— Brother Phil Enlow: You know, I had…we’ve had a lot of services, over the last while, that really cover the ground of Christian living, how we serve God in the world, in a practical sense and a lot of the principles to do that—that are involved in doing that. But I’ve had on my heart for a while, and maybe this is the time to begin, to set that a little bit more in its context, because we’re not just serving God in a vacuum, are we? We’re serving Him…not only in a broken world, but at a particular point in history.
And you know, the people of the world have their own worldviews. The one that seems to be prevailing, in a general sense, is a man-centered, forward-looking, we’ve got to get together and solve the world’s problems for the future of mankind and we can do it. And, it’s very much a way of thinking and working and conducting your life. And more and more you see that happening. And of course, obviously, there’s a lot of turmoil and people resisting that, but nonetheless, that’s kind of the prevailing spirit that’s going on in the world right now.
But I believe with all my heart that Christians need to understand the times. We need to know where we’re at in history and why things are happening. But more than that, what is our place in all of that? Because, again, we’re not just sitting here trying to muddle through the Christian life and then go to heaven one day, although that’s part of it. God has a reason for things happening the way they do.
And, I don’t know…I thought about painting a big picture, and sometimes I like to do that. I know it’s difficult to do. I’ve had so many scriptures come to mind. They’re all…most of them are familiar to us. But, I’m gonna try and trust the Lord to help me to paint a picture that will show us what’s happened throughout history, and where we’re at. And then, in the light of that, that’s where we go forward to what is our place and our purpose in it.
But we know, of course, that God had a plan before the foundation of the world. We’ve talked about these things many times, and it was to have a family that was in His likeness, that shared His values, that shared His holiness, His purity, His character and everything. He created a world that was pure. There was nothing wrong with it. Everything was as it should be. There was no death. There was no sorrow, no suffering, no…nothing like that, none of the curse that we see today.
But He created man in His own image, gave us a choice, and part of that was because He’s not trying to raise an army of clones. We’re not just robots. He wants sons who know good and evil and absolutely make a choice—a choice against all odds. And so, He allowed what has happened.
We know the story about how He had high-order angels—very powerful angels that He used in the creation. He gave them jobs to do that were specific in carrying out some of the ordering of creation. But of course, the story begins, very quickly, in the beginning of Genesis that one of the key angels that He had given such great power to rebelled against Him. And decided he wanted to be his own god. And so, things have unfolded ever since, according to that.
And of course, he seduced our first parents into throwing off God’s supposed yoke, and embracing his own philosophy that you are your own god, and that’s how you’re going to find your highest meaning in the world. And frankly, if you look around, that’s pretty much how the world lives. That lie still holds.
There are other things I’d like to go into, and I swear almost every aspect of what I’m talking about you could make a message out of, but I’m gonna try, by God’s grace, to, as I say, to paint a bigger picture.
If you want to see a summary of what God says about what happened in the beginning, look at Isaiah 24, familiar scripture. I’m sorry, Isaiah 14—Isaiah 14. One of…hopefully we will see this in a minute. One of Satan’s efforts, to fulfill his dream, had to do with the kingdom called Babylon.
Now Babylon wasn’t even really on the map when Isaiah prophesied this. It wasn’t significant. Let’s put it that way. It was sort of there, but it wasn’t a really significant kingdom. And yet, Isaiah was able, by God’s foresight and knowledge, to see what was gonna happen, that there was gonna be this great kingdom of Babylon that was gonna rise in the earth. And his prophecy looks beyond just the kingdom to its fall.
And one of the interesting things about God, when He prophesies something, when He inspires somebody to prophesy something, there is meaning embedded in that, that goes way beyond anything we could figure out, anything that the prophet himself understood. And so, we’re seeing, not only something that happened in history—in our history, but we’re seeing things that are going to happen at the end of time.
