Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 666 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: I am going to destroy sin and darkness and I'm gonna put it away. I'm gonna obliterate it from my universe. And if you want to be saved from that, you're gonna have to bow to my Son and surrender your heart and your life to Him. There's no two ways about it. Praise God! This is not an option.

This is something that is absolutely...and I tell you what, there's places in the world right now...I was telling someone yesterday, there are places that you would consider to be, historically, Christian nations where we could not go on the air with a message like this, period. England is one of 'em. You could not go on the airwaves of England with a message like this that lifts up Jesus the Christ as the only way and demands that people repent and bow to Him. They would throw you off the air and in jail, probably.

That's how far things have gone in this world. It's getting...it's closing in our shores before it's over. I'll tell you what, we need the Lord, don't we? We need to take soberly and seriously the things that we've been hearing.

So, what's the consequence of those who do not obey? It says, "They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed." (NIV). All at the same time.

Once again, we see the same picture. "This includes you because you have believed our testimony to you." He's talking to the saints. And so, he prays for them. Now I want to skip over to chapter 2 and just pray the Lord'll help me to bring out what needs to be brought out. We've heard this passage many times over the years, but I believe that there's need to teach these things. There's need that we understand that they be refreshed in our mind that God can quicken and make 'em alive and real right now to us in a greater way.

So what he's saying here, "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us...." Now in the King James, it says 'as from us'. So apparently what's going on here is somebody has sent them some kind of communication, it could have been a letter or what or somebody said, 'hey, did you hear what Paul's teaching?'

Whatever it was, it was a teaching purported to be of Paul and it was false. And it was being circulated and it was harming the Church. And so, that's what Paul was writing about. He said, don't you pay attention to this false rumor? If a letter arrives with my signature on it saying this is the case, ignore it. I'm gonna refresh your mind about some things that I have told you plainly in the past. Don't get upset. Don't get unsettled.

And what they were saying was the day of the Lord has already come. This is already all past and it just left the people in confusion. "Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day..."--What? The day of the Lord--"...Will not come..."--until what?--"...until the rebellion..."--in this translation--"...until the rebellion occurs...."

Now that's what Psalm 2 is talking about. It's a rebellion, isn't it? It's not just individuals, as I said, shaking their fist at God. There is a rebellion that is organized where people of the world get together and say, let's just do away with all of this Christianity business. Let's get away with Christ--do away with Christ and God and anything to do with that.

There is a final rebellion and it is a rebellion against truth that they know. That's the point. Again, this is not ignorance. This is something that happens after the Gospel Age. At the end of the Gospel Age, the world has been made aware of the claims of God and of His Son and they're saying, I don't want it. I refuse it. All right, so there is a rebellion. Are we seeing that rebellion take place?

-- Congregation: Absolutely.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: We heard Brother Thomas preach this 30, 35 and more years ago and warned that this was coming. And, look at what's happened since then. Look at how things have developed and gone down hill. Think of things that we're seeing in our news every day. You couldn't have conceived of seeing those things a short time ago. We are seeing the unfolding of the Word of God, folks, and it will happen. God has warned us.

You know, I'm thankful about something that it says in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5. I won't turn over there. But it talks about the sudden destruction. It talks about how people will be going around saying, peace and safety, and what happens? Sudden destruction will come upon them.

But then it says a wonderful thing to God's people. It says, "But you, brothers, are not in darkness..." But you are not in darkness that that day should overtake you unawares. It will not be unexpected for God's people. I'll tell you, we're gonna be looking for it. We're gonna be longing for it. We're gonna be crying, saying, Oh Lord, how long before you come and straighten out all this mess.

But oh, I'll tell you, we serve a God, He won't be one day late. He knows exactly how far He's gonna let the devil go in seemingly fulfilling his vision for this world. But, oh, He's gonna prove himself faithful to his people. He will not lose. No matter what we have to experience in the future, He will not lose one who has put their trust in him and given him their heart. That's the glorious promise.

Not only that, we're gonna have knowledge of what is going on. He's going to reveal it as we need to know it. This, perhaps, is a small part of it. Praise God! So, don't let anyone deceive you. It talks about the rebellion first must come--"...and the man of lawlessness..."--the man of sin--"...is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God."

Well, Brother Phil, do you believe in a personal Anti-Christ or not? Well, I'm personally inclined to, but I don't care, in one sense. Because what he is describing here is a full-blown manifestation of human nature that has been confronted by the truth of God and has said no and has come back with a spirit of defiance and saying, no, I'm going to rule.

