“Valley of Decision” Conclusion
Broadcast #1607
July 23, 2023
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1607 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text
— Brother Phil Enlow: There are choices being made today that have eternal ramifications. How many know what happens when people persist in pushing the Lord aside, rationalizing their way around this thing that really has…really is the idol that my heart worships? That’s really the thing that’s most important to me that I just won’t give up. I can’t lay that down. You cling to that long enough, when the Lord comes calling, what happens? What happens? There comes a day when the Lord takes His hands off!
How many of you think that you can come to the Lord when He stops helping you? We’re saved by grace. Grace is the divine help that I need to believe and repent. That’s central to it, because I can’t do that. I don’t even have the motivation, the strength. I don’t have anything that it takes to do that. I need God’s influence upon my heart and His strength to do it!
Now, He doesn’t force me to do it. But He makes it possible for me to respond. And if I don’t respond, and I resist that, as Hebrews says, and do, “…despite unto the Spirit of grace” (KJV), despise it, resist it, there comes a day when the Lord says, you’ve made your choice.
The world is in that place. Not only is it in that place, how many of you know that the majority of the world has made its choice? The Devil is…his objective, in this hour, is to unite the world against God. That’s something he has not been able to do, because God absolutely put a limit on him. Through the cross there was a victory that was won. He has not been able to unite the nations of the world and absolutely drive the influence of God out of this world. He’s not been able to do it.
But there comes a period, at the end, where the Lord says, all right. I’ve spoken with the world, I’ve sent out the Gospel, I’ve reached out to the hearts of people. Now…now you’re all gonna come into a valley and make your choice. And I’m gonna let the devil loose to do what he…to follow his dream, and, of course, we know how that turns out. Just when it looks like he has won the ultimate victory, the Lord comes on the scene. Fire reigns down. There is no victory that this devil can win.
But I’ll tell you, we need…I just pray for, I pray for everybody that hears this. Think about some of the examples that we have in scripture. I looked up three references this morning. I’m not gonna look them up. I can just tell you, but Paul had an associate whose name was Demas. How many of you remember Demas? Two different letters, Paul is giving his greetings from people who are with him. Luke was one of them in both cases, and Demas was one of his fellow workers, fellow worker of the apostle Paul.
But there was something down in Demas’ heart that was the true idol, if you will, the true god over what he wanted to do. And so there came a time when Paul had to sadly say, Demas has forsaken me. Why did he do that? He, “…loved this present world.” There was a long time he was an associate of Paul, went through so many things with him, labored with him on the outside, but inside, there was a heart that had never surrendered!
Praise God! I’m want to…I’m hoping that this will get across in two ways, that this will get across the seriousness and the absoluteness of the Gospel on the one hand, but it will also not discourage or make fearful a saint who has a tender conscience and looks at their own weakness and says, oh God, I must be one of those that’s lost!
God wants you to know that He has everything you need. Jesus Christ has given us, is all that we need! Thank God! We’re none of us saved based on our own ability, our own strength. It’s all Him! But it has to be given to Him, doesn’t it? You can’t have something that you hold on to in your heart.
Think of Judas. Up until the Last Supper, the disciples had no idea, the rest of them. They were all sent out to cast out devils, to heal the sick, to preach the coming Kingdom, and there was Judas right among them. But there was one problem. He loved money. Very similar to the rich young ruler, isn’t it? He was there when the rich young ruler was…you know, did what he did.
I’ll tell you, you can get your conscience so seared in a certain area, if you’re not careful. If we ever stop listening to God’s voice in certain areas of our lives, we get to where we can’t hear it anymore. But that man loved money to the point where he was willing, ultimately, to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. My God, what a…I mean, he realized what he’d done. He killed himself, but you think about the seriousness of this.
You contrast that with a woman who was from Moab, one of the enemies of Israel, heathen worshipers, and you remember the story of how Naomi, and her husband, and their sons went over to Moab during, I guess it was a famine of some kind, some kind of problem. And, the men married Moabite women. And the famine ended, and all three of the men died! So Naomi goes back…gets ready to go back to her native country, and the girls love her, want to go with her.
And so she says, please go back, you have no hope coming with me. I don’t have a husband. If I had one, and I had sons, would you wait for them to grow? Go on back. Orpah went back, didn’t she? And it wasn’t that she didn’t love her, but there was something, in the natural level, that absolutely was more important to her than anything.
But what happened with Ruth? Entreat me not to leave you, nor to follow after you. “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.” (NIV). Does that sound like 100 percent identification? Is that what the Lord’s looking for from every single one of us, folks?
This is the valley of decision. There are only two exits out of this valley. One of them is the path of self will where we’re gonna cling to something that comes from our own nature, regardless of what it is. It could be just the desires of the flesh. It could be a religious desire to look good and win people’s approval.
