Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 644 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Good morning.

-- Congregation: Good morning.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: I had a scripture come to me that I just really...mid-week. But I haven't really been able to get it off my mind. And, I just pray maybe the Lord can help me and help us through it. You know the book of Ephesians--it's in the book of Ephesians.

The book of Ephesians is an amazing book. Paul just lays out from 'A' to 'Z' what his vision and the revelation that God had given him about the Church of Jesus Christ--the wonderful thing that God has done for us to forgive us our sins, to give us eternal life, to lift us up from death to life, to raise us up to be seated with Him in heavenly places, to raise us from the dead, in chapter 2, by grace, not through anything that we deserve, and the glorious picture of the Church he brings into it in chapters 3 and 4, and how God has put us all together in one, and His plan to cause us to grow up in Christ.

He goes on through the chapters and then how we ought to live and then our spiritual warfare. I mean, you could just spend--you could spend a year preaching on the book of Ephesians and not come close to exhausting the truth that's there. But I just...my mind went back to something in chapter 4.

You know, a couple of weeks ago we were...I think that was when it was...we were in Chapter 6 about our warfare. And I made the point that the warfare followed a whole passage in which Christian living was basically laid out. Here's the way we ought as Christians live...and so, the fact that there was a warfare involved in doing that.

Well that's one aspect of that truth. But I want to back to before he begins to talk about those things, because there is a key passage in here that if we don't get it--if we don't understand, then we are going to live in a state of spiritual frustration. And I'd like to just set the table if I can by beginning in the beginning of Chapter 4, although that's not where I particularly want to focus.

Paul writes, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (NIV).

Now, see Paul is, in a sense...God has allowed him to sort of be way up here and to be able to look down and see God's Church through God's eyes. He said, "This is God's plan. This is God's picture." Now I know that men and devils working together have made a great muddle of it all. But God's picture and God's plan and His vision for the Church is still the same. And I believe that what God wants us to do is to begin to be more and more conformed, not to the way things are done generally in Christendom, but to God's plan.

( congregational amens ).

I believe...you know it's come to my mind a number of times in prayer lately, that we have heard a tremendous amount of truth in this place and some of it's prophetic in nature. I don't believe God intends for His Words to just be set aside and fall to the ground and have no meaning. I believe that He has set before us something that He desires us to enter in to. And I believe furthermore, that if He desires it, that we can. Doesn't that make sense to you?

( congregational amens ).

Do you suppose God would set something ahead of us and before us that's impossible? No, I don't believe it at all. But now, he begins...Paul to break it down in chapter...in verse 7, rather, it says, "But to each one of us..."--Now he breaks it down to individuals.--"...To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it." That means you and I each have what we need to be what God has called us to be--to be what He's made us. Whatever He requires of us, we have divine strength to help us. We're not on our own in this thing.

"This is why it says: When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." Now there he's quoting from Psalm 68. Now Paul goes on and gives an explanation here, or a comment on this scripture that He's just used. He says, "(What does 'he ascended' mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?)"

Now this is...theologians make all kinds of stuff out of this, but this is not talking about Christ being here and then ascending somewhere down there. This is talking about Christ having started out in heaven and having descended here and then when His work here was done, He ascended back to heaven. That's all...that's what it's talking about there.

And the reason...it said, "(He who descended..."--He who came down--Christ who came down to this sin-cursed earth--"...is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)" God intends that what He began in Jesus Christ should one day conquer everything. And it will.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! Now, he gets into the plan and the method, and this is where we've heard this so many times. "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers." Now, these are different kinds of ministry that God has set, in order to help the Body do what it is.

Now, the virtue is not in the ministries. Virtue is not in the human vessels at all. It's simply God's way of working in and through us to fulfill the purpose for us. And so He gives different gifts to men and it is as those men yield their vessels to Christ, from whom all the real power comes, that there is virtue that flows out and helps the Body.

And so He gives these ministries, he says in verse 12, "To prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until..."--Now how long is this gonna happen? What's the purpose? What's the end result that's in God's mind?--"...Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."

Now, boy that sounds like a pie-in-the-sky thing, doesn't it? When we look at ourselves, we look at our circumstances. We say...our reaction to this is, well that sounds great, but that ain't gonna happen. Certainly not here, not now...maybe someday, somewhere, somehow. But doesn't that cause us to naturally react...my God, that's just impossible? That's just a dream.

I'll tell you, I don't believe it is. I don't believe that it is an impossible dream if we do it God's way. Praise God! And that's what he's getting into here. It says, "Then..."--You know this process undergoing...undergoing this process, it says, "Then we will no longer be infants...."

