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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 657 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Phil Enlow: 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. But my God, we've got a generation today that has just been force-fed, bottle-fed, spoon fed, their whole life--a life of self-will, independence. I'm gonna do it my way. I'm gonna keep my hands on my life. Lord, don't you dare talk about my friends. Don't you dare talk about who I'm going with, what I'm gonna do, where I'm gonna live. Don't you touch these areas of my life. God is gonna take over your life for your good and for your ultimate deliverance if you're gonna ever have His salvation. ( congregational amens ). Oh, Paul could say this because he experienced it. He went down to the depths of guilt and sense of utter shame and futility. Has God ever taken you through that? I don't mean you have to have a certain experience. Not everybody's experience is the same. But, I'll tell you, the reality is the same. If you have never seen...I mean, if you're coming to Christ because you want your life fixed up, you need to sit back and say, wait a minute, God touch my heart. Touch the thing that is the most dear to my heart that I cannot let go and help me to see that what my real need is. Oh, God do something in my heart to convict me. I'll tell you that's the job of Christians is to pray that that take place. Because without it...I don't care, we could fill the altar every night, but if people went away empty, what good is that? -- Brother Jimmy Robbins: No good. -- Brother Phil Enlow: I just...that concerns me when I see...and I'm glad to see the Lord stir. I'm glad to see that people can be stirred and don't stop if the Lord touches your heart, come. But I'll tell you what, you need to be coming and knowing what you're doing. And like what has been said...I mean this is really the same message as last night. Count the cost. Understand what's involved. Understand what God desires out of you. How can He make you a new creature if you won't submit to Him, if you're holding out on Him in this area of your life? You know He's not forgiving you of your sins just to go on and live. There's no such thing. ( congregational amens ). It's a package deal. You put your life in His hands. Forgiveness of sins is the starting point. It's a way that He can wipe the slate clean and give us a place to start. We have the righteousness, the holiness of God, because we believed in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for us at the cross. But, oh, if it doesn't go forward from the forgiveness of sins to the new birth, what good is it? If you never become a new creature in Jesus Christ, then you have missed everything. I don't care what you do, what you live and how you live. If God does not change your heart you are lost. It's got to come from the inside. God will perform that miracle. He is in the miracle performing business today. ( congregational amens ). He just needs willing hearts. God can change, no matter what's wrong with your life. God can fix it if you will simply give everything to God and say, Lord, I cannot. Here's my life, take over. And show me step-by-step and day-by-day what to do. God will do what is needed in your life and in mine. And there's plenty to do in me. Christians, you know all about it. If you've served Christ any length of time, you know this is a life-long process. But, oh, it has to start by you getting on the wheel and saying, potter go ahead, it's not my life any more. You make me what you want me to be. I'm through trying to do my own thing. God will do that miracle. That's the promise...that was the thing that absolutely motivated Paul, that gave him...I tell you, he had more zeal preaching the Gospel of Christ than he ever had as a Pharisee. Oh, after what God took him through, from the heights of arrogance and pride to the depths of despair, lifted him up again to the heights of the love and the forgiveness and the power of God. Oh, my God, what a fire burning in his soul just to preach this message. That's why he said, "...I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power..." Have you ever experienced the power of the gospel? Or have you just tried to be a Christian? That's the question. It's the power of God. If it's not the power of God, let's go home. If this is just religion, let's go home. If God's Word is real, then we need to experience it more than we do. ( congregational amens ). It's the power of God for the salvation of every one who believes. First everyone, that means you. If the devil has given you the...your own private version of the scriptures--the everybody-but-me version, you stop listening. There's an enemy of your soul who will tell you anything to get you to not listen to the Word of God and to believe the promise of God for you. We've gotta come to the place where we say, God so loved me--put your name in there--that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth--that if I believe in Him I can have eternal life. God's promise is for whoever hears and is willing to bow the knee to Jesus Christ. It comes down to what your will is willing to do. God has removed the barrier of your sins. He has removed the barrier of your ability to live for God. What we do as Christians, if we know anything and if we learn anything, and that is a process, is that we can do all things through Christ. I can't do what I'm doing right now except God helps me. There's no way. Thank God! He's got it fixed that way. Everybody stands, as I said at the beginning, on the same level. We need God but He is a willing God for those who are willing. In the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, you don't need your own, you need His. A righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. And so that's the question. Has God's power ever changed your heart or you just tried to be a Christian? Have you ever come to that point where you have literally crossed that threshold and you have turned away from all the past? You said, I'm not going back. I am burning every bridge behind me. You know the whole book of Hebrews has to do with people stopping short. It's not people who get it and lose it. These are people who have never quite crossed the threshold, never quite get there. That's what the writer said. He warned lest "...any of you come short of it." That's the whole point. They come short. But there's a verse toward the end where he talks about if any man draw back. "...the just shall live by faith..."--quotes in that same verse--"...But if any man draw back..."--What?