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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 687 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Phil Enlow: Well, I don't know, I had one scripture come to me in Hebrews...certainly one we know. It's Hebrews chapter 7, let's begin in verse 18. It's always difficult to break into a thought, but I believe we can do it. Because this whole book of Hebrews is written to Jews who knew the Law and were having a little difficulty leaving it behind, understanding that there was a new economy in place, that God had a new order of things. The Law had served its purpose. It was genuinely of God, but it was only intended to serve a temporary purpose and now the permanent had come. And there was a concern that we're creatures of habit. We get a hold of something and it's hard to leave it behind--hard to let it go when the Lord says, well it's time to move on. So at this point he's talking about the Law and the priesthood that they had--the priests they had under the law and, of course, comparing that with the priesthood of Jesus Christ. It says, "The former regulation..."--verse 18--"...is set aside because it was weak and useless...."(NIV). Now that's quite a thing, isn't it, for God to say that what I gave you back there is useless? Well it was useless if your purpose is to try to use that to make yourself righteous and able to come to God on that ground. We can't do it. That was never given for that reason. It was given to convince us that we needed something besides ourselves...that we had no hope if we were gonna try to look inside and say, well I can please God. I can do what's right, and God will have to receive me because of that. It was useless if you're gonna try to use it that way. "...(For the law made nothing perfect)...." It just has no power to make us complete and to do the kind of a job that we need to be done. We, every one of us, have needs that are just completely beyond our power to do anything about. And, of course, it's well if we're honest enough to admit that. Because unless you realize that you need to be saved and you need a Savior, why, you're gonna continue to go on in own your stubborn pride, and just say, well I can handle this. I can do it. But the fact of the matter is, none of us occupies that place. None of us occupies the place where we can say, well, I thank you, Lord, I've got it now. You know, I think back when I was a boy and a lot of you know...will recognize what I'm gonna say because--I was a tree climber. Oh, I loved...you get me a good tree, I was happy for hours. I mean, I could just get up there and have a ball. Climbing out on the branches and swaying and looking and seeing what I could see from up there. And if it was an apple tree, so much the better. Man I'd get up there and just sit up there and eat apples, and my friend who didn't like to climb trees...I could throw 'em down to him and feel like Mr. Big. ( laughter ). But, you know, a lot of trees that people would climb...it's wonderful once you get up there, but you can't get to the first branch. You get a little kid and that branch is just way over his head and there's no way to get up there. So a lot of times, what they'll do is say, hey, to one of their buddies, how about giving me a boost? And so with that extra little help they get that boost and then they can reach that first limb and then...okay I got it from here. But you know I'm so thankful that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not like that. And I feel like...I fear that too often we treat it that way, as though God, thank You for giving me the boost. You've forgiven my sins. You've saved me, and You've set me on the road to righteousness, and I thank You, Lord. I'll handle it from here. But praise God! We need a Savior every day. Every morning when we get up, we need a Savior from the things that we face that day. Praise the Lord! But he says here, "...(for the law made nothing perfect)..."--or complete. It just did not have the power to do the job that was needed to be done. "...And a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God,"--a whole lot better hope than the Law. It says, "And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath...." There's no special promise or oath of God saying, well, if you'll just come to this priest then everything will be wonderful, it'll do a complete job. No. But he says, "...but he..."--Christ--"...became a priest with an oath when God said to him: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind...." Aren't you glad for that? ( congregational amens ). Praise God! This is something that is set forth for us today in which God will not change His mind. He has declared something to be and no devil in hell can change it and God Himself has said, I've decided this and there ain't no changing my mind. "...The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever." That's His declaration concerning His Son. He is our Priest. He's the One who has the power to stand between us and God, to deal with whatever needs exist. He has the power, He has the commission from God to do what you and I need today. It's forever! It's gonna take care of the whole job that the Law could never handle. And, "Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. Now there have been many of those priests..."--looking back again to the Old Testament--"...there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood." There's nobody gonna come along and say, Jesus, it's time for You to retire. I'm here to take over. Jesus is always going to be the One. That's why we lift His Name up. That's why His Name is the Name that is above every name! God has decreed that every knee...every tongue is gonna confess, every knee is gonna bow before 'this' Name. And He's given this Name, and it means Savior, it means Redeemer, it means the One who has the power to rescue us completely from sin and all of its effects. "Therefore..." because He has a permanent priesthood , "Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede..."