Now one thing we know right off the bat--we know the Scripture says, God does not dwell in temples made with hands. No one is going to construct a building somewhere that God will consider to be His temple. That's not what this is talking about. This is not some evil world ruler who goes into some temple that's been reconstructed and sets up his government there. That's not what this is about, at all.

But, I tell you what God has created human beings to be his temple. We are the temple of God. Now, I'll tell you when we come to Christ, when we open up our hearts, when He comes in and takes up residence--and not just residence, but rule in our heart, we become--we fulfill the original purpose for which we were created was to be a temple of God, for Him to live in us.

But now, in this case, he's saying something else is gonna be living there. Another principle is going to be ruling. We're gonna see what sin is about. It's gonna come out in all of its ugliness because man is so good with fig leaves. Civilization is just something--it knows how to dress man up and to make ugliness and sin look absolutely wonderful. Of course, we know what Jesus said--that the things that man highly esteems are what? They are an abomination to God. God's values are completely the flip side of what man's values are.

But, man is going to come to the point where he's not going to pussyfoot about his feelings about God. You listen to some politicians now, here and there. You listen to them tiptoe carefully like they're walking through a minefield, because they know there's a bunch of people that are listening that still hold to some of these things. They may not know God, but they still, in a cultural sense, they know that there is a God and they know there is morality. They know there's right and wrong.

And so you don't just walk...you know, you don't just trample over those kinds of things, so they try to get their little beliefs in there but they're gonna walk very carefully. There's gonna come a time when there won't be any care any more. We gonna stand for what we stand for. I'll tell you, you tell the Christians in China that that can't happen. They know.

There was a time when there was...there's still a flourishing church there, but, I mean there was a time when there was a measure of religious liberty, way back, and the church was growing by leaps and bounds and then the Communists came in. And, oh, they just put their foot down and stamped it out and, you know, we're not gonna have any tolerance--zero tolerance for this idea that there's a God before whom we must bow--zero tolerance.

People are meeting today or they have met today. I guess it's the end of the day in China. But, they have met today in secret all over that nation because of the stand their government has taken. I'll tell you what, the rulers of this world...there's gonna come a day, and there is rapidly coming a day when they're gonna be coming right out. Talk about coming out of the closet. This is the ultimate coming out of the closet when all the ugliness of man's defiance against Jesus Christ is gonna come out and been seen for what it is.

And we're gonna have to be 100 percent aligned with one side or the other. There will be no more middle ground. Jesus said, "Because iniquity shall abound the love of many will..."--do what?--"...wax cold." (KJV). You'll have children having their parents put to death, brother against brother.

I'll tell you what, when those kind of conditions prevail, we're gonna find out what's in people's hearts. And if we don't have the real deal in our hearts, people are gonna be unmasked for what they are. You're gonna see a mass exodus. There is coming...there is a separation day that is rapidly upon us.

There is a day...there is a window of opportunity for people to bow to Jesus Christ, to kiss the Son, to bow before Him, to embrace Him for all that He is, to come into that blessed place. And oh, I just pray that any one who may hear this, here or elsewhere, will just recognize Him for who He is and what God has done for you through Him. And become one of those He describes as blessed or those who find their place of refuge in Him. Oh, praise God that there's a place of refuge from what he's talking about here.

But, oh, this spirit of the age, however it is made manifest, whether this is simply a personification of that condition or whether there is a man who somehow embodies it, nonetheless, it will be a picture of the prevailing condition in people. And he will be able to rule because they'll be in agreement with him. They will be as deceived as he is.

All right. "Don't you remember..."--Paul says. He's looking back to this business that they'd been sorta unsettled by false doctrine that had been circulated in his name. "Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?" (NIV). See that tells me right there that there's a whole lot of truth that God wants His people to know from a doctrinal standpoint. We need to be armed in our minds. We need to understand the things that God has given us in this Word, and I praise God for it. There's a time for teaching like this.

And so, Paul had obviously talked about all these things when he'd taught them. "And now..."--listen to this--"...you know what is holding him back..."--it says in this translation--"...so that he may be revealed at the proper time." Now isn't that interesting! Think about that in the context of what Psalm 2 said. Let us cast their, you know, their cord, their chains. Let's get rid of their chains. Let's get rid of this thing.

See, there has been a restraint going on. That's what he's describing. Something has been holding this back. This principle has been here. In fact, that's what he says in just a moment. It says, "For the secret power of lawlessness..."--the mystery of iniquity it calls it in King James, is what?--"...is already at work...." This isn't something that's somehow gonna come out of nowhere, this is really there right now. It's at work in people's hearts. But there's a restraint. There's something that will not let it go but so far.

