Good morning. It's good to have
Joy back, even if only for one Sunday. Let's open this morning's
service with hymn number 59 from the Soft Backed Hymnal. Hymn
number 59. Let's all stand together. so The name of the Lord is our great
and high tower. We run to him trusting his infinite
power. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. our savior who died to atone
for our sins is exalted on high and he sovereignly reigns hallelujah
christ is reigning praise jehovah our god sovereign savior we will
praise you we trust you our god Though tempted and tried, we
are not in despair. Our Savior is ruling, so why
should we fear? Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. Yes, Satan may roar, but he cannot
devour. For Jesus has broken the serpent's
dead power. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. God's sovereign decree and his
covenant shall stand, and all who trust Jesus are safe in his
hand. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be looking at
a passage of scripture in Philippians chapter 1 for our Bible study
this morning. Philippians chapter 1, I've titled this message, An
Evident Token. An Evident Token. That's what
I need. I need an evident token. I need
a sign that is sure. One that I can read and one that's
clear. And I think that's what the Lord's
given us in this passage of scripture. So let's pray together and ask
Him to bless His word to our hearts. Our merciful heavenly father,
we do rejoice in being able to declare that thou art a sovereign
savior. Lord, that you sovereignly elected
a people before time ever began. You sovereignly recorded their
names in the land's book of life. You sovereignly slayed thy dear
son. even before time began and then
accomplished that in his death on Calvary's cross in order to
satisfy thine divine justice. We thank you that we have a sovereign
savior who reigns at thy right hand and intercedes on our behalf
and presents himself as our righteousness. We ask Lord that you would open
what no man can shut, and that you would shut what no man can
open. We pray you'd open our hearts to thy word. We pray you'd open your word
to our understanding. We pray you would close our minds
to anything that would be contrary to thy truth. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Last few weeks we've been looking
at passages of scripture where God makes reference to tokens,
says this will be a token unto you, this will be a sign, this
will be the evidence that will point you to Christ. The sign
is not the destination, the sign is the direction. And we saw that in Noah's bow,
the rainbow pointing us to Christ. We saw it in circumcision. pointing
us to Christ. We saw it when Moses was there
on Mount Sinai and asked the Lord, how do I know for sure
that this is of you? And the Lord said, when you come
back to this mountain, you'll worship me without any fear of
judgment of the law. And this will be a token unto
you is what the Lord said. And what a token it was for Moses
to be able to be hid in the cleft of the rock and to worship God
without the fear of God's wrath. We saw that the blood the Lord
refers to that of that Paschal lamb that was to be slain in
Egypt and placed on the door post and the lintel of the houses,
God said this will be a token unto you so that when I see the
blood, when I see the blood, not when I see your efforts or
your will or your works, but when I see the blood then I'll
pass by you, this will be your token. And then this past Wednesday
night we looked at Aaron's rod, the rod that budded, flowered,
and produced full fruit, being a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
as our high priest. And as that rod was placed into
the Ark of the Covenant, so our Lord is Seated at the right hand
of God. He is that mercy seat. God said
here I will meet with you We have a priest whoever lives and
makes intercession for us Here in Philippians chapter 1 we have
another token another word from God that would Be an encouragement
to the believer It would be evidence of our salvation. And I'm always
encouraged with that. I'm always hopeful that the Lord
will show me something that will be an evident token. Some would
say, well, if you want to be sure that you're saved, you have
to evaluate your life by the law and see if you're getting
better. If I do that, I lose assurance of salvation. If I
measure myself by the law, the law has nothing to say to me
but condemnation. But here the Lord says that I've
given you an evident token. I've given you something that
will be sure. And in verse 27, he begins by
saying only, let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel
of Christ. your conversation, your talk, and your walk. Let it be as it comes, as it
becomes the gospel of Christ. That whether I come and see you
or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand
fast in one spirit. Now there's an evident token.
God's people stand fast. They have the same spirit. They
believe the same gospel. They don't, they're not contending,
Christ is not divided. They're not in disagreement over
the truths of the gospel. They may contend over other things.
But when it comes to the gospel, they all see eye to eye. With one mind, that's the mind
of Christ. The Lord gives us the mind of
Christ, he enables us to see him and to believe him. striving together for the faith
of the gospel. There's the evident token. Faith
is the evident token. It's the substance of things
hoped for, it's the evidence of things not seen, it's I believe
the gospel. And the evident of that is that
I have one mind and one spirit with God's people and we are
contending together. We are contending together for
the faith of the gospel. Jude put it like this, he said,
earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to you. God's people do that. God's people
are at odds with everything there is in this world, in their flesh,
in man-made religion, and they find themselves earnestly, as
they grow in grace, they become more earnest, earnestly contending
for the faith of the gospel. It's all they have. It's all
they have, and it becomes more and more evident as they become
more and more at odds with everything else. How is it that we're to contend
for the faith? How is it that we're to strive together for
the faith of the gospel? Well, we're doing it right now.
