Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 649 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: 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." (NIV).

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. But you know that’s what He gives to us. Now He doesn’t give it to us in a momentary experience that suddenly we’re like him, you know, just like He is--like He came forth from the tomb. But it is the beginning of that.

It is meant to be a progressive foundation upon which we can build, which we can serve Him and live for him. Now, ‘course your holiness people will talk about this and think this means sinless perfection. You know in verse 6 it says, "for we know that our old self…"--the way it puts it here--"…was crucified with him..."--Why?--"…So that the body of sin might be done away with...."

See that means that we can lose all of our sin and not have it in us anymore. Is that what it means? No. Listen to what it says after that. This is the central purpose of the resurrection of Christ as it affects you and me today as we sit here this morning. Why? "…that we should no longer be slaves to sin." That’s what the resurrection should mean to you and to me this morning.

What it does…see before we come to Christ there is a master-slave relationship between us and our natural desires. Now if it’s not one thing, it’s another, but we are slaves to self. We absolutely obey it helplessly in one way or another. But the resurrection of Christ when it comes to be our experience--and it is ours in Christ when we come to him--what that means is that relationship is broken. That master that we once served is no longer our master. You and I do not have to obey the impulses of sin.

( congregational praise ).

We do not have to. We have been set free so that we can serve God. We can yield ourselves to Him as instruments of righteousness as he goes on and says later in this passage. Now the fact is, there’s no overnight solution to that. The fact is we don’t do it perfectly. The fact is we oftentimes continue just to fall into the old patterns and the old habits and that’s where the problem comes.

But it isn’t a matter of sin really having power over us. It’s a matter of our learning. It’s a matter of our growing. It’s a matter of our seeing and believing in Christ working in us, day by day. Legally and in reality in the mind and the heart of God that relationship between you and me and sin has been broken.

And, of course, we’ve all heard the illustration of the man who--perhaps a man who is in a cage. We’ll use it that way this time. And he’s been kept in a dark place, locked up with an evil master who comes and torments him and he’s just…he’s so bowed down with that situation that all he knows is just to obey, just to yield, just to put up with that terrible situation.

Then one day someone comes along and opens that gate and shines a light and says, "You’re free." Well now, suppose the man is in such a condition that he just sits there and instead of saying, "Thank God," and walking through that freedom, he continues to sit there. And when that old evil master comes and begins to issue orders, he thinks he’s still in bondage to him.

You know that’s where we’re at a lot of times. That’s why we need a continual ministry of the word of God because we have no other power against this thing except faith and where does faith come from?

-- Congregation: Hearing.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Hearing. And where does hearing come? It’s the word of God. God needs to minister to us just like He did when we came to Christ in the first place. We have got to have faith come into our hearts that can enable us to stand up to the things that continue to try to hold on to our lives and to say, devil, I don’t have to listen to you anymore.

Now as I say, this is not some kind of psychological trick. The Lord doesn’t say now you just sort of imagine this whole thing up, and you just sort of convince your mind that you can do this, and you can do it, by God. No. He points it right back to say this is something that came out of the death and the resurrection of Christ. When He came forth from the grave, you came forth with him.

( congregational praise ).

There was a relationship that was broken and you have every right to know about that and to stand on it today when you face the thing that you face in your life and in your heart.

( congregational praise ).

Thank God that He has given us a solid ground to stand upon. Otherwise, when he would come--when he came to the verse 11 and so forth…verse 12. If this were not the case, it would be terrible for him to say, "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires." That would be terrible if God just told us to do that and didn’t give us a groundwork upon which we could do it. But He has. He has. Salvation is not simply a beginning, it is a day-by-day kind of thing.

( congregational amens ).

You know I thought about the...again the Israelites in the wilderness. How did they get their food? Did God just give them an incredible store of food and they brought these big old wagons along with them and they had everything? No. Every single day they had to look to God. Every single day when they went out in the morning there was a provision. Now how long did that provision last? Now it was for that day, wasn’t it? Don’t you think our heavenly Father knows what we need?

( congregational amens ).

Do you think that He requires of us something that is beyond our power to do? You know, it’s the devil that confuses the issue. He either makes us so discouraged that we’re afraid to even try. We don’t have any faith to try to overcome things or when we do, we expect it just to be gone and we’re free and wonderful, it’s all behind me instead of day-by-day-by-day, looking to God and saying, I can be stronger in this area today than I was yesterday.

( congregational praise ).

And it’s not me doing it. I don’t have to muster this up. I can just say Lord, help me. Lord, you have in me the ability that I do not have in my self and I’m trusting in you to help me this day. And that’s the spirit in which he is…which Paul is teaching this. He says "in the same way…"--verse 11--"…count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

Our problem is here first of all. If we still think--if we still listen to the devil who tells us, this thing's got a hold on you, you’ll never lick it. Now that’s what the devil says. And the Lord says, I licked it. When I died, you died. When I went into the grave, you went into the grave. When I came forth, you came forth. There is a life in you, a power in you that is greater than this thing that has had a hold upon your life.

