Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 813 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Well, praise God! I'm never rock solid certain...you always have to move by faith, and it just seems like I never stand up in a situation like this without having a huge battle ahead of time. And I guess it just goes with the territory. But I just had a...I've guess I've had some of these truths that I believe are at the heart of the ministry beyond the fact that we center in Christ, come to my mind a lot because, as some of you know, I wrote a series several years ago entitled "Sudden Death Overtime" that dealt with the big picture. It seems like my mind goes to the big picture many times.

And I've had people over the years tell me I need to go ahead and put that in a book. Well finally I think the Lord helped me to pull it together and it's actually gonna be out in a couple of weeks, Lord willing. But anyway, it's caused me to have some of those subjects upon my mind. And so, it's with that...let's turn to Luke chapter 41...no, Luke chapter 19, beginning in verse 41. If you can find Luke 41, you tell me.

( laughter ).

You don't have the same Bible I do. You know Jesus preached many wonderful truths. He opened up the Kingdom of God to us through His death on the cross. And the truths that have been preached here are wonderful truths, but you know, we need to see the dealings of God within the context of history. These things just don't happen in a world that goes on and on and on and on and on. There is a history that unfolds and it has a conclusion.

And that fact has been very close to the message...part of the message that I believe the Lord has committed into our hands to share with the Body of Christ, and so let's read some of the things that Jesus spoke to people of His generation, or concerning people of His generation. This was the last time Jesus came to Jerusalem. It was a few days before He was crucified and we know that He came riding on a donkey.

They had a procession and His followers were saying hosanna to the King. And they told Jesus to rebuke His disciples, this wasn't right. And He told them to be quiet, basically...the stones would cry out if they didn't, but in 41, it says this. "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it..." (NIV).

See, Jesus knew something they didn't know. Every human being has some concept of how they expect life to proceed, the world to proceed. And I'll guarantee every Israelite had their ideas as to how history was going to proceed and particularly, many of them, had the Messianic dream...they just had it screwed up. They had a twisted version of it. They had a politicized version of it. There was gonna be a Messiah who would come, who would free them from the shackles of serving Rome, and lift them up, elevate them to a place of honor among the nations, and oh, they would be so great, and the religious establishment saw themselves being lifted even higher than they already were in their own minds.

But Jesus, with the knowledge of God, saw things differently. And so He said this, "...If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes...." Oh there was an anguish. He wasn't angry in the sense that we probably would be. He was certainly angry at some of the things they said and did, but there was still an anguish, there was a love that was reaching out.

He even prayed for His enemies. Oh God, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing...on the cross, of all places. But here they were, He recognized that there was a blindness in them that caused them not to be able to see something God was doing in their midst. "The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another..." Why? "...Because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." The King James says, "the day of your visitation."

( congregational amens ).

You see, history does not simply go on and on. There's a lot of people who have such a sentimental view of God, that they would say, oh God would never do such a thing. Your children are gonna to be dashed to pieces. You're gonna suffer this terrible judgment. Oh, a God of love would never do that. I'll tell you, evil is so evil, and good is so good, I mean the real deal...evil is so evil, good is so good, that God could not be good without hating evil and doing something about it.

( congregational amens ).

It wouldn't be love on God's part to allow the evil of this world to continue, and so we see a repeated pattern in history of God judging at a certain point. And this nation, the nation of Israel was drawing near to that point. And there was therefore a judgment pronounced. He didn't say, now, I'm warning you, if you don't repent, and if you don't have a revival, then things are gonna get really bad. No! He said, this will happen! This was a pronouncement of something that was certain to happen.

( congregational amens ).

And we know how Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost. He didn't say, as I just said, oh, if you'll only...if Jerusalem will only turn to God, turn to Jesus, this Savior we're proclaiming today...you can avoid all the trouble...no! He spoke to individuals and he said, "...Save yourselves from this untoward generation..." it says in the King James. You've got a generation that is absolutely in a lock step headed for judgment. You as individuals need to recognize what's going on and save yourselves from them...their fate is certain.

( congregational amens ).