We're doing it right now. What sayeth the scriptures? We
open the word of God and we seek to understand the truth of the
gospel as it's revealed in God's word. And so Paul told Timothy,
he said, I charge you there before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his coming. Preach
the word. Be instant. in season, when it's
convenient, when everybody here wants to hear it, and out of
season, when it's inconvenient, when someone wants to object
to the gospel, do we take the edge off the gospel? Do we change
the gospel? Do we soften its blow? Do we
take the offense out of the cross? No. No. We preach the gospel
in season, out of season, reprove rebuke and exhort with all long-suffering
and patience. That's what we're doing. And
that's how we're to strive together for the faith of the gospel.
Paul goes on to say in 1 Timothy chapter 4, or 2 Timothy chapter
4, he says that for the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust they shall heap
to themselves teachers having itching ears. They'll gather
for themselves teachers that'll tell them what they want to hear
and they shall turn their ears away from the truth and shall
be turned to fables. Everything outside the truth
of God's gospel, God calls a fable. It's just a fable. There's no
substance to a fable. A fable is just a story. A fable
is just a figment of men's imagination and that's all Man-made religion
is. Man is his own little idol maker. And he's got his own little idol
factory. And that idol factory goes into
production as soon as he's born. He begins to fashion a God that's
altogether as he is himself. And the Lord calls it a fable. A fable can't save. The truth
of the gospel is the only hope that we have. But watch thou
in all things, Paul goes on to say to Timothy, endure affliction,
do the work of an evangelist, and make full proof of thy ministry. Endure affliction, do the work
of an evangelist, and make full proof of your ministry. What
is your ministry? Your ministry is the gospel.
It's the Word of God. That's our ministry. We don't
have any other ministry. We're seeking to declare the
truth of the gospel for the glory of Christ and for the salvation
of sinners. And that's our only ministry.
People talk about going into the ministry to do this and to
do that. God's called you to the ministry. He's called you to preach the
gospel. All right, go back with me to
our text in Philippians chapter one. And in nothing, terrified by
your adversaries, and there will be many. The message
of the gospel is so radically opposed to everything in the
flesh, everything in man-made religion, everything in the world. The only thing that is able to
receive the gospel and to rejoice in the gospel is a faith that
God has given. It's the new heart. Otherwise,
everything else in this world is radically opposed to the gospel.
And the more you grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ,
the more you're going to see that. The more you're going to see
that in your own flesh, the more you're going to see that in man-made,
freewill, works religion, and the more you're going to see
that in the world. I'm just sure of it. I'm sure
of it. That will be your experience.
You know, we if a person moves to a foreign
country, eventually they generally assimilate into that country.
They learn the language, they take on the culture, they fit
in. And the longer they live there
and as generations pass, the more they're able to fit in so
that their children and children's children don't even, you know,
they're just part of the same culture. It's just the opposite
with the child of God. The longer we live in this world,
the more at odds we are with the language and with the culture
of the adversaries of the gospel. And everything is adversarial
when it comes to the relationship to the gospel. The Lord Jesus
Christ said, you're either for me, you're either for me, or
you're against me. There can be no neutral ground
when it comes to the gospel. Look what he says, and in nothing
terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token
of perdition. To them, it is an evident token
of death if they stand against the gospel. And men do. They stand against the idea that
they're a sinner. They can't believe. God has to make you to be a sinner.
To know that everything about you is sinful? To loathe yourself? Men don't believe that. To believe
that our God sovereignly elected a people according to His own
will and purpose before the world began? He did it to please himself,
not taking into consideration anything, any merit or any behavior
that he may have viewed on the part of those he chose. He chose
those things which were not. Men don't believe that. That
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world that his perfect life
of obedience is the only righteousness. Men go about trying to establish
their own righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, for Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. This stands in opposition. And those who are opposed to
these glorious truths about our God and about our gospel, the
scripture says that it is evident token. It is a sure sign of their
destruction. That word perdition means death. It means to be destroyed. So
God says it's an evident token of their perdition. But to you, but to you, it is an evident
token of your salvation and that of God. You see, the evident token is
still in play. It's still part of the thought
here. To them, it's an evident token
of their perdition. To you, it is an evident token
of your salvation and that salvation. is of God. He's the one that
made you to differ. He's the one that called you
out of darkness into his marvelous light. He's the one that brought
you to the place to where you were able to hear the gospel. You did not choose me. I chose
you. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
The salvation's of the Lord. That's what he's saying. To you
it is an evident token of salvation and that of God. It's the Lord's
work. Now, Paul said in Galatians chapter
5 verse 11, he said, if I yet still preach circumcision, if
I still give men something to do. And that's the lie. That's the lie that God has sent
as a strong delusion that everybody believes. You want a good summary
of the lie that everybody in the world believes? Here it is.
