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“Destined For Glory” Conclusion
Broadcast #1410
October 13, 2019

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1410 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

— Brother Phil Enlow: He took my place. And the law was vented upon Him, and God is free to declare me as a righteous person in His eyes. Oh, praise God! He did that! You see the emphasis at every point, that this is all about what God is doing!

And God wants us to lift up our eyes from wherever we’re at and say, God, you’ve got this! I know how this is coming out and I don’t have to be afraid of what’s happening in the world. I see that you’re doing something that’s amazing, that You’re gonna take care of everything that comes.

And one day I’m gonna stand there. There’s not gonna be something come along that the devil’s gonna throw at me and, oh my God, it’s all out the window because I’m so bad. God’s gonna bring us through, folks. “…He also justified…” (NIV).

But this is the amazing part. “…Those he justified, he also glorified.” This promise, this purpose of God, is so sure, that God absolutely declares it as having been done. Do you think there’s a single thing the Devil can do about something that’s already done?

( congregational response ).

What did He say to Abraham? “…I have made you a father of many nations.” He didn’t even have a kid. And the Lord said, “…I have made you a father of many nations.” And brought him to the place where it was physically impossible for that to happen. And God did it! That same God is our God today. Praise God!

So, there’s the stand that we have, there’s the hope that we have, there’s why we need to stand in our faith and trust Him with every circumstance that God brings our way, because He’s gonna turn it around for something that is a part of making us what He wants us to be.

And so, if we are facing a world of unprecedented difficulties and challenges, we have a God who’s going to measure out the grace that you and I need to stand against that, and it’s gonna accomplish something that living in a comfortable situation won’t. We’ve got a whole lot of brothers and sisters in the world that know what we’re talking about, right now. And I’ll tell you, there is God that’s faithful. But, ‘course, we need to pray for them, too.

So now he begins…he goes past this all-encompassing purpose of God, to bring us to a place of glory, by a pathway where everything works to that end. That’s God’s purpose, that He has absolutely declared. Now, we’re looking at what are the things that will apparently oppose that? What’s the deal with them? Okay?

“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” So, we know there’s gonna be opposition…that’s the name of the game. We’re in a world that will oppose this. This is a pitched battle, but it is one the Devil has already lost—he lost it at the cross! And all he’s doing is playing out the string, trying to do all the damage he can.

But what can he do? That’s the thing. If we have really, truly given our hearts and lives to Him, what can he do? We need to rise up and realize who our God is and what He’s done for us. “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

I mean, that would make no sense for Him to go to that length and say, okay, now you’re on your own…measure up and fly right, and I’ll accept you. This is a God who knows the depth of our need better than we do. He knows everything about what’s wrong with me and why I am unfit to live in His presence. And He has made provision for every bit of it!

( congregational response ).

It’s not like He’s does 99 and 44/100 percent and I’ve got to fill in that last little gap. This is everything!

( congregational amens ).

It’s all His doing, that He invites us to rest in and hope in and agree with. And there are battles in the part that we play. We fight, but it’s a fight of faith, not self-effort.

( congregational amens ).

It’s a fight of expressing confidence in the promise of God and acting like it’s true…Ron.

( laughter ).

No, he called me for using the word act. But living as if it’s true.

( congregational response ).

Praise God! All right, so, He’s gonna graciously give us all things. “Who will bring….” Now here’s one of the issues. Here’s one of the big ones. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” Well, there’s one who tries…spends a lot of time at it.

But he says, “It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding….” He’s praying for us. Lord have mercy! But this deals with the issues of me, and what’s wrong with me, and how I feel about I, and what the devil tells me about it. He is a constant accuser of the brothers.

And I’ll guarantee that every one of us here that knows the Lord, we live with this reality. It’s not always, in fact, often it’s not the stuff that’s coming from out there that opposes us, it’s the stuff that happens in here. And we serve a God who wants us to get this. He knows about you. He knew about you from the foundation of the world. Everything that you and I discover about ourselves that turns into something that’s discouraging, God knew about it!

