Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 472 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Jimmy Robbins: I'll say this and then I'm gonna sit down. I believe the Lord has something for us from the Word tonight. I don't know which brother has it, but there are needs here tonight. There are people hurting. I feel it in my spirit. There are people hurting. They need help. They need the Word. So I just ask you, brethren, whoever feels a quickening, be faithful to get up and give it out. It don't have to be a sermon, just whatever the Lord gives you. We need to reach out to people and help people. So I'm gonna sit down. Whoever's got a quickening, I want you to get on up and give it out. Amen.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: This is a very simple story--something that Jesus...Jesus was sitting at a meal with some people...in verse 15, and He said this. I guess one of them was listening to Jesus. You know they're having conversation while they're eating. And he said to Jesus, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." And so Jesus took that opportunity to give us this parable that I know most of us have heard many times.

"Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many." That is, he invited many. "And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." He didn't even bother to say, "I need an excuse"-- just assumed that that was enough. "So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind."

Now this is not the kind of...if you're a wealthy man, you're putting together a feast, this is not what you would normally picture as the kind of people you'd invite. But there was an urgency. There was something about this that made it imperative that that feast be enjoyed. It wasn't just made for no reason. It was made to be eaten, made to be enjoyed and tasted of and partaken of. And so this was the heart and the concern of the one who was giving this feast.

And so they did that and the Lord said, "Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in,"--why? "That my house may be filled." And I'm here to tell you tonight, God's house is going to be filled. There's a purpose, there's a God. In spite of the fact that the world is simply doing its thing, ignoring God, God has an immutable purpose--a sovereign purpose that He is bringing to pass. It will happen. It's a fact and I believe we have a company of people here tonight who are aware of that fact.

And I guess the one scripture out of this passage in particular that's kind of stuck in my mind as it...as it sort of meandered through was this. It said, "Come for all things are now ready." You know much religion that we have today presents people with a set of things that they've got to do, a set of things they've got to believe and a whole range of religious beliefs and practices by means of which they believe that they will come into favor with God.

And of course, we who have sat under the truth know that it just doesn't happen that way...that we have to come before God exactly as we are. You know Jimmy was talking about people who are hurting, people who are burdened and heavy-laden with sin. There is an awareness perhaps in your life of need. If you have an awareness of need in your life today, you are among all the people in this planet a blessed person.

( congregational praise ).

You may think that "I'm the lowest of the low. All of these things that are wrong with me make me someone to be pitied, someone to be looked down upon, somebody to be shunned." But I tell you, you read this and catch the spirit of it and you know it is just the opposite. I'll tell you the well have no need of a physician. Jesus did not come to call the righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance. So if we tonight have any sense whatsoever of need in our selves, it is because God has put it there.

And we can lift our hands and say, "Praise God," and worship Him and give Him glory and praise. And the reason is this--that God does not make us aware of our needs in order to mock us or to torture us or to just belittle us and play power games, or whatever you might suggest. He does it because he has the answer. He doesn't...he didn't say come and let's make this a potluck supper. Everybody bring something and we'll have something to eat. No. Come for...

-- Congregation: All things.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: All things, all things, all things are what? Now ready. That's everything we have need of and it's ready. You don't have to do anything except to come. I appreciate the brother's testimony tonight of how he reached...God brought him to a point, even had to stay on his knees a little while there wondering what was going to happen. But God brought him to a point where the real--the crux of the issue was just, "Here's my life. Whatever it consists of. Whatever needs there may be." It's just..."I'm turning it over to you."

And of course as he expressed in his testimony something I think we've all experienced, we've got a lot to learn. It doesn't all happen--bang and it's over and we're suddenly fit for heaven. I mean in one sense we are. We're made...we have the righteousness of Christ, but God wants to do something in us else he would just take us on. There's a reason that we're here. And I'll tell you whatever our real...whatever our need is tonight, if you're coming to this place and it just feels overwhelming. It feels like, my God, I've been this way all my life. There's no real help for me. There's no answer. I've reached this place in my life. There is an answer. The answer is Christ.

( congregational praise ).