See that's how we start out in Christ. We're like babies. We don't know a lot and we just...we need a lot of care. We need a lot of looking after. But God doesn't intend that we stay that way. Now how many mothers here...I know you...mothers love babies. But how many, when you have a baby want them to stay like that all their lives? No, that would be...quickly you'd know something was wrong and you'd be greatly distressed about it, because we understand the process that God begins us as babies, but He doesn't intend that we stay that way. He wants us to grow up.

Now of course, he describes what it's like spiritually to be an infant. He said, "...Tossed back and forth by the waves..."--There's no stability, no real knowledge. We're just kind of blown about by whatever happens. It says, "...And blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming."

The devil has all kinds of things that he has thrown out to sidetrack God's people. In fact, we see the picture in a symbolic form in Revelation chapter 12. Do you remember what it says there about the serpent. He said, he cast out of his mouth as a flood. It was a flood that was sent forth and the design of it was to undermine God's people. It was satanic doctrine, satanic ideas that would just sort of muddy the water and distract, and get people to going this way and get people to going this way, and divide everybody up.

Well, he's pretty well succeeded in terms of the general Christian world. God has His people. God has a people, in spite of the general conditions, that know Him and love Him. And I believe it's for those that He intends to finish the job that He started. He's not gonna lose a single one, regardless of where they're at in Babylon. Whether we're here or there, God has every one of His children across this globe in mind in all that He's doing. I praise Him for it. Praise God!

And so in spite of all this deceitful scheming, he says, "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ." Now, listen to where everything comes from. It says, "From him...." That's where it comes from. That's where our virtue comes from. That's where our help comes from. Everything necessary for the fulfillment of the Word that He has given us in this passage comes from Him. It doesn't depend upon you. It doesn't depend on how smart you are, how strong your will is. All anything that we could think about in terms of human ability, it doesn't depend on that at all. It depends entirely on Him.

It says, "From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as..."--What?--"...Each part does its work." That's what God's design is in the Church of Jesus Christ. And God wants every one of us to be looking to Him--everyone who knows Him to be looking to Him and to have an expectation that God is going to enable us to grow, to get beyond where we're at right now and be more effective Christians.

And it isn't just you! This isn't just about you! This is about your place in something a lot larger than you are and God wants to do a work in you and in me, so that His Life can flow through us to others. And I believe that that's something that He is doing and He's teaching us.

Now, here's the passage that came to me--that I thought of, because I believe that there is a great need in our lives for a greater practical sense and knowledge of what holiness and righteousness is all about. It's not just some theory. It's not just God writing our name on a page and saying, "righteous." There's more to it than that.

God means for us to be righteous, to be His people, to overcome the things that overcome us. He longs for us to grow up and have a practical ability to live for God in the world. That's part of the greatness of the salvation that we were singing about this morning. It doesn't leave us in a state of helplessness and frustration when it comes to living for God.

But this is the key right now, because right after this is when he begins to talk about how we ought to live. And he goes into all the things that are wrong with human beings and how we ought not to be that way. But, my God, if it were not for this passage right here, I would just hate to think about all that follows because I can't do it. You can't do it. If God were simply to set this pipedream before us and say, now here's what I want you to be like. Go for it. We might as well quit, because there's no going for it--there's nothing with which to go forward with. Anyway.

( laughter ).

You got the picture. That was a rather convoluted sentence, but, you get the general idea. Praise God! So listen! "So I tell you this..."--Now, he's going to assert how he wants us to live.--"So I tell you this...." And he doesn't just tell us. In this translation, it says, "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord..."--I insist--"...that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do..."--Well, how did the Gentiles live? It says--"...In the futility of their thinking."

Something's wrong with the mind of the natural man. We know the scripture says that they're blinded by sin. There are people who can come in here and sit among us and have no clue as to what's going on. It means nothing to them. They do not understand. They have no concept of living for God and what that's all about. It just seems like a bunch of religion to them.

But I'll tell you, there is something that is real and God can open eyes and open minds and hearts. But God does not want us to live like people of the world who live in a futility. In other words, all that they think--every thing that they think about...their plans, their ideas, their values are useless. And they're useless from the standpoint of eternity.

Here's God looking down and seeing. He's seeing all of the course of human history. He's seeing all of the individual lives and what they're living for. And He's saying, look I know how this thing is gonna turn out, and everything you're living for...people of the world, in general, is useless.

( congregational amens ).

