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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 479 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Phil Enlow: Praise God! I don't know what--I'm not absolutely certain what the Lord has this morning. But I know when I got up this morning and I was shaving...I just had this sense in my spirit. The Lord wants His people to know the simple reality that He's with us to the end of the age. It's something that I don't think we ever get tired of hearing or ever run out the need to hear. We live in a dark and a difficult and a dangerous time and a scary time and thinking about...you know, human beings naturally tend to think of all the scary things that might come. Of course, we have helpers from the dark side that love to whisper in our ears and tell us all kinds of bad things. What about this? What if this happens? What if that happens? Or what if I'm held up in front of a firing squad, or a thousand and one things? I know the scripture said...actually Jesus Himself in telling us about the end of the age spoke of a time when men's hearts would be failing them for fear...for looking after those things that are coming upon the earth. But I believe with all my heart God's people do not have to fear. There is nothing that pertains to this earth that should cause us to fear. Now, I know those are things that sometimes we have to work through and exercise ourselves concerning, but God's Word is absolutely unchanging and uncompromising. There's no question about where God stands upon this. He has given us a place in Christ where we do not have to fear. And I'm just so thankful! Of course, you could go from one end of the Bible to the other to see the things that the Lord has said--examples of how the Lord has been with His people. Of course, we know Jesus Himself specifically told the disciples to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. But He said, "And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." ( congregational amens ). And all we have to do is look at history--some of it modern history, but much of it from the scripture itself--and we can see how the Lord has never once failed His children. Jesus even said on one occasion, don't fear them who can kill the body. See that's one of the things we fear, naturally. We're very protective of this earthly frame that we've been given. But the Lord said, don't be afraid of that. When they've done that, that's all they can do. What God has done and is doing for us is something that will absolutely last forever. And we are safe. Boy, the songs, one behind the other, that we sang coming in here had that same theme--it's the safety. And I believe above all things God wants us to know--those who've truly given their hearts to Him, that we above all people--we're the only people on the face of the earth who have utter and complete safety in this hour. You know we were sitting around the table the other night...we're here for a family reunion like we did last summer and it's been wonderful to get everybody together again. And we were sitting around the table the other night and just recalling what the Lord did for the Israelites in the wilderness, and what an amazing thing that was and how utterly amazing it is that the people who were the participants in that experience, for the most part, did not understand--did not appreciate the incredible miracle--and did not see in the deeds the One who had called them there and was doing all these amazing things for them. I mean, you think of the logistics of taking 3,000,000 people out in the desert to live for 40 years. Any of you want to organize that? No, I don't! But see God had it all arranged. They didn't need any kind of natural supply to take care of their food. God suited the supply to the need that was there. And the need was, "We're in a place where we have no grocery stores, no game to hunt, no natural source of food." But, did they ever go hungry? No, they did not. God made sure that they had exactly what they needed when they needed it--didn't allow them even to pile it up. They had to walk by faith every single day. You know, His instructions were, "Don't you can this up. I'm gonna give you every day exactly what you need for that day. And you're to take it and use it." You know, some of those people didn't quite believe that and they thought, boy, we'd better hold some of this back. Tomorrow we may be hungry. And what happened? It bred worms. You see God was trying to teach them that they weren't to live by bread alone, by all of the natural resources that we think that we have to have. But that He was able to provide for them regardless of the circumstances. What about God's medical plan? That was an incredible thing. Now, as I say, God suits His supply to the need. And their need was...out in the wilderness, boy, we don't have any resources. So what happened? None of them got sick! You'd have thought that would've gotten somebody's attention, wouldn't you? All those people there to live for that amount of time and they never got sick. What about their clothing needs? But, Lord, we're not gonna be anywhere near Saks 5th Avenue, what're we gonna do? ( congregational laughter ). Now, most of you don't shop at Saks 5th Avenue, but wherever you do shop, GAP or whatever, or