Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 648 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Well, praise God! I appreciate His faithfulness and His mercy to us today. I've had some burdens and thoughts and as is so often the case, it's just like I've got a basket-full and I'm just praying that God will help me to say what needs to be said in a way that will be understandable to all of us. Because I believe we're in a time when God is dealing with many of us, as Chip said, as individuals and He is bringing us to a sense of our own need.

And it has to be with needs related to living for God. And I believe God wants us to understand some things that will help us in this area. I know I need help. I believe we all do, because...well, there's so many concepts abroad in the land, so many things we hear people say that I sometimes wonder if there isn't some confusion in many of our minds about what it is, first of all, that we're called to in terms of--well, for example we hear scriptures like, "...Be ye holy; for I am holy." And purifying yourselves and all of those things.

And yet we hear scriptures like, "...When I would do good, evil is present with me." And it almost conveys the fact that God requires something of us that it's impossible for us to do. And someone will say, well, all I can do is fail and emphasize the weakness that we have and the inability that we have. And, yet on the other side, here is God encouraging us to live for Him and promising to be with us and to help us.

I just pray that God can help me to make some sense out of this, because I know it's got to be confusing in some people's minds. What is it that we really can expect? I mean, we know what God's Word says in terms of enjoining us to live for Him and to look to Him for all of our needs. But then we turn around and, not only do we experience failure, we run into scriptures like what Paul said in Romans 7, about how he tried so hard, and he couldn't do it.

But, I'll tell you, I believe that if we understand the difference and we understand what it is that we're saying when we say...when we talk about our ability to live for God, I believe God can give us understanding and light. Now I want to go back to...here's where I need the Lord to help me--to show me where to go.

Let's go to Galatians chapter 3, I believe it is. Galatians chapter 3...Paul, of course, was dealing with Gentile believers in the church at Galatia. And the problem that he was encountering was that after he had come and ministered to their hearts the Gospel of the grace of God--that our standing before God has nothing to do with what we do. It has to do with what Jesus did and the cross...what He accomplished there. Then, all of a sudden, in behind him, came these teachers who were Jewish in their background. They began to teach these Gentiles that well, that's wonderful, but you need to observe the law.

And, so Paul is trying to show them that what you have here are two entirely different approaches to God. And, not only that, they are two entirely incompatible approaches to God. And so he says this in verse 2, "I would like to learn..." ( NIV ). I'm gonna read this is the NIV. "I would like to learn just one thing from you..."--Here's the question that he wants to learn--he wants to ask them and think about--"...did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?"

Now this is a principle that I believe goes right back to the way that God brings sinners to faith. There is a principle by which we draw near to God and it has nothing to do with human effort, does it? It has nothing to do with what you deserve or what I deserve. It has to do with one simple principle that God brings us to a place where we look with faith, we listen with faith to a promise that He has given to us in His Word.

And we don't just simply hold it in our minds, but we actually step out in faith and we believe that promise and we begin to trust in it. And as a result of that, we receive the salvation that He has promised to give us. And so, Paul wants the Galatians to go back to that and say, now look, this is how you got started.

And so in verse 3 he says, "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" Now you see what the issue is. There's two different ways to come to God, potentially--I mean theoretically. There's two different ways to live for God. We can either do it be receiving of the grace of God in our lives, or we can do it through human effort.

And I believe this is where the issue breaks down in our minds sometimes when we think...when we're confronted with the principle of living for God. I want to go right back because they're the same principle. The way we come to Christ in the first place is the way that we live for Him.

( congregational amens ).

It's not a different thing. It's not as though God gets us in the door and says, here's my Book. You be a Christian now, is it? Thank God it isn't, because we are totally helpless to do that. But you know a lot of people...I want to go back to this because there may be people who need this principle. You're trying to come to God. You're interested. You feel a sense of need in your life and you've been made aware, to some degree, that you're a sinner, that you're gonna have to stand before God one day.

You're trying...in a sense, you're in a place maybe, perhaps where you're trying to be a Christian. And I believe anyone that has ever really come through to the point where we have been born again by God's Spirit, we understand that there has to come a time in our lives when we stop trying to be a Christian and instead we lay hold of the promise of God because it is a supernatural operation. It is nothing that we can do.

( congregational amens ).

In fact, the truth of the matter is, our efforts to be a Christian, rather than helping the process, they absolutely stand in the way. Though, it's when we cease from our own works and we what? We enter into His rest. His rest means it's something that He has finished, He has done. God has opened heaven's door to those who believe, those who repent, those who put their whole case in His hands and say, Lord, I'm Yours. I put my trust in you and then He comes in and He makes us a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Does that happen because we do something, because we work for it, or because of our efforts? No, it happens because we believe the promise of God. Period! You cannot add one thing to it. But, now the thing is, a lot of times when Christians really come to that place, they become Christians and now they're fired with zeal. I'm gonna live for God. Boy, just tell me what to do. Come to church. Come to prayer meeting. Worship the Lord. I've got a head of steam. Boy, I'm gonna live for God.

