Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 656 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Praise God!

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! I'll tell you, if you weren't uplifted by Lord's presence in the song service, there's a great need. I appreciate the Lord's being willing to come and to dwell with people like us.

( congregational amens ).

That just tells me what kind of a God He is. He's One that we can love and serve and trust with every issue of our lives and I appreciate it.

I have a thought. I have a burden on my heart. I don't quite know how to say it or quite how to express it. But I'm gonna go ahead and begin in Romans chapter 1, and just ask God to bring in what He wants and leave out what He doesn't want and someone else to come and clean it up when it's all over. The thing is, we are dependent upon the Lord. I'm glad that it is that way. I know we like to feel in control, but the fact is we're not. We don't have the ability to do anything that's worth anything in this world. We need God.

( congregational amens ).

And, of course you know what that does is level the playing field, doesn't it? There's none of us that can say, well I'm what I am because of my ability, my efforts, my this or my that. We're what we are because of the grace of God.

( congregational amens ).

And that opens the door to everybody. There's nobody that has an excuse because of what God has done for us. I'd like to read what Paul's well-known testimony here is to the church in Rome. He said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."

And that had to do with simply the order or the fact that God reached out to the Jews because He had been dealing with them for so many centuries. It doesn't mean that they're above us in any other sense. Only, it was a matter of God's faithfulness to reach out to the Jews in that day. But the Gospel is for all who will believe--everyone who believes. That's what He says.

"For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith." You know, I was thinking about this earlier today. This word 'salvation' has become a part, in a sense, of American culture, to the point where I believe it's lost its meaning. In fact, somebody can tell me that may know. Wasn't there a movie this summer, sometime this year that was called "Saved"? I think it was rather blasphemous from what I heard about it. But, nonetheless, just the idea that, I got saved, or I experienced salvation, or something like that, has just become an almost meaningless religious expression.

And I believe that sometimes we assume people know what it means, when they don't. And so I want to go back to some very simple basics, if the Lord can help me and just talk about the word salvation and what it is that Paul was so excited about.

You know, Paul had come from a background where he thought that serving God meant obeying His rules. And, thus it was a self-effort by which he presented himself to God through his own righteousness and expected God thereby to reward his initiative. And, of course, we know that's not what it is at all. God brought him down to a place of destitution, where he just despaired that God could ever love him, could ever forgive him for what he had done. And it was then, in the context of that, that God reached out His loving arms and said, Paul, I--Christ, died for you.

( congregational amens ).

My love, my arms are able to embrace you and to forgive you, if you'll just surrender your life to me, believe in Him. Give Me your life. I can do everything that's needed. It's not a self-effort. The only reason I gave you the Law, was for one basic reason--to show you what you were. But, now that you have faced what you are, now My Gospel comes to the rescue and says, I have what it takes to blot out your sin, to give you something that you can stand on and have a confidence to face eternity.

( congregational amens ).

Salvation is...many times, you'll hear somebody...it's said of somebody, well, they got saved. And what they mean is, they went to a church. They made a religious profession and they adopted a Christian lifestyle. And that's about the extent of it. They learn...they go to church. They read their Bible. They talk about Jesus. They learn the doctrines and they begin to act like a Christian or like what the conception is of being a Christian in that particular group. And it's all over the map, from...well, you know, religiously speaking, there's just a lot of ideas out there.

But, I'll tell you, if that's all that has happened in your life, then you lack everything. Because Christianity is not simply a lifestyle you adopt. There has got to be something more. Paul didn't say this is a bunch of ideas now about successful living. He says his Gospel was the power of God unto salvation.

And salvation is not about a lifestyle. It's not about saving your life in a sense of fixing your life up in this world. Now that's what concerns man. That's what all the nations of the world seek after, is what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6. Their whole life, their whole thought process is confined to this planet and this current life. Oh, God, I'm unsuccessful in my financial affairs. I'm unsuccessful in relationships. I'm unsuccessful in a thousand and one things. And whereas some would run to the psychologist, the psychiatrist, the self-help section of the bookstore, others will say, let's try Jesus. You know, I went to church and that was my objective, was to get my life in order in the sense of this world...that I could be more successful here. Well, I'll tell you, that is not what salvation is about. That is perhaps a by-product of real salvation. But even Jesus, in Matthew 6 said, "Seek ye first..." what?