( congregational response ).

And He chose us anyway, because it’s not based upon that! It’s based upon what Jesus has provided for us, the full and complete salvation! It’s Christ in us! We said recently, the hope of glory. That’s the reason I have a hope of that day.

And I’ll tell you, one of the things that we’re gonna have to learn, and we’re gonna be learning it going forward, in a deeper way, is we’re gonna have to learn how to cope with the things that we discover in ourselves, where we can bring them freely before God as areas of need, knowing that He loves us, knowing that He’s provided everything. Not coming in like a scalded dog, but coming in as His child, coming freely to Him, recognizing that He loves us, that He knew all about it before we discovered it.

I’ll tell you, if we could learn how to live in that, we can be free from an awful lot of what the devil throws at us. Because there is a devil that will constantly tell you you’re not good enough. You’re not this. You’ve done this. You’ve done that. Look how you failed. Look, you’ll never measure up. You’ve messed up all your life. How do you think things are gonna be any different now? It’s an endless litany of defeat that he will minister if we will listen to it, instead of saying, God, you hear what the devil’s saying, what do You say? That’s my hope! I’m not hoping in me to begin with.

( congregational amens ).

Let this thing, instead of discouraging me and leading me to a place of defeat, let this thing instead drive me to Jesus!

( congregational amens ).

Because He is my answer! That’s what God’s purpose is in all of this. He is allowing us to discover these things so that we can suffer, we can die to that thing, we can embrace more of His life, we can experience more of the deliverance that He’s provided for us.

You see how God works things together for good, even the accusations and the lies of the enemy. He wants us to learn how to make choices about whom we’re gonna believe. This is operational Christianity. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where you and I live, every single day.

And, you know, I started out, because this is about the end of age, and how God is gonna fulfill His work. How do you think it’s gonna be when the power of darkness gets deeper and deeper? Do you think maybe that God’s gonna use that to drive us closer and closer to Him, to feel the sense of our need in deeper ways than perhaps we ever have?

You know, we can kind of bop along in America…so far. But I’ll tell you what, God is going to institute the means that will bring us to maturity, one way or another. And I’ll tell you, He’s up to the job. Paul speaks of what we have in Christ as the unsearchable riches—unsearchable! You can’t plumb the depth of it. You don’t get to the point and say, well, that’s all. It’s great, but it’s all there is. You never get to the end of it! There’s always something more. Thank God!

Do you see why Paul gave up…so freely gave up everything that gave him an earthly advantage, and said, this is a bunch of garbage, I want Christ. He is the answer. The unsearchable riches that are in Him, are what I need and what I want.

But this is one of the big ones. But God has made that provision and Jesus is praying for you and for me at our weakest moment. We’ve got somebody right there at the throne who’s praying for us in that point of need.

Lift up your heads! Didn’t Jesus say that about the end of the age? When you see all these things, hang your head and hide in a cave! No, wait a minute. He said, “…lift up your heads…your redemption is drawing near.” Praise God!

So now, He comes to external things. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” Now, these were not academic questions in that day, were they?

( congregational response ).

These were things that real believers faced. But you know, we have to see, even things like this, not as defeats for Christians and victories for the devil, but as victories for Christ!

( congregational amens ).

I was thinking about the letters that Jesus wrote, that Jesus spoke through John, to the seven churches. One of them was Smyrna. And you can read about that, I think it’s in Revelation 2. But Smyrna was, evidently, a place where there was a lot of persecution. And the Christians were just experiencing all kinds of trouble.

And the Lord didn’t say, I’m gonna get you out of it, I’m gonna make things easy…no! He said, you’re gonna have persecution for a certain period of time…but His words to them were simple. “Be faithful, even to…death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

See, God’s value system is very different from ours down here. We value life in this world as though that’s the thing that is most important. But I’ll tell you, there is a victory that is won when someone absolutely stands for Christ to the point where they’re giving up their life…say, I lay it down gladly. I know my life is in His hands. I know where I’m going. I know who Jesus is. And I don’t care what you do to me, I’m standing for Jesus. That’s a victory, not a defeat!