And there is a pattern that has repeated, as I said, down through history. And I believe it is tremendously relevant today, because that's something that God has revealed in a most unusual way in this ministry. Even the name of the ministry, Midnight Cry has to do with the coming of the Lord and the fact that that lies in our future, and not a distant future, at that.

But we see this same pattern repeated, as I said, in history and the first time that I would particularly focus on is the old world prior to the flood. We saw a long period of history when God sort of allowed things to rock along. He reached out to individuals such as Enoch and others, and there was a fellowship, there were some people among the wicked who served God.

The general trend of humanity, however, was just exactly as it is described in Romans 1. They wanted what their flesh wanted. As a consequence of that they rejected everything that God would say...He was...that was evil, that was interference with what I want to do and so I'm gonna block out that knowledge. I don't want to hear You. I don't want to pay attention to what You want. I'm gonna do what I want. And as a result, they descended into deeper and deeper sin. You can read about it in Romans 1. We see that repeated later, after the flood...after God started again.

But there was this period of time when God did allow the human race just to sort of proceed along. It was a general period, as I say. And then there came a day, though, when God looked down, and He said, man has become so evil that I'm gonna judge him. I'm gonna wipe him out. Again, He didn't say--there wasn't a condition attached. There wasn't...if you will just repent, I'll change my mind. This was declaration of judgment that is coming. It was declared in heaven and God said, it'll be 120 years.

Now, I don't believe that Noah knew that, but God says...the scripture says, Noah found grace in the eyes of God. There was one man out of the entire planet that God looked down, and said there's a man who wants me. There's a man who serves me. He's the only one.

( congregational amens ).

Oh, the faithfulness and the love of God to hold off judgment. You think about...putting up with the evil of the world for the sake of Noah and his family and their preservation, and for the sake of giving a final word of witness to that generation. I'll tell you they had no excuse because Noah was called a preacher of righteousness. Everything that he did, every word that he uttered was in agreement with what God had said and he said I'm not going your way, I'm going God's way. Judgment is coming. You'd better listen. You'd better be prepared. God had given him a means of escaping a judgment that was certain to come.

And so we see one period and then we see this one hundred and twenty year period that was a countdown to judgment. I won't use the sudden death overtime analogy. You can read that later if you want to. But there was literally a clock that began to tick in heaven. Man was unaware that a clock was ticking.

And so Jesus describes what happened before the flood. He said, up until the day that Noah entered into the ark, what were they doing? They were marrying and giving in marriage. They were eating and drinking. In other words, life was normal. If you had asked any of those people, what do you see in the future, they would have said, we're having a party today, it will be the same tomorrow. We're having a wedding today, we're planning a family, we're planning a long future, life is good, we're going on with our lives. I have all ideas that the day of the flood itself, there was a wedding planned. There was a party planned...somebody was going hunting...I don't know, they were doing something, but there was world full of people that woke up that morning and had no clue what was about to hit.

( congregational amens ).

And I'll bet you there were a lot of people among them who would scoff...you heard Jim talk about that lawyer scoffing at the Word of God. We've got a generation today that is increasingly doing that.

( congregational amens ).

They scoff at what this Book says. But I believe that there was people that scoffed at the idea and they said, oh God would never do such a thing...kill us all...what do you mean? He's not like that. Oh, I'll tell you, He was. He was serious, because conditions had become so desperate. You know men can reach a place where their hearts are so hardened against light and against truth that there is no point in going on. Why would you do it? They're not going to change. They're beyond even God's reaching into their hearts...their hearts are just seared over.

( congregational amens ).

God does not deal with men forever. There is a time limit and that's what I was trying to get at in the beginning when I said, the salvation that God has made available is a wonderful glorious truth. But God does not always strive with men.

( congregational amens ).

There is a time limit to this world and its history. You look at the news and the awful things that happen every single day...unspeakable crimes, and...oh my God. Just every trend, every tendency, you see where the world is going. It's incredible. To any of you have lived any length of time, I mean...I just can't imagine what it would be like to be born now, and this to be normal...my God. It's just going downhill as fast as it can go. You have no clue.