--that is, to pray--"...for them." Oh, I'll tell you, I am so thankful that I've got Somebody there who prays for me when I need it. ( congregational amens ). Because I need Him every day. There's times when I am just...I'm up and down, and I'm stumbling, and I'm struggling with something. And when I'm struggling with something, He's praying for me! He remembers! He knows where I'm at! Why does He know? How can He understand? Because He's been here...He's been here! Part of His becoming a Priest was becoming like us in a sense that He was human. He felt our weaknesses. He felt our needs. He knows what it's like to be oppressed by the enemy. He knows what it's like to be hungry. He knows what it's like to be weak. He knows what it's like to feel the pull of every contrary wind and everything that would arise from within and without. And He knows that He can call upon...He had to call upon His Father for help and for strength. Do you think He did what He did by His own human strength? No. I was thinking of a verse last night. I don't remember where it is now, but He offered Himself to God, through what?--"Through the eternal Spirit." There was...God's power was the only thing that stood between Jesus and complete failure. And I'll tell you, the power of Jesus Christ in our life is the only thing that stands between us and really falling in the mud good and bad...or good and bad...anyway you know what I mean. ( laughing ). Not good and bad...just really thoroughly falling in the mud. Jesus Christ is the only answer that we have every day. And it's not like He just forgave us our sins, and gave us the boost up to that first limb, and said, all right, climb. Have a ball. I need Him when I get up in the morning. I need a Savior today from the things that I face today because He has...His salvation is not just some sort of something that's just dumped into our lives as a package deal the minute we come to Christ and thereafter we just sail through life. It is...He sets us on the road. He gives us His Spirit. He gives us the gift of forgiveness of our sins. Praise God! Isn't that a wonderful thing that we can absolutely come to God with a clean heart if we confess our sins and we repent of 'em and we trust in what Jesus did, we can have the same cleanness of heart as if we had never sinned in the beginning? Praise God! What a salvation! ( congregational amens ). Thank God we can operate from that position of cleanness before a Holy God through what Jesus did and through His power to save us. But, oh, I need more than that, don't you? And I feel like there's things that people are facing in their lives right now that you're struggling with. I am. There's things in my life that are a battle to me right now and I'm not always a hundred percent successful against 'em. I need a Savior today! ( congregational amens ). I need Somebody who has the power, not just to get me on the road and then take me to heaven one day but sort of let me muddle through the rest of the time. He is a Savior who is able to save me completely! ( congregational amens ). Now what does 'completely' mean? Does that mean He forgives my sins and I'm a failure the rest of the way? No! It means He has an answer for all of these issues of life. He has power to give me power to overcome the things that would otherwise overcome me, and to be able to say 'no' to the devil and gain victory over things. It doesn't happen all at once. You know, I was writing to somebody yesterday, it comes back to me now, that was just struggling and realizing that they were living a life of defeat. They're saying, I'm tired of this. I'm over 50 years old and I'm just tired of it. I've been this way all my life and I just cannot get the victory. And you could just sense there was desire in his heart to gain victory over it. And all I could do was encourage him just to begin to look to God...to commit his problems one by one to God, and to say, Lord, here's something I can't handle, but you've promised to save me completely. And so I bring this issue to you and confess my inability. We don't have to come to God and pretend to be something we're not. That's hypocrisy. That's foolishness. We have the freedom to come to Him and be what we are--needy, helpless sinners who need His help, who need His strength to help us through. So I was just trying to encourage him. You commit these things to Him. You trust in Him, day by day. If you fall down, you get up and you go on. And I made this comment. I said, you know, sometimes there are dramatic changes in people's lives. Sometimes God just works in a very special way and you will see somebody who is in the depths of some problem, some bondage and all of a sudden, God sets 'em free and they're just...wow, everything is great and grand. But how many times does that happen? Most of the time we are going to have to fight our battles day by day by day and gain victories because God has promised to give us that victory. ( congregational amens ). And we waste a lot of...we expend a lot of emotional energy worrying about 'oh my God, I'm not here.' I see this place down the road where I'm gonna be some great, free something and oh, I can serve God. If only I could get there, I could serve God. Nobody has ever experience that here, have you? ( laughter ). Oh I'll tell you, how many tricks the devil pulls on us in our thinking. We can serve God here and now with whatever limitations we have, and with God's strength we can be what He wants us to be right now. And I thank God, we can just commit all of our needs into His hand as they come up. There's all kinds of battles I'm gonna face down the road. I can't worry about that. That's God's business. He's the one who undertook to save me. All I can do is put myself in His hands today and say, Lord, just get me through the next five minutes. ( congregational praise ). Get me through the next hour. Help me. When I run into something where my ability is not enough, which is, like every minute. ( laughter ). I just say, Lord, you promised to save me. Give me the strength right now to stand. Help me, Lord, to be looking to you. Doesn't that nurture in us an attitude of dependence, and attitude of humility. It does a work that nothing else could do! If God just came around and snapped His fingers and all of a sudden everything went away, boy, we wouldn't change a bit. We would be so full of ourselves, so unappreciative of His grace. But, oh, when we need Him every minute and we 'know' we need Him every minute, and we avail ourselves of Him every minute, boy, it changes this old hard heart of ours. There's a transformation that takes place in our character that no devil in hell can change because He is able to save completely those that come to God by Him! Don't try any other way. Don't try in your own strength. Don't think you've got to work it out. Our job is not to work it out, our job is to rest in a perfect Savior who has everything that we need. ( congregational praise ). Oh, I face inability every day. Oh, if I just went by what I was capable of doing, you would...it would be a mess. But so would it be in your case, 'cause we're all made of the same stuff. Jesus Christ "...came into the world to save sinners..."