Sears or K-Mart--whatever it was, none of those resources were there. They couldn't take--they didn't have...well anyway whatever, they didn't have the resources. But God fixed it to where their shoes didn't wear out. Any of you ever owned a pair of shoes for 40 years and they were just like new when you finished? ( congregational laughter ). Probably didn't fit, for one thing. But God took care of even the needs of their clothing. Every single thing that they had need of was supplied. Now just think about that! And think about their implications for us. Has God ever--ever once failed to meet the needs of His children? -- Congregation: No -- Brother Phil Enlow: He has not. And I'll tell you what. I don't know what's gonna happen. I can't tell you what's gonna happen tomorrow. I don't know what lies down the road. I hope the Lord comes today. But you know, if there's a time frame, if things in the world get worse, there're gonna be times when the devil's gonna be whispering in our ears, oh my God, what's happening? And the people of the world...some of them are gonna start looking around and they're gonna start being terrified. But you know something? We've got a place. We've got a safe, utter place. You think of the circumstances that arose when the children of Israel first arrived on the banks of the Red Sea. Now, first of all, the body of water was impenetrable, so far as they were concerned. They didn't have boats. It was too deep to wade. They certainly couldn't have taken a whole 3,000,000 people and all their belongings across by any natural means. And on top of that--and I believe God fixed it this way--God wanted to do something that would demonstrate to the world who He was and show His power through the hardness of heart of this wicked king--this wicked pharaoh. And so, God allowed it to come into his mind and into his heart. "Boy, what a fool I've been! Yeah. What a fool I've been to be out here and let all these slaves go. I had this free labor to build all of my great buildings, do all of my big projects, and now I let them go. Boy, what a fool! What are the other emperors around gonna say about my weakness and who I am?" And so that proud stiff heart rose up in him and he went chasing after them across the wilderness. And suddenly the Israelites found themselves backed up against the Red Sea and the mightiest army on the face of the earth rolling across the desert to crush them. And there they are. Now we know the story, so we can sit here and just say, well, great. Big deal. God opens the sea. But they didn't know that. -- Congregation: That's right. -- Brother Phil Enlow: They didn't know that--they didn't know that. And, boy, I'm sure there was a lot of shouting and squawking and crying out, and, "My God, what're we gonna do?" And the Lord anointed Moses to stand up and say, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD." And the first thing He did was to send forth a cloud and a pillar of fire. It was the very presence of God in the midst of His people. Pharaoh had no idea what he was up against. And, I'm afraid to say a lot of the people didn't know what they had going for them. But, I'll tell you, the Lord wants us to know. But we can look back now and we can see how that cloud came down, the pillar of fire. And the Egyptians would loved to have just come on in and finish the job, but they couldn't. There was a barrier of fire in their way. And all night it stayed there. They were in a perfect place of safety. From the natural standpoint they could not have been in a more vulnerable place, but for one thing, and that's God. ( congregational amens ). That makes all the difference. They were in a place of perfect safety. You know God said of His people, "I bare you on eagles' wings." I'll tell you, when God sets out to do something, there is no natural barrier that can possibly stand in the way of His purpose and His plan. And it didn't there, did it? And so we know that they were kept separated and then we know the story how Moses was told to stretch forth his hand over the waters and they parted. And the Israelites were enabled to go through on dry ground. That'd been something else to look over there and see the fish swimming beside you. You ever walked through one of those aquariums where you're in a tunnel? I don't know if it was like that or not. But whatever it was, it must've been something--it must've been something. But whatever it was, God did what He had to do to get them through. And, of course, the Egyptians said, well great! We've got the waters...we've got the way open, we'll just charge right in after them. That didn't work, did it? The Lord used that to destroy the enemies of the people of God. ( congregational amens ). I'll tell you, we need to know who our God is in this hour. We need to be able to get up in the morning and know that we don't have to live a life of fear and of worrying about anything that comes. ( congregational amens ). God is faithful! God, who has called us into this wilderness, as it were, He knows the way to the Promised Land. You know, a lot of times I think we think we've got to know things. We've got to be able to see down the road. We've go to be able to figure it out. You've got people, religiously speaking, that are just studying this book like crazy trying to