentially asking for wisdom and God gave it to him. God, at the proper time, God gave him an understanding.
Now, here’s where human nature kicks in. You know, we love to, if something bad happens, something we prefer not happen, Well, praise the Lord. And of course the words are okay, but the spirit behind it is anything but.
But what was Paul’s reaction? Did he say, Okay, I get it, Lord, I don’t like it, but I’ll go along with You on this one. There was a rejoicing. Do you see what God had imparted to him was this desire to serve God, this desire. He’d worked in him over a long period of time to take away all the religion that he depended upon. He came to regard it as scripture says in Philippians 3, As garbage, so that he could win Christ. Wanted to be like Him, wanted to be used of Him. God put that in his heart.
God worked that in his heart. He had to go through hell and high water to get there, but God brought him through. But it wasn’t just a, Okay, I’ll go along with You on this Lord, there was a rejoicing. Can we push through the circumstances that God allows in our lives, seek to understand His reasons and His purposes, be willing to see the faults and needs that we have, that He wants to change, set us free from?
Can we do that and lay it on the line and say, God, the one thing that controls everything is I want to do what’s right. I wanna please You. I wanna be useful to You. I want You to be able to live in me. And Lord, in the light of that, I’m just gonna say, ‘Wow, this is awesome!’ God is so merciful. God is so faithful to show me my need, praise God!
Because doing His will, it doesn’t depend on my strength anyway, so He set me free. All He wants me to be able to do is to yield myself to Him and have that partnership like Jesus did, so it’s actually Him in me. And I’m opening my mouth, I’m stretching forth my hands, whatever is appropriate. But it’s not just me, God’s power is there.
Do you want, do we want God’s power in our life or do we just want the form? Do we want just enough to get into heaven? That’s a real question. Been asked this morning. Is that really readiness? Is that somebody who really has handed their life over to the Lord, or they just want a ticket to heaven?
God has called every one of us. May God bring us to that place where we can do what Paul said, I glory in my weakness. I boast about it. Praise God, I’m weak. Think about the effect on people to whom he preached. They felt weak. They were aware of needs in their lives, and here’s one who stands up before them. He doesn’t say, I made it, and you can too. Come up here, we’re all, this high place that I live in.
It wasn’t that. It was, I’m one with you, and God has gone out of His way to remind me that I have nothing. I can do nothing in my own strength, and I’m so glad. I just pour out thanksgiving from my heart. God has shown me the past, so I can fulfill the vision and the thing that I value most is serving You, being useful to You and helping other people to come to that place.
Again, it was posed this morning. Do we want just enough, or do we want to actually be able to be used to help somebody else? This is what’s involved. It’s not just for the handful of leaders, visible people. This is for every believer.
You think maybe Dorcas who lived in, was it Joppa, someplace? Anyway, the one that Peter went to visit, and he was there and she had died and she had had such an impact on that community just by being kind and taking care of people’s needs and just giving in a Christlike spirit, being a vessel that the Lord lived in. And the whole village gathered around when she died, weeping. She had had an impact on their lives.
And the Lord sent Peter in there to raise her from the dead. And the testimony, the power of that testimony was such that everybody in that area just came to the Lord. There was a tremendous move of God’s Spirit.
I don’t know what God has planned. Is it gonna be the ones and twos? Is it gonna be something big and visible? I don’t know. But I want to be part of what He is part of. And if that’s gonna happen, He’s gonna have to be able to shine the light where it needs to be shined and I can’t duck it and deny it.
And not only that, I need to be so geared into what God wants that I can say, Thank You, Lord. This was in Your, this was in the way and I didn’t even know it. Thank you for shining the light. Thank You. Even if it was difficult to go through, it’s what I needed, Lord and I love you.
Because what is it? What is this life worth? Is there anything in this world, your life here that’s worth more than walking with Him and having Him live in you? That’s what it’s gonna be like for all of eternity is the Lord living in us, and we’ll be free from all of these things that happen down here. Thank God, those of us who are older, certainly looking forward to that.
But I praise God today. Do we value weakness? Do we value our inabilities? God wants to bring us to that place where human ability is not the question, not the issue. It’s, am I available to Him and is my default setting getting in the way? Does He have the right to shine the light and to put me in circumstances that show me that?
And then when He does, what am I doing about it? How am I responding? Am I willing to lay down my will and not just to grudgingly say, yes, but to say joyfully, Yes Lord, this is what matters to me. This is what I value above all things. And here, You’ve helped me in this. This has been a help so that, because I want Your power to go out and touch people. And if I’m getting in the way, that’s getting in the way of Your power and it’s not working.
God set His people free. Give us a heart that says, Lord, do whatever it takes. I’m Yours and You’ve called me to live in this hour. Help me. And then be glad when He does, because the way He does it a lot of times isn’t pleasant to our flesh. It never is. Death has to work in us, so life can work in others. Isn’t that what Paul said?
But I’ll tell you, it depends. Are you focused on the death and what you gotta give up? Or are you focused on the results and the life? See, when we learn from Jesus, what do we learn? Learn from me, My yoke is easy, My burden is light. And you will find rest for your souls.
So much of our striving is all about preserving self and taking care of it and trying to find our way instead of just letting go and letting Him have His way. To God be the glory. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
March 3, 2024 - No. 1639
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”All Music” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”All Music” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″][/ultimate_modal]March 10, 2024 - No. 1640
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Speak Life” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Speak Life” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1640March 10, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1640 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: Well, I’ve had some thoughts going around in my mind the last…oh, two or three days especially. And, some of it is going to be things we’ve…many of it’s gonna be things we’ve heard before, but I saw a connection that I don’t know that I had really emphasized before. And so, I’m want to go ahead and start with the verse, perhaps this is the center of it, in Proverbs chapter 18, verse 21. And, it’s not, as I say, a new thought, but I felt like the Lord, you know, opened my eyes to something that I hope will help us this morning, because I need help, don’t you?
( congregational amens ).
I need it as much as you do. I just happen to be the one the Lord has put up in this particular place. That doesn’t mean I don’t have needs, but the Lord is faithful. But anyway, these are the words of Solomon in the Proverbs.
And he says this, “The tongue has the power of life and death…” (NIV). Certainly, that’s not a new thought, is it? “The tongue has the power of life and death.” I don’t know if we realize the power of our tongue, and how central it is to virtually everything in our lives on this earth and God’s purposes for us. How many of you know we were created in the image of God? When God does something, how does He do it? I mean, when creation happened, how did He do that?
( congregational response ).
He spoke. There was power in the Word that He spoke, wasn’t there…enough to accomplish something? And I wonder if we realize just how powerfully creative human speech is, and the implications of that in so many different ways? But, it not only has the power of life, it has the power of death. I think we realize that by looking at the world.
You know, I was thinking…as I was thinking of this, my mind went back to the simple fact, I believe on a natural level, there are a lot of people in this world that actually understand this in a measure, but on a totally natural level, disconnected from God, that people have power to say things and make them come to pass.
You know, a little over a century ago, the human race went through a period of great optimism. You know, where a new century in 1900 is turning over and we’re seeing scientific advances and we’re just gonna go forward into a glorious future for mankind. And, what a…what a crazy introduction to one of the worst centuries that the world has ever seen, in terms of violence. But up until you got into some of that, there was this optimism. And there was an idea that began to be very popular. How many of you have ever read the book, or seen one of the movie adaptations of “The Secret Garden.”
( congregation inaudible ).
Yeah. It’s a very sweet story on one level. But if you actually read the original, do you know what the real theme of that is? That human speech is powerful, almost magical, that if we will simply engage that natural power that we all have, we could change our own future. We can change our…you know, our fortunes.
We can undo bad things and make good things come to pass. We have creative power through the mind, and so the characters were actually engaged in, not only in confessing positive things, but chanting them, as though, if we just chant the right things, then magical things will happen. That was actually the theme of the book.
It’s been soft-pedalled in many of the movie adaptations, thankfully, so you can kind of enjoy it on that level. But that’s not a new idea, and out of that you see that reflected in a lot of the motivational speakers…will talk about, think and grow rich. Or confess what you’re…confess the way you want to go, and you can confess yourself right into earthly success.
But you know, as I thought about that, Solomon wrote, “The tongue has the power of life and death.” And we tend to think of that as being just positive and negative. You know, some people are just negative all the time. They say bad stuff and so, they drag everybody down around them. And that’s true. And, but what we need to be is positive and just build everybody up and say positive things, and encouraging things.
And up to a point, on a natural level, that’s true. But just suppose that somebody was to listen to one of these motivational speakers and just really engage every part of their being, their mind, their emotions, their words, and they confess themselves into such wealth and power that they own the whole world! Then what? What did Jesus say about that? What will it profit, if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
So, think about…let’s go back to the tongue part of that. What did the tongue actually produce? Did it produce life or did it produce death? See, this world is founded upon ideas, lies that have flown…thrown…whatever, they come from…flown, I guess is the word, sort of. They have flowed, from the mind, and the will or the heart of Lucifer, who felt like he could pursue his own best interest independently of God. And so, he has built an entire world system, a world order upon lies.
Those lies have been…I mean, central to the propagation of those lies has been the human tongue. And it gets obvious when Satan tears people down with other people’s tongues. That becomes rather obvious. But what we don’t always see is the philosophies, the ideas that are promoted that are supposedly high and wonderful and glorious and lead to a wonderful future. They are equally dangerous, because they are a lie from the enemy.
And you know, where it comes to God’s people, where we’re concerned…we’re not concerned about welfare in this world primarily. God is concerned about taking care…He’ll take care of His own, and He’ll accomplish His purposes even where there are difficulties to go through. But God’s purposes are not bound up in what happens in this world. We know this world is gonna pass away, and often we don’t live as if that’s really true.
We need to be…we need to realize every moment of every day that we are citizens of another world. We are here and we have responsibilities and activities and all of that, but that’s not where our heart ever needs to be. And so, what God is concerned about, and what He put this in the Book about has to do with more than simply having a positive attitude, and an upbeat and sunny personality. We’d like that, we enjoy it on the natural level, but boy, that doesn’t really lead to eternal life, does it?
Think of what Jesus said that we’ve quoted so many times in John chapter 6, and I’ve got so many different translations in my mind, I’ll give you the essence of it. But He said, “The Spirit gives life.” The only source of real life is God’s Spirit. Everything else may look like life and may feel good for a time, but it is infected with death and it leads to death.
There is no life to be found, and that’s what He says in the second part of that verse. “The Spirit gives life; the flesh…” profits nothing. In other words, anything that originates in human nature, that’s what the flesh really stands for there, it’s human nature…everything that originates in human nature leads to death. It does not profit. It cannot help God out. It cannot contribute to God.
That’s why religious effort is worthless. If it’s not actually infused with the life of God, if we are not living extensions, as it were, expressions of the Spirit of God in what we do and what we say, what are we? Are we accomplishing anything? You see how much we need the Lord? We need the Lord!
But Jesus didn’t stop there. He made the contrast, the Spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words. “…the words that I speak unto you…are spirit, and they are life.” (KJV). Let it sink in. Jesus didn’t come to do His own will, did He? God didn’t give Him a general idea of what He wanted Him to accomplish, and say, go figure it out and do it.
He knew that the only way…I mean, He lived in flesh, same as we do, but He knew the only way He could accomplish anything that was eternal, was to stay in contact with God, and to have the Spirit of God resting upon Him and inspiring what He did and what He said, so that it really wasn’t just Him saying it. The words, He said later on, that I speak to you, or the words that I do, the things that I do, it’s the Father who lives in Me who is doing His work.
And so, that is what God is seeking to bring about in our lives. And every one of us, we are on a journey at best. We have a lot of things come out of our mouths that don’t really accomplish anything or that accomplish something bad. And I just feel like the Lord wants to shine a light on this, because it is so central.
The human tongue is so central to everything that we do, all of our relationships. I mean, if we just put a muzzle on and walked around, it would be kind of a dull world. We’d be having to communicate some way, with sign language or something. But God has given us this tool by which we can communicate, but do you realize the power that is released for good or ill by these tongues?
Every one of us has a place that God has designed for you and for me and He wants to get us to the place where we can exercise ourselves in a godly way, and where this ties in with where we started is, the tongue is pretty central, isn’t it? It’s very involved in every aspect of our human life.
And if God has put you in a place, you have a powerful member of your body, and your spirit, and that will either tear down or it will minister life, it has the potential to minister life. Just meditate on some of that. Think about, what place has God put you in? What are our responsibilities?
I’ll read some familiar scriptures, just as a backdrop here. But James chapter 3 is certainly one of them. These are general principles here. But I want to tie this in with this other business of the Kingdom and the order of the Kingdom, because this is an important thing, that I…I just sense God wanting us to get this in a deeper way.
But anyway, beginning in…the beginning of chapter 3 of James. “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (NIV). So, you guys just stay back…
( laughing ).
…No. If God’s called you to be a teacher, you be one. But don’t be ambitious to try to be something that God hasn’t called you to do, all right?
“We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.” But there’s nobody like that, is there? “When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.
“Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”
That’s a pretty good description of the world. You know, whether you’re positive or negative, or successful or beat down, it’s all part of the same thing if it comes from the heart and the mind of Lucifer. Oh, how God longs to inject His Spirit into every equation of our lives—every part of our lives. That’s what this is about.
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” And then he goes on and talks about the wisdom from above and so on. He goes into a…he enlarges in a different direction there.
I want to turn back to Hebrews…I’m sorry, Ephesians chapter 4. There is…this theme is kind of repeated in a number of ways, but I see it leading into something that I believe is central and connecting divine order on the one hand, with the human tongue on the other. That’s kind of the equation that the Lord helped me to see. All right?
So, Paul has talked about the Gospel and what He’s brought us to…the Body of Christ, and how we’re all gonna grow up together, because everybody contributes what God gives. So, I tell you…verse 17, “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” Where did their thinking come from? The tongue of the devil, one way or another, it got there. That’s where it originated.
“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
“That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Remember, how does God create? He speaks, doesn’t He? How does God create new life in a human heart? He speaks, doesn’t He? Remember the words of Jesus. They’re not…they’re Spirit and they’re life, they’re not just words and ideas. God has to speak to a human heart in such a way that it gets all the way down in here. And like a seed, that soil has to say, yes, I embrace that. That’s what I need.
I’ll tell you, when we do that, God brings forth a brand-new creation. If anyone is in Christ, what? He’s a new creation—a brand-new creation. There is a new creation that’s happening right now, that’s already part of what will live forever. When God get finished creating a new life in us, turning us completely into products of the new creation, the other is done away with, He’s gonna…then it’s gonna be new heavens and a new earth when He gets us finished. That’s what’s happening right now. It’s happening within the context of a broken world, but I’ll tell you, God is speaking life to human hearts. I want to listen, don’t you?
“Therefore each of you must…” Now he gets down to the individual believer. “…Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.” So now, you’re getting into the tongue, aren’t you?
“In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Everybody here has done that one time or another. May God give us grace to realize what’s happening when we get angry. And we, every one of us, do. We just need the Lord’s grace to back off and say, God, if there’s a problem, let it not be in my heart. Let me let go. Praise God! Praise God! There’s freedom, if we’re willing.
All right, “Do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”
Now, listen to what he says. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs….” According to their needs, not your needs.
We’re pretty good at using our tongues to try to advance our cause. Isn’t it something? Did Jesus do that? Did He go around trying to win people to Himself in a selfish, prideful way? Everything He did was the Father reaching out with a heart of love for the welfare of the listener. Boy, how unlike Him we are by nature.
But you see where God is going with all of this, what He desires out of us? He has given us a powerful tool, in these tongues, and He longs to see us be able to use them in a way that they become instruments of accomplishing His purpose. I can’t do that without Him—I can’t do that without a surrendered heart, without Him actually empowering what I say. But this is what He’s talking about.
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Then he talks about living in love, and there’s so much here, I don’t want to try to read all of it necessarily. But I want to get down to verse 15, and let’s go past that, because I want to get to something here.
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another….”
Now all of a sudden, you’ve got your tongue involved again. See, there is a…there’s something God…there’s Someone…God Himself wants to live within us in a way so that we have the power to say things that actually change people’s lives for the better. You see the power you have? God has given you…this isn’t just a power to stand up here and speak, this is a power that is meant to operate person to person in everyday life. Think about that.
“Be filled with the Spirit…” And that’s that Greek continuous sense. That’s a way of life, in other words. I need to have Him in me. “…Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
How good are we at that? Giving thanks to God for everything? There it is. It’s there, right in black and white. But you know, if we understand the heart of God and the purposes of God, we can say, Lord, thank You. I may not like this in the natural. I don’t feel good. I don’t understand it even, but I know You love me. I know your purpose is going to prevail.
I know, as we heard this morning, that you’re gonna continue to work in me until the day of Jesus Christ, and it’s gonna come out just exactly right. So, I’m just gonna be…I’m gonna be thankful for the process even when I don’t understand. That’s called faith. That’s believing God more than believing how you feel and what you want in the natural. Thank God![/ultimate_modal]
March 17, 2024 - No. 1641
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Speak Life” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Speak Life” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1641March 17, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1641 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: The home is the microcosm, if you will, of the Kingdom of God. Is it not? And of the church. And God’s order there, is so critical to everything. You know, it’s wonderful to come here and hear from the Lord, and have a general kind of, okay, we’re okay with each other, we get along, we’re glad to see each other.
But the workings of the Kingdom of God come right down to the home. God has invested different members of that household with different authority, and the ability to contribute the life of God into the life of the home. As I say, it’s not her place to be his head. But think of the power she has to help him be all that God wants him to be. Praise God!
Now, let’s bring this into balance. We’ve talked about this many times. If you leave it there, you almost get the impression that guys, we’re in charge! We get to do as we please! We’re the boss! Nobody can tell us what to do! We can seek what pleases us! Do you think that’s what’s involved here?
No, not at all. That’s not God’s design. “Husbands, love your wives…” (NIV). And boy, that goes beyond just some sort of sentimental feeling. This is not just romance here. This is a self-sacrificial giving of one’s self for the welfare of another. Okay?
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church…” So, what did that look like? “…And gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the…” Ah! We’ve got the word coming back into this, don’t we?
How does He work in us? He invests His words into our hearts and they begin to change us because we embrace them and they change the way we think and the way we look. You know, we present ourselves as a living sacrifice, and we allow ourselves to be changed by the renewing of our minds. That all comes into this. Do you see God’s handiwork and how He’s designed things?
Husbands, He’s given us a tremendous responsibility. I wish I could say I have lived up to it…not even close. God has given us an authority in the household. The question is, what do we do with it? How do we use it?
How did Christ use the authority the Father gave Him with respect to us? Aren’t you glad He did it for us? Aren’t you glad He was willing to sacrifice everything for our welfare? That’s what love is meant to look like. I need God. I have no power to do that.
But do you see the power that a husband’s tongue has? Does he use it to criticize and belittle? Does he use it to press down and try to get his way? Is it selfish? Do you see the damage that kind of a thing can do? I’ll tell you what, we need the Lord, don’t we?
( congregational amens ).
We need the Lord to be able to live up to any of this. But there is an order. There is a place God has designed for husbands, for wives, and of course, it breaks down into kids. We’ll get into that in a minute.
But He has set…He’s working to cleanse us, “…by the washing with water through the word, and to present…” Now there’s a purpose. There’s a design in the end. “…To present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” That’s the work that’s ongoing right now. That’s what God is doing in our lives, taking us toward that goal.
And it’s gonna come to pass, isn’t it? Because of His mercy and His love! And you know, He doesn’t look at us in all of our imperfections, like we look at one another. And all of a sudden, our tongue comes out in a pretty negative, pretty harsh way. I’m so glad that God is…He knows how to speak the truth. But He speaks it in love.
We never…if we’re really listening to Him, we never come to the place where we feel rejected, we feel, just set at naught, I don’t care about you. Always, there’s this wanting to help, wanting to lift us up, wanting to deliver us, wanting us to experience more of His love and His mercy. I’m so glad for the character of His voice. What an awesome voice to hear.
How terrible it would be if He were like us. And how impatient we are with each other, and with ourselves sometimes. But we need to see past all of that and understand the power of God’s Word. God invests us with the authority to speak words. Those words have power. If you’re a member of the Body of Christ, you have a measure of authority.
Now, I’ll say this, for some of you may be aware of this, there are people out there who have taken this off into never-never land, this principle. Oh my God! We’re meant to be in charge here. God has given us authority to rule over creation.
I have met people who ran in circles where they believe that they were part of a prophetic community. Oh my God! We don’t deal with the petty little things, we’re up here above the nations. We’re commanding things to happen and things not to happen. And, oh what God…we just, this is where…the place we’re supposed to operate.
Folks, that’s fantasy land. How many of you, some of you may remember something that Brother Jim Cymbala said in a message one time, he was talking about this. And he talked about, I suppose some prophetic group, I don’t know what, exactly, the details were. But he supposedly…they supposedly convened some kind of a conference in San Francisco. And, the purpose of the conference was to take authority over the devil and drive him out of San Francisco…something along that line.
Good luck with that! You know, there are things God hasn’t given us authority to do? We have authority to do what He says here! But I don’t have authority to go out and start commanding the nations! But God has given you, and me, the authority and the power to do what He has called us to do!
( congregational response ).
If He does call somebody here to be an apostle, He will give you what it takes. But if He doesn’t, don’t try to do it on your own. And that…for every aspect of divine order in the Body of Christ, God will give you power.
But I’ll tell you, one of the key ways that that power is expressed is through the tongue, and through words. God has given us the same power that Jesus had when He created the world. You and I have the power to speak life…to speak in such a way that it’s God’s spirit that’s going and affecting people around us. If we’re gonna touch people in this generation, we’re gonna need God to do it through us. We don’t have any power to do that. Okay?
So, he goes on and says, “In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body.
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” You get this right, man, you’ve got an awesome place where Christ rules.
( congregational amens ).
The potential of life coming from this order of things is just beyond what we…beyond the norm. But now he gets down to, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Children, God hasn’t put you in a place to tell your parents what to do, and to straighten them out, even when they’re imperfect. God is more concerned with your heart wanting to have a submissive spirit than He is about the issue you’re so worried about.
Hey, we’ve all been there. All of us old folks, we were young once, too. We felt the same way, that sometimes you do. And how…and what about the relationships among all of us, but especially young people. I think every one of you know, words have consequences. You have the power to tear down, to set at naught, to marginalize, to shove aside, to hurt, deeply, with your tongue.
Or you have the ability to encourage. Isn’t that what the Word teaches us to do? We need to use our tongues to encourage one another, and to build one another up. Yes, we can speak the truth, but it’s in love.
How do people speak, how do people feel around you and the way you use your tongue? When you’re feeling rough, do you just sort of let it all lash out? There’s a lot in this, isn’t there? But when you mix this principle of how we use our tongues with the realities of divine order and authority and how that’s carried out, it becomes a big deal. All right?
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother—which is the first commandment with a promise—so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
But here’s one that’s pretty important. “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” This applies to mothers, as well. But fathers, if God has made you the mayor of your house, the head of it, yes, there is authority, there’s power, but the question is, what do we do with it? How do we use it?
What happens for example, when a father…and some of you have been on the receiving end of this probably, when a father says to a child something like, you’re a failure, you’ll never amount to anything. What’s the effect of something like that? That’s devastating! That comes straight from the heart of Lucifer! He may be venting his own feelings, but boy, there’s a…his tongue has become an instrument of satanic life.
What do you think happens when Dad does that in some fashion? Do you think that the kid just blows it off? You’ve got something that gets planted down here that becomes ‘truth’ to that child, far too easily. And you wind up with a kid growing up, and they’ll try, and they’ll try, and they’ll try, but the underlying ‘truth’ that controls how they think about themselves is that ‘I’m no good, I’ll never amount to anything.’ And it sabotages their entire life.
Do you see how the devil destroys lives with the tongue? Sometimes, it may be just a passing, a passing word. As though, well, words are just…that’s just a word. Words have power! And the devil will take things that we say, that we don’t even intend the way we…the way he thinks. We may not even consciously intend them to be something, and the Devil will take that and destroy somebody’s life with it, or cripple them.
You know, we recognize if a child were, for example, were to break a leg and it not heal properly, and they went around the rest of their life like this, we’d recognize the crippleness of it—it’s physical. But what about physiological crippling? What about spiritual crippling? I pray that if that’s something that’s come into your life that you will let God heal it.
( congregational amens ).
Because Satan has sown a lie in you. If you are His—if you are Christ’s, you are His child! You’re God’s child! You have an eternal destiny! Jesus paid the same price for you as He did for anybody!
( congregational amens ).
And you matter to Him!
( congregational amens ).
And I just pray God will take that truth from here, and so…and will just replace lies that have been buried in people’s hearts. But, oh God, the responsibility we have as parents to use the authority and the power that God has given us in a way that will build up.
I’m not talking about flattery and happy talk, on a carnal level. You know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about speaking the words of God. If our hearts are open to what the Lord is saying to us, and the changes He is making in us, we’re gonna have something we can speak. We’re gonna be able to reflect that, it’s gonna come out in our own speech and the way we treat our children, and the way God treats us.
Oh, we need to have that same mercy. God has given you and everybody in a home a place and when it operates the way God intends, God’s spirit is there and peace reigns. But oh, when tongues get attached to human nature, you’ve got a fight, you’ve got a mess, you’ve got broken lives, you got all kinds of heartache and damage done to people.
May God give us grace to humble ourselves and say, oh God. Wouldn’t it be nice if we said with David, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer.” (KJV). It’s what we think about and what we say, what’s really gotten ahold of our hearts.
Didn’t Jesus say that it’s out of the heart, “…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Folks, if you’ve got those kinds of words coming out, and it’s kind of a characteristic of your life, there’s something down here that you need to get healed. If anger is boiling out of you, it’s because it’s in here. Don’t say, it’s their fault! We’ve said it many times, nobody can make you angry, being angry is a choice that we make. But it does become a habit. And we need God to break them.
( congregational amens ).
Just put this together in your mind and meditate on it. It’s a simple thought, in a way, but there is an order in God’s Kingdom. God has pulled us with raw, spiritual energy, power, that’s greater than everything the devil has. And He has brought us out, and He has made us a part of a kingdom.
I just thought of a scripture that we use all the time. Listen to the scripture we use all the time, in Revelation chapter 12. It talks about the victory of the Cross. Verse 10, “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” (NIV).
You see those words, power, kingdom, authority? We have all of heaven standing behind us, if we will hook up with Him, and be an expression of Him. God will be with us. And how does that come out? “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Folks, this does get down to the individual standing against the devil. But you and I have been given a power against the devil because of what happened at the cross.
( congregational amens ).
The power and authority and the Kingdom of Christ has come! He’s called us into that! He has invested us with the ability, but the responsibility, to exercise the word that He gives to us in a way that builds people up, and sets people free! And the more we do that, the more we’re gonna have something that will help one another and build one another up, and have Godly homes!
But also, something to share with a broken world, because all they’ve got is power, the power of darkness, because lies…their entire lives have been built on lies. It could be that they were one of those that Dad said, you’re no good, and they’re living with that crushed spirit. Or they could have been one that said, you’re born for greatness, go for it! Either way it leads to death if it’s just this world.
But God has called us to something much higher. May His character and His spirit infuse our, what comes out of our tongues, greater and greater. I realize we are very imperfect at this, and we’ll still probably say silly things. I probably will today. But may God give us the power to recognize what’s going on, and the power to speak life.
You, if you are God’s child, you’re one of the only ones on this planet, who has the power to actually speak life. I’m not talking about just being positive with somebody, I’m talking about speaking divine life because we’re hooked up with the fountain, we’re hooked up with the source. That’s what this is about. May God give us grace to use the power that He has given to us in a way that accomplishes His will and His purpose in the earth. To Him be glory![/ultimate_modal]
March 24, 2024 - No. 1642
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Which Thief are You?” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Which Thief are You?” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1642March 24, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1642 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: Well, Praise God! The Devil’s certainly been fighting me this morning so I hope that’s a good sign, because the Lord has done so much for us and that’s what so many are celebrating today was the victory of the resurrection.
And you know, there’s so much to talk about and I always come to this and say, oh, Lord, what do we talk about this time? And that’s just human reasoning and all that stuff and I just don’t want to, I don’t want to fall into that trap. But I just — I’m gonna give out the thoughts that the Lord’s given me and just trust Him with it.
Because without the resurrection, I mean, without what goes before the resurrection, the resurrection is just a nice history lesson. And, I thank God for the cross and for what it means to us. And we’ve sung so much about that this morning.
And, there’s one passage that’s always kind of intrigued me. It’s just a little bit different, and that’s in John chapter 12. Jesus is speaking, of course, before going to the cross and I believe He gives us some insights into what it’s really about. I mean, we know some of the basic things. We hear them all the time, but there are some truths in here that I pray everybody will get.
And I don’t know, my burden, I guess, as much as anything is for people that don’t really understand all this, that don’t get it. And I’m certainly not an evangelist. But I just trust that God will breathe life into His truth so that this won’t just be a, okay, this is Easter, we’re supposed to talk about the resurrection and go on with our lives. This is something that has Eternal significance. And so, let’s just read the words of Jesus beginning in verse 23.
“Jesus replied…” to something that’d been said, “…the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
“Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (NIV). Boy, isn’t that a good way for us to react to life?
“Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again. The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
“The crowd spoke up, We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Then Jesus told them, You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light. When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.”
I’ll tell you, we need divine intervention in our lives! The condition of the general population certainly reveals a whole lot, doesn’t it? They were just blind to what was going on. And, I’m just gonna try to bring some thoughts out of this and other scriptures and, like I say, I’m just trusting the Lord this morning. I feel extra weak, which is probably a good thing. But Lord, You take over this and just have Your way and speak Your truth.
You know, one of the things that really jumped out at me, as I was reading this the other day, was where Jesus began. It said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Now think about the context in which He said this. He’s about to go to the cross and He’s saying, I’m gonna be glorified. Do you think maybe, just maybe, He had a pretty good confidence in the Father’s plan? Yeah! Wouldn’t it be good if we could see beyond today and beyond what’s going on and realize that God has an immutable plan, that He is carrying something out that no devil in hell can stop?
( congregational amens ).
Praise God! He’s not saying, oh, I’m gonna be crucified, it’s gonna be terrible. He said, I’m gonna be glorified. He was seeing right past all of this. Wasn’t it — didn’t the scriptures say it was, “for the joy set before him,” that He was able to see that and the cross was just a stepping stone to get to that? It was necessary, but it was only a stepping stone to something that was real.
You know, when Gospel truth comes to someone who has never seen it and never really bowed to it, it sounds an awful lot like a threat. It’s a threat to human nature! It’s a threat to my own will and my own wanting to do what I want to do.
But I’ll tell you another thing, a thought that came to me very distinctly in thinking about all of this was: everything Jesus said was truthful, but the spirit behind it was one of love, a desire to reach out. If He had just never intervened, men would just die, live and die like lost animals. I mean, it would be no more significant than that. But I’ll tell you, God intervened in history, because of our condition and our need. Thank God!
( congregational amens ).
And I’ll tell you, bowing to that is the ultimate freedom, not the ultimate prison. Natural man says, “You’re gonna take away all my joy. You’re gonna constrict me and make me live a religious life. It’s gonna be terrible.” And God says, “I want to set you free.”
How many can say you’ve been on both sides of that, maybe, where you’ve suddenly seen and God’s opened your eyes and when you finally bowed, you said, “Why did I wait so long?” You remember Brother Thomas’ testimony, so many years ago.
But anyway, some of the things that He said…He said this is verse 31, “Now is the time for judgment on this world…,” talking about the significance of the cross. We always think about it in, well, He died for my sins. Yes He did! But I’ll tell you, there was something deeper going on there. God was judging the world! I mean, I understand that the outpouring, I mean, the outworking of that is something that is yet to come in our future, when this world will have its end. But I’ll tell you, you want to know why I can have confidence that that’s true? Because God’s already done it!
( congregational amens ).
God has already judged the world. Now when we talk about the world, what are you talking about? You just talking about the rocks and the trees? You know, we know better than that. But there is a system. There is a government, if you will, that is over this world that is ruled by wicked spirits. They are behind the scenes of everything that exists in this world.
And I realize there are things that are held up as, oh, this is noble. Man’s got so much nobility buried in him. If we could just get rid of the bad stuff, we could rise and conquer the stars. I’ll tell you, there is a world, a system—a spiritual system that is in rebellion against its Creator. And I don’t care what happens, God has already judged that and said, that will not continue! Jesus said, the world will pass away, “…but my words will never pass away.” And I’ll tell you, if you see any hope in this world, you are seeing something that I can’t see. There is no hope!
And I thank God that the end is coming, but I’ll tell you, I see something else. I see the mercy of God! Why has it not happened already? How in the world can God put up with what’s going on in this world? A lot of people wonder about that. How can God — you know, if God can do anything, why doesn’t He just stop all this? I’ll tell you, there’s one reason. Because God is, “…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (KJV).
And I’ll tell you, as long as there is any hope for an individual, God is gonna be reaching out. God is gonna be confronting people saying, I love you. It doesn’t have to be this way. You can give Me your heart and give Me your life and surrender. I’ve got different plans for you.
And I’ll tell you, the principles of this world are sin and rebellion. They are slavery. It’s not just that I follow my natural desires. That would be a basic principle of this world, that life is about just, I have desires and I’m gonna follow them. I’m gonna try to satisfy them. It’s not just that I do that, it’s that they become my master! I become a slave! I cannot stop from being that kind of a person who lives in this kind of a world.
I’ll tell you, this world is a prison house! Well, didn’t we just sing about that? Yeah! “I was in sin’s prison.” And there is an inescapable dominion of spirits of darkness that only the cross and the resurrection can overcome! There is not a man, woman, boy or girl that’s ever been born that can overcome or escape any of this!
How many of you remember, oh, some of the old movies? Ben Hur was one of them I remember. You remember the rowing scene, some of you who have seen that? When the Roman galleys, when they would go to war, what was it that powered their ships?
( congregational response ).
It was slaves who were down in the bow, down in the belly of the ship. And they were, many times, chained in place. All that they could look forward to in life was to row as hard as they could and die, sooner or later. If the ship went down, they went down with it.
And I’ll tell you, that is a picture of life in this world. You have been given a rowing — a place to row and you are chained to that and you’re gonna row, thinking you’re getting somewhere.
I’ll tell you, this is a world that God has judged. The ultimate fate of what is coming upon this world was foreshadowed on the cross. God drew everything — He became the representative of the entire human race! God created a perfect world, and Adam and Eve chose to rebel. I’ll put it this way. Eve was deceived into rebelling. Adam made a choice. She had already made the wrong choice and he made a deliberate choice to follow her instead of God.
I’ll tell you, that’s a terrible thing to do! And because of that, all that’s part of this world, this creation, has been corrupted by that rebellion. There is no solution except for God to exterminate it from His universe! None of this is gonna survive! Thank God!
If you want to know, you want to get a picture of the blindness that sin causes? How about the Lord using the Devil to carry out His plan, and allowing the Devil to think, I’m winning! I’ve been able to crucify the Son of God! Now we can rule! Now the Creator Himself is gone and we can rule!
The scripture says, if the princes of this world — they didn’t understand this — if any of them had understood it — this is 1st Corinthians 2, if you want to look it up. If they had understood this, “…they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (NIV). You want to know how deceptive sin and darkness is? The Devil thought he was winning and he was engineering his own defeat. Boy, I’ll tell you what, I want to be on God’s side, don’t you?
( congregational response ).
That’s a darkness I want to escape! But you know the main thing we think about with the cross, thank God, is deliverance from the guilt of sin! You know, I need — I mean, it’s so obvious, all of the sins that I have committed in my life, what am I gonna do about them?
What are we talking about? “The acts of the sinful nature….” Look at Galatians 5, 19-21. I’m gonna read it but you can look it up when you want to. “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”
So this is not a exhaustive list, is it? It can go on and on, but all of it is built around gratifying natural desires and impulses, in a very selfish way. I’ll tell you what, every one of us has sins that separate us from God, apart from Christ. And here’s the kicker! Let me ask you this question. Is God just?
( congregational response ).
I mean, how do you find justice? If there is a law, and a judge says, “Well, I know what the law says but I’m gonna change — I’m gonna do something different this time. I feel sorry for you. I’m not gonna apply the law.” Is he just? No! So, how in the world can God be just and we have any hope whatsoever? Is there anybody here hasn’t sinned? No, of course not! So, how in the world can God remain just and we get off? “The soul who sins…”
( congregational response ).
He’ll die! That’s the law! That’s the law! There’s no escape from that principle! God has to punish sin! And it’s not just the — these acts that we talk about. There’s something deeper than that.
I want you to imagine a scene right now. You’re standing before the bar of God’s justice. God’s sitting there in judgment of you. And you are aware that you can’t hide anything. And I want you to think back to the most shameful things. I’m assuming you’ve got a conscience. I want you to think back to the most shameful things that you have ever done in your life, things that maybe nobody else knows about it, but you do. And if they were ever brought out into the open, you would just be filled with — you’d want to crawl in a hole and pull it in after you, as the expression goes.
But now, let’s go beyond that. Maybe you’re not somebody who’s done a lot of these things. You haven’t robbed any banks. You haven’t actually committed adultery with somebody. But what did Jesus say about that? He said the one who’s looked at a woman with lust in his heart, has already committed adultery.
How many of us would want, not just our deeds to be brought before the bar of God’s justice, but all of our thoughts and our intentions, our attitudes? Every time you’ve rebelled against your parents and been angry, or been angry with somebody, or gossiped in a malicious way or, anything you can think of. Or you just let your mind dwell in the wrong places. You went to the wrong places on your computer. I’ll tell you what, we’ve got a lot to deal with.
But now you’re standing there and the Lord reads off this long list of charges. How do you plead? Everybody here would have to say the same thing. “I’m guilty. I deserve to die. Your law declares that I deserve to die.”
But now there’s a different scene that comes along. And now your Creator, who has come down to this earth to become a part of His own creation, to come down in flesh and live His life among men, just like you did…. But there’s one difference in Him. He has never been guilty of the first thing. His life has been one of perfect harmony with His heavenly Father. He’s perfect.
But now, instead of you standing before that bar of God’s justice, He stands there. And God reads that same list of everything that you have ever done that’s been wrong, every shameful act, every shameful thought, all of these things that cause you such deep conviction and shame. They’re all read. But now they’re read against Him, who has done nothing! And God says, how do You plead? He says, I plead guilty. And the sentence is passed, and it’s a sentence of death.
I’ll tell you, that’s a sobering thing. But until we come face to face with that truth in a personal way, what we’re talking about this morning is nothing but a history lesson, something we can say, “Yay Jesus,” and go on about our lives.
But I’ll tell you, the reality of what happened there has to become deeply personal. It’s not just that He died for everybody, in this vague, general sense, but that I stand before the bar of God’s justice as a guilty sinner and that He steps into my place. He embraces my guilt and willingly goes to the cross.
And so, in that way God’s justice is perfectly satisfied. There have been sins committed, there has been One who has embraced the guilt of all of that and He has received that ultimate punishment. All of God’s wrath against all the sins that have ever been committed were poured out on Jesus Christ and He willingly did it!
I’ll tell you, what does that mean to you? Does that mean anything? I’ll tell you what, that’s some sober stuff to think about, isn’t it? Thank God! Thank God! We have a God who is just and yet able to forgive. Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for the cross. Thank Him for the blood.
Has that ever become real to you? I’ll tell you, if it ever becomes more than just a Sunday School lesson to you, it’ll change your life. It’ll change your destiny, ‘cause that’s what this is all about! You’re part of a system that’s gonna perish. I don’t care what you do, I don’t care what men do. I don’t care whether they try to go to the stars. This world is gonna perish! God has already judged it, but He’s already judged your sins and mine. I’ll tell you what, that’s something to think about, isn’t it?
Now one thing that Jesus said that bears some comment, He said back here in verse…is it 25? “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (NIV).
You know, there are three times, I guess, the word “life” is used but most people would not know that there are different words in the Greek. When Jesus talks about your life and my life, He’s using the word soul. He’s using the word for the created life that came in the beginning. God imparted a life, a created life to Adam and Eve. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of, literally, lives, because it’s reproducible. But he had a created life that God gave him and that is what has been hopelessly corrupted!
But what are the words of Jesus? Here are people who are faced with a choice. Am I going to serve Jesus? Am I gonna embrace what He did for me or am I gonna cling to this life that I possess? This is what matters to me. What I want, that’s what matters. The words of Jesus cannot be countermanded! He said, “The man who loves his life will lose it….” There’s no wiggle room in this.
But the other kind of life, when He mentions eternal life, that’s a different word! That is that word, “zoe.” That is God’s life. How many of you know there are different kinds of life? This is a subject — I probably — it keeps coming back to me from time to time and it may be — one of these days it’ll be time to address it, as a doctrinal issue, is this question of what happens? Is the soul immortal?
I don’t happen to believe that it is. I’ll tease you with that much. My Bible says only God is immortal. I’ll tell you, there are gonna be a lot of people, on the Day of Judgment, whose eyes will be opened, finally! They will have no choice. They will see what God has purposed! They will see the righteous standing there, not because they did something, but because they surrendered to what God could do! And they’re standing there in glory and power and freedom and life that will go on forever!
And there they are, guilty in their sins being marched off to a place of destruction! Crying, weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, begging for another opportunity when there will be no remedy on that day. But these are the words of Jesus. The one who loves his life — they were clinging to it.
And I’ll tell you, the most — the scariest part of that is when people embrace religion, in some fashion, but they never really let go of their life. Jesus talks about that in Matthew chapter 7, because He says there are two gates and there are two ways. He talks about the false prophets who essentially let people believe—they lead people to believe that they can come in and somehow, in some sense, acknowledge Jesus, even call Him Lord, they use the words the Lord Jesus, but as Jesus says, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?”
And it’s in that context that He talks about people who arrive on that day and say, Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, didn’t we do great works? Lord, we were working for You all our lives. We went to church. We never missed Sunday School, all the things that you’re supposed to be doing as evidence that I’m a follower of Jesus. What was the problem? They never let go of their life![/ultimate_modal]
March 31, 2024 - No. 1643
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Which Thief are You?” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Which Thief are You?” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1643March 31, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1643 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: This is the dividing line of history. This is the defining moment in history which everybody’s destiny is determined by where they stand in relation to that. And I’ll tell you, His resurrection, as I say, was a victory over death. Here was the greatest enemy, the consequence of my sin is that I die—I’m destined to die! I cannot live with God. I cannot bring this sin that infects me into His kingdom! It has no place! “…Flesh and blood,,,” the scripture says, “…cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” (KJV). Man, something radical has to change!
But Jesus came forth, and He came forth as the Victor, the Conqueror of death itself! As I said, He convinced all of His doubting followers! Do you remember that first Easter morning? There were different encounters with different individual people, but the body of disciples were still, huh, what’s going on? I don’t get this. You know, people said this, I’m confused. I don’t know what’s going on.
And then, Jesus meets, joins up with a couple of disciples not part of the apostles but just two other followers, and they’re headed out to the village of Emmaus. How many of you remember that simple story? They’re walking along, taking about all the stuff that’s happened, and Jesus kind of joins them and says, “What you talking about?”
They said, “Are you a stranger around here? You don’t know what’s been going on? We saw this…we followed this guy, we thought He was the Messiah, we thought He was the One, and they killed Him! And it’s been three days! And then some people have been coming up with these crazy stories! They’ve seen Him! We don’t know what’s going on.”
“O fools, and slow of heart to believe…,” He said. And as they walked, He began to open up the Old Testament scriptures. Boy, would I have loved to — wouldn’t you have loved to listen in on that and have Him take the Old Testament scriptures and open them up? Do you know when they preached the Gospel in the New Testament, they preached it from the Old Testament? The New Testament wasn’t written yet! That’s where we go.
But I’ll tell you, the Gospel is there from Genesis right on through, what is it, Malachi? Anyway, right through the end of the Old Testament. And here’s Jesus taking them right through, showing them exactly what had to happen and why He had to die.
They still didn’t know who He was. So, they come to the house there, and so, He says, “Have a nice day.” And they realized, “Hey, wait a minute. Stay with us. It’s late in the day, we’ve got a house here. Come on in. Let’s eat something together.” So, they sit down to eat, and He breaks the bread and thanks God for it. And all of a sudden, they realize who it is. And instantly, He vanishes from their sight.
You want to know something about this life, this other life? It pays no attention to laws of physics. It’s not bound by all the things that bind us. This is something different. So, man, they’re excited. They go running back in. I don’t know if they ran. It’s several miles, but anyway, they hurried back into Jerusalem. They knocked on the door, because the disciples were in a locked room, and they let them in.
They said, “We’ve seen the Lord,” and locked the door again. All of a sudden, Jesus is in there. And you know, in the state that they were in, oh my God! We’re seeing a ghost! He said, “Don’t be afraid. A ghost doesn’t have flesh and blood like you see me have. He holds out His hands, and they touch Him. They…my God, He’s real! He’s got a body! We see Him just exactly — I mean, He’s right here!
And just to really settle the issue, Jesus said, You got anything to eat?” They gave Him a piece of fish, and He sat there and ate it in front of them. And they’re trying to take this in. And over the next few weeks, Jesus turns a bunch of scared, hiding people into people who are ready to just embrace the power that He was about to send, and stand up to that whole generation with a conviction that nothing could shake!
Every single apostle was martyred for their faith, went to their grave convinced and standing for the simple truth that Jesus was raised from the dead, except John. They tried to kill him, and it didn’t work! The Lord preserved him so he could write the book of Revelation, experience that revelation for us.
And do you know what we’ve read this morning several things that Jesus said prior to the cross. There were many other things, of course, through the Gospels. But I want to make this simple point. Everything Jesus said was completely authenticated by the fact that He rose from the dead. People may hear this and be angry with me, but Muhamad is dead. Confucius is dead. Buddha is dead. Plato is dead. All these people that had these great ideas about what the world is about and how we should live and all those things, but Jesus Christ is alive!
( congregational amens ).
He lives today, and He can be known today! We may not see Him with our natural eyes, but He is alive, and He is real, and every word that He told us is the truth!
( congregational response ).
When He says the one who loves his life will lose it, you can bet your last penny, let alone your dollar, you can bet your last penny that it’s the truth. And I’ll say again, He’s not telling anybody that because He’s condemning, angry, trying to put you under His thumb and make you miserable. It’s because He sees the condition that you’re blind to.
And He longs to reach down and pull you out and lift you up to a place where you’ll say, “Oh my God, I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand. How glad I am I gave You my heart and my life.” Praise God! He authenticated everything that He said.
Here’s something that’s sounds like it’s gonna come out of left field, but, when Jesus died, He wasn’t the only one that died that day, was He? There were two thieves, one on His right and one on His left. And the crowd was down there mocking! “You claim to be the Son of God! If You’re the Son of God, come down from that cross! Who do you think You are?” Just mocking Him.
When they started all of this, both thieves were in agreement with that. And one of them particularly said, “If you’re the Son of God, save Yourself and save us!” You see where His interest was, preserving his life? That was the most important thing to him! I’m about to die here. Fix me up. Save my life. That’s the prime value that I hold.
Somewhere along the line, one of the thieves began to find his spirit touched. The only explanation is that God touched his heart. Nobody has the power to come out of this kind of darkness. If you have any inclination at all towards God, God did that! God’s reaching out to you. You wouldn’t care!
Somehow, that thief began to see things in a different light when he heard Jesus say, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” He listened, and he watched, and he saw His reaction to everything. And finally, he rebuked the other thief and said, “We’re dying because we broke the law. We deserve what we’re getting.” Then, he turned to Jesus and said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
And one of the points that’s really come strongly to me was the divide that happened that day. Everybody connected with that event that day was on one side or the other. There is no middle ground. How many of you know that?
( congregational response ).
There’s no middle ground. You are either 100 percent identified with Christ on the cross, including you dying, laying down your life, following Him, or you are part of those who will perish! There simply is no middle ground.
And I’ll tell you, any message that short-circuits that is a deception! I want to stand there that day and say I told people the truth! Where did I hear — a while back about a church that had — when people came, they were invited to say this little prayer. Sorry for all my mistakes. Thank You for salvation and something — that was the essence of it. And they consider them Christians! My God!
Do you have any idea what it takes for God to confront a life, and say, “You need Me! Without Me, you will perish!” And then to come and to realize that it’s not a voice of condemnation, but it’s a voice of love that entreats, that calls, that draws, that offers something at the cost of the Son of God laying down His life.
My God, what’s it gonna be like on that day? Do you think there’s gonna be some middle ground between those who are in glory and those who are marched off? That divide exists now. We don’t always know. That divide is in this room this morning. It’s wherever people may hear this. And all I can pray is that God will do what it takes.
You know, one sort of quirky way I thought about putting this is, there were two thieves there: which thief are you? You’re as guilty as either of them. Are you gonna stand with the mockers, or are you gonna stand with those who surrender? And they willingly lay down their lives because there’s a hope of something beyond all of that, that is as sure as the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ?
I’ll tell you what…when they went out and preached the Good News which is what the Gospel means, when the apostles went forth into that world and preached the Good News, man, it was not some easy-believism. It cost people their lives to follow Jesus. People were persecuted, thrown into prison. Some of them were killed.
That’s still happening today. In fact, there have been more — I believe there were more Christians killed in the 20th century than in all of Christian history combined before that. And the trend is going up. I heard one figure, and I don’t know how reliable, but it’s just an indicator. There’s something like 100,000 Christians that die every year from some form of violence. You see the world we’re going into? We need the Lord.
( congregational amens ).
We need Someone who will carry us through. Whether we live or whether we die, we’re gonna be with the Lord. Now, I’ll tell you, one way or another, your life is gonna end here. We can live it for Him and enjoy what He has for us forever, or we can perish with a dying world.
But their message was an uncompromising one! It was repent! Your attitude needs to be totally reversed about sin! Whatever is wrong, displeasing to God, you can’t say, “Oh, I’m gonna toy with this, I’m gonna hang on to this, I love this! I’ll give up this if You’ll let me have that!”
No! There is a repentance where your heart, your attitude, you see the evil that it is and you say, “God, by Your grace, I turn my heart away from that. I want to — I need to be delivered from this! I need to be forgiven for all the things that I feel guilty for!” And I’ll tell you, you will feel guilty when God confronts you. Don’t run from that!
( congregational response ).
Take that to the cross, because the answer is not to cover it over! You can try to cover it over with alcohol or whatever you want! You’ll never escape the guilt! There is one answer for the guilt that comes when we realize what we really are, and that is to bring it to the cross! And I’ll tell you, when the blood cleanses us from that sin, even the sense of guilt is gone!
( congregational response ).
Thank God! That’s real salvation. Only God’s power can do that! Thank God! It wasn’t just, repent of your sins, it’s to lay down your life. My life doesn’t belong to me anymore. Just as surely as Jesus made a one-way trip to the grave on the cross, when we come to Him, that’s the journey we make. Our life, our heart, every part of us is presented to Him.
Yes, I understand, like Michael was talking about, there’s an outworking of that. We have to learn. We have to grow in all those things. But I’ll tell you, there is a time when we are literally laid down. We’re repenting of our sins, but we’re giving up our life, as well, and saying, “God, it is Your life. You do what You will with it, while I’m here. But You remake me into someone who can live with You forever.”
And I’ll tell you — and you believe the Good News. You believe the promise that God will take your life and give you His gift of eternal life. There is repentance, there is a laying down of life, a surrender, and there is faith.
Where do you think the ability for that comes from? It doesn’t come from me. It comes from God! When God is speaking, when God is dealing, that’s the time when we have the power to do what He commands us to do. And I’ll tell you, we become responsible to do that.
But then, what did they do? When they preached the Gospel, how did that work out? I mean, what was the expression of that? I’m trying to get to something. They were baptized!
Do you understand the connection between baptism and everything we’re talking about this morning? That’s what baptism means! It means I am laying down my life! I am going down under the water! I’m surrendering! This is not just a religious ordinance that I’m practicing! I am — this is what’s in my heart, to lay down my life and to give it to You, but I am doing it in the expectation that when I come up, I will come up with a new life!
I’ll tell you, there is a God — when somebody lays down their life in faith, there’s a response to the Gospel, there is a God who will seal you with His Spirit!
( congregational amens ).
You will be a different person on the inside! Yes, you will have to grow! Yes, we will have many battles! Yes, we will go through many valleys and mountains! But I tell you, there’s a change.
When Jesus was baptized, what happened? The Spirit came on Him and He said, this is My Son. There was an identification of God. This is My Son. I’ll tell you, when somebody really is responding to the Gospel in faith and they’re baptized, God says this is My son. This is My child. He will give you the response to that exercise of faith. This is the Gospel. This is the way they preached it. Is this right or wrong?
( congregational response ).
This is right. I want people to think about this. I’m not gonna try to make something happen. I don’t think they did in the New Testament. I don’t see a place where they gave altar calls and you know, a lot of the things — God can use all those kinds of things. But I’ll tell you, I want God to take His Word and so convict the heart, that people will just cry out to Him until He does what is necessary.
And they will respond and say, “I need to surrender. I need to be baptized.” I want God to do it. I don’t want to try to add my efforts to make something happen. But that’s God’s part. My part is to repent, to lay down my life and believe the Good News and express it in that manner. And God’s part is to give His Spirit. That was the way it happened.
And I’ll just ask a simple question. Which life is yours, earthly or heavenly? Everybody here has some kind of life. We all have the earthly life in our bodies, but you understand what I’m saying. Do you have the heavenly life? Do you have what Jesus is talking about in this passage?
This is what God’s heart is! He longs to share His life, but He’s not gonna share it with sin, with somebody who means to go on like they are and cling to their earthly life, and intends to go on in a life of self will!
That’s what religion — that’s the track that Satan leads people off into a religion. Oh, I’m okay because I’m religious! And their heart’s unchanged. That’s what Jesus said about the Pharisees. Outwardly, you appear righteous, but inwardly, you’re just a bunch of graves with dead men’s bones in them. I don’t want to be that. I want to be real from the inside out. Only God can do that.
Folks, we need God to come in miraculous power. And I’m not talking about signs and wonders, particularly. I’m just talking about — we need God to come and change hearts and lives and do something that is unmistakably His work, because He’s the only One that can do it!
Just coming here and participating in the church isn’t gonna do it! You need to meet — you need to have a personal encounter with the God who raised His Son from the dead. Have you been born again, or are you just religious?
Everyone before the cross, as I said earlier, was in one camp or the other. Everyone! Everyone made a choice that day. I reject Him. He’s a phony. He’s a fraud. He deserves to die. And then some said, I’m with Him—I’m with Him.
Are you with Him? Praise God! There is no middle ground! And look at the last part of what Jesus said. “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” (NIV).
We’re living in a world that is falling under what Paul called strong delusion. Strong delusion means you are absolutely certain you are right, and you are totally deceived. When Christ comes, it will be a shock to this world, because they were so sure. That’s the power of darkness from which we need to be delivered.
( congregational amens ).
When God comes, and He begins to convict the heart of the need, that’s the time. There’s light right there shining in your life. But now, there’s a choice that has to be made. What will that choice be? Will I reach out?
I’ll tell you, if this concerns you at all, I pray that there are people who will go and cry out and say, “God, help me. I don’t even get all of this, but I need You. I know that I need You. I feel the sense of my need of You! But oh, God, open my eyes. Help me. Strengthen me. Give me faith. Give me whatever I need.”
There’s a God who will hear that prayer! That’s what He longs to hear! Oh, He’s not a God of anger and wrath. That’s not what He wants. There will be plenty of that for people that say, no, I will not have this — we will not have this Man to rule over us, as Jesus said some people would say.
I’ll tell you, there’s a God who loves you with an amazing love that we can’t even fathom. There’s a Creator who came down and walked among us, sinless, took every bit of your shame and mine, willingly embraced the wrath of God that was justly due for everything you and I have ever done.
Oh, I embrace that. I am what You say I am, Lord. I need You. But I bow, and I put my faith in Your — in what Jesus did and in Your power to change that and to give me a different life. Lord, without that, I will perish.
I pray that everyone here will just rejoice in what God’s done for you, if you know Him. But God has begun this good work. He’s not gonna stop. You put your faith in Him no matter where you’re at in your journey. The same God who has begun that has planted something in you. Do you know the life He gave you can’t die? If He saved you by His Spirit, that life cannot die! We just need to put our faith in Him.
But I’ll tell you, if you’ve never known Him, I just pray that God will just turn you every way but loose until you are sure, because if you’re not sure about this, what else is worth anything? This is the question upon which our destiny hangs. This is why Jesus died. This is why He rose again, to demonstrate God’s power to save, to destroy sin and death that would otherwise rule over us. It’s the only way of escape. Put your faith in Him. Seek Him with all your heart. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
April 7, 2024 - No. 1644
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“What is Your Life About?” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“What is Your Life About?” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1644April 7, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1644 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: Every week it seems like I go through, in a sense, the same thing. We have a service and it seems like the Lord blesses and it’s connected to what’s been going on and what we’ve had before. And then I come to this next week, okay, now Lord, and I just feel empty and nothing’s going on and then I’ll have a thought and before…and as it develops, I suddenly say, hey, you know, this actually is a kind of a continuation.
And I feel like this may be one of those occasions as well. I believe the Lord wants to take us deeper, don’t you? We’ve said that so many times. And, we’ve certainly…I believe many of us have prayed, and prayed from our hearts, Lord work in me, change me, mold me and make me into what You’d have me to be.
That’s a dangerous prayer, because the Lord will answer it, but He won’t answer it in ways that we always expect. We think that’s gonna be peaches and cream, and we’ll sing a song about, “There is a place in God where rest is complete,” and we’ll sort of imagine that in an earthly sense where all conflict is gone. We’re just…oh, this is wonderful! And, how many of you know it’s not that way?
( congregation inaudible ).
Yeah! It isn’t at all. And I had a scripture come to me the other day and I just kind of meditated on it ever since. And it comes from 1st Corinthians chapter 16. Paul was writing to the Corinthians, as we’ve said many times, and he had a lot of problems with a young church that had come out of heathen darkness, the people had. And they didn’t know how to be Christians. They didn’t know what it was all about. And so, he had to do a lot of teaching and explaining, dealing with issues.
And, you know, that’s kind of the way it is. There are always going to be issues, aren’t there? But anyway, he was writing to them. And, how many of you know where he was writing from? Where was Paul when he was writing this letter?
( congregational response ).
No. No, he wasn’t in prison. Well, it actually says here. In chapter 16, verse 5, I’ll go ahead and read a little bit. “After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you for a while, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.” (NIV).
And, you look in the bigger context, you see that he’s actually got in mind going to Jerusalem because he wants to take an offering, because the saints there are really in a desperate situation with poverty, and oppression by the religious leaders there.
But anyway, here he says, “But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” Now, I’ve had so many thoughts. Only the Lord can bring this together in what He wants to emphasize.
Part of it is a great deal of what Steve said. But how many of you, in the process of saying Lord, take me deeper, have discovered that it stirs the devil up a bit? Instead of pressing forward and suddenly finding yourself in a pleasant meadow somewhere, spiritually speaking, you find yourself at war and you find the devil getting upset.
You know, if we’re not upsetting the devil, what are we doing? We’re living in enemy territory. The Kingdom of God exists with opposition, and if we’re not experiencing it, something is lacking. And it’s not that we go out and try to make trouble, in a carnal sense. But I mean, just simply pursuing what God wants is gonna stir up trouble.
So anyway…I’m jumping ahead in a way here because I wanted to emphasize different parts of this. But there’s one word that interests me there. Just at the moment I’ll comment on it. He says, a door, “…a great door for effective work has opened to me, ‘and’ there are many who oppose me.”
Now, if it were you and me, I think we would be inclined to say, ‘but’ there are. And as we talked about this before where, there’s a great difference between ‘and’ and ‘but.’ ‘But’ is kind of like the controlling factor in a situation. I’m doing good, ‘but.’ Or, I’m doing all this, ‘but’…as though all this opposition is now in charge.
But Paul is recognizing that they go hand in hand. If I’m doing anything, if I’m actually making progress in the Kingdom of God, instead of just marking time and sitting in place, there will be opposition and I recognize that and I just embrace it. It’s part of the deal. I accept it.
And I believe, with all my heart, as God moves here, as He brings us into a deeper experience of Him, we are going to have battles with the devil in many, many forms. And we might as well just get our minds geared up that that’s the way the Kingdom operates in the world. Okay?
Now, one of the areas that I wanted to go back and talk about, was that the fellow who wrote this…now we all know that Paul was not always Paul. He was, at one time, Saul, the Jew, and he describes his own…I mean, we see, in several places, his own background described as a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I mean a leader, an up-and-comer, who had given everything in his life to a certain course of action that he believed was the right one for him.
He was right with God, right with man, zealous for the religion of his fathers. He was an intellectual. He was a lot of things. But he was a rising star in the Jews religion of that day. And something changed.
Folks, how many of you know something has to change? Regardless…Steve was talking about this a lot this morning. You can grow up in this church and have nothing. You can grow up in this church and wind up in the Lake of Fire. Because it isn’t just a matter of the outward and the religion you embrace, the ideas you embrace, the behavior and all of that stuff. We need the Lord!
And there came a day when God’s purpose began to prevail in the life of this man named Saul. He had gotten letters of introduction from the leaders in Jerusalem because he’d heard that there were Christians in Damascus! The very idea! I’ve got to do something! So, he said, give me letters. I’ll go take care of business here.
And so, he was on his way to Damascus with a group of soldiers, I suppose. Anyway, they were people who were gonna help him in the process. And something happened. Has something ever happened in your life? It doesn’t have to be dramatic like this. I mean, Paul was suddenly surrounded by a great light and heard a voice that said to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” (NLT).
I mean, talk about a shock! “…Who are you, Lord? …I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (NIV). Whoa, what a truth that unveils! Whatever the devil does to you, he’s actually doing it to Jesus. And you know, we need to see the connectedness of the Kingdom of God.
But here was a man that needed something…needed a direction in his life! His life was going the wrong direction. And so, Jesus interrupted his life and there was a revelation that penetrated, not just the mind, not just the intellect! Paul, I want to correct…or Saul, I want to correct your ideas. This was one that went to the heart!
Has Jesus ever penetrated to your heart? Or, have you just gone along? You see the need that was there. Would he ever have been the person he became if something had not happened at the level of his heart? This was a man that was brought into a relationship with Jesus Christ, where Jesus was not simply “a savior I believe in.” And, good, I’m going to heaven one day. This was somebody who came to be in charge!
And he came to a place where he understood that his life was not his own to live as he saw fit. It belonged to Jesus Christ, for His purposes, and His purposes alone. Now, is that just for somebody like Paul, as he became known? Or, is that a truth that applies to every single person, who would actually have a living relationship with Jesus Christ, and have an eternal hope? That’s how serious it is.
And this is only part of what I’ve thought about, but I just cannot get away from this aspect of truth. This man who wrote this, was somebody who had a basketful of stuff…we read about it in Philippians 3, of all the things that he…that in his life he valued and gloried in, as though this is what makes me somebody that matters. My life matters. This is what I want to live for.
You know, a lot of people just live for whatever pleases them. This guy went way beyond all of that. And yet, he was on the road to fire, and didn’t know it.
Folks, we need the Lord. And we need more than just following along with the religion of your parents, or what you hear the preacher say or any of those things. It has got to come down to a personal encounter with Jesus Christ that transforms your heart, because if you don’t have His life in you, you don’t have anything. If He’s not Lord of all, He’s not Lord at all.
( congregational amens ).
And contrary to what you will hear in some places, if He’s not Lord, He’s not Savior! We are seeing a great division in our world. We’ve said…this is something that’s not new. We’ve said this, many times. But it is a radical one! When mankind stands before a Holy God, there will only be two categories. You will either be robed in white, because of what He has done, alone. Or, you will stand there, having lived your life, on your terms, doing what you want, and you will lose it! It’s that simple.
And we have a culture today that is absolutely inspired by Satan. It is attacking every value, every idea, everything that has to do with Bible truth, with Jesus. We’re gonna see it chipped away, and we’re seeing it step, by step, by step. We’re seeing the rebellion absolutely unfold, and oh God, do we need to see past it and have God open eyes!
And I’ve heard, many times, burdens expressed by different ones for young people. Folks, those burdens aren’t just I don’t want him to get away from me. I want him to be identified with me. These burdens are coming from the hearts of people who know what they’re talking about. They have been there. They’ve been where you’re at, if you’re a young person.
This isn’t just for young people, but it sure affects them, because many of them are on the precipice of life, the staging area, whatever you want to say. There are roads that stretch out ahead of them. And oh, my God, how easy it is to have our plans, and to somehow imagine that I can live out my plan and it’ll be okay, and Jesus is good with that, as long as I don’t get too far out. You know, I don’t start robbing banks, and dealing drugs, and something that’s obviously evil.