It could be like the Pharisees. Did they think they were in good shape with God? Oh, they were confident in their own righteousness, but they had so closed their minds, their hearts, to what God was saying, His Son stood there in their midst, and they were absolutely blind, and Jesus wept knowing what was coming.
I wonder how Jesus feels right now, when He looks down at our country. Do you not know that judgment hangs over this nation, not just this nation, but the world?
( congregational response ).
To whom much is given, much is required. That’s exactly right. You know, some of the examples in scripture…one of them is one that should be close to our hearts, because it comes from the parable of the midnight cry. You had a situation where it was midnight. It was dark. You had a group of people. Every one of them was a professing follower, a believer in Jesus, because they were all gathered together waiting for the coming of the bridegroom. This was not people off doing their earthly thing. These were people who looked like followers of Jesus, followers of God, and there they were waiting.
And when the time came, half of them found out they did not have what they needed. They had made a profession. They had gone along outwardly, but the heart had never been surrendered! That’s what it comes down to. God had never come to live on the inside, and to take over the throne of the heart.
That’s what we see, and we’ve seen over the years. We’ve seen young people grow up, and all of a sudden, there’s a pull in this direction, there’s a pull in that direction. And sometimes you’ll see them…they’ll go there, and they say well, I can do that again. You’ve got your ideas. I’ve got mine. It’s been so many different ways, but I believe there’s a heart.
The same Jesus we were talking about this morning, His heart deeply longs for everyone who hears these words, to take seriously the valley of decision, because God has a day on His calendar, and it’s not gonna last forever.
And the people who make the wrong choice to follow their own earthly, natural desires, whatever the form…it could be one of these sexual perversions. It could just be self-will. It could be a particular mate, a particular career, a particular thing you want to do, possessions, pride. You name it.
Anything that comes out of human nature that takes the place, that is the central dominating principle of your life where Jesus would say, you lay that down and come and take up your cross and follow Me, and you go away sadly.
But what happens is so many people, as I say, rationalize that desire and feel like, it’s okay, Lord. I can still…I believe in You. I’ll serve You. If I make all that money, think of all the good I can do. Or…I can win this person to the Lord that I’m so interested in. I mean, it just runs the gamut, doesn’t it?
You think back about people that have been here. Do we need to reckon on this day or not? Do you think the Lord has a burden about this? “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” I have no idea what the dates are.
You saw this process play out in the life of Jesus. As I said, He foretold what was going to happen, because they didn’t know the hour of their visitation. They didn’t recognize it. And yet, God waited for decades, and there were thousands among the Jews who did respond. Praise God! They were the true children of Abraham.
They responded to the Gospel right in midst, right under the noses of all these religious leaders, and how did they respond? They persecuted, they killed! They did everything in the world to stamp it out! And there was an absolute divide among the people where people either chose to follow Christ 100 percent, or they absolutely chose to oppose Him 100 percent.
And there came a day when the Lord removed His people from Jerusalem. In this case, He warned them, and they left Jerusalem and they were in a safe place, and the Roman armies came around them, and judgment fell. You know, Paul told about the condition of the people. He said, wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.
It’s awfully easy to get kind of caught up in listening to the world, and almost being in tune with it, almost sympathizing with it. I don’t want a hateful spirit. I don’t want an angry spirit, but I want a truthful spirit, that’s able to tell people the truth in love, and say, Jesus Christ is Lord.
The only reason you were created in the first place was to love and to serve Him and to be part of a Kingdom. Every part of your natural being has been corrupted by a principle called sin. There is only one remedy, and that is that Jesus bore the guilt of your sins that you have committed when He went to that cross, and when He went down into that tomb, He took you with Him if you are really a part of Him, if you really identify with Him, you are laying your life down as surely as He did.
And only on that ground is a holy God able to come and take up residence in us and begin to live His life in us. Or as we sang this morning, it’s Christ in us, isn’t it? That’s the only hope I have this morning. The further I go, the more I realize that I am utterly, utterly unable to live for Him. I have nothing in me to which I can look and say, there’s the strength that I need. There’s the resolve. There is this, there is that. There’s no goodness, there’s no nothing in here but Jesus that I can look to. Is He not enough?
( congregational response ).
Oh, thank God! But this is an hour when people are making choices. And I just want to say, all I can do is put this out there. If there’s something disturbing you this morning, you need to pray. You need to call on God from the depths of your soul and ask Him to give you an honest heart, because if you are in love, or you are married, as it were, to whatever it is your natural being desires to the point where you’re gonna find a way to rationalize that, you’re gonna wind up married to that, and totally unready, totally shocked when Jesus Christ returns, and the fire begins to fall. That’s what’s coming, folks. That is how serious this is.
