If you will take your Bibles,
turn with me to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 1. I want to speak to you this morning
from verses 27 and 28, Philippians chapter 1, on this subject, an
evident token. He uses that phrase in verse
28, and he's talking here about suffering. He's talking here
about things that don't appear exactly
the way they're seen and perceived by the world. This man is an apostle, the apostle
Paul, and he's in bondage. He's been wrongfully charged.
He's had false witnesses swear. And his being in bondage down
there is evil spoken of by men who didn't like the gospel he
preached. They spread rumors around he's
a troublemaker. That's all he's about. He's a
troublemaker. Everything he says causes division. Everything he says causes problems. And so now he's down here, and
he's in jail, and he writes this letter to the Philippians, and
he begins to talk to them a little bit about his life, and a little
bit about their life, and a little bit about these things that men
don't too readily perceive. So here in Philippians 1, verse
27, I want to read you several verses here so that you get an
idea of where I'm going with this message. He tells them,
only let your conversation, verse 27, be as becometh the gospel
of Christ. Let it line up, be in accordance
with the gospel that you have received and the gospel that
you heard, that whether I come and see you or else be absent,
I may hear of your affairs, your everyday affairs. your reputation
in the community, that I may hear of your affairs, that you
stand fast in the Spirit, with one mind, striving together for
the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified." Now, let
me tell you what that word is talking about. You're engaged in a battle, and
you've mounted and you're seated on your horse. And the horse
is, as the old prophet described, he's pawing in the valley, he's
ready to go. But all of a sudden he gets a
glimpse out of the side, just a half a glimpse, and he jumps
and he darts aside. That's what he's talking about.
In these everyday affairs of your life, in this, the bed of
your will, These everyday affairs, your
spirit and attitude, he said, don't be terrified by your enemies
by just taking a half look and seeing what's going on. Don't
be like the horse who just gets a glimpse and then jumps sideways,
startled. Don't be startled. There's no
reason to be startled. Nothing terrified by your adversaries,
which is to them an evident token of perdition. What you're seeing
in them, what you're seeing going on, what terrifies you in a second
is just an evident token of their perdition. But to you of salvation and that
of God. For to you it is given in the
behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, that's given
to you. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. To you it is given in the behalf
of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for
his sake. These sufferings have been granted
to you, given to you, and they are to be counted as a privilege."
That's what Paul said. He never, never identified himself
as a prisoner of Rome, did he? He said, I'm a prisoner of the
Lord Jesus Christ. My God and my Savior sits on
a throne of omnipotence. And if He's pleased for me to
be in prison, then I'm His prisoner. If He's pleased to set me out
here out of those bonds and into ministry, I'm His servant. I'm His bond slave. He can do
with me what He will. He's my Lord. He's my Lord. And
it's been given unto Him, not only to believe on His name,
but to suffer for His sake. having the same conflict which
you saw in me, and now here to be in me." Now, look here at
chapter 2. If there be, therefore, any consolation
in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any vows of mercies, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord. of one mind, and
let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness
of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Now, listen
to what he says here, "...who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God." That's a pretty lofty position. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's a pretty lofty position.
Who being in the form of God, bought it not robbery to be equal
with God, but made himself of no reputation. and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,
and being found in fashion as a man," that's humility enough,
he humbled himself. Think about that. The God of glory took on himself
the flesh and bones the nature of a man. That's a pretty good coming down,
ain't it? But as a man, he humbled himself. Even in his humility, he went
further. He went further. humbled himself. And being found in passion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow at things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. This humility came from a sense of purpose
and a sense of loyalty and a sense of duty and a sense of purpose,
eternal purpose. And in order to exalt that glory
of God the Father, he submitted himself to these things. He submitted
himself to willingly the God of glory, becoming a man, and
as a man, humbling himself. Imagine the lawgiver. He who is perfect righteousness
and perfect justice humbling himself to be obedient under
our law. Huh? Why'd he do that? To exalt and manifest the glory
of God. That's why he did it. And the
accomplishment of it is why he sits at the right hand of God.