And the problem is, it doesn't take very long before they realize...wait a minute here! They run out of steam. They run out of enthusiasm. The next thing you know they're...what's wrong? I still feel the same impulses that I felt before. My flesh still loves the same evil things that it loved before. What's going on here? Why do I have this battle? Why do I struggle so? What's the deal? How can I actually live for God? And not only that, what does He expect me to be able to do?

And, like I said, I have heard expressions where people essentially say...would convey the idea that we're supposed to try our best, but, at best, we're gonna fail all the time. You ever heard that conveyed by somebody, one way or another...that impression left with people's minds? Is that the kind of a God that we serve, who lays before us something that we cannot do? No.

The problem, I think most of the time, is how are we doing this? Is it you and me trying in our own strength to live for God? If that's the case, yeah, we're trying to live in Romans 7. You know what Romans 7 is about? In Romans...the whole book of Romans, Paul is trying to lay out the difference, the same difference he's laying out in Galatians, between trying to serve God through the law--that is knowing what He requires and trying in our own strength to do it, and coming over to this other place of faith.

In Romans 7, he's describing the case of a man who comes to learn about God's law. He knows something about righteousness. And, not only does he know about it, he becomes persuaded in his mind that this is how I ought to live. This is what I ought to do. I need to serve God. I need to please Him.

And he goes beyond, just the 'well, I ought to do this.' He says, there's a determination in his natural will. I'm going to do this! I mean, if you're thinking about it, this is the ultimate that a human being, even in his own strength, can do. I acknowledge God's law. I acknowledge my obligation to do it. I set my will to do it. Bless God, I'm gonna serve God!

And it's in that context that he comes to the conclusion "...Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" What he found out is, I'm saddled with a nature that I cannot control. I simply do not have the power to rule over this nature and just make it obey God. I'm just gonna fail every time I try.

I want you to think about it this way. You know, in one sense, when someone says, the very best that I can do is fail, they're telling the truth. But, it depends, doesn't it, on what kind of an effort it is that's being put forth? If you and I try in our own strength to serve God...let's think about it in terms of a batting average. We've got the baseball season starting. What do you suppose that your batting average will be if it's you serving God, and trying to obey Him, and trying to please Him and live up to His standards in your own strength? Do you think you'll bat .300 or .250 or...? How about zero? How about zero? Thank God, that's not what He has called us to.

( congregational amens ).

You know I had this thought when we were...I was at the prayer meeting Thursday night. Afterwards we sang "Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank You, Lord, for making me whole." Praise God! What a wonderful, simple chorus. But, you know, as I was singing that, I had a thought that I don't recall ever occurring to me, at least in the context of that song. And, I started singing it, not like it's something that happened back there, although that's true, but it was as though this is something that is happening to me right now. Thank You, Lord, for saving me right now!

( congregational amens ).

Thank You for making me whole right now. I brought the whole thing into the present tense, because salvation is not just simply an event, is it? Salvation--the rescue of our souls and our lives from the garbage heap of sin, fitting us for a life eternally with Him in a holy place, is not something that can be solved with an event. What the event does is blot out our sins, set our feet on a road that irrevocably leads--it clearly leads to heaven. It is God's commitment to us to finish what He started, but it is a process, is it not? Salvation just starts there, but then there is a lifetime.

And I believe that with many people, religiously speaking, their salvation is just getting in the door. And then they're just so afraid of the other extreme that some people teach, that there's a place of sinless perfection, that they stay way over here on this side and just want to emphasize how imperfect we are. Well, there's truth. You can go to the other extreme. And I believe that's one way that Satan trips people up...is to give them unrealistic expectations. There's a whole lot of room for the devil to work in our minds.

In the first place, if you're doing yourself, you better not have any expectations at all, because we are going to do nothing but fall short, if it's us trying to serve God in our own strength. But even if we learn God's ways in this thing and we begin to draw His strength and we begin to grow and we begin to gain ground in the Lord, Satan can still jump in and lift this impossible standard in front of our eyes.

You've got people in the land that do teach sinless perfection. They teach sanctification as an experience that you're supposed to have some time after you're saved. And once you strive and strive and you enter into that experience, now you're sanctified and you don't sin anymore.

Well, you know, there's three very bad things that result from that. You have people that are deluded. And you have people that are basically dishonest--they claim something outwardly they know it isn't true on the inside. And then the third bad result is you've got a whole lot of people who are just utterly frustrated, because they're honest enough to know that they've never achieved that, they've never entered into that. And yet, here's these people that supposedly have. And the devil just takes it and makes something out of it that the Scripture never teaches.

