Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 780 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Turn, if you will, to Isaiah chapter 41. Praise God! Jesus is a beautiful name, isn't it?

( congregational amens ).

That's because it means savior, rescuer, deliverer, and that's what we need. That's what I need. Praise God! Well, Isaiah was a prophet who prophesied a couple hundred years...a hundred years...I don't know the exact time...prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and the judgment of Israel. It was a difficult time.

The kingdom of Israel had had a great zenith of power under David. David was a man anointed of God to rally the whole nation and to become the king and they conquered much territory and he brought the people together...established a worship of God and handed the kingdom off to his son Solomon. And during Solomon's early years they built the temple and there was the greatest zenith of power in Israel's history occurred then. They had more territory under their control, and far more than Israel does today. It was quite a time.

But then we know that the nation went into decline. In Solomon's later years, his heart began to wander and there was a spiritual weakness. The lusts of the flesh and various things began to crowd in, and he just wasn't as diligent as he should have been about killing out idolatry and standing against it. In fact, he had wives that brought their idols into his kingdom, and he helped them set them up and all of that.

So when Solomon died, they had a fight among the sons and the kingdom was split. And part of it, the Northern Kingdom went up and set up a capital in Samaria and they continued to use the name Israel but they never, ever, ever had a righteous king. They were always just a...virtually a heathen nation for all practical purposes. There were prophets who were sent to them, and they were persecuted and killed. But there was never a king in the nation of Israel, that particular nation of Israel that ever served God. And so we see them just being judged of God and dispersed among the nations.

But the smaller kingdom, Judah, continued for a time in Jerusalem and that was their capital. Their history generally was downhill with a few little kings who tried to reform things and tried to do away with heathen places of idolatry. But generally it was a downhill run.

But you know, we know from the scriptures that God always, always throughout the history of Israel he had a faithful remnant of people that were faithful, true sons and daughters of Abraham. The nation as a whole was descended from Abraham in the physical sense. But we know from the New Testament that isn't what God really considered His people. What God did, He did for the sake of those that He had preserved.

And we remember the time of Elijah and how bad things had gotten. And boy, he got so discouraged one time...you ever get discouraged? Elijah got so discouraged right after a big victory, too. I mean, there he was facing off against the prophets of Baal, and God just brought a tremendous victory. How would like to be able to bring fire down from Heaven and burn up an altar that you just dowsed with water, and then stand there and see the prophets of Baal defeated and slaughtered before you? Then the queen said, I'm gonna kill you tomorrow. I'm gonna do to you by tomorrow, what you did to the prophets of Baal and he took off running. He was a human, wasn't he? He was very human in his feelings.

But he got away to the...back to the mountain, to Mt. Sinai actually, and was crying out to God and moaning. Nobody ever complains and just says, oh God, what's going on here? What's wrong? But he did. And anyway, he was saying, Lord, I'm the only one left. You might as well go kill me, take my life. There's no purpose in living. Things are so bad. Let's just be done with it. I'm done.

And the Lord just ignored him, and said, I want you to go here and do this, and I want you to go there and do that, and I want you to go someplace else and do something else. Go anoint such-and-such a king and this, and that, and the other. And said, oh, by the way...He didn't put the word 'by the way' in there, but it's...I mean it's like, He told him what to do and then He comes right back and said, I have reserved for me 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

( congregational amens ).

And so God had preserved a remnant. And I'll tell you, that's who Isaiah was prophesying to, because if you read the history....how many of you have that little book that shows the diagrams, the history of the Old Testament? That's really interesting, isn't it? It kind of gives you the sense of the context of what was going on and when.

But anyway...we know from the history that things went downhill, and there was a terrible judgement when Nebuchadnezzar was allowed to come in and to destroy the city. And he carried away the captives, and he came back three different times 'cause they were so rebellious before he finally said, pull the wall down...pull the temple down. Let's be done with this. Scatter 'em. Carry 'em off to Babylon. We're gonna leave a few people here to farm the land, what's left of it, but basically we want to be done with these rebellious people.