( congregational praise ).

And you have the power to yield yourselves to me and to say no to that thing. You can do it.

( congregational praise ).

Praise God! Praise God! You see there’s a basis in here. We don’t have to try to work it up. It’s in the Word. God wants us to understand that we can serve him. And so it’s right in one sense to say all I can ever do is fail. Well yes, if you’re talking about you doing it, that’s right. You’re gonna bat zero.

But by faith, trusting in the grace of God that I received today in today’s portion of my salvation, I can indeed serve God. I don’t have to just fail constantly and inevitably in every circumstance. God can give me the grace and the victory to serve him effectively in a way that would please him. Praise God!

And so then, that’s where he goes…Paul goes on in teaching about the difference between law and grace. He goes into Romans 7 and that’s what we described before was the processes of human being trying to serve God in his own strength. Well, you will always fail. But now listen to what happens in chapter 8. He said, "therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life set me…"--what?

-- Congregation: Free.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: See, prior to this Paul was trying to serve God through the law and all he experienced was this terrible law that he found in his flesh, that just wouldn’t let him. It turned all of his efforts into failure. So what happens? He says because of what Jesus did there’s another law that’s come into the picture now. It’s not just me anymore doing it, is it? Now there’s another law.

It’s like you trying to fly. You’d better have some other kind of law than what you’ve got in your own ability. We simply…you know, we can’t flap our wings hard enough and fly. We’re gonna have to have a power outside of ourselves, if we’re gonna fly. Well, there’s no difference in salvation. But thank God there is a power.

( congregational amens ).

Now listen to this. He says, "for what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering..."--In other words that was ineffective, but what Christ did is effective--"…and so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that..."--What? Now what is the end result of all this that he said? What is the end result in a practical sense in our lives? It’s this--"…in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us…"--how? Who try real hard to live up to God’s…no, that’s where the problem is--"…in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do…"--what?--"…who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the spirit."

In other words we learn how…we learned that, first of all we have a power that lives within us and a divine strength that can enable us to do what it is that we need to do to live for God. And as we consciously yield ourselves, and believe, and draw that strength in the face of the thing that we face every day, God is going to give us a measure of his victory that day and enable us to actually fulfill the righteousness of the law in us.

It gets…it happens, not by our efforts, but by the grace of God working in us. And so we find out that we have every ground in the scripture to believe that we can indeed live for God. We can grow up. We can be what He wants us to be. And yet we know that we have a loving heavenly Father who knows our frame. He remembers that we’re dust.

Think about it this way. When you have a small child and they’re trying to learn to walk. You know there’s a delightful…it’s a delightful thing to watch. You know, we just have these human emotions that we observe them. We’re just so excited when they begin to learn to walk. Do you get mad when they fall down? They’re trying. They’re using the life that’s within them to try to begin to do things that we know it’s in their power to do. They’re gonna learn to walk sooner or later.

Do you think God is less patient with us than we are with a small child? We understand. We see the effort and we’ll rejoice in that effort. When they fall down, we encourage them. We lift ‘em up and they…pretty soon they’re walking better and they’re walking better and they’re walking better. I believe God is the same way with you and with me. He’s loving. He’s patient. Oh how quickly the devil jumps on our back when we set out with a full head of steam. We’re gonna serve God. Bless God, I’m gonna do it this time. I’m gonna do it. And how long does that last?

( laughter ).

Well, we run out of steam pretty quick, don’t we? But what God wants is just a steady-in-the-boat, looking to him every single day, drawing from him the grace and the strength that we need to overcome the thing that he’s put his finger on. He didn’t do that to condemn you. He didn’t do it because he’s mad with you. He does it ‘cause he’s a loving Father who wants to see us grow up in him and to honor Him in this world.

There’s no greater…there’s no thing that gives Him greater joy than when we fall down and we mess up and we just screw up--we need to know that he’s a loving Father that we can go to. We do have a throne of grace where we can go to find grace when we come into those times of need.

Oh, that’s a point where the devil jumps on us and makes us think that’s the one thing in the world that we cannot do. And that’s the one thing that we need to do most. To know that our Father has his hand outstretched. He knows what’s going on. He knew all about you. He knew all about me before He set out to save us.

When I think about that, I can’t even imagine that kind of love, that kind of compassion. That He could actually know every thing that’s wrong with me, and yet love me anyway. Why do we doubt his love? Why do we doubt that we can come to him in those times of need?

You see how the devil works at every point in this thing? He tells us we can’t, or if we start thinking we can, then he starts going in the other direction, trying to push us in the other extreme. He’s always trying to undermine every little point. The fact is, in our selves, we can’t. The fact is, there is grace that will carry us every step of the way if we learn how to listen to God’s voice, if we learn how to take the strength that He gives us every single day and lean on it and trust in him to give us the help and the strength that we need.