So anyway, God is looking past the human beings who were involved in Babylon and in verse 12, He says, “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star…” (NIV) – Translated Lucifer in the King James – “…Morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
“You said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
The heights of the north…there’s a…in this particular translation that uses Zaphon, that was apparently a Canaanite mountain that was worshipped as sacred. So, it became a symbol of where Satan established his throne over the world, and over the heathen religions of the world. But you see from God’s point of view, looking way past the physical nation of Babylon, He’s looking at the real inspiration behind it.
And we see what happened, in the beginning, where this servant of God, fell to the earth. And we know, from Revelation 12…you see it in symbolic picture as a dragon—a great dragon. And what did it say about the dragon when he did what he did, when he fell from heaven? His tail dragged a third of the stars of heaven.
In other words, I believe it didn’t all happen at once, but I believe, over time, there were many other angels that God gave jobs to. Go down, watch over this people. Go down and watch over this particular nation and this particular nation. And, one by one all of these angels rebelled—joined in the rebellion and became the heathen gods that they worshipped. There were real entities—real spiritual entities that absolutely existed, and they had real power.
And so, Satan began to gather his kingdom. I guess if I had to title all this…praise God, it would be, “Satan’s Dream and God’s Purpose,” because that’s what we live in the middle of. Satan had a dream when he rebelled against God and he has been working relentlessly, ever since, to fulfill his dream, but yet, there is an overriding thing that we need to ever remember, as God’s people, that God has a purpose! There’s nothing Satan can do about it.
( congregational amens ).
Praise God! And so, just look down, for example. I mean, this is everywhere in Isaiah. What a powerful…this is where my reading is right now. That’s one reason that this came to me. But, down later in the same passage, he’s looking at this particular point to the Assyrians, which was another…this was an empire that preceded Babylon.
Verse 24, “The Lord Almighty has sworn, Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen. I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders. This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” Praise God! Praise God!
You know, we know that…I’m not gonna try to go into…there are so many questions you could branch out into. But we know, from later on in Isaiah, that God even created the Devil. Now, He didn’t tell him to be the Devil, but He knew what was gonna happen. And God, absolutely, is using the evil of this world to help to shape us. And so, God knows what He’s doing.
You know, we’re gonna get to the end, we’re gonna realize that God hasn’t made any mistakes, that all the terrible things that have happened in this world have served His ends and His purposes.
But anyway, we see Satan setting out to rule over mankind. And you know, we remember the ancient world, up until Noah’s day, there was a handful of people that God continued to reach out to, to move upon hearts to cause them to realize, hey, I’m God. But most men began to serve their own lusts. They lived according to what they could see, what they could feel, what appealed to them naturally, and they blocked out…you read Romans 1, you get a pretty good picture of what happened. They knew about God but they rejected Him.
And so, there came a day, when it looked like Satan had won. There was one man and his family, Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and he walked with God. What a testimony! May God grant that that be our testimony, regardless of what happens in the world.
( congregational response ).
May we be some who walk in the spirit of Noah, who walked with God, regardless of what happens, because a lot of stuff is gonna happen. But I’ll tell you, God is on the throne!
But even in that terrible time, we see God stepping in. In other words, Satan has been pursuing his dream ever since, but God has continually overshadowed and overruled everything that Satan has done. Thank God! Oh, and we know how the story ends, don’t we? Praise God!
But anyway, we see how that unfolded and God reached a point where judgment was inevitable. He raised up Noah, gave them a provision to build an ark, to preserve life, and what happened to everybody else that was under judgment, as we’ve said many times? Every single one—every air breathing creature, for that matter, on the planet died.
And God started over. And then He commanded men to go out and replenish the earth, and instead they listened to a demon-inspired leader by the name of Nimrod, and they gathered in a particular place in the near east. It’s probably Iraq, today, somewhere in that area. And they decided they were gonna build them a city and a tower whose end would reach to heavens, “…lest we be scattered…” (KJV). We don’t want to be scattered. We want to join forces. You see that spirit at work still? It’s that same spirit.