-- Congregation: The kingdom of God.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: "...The kingdom of God, and..." what?

-- Congregation: His righteousness.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: "...His righteousness..." It's eternal...are the issues that God is concerned about. It's a change way down in the depths of one's soul that absolutely transforms their life.

( congregational amens ).

And, unless that takes place, you can fix up the outside all you want, but nothing has happened that matters. Nothing has happened. So, there's a lot of things in our world today that are called salvation, that are not salvation.

What is it that you need to be saved from? Your bad habits, your cussing, your drinking, your--all of those things. Is that principally what you and I need to be saved from? No! The fact of the matter is, God has decreed that we will all die in the end and face the judgment of God and judgment has to do with sins that we have committed against God. It has to do with what we are! The fact is, what we do, that will be the subject of God's judgment, is a fruit of what we are.

( congregational amens ).

So, I don't care what you do that stops short of the power of God doing a work down here, it stops short of heaven. It stops short of everything that you and I stand in need of. You want to talk about salvation. Yes, God can do a lot of wonderful things in our lives. That's why He said, "...Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and..." what?

-- Congregation: All these things...

-- Brother Phil Enlow: All these things will be?

-- Congregation: Added.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Added. So God is concerned about the issues of this life, but if all the Gospel does, and joining a church, and living what is called a Christian life does for you, is simply to clean up your life and make you a better person in this world, you have been have left in a horrible position of standing before God one day and having to answer for your sins.

( congregational amens ).

That's the issue. And until God brings an individual to a place where they see that that is their need...not, oh God, fix my relationships. Oh God, fix my life. But, oh God, my sins that I have committed against you stand between me and you. Until that becomes the paramount issue in your mind, and you and I are willing to face what we are based upon the testimony of God's Word, based upon the conviction of His Spirit, and the dealing of His Spirit with our hearts, then nothing matters. Nothing will ever be accomplished.

Has God ever brought you to that place of deep conviction and sorrow for your sins, where you were just...I mean, it felt like...oh my God, if God doesn't do something for me, I'm gonna go to hell. Has He ever convicted you that way? I mean, you can grow up in a church and it's been said so many times, and learn to be a Christian, without ever being convicted of what a sinner you are. You can look at somebody out in the gutter and think what a sinner they are. Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if they believed in Jesus. But you don't see yourself out there with them.

( congregational amens ).

You know what God brought Paul to? He was able, with an honest heart, to say that God is able to save...Christ Jesus came into the world to do what? To save sinners, but he didn't stop there, did he? He said, "...of whom I am chief." I'm the worst sinner of all. He was once so convinced of his religion--of the rightness of it, that he absolutely gave his heart and soul to persecuting Christians, even to the point of seeing them killed--rejoicing in the death of Christians because he believed with all of his heart of hearts that he was serving God. I'll tell you the power of sin to deceive the human heart is beyond our comprehension.

( congregational amens ).

And unless we see it, we'll never come to the place where we experience this. You can come and try to be a Christian, and try to believe, and try to accept Jesus and all of these things, but until God...until the power of God's Word comes down and penetrates your heart and gives you the power to become a new creation, nothing will happen. And that's what I fear...I see it in many lives. I'm concerned that we not stop short of real salvation.

( congregational amens ).

Because I don't care how many times you come to the altar, there's no magic in coming to an altar.

( congregational amens ).

If you don't come here and meet with God and experience the power that changed Paul's life and opened his eyes, then nothing will matter.

( congregational amens ).

You will come here and deceive yourself. You will wonder why you have no power, no victory in your life. It's because you're still the same old person. Sometimes I get concerned when I see people and the only conviction they ever have is when somebody catches them. It all comes from the outside, because it's not ever been born in here.

You see God has fixed it to where we need salvation. Now what is salvation? It implies, not simply that God extends a helping hand to us so that He can make up our little deficit here and help us over the hump of serving God. We don't have a little deficit, folks. We have a complete and utter and total inability.