You know, Paul, when he talks about a living sacrifice, he says, “…be not conformed to this world: but be…transformed…” (KJV). That’s what God has called us to. And I’ll tell you, if you listen to the voices of the world, you listen to these…particularly, these companies that are behind the message that is being trumpeted in our land today, you listen to that, you listen to your friends and the logic that they have to justify what it is that they want to do, if you listen that and let it affect you, is that a good thing?
You see the warning? You see where that leads, where God has literally…this is a time on God’s calendar when men have been called into this place where they’re being told to…all right, make your choice. This is it. You’re either going to bow down to My Son and worship Me and let Me have your life and let me make you fit for My Kingdom, or you’re gonna cling to your nature, and you’re gonna perish with this world. That’s what…that’s the choice that’s being made.
And I’ll tell you, the people who, in one sense, need this the most, they’re not gonna be able to hear it. So many ears are already shut. They can’t hear, just as they didn’t…if they couldn’t hear the Son of God when He spoke on earth, how are they gonna hear Him now? But there are people who can hear this, and I pray for everyone that has ears to hear in any sense. Listen. Call upon the Lord when He is near. When is the day of salvation?
( congregational response ).
Today is the day of salvation. “…Now is the accepted time.” I’ll tell you, when He speaks, and you find a way to deflect that or say, not now, or, I’ll bargain with You, Lord. If I can do this, then, I’ll serve You. Basically, that’s no.
Do you know, do you absolutely know that if you do that, if the Lord will ever come back? That’s a sober thing. I thank God He’s merciful. I thank God He knows, and one thing I see that God is going to reach out, and He’s going to save the last one that will surrender. He hasn’t forgotten anybody. His mercy reaches out and reaches out and reaches out.
He does say, “My spirit shall not always strive with man.” But boy, there’s a striving beyond anything that you and I would do. If we could see, with His eyes, everything that’s going on, man, I think we’d be ready to just pour out fire and brimstone right now. But God is so merciful to reach out.
But there will come a day when it will be everybody, you know, “…he that is holy, let him be holy still.” “He that is righteous, let him be righteous still.” Let him that’s wicked, be wicked still. Every choice has been made. When that happens, there’s nothing left but for God to send His Son to gather His people out of this world. And everyone that’s left behind is going to perish, and then there’s nothing but judgment that follows that.
“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” (NIV). If you are in a valley of decision today, I pray, and believers, pray…if you’ve come through that and given your heart to Jesus irrevocably, you’ve laid it down, there’s no taking it back, pray for those who are in that valley of decision that God will, absolutely, press home the claims of the Gospel, that there will be an honesty of heart about issues that would stand between any person and surrender!
It doesn’t have to be just riches. It could be anything that flows out of this nature. My God, we need Him. Don’t be one of those like the foolish virgins that gets there, and you think, oh, I’ve been in the Bible Tabernacle all my life. I’m good. If you’ve got no oil, you’ve got no life. Jesus has not taken residence in the heart. He’s not possessed the heart.
There’ll be issues, there’ll be battles, but He will take you through every one that you face. He’ll walk with you through life. He will give you so much more than you think you’re giving up. You won’t even be able to imagine it. It’s worth everything to be born again.
( congregational response ).
But if you’re in that valley of decision today, my prayer and our prayer needs to be, oh God, press those claims until they are met with real faith and surrender. And I’ll tell you, there’ll be something to shout about today.
There are two exits out of that valley. One of them is to destruction. The other one is to life that never ends. Thank God that we have a hope in Jesus, because we don’t have one in ourselves. But oh, it means handing Him over the ownership, the throne, any way you want to put it, of our hearts, and letting Him lead us step by step, and He will.
But I pray for God’s people that they will live with the realization of where we’re at, understand the time of history, what’s going on in the world. There’s no point in just getting angry about everything that’s going on. It’s gonna be worse than this before it’s over.
You might as well just say, Lord Jesus, give us courage. Give us strength. Give us wisdom. Help us to shine. Help people to see Jesus in us, not anger. Help people that have a capacity to see light, to see it in us. And help us to be of one heart and one mind and not allow the devil to come in in any form, and hinder the presence of Christ. We need Him like we’ve never needed Him before. Has He not promised never to leave us or forsake us?
Praise God for the hope that He has given to us! But I can’t just walk away from the sense of this valley of decision. Anybody who hears this, anybody who’s here who is in that, I pray with all that I have that God will just convict your heart to the point where you will come down and just give it to Him, whatever the issue is.
What is it that’s holding you back? What is it that would hold you back? See if there’s something that holds you back from doing this, that’s your god. That’s your god. And some day, if you hang on to that, you’re gonna stand before Jesus Christ, and He will say, do you remember when I talked to you? I offered you life, and you were more interested in that boyfriend, that girlfriend, that whatever it was, and you chose that over Me. Do you want to be in that place? I pray that God will bring the conviction of His Spirit where it’s needed this morning. I praise Him for His goodness. Praise the Lord!