Do you know what the essence of sin is? It’s not a list of ‘sins.’ Those are symptoms. The essence of sin is self on the throne! There’s nothing else! If you have self on the throne, you will have some of these evil acts come out. But they flow from the heart of someone who says, it’s my life, I will do as I please!
And there are plenty of people who live outwardly, exemplary lives, but self is on the throne! And there comes a place where God says, all right, I’m gonna let you have what you want. I pray that God will implant a godly fear in the hearts of everyone who hears this! Everyone, period! That you’ll see just how important this is.
What would have happened to Paul, to Saul, the Jew, had Jesus not intervened? What would have happened if somehow he had said, no? My God! This man had absolutely flipped 180. And Jesus absolutely revealed Himself and sent Ananias to him to pray after he’d gotten to Damascus, when he was blind.
And, here was a man who was afraid to go until the Lord explained, hey, this is somebody I’ve chosen. You’re gonna pray for him that he’ll receive his sight, that he’ll be saved, he’ll receive the Spirit. And I’m gonna tell him how many things he’s gonna be suffering for Me. Whoa, what a wonderful life!
But you know, you read through what Paul shared with us about what it means to really be a member of the Kingdom of God—a part of the Kingdom of God, and you’ll see a man that has a different view than a whole lot of folks.
You know, a lot of folks, they think of a deeper life, they think of going deeper with God, and it’s like it’s this magical place where I come into this peaceful, wonderful existence. And, you know, there’s an aspect of it where we have this deeper, personal relationship with God. Yes, there is a deeper peace. All of those things are there. And then you read about Paul and all that he went through, and how does that fit together?
You know, so many people have taken the one side…some of these sides of it. Some of it is the outward. Let’s back off and say that. We’ve said it many times about the prosperity gospel. If I’m…what God really wants from me is to prosper me in this world and if I will just believe in Him enough, I’ll have plenty of money, I’ll have perfect health, and I’ll be successful in everything I do, and that’s the sign that I am in favor with God.
Well boy, Paul must have really been on the outs with God because he sure didn’t experience much of that. That wasn’t the course of his life at all! The purpose for which he lived was something completely different.
What’s your purpose? When you’re looking ahead to your life or, right now…like I said, this isn’t just young people, this is everybody. Why are you doing what you’re doing? What’s your purpose? Or, are these truths only for the special ones?
( congregation inaudible ).
Yeah. But here is Paul…and you remember in that passage in Philippians 3 that we’ve referred to so many times. If you read that, you could almost zone in on what he says. I want to know Him. This is one thing that I do. I want to, “…know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (KJV).
And, “I press toward the mark for the prize….” You could almost conceive of that in a very private, personal sense. How many of you know there’s a difference between private and personal? Private is just about me. It’s like me going into a cave and having this glorious lovefest with Jesus, and that’s what my life is about. Find a monastery somewhere and just have this glorious, personal sense of something with God.
I’ll tell you, you could almost get that from those verses unless you see them in their context. Is that what Paul…is that why Paul did what he did? You know it isn’t. What was the reason that Paul did what he did? Was it just so that I could be a very special Christian? I could be a successful Christian. I could feel better about myself. Other people could look at me and say, wow, there is a model Christian! Isn’t that wonderful?
We are so geared to being self-centered, self-seeking. How easy it is to bring that into our spiritual lives and think that this relationship with God is about me and how I feel and how effective that I am at just being the kind of person You want me to be.
Lord, just guide my thoughts here. I feel a burden I can’t even express. But I believe God has a deeper—much deeper sense of what He wants to accomplish in us, and we see it in Paul. Paul, as I said, was here for one purpose. After he met Christ, there was only one thing that he lived for. Lord, what do You want me to do? I do not belong to myself anymore. I belong to You.
And I’m gonna ask you the question—ask a question again. Do you really think that this is only for Paul? Or, does that not apply to every member of the Body of Christ? We’re not all apostles, obviously! We’re not all anything. We have all the variety of gifts and abilities that God has distributed, but these principles apply to everyone.
Didn’t Paul write, I think in one of the Corinthian letters? “…Ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” What are you seeking? What’s your life about? What’s the driving vision and burden that you have for your life? Where do you see yourself going and for what reason? These are serious questions, aren’t they?
( congregational amens ).
They’re ones we need to ask ourselves. On one level, this is a question that has eternal ramifications for someone who has never really, really surrendered to Christ. But there are ramifications for every single believer. Why do we do what we do? You can do the right thing for the wrong reason.
And we need to understand. You know, I mentioned…I’m sure I mentioned it here, but where I grew up we often had messages that were geared to the young people to get them to come to the place where they’re willing to surrender their lives. It’s not just a matter of coming to a place of salvation, but…because the truth is, how can you have one without the other? But still, the emphasis was basically, you’re standing at the crossroads of life. Where is your life going? What’s it gonna be about? Are you going to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, to do His will, or are you just gonna keep doing yours?
And of course, many times, the emphasis was on, are you willing to be a missionary if God calls you to be that? Or, are you willing to be a minister? There was all of that in there. But the basic principle, the basic center of all of that was, are you willing to do God’s will?
I’ll ask you that today. Is that the governing principle of your life? God, it’s not my life! What do You want me to do? What do You want me to be? How do You want me to live? Change me at the heart level! Impart to me the very ability to do what You’ve called me to be![/ultimate_modal]
April 14, 2024 - No. 1645
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“What is Your Life About?” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“What is Your Life About?” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1645April 14, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1645 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: Paul, as I said, was here for one purpose. After he met Christ, there was only one thing that he lived for. Lord, what do You want me to do? I do not belong to myself anymore. I belong to You.
And I’m gonna ask you the question—ask a question again. Do you really think that this is only for Paul? Or, does that not apply to every member of the Body of Christ?
We’re not all apostles, obviously! We’re not all anything. We have all the variety of gifts and abilities that God has distributed, but these principles apply to everyone.
Didn’t Paul write, I think in one of the Corinthian letters? “…Ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (KJV).
What are you seeking? What’s your life about? What’s the driving vision and burden that you have for your life? Where do you see yourself going and for what reason? These are serious questions, aren’t they?
( congregational amens ).
They’re ones we need to ask ourselves. On one level, this is a question that has eternal ramifications for someone who has never really, really surrendered to Christ. But there are ramifications for every single believer.
Why do we do what we do? You can do the right thing for the wrong reason. And we need to understand. You know, I mentioned…I’m sure I mentioned it here, but where I grew up, we often had messages that were geared to the young people to get them to come to the place where they’re willing to surrender their lives.
It’s not just a matter of coming to a place of salvation, but…because the truth is, how can you have one without the other? But still, the emphasis was basically, you’re standing at the crossroads of life. Where is your life going? What’s it gonna be about? Are you going to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, to do His will, or are you just gonna keep doing yours?
And of course, many times, the emphasis was on, are you willing to be a missionary if God calls you to be that? Or, are you willing to be a minister? There was all of that in there. But the basic principle, the basic center of all of that was, are you willing to do God’s will?
I’ll ask you that today. Is that the governing principle of your life? God, it’s not my life! What do You want me to do? What do You want me to be? How do You want me to live? Change me at the heart level! Impart to me the very ability to do what You’ve called me to be!
Is there anything else that can be called real Christianity? And the answer is no. We’ve got a lot of churchianity in this country. Thank God He has a people in spite of it, that He knows that are His. But my God, don’t we need Him? Don’t we need to have a purpose in our lives that goes beyond living a comfortable okay life, not getting into trouble, not doing a whole lot of bad stuff? Young people, what’s your purpose? Where are you going? What do you want in life? You have to face that.
( congregational amens ).
Have you ever met Jesus? Has He ever taken possession of your heart? Because it’s not a matter of just you trying to conform to what I say. God, help you. It could never be that. I’m in need of the same salvation you are.
But on the off chance that Jesus is actually inspiring some of this, these are His words, not mine. And they’re not spoken to try to be a tyrant in your life. They’re not spoken out of any ill motive, but out of pure love because of what He has…what Jesus died to share with every one of us.
Now, the outworking of that is the polar opposite of human nature. It could not be more opposite than what God has called every single Christian to. It’s not about you. It’s not about me, in the sense that we usually think of it. It’s not about what I can have, what I can do, how I can be seen in the eyes of others, how well I can think of myself, none of that. God, deliver every single one of us from that kind of self-centered thinking.
Here was Paul, knowing that in order to do the will of God, he had to be willing to go out and suffer the things that he suffered. He had to be willing to be hated everywhere he went. There were going to be people that were inspired by the devil to absolutely oppose him, to have him beaten, to have him thrown in prison, to have…have him stoned one time, left for dead. On and on and on, there was constant pressure.
Boy, we don’t like that. We think something is wrong. How many of you have been tempted to think that something is wrong? Here, I’ve been asking God for more, and instead, all hell breaks loose. And I’ve had nothing but trouble.
Yeah, I see a lot of people who said, yeah, I get it. I’d have to raise my hand, too. It’s awful easy. See, that’s human thinking. What we ought to be saying is, thank God. If we’re stirring up the devil, if he’s upset, he has a reason to be upset. That’s a cause for rejoicing for saying God is hearing, and He’s answering my prayer, and the devil is scared, “…because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
And the devil knows that! He doesn’t want me to know it! He doesn’t want a people who are in touch with Him, doing His will, knowing that if we’re gonna go through the doors He opens, we’re gonna meet with warfare.
There are all kinds of things going on where the devil has…and the devil will pull on every opening that he has in any life. He does it, “…to steal and kill and destroy.” (NIV).
You remember when Jesus was about to go the cross, He said the devil, “…is coming. He has no hold over me.” Why? Because every part of His being was surrendered to the will of God. There was no way that He could get to…to Him, to Jesus. I wish we could say that about us, but that’s what the Lord’s working on.
You know, the things that the devil has marshalled against us, or he marshals against us when we’re going through some of these times of reaching out for more. Sometimes it’s just temptation. Are there weaknesses that the devil’s just had an extra…put an extra bit of emphasis on the last little bit? Would you admit it?
( congregational response ).
There are weaknesses that the devil still probes and still works on. And all of a sudden you wonder why he’s putting a little more effort into that? Yeah, he’s scared. But God lets us experience battles so that we can experience victory.
There’s an old chorus that I remember hearing many, many years ago. And…’how can we be overcomers unless we overcome?’ Somehow, we want to be shadow boxers, learn the theory, and man, I’m an overcomer.
But, to be an overcomer means there are real battles to be fought. There is a real enemy that we need to stand up against and overcome! And the Lord is putting us through the paces. We’re gonna see him pulling…because he has a hold on a certain life, you’re gonna see the devil rise up in varying ways. We’re gonna need the Lord. We’re gonna need to pray. We’re gonna need to look to God for strength and for discernment.
But God is gonna use the battles that He puts us through to make us into the very thing that He wants us to experience. And we are going to see, as I said, people are either going to listen to the devil and walk away, because of his deception, or we’re gonna wake up and be part of the Kingdom of God and part of…and someone that God can actually use.
Now, Paul was somebody that God could use. His life was laid down. It’s not mine anymore, it’s Yours, Lord! He talks about a great door being opened! To whom does God open doors…the kind of door he’s talking about here? There is an opportunity for advancement of the Kingdom of God, and here it is, Paul.
So, what did Paul do with that? Of course, he went through it, didn’t he? He absolutely responded to God! And he went through that door knowing that there would be opposition, knowing that he was walking into a battle! But he said, this is the whole reason I exist. This is the meaning of my life. It’s not mine.
You remember the Scripture in Revelation in one of the letters to the Philadelphia Church, about how the Lord said, I open, and no man can shut. I shut and no man can open. You know, we talked recently about how this entire existence is a process of God working out a sovereign purpose. He has His times. He has His ways. He has what He wants to accomplish, when He wants to accomplish it, through whom He wants to accomplish it, and He is the one opens doors and closes them.
Sometimes, there are seasons for waiting! Sometimes, there are seasons for going through a door! Folks, it’s not our plans, it’s not our ability. It’s not anything but simply saying, God, show us what to do. Give us the power to do it.
( congregational amens ).
And give us the conviction to go through knowing we are going into battle! Lord, help us. We can’t do anything without You. But the only thing that will matter on that day is what I’m talking about now! You can amass everything in the world, and it will all be burned up and worthless! But the simplest saint who says here’s my life, use it, and God literally touches other people’s lives through that life, that will have eternal value.
What’s your life about? Do you know that God has a purpose for your life and yours and yours and mine? It’s to say, Lord, I don’t even know what to do. I don’t want to live for just an earthly purpose. Lord, I just give myself to You, and I don’t have any ambition in this. I don’t have any…it’s not a matter of me seeking a place or trying to be this or trying to be that. It’s just, Lord, whatever, I’m Yours.
And then, having Him work and change and deliver us from that drive of self-seeking. And we’re gonna have to go through stuff that will cause us to have to die, to let go, to face things that we don’t want to face about ourselves, all the things that we’ve talked about so many times.
But God is going to mold a people that will be able to do, along the same lines as what Paul did, not necessarily being an apostle and doing those kinds of things, but we are called to be members one of another. Every single one of us has something that is from heaven for the rest.
As I thought about this, I thought again about the point that I made a little bit ago, of how easy it is to think of deeper life as just a private, personal thing. Again, think back to what we’ve referred to Philippians 3 where Paul was talking about one thing I do, and oh, my goal in life is to be this high eagle Christian.
But why? What purpose is there in that? Is it just so I can be a Christ-like person? Is it just about me and my spiritual advancement and achievement? Is that what this is really about?
But how easily do we think of it in those terms. Why did Jesus come? For Himself, to be a great somebody? He came to be a servant. He endured everything He endured, not for what He could achieve, not for what He could be, but for what He could give us.
Can you think of anything anymore contrary to human nature? See, you could actually appeal to some people and say, oh, just come and be this super Christian. But you start throwing in the second half of that, “…and there are many who oppose…,” and you realize it’s not just a smooth, easy way.
Okay, Lord, I don’t really like it much, but I guess if that’s what it takes. “…All things work together for good…” you know, to those who love God. I’ll put up with it so I can be what You want me to be. If that’s all there is, that stops way short of God’s purpose for your life and for mine!
Again, why did Jesus do what He did? Why did He put up with this? Why did He suffer and die and put up with everything He had to put up with to do what He did? Why did He do it? Was it for Him or for us?
Oh, you know, I can do a lot, I can go through a lot if it benefits me. That’s the amazing thing when you think about Paul. You think about some of the things that he said. I guess I’m just referring to them, but you want to go back…you want to back up in Philippians. I’ll go ahead and look at a couple of those things.
You cannot read Philippians 3 and that all Paul sought to do and to be without it being in the context of what he said in chapter 1! Now this case, where was Paul when he wrote this? Now, you’re afraid to say, aren’t you?
( laughter ).
He was in prison. Now, he was in prison in Rome writing to the Philippian believers. And some of them were tempted to be timid about their faith, because look what it gets you. Paul is cautioning them don’t you dare give into that, because I’m not here living for me. This is not about what happens to me.
Let’s see, verse 20. “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (NIV).
Now, again, you could read that and say, Paul had this vision of what he could become. It’s about me and my relationship, and I’m going to have this glorious love fest with God, and that’s what it’s about.
Is that what it was about? You go on a little bit, and he says, “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.” Oh boy, more work! “…This will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but…,”
Ha! There’s a good but, isn’t it? You see what’s in control there? This is what I would like. How many of you would just love to have this be over? You know, you go through times, and you say, God, what a burden life is here, and what You have for me is so much better. You can just come and end it right now if You want to. Take me on. You can see that yearning in Paul, the realization of what lay ahead.
“But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” Why did Paul do what he did? Why did he put up with all the stuff that he put up with? Because Paul wasn’t living for himself. Paul was living for the people to whom he was sent. It wasn’t about Paul. It was about allowing the Spirit of God, the life, the power of God to flow through Paul so that others could be helped and lifted up.
Is that revolutionary? Is that why we’re living? Yeah, we’ve got a ways to go, if we’re gonna grow up in the Lord. I believe there’s a measure of that. Thank, God. But I believe that our thinking…if we’re gonna start thinking about deeper life and higher ground and all of that, we need to see what that higher ground involves. If it’s not about me laying down my life so that life can flow to others, it’s not higher ground.
( congregational amens ).
It’s not the ground that He has set forth for us. I thought of an old hymn. I can’t remember whether…whether we’ve ever sung this here or not, but I know I sung it growing up. Anybody know the hymn, “Channels Only”? I guess we haven’t sung it then.
( laughing ).
But anyway, this is a pretty good expression of God’s purpose. “How I praise Thee, precious Savior, that Thy love laid hold of me; Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me that I might Thy channel be. Channels only, blessed Master, but with all Thy wondrous pow’r flowing through us, Thou canst use us every day and every hour.” That’s the chorus.
“Just a channel full of blessing, to the thirsty hearts around; to tell out Thy full salvation, all Thy loving message sound. Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me, a clean vessel in Thy hand; With no pow’r but as Thou givest graciously with each command.” Wow! Powerful words that capture it.
“Witnessing Thy pow’r to save me, setting free from self and sin; Thou who bought me to possess me, in Thy fullness, Lord, come in. Jesus, fill now with Thy Spirit hearts that full surrender know; that the streams of living water from our inner man may flow. Channels only, blessed Master, but with all Thy wondrous pow’r flowing through us, Thou canst use us every day and every hour.”
Why did Paul do what he did? Do we kind of see it a little deeper? Is that what we want? I believe God is calling. And I tell you, when He opens a door and we go through it, don’t expect to be unopposed. Don’t be afraid. Ask God for the courage. Think about the Israelites and all they had to face and what the Lord told them. Be courageous. Don’t give up. Don’t be afraid. Oh, by the way, be courageous.
( laughing ).
He knows what we’re made of. But folks, if you’re looking for a trouble-free way to the Kingdom of God, you’re in the wrong kingdom. The devil is going to oppose. It is a warfare, but it is one where the war has already been won at the cross.
( congregational amens ).
Thank God, and greater is He that’s in us than he that’s in the world. If we will put our trust in Him, and lay down our lives for Him, He will work, and He will accomplish His purpose, but we’ll also be part of it. That’s where He’s going with all of this. May God continue His work in us to take us to whatever deeper ground and higher ground that He wants. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
April 21, 2024 - No. 1646
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Gold in the Fire” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Gold in the Fire” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1646April 21, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1646 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: Well, it seems like the Lord arranges every time I’m supposed to be up here for me to feel especially weak, and it seems like that’s kind of the way it is…the way it’s supposed to be, if we read the Word, because we’re not supposed to be running in our own strength, and I certainly don’t feel like I have any.
But I’ve had a lot of thoughts, and again I’m trying to, I’m asking the Lord to help me to bring them to a focus that He wants, to express His heart. And as is so often the case, I don’t know how much I’m going to say this morning that is truly new. But it’s not what’s new that we need, it’s what’s real, and what’s relevant to where we’re at.
And, I guess, as good a place as any to start is in the beginning of 1st Peter. And, you think about the man that God used, think about where he was when the Lord found him as a self-confident fisherman.
Some of you have seen the…that series of movies that have been made about the life of Jesus and the…and so forth. And, Peter is quite a rascal. I don’t suppose…I don’t think they’re off in picturing him that way. He was self-willed rascal.
And you think about what the Lord had to do to him and how the Lord was faithful to him, in spite of all of his human weakness, all that was wrong with him, and the catastrophic failure that he went through. And yet, God blessed him, brought him through, made him a pillar in the church, and a blessing to us yet here today because of his writings.
You know, if God can do that for Peter, He can do that for any of us. And we need to lift up our eyes and see who it is we’re serving and what this is about, and have a confidence. I mean, for people who knew what Peter had gone through, and to see him in the role that he’s occupying, encouraging and instructing others, with a confidence and with an anointing, what an encouragement that needs to be to all of us. And it’s what it certainly would have been to them.
So let me just read a little. I think I’m gonna go ahead and go against my instincts here and just read and then I’ll go back. It’s hard for me not to stop and comment every other word, but anyway.
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (NIV).
Wow, there’s a powerful, powerful picture of where we’re at in Christ, what He’s done for us, and how we got there, and where we’re going. And, of course, Peter’s focus in the middle of it is, okay, we see the past, we see the future, what about now? So that’s kind of where he’s coming from.
Now, just to set it a little bit in context. You know, different people have different places in the Kingdom of God. And Peter’s place was to minister to those who were Jews by birth. And so, when he talks about the exiles, he’s talking about people who were Israelites but lived in foreign countries.
How many of you remember that on the Day of Pentecost, there were people who had gathered in Jerusalem from many other countries? And they had been so assimilated in those countries that they actually spoke their language and so, the miracle of them speaking in all of these languages was very apparent.
But these weren’t Gentiles, these were Jews. And so, Peter’s ministry was to reach out to those who had been born as Jews and knew the Law, but needed to realize what God had done for them and how He had fulfilled everything that was foretold in the Old Testament, and now was coming to pass.
And all that had been hidden that the prophets themselves, he says later in this chapter or the next chapter…he said they hadn’t even understood it. But here, now, it’s being unlocked. In fact, he says it right after the passage I read. The Spirit that was in them didn’t realize, didn’t understand, they didn’t fully understand what they were prophesying. But now it was time for it to be unlocked, and revealed to everybody. And so, that was the hope that he was going forth to proclaim. All right?
So, who is Peter addressing? Who is he writing this to? He’s writing this to those, “…who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God.” And of course, I won’t say a lot about this. There’s a whole lot of debate in Christian circles about the relationship between God’s sovereign election, on the one hand, and man’s will and responsibility to respond on the other.
Well, the truth is in the middle. There is not a person alive in the history of this world who has the power, or even the inclination to come to God and surrender unless God works with the heart. We are dependent upon Him to come and speak to us and convict us of what is true, and of our need of Him.
But God does not simply come and overpower somebody and say, I pick you and I don’t pick you, and you don’t really have any choice in the matter. We have a responsibility to respond. And God knows, God knows ahead of time those who will. And so, He works in harmony with what He knows.
But I’ll tell you, we have a responsibility. And yet, isn’t it an awesome thing to have the security of God’s overshadowing choosing? Thank God! I want to be one of those chosen. Praise God! I don’t begin to deserve it, but He has chosen.
And I just praise Him, because that’s my security. It certainly is in nothing I can find in here. It’s in His heart and His purpose. Folks, if you are His and you know you’re His, wow, you have something to shout about this morning.
( congregational response ).
I don’t care what’s going on in your life, what you’re experiencing…even if you were experiencing all the things Brother Kumar is experiencing, we have reason to lift up our eyes and to rejoice because of what God has done.
But it’s interesting how he characterizes this. The foreknowledge of God, but it’s, “…through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.” What is he talking about? This is how it happens, in other words. God has to go to work on the heart. What does sanctify mean?
( congregational response ).
It’s to set apart. Because you have a human race that is marching like lemmings toward a cliff, toward certain destruction. There is no future for this world. I don’t care what you try to do, what mankind tries to do. He can go conquer the stars if he wants to, if he thinks he can. Nothing is going to alter the future of this first creation, which we were born into.
Folks, we need God to rescue us completely, and it is because of the influence of His Spirit that begins to set one apart who responds to the voice. You remember how Jesus said, “All those the Father give me will come to me.” But in the same passage, He talks about those who have heard His voice. There has been an influence of God and those who have heard and responded to that, they’re the ones that have been literally set apart from the destination of everyone else in this world. Praise God!
Oh God, just continue that work. I don’t even know what I need. But I serve One who knows what I need and loves me in spite of everything that is wrong with me, and that’s a bunch. Praise God! That’s true of you, too, though. Praise God! The sanctifying work of the Spirit! God is going to continue to set people apart.
And I want to challenge people. Has God ever set you apart? Has God truly become so real to you, have you heard His voice? Has He become so real to you that that seals your destiny and you have turned from a different path, the path in which the world walks? But now you’re walking His path and you’re looking to Him and you’re trusting in…you see past all of this world and all that it seems to offer. I’ll tell you, if that doesn’t happen, that’s beyond serious—that is beyond serious. This is real, folks. But only the…only hearing His voice can do that. Praise God! Praise God!
And of course, the result of this is not just a mental acknowledgement of certain ideas, there is an obedience that comes with this. Do you remember when God spoke to Abraham, what was it that set him apart? He believed God, but he didn’t sit there and say, yeah, I believe You. He packed up and obeyed.
Folks, we need to have a heart that we allow God to mold so that we become…so that our values change. Everything about us changes. That’s when God sets somebody apart and they become His and not their own.
You know, there’s a…I just, it seems like I come into this…almost a sense of conflict, in a sense. Lord, who is this focused on, because I’m aware that there are saints who are in need of encouragement and instruction. But there are always people among us who need what we’re talking about and don’t know what I’m talking about. They don’t have a clue. I just pray that God will speak. But I also pray that when He does you will listen!
( congregational response ).
And realize who it is that’s talking to you, because…well, I’m jumping ahead in a sense. But one of the words that’s gonna come up in this passage is faith. And if you listen to a lot of people’s ideas, particularly unbelievers, who are looking on and they’re seeing all this…people talking about faith. To them, faith is just a blind belief, and ideas that just make us feel better about life. We’re trying to cope with life, and it’s scary. And so, we just latch onto some ideas that somebody found in a book, and we just blindly make up our ideas…I’m gonna believe that. That doesn’t even come close to what real faith is.
( congregational response ).
That doesn’t even come close. I’ll tell you, faith is a supernatural gift of God, that happens in the heart of a believer who listens to the Word of God and embraces it from the heart. God literally imparts a life force into you that gives you a conviction that will hold!
( congregational amens ).
Folks, we need that conviction in this hour like we have never needed it before. Folks, if you don’t have that, you cry out to God, because there’s a God who said, who promised that if we would seek Him with all of our hearts, we’d find Him. He is not looking for any to perish. There’s a heart that reaches out to anyone that will listen and humble themselves and reach back. God wants to impart to you a gift called faith. And it is a supernatural ability to trust God and to surrender your life into His hands and to know that there’s something beyond this world. Praise God! Praise the Lord!
I’ve had so many thoughts come and so many scriptures…praise God! Lord, You organize this, because I haven’t got it organized, but that’s all right. He knows what He wants to say. But always, I have this sense that I’m talking to two classes of people. I’m talking to people that’ve not come to this yet.
How many times have we seen, over the decades that I’ve been a part of this church…we’ve all seen? Young people grow up in the church, and to all intents and purposes, they’re just flowing with us and believing what we believe, and yet they grow up to a certain point, and they choose to go the way of the world.
Folks, we’re gonna have to listen. We’re gonna have to hear the voice of God. There are only two sources of wisdom. And we live in a world that is ruled over by the powers of darkness. There is a kingdom here whose absolute aim and purpose is to destroy…to steal, kill and destroy everything that God has set out to do. And they use every trick in the book, to make the wisdom and the appeal of this world seem to be the reality that we live in, that we need to live for!
And we need a God who can break through that darkness and show us the truth. There are only two sources of wisdom. And you’re either gonna get it from God or you’re gonna get it from the world. And we live in a world…how many times have we said this? But it needs to be constantly emphasized. We live in a world where darkness and deception are flooding this world like never before.
( congregational response ).
Folks, we need to be so grounded in what God says, that we are able to recognize what’s going on and where the wisdom is coming from. You can’t just listen to your worldly friends. You’ll have worldly friends that say, I’m a Christian. And they’ll give you wisdom that comes straight out of the mouth of Lucifer sometimes. Folks, we need to be grounded.
And as we’re going forward, we’re gonna need something that’s real, because we’re going to…we are on a trial here. I guess that’s what’s going on. The Lord is gonna make manifest those that are His and those that aren’t. And I’ll tell you, you don’t have to be strong or smart or a whole lot of things to stand in this. We just need God.
( congregational amens ).
It’s all based upon Him. But I’ll tell you, if we are going to be self-willed, if we’re gonna just listen to this and listen to that and not really focus on Him, we’re gonna be in a world of hurt. It’s interesting…I’ll just refer to these, to some of these scriptures that we read about in the words of Jesus. He warned at one point, about those who would seek earthy wealth. And He says, it’s all gonna burn up. You need to seek for heavenly wealth. You need to seek for that which will not pass away. “…Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
But it’s interesting what He goes right on to say about the singleness of your eyes, or the health of your eyes, depending on the translation. Folks, what we are looking at, what we are considering to be the source of our truth, quote-unquote. Everybody has their own today. But there is only one source of genuine truth, and His name is Jesus, and He was sent to give us the knowledge of God’s will, God’s purpose, and to open up a way where we can participate in that.
But oh, I’ll tell you, you can’t come here and listen and say, yeah, yeah, and then go out and listen and follow your own heart and follow your own ideas and the wisdom that’s coming in from the news media and the education. And today’s education, so much of it is corrupted. You go to most colleges today and you’re gonna be brainwashed with a philosophy that hates God.
You’re gonna have to…if you go, you’re gonna have to have something on the inside that will hold you. You’re gonna have to have an anchor for your soul. And you’re gonna have some battles if you try to go into some of those places. They don’t want you there, some of them. I know it’s not a hundred percent bad everywhere. But I’ll tell you what, the world is being overrun with doctrines and ideas and things to live for that have entirely to do with this world.
And everything that they talk about will pass away! Or else, Jesus is a liar! He didn’t mess around when He talked about it. But oh, how He talked about the need for our eye to be single! Is your eye single? Not just when you come in here, but when you deal with the day-by-day issues of your life, is your eye single?
That is, I know where, I know who I need to be listening to. I know where my wisdom, my true wisdom comes from. I know where truth comes from. And whether I feel it, or whatever is going on in my heart and my life, I am committed to Him.
You know, we used the Scripture recently about seeking wisdom, but not having a divided heart, not having a heart that’s uncertain which way it wants to go, like we want God to lay His cards on the table and then we’ll decide. This is an absolute commitment. God, I know…I know enough about You to know that I can trust You absolutely.
( congregational amens ).
Nothing short of that is faith. Nothing short of that will get you through this world. That’s world, that’s the situation we find ourselves in. And God has arranged it because, you see what we read about, the incredible…incredible picture of what God has done and where we’re going with that! It’s just amazing, it’s beyond belief, that He could take people like me, and you, and give us anything to hope for. Thank God! Thank God!
Thank You for the sprinkling of the blood that means that the sins that I committed that separated me from a holy God, He took care of it! I could do nothing about it, but He did! Oh, what a heart! I can trust somebody like that.
You know, I remember my dad witnessing to somebody way, way back. I guess this was before he even met my mother. And, his comment to somebody who was kind of an unbeliever said, you know, I can trust somebody who died for me. Simple statement. But it’s exactly the truth. Somebody who’s willing to do what He did for me, how can I not trust Him completely? How can I not put my faith in Him?
And I’ll come back to this. I want to drop this in again, because just hearing about this and saying, oh yeah, they believe it, it must be so. I don’t want anybody here to ever have second-hand faith! God doesn’t want you to have second-hand faith! Doesn’t want you to do anything on the strength of what I say or what anybody else says. God wants to be real to you personally and He will if your heart is open to Him and you’re reaching out to Him.
You will have a source of knowledge that the world cannot give you, no university can give it to you. There is a wisdom that God can impart to the human heart that is stronger and more lasting than everything this world can offer you.
And even though, many times, it leads to difficult circumstances, like we saw Brother Kumar’s experiencing right now, even though, it leads to death itself in this world, it’s worth everything to know Him! Because this is not the end! This is gonna have an end, but this is not the end for those who put their trust in Christ. This is only the means to an end. Thank God!
“Praise be to the God and Father…” in verse 3, “…of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy….” That’s the only ground I can stand upon today. I cannot begin to come and say, God, I’m a good guy, You ought to receive me.
Are you willing to come on the ground of mercy? Or, do you have so much pride that you’re just not willing to come down and realize you need Him as much as the worst murderer, sinner, dictator? You need Him as much as Hitler did. So do I. There’s nothing that we can offer to Him. It is on the ground of mercy.
Are you willing to come that way? Because that’s the only ground we can come on. God, I couldn’t possibly deserve it, but You have offered me mercy and I am willing to come on that ground. I renounce any claim to goodness. I just come because You have offered me mercy. To Your name be glory and praise!
( congregational response ).
But He’s given us a new birth! Folks, how many times have we said, you can’t fix this? You can’t fix Adam! You and I were born with Adam’s life, and you can’t fix it! It’s so corrupted, there’s only one thing you do, is kill it. But what He offers us is another life.
Have you ever experienced that? That needs to be the cry of your heart, that you come to a place where you know you have been born again of His Spirit. He has imparted the very life of God to you, shared it with you. You don’t deserve it. I don’t either, but He’s given me a brand-new life. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
April 28, 2024 - No. 1647
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Gold in the Fire” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Gold in the Fire” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1646April 21, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1646 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: Well, it seems like the Lord arranges every time I’m supposed to be up here for me to feel especially weak, and it seems like that’s kind of the way it is…the way it’s supposed to be, if we read the Word, because we’re not supposed to be running in our own strength, and I certainly don’t feel like I have any.
But I’ve had a lot of thoughts, and again I’m trying to, I’m asking the Lord to help me to bring them to a focus that He wants, to express His heart. And as is so often the case, I don’t know how much I’m going to say this morning that is truly new. But it’s not what’s new that we need, it’s what’s real, and what’s relevant to where we’re at.
And, I guess, as good a place as any to start is in the beginning of 1st Peter. And, you think about the man that God used, think about where he was when the Lord found him as a self-confident fisherman.
Some of you have seen the…that series of movies that have been made about the life of Jesus and the…and so forth. And, Peter is quite a rascal. I don’t suppose…I don’t think they’re off in picturing him that way. He was self-willed rascal.
And you think about what the Lord had to do to him and how the Lord was faithful to him, in spite of all of his human weakness, all that was wrong with him, and the catastrophic failure that he went through. And yet, God blessed him, brought him through, made him a pillar in the church, and a blessing to us yet here today because of his writings.
You know, if God can do that for Peter, He can do that for any of us. And we need to lift up our eyes and see who it is we’re serving and what this is about, and have a confidence. I mean, for people who knew what Peter had gone through, and to see him in the role that he’s occupying, encouraging and instructing others, with a confidence and with an anointing, what an encouragement that needs to be to all of us. And it’s what it certainly would have been to them.
So let me just read a little. I think I’m gonna go ahead and go against my instincts here and just read and then I’ll go back. It’s hard for me not to stop and comment every other word, but anyway.
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (NIV).
Wow, there’s a powerful, powerful picture of where we’re at in Christ, what He’s done for us, and how we got there, and where we’re going. And, of course, Peter’s focus in the middle of it is, okay, we see the past, we see the future, what about now? So that’s kind of where he’s coming from.
Now, just to set it a little bit in context. You know, different people have different places in the Kingdom of God. And Peter’s place was to minister to those who were Jews by birth. And so, when he talks about the exiles, he’s talking about people who were Israelites but lived in foreign countries.
How many of you remember that on the Day of Pentecost, there were people who had gathered in Jerusalem from many other countries? And they had been so assimilated in those countries that they actually spoke their language and so, the miracle of them speaking in all of these languages was very apparent.
But these weren’t Gentiles, these were Jews. And so, Peter’s ministry was to reach out to those who had been born as Jews and knew the Law, but needed to realize what God had done for them and how He had fulfilled everything that was foretold in the Old Testament, and now was coming to pass.
And all that had been hidden that the prophets themselves, he says later in this chapter or the next chapter…he said they hadn’t even understood it. But here, now, it’s being unlocked. In fact, he says it right after the passage I read. The Spirit that was in them didn’t realize, didn’t understand, they didn’t fully understand what they were prophesying. But now it was time for it to be unlocked, and revealed to everybody. And so, that was the hope that he was going forth to proclaim. All right?
So, who is Peter addressing? Who is he writing this to? He’s writing this to those, “…who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God.” And of course, I won’t say a lot about this. There’s a whole lot of debate in Christian circles about the relationship between God’s sovereign election, on the one hand, and man’s will and responsibility to respond on the other.
Well, the truth is in the middle. There is not a person alive in the history of this world who has the power, or even the inclination to come to God and surrender unless God works with the heart. We are dependent upon Him to come and speak to us and convict us of what is true, and of our need of Him.
But God does not simply come and overpower somebody and say, I pick you and I don’t pick you, and you don’t really have any choice in the matter. We have a responsibility to respond. And God knows, God knows ahead of time those who will. And so, He works in harmony with what He knows.
But I’ll tell you, we have a responsibility. And yet, isn’t it an awesome thing to have the security of God’s overshadowing choosing? Thank God! I want to be one of those chosen. Praise God! I don’t begin to deserve it, but He has chosen.
And I just praise Him, because that’s my security. It certainly is in nothing I can find in here. It’s in His heart and His purpose. Folks, if you are His and you know you’re His, wow, you have something to shout about this morning.
( congregational response ).
I don’t care what’s going on in your life, what you’re experiencing…even if you were experiencing all the things Brother Kumar is experiencing, we have reason to lift up our eyes and to rejoice because of what God has done.
But it’s interesting how he characterizes this. The foreknowledge of God, but it’s, “…through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.” What is he talking about? This is how it happens, in other words. God has to go to work on the heart. What does sanctify mean?
( congregational response ).
It’s to set apart. Because you have a human race that is marching like lemmings toward a cliff, toward certain destruction. There is no future for this world. I don’t care what you try to do, what mankind tries to do. He can go conquer the stars if he wants to, if he thinks he can. Nothing is going to alter the future of this first creation, which we were born into.
Folks, we need God to rescue us completely, and it is because of the influence of His Spirit that begins to set one apart who responds to the voice. You remember how Jesus said, “All those the Father give me will come to me.” But in the same passage, He talks about those who have heard His voice. There has been an influence of God and those who have heard and responded to that, they’re the ones that have been literally set apart from the destination of everyone else in this world. Praise God!
Oh God, just continue that work. I don’t even know what I need. But I serve One who knows what I need and loves me in spite of everything that is wrong with me, and that’s a bunch. Praise God! That’s true of you, too, though. Praise God! The sanctifying work of the Spirit! God is going to continue to set people apart.
And I want to challenge people. Has God ever set you apart? Has God truly become so real to you, have you heard His voice? Has He become so real to you that that seals your destiny and you have turned from a different path, the path in which the world walks? But now you’re walking His path and you’re looking to Him and you’re trusting in…you see past all of this world and all that it seems to offer. I’ll tell you, if that doesn’t happen, that’s beyond serious—that is beyond serious. This is real, folks. But only the…only hearing His voice can do that. Praise God! Praise God!
And of course, the result of this is not just a mental acknowledgement of certain ideas, there is an obedience that comes with this. Do you remember when God spoke to Abraham, what was it that set him apart? He believed God, but he didn’t sit there and say, yeah, I believe You. He packed up and obeyed.
Folks, we need to have a heart that we allow God to mold so that we become…so that our values change. Everything about us changes. That’s when God sets somebody apart and they become His and not their own.
You know, there’s a…I just, it seems like I come into this…almost a sense of conflict, in a sense. Lord, who is this focused on, because I’m aware that there are saints who are in need of encouragement and instruction. But there are always people among us who need what we’re talking about and don’t know what I’m talking about. They don’t have a clue. I just pray that God will speak. But I also pray that when He does you will listen!
( congregational response ).
And realize who it is that’s talking to you, because…well, I’m jumping ahead in a sense. But one of the words that’s gonna come up in this passage is faith. And if you listen to a lot of people’s ideas, particularly unbelievers, who are looking on and they’re seeing all this…people talking about faith. To them, faith is just a blind belief, and ideas that just make us feel better about life. We’re trying to cope with life, and it’s scary. And so, we just latch onto some ideas that somebody found in a book, and we just blindly make up our ideas…I’m gonna believe that. That doesn’t even come close to what real faith is.
( congregational response ).
That doesn’t even come close. I’ll tell you, faith is a supernatural gift of God, that happens in the heart of a believer who listens to the Word of God and embraces it from the heart. God literally imparts a life force into you that gives you a conviction that will hold!
( congregational amens ).
Folks, we need that conviction in this hour like we have never needed it before. Folks, if you don’t have that, you cry out to God, because there’s a God who said, who promised that if we would seek Him with all of our hearts, we’d find Him. He is not looking for any to perish. There’s a heart that reaches out to anyone that will listen and humble themselves and reach back. God wants to impart to you a gift called faith. And it is a supernatural ability to trust God and to surrender your life into His hands and to know that there’s something beyond this world. Praise God! Praise the Lord!
I’ve had so many thoughts come and so many scriptures…praise God! Lord, You organize this, because I haven’t got it organized, but that’s all right. He knows what He wants to say. But always, I have this sense that I’m talking to two classes of people. I’m talking to people that’ve not come to this yet.
How many times have we seen, over the decades that I’ve been a part of this church…we’ve all seen? Young people grow up in the church, and to all intents and purposes, they’re just flowing with us and believing what we believe, and yet they grow up to a certain point, and they choose to go the way of the world.
Folks, we’re gonna have to listen. We’re gonna have to hear the voice of God. There are only two sources of wisdom. And we live in a world that is ruled over by the powers of darkness. There is a kingdom here whose absolute aim and purpose is to destroy…to steal, kill and destroy everything that God has set out to do. And they use every trick in the book, to make the wisdom and the appeal of this world seem to be the reality that we live in, that we need to live for!
And we need a God who can break through that darkness and show us the truth. There are only two sources of wisdom. And you’re either gonna get it from God or you’re gonna get it from the world. And we live in a world…how many times have we said this? But it needs to be constantly emphasized. We live in a world where darkness and deception are flooding this world like never before.
( congregational response ).
Folks, we need to be so grounded in what God says, that we are able to recognize what’s going on and where the wisdom is coming from. You can’t just listen to your worldly friends. You’ll have worldly friends that say, I’m a Christian. And they’ll give you wisdom that comes straight out of the mouth of Lucifer sometimes. Folks, we need to be grounded.
And as we’re going forward, we’re gonna need something that’s real, because we’re going to…we are on a trial here. I guess that’s what’s going on. The Lord is gonna make manifest those that are His and those that aren’t. And I’ll tell you, you don’t have to be strong or smart or a whole lot of things to stand in this. We just need God.
( congregational amens ).
It’s all based upon Him. But I’ll tell you, if we are going to be self-willed, if we’re gonna just listen to this and listen to that and not really focus on Him, we’re gonna be in a world of hurt. It’s interesting…I’ll just refer to these, to some of these scriptures that we read about in the words of Jesus. He warned at one point, about those who would seek earthy wealth. And He says, it’s all gonna burn up. You need to seek for heavenly wealth. You need to seek for that which will not pass away. “…Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
But it’s interesting what He goes right on to say about the singleness of your eyes, or the health of your eyes, depending on the translation. Folks, what we are looking at, what we are considering to be the source of our truth, quote-unquote. Everybody has their own today. But there is only one source of genuine truth, and His name is Jesus, and He was sent to give us the knowledge of God’s will, God’s purpose, and to open up a way where we can participate in that.
But oh, I’ll tell you, you can’t come here and listen and say, yeah, yeah, and then go out and listen and follow your own heart and follow your own ideas and the wisdom that’s coming in from the news media and the education. And today’s education, so much of it is corrupted. You go to most colleges today and you’re gonna be brainwashed with a philosophy that hates God.
You’re gonna have to…if you go, you’re gonna have to have something on the inside that will hold you. You’re gonna have to have an anchor for your soul. And you’re gonna have some battles if you try to go into some of those places. They don’t want you there, some of them. I know it’s not a hundred percent bad everywhere. But I’ll tell you what, the world is being overrun with doctrines and ideas and things to live for that have entirely to do with this world.
And everything that they talk about will pass away! Or else, Jesus is a liar! He didn’t mess around when He talked about it. But oh, how He talked about the need for our eye to be single! Is your eye single? Not just when you come in here, but when you deal with the day-by-day issues of your life, is your eye single?
That is, I know where, I know who I need to be listening to. I know where my wisdom, my true wisdom comes from. I know where truth comes from. And whether I feel it, or whatever is going on in my heart and my life, I am committed to Him.
You know, we used the Scripture recently about seeking wisdom, but not having a divided heart, not having a heart that’s uncertain which way it wants to go, like we want God to lay His cards on the table and then we’ll decide. This is an absolute commitment. God, I know…I know enough about You to know that I can trust You absolutely.
( congregational amens ).
Nothing short of that is faith. Nothing short of that will get you through this world. That’s world, that’s the situation we find ourselves in. And God has arranged it because, you see what we read about, the incredible…incredible picture of what God has done and where we’re going with that! It’s just amazing, it’s beyond belief, that He could take people like me, and you, and give us anything to hope for. Thank God! Thank God!
Thank You for the sprinkling of the blood that means that the sins that I committed that separated me from a holy God, He took care of it! I could do nothing about it, but He did! Oh, what a heart! I can trust somebody like that.
You know, I remember my dad witnessing to somebody way, way back. I guess this was before he even met my mother. And, his comment to somebody who was kind of an unbeliever said, you know, I can trust somebody who died for me. Simple statement. But it’s exactly the truth. Somebody who’s willing to do what He did for me, how can I not trust Him completely? How can I not put my faith in Him?
And I’ll come back to this. I want to drop this in again, because just hearing about this and saying, oh yeah, they believe it, it must be so. I don’t want anybody here to ever have second-hand faith! God doesn’t want you to have second-hand faith! Doesn’t want you to do anything on the strength of what I say or what anybody else says. God wants to be real to you personally and He will if your heart is open to Him and you’re reaching out to Him.
You will have a source of knowledge that the world cannot give you, no university can give it to you. There is a wisdom that God can impart to the human heart that is stronger and more lasting than everything this world can offer you.
And even though, many times, it leads to difficult circumstances, like we saw Brother Kumar’s experiencing right now, even though, it leads to death itself in this world, it’s worth everything to know Him! Because this is not the end! This is gonna have an end, but this is not the end for those who put their trust in Christ. This is only the means to an end. Thank God!
“Praise be to the God and Father…” in verse 3, “…of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy….” That’s the only ground I can stand upon today. I cannot begin to come and say, God, I’m a good guy, You ought to receive me.
Are you willing to come on the ground of mercy? Or, do you have so much pride that you’re just not willing to come down and realize you need Him as much as the worst murderer, sinner, dictator? You need Him as much as Hitler did. So do I. There’s nothing that we can offer to Him. It is on the ground of mercy.
Are you willing to come that way? Because that’s the only ground we can come on. God, I couldn’t possibly deserve it, but You have offered me mercy and I am willing to come on that ground. I renounce any claim to goodness. I just come because You have offered me mercy. To Your name be glory and praise!
( congregational response ).
But He’s given us a new birth! Folks, how many times have we said, you can’t fix this? You can’t fix Adam! You and I were born with Adam’s life, and you can’t fix it! It’s so corrupted, there’s only one thing you do, is kill it. But what He offers us is another life.
Have you ever experienced that? That needs to be the cry of your heart, that you come to a place where you know you have been born again of His Spirit. He has imparted the very life of God to you, shared it with you. You don’t deserve it. I don’t either, but He’s given me a brand-new life. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
May 5, 2024 - No. 1648
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Ears to Hear” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Ears to Hear” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1648May 5, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1648 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: I don’t know, I don’t have any as usual, I don’t have anything all that organized in my mind, but I’ve had thoughts that I want to try to trust the Lord to put in order.
You know, recently I had an article that I’ve used in the past and a message called, “Be Ready,” come back to my mind. And I’ve tried to go over it and update it a little bit, but it’s brought it back to my mind.
You know, the closer we get, the further along we get, the more we see the truths that I believe the Lord shared in that coming to pass. We’re seeing a world that is going in two directions. I get this sense all the time. You see people going this way and you see people going that way. And there is a tremendous separation in the Spirit that is going on. And my prayer is that God will pull his people together and bring us through. And I know he will. He is promised to, hasn’t he? So there’s a message of warning, there’s a message of encouragement that I believe the Lord has for his people.
And, you know, one of the… Well, I’ll say this first, a scripture that’s come to my mind and a truth that’s come to my mind many times recently, my mind will go to the letters to the churches in Revelation. And how does every one of them end? Let him that has ears, let the one who has ears to hear, let them hear. Now what does that imply?
[Congregation Member] Open your spiritual ears.Yeah. There’s something deeper than just physical ears. And not everybody has the ability to hear and to understand what God is saying. And that is such a critical thing. You know, eyes and ears, we think of them in the physical sense. And I can see you, I can hear you, we can interact with each other in this physical realm.
But, folks, we are not just physical beings. It’s not just a matter of what we have in our bodies. These Paul calls tents, doesn’t he? A tent is a temporary dwelling. We’re only here for a little while, but there’s a real person on the inside that’s gonna stand before the Lord one day. And I’ll tell you what, the ears that you and I need to have are those kind of ears and those kind of eyes.
You remember Paul, in his prayer, I thought about this scripture too, where Paul in his prayer in chapter one of Ephesians wanted to see an increase in knowledge and wisdom and understanding. And he wanted to see the eyes of your heart. Isn’t that an interesting expression? The eyes of your heart enlightened. Oh, there’s so many people that think that since God wrote his word in human language, we can just sit there with our human minds and understand it. It doesn’t work. We need God to speak down into the depths of our hearts.
And you know, in thinking back about that Be Ready article, one of the key illustrations that Jesus used, examples is a better word, of what the end is going to be like, was what happened in Noah’s day, isn’t it? Not a new truth, but something that I think we can focus on, because we saw a prime example of people who went in two very, very different directions, had two very, very different ends. And what you’re seeing is something that unfolded.
But we see in that event, we see the culmination of that. And what we see, first of all, is a world that had reached the point where they not only were they unwilling to hear his God’s word, they were unable. That’s a scary thing. You know, one of the amazing things that Jesus said about what happened and what unfolded there when the flood came, he said, they didn’t know. They didn’t even know what was gonna happen.
Now think about that. Noah had been building an ark in front of them, had been preaching for however many years, and yet, when the time came, they didn’t know. Do you know there’s a place where people can get and that’s where this world is headed, where people have so shut their minds to the Word of God, that they lose the capacity even to know what He’s saying.
You know, we know that the Word of God is something that the only way you can understand it is for God to shine His light in the heart. Like I say, you can’t just take it and say, Oh wait, I can understand this ‘cause it’s human language. The Old Testament was human language. But Jesus prayed and prayed to the Father and said, I thank you, Father, what? That you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned. Learned means they were scholars. They were people who devoted their lives to learning and thinking and studying.
I’ll tell you, there was nobody that was any smarter. You think about the Pharisees and the scribes and all those that devoted their lives to the study of the word of God and the law of Moses. Oh my God, we got it. We got it. The devil was smarter than all of them. And he had no idea what was coming. God has so couched his truth that in spite of it being in human language, nobody can really understand His purposes unless He reveals it to the heart. My God, I want to have a heart that can hear, don’t you? Oh God. See, that’s what’s going on.
And you remember how when Jesus started preaching, started teaching the people and he gave them parables. Now, one of them, of course, was the parable of the four different types of soil, and it illustrates where the word of God comes. But his disciples asked him, said, Why are you talking to them in parables? And he said, It’s because it’s given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. It isn’t given to them.
And he goes on, describes from the words of the prophets what the problem was. The problem was that they had so resisted the word of God when it did come that they had reached a point, where it says, they have closed their eyes. This isn’t God just shutting them out arbitrarily. This is people who have closed their eyes to the word of God and reached the point where they had no capacity whatever to understand what Jesus was saying.
How many times did great crowds follow him? And then he would say just the right thing. And he would couch it in such language that they would say, This is a hard saying. Who could hear it? And they’d walk… What happened? They walked no more with him. Didn’t matter that he performed miracles. Man, this guy’s crazy. I can’t follow him.
Do you know that there are people that have no capacity, and there are others who just don’t understand. And part of what I wanted to say today is this, that God, well, lemme see if I can back up. I started to say, that nobody naturally has the power to understand the things of God. Okay? We understand that. It’s just not in our power to understand it. We have to hear God’s voice.
And remember the prophecy that Paul quotes in one place. And I better go ahead and turn to that. It’s in 2nd Corinthians, 1st Corinthians 2, I believe. I’m trying to quote all these or refer to all these scriptures, and I probably need to turn to some of ‘em so you’ll know where they’re at.
But this is Paul talking about his ministry and how it’s not designed by human wisdom. It’s not with human energy. This is something that he had to present himself to God, and God gave him something that could absolutely have power in it to change people’s hearts. But it wasn’t something that the natural mind could understand.
And he quotes down here in, is it chapter, verse nine. “However, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him.” Now, most of the time people quote that and say, Oh, heaven’s gonna be wonderful. We can’t even conceive it. Well, that’s true, but that’s not what he’s talking about here. He’s talking about the very truths of the kingdom of God and salvation, those things that God has prepared. The human mind cannot conceive them unless God reveals it. Praise God!
Verse 14, it says, “the person without the Spirit,” talking about with God’s spirit, “the person without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God, but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they’re discerned only through the Spirit.” Oh my God, we need to hear God when He speaks, don’t we? We need, if we’re gonna have ears to hear, that means we’re gonna have to listen when he says something. Praise God!
As a scripture that, I guess, I’ve referred to a number of times, and let’s see which one is appropriate right now. How about John 6? A wonderful promise. I think is what I’m thinking of. And yes, John 6, you remember how this is the passage where they, they stopped listening to him. But Jesus spoke about the fact that he says this, “All those the father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.” What an awesome promise. Praise God!
You see the hand of God. That’s where we get this saying that, I think, it has become current among us that God won’t lose any of His own. What a promise, that God has a knowledge of every person who will ever open their heart and receive His word, and God is absolutely tuned in to bring them all the way through.
Folks, it’s not a person here who has a heart at all toward God that needs to be afraid, as though God’s gonna get tired of you and throw you out. God is faithful to keep His word. He, which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Praise God!
And when the Father presents someone to Jesus and says, Here’s someone who’s put their trust in you. They’ve repented their sins, they’ve put in their trust in you. And I’m entrusting you with their salvation. And I know you have the power and the authority to do it. All what you did on the cross is enough. The gift of the Spirit that comes in and changes their hearts is enough. And all the way you’re gonna be praying for them. Man, God’s gonna bring us through, isn’t he?
But who is it that the Father gives? ‘Cause later on He says, No one can come, verse 44, unless the Father who sent me draws them. So you see that the part of the process is God beginning to speak to people. It’s God reaching out in some fashion to draw somebody to Himself. He says, “as it is written in the prophets,” verse 45, “they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.”
So you see a little bit of an explanation as to what it means about the Father drawing them. It’s God speaking to a heart. It’s that heart opening and learning from not just hearing that, but actually taking it in and believing it and going by that and allowing that to begin to define what’s, what their life is about.
Folks, we are either gonna receive what God has given to us and be part of His purpose, or we’re gonna perish with the world. That’s where this world, this planet is coming to. And it’s so every day, it gets stronger and stronger, you see the spirit of unbelief. But God wants his people to understand and to hear him and to walk with him. And you see what happened in Noah’s day.
Now when God said, My spirit will not always strive with men. What does that tell us? Had He just been letting men go? No, there had been an outreach. God’s heart had always, in every generation to every person, there was an outreach of God to try to bring them to a consciousness of God, their need of Him and the desire of His heart to have them walk with Him as Enoch did. Enoch walked with God. He stood out from his generation.
But the course of people was when God spoke, there was something in them that had control to the point where they believed and yielded to that instead of what God said. And there comes a time, this is something we’ve certainly said many times, there comes a time when God stops speaking to that individual heart because there’s no capacity. Their heart has been sealed.
There’s a word that’s used, I can’t remember what it is exactly, but it’s like you have a wound and there’s a sore place and it winds up getting all covered over, and there’s no more sensitivity to it. Well, the human heart, the spiritual heart, the inside heart can get that way with respect to God.
And I’ll tell you, that’s… Do you not see that happening in the world every day? You read the headlines, you read what’s going on and what people are embracing and how they’re trying to do their best to shut the word of God down. We’re gonna see it more and more as we go forward. God is not going to forever strive with men.
You know, one of the brothers a few weeks ago quoted or referred to that scripture in Revelation. And I believe that’s a prophecy, a prophetic word that will happen at the right point in history. He that is vile, let him be vile still. And I don’t remember the whole scripture, but he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. So God is basically saying, your condition is determined, it’s over now. I’m not speaking to people anymore. I’m working with the ones that are mine. And that’s how it is going forward.
And you know, I thought about this. This is not just a warning or just information to tell us what’s going on in the world. I believe at this moment God still is speaking. And the question is, what do we do with it? And Jesus warned, I’m gonna go over and read one of my favorite scriptures in Luke 8, because Jesus tells us how this works.
And basically I’m back in eight. All right. Verse 18 is the one I’m thinking of. And this is also, after he’d given this particular parable about the sower, he says, Therefore consider carefully, so this is something Jesus wants us to pay close attention to. Consider carefully, what? How you listen. Okay. “Whoever has, will be given more, whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”
Boy, it’s an important thing when God speaks. And what happens with human nature is that God will shine a light on areas we don’t want shined on by nature. And if we’re gonna listen to God and hear what He has to say, we’re gonna have to humble ourselves to the truth. And so what I would say, what I believe the Lord would say to somebody, there may be somebody here, or there may be somebody who will hear this later, and you don’t really understand what I’m talking about. There’s a lack of understanding, of trying to lay hold to what’s He talking about? What is all this about? I don’t quite get it. Well, God wants you to get it.
And I would say this, if there is somebody who is in that place where they need to listen and they haven’t quite arrived at that yet, my prayer is that you will, if there’s a desire in you, you have every right to go to God and say, God, I don’t understand, but I want to. Do you think God is gonna turn somebody aside like that? One of the first things He seeks to do when He speaks to a heart is to create a need. But outta that need, where’s He trying to go with that? Just make a feel bad? No, he is trying to say, God’s trying to say, Come to me.
Jesus said, Come to me all where weary and burdened. There’s this reaching out of the heart of God to everyone that will listen. You think about Jesus and the things that he said about the people of his day. He saw, they were living in a world like ours. So many people had so shut their minds that they had no capacity. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets. You stoned them that I sent to you. And all he’s talking about what was gonna happen to them.
But he also says, how often, how often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens? But what was the problem? You were not willing. Oh, I’ll tell you, if God is convicting, if there’s a sense of need, if you see at all what we’re talking about this morning, about the world coming to two different destinies, I just pray that you will so cry out to God until He hears your cry and opens your heart and gives you the light you need.
I mean, you talk about the wise and the prudent not understanding. How about Saul? He studied diligently under one of the greatest, most storied teachers in Judas, Judaic history, Gamaliel. He was familiar with the Old Testament. He could quote it. He knew the scriptures. He was zealous in what he understood for God, but he was blind as a bat. Blind as a bat.
What did it take? It took God penetrating his defenses and revealing himself. And then it took Paul surrendering to that. He didn’t resist and argue and come back and say, No, my way is right. There was a humbling, and God transformed a life.
God still transforms lives. Time is running out. Time is getting late. We’re gonna get to where the day that they went into the ark and it was over and the door was shut, that day will come. But God’s heart is always for anyone that will listen. If there is the smallest desire in anybody’s heart toward God, you cry out to Him and you take comfort and hope in that you wouldn’t have that if God weren’t reaching, it wouldn’t be there. Praise God for his mercy!
And when Jesus was said all those things about his generation, he wasn’t mocking, he was weeping. That’s God’s heart. And God’s heart of Noah’s day was full of pain and distress at what was going on. He wasn’t happy about it. He wasn’t looking forward to having to judge. But what could He do? They had their opportunity.
Oh, I’ll tell you. God is calling His own, but He calls by speaking to the heart and the ears of the heart need to be open and willing to receive. And I’ll tell you, wherever that happens, God will always give more. God always wants to bring His people through.
And I’ll tell you, when God’s looking around to see who belongs to Him, those are the ones He’s looking for. It’s not the smart, it’s not the wise, it’s not the great people of the world. It’s sinners who need a savior. But He’s got everything we need, everything we need to stand there one day. Everything. Oh, praise God!
Well, what did Jesus say about his sheep? What do they do? My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And what’s the result of that? I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one can pluck them out of my hand. My Father who gave them to me, you see that dynamic going on? My father gave them to me? He’s greater than all. No one can pluck them out of his hand.
Oh, I’ll tell you what a hope we have in this broken world, we see things going the wrong way. And I’ll tell you, God has a people. Things were really going sideways pretty badly in Noah’s day, but there was one man who walked with God. And when God spoke, he listened.[/ultimate_modal]
May 26, 2024 - No. 1651
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Are You Mad at God?” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Are You Mad at God?” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1650May 19, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1650 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, you know, I’ve said this before, but we’ve come out of a men’s meeting and it’s just like everything that I’ve been thinking about is expressed, but I don’t think I’ve ever been in a men’s meeting where that was more true. That was amazing. Just about everything that’s been on my heart was just so eloquently expressed. I wish we could just play a tape. But, anyway, it seemed like the Lord has another plan.
And I’m glad he used his weakness because that’s all I got folks. But, you know, that’s all any of us have, and I appreciate his faithfulness to us. And so I’m just gonna ask him to arrange my thoughts this morning and try to express some of what I believe he has on his heart.
You know, recently Sue and I were cleaning up an area, which we’ve got many of, that need arranging and need going through, the other day. And part of it was my cleaning up some old books. Some of them were college texts and various things that I said, Okay, I’m done with that now. It’s only been, you know, a long, well, I won’t say how many years. Well, I will, it’s 55 years.
And so, anyway, but there are a handful caught my eye and I hung onto them. And one of them was a little book that I had forgotten about by David Wilkerson. And I think many of you know who he was. God sent him as a skinny preacher that everybody thought was crazy to go into the streets of New York and Brooklyn, in particular, and begin to reach out to the gangs, and just did it by faith, felt like the Lord had sent him. And the Lord began to use him to reach out. Nikki Cruz, a tremendous servant of God, was saved out of the most wretched background you could imagine.
And, anyway, during that period of time, he relates something that happened to him, and it illustrates the danger that I’m talking about. I can remember, I think I can relate essentially what he did. But he was invited to go in to minister with a particular pastor in his church. And as he got there, I won’t describe all the details, but there was a tremendous tragedy unfolding in which the child of this minister had suddenly been killed. I’ll go ahead and say it. He was actually run over by the preacher’s car by accident. Can you imagine something so horrible and so horrific?
And as Brother Dave went through that experience and through the funeral that followed, there was a little bit of a cloud that kind of got in his mind and in his heart. And he began to, you know, that weighed on him. And, you know, you would obviously think about why, what is going on?
And in the middle of it, there was a little thought came in. He must have done something, and God’s punishing him. Or, you know, there’s something really wrong here, and this is why this happened. Anybody ever done that? Yeah, this affects every single one of us because we are so prone to interpret life based on what we think and what we want is what it comes down to.
And so there was a little bit of a cloud that came into David’s life and in his ministry. And there was a short period of time there where he just didn’t have it, just like he was kind of on his own and things were kind of kind of dead. And he went home and one of his reactions was when he’d gotten home, he said, God, I’ll go into the greatest ghettos in the world. I’ll reach into the gangs, but don’t dare touch my family.
How many of you think it’s a good idea to have conditions, to say, I’ll serve you if. Yeah, and so the Lord was working on him. And he came to a point where he was just on his face crying out to God and he said, “The heavens were brass.”
And all of a sudden a voice began to speak in his mind and began to say, The reason this is happening is because of you. It’s all about pride. You going into Brooklyn, you going to do all this kinda stuff, it’s just pride. You’re looking for a name for yourself and God’s got it in for you, and just an accusing voice.
And, of course, he’s searching his heart, what’s going on? And then all of a sudden there was another voice that spoke and it said, Try the spirits, whether they be of God. And all of a sudden he stopped and realized, Hey, that wasn’t God, that was the devil.
How many even know when we get in these places and the devil starts talking, it’s awful easy to listen. It’s awful easy to get absorbed in us and where we’re at and how we feel and how we evaluate what in the world’s going on. And all of a sudden the devil gets right in the middle of it, and he begins to interpret for us what’s happening.
You know, isn’t that what happened when Brother David was with that minister and observing this thing and the voice came in his head, He did something and God’s punishing him because this is just an evidence. Was that voice God’s or not?
And we gotta be careful, you know, we are very prone to observe situations that we’re not necessarily a part of and make judgments. And every one of us is a product more than we realize of our earthly makeup, the culture we’ve been around, the associations we’ve been around, the ideas we have absorbed, the things we have come to believe are true.
And the the problem is with some of that, the devil’s the one who’s injected his belief system in there. And we’ve embraced things about ourselves that came from the devil and not from God.
And God is going to take us through things. He has got to take us through things, or we’ll never grow. If life is just smooth and easy by an earthly standard, how are we ever going to be changed? How are we ever gonna be made ready for something that is beyond this? If we are defined in our thinking and our actions by the ideas and the values of this world, we’re not worth much to the kingdom of God. And I need to be changed, don’t you? And, you know, I just pray that God will help us to realize that God knows what He’s doing.