But God said, We’ve got to do something about this. If We don’t intervene right now, nothing is gonna be withheld from them, “…which they have imagined to do.” And so, God stepped in, and He absolutely confounded their languages. All of a sudden, they woke up one day and they couldn’t understand each other. Different families…everyone spoke in different languages and so, the end result was everybody wound up having to scatter.
And people began to…people did migrate all over the world and that’s the way God intended it be, in the first place. Because He wanted people to be, basically, aware of Him and seeking Him. Always His heart has been to reach out to the human race.
You know, I remember mentioning this one time. How many of you are aware that there is a painting, I imagine it’s someplace in Europe, of somebody’s conception of the Tower of Babel? Anybody remember that? Yeah, there’s a famous painting. And this is what they imagine the Tower of Babel looked like.
Well, guess what? The European Union built themselves a headquarters, and it is an exact replica of that painting of the Tower of Babel! That tell you something about the spirit that’s driving the world today? It’s coming straight out of the heart of Lucifer. It is still part of his dream, to rule over mankind and to unite them.
Now obviously, in the ancient world, it was a communication problem and people were scattered. You would have a powerful nation rise up and they couldn’t influence people too far away because, you know, they didn’t have the internet, didn’t have transportation, didn’t have the stuff we have today.
But anyway, there were nations that rose up and became powerful in varying degrees. Egypt, until God dealt with them. Assyria became a pretty strong empire within its particular reach. But over time, there came to be four major empires that were raised up, one after the other. Daniel was in the middle of one of them and that was Babylon. God raised up Babylon and He raised them up, basically, to carry out His judgment against Israel, against Judah, at that particular time.
They had absolutely rejected God, and were serving heathen idols. They had done worse than the people God sent them in to displace. And so, judgment came. That’s a theme you see in the early chapters of Isaiah. You see God allowing…dealing with a nation, allowing it to go so far, and then its wickedness gets so great that finally He raises up somebody else and makes them strong and puts it in their heart to go over and conquer them and carry out God’s judgment.
And then, later on, you see God dealing with the very instrument of His judgment and saying, you went way beyond what I wanted. I was trying to make Myself known to you and you thought it was because you were great. And now I’m gonna have to judge you.
And so, God is continually intervening. Every time a nation tries to get too big for its britches, God steps in. I’ll tell you, we’ve got a God who rules!
You remember how He taught Nebuchadnezzar? Oh, wow! Did Nebuchadnezzar learn a lesson that he’d tell the whole world about it? God has a way of making Himself known. The seven years that Nebuchadnezzar lived as an animal until God restored him to his throne.
The fact that he got restored to his throne is pretty much of a miracle! I mean, you want a guy to walk in after being seven years living like an animal and say, okay, I’m here to take over again? I mean, the very fact that God saved his place is a miracle. But oh, what was his conclusion at the end of this? There’s a God in heaven. He rules. Nobody tells Him what to do. He rules in the affairs of men, and I want everybody to know about this God. What an amazing God we have!
But the Lord revealed to Daniel a lot of things that were going to happen. How many of you remember we had a message, oh, several years ago now, called, “The Book of Truth”? And, what it was, was simply this. God sent an angel to Daniel in response to three weeks of fasting and prayer. And when the angel got there, he said, God sent me as soon as you began to pray, but I have been engaged in battle with the Prince of Persia.
Now, do you think that was a human being? No, this was a battle in the unseen realm. This was a real battle with a real enemy. And God was basically invading enemy territory. You know there are battles being fought right now that we can be engaged in? God has purposes that He is working out in the earth and He wants us to be engaged and aware. That’s the kind of…that’s the thing that I sense more that God wants to make real to us.
But in any case, he arrives and basically says, I had to fight and Michael, the archangel, the great angel came, and he helped me to fight, so now I’m come to tell you something. And what he’s gonna tell him were things that were going to happen in the future. And he says, I want to show you things in the Book of Truth.
How many of you know when God writes history, it’s not just things that happened, it’s everything that will happen? Do you know history has already been written?