But you know even then we see a faithful remnant, don't we? Because in the midst of all of that we have Daniel, and we have Shadrach and we have Meshach and Abednego, and we have Ezekiel who was a prophet among the exiles, and many others. And later on, the Lord restored 'em. And there was a degree of restoration and other people were part of that faithful remnant.

But you know, I believe that the prophecies that begin in chapter 40 of Isaiah and go through the end are great prophesies of the future, but I believe they are looking way past all of that Old Testament history. I believe they're looking to the time of Christ. We see over and over how that God was going to send His righteous servant. And we see in chapter 53 that He was going to be put to death for our sins and our transgressions, and we know that's referring to our Lord Jesus Christ.

But over and over again you will also find references to the Word of God going out to the Gentiles. And we know that God's ultimate purpose was through this faithful Jewish remnant to bring forth a Word of hope that reaches to us today. And I believe that the words here are really applicable just as much to us as they were to any of Abraham's physical descendants because God does not reckon His people by physical descent from Abraham. He reckons it from those who follow the faith of Abraham.

And we are children of Abraham as much as anybody else was, if we are believers in Jesus Christ. Because Abraham, Romans 4, I believe, it tells us is, "...the father of all them that believe..." (KJV). Not the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. And so, there are words of comfort and encouragement in a time which must have been a great time of distress for God's people.

Think about what it would have been like to live. I mean we saw a mighty man of God like Elijah just come to the point where he said I'm done, Lord. Take my life. It was a discouraging time. They looked at every hand and they saw idolatry. They saw their neighbors, and they're going out and worshipping gods. They saw neighbors who were carrying out their firstborn children and sacrificing them to a heathen god. I mean there were things that would cause you great discouragement. You think of the promises of God and then you think of what you're seeing...and wicked kings and wicked queens like Athaliah would come along and just absolutely...the epitome of wickedness. And, it would have been a difficult time but these were words sent from God to encourage that remnant.

Listen to verse 8. "But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend...." (NIV). Praise God! Isn't that a wonderful thing to think that's what God desires from us? Yes, He's a great and a magnificent...and a God that we can hardly comprehend His greatness and His power. But yet there is a desire in His heart that we should not just be little puppets on strings. We should be His friend.

( congregational amens ).

I believe that's what God is doing in our lives. He's wanting us to grow up in our understanding. We are called to be sons and daughters of the living God. And while we act like children most of the time, God's intent is that we grow up. You know even in a human sense, you have little children and the relationship as parent and child, and you basically are responsible to tell them what to do. And they don't have a whole lot of responsibility. At least they're attempting to learn or you're attempting to teach them.

But you know there comes a time when they grow up, when the relationship changes, doesn't it? Or it should. And suddenly you can begin to have an adult relationship with your child. I'll tell you, God desires to have that kind of a relationship with us. And the things that are happening in our lives are designed to bring us to that. Praise God! It makes it a whole lot easier to bear, doesn't it?

He talks about, "...Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, you are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you." Okay, on the basis of that pronouncement, this is God's doing, not ours, is what he's saying. You weren't looking for me. I had a plan and I called you to myself and I declared, you're mine. "So..." on the basis of that, "...do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Praise God! What a promise!

( congregational amens ).

That no matter how things look in our lives, no matter how things look in the world, we have a God who has called us to Himself, and we will not stand because we are strong, we will stand because He is strong who promised, and He is faithful who promised.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! What a promise to His people! "All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."

Praise God! You know this has to be looking way past what they were talking about...in the history that they were having to deal with because we see that they were in fact defeated by their enemies. The nation was. But you know something? God was faithful even in that, wasn't He, to preserve His people?

( congregational response ).

He never left 'em. Even there in Babylon, He was with 'em. He sent 'em prophets to encourage and to explain what was going on, and to give 'em a hope. But I'll tell you, the hope that we have is not one that relates to this world. We're not called to take over the world. And I don't think there's anybody here that really believes that. But there are people...there are teachers in our world today who believe that Christians' destiny is to rise up, and take over the world, and just transform this world into the kingdom of God.

But I'll tell you, it's not gonna happen. God has called us to stand for Him regardless of what happens here, and to put our hope beyond this world in Him. And I'll tell you, we have a hope that will never, ever pass away, because it's a hope that has been given to us by an almighty God!