Thank God for that restraint. If that restraint, that binding of Satan, had not been there, there would have been no gospel preached for the last two thousand years. If God had taken his hands off and said, Devil, you can do what you want. I'm not gonna interfere. Where do you think we'd be? We wouldn't be here. But God, in love and in mercy has said, you can go so far but no farther. I've got you well in hand. You are, in effect, you are my servant. You're gonna do...what you do I'm gonna turn around for good for my people. I'm gonna thwart every effort. Every time that I wanna do something and you try to stop me, guess who's gonna win. Praise God!

You know I believe God wanted us to be here this morning. How many of you would have given us much of a chance of having a service today from yesterday's point of view? Zero, almost. But God had a reason for us gathering here this morning. Praise God! I'll tell you God can change the weather. God can do what He wants to do to fulfill his purpose. He has everything under His control.

But what he's talking about here is a point in time when that control is going to be relaxed so far as the world order is concerned. And that's what he's talking about. It says, "And now you know what is holding him back..."--What?--"...so that he may be revealed at the proper time." There is a proper time. There is a time on God's schedule for this to happen. The devil would love for it to have happened centuries ago. He didn't wanna go through all this. He didn't wanna loose all the people that he's lost to the gospel, but he couldn't stop it, could he?

And he can't stop it today. Whatever God has purposed to do is gonna be done. Praise God! We serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He's on the throne. "...But the one who now holds it back..."--it goes on in verse 7--"...will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way." There is a removal of that restraint and what's the result? "And then the lawless one will be revealed...." We're gonna see him for all that he is.

But then he goes...immediately he comes to that point that he's gonna be revealed and then he immediately sets that in its proper place by saying, "...whom the Lord..."--well, praise God! I lost my place here--"...lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming."

There's the coming of Christ again. You see when it occurs? He comes to destroy this kingdom of Antichrist, however it is formed, whatever it is visibly. I don't really care. We can see what the character of it is. But when Christ comes, it's gonna be destroyed.

Isn't it interesting, it says, by the breath of his mouth? Oh, it doesn't take much, does it? I believe the Lord gave us a little breath of his mouth last night to melt all the ice. I think back to the great old hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is our God." And it talks about the devil in the last chapter. It says, lo, his doom is sure. One little word will fell him. You think there's a contest? You think there's any degree of uncertainty as to how this is all going to turn about, turn out? One little word, that's all it takes. At the proper time, God is gonna say that word and boom--that will be it. It will be over. It'll be curtains. What vanity to suppose that you can oppose this God.

All right, and so, it says, "The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders." And so, I'll tell you, we need the--we need the Lord's wisdom about such things, because God can move in miraculous ways, but not everything that's a miracle is of God. And so those who are just...who run to that kind of thing and just gravitate to it assuming it must be good, are what? They're setting themselves up for delusion, aren't they? Or deception. But, I believe God can steer us right if we'll look to him and let him know that we're depending upon him.

And so there's "...all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and..."--not just that--"...and in every sort of evil...." Now he just said...that just opens it up wide. Everything that the devil's got in his bag of tricks, he's gonna pull out. He knows, doesn't he, that he has a short time? There's a warning in Revelation, "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, the devil has come down to you..."--what?--"...knowing that he has..."--"...with great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time."

Oh, I tell you, he knows. Don't you worry, he knows. Do you sense the vehemence in some who just wanna go a certain way and they just...they get thwarted? Oh, I'll tell you what, that's just the spirit of the enemy, the spirit of the age. "...every sort of evil..."--and we're seeing it come out from every closet there is--"...that deceives those who are perishing...."

That's the effect of sin. Whenever we refuse to bow to God's truth there is a veil of darkness that comes upon our eyes and bad looks...evil looks good and bad, I mean, good looks evil. The devil is able to twist that right around in our minds and make us think that going against God and rejecting his truth is the right way to go. I'll tell you what. "...every sort of evil..."--that does what?--"...that deceives those who are perishing...."

And now, now listen to this, it says, "...They perish..."--Why? Because God just sort of fore-ordained it. Mark you and mark you, mark you, go to hell. No. There's a reason. God acts justly, folks. "...They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." God's truth is an expression of his love, of his mercy, of his grace. But oh, when people just harden their heart against that truth and say, no, I'm going my way. I'm doing it my way. There's nothing left. There's nothing left. That's God hand extended.