figure it all out. You could ask me a thousand and one questions about what's gonna happen out in the future and I'd just have to say, "I don't know." That's the simple honest truth. I don't know. But, you know, we don't have to know. There's one thing that we have to know and it's not a thing, it's a One. We need to know the Lord and we need to honor and cultivate the sense of His presence. That's the one place of safety that we have in this world. Last week, we got into some things that were related to this. I was recalling something that happened in the middle of the last century in World War II. Some of you, of course, know the story, "The Hiding Place." There was a Dutch woman and her sister and their family that just had a conscience about what was going on around them. The Germans came in and took over. They saw friends of theirs who were perfectly innocent people that just happened to be Jews. They were rounded up, being sent off to their deaths. They took it on themselves, by faith, to hide a family. They were successful in hiding them in the attic. But, you know as you read the book and you come to the end of all the things that God brought them through, that was not the hiding place that Corrie ten Boom was talking about. Because in the story--in the account...this was not a novel, this really happened...the Germans discovered the Jews that they had been hiding. And not only that, they themselves were hauled off into concentration camps and just suffered one horrible indignity after another, but yet the testimony of Corrie ten Boom, who was allowed to live through this to tell the story, was that God was with them miraculously. No matter what happened to their outward frame, God was faithful. They found opportunities to preach the gospel, to share Christ in there. Her sister, Betsy I believe her name was, gave her life. She died there in the concentration camp. But there was such a glow, there was such a magnetism of the presence of Christ in her life that people gravitated to her. There were people who'd never heard the Word if they hadn't been able to be near someone that had Christ on the inside. She had this great sense of peace in the midst of incredible suffering. And, boy, the Lord used that to help people. She was in a hiding place, because, you know in one sense--well in every sense, it doesn't matter what happens to this outward man. You read the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, particularly. God enumerates through His servant, the heroes of faith. These were people who believed God. You know, we think sometimes of believing God as, well, something's got to happen. In other words, faith is basically geared to making something happen to fix something pertaining to this life. If we can't fix it, then there's no faith. That's a false concept. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." Sometimes faith has to stand when everything else seems to be crumbling and it looks like defeat. But, yet God's people continue to say, I believe God, in spite of what's happening, in spite of the conditions. I continue to trust Him. Like Job said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." ( congregational amens ). And so we see heroes of faith. Some of them were rescued like Daniel from the lion's den, like the three Hebrew children who were enabled to go through the fire and they came out. And you think, oh my God, that's the standard. That's how faith ought to be. Nothing bad should ever happen to us. We should just be able to skate across the scene of life and nothing ever bad really happen to us, without us being able to just make it go away. But, what about the rest of that? Others didn't accept deliverance. There were some that were sawn asunder. Tradition says that was Isaiah. I don't know. But to actually come to the end of you life, to pour your life out giving out the Word of God, then having to stretch you out on a table and saw you in half as your reward! But, I'll tell you, Isaiah was faithful to the end. God lists him right along with the heroes of faith. I believe in a real sense it takes more faith to stand when the world says you've lost, things didn't work out the way they were supposed to do. You're still sick, you're still this, and to say, I believe God anyway. I'm trusting in Him. It doesn't matter. God doesn't have any formulas. He doesn't have any patterns. It isn't this way or that way. It's just a matter of looking to God and trusting in Him. Once our lives are given to Him, they're in His hands. And we're occupying that place that we sang about this morning. It is a place of utter and complete safety in Christ. And so, I'm gonna turn over there. I tend to talk without actually opening the scriptures and that's probably not the best idea. But anyway the Lord knows. He's still working on me, too--got a lot of work to do. But, turn to Hebrews chapter 11. The writer here gets into sort of a summary toward the end of the chapter, verse 32. It says, "And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms...." Boy, that's what I want. I want to be able to get out there and subdue kingdoms. Sounds great! "...Wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." Boy, that's really...man, that's heady stuff there! 
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