( congregational amens ).

And I believe there’s gonna be…you know, we live in a day where there’s unprecedented persecution. I mean, we look back at the persecutions of Rome, but they weren’t on a scale of today. How many of you saw the news about the Christians in Nigeria just two or three weeks ago, very recent anyway? Two hundred Christians were suddenly slaughtered by a bunch of people.

Was that a defeat? Where do you think they are? Do you think they’re boo-hooing and saying, oh, God, I had plans? Why did You do that to me? I want to go back. My God! That’s a one-way ticket to glory! And not only that, there is a crown, there is a value that God places upon a life that absolutely is willing to say, I am with Jesus, come hell or high water! If it means my life, I’m with Jesus!

( congregational amens ).

That is a victory of the highest order! And I believe that we’re gonna see an unprecedented example of that in the last hour of earth’s history. God is gonna take a lot of His children home and they’re gonna have the opportunity, not by their own strength…they’re gonna have the opportunity to stand against all these kinds of things.

You know, my mind goes back to something I referred to before. It was the life of Corrie ten Boom, who lived through the Nazi invasion of Holland and then was in prison, in such desperate conditions for so long. But as they were coming into some of these issues, I guess she was expressing to her father, how can we do this? How is this gonna be possible? I’m not that strong.

And he used an illustration…he was a watch maker and he would travel periodically to the national, whatever it was that had the official time, and synchronize his watch with that so that he could take it back and synchronize everything else. And so, they would make…didn’t have the internet in those days, so they would make this journey every once in a while, by train. And he would take her along.

And, he reminded her of a time when she was a little girl and she would accompany him, and he asked her a simple question: When we traveled, when we made those train trips, when did I give you the ticket? Very simple answer…when we were about to get on the train. You didn’t need it before then.

And the illustration was obviously meant to convey the fact that when we need the grace to stand against the darkness of this world, God will give us the grace to do it! We don’t have to sit here and say, I’m ready, I feel strong. I don’t! And there’s nothing in me that could stand up to any of this. But I’ll tell you, there is a God who will undergird His people. Whatever He has called us to go through, He will be with us in it!

( congregational amens ).

And we need to have that confidence that says, I don’t care, I’m gonna stand, but I’m trusting God! And it’s interesting to me, when you look back at the heroes of faith, in the Bible, in chapter 11 of Hebrews in particular, all the categories of triumph that God lists.

Now some of them were amazing, supernatural deliverances, like the Hebrew children that were thrown into the fire and it didn’t burn them. Daniel was thrown in the lion’s den and they didn’t eat him. They crossed the Red Sea…I mean, great miracles that God can do if that’s what’s appropriate for His purpose in that occasion.

But it is very interesting to me, that He continues right on with others who didn’t accept deliverance but they laid down their lives and it says, “…the world was not worthy of them.” God’s value system is very different. For some, God may have a purpose to do something spectacular that will be a testimony to the world, will fulfill His purpose in a particular way. For others, it may be that’s your ticket to home. But God is gonna give the grace.

You know, I was thinking about some of the promises of God about the Gospel. He says, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness…and then shall the end come.” (KJV).

And I believe with all my heart that God is going to fulfill the words of Jesus when He said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me…” (NIV). Every single one that He’s been talking about in Romans that He foreknew…everyone’s gonna come. Well, that tells me that God is gonna do whatever it takes in the face of the enemy to reach those. He’s gonna breach the gates of hell, as Jesus said, He’s gonna reach into them. Satan will not be able to hold them as victims that God has purposed to save.

( congregational amens ).

And I can see that there may well be the greatest harvest that the church has ever seen. It’s happening in some areas of the world, the remote areas, where the Gospel is making great in-roads and there are great numbers that are coming to Christ. I’ll tell you, what I see basically is that God is gonna get every single one and He’s gonna do whatever it takes to make that happen.