But I'll tell you, there came a day...so we had this general period. Then we had a period in which the clocked ticked down, men were unaware and judgment fell. And I'll ask the question I've asked before. How many of them survived that were not on the ark?

-- Congregation: None.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: None. And Jesus said it was gonna be like that when He came, didn't He? That is not being preached, and it needs to be.

( congregational amens ).

Because that's what Jesus said...I don't care what their theology says, I want to know what Jesus said.

( congregational amens ).

I kind of believe He's right. He sort of knew what He was talking about. But you know, there was another period of history in which God dealt with a people, isn't there? He called a man named Abraham...called him to leave his country and to go to land that God was gonna show him. And so he went to Palestine, to that land and he lived there as a stranger among them...lived in tents. And God gave him great promises about something that was to come. In you, in your seed, all the nations of the world will be blessed, and wonderful promises.

And anyway, as time unfolded, we see them down in Egypt. And then we see Moses enabled of God to lead them out of the slavery that they were under in Egypt and eventually, finally after getting a generation of unbelievers out of the way, they did inherit the land. And we see God lifting them up in a sense, separating out from the nations, dealing with them in a very special way. They had access to the Word of God. But, I'll tell you, when you have access to the Word of God, there is a responsibility that falls upon you.

( congregational amens ).

There were tremendous prophets raised up throughout the history of Israel and they prophesied great things that were to come when that Redeemer finally came. There was a new covenant coming. There was this wonderful new time. There was an everlasting covenant that was gonna come. It wouldn't be like this other covenant.

And God was gonna do a wonderful thing, but you know, He never promised to save anybody except a remnant, did He? Paul quotes that Scripture in Romans chapter 9. It's someplace in Isaiah, I think. "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." (KJV). In Isaiah chapter 1, the Lord revealed to Isaiah, unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, what was the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah?

( congregational response ).

It was in a small local area...it was the same thing that had happened in the entire world, and Jesus used that as an example of what's to come. They, too, were buying and selling and doing all the natural things of life, and scoffing at the warnings of God. God got His own...the one righteous man out of there, and what happened?

( congregational response ).

Fire fell. They got up that morning, they had no idea that it was the last day they were gonna live, and fire fell. And Jesus said, it's gonna be just like that in the day that I come. And all of them died.

So here's the nation of Israel, and throughout its history, we find that God preserved a remnant of people who were faithful to Him. It didn't look very good at times. There was day when Elijah stood up for God. He killed the prophets of Baal. He challenged them to a contest. Let's see Who's God. The One that answers by fire, that's the One we're gonna serve. And we know what happened...and in spite of the fact that they doused the altar with barrels of water, God burned up the fire and the altar and the dirt and everything else. He just wiped it all out with fire.

But oh, there was a wicked queen named Jezebel. And she sent word to him, God do this and such and such to me if I don't make your life like one of those prophets by tomorrow and he took off running. And he ran for 40 days and lay down to sleep...I don't remember the exact details, but anyway the Lord...and angel woke him up and gave him something to eat, and said the journey's too great for you, and he went in the strength of that for another 40 days.

He went all the way back to Mt. Sinai. I don't know, maybe he was trying to go back to the roots of everything to figure out what was going on, and there he was. He calls it Horeb. That was the other name of the same mountain. There he was and God finally came to him in that still small voice, and said, what are you doing here? Isaiah said, I've been serving You, and I'm the only one left and there's no point in living. Take my life!

But the Lord didn't pay attention to him at all. He just said here, Elijah, I want you to go here and anoint somebody king over this nation. I want you to go here and I want you to do this, and oh, by the way, I have 7,000 people that have not...

( congregational response ).

Bowed the knee to Baal. But He didn't just say that. He said, I have reserved to myself...there was the Sovereign hand of God that preserved a people within the whole that continued to serve Him. That is who God promised to save. That's all God promised to save...a remnant will be saved.