This Book does not teach me that I can walk with God and never make a mistake and never need to go to Him and say, Lord, forgive me, help me. So we can...but I believe what God wants us to do is to give us a balanced approach as to what it is that He has provided for us in Christ, so that we can walk with Him in confidence, and not, on the one hand live in a state of condemnation because we have unrealistic expectations and at the same time not live lives of careless unbelief, where we just don't get anywhere. God wants us to know that He has called us to a life that He is able to bring us through.

( congregational amens ).

Step-by-step, day-by-day, hour-by-hour. And thing that I need and the thing that all of us need to know is that the way that we begin with Christ--by grace, through faith, that not of ourselves--is the way that we live for God day-by-day, hour-by-hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute. And so, the hymn, the great old hymn "I Need Thee Every Hour" is the truth. I need God's strength.

When I'm confronted in my heart with a need and it's there and I've tried...I can't lick this thing, I can't beat it. It's had a hold on my life, but I have every right to bring that need before God and to say, God, I can't handle this thing. It's too big for me. I cannot change myself, but I'm looking to you...just as you brought me into your kingdom, I'm looking to you this day, this moment for strength that I didn't have before this moment.

( congregational amens ).

I need something from you right now in the way of divine strength to help me to be able to serve You and to overcome this thing. But then when you start down that way, here's what the devil does. He'll jump right in and make you think that there's some event that takes care of that thing. You ever been down that road? Oh, you came to a crisis and you brought this need to God, and you prayed, and God blessed you and gave you strength.

Then tomorrow, there it was again. And you wonder, what happened? Did I fail? Is there something wrong with this whole thing? No. God has saved us in, what seems to us, to be an unusual way. We have been given life on the inside. Those who have really come to Christ, there is a real birth that takes place down in here. We are given eternal life. He comes to live in our hearts. That's something that is real.

But you know, the thing is, God...in the ultimate sense, salvation will deal with this too, won't it? When Christ came forth from the grave, He came forth in complete newness of life, didn't He? Even His body had been changed into something glorious, something wonderful, something beyond our power to imagine.

But you know, during our earthly pilgrimage, we still live in these bodies. They don't change. Salvation does not change what this flesh desires. And, it's unrealistic of us to expect that this flesh will change what it wants. What God has called us to do is to grow up, to gain strength on the inside and to begin to be able to rule over this body.

( congregational amens ).

So that's where Paul was trying to deal with them. He goes right back here. "...Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" And, of course, the answer is, naturally that is foolish. That's not what God has called us to. Praise the Lord!

I want to just try to, if the Lord can help me to show some of the thing...just a very brief over-view of one section of Romans that really deals with some of these things, because I believe they'll help me to understand in a greater way. I believe they'll help every one of us to understand that what we're talking about this morning is not some kind of a self-delusion. It's not some kind of a psychological trick that we play on ourselves.

There is a real divine groundwork for expecting that we can overcome things in our lives, that we can grow, that when God puts His finger on a need in our lives that we can actually take that ground for Him, even though sometimes it's a process. It's an on-going battle that we can actually overcome things in our lives and gain ground in Christ.

And the first reason is simply this. There is an absolute perfect, historical groundwork that has been laid for us in what happened to Jesus at the cross and when He was laid in a tomb and when He rose from the dead. You know, as was said earlier, this is a day when Christendom really focuses on the resurrection of Christ. Well, Praise God! There's not greater truth, perhaps, than the resurrection...well, the cross itself. But without the resurrection, what would the cross mean? All that means is God punished our sins--He laid our sins on Christ. Thank God for that. You know, your sins don't have to be paid for twice. Praise God!

( congregational praise ).

That's why we can be free. That's what the cross means. But you know, the resurrection is something that means...the putting in the tomb and the resurrection has everything to do with the Christian life. And that's what Paul says here. He has just finished in chapter 6 of Romans talking about the grace of God and how great it is in relation to our sin. God's grace is always greater than our need. Aren't you glad?

-- Congregation: Yes

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Does your need sometimes overwhelm you? Do you sometimes wonder, have I gone too far? The devil throws all kinds of negative feelings in your heart and you just can't seem to face tomorrow because, oh God, I've used up all your grace. You've just run out. Well, Paul said, no it's not that way at all.

So then, he comes and he attacks something that the carnal mind would perhaps conclude. He said, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

And I praise God for the resurrection. I praise God for the hope that it gives me that one day I too will be raised to complete newness of life. But, you know the resurrection of Christ is the foundation of Christian living. If it's not for the real power and the reality of what Jesus experienced when He came forth from that tomb, you and I would have no hope to live for God today. Because there was in Him, when He rose from the dead, a different kind of life...it's not human life at all. It's not human ability. He completely overcame all of the power of death and sin in a moment.

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