You know, some people will take that and say, oh well, God’s determined everything, so we just sort of sit back and let it happen. No! God has a way to…think how great He’d have to be, to be able to foreknow every choice that every human being makes and to weave out of that a perfect purpose and a perfect plan, in which people will either be a part of His kingdom or they will be destroyed. That’s what it’s coming to. That is how…that’s how real. That’s what’s really happening on this planet. God is absolutely bringing things down to a conclusion.
But anyway, we see these empires that Satan was able to raise up, Babylon. God allowed him to do that. And then Babylon reached a certain point. You remember Belshazzar and the feast? You’ve been, “… weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” And it was that very night the Medes and the Persians came in and took over, and their empire prevailed over the known world of that day.
And there came a day when it was time for God to intervene. They got too big for their britches. They thought their gods had done it and they were so great, and they were wonderful. And God says, time to intervene. He raised up Alexander the Great and the Greeks, who conquered the known world.
Amazing story when you dig into the details of everything that he was enabled to do. But he was a heathen man, and out of his kingdom four kingdoms arose as soon as he died. He died in his thirties. Started out as a teenager, died in his thirties, and four generals split into four kingdoms. And they were at war with one another.
And then eventually Rome came into power. And Daniel was told all about this, particularly in chapter 2, if you want to look it up. There was this tremendous prophecy of what was coming and the different kingdoms that were coming. And one of the things it says was, “In the days….” I’m gonna go ahead and open that up, if you don’t mind. A lot of these scriptures I should have written down so I could easily turn to them, but that’s…chalk it up to old age, or something.
Verse 44. He just told about all these kings and all these kingdoms, “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” (NIV).
Wow! You talk about God’s overreaching plan—overarching plan. I don’t care what the Devil’s dream is. God has a purpose that is being worked out. It is being worked out as we sit here this morning. I know many of you are like me. If you read the headlines at all, you look and say, how in the world could such a thing happen? How could people think that way? It makes no sense! The world has gone crazy.
People are afraid. They don’t know what…I mean, you got people that are progressive and then you’ve got people that are on the other side that have just as bad a spirit, many times. Folks, we need to have the Spirit of Christ and see what He’s doing!
( congregational amens ).
Because our job is not to fix America! Our job is not to fix the world! Our job is to live out the kingdom that he’s talking about here. It’s the Kingdom of Heaven. That’s the one that will last!
( congregational response ).
You remember the scripture, we need to go ahead and read it, because this is back in Isaiah. Isaiah, chapter 9. Oh, how many wonderful, awesome prophecies there are in the Book of Isaiah of what was coming! He prophesied against the people and against the sins of the people, but always there was this sense of looking forward!
And there were things that they didn’t understand, at the time, but God was…it was like God was launching a missile, that creative word that was gonna bring something—gonna make something happen at the appropriate time. I’ll tell you, God knows what He’s doing, knows how to do it. Isn’t it awesome that He involves us?
( congregational response ).
I mean, here was a man named Isaiah. He wasn’t anybody special, but God put His hand upon that man, and put words in his mouth and he faithfully gave them out and they’re recorded for us as well.
And look at the things that God has done. I’ve made this point before, but think about this. When the apostles and others went out to preach the Gospel in the first century, and they read the scriptures, what did they read?
( congregational response ).
The Old Testament. The Gospel is there! Once God opens your eyes to see what that was really about, and it wasn’t just about a natural people, natural kingdoms and all that kind of stuff…what was really in the heart of God that was coming.
Look at verse 6 of chapter 9 that we read so many times. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
Wow! I don’t see any wiggle room in that. I don’t know how in the world the devil manages to deceive himself, but he is one deceived guy. And you know, we’ve made the point many times how God hid what He was planning. His purpose was unfolding. He was interfering enough with the devil so the devil couldn’t fulfill his dream, but all the while He was setting something in motion that was gonna last forever. And I’ll tell you, it came at the exact point in time when God sent His Son into the world.