It's gonna lead you to ruin. It's gonna lead you to the grave. And it's your mind that just is so absolutely geared in that way, that I want to do something for you that's gonna lift you out of that. That's not the way I want My people to live! I want them to have a different way of looking at their lives and their...everything about them.

( congregational praise ).

And so he goes on describing the condition. He says, "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God..."--Now, why is that?--"...Because of the ignorance that is in them...." Oh, there it is. They're just ignorant. All we have to do is explain it to them. But that isn't where it stops. It says, "...The ignorance..."--They don't know.-- "...The ignorance that is in them..."--Why?--"...Due to the hardening of their hearts." The reason the world is in the condition that it is, is simply this: the people harden their hearts against light. God shows them, and they say, no, I want to go this way instead of that way.

( congregational amens ).

What does it say in 2nd Peter chapter 3, about the attitude of people regarding the second coming of Christ? What does it say? They are willingly ignorant. That's not simple, "I don't know." That's, "I don't want to know." That's the condition of the world. You look at television, movies, you look at the people round about you and what they're living for. They don't want to know, generally speaking...about God. God has to do something to arrest people and to cause them to see--cause this condition to change. But God is saying, this is the condition the world is in and I don't want my people living like that.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! And so, you see it goes on to describe and it says, "Having lost all sensitivity...." This is the problem when people begin to resist light. Pretty soon, it doesn't bother them like it used to. You resist it, you get hard. You resist it again, you get a little harder. Pretty soon all the sensitivity to it is gone. And you look at people who can do terrible things that have no conscience about it. Doesn't bother them at all. They sleep like a baby and do awful things. My God, what a horrible thing sin is. Our God wants to--longs to deliver us from it.

"Having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to sensuality..."--in other words, serving things that stir up our senses, that give us pleasure in our senses. That could be a whole lot of things. I won't go into all the details, but you know generally what this is covering. "Having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."

( congregational amens ).

Boy, that's the problem when you start going down that road. You start scratching that itch, it doesn't ever go away. It gets worse and worse, until it leads you into ruin.

( congregational amens ). "You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him..."--Or 'by him,' I think it says in the King James--"...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...." Now I think, most of the time, when you find this expression in the King James, it's your 'old man.' But I want you ladies to understand; this isn't talking about your husband.

( laughter ).

This is talking about you. And I think this is a pretty good translation here. He's not talking about your 'old man'...your 'new man.' He's talking about your old self and your new self. God is not wanting us to try to serve God in the strength and energy of our old self. That's the one we were born with.

And it says, "...Put off your old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires." Every desire that arises in you that would go away from God, no matter what it seems like, no matter how desirable it may be...the fact of the matter is, it is deceitful. There is a lie built into it that somehow that that's a desirable--that's a good thing to do, to pursue that thing, and that you can get away with it. You can enjoy it. That's the way you ought to live. It's fooling you. It's lying to you. And God help us to have our eyes opened to see that that's exactly what the desires...our natural desires will lead to if we pursue that course.

And so, the writer, Paul, tells us to, "...Put off your old self which is...." And it doesn't even say just corrupt. It says, it's being corrupted. This is an ongoing process. That means the longer you go in that direction, the more the corruption gets. It gets worse and worse. We don't have to look very far to see examples of this in our own lives. We watch people who begin to go the wrong direction and it gets worse and it gets worse and it gets worse. There's a corruption that sets in.

"...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." Now you see this right here in a nutshell is the foundation for everything that follows. If our doctrine--if the message of Christ was simply, human beings, here's what's wrong with you, here's how you ought to live. Now I want you to go out and do that. Now that you know what you aughta do, I expect you to go do it. Boy! I'm so glad it's not like that. That wouldn't be a glorious Gospel, would it? That would be a horrible sentence.

( congregational amens ).

And you know, the natural man looks at it that way. He says, I don't want to go that way. I don't want to do all these things. That's not my inward inclination. Now you know, the thing is there's an awful lot...I don't know, this covers a lot of ground. But there's an awful lot of people who do not understand this point--this simple fact of the Gospel. God did not come here to fix up your old self.

Your old self and my old self are beyond repair. There is nothing you can do. I don't care what you tell it. I don't care how you prop it up. I don't care if you wipe the slate clean, and say, now here, go do better. Our old self has been so corrupted by sin that it is beyond help--beyond repair. And so when God calls people to the Gospel, He is not saying, I am calling you to live for God and to just do different. It's not reform. It's not reformation. God...the only thing that God can do for us is to kill this old life and to replace it with one that works.

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