( congregational amens ).

We are so helpless that there's just no way to describe it, other than, I guess, just to say that. We are completely, 100 percent helpless to please God.

( congregational amens ).

If you're gonna stand before God one day on your own strength...I don't care who you are and what you've done in your life, and how many churches you've attended, how many times you've read the Bible, how many songs you've sung. If you're gonna stand there based upon what you are on the inside and your efforts to clean yourself up, you are going to be lost.

( congregational amens ).

And it's my responsibility, and anybody else who would stand up here, to tell the truth.

( congregational amens ).

Because God is going to ask me whether I was faithful to tell you the truth. If He's put me in this place, in any measure at all, then I have a responsibility to answer to God for your soul and my witness to you to tell you the truth, because God would use that truth. You see it's the Gospel, it's the Good News itself that is the power. But if that power does not penetrate your heart and change that heart, then it has not finished the job.

And that's the concern--that people have stopped short of really coming to salvation. I said salvation is rescue. The most obvious example that we would know from simple human knowledge is the person who is drowning and he's going down for the third time. Now, what can a person in that circumstance do for themselves? Nothing. If some outside force does not intervene in their situation, they will drown.

Folks, you and I are in the exact same situation, only with...the stakes are so much higher. We're talking about hell here. We're talking about separation from God. We're talking about condemnation. We're talking about all...it's the whole thing that life is about. It's about heaven and hell. It's not about getting successful here.

( congregational amens ).

Where do you stand with respect to that? Do you have a rest? Do you have a confidence in your heart because of what God has done in there that you can stand before God and have a confidence to know that He will receive you, because you put your trust in Jesus Christ? And you surrendered your heart to Him?

There is a miracle--there is a divine miracle that God needs to accomplish, must accomplish in your heart if you're to meet Jesus Christ one day as Lord and Savior. If that miracle of the new birth does not happen, then you will be lost. I don't care what you do. I don't care what church you attend. I guess I'm saying the same thing over and over again. But it just needs to be--it needs to be...get right down into our heart. God needs to take these words...they're poor words, but God needs to take them and convict somebody who is in need of this message tonight.

( congregational amens ).

If you've come and you've listened and you've tried, and you've tried to be a Christian, and you've sort of gone along, but deep down in your heart, that miracle has never happened, then what good is any of it? You might just as well go out there and live for the devil, as far as being ready to face God is concerned. God wants to do something for some people. He wants to change some lives.

( congregational amens ).

If we do not have a Gospel that has the power to rescue your life and change it and deliver you from things in your life, then we don't have anything.

( congregational amens ).

But I'm gonna stand here, I'm gonna go out on a limb of faith...and it's no limb really, knowing who's behind us. But, I'm gonna go out and say that God is gonna be changing some lives around here. There is a power! There is a reality here!

( congregational amens ).

If all we have is a set of doctrines about how God saves people, we have nothing. Because you can believe all the right things and not be a personal partaker of the power of God that can change a life. You can come in here with your devils, and profess all the right things and they've never gone from your life. God is wanting to drive the powers of darkness out of some hearts and lives!

( congregational praise ).

He has the power!

( congregational praise ).

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God! That Greek word power is the word from which we get dynamite. I tell you, it takes dynamite to blast away the things that have gotten a hold in our lives.

( congregational amens ).

Oh God has fixed it to where we have no hope in ourselves. But I'll tell you, in the darkest hour of our utter inability to come to God and to please Him and to have any hope in ourselves, that's when He extends the loving Word of the Gospel.

( congregational amens ).

I put your sins, everything that I'm convicting you of, everything that you feel your desperate sense of desolation and need and conviction about, everything that makes you feel hopeless...I put that on my Son. I've already punished Him for that. I gave Him for your life. You have a perfect ground for hope before me. I can forgive your sins and be just.