He loves righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God hath
highly exalted him, giving him a name above every name. Wherefore, my beloved, verse
12, chapter 2, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you both the will and to do of his good place. Everything I
just read to you is an explanation of what Paul says up in chapter
1 and verses 27 and 28. In verse 27, he said, Let your
behavior, your daily walk, your spirit and attitude line up. Be as becometh the gospel of
Christ. The gospel of Christ is where
salvation begins in the believer. That's where it begins. That's
where it starts. That's where you first recognize it. That's
where it's manifested, in the heart. It's not in the worrying of some
preacher who gets you down the aisle. It's not in that old experience
in that Bush Arbor meeting up on the side of the mountain. It's not in some mysterious tongue
that you spoke in when the preacher got you all excited. It's not
in some excitement that you got in a revival meeting. It begins
with the hearing of the gospel. That's where it begins. That's
where this gospel begins. That's where this salvation begins
in the believer when he hears the gospel. How shall they believe
in Him of whom they had not heard? It ain't going to happen. Well, I just believe. I bet you do. I bet you do. But you don't believe on Him. You won't believe on Him until
you hear Him. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. The sovereign Lord of glory divides
this world into two groups, those that hear and those that
are damned. Now, ain't that what he said?
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Now that's what it says. They're
saved and damned. This whole world divided into
two groups. Two groups. Saved and damned. And it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Pleased Him. Why is that important? Because our God, David said,
is in the heavens, and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. You can't resist him, he's omnipotent. You can't out-think him, he's
all-wise. Well, what about circumstance? He's everywhere present, nothing's
going to sneak up on him. It pleased God. through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And I tell you this, fifty variations,
if not in all these variations and varying opinions of God,
we're all just folks in a wheel, and this guy is saying a little
something, and that guy is saying a little something. That ain't
what they... Something, this Bible says something. It doesn't
say everything. It says something. And whatever
this something is divides this world. Huh? Go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel. The gospel. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. It says something. And by the hearing of this gospel
comes a divine work of grace in the heart by which faith and
repentance is established. Now, folks like to talk about
that, whatever it is. It varies with the person. I know in the church I grew up
in, we had a little bench down front. They called it a mourner's
bench. They'd have an altar call after the service, and we'd all
come down the aisle, and we did what the preacher referred to
as praying through. I had no idea what that meant.
I guess you just prayed until you got done when you got done,
you were through. I don't know. But whatever it was, when you
got up from there, he talked to you like you was a saved man.
And him talking to you like you was a saved man sent you away
in confidence, thinking that you was okay. You was in favor
with God, whatever it was. And I watched folks come down
as a child, and I thought, well, I know my daddy wouldn't lie
to me. I know my sisters wouldn't lie to me. I know this man, he
seemed to be a good man up here preaching. I know he wouldn't
lie to me. But what if they were deceived? And they were. Then what? Then what? Then I
went away thinking I was saved when I wasn't. I went away thinking
I received something I didn't receive. And that's exactly what
took place. And it's exactly what takes place
all around. Some folks come down and shake
a man's hand, and by that he welcomes them into the church
and welcomes them into the kingdom of God and sends them away all
fixed up. Some of them have experiences.