And so, you know, when David went through that experience, he reached that point where he’d heard the two voices and it suddenly dawned on him, that was the devil’s accusation there. And he came back to the Lord and he said, God, even if I have sinned, I have an advocate with the Father. And suddenly he’s going by the word and he’s recognizing, yeah, I could very well be in the wrong in some things, but, Lord, I come to you and I’m coming not on basis of me and who I am and what I’ve done. I’m coming on the basis of the advocate you provided for me. He is there, and there was a breakthrough in his spirit. All of a sudden there was a freedom.
But do you know, we can easily get in places where we’re not free. And we’re embedded in circumstances and situations and the emotions that go with that. And all of a sudden that’s kind of what’s in charge. And I believe with all my heart the Lord was emphasizing that in the men’s meeting for sure. Wow, I wish I could just replay that. But what a simple truth it is, but how profoundly important it is that we realize that.
How many of you have prayed, Oh God, do in me what’s needed. Use me according to your plan. I want your plan for my life and not mine? But do we really know what we’re asking many times? Because here’s the Lord who knows where we’re at, knows our needs far more than we are, and knows where He’s taking us and what it takes to get there. And we come kicking and screaming all the way sometimes.
You know, there was mention of one-year-olds and two-year-olds and how they react to life and how you have to constantly be on them and keep up with them. And I’m not sure where we’re that far beyond that, many of us, spiritually. And the Lord wants us to grow and He wants us to learn how to just surrender to Him and let go and let Him have his way. I certainly feel my need of that.
And he has ways of just reminding me that, hey, you thought you had this handled, or you thought you were at a certain place, and you’re asking me for more, but when I try to take you there, when I take you through circumstances and feelings that you don’t like, and I’m answering your prayer, then you fuss about it, and you get discouraged and you get self-pity and you eat a box of chocolates, or whatever. No, I don’t quite do that, not quite. But you understand what I’m saying.
Everybody here knows what I’m talking about because that’s called life. I am so thankful that we have a merciful God. But how easy is it for us to get in the position that David found, and this is Dave Wilkerson, found himself for that little span of time where he was actually, there was a little bit of a question in his mind about God’s goodness, God’s faithfulness. I don’t understand. Why would He allow something like this? This doesn’t make any sense.
Oh, how the devil has sought from the beginning to do that with the human race. I mean, you think about, again, how many times have we talked about the original temptation? God’s motivation, his character was called into question by the devil. He’s not really good. He doesn’t really have your best interests at heart. He’s trying to hold you down and keep you from your destiny. And here’s something He’s telling you not to do, but if you do it, it’s gonna be good for you.
And so they embraced the devil’s wisdom. But what were they saying by that? See, they had embraced not just the action, but the belief that came with it. This assessment of God is, I can’t quite trust Him. He doesn’t really have my best interest at heart. This is just a game to Him, or whatever form that takes. But all of a sudden there’s this little barrier and this little cloud, and how many of you think God wants us to walk with that kind of a cloud over our spirits? Of course, He doesn’t. But, oh, how easily we find ourselves questioning him.
And the title, I don’t think I’ve told you this, but the title of the little book that David Wilkerson wrote was, “I’m Not Mad at God.” Well, the truth of the matter is, there’s not a person here who hasn’t been mad at God at some point in their life because of something that happened and He allowed it. Why would a good God allow something like that?
Oh, how we need to see our limited understanding to see His greatness and His purpose. Oh, God, help us, everyone. When we go through things and feelings come and the voice of the enemy comes to try to raise a question about God, we better realize this. There’s an issue down here that God’s got His eye on.
It’s not a condemning thing, but He’s trying to shine a light in an area of our hearts where we need it. And instead of accusing Him or agreeing with the enemy’s assessment of the situation and feeling sorry for ourselves, we need to say, Oh, God, I’m waiting on you and I’m trusting You. I know You’re in charge. I know You’re good. And I know if there’s something I need to know, You can shine the light on it, but, Lord, help me.
And, you know, there are issues. Well, it’s true of every issue. I mean, even coming to faith in the first place, we need His help to do that, don’t we? It is by grace we’re saved. That means God’s help. God has to come down, and we have to come under the influence of God’s Spirit, His power, His revelation to our hearts of our need. We’ve got to come to that place, and then surrender to it and agree with Him and receive that into our hearts. And when He comes, everything changes down in here.
Of course, that’s not the end of it, is it? Was Dave Wilkerson, you know, a lost sinner when that happened? No, he was somebody that God had mightily used, and yet there were needs, and there were issues, there were things that God knew he needed to lay on the altar and say, God, I have no conditions.
You know, another book that I won’t go into all the details that I ran into, and I don’t recall ever reading this. Somehow it came into my possession and got stuck with a bunch of other old stuff. But it was a testimony of a woman that was written and published just after World War II. The events took place around 1930, ‘32, somewhere in there. But it was a young girl who grew up under very difficult circumstances, went to church some, drifted from that, but still had something, there was still a conviction in her about serving the Lord.
But she also went through some terrible debilitating health issues, one after another. And their family was so destitute that even in spite of the health issues, she had to get out in the cotton fields. I mean, it was a tough time. This was obviously during the Depression at this point.
And there came a point where somewhere along the line, again, I’m trying to remember this exact sequence of events, but there was a time when God was dealing with her about really coming back to serve Him and being willing to do whatever He wanted with her life. And she said, Yes, all right? Then she went into a period of, I think it was like six days when she was just out of it, convulsing, everything you could think of was wrong physically. And the doctors were just, Well, just prepare her, she’s getting ready to go.
And her mother was a praying woman. Mother was praying desperately, Oh God, I fasted, I prayed, heal my daughter, on and on. And they finally gave her a sedative that was supposed to basically, you know, hasten the process, make her comfortable. And for about five hours she was dying in the early morning hours.
And then there was a point at which she left her body. It’s something that happens, I mean, we know of cases where that’s happened. But she left her body for a period of time. It wasn’t long, it was like 45 minutes, I think. But somewhere in there, not only did she have a vision of heaven, which was real, but she also met the Lord.
And the Lord challenged this prayer that she had prayed and essentially in her heart and her mind was, I’ll be willing to serve you this way or that way, but don’t send me out to a jungle somewhere. You know, I’m not gonna go there or do this or that. Yeah, I’ll serve you Lord. And the Lord brought her to a place of surrender where there was no condition, I’m yours, you tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.
And there was a complete and total healing of her. And she came back, but there was something else going on while this was happening. Her mother was in another room praying, she had just died, been declared dead. And her mother was still in another room praying, Oh God, this is the prayer, I fasted, I prayed, Lord, you are still able to bring back my daughter, heal her.
And the Lord dealt with her and said, You want me to bring her back to you. But are you willing to let her go and give her to me to do whatever? Ooh, see, how the Lord can bring us to difficult places where our wills are challenged where we don’t even realize the things that are holding us back, that we’re not free as we think we are. And we need him to do something that’s really unusual in our lives.
And so here the Lord was working on both ends of the line. And He brought her back, and I won’t go into the details, but anyway, he gave her a very powerful supernatural anointing to heal, to preach, to ultimately to do all kinds of things and have a tremendous testimony of someone who had seen the Lord, who had seen the gates of heaven, who had a power and a faith to pray for the sick. I mean, that was a purpose that God had for her at that time. And it was a powerful witness wherever she went.
God has a purpose for our lives, most of it is not gonna be spectacular like that. But God has a way that He wants to deal with us. He’s gonna have to deal with things in our hearts and in our lives. Are we willing? It’s easy to sit here and say, Yeah, I’m willing, but are we willing with the things that He has to do to get us there? It’s gotten real quiet. See, this is real truth, isn’t it? Does anybody here need this? Yeah, I certainly do. But, oh, we have an awesome faithful God.
Then there was Job. And you remember how he was a man who was described as blameless and upright, feared God, shunned evil. He had, you know, was it seven sons, three daughters, and it enumerates all of his possessions. Just a great man, mightily blessed, and had so many things. There he was doing what he knew to do. He was walking in the light he had, which is a good thing, and God recognized that.
And, of course, you have the account of how Satan comes in among the Lord’s hosts and accuses Job. Actually, the Lord’s the one that pointed Job out. I wonder how many times the Lord is behind things. How about all the time? One way or another, God’s behind stuff, okay?
The devil had a lot of experience with humanity and he knew that people basically were motivated by self-interest. And he said, Sure, of course, you’re gonna serve You. You’re blessing him. As though that was the motivation. If I’ll just act like I’m righteous, I’ll do the right things on the outside, I’ll do all this stuff, then that’s gonna give me a wonderful life here.
Well, isn’t that pretty earthly thinking? Oh, God, help us. That’s one of the things wrong with the prosperity gospel. It’s focused on the wrong things. I’m glad when God can bless in earthly ways, but that’s not what it’s about. God, I need to be ready for there. I don’t need to just say, Oh, I had a wonderful life. We need a purposeful life, one that God has designed to accomplish his purposes, not only in us, but through us.
So anyway, he gets accused by Satan, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him? Now, isn’t that an awesome truth? Do you realize if you are the Lord’s, there is a hedge of divine protection around you, and the devil cannot do anything to you or to me without God’s permission? Doesn’t that tell you something that God is? That everything is purposeful? How many times have we heard the simple truth that everything God does is by design, is according to a plan, is to fulfill a purpose.
And it’s motivated, ultimately, by the divine love of God and His mercy toward us, undeserving. Thank God! Oh, how easy it is to lose sight of that. Okay, so anyway, the Lord gives the devil permission. And, of course, you remember Peter, the Lord warned Peter. The devil has asked to tempt you, but I have prayed for you.
Boy, isn’t that a good thing to think about? If the Lord allows the devil to oppress and tempt you, don’t ever forget that there is one in heaven who is praying for you, asking the Father to give you what you need to stand up under that and to come through it and to be stronger because you went through it. Don’t ever be dismayed by that.
But anyway, so the Lord says, Okay, everything he has is in your hand, just don’t touch him. And so we know how one after another, these catastrophes that come along or his stuff is robbed or destroyed, or his kids are all killed. I mean, you talk about something touching your family. Oh my God, everything he had was wiped out.
So what did he do? God, what’s right? No, he bowed down and he said, The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.[/ultimate_modal]
May 12, 2024 - No. 1649
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Ears to Hear” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Ears to Hear” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1649May 12, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1649 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: You know, one of the ideas you will run into in many places: people will recognize the condition of Christendom and how, you know, how divided, and how much error there is, and all the bad stuff, bad things you can say about it. They say, But don’t worry. Great things are coming. Revival is coming. The church is gonna wind up triumphant. We’re gonna take over the world. We’re gonna change everything. We’re gonna fix this world and change it into the kingdom of God.
I don’t find that in my Bible. Yeah, I mean, that’s their concept of a triumphant church. We’re not gonna go out with our tail between our legs as though God just tried to convince everybody and failed to do it, and so gonna take a handful and leave. No, there is a triumph that is not defined the way we tend to define it.
You know, another doctrine that we used to be exposed to many, many years ago now is that manifested son doctrine, that God has a special company of people, and they’re gonna pass over into immortality, and they’re gonna go out like Jesus did, only better, I guess. They’re gonna empty hospitals and graveyards. They’re gonna just change the world. Take it over. Anything short of that, we’re a bunch of losers.
Do you think God’s gonna go out a loser? Do you think Noah was a loser because there were only eight of them? Was that a defeat or do we need to understand victory in a different way? Was he triumphant? Yes, he was for his own salvation and the salvation of his family.
You know, God has a family today, doesn’t He? And I’ll tell you, it got down to such simple, simple terms that all God was looking for from Noah was to hear His voice receive the appropriate instructions for what was going on, to do it, and then God did His part. And God rescued them, even though everybody else thought they were crazy, undoubtedly. Got to the point where they ignored them to the point where when it happened, What’s going on? I don’t get this. I don’t even know what’s going on.
The blindness of the world. Folks, we are going to reach that place where God’s people will be few relative to the world’s population. They are now, but I mean, we’re gonna see it. We’re gonna find out God’s gonna create circumstances that will make manifest whose heart really has eyes and ears and who’s really embraced His hope from the heart.
It’s obvious that Noah did because nothing stopped him. He didn’t allow the unbelief of the world and what were the conditions to change his course whatsoever. And you know, I’ll drop this in. Do you imagine the devil probably talked to him a bit? Did the Lord constantly whisper in his ear, Don’t worry. I’ve told you what to do.
You know. You know, the devil’s a chatter box. Anybody ever noticed that? If he starts working, he’ll chatter something over, and over, and over, and over again hoping it’ll make a difference. God only has to speak. And if we will listen to what He says, it will make all the difference.
I’ve told you about this in the past, but it came back to my mind, and it was John, the testimony of I believe John Bunyan, my memory serves. I don’t know how well it serves all the time, but anyway. John Bunyan had a difficult, challenging time coming to faith. I could see God’s wisdom in allowing him to go through that because him having experienced that, enabled him to help us and to help others. You know, we have to go through things to be able to help people.
So here he was trying to come to faith and just listening to God and just wanting God, And yet the devil was just beating him up about all that was wrong with him and trying to do everything he could think of to take away his hope. And he would go days just fighting off that voice that would just ring in his ears. And then somewhere along the line, God would speak sometimes three, or four, or five words, and it was God, and he knew it. And those words would drop into his heart, and it would just blast away that darkness. And he would latch onto it.
And then he would go through another season. And this went on and on until there came a time when he just understood, and he let go, and he let God do the saving. But I mean, what a pattern that is. God doesn’t have to chatter in our ear. What we need to do is hear His voice and then stand on what He has said. That’s what faith does.
And can you not see that in Noah and his generation? There was something in him that just was fixed. He knew who God was. He knew that the only course that he could live was to do what God said, and simply he just did it, and God allowed him to share that with his family.
But, you know, there were other family members that didn’t partake of this. Now, you could say they were too old. I don’t know. But I’ve often wondered why his father and grandfather were not part of this at all. You would think they would at least be encouraging him, and saying, Yeah, you’re doing the right thing. They’re out of the picture.
Folks, we’re gonna have family members and loved ones that we’re gonna have to just put in God’s hands. You know, peace on Earth, goodwill toward men. Well, there’s peace on Earth to men of goodwill. Men who humble themselves to God. But Jesus said, I didn’t come to bring peace, I came to bring a sword. And a sword sometimes divides families. Don’t worry, God’s gonna save everyone of His, and we need to pray for people. But at the same time, don’t base your hope or your anything on anything except you serving God, and trusting Him, and knowing that he’s gonna save His.
I wonder what, you know, where Lamech was in this, his father. I believe if you calculate it out, he died a couple of years or so before the flood. Methuselah, his grandfather, died the year of the flood. So I mean, they were there basically for the whole time that Noah and his family were building the ark and preparing. It doesn’t say a thing about them. They weren’t involved. I wonder why? It seemed like they just got swallowed up by the world too. But his family listened.
And you know, we see the simplicity of them doing what God said, but I see a people that simply, God told them what to do, and they did it, but they did it together. You imagine they probably had a few words every now and then, a few conflicts, but they were human. But the bottom line was they had to work together to carry out God’s instructions, and it was everything that they needed for their complete deliverance.
And I believe with all my heart that God has a plan. He knows exactly what season is coming. He knows whether the power is gonna be on or off. Knows everything. He knows how to bring us through. I think some of this shaking up is maybe Him trying to speak to somebody. God has so many different ways of speaking. But oh, I just wanna be one that hears, and I wanna be among a people that hear.
I don’t know who all is gonna stand on that day. We’re certainly not gonna stand on our own strength. The ones who stand will be the ones who submit and say, yes, to Jesus. And they’ve put all of their hope in what God has promised. And even when the world is saying no, and we almost feel like we’re a little crazy bunch of people on the sidelines out of fellowship with a whole rest of the world, God’s gonna give us His strength and His peace, and He’s not gonna have to chatter in our ears all the time for us to have the faith to stand.
And I’ll tell you, that’s what triumph is. God is not gonna show what He has done in His people until that day when we stand in glory. You know, I’ve used this illustration in the past, but you think about an artist, it could be a painter, it could be a sculptor, but most of the time you will have an artist who wants to hide whatever they’re doing until it’s time to unveil it, okay? They don’t unveil it until it’s finished. They don’t want anybody to see it until it’s done.
Well, do you see a parallel going on here? Do you see how the Lord is doing a work that’s hidden in the heart? Jesus said the kingdom of God is not something outward. The kingdom of God is something that’s inward. And right now it’s hidden in our flesh, but there’s something going on in there.
You remember how Paul talked about how the outward man was perishing? What else was going on? The inward man was being renewed day by day, and so what did he focus his attention on? Oh, the outward man. No, it was all about what was going on on the inside. And he saw that God was using even the stuff on the outside to change the inside because that was the part that was gonna live.
God’s concerned about the tent as long as we need it. Remember what the tent is? Yeah, I’m glad because my tent’s getting a little frayed here and there, but God is gonna take care of our tent to the extent that we need it, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about the one who lives in that tent because one day, one day the veil will be pulled back. It’s not like God’s gonna suddenly, we’re gonna burst on the scene, and take over the world, and change it. God’s gonna take us out of this world. Judge it. Fire will fall and burn up everything left behind. That’s what the word clearly teaches when Jesus comes.
But He is going to take us, and when He does, what happens to these bodies? What happens t,o what happens to our bodies for those that are still here? What does He say? They’re changed. How long does that take? A moment. In a quick twinkling of an eye. There’s going to be a moment in time when everything that is of this Earth will absolutely dissolve and be gone, and we will have brand new bodies.
And Jesus said in one of His parables that after the separation takes place, then the, His people would shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Basically what the Lord is gonna be doing is unveiling what He’s been doing and showing everybody that said, No, this is what I’ve been doing. This is what it’s been all about, and there’s nothing left for the others.
I’ll tell you this, it’s a serious time. So it’s a time of warning. It’s a time when people need to make up their mind, either I’m gonna serve God 100% or I’m not. And you think about people that God speaks to like the rich young ruler, what was his problem? He was trying to serve God in money. Jesus said, You can’t do that. His god was his wealth, and that was more important to him than eternal life.
Folks, there is nothing, zero, nada, whatever, there’s nothing more important than knowing Him and having eternal life. Praise God that all the promises that He has for His people, what He has to bring us through the power, the promises that we have. We’re gonna go through times when the devil’s gonna be screaming in our ear, but how do we overcome him? The blood of the lamb. We can always point back to that. But the other thing is the word of our testimony.
What did Jesus do when the devil spoke to Him? Yeah, He spoke back, and He said, This is what I’m going by. Do you think He necessarily had a feeling when He did that or did He just by faith say, This is my conviction. God has put this word in my heart. It’s the conviction that I live by. I don’t care what you say, devil. I don’t care if I feel it or don’t feel it. It’s true. God spoke this into my heart. It’s living in there and I will stand upon that, period, come hell or high water.
The testimony, the word of our testimony, yeah, testimony is something that comes out to here. It’s the conviction that is spoken. And that’s pretty central to salvation, isn’t it? It’s got to be a conviction of the heart. And then there’s a confession that’s made into salvation even.
But oh, I’ll tell you what, and they love not their lives so much as to shrink from death. There’s nothing that we cling to here that we just won’t refuse to let go of. And I’ll tell you, I believe God is gonna be with His people, but I wanna have a heart. I wanna have a heart that listens. The deepest conviction, the deepest need of my heart, is for my need of God to speak.
You know, for some people it’s just correct theology. If I can just get all my doctrines all lined up exactly so that I’m good. And there are so many people in seminaries or cemeteries, whichever they are, who think that’s where it’s at. Jesus said to one group of people, You study the word, but you think that in that you study the scriptures. In them, you think you have eternal life, but you won’t come to me that you might have life. The scriptures talk about me and you won’t come to me. See, there was a perfect example of people that didn’t know what the Old Testament even was about. It was all meant to point to Christ and the real kingdom.
But I’ll tell you, God is looking for a people right now whose hearts are toward Him. And like I say, sometimes we go through times when we’re, you know, the feelings aren’t there. I remember David in one place says, Remember, oh Lord, the word upon which you’ve caused my spirit to hope. I’m quoting it, roughly. But you remember that? How many times he goes to the word? And there were times when he didn’t feel it, but he kept on looking to the word, looking to God’s promise.
God is gonna have a people who walk together. The family built the ark together, didn’t they? There was a sense of community. There was a sense of common purpose. God has told us what to do and we’re gonna do it. I don’t know specifically what God is gonna do here. He hasn’t laid out a plan and said, Here’s the five-year plan. Just follow it. He has put us in a place where every day we’re just gonna have to say, Lord, lead us.
Has He not promised to be in the midst of those that He brings together? That’s His promise, and I’m believing it. There are many times I don’t feel it, but I know He’s faithful to keep His word. Praise God! He is faithful to keep His promise.
And I wanna be one of those that simply says, God, show us today what to do and give us the faith to do it. Because faith is not just saying, Yes, I believe it, Lord. Noah could have said, Yeah, I believe all that, and gone about his life, but God gave him specific instructions. Do you believe God can give us instructions according to what we need in any given instance? I wanna stay tuned.
I’ve said this in the past, I want a hearing ear. I want a heart that is so committed to listening to Him and following Him that He can tell us what to do. Oh, tradition will not help us. Churchianity will not help us. Form will not help us. We need Jesus in the midst. How many times we pointed out the problem with the Laodicean church. There wasn’t anything he could really negatively say about them other than they were lukewarm, but the problem was Jesus was not running the program.
They weren’t just coming in with this sense, Lord, we don’t know what to do, but we do know that you do, and we’re looking to you, and we’re trusting in you. We’re praising you. And when the devil says otherwise, I don’t care what he says, I know what you said. I don’t care if I feel it right now. I know that you’re real, and I’m trusting in you. And I’ll tell you, God brought that family through, did He not? Did not God do His part?
[Congregation member] Yes, he did.That same God is with us today. Jesus said it was gonna be like it was in that day. So don’t get dismayed when you read the news and you see where people are going. You see the crazy stuff they believe. The stuff they stand for and absolutely convinced. Did not God warn us through the apostle that there was gonna come a time when because people would not receive the truth, what happened? God sent strong delusion. A powerful delusion. What’s a delusion? A delusion is a conviction about something that just doesn’t happen to be true. We’ve got a world full of people that are more and more falling under that delusion.
And of course in the process we can pray, God, bring, fulfill, your word. You’ve said You’re not gonna lose any. And I pray that You will bring to the faith in Jesus Christ and the fellowship with God’s people everyone that You know has a heart toward You.
Oh, I’ll tell you, if you have the least bit of a heart toward Him, you nurture that, you look to Him, you seek Him. He will not turn you away. He is faithful to everyone that calls upon Him. God’s not looking for an excuse to get rid of people. If He were, He’d have gotten rid of me a long time ago. And every one of you too because we’re just human, aren’t we? That’s why we need a savior. But oh, He is a savior that able to save to the uttermost those that come to God. Those that call upon God and come to Him by Christ.
I just praise Him this morning. I don’t know. Like I say, I had two senses out of this division that you can see there, and the sense that we have eyes and ears in our heart. That number one, we need to understand the world. Number two, there may be that person who hasn’t quite come through yet. You don’t understand some of this. God wants you to. You have every right to call upon God from your heart and ask Him, and we can pray that anybody who’s in that position, God will give them an understanding that they can come to true faith, and rest in Jesus Christ, and know that they’re His. Praise God!
God’s bringing people in. The door’s not quite shut, but it’s getting there. We’re seeing where we’re headed. But for all of us, God wants His people to be encouraged and to realize where we’re at, to walk together, to seek His face, to do what He says when He says something to do.
And God is gonna bring us safely through. That’s what triumph is. Triumph is standing fast in the darkness. Jesus said those who endure to the end will be saved. That’s what God is looking for. And I’ll tell you, there’s something happening. When we have to stand in that kind of environment, and trust God, and let God fight our battles, and work in our hearts, and change us, that’s victory. That’s triumph. That’s what God is after, is changing and building a family that’s gonna live with Him forever.
So in one sense, I don’t think there’s anything new here, but I pray that whichever category you’re in, if you’re one of God’s people, let God encourage you. Don’t live by your feelings. We all do. We all fight those battles. Live by what God has made real in your heart and believe it in the darkest moment of your life, and God will give you the strength to stand, and something will happen to you. And who knows, God may be putting you through that because the day will come when you’re gonna be the one that He can use to help somebody else who’s in the same boat. Praise God!
Doesn’t God know what He’s doing? He’s pretty smart, isn’t He? He knows exactly how to bring His people through. But I wanna be that kind of a triumphant church that simply stands in the hour of darkness. Was it defeat when the devil was allowed to kill the Lord? Was that defeat? It looked like it. He said, This is your hour when darkness reigns, and He surrendered to that, but yet God used it to bring eternal salvation to us.
There’s another hour coming when darkness reigns, but the same God will bring His people through. There’s not one thing that can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. I don’t care what it is. Well, we’re gonna have to lean on those scriptures, not just the scriptures that we can read, but the ones that God has spoken to our hearts at one time or another. We’re gonna have to go back to that and say, It is written. God made this real. God spoke this to my heart.
So I pray that God’s people will be encouraged, and enlightened, and have a sense of, we need to be walking together. We need to be allowing God to change us to the point where we are absolutely aligned with Him and with one another. And God’s gonna bring his people through, isn’t He? So to Him be the glory. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
May 19, 2024 - No. 1650
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Are You Mad at God?” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Are You Mad at God?” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1651May 26, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1651 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: I’ll guarantee there’s people here that have said, Lord, take me to a deeper place. I wanna know You better. I want more power in my life. I wanna be more effective in what I do, in how I serve You. And the Lord, in order to do that, He has to turn the devil loose on us and put us in actual battles because it’s when we fight with His weapons….
I mean, guys, does this sound familiar? Everything I’m saying was said this morning, and so well by so many, wow, I’m just blessed by the Lord’s presence and how clearly He’s saying these things to us. But if we will stand in those times and use what He’s given us and not listen to that other voice that wants to explain it to us and not go by our own unlimited understanding the stuff we think we know and not allow our emotions to be colored and turned into, turned essentially against the Lord, which is what happens, if our emotions are not on board and we’re just letting them run, what are we saying about Him?
And I’m not saying that to condemn, I’m saying that because I believe the Lord wants us to, He understands all this that we go through. He understands the battles, but He wants us as His children to grow and to learn and to become more what He wants us.
So anyway, the devil comes back and the Lord calls attention again. And the devil says, yeah, he’ll give up everything as long as you don’t touch him. Said, all right, he’s in your hands, but spare his life. And now then we come to the point where he’s got sores from his head to his feet and his wife is a big help. Curse God and die, get it over with. So, everything’s against him.
I mean, I don’t think there’s anybody here who could say, boy, Job, you just didn’t know any better, poor Job. Boy, have any of us have been in that position, I don’t think, I don’t believe I would’ve done half as well as Job did. What an example God has given to us. But anyway, obviously he got down in a very, very, very low place.
And he had three supposed friends who were gonna explain it all to him. And they gathered around him. And even then they waited for seven days ‘cause he was in such a state. And then finally Job speaks and the essence of what he says is, I wish I had never been born. Talk about the ultimate pity party. He goes on and on and on and on and on. What a horrible day that was. It should be wiped off the calendar. If only I had died at birth, would’ve been so much better. So Job was obviously in a very low state emotionally, anybody ever been there?
[Congregation: Yes, sir.]Yeah, we all get there at times. And so there he was and he was going on and on and his friends start finally speaking up and saying, well, just take your case to God. Go to Him. If right, He’ll help you. Well, the thing is, what did they have to go on? They didn’t have the Bible. They didn’t have the unfolding revelation. They didn’t even have the Old Testament, let alone the New Testament. And so only the only knowledge they had was what had been passed down from Noah.
And of course he probably, he could still have been alive at this point, but he had been very old. But there was a certain amount of knowledge of God and Who He was that caused Job to know that we need to be righteous because He’s an all-powerful God and He’s just, He punishes wickedness. He rewards righteousness. And we need to serve Him and honor Him and live our lives in the light of what we know about Him.
And so there they are trying to navigate all this. And you know what, the most natural thing in all of this is to ask why. And I want to understand it. Now, I don’t care if you’re the most emotional person on the planet. They’re still a part of you that wants to be able to say, I can explain this. I can understand the why.
Oh my God, how easy it is for us to fall into that trap and just insist that we’ve got to figure it out. And just how hard is it for us to just to lay our case before God and say, God, I’m in your hands. I know that You are good.
Do you think God wants us to be in that place where we can just surrender and trust Him? This was a tough place. What an example the Lord has recorded for us of this man and how he was standing up to it and fighting and just, he knew he hadn’t done anything. I mean, he said, in fact, he said at one point, it’s a little bit revealing. The thing I greatly feared has come upon me.
But what does that tell you about the motivation behind what he was doing? He had a knowledge of God. He knew about God and he knew He was all powerful, that He judge his sin. And so there was a, you know, I’ve gotta be careful. I’ve gotta walk on eggs in my life. My children just had a party. I’m gonna offer sacrifices. ‘Cause maybe one of them cursed God in their hearts. I’ve gotta take care of that. There was a fearfulness to it. There was an honest desire to serve God, but it was still tinged with this fear. This, I’ve gotta somehow keep from getting, me here, falling under His judgment.
You think that’s how God wants us to serve Him? Just, I mean, there’s a right kind of fear. It’s a deep respect. But to live under this constant, oh my God, I gotta be perfect or He’s gonna get me if I’m not, if anything bad is happening to me that just tells me He’s angry with me and on and on and on. These terrible accusations against God will settle in our minds and color what we do and how we think and how we think about ourselves. Bad stuff has happened. I must be bad. Oh, was that the problem here?
No, Job was the most righteous man in the world and God was revealing himself to him. I’m not gonna go through the whole book, but the basic story unfolds where he’s constantly trying to say, I didn’t do anything. And he said, you must have, or else this wouldn’t have happened to you. And they’re going back and forth trying to account for all this stuff with what they thought they knew and how it affected them and what their experience was.
God, we don’t know half the stuff we think we know. Wouldn’t it be good just to trust Him? Isn’t that what God is looking for from every single one of us? We just don’t know. And He does, but oh, how easily we let the devil accuse God of just, you know, He’s blessed them. He’s not blessing me. There’s something wrong. Maybe He has it in for me. Maybe this, maybe that. And we’re just, we’re questioning God’s love. Does he really love me, does he really care? Is he really good? Is he just?
And you know what, that kind of came into the play over time. Now Job at one point did have an answer to all these people that have this simplistic view that God blesses good people and punishes bad people. And he said, it’s not like that. Look at all the evil people that don’t care about God at all. And yet they’re having a wonderful life.
Well, what’s the conclusion that the devil’s likely to put in your mind when you think that thought? It’s not worth serving the Lord then, what’s the point? Oh, I’ll tell you, my God. We need divine light and divine help. And we need His word in times like that. There was a time when the Israelites got in that condition, generation or two had gone by after they were restored from Babylon. And the Lord put his finger on their problem and said, they were talking about, why are we doing all this? What good is this doing us to serve God?
How about Psalm 73 and Asaph? He started looking at all the people who were doing wonderfully in the world. Everything was going great for them. And why am I doing this? And of course, the Lord in that case revealed to him that, hey, this is not the end of the story, but here’s Job going through all of this and struggling. But there was one thing that God wanted to touch in Job’s life. The one thing that ultimately he would not let go, even if it came to the point where I’m not a hundred percent sure that He’s just.
What an amazing accusation. God just isn’t just, he doesn’t do right. I can’t really trust him. But there was a point where the justice of God and his own rightness, I’m sinless, I have not done anything wrong. I’ve served God with all my heart. There’s nothing wrong. I’m gonna hold onto my righteousness.
And when the Lord finally spoke to him at the end, He goes through the creation, were you there when I did this? Were you there when I do that? Do you know how this works? Do you, and on and on and on. And suddenly, oops, here I am. I’ve been speaking all these words outta stuff I thought I knew and here’s God talking to me and I don’t know anything. I’m just gonna shut my mouth and listen.
But the one thing the Lord point put his finger on, would you uphold your own righteousness at the expense of my justice? Many times we’re trusting in something in ourselves that’s not really what God wants us to trust in. I wonder how many of us are trusting in our own goodness despite what we sing and say, and when something happens, it’s just proof that I’m bad. I’m this, I’m that. God’s got it in for me.
Instead of saying God’s shaping my life to fulfill his wonderful loving purpose for me. And I don’t care how He has to do it, to show me, needs in me, to show me where my true trust is so I can let it go and put it where it belongs. I don’t care what it is. God, my life is in your hands. We sing the song, but is it? What happens if He says do this or do that or do the other, this is My path for you. Have we really laid everything on the altar?
But here was Job’s, here was the real root of what Job was trusting in was his own righteousness. That’s what it came down to. To the point where it almost caused him to question God’s justice. But you know, the wonderful thing was when God put his finger on that, he said, I abhor myself, I repent in dust and ashes.
That’s an awesome thing, you know what, that’s what God’s looking for. We are going to discover if we’re gonna serve him, we’re gonna discover things about us that aren’t good, that aren’t right. And we’re gonna look and say, my God, I had no idea that was in there. I had no idea that my real motivation was just governed by that. I said I was yours Lord, but I had a condition there. It was, I’ll serve you as long as, I’ll serve you if, just like some of these examples we had here this morning.
But God has got to put His finger one way or another. And it’s usually gonna be by experiences that we would prefer not to go through. We’re gonna discover that these things are there. What God is looking for when that happens is a heart that says, yes Lord, I see it. I acknowledge it. I lay it at Your feet. I surrender in this area.
And I’ll tell you if wherever there’s a willing heart, God will give the strength to do exactly that because I don’t have it, anybody here have it? This thing all the time, that God has to put His finger in me and I have to say, God, I can’t even respond to that. I don’t have the power in me to do it. You’re gonna have to give me what I need.
But hasn’t He promised that? Hasn’t He said He’s given us through His great and precious promises, all things that pertain to life and godliness. There are things in every one of us that He loves us enough to take us through whatever it takes, in order to set us free, to bring us to a better place.
I think with all my heart, the Lord wants everybody to know here that if you are going through a period of oppression, some several testified to that this morning in the men’s meeting, I’m sure they’re not the only ones, guarantee they’re not the only ones. But if you’re in a place where the devil is just bombarding your mind with thoughts, with anxiety, with fear, with questions about God and what He wants. And oh my God, I don’t know what to do in the 1000 and one things that we get, we all get in those places.
Could that have happened if God hadn’t allowed it? We sing, nothing can happen outside of God’s will — except this. Somehow there are things that we exempt from that song or we disconnect from that song. But God wants us to realize that if He has allowed that to happen, to work on your mind, so that you have to contend with that, you have to somehow deal with those questions and those accusations that are coming from the voice of the enemy. Those are darts.
There’s a whole lot said about the armor this morning and how we have a shield, we don’t have to believe it just ‘cause it comes into our heads. But God is wanting to make His promises and His Word and His character and every bit of that so real, that we will be able to stand there and say, I don’t have to listen to you, devil. That’s your voice and not His. This is what the word says. Take that sword out and stick it in him.
And he knows he has no answer for someone who will absolutely agree with God, but you know we’re gonna have to agree with God, not just against the devil, but against things in us. There are things that need to die. There are things we don’t know about.
And of course we’ve often mentioned, and it was mentioned again in the meeting this morning about how the Lord brought Paul to a place where his heart, as far as he knew his heart was to serve God, do whatever the Lord put in his pathway. Oh God, I want to be used of you. I’ve given myself to you. And Paul didn’t know there was a problem.
What was the problem? Pride. He had been allowed to see and experience so many things. And human nature, it’s awfully easy for human nature to grab hold of something that kind of makes it feel like, yeah, I’m a good guy. I’m this, I’m that. It’s because of me. And Paul, the Lord saw the danger and the devil was getting ready to try to use this. And the Lord just put him in a position where he had a need and he cried out and it didn’t happen. The answer didn’t come right away.
How many of you have been through that? And your mind’s trying to explain that, why is God silent? Why doesn’t He answer me? I’m asking, oh God, why aren’t you answering? What did I do? Tell me what I did. That’s where kind of Job was for a long time. The Lord did answer him, didn’t he?
You know, the Lord knows when and how to speak to us and what to say. I pray that as we go along, we will finally get it through our thick skulls, that God knows what He’s doing, he knows how to do it, knows when to do it, that He loves us. That there’s a purpose that He’s fulfilling, that no devil in hell can stop.
We sung so many songs this morning about our foundation and the hope that we have in him. And it’s real. I pray if that’s not real in your heart, you’ll open your heart and say, oh God, oh God, I know one scripture that was quoted today, it was the one in Jeremiah about, I know the plans that I have, plans to not harm you anyway, give you a hope in the future.
But that same passage also says, talks about seeking the Lord. You’ll seek Him and find Him if you do what? Search for Him with all your heart. There’s a God who will hear a willing heart and He’ll give you what you need. You don’t have to deserve it. Thank God.
I’ll tell you, Job was brought to a place where he realized the blessing of God was not something that he had earned, or he had to be living this fearful. Oh my God does this, God, I can see all the effects, but he’s just out there and I’m afraid he’s gonna crush me if I don’t live up to everything. And he finally came to a place where he realized there’s a God Who cares and Who loves me and is willing to come near.
He wants us to know Him better. Anybody here needs to know Him better? See, this is the pathway we just would prefer it to happen some other way. We want to have to be able to come down here and kneel at the altar and have apostle tremendous lay his hands on you and put it in you and take it out, whenever it doesn’t need to be there. It’s all gonna come in an experience.
I wonder if maybe that’s what the Lord was trying to do for me all those years ago. I was trying to get an experience, ‘cause that’s the way people said it’s supposed to happen. Well, there are experiences with God, but nothing in the way of an experience with God that touches your emotions can take the place of God dealing with us in life. There are things that we can only learn on the field of battle that you can’t get at an altar.
We need him in the darkest moment for us to just stand our ground and look to God and understand that His goodness is absolute. We can trust him in the darkest moment that His Word is still justice. As true as when our emotions are up. Emotions are all over the place and our understanding is so desperately limited.
And you know, if you’ve been, if you’ve known the Lord a while and you know a lot about scriptures, awful easy to just kind of coast a little bit. But I believe with all my heart, God is preparing His people to stand in this dark hour. And we’re gonna need to know our God and the people that know their God will be strong and do exploits. We’ll be able to stand, I believe in all my heart, in the midst of things that people are testifying about, seasons of darkness, seasons of questions, seasons of anxiety and fear, where those things are trying to crowd into our minds and our hearts. God is at work.
The devil is the one who is scared to death that God is actually gonna do something in us and through us. And we need to look beyond everything that we’re experiencing in the moment and say, God is taking me to a better place. And I see past all of this. I see His hand at work and I’m in His hands. Devil, you can’t cause me to question God’s faithfulness, His justice, His goodness, His love, all of those things. He is exactly the same yesterday, today and forever. He is exactly Who I need to be living my life for and trusting with all of my heart.
And I’ll tell you, there’s a God Who will give you a word in due season as we look to Him and wait upon Him. Sometimes we can go through periods of time where the devil is just bombarding our minds and then one little word will come. Oh, I love this line to that old hymn. When the battle is all over at the end, one little word will fell him. And many times it’s that one little word that God could drop in our minds that absolutely will cut off what the devil is saying. And we’ll believe that what God says and have the power not to believe what the devil says. And the devil has no answer.
Thank God for what he’s given to us in Christ! Don’t ever learn to listen to what your mind thinks when you’re trying to figure out stuff, your natural understanding. Say, God, I don’t understand, but I’m looking to You for to increase my understanding, to increase my faith, to take me through this. Help me to see the lessons that You taught Job of standing fast and look and repenting when I put My hand and finger on something.
And it came out pretty good for Job, didn’t he? He had twice as much when he was all done. God, there were earthly blessings involved in Him. But I’ll tell you, whatever God has for us, I want what He has. And I don’t wanna sink in a pool of self-pity. Am I the only one? Whoever does that. I don’t wanna sit there and, I don’t like this circumstance. I don’t like having to put up with this.
Someone recounted to me the other day, something Billy Graham said, said, I’m ready to die. I just wasn’t ready for old age. But the Lord knows what He’s doing and my life is in His hands and I’m trusting in Him. And that’s all He seeks for from any one of us. However, He has to accomplish that. Whatever He has to do to make us what He wants us to be is worth everything. It’s worth everything.[/ultimate_modal]
June 2, 2024 - No. 1652
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“The Missing Link” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“The Missing Link” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1652June 2, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1652 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, I finished reading Job in my regular reading and I’m back in Abraham’s life and the other things that follow in Genesis. And I read something the other day that kinda jumped out at me in an unusual way. It’s a simple little thought. It’s in Genesis 25 as a place to start. But it kinda triggered a line of thinking that I feel like is certainly nothing new in one sense and yet I feel like the Lord wants to shine a light on it for all of us.
And this is the occasion of Isaac is now coming to the center of the picture. Abraham was still alive but he was an old man and the story shifts to Isaac. You remember how the Lord called Abraham, or Abram as he was known then, out of a heathen background and sent him by faith to the land of Palestine, made all kinds of wonderful promises to him.
The greatest was that in his seed all nations of the world of the earth would be blessed and put him through all kinds of tests of his faith and his faith was continually in God’s promises even to the point, as we’ve mentioned recently, when the Lord asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac, his only son, the very one that He’d promised, on an altar, he actually got to the point where his son was tied up and on the altar and he was reaching for the knife. And the Lord stopped him right there. You ever been in a place where the Lord’s kind of tested you and then said, All right, I see that you’re willing? I appreciate the Lord’s demonstration of what real faith is in Abraham.
And so we come into Isaac’s life and we see that certainly he was there on that occasion, wasn’t he? And he knew all about the promises that had been made to Abraham and the hope and the heritage that was going to come through his line. And you remember how Abraham sent his servant to get Abraham, get to Isaac a wife and how the Lord led him in such a distinct way. What an example of honoring the Lord and desiring his will and at the same time trusting him to work it out. And you see that play out in that instance where Rebecca comes into the picture.
So now we come to the point where Isaac in verse 20, Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. Then it says this, Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant.
And you go on in the story there and you find out that Isaac was now 60 years old. So what’s happened is here he is heir to the promises that God had made to Abraham and he marries a wife and the promise is, In your seed all nations of the world will be blessed. And now 20 years go by and his wife doesn’t have a child. And what happens is not just, Okay, God promised this, I don’t have to worry about it. It was he prayed. He literally went to God about the promise and God answered his prayer.
Now somehow that you could look at this and say, Well, God has a purpose, He’s purposed from all eternity, He’s gonna work it out, don’t have to worry about it, what’s for breakfast? You know, and just kind of go on about our way. But yet there’s a reason why God recorded this. Somehow there was a missing link in the unfolding of God’s purpose in which God was wanting Isaac to exercise himself in faith and literally go to God on behalf of what God had already revealed that He was going to do and then God answered the prayer. In other words, the going forth of this or the growing of this line, the extension of that line that came out of Abraham’s loins wasn’t gonna happen without a certain action on the part of Isaac.
And I believe there’s a lesson there that the Lord wanted to bring to my attention. We can rejoice all we want to in the purposes of God that we hear unfolding but there is a place where prayer is the critical missing link, if you will. We, that God is looking for our participation. There’s a, that’s a word we have used in the past. I remember many years ago preaching a sermon called Participating in the Purpose of God, but this is, this was critical.
Why would God make special reference to this in the account if this wasn’t the case? And why would there be 20 years with nothing happening in spite of the fact that God had a purpose and was carrying it out and had promised to carry it out but nothing was happening? He was looking for something that came out of Isaac’s heart that said, God, I need you to fulfill your purpose and I’m calling upon your name. And the Lord heard, the Lord responded to his prayer and she had children in this case.
We know we’re not gonna particularly focus on the Jacob and Esau and all of that but the point is so central that here, I believe it’s a lesson for us that God wants us to participate in his purpose and there is something that will not happen unless we enjoy, unless we join in. Does that make sense? God is looking for things, there’s things He wants to do that He’s promised to do but in order for them to happen, He needs our, He desires our participation. He’s worked that into his plan but yet there are things that won’t happen until we pray, until we call upon God.
And you can go on and see other instances. We know how in spite of all the natural characteristics of Jacob and how his personality and how that came out, there was something in Jacob that valued the birthright that somehow attached value to being Abraham’s heir and God saw that in him and said, Okay, there’s something, I’m gonna work with this guy. Aren’t you glad that God calls us in our imperfection, knows what to do to change us so that we can become more in tune with His character and His purpose?
And so we see that in Jacob and in spite of how he got where he got by sort of cheating his brother out of the inheritance, you also see the lack of caring about the inheritance in Esau. He was willing to sell his birthright for a bowl of soup because he was hungry. And so God saw on the one hand, even despite the method used, he saw a heart that wanted that, that saw the value in that.
And so God began to work in him and arranged for him to travel back to the home country to Laban’s household. And on the way, you remember how he prayed, how he met God, as a matter of fact. He laid down at Bethel in chapter 28. I don’t wanna go through a lot of that, but anyway, he has this dream and this is where he sees the stairway between earth and heaven and angels ascending and descending and then there above it stood the Lord.
And he said in verse 13, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are living. Your descendants will, or lying I guess is the word in this translation. “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Wow. How would you like to have the Lord speak that to you in a particular instance? That was some powerful words. What a promise that God has. So here he is for sure, the heir to Abraham’s promise and you remember how he went there and he labored 14 years for the two wives that the Lord gave him. Children began to be born. He labored another six years and wound up with flocks and herds and servants and the Lord just made him rich and then finally told him it’s time to go back. Go back and I’ll be with you.
But you remember what happened and this is a chapter we focused on before and I’ll just refer to it in passing. But chapter 32, he gets back and finds out that Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men and he remembers how it was when he left. He left because Esau was threatening to kill him and so now all of a sudden, he’s got two things that are in opposition, seeming opposition. On the one hand, he’s got the promise of God and the instruction, go back and I’ll be with you. On the other hand, Esau’s coming with 400 men.
One of the things that I believe God wants us to realize in a deeper way is that God on the one hand has a purpose that involves our lives, involves our assembly, involves His people in the earth but there will always be challenges to that. Satan will always be allowed to challenge and to make it seem like it’s not gonna happen. I’m coming against this thing and it’s not gonna happen and we react far too often with a natural reaction like Jacob all of a sudden did. Whoa.
And he refers back and said, Lord, you promised me. And there he’s still trying to work it out and trying to separate everybody and send gifts ahead to his brother but you remember how it all came down. He’d done everything he knew. He’d reminded God of his promise and now toward the end of the chapter or on in the chapter, verse 22, verse 24, okay? He’d sent everybody over the stream.
So Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him till daybreak and it’s very obvious that this was not just an ordinary man. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, Let me go for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
You ever been in a situation where, I mean, sometimes we have situations come and we just pray and the Lord just, boom, there’s the answer and other times we’ve gotta do some fighting. What do you suppose that is? Do you think the Lord, do you think that’s an accident? Do you think maybe the Lord has a purpose in allowing situations to arise where we feel so challenged that our need drives us to a spirit, if you wanna call it that, of desperation?
Do you see how God is molding us? We talk about being in His hands and being molded, made like He wants us to be. He’s got a job on His hands. All I have to do is look in the mirror and know that. He’s got a job on His hands changing me into what He wants me to be.
And sometimes it comes to a place where I know what He wants, but all the circumstances seem so desperate, so against that, and all I can do is just cry out and just say, oh God, if this situation is gonna be rectified, you’re gonna have to do it. And I am not quitting in this fight. I am not giving up. Do you see how something is being formed in me when I do that?
It’s not like, okay, God, Your will’s gonna happen, I don’t have to worry about it, so I just cruise along through life and You’re gonna work everything out. I think it’s sometimes awfully easy to fall into that trap. I’m so glad we quote so many times, and rightly so, the scripture where the Lord says that He’s going to finish what He started. That’s a paraphrase of it. Whatever the work that He started in you, He will perform until the day of Jesus Christ.
And isn’t it easy just to say, oh, great. You know, then I don’t have to worry about it. Everything’s in His hands and I’m just gonna go through my life, go through my day. What’s for lunch, by the way? Or do you suppose that we have a participation in the outworking of all of that that He’s doing? And that’s the thing that just, the Lord got my attention with that. It’s like there’s things that He wants to do that’s not gonna happen unless we participate.
How many of you remember, I’m not gonna go and read it all, but you could read Daniel 9, the beginning of it particularly, where Daniel the prophet, remember he was over in, he was carried as a young man into Babylon, served the king there and then the Medes and the Persians came in and ended the Babylonian empire and they had their own empire. And there he is still over there.
And there came a point where somehow he came into possession of the prophecy that God had given through Jeremiah. And the prophecy basically said there’s 70 years that God has determined concerning Jerusalem. Yes, it was destroyed. Yes, it was punished for its many decades or many centuries of sin. There was a judgment that was poured out, but it’s 70 years.
And so all of a sudden he’s saying, I see that God has already declared His purpose through His prophet Jeremiah. Now, couldn’t Daniel have just said, oh, great, 70 years is about up. I don’t, we don’t have to worry about that. We know how this is gonna turn out. What did he do? He went to some serious fasting and prayer.
You suppose there’s a reason for that? Or was he just going through a spiritual exercise? Was there a connection between Daniel reading that, knowing God’s purpose and then going to God in prayer about it? Was that an accident? Was that without purpose? I don’t think so. Because God records that in great detail.
He repents on behalf of the nation and the people. He declares God’s justice in punishing Jerusalem and the judgment that He poured out. But then He reminds God of His promises and said, oh God, I’m just entreating you on behalf of Jerusalem. Lord, restore, Lord. And the Lord did, didn’t He?
I wonder how many things the Lord wants to accomplish here. And He’s looking for us to absolutely sign on to His purposes, to be so in tune with Him that we can understand what He wants and then exercise a faith to see that happen. I believe with all my heart, there are things that God wants to do.
You know, I thought about another couple of examples that we see in the Scripture. We know the prophecies of the Old Testament were so clear that there was a Savior coming. There was a Redeemer coming. And there was a remnant of people. When the time came, who were looking for this, who were actively engaged in praying and looking to God about it?
One of them was a man named Simeon. And remember when Jesus was born and they went into the temple? And there he was and he came and he, I think he took him in his arms and gave a word of thanks and prophecy. Said, Now you can let my servant depart in peace because God has said you’re not gonna die until you see Him. But he was there every day looking to God, praying and asking God for the fulfillment of His word. And then you have Anna, the same thing. She spent all of her time in the temple praying.
Well, if God is sovereign and He’s gonna, and He’s already said what He’s gonna do and He’s gonna do it, what’s the connection? Why do we have to pray? Something to think about, isn’t it? What’s the difference? What difference does that make?
And I thought about, let’s see, trusting the Lord to kinda order the steps of my thoughts here. But there’s a way that God accomplishes His purpose. Going back to the very beginning, when He was creating, how did He create? Well, yeah, but who spoke? It was His Son, wasn’t it? God had a purpose in His heart that He’d set in motion. But in order for that to happen, there was somebody through whom He spoke.
And Jesus, in a sense, became, or the one who later became Jesus, became a channel through which the very life and the creative power of God flowed. I could stand here all day and say, Let there be light, and there wouldn’t be any light. I don’t have power in myself to create anything. But somebody who is connected to God has power to move in the will and the purpose of God and to speak things, and boy, it’s divine power that goes forth, and it happens, and the creation happened.
When Jesus was on Earth, how many times have we used this in different contexts, but was He not a channel of God? How did He do what He did? The Father was in Him, doing His work. And so there was a union between Himself, between Jesus and His Father, that was such that, number one, He knew what the Father wanted Him to do, and number two, He depended on Him to do it. He was obedient to do it, but when He did it, there was divine power that went through Him that healed the sick or spoke words that had life in them, whatever it was, it wasn’t Him anymore doing it, it was the Father in Him doing His work.
Is there a picture of the kingdom of God and how God does things that maybe we need to understand in a deeper way? I feel like I do. You know, we can do all the right things, we can say all the right things, but unless there’s power in it, unless there’s divine power, what good is it? Okay? In other words, I could stand here and say, I’m just trusting God’s in this this morning, is He? I mean, is this something we need? Yeah.
But I could stand here and say all of the right things because I learned ‘em in school, I studied ‘em, and I read ‘em out of the Bible, and the words are true, and I could gear up all my natural ability and say it, and nothing would be accomplished for the kingdom of God. All I’m doing is communicating ideas, person to person.
But if I’m doing something because God called me to do it, and because God is enabling me to do it, and I’m consciously yielding myself to Him, then there’s life that flows. It’s more than words. Jesus said the words that I speak to you are spirit and life.
I believe that’s something that God longs to do for every single member of the body of Christ, is that what we live and what comes out of us is not just us trying to be Christians and trying to act like we’re supposed to do it, executing formulas for Christian living and all that kind of stuff. We need to be living supernatural lives.
There are things God longs to accomplish, and He wants us to be participants in that in a deeper way. And prayer is very central to that. I feel like I know so little about it. I know things in theory, but there’s so much more that I believe that God wants to teach me about prayer. Anybody here that needs to know more about it? I mean, what do you think about when you think about prayer? Well, I need something, so I’m gonna ask Him. Do you think maybe there’s a little more to it than that?
When Jesus was carrying out His ministry, one of the central things was He spent a lot of time alone with the Father in prayer. Now, why would He need to do that? What’s the connection? Why would He need to go out and pray like that? Yeah, well, to know the Father’s will, to have that, to establish the connection, because if the Father’s gonna do it in Him, He needed to know what to do, but there needed to be this conscious, I’m willing to do Your will, I’m here for that reason. I’m not here to do my own will.
There’s this constant overcoming of the limitations of living in these bodies that don’t wanna go along with Him. Those are things that need to be overcome, but here I am called to live a supernatural life, to have God living in me in such a way that when people encounter me, they’re encountering Him. Man, there’s a lot that’s gotta happen in my life if that’s gonna happen to any degree, and prayer is so central to that. I just pray that God will help me to understand how critical prayer is to the purposes of God.
You know, I thought about simple illustrations. One of them would be if you’re out in the yard and you’ve got a piece of, a tool or something, a power tool, and it’s the kind that you had to plug in. You ever been out in the yard, the other end of the yard, and you get ready to do something, and you pull the button, trigger, and nothing happens? Yeah, if you’ve ever been out with a power tool, you’ve had that happen.
So what do you do? Well, you follow the cord back, and maybe this is an extension, then you check that connection, then you check to where it’s plugged in. It’s a very simple illustration, but if I’m gonna do something with a tool, it’s great to be willing to do it, to wanna do it, to pick it up and walk out there and try to say I’m clipping bushes or whatever I’m doing, that’s great, but what good is it if I’m not connected to any power? Nothing’s gonna happen.
See, the problem, there’s no lack of power back at the house unless it’s December 7th or 6th or whatever it was [reference to a power outage]. There’s no lack of power at the house, and here I am with a tool willing to use it, what’s the problem? There’s a connection that’s broken. Do you think that, do we understand that there are times when God wants to do something, wants us to do something, and the absolute missing link is prayer, where we get connected to God in such a way that what happens is not us, it’s not I, but it’s Christ living in me?[/ultimate_modal]
June 9, 2024 - No. 1653
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“The Missing Link” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“The Missing Link” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1653June 9, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1653 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: I just pray that God will help me to understand how critical prayer is to the purposes of God. You know, I thought about simple illustrations. One of them would be if you’re out in the yard and you’ve got a tool or something, a power tool, and it’s the kind that you had to plug in. Have you ever been out in the yard, the other end of the yard, and you get ready to do something and you pull the trigger and nothing happens? Yeah, if you’ve ever been out with a power tool, you’ve had that happen.
So what do you do? Well, you follow the cord back, and maybe this is an extension, then you check that connection, then you check to where it’s plugged in. It’s a very simple illustration. But if I’m gonna do something with a tool, it’s great to be willing to do it, and to wanna do it, and to pick it up and walk out there and try to say, I’m clipping bushes or whatever I’m doing. That’s great, but what good is it if I’m not connected to any power? Nothing’s gonna happen.
See the problem, there’s no lack of power back at the house, unless it’s December 7th, or 6th, or whatever it was [reference to a recent power outage]. There’s no lack of power at the house. And here I am with a tool, willing to use it, what’s the problem? There’s a connection that’s broken.
Do we understand that there are times when God wants to do something, wants us to do something, and the absolute missing link is prayer, where we get connected to God in such a way that what happens is not I, but it’s Christ living in me, the words that I speak and so forth? So that’s one illustration.
Another one that I have used in the past, I remember preaching on prayer many, many years ago now, and I think it was called God’s Firemen. And in that illustration, you have this picture of a fire, there’s a need, okay? And there’s a fireman who goes, and what does he do? He’s got a hose, and the idea is to spray down the fire with water that’s supposed to cool it down and make the fire go out, okay?
So you’ve got a fireman who’s willing to do it, you’ve got a hydrant that’s nearby, that’s full of water, but what good would it do if he goes out there and says, I know what to do, and he just waves the hose around, but it’s never gets connected to the source of water?
That’s the missing link, I believe, in so much that we do, that God would teach us how to move in the Spirit, how to be connected to what He wants, how to have His power at work in things. Knowing His will. Yeah, knowing His will, but then stepping out and doing it.
I mean, there’s so many illustrations, I guess, in the scriptures, but I just pray that God will somehow get this thought across to me. I feel my weakness, but you know, God’s promised, hasn’t He? That His strength has made perfect in weakness. If this is what it takes, if my feeling weak is what it takes to minister something to you, then praise God!
Isn’t that how Jesus looked at the cross? I mean, He prayed like I would pray, Oh God, I need more strength. But Jesus prayed, Oh God, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me so I don’t have to go through this. Nevertheless, what’s the bottom line? Not my will, but Yours be done. The focus of His life was not the affairs of this life, it was seeking God and doing what His purpose was and fulfilling His place in that purpose.
Do you know that every member of the body of Christ has a place? Do you know that every single member of the body of Christ is meant to be a vessel through which God absolutely works, and speaks, and accomplishes something? You know, so much of our prayers, I think it’s sincere and I think God is merciful, and we rightly ask if we have needs, like Paul, when he had that thorn in the flesh, God didn’t rebuke him for asking, but there had to come a time when God revealed the purpose of that, and when God did, Paul stopped asking to get rid of it. He said, Praise God, I get it now.
I wonder if we’re willing to do that. There’s nothing wrong with praying and asking God about earthly needs. But even in that, I see Paul not thinking about just earthly welfare. What was the reason why Paul prayed that in the first place? Did he not see that harassment by a spirit as something that is hindering my work? God has called me to work for Him and this is getting in the way, and oh God, get rid of it. So even in that, his motive was right.
But here we are, heirs of the eternal covenant. We are heirs of that which will take us beyond this world into the kingdom of God. And we are not just creatures. When God wanted to do something among the animal kingdom, He didn’t consult the head rabbit or the head of any in a particular group of animals and say, Here’s my purpose, you know, I’ve got a purpose in you fulfilling this. He just did it.
But folks we’re not like that, we’re not just animals, we’re not just pieces on the chess board, as we’ve said many times, we are meant to be His sons and daughters. We are meant to have a relationship with Him that is like His Son. When God wanted to do something through His Son, there was a relationship, He was plugged in, He was connected. He became a channel of God’s life and purpose. That was the whole reason for His existence.
Folks, is that not the reason why we’re here? Are we simply here to live an earthly life and focus all of our attention on its needs? Or are we here to say, God, I’m here for a reason, I’m here for a purpose. Lord, if it was just a matter of getting me out of here into heaven, you would just take me on as soon as I say, yes, to Jesus. But no, I’m here. It’s a time for me to learn your ways, to become like you. But in the meantime, I’m here where you want me to live like Jesus, in a sense.
Didn’t Jesus say, As the Father has sent me, so send I you? Well, how did the Father send Him? Again, the Father anointed Him, called Him, gave Him the ability to do what fulfilled God’s purpose, His part in that.
But every member of the body of Christ, if we are connected to Him, if He lives on the inside, our purpose is not just to have a sweet life here, and every time we have a little problem, we go to God, and you know, we go to the divine “vending machine” and try to pray a formula prayer: Oh God, fix it. Oh God, get us beyond that. He cares about needs, absolutely. But why are we asking?
You know, my mind, as soon as I read that passage about Isaac, my mind went to James. What is it, James 4? A scripture we’ve used many times. When it talks about, okay, anyway, beginning of the chapter, he talks about what was causing difficulties and trouble among the people. But he says, You do not have because you do not ask God. Okay? I wonder how many things that are part of the covenant of God that God has said belong to us, belong to me, and there’s something that I don’t have, I’m not experiencing. He says it in His word, Jesus provided it, He’s provided everything that we need, hasn’t He? Yeah. But I don’t have it. Why? Why don’t I have it?
Do you see where there’s a disconnect right here? Are there not things that just as Isaac went to God, no doubt with this in his mind, here I am 20 years in, I’ve married this beautiful woman and we have no son. And you have promised that through our seed all the nations of the world are gonna be blessed. And there came a time when he said, Oh God, please fulfill your word, please give us a child. And God listened and He did it.
I wonder how many times God is waiting for us and we’re waiting on Him, or we’re somehow expecting this, He’s gonna work in us till that day, all I have to do is sit back, go about my life, and He’s gonna somehow do it. I wonder how many things God has literally given to us in Christ that He wants us to come and say, Oh God, you have brought me face to face with a need in my life, and I have every right to go to you and ask that you would help me in this area?
I wonder how many things that we face and needs that we just sort of blow off or we just say, oh, that’s me, or whatever, and God wants to do something special for us? There are things that God longs to do in your life and mine, but we don’t even care enough to ask Him. It’s not important enough to us or we don’t understand.
Do you see where there’s this missing connection? I just pray that God will somehow show us what this is about. I don’t know how to say this in such a way, but God, you’re gonna have to get this across to me. Start with me, Lord, I need this.
There are things, there are needs that I come up against in my life. Do I not have the right to go to God, just like Jacob did, and say, I will not let you go until you help me? I need help, Lord, You promised, this Your word. I’m not going to You about something that I don’t have a right to. It’s not like I’m asking for a million dollars and a mansion, and some earthly blessing. I’m asking, God, that You promised that I’m gonna be like You, and I see these things in me that aren’t, oh God, help me, give me grace to grow. Help me to experience more of what you have given to me, what Jesus died to give me.
Do these things belong to us or don’t they? Do you suppose many times this is what the problem is? We don’t have because we don’t ask. And of course, we can do a lot of asking, that’s just basically so that we can feed natural desires, and that’s no good. But God is looking for the hearts of people who will say, God, I get it. You’ve called me outta the world. You’ve changed my entire focus, the focus of my heart and my life, and I wanna be on board with that.
But not only do I wanna be on board, I wanna be an active participant. There are things that you long to accomplish that are part of the fulfillment of this purpose that are on me in a sense. You want me to literally step into the gap and exercise myself in calling upon your name for the fulfillment of that. And that’s the missing connection, okay?
You know, one scripture that, well, let me just refer to this one. You can read in 1 John 5. This is the promise that we have of Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Okay, so we know that God has a will, God has a purpose. And if we ask anything according to that purpose, He’ll hear us, He’ll listen. So if I ask for a million dollars and a mansion, that’s probably not gonna be part of His plan. But if I ask Him to help me to find and fulfill my place in the body of Christ, and to have His mind and to know what He wants me to do, and to have faith to do it, do I have the right to ask that? Yes. Does every person here who belongs to Jesus Christ have the right to ask that? Yes. Is it His will? Yes. Yes.
So then what does He say? And if we know that that’s according to His will, We know we have it. We know that we have it. That’s right. Thank you, at least somebody’s looking up the scripture. We know that we have what we desired. If we’re asking according to His will, and we know that.
God, help us to have that sense. Lord, you do actually have a plan for my life. I’m not just somebody who sits on a pew and I’m unimportant. You matter. You and I, everyone have a place to fulfill. When God created the world, His Son filled that place all by Himself. That’s all it took. Let there be light, let there be this, let there be that, and God’s power flowed.
But there is power that God wants to release among us, through us to one another, into our individual lives, there’s things He wants to do that He has planned to do. And part of that plan is to get us to be able to go to God with faith, and with determination, and with focus, and literally bombard heaven and say, Lord, this is what You promised, and I’m not letting You go until You do this. Until You help me, until You help my brothers and sisters. Does this make any sense? Yes. Is this needed? Yes. Praise God!
Praise God, I thought of a scripture that we use so many times, and I wanna focus on one part of it that we sometimes make mention of. But I wanna look at Ephesians 6 and the armor of God. You know, we talk about the armor itself, the helmet, and the shield, and all of those things. As important as they are, it goes on down in verse 18, it doesn’t stop with that.