Good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. That's
the lie. That's the lie. You determine your own destiny.
And God sent it as a strong delusion for the benefit of his church.
If people didn't believe that, they'd have no motivation for
being good. And we live in a world a whole lot worse than it is. So, there it is. Good people
go to heaven, bad people go to hell. That's the bottom line. Paul said, if I yet preach circumcision,
if I yet preach good people go to heaven and bad people go to
hell, if I yet preach that there's something you can do to earn
favor with God, there's a work that you can perform, there is
a decision that you can make, There is something you can do
in order to prove your salvation. If I give you something to do,
why do I yet suffer persecution? For then has the offense of the
cross ceased. You see circumcision, good people
go to heaven, bad people go to hell, that's circumcision. Circumcision
takes the offense of the cross away. Men are offended by the
cross because the cross says to them that those for whom the
Lord Jesus Christ died, go to heaven. And those for whom he did not
die, go to hell. And he's the deciding factor.
He's the potter, we're the clay. He has the sovereign right over
the same lump of clay to say, to make some vessels of honor
and some of dishonor. And no man can say unto him,
what doest thou? He reigns sovereign in salvation. That's the offense of the gospel.
That's the offense of the cross. Paul said, if I yet preach circumcision,
why am I still persecuted? I'm not preaching circumcision.
The reason I'm being persecuted is because I'm preaching a gospel
that offends the pride of man. To them, it is an evident token
of their perdition. To you, it is an evident token
of your salvation and that of the Lord. Do you believe the
gospel? Now, everything, I want to make
a spiritual application to this. that's much more personal than
just pointing our finger at the unbelieving world and saying
that they don't believe the gospel. This word perdition means to
be put to death. We know that we came into this
world spiritually dead in our trespasses and our sins. We didn't
know we were dead. We thought we were alive. When
the law came, Sin revived and I died. And we, for the first
time when we heard the gospel, God gave us a new nature and
that new nature revealed the old nature for who he was. And
it was the first time we knew that we had an old man. And the
old man wasn't, nothing in the old man was made holy in regeneration. Nothing in him. So he's still opposing the gospel. The gospel's still offensive
to the old man. The old man's still trying to
find something in himself that would be virtuous, that would
be moral, that would be redeemable, something that would earn him
favor with God. That's the old man. And he's
still there. And so the Lord says, in nothing
be terrified by your adversaries. Here's my point. Here's the spiritual
application of this. Your greatest adversary, my greatest
adversary, is your old man. And to him, the fact that he
opposes you, the fact that he's That he's subject to the condemnation
of the law and that he's constantly telling you that he's the accuser
of the new man, isn't he? He's your adversary. And this
gospel, the fact that you have him as your adversary. There
was a time when he wasn't your adversary. Oh, there may have
been a time when you were religious, when you were trying to be outwardly
moral, where you were struggling with a particular behavioral
problem, and you saw that as adversarial. And maybe you turned
over a new leaf. Maybe you got religious. Maybe
you quit that. But that's not the adversary I'm talking about.
The adversary I'm talking about is that old man, that everything
about him is sinful. And you didn't know he was there.
until the new man came in. You were clueless. You thought
your sin problem just had to do with bad behavior. You didn't
know that every fiber of that old man's being was sinful. You didn't know that. But now
you do. And the fact that you know that,
the fact that you have him now as your adversary, is evident
token of his perdition. And you're able to say, come
Lord Jesus, even now come. Oh, I long for that day when
that old man is put in the grave. When the mortal is made immortal
and the corruptible is made incorruptible and I shall see him as he is
and I shall be made like him. What a glorious day that will
be. That's evident token. If you've got an old man that's
your adversary, I mean, you're able to say with the Apostle
Paul, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, I find not. I just can't
do it. When I would do good, I'd do
evil. You see, I'm carrying this. He goes on to say, for I delight
in the law of God after the inner man. I do delight in the law
of God after the inner man, but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to it, the law of sin, which is in my members. Paul says in
Romans chapter seven, the law is spiritual, but I am carnal,
sold under sin. Do you have an old man that's
sold under sin? An old man that can't do anything
right. That's your evident token. It's your evident token of his
perdition and of your salvation. Oh, wretched man that I am. I mentioned this Wednesday night,
a couple people told me they'd never heard that before. I thought
I'd mentioned it before, but. At the end of Romans chapter
7, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death? From what I understand, one of
the punishments that some cultures gave to a person who committed
manslaughter, if it was a murder, you died. But if you committed
manslaughter, perhaps they would just take the corpse of the person
you killed and strap it to your back and make you carry that
stinking, rotting corpse around with you. for a period of time,
however long, I don't know. That's the picture. And Paul
said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death? It stinks, it's rotting. Thanks be to God, through Christ
Jesus, I am free. The new man's the only man that's
free, the old man's not free. Old man's gonna get his perdition.
