Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 814 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: I'll try to share just a little bit about why I believe that we are in this last period. And I know many of you know these things. I grew up...most of my boyhood was in the fifties. Some of you are older than I am and some...most of you, I think, are younger. But how many of you remember, I mean really remember the fifties? Yeah. We've got a lot of people here that remember the fifties. It was a different time, wasn't it?

-- Congregation: Yes it was.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: One of your prime time shows--family shows was "Leave It To Beaver." Now any young person growing up today looking at "Leave it to Beaver" would say, "My God, is that dorky?"

( laughter ).

Or whatever word they would use now, I guess. Even that dates me.

( laughter ).

But it was a different world. Oh, I guess some of the other ones you can remember. But it was just a--it was a wholly different world. The value system--there was just a different set of principles in operation. You certainly had plenty of things that were wrong. We've always had that, but there was an order. There were underlying principles to our worldview, to our society.

How many of you now remember the sixties? Oh, was that a tumultuous time. I passed through high school and college in the sixties and some of you did too. And man, something changed--and it changed forever. If you didn't live through that you don't know what in the world it was like. There was a spirit of revolution--spiritual revolution going on.

Something was totally flipped on its...on its head and the spirit that was there wanted to challenge everything--society, religion, morality. That's just old-fashioned stuff. We need to have free sex. Everything goes. You know the university professor who started taking psychedelic drugs and teaching everybody that everybody ought to do that. That was the pathway to reality, I suppose. And just on and on and on, you can go through the things that caused the tumult. And of course, the Vietnam War didn't help any, out of the controversy that it engendered in so many.

And I know when I was in college I was in a sheltered place in many ways, but I was aware and some of you were in secular institutions. And I know that there were underground newspapers on campuses. They were advocating the overthrow of the government. I mean it wasn't just a...it was not just a 'oh we oughta change a few things.' This was militance. I even heard accounts here and there in the private world of militias--private militias, that were marching and drilling.

I mean, it was a terrible time. It was just a...everything just kind of took a turn. Something was in the air. There was a spirit of rebellion--is exactly what it was. That's probably the best single word to capture what was going on. It was a spirit of rebellion just took over in a way that it had never been before and every value was questioned.

And so, you know I took this all in and I was interested in it, but my course seemed to be headed, along with Sue, for missionary service in a denomination. And so in the course of our preparation--I'll try to give you the short version here--we wound up in Asheboro, North Carolina for a couple of years of home service. They were wisely not going to spend money to send us overseas until we were proven--probably a good thing they didn't in this instance.

But, anyway, the Lord used so many different things to get my eyes beyond the limits of where I was. I had been hungry and reaching beyond the walls of the institution I was a part of. I knew there was something more. I knew the Bible said this and the church was like this and that something wasn't adding up. Anyway, in process of time, the Lord, to make a long story short, the Lord did bring me into contact with the work here. Well, this was around January 1969. Now how many of you were here in '67-'68? There's still a good number of you who remember some of the things that happened. And, basically, what happened was God visited this church in a most remarkable way.

( congregational amens ).

You know, we don't emphasize this. We don't just major on this great thing that happened as though it makes us something. We're nothing. But, there's no sense sweeping it under the rug, God did it and it was real.

( congregational amens ).

There was a divine visitation of revelation and you couldn't begin to explain in just a few minutes what all happened--visions and just revelations of every sort that were real. Brother Thomas and the people were very concerned of course. Wanting so much to go by the Word and not be deceived, they sought God. There are some here tonight who were used in visions in that day.

And, so they sought God by every means they knew. They sought to prove was this really God? Did it honor the Word? Did it...was it in harmony with the Spirit of God in every way they could check? Brother Thomas and the people were satisfied. Yes, God is doing something. God is saying something. As I've looked back at that time...I wasn't there when it happened but I was there right afterwards and very familiar with the things that had happened. I believe there were some things that God was specifically revealing that have to do with the course of the age.

Now one of them was to highlight the coming of Jesus and what was gonna happen when he did. And over and over and over and over and over and over again the same picture was drawn--Christ is gonna come, He's gonna gather his own and rain fire upon this world to destroy it.

Well, that's exactly what the Word says. You read 2nd Peter chapter 3 and it's gonna happen suddenly and without warning. That was highlighted time and time again. But that was a future thing and there was no intimation of how long, just that it was coming and it was drawing near. It wasn't way off, but there was no timeframe put upon it.