And actually, I think the translators of this particular translation wanted to make a paragraph out of this. So they turned praying in the spirit into an active verb instead of a participle. You know what a participle is? It continues a thought. And I think other translations will say praying in the spirit. So in other words, we fight, but there’s something that’s going on while we’re doing all of this. We’re not just doing all the right stuff, there is a source of power that’s coming in. We’re plugged in, in other words.
It’s one thing to stand there and have all these pieces of armor and fight and lift the word up, but we have to have this. If we’re not plugged in, we’re like that tool that’s out there in the other end of the yard. Nothing happens. God wants to power our lives with His spirit, okay? And so it says, And praying, I wanna translate that a little closer, “And praying in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
Now the Lord just focused my attention on that in the Spirit. Because praying, again, is not just some kind of formula. It’s not like something where you can say, alright, how do you do this? Okay, here are the things you’re supposed to say, and if you just say this, it’s like a divine vending machine. If I do it just right and push the right button, then out will pop the blessing. There is a connection.
Did Jesus do that, do you think? Yes. Were His prayers focused on self? No. They were entirely focused on the reason why He was here. And He found out what the Father wanted Him to do. He was aligned with that purpose and He stepped out in faith, and God’s power flowed through Him to accomplish what His purpose was.
That’s what God has called us to every, single one of us. Now there isn’t a single one of us that has the same role that He does, but we all have one. We all have a place. But praying in the Spirit, that word in is a preposition that is meant to convey something. And it is kind of vague, it’s almost like that’s a place, what does that mean? But the word in the Greek also can convey the idea of agency, that is, how does it happen?
So we’re not just praying in the Spirit, we’re praying by the Spirit. In other words, I need God’s Spirit to power my prayer. Does that make sense? If I’m just doing it and it’s me, my thoughts, my efforts, my energy, and that’s all there is to it, am I really praying or am I just going through a form?
How many of us feel like we need to ask God to teach us about this? Yeah, Lord, teach me, not just how to say the right words, but what is this thing called prayer about? Because if it’s just me doing it, but even it’s like everything in the kingdom of God, I’m meant to be a vessel, a channel through which God flows.
But this is a pretty important one. What He’s saying is even prayer itself is something where I need God to anoint me to guide what I pray and to empower what I pray, so the words can actually go forth and do something. And again, you have the difference between a fireman who just stands there waving a hose and one who’s actually connected to the hydrant, and there’s really something coming out.
I want something coming out when I pray, don’t you? Are we just supposed to go through a form and somehow, you know, it’s easy to say, well, what difference does it make? But God has absolutely ordered His kingdom, so it makes a difference when we pray. And God wants there to be divine power, just as when the words came out of Jesus’ mouth, Let there be light. When He said, Rise and be healed, or whatever He said, and there was power that came out.
God wants power to come out of us. He can teach us those things to where we can be so in tune with Him and such a vessel that we can literally pray and see something happen. We could pray and power would happen, and something would happen on the other side of the world. There’s no distance, there’s no limitation in God.
But I wonder how times there’s something that God wants to do and He can’t find anybody to make that connection. Because there’s a way that God does stuff. It’s not just He’s out there somehow magically doing everything, He wants us participating, being involved.
I thought of an old hymn, I don’t think I could quote it, I looked it up a while ago, but hadn’t thought about this in decades, but, “Channels Only.” And somebody had the sense that what God has called us to be is channels. That it’s not about living for self, it’s about laying down our lives and giving them to Him. For what purpose? So that we can be a channel, we can literally be connected to Him, but not just so that we are bathed in blessing, but so that through us others can be touched and helped.
That’s God’s call upon every member of the body of Christ, every member of His kingdom. I just call upon myself, but all of us, to pray and say, God, teach us what this is about. Help us to join, to be connected to You, to be so in tune with You that we’re just not living earthly lives and trying to get You to fix our problems. We wanna see beyond that. If I have a brother and sister in need of strength and spirit, you’ve given me the power to speak words that are not just wishes that we throw out into the universe and hope God’s listening.
I’ll tell you, when we have to wrestle in prayers, not because God is unwilling, is because God wants us to exercise faith. God wants us to exercise determination, and wants us to call upon Him with all of our hearts and look to Him for His answers.
But anyway, I just pray that God will somehow burn this into my heart as I need it, probably worse than anybody here. It’s so easy just to say, oh, prayer we know all about that. Do we? Do we know much of anything about it? Do we realize that you and I, if we’re hooked up with God and He is empowering us, He’s guiding what we pray, but He’s empowering what we speak, do we not realize that those words have power, that they can literally go out, and change circumstances, destinies, they could empower someone who has a ministry, they’re just as important as the minister, that every person of the body of Christ can contribute to the health of the whole and the purpose of our reaching out and being alive, every purpose that has to do with God’s kingdom?
Every person here has the power to be connected to God and has a place that God has called you to. And He wants you and me to be His channels. Channels only, what a privilege that is. May God help us, and I believe He is, don’t you? I believe He loves us with an everlasting love. And I don’t want anything to not happen because I was just too busy messing around, assuming He’s gonna take care of it all. He wants me involved. Praise God!
Missing Link, I don’t know if that’s a good title or not. ‘cause that’s the general connotation of that, but that isn’t that bad, is it? The missing link is a people who are willing to call upon God and to do it by the power of His Spirit. We have creative power that God wants to give us. It’s not just us wishing things, it’s God carrying out His work in the earth and He wants you and me to be part of it. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
June 16, 2024 - No. 1654
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“The Pathway to Power” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“The Pathway to Power” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1654June 16, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1654 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: A big part of me is wanting to sit there and listen. So if somebody has something, speak up if the Lord’s really put something on your heart. I’ve had some thoughts as well, and on the surface they don’t sound like they quite fit, but I believe they do. I believe with all my heart that God longs to fill us, longs to share Himself with us and work in and through us. The question is, how do we get from here to there?
And somehow my mind went to something that probably doesn’t sound like it fits at all, but I guess a good place to start is in 1 Corinthians Chapter 2, where Paul, before launching into a letter in which he had to deal with a lot of real practical things, had to lay some foundation, had to lay a groundwork. And I believe it’s the same groundwork that the Lord wants to lay in us in a deeper way, certainly in me.
And Paul talks about what his emphasis was when he went to the people. I mean, he didn’t say, Hey, I want to just lay my hands on you and you’re gonna be filled with power. There’s a pathway to that. The pathway to power might be a title. I hadn’t really thought about until the other brother spoke.
But here’s Paul wanting to bring the message and the hope of the gospel to a people. What is it that he emphasizes over and over again? In fact, he says it’s the only thing he emphasizes. Yeah. And so he comes in the beginning of the chapter, I’ll go back to where he got into this.
It says, “And so it was with me, brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom.” So it didn’t come depending on human ability. This wasn’t a matter of learning the right words to say and coming up with, you know, using human eloquence to try to drive them home to people’s minds and hearts. There’s something that has to go way beyond that.
In fact, that gets in the way. You know, I think that’s the biggest thing that I believe the Lord wants us to know that what is it that’s standing in the way of God’s power at work in us? We are. So how do you deal with that? How do we get us out of the way? And this is what Paul was dealing with.
And it goes not just to salvation in the sense that we think of it, just entering into the kingdom of God, but the whole journey between here and there has everything to do with what he’s talking about. There has to be a foundation. There has to be something that literally, well, it’s like the helmet of salvation. It’s the way we think.
My God, you know, Doug was talking about the ideas that are brought in the world today. This world has been taken over by doctrines that come straight outta the heart of Lucifer. They’re designed to block us, to hinder us, to help us see the world through his eyes and not through God’s eyes. But there’s one thing that God wanted to emphasize to these Corinthian believers, and I believe to us, and it’s what Paul’s about to get into.
So, “I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God, for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” That’s the whole message. It’s not, come down and we’ll lay hands on you and you’ll get it. There’s got to be this bedrock conviction about the true meaning of what happened at the cross, what it’s all about.
I believe God wants to, as it were, to fit us with a new set of glasses. Satan would provide them. The mention was made of the whole education system, but it’s the whole culture. This culture wants to fit us with glasses that will help to define our world, what it means, what our place is in it, who we are, how we are supposed to conduct our lives, what’s meaning and purpose. All of those things are all defined in natural terms that leave God out of it completely.
And here’s Paul laying a brand new foundation and says, Listen, this needs to be the foundation of everything that I will ever tell you. If you don’t get this, you’re gonna miss everything else. Now, think about Paul, who had come out of a religious background that emphasized what you’re supposed to do and not do. And there was a purpose in that, was there not? The purpose was to let us know that we got a problem. It wasn’t to solve the problem, it was to let us know that we’ve got one.
And so, Paul, what a revelation this was when he saw not only who Jesus was, but what He had done and what it meant. It changed everything in his life. It opened up a pathway to life that did not exist. You can’t keep the law of Moses and have life and have power. There’s gotta be something that goes way beyond that, because again, I’m the one that’s in the way. It’s not God’s problem in the sense that He’s not willing. He is more than willing to share Himself with us, but I’m the one that’s in the way. And He’s got to do something about that.
Well, what did He do? The cross is the center of everything. It absolutely has defined history. It has defined the destiny of every human being on this planet. When Jesus came, He said, “Now is the judgment of this world,” okay? This was absolutely the world on trial and God rendering His judgment, His valuation of the world. He wants us to see what He has done and what He has accomplished at the cross.
So first of all, we need to absolutely have the ability, because if God gives it to us to see what the cross meant, to see, that God was literally rendering judgment on our planet, on everybody, everything that is done, every value that is held here, yes, there are things that maybe in a distant way reflect his character, but this world has been so corrupted that it is beyond saving. God didn’t come here to transform this world into His kingdom. God came to destroy everything.
And what he did on the cross, Jesus died, as we’ve often said in the past, As a representative of this creation. I know that we use the words where, you know, if I be lifted up, I’ll draw all men into me. There’s a deeper meaning to that. He drew up. In the very beginning, all the creation was in Him and He had but to speak it out, we said that recently, but there came a day when this creation needed to be dealt with because it had been absolutely corrupted.
And so He came down and all of that was in effect drawn into Him. He became the very representative, the representative, the embodiment of this creation. And when God poured out judgment upon Him on the cross, something He willingly embraced for us, thank God, when God poured out that judgment, that was God’s judgment against you and me in our natural state. God didn’t look at you and me and say, Well, there’s somebody, there they got some good in them. God’s valuation of every single human being, except Jesus, that’s ever been born, all that society has stood for, all of the ambitions of man, everything.
You know, we are the ones who tend to say, well, this is good and this is bad. We need to see that in the light of the cross. God’s not going through and picking out and sorting out the human race and saying, I’m gonna take this over here, ‘cause this is good. Folks, it is all corrupt. Everything that even looks good is still corrupted. The motivation, the spirit behind it is still absolutely corrupted by sin and we need deliverance. We need deliverance here.
Again, what’s the hold up? What’s holding back God from moving in our midst? It’s us. Oh God, help us. God, help me to see the true meaning of the cross.
You know, I think of young people, we often speak of them, and those of us who are older, obviously, if you got any memory at all, you remember what it’s like. There was a time when we had to make choices in our lives. We had to begin to think about direction and not just go through the, okay, now I’m supposed to do this, now I’m supposed to do that, now I’m growing up, I gotta make some choices.
Do you think maybe, just maybe God wants every young person to have this truth about the cross and what it means so embedded in your minds that you see everything in its light, you see the vanity of this world, you see the vanity of those who think the world is about personal pleasure and what can I do to make myself happy? Happy has nothing to do with anything except circumstances that make me feel good. And oh, how temporary all that foolishness is. God wants us to have something so much deeper than passing circumstances that make us feel good in the moment.
And how many traps does Satan lay for people who pursue happiness in that sense, in a selfish way? Oh God, help us to see when we make the choices that define our lives, who we’re gonna marry, who we’re gonna be with, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna seek? Are we gonna seek after possessions and status in the eyes of others, and pride, and all the things that people seek after so readily, or are we gonna say, Lord, my life in this world, the life that I would possess and live by my choices is defined by that cross?
You already told me what you think about that. That’s not just simply a little interesting religious fact of history. That is something that absolutely, the cross looms over everything about this world. It was a final decision on the part of God. Everything that has happened since has been nothing but the unfolding of what God has already set in motion. There’s not a thing anybody can do to change God’s mind or God’s purpose.
In fact, doesn’t Paul talk about the mentality of how he sees the world and how he sees people? You go over to 1 Corinthians Chapter 5, and you will see where he doesn’t see people just as you would see them naturally. He understood that when Christ died, He died for how many? All. Well, what’s the implication of Him dying for all? Therefore, He says, what? All are dead. All are dead.
Now, some are made alive, but the pathway to life is to embrace what God did as being the right choice for me. He put me to death because I needed to be put to death. Oh, how we are the ones who value people differently. We’ll see somebody in the gutter and somebody who’s doing great charitable things and we’ll try to make this difference between them, but God sees everyone the same.
There’s not one of us here who can look in the mirror and say God has shown me favor because I am something and I am different, I am better than. Oh, the cross, the message of the cross puts us all on exactly the same level of one who needs a savior, one who could never possibly earn our way. I need Him this morning. I need Him. I needed Him to even come to know Him.
Folks, when we come to know Him, isn’t it about dying? Isn’t that what baptism means. When someone confessed Christ and they were openly to profess Him, what did that involve? It involved baptism. What does that mean? That represents my death and resurrection. It means that I am totally identified with what the cross stands for. I embrace its meaning. I embrace my own guilt, my own need. And I am willing in the light of that to lay down this life, to let it go, to understand what God did there. He’s killed me and I deserved to die.
Oh, thank God it doesn’t end there. That’s a doorway into life, into the very purpose of God. Thank God for His mercy. Thank God for everything that He has done. Thank God that there is a hope. But, oh God, when I get up in the morning, I need to remember what the cross is about. Did not Jesus say, If you are gonna follow me, do what? Take up your cross.
See, we’re talking about power this morning, but here’s Jesus saying, You wanna follow me? What does it take? There has to be an instrument of death that we take up every day. That must have sounded strange. I mean, think about when He said this. This was a long time before He went to the cross. And even when He went there, He had told them about it and they still didn’t get it. They forgot what He said. And here He is long before that, or sometime before that, saying, Take up your cross.
Well, they knew what a cross was. It was a Roman method of execution. It was designed to be humiliating and utterly painful. And here He says, Take up your cross and follow me. What was He saying? Did not Jesus deny all that would have come from the life He got from Adam. He allowed Himself to be born in Adam’s family, but He never ever gave expression to that life. And there He was, the sinless son of God. There was an instrument of death that He carried every single day, where He said no, no to self, no to whatever wants to come from Adam’s nature. Yes to God.
Folks, there’s so many people in religion that want power without death, without dying. It doesn’t happen. God wants us to have such a sense of what He did there that it can become the defining helmet. It’s the way we see ourselves. It’s the way we see one another. It’s the way we see the world.
So we don’t get carried away with what’s happening. We’re not dismayed by the news, as bad as it is, and as crazy as some of it is, because we know that God already decided how this is gonna turn out. All we have to do is look at the cross. It’s history, it has happened. God did that. There’s not a thing Satan can do to undo what God has set in motion. His power is absolutely gonna make it happen. The devil knows it and he’s angry. That’s why things are happening.
But oh, we’re seeing the world reject the message of the cross. More and more people are saying, No, I’m going to live my life. I’m gonna live for the values that I see in this world, what I can get out of it. That’s gonna define my thinking in my life. And what happens when people persist in thinking like that and acting like that and making those choices? Sooner or later, these are things we’ve said many times, God takes His hand off.
That’s what’s happening. We’re gonna wind up with people who have embraced the hope of the cross on the one hand, and people who have rejected it, and their destiny is absolutely set by that. Praise God!
Lord, guide this ‘cause I want to get to where this ties in with what’s been said, but think about what He says leading up to those words in 1 Corinthians. I’ll go through this a little bit quickly, but I want to just focus for a moment. In verse 18 of Chapter 1, The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God, all right?
So here we have people that just, they shut their minds to the gospel, it doesn’t make any sense to them. But here’s others that have an openness of heart. Somehow God has worked in their heart and they’ve embraced, they’ve recognized, yes, I am in need, I am a sinner. What God did there was just, it was right. I needed somebody to die for my sins. I could not possibly deserve any of His favor.
And what does he say? The message of the cross is the power of God. The message of the cross to us who are being saved. That also reminds us that this is a process. Anybody here needs some saving today? Yeah, there are things that come up in our lives, things we become aware of that perhaps we were not as aware of. And here we are saying, God, I need more power. Lord, I wanna be a better channel.
And what the Lord does to get us to that place, most of the time, is to focus on things that are getting in the way, okay? There’s a channel there, but you got a bunch of rocks in there. And so the Lord wants to refocus our attention on the need.
But I wonder how many times we get bogged down right at this point, Lord, I want more of You. And He shows us the problem and then we get stuck. Does that sound familiar? What do I do about it? How do I deal with this awful self that just wants to get in the way? Every time I wanna do something, there it is, trying to jump in and take credit, or jump in and do it its way and just absolutely get in the way.
You know what I believe that God wants us to do to get past that, at least in part? First of all, to be honest, not to hide, not to duck. ‘cause it’s not like God’s showing us a need, saying, Fix it, and then I’ll come around. We’ve talked about that many times. I can’t fix it. That’s why I need a savior. I’m helpless. How could I possibly change myself? What’s the answer to all of that?
Oh, do you see why Paul had to go back to the cross every time? Because what he was saying was, I know you can’t take care of it. I did. Are you gonna surrender to what I did and embrace it and believe in it in a practical everyday sense? Ooh, way too simple. Couldn’t be that simple.
But do you see where I believe the enemy gets in and he turns need into futility, into condemnation, into a “try harder” kind of thing, or give up kind of thing? When God wants us to go, to take every need to the cross and to understand what God is saying is, You have a need, but I took care of it. I’ve already put you to death there.
Yes, I put away the guilt of your sins. Thank God when we do come short, and we all do, where do we go? What do we do about it? How do we get free from that?
[Audience Member] Confess it?Yeah, confess it. Agree with God about it, but on what ground? Because, okay, I’ve confessed it. I’ll try harder, Lord. No, we’re gonna have to go right back to what You did, Lord. You’ve already taken care of that, but I am embracing what You did for me back then. I embrace it. I believe in it in a practical sense that what You did back then can make a difference in my heart right now.[/ultimate_modal]
June 23, 2024 - No. 1655
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“The Pathway to Power” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“The Pathway to Power” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1655June 23, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1655 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: How many times have we said and how often do I need it to say to remind ourselves that the cross is not just about the forgiveness of things that I have done. He didn’t just put him to death to pay the penalty. Yes, that’s part of it. But he put me to death. The problem is not the sin, it’s the sinner. I need deliverance, not just from the guilt of the thing stuff I’ve done I need deliverance from this guy.
[Audience Member] Yes. Amen.That’s the meaning of the cross, folks, to embrace salvation. That’s at the heart of it. You see why Paul had to emphasize this in such a deep way. Said, I don’t wanna know anything among you except this. I’ve got a lot of areas of truth that I want to tell you about, but everything comes from this. This is the hub.
You think of the old fashioned wheel with the spokes. You got a lot of things that come out from that. Christian service, family life, body life, all those wonderful truths but every one of them grows out of the hub. You try to do anything and forget about the hub, who we are, who He is, what He’s done in history and it gets messed up because we get in the way.
Everything Paul talked about went right back to this. How much I need him, how much I have the right to go to him and say, Lord, I thank you for what you’ve done to cleanse me, but I thank you for putting me to death. Think of something that I’ve….
I guess I’ve I pointed out a passage in the past and it’s one of those things that what I see so much need in me, it’s like I’m afraid to say it. But Romans 6, what was Paul’s, what was Paul’s prescription for Christian living? When we still live in bodies that have a nature, the life that animates these bodies still has a nature that hates God and wants to do its own thing, what do we do about that?
Well let’s go back to this. We sin, what do we do about that? What do we go back to every time as a foundation for getting forgiven for sin? The cross. We go right back to the cross. So that’s part of the meaning of the cross, but there’s something so much deeper because again, I need deliverance, not just from the sin, but from the sinner.
And so Paul says, Don’t you know that when you were baptized, you died with him? I had to paraphrase. You actually died. There was something that happened there in history. God’s allowing something to work out that actually happened.
Wait a minute, Lord, do you mean, I’m still in the middle of this, and you say you already did it? Well, I just messed up and I need forgiveness. You mean you already took care of that. And I need to go back and I need to believe it and I need to reckon on it. I need to… I’ll say, treat it as true rather than act like it’s true for Ron’s benefit.
We need to treat it as something that is real, that we can lay hold of right now and say, Devil, I do not have to listen to you. And it’s not because I’m strong, it’s not because I deserve anything it’s because I’m reckoning on what He did.
That’s what salvation is about. It’s not about what I’ve gotta do to somehow make God like me and accept me. It’s what He has done. That’s the emphasis. The word of God is all about what God has done for us and everything that stands in the way of His living in us and empowering us to be channels of His life in all the ways that have been talked about. We are the one that’s in the way, what do we do about it?
Can we not take it to Him and say, God, I thank you for what You’ve done. I believe it. Devil, I do not have to listen to you. Not because I’m strong, but because He’s already put me to death. God has taken away Satan’s fuel if we can believe it and understand it.
You know, I thought about a picture I have in my mind, and I don’t know how much of this is old stories that I’ve read and maybe probably saw it in an old TV movie, but it had to do with people who lived in the prairie back in, you know, days of the old West. And obviously one of the terrible threats to life on the prairie was, you get a dry season and then a fire and a wind. What do you do about that?
And one of the ways they learned to deal with that was to create a backfire. Now what does that mean? That means they could see this thing coming, but somehow they would go out between themselves, between the house and the fire and set little controlled fire, so they’d burn up all of the fuel so that by the time the fire got there, there was nothing left to burn. And the fire would split and go around the house. Seemed like I had this picture in my mind.
Again, I don’t know how much of it’s what I read and how much of it’s what I saw. But anyway, do you see the connection? God has obviously, has already done something about my need. He knew I was gonna be in need. He understood, I’m saving somebody who doesn’t deserve it and can’t do what I want them to do in themselves.
They don’t know that. I’m gonna have to bring them through circumstances that reveal their own need to themselves. And when I do, what I want them to do is to turn and look and realize, just like I can look to the cross for forgiveness, I can look to the cross and see that he has already burned up Satan’s fuel. The thing that Satan would try to pull on me, I have every right to look to that and say, that is a fact, that is something God did. I didn’t do that. I don’t deserve it. But it’s still a fact and it’s history.
And I have as much right to look to that in a personal sense, practical sense right here, right now, I have as much right to look to that for victory over this thing that wants to rise up in me as I have a right to look for forgiveness when I mess up. Praise God!
God is going to, God is gonna put his finger on things that are in the way of His, the working of His power. Don’t be discouraged. Go back to the root of what Paul saw that he needed to emphasize. God inspired him.
And I won’t go through the passage, but God spoke about how out of tune this was with the world. Some people look for signs, some people look for wisdom. They had all these philosophers that tried to explain it all, Socrates, and Plato, and Aristotle, whoever. They were the ones who were smart guys who were gonna figure out what life was all about.
And he said, Not one of these could figure this out. They had no idea what I was up to. Eye has not seen ears, not heard. See, it’s God who has to reveal these things.
[Audience Member] Amen. Amen.And oh, there’s a heart that will humble itself before God. God can plant in you the knowledge of what the cross is about. But all the knowledge of that is not just a doctrine that we affirm, it’s not just something where we say, Okay, now I get the cross. Now let’s go on to other stuff. The cross is always going to be at the root of every single aspect of our service to God.
And it’s the one thing that gets us past all that’s wrong with us, all that’s lacking, it’s the pathway to power. Because when we die, then He can live. For I have been crucified, how? With Christ. In other words, that’s really what happened. It wasn’t just him dying there. I died there too. I have been crucified with Christ. That’s history.
That perfect tense in that Greek verb right there has to do with both something that happened in the past, but it’s an ongoing result. I have been crucified with Christ and I’m still dead. That’s what it’s about.
I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live but is no longer I but Christ that lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
There is no way to get to life except through death. And that’s what we shrink from. That’s what the devil will do everything in his power to bog us down with. But I pray that God will give us a fresh appreciation for what He’s already done. Folks, this is history. This is not something that yet to happen. And we hope it’ll happen, hope it’ll turn out all right. This is something God has already done.
In fact, His Word says He did it from the foundation of the world. Do you think that God can set something in motion and Satan stand in the way somehow? He didn’t even have a clue. He walked into God’s trap and crucified Jesus, opened the very door of hope that gives us a reason to have hope this morning.
Where’s my hope that I can be a good religious person? No, Jesus died and the blood was shed. And when I mess up, I have the right to go to him and look up at that cross and just honor him and praise him and see the blood that flows from his wounds and realize he did that as my representative. And I have the right through that blood to stand there as if I had never sinned.
But then he wasn’t just crucified, he was buried, wasn’t he? And God wants us to understand in a deeper way we were buried with him. Are we willing? Do we know that what we need to let go of? Talking about things that stand in our way. Every one of us has more self in operation than we would dare to realize. And the Lord doesn’t tell us this to condemn us. That’s why He saved us. He knows all about it. But what He wants us to know is that He’s taken care of it. He has already gone to the cross as and in Him you and I have died.
Like I said, everybody’s died. The question is, who’s gonna live? Everybody’s died. You wanna know the destiny of this world, you look at the cross. You wanna know how God values the thing, the accomplishments of the human race in rebellion against God, you wanna know what He thinks of that? Look at the cross. You want to know what God thinks of the very best of humanity as people value it. God says, It’s gonna perish just like Jesus, my Son, did on that cross.
That’s the destiny of this planet. Folks, I don’t wanna live for this. And that doesn’t mean I’m gonna be, you know, mean, angry, condemning. God wants us to have the same spirit of Jesus, to see people in need and to have his love and his mercy. I can speak the truth and stand for the truth without being hateful.
See if I’m saying, oh yes, that’s wrong, that’s wrong. And boy, I’m gonna get you over it. I’m gonna tell you all about it. Where’s that coming from? Self. (chuckles) That’s just the old human nature wanting to kick in and help God out. Folks, we can’t help him out. He needs to deliver us.
And He is delivering us. I mean, even talking about something like this this morning is not our heavenly Father looking down and saying, What’s the matter with you? Straighten up and fly. It’s God saying, I know what’s wrong with you and I love you. And when you look at the cross, I want you to see what it really stands for in terms of, yes, you have a deep need, but I also want you to see that it’s the measure of my love and the mercy that I wanna show you here right now.
And when you face the things this afternoon, tomorrow, the next day that wanna rise up in you, what are we reckoning on? Oh, there it is again. That’s just me. You got so many people out there that their way of dealing with human nature is just to emphasize the love of God. The love of Jesus. Oh, He’s so loving. He just accepts everybody.
Folks, I need a savior. Amen. I need a deliverer. But thank God I’ve got one. God sent his Son who willingly went to that cross in my place. When He died, He took me with Him. And the more I sense things wanting to rise up and get in the way of him doing something and using me and believe me, I deal with him, and not always very well. But I know it’s… I’m on the way. I’m like Paul. I hope I press toward the mark. I haven’t arrived.
Lord knows we haven’t either. But He also knows that we need to learn more about the power of His resurrection. But how do you get to that? Fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His what? To his death. To his death. That’s me coming to a place where I’m embracing his death as mine. And I realize I don’t have to listen to, I don’t have to obey this old nature. Satan can knock on my door and I can say, Sorry, nobody home. That fuel’s already been burned up. It was burned up at the cross. I don’t have to listen to you anymore. I have the power to serve God not because I’m able, but because He is in me.
And we learn gradually day by day, issue by issue how to be more and more His. You think about Paul in the scripture, the passage we’ve used so many times in 2 Corinthians 4 where he talks about how death has to work in him so life could work in others. See, that was an ongoing thing. This isn’t Paul saying, I had this grand and glorious experience back there and it’s all gone and I’m just free to serve the Lord now. No, there was a constant having to make choices and having to believe in the power of what happened at the cross.
Do you see how that’s the… Why he said, that’s the only thing I’m preaching? This is it. I have one message. If you understand this, everything else will fall into place. I just pray that God will help us and our desire to be better channels and our desire to have more of his life and power in us to realize: Number one, this is where the need is. Number two, God’s already dealt with that need and we have every right to come to him in faith and treat that as the history that it is, as the accomplished fact that it is. Did Jesus say it is finished?
[Audience Member] Yes he did.Yes he did. What can you add to something that’s finished other than our embracing it as our experience? See, as somebody, a sinner that comes to Christ, has to come to a place, a point in history where we look, we’re able to look back and we see what he did for me, but now it needs to become mine. God wants to make the death of His Son ours in a deeper way.
And you know, part of me would like, like so many, to preach this as an experience and we could have experiences. There may be times when there are great leaps forward, if you will, but Paul mostly presents this as a day by day kind of I’m pressing forward toward the mark. I know what He’s called me to and I know what He did for me. And on that foundation and that foundation alone, I’m gonna press forward because I am expecting.
Now what is he saying by that? I’ve just gotta try. It’s futile. I can’t possibly do it, but I got to try. No, there was this sense that I know what he did and I know that if I press, he’s going to empower me to do and to agree with him, and I’m gonna make actual progress.
Wouldn’t that be nice if we made actual progress in our lives and things that used to hold us back and used to have power over us, suddenly they begin to lose their power. Wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t that be a step in the direction of having more of His power in place of ours?
You see why Paul preached nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified because everything, everything flows from that. And I pray that today every one of us will be able to take hold of what He did in a personal way and say, Lord, I don’t have to live in guilt. I can be honest and bring that to the cross and know that you’ve taken care of it.
I don’t have to live under the power of something that has held me because I’ve already died. Satan, you don’t have any right to me because Jesus’ blood was shed. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they did not shrink, love their lives so much just to shrink from death.
O, how opposite this is to human wisdom and human nature. The idea that in order to live, I gotta die. But O, how freeing it is. And the Lord doesn’t want us to wallow in the process of that, but to see beyond it and be able to rejoice and be able to say, God, I know what You’re doing. I know I can, right in the middle of this, I can have your joy, I can have Your peace. I can have Your victory and You can begin to use me in a better way, in a deeper way. I can experience Your life flowing through me to somebody else.
Thank God it isn’t an all or nothing kind of thing. I believe God is unclogging channels right now. I believe He’s going to do it.
[Congregation] Yes.And He’s gonna do it not because we try harder or we learn more theology, but because we see what He’s already done, and we begin to reckon on that and treat it as the truth.
[Congregation] Yes.And we understand, we enter into something that’s already been finished. Praise God!
I’m so thankful this morning for His mercy and His goodness. And I guarantee you, I’m in as much or more need of this as anybody here, but I also know where my help comes from. It’s not in me. It’s in Jesus who is lifted up on that cross. I died with him and I have every right to come outta that tomb with him and to begin to live for him.
So Lord, I just put that in your hands and pray that you will do what is needed, because I know that we need more power, we need more life. Open our eyes to see what this is about, to understand in a deeper way what you did for us at the cross. Lord, so we can literally ask you and thank you and embrace and take hold, lay hold of what you’ve given to us and make it actually a practical thing in our lives.
We just need you Lord. And we’re trusting in you to help us right today where we’re at, just to take the next step forward and believe in you and trust you in the journey to know that you’ve laid out our journey for us and you’re with us all the way, and you’re for us all the way. Nothing can hinder, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. Thank you for that finished work. Help us to believe in it, understand it more than we do. We’ll thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen![/ultimate_modal]
June 30, 2024 - No. 1656
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“A New Heart” One Part” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“A New Heart” One Part” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1656June 30, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1656 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: I confess, I was waiting for Brother Steve to come up, and he’s sitting there saying, oh no! He shared a wonderful thought with me before the service and I thought that he was going to feel free to get up, but maybe this isn’t the time. I don’t know. But, I just, I’ll share the germ of a thought.
I don’t know how long this is gonna go. It may just…it may be just something short. But Steve was mentioning something about the heart and how critical it is that we be turned to the Lord. It’s a very simple thought.
You know what the Lord is looking for from each of us is a lot simpler than we often make it. You don’t have to be a theologian to be a Christian. You don’t have to be a Bible scholar. You don’t have to have a long doctrinal statement and just get every little thing in exactly the right place. God is looking for a certain kind of people.
And you can be one of those people if you’re very small, very weak, don’t have any strength, don’t have any human resources. In fact, you’re better off if you don’t. If you have human resources that the world values, the chances are about 100 percent that if the Lord brings you to Himself, He’s gonna have to do something about that, because, we can’t come into the Kingdom of God and function based upon what we are naturally. We just haven’t got it. And, the sooner we realize that, the better off we are, the freer we are.
What a burden it is to carry the idea with us that I have to come up with something. I have to be strong. I have to measure up. I have to do this and not do that. I have to know this, and oh my God, I didn’t know that! Lord have mercy! You’ll wear yourself out!
And the Lord is looking for the simplest of things from every single one of us and it’s simply our hearts. And I thought of, as Brother Steve was sharing what he shared…I won’t go to the scripture that he particularly used, but it reminded me of something that happened be in my Bible reading today, and it had to do with the life of Asa.
And Asa was one of the early kings of the Southern Kingdom. You remember how Solomon went off track and because of that, the Lord allowed the kingdom to split? The northern tribes went off and did their thing and never did serve God after that. A remnant, interestingly enough, a remnant of the people in the north that actually wanted to serve God migrated south, became part of the Southern Kingdom.
And, where they had serious ups and downs, they had some kings that did serve the Lord. And Asa, at least for a while, was one of them. And early in his…ministry…his kingdom, he faced a tremendous challenge from…I think it was the Cushite army…I didn’t look up any of this, so I’m kind of getting back into what I read this morning. But basically, he faced an incredible army.
It sounds a lot like Jehoshaphat. You know, we talk about that particular incident in the scriptures. This was sort of like that…an overwhelming force that came against him. And Asa, in 2 Chronicles 14, verse 11, “…called to the Lord his God and said, Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty.” (NIV). That’s an interesting thought. I mean, you think in terms of a great battle, but every one of us fights battles. If you’re a kingdom…if you are one of His children, if you’re part of the Kingdom, you’re in a battle!
( congregational response )
If you’re His, you have battles. This thing we call the Christian life is not a cakewalk, as we say, it is warfare. And the warfare is not against flesh and blood. It’s not even against, entirely, against our own nature, although it certainly is, we absolutely war against the powers, and they’re very real, that rule this planet.
Do you see them getting loosed and more and more in control of people? Every single day the headlines tell us that. But anyway, the thought out of this particular scripture, at this point, is a very simple one. Do you feel powerless tonight?
( congregational response ).
Yeah! I think we can all put up two hands, if we’re honest. If you’re thinking about things that God seemingly requires of us, we are powerless. So, God is not looking for power from you, or me. That’s a freeing thing, if we can realize it. He’s not looking for any kind of, like I say, human resource from you. So, if you’re weak, that’s not against you, that’s actually for you.
“Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.” Whoa! That’s a strong prayer, isn’t it?
( congregational amens ).
That’s a good one. We can come in the spirit of that in a lot of situations…as we gather as a church and we sense the devil trying to come against us in some fashion, trying to divide, trying to bring down.
You know, Sunday we made a point of praying one for another and resisting the devil, because we are in these battles. But you know as we do that, we need to realize that we’re not just sort of throwing words into the wind. We are talking about a very real God who has won, through His Son, a very real victory that He wants us to experience in a very practical way!
But oh, does He respond to a heart that says, oh Lord, You are our God, we rely upon You! I mean, it’s more than just a doctrine. This has got to be something that proceeds from your heart, not just from your lips. These are not magic words.
But if this represents your heart, then that is everything, folks! You are in a position above the greatest theologians on the planet, the most religious people, the strongest, the wisest. God didn’t call that kind, did He? He called the weak and the mighty…I don’t guess the mighty. He called the weak…don’t mind me, just don’t get old.
( laughter ).
He called the weak to show up the strong. You remember the scripture anyway, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And, how God chooses the weak things of the world, things that are despised, to bring to…things that are.
( congregational response ).
That’s right. To bring to nothing things that are. Because everything we have is what we have in Christ, and that absolutely levels the playing field. We may be different in our function, in our calling, but everyone who is part of the Kingdom of God stands on the same ground! It’s the ground of what God did through His Son, and if we rely upon that, we are in a position of strength, in this hour, regardless of what happens in the world around us. Folks, that’s what God is looking for and I pray that that describes you tonight.
( congregational amens ).
Because if it is, boy you are in a favored place. So anyway, you go on and you read how God struck down the enemy and they had a tremendous victory. And down in the next chapter, “The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” That’s real simple stuff, folks!
( congregational response ).
We’re living in a world of people with divided hearts, at best. At best! How many people in the world want God, in some fashion? I mean, many are just turning altogether. But I mean, even those who are religious and want God, in some fashion, many of them—most of them, I would say, are hanging on, in some way, to their own life, their own will, their hearts are attached to things in this world, and the devil has a wide-opened position—he’s in a wide-opened position to absolutely bring them…bring people down, bring people into total captivity.
Folks, I want to be in that safe place. There is a place of safety. There is a place where I don’t care how small, how weak you are and what happens to you in this world…they could kill us, and we’d be the winner for it!
( congregational amens )
Because, we serve One who’s already defeated death! Death is not our enemy anymore!
( congregational amens ).
I’ll tell you, sin and carelessness and a divided heart, that’s the greatest enemy that anyone of us could have. We need a heart that says, God, I am Yours come hell or high water, sink or swim, I’m Yours, Lord! Just take my heart and mold it. Give me that new heart that You promised, that’s really…that is the heart, literally, of the New Covenant.
Oh, what a better Covenant that is than a bunch of laws that we can’t keep anyway. But a new heart and a new spirit that God supernaturally puts in us? Man, that is everything! And you’ve got everything that there is if you have that! And you lift up your…you lift up your heart to God…if you’re feeling your weakness tonight, you lift it up and get your eyes off of that, onto the One who gives you strength.
( congregational amens ).
I’ll tell you, one of the things I’ve had to learn, in a new way, I think, in a deeper way. It’s something that I’ve known for years, theoretically…that’s our problem, we know a lot of things, but to learn them? One of the things I’ve learned is what Paul learned in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, that, “…when I am weak, then I am strong.”
It’s one thing to say, I’m weak, but I guess it’s okay. I know, God, what you said. I don’t like it much but…you know, think of how Paul reacted to that. He came to the place where he gloried—gloried in his weakness! You want to find something to boast about? That’s not human nature, is it? But folks, I am so glad tonight to tell you that I am weak and helpless in myself!
( congregational amens ).
But I’m gonna tell you, I’ve got a mighty Savior! I’m not trusting in what I am. I don’t care what your need is tonight. God will meet your need and He will draw near to you if your heart gets undivided, if you’ll just give it to Him. What are the issues that the devil would use to pull on your heart and say, no, you need to be attached to this? You need to be attached to this. You need to worry about this or worry about that. Give it to God!
( congregational amens ).
What did he say in 1 Peter chapter 5, was it? “Humble yourselves…under the mighty hand of God…” (KJV). And He will lift you up at the proper time. I’m paraphrasing a little bit. But then he also says…I can’t even remember what he says now.
( laughing ).
( laughter ).
Yeah, the next thing is, “Casting all your care…” Casting how many of your cares?
( congregational response ).
“…All your care upon him…” Cast them upon Him! Praise God! Just, here it is, Lord, I’m not gonna carry that anymore. That’s up to You. You handle that.
We aren’t very good at doing that. We’re very good at affirming that idea, but doing it is another story. But oh, God wants us to be free! Are you free tonight? We can occupy a place of freedom.
And, as I say, I think the Lord has helped me, in a measure, this year. I’ve experienced a lot of weakness, and yet, I feel more peace than I’ve had in a long time. Just to say, Lord, it’s okay. I get it. I see what this is doing. I see what it’s about. And I’m thankful to You for it. Lord, I’d like to feel differently. I’d like things to go differently, but, the thing that matters most is my heart and Your plan and what Your purpose is. It’s not so that I can be something. It’s so You can be something in and through me. That’s the only thing that matters.
Oh, God wants to take our lives and make something out of them, but He needs our hearts, doesn’t He? Praise God! Praise God! Well, you know Asa went along pretty good for a while. He responded to what the Lord had said and anyway…I haven’t read all of this…I guess I went through it this morning, in a different translation. But anyway, toward the end of his life things changed. You know, I want to finish well, don’t you?
( congregational amens ).
We have a tendency to kind of let down, and kind of go off a little bit when we get older. God wants us to be stronger in our spirits as we get older, even when our flesh gets weaker. Do you know we can if we’re willing to humble ourselves under His hand and say, God, I want Your program? I want Your plan for my life, whatever it is. Whatever it is, Lord, do what You have to do in my life to make me what You want me to…that’s the only thing that matters! I don’t care what your heart is attached to in this world, it will burn up!
( congregational amens ).
It’s so simple, but we don’t see it that way! God wants to open our eyes to where we can say, nothing here really matters! Yes, I have responsibilities. I’ll take care of them, but that’s not where my heart is. Didn’t Jesus say, where your heart is…or, “…where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” I got it backwards. Praise God! I think Jesus knew what He was talking about, didn’t He?
( congregational response ).
So anyway, we come down toward the end of Asa’s reign, and all of a sudden, he has a problem with the Northern Kingdom. They come attack him, and things aren’t looking so good. So, what does he do? Does he run back to the Lord and say, oh Lord, this is your battle? No, he didn’t do that, did he? He made his own plan.
He got a bunch of the treasures that belonged to the kingdom and shipped them off to a heathen king and said, hey king, we need some help here. Here’s a bunch of gold and silver. Will you please change sides and help us against this enemy? And he said, yup, I’ll do it. And so, he came and absolutely he attacked the enemy, the Northern Kingdom, and the battle went the way it was supposed to.
Verse 7, “At that time Hanani…” (NIV). This is in chapter 16. I don’t think I said that. “At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.
Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand.” Real complicated stuff here, isn’t it? “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
( congregational amens ).
What a simple principle! I’ll tell you, if people understood the real heart of what God was saying, through the prophet right here, wouldn’t everything kind of fall into place? The answer is, yes. Praise God!
Is your heart divided? You know, we’ve mentioned, several times recently, we’ve called attention to that scripture in James, where James asked, does any of you lack wisdom? Well, what was the principle that was enunciated there? Yeah, you better…if you’re…basically, to paraphrase, if you want God’s wisdom and you’re asking it, even if you ask Him, you better ask with an undivided heart.
Because…I’ve said this…I’ve put it this way several times, who are we to think that we can get God to lay His cards on the table? Here is my plan. Can I get You to agree to it? Who are we…
( congregational response ).
…To have a plan, is right, but to question the Almighty God? And it’s not just that He’s so great and grand, but that He’s a loving God. He’s revealed the kind of a God He is, that all…that His heart is for us, to bring us to the greatest place that anybody could ever reach, and here we are, needing wisdom, and we’re basically saying, I’m not 100 percent sure I want His plan. I’m asking for wisdom here, but I’ve got my ideas, too.
God, I want Your plan, period! And I want it in such a sense, my heart is so pure about this, I agree to it before I even know what it is. That’s faith. That’s trust. Do you trust Him that much?
I’ll tell you, if we will open our hearts as He begins to deal with us, He will begin to give us the ability to do that. You know, the heart is something that needs to be molded, and we need to learn how to walk in truth and in victory. But I’ll tell you, God…I mean, you and I…the heart we’re born with is wicked, isn’t it?
( congregational response ).
There’s nothing good about it. And if you think differently, God has to open your eyes. You don’t see yourself as God sees you. I’m so thankful He loves us anyway, aren’t you?
( congregational amens ).
But oh, my God! We need to come with our heart and say, God, I don’t even see my…I don’t understand my own heart. I don’t trust it. Didn’t Solomon say, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” (KJV). Whoso trusteth…you know, you listen to Hallmark…follow your heart.
Well, I like some of their movies, but I see past a lot of their theology, if you want to call it that. Praise God! I need to follow His heart. He’s got the heart that knows everything, loves beyond my ability to imagine, and is He not worthy? We sang the song. Is He not worthy of our trust? Is He not worthy of just handing our hearts over to Him, and giving Him a blank check to do what He needs to do in our lives?
Wouldn’t that be a good thing, right now, just to be able to say, Lord, here’s my life, here’s my heart? Take it. I give You a blank check. Do whatever it takes to make me what You have designed me to be so that I can be that with You forever! One day you and I will walk with our Savior, in a brand-new creation! He will be forever our elder brother and together we will worship God…
( congregational amens ).
…From whose heart all of this came! But oh God, May He lift our vision from all this nonsense that’s going on in this world, and all the things that would appeal to us, on the natural level, and say, God, I want my heart undivided! Give it to me! Work it in me! Do whatever You need to do! Praise God!
I wasn’t even planning on getting up tonight, so maybe that’s all that’s necessary right now, and maybe there are others who will weigh in. But, what a simple thing, isn’t it?
Sometimes I think the devil tells us we just need that other secret little revelation. Maybe that’s the problem. I’m missing out because there’s some secret, wonderful, new revelation that God’s gonna give, and then we’ll be able to…He just needs our heart! Praise God! You can chase revelation all you want to. If God says something real, that’s one thing. But I don’t need to chase secret knowledge. I just need Him! He has everything I need! He is everything I need! Whatever I lack, He is!
No one else has ever lived the Christian life. Jesus has! His plan is to live it in me, but I’ve got to give Him my heart for that to happen. And I believe He’s gonna be faithful to every one. There are people here that have needs. You’ve come here with needs. I have.
We’ve got Somebody Who’s right here, and His eyes are ranging across this congregation, not just around the world. What does He see when He looks at your heart? Good question to ask, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just say, Lord, You see even what’s wrong with my heart, but, even with what’s wrong I just give it to You, Lord. Fix it! Fix my heart! Do what You’ve got to do! I do what I know to do. I just give it to You.
That’s all we can do. Can’t we just give up and trust in Him? What else is there to salvation when you really break it down? Isn’t it just handing over our lives to Him and trusting Him to do what we can never do?
( congregational amens ).
Does that not put us, as I say, all in exactly the same place? It doesn’t matter, whether in the eyes of men you’re big, or little, or strong, or weak, or pretty, or ugly, or whatever. None of those things matter. God doesn’t look at any of that. He looks at one thing, looks at your heart. What does He see?
And I think I’ll just leave it at that, and just trust God to convict and encourage and do whatever He needs to do based on individual lives and hearts, because He knows what He’s doing! To Him be the glory!
( congregational response ).
Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
July 7, 2024 - No. 1657
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Salvation I” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Salvation I” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1657July 7, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1657 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, it seems like there is a pattern when it comes to ministry and that’s the weaker I feel, (chuckles) the more I need to trust the Lord. And I feel my weakness. I know, the last couple of weeks I’ve had scriptures come to my mind and thoughts come to my mind. And the more I try to think about it and organize it, the harder it gets. And the more murky it gets sometimes. But I know the Lord is in charge.
And I know there’s a secret when it comes to everything in the Christian life is that when we try in our own strength to do anything, it’s not really any good anyway, is it? We need Him and He has to show us our need of Him because we don’t naturally gravitate to that kind of thinking.
But anyway, you know, my mind went back to the book of Romans, and there’s so much there. And my mind wanted to just, you know, cover it almost the first part of it. And it just seemed like it’s way too much. I don’t know, I’m just gonna start at the beginning of Romans and we’ll see how far we get and see what the Lord has. And who knows where it may go from here in the future, but we’ll just trust the Lord step by step.
But anyway, Rome was, of course, the leading city of its day. That whole section of the world was ruled by Rome, and somehow there had been a ministry of the gospel to people in Rome. And there had been a group of Christians that had been brought together. There were those who served the Lord in Rome. And their fame went out. People heard about it.
Paul had never been there. And here was this apostle called to be an apostle to the Gentiles. And his heart had longed to go there and to meet with them, and to encourage them and to be encouraged by them. And so finally, he wrote, decided to write a letter. And what an amazing letter it is because he unfolds the gospel in very great detail.
And you know, in one sense, these are things we’ve heard many times, but I feel a need in my own heart to hear it in a deeper way. And I believe the Lord has things for us that He wants to impart in a deeper way. We don’t realize our need. We don’t really have the sense that we ought to have the depth of our need.
I mean, you can grow up in church and think, Oh, I’m okay, are you? I need the Lord. And the farther I go knowing Him and experiencing life and experiencing His dealings with my own life, the more I know I need Him. And that’s a good thing because it’s the truth. And I praise Him for His faithfulness.
You know, the scripture was that we so often quote was referred to in a while ago, on how the Lord’s begun a good work and He’s gonna finish it. Well, you know, sometimes we just focus on the beginning and just kind of rock along and don’t realize what He’s gotta do with us to get us to accomplish in us what He wants to in His life.
But anyway, Paul begins, and I’m not gonna try to read all of this. And I want to ask God to help me not to run down every rabbit trail ‘cause there’s so many, you could take every paragraph in Romans and preach a message on it. I mean, you could do that. It’s that deep.
But anyway, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God, the gospel He promised beforehand through the prophets in the holy scriptures.”
Now, what does the word gospel mean? Good news. Does that not imply that there’s some bad news out there and there’s a need? Yeah, there’s a situation that exists on planet Earth. And in the midst of that, God comes on the scene, lays hold of a man, a very unlikely man at that and commissions him to go and spread a message that is good news. Okay? So that’s kind of the setting of all of this.
And then he goes through and he talks about how the prophets prophesied all this. And he accomplished it through Jesus Christ who became declared, who did what He did, went to the cross. But then God set a declaration, if you will. There’s many meanings to that word that’s translated there. But God basically said, This is my Son and I’m gonna prove it to you. I’m gonna raise Him from the dead. This is not just some religious philosopher that’s coming along, starting a religion. This is my Son. He’s here to accomplish something that is eternal, that is that matters. It’s the one piece of good news that exists in this broken world is the good news that comes because of what Jesus Christ did.
In verse five, Through Him, through Jesus Christ, we received grace and apostleship. Okay? Apostle is a sent one. This is a messenger who’s out on a mission and an apostleship to do what? To call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. So faith is not just a mental thing, is it? Not just the practice of religion. It’s meant to percolate into every area of our lives.
God has come. I mean, you’ll see it unfold as He goes along. But this is something that is meant to affect every aspect of life. The gospel is just not about getting our sins forgiven so we can go to heaven. Is it something we’ve said many times? But anyway, it says, “For His names sake, the obedience that comes from faith for His namesake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”
Interesting phraseology there. Who do you belong to? You know, a lot of people by nature belong to themselves, don’t they? My life, I’m gonna do as I please, I have desires that arise in me. I’m gonna follow them. I don’t mind if Jesus wants to wipe the slate clean and give me a ticket to heaven, but it’s my life. Oh, no. The call of the gospel is to belong to Him. To no longer be our own, but to be His. All right?
But listen to this, “To all in Rome who are loved by God.” Isn’t that an awesome thing? It’s not just, I’m gonna dominate you because I’m bigger and stronger than you are. And I wanna make you do what I think is right. This is a God whose motivation is love. He looks at a broken world, sees everything that is wrong, everything that is wrong, things we don’t know about ourselves, He sees them. And yet the motivation for all of His action toward us is not disgust, contempt, looking down His nose, condemning. It’s not any of those things. It’s love that reaches out.
I’m so thankful. The further I go with the Lord, the more I know. That’s my only hope is that there’s a God who loves me enough to reach out to somebody like me. Oh, my God, I just thought of an old hymn that was written many years ago, and I believe I had the privilege of meeting the hymn writer before he died. When I was a little boy came to our house. I remember playing the piano for him with my little beginning years.
But a famous Hymn Writer, Robert Harkness, wrote a hymn called, Why Should He Love Me So? Some of the older ones may know that. Why should He love me so? Love sent my savior to Calvary’s cross. Why should He love me so? And over and over again, it lifts up what He did and how incredible, why in the world when I look at who I am and what I am, why should He love me?
But that’s the miracle of the gospel. That should be the motivation for what we sang about this morning. It is. He doesn’t seek this unwilling, miserable life of being religious. Oh, my God. It’s a love relationship that He seeks. Thank, God, when He opens our hearts of that.
But, “to all who are in Rome who are loved by God and called to be His holy people, grace and peace to you from God, our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” And then He goes on and talks about the fact that He wants to come, He prays for them. There’s this longing in His heart to be there and as He says, “To be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.”
And I want you to know I tried many times, but up to now the Lord hasn’t allowed me. So boy, we need the Lord’s time in everything, don’t we? Our lives are governed by Him and He knows how to do the right thing at the right time. We’re the ones who try to second guess and struggle and all of that. Oh, what a blessed place it is just to come to that place of rest. Lord, my life is yours. You take over, you show me, you lead me. Praise God!
But then He comes down to this, to what it’s all about is the gospel. And I believe the Lord wants to shine a fresh light in all of our minds on what that gospel is about. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.” That’s an interesting phrase there. And I believe that the Lord wants to unpack that just a little bit as we go along.
Why does He say, “the power of God”? Think about that word. Why doesn’t God just give us information? Rules to live by? A better religion to practice? I don’t need just instructions. The Law of Moses is enough to tell me that. All I can see is what’s wrong with me. But what, what I need, if I’m ever going to be delivered from what I am, I need power. So just keep that in the back of your mind.
This gospel is not just about God informing us of things and getting us to believe and practice certain things. I need power. If I’m gonna be delivered from the condition in which He finds me. I’m gonna need something way beyond anything I’ve got. It’s got to be divine power. Okay? All right?
And it’s “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” And I’m not gonna spend a lot of time on why He makes that distinction. But obviously God, in the unfolding of His purpose, He worked first with the descendants of Abraham. Why? Because He has a special separate program for them? No, it was a vehicle through which He brought forth the prophets, the law, the revelation of His love and His truth. And then it was through them, He brought the Savior. That was the focal point. That was the whole purpose of the children of Israel.
But it’s first to the Jew because God was bringing forth what He had promised and letting them first know. But then it was always, even in the prophets, you see, where this message is gonna go to the ends of the earth. And I’m gonna call people from every tribe and every tongue and every nation.
So anyway, A righteous in the gospel, “the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is” from faith, “by faith, from first to last, just as it written, but just shall live by faith.”
And then the passage that people in modern culture just absolutely adore, we gotta find out if, if there’s good news, it means there’s some bad news out there, right? So we need something good to come from God. We need a message from God that’s to counter that. But it’s not just a message, it’s power.
There is a power that is operating in this planet that only the power of God can conquer. Anybody aware of that, not just out there, but in here? Yeah, I need something way beyond what I got. I need divine power.
But now Paul is going to unlock the problem here. And he begins with the condition of the heathen world in general. But it doesn’t include just what he called the heathen world. It was the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people. And here’s the amazing thing, “who suppressed the truth by their wickedness.” And He goes on and says, “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them, for since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse.”
Okay? So the heart of the problem is that every human being, obviously of any age at all, you know what I mean? Human beings, we have some kind of knowledge. Now here obviously, there’s a great responsibility because the gospel, I believe, has been preached. But what about in the heathen world?
And Paul says, Every one of them can look at the stars, they can look at nature, they can hear the voice. He’ll talk later about the voice of the conscience. God has given all men a witness, and He declares that all men are without excuse. Because by nature they rebel against that. They absolutely are aware of it, but they make a deliberate choice to say, No, I will please myself, I will follow my own earthly desires.
And then of course, He unlocks that in all kinds of ways. And do we not see the ancient heathen world being replicated in America today? All of the things that you read about going through the end of this passage, some of them are sexual deviancy, but it’s a whole lot more than that. It’s everything that is afflicting our society that is boiling outta people’s spirits every day. There’s not a day goes by, but what? There’s some kind of a shooting someplace. There’s some kind of a terrible crime. And we don’t even hear about it all. Where’s that coming from? It’s coming from people who are operating under a power. Okay? But the thing is God says, You are under power, but you are responsible. There is a responsibility in you, you are aware. And yet you make a deliberate choice to reject that. Okay?
But then He goes into this point, we are well aware that people like to compare themselves one with another, right? Now, why do we do that? We would like to feel like we have grounds to think better of ourselves than other people. Yes, the world is full of wicked people. I am so glad I’m not like one of them. And we’ll sit there and say, Yeah, man, that’s terrible. God’s doing right by judging those people.
And so the beginning of chapter two, Paul says, Oh yeah? You who condemn others, what about you? Okay? “You therefore have no excuse you who pass judgment on someone else. For at whatever point you judge another you, you are condemning yourself. ‘cause you who pass judgment do the same things.”
Oh, my God. We judge by outward behavior and things that we can see. But boy, if you were to go back and see where that comes from, is there anyone here who can look at the worst sinner on this planet and say, I’m better than you? It flows from the same fountain. I can’t.
If there’s somebody who hears this. I mean, sometimes these services wind up being viewed in prisons. I don’t know if that’s still the case or not, but I’m gonna say to somebody who’s listening to this, I don’t care what you’ve done, I’m no better than you are. But the good news of Jesus Christ is there’s an answer to sin’s power over you. And that is the power of God. If you want it bad enough and you call upon God, He will save and rescue you from all of this.
[Congregation] Amen.And give you a hope beyond all this judgment He’s talking about. Because that’s what He’s coming to. Not only is that the world’s condition, but there is judgment that is coming. God has absolutely appointed a day in which everybody will be brought to answer for how they’ve lived their life. It says, now we know in 2:2, “That God’s judgment against those who do such thing is based on truth.”
You think God knows it all? (chuckles) Absolutely. There’s not a secret that men keep, that will not be exposed on that day. There is justice coming, there’s judgment coming. All right?
“So when you a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment or do you show contempt?” This is an amazing statement because it goes to God’s heart. It says, “Do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.”
You know, when you look at the world and you realize how wicked and awful it is in so many ways, if you really ever see it that it’s true character, it would be easy to ask if God is righteous and pure, and this is so terrible, why does He put up with it? Why doesn’t He do something about it? And the answer is here, because God’s heart is reaching out to everyone who can be reached. Every heart that has the capacity to listen. God’s heart is to reach everyone.
And again, we look at these things that we see in the world and we get angry and disgusted, and here’s God reaching out. Yes, there’s an anger against what’s wrong, but there’s a heart that says, I have the power to save you. I have the only answer that can pick you up out of this gutter, out from under the power of sin. I’ve got the answer. And I’m gonna do everything in my power to reach your heart, because that’s my heart toward you. What an amazing God! Amazing!
Things like love and kindness and patience and all of these things can be brought into this context of what’s wrong with us and what’s wrong with the world. But that’s the way it is. And so basically He unfolds the thing about judgment and all of that.
But then He gets down to a natural question because the world of that day was very much divided into the world of the Jews and the world of the Gentiles. The world of the Jews, they had a tradition, God had spoken among them, as we said, they had the Law of Moses, they built a religion out of it, but still they had a witness from God. And so naturally, a Jew brought up in that tradition would look out at the world and absolutely look down His nose at them and think that he has a better standing before God.
And so Paul has to deal with that, and he deals with it straightforward. And he says, It has nothing to do with what you are outwardly. That’s not what God considers you. You do the same things. You have no right to look down your nose at anybody. You are exactly like them on the inside. And so that’s kind of what he’s unfolding here. All right?
So then he asked the question at the beginning of chapter three, “So what advantage is there in being a Jew?” Well, he says, Yes, there is one, because God entrusted His words to you. You had an opportunity that a lot of other people didn’t have it. That just all they had was nature. But what good is that if you don’t do something with it? What good is having God’s word and then just turning against it and resisting it? All right?
Well, I’ll just make a passing reference. Paul deals with a crazy argument that some people would have… here it is, our sinfulness by contrast makes God look good. So why would He judge us if all we’re doing is making Him look good? But boy, what a dumb human argument that is. We’re projecting our nature onto Him and supposing it’s an ego contest where God’s basically, His motivation is to look good.
No, His motivation is to reach out with a heart of love that sees need and does something about it. It’s focused not on Him and His and all. It’s not all about Him. It’s all about those that He can love and change. And here’s the other thing, what are we being saved from? What’s salvation about? We’re being saved from sin. There’s no place for a heart that still is attached to sin. That’s what God is delivering us from.
So any kind of argument that tends to cloud that issue is, you know where that comes from, don’t you? It comes from the voice of the enemy. And there are other places where that comes into play, but I don’t know how far, as I say, we’ll get with all of this today, but I just pray that God will… There’s some things that I want Him to bring out with clarity. I believe He will. Don’t you?[/ultimate_modal]
July 14, 2024 - No. 1658
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Salvation I” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Salvation I” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1658July 14, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1658 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: How can God be both merciful and just at the same time? And look at a human judge, someone’s committed a terrible crime and they come before him and they know what the law says. Now if that man says, Well, yeah, but Judge, I’ve done a lot of good things, you need to weigh it all and I’m asking you to be merciful, to let me off. If he’s merciful, then he’s not just, if he’s just, he’s blocked from being merciful.
And yet we have a gospel, a good news that allows God to be fully just and yet to show mercy, why? Because the wrath that should have fallen upon me fell upon a willing substitute, a representative who represented all that was wrong with me and God’s wrath was pointed out, was poured out, justice was served and that leaves God free to show mercy to people that will repent of their sins.
Do you think under this condition, paint that picture for me or in your mind, is there any way that we can maintain an attachment to sin? This is all about delivering us from sin. Praise God, that’s what repentance is meant to be a hundred percent folks, and I just pray that God will help us to have that kind of a heart towards Him to realize what it cost Him, realize what it is, realize it’s in every one of us and we need deliverance, realize that he’s done that.
Oh, what He asks of us is not that we work for it, is that we believe in what He did, and that’s what he unlocks in chapter four. ‘Cause he asked the question, because we know that Abraham was a righteous man, right, in God’s eyes. So how did he become righteous? Did he work for it? No, he believed God. Now we need to unpack that a little bit, but he believed God.
And he uses the illustration for, some of you, many of you perhaps here, work on a job. When payday comes, do you say, Thank you for your gift? No, you worked for it, there’s a quid pro quo, whatever you wanna call it, where you provide work and he provides, or they provide pay.
That’s not the way it is with God, God does not owe you or me anything. He does it because His heart is one of love and mercy and reaching out and He has made a provision. But you think about what He did with Abraham, He made some amazing promises to Abraham. And He said, I want you to leave your country and your family and go to a land that I’ll show you, but I’m gonna take you and I’m gonna make you a great nation. And from you many nations will arise. And through your seed, all nations of the world will be blessed.
Who’s that seed, by the way? It was Christ, wasn’t it? Paul tells us that specifically. And the Word says, And Abraham believed the promise. Wait a minute, it says, “Abraham believed God.” There was something that was born in his heart where he had such a confidence, he had an unshakeable confidence in the truthfulness of the One who spoke that promise.
And what did faith mean in Abraham’s life? Was it just, Okay, I believe you? There was an obedience, and there was an obedience that went way beyond just sitting in a comfortable place and seeing it all unfold and, Okay, I’m believing you, everything’s great. Everything in the world rose up to say it can’t be so. And yet there was a persistence.
You go back to check Channel 2, Channel 2, chapter 2. (congregation laughs) Don’t mind me, Channel 2. Anyway, back to chapter two and you’ll see what God’s judgment is about, that people who persist in their sins, they’re gonna be judged, they’re not gonna like how it turns out, I can tell you that.
But what does it say about the righteous who inherit eternal life? There is a persistence in seeking after what is good. Salvation is not just about getting a ticket to heaven, it’s about a life that God enables.
You know, I’ve defined grace many times, but I’m just trying to put it in clearer words. Grace is God’s power at work to save sinners. It’s not just a kindly attitude, it’s not just overlooking things, it is the power of God for the salvation of sinners. I need power. If God didn’t seek after me, I would never seek after Him. So what do I need? I need God’s grace. I need Him to come and begin to speak to me and influence me and show me and reveal the truth about my heart.
And then either I say, Oh, no, and go my way, like the world does in general, or I say, Yes, Lord. But if He didn’t do that, I’d never go looking for Him. That’s grace, grace is God at work. But suppose He brings me to a place where, Okay, I agree completely about my need, I recognize my condition and my need before you. So now what? And that’s when he begins to unlock what Jesus did and His promise of eternal, of forgiveness and eternal life, a brand new heart, a brand new life, and He calls upon me to repent of my sins.
Well, where in human nature am I gonna find that? Yeah, I’m not gonna find it in here, God’s power gives me the power to repent. When He’s present and talking to me, I have the power to say, yes. I don’t get that from in here, I get it from Him.