The evident token of your salvation is the evident token of his perdition. He's your number one adversary.
And everything about him Everything about him is contrary to the
gospel. But here's the good news. Why would God leave it that way?
Because the older brother serves the younger brother. It is your old man that drives
your new man back to Christ over and over and over again. To them, it is an evident token
of perdition. What? The adversaries to the
gospel. And they're everywhere. Turn
with me to 1 Thessalonians. Chapter... I think it's chapter one. 1 Thessalonians 1, beginning at verse 4. 2 Thessalonians, I'm sorry, 2
Thessalonians 1, beginning at verse 4. so that we ourselves glory in
you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all
your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. Every man who follows after Christ
knows what that means. Which is a manifest token of
the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer, seeing it is
a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them
that trouble you. Your old man troubles you, he's
gonna get recompensed. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, to be admired
in them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed
in that day." Here again, an evident token. Do we have some evident tokens? Yeah, it's the two natures that
I now have that I didn't have before. And secondly, it's my
understanding of the adversaries that exist in religion. Man-made
religion is driven by man's will and by man's works. Free will
works religion. And it wasn't until the Lord
taught me the gospel and revealed the Lord Jesus Christ to me that
I understood that this isn't just a matter of you know, differences in doctrine.
This isn't just a matter of having, you know, a different opinion.
This is a matter of life and death. This is a matter of a
completely different God. It's a gospel, every gospel contrary
to the gospel of God's grace and the finished work of Christ
is a message of death. It's a message of death. And
to them, it is the evident token of their perdition. But to you,
it is the evident token of your salvation, and that of the Lord. Can you see the difference? I
mean, really see the difference? Do you understand that the family
members that you love hate God? That they hate God. I'm talking
about your religious, moral people that would do anything, that
they hate God. If you haven't come to understand
that yet, then you don't have the evident token of your salvation. Because once God teaches you
the gospel, you know that everything outside of Christ is at enmity
with God. They hate Christ, they hate grace,
they hate God, and they hate His gospel. The more you grow in grace and
in the knowledge of Christ, the more you will see the difference
between your old man and your new man, and the more you will
see the difference between man-made religion and the gospel of God's
grace. That's why I said, the longer
you live in this world, You don't assimilate. No, you don't. You just become more and more
at odds with everything that there is in this world. If you're
looking for a way to be friends with the world and still be friends
with God, that way doesn't exist. It does not exist. Friendship
with the world is enmity with God. That's what that, here's
the evident token, if you want an evident token. It's the perdition
of the adversaries of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
those very moral, upstanding, law-keeping Pharisees, your father
is the devil. Do you believe that? Has God taught you to the gospel?
Do you have this evident token? That everyone outside of the
gospel, regardless of how moral, how lovely, how kind, how giving,
how religious they are, are in fact devil worshipers? I know that's strong language,
but it's not my language. I'm just telling you what God
says. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ said, your father is the
devil. He's the father of lies. He's
been a liar from the beginning and he's still promoting the
lie. What is the lie? Good people go to heaven, bad
people go to hell. Everybody believes it. Why? Because they're
following in lockstep conformity to the devil. You can't have the evident token
of your salvation without believing what I just said. It's just not going to happen. The world in which we live and
all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, the pride of life, It's all evident token of this
world is slated for destruction. The fire of God is going to fall.
It's going to consume this world. Why? Because this world is at
enmity with God. Everything in the world. Everything. politics of the world, the education
of the world, the religions of the world, everything. It's the
evident token of their perdition. Why? Because they are the adversaries
of the gospel. But to you, it's the evident
token of your salvation. Look at verse 29. For unto you, it is given in the behalf of Christ,
not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.
You're gonna suffer in your own temple, in your own house. You're gonna suffer when you
see your loved ones on the wide road that leadeth to destruction. hating the gospel and loving that lie. And you're
going to see it when you suffer the conflicts that you have in
everything in this world contrary to the gospel. You see, the believing on him
and the suffering, you see that that's two sides of the same
coin. You can't split this coin in half. You just can't do it. Two sides of the same coin. If
you're gonna believe on him, then you're gonna suffer for
his sake. You can't have one without the other. And there's
no salvation without both. It's the evident token. Having the same conflict which
you saw in me, and now here, to be in me. The more you grow in grace and
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bigger that struggle
is going to be between your spirit and your flesh. The bigger the divide is going
to be between the gospel of God's grace and the religions of this
world. and the more at odds you're going
to become with the world in which we live. It's the evident token. Let's take a break. Thank you.