But there was one thing that just stands out in my mind as I look back and sort of distill in my understanding some of the things that God was showing and that has to do with the loosing of Satan. There was very, very plain revelation that Satan was being loosed as never before. And not only that, there was an occasion, I won't even go into the details...you can read that in the book if you want. But there was an occasion when Brother Thomas had...actually the knowledge was passed to him--this was the last loosing of Satan before the end of all things. This was something he wondered and the Lord said, yes, that's what it is.

Now why would God do something to a small bunch of people in North Carolina? Because we were so great? No, not at all. Not at all. But there is a knowledge that needs to be given out because there is so much deception in this area. I'll tell you what--if Satan isn't loose, I don't know what's going on. But there is a loosing...there is something that took place. There was a restraint. You saw what Paul said here in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. There's a period of time when something is gonna hold this back. Then there's gonna come a time when that is let go.

What I was trying to get to there is this. Why would God take the trouble to reveal through visions and all these other things something supernaturally if the Word says it? Well, surely the Word is all we need. Well, let's look at the coming of Jesus the first time. An angel came to Elisabeth and told her what was gonna happen. An angel came to Zacharias, was his name--anyway the father of John--told him what was gonna happen, told him what to name John, told him why he was coming. This is fulfillment of Scripture. He's coming, you need to do this.

An angel came to Mary and said, you're gonna have a child that's gonna be the Son of God and He's gonna save his people and so forth. And it came to Joseph. See, you had supernatural revelation of things that were in the prophets. When Jesus came the angels came again. They didn't go to the doctors and philosophers in Jerusalem, they went to a bunch of shepherds on the hillside and they said, you need to go and see this child that "...is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (KJV). And so they went. And what did they do? They went and told everybody about it. It was noised abroad throughout the whole land. Special revelation over and over again.

You had some very old people who were faithful to God looking for this to come--Anna, Simeon--and God revealed to them to go into the temple. He's there...on the day when He was in there to be dedicated. And so they were there and they witnessed it. The Lord said now...one of 'em prophesied of what He was and said, now let my servant depart in peace. I've seen the one I've been waiting for.

So over and over again you have special supernatural revelation of something that was in the Word of God and so you have the two working together. It's one thing for God to say, 'Satan is gonna be loosed at the end of the age.' It's another thing for God to say, 'It's happening now.'

( congregational amens ).

And that's what I believe is exactly what the Lord said in that time. And boy, did it register with me having lived through that tumultuous decade of the sixties--the feeling of something in the air...wondering what's going on? And then suddenly God steps in and says Satan is loosed as he's never been loosed before.

What do you expect the world's gonna be like in view of that? There were people who were taken in the Spirit and saw hordes of demons pouring out into the earth and just attacking people right and left. You think anybody could stand up against that? Do you think that maybe, just maybe we need the Lord?

( congregational amens ).

My God! So this is not just a matter of something that's gonna go on and on and on and on. We need to recognize that there's a day right now when God is speaking in the earth. Most people are deaf to his voice now, but there is a voice that is going out. It's God's last call to men.

I can't tell you how long it's gonna go on. It could be a generation or two, but that's not long in God's economy. I don't know. We need to be ready either way. Praise the Lord! The Lord can come tonight as far as I'm concerned, but I don't believe He's quite ready. I don't believe things are quite over, but I wouldn't bank on it, 'cause Jesus said to be ready, didn't He? Praise God!

So, I believe with all of my heart, that's the short form of the subject, but the loosing of Satan is a reality, folks. You want to understand the world you live in. That's what's going on. You've got people, as I say, say that are looking for a rapture to suddenly zap 'em out of this. You've got other people whose theology says, oh, it's just gonna go on and on and on. Eventually we're gonna conquer the world for Jesus. There's theology out there like that. That's not what you hear mostly preached, but its there.

And you talk to people in the world. They've got their expectation of what's gonna come. We need, as God's people, to understand this world that we live in, in light of the Word of God. This is real. Satan has been loosed. What is he doing? He is gathering the nations against the church of Jesus Christ. I don't know what form that's gonna take, but it is happening. We can see the handwriting on the wall in every facet of our society.

There are...the moral underpinnings are being turned upside down and it's just a matter of time--one thing after another. People want to oppose it, slow it down, more power to 'em. Praise God! I'm not against that. But I'll tell you there's no one gonna turn this around.