But now He calls on me to focus my attention and to think about the need that I have. I live under this terrible power, I know I can’t break it, it is not just that I’ve sinned, but I live under that power. Oh God, there’s gotta be some answer that comes from outside of me. Says, Yeah, there is, Jesus, Jesus is your answer, ‘cause I didn’t just put him on the cross, I brought Him out of a tomb. And there was a power, there was a life that lived in Him, it was my life. And I have empowered Him to share my very life with everyone who will repent of their sins and put their faith in Him.
See, faith is again, what was it in Abraham’s case? There’s a whole lot of obedience, wasn’t there? It was walking out what God said that he was to do and believing in the face of all kinds of things, he goes into that in this passage. But all of that is a fruit of God’s power and God’s, I need his power, I need power beyond what I have.
Well, he goes on and talks about the blessedness of how God can actually impute righteousness. He can consider me righteous in His eyes even though I’ve done all this thing, I’m guilty, I’m a sinner, but yet, because I put my trust in what He did for me back then. I don’t base it on me, I don’t base it on any good thing in me, but I just base it on the provision of His love, He declares me righteous. Praise God!
How did I get that? I didn’t work for it, I believed in what He did for me. He revealed it to my heart and I embraced it and it becomes the defining characteristic of my life. I’m with him, I don’t stand with those who looked up at the cross and mocked, I stand with him on that cross. I embrace my own death to this life that is so polluted with sin. But I do it because I have a hope based upon the promise of God that there’s a new life that I can have in the inside.
I just pray for anybody that hears this, whether here or someplace else, that if God is speaking to you, you need to listen and you need to realize why He’s speaking because He loves you.
But then he quotes in the Old Testament about this blessedness in verse 7. Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sins the Lord will never count against them. And you know, we’ve heard a lot about that in the past and it’s absolutely a glorious truth because the cross was absolutely God’s answer for sin, and it was a once-for-all deal, means, He’s died for sins that haven’t even happened yet.
But here’s the trick the enemy has pulled, no doubt here, but also in other places, and the reasoning goes a little bit like this, Well, I can’t be perfect, there’s no perfection. Well, that’s true enough. As long as we’re in this world, we’re gonna find that we come short of the glory of God in something, we’re gonna be learning about our weaknesses, we’re gonna be having to face the fact that I can’t do this, God’s gonna have ways of showing us, but He does it so that we’ll learn to rely on Him.
But thank God, there’s always a place to go, but the reasoning is, Okay, so I’m not perfect, God knows that, He loves me and it’s all taken care of anyway, so I have liberty. And so next thing you know, you’re using your liberty to kind of play with sin. Is that why God saves people? Does He save people in their sins or from them? There’s so much reasoning out there that just makes it possible for us to live careless. We don’t take sin seriously.
My God, you read Leviticus, that’s where I’ve been reading lately and it’s some sobering stuff. You should be holy for I am holy. And there’s all this, some of it was ritual, but all of it was designed to teach them, but there is a dramatic difference between God’s holiness and the condition of this world and anything outside of that and you don’t mix the two. Man, if somebody goes into the holy place, they’re gonna be dead, this is not something to play with.
God did not come to save people in their sins, but from them. Thank God He does know I have a need, thank God for His mercy and His patience, and the fact that there is a work that takes me all the way to the end and brings me to a certain hope, but my God, if I have truly repented of my sins, am I gonna be just playing with it and excusing it and just being careless? Or am I gonna come to a place and say, Oh, well, that’s just the way I am. See, there’s more to it, isn’t there? And I just pray that God will help us.
But anyway, now we’ve often used Abraham’s faith and the fact that he had to deal with a lot of opposition and applied it to life’s circumstances, I’m thankful that it does. You know, I have faced many difficult things, but nothing’s impossible with God and I’m gonna trust Him anyway, well, thank God that’s true enough. But think about the context in which he’s placing this. This is a righteous, this is a faith that causes a man to be righteous in God’s eyes, okay?
So he’s facing all kinds of obstacles to the fulfillment of God’s promise. Anybody here facing obstacles? You’re experiencing salvation in a measure, but you’re running into obstacles? It is a fight of faith, isn’t it? All right, so he makes the point that this isn’t just Gentiles or Jews, it’s both, okay?
Let’s go down, I wanna just get to one thing here because time’s running out here, But therefore, the promise comes by faith. Verse 16:4, why? It comes by faith so that it may be by grace. Again, it’s God’s power at work to save sinners, And may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring, not only those who are of the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, and so forth.
And he comes down, the promise was, I have made you a father of many nations. That’s interesting how God said that, I have made you. He put that in the past tense, didn’t He? He says, I’ve already done it. He’s already saved us, folks. Do you see the parallel there? God’s declared that He’s already saved us, it’s already been done in Christ, and yet, here we are in terms of seeing that played out, seeing what He’s already done, literally lived out. Every one of us is in a place where we need that grace, we need that salvation, we need that power, don’t we? Thank God, okay?
All right, “He is our Father in the sight of the God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into being that were not.” Is that not a picture of salvation from sin? God is calling out something that we’re still experiencing and God has said, I’ve already done it. I’ve already taken care of all of this and I want you to walk in the reality of that.
The impossibility, how many of you sometimes feel, This is just impossible? Yeah, I just can’t be that. Well, guess what? That’s why it’s called salvation. You’re right, I can’t be what He wants me to be in my own power, that’s what salvation is about. That’s why it says, We have sinned and we fall short. Anybody here following a little short of the glory of God? Yeah, that’s why I need grace, I need something that just doesn’t wipe my slate clean and then turn me loose. I need a power that carries me through life and teaches me and changes me.
That’s what he begins to unfold in this, that’s the other part of salvation. We’ve talked about this morning of salvation, part one. But think about the power, think about the faith that he had, think about what Jesus said when he was talking about how hard it is for rich people and what are the disciples ask on that question, Who then can be saved? What was Jesus’ answer? That’s right, With men, it is impossible, but not with God. There’s nothing impossible with Him.
And God deliberately brought Abraham to a place where it says, His body was as good as dead, and his wife’s womb was definitely dead, it was impossible. Folks, is there anyone here who has the power to save themselves? No. So it’s impossible, isn’t it? So if we’re gonna look at natural conditions, we’re gonna have to say salvation is not possible, we might as well turn the lights out and go home, live our lives.
But yet we have the promise and the provision of God who said He’s already done it, and He calls us to put our faith in that, in the face of everything we feel and experience. Time and time again, Abraham was called on to believe God even when it made no natural sense at all. How many of you know what I’m talking about? God, I know your salvation is real. Right now, it doesn’t feel like it, it doesn’t look like it, I’m still having battles, sometimes they’re the same battles, God, is this impossible?
And what’s the Lord’s word to us? With God, all things are possible. God’s gonna continue to work in all of us that call upon Him that repent and put our faith in Him. But you talk about being able to enter into this. That’s what we’re talking about, salvation part one, even to believe that we can be righteous in God’s eyes and look at the impossibilities that He faced.
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as has had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be,’ without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead.” Folks, when we come to Christ, we’re gonna have to be fully aware, we need to be fully aware of our need, not making excuses, not soft pedaling it, not comparing ourselves with other people, but a full facing of the facts of our need before holy God.
But then in the face of that reality, we’re gonna have to be willing to listen to God’s voice and see what He has done about it, and surrender ourselves to what He has accomplished through His Son on that cross.
Do you see what Abraham did? He refused to believe in the power of, in this case, his inability to produce a son, he didn’t believe in that anymore, He believed the promise of God. We’re gonna have to come to Him and just believe in His promise that He is able to literally take somebody like me and He show me what I am and I’m not gonna argue with Him, I’m not gonna make any excuse, I’m gonna face the facts, but I’m gonna put my faith in His power and believe that He can take somebody like me and make me His child and bring me all the way through to be able to live with a holy God and be a part of something eternal.
What an amazing gospel! And this is just part one. What an amazing thing. You know, I know it’s become quite a tradition, I guess in many places, and I’m not gonna criticize anybody who’d do that, but giving invitations, I want the Lord to do something that doesn’t depend upon me trying to make it happen. I want God to convict anybody who needs this. I mean, it should encourage all of us to see the reality of what God’s doing, to face what we are and to face Him and to see the amazing love that has made it possible for us to know him and to be counted as righteous in His eyes, and then the promise to take us all the way home.
But if there’s somebody here that’s never really come to that, will you face the facts, but then He’s shown you and He’s called you. Isn’t it interesting how in the beginning, chapter 1 he talks about those in Rome who were loved by God and called. Starts with love, doesn’t it? You know, it’s hard for us when we see what’s wrong with us, to realize, to think about a God who, What must he think about me? Oh God, we project so many human ideas upon Him.
But oh, to be able to see past all of that and to see His love and to humble ourselves before that, to be willing to recognize, to face the facts, and yet embrace His hope and His promise and surrender and become His property where He is the one, He is Lord, and He is Savior.
And if there’s somebody that God is speaking to, I just pray that God will give you the grace, not only to face the facts, but to repent and to turn from that and to say, God, I have no power to save myself, but I’m putting my hope into a hundred percent of what You did through Jesus Christ, and I’m willing to confess that.
Maybe there’s somebody that needs to come and talk to somebody, if the Lord ever wants me to do the other, I’m gonna ask him to gimme the faith. But I want God to do something that I don’t have any part in engineering. I want him to reach out by His Word and save the ones He’s gonna save. And I believe He’s gonna do it, don’t you? Amen.
Isn’t that what He said? It’s His word, I don’t remember Paul ever gave invitations, and yet God opened people’s hearts in many places. So I just put this in the Lord’s hands today, salvation part one, I guess, and I don’t know what the Lord has planned, whether He wants to continue with this at some point, but I’m just gonna look to God, but I just pray.
Let’s just have a word of prayer. Lord, I believe you’ve been here in spite of the vessel. Lord, I need your salvation as much as anybody, and I thank You that in spite of what we are, Lord, the hopeless condition in which we find ourselves, You have given us hope, hope beyond imagining because You’re motivated by the love and it reaches out with such mercy and such patience. You extend the divine strength, the divine power that meets every aspect of our need and has the power to take us all the way and you’re willing to do it.
Lord, encourage all those who know you to stand fast and to look to you and to believe you. But if there’s someone who doesn’t know you, oh God, call them into your kingdom, God bring them through into your kingdom, I pray in Jesus’ name. We just put all this in your hands and thank you in Jesus’ name, amen.[/ultimate_modal]
July 21, 2024 - No. 1659
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Salvation II” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Salvation II” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1659July 21, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1659 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, you know, my thoughts have, as we indicated last week, gone to the book of Romans. And last week, we talked about salvation part one, which was kind of a, I don’t know what Alan will do with that title, but we’ll see. But anyway, salvation is more than most people think of.
Most people, as I say, think of simply the forgiveness of sins and thereby, we get to go to heaven. But there is so much more to it. And that’s absolutely part one, because if my sins are not gone, then I’m in trouble.
But anyway, Paul, as we, just to give a brief review, Paul wrote to the Roman believers. He hadn’t been there yet, he had hoped to go and wanted to. He just had this burden, no doubt he was in prison at the time, had this burden to write to them. And one of the things that the Lord laid on his heart, and I’m glad he did, was to lay out the gospel that he preached in very clear terms, just reasoning it out, going through all the aspects of it, in such a wonderful, clear way.
And he writes to those that are called to belong to Jesus Christ, called to be his holy people. So it’s not a ticket to live as we please, is it? It’s calling us out of something into something else.
And so, you know, we talked about how he spoke of man’s condition in general as being in rebellion. He knows something about God, knows enough about God to be responsible. And yet he takes what he knows about God, and literally there’s something in him that rebels against and resists it, wants to go his own way. And the result of that is the wrath of God rests upon this planet.
You know, we’ve talked many times about how something was set in motion at the cross that is absolutely gonna happen. God set a plan in motion, there’s nothing anybody can do to change that, not the devil, not any person, it’s going to happen. And, you know, oftentimes, and I think we rightly emphasize that that has to do with what He did regarding us. That we were there, we participated, and there was something set in motion that absolutely determines our destiny and carries us through until that. And that’s absolutely true.
But I wonder how many times you’ve thought about it from this standpoint, when God judged Jesus, it was not just for my sin, it was for the sin of the world. We have said this before in the past, but he died as a representative of this corrupted creation. When God poured out his wrath upon his Son, he was pouring it out upon his creation. And we are living in the interim between that, that historical event that absolutely determines the destiny of this world, and the fulfillment of it.
You wanna know what the destiny of this world is, and everything it stands for? I don’t care, the good, the bad, the ugly, everything in this world is literally, you wanna know what its destiny is, you look at the cross. And you know that it lives, it exists under the wrath of God.
And, of course, Paul, you know, went on to describe the condition because a lot of Jews, the situation, because a lot of Jews regarded themselves as different from everybody else. The gentile world was in darkness, they had the prophets, they had the law, we’re good. And Paul made the point over and over again that that’s not what it’s based on. It doesn’t matter, God has fixed it to where everybody is under not just sin, but the power of sin.
And that’s why he said at the beginning, the gospel that he preached was the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. It’s not just religious doctrine, not just some formulaic thing that we think about and we just sort of believe it. I need power, how many of you need power? Yeah, I need something that is way beyond me. I need God to do something for me that’s impossible for me to do. And that’s the gospel that he preached.
And you know, we went over, we’ve alluded to the fact that God is absolutely a just God, He has to punish sin. You can’t ignore sin if you have a law that says the sinner must die, that law has gotta be fulfilled or He’s not being just, it was fulfilled. But His Son stepped in, willingly as our representative. And like they did in the Old Testament, those who come to Him, we put our hands on the head of the sacrifice and say, basically, that’s me.
You know, we sang the song this morning, I should have been crucified. He got what I deserved. But oh, he’s willingly stepped in to fulfill the Father’s plan, to open a door of hope for a hopeless people. Thank God this morning that we have all the ground that we need. It’s not just a hope so that, oh, I hope God fulfills what He’s… Oh, man, you wanna see what’s destiny is about, you can look at history. History determines our destiny, folks, if we can believe it. God wants us to come to understand that in a deeper way, and understand how that works out.
So anyway, of course, Paul dealt also with the question of how we enter into this. How do we come to a place where our sins are gone? Do we somehow work for it? And, of course, he spends chapter four talking about Abraham and how he came into a relationship where God said, You are righteous in my eyes.
Now, is there anybody here who can do something and cause God to say that about you? No, there was something that God instituted right there that absolutely sets the pattern and tells us what He is looking for. All we have to do is look at Abraham, and we see a man who heard God speak to him, who believed not simply the words, but the person behind the words, to the point that whenever God spoke, he believed what He said.
When God told him to do something, he did it. When every circumstance that could possibly rise up to say no, it can’t happen, he believed it anyway. There was a persistence in saying, I don’t care, God has spoken. I don’t care what rises up to say it’s impossible, I know it’s gonna be true because God said it. That’s exactly what he’s looking for from me.
How many of you run into impossibilities in your own life, and the devil just jumps all over you and say, look, you know, I know it’s a great thing, but not you. Oh my God, God wants to bring us to a place of such confidence that we can move ahead and enjoy what He has given.
And, you know, we talked last week also about the fact that coming into faith is not just some superficial thing. Abraham had to face some facts about himself. The impossibility of him fulfilling the role of being the father of many nations. His wife’s womb was dead. She was what, 90 years old when the son was born? And he was 100 years old, that was history. There was no human way that that could be fulfilled. And yet, he believed God and it was.
Folks, you and I have to come to terms with the reality of what we are. It says in the scripture, he faced the fact that his body was dead and his wife’s womb was dead and all that. And folks, when we come to faith, we have to face the facts. God has to show us the truth about ourselves, to the point where we realize that we are sinners, we are guilty, we are deserving of death, that we have no power to save ourselves, and we need a savior.
And oh boy, when we surrender to that truth and say, okay, I’m done, I surrender, I’m in your hands. You’re the potter, I’m the clay. How many songs did we sing this morning that just expressed all of these simple truths? My life is in your hands, and you’re gonna have to take care of something I have no power to deal with.
And thank God, thank God the guilt of my sins was taken away simply, not because I earned it, not because I could possibly deserve it, but because I put my faith in what God said He did at that cross. And it’s not something I’m waiting for him to somehow work out. I look back and there it is, it’s the cross. He knew about me and all of the depth of my need that I’m still discovering. I’m still finding out why He had to save me, and why it’s impossible for me to do anything about it. But at every point, I look back and I realize there’s a God who knew about me, who did something for me long before I discovered America.
And here I am in such need, and He doesn’t look to me and say, okay, here’s what’s wrong with you, fix it. He says, look to me, look at the cross. Look at what I did. I did something there that absolutely, you can bank your eternal destiny on, on what I did for you at the cross. That’s what we’re called to, folks. Thank God!
When God can bring us to the point of faith and surrender and repentance, all these things that we know about, God, I mean, then we’re in a position where, you know, salvation part one is taken care of, because God has taken care of the guilt of our sins, the things that separated us from a holy God. And now we have the freedom to have a relationship with a holy God. That’s incredible!
Think again of the picture that God painted so many times of Isaiah seeing the glory of God, the purity of God, and realizing in a moment of time, the truth about himself. And yet he found a God that did something about that, didn’t he? There was a coal that was taken off of the altar and it touched the very thing that he was conscious of. Oh, everything I say is wrong because I’m wrong. And the Lord touched his lips with a sacrificial coal of a sacrificial altar and took care of that.
My God, I need that same God. We need that same God. But thank God, He’s available. That’s what the good news is about. That’s what caused Paul to get up in the morning, caused Paul to write all of these things in spite of languishing in prison. That wasn’t what his life was about, he saw that was beyond all of this. And that’s what God wants us to see.
And so salvation part two is, I mean, chapters 5 through 8 in particular delve into that. And I have wrestled with, how in the world do you deal with all of this? Because there’s so much, so many aspects of truth that are all important. And Paul is step by step going through this. And I think I’m just gonna start and I don’t know how far we’ll get, but I’m not gonna worry about it. Lord, that’s up to you. You take my thoughts and guide them, because I don’t know what to do with it.
But the question really you have to raise when, all right, now the relationship is there, the barrier is gone. Sins are gone, I’m forgiven, now what? Because it’s pretty obvious that we can come into that relationship with God, and yet here we are still living in this broken world. What’s that about? What’s God’s purpose? How do we navigate that? What does salvation mean, in terms of our having to live here? Does God give us, as some people actually think, does God give us a license to sin by just blotting out our sins, or is He calling us to be his holy people?
Well, I don’t have any power to do that. You remember what the problem was, when He said all have sinned? That’s one, so we all have a rap sheet that’s enough to enough to send us to the judgment and wrath. We all have the rap sheet, we have sin, but it goes on and says, we fall short, we continue to fall short. There’s nothing we can do but fall short.
And all you have to do is see a glimpse of glory, as different ones did in the scriptures. And we know, whoa, I’m not like that. And yet, here we are. And does God have a plan for dealing with that? And if so, what is his plan?
Okay, so chapter 5, let’s just kind of look at some of these things. And I don’t know how long we’ll hang on particular scriptures, but I’m just gonna start. Therefore, all right, in view of salvation part one, and the fact that it’s based upon coming to a place of confidence and faith in him, surrender, facing facts, all of that.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,” thank God for the past tense there, thank God. If you’ve come to that place of surrendering your life and putting all of your hope in what He did at the cross, there is something that is in place right now. I have a clean, erased rap sheet. What an amazing, amazing thing. How could such a thing be? We have been justified, declared righteous. There is nothing that God can charge me with, because it’s all been paid for and taken care of. His wrath has already been poured out upon my sin, thank God. We’ve been justified through faith, again, that’s the ticket to get into this place. We have peace with God, all right?
There is a relationship where you look down in the passage and you find out we were his enemies. Well, now we’ve come into a state of peace. There is a surrender. We’ve changed sides, folks. If you’re still a part of this world system and this is where your heart is, you haven’t entered in. God calls us to a separation from the heart, the purpose of this world. We live here, but we’re not of this world, we’re of citizens of a heavenly kingdom. And that’s what our eyes need to be focused upon, it and His purposes.
And God has made every provision. You know, we just sang the song this morning that says He’ll give you everything. He’s not talking about Cadillacs and mansions. He’s talking about everything we need for the fulfillment of His purpose that He has declared. He set the ball rolling at the cross and the resurrection, but boy, it’s got everything you and I need. Anybody need anything this morning? That’s what the Lord wants us to get, because we all need him this morning, starting with me. Thank God, the peace with God, that’s the foundation. Now I’m in a relationship with Him, now what?
All right, and, of course, it’s through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now it says, “Through whom we have,” once again the past tense, “We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” Now, I’m quite sure, I haven’t looked this up, but I’m quite sure that have gained access is that wonderful Greek perfect tense. It looks to something that has happened in the past, but it’s not just an event that’s come and gone. This is something that has happened in the past, but there is an ongoing result.
See, everyone here has at some point in the past, walked through the doors of the church. Is that right? You have come. Well, I’m also saying not only you came through the doors, but you’re still here. That’s the perfect tense, you’ve got both senses, all captured in that one Greek tense. We have gained access, that means we have it. Thank God, access by faith again, into something, into this grace in which we now stand.
I’ve had that phrase come to my mind time and time again, but I just pray that God will help us to see something. You know, all the world is under the wrath of God. That’s how God sees people who are in rebellion against him. But now, He’s talking about a different place. He’s talking about a place that he calls grace.
Imagine if you were in a place of danger and you knew that judgment was gonna fall and there was no way to escape it. And then all of a sudden, you found out that there was a place and it was a place of safety, it was a place where that threat was gone. And now, how do I get in there? How in the world can I leave this terrible place that I find myself? How can I get into that place of safety?
And, of course, it’s through Jesus Christ and what he’s done and our confidence in him. He has opened a door into a place that has a wall around it. It walls off all human virtue, all human effort, anything except the grace of God. He is the door through which we enter. Thank God for the Son of God, for what he was willing to do so that we could enter into a place. We could leave the place where wrath of God reigns, and we could step into a place where grace reigns.
And I feel like my definition of grace has evolved. You know, that traditional “unmerited favor” is a little bit, you know, it doesn’t really go into the depth of it. And when we’re talking about having been under the power of sin, I need something that’s got some power to it, got more power than sin does. And so, grace is God’s power at work, saving sinners. How’s that for a definition? God’s power at work, saving sinners.
And you could add unworthy sinners if you want, but I mean, that’s what I need. I need God at work if anything’s gonna change. He can’t just say, okay, here’s the plan, you do it, and leave it to my resources. It ain’t gonna happen. I need absolutely the intervention of God at every point.
And that’s what He wants, that’s what He’s teaching us, ‘cause we don’t live that way naturally. We run in our own wisdom and our own strength. We blindly live out our lives so much of the time, and we don’t realize what His purpose is, we’re blind to it. And when we face something, we don’t remember we’re in a place of grace.
And grace has so many aspects. It’s not just the strength that He exerts, that He gives us and all of that. It’s His favor. It is His favor, okay? It means instead of regarding me as his enemy, deserving of His wrath and just awaiting that day when that’s gonna happen, now he sees me as His child. He loves me, He’s for me.
How many of you can get up in the morning, and you know in your heart and you believe actively in your heart, God loves me, He’s for me? He knows everything that’s wrong with me, and He loves me anyway. And everything He wants me to do, He’s ready, He’s there with His arms outstretched saying, I’m here. I’m here not to punish you, not to be mad at you, I’m here to help you. I know you need things that you don’t have in yourself, I get that, that’s why it’s called salvation. But I have brought you into a place now, where this is how I see you.
Folk, do we see ourselves that way? Do we really? I mean, we can get this doctrinally to where we could assert the right thing. We could say what we believe, but emotionally, how many times do we get in places where it doesn’t feel like that and we’re not so sure? What did Abraham do in those times, when it was impossible, when all hope was seemingly gone? Did that nullify what God had promised?
See, that’s what God wants you and me to get today. You’re going to find, if you’re not right in that place now, or you haven’t been, you will be. If you’re his child, you’re gonna run into situations where everything about you is gonna cry out and say, this is impossible, there is no hope, I can’t do this, all hope is gone. And the Lord wants us to get as we never have before.
We’re gonna need it in this hour, folks. We’re gonna need a confidence that sees beyond earth’s circumstances, sees beyond our feelings, every circumstance that rises up, every temptation. See, all those things are things that Paul is gonna unfold in these chapters is, how does this work? What now? How do we navigate this life in terms of salvation? What’s God’s plan for this life? Why in the world are we still here? And that’s what the gospel unfolds, but oh, what a place it starts.
These first few verses really are kind of a summary, kind of a broad picture, and then he begins to unfold it as he goes along. But we’ve gained access by faith into this grace in which we do what? Now stand. There’s a couple of wonderful words there.
How about the now one? How many times does it feel like, oh God, I’m falling, I can’t handle this, this is too bad, this is too difficult? And yet he says, now. God is always a God of the now. He does not look to us to depend upon how we feel, because we will feel like Abraham did. There’s no hope, I don’t see any way naturally.
I don’t either, and I’ll tell you, there’s not a day goes by that it doesn’t get more apparent to me. There is nothing I can look to here, not one thing. No goodness, no strength, no virtue, no nothing. But I’ve got a place to look, folks. He doesn’t tell me to look in here, he tells me to look to the Son of God who gave himself for me. Praise God, he set something in motion that involves me. How amazing is that?[/ultimate_modal]
July 28, 2024 - No. 1660
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Salvation II” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Salvation II” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1660July 28, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1660 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: God is going to take us, take a people out of this dark world and take us all the way to a place where we will stand there robed in the glory of God. And we will be so bright that people here, it’d burn their eyes out to look at us. Do you really believe that God has that purpose for you? Has He ever made that real? I pray that He will because if we can get the reality of that, I don’t mean just some emotional thing, but I mean, if we can get the reality of that where we can believe Him, we can stand in these times, and know that He is right here in the now.
We now stand, why? Because of his grace is right here now. We know what He did, we know where we’re going, but He’s also here. And that’s what I need. I need Him this moment. I need Him right now. We’re doing what I’m doing. I can’t do this, but I am looking to him for his power and his grace.
Thank God, so we glory in our sufferings. Why would we do something crazy like that? Oh, it says, Because, there’s a cause, there’s a reason we know that suffering produces, or pressure produces perseverance. Now, if I am going in a certain direction and I encounter resistance of some kind, but I keep going, do you see how that works on that quality in me, that ability to keep going, that’s what perseverance is, patience.
That’s willing to say, I am not gonna give up just because there’s a pressure here. Just because it gets hard, I’m not gonna give up. I see that it’s worth everything to know Him. His purpose is worth everything. Not only that, I know He’s with me to help me in the process. So I am willing to cooperate with Him in the outworking of part two salvation. Okay? He’s brought me to this place. I have a relationship with Him. Now, He’s calling me to walk through something because there’s something He’s accomplishing in me. Praise God!
You know, this is a good place to perhaps drop in I thought I started to say a while ago. There’s a life that’s been born in the heart of everyone that’s been born of Him. See, that’s what… We gotta come to a place where we’re in full agreement with Him. We’ve turned from our sin and handed our life over, but we’ve also invited Him to come in and live. Yes. And in part, a new heart and a new life. Yes. And He’s done that.
How does Peter describe that? What have we been born of? He compares the new birth to an incorruptible seed. Now, what’s a corruptible seed? It’s part of this world, is this death. I mean, it just doesn’t last. Life that is born into this world is subject to what? Death. It can’t last. Everything about this world is corrupt.
And of course we know again is destiny, but there is a life that is born into the heart of every person that is born of His Spirit. It’s an incorruptible life. You can’t kill it. (chuckles) Thank God! That’s what gives me the hope that He’s put something in me. But He wants that to grow up and become more like Him. He wants me to learn how to live that out and not my old nature.
And the only way that’s gonna happen is he’s gonna have to put me in situations that show me my old nature trying to resist and trying to get in the way. But He wants me to come to a place where my default reaction is to go to Him and say, Lord, you’re showing me what I need. You’re showing me what’s wrong, what’s lacking here, but you’ve promised me to take me through. Lord, help me right now to stand, to rely upon your ability to get through this and to triumph and to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. That’s perseverance.
Do you see where we’ve got every resource we need? That’s what the Lord wants you and me to get today. Because we will absolutely, if we don’t really get this, man, life is a struggle. Trying to quote, “serve God,” is a struggle. I mean it’s a fight regardless. But if we’re fighting without this knowledge, my God, what a terrible battle it is. Thank God that we can actually come to a place where we see that, you see what God is doing.
We talked about putting ourselves in the potter’s hand. What’s that about? Is that not surrendering our will and our plans and saying, Lord, you’ve got a purpose for me. That’s what I want. And so I am trusting You to work out Your purpose, to shape me according to what Your plan is for me. And I know in the process You’re going to want me to exercise the Spirit that you have put in me. You’re gonna give me the ability to do that. So everything comes from you.
But do you see how it has to involve us? He is wanting… Again, what did Abraham do when God told him to do something or when He promised him something? He believed. Do you see where that same pattern, there was something that was totally impossible, but God had promised. Abraham persistently believed God and it came to pass.
Is that not what He’s called us to do? Everything that he’s talking about, this pathway to glory is totally impossible, but God’s promised and God has supplied everything that we need. So, where does that leave us? It leaves us walking in faith, looking to Him, dealing with issues as they arise in our lives and they will arise.
But all we can get to a point where he said, Oh, what next? Oh, poor me. I need a box of chocolates, or whatever. God wants us to get to the point where we just say, Praise God, I understand what’s going on and I know what God’s doing and I know where it’s going to lead. This is awesome where God has given me the chance to experience Him.
Isn’t that what this is about? It’s wonderful to know about God, but how are we going to experience Him unless we do it on the field of battle in situations where we need Him and we can’t handle it, which is like all the time. We just don’t know that. But God’s helping us, isn’t He? And so you’ve got this pattern worked out of perseverance and character. And character brings hope.
So, there’s this building of our… There’s this growing up of a life that He’s planted in here, but He wants us to cooperate in the growth process. And yet He supplied everything we need.
You go back to chapter two sometime and you look at the judgment, when God is gonna judge everybody and they fall into two categories. You got those that are stubborn and clinging to their sin, but you’ve got others who through perseverance, seek after glory and so forth, and He’s gonna give them eternal life. So, you’ve got people that agree with sin and people who persevere. That’s two categories. Which are you in?
We need the Lord, don’t we? Yes. But, oh, how faithful He is. This is salvation, part two. Getting rid of our sins and the guilt is awesome, but I need something that goes way beyond that. I need something to help me live out what He wants and to be the kind of person He wants. I can’t do that, but He gives me what I need. Okay?
None of this is new, but I just pray that God will make it new because I know that everyone, everyone that knows Him especially, you’re in a place right now where you need Him. You’re in a place where things are difficult. In fact, you may be in a situation, it looks totally impossible. Ain’t no way I can handle this. Lord, I can’t deal with this. God help me. I see this need in me or I see this situation, God, you’ve dropped me in a place that’s totally impossible.
Yeah, He did. Why would He do that? Because He wants to make Himself real to you. He wants to get me and every one of us to the point where we are gonna trust Him and believe Him in the battle and draw from Him the strength to do what is right in His eyes and know that we don’t have to give in. It doesn’t have to defeat us. Yes, there’s a terrible power that’s gonna do everything in its power to hold us back and fight against this. But there is a greater power. Thank God. Thank God!
Boy, I haven’t even gotten through the first few verses here, have I? Character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured out. See, that’s the other thing. It’s not just, Okay, I’m for you. This is love motivating everything. God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit has been given to us.
Thank God! “You see it just the right time when we were still powerless. Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love….”
It’s wonderful thing. It’s one thing for God to say, I love you. But how do we know that? We look at the cross, we look at what He did for undeserving, helpless, hopeless sinners. He demonstrated it. I pray that God will help us to learn how to put our love, put the love He puts in us into action. But, “He demonstrated his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Thank God! Okay?
“Since we now have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him.” Now he’s going into destiny? “For if while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life?”
Now, do you see salvation’s part one and two? It’s pretty plain there, isn’t it? We’re reconciled through his death. You know, I have oftentimes mentioned this, I’ve done this overseas in seminars and I’ll point out to somebody. You know that we’re not saved by Christ’s death. They look at me. We are reconciled by his death. The thing that separates us from a holy God was done away by the blood of Jesus Christ.
But the salvation he’s talking about here is now is the answer to, now what? Because if all God did was to wipe away my guilt, erase my rap sheet, that doesn’t help me. I’m still the same person who created that rap sheet. I need a salvation from me.(chuckles) I need something to happen to the guy who created all those sins. That’s what salvation is about.
How does such a thing happen? Obviously, you can’t just give me rules to go by. I need something more powerful than that sin that would hold me captive. I need the power of divine life born in my heart and in my life. That’s what saves me. And so all of salvation is learning how to cooperate with his life that is living in me. Praise God!
I don’t know how far to take this. But anyway, I think I will just summarize a lot of the rest of this pretty quickly. He goes into the fact of how we became sinners. How did you become a sinner? We were born that way. We were born that way. Okay. In other words, our first father, Adam, deliberately rebelled and sinned against God and it corrupted the very life that he had in him. And that is what has been passed.
So you talk about the past determining destiny. That’s a pretty good example. He brought forth a race of people who live under the wrath of God. And it’s not just that they sort of automatically do it. It’s they agree with it. If you point it out, they agree with it and they rebel against the light that would point it out.
But God has started another family. He sent His Son to that cross. I mean one act of sin brought sin upon the whole race and death as a result of it. But one act of obedience dealt with all of the sins of the world and brought forth a brand new life and a brand new family. And what God shares with us is not just the forgiveness from the cross and the blood and all the wonderful things that stands for, but it’s the life that came out of that too. There is a brand new family that has been born and that’s what determines our destiny. Thank God!
You know, we’ve used the example before of the corn of wheat, the grain of wheat. And you could ask, if I hold this, what am I holding? I’m holding, you know, you could say it’s one seed, but what happens when part of that dies, that needs to die and part of it lives? It grows up, doesn’t it? There’s life in there that has the power to sprout out and to create more and to create more and to create more.
And just like Adam’s life got proliferated through the whole human race, there’s a life in Jesus Christ that absolutely is shared with everyone who bows the knee and surrenders their heart and their life to him. There’s a life born in here that cannot die. And you want a foundation for Christian living. What is my hope of glory, by the way, in Colossians? What hope does somebody like me have to wind up in a place of glory one day and stand there and shine like the sun? What’s my hope? Christ. Christ in me. Nothing less, nothing short. I have got to have Him in me.
And what God is doing for every single one of us right now, this is where this is relevant. God will put you and me in situations and you’re probably in one right now or in several where the only resource, if we’re gonna really stand and go forward with Him, we’re gonna have to look to Him. We’re gonna have to be honest about needs that He exposes in us. Bring them to Him, lay them in His feet, believe in Him. Trust in Him for the grace and the strength to do what He said and what He wants us to do.
And we’re gonna grow and we’re gonna become more like Him. We’re gonna experience this God. He is not interested in having a bunch of theology students and learning all about it with our heads. He wants you to know Him. He wants you to know how much He loves you. He wants you to be so connected to His plans, His eternal plans for you, that you are able to see past everything that this world has to offer. Praise God!
There’s one scripture that I wanted to touch on just very briefly ‘cause it’s toward the end of the passage. And he talks about in verse 17, I think it is, “For if by the trespass, the sin of the one man,” that’s Adam, right? So, if by his sin, “death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness” do what? “Reign” where? “In life.” How? “Through that one man, Jesus Christ.”
That’s what salvation is all about. Do you see, again, salvation is part one and two? He does away with the trespasses. But there is a grace that enables us to navigate this life and to be victorious. Not because we’re something, not because we have feelings even, but simply the ability to put one foot in front of another and rejoice in Him and praise Him and thank Him, offer the sacrifice of praise that we sing about and say, Lord, I know that there are parts of me that are dying, but I know there’s a part you put in here that’s gonna live forever.
That’s what this life is about. It’s not about what I can accomplish here. Everything is about what You’re accomplishing in me that will last forever. And I want to walk in the experience of real salvation. I thank You that You did away with my rap sheet, but now I want to become the person you intended for me to be in the beginning. I wanna see not just the cross in the end of my sins, but I wanna see the resurrection.
Didn’t Paul say I wanna know him? The power of his resurrection, conform to his death, all those things. And he made that the goal of his life. Somehow Paul saw the connection between what God did in history and the destiny and the fact that there’s not a thing that can stop that. That’s what He’s called us to step into.
But we need to be participants in that. And how do we do that? Everything we need has been given by Him. I’ll tell you to Him, be the glory. Part of me says, Who am I to preach this? You need it as bad as the people do, and I agree, I do. There are things in me right now that I need, but I know I’m not alone. God doesn’t choose perfect people to do what I’m doing. It’s a good thing ‘cause we don’t have any. But I’ll tell you what, God wants us to know, wants us to take this word to heart and realize you have what you need.
Do you understand what your life is about? Do you understand the basis of that has already happened, history has happened. The destiny is not something that we just sorta hope somehow. This is something that God will work out in us when all He wants us to do is just to believe Him and to persist in believing Him. And he’s gonna give you the strength even to do that.
That’s why he says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to do of his good purpose.” And you see how grace is not just this vague thing, it’s God’s power at work, saving sinners. Well, that’s me. I need Him. I need Him this morning, but He’s faithful. He’s gonna take us through.
I don’t care what it is in your life right now, where you see something that’s wrong in you or some situation you can’t handle. You have every right to bring it to Him. If you’re His, if you surrendered your life in Him, you stand by grace. That means He looks upon you, not with disgust and contempt because you’re in a weak place. He looks upon you with mercy and with favor and with love and says, I’m here to help. Believe Me, trust Me. Look to Me, bring this to Me. Experience My salvation in a fresh way. Right here, right now.
Salvation is a very progressive thing. Didn’t Paul talk about the message being foolishness to those who are perishing? That’s right. But to us who are being saved. So, there, he talks about the process to us who are being saved. It is what? The power of God.
You see that theme everywhere in the scriptures? Salvation parts one and two. We’re in the middle of part two. If you know Him, if you don’t know Him, oh my God, you need Him. Yes. If you don’t know Him, you’re under the wrath of God. You will look at the cross if you wanna know what your destiny is.
But that destiny can change because of Jesus. And I’ll tell you, when He calls your name, you say, Here am I, Lord. I surrender. I hand my life. This life I can’t keep anyway. I hand it over to you. Change me. Give me the new heart, the new life. Let the old one perish. I’m done with it, Lord. I just want you and I know that, and I’m gonna live from this point on looking forward to where this is headed. And I know it’s headed. I know where it’s headed. It’s headed to glory. It’s not because I can engineer any of that. It’s because of what you’ve done. Praise God! Praise the Lord![/ultimate_modal]
August 4, 2024 - No. 1661
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Five Laws” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Five Laws” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1661August 4, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1661 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, praise the Lord! You think the Lord’s trying to encourage us in our songs this morning? Anybody need encouragement? Absolutely, we are in a war and the devil is not happy. And I just confess, I have struggled with what I’ve had on my heart this morning and last week, which was with a bit of an interruption. But anyway, I believe the reason that for the struggle is the devil doesn’t like it.
If There’s one thing that he hates, it’s the truth of the gospel and what took place on the cross, what took place in the empty tomb. And he knows, he is terrified that people will understand the gospel.
And, as those of you who have been here recently know, we’ve been kind of going through Romans, the first part of Romans where Paul is unlocking the gospel that God had revealed to him, and that he had been commissioned to preach among the Gentiles. And I believe in all my heart, that’s a message that the devil has done everything in His power to compromise.
There are so many ways that people can somehow become Christians without really getting the depth of what the gospel is about. And so just very briefly in the way of introduction, Paul unlocks the fact that the whole human race is under the wrath of God and they’re under the wrath of God because that what they do know, they rebel against, they refuse to listen to it. They refuse to recognize God’s mercy and his patience that would lead them to repent. Instead, they choose to cling to their sin. Therefore, judgment hangs over this world.
And, of course, he had to deal with the fact that the Jews thought they were righteous because they had Moses’ law and they kept it up to a point in a fashion. And Paul has to come down to the point where he realizes, and he expresses that it doesn’t make any difference whether you know the law or you don’t. You’re still a sinner.
And he quotes a whole lot of scripture about that, where you have to come to a realization that sin reigns, that sin is a terrible power and that the people of the world live under a power called sin. And it’s not just a bunch of mistakes. It is a tremendous power that grips this planet that we need to understand if we’re gonna understand salvation, okay? And so that was what he was unlocking.
And he deals with the fact briefly that the law was given not to help the situation, but to reveal it. The law can’t help us. I mean, how many of you use a mirror to comb your hair, to wash your face? We understand the mirror is meant to be a reflection. We can go along with a lot of ideas about what we actually look like. Our hair could be a mess, our face could be all streaked with dirt. But a mirror shows us the truth about ourselves. And the first thing God has to do is to show us the truth about ourselves. And that was the purpose of the law in the first place. It was never given as a path so we could help ourselves to become righteous in God’s eyes.
And so he unlocks the simple truth that God has another way, that it’s what Jesus did in our place. He absolutely stepped in and took the guilt that was mine. He got what I deserved. And Paul was, I mean you’ll see as we go along, how real this was to Paul. This was not just some doctrine. He just didn’t look up a bunch of scriptures and say, Oh yeah, we’re all sinners. It had to become very personal, didn’t it?
But it was and so he unlocks the fact that the truth is revealed even in the Old Testament, that people are absolutely made righteous in God’s eyes, not by anything they do or any virtue that they present to God, but simply because God has made a provision and the person believes it and believes it in the face of everything that would rise up against it.
And I sense from the way the service has gone, that the devil has risen up quite a bit, hasn’t he? To tell you it can’t be so, it’s not for you. It’s 1,001 lies like Brother Ron was talking about. Well, he has done the same with me, but I thank God that he’s defeated.
And even as Abraham faced the facts that seemed to militate against the promise of God, seemed to make it impossible, he still believed God anyway. And folks, that’s what God is calling upon his people today to do.
I’ll guarantee for everyone who really knows the Lord and has been seeking him and seeking to walk with him, you have encountered things this week that seem impossible and seem to just fight it and say, This cannot be. Well, that’s the devil’s job. God is bringing forth a people who will stand in the face of that. But we are not gonna stand because of any virtue or any ability in us. We’re gonna stand because we steadfastly believe in what God did for us on the cross through Jesus Christ, his Son, thank God. And so Abraham was declared a righteous man.
And then you begin to get into chapter five where he unlocks, he gives a hint that, okay, now we made the point, I’ll back up. We made the point that there are two problems that we have. One is what we have done, that’s the guilt. But the other is that our utter inability to live up to the glory of God, God created us to be glorious beings in fellowship with him ruling over a perfect creation, that got thoroughly messed up in the garden when Adam made the wrong choice. And he has passed that choice and the conflict, the results of that onto every single one of us. And so God is dealing, God dealt with the guilt of our sins by punishing Christ in our place, okay?
But now he begins to unlock the fact that brings us into a relationship with God, where instead of living under His wrath, we live under His grace. And what is grace? It’s God’s power at work saving sinners. It’s an active thing. It’s God literally intervening in the life of a helpless sinner to give me power I just don’t have. Anybody need that? Yeah. That’s the only way we stand, it’s by grace, okay? And our confidence in that needs to be in that and not in the things that we see and feel.
And, of course, he talks about the fact that we are sinners because we were born into a family, but we’re righteous because we’re born into a different family. And we receive not just a certificate of membership in the family, but we receive the life that was in Jesus. It’s not just about the cross, it’s about the empty tomb and the life that brought him forth. That’s the life that he shares with everyone who comes to him, by the way of the cross.
Praise God, praise God, I have no way to get to that. That’s something that I was gonna say at some point this morning. And I think this would be as good a place as any. Our world today is full of deception of every kind. One of those deceptions is, or one kind of deception is, the devil will invent every way that he can think of to present a version of so-called Christianity and Christian faith that bypasses the cross.
Oh we got a Jesus who loves us so much, all we had to do is believe in him, or we just believe in him in this mental sense and accept, Okay, I accept him, quote unquote. And he died for my sin, so I get to go to heaven. It misses the cross, it misses the reason why he died. It misses the depth of our need. Oh, may God help us to face the facts of why he had to die.
Praise God and of course, remember chapter six gets into the wonderful other fact that we need to realize. When we are guilty, when we do something, when we fall short, what do we do? Where do we go for forgiveness? And on what ground do we go to Him? By the blood of Christ, well, where did that happen? That was on the cross, wasn’t it? We look to the cross and say, just, Yes Lord, I need help. I need forgiveness, I don’t deserve it. There’s no way I could make up for this.
The devil will trick people into thinking, I gotta make up for being a sinner. No you don’t, Jesus already paid the price. That’s what we’ve been singing this morning, praise God! What he did was a full and complete sacrifice for my sins. I look there with faith that God has already punished that sin. And if I’m willing to agree with him about it and not soft pedal it and say, Oh I’m sorry I made a boo boo, but realize where that came from and how much I need Him, there’s a forgiveness we can be as clean as if it had never ever happened. Praise God, what a salvation, what an amazing thing.
But now in chapter six, he comes to a different point where it’s not just about after the fact, okay, I’ve messed up, where do I go? He says we need to go to the cross before we do that, why? Because it wasn’t just that he died in my place, it’s that I died in him. I died, I was there. That’s a hard thing for us to wrap our minds around, but God did something. In fact, he took the whole human race into that grave with him, judged for the sin that rules this planet.
So, I died with him, what does that mean? That means I’ve been set free from my old master. Now, I may not understand that. I may have to learn how to not agree with that old master because he’ll come along and give me all kinds of orders. But I have the power and the right, the right to say, no, and to learn how to recognize that I’ve not only died there, but I was raised to a new life. I have a new master.
And so chapter six is not just about saying, no, to what’s wrong, it’s saying, yes, to what’s right and saying, I have the power to actually live a life that is pleasing to God, not because of any power I possess, but because of what he did for me. I was there and so I get to live out something that is history.
[Audience] Yes.It’s wonderful that I can think about, Oh, I’m gonna get in all kinds of situations and his grace will be there to help me. Well, the problem is we get into situations. We don’t feel His grace, we don’t feel like it. It doesn’t look like it. The devil’s telling us 1,001 contrary things. But God wants us to unpack these different aspects of the gospel, to see the cross in the light that God revealed it to his servant, Paul.
There’s a reason God is unpacking this in this kind of detail. He wants us to understand what He did for us so that we can benefit, we can walk in that truth. Praise God, praise God! Anybody need to learn more about this? I mean, I know that in a way, a lot of this is repetitious, but I need this. I don’t just need it in general. I need it this morning because I feel my need. I feel my weakness, I feel the enemy just fighting this. He has done everything in his power to discourage me from even talking about some of these things. But he is a liar, praise God!
All right, and then we come to chapter seven and it’s awfully easy when you read this to say, What in the world is that? That’s a discouraging chapter. Why do I have to wade through all that stuff? That’s just a real downer. I mean, here I am trying to get encouraged and all that does is tear me down and make me feel bad.
But do you believe there’s a reason why the Lord put this in here? Do you think it has a place? Do you think there’s a need for it? Well, one thing that he does make a point in the first part of this chapter and it looks to the cross about something else because when we are just simply part of the world and does not God’s law reign over us? Are we not responsible to what God says is right and wrong? Yeah, we’re under that law. In fact, that’s what the cross is about. It’s the condemnation that results from our not obeying that law. That’s why we’re put to death.
But what Paul makes the point is this, we didn’t just die to sin, we died to the law itself. Do you know the law has been taken off the table? That sounds an awful lot like you could see the devil taking that in the wrong direction? But that’s not the point, God has taken us out from under an old master, one that we could never live up to but it’s God.
And he uses a simple illustration, in God’s design now, marriage is ‘til death do us part. And so he talks about the situation where a woman is bound by that law to her husband as long as he lives, but if he dies, then she’s free to marry somebody else. Well, we have died to the law, why? So that we could just be free and do as we please? No, so that we could be married to another. God wants us to be married in this sense spiritually to His Son, so that that life that’s in him gets reproduced in us. And we’ve been set free from the power of the law to do that, praise God!
So now he gets into some things, some of it, I’m not gonna try to unpack every bit of it, even if I thought I could.
(audience laughs)
So anyway, verse, what is it? Four of chapter seven. So my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ. Why? That you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead. Now why is that, what’s the purpose of that? Why is that significant? In order that we might bear fruit for God.
Anybody here has power to bear fruit for God apart from this? See that’s the whole point of the gospel. The gospel has got to paint a true, honest picture of our need before it’s ever really worth anything, before it’s ever really the gospel, okay? And I see in this passage, God took Paul through some deep waters to get him to that point.
But anyway, it says, For when we were in the realm of the flesh, that was the dominating principle in our lives, in other words, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us. Now what’s he talking about there? You remember how he talked about earlier that the law actually comes along and makes it worse? Why? Because what does human nature do when law is imposed on it, it says, Uh uh. There’s automatically this resistance, this rebellion.
And so one of the things that God did was to impose the law so that our problem would become more obvious. It’s more than just a mirror that I can look in. It actually provokes the very thing that’s wrong with me, okay? That’s what he’s saying there.
They were at work in us so that the result of that was we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we were prisoners, weren’t we? By dying to what once bound us, we have become released. We have been released from the law, why? So that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. So there are two ways to serve God that Paul’s gonna deal with here. Now, this is a, well, let me go ahead.
For what shall we say then? What’s the conclusion of this? Does that make the law sinful? If sin is made worse, it rises up because the law is imposed. Does that make the law sinful? No, that’s not the point at all. Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law, for I would not have known what coveting was, really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’?
What’s coveting by the way? You want something that belongs to somebody else, you’re jealous, there’s a selfish possession, spirit of possession there, okay? So he says, I wouldn’t have even known that was wrong until God had told me it was.
All right, But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment…. There’s a principle in us that actually takes advantage of God’s law when it’s imposed, it rises up and takes a deeper hold and deeper control. That’s the problem, folks, and you know what? Well, I’ll get to it in a minute, but praise God!
All right, Sin seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment produced in me every kind of coveting, for apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I’m not gonna try to unpack that. People have tried to explain it. The Bible doesn’t explain it beyond that. But one thing it does mean is there’s a sense of responsibility that comes with light and with truth, with the knowledge of what’s right and wrong. Once we know that we’re responsible, okay? I’ll leave the rest in God’s hands as to how that’s applied, okay?
I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me. And it was though, Oh God, I got this wonderful way I can be righteous. And sin just took over and said, Uh uh, no way, all right?
Deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. So then the law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. Did that which is good then become death to me? By no means, nevertheless, now, here’s a key, In order that sin might be recognized as sin. It used what is good to bring about my death so that through the commandment, sin might become utterly sinful.
Do you see where God’s going with this? He talks about in chapter two about the goodness and the patience of God that would lead men to repentance. But how can we be led to true repentance if we don’t know what we need to repent it of?
[Audience] That’s right.God has got to show us the absolute unvarnished truth about ourselves, okay? So Paul goes on, all right, We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual sold as a slave to sin. Now this is the passage that’s confusing because you read it and you say, My God, is this what Paul’s life was like? That doesn’t make any sense. Here’s Paul the Apostle, and he’s painting a gloomy picture of struggle and strife and total failure.
You know I believe with all my heart that God has to take us through deep personal experiences many times to reveal truth to us. We can hear things in scripture, but unless we go through them, it doesn’t really become personal. You could read for example, all of the scriptures that Paul quotes from the Old Testament. There’s none righteous, no not one, and on and on and on. All those scriptures that are absolutely true. But oh my God, don’t we need to be able to see the true condition of our own heart?
We all come to the gospel with different preconditions and preconceptions is the word I want. And some of them are religious, some of them are just natural, the way the world thinks, the way we see ourselves, the way we’ve been taught to see ourselves. And that gets in the way of truth.
Think about Paul’s background, what was Paul’s background? Yeah, he was a Pharisee, he was known as Saul in those days. Now, what was the deal with the Pharisees? They were a religious sect among the Jews that had built a religion out of the law of Moses. Now they made some very convenient interpretations of that, but nonetheless, they had compiled for themselves a religion of do’s and don’ts of religious practices. And in their minds, As long as I do that, God will accept me and count me as one of the righteous.
You remember what Jesus said on several occasions, He talked from the first place, He talked about there their being like cups. They’re beautiful and washed on the outside, but you don’t dare look inside ‘cause it is full of all kinds of corruption. So that’s what your religion is like.
But he also talked about the day when a Pharisee and a tax collector, tax collectors were despised as crooked collaborators with Rome, sinners, looked down upon by the religious. And so this Pharisee gets in there and prays, I thank you Lord that I’m not like other men. I do this, I do that, I do the other. I’m especially glad I’m not like him.
Oh my God, but do you see something in that? Do you see someone who has any idea what’s in here? What does the Lord say in the Old Testament, Man looks, where? On the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And so here was a man who had no clue what the true condition of his heart was and he was just presenting himself as you know, Here I am, I’ve done all this. Therefore, you regard me as righteous, you accept me. I’m so proud, and used it to look down.
Folks, we have no way, if we know the true condition of our heart apart from Christ, there is not a person on this planet we have the right to look down upon, not one.[/ultimate_modal]
August 11, 2024 - No. 1662
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Five Laws” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Five Laws” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1662August 11, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1662 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: How many of you think that God shows us our hearts again to discourage us, to make us feel hopeless, worthless? You’re just under my condemnation. You just keep trying. But I know you’re such a terrible person. Just, you know, my God, that’s miserable. That’s not what God wants. But God has to take us down. God has to take us through the cross.
I said earlier, there’s so many versions of the so-called gospel that miss the cross. You just come and believe in Jesus. Thank God for wiping out my mistakes and giving me a ticket to heaven. And they’re never willing to come to the cross and say, that’s the reason why I need a savior. He died because of my condition. I have got to fully embrace. I’ve got to fully identify myself with the one who died there, that I deserve that. This is really my need and I embrace Him.
I am one with Him in laying down my life, in rejecting renouncing this world, its values, the life that He gave me, and what it’s about. I am willing to lay that down. If someone puts a gun to my head today, praise God that sets me free. But I absolutely am embracing Christ, I’m embracing the cross, because there’s no way to get to the empty tomb without the cross.
People try to sidestep that and they jump right into the tomb and say, oh, praise God, I’m a Christian. I wanna see the whole gospel come alive in me and in you. And I believe, isn’t that what God wants? Does He wanna leave us in the condition that we found us? Or does He wanna bring us into a place of the victory we were singing about this morning? I believe with all my heart, that’s what He longs to do.
But I don’t wanna sidestep any of this. And God would not let Paul have a real genuine understanding of the gospel without Paul himself having to go through this place where he came to the end of himself and he realized, oh, now I get it. Now, I understand why I need a savior. Now, I can go out there and I can stand side by side with people and realize we are all in the same boat. We need the same savior. We have zero hope in ourselves. Praise God!
That’s the message. You see what God was doing for Paul and Paul was sharing it with us because we have the same need. May God not let anybody here fool themselves and bypass any of this because there’s no way to get to the good stuff, all right?
For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. So it’s a statement of inability, isn’t it? For I do not do the good that I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Now, I got to comment on this. I have heard this used almost to paint a picture of what the Christian life is like. And the point being made was, we’re not perfect here. Well, guess what? Of course not. The whole point of the gospel is to bring us to a place of forgiveness, then give us life and set before us a hope of the glory of God. But now we got this time period between being born of His Spirit, and growing up, and being presented before God as one of his children, grown up, clothed with glory. So what’s that about?
And of course, you do have some people out there, there are some religious groups that actually teach that you can have an experience that will make you sinless. It’ll still set you apart. You don’t sin anymore. So a lot of times this is thrown out there as a rebuttal to that idea.
Well, of course, we still need Him. John the apostle, late in his life said, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us, but thank God, he goes right straight to the cross, That we can confess our sins and be forgiven, be cleansed from all unrighteousness. See, we go right back to the cross when we do come short.
So, there’s God, this was not for the purpose of painting a picture of the Christian life. Now it is, if all you’re gonna do is you and your own strength trying to obey the law, yeah, this is a pretty good picture. That’s one way people try to serve God.
How many of you remember several years ago we heard a message that some of us had heard live by Carter Conlon. And he was talking about his own ministry in the past. Now he had actually, you know, in his particular group, a successful evangelist is somebody who goes into a church and typically preaches against some sin and is so forceful that he gets people to come down and repent of that sin.
And over time he discovered that this was just a fruitless thing kind of thing. ‘Cause he’d go back to the same church a year later and the same people were down here repenting and promising to do better, so something’s wrong. And the wrong thing is if we just present what’s right, and what’s wrong and just dump it on you, and demand that you live up to that, that’s not the gospel.
Praise God! I don’t have the ability to do that either. I can repent and promise God I’ll do all kinds of stuff. That’s not the gospel. God gave us a new way to live, a new way to power and to produce what is right in His eyes. That’s what He wants us to learn, how to come into possession of in a practical way. But Paul still had to go through this, didn’t he? Okay?
Now, if I do, and he comes back to this, Now, if I do, what I do not want to do it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So at least at this point, he was in a point where he agreed with the law of God, but still found out he was powerless to do anything about it. Anybody, you know what that’s about? You wanna do what’s right and you find out you can’t. Yeah. Alright, well, Paul wants to get us to the answer and the Lord does.
But here’s where I believe the Lord helped me with a little bit of insight back then because I basically made the point in that class that this is not about whether he was saved or lost. This is a matter of understanding human nature. And there are four laws that Paul enumerates here that are in effect, four laws. What are they?
One of them is the law of God, where God tells me what’s right and wrong. One law is the law of my mind, which in this instance Paul is saying, the law of my mind is, yes, I agree with you God, and I want to do what you want me to do. Okay? So those are two of the laws.
But what’s the deal here? But verse 23, I see another law at work in me. You could call it the law of the flesh. That’s the third law. And it’s waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. So you have four laws, the law of God, the law of my mind, it wants to do what’s right, it has the best intentions, but there’s a law in this flesh that is absolutely married to the law of sin that reigns in this world, makes it impossible for the person with the best of intentions to actually serve God. If that’s all you’ve got is your human ability, you will fail every single time.
I thank God that He’s taken us beyond living under God’s law. I need to know my, but you know, we have to understand this. You may not know, get the theology of it, but I’m praying that if there’s somebody here who doesn’t really get this about yourself, God’s never taken you down in this deep dive into what’s really wrong, that He’ll do it, and He’ll do it because He loves you from the depth of His being and He wants you to know.
And doesn’t this, you think, oh, this is such a downer, talking about sin and talking about the helpless human condition. But there’s another side to this. Doesn’t this elevate the cross? Doesn’t this exalt the mercy of God Who knows all about you? He knows things you don’t want to even face. He knows the things we don’t even want to begin to face about ourselves. And He loves us.
And with sacrificial love, He has opened a door of hope. Now, that door leads right through the cross. We don’t bypass that. We embrace everything that’s wrong with us, but we go all the way through that and we see that’s not the end because the tomb was not the end for our savior. He came forth with a life that cannot die. That’s what God wants to share with us.
But oh, does this not lift up the power and the grace of God into a place where we just need to bow down and say, wow, do we not need to be down in order to see what’s up? But God doesn’t do any of that to leave us there. He does it so that we will come with a full understanding of why we need a savior.
I don’t want anybody who comes to this church to ever say they didn’t know. There was a superficial gospel preached to where they just “accepted Jesus” and went on their merry way, lived their lives, and just tried to be a good person, and expected to go to heaven someday. The world is full of people like that.
Now, God knows His, there’s people in all kinds of places. I’m not doing away with that for one moment, but I’ll tell you the devil hates what we’re talking about this morning. It’s not just that we need to unpack all the theology involved in this, that God wants us to have a true picture of our need because only then can we come and truly find the life that he has given to us. Alright?
So, four laws. You have the law of God, you have the law of my mind, it wants to do right, but you got this law in my flesh that says uh uh, I’m in league with the law of sin and you can’t do it. And in that light, God had to bring Paul to that place.
Do you think Paul actually felt this or was he just writing a story? Paul had to come … have you ever been to this place? Yeah. What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
And, of course, that’s where he’s going with this. That’s why you can’t say, oh, was this a picture of Paul’s life as a Christian? No, this was a picture of God taking him through a dark place where he saw his need so that he could have a better understanding of the gospel that he was proclaiming so that others could learn how to be free.
‘Thanks be to God,’ he says, ‘who delivers me through Jesus Christ, our Lord.’ So he goes right from, Oh, what a wretched man I am, into the answer. And that’s what God wants for every one of us.
So, the conclusion of the four laws that we talked about, So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. And that’s when you come to chapter eight, and there’s a whole lot in here. I don’t know how far the Lord wants to take it today, but you’ve gotta at least take it past chapter seven, don’t we?
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is a living, spiritual relationship, a heart-to-heart agreement with God, where I am totally aligned with him against my sin, against this world, against my life here, to the point that I’m willing to lay it down if that’s what it takes.
Who are those who overcome? How do they do that? The blood of the Lamb, that takes care of the sin problem. And as a word of my testimony, I’m willing to confess what God has said, what God has done. The truth about myself, the truth about what Jesus did.
Well, what’s the other one? That’s where the cross comes in. They love not their lives so much as to shrink from death. Folks, God is bringing us, bringing his children to a place where our life is not about this world, and what we do here, and what we achieve, and don’t achieve. Our life is pointed to something else. The promise that God is going to bring us to a place where we will reign with Him forever and ever and be totally set free from every taint of this world. Do you have that hope of glory in you? Praise God!
And that’s not just a “hope so,” that’s that expectation based upon the promise of God, thank God. All right?
So, there’s no condemnation because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit…. Now, you’ve got a fifth law, don’t you? You know, I’ve illustrated this in the past. This is not just some law that somebody passed. This is just the way it is. This is a law that governs the way things work.
And all of us are familiar with the law of gravity. But now suppose a law suddenly came to our attention from God that says, thou shalt fly. And I’m not talking about getting some mechanical device. I’m talking about thou shalt fly or be judged. Okay?
So what do I do? Do I go down and do I build up my muscles, first of all, so that I can carry my weight. And then do I bend over, assuming I can still touch my feet, grab hold of my shoes, and pick up with all of my might. Does that work? Why? ‘Cause I’m subject to another law. I need a different source of power if that’s going to happen. I have no power to pick myself up off the ground and fly.
And we are in exactly the same situation when it comes to salvation. I need His power. I need another law that’s actually stronger than the law of gravity in this case, The law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law was powerless to do…. Now, why was it powerless? Because it was weakened by the flesh. This was in charge, didn’t matter what God said, this was in charge.
… God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the flesh. Why? In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
See, now you’re getting back into some of the things He talked about in chapter six, where I have the power to say, no, now because I died with Him and I have the power to say, yes, because I was resurrected with Him.
But it’s that life that makes it possible for me to actually live. I can please God. I can do things that are right in His eyes. I can be the kind of person He wants me to be. How can I do that? Because He has come to live, praise God. Think about the miraculous power of a gospel that can take somebody like you and me, particularly, when we see ourselves the way Paul did. Have you ever seen that?
Does that not magnify a message that has the power to so cleanse somebody like me that a holy God … think of Isaiah’s vision just for one example, the holiness and the purity that he saw that. Somebody like that could come and find a home in me. Wow! Do we have something to rejoice in this morning? Praise God for the power of the gospel that has the power to come in.
And when He comes in, He brings His power with Him. He brings His faith with Him. He brings so many things that we need to learn how to lay hold of. That’s what Paul said. I haven’t arrived Paul said, we’ve said many times, but I am reaching, I’m pressing, I’m moving. There’s opposition. The devil doesn’t want this, but part of God’s plan is that I have to push against opposition to lay hold of something that Christ went to the cross so that I could possess. Praise God! That’s what God brings us to.
So, chapter, don’t ever reach chapter seven and say, that’s normal Christian life. I mean, I’ve seen that in the minds of some, well, that’s as good as it gets. Do you think God told us, unlock that truth so that we would say, well, there’s no real point in trying, is there? Do you think that’s what God was trying to communicate with that? No.
Well, there is if you’re gonna try it in your own strength, but that’s not meant to paint a picture of how life, what our life is supposed to look like, because then the devil takes that a step further. Well, in Christ you have liberty and suddenly liberty becomes a way for the flesh to have its way. Maybe we don’t go rob banks, but there’s all kinds of ways in which we indulge the flesh. And after all, God knows I’m not perfect and He loves me anyway. And there’s a whole lot of reasoning that goes on in people’s minds.
God didn’t save us to live for the flesh and to let it rule, He saved us so that we could learn to lay hold of a life that gives us the power to live a life pleasing to God. That’s what it’s about. And this is meant to work in our lives today, and tomorrow, and the next day.