And so we see Jesus coming on the scene. And it's...Isaiah 60 is...I won't turn there, but you're familiar with the scripture, I know, where it says, gross darkness is upon the people. Darkness covers the earth, gross darkness upon the people. That was a picture of the world when Jesus entered it. The folks that sat in the religious seat of power in Jerusalem...Jesus later called them children of the Devil. He said you are of your father the devil. So we had a false religious system that was camped there and just ruling over the lives of the people, and in spite of that, there was a remnant.

Jesus had some true sheep that were real Israelites in the middle of it. But that was the general condition, and so Jesus came, and His ministry and the work of the cross ended what I would call the general period of God's dealings with the nation of Israel. There was this period up to now. But do you see what Jesus is doing right here where we started reading in Luke chapter 19? He was pronouncing a judgment that was to come. He was announcing a period of time that was going to transpire, and once again, there was a clock in heaven that started ticking. And it was in the awareness of what was coming that Peter said what he did on the Day of Pentecost. You need to save yourselves from this generation. This generation is fixing to perish and that's what's at stake when the Word of God comes to anyone.

And he said the judgment was coming upon them, why? because they did not recognize the time of God's coming. I'll tell you, there is a space of time when God deals with people. There is a space of time when God makes His Word real, when He convicts men of their need of Him, but there is something that happens, depending on how that Word is reacted to. There is something that happens in the human heart when it resists, and says, no and puts it off, there does come a day when you don't care anymore. You can just go on in your life and you will think that everything is fine.

And you know what happened, of course, in the nation of Israel. Things got worse, and worse, and worse...you had a church in Jerusalem, but boy, they had it rough. There was a persecution. First of all, it scattered them. The Lord used that to get them out of Jerusalem so the Gospel would get out, but there continued to be a church in Jerusalem.

But you remember how Paul would write to the churches and say, we're taking up an offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem. There was a reason. Life was hard. The church there had to endure a day when religious leaders didn't like James, the half brother of Jesus who became the leader of the church there. They set him up on a high place in the temple and said, you need to denounce this Jesus that you've been preaching about. And instead of doing that, he gave a ringing testimony for Jesus. What was his reward? They threw him off...threw him down in courtyard and got clubs and began to beat him to death while he prayed for them. I'll tell you, there's a cost in serving Jesus, isn't there?

( congregational amens ).

We've got brothers and sisters in the world, in other places today that are enduring some of those very same things, and worse. I'll tell you, God never leaves them, though. And He'll never leave us.

( congregational amens ).

But anyway, there came a day, though, when what Jesus said actually happened. The Roman army got so tired of the rebelliousness of the Jews that they sent Titus, a Roman general, and he gathered his armies and they set an encampment about. And boy they couldn't have picked a worse time from the standpoint of the Jews. It was the Jewish feast.

Now the fact that they were having a feast tells me what they were expecting. How were they expecting...what were they expecting out of the future? Just more of the same...do you think anyone would have entered Jerusalem had they thought, my God...remember what Jesus said. Judgment is coming. They had no clue. They had so rejected the Word of God that they had no idea what was coming, and so they all are going in there having their religious feast, 3,000,000 people in the city of Jerusalem and the Roman empire closed 'em in.

And if you want to read some of the awful stuff that happened in that...what happened in the next year or two, three, whatever it was. You read some of the history in Josephus. It's pretty gruesome stuff. I'll tell you what...but what happened to God's people? There was a church there, wasn't there? Did God forget 'em? Did He leave 'em in there? No He didn't. There came a day when He warned them. He said there's judgment coming. It's time. I want you to leave, and they left. And so they weren't there. There wasn't a single Christian left in that place. God was faithful to His people.

But do you see once again, you had this general period of God dealing with a nation, and then things reach a point where God says, judgment is coming. the clock starts ticking, it ticks down, and then without warning, judgment falls. I'll tell you, that's what we face in the world today. That same pattern has repeated and I believe that we are drawing near...and I hope to show you a little bit...this is a big subject. Read the book when it comes out again, if you don't remember some of this. I don't want to belabor this with too much stuff. But I believe with all my heart we are in the countdown period.

( congregational amens ).

We have finished with a period of history and we have entered another one. And there is a clock that is ticking in heaven.

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