There's a verse that I hear people preach every now and then. It's...it would have fit in nicely last night. 2nd Chronicles 7:14. "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Well, you hear that preached, oh, if God...if the church would just repent, we could save America. That's not what that's talking about. Nothing wrong with that verse. It's a great verse. It's a great promise to us to what God can do for us. But, you know, why didn't Noah preach that? Why didn't Noah preach repentance and revival and we can change this? Why didn't Jesus and the apostles preach 2nd Chronicles 7:14? Because that wasn't God's message. Because there was a clock ticking in heaven. And I don't care what we did down here, that clock was gonna tick and judgment was gonna fall because God had declared it in heaven.

I believe with all my heart, God has declared judgment on this world. I thank God. I hate the evil of this world. Anyone who loves righteousness at all does. My God, it will turn your stomach some of the things you read. You think God's gonna put up with that forever? There's only one reason He's holding off--because He's not willing for people to perish. I'll tell you, if there's one He can reach, He's gonna be doing it.

But, oh, there's gonna come a time. Look at...you want some confirmation to this, you look at 2nd Peter chapter 3--scriptures we've heard many times. I thank God when we can preach the gospel. I believe, with all my heart, we need to see what we're preaching in the context of history, because that's what Jesus did. He didn't just preach good doctrine. He said there's judgment coming. You need to hear. He said walk while you have the light. Walk while you have the light. In other words, you're not always gonna have the light. There is a timeframe when you need to be...you're responsible to walk in that light. If you don't, what happens? Darkness comes upon you. What happens to that one? The one who walks in darkness doesn't know where he's going. It's a bad place.

Verse 3 of chapter 3, " First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come..." (NIV). Like the one that scoffed in the courtroom there. "...scoffing and following their own evil desires." Their own evil desires--that's the reason they're scoffing. It's the thing that's motivated men from the beginning. They're so addicted to darkness and to sin that they're gonna absolutely resist everything that would attack that and interfere. And so they're gonna scoff at the Word of God. Praise God!

They're gonna say, "...Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." Well, that's not so. It says this, "But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water." How many people teach that in school? Why? There's a deliberateness to forget that. To account for this world by natural means, they're gonna reject the fact that there's a God who created it. If there's a God who created it we're responsible to Him. There's a God who created it. He has a reason. He has a purpose. We'd better find out what that is and be in harmony with that.

( congregational amens ).

But they don't want that. And so they deliberately forget all that. Then it says, "By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed." Okay, so now he's taking the same lesson from history that Jesus did, the flood and the destruction that happened in Noah's day.

"By the same word the present heavens and earth are..." what? "...Reserved for fire..." God's got a reservation for this world. I have all ideas that the day before the fire falls, there will be somebody who will be digging a foundation for some great building. There'll be a wedding. There'll be people planning for a future that will never happen. They'll get up in the morning and that will be the day and the fire will fall and it will burn up everything they've ever lived for.

( congregational amens ).

I'm not saying this. God is saying it. "By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." He's not bound by time. He doesn't...he's not limited to our concept of time scales.

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise..." See, that's the complaint of the world. Oh, everything is going on. Where is the promise of his coming? Don't you worry. It's coming. God's exactly on time. That was mentioned earlier about how God brings things together to draw His own into His kingdom. This meeting may be your time. God's brought everything into focus in your mind and your heart and you see your need of Jesus.

( congregational amens ).

That's the time to say yes and to cast your lot with Him for time and eternity. He's not slow. "...He is patient..." Oh, thank God. Thank God. He's not gonna leave me behind because I don't do everything perfectly. That's a great relief. Thank God! I can trust Him. He's not gonna just blow off anyone of His who just doesn't measure up perfectly. You can trust Him. You turn your heart to Him, He's not gonna leave you behind. "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

But..." In spite of that statement. "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief..." And a thief is not someone you expect to come. You're not sitting there with your shotgun and saying, hey, there's a thief coming. If he's a smart thief, he'll come when you're not expecting him. Well, the Lord is gonna come when this world does not expect Him.

And what's gonna happen? "The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?" That's the question. "You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness."

Oh, praise God! You know someone could hear about the loosing of Satan and all that's coming and become fearful, but I'll tell you, just look at the lessons of history and you'll see the hand of God that has never abandoned even one of his own. He made perfect provision for Noah and his family and they were absolutely safe. Even somebody like Lot, who wasn't probably the best follower of God he could've been. He was living in a bad place in Sodom, but God was faithful. Even though it was time to destroy the place, He sent an angel and got Lot out of there.