And every sort of evil...all right, "...because they refused to love the truth and so be saved...." Now listen to this, "For this reason..."--Why? For what reason? For the reason of people are hardening their hearts against truth. That's why what he's about to say is gonna happen. "For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness."

And I'll tell you what that lie, I believe, is as much as anything is summed up in what the devil told Eve. You disregard what God says and you do, you go directly against that and you will be as gods. Well, they believe it, don't they? See, isn't that the spirit of what he's talking about here. It's a spirit that sits in the human heart that says, I am God. Nobody can tell me what to do. I have the right to chart my own course. I have a right.

Well, we'll see how that right pulls up against the supreme court of supreme courts. Because He will set what is right in its proper place and we're gonna see. I'll tell you what, it's a dark time and God's people need to recognize it and I believe there's anybody who has any capacity to hear truth needs to understand. Before this is over, everybody will be on one side or the other--100 percent. Praise God!

"...So that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." Verse 13, "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth." That's the means. That's God appointed means of us escaping what he's talking about here. It's to submit to the work of God in our hearts and to believe His truth and to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ.

"He called you to this through our gospel..."--Why?--"...that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." Of course, you'd better make sure the letter actually came from Paul.

Let's just fast forward for just a second to the end of Revelation, last chapter, chapter 22. There is a condition that will prevail upon earth at the coming of Christ. Christ is not gonna be coming at a time when the gospel is just going out and great things are happening and all that sort of thing. There's gonna be a condition that exists at that moment.

Verse 10, "Then he told me, Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy."

Do you see what's going on there? There was a great divide that is now become uncrossable. It's not that someone who's over here wicked can say, well, I can believe any old time I want to and just cross that nice little bridge of Jesus and get over to righteousness. No. That bridge is gonna be severed. There will come a time when God says, it's enough. I've told you enough. I've called you enough. I've given you enough of my Word. You've had your day of opportunity.

I'll tell you this is sobering truth, but I believe it's something that we as Christians need to have clearly in our minds. We need to understand the world we live in. I'll tell you, you understand these things, the news makes sense. Everything that we see in the world makes sense. And then you see Christians sleeping because they've been told they're gonna fly away.

Jesus didn't say those who are snatched away before the real trouble starts will be saved, did He? It says those who endure to the end. And of course, who are those that endure to the end? They're the ones who believe in Jesus. They're not the ones who are strong in themselves. They're just the ones who believe in Him, who have given their hearts into his care and He is the one who is able to bring us through.

So, I don't wanna convey as though we've got to do something. We've got to be willing. We can't hold out any area of our hearts and our lives that God would put his finger upon because these are eternal issues at stake. May God give us hearts to be completely given to Him and to stand with Him and just prepare our hearts for whatever is coming that God may have this place to be a light in the earth, to be able to give out truth that can wake people up because, I'll tell you, even God's people need to be waked, need to be awakened. They need to realize what's going on. They need to understand what this Word teaches.

They've been fitted with a set...many of them, with a set of glasses that's got it all backwards, got it all muddled up. I'll tell you there is a day when Jesus is going to come and He's gonna rain destruction upon this world and He's gonna gather His people to be unto Himself. There is going to be a judgment and then final disposition of the righteous and the wicked will take place.

Oh, I praise God! I believe it is coming. We are drawing nearer and nearer. God has the schedule. I don't. Don't ask me when. Don't ask me the times and the seasons. But I tell you, we have light if we will walk with the Lord. We are going to know everything that we need to know. We're gonna have all the help that we need to be able to stand.

Like the song we sang this morning, we shall stand. How do we stand? By our own strength and our own holiness? No. But we stand by the opposite. By declaring spiritual bankruptcy and saying, Lord, I can't. I put myself in your hands. My life is in your hands. Praise God! Praise God!

Oh, it's wonderful to know how the story comes out. It's not a story, is it? This is reality. These are facts. Those people in Psalm 2, they can plot and plan all they want, but there's a God in heaven who laughs at the foolishness, the ignorance of men who would dare to rise up and think that they can succeed. But oh, God has His hand extended to his people. Just as He brought Noah through, He's gonna bring us through.

Folks, this is real. What God has told us in this Book is the truth and it's real, and I stake my life on it. I believe it. I believe that He has given all authority in heaven and earth to His Son and He is ruling and He is reigning right now. He's carrying out the schedule of the Father. I believe we're seeing more and more that it is the time for the removal of that restraint that He talked about and we're seeing it unfold. I praise God for His faithfulness to give us light and truth to be with us. He'll be with us to the end, won't He? Praise God!

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