This is not theology, folks, this is Christian life. This is the cross and the resurrection, and God wants you and me to be able to make so personal that we can read Paul’s words and see ourselves in there. Do you do that? Can you see yourself in this? I believe many can.
All I can do for everyone here is to just tell you the truth. Apart from Christ, this is your condition. The best you could possibly hope for is to say, yeah, I agree with you, but I’m powerless to do it. But God absolutely has made a way where you and I can serve God. The righteousness that was described in the law happens. It doesn’t happen because I do it myself. It happens because there’s another one living in me and by his strength I do it.
How did Jesus do what He did? We’ve made this point many times, ah, by myself, He said, I can do nothing, but it’s the Father living in me doing His work. How did He present Himself without spot? Hebrews says it’s, By the eternal Spirit He presented Himself without spot to God. That was divine power that enabled a human being to live a sinless life. And it’s that same power that, even though we’re not gonna get it right all the time, we could still, as I say, it’s not perfection, but it sure is direction.
If your heart is still married to your flesh and what it wants, you got a problem. We got some repenting to do. We gotta come to God and say, that’s not what life is about. It’s not about pleasing my flesh and seeking what the world offers. It’s about serving you.
Now, God can take us through, and give us things, and use us, and all of that, but it’s not about that. That never needs to possess our hearts. We need to be set free from that. And God has the power. He’s given us a Savior who is well able to save completely those who come to God by Him. Why? Because He ever lives.
And I just asked God to do whatever is right in His eyes, according to His purpose, the plan that He had before the foundation of the world to send His light into every single heart who hears this, put His finger on the need and then lift up the Savior and the provision. He’s never gonna leave you down in that hopeless place. He’s always gonna show you the need, but then lift up the Savior.
Praise God for a Savior who’s able to take us all the way home. Praise God! We have every reason to shout the victory today, not because we look inside but because we look up. That’s where our eyes need to be. And I’ll tell you the same one that took Paul through Romans 7 into Romans 8, is the One Who’s here this morning and wants us to get this maybe deeper than we’ve ever gotten it before.
I don’t think I’ve said anything I haven’t said before but don’t we need this? Don’t we need fresh reminders? I do. And God is so merciful and faithful. I just praise Him this morning for His strength ‘cause I sure didn’t have it. I barely felt like getting here this morning, but God is faithful. And I believe He’s born witness to His Word.
I like I say, I’ve struggled. Is this really you? Is this really you? And I have to keep coming back to, the devil hates this. The devil does not want the gospel unpacked so we get it because he knows it is his defeat. You remember the devil that Brother Thomas was dealing with at one time and was forced to tell what he was really most afraid of, and it was the blood of Christ and the cross. They know it spells their defeat.
Boy, we don’t have to let the devil win. Jesus won the victory at the cross, and He calls everyone that’s willing to turn from their own sin and hand their life over to Him. He promises a life you could never lose. Praise God! Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
August 18, 2024 - No. 1663
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Witness of the Spirit” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Witness of the Spirit” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1663August 18, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1663 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, praise God, I feel like I have a desire to go forward with what we’ve been dealing with in Romans, whereas Paul is unfolding the gospel and the truth of it. And I sense that in a particular way this morning, that it’s not that the Lord simply wants to establish the doctrine, the correct theology. There’s so much more than that.
Yes, we need truth, we need the way it really is. But if that’s all we have, we have nothing because the gospel is meant to bring us into a relationship with God that is life transforming, that is destiny transforming, and not simply to correctly practice our religion. We don’t need that. We need the presence of the Lord. And we need a reality in our lives every day.
We surely need it, we see the way the world is going, man we better have something in here if we’re gonna stand. And yet when we do, we have all we need, don’t we in the Lord?
And so just very briefly, the salvation deals with a problem that every human being has, namely that we’ve failed in the past and we’ve sinned, but also we have a nature that won’t let us please God. There’s no way we can measure up to the purpose that God created us. He created us for glory and we can’t possibly fulfill that.
And so salvation deals with the first part by Jesus going to the cross as our representative and us being so united with him, that it’s as though we died. We have literally come into a full-fledged heart level agreement about our need and why he had to go to the cross and that it was my sin that put him there. And I am turning from that.
And so you have a world of people that are going in this direction and he says, no, that direction leads to wrath and death and destruction. I need you to turn around. I’ve got a purpose that I created you for. And I’m the only one that has the power to fulfill that. You need to hand your life over to me and I’ll deal with your sins. I’ve already dealt with them at the cross, but now I wanna lead you forward.
And so the second part of salvation, after dealing with the guilt, brings us into a relationship with him. And so answers the question after we’ve come into this relationship, our sins are gone. We’re as clean as if we had never sinned as amazingly as that sounds. The question then becomes now what?
And so we see that God has declared that He will bring us to that place that we cannot find in ourselves, namely the glory of God. And so we’re born into a process of salvation that leads to that end. I guess we’re going in this direction, aren’t we? But anyway, it leads to that end. And God is the One who means to take us there.
So now what we need to do is to understand how that works in a practical sense so that we can live for Him. ‘Cause it’s not just a matter of, as we said so many times, of getting our sins forgiven and having a ticket to heaven. God wants to change us and get us ready for something. And so that’s what he deals with.
Last week we dealt with Romans 7. Everybody’s favorite passage about it sounds like we’re hopeless here. But the truth is, we are in ourselves. And we dealt last week with five laws. The first four of them are dealt with in Romans 7 just very briefly. We have God’s law that tells us what’s right in his eyes. Okay? So we have no excuse. We know that this is right and this is wrong and so forth.
And even where God can take somebody and say, yes, I agree with that and that’s what I want to do. The problem becomes because there is a law that operates in our bodies, in this flesh, it animates us it gives us life. There’s a law that operates there. And it’s a law that is absolutely in harmony completely, absolutely a slave to another law and that’s the law of sin. And it makes it impossible no matter how good our intentions are to serve God.
And Paul basically, I believe God just took Paul on a tour of his own nature because he was brought up to believe you could serve God that way. And he found out, no, there’s a reason why we need a full-fledged salvation. There’s a reason why Christ came and did what he did. And so, but in the process, Paul was given a clear understanding so that there is no question in our minds, apart from what God did for us through Christ, we are in a hopeless, helpless state. I need him this morning. I need what he has provided through the gospel.
And so if all somebody has is those four laws, it’s a pretty tough thing. And that does, I wanna just pause and say this again because that does come into play with some forms of Christian teaching supposedly that leave out the second part as to how we live this life. And basically the life is presented as, here is a list of what constitutes a holy life. And remember, you don’t see God without holiness. So you gotta live this. But yet it doesn’t offer people the way to do that. It basically leaves it up to people in their own strength, live up to it. And so there’s a constant sense of failure and hopelessness there or else there’s self-deception. I’m holy because on the outside I’m looking good and I’m doing it right.
But God has something so much better. He wants to deliver His people from that kind of a bondage, that kind of a hopeless life. Thank God he doesn’t leave us there. And that’s where God revealed to Paul, that there is another law.
Now remember a law here is not just a law that you pass. This is a principle by which things operate. We have gravity, we have planetary, all is a planetary motion. We have just the way things work in nature. Well, this is the way things work in the spiritual realm. There are laws and principles that are absolutely in control.
And we need a law that is stronger than the one that binds people in this world. And that’s the law of the spirit of life. God gives us a new life and a new strength and a principle that enables us to live for God. And so that sets us free. And what it does is empower us to live up to the… and give expression to the genuine righteousness that is expressed in the law.
Now, if all God does is tell me what to do and what not to do, I’m hopeless. But if He gives me the power on the inside to be the kind of person he wants me to be, then I can actually live that out. I have the power where I can start to say, no, to this old nature and realize it’s not my master anymore. Praise God! Alright?
And that’s what he deals with in verse four, Paul is gonna continue to unlock God’s purpose and how it works here and chapter eight is certainly one of the richest in the Bible, alright?
So he describes something else, and I forget how far we got last week. We may have touched on this, but in verse five, he said, Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. Paul is gonna begin to paint a picture of two kinds of people.
Do you know there are only two kinds of people in the world? There are people who have entered into salvation and have what he’s talking about here or else they’re living in accordance in agreement with under the dominion of this law that operates in human flesh. I don’t care if it’s religious or if someone’s out there what we call a wicked life. The real condition is the same.
But you see that now Paul brings in another factor. He brings in the mind because we are not just creatures who operate on, you know, on automatic. We think; God created us with intelligence, with minds. And he says the people of the world who just simply follow whatever this flesh demands and whatever it wants. It’s pretty tough if you say, no I don’t with that, I don’t want that.
No our minds come in harmony with that. And we find ourselves agreeing with that. We find ourselves excusing that, explaining it. And every kind of mental trick the devil can place in there. We absolutely come to a place where all we can think of is, how do I gratify the desires that arise in my being?
Now some of it’s just bodily desires. We all know about that. But it’s not just the lust of the flesh, it’s the lust of the eyes. It’s the pride of life that John talks about. It’s, what can I have for myself? What kind of status can I gain? How can I be somebody that matters? And all these desires that come from that old nature.
Man, if we let them be in charge, where does that lead? That leads to death, doesn’t it? That’s not what God created us for. To live selfishly and just try to gratify whatever arises in our…. But I’ll tell you anybody that lives like that, that’s where their mind is at. Good thing to think about. Where’s my mind? What are the things that I believe? What are the things that I value? May God help us.
You begin to see where Paul’s going in chapter 12? Talks about presenting ourselves and what happens? Don’t be conformed, don’t be like the world. Don’t think like them, act like them, adopt the same values, but rather allow yourself – now we’re letting God do something. ‘Cause it’s not something we can do, but we can certainly submit to Him into doing thereof. Let Him change us. Transform us, okay? Into the image of his son and so forth. So that we can learn, we can actually experientially learn what His will is really about.
And it is a pathway, ‘cause God is not creating, I mean it’s His work. But we are not “storm troopers.” For those of you who are familiar with Star Wars, we were not created as clones. He just doesn’t program us to be His children. He wants sons and daughters who think like Him, who want Him, who choose Him.
I mean, what kind of a child would you want that just, you know, kind of goes through the motions, but never really has it on the inside. My God! Do you want children that are just robots? Do this, do, no you want children who grow up to have real values and learn how to become adults. That’s where God’s going with this. Okay?
But here’s the reality of it. You’ve got these two kinds of people. You’ve got people of the world that are totally consumed with what this flesh wants. God wants to change that. So now we want what He wants.
Now that’s not an instantaneous thing, but it is that process where we learn how to say, yes. Like we sang this morning. I’ll say yes. Are you saying, yes, this morning? Am I? Praise God we need to understand the difference that Paul is describing here.
Now the mind governed by the flesh is what? It’s death, isn’t it? Paul doesn’t wanna leave any doubt about what the deal is here. The mind governed by the flesh is death, separation from God leading to a bad end. But by contrast, the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
I’m so glad that that’s where God wants to bring us to, is not a place of, God, I hate this life. It’s of life and peace. It’s being set free from the very things that just make people so unhappy and trying, striving to please whatever rises in themselves, alright? The mind governed by the spirit is life and peace.
Now let’s go beyond that. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. Now do you remember what Paul talked in chapter five about when we were His enemies? Folks, if you are living by the culture of this world, if that’s where you get your values from, if that’s what’s important to you is what you can get out of this life and this world and it’s your life and, by God, you’re gonna live it. And you have right to your opinions about stuff. By God, where are you at?
I’ll tell you what, your mind is absolutely hostile to God. Because when God comes and puts his finger on something and says, this is what I think about it, this is the truth, what’s the natural reaction? Don’t you dare tell me what to do. You got your opinion and I got mine. That’s what this culture teaches.
But is there such a thing as truth? Well, truth has a name. His name is Jesus. He came to reveal the purpose, the will, the nature, everything about God. He is the perfect expression of the unseen God. And he came down and lived among us. What an amazing thing. Praise God!
But here you’ve got a condition. It’s where the human being is hostile to God, absolutely governed by this. If you’re governed by this, there’s no way you’re gonna agree with God about anything. Now people can be religious, but that’s not really agreement, is it, alright? The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law. So that’s a fact. Nor can it do so. So it’s not just the fact that it doesn’t it can’t, it’s impossible, alright? Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
It’s interesting use of the word realm. That word is not specifically in the Greek, but the idea is. You think of a realm as back in the day when you had kings who ruled over countries, okay? A king who ruled over country had authority over that country and so that was his realm. That was the part, that was the place where he ruled and his word was law.
Folks if we live in this country, so called, where what our flesh wants rules, that’s a bad place. There’s no way we can please God, we don’t want to, we can’t, and all it does is lead to death. Folks, that’s pretty bad place to live.
And you know, I thought about this. Maybe this is a good place as any. I mentioned last week and I’ve mentioned it many times before, the condition of religion that somehow bypasses the cross and how it really affects me. It’s not a place for me to die. But I’ll tell you, Paul is giving a very clear difference between the people of the world and the people of God. He’s really setting it out. He’s going into the depths of it right here.
But so much of what is called the gospel does not do that. Where Jesus made some very strong statements. He that wants to save his life will do what? Lose it. But the one who gives his life will keep it for life eternal. There’s no compromise there is there? It’s one of the other. And over and over you see that.
And you know, so much of religion wants to see how big a crowd they can get. Jesus wasn’t interested in numbers, you notice that? There were times he had huge crowds, but he knew exactly how to put things so that they said, this is a hard saying who can hear it? And they went and left him and stopped following him.
Jesus wasn’t interested in the crowds. He was interested in those who because of the Father’s work in their heart, had the capacity to listen to him and to agree with him, even when they didn’t understand it, they knew who he was and they were gonna be committed to following him.
Folks, that’s what God’s looking for today. And if you think that just because people, you know, say, I believe in Jesus and I’m going to church is enough, how about looking back at what Jesus said. I think we’ve probably quoted this last week, I’m trying to remember. But anyway, what Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23. When he is talking about many, not a few, many will say in that day, Lord, Lord.
‘Cause he says, it’s not those who call me Lord, who just say, Lord, it’s those who do the will of my Father. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, and they’ll enumerate all the things they’ve done religiously that have given them confidence that they’re okay. And Jesus is gonna say, I will say to you, I never knew you.
Now notice he didn’t say, I knew you and then you messed up, and I kicked you out. I never knew you. What’s he really talking about there? There’s a relationship where a person has never ever surrendered their heart. They conformed their outward being to a certain religious standard, but they never in their hearts said, I surrender. I’m exactly what you say I am, I have the need you described. Lord, I need a savior and I need you to come and take the rule of my life and take me from this path to that one. I turn my back, I hand it over to you. I’m no longer my own. They’ve never done that.
He says, depart from me that work iniquity, and iniquity in the original is “lawless.” That’s somebody who when you really get down to the issues of the heart, nobody tells me what to do, it’s my life. But do you see how that conflicts with what Jesus said? Those who are his are brought to a place where it isn’t my life anymore. I lay it down because I realize that what I have, I cannot keep, it’s corrupted, it’s headed for destruction. I need a life that’s gonna last. That’s the only one I get from you, okay?
So, now he’s gonna get into something else because up to this point it’s almost sounded like, you know, the law of the Spirit comes into play, okay? It’s almost like the Spirit is out here giving this strength, this influence. But do you know it has to get beyond that?
I’m so glad when God can overshadow me. You remember how Jesus talked about the coming of the Spirit to the disciples, alright? He said, the Spirit dwells with you, but shall be in you. You see the difference? I’m so glad when God can overshadow me with His presence from out here and give me strength and help, but I need more than that. I need Him in here. And that’s the hope of the gospel. And that’s what he’s gonna get into, alright?
So those who dwell in the realm of the flesh cannot please God you however, describing to the people to whom he’s writing, you however are not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the Spirit. Then he puts in a very conditional word, doesn’t he, okay? You are in the realm of the spirit. That is the realm, the country if you will, where the Spirit rules.
But under what conditions does that happen? Is that something just outside? It says, If indeed the Spirit of God lives where? In you. So now we’ve gotta have something that goes right to our hearts. We’ve gotta have God living in us, or else we’re just being religious.
And I sense God wanting to establish this in a deeper way here today. Because the most horrible thing would be for someone to be a part of this church, to grow up in it and never get this and fool themselves and be among those who say, Lord, Lord, I went to the Bible Tabernacle, I was on this committee, I did this, I did that. What do you mean I’m not?
Do you think the Lord is looking to shut people out and to put them in that category? Of course He’s not! He deals with hearts. I’ll tell you, there’s gonna be some sad faces on that day. When the Lord not only says, I never knew you, but He’s gonna take them back on a trip if you will, through their experience. And they’re gonna come to those times. They’re gonna go back and relive those times when God was speaking to their hearts. And somehow they found a way to sidestep that and say, oh, I can fit this into my life. They can do anything in the world except totally, here’s my life, Lord I surrender.
I just pray that God will bring a people to Himself in reality. I believe I’ve got a lot of brothers and sisters here. I thank God for every one of you. None of this is to make people fearful and doubtful and all of that. But is this serious? This is eternal. God wants to have a people who are solidly in Him and you have His Spirit not just out here influencing you, but living.
And I said last week, what an amazing gospel it is, that God could take somebody like us with everything that’s wrong and fit us, make us so clean that a holy God can actually take up residence and be at home. That’s incredible. That’s incredible. But that’s what the gospel is about. What an amazing God we have who wants that more than anything. So if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.
Now here’s the clincher ‘cause he says, If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. That’s some pretty plain language. That covers the people that He’s talking about on that judgment day. They’ve got religion, they’ve got a profession, they’ve got a lot of religious activity, but they never had the Spirit of Christ.
Now it’s interesting, he says, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. God is a Spirit. He shares His life with us through Christ. So you can call it, you can say, the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of God, you’re talking about the same Spirit. You’re talking about God sharing His life with the people and it’s like a river that flows through his Son. And now He is able to share God’s life with the people.
But it’s not just anybody. It’s people who are willing to be cleansed, willing to come under His authority and to be changed completely from the inside out.[/ultimate_modal]
August 25, 2024 - No. 1664
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Witness of the Spirit” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Witness of the Spirit” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1664August 25, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1664 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Those who are led by the Spirit of God are what? Children of God. Now it’s not just this influence in my life, this extra strength that I don’t have. Now, I’m actually His child. That’s incredible. That’s the relationship He wants. Those who are led by the Spirit of God.
God wants to be so real in our lives that we take our direction from Him. We don’t say, What is it that I want out of life and how can I get it, and focus our energies on that? But, Lord, I’m in your hands. Show me what you want.
Does not… Hebrews 12, as we said so many times, talk about running with perseverance what? The race marked out for us. I want the race that He’s marked out. I don’t know that. He doesn’t give me a panoramic view that this is how it’s all gonna work out. I’ve got to walk with Him day by day trusting Him, even when He takes me in places that I’d rather not go, like the valley of the shadow of death. But He’s with me, isn’t he? And He has a reason. Those are things that will be unfolded.
But anyway, those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Thank God. What an amazing thing that He wants that kind of a relationship with us. The Spirit Who you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Oh, how the devil loves to introduce fear into the equation. He must be so disappointed in me. I just can’t be …. Oh God, help us, set us free from that.
You who have children, are your children perfect? Giggle. Giggle. Yeah. But are they still your children? You still love them. Yes. You think you’re better than God? We’ve got a heavenly Father Who knows exactly where we’re at. He knows what we can and can’t do and just how to bring us along. But He’s not our slave master. He’s not demanding something we can’t do. He stands there ready to help us, to draw near to us, not in a Spirit of condemnation and fear, but one of love and mercy and help. We’ve got a throne, as we said so many times, where we can go and find the mercy and the grace to help us when in our time of need. You see how these scriptures just fit together?
So anyway, the Spirit you received does not make you slave so that you live in fear again, rather the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship, or it’s the Spirit of adoption, I think in the original.
Basically, now we’re taking a longer look. Remember, we come short of the glory of God. We’re saved. Now we have a hope of the glory of God. Now He’s beginning to talk about how we get there and what that is.
How many of you know what adoption is in this context? Well, yeah, adoption in our word, in our culture, is when you take a child, say, that doesn’t have parents, and you bring them in and they legally become your children.
That’s not what this is. This is the final product of a child born into a family, raised to learn its values, going through the whole process of maturing, and learning, and growing, and they reach a point of adulthood. They are completely ready to stand on their own and bring honor to their father and mother who had brought them up. And now they’re ready for the purpose of their entire existence.
There was a ceremony in their culture. Let’s say an important man had a child and they raised them. Do you think he would take a 2-year-old and say, Here’s my business, go run it? But no, there would come a time when he could present that son to the society of his day and say, This is my son. They are ready to take their place in society. And when they act, you treat that as if it’s me acting, I give them full authority to represent me, to handle my affairs. They are ready to take their place.
How many of you believe God has a purpose in our existence? There’s a place He wants to take us. I’m not able to fill that place right now, are you? If God turned over what He has made me to the responsibility He designed me to have, if He turned it over to me now, would I handle it correctly?
You better believe I wouldn’t. I’d mess it up. There’s things I wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t know how to do. I’d do it wrong. God is training and teaching us as His children getting us ready for a day when He’s gonna present us in full glory and say, This is my son. This is my daughter. They’re ready to reign. They’re ready to completely fulfill my purpose. And that’s what God’s Spirit living in us is all about.
Now, how does this fit in? I mean, think about how all this fits in with what Jesus said to Nicodemus, for example. What was the point that Jesus made about the Kingdom of God? Yeah, you gotta be born again. There is a literal birth that has to happen. Doesn’t that fit this? Where He becomes our Father? We have to be born.
And as I’m preaching this, I’m talking about this teaching, whatever you call it, I’m aware that there’s probably gonna be people, perhaps in here, perhaps who will hear it elsewhere, and none of this is real. It’s like this world is real. The desires I feel are real. All these things. I see my friends doing this and doing that and making plans, and this Kingdom of God, I can’t see it. I can’t see this God you’re talking about. It’s just not real. Pie in the sky by and by. You want me to give up my life for that.
But do you know it’s impossible to see the Kingdom of God unless you’re born again? We’re gonna have to have that divine encounter with God. Apart from that, our eyes will remain blind. I’ll tell you, if there’s anybody here who’s in that place, and this doesn’t make sense to you, what I’m talking about this morning, it’s not real, I’ll ask you the question, Do you want it to be? I would call upon you to seek God with all of your heart, to open your eyes because that’s the only way they’ll be open. I can’t explain it well enough to open people’s eyes. Only God can do that.
You think about Paul writing and talking about the blindness that is caused by the devil ruling over this planet. How he’s blinded minds so they’re unable to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But then he says of himself and Timothy, evidently, you notice the “we” all the way through that passage? It’s Paul and Timothy, who’s writing. So, it’s like he’s saying for Timothy and me, God shined his light in our heart.
The same God who said, Let there be light back there, now has shined and said, Let there be light in my heart. And He’s shown us the reality of His kingdom. And He’s called us to become a part of it, to give up our lives, hand them over to Him, and now, all of a sudden, something that I cannot see or touch, it’s real.
Do you want this to be real? I don’t want anybody just to blindly do anything. It has to be because God, by His Spirit, opens up the ear, the heart. And you’ll never see it without being willing to humble yourself and hand your life over to Him. But if you do, you’ll become His child. Praise God! This will become real. All right?
And it says, And by Him, now he’s talking about the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit that leads to sonship, he says, And by Him we cry Abba, Father. That was a very intimate word. I don’t want to trivialize it, but it’s like He’s papa, He’s daddy. Can you imagine? You think of the greatness of this God who’s behind it all, Who fills everything, is pure and holy, and yet we can look to Him and think of Him as our Father in that sense. That’s how He wants us to see Him.
Now, that’s not to bring Him down to our level and treat him with a casualness, but that’s a sense that I want, to have a real personal relationship with you. I care about you. I care about every detail. I know every hair on your head. I know every thought that’s ever passed through your mind and your life. I love you. I’ve got plans for you. But I want you to know me, not as just some awesome monarch somewhere that you can’t see or touch. I want you to know me as Father, as Dad, as Someone that you can go to at your darkest hour and know that I’m there and I care. Praise God!
Now, I’ll get to where I think in my mind the focus has been on this, because one of the issues that the devil will focus on, he hates this truth. He’s opposed me thinking about it. Probably opposed some people from coming. He hates this. And he wants to do everything he can to undermine our confidence and our knowledge.
But I’ll tell you, God wants this to be real to the point that we have a solid foundation down here wherever, inside, (chuckles) that’s real, that is strong enough to stand no matter what kind of flood comes from this world and the condition that it’s in. God wants a solid foundation, not just out here, but in here. Okay?
So how do we know? How do we know that we’re part of this? You know, the devil’s gonna say, Well, you could go and do everything perfectly, sincerely, and yet get to that day and He say, I never knew you. Do you think that’s what the Lord is trying to convey by that? No. Those people are people that have resisted His voice on the inside and said, found ways to say, no. But there is a way that there is something that God wants to do for every one of us.
Verse 16, The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit, that we are God’s children. You know, the devil has often tried to make me afraid to say that. You imagine why? Because he wants to say, Oh, you’re just gonna make people, make good Christians doubt. You’re gonna make them live in a state of uncertainty.
I believe with all my heart, God wants us to have a state of certainty and not to be afraid to lift up this truth. Because when God has children that He births, He is more than willing to testify to that and say, You’re mine.
Human nature hates to get quiet and just face reality. Didn’t the prophet say, The wicked are like the troubled sea. It cannot rest, Waters cast up mire and dirt. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God to the wicked. There’s a restlessness in the human heart. But God wants us to be able to get to the point where we can be completely at rest and know that we know, that we know, get past evaluating, Am I His by our performance? but rather we can know that we’re His and just put our hope and our trust in Him every single day.
Do you believe God wants you to know that? Yes. Do you? I mean, do you know that right now? Is that witness there? God wants it.
And I guess it’s hard for me to preach this without going back to my own experience. I’ve talked about it many times. God will take us through this in different ways. Now, this is how He did with me. Because I was among the people that at that particular time, that emphasized certain experiences that we were supposed to have, and there are genuine experiences. But anyway, that was the emphasis.
And you’re supposed to seek God and you’re supposed to get this real experience, and it’s supposed to be manifest in certain ways. And I came to a point where I looked around and other people seemed to be being blessed and I wasn’t. And I was mad. And I didn’t like it. What’s wrong with me? Why do you treat me this… You know, whatever, however it was put.
And so I quit. For about three days, I just did not put forth any effort. I didn’t pray. I didn’t praise God. I didn’t say I reject you or anything of that sort. I didn’t turn to sin. I didn’t go rob a bank. But I just simply quit. Put forth zero effort. And nobody outside knew what was going on. It wasn’t like somebody came with some magic formula, some word or something like that. It was just me and the Lord.
And yet during that time, there was this still small voice and I did my best to ignore it. I was upset. But there was a still small voice on the inside that basically communicated the truth. You’re mine. And I knew my spirit was agreeing with that. I knew that, Lord, no matter what, I’m yours.
And there was two witnesses there, me and the Lord. And the most quiet moment when I wasn’t trying to pretend anything, there was nothing else going on that could have fed into that, it was just nothing but me and the Lord and dead air, if you will. And yet somehow there was a conviction. Didn’t come from out here. It was in here. There was a witness.
I don’t know how that would happen for somebody else. And I’m sure there are others here who could testify to something along that line, where the Lord really bore witness down deep in your heart, You’re mine, and your spirit said, Yes, I’m yours. And the issue was settled. It was completely settled.
And many times that comes in times of difficulty because God is gonna take us through a lot of different things in this process of getting us to that place. He’s taken us, this adoption ceremony, if you will. He’s gotta teach us a lot. And many times He’s gonna take you on tour of what’s wrong with you and me. But you know, in the midst of that, what a difference it makes if we can come to that place and just be totally quiet.
I would challenge anybody here who’s got a question. You need to seek God from the depths of your heart until that becomes real. It’s not a feeling. I had no sensations, nothing that I could point to that was natural. It was just a reality down in here where I knew that He was real. I knew that I belonged to him. That I had already set out on a road, there was nothing to do but say, All right, Lord, I surrender.
And of course, the question was, Why aren’t you giving me experiences like everybody else, making me feel good? That happened to be the issue. And so, I finally was brought to a place where I said, Okay, very patiently, three days at least. And I went through this and finally I said, All right, Lord, I surrender. I will serve you if I never have a feeling.
Now, as I say, that happened to be the issue. It could be something else with you. But my prayer, and I believe it’s God’s heart, God wants to be real to you to where you can be completely at rest, not trying to feel good and scratch this itch or that one, but you can be just completely at peace with Him.
Now, think about how scripture describes our relationship with God. What did Jesus promise if we would come to him? Rest. See, that’s not… I got an itch, I gotta scratch. I gotta do something to feel okay. I can be at complete rest and peace.
Think about how that’s described in Hebrews. Is it Chapter 4? Where God wants us to enter into what? His rest. See, God’s not worried about whether He can pull this off. It’s done. It’s done as if it happened already. But He wants us to stop trying and come to a place where we just surrender and we find a place of rest in Him.
Now, once we have that, we’ve got a ground to be able to stand and face the things that life throws at us by God’s design. All right? But I gotta have a foundation. I gotta have something to stand on. God wants to bring every one of us to where we can be totally quiet. Nobody else knows what’s going on. It’s just you and the Lord. And deep down in here, there’s a conviction, Yes, you’re mine. I put my seal on you as what Paul put it in Ephesians 1. I put a seal on you. You’re mine. The devil can’t have you.
I wanna know that. And I want my spirit to join with Him in that witness and say, Yes, I have surrendered. I have nothing to bring to the equation but myself. I’m a lost, hopeless sinner apart from you. But I believe, and I have put my hope in you.
I want everyone who comes to this place, everyone who hears that to come to that place of rest before God, where you’re not just coming and going through the motions and doing the right stuff. I want you to have that witness in your heart. Because anything short of that isn’t gonna end well. God wants to make Himself real.
Oh my God! And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and coheirs with Christ. There’s an inheritance that’s coming. God has something that He is preparing for His family beginning with His son, but we are heirs right together with Him. Oh, what a heavenly Father we have. How worthy is He, and how worthy is the Savior through whom all of this has come about? Praise God!
What a salvation. Heirs of God, coheirs with Christ. If indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share His glory, now we’re back on the path of glory. It means we’re gonna have to put up with stuff. God is not gonna have sons that just muddle through. He’s gonna have sons that absolutely will face obstacles, face adversity, and continue on because they have Him living on the inside.
And we’re His, we’re not our own anymore. And we’re not seeking our own will. We’ve handed that off to Him. What’s in charge in your life? Have you ever been born of His spirit? Is this important? Does this matter? Are the things that Jesus said that make it absolute, this clear picture of most of humanity going in the wrong direction and God calling out those who will humble themselves and put their trust in Him?
I’m with Him. Are you? And I just pray that if that witness is not clear to you, that you’ll seek Him until it is. And don’t go looking for feelings. Don’t go measuring your performance. Don’t do anything except, Lord, I want to be yours. I wanna know that I’m yours. And I believe with all my heart, God will bear witness to His children. Isn’t that what He says? This is His promise.
And I’m calling Him on it because I got brothers and sisters here, and I want every one of you to know where you stand and to be able to stand on solid ground and go forward with confidence, not in yourself, but you know where your help comes from. You know you’ve been born of His spirit, and you’re headed for glory. And there’s no devil in hell that can stand in the face of that.
What a salvation that God has given to us. And there’s so much more that He unfolds here. But praise God, that’s enough for today, I think. I think the focus is the witness of the Spirit. Every one of God’s children needs that. You don’t need to say, Oh, I follow what Phil says. You need to follow what He says. It needs to be real personally to you regardless of me and my limitations, and whatever, it needs to be between you and Him.
And there’s nobody who wants it more than He does. He knows you. He loves you. Jesus died when you were still his enemy. Praise God! What a Savior we have. To Him be all the glory. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
October 13, 2024 - No. 1671
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Called to be Overcomers” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Called to be Overcomers” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1671October 13, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1671 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: What a dangerous prayer it is when we say, Lord, I want higher ground. Lord, I want you to use me. Lord, I want you to make a difference in the Kingdom through my life, I want… I think you know what I’m talking about, don’t you?
Some of you prayed that, and you said, Oh, Lord, I didn’t know it meant this. But the thing is, if God doesn’t deal with this old nature, our lives, what John calls our lives in Revelation 12, that we’re loving so much and we’re still attached to more than we know. If God doesn’t break those connections, how effective are we gonna be?
I mean, Paul recognized that it’s kind of like an athlete. Now, the earthly athletes, they’re going for a prize. You know, they’re disciplining their body and they’re doing all these things because they want a prize. Well, I want a prize too, but it’s not that, okay? I wanna go for the ones the Lord offers. He’s called me to seek after something that’s eternal. But how can I do that if there isn’t some self-discipline?
And so he actually, in the Greek, it says, I beat my body, or I keep it under, in one translation, or basically, I’m in charge, my body isn’t. I keep that under. I recognize that there’s impulses that come from my flesh, that if I just let ‘em go, if I somehow say, Well, that’s okay, it’s all taken care of. And the Lord’s wanting to deliver, and the Lord’s wanting to actually break that hold and break that tie.
Paul says, I beat my body and I make it my slave, I think in this translation. I bring it under subjection. I make it my slave. Is your body and its impulses your slave to serve God? Are you in charge or is it in charge? And the Lord’s gonna bring us into circumstances that kind of help us to see.
And in every instance is the Lord’s purpose to defeat us and to cause, make us feel discouraged? I think you know that’s not the case. But I just pray that God will help us in these areas. Because many times overcoming does mean, I need to be free from that. It’s a weight that I need to lay aside, as Hebrews 12 says. It’s something that has attached, that’s so attached to me that I can’t run freely. I can’t do what, I can’t be what the Lord wants me to be because that’s holding onto me. And I need the Lord to cut that chain. So overcoming in that context means to get rid of that thing and to be able to say, I have the victory.
Now, does that mean that in every case you’re gonna have this grand experience and suddenly it’s gonna be gone? No, more often than not, it’s going to be a step by step, day by day looking to God and winning the victory. I’ve heard I don’t know how many testimonies of somebody that’s been brought out of a terrible lifestyle. And there were aspects of that that kept trying to intrude. And over time, sometimes over years, the Lord gave more and more victory and there was less and less of a hold.
I believe God wants to get us to the point where we’re looking ahead and we’re looking up every time. We know we’ve got a place to go. Thank God! Amen. If we’re struggling and there’s something that’s still got a hold, and we mess up, thank God for the blood. Thank God for the cross. If we have a sin, if we sin, we have a place we can go. But there’s a heart in that instance that, in that situation, that is an agreement with God. It says, God, I don’t want to do this. Help me.
But you know how the Lord helps us? Does He help us by just taking the thing away and we’d never feel the temptation again? No, He wants to build something in us that can withstand that. Does that mean He’s gonna, we’re gonna have to dig down deep and find the resources to do that? Or does He say, No, you’re gonna have to come to me. It’s gonna be My grace. I’ll give you what you need, but you’re gonna have to let go of your attachment to that thing. You’re gonna have to recognize it for what it is.
You know, there’s so many things that connected with this. One of the things I wrestle with is that sometimes I’ll preach on a subject and it just covers the whole gamut. And I’m always asking, Lord, what’s the focus here?
Well, I think the focus really has to come down to where you and I are at individually. We are in a certain place in our journey. And the Lord is going to let adversity in some fashion come against you, and He’s called us to overcome, to be overcomers, okay? And I just gave an instance of something where overcoming means, That’s not part of my life anymore because God has given me the victory.
It could be drugs, it could be alcohol, it could be pornography, it could a lot of things, but God wants us to have a freedom from that. And so, I guess where I was about to go with that is this: When the Lord was encouraging the churches, it wasn’t just to him that overcomes, but it says, Let him that has ears to hear.
Do you have ears to hear? Is there something in you that says, Regardless of what my circumstances are, I know that I need to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches? It’s not enough just to know the Bible. I’ve got to hear His voice because I’m in a particular place in my journey. And just as the Lord’s message to these churches was specific to their particular need, God has words that are specific to your need and to mine, if we’re tuned in and ready to listen.
Now, it’s all often easy, when we hear that, to say, Oh, I know what that’s about. That means, when I’m in a battle, God’s gonna give me a promise. Well, thank God that’s part of it. Because God’s gonna remind me of His promises of grace, and strength, and help, and so forth. That’s part of it.
But do you know there’s another part? Do you know we need a deeper understanding of why the problem exists in the first place? Do you think God maybe needs to give us a little bit more of an insight into what’s going on, what the real situation is down here? A lot of us deal with the oppression of the enemy, this recurring issue that I have, or I feel sorry for myself, or I feel, you know, whatever, whatever it is, and we get focused on that.
But the problem is, why. God needs to, we need to have a heart that allows the Lord to reach down into the depths of our being and show us those kinds of things and to have an honest heart about it. ‘Cause I need that, don’t you? And so the Lord is wanting an honesty that looks to Him and says, Oh, God, give me more understanding. Give me more wisdom in this thing.
Think about David and how many times that he would come to the Lord. And there was an honesty about him, wasn’t there? How many times does he begin a psalm, and the psalm is, Oh, God, where are you? Oh God, I’m in a bad place. I’m struggling. This is going on. There was an honest heart. I don’t see any place where the Lord rebuked him for that.
Wouldn’t that be a good place to start? I guess what I started to say a minute ago is, a lot of times when we are experiencing some of these things, our tendency is to kind of, I’m okay. Everything’s fine, hope you are. And we’re just, you know, we just paste on a smile and pretend, when God wants to get down to the issues that are really operating in our lives and give us a degree of freedom that we haven’t had.
And that’s why I appreciated what Scott said the other night, because there was an openness about it. And it’s not that we have to get up here and everybody confess all these things necessarily, but we need to quit pretending. We can come to the Lord and say, Lord, this is what I’m feeling. This is what I’m going through, and I need help.
And depending on the situation, you know, like I say, if it’s a besetting sin, we need the Lord to go down in there and find out why, what happened, what’s going on that we need to bring out, and just bring it out and say, Lord, this is the way it is, and I need You to give me victory in this area.
So yes, it’s the voice of God to give me the promises, but sometimes it’s the voice of God to tell me the truth about myself. Wouldn’t it be good to listen to that? Can we not trust somebody, who loves us as much as He’s demonstrated, to know that He has our best interest at heart? Oh, how pride keeps us prisoners when the Lord wants to give us a degree of freedom.
And of course, the other thing that… Well, like I say, it isn’t always making the thing go away. Sometimes it’s simply strength to stand, okay? Isn’t that how it was in many….? Well, in Paul’s case, the Lord didn’t take that spirit away, didn’t chase him away. But rather, You need this at this particular time. There’s a spiritual need in your life that I want to deal with. You have a tendency to get proud, and I’m gonna put you in a place where you just don’t have the ability to be proud. You recognize your weakness. But don’t worry, I’ll give you the strength. So for him, overcoming was standing and continuing to believe God and continuing to trust God, okay?
You know, I thought of a scripture, there’s so many scriptures, but I just thought of one that somebody may well have thought of, but it’s in 1 John chapter 5, where John says, Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Now, where do we get faith from? Yeah, He’s very willing to share that with us and to give us what we need. But faith is not simply, I believe this, and I believe that, a mental thing, this is, God’s gonna give me something that I can do, some way that I can express that faith.
Now, if I’m in a place where, let’s say I’m depressed. The enemy is just oppressing my mind with all, This is wrong, that’s wrong, and somebody did this to me, you know, and, I feel bad, and on and on. We all experience those things from time to time, but if I’m sitting there… I can’t even remember what I was starting to say. But anyway, praise God.
There has to be a place where we’re just not focused on that. Isn’t that the natural human tendency? If I’m in a battle, my whole focus is the battle. Oh, poor me, I’m in a battle. Why me? Why me? Well, we know why, because the Lord wants us to be overcomers. But if I’m focused on the battle, how is that helping me? There has to come a point where, yes, I need to be honest about the battle. That’s wonderful. That’s exactly right. I need to be honest about what’s going on, but then I need to be able to turn to Him and find the strength that I need to meet that situation.
See, faith doesn’t just look at that and say, Huh, poor me. Faith has to say, God has brought this to my, to here, brought me to this place, and His purpose for me is to do something in me that isn’t gonna happen any other way. And I need to rise up, and I need to exercise the faith, the strength that He gives me, to look beyond that and to see enough about what it’s about.
What I’m supposed to do here is be thankful, for example, to praise Him, to look to Him, to have an expectation towards Him. Praise God! If I’m anxious, if I’m just overwhelmed with anxiety about all the things that might happen, oh, God, yeah, we know we can pray, that’s absolutely part of it, but think about scriptures that talk about casting our care upon Him, for He cares.
But there’s a scripture in Psalm 55: Cast your cares upon God, and He will sustain you, uphold you. Different translations. Anybody here need to be sustained? Yeah. So if somebody’s doing that, what are they focused on? Are they focused on the problems? Oh my God, no. Okay, I got it. Here it is, Lord. I’m looking to You to give me the strength to continue trusting in You, believing in You, knowing that it’s gonna be okay, that I have all the strength that I need because it comes from You and You love me.
You know, it’s kind of almost become a joke, I guess, but, you know, the message I preached about getting your “buts” in the right place enters into it here, because there’s a pattern again that you see in David where he is being honest in bringing his troubles to the Lord. The enemy has got him in a bad place, and he knows it. And he’s just… And some of it’s because he recognizes there’s things in him where he needs help, but over and over, but over and over, that word, “but,” comes into it, and you find his attention shifting and saying, But I trust You, but I praise You, but I thank You. There’s this turning of our attention to the Lord.
Undoubtedly, there’s people here today, that you’re in a place where you’re here, you’re singing, and you’re smiling, and I believe you believe it, but yet, you’re being oppressed right now. You’re in that place where you’re feeling it. And God wants me and every one of us to be able to get our but in the right place when it comes to this, these things.
There’s a place for recognizing needs. They need to be left on the other side of but. Because whatever follows but is what’s really in charge. And if we ever find ourselves saying, like the one psalmist did, Surely God is good to Israel, but as for me, then we are in a bad place. You see, God wants us to get to that place where we can absolutely get our buts in the right place and put, leave all of these things on the other side of it, but turn our attention to Him and to His faithfulness and His promises.
To God be the glory. God wants to be present, not just in convention time, but all the time. Amen. God wants us to enjoy His presence, but we cannot focus on the problem and on the battle to the point where we get our eyes off of Him and the victory that He’s already won at the cross.
That doesn’t always mean the problem’s gonna go away, it means we have strength to bear it. Like he says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, is it? There’s strength to bear it, to bear up under it. I don’t have to rely on my own weakness and my own strength ‘cause that’s gonna lead me in a bad place. Thank God. Amen.
Well, I thought of one other scripture that probably needs to be put in here, and it’s in Joshua chapter 1, because the Israelites were facing some real challenges. I mean, you think about looking at a land, and there were some walled cities and big armies. And among those armies, there were some giants mixed in. And they were facing some things that, from a human standpoint, were pretty scary.
I don’t know how many of you have seen that wonderful video of Asher acting out this verse. If you haven’t, that’s precious. Praise the Lord. But anyway, verse 9: Have not I commanded You, ‘Be strong and courageous’? So that’s what we’re supposed to be. Where do I get that from? See, that’s a way of, that’s my mental approach. That’s how I see a situation. I don’t look at the walls, and the giants, and the armies and say, Oh my God, I’m in trouble. I look at that, and I stand there, and I say, Yes, but God’s with me. Okay?
Be strong and and courageous. Now, here’s the other side, what you don’t want to be: Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged. Anybody, I won’t ask you for a show of hands, but if anybody’s discouraged this morning because of what you’re feeling and what you’re going through right now, God doesn’t want that for His children. If He has put you in a place where there is an oppression going on in your life, whatever form it takes, whatever the issue is, because we’re all different, in one sense we’re all different, God wants His people to lift up their eyes, to look to Him to find the strength that we need to be able to be courageous and to face something, to do the same thing that David did when he recognized the battle is the Lord’s.
And there he was in a humanly impossible situation, facing a giant, and God gave him the victory. Praise God! Praise God! Amen. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. Why? For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. That’s what the Lord is looking for from His people.
Do you see, there’s two things that you go back to the letters to the churches. God wants me to have a hearing ear. I don’t need a religion to be handed down to me that I’m just supposed to observe. He wants me to have a relationship with God, Who’s doing specific things in my life, dealing with needs, shaping me for His purposes. I need to be hearing what He’s saying right now to me. I’m glad for what He said, but I need the, I don’t live by bread only. I live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And He’s gonna help me to understand what’s going on in my life.
Do you believe God wants you to understand, at least in whatever measure is right for His purpose? He wants you to have an understanding in me, so that we can respond in the way He’s told us to respond. So praise God!
But then what He’s looking for, regardless of what the situation is, whether it’s overcoming or repenting from a sin, or whether it’s standing in persecution, or whether it’s just holding onto what you have until I come to, don’t you dare turn from that ‘cause I’m gonna be with you. Whatever the particular issue is in our lives, God wants one thing from us is to overcome, to be victorious. And He will give us what we need to simply stand fast and believe Him. The faith that He gives us will give us the victory. That just means continually.
Now, what is my faith in? My faith is in my terrible circumstances. I’m so, things are so bad. Oh my God, my faith is in all. No, our faith is not in the storm or the problem. Our faith needs to be lifted to Him and say, God, you have got me here for a reason, and I love You, and I trust You. And I know that whatever I need to be an overcomer in this circumstance, You will give me. Whether it’s to make the thing go away or whether it’s to stand fast in spite of the thing, God wants to get us ready, not just for a convention, but for everything. Amen. So that we can stand fast and be united.
And you know, when you’re focused upon you, you’re not exactly focused on anybody else. One thing that would be good to remember is when we find ourselves in a place of oppression, we’re just conscious of it. Oh my God, the devil’s just pressing in on me. You’re not the only one. It’s like I said the other night, I was so conscious of that. Every person, every honest person there could have said the same thing.
When I experience that, you are experiencing it, and I need to get my eyes off of myself and do some praying for you. Yes. Guess what, if I’m really, from my heart, praying for you, there’s life coming from God into me and out of me to you. That’s kind of a good thing for me too, isn’t it? ‘Cause I’m getting washed with some of that same water of life that God wants to pour.
So I believe the Lord wants to encourage His people today. What He’s looking for is to be an overcomer. I don’t know what the particular issue is. You have every right to go to the Lord and ask wisdom. Yes. Yes, amen. Let Him look wherever He needs to look in your heart. Don’t cling to anything from your own life, because if you hang onto that, the devil’s always got a place he can grab a hold of and bring you down. And God has absolutely delivered us through the cross, but He sure wants our participation, doesn’t He? He is faithful.
So God is, we’re called to be overcomers. I guess that’s probably as good a title as any, A Call to Be Overcomers. Hadn’t really thought too much about a title, but… There’s nothing new that I have said this morning, but somehow I felt like this was needed right now. I think the Lord knew that. Amen.
Because no matter what we know up here, it’s what we are experiencing in our actual, practical, everyday lives that really matters. What good is what we know in our heads if it doesn’t make a difference in our lives? But I’ll tell you, God is faithful. Amen.
We’re okay. We just need to start where we’re at and look to Him. Don’t need to beat ourselves up about where we’re not, just, this is where I’m at. And, Lord, You’ve brought me here, and You’re gonna take me on, and You’ll love me enough to talk to me, to help me to understand, to help me to reach up and find the help that we need. So to God be the glory.[/ultimate_modal]
October 20, 2024 - No. 1672
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Things the Devil Knows” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Things the Devil Knows” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1672October 20, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1672 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: I had a rather unusual thought come to me this week and I want to probably cover a lot of scriptures, which is why I actually have some notes here, because you know how it goes. But anyway, I believe the Lord wants us to have, obviously, a greater confidence in Him and enable us to move forward in this broken world that we are called to live in. And how many know that He’s faithful? Absolutely.
So I wanna talk to you about an unusual subject because I saw something from the devil’s point of view that I believe actually shines a light on things that we know but don’t always walk in as if we believe ‘em. But the title I guess would be, Things the Devil Knows, Things the Devil Knows. He knows a lot, doesn’t he?
But I’ll tell you, you know, beginning, you ought ask the question, who is the devil? And again, I’m gonna cover a lot of scriptures and things that we know, but I believe it’s good to set the context. We know that the devil is a created being, right? Colossians tells us that everything and everyone, all the powers, everything in heaven and earth was created by Who? Well, God, yes, but how? But through Jesus, it was created by Him, through Him, and for Him. So God had in mind a creation and a kingdom, and He gave it to His Son to rule over. And so this being that we know as Satan was one of the highest created spirit servants who was created to serve as part of this creation, given great power and great authority.
And of course we know that he rebelled, didn’t he? And he decided that he wanted to have a kingdom of his own. He was filled with pride, with self-will. And so he left the place that God had given him, that Christ had set him up in, and he fell.
Jesus mentioned to His followers in Luke Chapter 10, I’m just gonna refer to these scriptures. You make a note if you want. But in Luke Chapter 10, Jesus refers to the fact that he saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. He knew all about the devil, knew who he was and what he was about. He said, I was there. I saw him fall from heaven like lightning.
And you know, one of the scriptures that is often referred to is in Isaiah Chapter 14. I’ll go ahead and just read a little of that. And this is a prophecy that God spoke, words that I doubt Isaiah himself fully understood, but he spoke them and they were words from God that were very prophetic in nature.
And the subject of the general prophecy was the kingdom of Babylon, which hadn’t even ascended to its greatness. But God was saying things about it. But in talking about he went beyond the kingdom and he looked at the power that was behind it. There’s an inspiration. How many of you know that whatever we see in this world politically, there’s another kingdom that’s behind it? It’s real. There are real beings.
And in this case, it says, starting in verse 12, How have you fallen from heaven? Morningstar. And that’s where the King James uses the word Lucifer. That’s where it comes from. Morningstar, son of the dawn, you have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid below the nations. You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to the heavens. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit in throne on the Mount of assembly and the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon,’ — wherever that was. Obviously a place of ascendancy and power. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high.
So Satan was filled with pride, with ambition, with what was selfish ambition, obviously. And so he rebelled, believing he who he could actually establish himself as a god. And of course, we know he didn’t do it alone, did he?
And I think most of us have lived with a belief that they all fell at once. I’m not so sure about that. I’ve kind of come to a conviction that there was a time element during which angels joined his rebellion. Notice in Revelation 12 where it talks about the dragon and it tells you who the dragon is, right? This great dragon. And it says his tail dragged one third of the stars of heaven with him.
Now, where’s the tail in relation to a beast? It’s the behind side, isn’t it? So in other words, he fell, rebelled against God. But over a period of time, there were others that he dragged into his rebellion. And I have all ideas that the ones that became the gods that the nations, the heathen nations worship, were once angels that then joined his rebellion over time. It was over a period of time that they became part of his kingdom. And his purpose was to set himself up as the ruler over this world. He has a kingdom that reigns here, okay? So that’s where he’s at.
And we know that when he tempted Jesus, he offered him the kingdoms of the world. He ruled. And many references we’ve used in the past tells you that there is a kingdom. Paul, remember he said, We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, the rulers of the darkness of this world. So there is literally a kingdom we can’t see, but it’s very, very real, okay?
So now let’s get down to what he knows. And there’s so many things, I finally figured I had to write ‘em down. But anyway, the devil knows that God judges sin. He just didn’t go away and say, Okay, devil, you can have the world, it’s all yours. God has immediately, immediately began to intervene, began to reach out. And the devil knows that God judges the wicked.
There came a time when Satan had amassed most of humanity under his dominion, deceived them into absolutely closing their minds to truth. And only Noah, and then ultimately his family with him continued to serve the Lord, okay? And Satan had to sit there and watch God destroy his world by a flood. And everyone left behind, as I’ve said many times, did what? They perished, they died in that flood.
And of course, he was there and enjoying all the sins of Sodom and trying and really having a big time driving them to do all the things that we’re seeing in our world today. But there came a day when God said, It’s enough. And fire and brimstone fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah. God knows that, I mean, the devil knows that God judges sin. He just doesn’t sit on the sidelines and forget about it all.
But another thing, the devil knows that God has a plan. It had to be obvious to him in some sense that God, like I said, God did not sit on the sidelines and watch the world unfold and watch Satan build his kingdom. God was constantly intervening, calling Abraham, revealing Himself to this one, revealing Himself to another one, raising up a nation, acting to overthrow kingdoms and to allow others to arise. No matter what the devil did, God was involved.
And we see, every now and then we see an example of the conflict that was that was going on there, the warfare that was going on. You see that glimpse in Daniel of two angels, one of God’s angels and one of the devil’s having a warfare and having a battle. There’s a lot goes on in this world that you can’t see with a natural eye, but it’s real.
But anyway, you see God not only having a plan but beginning to raise, He raised up a nation. And even though the nation as a whole rejected God and fell under deception and rebellion, there was a remnant that God had all the way through the Old Testament. And among that remnant, there were prophets who spoke out and gave the word of God. And embedded in their words was the plan that God was instituting. Like we’ve said many times, it was like guided missiles going out and literally setting the stage for the kingdom that you and I have been called to be a part of. Praise God!
The devil knew something was up, but he didn’t understand it. You know, that ought to be a warning to those who think that they can, with the human mind, understand the Old Testament and what it was really about. God hid his plans not just from the prophets themselves and the scriptures makes it plain, they didn’t understand, but He hid His plans from the devil himself.
So this is one thing the devil didn’t know, because if he had known it, we’re told in First Corinthians Chapter 2, he would never have crucified the Lord of Glory, if he had understood what the plan was. So that’s one thing he didn’t know, but he knew God was unfolding something and he was doing everything in his power to get in the way of that and to hang on to what he considered his, okay?
Another thing is he knows who Jesus is. Obviously, when Jesus was sent to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, the devil didn’t say, I wonder who this is? He knew exactly who it was. And even though he said, If you be the son of God, he knew who He was. There was no question. He was in flesh, but the devil knew who He really was.
And so that’s why he offered Him the kingdoms of the world. All you got to do is worship me, join my rebellion. And Jesus said, No, worship God, only Him, only Him are you gonna serve. So the devil knows who Jesus is.
And of course the fact that he attempted to kill Jesus when He was a young child. You remember that? You remember how he found out that there was this person Who would come to be king and found out it was gonna happen at Bethlehem? What did he do? Herod, this is the heathen king, sends a bunch of soldiers down there to kill everybody under two years old. So the Lord had warned Jesus’ earthly parents to remove Him, to take Him and get out of there and go to Egypt for a while. The Lord was intervening.
But here’s the devil, I know something’s up. I don’t know what it is, but the Son of God is here in flesh. I gotta get rid of this guy. And so he actually engineered that. You know that’s in Revelation Chapter 12 too, pictured in symbolic form, the devil was poised to kill that child ‘cause that child had a destiny to rule over the nations, okay? So he knows who Jesus is.
He knows scripture, doesn’t he? How many of you run into that one? The devil knows the word better than you and I do. He knows what it says. He knows how to twist it too. He knows how to cause it to seem to say something that it doesn’t really. Carl shared with me a letter recently to answer, and a lady was, I believe, confused by something that was true, but maybe was said in a way that made it easy for the devil to jump in with his interpretation and put her in real bondage.
You know the Lord can take things, for example, the devil can take things I say where the Lord instructs us to do a thing and the devil comes along and makes it a law, I mean a law in the sense that I’ve got to do that or I’m not gonna be accepted.
Boy, I’ll tell you, I’m so glad, for the message the Lord gave me so many years ago about commands and promises? Every command the Lord gives us is a promise to help us do it, because it’s not about our ability to do anything. It’s all about Him. To Him alone be the glory.
The devil knows scripture, isn’t that what he did with Jesus? As soon as Jesus quoted the word, Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, the devil comes, jumps right in and says, Hey, jump off the temple because the word says He’ll command His angels and they’ll lift up your, whatever it is, they’ll lift up your feet lest you dash your foot against the stone, they’ll protect you.
Was that the purpose of that scripture? You know, we can have all kinds of questions and hear all kinds of scriptures. We need the Author. We need to have a heart that says, Lord, I want to believe and rest in your word, but I need to understand it the way You want me to. I praise God for his faithfulness.
And I would say that to anybody. If I say something somewhere along the line, you don’t understand it, talk to the Lord about it. Rest, don’t worry about it. Like Brother Thomas used to say, Put it on the shelf and say, ‘Lord, you can explain what I need to know, when I need to know it.’ I’ll tell you, God is faithful. He wants us to rest. Praise the Lord!
Let’s not let the devil twist the word of God to hinder us. Look what he’s done throughout history. A lot of his deception, yes, it’s against the world of people who just don’t serve God at all, but there’s a lot of people that are religious, but their religion is the Word twisted and to bring people into all kinds of bondage where they think they’re serving God and they’re not. I’ll tell you, we need the Lord, don’t we? But He is faithful to all of His.
So he knows scripture, but another thing he knows, he knows his destiny. And I thought about how when he left heaven, when he fell like lightning from heaven, do you think there was any illusion in his mind that, well, I can try this, but if it doesn’t work out, I can always go back? It was a one-way ticket out of there. He knew that he had set himself against the Most High, and it became more and more obvious as he went along that he had a destiny that wasn’t good, and he has been struggling against that ever since. He knows his destiny.
You remember the spirits that spoke out to Jesus in fear and they said, Have you come to torment us before the time? Before the appointed hour, there’s a time they know that’s coming. They know that there is a time when all they can have in the way of expectation is fire and judgment and darkness. And it’s coming and he knows it. Praise God!
And I’ll tell you, the scriptures, like there’s one in Jude that talks about the angels that fell, and they are being reserved in chains of darkness for the coming of the judgment of that day. And talks about how Jesus mentioned in one place about fire that follows judgment and it’s been reserved, or it’s been designed, or set up for the devil and his angels. So he knows his destiny. He’s not ignorant of what’s coming.
What would you do if you knew you had no hope and that was your destiny? I think you’d fight and fight and fuss, and that’s what he’s doing. You see it everywhere. But I’ll tell you something else that he knows without any question, because once the cross that, he didn’t understand what the cross was about. He thought he was winning. Once all of that happened, when Jesus went to the cross and when he came out of that tomb, and not only that, when He ascended to a throne far above everybody, the devil knew he had lost and lost forever. Do we know that? Praise God!
Don’t you be afraid of the devil. He lost the battle on that day. You know, the scripture in Colossians Chapter 2, read it, how he was paraded. Not only did Jesus nail the law to the cross, our sins and all of that, open a way for us to become new creatures, he paraded the devil in defeat. That’s a paraphrase of some of the language that’s there.
Do you know what that was a reference to? You know, back in the ancient world when they had battles, one kingdom against another, they didn’t have the internet. How many people here have never lived in a world where we didn’t have the internet? I’ll tell you what, you think this world is so connected, information is so instant, and here they were. They didn’t have reporters, they didn’t have telephones, they didn’t have any means of communication. So how did they know what the outcome of a battle was?
I’ll tell you one of the best ways they knew was when the opposing king and the opposing generals in the opposing army were literally chained up, stripped down and set up like they were servants and slaves, and then paraded down the main street of the capitol in front of everybody. You want the evidence that we just won that battle? There they are, there’s the king, he’s dressed like a slave and he’s in chains.
That’s the imagery the Lord has given to us. Do we understand that? Do we understand the degree to which the devil was absolutely defeated at the cross once and for all? Praise God! The devil knows that. The devil is very, very well aware of what happened because of the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension. He knows the power of the cross and of the blood.
I know some of you have been around a while. Remember that there was an occasion when Brother Thomas was dealing with a demon possessed person, and for some reason he felt led to press the particular devil about what it was they were most afraid of, best I remember the incident. And boy, that devil fought and fought and resisted and just wouldn’t.
And Brother Thomas just continued to press because the Lord was with him. It wasn’t just Brother Thomas, and began to press that devil. And finally, the devil had to admit the thing he feared the most was the cross and the blood that was spilled there. There is nothing they fear more than the cross and the blood that was spilled there. They know it was their final defeat. Praise God!
Do we know that? Do we understand the power of what God has given to us in the cross? The devil knows it. There’s no question. He’s not sitting there, I wonder? No, he knows in the depth of his soul exactly what’s going on. He knows that Christ rules. He is well aware that Christ sits in a place where he can never go. There’s no challenge, no way that he can mount a challenge to Christ and say, I’m coming for your throne. You better be afraid. He can’t even get near that place.
He sits on a throne and the decree of God is that he is there reigning, how long? ‘Till every enemy is where? Under his feet. And when he does that, what’s gonna happen? He’s gonna hand the kingdom, said, The work is done. My job is done. Here, Father, is Your kingdom. And God, the One He referred to as His Father, will be all in all and Jesus will walk among us as our brother in a brand new creation. Praise God!
The devil is well aware that this is what’s unfolding and there’s nothing he can do. He can’t get to that throne. It’s real. Jesus said before He ascended, He said, All, not some, but all authority in heaven and in earth, has what? Been given to me. See, that’s the foundation for going and making disciples and so forth. And lo, I’ll be with you to the end of the age. The devil knows that a whole lot better than we do sometimes. He knows exactly what that’s about, ‘till all enemies are under His feet.
You know, Ephesians 1 talks about the power of the resurrection and how He’s ascended to a place, not just above, but far above all principalities and powers. That’s the place that, oh, I’ll tell you, the devil is scared to death we’ll understand these things and actually live like they’re true, but the devil knows these truths better than a lot of God’s people.
Return to TV Transcripts[/ultimate_modal]
October 27, 2024 - No. 1673
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Things the Devil Knows” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Things the Devil Knows” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1673October 27, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1673 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: God doesn’t want us to be afraid of the devil, but we need to know who we are and we need to be His people, don’t we? We need to move in Him. But I believe God with all my heart, God wants to bring us to a place where we know these things that the devil knows, we know who we are, and we’re able to be instruments of Christ in this world. Praise God! All right?
So the devil knows who we are. It’s Christ in us, the hope of glory. We are born from above, sealed by His Spirit, a brand new creation. Now that’s sealed by the Spirit. There’s some… See, any one of these subjects could be a subject of a message, couldn’t it? But the seal of God’s Spirit. What does that mean?
There’s something about when somebody really comes to Christ and hands their life over and He comes in and takes possession, He puts a seal. That’s an illustration of saying, That’s mine. That one’s mine.
Do you think the devil is ignorant of that? He knows! If you’re His, the devil knows it. He’s gonna deal with you differently than he would somebody in the world. But the devil knows those that are His. You know the devil seals people too. You see that on both sides of this war that’s going on, the devil is sealing people with lies and with deception. The whole world is deceived and Satan is the author of that deception.
But I’ll tell you, when God calls somebody out, there is a birth that happens. There is a brand new life that is born that the devil cannot kill. We need to realize who we are in Him. God wants us to wake up and be aware. The devil knows that. Praise God!
Here’s something that just hit me as I was thinking about all this. The devil is scared to death of us. And it doesn’t feel like that a lot of the time, but the devil is scared because he knows it’s not just us. If Christ lives in you, that’s the One he’s afraid of. He’s afraid we’ll discover who we are and start saying, Lord, just like we sang, use me.
This is not a prescription for a pep rally to get out and go change the world in that sense. But this is to bring us to a place where we know who we are in Christ and we know we can do whatever He gives us to do because it’s not us doing it, it’s Him in us. Praise God! That’s what the devil is afraid of. Praise the Lord!
What about the scripture where John was talking in 1 John 4 about deceivers that had come in, but they didn’t recognize that Christ was there. They were just coming in with their deception. And the comment that John makes is, Greater is He that is in us than he that’s in the world. The devil is very, very aware. When Christ resides in a heart, that’s the one he is terrified of. Praise the Lord!
I don’t know as I thought about this, I just felt a greater sense of confidence and rest. I have no confidence in me. Nobody here has any grounds to have confidence in yourself. But we have all the ground in the world to have confidence in Him! Praise the Lord!
And it’s not just that greater is He that’s in us. What about what Paul says in Ephesians 2 about how we who were under the dominion of Satan? I don’t care if you were born in the church and grew up here, until Christ comes in and takes the throne of your heart, you’re living under his power. But when Christ comes in, He takes over. He lifts us up out of the graveyard of sin, gives us a life that the devil cannot kill. But we don’t stop there. He raises us up to seat us with Him in heavenly places in Christ. There is a place of authority that we have.
The devil loves to make us feel like we’re down in the mire, down in the depths and, Oh, God, way up there someplace…. Is that the picture that’s painted? We’re up here with Christ. When it comes to the devil, we’re looking down. We’re looking down. I wanna see it that way. I want this to become so real to me because I’m just like you. I have those times too. We all do when we feel that way. But God wants us to understand these are things the devil is well aware of. He has no illusion about who we are and what our destiny is. Praise God!