But, oh, if all you do is come forward and expect the Lord to forgive your sins, and you've still got an iron grip on your life and your will, you'll go away empty. You'll go away empty. That's the issue of life. God has fixed it to, while we are unable in ourselves, we are able through the power of the Gospel. But what is lacking...the only that it really comes down to is this, is who is willing to bow the knee to Jesus Christ and to believe His promise and to cast themselves upon it and to turn away from their own will and their own way? That's all it comes down to.

You know, that's what the judgment is about. I believe there are sinners...now, I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say something that I believe. You may disagree with me. I'm not gonna worry about it. It's not a major point. I believe there are people who have lived and died in history who will never be at the judgment. What did Paul say to the people on Mars Hill? He said, the times of this ignorance, what happened?

-- Congregation: God winked.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: God winked at it. There is a principle of responsibility that has to do with our relationship with God. When God makes His Word known, we bring to ourselves...there is a responsibility that is conferred upon us to repent and to believe. And what God will be judging men for is what they have said in the face of the Word of God that would give you the ability to do it.

( congregational amens ).

God doesn't expect anybody to do what you cannot do. But when God extends His Word and His promise and His hand to you, He expects you to take it.

( congregational amens ).

And if he doesn't, that's what judgment is gonna be about. It's about people who have the truth and they hold it in their unrighteousness. They cling to their sins. They say, no, I'm going my own way. There's a thousand and one ways to say, no, I'm going my own way. But I'll tell you what, if our wills are not conquered, that's the issue.

When you come to Christ, and you come forward because you're stirred and concerned and all of that, if you go away...if you come here and there's anything in your life, anything in your heart that you're not willing to leave there on that altar and say, God, I give it up, if there's anything like that, then you will go away empty until such time as God can touch that thing in your life and bring about a surrender of your will to do what He says. I'll tell you, you're gonna find when you do, that He is a loving, merciful, wonderful Savior who offers heaven.

( congregational praise ).

You and I are unfit for the Kingdom that He is preparing. There is another world coming, and it's gonna be people...holy people--it's gonna be people of character that are nothing like what we see in this world. I'll tell you, we are gonna be transformed to the image of His Son. And you sign on for that ride, folks, you've got...we've got a long ways...God has got a lot of work in our lives, but we have got to give our lives over to Him.

You know, I was thinking last night and another time recently about the picture that God gives us in His Word about the potter. Now what is the responsibility of the clay?

( laughter ).

It's to surrender and sit there and let the potter work. But if the potter says, I don't like this and gets up and runs away...I mean the clay.

( laughter ).

Anyway, you got the picture.

( laughter ).

Can't say it right, but you know what I'm saying. You see, that's [the] thing, there's so many people that want to have religion. They want to somehow acquire some sense that God's gonna like them or receive them and sometimes they'll gravitate to a religion that kind of has a wide gate to it. Sometimes they'll just fool themselves. There's a thousand and one tricks the devil plays to get us to somehow hang on to our own wills and our own lives, and keep that iron grip and yet somehow delude ourselves that we're Christians.

But the moment somebody comes to Christ in faith and casts all that on the altar...sees themselves as God sees them, and says, oh, God, come and...do what I can never do--change my heart. Perform that miracle in my heart. God will answer. That is the promise of God. Everyone that calls on the name of the Lord will what? Be saved.

( congregational amens ).

We don't need salvation from problems in this life so much as we need salvation from the wrath of God that would justly fall on the sins of our rebellion against His Truth. That's what it's about, folks. That's why this is critical. "Ye must be born again," is still in the Book.

( congregational amens ).

There is a miracle that has to take place down in the depths of your soul just as real as when God declared, "Let there be light: and there was light." God wants to declare that you are a new creature and to do something for you that cannot be done. But unless you are willing to get on the potter's wheel, and take your hands off, and say, God, my life is over. It's in Your hands. I surrender everything-- every issue, whatever it is that comes to my mind, that I'm just not willing to let go.

That's the price! That is the price of admission. That's what faith is. That's what repentance is. Anything short of that, it's just a fantasy. God can do great things in people's lives. And my heart's desire many times in these prayer meetings is, God we want to see some real transformations in lives.

( congregational amens ).

Your Word has not changed. Your power, Your willingness to save people has not changed.

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