You know the disciples on one occasion were with Jesus, and He was talking, I think on this particular occasion, about how the rich found it difficult to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Of course the reason is because their riches gave them a sense of self-sufficiency. You know within human society if you get money, money is power, it's influence. People, things, gravitate to you supposedly. But you know it doesn't count for anything in the kingdom of God.

But for people to actually come to the kingdom of God, they have to be what? Poor. But it's poor in spirit isn't it. You have to realize on the inside, my God, I don't have what I need. I need something that is totally beyond my capacity. But that's when...that's the point when God wants to come and reveal Jesus. We don't have a message. Our message is not Midnight Cry Ministries. Our ministry, I mean our message is Christ, because without Him we are nothing. He is the one who has the answer.

I can't explain it to you so that it'll all make sense. I can tell you about Him though. God has invested in Him everything that I need, everything that you need. Our place is to have our eyes open to that fact and then to act on it, and to say, "God, I don't understand everything." You know you don't have to understand everything. There's a lot of people that just struggle to come to God because they're trying to figure it all out. God just, if you'd just explain to me so that I can understand it. You know we have to come to God like little children, don't we? We have to reach that place where all that pride, all that sense of whatever, all those hang-ups...we just say, "God, I can't," and just quit. But our quitting is not a hopeless quitting. It's a quitting into the hands of Christ. And when you do that, and He takes over, I'll tell you He's got a feast.

( congregational praise ).

He's got a feast and whatever there...all the things that are a part of this feast represent the things that we stand in need of, spiritually speaking. He's got it all there. He didn't ask you to bring some of it, didn't ask me to bring some of it. He made it. He made it ready. When Jesus died He said what? "It is finished"--finished, finished! What did Paul say? "Ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power." You got devils bothering you today? We got One that God has given to us who is the head over all principality and power.

( congregational praise ).

Praise God! Praise God! Suppose Lucifer himself was bothering you personally? I don't think he is. I think he's got his little lackeys doing his dirty work. But suppose he was? Well, Jesus Christ is head over him too.

( congregational praise ).

That's the thing, that's the message. All these other things, these doctrines, they have their place, but there's one message and that's Christ. He's an all-sufficient, present Savior. He said, "Come, for all things are now ready." Is there anything that doesn't cover? I don't think so. That's why there was such an urgency, as people began to set at naught this message.

It reached out further and it's reaching out. And I believe we are coming down to the very end. There is a sense of urgency. There's the same urgency that there was in Noah's day. The same urgency that I believe there was in Jerusalem before it fell, before the destruction and all that took place there. There is an urgency in our day because God has a timetable. He's bringing things to a close.

But I'll tell you, there's one thing that I take comfort in. There's many things, but there's one thing in particular that comes to my mind right now. It says, "He's not willing that any should perish." Now who's He talking about. There's people that are going around saying that He's not willing. They're looking at the world in general and say He's not willing that any should perish. No, He's not...He's talking about the brethren. He's talking about his people, His elect, those that He foreknew from the foundation of the world. He's not going to get tired of waiting for that last one. He's going to bring that last one. Maybe you are one that He's brought to this meeting because there's needs in your life, and He wants you to know that there's a Savior who can meet every one of them. Praise God!

( congregational praise ).

Praise the Lord!

-- Brother Steve Sharpe: Praise his name! He's worthy. I'm glad He's still in the saving business. He's not going to send His Son until He's through. And when He is through then He will send His Son. Something that Jim said when he got up here to lead the singing registered to my heart and it was about, "Arise and shine." That's what I sense in my heart that God is trying to wake us up.

And it made me think of the scripture in Joel. Turn there in Chapter 2. In verse 1 it says, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion." That's what we're doing here. That's what the Spirit of God is doing here tonight. It's blowing the trumpet in His mighty church. "And sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." I believe with all my heart that we are living in the last of the last days. If you've got any eyes at all to see, there's no hope in this world. But what I just heard is there's hope tonight in Him.

( congregational praise ).

I need Him tonight. I came down here more needy than I've ever come. I'm like Tim. I want to be delivered tonight--not tomorrow. I'm not gonna wait tomorrow. I have things in my life I need to be delivered from right now. And I'm accepting it.