--Paul said--"...of whom I am chief." Paul said, God saved me just to prove He could save anybody. If He can save me, He can save you. What a message Paul had to go out and proclaim! Oh, praise God, I just thank Him this morning. This is such a simple thought, but how we forget it. How we need it when we get up in the morning and we face those things that have such a hold on our lives! Don't be impatient with those things. Don't think that if I can't get a perfect, complete freedom and make all those things go away right now, that oh, all is hopeless. All is not hopeless. If we will simply stand our ground, God is gonna be with us and we're gonna look back one day and say, hey, I didn't even hardly notice, but here I am...you know, back there I can remember how it was like and it's not like that now. God's given me some victory. I'm facing other things, but God's given me victory in this area. How many of you know what I'm talking about. ( congregational amens ). Yeah. Praise God! God, we've come a long ways, more than we realize because...not by our own wisdom, not because we deserve it, certainly. But because God is such an able, gracious God who knows how to save us! ( congregational amens ). Oh there's so much that He wants to accomplish in our lives in the process. If He did it our way, we'd be a mess! But God knows exactly how to bring us from being lost, helpless sinners in the pit of iniquity and to make us sons of God who can rule in His new creation and enjoy it with Him forever. You know how to get that done? I don't. I don't know. I don't know what to preach when we come in here every day. I'm dependent on God. God is a faithful God. ( congregational amens ). But oh, at every stage of the road, He is able. We should never, never, ever give in to the thoughts of despair, of defeat, of looking around and saying, oh, the need is too great, or looking within and saying, oh the need is too great. We have a Savior who can save completely. ( congregational amens ). God has given Him the ability to do it. All we need to do is just moment, by moment cast ourselves upon Him and say, oh, God, do in me and for me what needs to be done. And oh, it's not a self-centered thing, is it either? If we understand His plan and purpose, everything He does in us is meant to be a blessing and a help and a strength to somebody else. Oh, one of the greatest things that will help us to overcome the self-centeredness that we all have, is when we feel needs, commit them into God's hands, then look around and pray for somebody else. Say, oh, God, give me the strength, not just to do my stuff, but give me the strength to help somebody else. Give me the strength to pray for them. Oh, how many times I've experienced just wallowing around and thinking about me and how I'm feeling and what's going on in my life. And all of sudden the Lord snaps me out of it and I have to deal with something, and I just by faith give myself to try to do something about that. And next thing I know, the water's flowing again. Do you ever feel like that? Up to that, it was sort of all clogged up, nothing was flowing. But God knows how to unclog it. Oh, I'll tell you, God is a faithful...God, and His Son, is a perfect Savior. There isn't anything in anybody's life here today that He cannot rescue you from, if you will put your life in His hands and trust in Him. ( congregational amens ). God has given Him the commission to save completely those who come to God by Him. And I want to learn to do it every single day and grow and not be impatient with the process. But just say, Lord, You've promised. Lord, stretch forth your hand. I'm going by what You said, Lord. You caused me to trust in Your Word, and I'm just gonna wait on You. I'm gonna trust in You even if I have to wait, and it just seems like the sun won't come out, and my feelings just are totally uncooperative. Everything looks bad. Everything looks terrible. But I'm gonna stay on You. I was trying to remember the words to the song we just sang about staying upon God and looking to Him. And David who wrote those words was in such a difficult place. But oh, he was determined to hope in God and to stay upon Him. Knowing the 'hope of His promise' was the Words--the hope, based upon what? Based upon our wishful thinking? No! It's based upon His Word. It's the Word of a God who cannot lie. That's what God has called us to trust. It's the Words of a God who cannot lie. I'm going to stand here today and say that I cannot stand on any other ground except what God has said. I've lived long enough to know that there's no hope for this old guy, but there's perfect hope in Jesus. ( congregational amens ). The name of Jesus was given as a Savior from everything that we face. So, I don't care where you're at, if you don't know the Lord, you need to know this is a Savior who can do the job. ( congregational amens ). But if you're a Christian who's discouraged and looking around, and your eyes have been turned inward and you sense your inability, and you see needs around you, and your heart is caused to despair, you need to look up and you need to see that there's a Savior. He can give you strength to stand if it's a time to wait. ( congregational amens ). There are times when God calls on us to stand in faith. There may be things you're praying about and God will call upon you to stand in faith, and it'll be years before that promise will come to pass. But if you and I will stand as Abraham did when God gave Him the great promise of a son and an heir, God honored that faith, didn't He? ( congregational amens ). Those who put their trust in Him will never be put to shame. That's where my hope is. I will never put my trust in this guy again...by God's grace I say that. He's gonna teach me--He's gonna show me if I'm doing it. I mean He's gonna help me, but He's gonna help you, too. ( congregational amens ). That's the only hope that I can give to anyone here today. This is a Savior. It says, therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He ever lives to intercede for you. You put your name in there. Just remember every morning, Jesus is praying for me today. He knows what I'm facing. He knows what I need to be saved from today. And so I'm gonna put myself in His hands and trust in His strength, because that's the only strength that I've got. ( congregational amens ). Praise God! 
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