And he knows our power to overcome, doesn’t he? Praise the Lord! What about? Well, of course, Revelation 12, the scripture we quote so often. See, that’s the picture of how Christ came into the world. He tried his best to destroy Christ, but he lost, and there was a great war that took place in Heaven and he was cast down.
Jesus said before He went to the cross that that’s what was gonna happen. The devil’s gonna be cast down, cast out. And what happened as a result of that? A message began to be proclaimed, The victory has been won. And those who overcame the devil didn’t do it because they got excited and geared up. They did it because the blood was shed. The only ground the devil has over me is my sins that would separate me from God, but God took care of that at the cross.
Why do you think the devil is so scared of the cross? He knows that the only power he has over us is to get us to… Is to cause us to feel the guilt and the weight of our sins. But they were all placed upon a Savior. Praise God! And he didn’t just bear ‘em, He took them into the grave and left them there. Praise the Lord!
And I’ll tell you, it didn’t stop with just the fact of the blood, but the fact that they had this testimony. Praise God! I’m standing on what God says. I’m gonna be like Jesus. When the devil comes and tells me all about all the stuff that’s wrong with me, I’m gonna tell him what’s wrong with him. I’m gonna stand there and confess what God has done for me. I’m gonna lift up my eyes and get them off of what I think I am and all that I’m not, and place them where they need to be! On Jesus and what He has accomplished. I’m gonna confess that and stand on it. Praise the Lord!
You know, those of you who were there Saturday night, heard Brother Ezra talk about standing your ground. I wish I’d thought about this at the time, but you read the passage in Ephesians 12, or Ephesians 6, I mean, about the armor, yeah, and how we fight and resist. We had a message on that recently. But one of the things that Paul mentions, one of the expressions that he mentions in the translation I use most of the time, is, Stand your ground! That you might be able to stand your ground. Very phrase that Ezra used over and over again.
God wants us to realize that He has given us ground. We didn’t earn it! Jesus, because of what Jesus did, we have a place to stand that belongs to us. It’s ours! We have a right to stand upon that. Now, you know, the illustration he used had to do with Israelites. And God had given them a physical, you know, physical land to possess. And they had every right to say, This is mine. You can’t come in here and take it from me.
But I wonder how many of us really understand that when we’re under assault by the devil, we’re not trying to take ground as though I just haven’t got it yet. God wants us to realize He has given us ground and we stand on that ground. We claim that it is ours and it becomes ours in practice.
I don’t wanna fight from futility of trying to be something I’m not. I wanna become what I am. Think about that. Are we trying to become something we’re not? Or are we growing up to become something that we are because we were born from above? His life is in us. The blood was shed, the cross happened, the empty tomb happened. We have a life that cannot be killed. Praise God!
It’s the finished work of Christ. We have every right to stand upon that. Not because we think we deserve it or we always live up. We come back to that every time and say, This is the reason, Devil. I have a right to stand against you.
Do you think the devil is ignorant of this? The devil believes it better than we do most of the time. He is well aware of what Christ did for us. He knows that he has no defense except trying to assault us in some fashion through lies, through our weaknesses to get our mind, our eyes off of where they need to be. If he can do that, he can make us ineffective.
But I wanna rise up from that and realize that what Jesus did for me at the cross is mine and I have every right to stand on it and claim it. And I’m often in need of it just like you are. But that’s the place that I need to run to every single time. Praise God! Praise God!
So stand our ground! The devil knows our destiny. He knows all of the promises that we so often quote. I didn’t even write down too many of them, but the ones that we quote all the time, Philippians 1:6, praise God about how the work that He has begun. What about it? He’s going to complete it. How long? Till the day of Jesus Christ.
There’s a day coming. God’s not gonna quit. God help us not to throw up our hands as though we’re defeated and we just can’t, you can’t make it. He is the basis upon which I stand. The devil is well aware of that promise. He has no illusions about it being true or not. He absolutely understands that there is a life in us. Like I say, he cannot kill.
What about Romans 8, the passage we read so often? Even the stuff that the Lord allows him to do, God turns it into good. It must be frustrating. Now, I’m not a bit sorry for him. I don’t sympathize at all. But how frustrating is it that when the devil is allowed to do something, that somehow is that human beings regard as negative, he persecutes or he oppresses or whatever, and God says, All things work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. And the devil can’t stop that.
And he goes all the way to the point, all the way to the fact that, we’ve been glorified in God’s mind and God’s purpose. We’ve already been glorified. Do you think the devil doesn’t know that scripture? Do you think he thinks it’s, Well, that’s not true. The devil knows.
And what about nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Praise God! Every one of these things is something that the devil knows and understands.
What about Paul’s confession? I know whom I have believed that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day. See, God had planted the confidence about his own destiny in Paul’s heart, and he knew it didn’t rest with him. He knew it rested on the faithfulness of God. He said, I handed my… Every issue of my life. I handed it over to Him. I’ve committed me, I’ve committed all the sins, the terrible sins that I committed when I was young, in unbelief, I gave it all to Him. And I know He’s faithful and I know He’s gonna keep it all the way to the end. Praise God!
I just wanna come back to that thought. In all of this, the devil knows every one of these things and the Lord wants us to know them in a deeper way than we have. May He help us. May He help me. I know He is. I don’t think this is gonna take a lot longer, but anyway. I mean, like I say, there’s so many ways, so many places, so many scriptures you could throw into this. But just think of any of the ones that have been meaningful to you.
And I want you to understand, the devil knows about it. He is well aware. What he doesn’t want is for us to get it. He wants us to use the EBM Version of the Bible. It’s not the King James, the NIV or all. EBM. That’s Everybody But Me. Where we could sit there and say, Yeah, that’s a great truth. But as for me, doesn’t quite apply to me.
Oh, God wants us to take His Word. What did Jesus die for? Just so that we could live in as paupers? He wants us to live with a sense of confidence. Now that’s not talking about human bravado and cockiness and thinking we’re something we can just go out and, you know, push spiritual buttons and accomplish things. No! But when he tells us something to do, we can do it because we are His! He wants us to grow up in Him and be who we truly are. The devil is scared to death that that’s gonna happen in God’s people. Praise the Lord!
Well, there’s something else the devil knows, right? He knows his time is short. Now it’s interesting that that was originally written in the first century. But if you just follow the Bible chronology, there was a good 4,000 years before that. And Satan knew when Jesus ascended to that throne and began to declare His message, he said, Woo! Time’s running out.
I don’t think he knew. He also knew that he had been frustrated and has been for most of this time since the Gospel began to be proclaimed. He has been frustrated in his efforts to unite the world under his leadership. Now, he’s able to do a lot of stuff. But in terms of gathering the nations completely under his rule and literally driving out the influence of Christ from the Earth, he hasn’t been able to do that. He has been bound and limited in what he was able to do.
And of course we know that the end of the age is that period of time, described as a little season, when that release happens. And we’ve talked about it many times. It’s happening right before us. We see every day the effort of Satan, the successful effort in so many cases, of the devil to plant his ideas.
Our whole generation is glued to their phones, getting information. What kind of information is it? Boy, the devil has unprecedented powers and avenues for getting information into people’s heads. He can promote his culture, his ideas, his lies in every possible form, if we’re not discerning and awake. And God help us to realize what’s going on. The devil knows he has a short time! He’s come down in great wrath and the people of the world have no idea what’s going on. Thank God, His people do. That God has a people.
You know, I’ve made this point in a couple of settings recently. I believe with all my heart it’s easy for us to focus on, Oh, things are so bad, it’s so dark. Circle the wagons, folks! I believe with all my heart, this is the time that God is gonna have the greatest ingathering of His people. There is a harvest that’s happening in many places in the world right now.
And I don’t wanna seek, I don’t wanna put God in my box, and say, It’s gotta happen this way or that way. I wanna say, God knows how to reach His. God is going to reach everyone. And, yes, there is a terrible harvest of evil that’s happening in the world, but there’s a harvest of good too, and God is calling His people.
I tell you, we’re gonna have a unnumbered company, innumerable company from every tribe and every nation before it’s over. God is faithful and I wanna be part of that. I don’t wanna sit there and say, Well, nothing we can do. It’s all over. It ain’t over till Jesus comes.
And I don’t know what’s gonna happen between now and then. I know it’s gonna get a lot darker and we’re gonna see trials and tribulations of all kinds. But I’ll tell you, God has promised to be with us to the end of the age and He that’s in us is greater! The devil cannot destroy that which God has birthed into His Kingdom. And He’s looking for people that realize who we are!
The devil has no right to you, has no right to me. We have a right to realize we’re here and he’s down here trying to do whatever he can do. But he has lost the war. But right now, he is doing everything he can do to deceive the lost and unify the world under his power.
But he’s also trying to make every effort to make believers ineffective, to blind believers to the reality, on a personal level, of the things we’ve been talking about today. He knows they’re true! He’s scared to death we’ll find out about it, and actually live it.
But I’ll tell you, you see where we’re at, you see what we need. We need to wake up and look to Jesus. When you struggle against something, where do you look? I mean, I know where we’re supposed to look, but I mean, where do we look? Most of the time we’re looking at the circumstance, the feelings, the sense of failure, the sense of weakness.
Whatever it is. God wants His people every moment of every day to lift our eyes and say, I have a source. I need to stay plugged in. I don’t have to suck the juice out of the vine, it’s gonna flow. All I have to do is look to Him and believe His promises and His life will sustain me because what He’s done in here cannot be killed. Praise God!
When I feel weakness, it’s because from the devil’s attempt is attempting to put me in a place where I’m just, Oh, well, I can’t do anything. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. You think the devil is unaware of that? The devil believes every one of these things. He knows them to be true. God wants us to have better faith than the devil. I need to learn to believe things the devil knows to be true. But I need to learn how to believe them personally for me, according to my needs and where I’m at.
And I’ll tell you as God works that in us, we’re going to be instruments of His purpose in this hour. I don’t know what that is. It’s not to start a program and get a committee together to come up with a five-year plan. It’s to look to God and say, Lord, here we are. Use me, Jesus. And I’m just gonna look to you and wait upon you and take it as it comes. I’m gonna do what Jesus taught us, what He said He was gonna bring us to is the place of rest. Learn from me, He said. And you’ll find rest for your souls.
So I don’t know. I just… This has really covered a lot of ground in a way, but I hope it’s painted a simple picture. We need to realize the devil knows a whole lot more than we maybe give him credit for. He is terrified that God’s people will understand the truth of the Gospel and walk in it and lay hold of it and be people that God can use in an hour like this.
I pray that God will wake me up and all of us to realize who we are instead of thinking of ourselves as this poor, weak, useless, whatever, however the devil wants to characterize it. Say, Devil, in myself, I’m all those things. But there’s One in me who’s greater than you. There’s an eternal purpose being lived out and worked out. I have every right to yield myself to Him and to be a part of that.
Maybe He hasn’t called me to go out and do great things, as people who imagine those things. But I can be a light right where I’m at. Christ can live in me. I can be victorious. I can grow in my faith. And yes, there’s room for growth. I don’t get it right all the time, but I’ve got a place to go.
Oh, the devil is terrified of the cross and the blood that was shed there. But we can go there with joy and thankfulness knowing that there is a ground that God has established where we can be as clean as if we had never sinned in the first place. We just have to have a heart that agrees with Him and comes to Him and says, Father, I need to be cleansed. Help me. Help me to grow. Help me to learn from this.
You think He’s gonna be faithful? The devil knows it. He knows there’s gonna be a day when it’ll be over for him. He’s gonna take down everybody he can take down. He is angry that his plans and all that he has imagined is gonna come to an end. He knows it’s true.
How would you feel if you were in his place? You’d be out there doing everything you could do to stop it. But I serve One who cannot, who’s never lost a battle. And it’s not just a matter of the battle. He’s won the war. He has won the war! And I wanna be one that walks in that.
So just think about all these things the devil knows and say, Do I know them? Do I really walk in this? Do I get all this? Does it make a difference in my daily life? And I believe the Lord’s gonna help us in a special way going forward. Don’t you?
I don’t know what it’s gonna look like. God doesn’t live in my box. I just wanna say, Lord, teach us, show us. Lead us. I wanna be free to say, Lord, whatever you have, help us to be alive and awake and to be able to hear your voice and believe it when you speak and trust you for the power to do whatever you tell us to do. That’s kinda all there is to it, isn’t it? Praise God! Isn’t the Lord good? Praise the Lord![/ultimate_modal]
November 3, 2024 - No. 1674
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Come, Listen, Seek” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Come, Listen, Seek” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1674November 3, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1674 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, for those who are following the chronological Bible, this is the time of year we’re in the last part of Isaiah, some of the richest scripture in all the Bible, powerful prophecies the Lord spoke by His Spirit in a dark time. You know, well, Doug was talking about it being a dark time. Well, it was a dark time then.
You remember how God had raised up the kingdom, had fulfilled His promises. It enabled David to finish conquering all of the territory that had been promised all the way back in Abraham’s day. And then consolidated the kingdom, handed it off to Solomon. And for a one brief glorious period, Solomon was the greatest king probably that the world has ever known. Rich time of peace and prosperity, and a witness to the world of who God was.
And then things started going south, didn’t they? And after Solomon left the throne and passed off the scene, we have the split of the kingdom, rebellion of 10 tribes that said, We’re not gonna follow David’s house anymore. We’re going off and we’re gonna do our own thing.
And they never ever served God after that. It was entirely downhill and immediately built heathen gods, made heathen gods. And it just never again served God. And eventually, in fact, in Isaiah’s time, by Isaiah’s time, they were actually dispersed. The entire kingdom was literally broken up. Groups of people were scattered throughout the empire of Assyria. And others were brought in to replace them. So it was gone.
Judah was the southern kingdom, the two tribes that stuck together. And they had a mixed bag. They had some terrible kings, and they had some that were pretty good in varying degrees. And Isaiah lived during a time when the general trend was not good, but there were some good kings like Hezekiah. And so there was a prophecy, there was a spirit of prophecy that enabled him to speak God’s words in a time of great darkness.
You know, but Doug spoke about the darkness that’s in our world today, and there were a lot of things going on then that are pretty picturesque of what’s going on today, a picture. You actually had kings like Hezekiah that served the Lord, but you had others right bumped up against his reign that actually sacrificed their children to a heathen god.
Can you imagine a king, supposedly representing God in Jerusalem, taking his young baby, young child over to a cliff and offering that child, sacrificing that child to a heathen deity trying to gain favor with that false God? That’s what was going on. Can you imagine?
Sound kind of, sounds familiar though, doesn’t it? Sounds like our modern world. We’ve got a world that is listening to the darkness of this world. But one thing that God made makes plain everywhere, that He always preserved a remnant, didn’t he? A remnant is a few out of the whole that literally continued to serve God.
You remember how Isaiah begins? Unless the Lord had preserved a very small remnant, what would’ve been the consequence? You’d have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. What does that mean? What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? They reached a point where there was no going back, and there was nothing left but destruction. That’s where this world is headed. Do you understand that? Everybody here understand where we’re at in history. There is judgment coming, but God has a remnant.
And so the word that Isaiah spoke was twofold. Number one, he often talked about the conditions, and he pointed out how the people were going the wrong way. They had a form, but they didn’t have anything in their hearts. Their hearts were far from them. Many scriptures you recall from throughout Isaiah, and you see the condition of the true hearts of the people was not good.
But yet interspersed, especially from chapters 40 on, you see these powerful prophecies that were meant to encourage the remnant who were standing there trying to navigate the world that they were living in. How in the world can I continue to believe in God? Look what my neighbors are doing. They got idols in their house. Look what the king just did. Look at the destruction that’s happened to in this place and that. Look at all the things that are wrong. And here I am trying to be faithful.
And God was sending a word to accomplish several things. One of them was to encourage His people, saying, Yes, things are bad, but don’t worry. I’ve got a plan and things are gonna be awesome. And it’s not gonna be just about for you and to try to make Israel, the natural Israel something great. This kingdom is gonna go to the ends of the world. I’m gonna be with you.
And there’s one coming that is called of Me, and he’s going to lay down his life for the sins of the world. We’ve sung about that this morning. Praise God! I’m gonna take care of all this darkness you see. And I’m gonna bring forth a people who will be faithful to Me.
And their destiny is not just for earthly greatness. Their destiny is everlasting. Yes. There’ll be a new heavens and a new Earth. You got that prophecy there in Isaiah toward the end. I mean, all these things are there.
God was, and it’s like we’ve talked about many times, God’s word is creative. So when God spoke these words through Isaiah, he was literally setting something in motion. It’s like pushing a button. I’m gonna start something. You know, we know about starting a machine because there’s power engaged to do something. Well, this was doing something, it just wasn’t right then. But oh, something was launched, and it was gonna land exactly on God’s schedule. Praise God!
That applies to us too, doesn’t it? Yeah. We’re standing at a world that is absolutely making the choice to go the wrong way. They’re literally closing the ears, refusing to hear what God says, walking in the darkness, Doug was describing there from 1 Thessalonians. And God has called a people out of that to listen to Him.
And so, I don’t know, I can’t say I felt any icicles running up and down my spine concerning this morning, but you know, many times we’re not called to that kind of experience. You know, we’re not walking by the feelings that we get. We’re walking by faith.
And my mind was drawn back, and it just kept being drawn to Isaiah 55, a very familiar passage of scripture. And this was a word that I see having two main areas of application. Always, when God’s word comes, on the one hand, it’s to encourage God’s people and to tell them what is true and give them a true picture, a true knowledge and the life and the power that goes with that knowledge.
See, I don’t need just more and better information. I need some power. I need something that will power this machine, if you will, to literally do what Doug was talking about. ‘Cause it’s one thing for God to tell me what to do. It’s another thing for me to be able to do it. And I need God.
So on the one hand, this was a word of encouragement to God’s people. On the other hand, it was a call. See, think about the patience of God. Think about what we read and hear in the news every day the things that are going on in this crazy world. It’s insane. Why would God put up with such a thing? God is allowing men to make their choice.
But there are still those that He cares about. He cares about all of them. But there are those that He knows can still be reached, and that’s what His focus is on. And as long as there’s a heart that can be reached, God’s going to keep reaching.
And that’s what I want us to see. It’s not just the technicalities of what He says here, but it’s the heart that goes behind it. Here’s a God looking at this condition of the people, and there’s a king goes out and sacrifices his baby trying to get the favor of a heathen god. And God is still reaching out because there are people who will hear and listen. I wanna be one of those people. Praise God!
So anyway, he begins, “Come all who are thirsty, come to the waters and you who have no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy?” Now, I should think it would be obvious that the Lord is not talking about literal food that sustains these bodies, but rather we can gain a picture of what He’s saying.
Obviously, we live in a bodily existence, and these bodies that we have need sustenance, don’t they? You go out and work every day, if you don’t eat, you don’t work. Of course if you don’t work, you don’t eat either. But there’s a balance. I need something. There are nutrients that my body needs without which I cannot function. I’ve got to have the vitamins and the minerals and the various things that keeps this old body going.
Now we know that this is described by Paul as a tent. Now some of you go camping. Last time I went camping, the conditions were so ridiculous, we went home before breakfast and haven’t been since. But anyway, be that as it may, it’s a lot of fun, but it’s a temporary place, isn’t it? We have these structures that give us a little bit of shelter while we’re out there, but they’re not meant to live in, on and on. And that’s the way our bodies are.
Well, we need that perspective, folks. Everything about this world is temporary. And you who are young and feeling your oats and you can do all this wonderful stuff, just wait. We were young once. And you get to where you realize, Hey, these bodies are wearing out. It isn’t gonna last. And we see people come to the end of the way. But yet while we’re here, we need sustenance, don’t we? So that’s what he’s playing off of. He’s giving us an illustration.
So when he is talking about being thirsty, he’s not talking about going into a faucet or wherever, to a source of water and drinking literal water. But there is another, see, we’re not just physical beings. We are spiritual beings happen to live in these bodies temporarily. And that unseen being needs stuff, it needs sustenance.
You know, Doug was talking about what the world is looking for, all that it seeks. We have a nature that we inherited from our first parents because they made a choice. They made a choice to say, I’m gonna do it my way. I’m gonna seek what I want. And ever since, the human race has been trying desperately to find satisfaction by following natural desires and seeking the things that this material world offers.
But here’s the Lord reaching out, saying, Are you thirsty? Somehow I was thinking of this, you know, I was saying, Lord, everybody knows this stuff. This is just, you know, we’ve heard all this so many times, but I felt like the Lord was saying, There are a lot of people, and they have needs on the inside. I mean, we know about physical needs and, you know, things of that sort where you go to the doctor and all of that. But I’m talking about the kind that people can’t see. And there’s something in inside that is struggling, that’s hungry, that’s thirsty.
Am I the only one? No. Folks, that’s just our nature. That’s the nature of living in this world. And the Lord is reaching out to a people saying, I know where you live. I know what’s going on around you in society. Are you thirsty? Is there something that your spirit needs that you’re not able to get by yourself and out of your environment?
I mean, you think about what the world is looking for and how it feels like it’s going to achieve what it wants. Oh God, the battles that are fought on the inside. Why can’t I get people to like me? What about this? What about what they have? You know, Oh, if I just won the lottery, oh. Everything would just fall into place. I’d be so happy, I’d be at such peace.
Do you think there’s any source of peace in this world? I don’t care what you have. God has put a God-sized hole in everybody’s heart. And there will be nothing that will satisfy that except Him. We were made for Him. As was the old quote, Our souls are restless until they find their rest in you.
And you know, the world will teach us its ways, and we will be affected whether we realize it or not. We can get sidetracked, we can get so absorbed in, I need this, I want that. You know, what about this situation? Oh, if I could change my situation, then I’d be happy.
How long would that last? If we are trying to gain and to satisfy the longings, the urgings, whatever it is by the things of this world, it ain’t gonna work. There’s something else that we need.
And that’s what the Lord is trying to get them to see. You are thirsty, you need something. Something is just not quite right on the inside. And you think, If I do this, if I can fix that, then everything will be okay. No, it won’t. It won’t.
Now obviously this is a word to people who don’t know the Lord and just trying to find their place in the world. Why am I here? Who am I? What’s this world about? What is the pathway to meaning and happiness? And the Lord’s saying, Come, I’ve got everything you need. You weren’t made just to live your life here and die and that’s the end of it. I’ve got a purpose that goes way beyond that. I have everything you need.
And just like our bodies, if my body didn’t have what it needed to function, I mean, I have enough challenge getting outta bed in the morning sometimes, but if I didn’t eat, I wouldn’t be getting outta bed. If I didn’t take in the nutrients and the things that sustain this….
Well, what is it that sustains the inside? That’s the question. Because, I’ll tell you, I don’t care how much money you make. If you made all the money in the world, do you think, do you actually think you would be happy and you would find peace and joy?
You know, you think of one of the greatest conquerors in all of history, Alexander the Great. As a young man, he left Greece and he took a company of soldiers and all kinds of people, and he went from place to place and he conquered the known world, spread Greek culture everywhere. That guy was still in his 30s when he ran outta places to conquer.
What did he do? Oh, great. I finally accomplished my purpose. Everything is great. He wept. He cried. Why did he do that? Because there were no more worlds to conquer. His whole meaning had been this striving to fulfill this earthly desire. In other words, there was a thirst that even all that he did was not able to satisfy.
And does this only affect the lost? This affects God’s people. There are a lot of things that happen on the inside, there are desires, there’s needs, there’s things that we just, and there we are struggling and thirsty and wondering how in the world can I handle this, how can I handle that? And the Lord has one word, and it’s, come.
Think of what Jesus said, Come to me all who are weary, in that case, all who are weary and burdened. There’s this sense. And come implies that the Lord is saying, I’m here and you’re there. You’re in a place where I don’t care what you do, you will never deal successfully with that thirst that’s happening on the inside.
You are in a place that, I’ve allowed you to be in this place. I’ve allowed you to feel the need. And you’re trying in your own wisdom, your own effort to try to fix it. And it ain’t gonna happen. I’ve got a different plan. And I feel like the Lord wants us to experience this more than we do because this is not theory.
You know, like Ben was saying this morning, we can talk about the theory of how salvation works and what God’s done for us, but He wants us to literally have that. I need something to feed my spirit. Do you? Amen. I need something that can literally inject nourishment into that inside part that nobody else sees.
And here He calls on us, for example, to do the things that Doug was talking about this morning. How do I do that? That’s not in me to do that. I wasn’t born with the ability to be that person. But it’s not just some, Okay, boom, I’ve got it. Is there any way that somebody here can just eat one magical meal and then on the strength of that, go the rest of your life and just do great things? Be a wonderful athlete, be a great, you know, weightlifter or whatever? That’s all you need, is that one great meal? No, we gotta have regular, we gotta eat on a pretty regular basis, don’t we? There’s a cycle.
It’s kind of like that with the Lord, isn’t it? So this calm is not just a one-time thing, and then, Hey, we got it, we got it. This is something where the Lord is saying every time that there’s a need, that’s something going on the inside. And you’re feeling, Oh God, I need something. Lord, I’m thirsty. Help me through this circumstance that facing. God, I need you.
And what does He say? He says, Come. You’re over there trying to wrestle with the issues of your life. Come. Come, I have what you need. Come to the waters. And you who have no money, now this is one of the best parts. You who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Praise God!
The Lord’s not even saying, Hey, come work for it. Come earn it. I wonder how many of God’s children wrestle with this part of it. Okay, I’m in need. I even messed up. I’m in this place of thirst and hunger. My spirit needs something, but I just can’t go right now. I’ve gotta sort of earn my way back into His favor, and then maybe He’ll help me.
I’ll tell you, aren’t you glad we serve a God who knows where we’re at? Knows our need, knows what we’ve got to have to nourish this inner person that He’s put in here. And He doesn’t say, Come earn it. The price has been paid. Amen. The price for every need that exists in my heart and in my life was paid when they laid those stripes on my Savior. Every lie that I’ve ever told, everything I’ve ever, every thought I’ve ever had that’s been wrong and against Him, there was a stripe that was laid on my Savior because of that.
And He invites me to come. He says, Look at what I did on the cross. I’m not asking you to come and fix yourself so I’ll accept you. I’m asking you to come and let me feed your soul. I have what you need. You could try to feed yourself off of the things this world offers. It will never, ever take care of the need, will it?
And I’m so thankful it’s without money and without cost. And then He says to them, Why do you spend your money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Obviously, again, He is not talking about physical food. He’s talking about the striving of the human spirit for meaning and for something that will quiet this restlessness.
Doesn’t He say, The wicked are like the troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, there’s no peace, sayeth my God, to the wicked? Of course you say, Well, that’s not me. I’m not wicked. I’ll tell you what, we have this idea in a human society that we know who wicked people are. They do really outwardly bad things.
If we could see ourselves the way the Lord allowed Isaiah to see himself, being caught up in seeing the purity and the power of the Lord, all of a sudden, we’d realize, I’m no different. Have you ever told a lie? You ever taken anything that wasn’t yours? You ever had an angry thought, a lustful thought? And you can go on and on down the list of things that rule over this world. You ever had any of those things? Where did they come from? If you were judged by those things, by that standard, would you be innocent or guilty? I need a Savior.[/ultimate_modal]
November 10, 2024 - No. 1675
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Come, Listen, Seek” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Come, Listen, Seek” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]“Come, Listen, Seek” ConclusionBroadcast #1675
November 10, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1675 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: You who are struggling and trying to find your way, why do you waste your effort and all the focus of your life on something that can never, ever scratch that itch that you’ve got on the inside? God has better for you and for me. And here’s His voice, crying out to a people most of whom had turned away and were walking away from His love and His mercy. But He knew that there were a people.
I believe there’s people today, we’re in an era, we’re in a time when darkness is overtaking the world, but God is reaching out. There’s a harvest. There’s a people that He is gathering in this hour. I want to be one of those people.
But if I’m gonna navigate this, it’s not just a matter of knowing what’s going on and knowing what’s right and wrong. I need life. I need to realize that I don’t just need information. Like I say, I need to literally eat something just like my body needs food that I chew up and I swallow. I need something that I can receive into my inner being that will nourish me, and change me, and help me. Anybody here?
Yeah, well, that’s what He offers and He offers it to people who are in such a state where they don’t even realize it. They’re watching the world and watching it unfold and struggling. Their nature is crawling, is driving them to try to satisfy that thing. And the Lord says, Come, I’ve got what you need. Stop trying to find it some other way. Come to me.
So, then He adds a dimension to that. Come is one thing. But it’s interesting what He says after that. And I think this actually captures the Hebrew pretty well. Listen, listen, because the word is there twice.
You remember the message we had several years ago on peace, peace. Well, this is listen, listen. The Lord just doesn’t say, listen. He says, Listen, listen. I wanna get your attention.
And you know the difference between listening and hearing, right? I could hear something, but to actually benefit from it, I need to listen to it and take it in, and agree with it, and so that it becomes a part of me.
I mean, you could go to the best buffet in the world if all you did was to go out and sniff it, and maybe even taste it, and admire it. That wouldn’t do you much good, would it? But God wants us to not only come to Him, but realize He’s got something He wants to give to us that will sustain us.
Now remember the word we have so often quoted where the Lord was trying to teach the people, Man doesn’t only live by bread. Yes, you’ve gotta have something to sustain your body. That’s not what… You need more than that, what do you need besides that? Every word that proceeds, present tense, out of the mouth of God. I’ve got to have something. I’ve gotta have God speak to me basically.
And it’s not some magical experience, but there is a way that God has of communicating with a willing heart. And listen means I got my ears. I’m stretching out my ears. It’s almost like you hear a whisper, somebody whisper, and you don’t quite get it. And you wanna lean forward, make sure you get it.
This is God saying, I’m looking for a people who are so desiring me, so aware of their need of me, that they’re literally putting forth a… They’re making a choice. They’re making a deliberate choice to say, God, I need to hear you. I need what you’re telling me, and I want what you’re telling me. I agree with it even before I know what it is.
Ooh, that takes a heap of grace, doesn’t it? Because we are so self-willed, so self-reliant and God wants us to come to that place where we realize you haven’t got what it takes. Not for my purposes, but I do. And I love you and I care about you, and I’m gonna tell you the truth even when it hurts. But I’m gonna tell you what will heal you.
You know, I’m talking about the needs that exist, the thirst, we’ve talked about this before. How many people are nursing wounds on the inside? How many people are struggling in certain areas? And then you come in with a smile and everything’s just wonderful and fine. But inside there are needs. There are things you haven’t been able to get over, things you’re struggling. Oh, how is this gonna work out? I’m dealing with this. What am I?
God wants to do something about that. He doesn’t get any pleasure out of seeing people struggle. He wants us to be able to bring every burden, cast all your care upon. Where? Upon Him. Why? Because He cares. That’s what you get out of these awesome passages in the Old Testament where the Lord is speaking through the prophet to people who are struggling. How do I…? What’s going on? I don’t get this.
Think of the promises to Abraham. Where are we at? What’s going on? And I said, Don’t worry, you come to me. I’ll give you what you need to sustain you. But also don’t worry because something amazing is coming. I’m still in charge.
So here it is. Listen, listen to me. Is listening to God in the sense that He’s talking about here, is that something you really want? Do you really want Him to talk to you? You know, I think every one of us has times in our lives when the Lord’s putting His finger on something and it’s hard for us to say, Yes, Lord, I’m willing.
But have you ever found yourself in a place where say, Lord, I’m struggling with my will, but I’m willing to be made willing? I need you to inject something, infuse something into my spirit that changes the way I see the situation whatever it is, that enables me to be willing. I want to do what you want, Lord, and I’m struggling right now.
That’s normal to have times like that. Don’t you be dismayed. God sees that. This whole passage is addressed to the one who’s thirsty. These are things that make us thirsty. There He is, reaching out. Listen, listen to me and eat what is good. I’ve got something for you that’ll sustain your spirit if you’ll just listen. Okay? Yes.
You will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me. Listen that you may live. So you got the whole package there. Come, listen, hear. Open your heart. Folks, there are so many times when what we need, yeah, we need to read this word, but I need God to take this word and breathe life into me, breathe life into that word ‘cause the word is meant to be an expression of life.
It’s not dead food that I need. I mean, you can cook something down to the point where it doesn’t really do you much good. But I need the food that still has life in it. Well, when He speaks it’s not just words, is it? He’s literally imparting divine life into our spirits. That’s what I need. Praise God!
Do you know He’s willing to do that right now? Do you know everyone who’s in this place of hunger and struggling can go to Him and say, Lord, I need to eat something. I’m hungry. I need you to feed me. I need you to help me, to give me something to drink. Lord, I’m looking to You.
You ever had those times when God would speak a word, a very simple word sometimes, and it would just minister peace and minister rest. It wasn’t just the thought, it was the life. Something touched your spirit. Something changed the way you were on the inside.
This is what we don’t see is probably more real than this what we do see, and that’s what God is after, is to change this because this outward person is gonna… This body is gonna be gone, but there’s a life on the inside, it’s gonna live on. Praise God!. That’s what He wants to sustain.
Think of the heart of God that was just reaching out with such plain language to the people. And then the promise, I will make an everlasting covenant with you. There’s an agreement, there’s a contract if you will, that God is making with His people. It’s not something where we have to earn our way in. He invites us to come.
He’s looking for the willing. He’s building a kingdom of the willing. My faithful love promised to David. He goes back to the man after God’s own heart, that God was so real to, David didn’t serve God because he thought of Him as a monarch somewhere giving rules. He came to know Him as a faithful shepherd. Someone that I can walk with, someone who goes with me, meets my needs on the inside. I love Him, I know Him. I want to be around Him. I wanna spend time with Him because that’s where I get my strength. That’s what enables me to live and to be a servant of God in this dark world. I can’t do it, but I need to spend time with Him. I need to go to Him. I need to listen to Him.
My faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him, David, a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the people. Surely, you will summon nations, you know not in nations, you do not know will come running to you because of the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, for He has endowed you with splendor.
Anybody here feel like you’re endowed with splendor? We don’t see it right now, but if we could see what the Lord is doing in the hearts of those who have given their hearts to Him. One day, this is gonna be all gone. And the light of what He has done, He get every bit of the glory. Doesn’t say the saints will shine forth like the son in the kingdom of their Father?
Only God can turn this dark human spirit into something that is brilliant with light. It’s God’s life that can change a heart. It can meet you right where you’re at, that cares about you, that has done everything to take care of everything that would hinder you, if we just come and give ourselves to Him and believe Him, and trust Him. Praise God!
Seek the Lord while He may be found. You got three things I guess that kind of jumped out at me as I was thinking about this passage. The Lord says, Come, listen, and seek. Maybe that’s a title I don’t know. Come, listen, seek. But seek the Lord while He may be found.
Now I know in the context here, the Lord is talking is a warning. I will not always be available. There are things that are unfolding and people are making choices that in some cases reach a point where there is no going back. People have absolutely hardened their hearts to the point where they’re unable to hear me anymore. Okay?
We’re getting to that place for so many people of the world. The opportunity will not always be there, Seek the Lord while He may be found. So it’s a warning to somebody who doesn’t know the Lord. It’s a loving warning. It’s not a threat, but it’s a warning of reality.
But I also thought about it in this sense. Sometimes we’re looking for God’s voice and it just seems like He’s silent. And what do we do when we’re in those times and we’re in need and we’re reaching out to Him, and like David, we say, How long, oh Lord?
You know, part of faith, part of walking with Him is being able to say, God, I know that you are still true. I know that you are faithful. Isn’t that what He just said? My faithful love… And isn’t that how David reacted when He went through those times? He said, How long, oh Lord, I wish you’d come and answer my prayer, but I’m still gonna trust you. This is what God is building in His children.
And one of the warnings that He gives that we’ve often referred to and I probably have referred to it recently, I don’t remember specifically. But anyway, over in Chapter 50, you remember the scripture that we used to hear Brother Thomas minister on so long: Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant?” Who is somebody who wants to serve the Lord? They have a listening heart, okay?
Let him, but you don’t have any light. You’re in a situation where you don’t know what to do next. You don’t know how to handle a situation. You feel a need. What do I do? You trust in the name of the Lord. You stay upon your God, you stay put and you say, Lord, until you give me light, I ain’t going anywhere. I’m looking to you because you are faithful.
But what that does to somebody who really doesn’t believe and is just trying to use God to have a better life here, what that does is put them in a position where they’re gonna say, Okay, I tried this and it’s not working. So what I’m gonna do, I’ve gotta figure this out. After all, God helps those who help themselves.
How many of you know that’s not in the Bible? But anyway, then they go ahead and so they say, I’ve gotta work it out. What happens when somebody in a spirit of self-will tries to work these things out is not gonna wind up good. You’re gonna lie down in sorrow. You kindle your own fire. I gotta make some light so I can see what to do. That’s what the world is doing folks. This world is gonna perish, seeking its own ends, and its own will. But God is raising up a people who will walk with Him.
We mentioned last week about the good shepherd. He not only makes… He is the door into a place where he cares for us and watches over us. He goes forth as David indicated, And He leads us into path beside still waters to the pastures that are good. This is the kind of Lord we call to serve. He’s a good shepherd. Praise God! Praise God!
So what a promise that’s implied in, Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He is near. So God is looking for a people who will come, who will listen, that is, agree with Him, who will seek Him, will always be fixed on serving the Lord and realizing what I need in my inner being is Him. It’s his life, and He imparts that to me through His word.
So, what does He go on and say? Well, he says, Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. That alone tells you that when he says, Come and eat without any cost, he’s not saying, I’m offering myself to you to fix up everything that’s wrong so you can live your life. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s calling on people to turn away from their own way and let God nourish us, so we can go His way, okay?
So obviously, it’s a call to leave the way the world is living, all right? And the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord. And what? He will have mercy on them, and to God, for He will freely pardon. I need mercy, don’t you? There’s no way I can come to God and say, God, I’ve done this. I’ve done that. I am this. I am that. I’m expecting favor from you. It doesn’t work. I need mercy. But that’s what He offers. Thank God! Thank God for mercy that which I could never deserve. All right?
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Praise God!
Does it make sense to try to live by your ideas and how you think things ought to be? See, the Lord is constantly saying, Look, I know what’s going on. I know what’s gonna happen. I know all about you. I know everything that needs to be known. My voice is the one you need. You need to be listening to me.
In the midst of this world, the world is gonna be screaming in your ear, telling you it’s this way or it’s that way. This is what you ought to do. And the Lord says, Just listen. Be quiet. Be quiet in my presence and just come, and listen, and I’ll give you something that’ll feed your soul and give you peace. Praise God!
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace. Anybody want that this morning?
The mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. What? Wouldn’t that be a sight. But you get the sense, you ever walked out in nature and the Lord’s been real to you and it just seems like there’s joy everywhere you look. I’ll tell it’s what’s going on in here that matters. But I’ll tell you, God can so fill us with His joy that it’ll be just like this poetic language He uses here. I’d love to see the trees clap their hands.
But anyway, Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers, the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown. Who gets the glory out of this? He does, but He shares that with us. He shares Himself with us. For an everlasting sign, that will endure forever. If you get any question about what everlasting means, He goes right on and says, That will endure forever. That’s what I want.
But what I sense is the Lord wanting that for everybody here. If you’re here and you don’t know the Lord, the Lord knows your need. I don’t care how deep it is, He can meet that need if you just hand your life over to Him and put your faith in what Jesus did on the cross. He will absolutely change you from the inside out. He can give you a new heart. He can heal what’s wrong. He can forgive the sins. Whatever they are, He can meet the need of the heart.
But for His people, I sense, I know from personal experience I need the Lord more than I have Him. I go along and I get hungry. I feel needs on the inside that just aren’t quite… I’m not quite there. Things aren’t quite right and the Lord wants me to reach up and go to Him.
I mean, you think of what the scripture we so often quote out of Philippians, Be anxious for nothing. That’s just one way the human spirit gets out of kilter. What are we supposed to do? Let our requests be made known unto God and the peace with thanksgiving. See, there’s some faith involved. Thank you, Lord, that this is the circumstance. Thank you that I need you, but thank you that you’re there and the peace of God, which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
I sense that God knows the burdens of your heart. He knows things that nobody else knows, what you’re struggling with on the inside, and He wants you to come to Him. He has the power to speak a simple word to your spirit that will feed and meet that need.
We know about our needs in the body, but we’ve got needs here too. We got needs of the inside and God longs to share Himself with you and with me every single day. May God give us the grace to discern His heart and reach out to Him and do what He says, To come, to listen, to seek, to do whatever it takes to have Him. And that same Lord has promised to bring us all the way through. He is faithful.
The scripture that Doug read this morning, Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. That’s the Lord we serve. That’s the One I want to listen to. That’s the only source of peace that will ever satisfy that thirst, that’s in the human spirit.
The more we get out of kilter, the hungrier, and thirstier we get on the inside, the more we come to the Lord, the more he can feed us, and give us that which we will sustain this inner man. We have so much need.
Well, just praise the Lord! There’s nothing new that we’ve said this morning, but somehow I sense this was the need this morning. Was that wrong? Anybody? Anybody need this? We need the Lord and He’s so loving and so faithful. Reach out to Him. Answer what He says here. He is faithful and He will do it. To Him will be the glory. Thank God![/ultimate_modal]
November 17, 2024 - No. 1676
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Know Your Enemy“ Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Know Your Enemy” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]“Know Your Enemy” Part OneBroadcast #1676
November 17, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1676 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, I’ve had a lot of thoughts go through my mind, and I’m just trusting the Lord with this. Of course, hopefully that’s not a new thing. You need to be trusting the Lord all the time. But I feel especially inadequate. And yet, isn’t that the foundation of everything? We are inadequate. We can’t live, we can’t serve, we can’t do anything unless he does it in and through us. So that’s my prayer this morning that the Lord will absolutely take over and just have his way.
I’d like to read a scripture that we often read. I just wanna focus in a particular way today. And that’s in Ephesians chapter six. Carl, I’m sorry, I guess I have your affliction this morning. But anyway, this is where Paul, after talking about so many aspects of truth and encouragement that the believers needed, he says in verse 10, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
And then he goes on to describe the armor. But my focus is on the fact that we have talked about a number of times, the reality of this world and what it’s about. And of course, we’ll get to how it affects us, because it’s not just information about the world. We need something will help us right where we’re at in our Christian walk.
But the fact is, there is an unseen kingdom. We see the kingdoms of the world, the presidents, the emperors, the kings, whatever they are, prime ministers and the various levels of government, the armies of the world. We see all those things visibly. We think of this capital city and that one and wars, and we think in a very physical way.
But there is an unseen kingdom that’s very real. And I feel like the Lord wants us to delve into this a little bit more than perhaps we have, and become a little more conscious of what it is that Paul is talking about when he says to take on the armor because we wrestle not and so forth. What does that mean?
Well, for the world, it means that this world is, as we have often pointed out, under the control of the enemy. There is an unseen kingdom that literally rules over the hearts of man. It blinds their minds, it causes them to be under his power, unaware of the Lord and his purposes and his kingdom.
But I wonder many times if this isn’t just a kind of a vague idea, okay, there’s a kingdom out there, and you know, we see its effects in this broad general sense, but I believe the Lord wants us to get back to where we are conscious of the fact that that breaks down into individual members of that kingdom. We call ‘em demons, we call ‘em evil spirits, devils, whatever you want to call them.
You know, we think about earthly governments, and we say Putin attacked, you know, was it Ukraine? Don’t get old! Putin attacked, well, Putin was sitting there probably in a bunker or a secure location in Moscow, and he didn’t have anything to do with it. He wasn’t the one out there pulling the triggers and throwing the bombs, dropping the bombs and all of that. He was, but yet we say he did it.
There are a lot of things where we read in the scripture about the devil, you know, resist the devil. Well, I think we have to realize if we’re honest that Lucifer, the person we know as the devil, does not literally come down and bother us as individual believers or individual people. Now he does interact with humanity, but that’s, when it’s talking about the devil, it’s talking about his kingdom. And there are hordes of literal spirit beings who serve his interests and who affect the lives of individual people.
You know, there was a time when the Lord was visiting the church here in an unusual way. We don’t spend a lot of time talking about that. It’s not what we’re about, but it was real. And we became very conscious of the activity of demon spirits and how they affected people. In some cases it was demon possession, but there were many others where, you know, you saw that there was, you could see the effect of something, but then you realize, hey, there’s a spirit behind it.
And I know it’s an uncomfortable subject in many ways. And usually when you bring up something like this, just says, Oh, don’t talk about that. It’s just people’s personalities. And you know, it’s just kind of … where does that wisdom come from? Yeah, we’ve got a kingdom of spirits that literally have a plan and a purpose to dominate human kind. They would love if they could to drive out God and all of his people from this earth. And Satan would have his hands completely on everything and everybody, that’s what he would like.
Thank God for the blood that was shed on that cross. Thank God that he was defeated. You know, the message that we preached and the one in the MCM, things the devil knows, he knows that his time is short and he knows he doesn’t have the power. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to have some understanding in this area, because spirits do affect people.
Now, I know one of the things that, as soon as you get into that, you get into questions about demon possession and oppression and all that kind of stuff. Frankly, I don’t care about trying to sort all that out. All I know is the devil will affect any person that he can to any degree he can. If it’s just a matter of whispering in their ear and shaping their thinking and encouraging their motivations in a wrong sense and it’s all from out here, well, that’s part of it.
But if it gets to the point where spirits gain such an access to a person that they come to live in that person, do you know that happens literally? Yeah, I mean, we know from scripture certainly that they literally can be taken over. And then you get cases where someone’s totally outta control.
And like when Jesus saw the man in the tombs there, he talked, but the person that talked back to him was not the man, was it? It was one of the many spirits that were living inside the man that had such control that he literally was able to exercise the man’s mind, his body, his tongue, everything about him. It was not the person, it was the spirit.
Do you know that’s real? You read the headlines every day, and it’s pretty obvious what’s happening in the world. And you think about Mary Magdalene, one of the characters, one of the ladies who went around and no doubt cooked food and helped take care of the disciples and Jesus when they traveled around. But what does it say about her? Out of her went seven devils.
What does that literally mean? If somebody had had seen her someplace, they would say, there is a woman and her name is Mary. And so Mary lives inside this human body that I see before me, but Mary wasn’t alone. Before Jesus came along, there were seven, anyway, seven other spirit personalities.
You know demons have names, they are real beings. And you know, we’ve had testimony recently and from time to time of incidents where people have been able to see demon spirits. They are real.
Now, I wanna very quickly point out that all of this is not to inspire fear. The demon spirits do not have the power to just come and, you know, like some kind of monster, gobble you up and take over. They’ve got to work behind the scenes. They have got to use strategy, which is one thing Paul talks about here. They have got to work almost like a guerilla force, if you will. They’ve gotta be behind the scenes, unrecognized.
I’ll tell you, this world is totally, is it not under the control of the devil? Do they not live under his dominion? Are they not blind? That’s the world that we live in. And people do not know where their ideas, where their motivations come from.
And you literally have spirits whose job it is to go around and study people. Do you know there are spirits that study you and me? Why, what’s going on, what’s that about? The devil is looking for any kind of a weakness, any kind of an opening that’s there.
And of course, we know that people are unique, aren’t they? None of us are, we’re not the same as as each other. And you have people that are more intellectual and you have others that are more emotional and all kinds of different variations of human personality. Well, the devil is gonna study each person, say, Now how can I, where’s the weakness here? How can I get to them? How can I begin to inject my influence into their minds and their hearts?
And you know, you can almost see, I don’t know how literal this is, but you can almost see spirits going around with a notebook, studying somebody. It’s as real as if they were doing that. This is not fantasy. There are people the Lord has allowed to know these things and then come and be able to tell us because the Lord pulled ‘em out of that.
This is real, but there are devils that literally will study you and say, you know, there’s a weakness here. Hey, you, spirit, you spirit of fear, come here. There’s a weakness, it’s in the family, and I want you to take this person and work on that. And I want you to just keep ministering that and get a degree of influence and control over their lives. I want you to weaken them.
And as you do, I want you to kind of pay attention and study them because other weaknesses are gonna show up. And then maybe we can bring in a spirit of something else and all these things. And we’re gonna get control.
See, I don’t care whether it’s the degree where you have to put somebody in asylum or whether it’s somebody that looks respectable. There are plenty of people who look respectable in our society and you don’t have any idea that they are under the control of Lucifer in their thinking, in their actions. It doesn’t have to be some crazy crime that makes it obvious. If the devil has got somebody to the point where they love this world in any aspect of it, whether it’s the lust of the flesh or the pride of life, or the things they can see, the lust of the eyes, he’s gonna take control.
Now you think about the man that came to Jesus, and he wanted to become part of the kingdom, but Jesus knew he had an idol. And so he said, Here’s what you do. You sell everything you have, you give it to the poor, and then you come take up your cross and follow me. Well, what happened? He walked away. Sadly, there was a weakness in his life.
Now, anybody looking on would think, There’s a respectable guy. He’s wealthy, he’s successful, God’s blessed him. Isn’t that awesome? Do you think that that was just an interaction between Jesus and a human being, or was there the influence of the enemy that had built up to the point where there was a strong hold in his life? Folks, that’s the world that we are dealing with.
And you remember how Paul spoke earlier in the book of Corinthians, and he talks about how we have been brought out, we have been delivered, I think is the word, I have to look it up, but delivered from the power or the dominion of darkness, and what brought into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have redemption through his blood, I believe. Praise God!
I’ll tell you, those are the only alternatives by the way. If there’s somebody who has never come to Christ and put your faith in what he accomplished on the cross, surrendered your life and you’re serving him, you’re part of his kingdom, you are part of this kingdom of darkness that will ultimately be destroyed. Those are the only alternatives.
And so I just appeal to anybody who hears this, and that’s where you’re at. You need a Savior, you have no power. There are things that happen in your life that you don’t understand. He understands there’s things that are going on you don’t know, and you need a Savior to open your eyes and set you free from that power.
But I believe with all my heart that the Lord wants us to be just a little more aware of some of these things. The Lord has many times emphasized the secrets of Christian living, and he talks about faith and talks about the word and coming, you know, being filled with that and seeking, Lord, last week about coming to the Lord and listening, having a listening ear and seeking him. All of that is part of it. But you can do all of that and need this.
Think about the man that Jesus talked about on one occasion, where he talked about the man out of whom, you know, a spirit left, a spirit went away, and he went into what he called dry places. And what was he seeking? Seeking rest. Did he find it? No. There’s no way for a demon to find any kind of satisfaction anywhere else except through human beings.
And so what he did eventually was he went back to check out the house, the body of the man that he had lived in. Well, he found it empty. It’s a dangerous thing just to get devils out but not get Christ in. All right, so this man was still empty. So what did he do? He went and he got seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they went in there and lived. And the last state of the man was worse than at the beginning. So now instead of a man and one demon, he’s got a man and nine demons or eight demons, whatever it is. All those personalities living, inhabiting that same, you wonder where all these multiple personalities come from?
They’re real, you know, like was pointed out recently in a message we heard when the Lord talked to that man who’d come outta the tombs. What is your name? Well, there was only one spirit literally talking through that man, but it was obvious that he was not the only one there because, and when Jesus said, What is your name, singular, he said, Legion, for we are many. So he was speaking on behalf of all the other inhabitants.
Folks, this is the world you live in. We need to be aware of it, okay? And you can go on and on and on talking about the effects of spirits and all of that. But I’m more interested in how this affects us. And the Lord’s kind of gotten my attention with some of the scriptures that we read. And this is one of them obviously.
But the Lord will say something like, Resist the devil and he will flee from you, and so forth. He doesn’t say resist the bad thought. Doesn’t say resist your nature. Obviously, those things are involved, but the focus is not on all the things that we would like to focus on and just forget all that demon stuff that’s just scary.
By the way, the Lord is not talking about this to scare anybody. The fact that he has to sneak around to do his dirty work should tell us that we’re the ones in the position of power, that we have a choice, and especially if he has delivered us from that power and brought us into the kingdom of his son he loves, okay? So there is no reason for anyone to be afraid like there’s a monster, okay? So let’s just put that aside, but the Lord does want us to understand in a deeper way than we do.
And I just want to throw this all out here today and pray that God will bring us to a deeper level of freedom. Because I believe with all my heart that many of the needs, if not most of them, that people come for, and you know, there’s a problem in my life. There’s a bondage, there’s this, there’s that. Where’s that coming from? And it’s awful easy to say, well, that’s just my human nature. That’s just this, that’s just habit of thinking.
That’s just, and all those things are involved, but they are more symptoms of an influence, because the devil knows he cannot take us and steal us from Christ. If you’ve really been born and he lives in you, he can’t steal you and destroy you, thank God. But he can sure do a lot of bondage.
You know, I was at one point when I was thinking about all this, I was picturing a scene. Many of you have probably at some time in your life seen a movie version of Dickens’ Christmas Carol. And you remember the scene near the beginning where Marley’s ghost appears to Scrooge? What’s the scene? How is that depicted? He’s this ghostly figure, first of all, but he has chains all over him. Oh, these are the chains I forged in life.
Well, I mean, yeah, it’s kind of amusing in a way it’s portrayed, but isn’t there something real about that? The devil would like to put chains on every one of us to the extent that he can. And I fear that more of the time than we realize, there are chains, the things again about which we struggle.
We might need to go back a little deeper than we sometimes go. It’s not a better formula, it’s more than just information. There has to come a time when God’s power comes into play to set us free from something that is a power that’s come against us.
This is not just some fantasy, folks, do you believe this stuff is real? Do you believe there are literal spirits that study you and me, looking for opportunities? And I wonder how many times the opportunities are there because we’ve been born into a family, a context of some kind, and they have weaknesses, they have chains in their lives, and there’s an effect. They have an opportunity right there to affect children that come into that environment. And so they’re just programmed from youth with certain limitations, certain weaknesses, certain opportunities for the devil to hinder them.
Just because he can’t steal your soul and come in and all of that doesn’t mean he can’t attach chains. And God wants every one of us to come to that place where we recognize the chains that have bound us and where they come from.
You know, one thing comes to mind, and it certainly doesn’t affect, it affects a lot of people. So I’m not just thinking about any one place or person, but think about something like unforgiveness. The devil loves to promote a culture where, if somebody does something wrong to me, the way I look at it is, they’re in the wrong, I’m right. And the only way we’re gonna get over that is for them to humble themselves, come to me and admit that they were wrong, and ask for my forgiveness, and then I’ll consider it.
And you can have whole cultures in families and groups that come from that mistaken idea. Where does that come from? It certainly comes from Satan and his kingdom. There were literal spirits that went to work, maybe on grandpa and grandma and great-grandpa and grandma way back. And there’s a culture, there’s a spiritual culture that has been handed down, and people are born into it.
There’s a lot of the stuff that that afflicts our lives. We aren’t even aware of it. That’s the whole point. The devil hides what he’s doing, he’ll send a friend, so-called, into your life, and you don’t realize what’s really motivating. There’s something in control, there’s a degree of motivation there, and they’ll pretend to be your friend, but they’ll influence you. We can do this and it’ll be okay. You can think this way. You can think that way.
Look at our culture. It is devoted to totally programming people’s minds in ways that are absolutely anti-Christian, anti-Christ. And God wants us to be a lot more aware than we are.[/ultimate_modal]
November 24, 2024 - No. 1677
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Know Your Enemy” Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Know Your Enemy” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1677November 24, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1677 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: If the devil gets any kind of degree of influence over your heart and your life, he can only do that if he can get you to agree with him. Now, that may be ignorance, it may be just weakness, and he hides behind every kind of facade you can think of. But the reality is, if there is a hold in your life, at some point, you opened the door and gave him permission.
Now, here’s another illustration that came to my mind. We know something on the human level about criminal gangs, and let’s suppose that you’re living in an area ruled by criminal gangs. I mean, Mexico comes to mind, but it’s certainly not limited to them. There are some of them that rule in parts of cities too, but a criminal gang, obviously they rule by fear and force, don’t they?
But just suppose under some kind of a circumstance, somebody from one of those gangs comes to your property and needs a room. Anytime I’m in this area, I need a place, and you let them in. How do you think you’re gonna get them out? Not at all without a lot more force than they got.
That’s the way it is. If the devil ever gets any kind of a place of influence in your heart and your life, you will never ever get that out by your own power. I don’t care how many spiritual formulas you come up with, there is only one thing, and it’s the power that he’s talking about here.
We’re gonna have to have God’s mighty power, and we’re gonna have to come to be honest with the thing. We can’t say, Oh Lord, I got this terrible influence in my life, what’s going on? Why am I in bondage in this area? Oh God, break that hold. Well, you gave the devil permission to be in there in the first place. Think about the criminal gang. You opened the door. He claims that as his property, and he’s not going unless he is forced to leave. Not one of us has the power to force him to leave.
What God wants us to do in a deeper way is for him to open up our eyes to see why things are the way they are. To be able even to go back in time and say, Lord, show me where did this get started? Why is it this way? Lord, open my eyes to be honest.
If we have opened the door to a devil, don’t we need to be able at some point, as the Lord enables us and opens our eyes to be able to go back and say, There’s what happened. Maybe I was ignorant. Maybe I was just a kid. Maybe a lot of things. But the reality is, I’m the one who opened that door. Lord, cleanse me. Forgive me. I come honestly, laying my need before you.
But right now, I am yours Lord. I don’t belong to that devil. I repudiate everything about him. I’m not serving him. My body, my whole being belongs to you, Lord Jesus. I ask you to fill me. And because you are here, I declare that door shut. There’s an eviction notice that needs to be served in a lot of our lives because we have allowed the devil to come in and to gain holds.
Is this crazy? Anybody here need this? Yeah, I believe God wants to bring us to a greater level of victory and freedom, and there’s so many tactics that he uses. So anyway, this is one of the scriptures. Boy, I thought I was gonna be at some other scriptures a lot quicker. But anyway, he talks about the devil’s schemes.
Now look at another scripture we often refer to in 1 Peter 5. Verse six says, well, verse eight is where I’m going. Be alert, now, see, this is one right off the bat, he’s getting ready to talk about the devil and his effect on us. He’s not talking to unbelievers. Why would he talk to Christians if this didn’t matter to Christians? Be alert. Why should I care? The devil has no power over me, saved by the blood of Jesus. Well, yeah, would that it were so simple in a practical everyday sense.
Here’s what’s going on. Be alert and of sober mind. God wants us to see things the way they really are, to have an honesty about us. Your enemy the devil, And again, he’s not talking about Lucifer personally coming to every believer, but I’ll tell you, he’s an emissary of Lucifer. Even these little old spirits that come around and harass us, they are sent literally to do whatever damage they can to trick us, to seduces us, to get ahold of any weakness that we have.
And we got them. Let’s be honest, we’re not this wonderful free people that we say we are. We need a Savior. Thank God we have one. But this is part of the equation. You can do all the other stuff and get all the rest of it right? But we need to find out where we have literally fallen under Satan’s power and there are chains attached to us. The Lord wants to loose those chains.
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. That’s eat. See it upholds the same thing that we were talking about. The devil considers us food. It’s all he’s got. But I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you, I almost feel sorry, but I don’t, for a spirit that’s assigned to a Christian who gets all this. Man, they got a tough job. Well, let’s make it tougher. Let’s ask God to open our eyes so we can understand the kingdom of darkness and how it works.
As I say, the devil has been studying you all your life. There isn’t a person here who doesn’t have something in your personality, something in your experience. You’ve been through something, you learned, you were influenced by something that gives them an in, gives them a degree of a hold. And God wants to loosen those, every one of those things. But we’re gonna have to understand it.
I can think of so many things, and I’m sure you can as well, but Lord just guide this, I pray. But you think of, it could be any of us, but I’m thinking about young people right now, I guess, and how the devil wants to tempt you to play with sin. There are things you know aren’t really right. You can’t imagine doing them with Jesus. But it’ll be okay. It feels good. We can mess around with it a little bit. We won’t go too far, you know, I’ll just take a sip or a little bit of a drink and I understand I won’t be like those people over there, but I’ll just mess with.
You don’t toy with sin. What do you think’s going on there? You think there’s some innocent game going on? There are dark figures that are inspiring that. And when it comes to justifying it, well, I’m not going that far. I’m just, this is innocent. I’m just messing around and after all, it’s all taken care of. Jesus’ blood covers my sins, and I can always get forgiven if I go too far.
And oh God, how many times do we go through the same cycle of falling into a weakness and then saying, Oh God, help me. And the Lord’s had to take me back to, you know, where some of this is, and I’m sure there’s be more to come, but has had to take me back to where some of this stuff got started. Why am I like this? Why do I struggle in this area as much as I do? Well, there’s a reason I got programmed way back, maybe as a kid. There were ideas, there were desires. There was something that was stirred up that wasn’t right, it wasn’t good. And I kept playing with it.
And then I’d get in a weak place. The devil loves to take advantage of people when they get tired. Of course, he’ll make you tired in the first place, but what’s his game? Yeah, break us down. Get us to a point where we don’t have much resistance and maybe we start to feel a little bit sorry for ourselves.
Where does that wisdom come from? Yeah, and then we go eat the proverbial box of chocolates and we, you know, we begin to give in a little bit. Well, it’s okay. And, you know, you begin to see what’s going on though. There’s a process of just influence that’s coming and you know, it’s not God if you stand back and look. You know, there’s no way this is coming from God, but is it just random thoughts or do we recognize that there’s a reason the word of God says, Resist the devil. There is a real personality involved in these kinds of things.
When Jesus was tempted by the devil, he just didn’t say, Oh, that’s a bad thought. I think I’ll quote the word. Now, obviously in his case, it probably was the devil, it was. But Jesus addressed the spirit, not the sentiment, not the idea, He addressed the spirit.
How do we overcome the devil? Blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. That’s when God’s word becomes resident. We’re listening, we’re hearing that voice, that creative power that wants to change us on the inside. We’re hearing it and it’s changing us, but that becomes not just something we know in our heads, but something we confess with our hearts.
I am His. You can tell me all about what I’m not, but I am His child. I have been given a brand new heart and a new life. I’m a new creation in Jesus Christ. It isn’t dependent on who I am and what I am and what I’ve accomplished. I’m a sinner saved by grace, but devil, that’s my stand. I’m standing on what God has said and what God has promised, and that’s the end of it. You have no authority here. This is what God says, that’s where I’m standing.
And then you you don’t hang on to any part of your life, even if he kills you, because that’s all he can do. Give us a quick ticket to heaven. He cannot destroy or separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. And God has given us everything we need. But I believe with all my heart, God wants to take us to deeper levels.
And you think of pornography, it is rampant and super available in our society. Used to be it was the little magazines that had the covers on them and boys would get them and mess with them and snicker and all of that kind of stuff. But it’s everywhere now.
You think it’s innocent to mess with that. And I’m curious about this little thing. I’m curious about that. Where does that wisdom come from? Do you not see that there’s a person with a name talking to you. You know, we think of God speaking to us. Well, God is a spirit. You don’t see Him. But we know that He has the power to speak in our hearts and in our minds. Does not the devil or devils, demons, do not they have a certain amount of power to inject thoughts and wisdom and words?
Well, God’s words are spirit and life. They have life changing power. It’s not simply the ideas behind the words, it’s when He speaks, there’s life infused. But what happens if the devil is the one who does the talking? Are we not partaking of something that affects our spirit? Is it not like spiritual poison that begins to blind and begins to bind and begins to attach those chains? May God help us to talk to him about these things?
I didn’t have any particular sense of where we wanted to go in terms of the service beyond starting a conversation. I believe the Lord wants to come in greater power. We can go along and uphold our traditions and our ideas and our doctrines and our way of doing things. You can do that and just die eventually. We need the presence and the power of Christ, but we need him to come and in delivering power so that lives can literally be set free, chains can fall, prison doors can be open.
Is that not what Jesus came to do? Yeah, there may be those cases where you’ve got demon possession. Demons have to be driven from a person’s life and they’re brought to Christ. You’ve seen that in the past. But I’ll tell you, believers have problems with demons too. He can inject all kinds of bondage into your life and you wonder how in the world, what’s going on? I don’t understand, I try.
But you can try all you want; we need divine power. We need God to literally put his finger and give us understanding. I pray that there will be those who get this, many, who will join me in saying, God, You’re gonna have to help us in this area.
I’m not looking for a show, I’m not looking for anything other than you to be real and to set me and the people free in a deeper way so that we can not only be free ourselves, but we can be in a position to say, I know what it’s like to be in bondage. I know what it’s like for the power of God to set me free. And I know the One who set me free can set you free.
We can be instruments of God to help other people. Are there not people who need Him? Who need to be delivered? May God give us power. May God give us a heart in that direction. I’m talking to myself as much as I’m talking to anybody here. We need the Lord and we need him to come back in a greater power.
I’m not looking to recreate the visitation. That was something God did. But there’s a reality of the power of God that was meant to reside in His church. Does He not want to manifest gifts of the spirit? That’s not something to put on a show in glory. And that’s something that just gives God the opportunity to use people to help other people. That’s what it’s all about. He gives us supernatural power to be a blessing to one another. That’s all that’s about.