Over in Isaiah, chapter 45. These two scriptures came to me before Phil got up and I thought of that same scripture that he read there. This mighty God that we're hearing about tonight in 45 and verse 18, "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else." There's only one God that the brother was talking about--one faith, one lord, one baptism.

He said, "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain: I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together." I feel like we're near together to our God. What I'm here to do is draw together with you and approach this mighty God.

"Assemble yourselves and come: draw near together, that ye are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge they set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save." That's what the religious world offers. It offers you a substitute, a false hope. But this God we're talking about is present tense. He is the great I am. He's here tonight. He says, "and pray unto a god that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me."

He said in verse 22, "Look unto me." That's the only place you need to look tonight. You're not going to find it in a book. You're not going to find it from a psychiatrist or psychologist. You're going to find it by looking to God. And He's real close to us here tonight. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." I think He's pleading with us. I think we're living in an hour he's compelling His people to come in.

I've got one last scripture over in Romans. All things are ready. He sent His only Son, and He let him suffer, be ridiculed, hang on a cruel Roman cross and shed His blood. And when He died and He rose again, He took that blood as a sacrifice for you and for me. He made atonement for us here. And it says in verse 8 of chapter 5, "But God commendeth his love toward us"-- He demonstrated his love by sending his own Son for us--"In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." You don't have to get good enough. While you were yet a sinner He's already paid the price.

It says, "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom we have now received the atonement."

( congregational praise ).

I'm glad the atonement's made tonight for our salvation and for whatever it takes for us to walk these last miles. I think what God has us to do here is to be His mighty army, to get in rank and file, and to be about His business. The world wants to suck us down and suck us in, but we need to get up every day. I said this in Columbia, and we need to be like the prophets of old. We need to build an altar every morning and pray to God, say, "God what do you want me to do today for you?" It might be to go out and work hard and earn a little money, but I think we need to be about His business, telling people about this good news, this gospel, this blood, this atonement.

And I believe there's going to be some saved in this meeting. I know, I've heard of stories where there's people who haven't been in the church for awhile, who feel a great need. We see young people that are being drawn to our church for one reason or another, but I believe it's God's way of exposing them to the gospel. And if you're here tonight, you're a blessed person. Praise the Lord!

-- Brother Jim Easterly: You can turn to John chapter 8. You know I remember when I was really young. I never had any problem believing that God was God. Never had any problem believing that Jesus Christ was a sufficient propitiation for your sins. But what I had a problem believing was that He wanted to do that for me--for me personally because deep down inside I knew me better than I knew anybody else. Now some of you know me well enough to know I'm telling you the truth, the rest of you gonna have to trust me.

I did not deserve to be saved. I did not deserve to be added to the kingdom of God. But He went out into the highways and hedges and He compelled me to come in. And listen, I don't care if you went to California and lived or if you're here from San Antonio like Felipe--Felipe's father, or if you're from New Orleans. You know Gloria, you're here. You're from Jacksonville. I don't care where you're from tonight. God has a reason for you personally to be here tonight. This truth is coming forth.

There's a difference in things you hear in this vast body of information and intelligence that's included in this...under the title of religion. There's a difference. Jesus' message was different. You know why it was different? Because, Jimmy mentioned this earlier, he said, "the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life." God said, "By the foolishness of preaching it pleased God to save those that believe." You're not here tonight by accident.

And, you know, Steve just said something about something the brother said. You know something, it's a precious thing to be able to call somebody your brother. You know why he could call James his brother? Because they have the same father. Listen. Listen to me. Not everybody has the same father tonight. Jesus, in John chapter 8 -- you can read this later. It's in here. He spoke to people and He said...He spoke about the things that I do. He said the things that I see with my father, that I do. And then He told them, He said, "You're of your father, the devil." They didn't have the same father. These were religious people.

You are so blessed--so blessed if God can cause you to realize you're sick and you need a physician. No matter what kind of background you've got. I don't care if you're religious or if you were like me. God has a reason for you to be here tonight and that reason is to give some of you the opportunity- -the opportunity to realize that Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ died for you personally--personally. There's life in what's coming forth here tonight. We are so blessed to be here.

Return to Transcripts Page

---

---