--"...my soul shall have no pleasure in him." I'm convinced there's a lot of people who try to respond to the Gospel and they come to so far and then all of a sudden they confront something that crosses their will, just in the right area, and they draw back. Wait a minute. No, can't have that. And they draw back. I'll tell you what, we're gonna have to be willing to push through every barrier, every devil, every thought, every thing that would rise in our hearts that would oppose what God would do in our lives, and say, God, I'm a candidate for you to do a new act of creation. I wanna be part of that and I have no power to do it except you do it in me. But I'm willing. Lord, I know I can't. That's why I need salvation. That's what salvation is. It's God doing for me what I could never do for myself. ( congregational amens ). And all my job to do is to believe and surrender and trust in Him. Oh, I'll tell you, I hate this watered down way our culture uses that word. It's just meaningless. We need to understand. I'll tell you our younger generation growing up needs to understand why you need a Savior. You need a Savior because you're undone and lost in your sins. ( congregational amens ). You're helpless to do anything about it and you're gonna have to stand before God and answer for it. But, Oh, God has reached out His hand. Everything that is necessary to take care of your situation has been done. But have you ever, personally, become a candidate to say, God, let's have that power in my life. I desperately need...I want you. I don't care what it costs. This is the pearl of great price. I have got to have this, if I die in the attempt, this is the only thing that matters. My life here doesn't matter at all. That's the thing that matters, the fact there's a world to come and that I'm gonna have to stand before you. I'll tell you the early preachers they stood...they talked about fleeing from the wrath to come. That's what this is about, folks. Yeah, God can help you with your life, but we need to have this. And oh, as the darkness descends upon this planet, we need it before the devil just completely takes over our minds, causes us not to be able to see, not to be concerned. But God is concerned about somebody here tonight that has never experienced the power of God's salvation in your life because you always come short. You haven't believed. You haven't surrendered when it's really come down to it. You have tried but, oh, you've got to cast yourself on Him and say, Lord, do what I cannot do in myself. I believe in your power and I'm surrendering to it. Praise God! -- Brother Jim Easterly: Oh God, help us to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, tonight. Listen. First, I'll say this. There's more than one somebody and you know it. I know it. We're more accountable--we're more accountable than we were at seven o'clock this evening. We've had a clear, pure, out-flowing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know there's some things that just aren't possible. I wanna read something over here in Matthew. I'll tell you, if we could see the importance of this, it makes me fear and tremble. Matthew, chapter 26, verse 39. And Jesus, "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (NIV). Do you realize why it wasn't possible? Because every one of us is undone. We're all...we all have this inability that Phil mentioned. There's none righteous, no not one. It wasn't possible for that to pass from Jesus and anybody go to heaven--nobody. Listen to me. If we never see that, we'll never be born again. You know why? Because we won't think we need to be. We don't need to be fixed up. My God, we need a clean heart. Create in me a clean heart. It's not there. God's gotta create it. It wasn't possible for that cup to pass from Him because of you and me. We couldn't go if that cup had passed from Him. We'd be just like we were. God's speaking to us tonight. He's speaking to us. We're accountable now, more so than ever before. May God help us. I'm gonna say this, too. You know, when He went to the rich young ruler, it was only one thing. And there were others in there, just one thing. If you ever see this, there's not anything you're not willing to give up. I'll tell you something else, there's not anywhere you wouldn't be willing to live, if God sent you. You know why? Because nothing else would matter. If He takes care of this--if He takes care of what Phil was talking about, what the Spirit of God was talking about, nothing else is important. "Seek ye first..."--first--"...the Kingdom of God and His righteousness...." Why? We don't have any. And I'll tell you something if we don't ever see this--if we don't ever see that this is the only way, if we don't ever see that, don't fool ourselves. We're not born again. The rich young ruler was only not willing to give up one thing. What is it? Don't kid yourself. We would have to stand before God and give an account for being liars if we told you you could go to heaven in that condition. I don't care what it is. There's something that's critically important to all of us and none of us is any different. Phil said, it's a level playing field. This kinda grace, this is the only way you get to heaven. Nobody's gonna get in there clothed in any of their own righteousness. We don't have any. That's why it wasn't possible for that cup to pass from Him. And listen to me. If you're not willing, if there's anything you're not willing and you say what? To give up, to do, to not do, whatever. If you're not willing, don't kid yourself, you've never been born again. Let's not kid ourselves. My God, it's a late hour. We may never have another meeting where we can do anything about it, but God's here tonight. Phil said--he said, I can't say it. Listen, I can't say it either. But there's a Spirit of God here tonight that can say it and He's saying it to your heart, to the very core of our soul. My God, let's not go out of here like we came in. -- Brother Chip King: Praise the Lord! Let's stand for a second. Kenny, let's get the singers up here, if you can please. You know I was thinking of that song that the young people sang. I wanna read "What the Lord Has Done in Me." That was...there's a couple lines in that song that are very, very powerful. Do you know that we cannot be saved until we realize we need to be saved? We cannot be saved until we see how wretched, how awful we are and how holy God is. And when we realize that we need to be saved, that is when we can come in faith and say, Lord, help me, a sinner. "I will rise from waters deep"--The waters are deep with sin--"Into the saving arms of God." God's arms are open wide, tonight. You can rise from waters deep into the saving arms of God, tonight. ( congregational amens ). Hallelujah! "I will sing salvation's song. Jesus Christ has set me free." Hallelujah! Praise God! Hallelujah! ( congregational amens ). You're coming to the saving arms of God. You lay your life down. Let Him take care of the rest of it. All He wants is your will. All He wants is your life. Is it not worth giving to Him? My God! What is your life, anyway? It's a vapor that passes away. It's gone, forever gone. But Jesus Christ, when you come to Him, when you come and you lay your life down, He gives you something that can never be taken away, and that's eternal life. Hallelujah! Glory to God! And rest and peace to your souls. I will rise from waters deep into the saving arms of God. Hallelujah! You come tonight into the saving arms of God. You come in faith and cast yourself at His feet. He will receive you. ( congregational amens ). Hallelujah! There's power in His Word. There's power in just doing that. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Let's wait on the Lord here tonight. Let's just lift our hearts to Him. You come. There's opportunity here. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord God. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! |