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! So even though things around us, even though the world, as we say, is going "to hell in a hand basket," God has given us a hope. Praise God! We look at our lives sometimes...or often, and feel like, oh my God I don't have control of anything, do I? Well, you know it's an illusion if we think we have any measure of control. We're just...we live as though something's supposed to be that isn't. Let me go on here because there's a phrase that I want to get to.

In verse 14 it says, "Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you, declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." Now, praise God! Isn't that an interesting way to picture? Here, you're my people. I've called you from the ends of the earth. You have this great destiny, 'you little worm.'

( laughter ).

But you know I believe God is communicating something to us that we need to understand. You know it's hard for us to picture anything more helpless than a worm. What kind of a defense does a worm have? If it gets out in the open, all you have to do is just step on it and squish it...or a robin comes along and picks it up, and you're not even safe if you're down under the ground. The robin will cock his ear and listen to you crawling around, and first thing you know, he'll pull you out. They're basically a pretty helpless creature. They can't bite you. Actually there's one kind that can. Has anybody ever seen a worm snake?

( laughter ).

Most of you...nobody here has seen one? You've seen one, haven't you, Robert? You've heard of 'em anyway.

( laughter ).

No. I saw one. In fact, it was behind your house years ago.

( laughter ).

It looks exactly like a worm, and you pull it out. it has a backbone and it has a mouth on one end. It's called a worm snake. It's very rare, very hard to find because they hide. But I'll tell you, most worms aren't like that. They don't bite. All they can do is lay there and be squished, and they're weak. But you know the truth of the matter is, that's a pretty good picture of what we are without the Lord. We're not so strong, and so smart, and so able as we think we are. If it were not for the grace of an almighty God, every one of us would be crushed in this world.

( congregational amens ).

We're not strong enough for the devil and the forces of darkness that are ruling in this present evil world. We're not wise enough to outsmart him. All he does is dangle the dainties of this world in front of us and let us outsmart ourselves. But I'll tell you, God's people...it'll do us well if we realize that this is exactly what we are, that we are that needy and that dependent upon God, and get off our high horse and say, Lord, I am what you say I am.

Remember the old hymn, "Alas, and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?" You know there's actually churches out there that have changed the words. They say 'for such a one as I.' They don't like to say worm. But I'll tell you, unless we have seen our limitations and what we are before a holy God, I don't think we've got the picture. Praise God!

God did not call them worms because He was trying to just grind them into the ground, and say, you're insignificant, you're nothing, I don't care about you. It was not meant to be a put-down. It was meant to be a statement of fact.

( congregational amens ).

We simply do not have control, folks. We need a great and a mighty God. There are things that happen in our lives, and we wonder why did that happen, what's going on here? I believe God has to remind us many times that we are what He says we are, that we need Him!

( congregational amens ).

And I'll tell you, if you're feeling your weakness in your life because of things that are happening, it's God's mercy, it's not His anger towards you. It's that He would turn you and me toward Him! He wants our hearts turned to Him that He might make us strong, that He might help us. And He stands ready and willing. That's the whole point of this passage.

That's why God saw fit to cause men centuries ago...2500 years ago at least, more than that...to write down these words, to hear them from God, to write them down, have them preserved. Don't you think the devil would loved to have blotted out this Word and caused it not to be transmitted to us today?

( congregational response ).

We have a God who preserved His Word.

( congregational amens ).

And He has said, He exalts His Word above His name!

( congregational amens ).

There's not a word that's written in this book that God will not fulfill. That doesn't mean you and I understand it all, 'cause I don't. Maybe you do, you can explain it to me. But I'll tell you what, there's a God who understands every little stroke of the pen in this book and He knows how to fulfill what He has said. There isn't devil in hell that can stop it. That's why I put my hope in Him!

( congregational amens ).

I praise Him this morning 'cause He is my help!

( congregational praise ).

He's my hope. I believe His words. You know if you exist and you realize, Lord, I'm a worm. I look at me, I'm looking around...the world around me is wicked. People don't care about God. I see the way the world's going...I mean the parallel is obvious...should be obvious to us. Just as the nation of Israel was headed downhill towards a terrible destruction, so is our world headed in the same direction.

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