You know we spoke a couple of weeks ago about asking him for his spirit. That’s just another way of putting the same thing. God, I can’t do this. I can’t handle it. I feel these feelings of resentment, or fear, or a thousand and one things that go right down to the inside of our hearts. ‘Cause it’s more than our behavior He wants to change, He really wants to change us here in the inside, so that we just love him. We serve Him. We’re more and more set free.

But you know God has set before us a road that we can walk. There’s every provision in him. He does not expect more out of us than we’re capable of, in Him. And He stands with arms of love to reach out and help us. We don’t have to live lives of frustration and guilt and failure and all these things the devil would just try to load us up with. I just praise God for His faithfulness, this day.

And I want to just read one scripture here in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. You know I hope when we hear different expressions about what it is that we can and can’t do, we’ll kind of have a way to put that in its proper place in our minds. The things that we can’t do, are things that…are when we try in our own strength. The things that we can do, and that He requires of us, are things that we can do in his strength.

And we need to know where all these different concepts and ideas fit in the overall picture. Then we can have a balance. Then we can actually have faith. Then when God puts His finger on a need, we can bring that need to Him and actually make some progress in that area.

I thank God, because I believe there’s many of us that are probably at that point in our lives. God has brought things to your attention. You know about ‘em in your life and you know you need to change. But how? And can I really expect to? Yes. God has called us to a life that we can live.

Listen to what he says in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. "It is God’s will that you should be sanctified…." Now, you know the devil can turn that around and just turn that into a command and some kind of impossible something. But you know, the word sanctification is just simply a way to describe the whole process of salvation. It’s God taking guilty sinners, utterly unfit for heaven and beginning to clean us up, blot out our sins, first of all, and then begin to transform and change, set us apart from all that and all of the consequences of living there and being a part of the world and actually making us fit for heaven.

All of that, every bit of it is a process of sanctification. It’s not an event. It’s not some something that now I’ve got it, and I’ve got it all. It simply describes the way God works with us to set us apart so that we can live with Him some day. And this says it’s God’s will, folks. It’s God’s will that these things take place in our lives. We’ve got God on our side.

( congregational praise ).

Every devil in hell is arrayed to try to discourage and side track and do everything in the world to keep us in bondage. God stands behind this process that He has declared is going to take place in our lives. It’s God’s will. When the devil tells you that you can’t overcome this, you can’t do this, you say, yes, I can. It’s God’s will. He’s gonna help me. I may not do it in five minutes but God’s gonna give me a measure of victory until this thing is…‘til it’s overcome and I can serve God free from this thing.

Now listen to what he said. Listen to how he describes what sanctification is. And first of all, because of the culture they lived in, he especially focused on sexual immorality. It says, "it is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God."

See there’s a practical thing that we should know how to live in these sinful bodies, and not be controlled by them. Instead of simply yielding to what they want--what these bodies want. They’re gonna continue to want bad things. But there’s another life that’s born into the heart of God’s child. There’s another strength and the more we learn how to cooperate with that, the less power this is gonna have over us.

That’s what he’s talking about. It’s God’s will that we should learn how to live for God in spite of this flesh, is what he’s saying right there. And so we need to come to God with confidence and say, Lord, I’ve got a need but I’m coming before your throne because what I need is not self-effort. I need to come to you the same way I came the first time, as a helpless, needy sinner, but knowing that you have provided grace and strength to help me right now in my time of need.

I’ll tell you how strange is it when you think about it…how the devil works. The very time we have a need, is the very time he tells us we can’t go. Does that make any sense at all? Praise God! God is the one who says, it’s in the time of need, the time you feel the worst, the time you feel the guiltiest, the time you feel the neediest, God wants you to know that you can go before His throne.

He’s not gonna look down his nose at you with a condemning, angry stare. He’s a loving Father who knows at his right hand is a Savior who has been here. He knows what you’re going through. He knows the battles that you face. He stands ready to lend his hand of strength and support to every one of us, so that we can live for God.

So, we want to avoid the idea that we can’t do anything. We also want to avoid any kind of extreme that just tries to lift up something that’s so unrealistic that everybody just winds up being condemned and frustrated. All of those kinds of things are just mud that the devil throws in the water to try to…just absolutely convince us and just mix us all up about these things.

We have through the grace of God, the ability to live for God in this world. And when we come short, as we will, despite all of our best efforts, even by faith…. Like a little child, his best efforts to walk, he falls down doesn’t he? You know we don’t ever get to the point in our lives that we are completely past the point of falling down. Do we? Sometimes we get in pretty slippery places. Some times we have ice storms. You know there’s all kinds of circumstances. We can’t ever be cocksure and say, well, I’ve got it all licked now. We’re always gonna need God.

( congregational amens ).

Always gonna need his help. But you know we’re always gonna have it too. Faithful is He who called you, who what? Also will do it. Praise God! God’s on our side and He wants us to look to Him but He wants us to have confidence that we can serve Him in the face of the things that He puts his finger on in our lives. That He can give us victory to where we can serve Him effectively. Praise God!

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