I'll tell you what. Even his wife wasn't so good, was she? Jesus even said, remember Lot's wife. What happened to her? Her heart was back there. She turned around to see what was going on. The angel said, don't you look back. She did because that's where her heart was. She turned to a pillar of salt. I'll tell you what--we need to be so decisive in following the Lord that there's no question. That's what it's about.

But, I'll tell you, God is always...you know I mentioned what He did for the people in the church in Jerusalem. How He got them out of there before judgment fell. And you can see that same principle all through the Scriptures of how God is a wall of fire about His people.

There is one place of safety in this hour. It's not institutional Christianity. It's not anything that we have known in a sense. We are on a journey. God has called us out to a journey to walk with Him and to follow Him. The same One that was with Moses and the children of Israel in the wilderness, who led them with a pillar of cloud and a fire by night, is with His people today. That's all they needed. They didn't need a road map. They didn't need provision. He was their provider.

That's what we need to be about. We need to be walking together. We need to be walking with the Lord. He will tell us what to do and when we need to do it. We don't need the road map. We don't need a chart that stretches from one end to the other to tell us what all is gonna happen. We've got Jesus to walk with us.

( congregational praise ).

Praise God! Praise God! That's what it takes. Praise the Lord! I've thought of one scripture that I want to...maybe this will be a good one as any to conclude with, in Luke chapter 21. Jesus is talking about some of these same things. And this is a warning here to people who don't take this seriously--verse 34 of Luke chapter 21. I won't go through the rest of it.

But Jesus says, "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation..." That means just wasting your life on this world. "...drunkenness and the anxieties of life..." Several have talked during this meeting about how this world just takes you over. Its activities and everything will just suck you in if you let it. Be careful.

Do you understand the spirit that's behind this world? Do you understand what's going on, what's motivating, what's driving this society? It's the loosing of Satan. If we understand that we can understand the news. We can have a sense of where we're going. We can have a sense that God has given us, as Jimmy said, a window of opportunity that is not gonna always be with us.

Jesus, in His day said, work while it's day, night is coming when no one can work. I believe we're gonna see a repeat of that in our day, but we have a window right now. That's what we need to be about. We need to be getting God's Word out and helping God's people to be ready. Recognize that we need to be watching for Jesus and walking together until He comes. But, be careful so that you're not caught up in these things. "...and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap."

Do you think an animal is expecting to be trapped when it goes after the bait? He goes in there and that's all he's interested in and--snap. He's caught. That's what's gonna happen to this world. "For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man." I'll tell you there's a place of safety. We don't have to be the least bit anxious or worried about what's coming, but we sure need to be aware and we sure need to take the Word of God seriously.

( congregational amens ).

As I said, if you're one here that's not ready for all of this, you need to hear the Word of God. If he's tugging at your heart, you need to hear and you need to respond and you need to commit your eternal salvation into his hands, because, if you do, you're in a safe place.

Now safety doesn't mean that no one is gonna die as a martyr, nothing bad is gonna happen in the physical, but I'll tell you there's nothing can hinder the Word of God. Nothing can hinder the plan of God. What He has planned is going to happen and not one of His is He gonna lose, because He's got His hand around us and the Father's got His hand around them.

( congregational praise ).

If your life is hid with Christ in God, it's hid in a safe place. Oh, praise God for his goodness!

( congregational amens ).

But just as that generation needed to reckon on where they were in the flow of history, so this generation needs to reckon on the same thing. I believe God wants His people to be warned and to be aware. I don't believe the things that the Lord focused on our attention--so dramatically upon forty years ago was just for no purpose.

We don't seek those things. We want to test them by the Word. We want to go by the Word, but I'll tell you when God steps in and says, what you read about in here is happening and you need to be aware of it, we need to be aware of it and we need to take it seriously. And I believe our younger generation needs to have at least some apprehension of what went on back in those days. You can read more if you want to, if you want to go into that. I'm not trying to spend a lot of time on that, but I'll tell you, it was real and I believe that was the message.

Christ is coming, yes. But, Satan is being loosed and it's the eleventh hour. It's the last hour. We were entering the last hour of earth's history. We are well into it now. So, I'll tell you we need to live as people who understand that. What you plan in your life, you need to factor in where we're at in history. You don't need to look at it like the people in the world look at it. Oh, life's just gonna go on. Life is not gonna go on, not indefinitely. I'll tell you Christ is coming and this world is not gonna be ready. But, I want to be one that's ready, don't you?

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! Praise the Lord.

Return to Transcripts Page

---

---