You know, I don’t know exactly how to interpret this, but some of you will remember Brother Thomas telling about an experience one time that he had. I don’t know if it was a vision or a dream, but whatever it was, he was carried in the Spirit to some remote part of the world, and he found himself standing before a vast throng of people. And he was preaching to them in their language. And he did that for a little while and then he was picked up and carried to another area and the same thing happened. He began to speak to great numbers of people in their language. And that happened in several cases.

I’ll tell you, I don’t know how…whether literally something like that’s gonna happen, but God can do whatever He wants to do. The same God that carried Stephen around, picked him up and set him in another place, and he was there preaching the gospel…He can do whatever He wants to do. Where miraculous power is called for, He can do anything! Where faithfulness unto death is called for, He can give the grace to do that! In either case He is equally honored.

( congregational response ).

And we will equally stand before Him on that day. God just calls for His people to have a heart that says, Lord, I’m with you, come hell or high water.

( congregational response ).

I know Your purpose and I know that no matter what happens, You’re gonna turn it around for my eternal good. And so, I’m absolutely on board with that. Praise God! “As it is written…” verse 36, “…For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” That sounds encouraging.

( laughter ).

But if you’re thinking in earthly terms, that doesn’t sound very good. But if your value system has changed to where you see, I get it that this world and my life here is worth nothing, in eternal terms. I need it to go away. I need whatever means You institute for it to go away because I want what You have given me that is eternal. So, this is what that’s about.

And then he says, “No, in all these things…” And it sure doesn’t say, in spite of, does it? “…In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Not through our strength or anything that we could muster, because I haven’t got it, do you?

“For I am convinced….” And Paul lived out that conviction, didn’t he? He lived it out until Caesar took his life eventually. And all the other apostles, except John, laid down their lives for Jesus. They lived out the conviction that God placed in their hearts, that it’s not about life here, it’s about what God has called us to. It’s another kingdom. We have left our allegiance to Caesar and all the world around us. We have transferred that allegiance to Jesus Christ. End of story.

“…Convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, or anything else in all creation…” So anything you could think of…he just takes it all in. None of it, “…will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So yes, the world will get dark. Yes, we will see the culmination of Satan’s efforts to enslave people that choose his way. But in the very midst of that, it is not a time where God’s gonna sneak us out of there and just retire in defeat and let Satan have the masses. God purposed from the beginning, in this very kind of a world, to call forth a family, to do something for us we could never do. We rest, not upon our ability, but upon the promise of God who cannot lie. He’s purposed to bring everyone through, the smallest child that puts their trust in Him has nothing to fear…

( congregational amens ).

…From any of these things right here. This is not about being strong or smart. Thank God! That would leave all of us out, wouldn’t it? But I’ll tell you, we’ve got a God who is faithful. And I believe with all my heart this morning, He wants us to face this time, not with fear, not with, oh my God, it looks bad, this, that and the other. But God, help us to be Your people in this hour.

God could anoint somebody here to go out and preach with great power and see a great harvest. I don’t know. I don’t know what He’s gonna do. We’re gonna have to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. We don’t have a program here. This is…Jesus Christ is the head!

But as we look to Him, we need to have that confidence that whatever lies before us, He will take it, He will use it, and He will bring us through, and one day we will stand there and every single one He has ever foreknown will be standing there with us. And victory will be His completely.

( congregational amens ).

And all of this will be done. And to Him will be all of the glory forever and ever. This is His heart and His purpose! So, I would just pray…I know…I sense the Lord wanting to encourage every one of His children. Don’t look at the world you live in and be afraid! Look at Jesus! Lift up your hearts! Look to Him!

( congregational response ).

Know that His purpose will absolutely be fulfilled. It’s the one that will triumph! I don’t care what Satan is allowed to do, God’s purpose is on track! He is on the throne! It will happen, and He will get the glory. Praise God!

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