May God help us, bring us to a place of greater freedom. Do you believe he wants to do that? Do you believe He will if we ask him? And in the hard one, are you willing to say, God, take me back if necessary to that traumatic thing that happened to me that I’ve never gotten over. That something that happened where I, in weakness or in ignorance and whatever, I opened the door and I gave Satan a room and there he is and I can’t get him out. And I don’t know why. Why can’t I just make him go?
Well, we’re gonna have to have some repentance. We’re gonna have to have some honesty that says, Lord, I get why that happened. I agreed with him. I invited him in and he’s not going to leave willingly. There is no devil in this world that’s gonna leave willingly. There is only power that’s gonna make them go. And we’re gonna have to be 100% on the Lord’s side to have that kind of power.
But it’s there. It’s there. The cross that we sung about this morning, it’s real. The kingdom of God is real. The kingdom of Satan is real, but the kingdom of God is above all. And when He brought us out and raised us from the dead with Christ, He seated us with him in heavenly places.
Like we’ve said, the devil knows that; we are the ones who don’t know it. We don’t live like that. We live by what we see in what we feel. God, get me outta that. And when I’m having a battle, help me to realize it’s not just my feelings and wrestling with all that kind of stuff. There’s a devil talking to me.
I have every right to point him to the cross. I have every right to remind him of where I stand in the fact that I’m not here because I’m anything. He has no authority over me because Jesus Christ has paid the penalty at the cross. I stand in his power and in his name. Devil, you get outta here. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
And does not Paul, in Ephesians 4, when he’s giving the instructions, practical instructions about what it means to live out the new life, the new creation life. One of the things he says, Don’t give place to the devil or don’t give the devil any room. Doesn’t that tell you where our problems come from. We give him that room. He can’t just come in and take over. He has got to get our agreement in some area.
That’s why I need the Lord to change my thinking, to give me that sense of serving him and being more alert and aware. How can I be alert if I don’t even know what’s going on? How can I discern what’s going on if God doesn’t give me his wisdom? I need to see things through God’s eyes, including me and my needs.
And I’ll tell you, the more God gives us that freedom, the more we’re gonna become vessels that He can use. In this crazy hour, in this broken world, God has a people. He’s got a people right here that we need Him. We need him in deeper ways than we’ve known. But He’s there. He’s willing. The price has been paid. The king sits on a throne and he longs for us to come to him.
But we’re gonna have to understand some of this side of it too. Demons are real, you don’t have to sit there and be scared of spooks. You know, we’ve had demons come and try to scare people, scare children, had several testimonies of that.
Well, we need to realize that those devils have no power. That’s the only power they can do, is try to make us scared. They have no real power unless we give it to them. So let’s stop giving it to them. Let’s ask God to give us the spirit, to speak the truth and demand that they leave in the name of Jesus. Take their whatever hands off of us and off of our children.
And I’ll tell you where there are things that have been handed down through families. There are conditions, there are, what’s the word? Anyway, there are ways that people live and think that are literally handed down in families. Well, don’t we have the right to say, let that end with this generation. It doesn’t have to go on. Let this be the end of that. Devil, you’ve afflicted my forebears, all those have gone before me, but it stops here because God has shined the light on your activity. You have no right and I demand that you take your paws off of my life because my life belongs to him.
I tell you, we have somebody that we can turn to that is, well, you could go on and on, there’s so many aspects to this. But I just pray that God will give me a deeper understanding and a soberness of mind. Doesn’t He say, Be alert and a sober mind? It’s not a game. May God give us a sensitivity when we’re playing with sin, we’re playing with areas where the devil has got a hold on us because we’ve been weak and we think, Oh, that’s okay, that’s no big deal.
Well, that’s exactly what the devil wants us to think. But all he’s doing is digging in a little bit deeper and a little bit deeper and I tell you, if he gets to a certain point, he’s gonna say, Hey, there’s another area of weakness. Hey devil, come on, help me out here. And you’re gonna have more and more.
The devil never wants less. He always wants more. And if he can afflict God’s people and put us in bondage then we’re not much use to the kingdom of God, are we? We’re more in need than being able to help somebody else in need, but God has set us free.
May God give us the grace to lay hold of this, to realize that both kingdoms are real. We’re serving the one that is on top of everything, but we need to recognize how the other one operates and start taking back the ground that we’ve given him.
And we have every right to do that because of the blood of Jesus and the cross, thank God. So praise God, I’ll just leave that with you and let’s just pray and ask God to work and just show us. Amen![/ultimate_modal]
December 1, 2024 - No. 1678
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Called to be Warriors“ Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Called to be Warriors“ Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1678December 1, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1678 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, as you can imagine, the devil has, in light of what we talked about last week, the devil has fought hard. But that’s a pretty good indication that he didn’t like what was said. And so we’re just gonna look to the Lord and pray that he will continue to add what he wants.
You know, I won’t go through all of what we said, but obviously we talked about the fact that the world’s system is a spiritual order of things ruled over by a fallen angel we know as Lucifer or Satan, a devil. And he has a kingdom built with the loyalty of other angels who fell with him or rebelled with him. And there is a spiritual order that is designed to use, abuse, and destroy humanity. All they wanna do is use us for their own evil desires, and if they kill us, great, and go on to somebody else.
But we talked about how I think we many times aren’t aware of the reality of the kingdom of darkness. We think of the devil as some vague generalization, but there are real spirits that actually attack and work on and approach individual people. And God wants us to be aware of that.
Now, I know you can go in two different ditches. One is that we just ignore the devil and it’s all about Jesus. The other is that everything is, Oh my God, is the devil under here? You know, it just gets down to ridiculous stuff. But God does want us to be aware. Doesn’t he? Be sober, be alert.
Well, there’s gotta be something to be alert for. And he doesn’t say, Resist the thought. He says, Resist the devil. And so in other words there’s an inspiration behind things that trouble us, that hold us back, that keep us in a place of bondage. And so the Lord wants us to come to a place of greater freedom. What would happen if the Lord had more of a hold on us and we were freer in him? Do you think maybe we might be able to help other people and to have more of an impact on people and the Lord could do more?
You know, so many times I think we settle in and say, Well, this is as good as it gets. And when the Lord is wanting us to take new ground now we know the condition of the world. There are people who are in terrible, terrible spiritual prisons. God could use some of us to help some of them if we get out of our own prisons. And I believe that’s what the Lord wants to focus on a little bit.
And I think if you’ve served the Lord any amount of time, you know that when we’re saved, doesn’t everything bad go away. I mean, in one sense, yes, I’ve heard wonderful testimonies of people in these terrible prison houses and God saved them and there was a dramatic change in their life. But universally, if you talk to them, they will say, Well, no, there were still a lot of issues. Still a lot of areas of bondage, still a lot of, of battles to be fought.
And when the Lord calls his people into his kingdom, he’s not calling us into a cushy, quiet, trouble free life where we got a ticket to heaven in our back pockets and all we do is sit back and the Lord just makes every trouble vanish. Obviously we know it’s not that way. So God has ordained that it is the way that it is.
And he has called us not to a life of of ease and comfort, but to be warriors. I’ll get a title out of the way here. Called To Be Warriors. Last week we talked about knowing your enemy. Or know your enemy. And we have to. We have to be aware that what’s really coming at us and how the devil works different ways. I believe the Lord can teach us these things and we don’t learn it all at once. But our life is going to be learning how to trust God, how to seek him, how to lay hold of the things that he’s given to us, all of which are ours, but not all of which we possess in a practical sense.
And so that’s why Paul, for example, told Timothy, Fight the good fight of the faith. What did he follow that up with? Lay hold of eternal life. There’s some laying hold of things, that means I don’t have it right now. Now it’s mine. My name is on the account. It’s not like I gotta earn it. Jesus paid it all, thank goodness. But he has laid up something for me that I have to do something in order to obtain. And so that’s where the Christian life is not just a, you know, cushy walk in the park. It’s a warfare, but thank God it’s a warfare that we can win because He’s on our side.
Obviously we see that Jesus himself was called to walk, when he walked in a human body he faced temptation, he faced trouble, he faced opposition of all kinds. And we know that he’s described as a tested stone. Now we know that what God is building, there’s an illustration of what God is building. He’s the cornerstone. Everything is built off of him, related to him. He’s the one that that sets what God’s purpose is and we’re attached to him but the cornerstone itself was not just a stone but a tested stone.
You know, one of the greatest comforts or the things that should be a great comfort to all of us is the fact that he was tempted in all points just as we are. Now he demonstrates in his life how to overcome because he didn’t do it in his own strength. He came in a place of dependence. He said, I can by myself do nothing. But yet he did all these things. How did he do that? He knew where his help came from. He leaned upon the ability that God gave him in every instance.
And you know, he came to the end of his journey the night before he was crucified and he said, The prince of this world is coming now. Who’s he talking about? That’s Satan, right? The prince of this world is coming. But what was his testimony? He has no hold on me! Now, was that for lack of trying? The devil did everything he could to gain a hold upon Jesus, but he couldn’t find any way to appeal to him and say, I’ve got a hold on you.
You know, we talked last week about how the devil does get a hold upon people. He hangs chains from them. How does he do that? The reality is, if you and I have a hold in our life and we have an area of bondage that’s just persistent and there it is and it keeps holding us down and holding us back, where did that come from? Yeah, by giving in at some point. And it could have just been ignorance. It could have been, Well, I know that’s wrong, but. There’s a whole lot of ways that the devil will appeal to people.
And if we yield to him, he will come in and, you know, one illustration would be to dig in his talons. You think of him like a dragon or something with claws. And I use the illustration about criminal gangs. If you gave a criminal gang member access to part of your house, do you think he would just later on say, Oh, you need this room. Okay, bye bye. No, there is a spirit in that kind of thing that he says, That’s mine. And that’s where I believe God wants us to come to a deeper freedom.
Anybody here need that? Yeah, I’m the first one. And that’s what the Lord wants to give us, is a deeper sense of freedom. And there are areas where the devil has dug in. You know, we can stand at the door. I thought of this illustration. You can stand at the door and say, Devil, this is God’s house. You can’t come in here. But what if there’s a back door that’s still vulnerable and he still can come in and out and do stuff? God is wanting to shut all our back doors and help us to overcome.
Now you know, we mentioned and have often mentioned that we’re not just dealing with, you know, doctrines and ideas and theory and all that kind of stuff. We’re dealing with power. There is a real power and I’ll guarantee you, the power that Satan has to hold us in is greater than our power to say, Devil, get outta here. We don’t have that kind of power.
That’s why the world is in the condition it is. Now, a lot of it is deception, but there are plenty of people out there, more than you might realize, who deliberately reach into Satan’s kingdom knowing it’s Satan’s kingdom. But they’re looking for power. They’re looking for help. They’re looking for some earthly advantage.
You know, I was in the printing business, I had customers who were dabbling in that area. They live right around here. This is not way off someplace. There are people who literally reach out and they’re probably people you walk around and you see ‘em and you don’t know what’s going on in their hearts and their lives, but they’re literally reaching out for help from devils.
Well, do you think there’s no cost to that? Do you think you can play with a devil and get help from them in some area, whether it’s information or whatever you want? Do you think you can do that and they’re not gonna dig in and hold? They’re absolutely gonna get a hold on somebody’s life. There’s a price to pay. Boy, we need the Lord. We need him. Thank God for what he has done for us.
But we don’t realize many times the seriousness in a practical sense of what we need and what we have as well in the Lord. So I was emphasizing the fact that there is a real power involved. It’s spiritual power that holds people captive. And I don’t care how hard they try to be different, the devil gets a certain kind of hold, it’s there. And it takes a greater power to break that. Okay?
You remember a scripture that we’ve often been referred to in the past and it’s in 2 Corinthians 10, I believe. Paul is talking about his ministry and talking about how he did things. He says in verse three, For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. Okay? So we’re not here trying to use psychology and all the kinds of things that men try to use to fix people’s problems. We’re coming with different kinds of weapons. We recognize the need is different from what people think it is. People think, Oh, I was born this way, or I’ve just got this problem, I just need a psychiatrist. I need this, need some medicine. I’ll tell you, we need Jesus. All right?
So then he goes on to talk about the weapons because if God has called us to be warriors, we better have something to fight with, okay? So Paul says, The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power, to do what? Demolish strongholds. Now a stronghold is what? It’s a stronghold. It’s something where this criminal gang member has got a place and not only is he gonna hang onto it, he’s gonna invite his friends in there and they’re gonna take every advantage they can to have their way and not yours. And you can be a believer in Jesus Christ and still have a stronghold.
Now I get that, you know, there are people who will pretend to be Christians, who even think they’re Christians, but they’ve never really surrendered their life to Jesus. It’s still theirs. They’re trying to reap the benefits of what Jesus did without handing over their lives, it doesn’t work that way.
But even when we surrender, even when we come and give him what we know and we say, Lord, I’m yours, I’m gonna serve you from now on, I’m irrevocably, I’m yours, lock, stock, and barrel. There are still going to be these areas of need over time that God is going to be touching and putting his finger on and helping us with. He longs to bring us to that place where the freedom, where he’s such got practical control. He has such practical control in our lives and strength and influence that power can not only break these holds, but flow through us to other people, unclog the pipes, as it were.
So anyway, Paul says, The weapons that I’m fighting with, they have divine power. Folks, we need divine power. We can use all the right words, but they gotta have some power there, okay? We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.
Now I use the word pretension. That’s related to the word pretend. Something isn’t real, but you act as though it is. That’s how the devil works, it’s deception. He’s gonna tell you stuff that if he can make you believe it, then you’re gonna live as if it’s true. Like, You’re not a child of God. Anybody ever fought that battle? If you were a child of God, this would, you know, the devil’s gonna fight every kind of thing and throw it out there and boy, if he can get us to bite, then we’re in a weak place.
But Paul talks about weapons that will demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. That’s what I need. Yes, I need truth, folks. I need that which is true. And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Boy, if we can get free in our minds and what we think about and what we believe and what we act on, man, there’s gonna be more freedom than we’ve ever had. May God bring us to that place.
Well, I thought about going back to a scripture that we use many times, but I see it in a little deeper way, I think. And I just pray that God will take this and make it real. Because we see something about the fall of Satan in Revelation 12. And we see how there was a battle, there was a war in heaven. And the devil did not prevail. Thank God!
He has no right to rule over us, by the way, he has only what we give him. And so what the Lord wants to do is to take that permission that we have given the devil, to take it away and remove him, kick him out. Praise God!
So anyway, Then I heard, after this war, Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, verse 10, Now have come the salvation and the power. Anybody here need that? And the power and kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah is Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down.
Then he talks about triumph. They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Now, as I thought about this, the Lord seemed to quicken it. I came to a place where I felt like reading this first part, the blood of the Lamb, it’s almost like that’s a wonderful doctrine and you just kind of blow right past that. But I think there’s something a lot deeper there.
You know, we sang the song and I listened to it again last night, Thank you Jesus, for the blood applied. Yeah, the blood of Jesus is wonderful. What he did is incredible. To shed his blood so that my sins can be washed away, cleansed, forgiven, thank God. But there’s an application of that that needs to happen in my life. And if I’m gonna get to the point where the second part is effective, I gotta have the first part right? You get me?
And I think many times I’ve been in this place. Oh God, I did it again. Oh God, please forgive me. And thank God he does but still there’s not, nothing happens beyond just, you know, this feeling. Sometimes we approach these kinds of things like, I’m sorry Lord, I did it again. Please clean up my mess. I promise I’ll try harder.
Do you think that’s the description of the Christian life? Is that the best God has for us? Or is there a place where we can actually take this ground that the devil has taken hold of and is hanging on to? Is there a way we can get him to let go and be able to look him in the eye and go to the effectiveness of the word of our testimony where he has to actually say, Oh my God, I don’t own this anymore. I guess I gotta go. I can’t stand before this. That’s where I want to get.
And I believe God is bringing us there. And I believe with all my heart, this blood business is not just simply a doctrine about what Jesus did. It is that. It’s founded upon that. But there has to come a time when the effectiveness of what he did is applied to my life.
Now you remember what John said in 1 John. If we say, included himself, didn’t he? So you know that even John in this late stage of his life, there was still things God was working on. He had gotten to a place where there was a great deal of freedom but still there’s always more ground to take.
But here’s John and he is saying, If we say that we have no sin, it’s not even just lying, it’s we deceive ourselves. There’s a deception. Where does deception come from, okay? See, the devil can paint a picture of who you are and who you think you are in your mind. I’m a good person. Are you? By whose measure? You go with Isaiah to the throne and just see how you fare. Oh my God, we need the Lord, don’t we? But thank God he doesn’t leave that there!
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we sin, If we confess our sin, is how it goes on, If we confess, there’s a lot in that word confess. Now I’ve used this in the past as that means we are agreeing with God, but there’s a lot to that. That’s not some little thing. If I’m gonna agree with him, first of all, I’ve got to put my finger on that and say, That is sin. I’m not gonna say, That’s just my personality. That’s just my weakness.
You know, we have all kinds of excuses we learned to make for things that just recur in our lives and we know they’re not exactly what Jesus wants, but, Oh well, the blood was shed, I’m good. But if we’re gonna come to a place of victory, that blood needs to be applied to that. I need to be in such agreement with God that it is more than, I’m sorry I did that. It is a renunciation of that. It is a repentance for that. It is a change of heart and change of attitude, change of mind. I need God’s help to do that.
You know, when Paul talks about the weapons in chapter six of Ephesians, he’s talking about, he gives all the weapons and the armor and all of that. But then he comes to prayer. We’re gonna need to be going to God. We’re gonna have to be going. Does the Lord know that we need help to do this? Yeah. So he’s gonna be looking for people and listening for people who call upon him, who seek him, who say, God, I know that what I need, I’m not where I need to be. I know that it’s a thing that has a hold on me and it has a hold on me ‘cause I yielded. And I don’t have the strength, Lord, I know I need to repent, I need to let go of this thing. I don’t even have the power to do that, so help me, Lord.
Do you think God’s gonna answer a prayer like that? That’s what he’s looking for is for us to come to that place of renunciation of all that that sin represents and just turning away from it and putting it under the blood.
And what is the promise if we confess? He is faithful and just. There’s a justice involved because that sin was already paid for. He can be just. He could still maintain his justice and forgive us. That’s because it was paid for through a representative.
He is faithful and just to do, but there’s two things that He does. I think sometimes we stop at the first one. He is faithful and just to forgive us. But He also cleanses us. I need to be cleansed. I need that area of my life purified from all the defilement that’s there.
And I think many times I could look back and, Lord, thank you for forgiving me. And then we go right on and the devil still has access to that. And God is wanting to take us down the path of our life and reveal to us. You know, the thing is, many times it’s not something where I say, Oh God, I need you to show me what’s wrong. We know. If we’re honest, we know.[/ultimate_modal]
December 8, 2024 - No. 1679
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Called to be Warriors“ Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Called to be Warriors” Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]“Called to be Warriors” ConclusionBroadcast #1679
December 8, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1679 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: God wants us to come to a place where we recognize the needs in our lives, and we get serious enough to say, God, you delivered me at the cross. I’m tired of trying. I can’t. I know I can’t. I’m tired of making excuses. Tired of calling it something other than what it is. But Lord, I need you to apply the blood in this area of my life in such a way that I am set free by that blood. I’m not just cleansed, I am set apart for you.
And I thought about how the Lord dealt with the Israelites when Moses was instructed to build the tabernacle, okay? You remember how God gave all the instructions, and they had all the implements and all the parts of it that had to do with their worship. It was a sacrificial system, wasn’t it? It was dependent on blood sacrifices.
Now, though, we know those didn’t have any power in themselves. What they were doing was looking forward to what was to come, because there was one sacrifice for all time that was offered on the cross. And what Jesus did there was effective back in history. God can do that.
But here they were, as part of their system of worshiping God. There were blood sacrifices that were offered. But I found it interesting. When they were preparing the tabernacle, one of the things they did toward the end, they would take blood sacrifice and literally touch blood, sprinkle blood. Blood was applied to everything. It wasn’t just some theory. This wasn’t, Okay, we sacrificed the animal out there. That blood was applied to every part of that tabernacle. It was set apart.
And when they did that, they also used the oil that God had told them to make. It was a special oil. You couldn’t use it for anything else. Do you see the connection, where God wants us not to just be clean? He wants us to be set apart for him. And that anointing oil represents him coming in. What happened when they did all of that faithfully? God’s presence came down in fire and filled that place, and they couldn’t even get near it.
See, when God, when we bring ourselves to him, and we apply that blood to these areas of our lives God puts his finger on, and we say, God, I’m done with this. You know I don’t have the power, but you do. There are weapons that have power against this. I don’t want this back door to be open. I don’t care how clean it is, if the door is still open, that devil’s gonna keep right on coming. I need help. I need you to come.
Now, I’ve sort of wrestled with couple things I wanna say, but some of you’re probably gonna get mad at me, but that’s okay. I’ll survive. I talked last week about different kinds of ways the devil gets in, the different kinds of holes. And one of ‘em was unforgiveness. We know about that. It’s just a human characteristic that we need deliverance from.
But I thought about a couple of others that we might wanna think about. The devil has all kinds of ways to get to people, especially children. And our culture is, where does our culture come from? Did Jesus establish American culture? He gets his voice in here and there. But I mean, the culture itself, it’s devoted to the worship of devils. And there is so much, there are so many ways that the devil gets in. And some of them I’m gonna mention. I mentioned these the other night.
But there are people who reach out to devils without realizing that’s what they’re doing. There are kids who play with Ouija boards, with tarot cards, with horoscopes, with other kinds of things. They’re devices. They’re trying to get answers to life’s questions. Sometimes it’s just, Oh, this is a game. Do you think the devil considers that a game? If there are people here who have dealt with anything related to that, part of your deliverance is gonna be to recognize it, even if it was ignorance, recognize it and get rid of that stuff. It doesn’t need to be in your house. Anything that is an implement by which the devil gains power over people.
You don’t think that is real? I’ll guarantee you it is. The devil will take and hold power and draw you in deeper and deeper if you let him. And I can give you one scripture. When Paul was ministering in Ephesus, he was there for more than a year. I forget the timeframe, but he was there a long time. And there were tremendous deliverances. The power that he had that God showed through him to drive spirits away and to see people saved.
At one occasion, there was a bonfire. What was it that they burned? Do you remember? There were all kinds of occult scrolls, books called in different translations. These were implements by which people would literally call upon what they believed would be friendly spirits that were gonna help them. But they were demons hiding behind all of that. And so they literally made a bonfire. There was a certain coin that was worth a day’s wages, and the value of all of those books was 50,000 of those coins.
Now, why did they burn them? Why didn’t they just say, Oh, there’s nothing to that. Just put it in the back shelf. Man, you wanna close every door and say, I renounce everything this stands for, and I don’t want anything to do with it. It is out. It’s trash. The devil, you have tried to connect with me through this object. That’s part of demonism, and it’s something that people need to be aware of. If there’s anything in your past that might just be a doorway you need to think about.
But another one that is not easy to talk about, I sort of did, in a way, recently when we talked about the purpose of God making us male and female, and it’s to produce children. It has to do with a marriage relationship. But the reality is that when kids get to be a certain age, they start experiencing sensations in their bodies, to be plain. The Bible talks about it. Nothing hidden about that.
Well, boy, does that open up a channel where the devil can work. And so, the natural thing, apart from finding out what God’s purpose in it is and how to give these bodies to him, and they belong to him for his purposes, the easy thing is to do things, think about things that stimulate that. Nobody here would ever look at pornography, right? It’s getting quiet. But this is the most natural thing in the world for people to think about things, to let their minds go, to get into activities that have no other purpose except to stimulate those kinds of things, those kinds of desires that are natural to all of us.
I believe God wants to give us a victory and a strength to rule over these bodies. Paul spoke about running a race, but he said, In running that race, I keep under, I beat, even in the Greek, It says I beat my body and I keep it in subjection so that lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should be cast away as somebody that God can’t use.
I wonder how many people God can use, or can’t use, because we’re so held captive by this, and by that, and by the other. And how many people God leads down the wrong road because they pursue, Oh, that feels good. It feels natural. It’s just the way I’m made. This is okay, I can play with this. God wants us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.
You say, I just can’t, I can’t do it. No, I can’t either. But isn’t that why we need to come with a spirit of repentance and renunciation and turning to Him, and saying, God, take this body, that area that I’ve struggled with, fill it. Fill it with Jesus, because I don’t have what it takes. I need Him to come and occupy that area of my mind and my life that I’ve had so much of a struggle with.
So this isn’t just directed at the young people. This is directed at all of us. If you’re still alive, it’s a factor. We need the Lord. And how many times do we just kinda let our minds wander, or let our actions go this way or that way? And God wants to set our people free to where our bodies….
Now, He bought our bodies, did He not? Did He not buy us? What was the cost of that purchase? It was the blood of Jesus. We’re either gonna serve the devil, or we’re gonna serve the Lord. And our victory, this warfare that we’re in, involves us being willing to hand over our lives at every area where He puts His finger on it, and say, Lord, this is yours. Fill it. Fill it with Your presence. Fill it with Your power, ‘cause I haven’t got what it takes, but You do. You’re with me, and Your presence will occupy this. So, when the devil tries to come in that door, say, Wait a minute, I can’t do that anymore.
Now, do you think that what we’ve talked about so far maybe has a little to do with that second part of Revelation 12:11 being effective? How many of you have been in a situation where, Oh, I’m supposed to talk to the devil. That’s what Jesus did. He gave him scripture. And so, we pull out a proof text that has the right words, but it doesn’t seem to work. It doesn’t make any difference. What’s going on?
Now notice, Ben brought this up last week, and it’s right. He talked about the weapons and the armor, most of it is defensive. But what’s the one offensive piece of armor that we have? The sword. What kinda sword? Oh, of the Spirit. See, Paul talked about the weapons that he fights with, they had power. I don’t just need words. The devil’s gonna laugh at my words. If I’m still holding on and haven’t really let go of whatever he’s holding on to me about, he’s gonna sit there and laugh at me, I can quote scripture all day.
But if I have given over, and been cleansed, and been anointed, and been filled, that area of my life with Christ, now I’ve got something that I can stand there and I can declare something. A testimony means not just to quote what the word says, but many times, it’s a declaration of my will. I am the Lord’s, you cannot have that part of my life anymore. Devil, get out of here. You have no right to me. The word says thus and so. And we can stand there. It becomes a command. It becomes a declaration the devil has to respect.
But it’s got something behind it. It’s not I who live anymore, is it? Ah, what is it? Christ in me. That’s the key. I’ve gotta get to the place where what I’m saying and what I’m doing is really Christ in me doing it, and then you’ve got something the devil can’t stand against. He doesn’t have a thing he can say or do if we can come to him with the word of God and the declaration of our choice to agree with God, then you’ve got us and God standing there, or us and Christ standing there, talking to the devil. And there is a sword. It is not just a sword, it’s a sword of the Spirit.
You know, if we’re living, shouldn’t our words have something more to them than just words? You think about preaching. If preaching is just correct words, what is it? But if Christ is there by the anointing, and He is literally breathing life into those words, it’s the same Spirit that said, Let there be light. Every one of us can speak words that the devil will have to respect.
And it would be more than just an idea that we’re throwing in his face. It will be power. He doesn’t respect anything less than real power. And thank God, that’s what He longs for us to have. We don’t have to qualify ourselves for this. Thank God!
You think about the Israelites, when they went to conquer the land, God said, It’s yours. And then I could see where they say, Okay, Lord, You get rid of all those giants, and we’ll walk in there and start planting and plowing. Now, there was a warfare, wasn’t there? For them to lay hold of what God had given them, they had to do some fighting.
But what was the nature of that fighting? Was it just them running off and doing their own thing and designing their own battle? Every point, they had to look to God. They had to do what He said. They went where He said. They did how He said. And God fought with them.
That’s what I need. Anybody here need, with the battles you’re fighting, you need God to fight with you. You need the weapons that have power in them. And to the extent that the Israelites fought with God and walked with Him, God absolutely gave them victory time and time and time again.
Now, there were many other places, many other areas of the land, where they got this far, and then they couldn’t drive them away. Why couldn’t they? You know, you can get to a place where you’re just doing it in yourself. There’s no real belief in, there’s no real trust, there’s no real faith. God wants a people who will believe Him in practice, and He will empower that if we’re willing.
So much of the time, the problem is not with Him, it’s with, are we really, really willing? Are we really willing to be honest about this issue or that issue and lay it at the feet of Jesus and say, Oh God, forgive, and cleanse, and fill? Because when He does that, and we’re honest about it, He does come in, and there’s power.
You know, we’ve had battles. I’m not gonna go into detail, but we’ve had some battles in our house this week. The devil didn’t like what came forth last Sunday. You know, I’m sure there are people who didn’t like it, but that’s all right. But I’ll tell you what, the Lord is proving Himself faithful in battle. He doesn’t send us battles to discourage us. He sends us battles so we can learn how to fight and win real victories, because He is faithful. He is with us. He will never send you or me into a battle that He is not willing to fight and give us the victory.
But we’re gonna have to do it on His terms. You can’t go in there and, like I say, step out on the front porch and say, Devil, get outta here, and leave the back door open. God is gonna have to help us. And He’s willing, if we are. He’s willing to help us to let go of the things that have held us. And He’s willing to come down and just pour Himself through us.
Folks, we’re not even in a position to help one another half the time. Oh, maybe we can pray for one another, and yeah, up to a point. But there are needs for deliverance in our lives, let alone in people in the church or people who might come in. Are we really ready for that kind of ministry of deliverance? Are we in a position like Paul was? The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
We can get to where we have just a comfortable religion. We know how it works, we know what to believe, and we’re good. And in the meantime, the devil is just slipping in here and slipping in there. And the people that come in, and they can’t find any real deliverance. God help us to grow to the point where we can do something. I’m not talking about seeking signs and wonders, I’m not talking about anything particular other than we need God’s power in our midst in a deeper way. And if we will seek Him individually and as a congregation, God will come, and He will meet needs.
And one of the things that I was reminded of as I thought about all this. There are times when you’re fighting for your own freedom, and it’s like it’s not enough. You need help. If you’re one like that, ask. Let’s join hearts. Somebody else can pray with you and stand with you, and there’s a combined strength, the devil has to yield. We’re told to pray one for another, confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that you may be healed. That includes this kind of healing. This is the kind that we really need.
There’s a reality that God wants to bring us to. We can come here and sing songs and preach, you know, of truth and all of that, but there is a real power that needs to transform lives and allow Christ to live in us. You talk about the tabernacle, the same thing could have been said about the temple they built later. They did everything right. They anointed it. They cleansed it. They had the sacrifices. They anointed it. And when they got done, they said, Lord, this is yours. What happened? He came down in power. There was a cloud that just enveloped that thing.
Do we not need His presence? Do we not need something that is more real than we have? Let’s ask God for it. Let’s ask Him to help us just to identify the things in our lives. Jo mentioned this morning that song we used to sing, The Secret Place, and how we all got them. But the Lord wants to take those secrets and say, Wait a minute, this is actually just a place where the devil has had a hold in your life. And you’ve made every excuse in the book, or you’ve tried.
I mean, there’s no one way to look at it. But we need to come to a place where you say, Lord, here it is, and I’m gonna be honest about it, I need You to cleanse it. I need to call it what it is. It’s sin. It’s not what You want. This did not come from You. You have given me not the spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control. See, that’s where it all comes from.
You know, I thought about it as we were singing this morning. He sent Christ to the cross. I don’t remember the exact words, in Romans eight, But He who’s done all this for us, shall He not also with Him, what? Freely give us? That’s His heart. Where’s ours? May God help us to get aligned with Him, because this world is getting aligned with the other force, the other kingdom. And God is calling His people to be aligned with Him in a deeper way so that He can live in us, express Himself through us.
There are gifts He wants to distribute and use to help, so that we can help each other. And when we interact with each other, it’s not just us being us, but it’s Christ in us, strengthening, and helping, encouraging, and setting free.
I don’t know how many people there are in our community that need Christ. I know there are a lot of them, but I’m talking about that He wants to reach. Are we in a position to help Him? It’s a sobering question, isn’t it? May God help us. I believe He is, don’t you? I believe this is His heart. None of this is to condemn, none of it’s to leave us with this feeling of, Oh God, I can’t do this. This is helpless, I’m hopeless.
It’s not hopeless. All He’s looking for is honest hearts that want Him. He has all we need. And He’s more than willing and more than able to help us as His people. May God get the glory. May God do what all that He’s promised.
You know, I did leave out the last part of this, the blood or the word of our testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death? The spirit of this is that nothing stands in the way. You never give up. If God leaves you in a battle that takes a period of time, you don’t say, Oh, well, I tried that. It didn’t work. You stay the course. This is an ultimate commitment to follow Jesus, whatever the cost.
Now, we think in terms of, Well, I’m gonna be a martyr. Well, maybe. But this is basically not allowing anything of our human nature and our human framework to stand in the way of doing God’s will. Whatever He puts His hand on, whatever my need is, whatever it takes, whether I have feelings or I don’t have feelings, or time or no time, I’m His. I’m gonna stay the course by His grace. It’s a final, full commitment of my life to Him, whatever it takes. That’s what that’s all about.
You see how it all works together? I need a vessel that’s cleansed. It needs to be cleansed and anointed and filled. When I have that, and then I’ve got something I can say to the devil that’ll have power in it, and he’ll have to listen. And in the process of doing that, I’m gonna stay the course. Whatever it takes, I am His, come hell or high water. The Lord is with me, and He’s promised to bring me all the way through, and I’m going with that. Praise God!
Is God faithful? Does God care about you? Does this apply to you, or is it just theory? Applies to me, I can tell you. But I thank God for every time He confirms this word, ‘cause the devil is very good at pointing out all my faults, and having me so focused on me and my lack that I don’t get my eyes on Jesus and all of His supply.
Thank God this applies to me. I’m not gonna use the, “everybody but me,” version of the scriptures. I’m gonna use the one that says, I am His child, He has redeemed me, He has given me the Spirit of power and love and self-control, and I’m trusting in Him this day.
And whatever it takes, He’s gonna bring me through. But I want more of Jesus. More and more and more. What’s the price of that? Give Him more of me. See, that’s where we’re at right now. And I believe God is faithful, don’t you? Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
December 15, 2024 - No. 1680
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Prince of Peace” Part One” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Prince of Peace” Part One” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1680December 15, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1680 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Brother Phil Enlow: Praise the Lord, and good morning to all! The Lord is so good. I appreciate His presence this morning. We certainly have nothing in ourselves, but we have everything in Him. And as long as we look to Him from our hearts and lean upon Him, He will be here and He will show up. That’s His heart toward every one of us.
You know, I was thinking about the service today, and over and over my mind went to a simple word that we’ve heard a lot and is associated a great deal with this season, and that’s ‘peace.’ The kids sang one song about peace this morning. And, as I thought about it, I said, it wasn’t that long ago I preached the same message. And I looked back and it was three years ago I preached on “Peace on Earth.”
And while I’m sure a lot of the thoughts will be similar, but somehow I feel like the Lord wants us to focus on that this morning. You know, we don’t need my sermon. We don’t need anybody’s program. We just need something from His heart to us, because I doubt that anybody here is enjoying perfect peace this morning, despite the fact that we know we’ve been given it in Christ. It’s ours. But yet, He wants us to come to a place where we experience that in a much deeper way than we do.
You know, there are so many scriptures you could use. I’ll just pick one just to start reading and that’s in Isaiah chapter 9, familiar scripture. And this is where we have the wonderful prophecy about the coming of Christ. You know, the Lord hid these wonderful prophecies from the eyes, even the minds, even of those who uttered them. They didn’t know what was coming. They gave out the word that God gave them, in faith, not really quite grasping how it was all gonna work out.
And you know, as we said many times, God hid it deliberately, partly from the Devil. So the Devil just walked into a trap, thinking he was doing away with the Son of God, and he wound up engineering his own defeat. But when you look back with the eyes of what has happened and what God has now revealed, suddenly the Old Testament becomes a different book.
( congregational amens ).
Praise God! Not just a book of laws and all that stuff. It’s about the coming of Christ. So anyway, in verse 6 the prophet writes, “For to us a child is born…” (NIV). Boy, isn’t that something? Right off the bat, to us. It’s to us. Everything that God has done is because of our need!
( congregational praise ).
Praise God! Do you have a need this morning? God’s interested in that. He knows about it. I mean, we’ve sung so many things about that this morning. But it’s reality. We don’t want to just sing this, and talk about it as though, well, this is our theology, we’re just gonna uphold it. This is meant to be real! This is meant to make a difference in our lives! God help us! God help me! I need this as much as you do!
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isn’t that an interesting title? I mean, you think of God being the God of love. Could have said, the Prince of Love, but He said, the Prince of Peace.
There’s something about this Kingdom that stands in absolute distinction from every other kingdom that we know about in this world. There’s no peace here, is there? Because there’s no peace in the human heart. But here is One who is the Prince of Peace. But isn’t it interesting the language that He uses? The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and yet, here is the Son being called by those names.
Why…you know, I don’t want to go into theology here, but the fact is, God was in Christ. This was not something where the Son said, hey, I’ll go do something and then try to convince my Father about this. This was God’s initiative, to not only send His Son…can you imagine Him being willing to come down and start out as a single cell in a woman’s body? I mean, you think about the willingness of our Creator to come and to do that!
But when He came, He didn’t come just to be a human being, He came to be a vessel. He came to be a way for God Himself to inhabit a human vessel and live among men so that men could actually have a contact with God if their hearts were in tune, if their eyes were open. He was there!
Now, most people who met Jesus didn’t see the Father in Him. They didn’t understand. They just thought this was a…maybe a special man, maybe a miracle worker or prophet. But they did not see that the God of the universe lived in Him, and was making Himself known. And so, that’s why this language is the way it is.
But the, “…Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” Thank God! Thank God! So, He’s talking about a Kingdom that was going to begin here but it was going to have…it was not gonna have any end. I was gonna say it was to end over there, but it’s not gonna have an end, is it? This is gonna be…you know, one day we will stand there. Those of us who know Him, those of us who have been born of that same life that was in Him, He will finish what He has started.
( congregational praise ).
How many times have we said that? He is not…we sang somewhere in the music this morning, the Alpha and Omega. That somehow jumped out at me. That’s the beginning and the end, the first letter and the last letters of the Greek alphabet. And He is the beginning and the end but He’s also the middle. He’s everything that we need.
But His purpose is not just to bring us along and hope He gets there. This is absolutely a done deal. And one day, every one who knows Him will stand there in purity, in white.
If you have any conflict in your heart, now, that will be gone! Can you imagine a place where there is zero conflict? Now, to a human being, that sounds boring. But oh, my God, that’s what God intended from the beginning! He invested so many abilities, so many qualities in us that…because we’re born in His…I mean, we were created in His likeness, weren’t we? We have a will, we have the ability to create, we have ability to imagine things and we have feelings, we have all of these qualities about us. He even invested things in our bodies that have a part to play in this.
But we know, from the beginning, that there was a rebellion that took place. And that rebellion was in the heart of one of God’s servants who happened to be especially powerful and beautiful. And he got to looking at himself, and all that God had invested in him, suddenly he began to imagine, this is for my benefit, this is to make me somebody, and so I’m going to be, “…like the Most High.” I’m gonna be…I’m going to be like God!
And that thing was born in him and it absolutely twisted every good thing that God had done, into something that was evil, something that was destructive. And we know how he led a great host of angels with him, and then he led our first parents into rebellion and sin. And the world has never had any peace since. The very nature that was in Satan was reproduced in Adam and Eve. And all that God had given them began to be focused upon self.
And you know, that’s the essence of sin. We think of sin as rulebreaking. Here’s some stuff that God doesn’t like and we’re not supposed to do that. Well, I mean, those are representatives of what the real issue…the real issue is when you take anything that God has given us and use it for a selfish purpose, then everything becomes twisted and broken, and it leads to death. It leads to corruption. It leads to conflict. It leads to everything other than what God designed us for in the beginning.
My God! He is the only One that can bring us back, folks! That’s what this is about. You think about the world. You know, we remember the scriptures, in a couple places in Isaiah where God said, “There is no peace…for the wicked.” Now, I’ll imagine that most of us, when we think of somebody who’s wicked, we think of somebody like Hitler, or a mass murderer or somebody who’s done something really terrible. And that’s what a wicked person is.
The fact is, every one of us was born with a nature that is wicked, that is against God. I don’t care who you are, how righteous you appear before men, how commendable your deeds might seem, at the root of it, it is self! And I don’t care what you do and how many homeless you feed…I mean, that’s a good thing, but I mean, don’t you depend upon that to make you right with God! It will never do it.
And how many times have we pointed out the example of Isaiah, who surely was one of the righteous…I mean, the guy wrote this, was used to write it. And how, just a few chapters before this, he records the time when he, who had been called to denounce the sins of Israel was suddenly called up into the presence of the Lord, and all of a sudden, oh, my God! I had no idea. I knew He was Holy. I heard about all that. I see the things that they’re doing wrong. I know God doesn’t like it, but I had no idea what He was really like!
Folks, if any human being was suddenly transported into the presence of God, we would…you know, I think most people would be vaporized. It would just be overwhelming, the difference, and yet, that is what God is going to reproduce in the hearts of His children! Only God can do that! Praise God!
But you think about the nature that we were born with, and how it works. I had so many scriptures come to me and they’re not in any particular order. I’m gonna go ahead and turn to one that you might not think of. And that’s in James chapter 3. Some of this was quoted this morning. It’s amazing how many times we come through a men’s meeting and a lot of the thoughts that I’ve had will come out.
But James is writing to believers here. But he is obviously recognizing the fact that when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we don’t automatically become perfect. There’s a whole lot of stuff that needs to change. We have got a nature that is still operating in these bodies that is still aligned with the world. It’s aligned with the kingdoms of this world.
And so, what he describes here is an example of what Christians need to recognize, in themselves, and say, look, that’s not what He’s after. He is after something else, and I need to recognize when these things rise up in me.
He asks an interesting question, here. “Who is wise and understanding among you?” I’ll ask the same question. How many of you are wise and understanding? Yeah, an interesting question, isn’t it? We sort of read right over some of these things. So, let’s see what wisdom and understanding bring to pass.
“Let him show it by his good life….” So, obviously this wisdom and understanding is simply not a mental comprehension of Christian doctrine, the ideas that we are all supposed to affirm. This is not simply an idea kind of thing. It’s not a cultural kind of thing. There is meant to be a reproduction of His life in ours. Okay? You say you’ve got wisdom and understanding. Let’s see it. Okay? Now it’s getting quiet.
“Let him show it…” How? “…By his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.” Boy, if we ever learn…if you think…if you acquire some kind of spiritual knowledge and it begins to make you feel…you know, I’m better than other people. I’ve got all this knowledge. Oh, my God! You don’t know anything! Knowledge puffs up. It’s love that builds up. If we ever see ourselves through God’s eyes, we will discover that we’ve got a lot to be humble about.
( congregational amens ).
We have nothing to be proud about. Isn’t it amazing that God would look down upon somebody like us and love us anyway? And commit Himself with such an amazing Gospel to reach to the lowest of the low and say, I have the power to make something of you! Boy, there was a wonderful example given in the men’s meeting this morning. Was that you, Carl, that rebuilt something? Somebody did. What Ben was talking about?
( congregational response ).
David. Oh, okay, Beth’s dad. Yeah! That’s right. I knew it was a dad in there somewhere.
( laughter ).
But there was some piece of furniture that looked like, to them, it was junk. Nothing! Worthless! I mean, just throw this thing out. And somehow he had the vision and the ability to look at that thing and see, not the wreck that it was, but what it could be. And so, he went part by part, took the thing apart, replaced things that he could replace, improvised what he had to improvise and wound up with this beautiful piece of furniture you could probably get a lot of money for it.
You know, we’ve got a God that’s invested…I mean, doesn’t that reflect our Creator? The fact that somebody would have that kind of ability built in. This is our Creator and…He’s…there’s no way to compare any ability that we have with what He has in His heart. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what you’ve done, where you’ve been. We’ve got a God who can pick you up and make you something that’ll last for eternity.
And I’ll tell you, if you think you’re…if you measure yourself by other people and say, well, I’m not one of them. I’m one of the good ones. He’s got an extra job on you!
( laughter ).
‘Cause He’s first got to show you what you really are, and then He can pick you up and do something. You know, sometimes the one in the gutter has an advantage. You don’t have to tell him he’s a sinner. He knows it. Oh, my God!
But, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…” and Paul said, “…of whom I am the worst.” Isn’t that amazing?
All right. So, there’s a humility that comes from wisdom. Now here’s an interesting way to measure wisdom, what we call wisdom. “…If you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.” Now, is that not a pretty good description of human nature? Human nature is just about a bunch of desires that we have, and we try to deal with them.
Sometimes one desire will just carry us along and take us down a terrible path. I mean, you could…an obvious example would be alcohol or drugs. But it could be anything. I mean, if you don’t happen to have that particular problem, don’t you look down on the one who does. You’re just as bad in a different area. Every single one of us has things that we’re born with!
You talk about being born a certain way. We’re all born sinners. Every single one of us, if we simply follow the inclinations of our…of the nature with which we were born, we will be prisoners of Satan! There is no hope for it.
And I’ll tell you, if you’re on your own…no hope outside of Christ. And if you’re on your own, you think about how Satan works. I’ll tell you, this is how he works on believers. You’ve got a besetting sin. You’ve got a weakness. And it rises up, and it begins to pull on you. And it begins to pull on you and you sort of…no! I’m not going that way. No! Been down that way. Don’t want to go that way. And you fight and there’s a battle going on.
How many times does the Devil come and say, you ain’t gonna win this? You might as well give in. Save yourself the trouble. You’ll feel better when you give in. My God! Satan has got us by a leash because of this nature that we were born with. We got it from him. All it does is long. All it does is reach out and want.
And you talk about a lack of peace. It’s not just that I want this, it’s sometimes I want two different things! And I can’t have them both! They were conflicted. My God! There’s nothing but unfulfilled—an unfulfillable desire built into every one of us. Folks, if we’re gonna find peace, we’re gonna have to have it some other way.
I’ll stop and inject this. Again, there are so many logical orders you could put this in. But one of the phrases that you will hear a lot, this time of year, is ‘Peace on Earth.’ Right? ‘Peace on earth, good will to men.’ And, a lot of people will get the idea that that’s what God wants. He’s gonna bring peace to this world. Everybody will hold hands and, I think I put it one time, sing “Kumbaya.” And you know, there’s just gonna be an end to all conflict.
That will never, ever happen in this world. Now, I realize there are people’s theology that says different, and I’m not gonna fuss about it, I’m not gonna worry. I’m not gonna throw you out because of it. But I’ll tell you, the picture that I see in the scriptures is one that this world is gonna get worse and worse, darker and darker. The hearts of men who say no to the Gospel is gonna get to the point where they are completely blind, and what they believe is gonna sound absolutely insane to somebody that knows the truth, and yet they believe it with all their hearts! Don’t we see that happening now?
( congregational amens ).
It’s happening now! It’s gonna get worse! The Devil may indeed bring this world into a sort of a union, but it will be a union of rebellion against God, and there will be no peace—no real peace in the hearts of men. This is not about peace—that kind of peace in this world.
In fact, there’s another place where Jesus was talking to His disciples and said, “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?” How do you put those two together? The angel said, ‘peace on earth.’ Jesus said, “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?” How many of you remember that scripture? It’s in Matthew 10, if you want to look it up.
No, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” What did He mean? Because people are going to make a radical choice. They’re either gonna remain in the kingdom of darkness, serving and following the dictates of their own nature, saying, it’s my life, I will pursue what appeals to me, or they’re gonna surrender that, come to Him, see the problem and surrender to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace!
( congregational response ).
And it’s gonna divide families. It’s gonna divide…bring all kinds of divisions. Now, does that mean we need to have a bad spirit? Of course not! But I’ll tell you, there will be a division that is radical.
I mean, you think about the division that’s coming. How many destinies are there gonna be on the Judgment Day? Two. There will be those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ, and put their faith, not in themselves or their church or their religion, but in His saving power, the power of a brand-new life imparted to the heart! They have surrendered to Him and they’re part of that kingdom that Isaiah was prophesying would come. Or, they remain a part of this and they’re gonna be destroyed. That’s pretty radical, isn’t it?
But yet, the angel did say, peace on earth, didn’t he? So, there has to be some meaning to what he said. Now we know that there’s going to be a peace that will come. Like I say, once all of these kingdoms are destroyed, every opposition is thrown into the fire and it is gone, there’ll be nothing but peace! Oh, man! We will be set free to be everything God ever intended us to be. That’s not like we’re gonna sit here and be little knots on a log or something. I’ll tell you, we will be able to do, but there will be no conflict in the doing thereof.
( congregational amens ).
There will be no frustration. There will be no…I was first, this is mine. You know, all the stupid stuff that goes on in this world. We’re all like kids. We laugh when kids say that, but we do the same thing. It’s just we have more sophisticated ways of doing it.
But oh, I’ll tell you what, what God is talking about…what He came to do, though, was not simply about the future. Thank God for the future! But God…do you think God wants His people to have peace here and now?
( congregational amens ).
Yeah! See, that’s what James is getting at. And he’s showing the contrast of what human nature does to us and what real wisdom is. So, he’s talking here about, “…bitter envy and selfish ambition….” I want something that I feel like is going to give me satisfaction. If I get that then I’ll have…good luck with that! I don’t care what you get, it will never satisfy the itch that’s in here. It’s deeper than any man can scratch, and you will be chasing…you’ll be like the…like they used to use for an animal. They would dangle a carrot out in front.
But I mean, isn’t that a picture? Oh, if you could just have this. I know it didn’t work out last time, but if you just do it this way, or do it just one more time. Do it. You’ll be happy. You get these fleeting moments of good feelings and then they’re gone, and then you’re empty and then you’ve got something else. Oh, my God!
If you harbor that envy, that unfulfilled, natural desire…if that’s what’s driving you, were does that come from? “Such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.” You see where the source of that comes from? It comes straight out of the heart of Lucifer!
How many of you think he wants your welfare? Good luck with that! He is out to destroy everyone. He is angry! He knows he has lost the war! And he is determined to take down everyone he can. Thank God he cannot countermand what Jesus has set in motion![/ultimate_modal]
December 22, 2024 - No. 1681
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”“Prince of Peace“ Conclusion” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”“Prince of Peace“ Conclusion” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]Broadcast #1681December 22, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1681 — taken from Closed Captioning Text
Brother Phil Enlow: He is out to destroy everyone. He is angry! He knows he has lost the war! And he is determined to take down everyone he can. Thank God, he cannot countermand what Jesus has set in motion! God is gonna reach a people!. He knows who they are! He knows how to reach them! We need to be in harmony with Him, and let Him do the work, because He is the only One who’s able to do this. But, He will never fail.
“All that the Father gives me…” Jesus said, “will come to me.” (NIV). And what about them? None of them are gonna be cast away. Do you see the perfect union with the Father and the Son there? Everybody He gives is gonna come, and nobody will be turned away. Thank God!
So, you’ve got a wisdom here that causes people to live, trying desperately to satisfy itches that are in here, and it doesn’t work. “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every evil practice.” Now, he’s talking to Christians. Folks, these things affect us.
If there’s anyone here who has any lack of peace in your heart, where does that come from? Ah, it comes from our old nature wanting something—wanting something that’s self-driven. It come from this so-called wisdom. It comes from the world. This is how it should be. Go get it. It comes from the heart of the Devil himself, but it affects us—it affects us.
We live our lives singing about peace, but we don’t have the peace that God wants us to have. I realize it’s not something you can snap your finger and say, oh, now I’ve got it, I’ve got it. This has got to come as a learning experience.
You know, I think somebody had quoted Dave this morning. I thought it was a wonderful way to put it, about how…we can live with the stuff we know as though this is all what we’ve learned in the past, but it’s not what we’ve learned. It’s what we’re learning. It’s not about past stuff. It’s about present action. We are meant to be learners. We are meant to be people who learn the wisdom that is from above, which he’s gonna talk about in a second.
There is a wisdom that comes from God, that is meant, not just to tell us about what glorious things are gonna happen one day, but how we can cope with a world that hates God, where it’s a world of people who don’t know what peace is about. They make a treaty, and oh, we’ve got peace. Oh, yeah. You break it down to the individual level, you’ve got broken lives, and messes, and people who are snared by every form of sin imaginable. Okay?
So, “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every evil practice.” That’s the root of every evil thing in the world. It’s simply, my desires. There was somebody else who talked about being in a situation where there was a conflict with somebody, or feelings about somebody.
This is something we’ve said many times, and we, every one of us, fall into it over and over again. The problem is them! If they wouldn’t do that, or say that, or act that way, I’d be fine. Why do you think God caused them to act that way, or allowed them to act way? It’s not about how they’re acting. It’s about how you’re reacting! And you’re reacting because you’re following the dictates of your old nature instead of Christ. We’ve said it over and over again, and we do it over and over again. But you know, the Lord’s teaching us, isn’t He?
( congregational amens ).
He loves us enough to keep reminding us and showing us where it’s at, because He is the Prince of peace.
( congregational amens ).
That’s what He longs to give us. Thank God! All right, so you’ve got the Devil’s wisdom. “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all…pure; then peace-loving….” Okay, it’s first of all pure. But it’s, “…then peace-loving, considerate….”
What does considerate mean? Who are you thinking about when you’re considerate? Me? No, we’re thinking about somebody else. That’s what He’s after. “…Considerate, submissive….” Oh, we love that one. That’s human nature, right? Oh, I just love to be submissive. No, we want to be in charge. We want what we want, and that’s right, and everybody needs to get out of our way and let us have it. That’s the source of all that’s wrong with humanity. That’s why there’s no peace to the wicked. God doesn’t want us acting like them, but we do more than we should.
Okay, “…submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” Boy, those are amazing qualities, aren’t they? And the thing is, not one of us was born with those qualities. If we’re gonna have them, we’re gonna have to get them from Somebody.
And when he talks about wisdom, we’ll see this as we go, and of course, we’ve talked about it many times…he’s not talking about us having better information so we can act different. It takes more than just knowing what’s right to do. I mean, you can read this and say, oh, good, now, that’s what I’m supposed to do. Well, good luck, because you don’t have a nature that will support that, and that’s gonna constantly get in the way!
That’s what Paul discovered in Romans 7 when he tried to serve God by obeying the law, and he discovered his batting average was zero. Even when he did it outwardly, it wasn’t here, like it was supposed to be. My God, we need a miracle, don’t we?
All right, so what happens when you’ve got that kind of wisdom in operation? It says, “Peacemakers who sow in peace…raise a harvest of righteousness.” My God, you see what God is trying to do? He’s trying to plant His life down here and raise a harvest. This is the context in which we have to serve God. We’re gonna need supernatural help. We’re gonna need God. We’re gonna something we can’t get from this world. We can’t get it from ourselves. It only comes from Christ. That’s the hope of the Gospel. Thank God!
What now, now he goes on. Really, there’s a chapter break here, but it wasn’t there in the original. This goes right straight into chapter 4, verse 1. So he goes back to the question, “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” Why? Why don’t you have perfect unity with everybody around you? I mean, you know, we understand that’s not a good thing, but it happens, constantly.
You put two people in a room, sooner or later, you’re gonna have a fight. Why? “Don’t they come from your desires….” No, they come from him! They some from the other guy! He’s not doing right! He’s not measuring up to my standard! He’s not like I think he should be, or she.
No, “…they come from your desires that battle within you?” That’s the problem. It’s a heart issue, isn’t it? “You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want…you do not have, because you do not ask God.”
See, this is where it gets into our relationship with Him. See, you’ve got people, first of all, we don’t [have] things because we don’t ask Him. But now, we’ve got another problem, because we’re still here in this carnal state where we’re following too much the old nature.
“When you ask, you do not receive…” Why? “…Because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” So, you see what the problem is throughout this? It’s human nature in control. We’re meant to be yielded to Him, to learn how to live by a different life.
This is why religion can’t help you. This is why perfect theology can’t help you. Perfect creeds can’t help you. We have got to have a new heart, and a new life, and only Jesus can give us that.
But I tell you, even when He does, that does not automatically guarantee that in every instance we are going to follow that life, we’re gonna live out that life. This is what the problem is. We’re still in the middle, and James is dealing with Christian believers, and yet, he says there’s fights. You get in a fight. You’re having a problem. Why? It’s because you’re following your desires. Wake up! This is what it’s about.
“You adulterous people….” An adulterer is somebody who’s married, but they’re messing around with somebody else. “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?” You’ve got two opposing kingdoms. The kingdoms of this world are God’s enemies! If we live according to the dictates and the ideas of the world, we’re absolutely fighting against God. We’re fighting against ourselves, really. But God wants to set His people free. Praise God!
“Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace.” Now, let’s just take a step back and say, now who does He give the grace to, or for you grammarians, to whom does He give the grace?
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” You know, sometimes, the proud are the ones that think they can do it. They’re bopping along in a situation. I can handle this. I’ll wait ‘til I get to the big stuff, and then I’ll, oh God, I need You. We need Him all the time, about everything.
The wonderful thing is, He is available all the time about everything. He’s interested all the time in everything, and He’s willing, but we’re too proud. If we could think differently, and ask Him for the grace to think differently…I mean, you’ve got to start where you’re at, don’t you? If I’m proud, I need grace to stop being proud. I need to recognize, I need You, Lord, in this area.
Wherever I’m at, Lord, I don’t have what it takes. I don’t have the desire to do the right thing in this particular area. I heard some amens, but I think everybody here could have said it. Yeah, there you go. So, what do we do?
Oh God, I need You. Lord, You’ve promised, You’ve promised, and I’m coming to You. I’m believing Your promise in the face of all that says it can’t ever be. Lord, I need peace in my heart. I need something that only You can give.
You know, there are so many scriptures you could use. Lord, we preached three different Sundays…straight Sundays on peace one time, didn’t we, from Isaiah 26? Peace, peace. But one scripture that I think is critical to this…let me go ahead and turn to it. I think it’s in John 14, right at the end.
And remember this is where Jesus was…it was the night before His crucifixion. He was talking to His disciples, gave them a lot of information. Okay, it was not at the end. It was verse 27, talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit. You’re gonna be taught. But in 27, He says, “Peace…” It’s what we’re talking about today, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.”
Isn’t that interesting? It’s not like I’m gonna give you a box of something and it’s called peace. This is My peace. Where did Jesus get His peace? From the Father. Okay, is it just sort of a warm, gooey feeling? What did that mean in practice? Think about…what does that actually meant for Him to have a state of peace, given everything that happened to Him?
He trusted. That’s a key. That’s what Isaiah said, “…because he trusted in thee.” (KJV). You have peace, peace. It was an absolute unity of His heart and His will.
Now, we know He had battles. He cried, “…with strong crying and tears…” didn’t He? And the Lord saved Him out of that. But the salvation is not what we think about, because He wasn’t rescued from the cross. He had to go through that, but what He did have was a heart that was yielded and willing and able, by God’s power, to go through something that was impossible for a human being to do.
( congregational amens ).
That’s what salvation is about. Doesn’t John 14:27 give us a clue about what salvation is all about? In effect, Jesus is saying I’m giving Me to you. I get it. You don’t have what it take to have what God wants you to have in this world! But I have come to a place where, now, God has invested in me a life, and I have the power to share that life with you, and that peace that has carried me through my earthly life, it’s Mine, I have it, and I’m sharing it with you!
That means He’s sharing it with you, and you, and you, and me, today. This is not just something that happened the night before He was crucified. This is all through. It’s called time and time again, the Gospel of peace, the Good News!
Thank God, the foundation is that we can have peace with God, and have our sins dealt with and washed away as if they had never happened, but then there’s a practical side, that God wants us to be able to walk through our lives and actually have a peace…that we’re not constantly knocked off kilter by all the stuff that happens as though, why did it happen to me?
Well, get your mind off of yourself, and just put yourself in God’s hands and say, thank You, Lord. Your grace is enough. I’ll tell you, we’ve got a God who can give peace in your situation and mine, today, if we will let Him.
That’s the problem. Do we want to cling to our way so much, and our rightness in a situation, so much that we’re just not willing to let go? Boy, that came up today several times, about how much we need to come to the place where we can let stuff go.
There’s a wonderful scripture…it might be a good one to finish with that we certainly all know very well, and that’s in Philippians chapter 3. Well, I’ve been all around it here. There we go. I’m sorry, it’s Philippians, chapter 4.
Now, it’s interesting that right before he gets to the scripture that we always think of, in verse 2, Paul’s writing to believers in the city of Philippi. He says, “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.” (NIV). So, is this a problem? Is this a natural…I mean, is this the kind of thing that you deal with when human beings are together, even in the Lord? Are there not conflicts? Is that what God wants? Is there an answer? Is there a solution to this problem?
He pleads with them. “Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow…” to whom he’s writing, “…help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”
Now, the scripture that we’re all so familiar with…because if you have got…your human nature is too much in charge, is that not the source of fear and anxiety, among other things? Yeah. You’re always…there’s always something that’s got you going and got you worried, and you’re worried about this. You’re worried about something else. There’s a burden. I can’t fix this. What’s going on? There’s all this unrest.
Oh, my God, God doesn’t want us to have to live that way, and He knows…like Peter said, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (KJV). But here, Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything…” (NIV). Okay, so how do I do that? Good luck. Stop being anxious, everybody! That doesn’t work, does it? Better have a way to do that.
“…But in everything….” Everything. That comes to all the little stuff, all the little things that we run into in our lives. It gets right down to the nitty gritty of where you and I live, in everything, about anything. “…But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving….”
How many of you pray and petition with complaining? See, there’s no trust in that, is there? It’s like, God, You’ve got it in for me, and I don’t like it, and I’m gonna pout. No, we come to Him…Lord, You’ve allowed a need in my life. I feel it. I’m in a difficult place, but I know You love me. I know that in all things You’re working together for my good, and You have a purpose in all of this. So, in my request, I’m thanking You, Lord. I’m thanking you for the circumstance, but I’m thanking You because You have the answer and the grace. Okay?
“…Prayer and petition, with thanksgiving….” That’s a pretty good prescription, isn’t it? “…Present your requests to God.” And how many of you think when we do it, we just over and over, and over and over…and I know there’s a persevering in prayer. I understand that part. But how many of you think that when we come to the Lord, we give Him our burdens, and then we take them back go to sleep…and try to go to sleep with them?
How many of you have done that? Yeah. That doesn’t work too good, does it? See, there does have to come a place in our prayer where we say, all right, Lord, I have handed this off to You. It’s in Your hands, and I’m just leaving it in Your hands. The old hymn, “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” Some of you remember that.
All right, “Do not be anxious…by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And…” What? “…The peace of God…” The peace of God. Do you think God’s worried? Do you think God is in conflict? Oh, my God, I’ve got so many people to imagine. Look, there’s Carl. Look what he did again. I’ve got to worry about him. And Dorsey, I don’t know.
( laughter ).
And Ron. Oh, I’m just so overwhelmed. No! God’s got a perfect rest. He’s perfectly in control. There’s nothing the Devil can do to undermine His plan. He wants us to share how He feels about everything, the reality of it, not just how He feels, the reality of it. He wants us to rest in that.
“And the peace of God, which transcends….” It goes beyond all understanding. You can’t explain this to somebody. Why do you have such peace? Because God’s got this, and I’m trusting in Him. I mean, even the words, that still doesn’t convey the reality of something that goes beyond simply explaining it to the mind. It’s something that possesses the heart. That’s what He’s after, because that’s what he says. It, “…transcends all understanding, will guard you hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
All right, and he says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble…” It gets into to what we think about, what we allow our minds to dwell on. That’s where a lot of our trouble comes from. “…Whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And…” What? “…The God of peace will be with you.”
Thank God. If I’m living, and I don’t have peace, it’s not His fault. It’s because I am dwelling in a low realm. I’m operating by human wisdom, by human nature. If I’m gonna get out of that, I’m gonna have to start lifting my eyes and looking to Him, and believing His promises, and giving my burdens to Him, and His promise is that we can have peace.
This is peace that’s on earth. We’ll have peace there, if you know Him. But He wants you to have it now. And I’ll tell you, you get into…just life in general, but this season is supposed to be peace on earth…a lot more stress usually. But God can give us peace, even in Christmas. God can give us peace, if we’ll just open our hearts to Him. He is the Prince of Peace, and behind Him is the God of Peace. That’s what it’s about, and He is faithful. Praise God![/ultimate_modal]
December 29, 2024 - No. 1682
[ultimate_modal modal_title=”All Music Program” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_text=”All Music Program” modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-doorvertical” overlay_bg_color=”#000000″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ content_bg_color=”#ffffff” header_bg_color=”#f46d6d” img_size=”80″]All Music ProgramBroadcast #1682
December 29, 2024[/ultimate_modal]