Some of them preach this experience or that experience. call men
to the waters of baptism, and some people call men to a catechism. And if you can learn and teach
this catechism and understand it and take the test and pass
the test, you're all signed up. Kind of like getting your driver's
license. You go in there and you take a little test. If you
pass the test, they give you a license. Same thing. Same thing. That's all catechisms are. comes a divine work of grace
in the heart by which faith and repentance." These are not isolated
acts. These are principles, living
principles established in the heart by God. And they weren't
there before. They weren't there before. And
they cause you to turn. That's what repentance is, is
a turning. You begin to turn, just like
that, in an instant. You begin to turn. You begin
to turn from these things that you rested in, and these things
that you believed in, and these things that folks have told you,
and these things that your daddy told you, and somebody else told
you, and Uncle George, and Aunt Sally, and whoever else it is
that you have confidence in told you. And you begin to turn from
them because you're turning to something. You're turning to
something. That's faith. You're turning
from something. That's repentance. Repentance
and faith is established in the heart, and that those living
principles for the rest of your days turns you away from and to. Away from and
to. That's what the subject of Philippians
chapter 1 is all about. It's about this turning. This
turning. This turning. Paul told the church
at Thessalonians, that the gospel came to them, he said, I know
your election of God. Of course, when the gospel came,
it came in power. What's he talking about? He's
talking about repentance and faith established in hearts. Life changing. Direction altering. Recreating power. That's what
he's talking about. The same word we use for dynamite. is that word power, that word
power, dunamis, establishing authority as it came, bringing
with it new principles of life, directing the eyes in a new direction,
establishing an appetite in the soul that never was there. Huh? I went to church because daddy
made me, not to church. I went to church because I loved
my daddy, and he wanted me to be to church. And I went to please
him. Some of you in here, you can say the same thing. The same
thing. But Paul said when this gospel
comes, he said, you've got an appetite. Peter said, if so be
you tasted. Have you ever tasted? Huh? Have
you ever tasted? I had my wife eat a fig the other
day. The first time she ever tasted
a fig. She looked at it, and she was
funny about texture with foods, and it was kind of soft. She
was real hesitant about it. But after she tasted it, she
said, you know, that's good. That's good. That's what Peter
said, if so be you, taste it. Have you ever tasted? Don't talk
to me about believing this and believing that until you taste
it. But I'll tell you when you taste, you can describe it, can't
you? And Paul said, you become followers.
This power of God, this gospel came in power and you become
followers of us. Followers of us and of the Lord. Y'all just think over everything
that man said. He's just a man. Everything he
said. You're just following a man. It's just another cult. This
is just somebody else with this wild, Whatever it is and he's
talking this and you're just following a man. You will too
if you ever hear the gospel. Oh yes you will. Oh yes you will. Paul said, I know your election
of God because you followed me. Huh? A man locked up in prison? A man with a bad reputation?
A man that churches run around saying he don't know God, he's
of the devil, all these things, and you followed him? You bet.
If the power of God comes, you will. Because you'll see through
the lies. And you'll hear what he says.
And you'll say how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings. You'll say it just
like the prophet foretold it. Our Lord said, He said, you go
and preach. You don't take anything with
you. You don't make any preparation. You just go. You're My servant. I'll provide what you need. You
just go. And so they did. And He said,
He that heareth you, heareth Me. Huh? Tell you what it says? People
stomp out here, well, I don't listen to Him. You won't listen
to God. If you listen to God, you listen
to his ambassador. If he ain't his ambassador, then
he's an enemy of God. Huh? That's how clear-cut it
is. He said, you go. Christ was the
gospel, but he told his disciples, you go. You go. And you preach this message to
every creature, and he that believeth and is baptized will be saved.
Believes who? Believes you. Believes your testimony. And he's believing it's not going
to be damned. You mean because he wouldn't take the testimony
of that man? That's exactly what I mean. Turn with me to 1 John. Let me
show you something over here in 1 John. Just mark your place
there. Turn over here toward the end
of your Bible. Just a few books back from the end of your Bible
to 1 John, chapter 5. Now, he goes through these verses,
and he says there are three that bear record in heaven. You see it up there in verse
7? For there are three that bear record in heaven. the Word and
the Holy Ghost, and these three are wounded. That's where the
record is kept. That's where the purpose of God
is recorded and kept and preserved. And you can't get to it, and
you can't change it, and it ain't going to be changed. You know,
we buy a house or buy a car or whatever, we go down to the courthouse
and they record it, and they keep it. So nobody can swindle
you out of that possession. God has recorded all that he
purposed to do in himself. The triune God, it's recorded,
it's kept, and it's preserved in heaven forever. And he sends
witnesses into the earth, don't he? And that's what he talks
about next. He sends witnesses. And there
are three that bear witness. in the earth of that wretched. The Spirit, and the water, and
the blood, and these three agree in one. Now, if we receive the
witness of men, because that is how it is going to come, the witness of God is greater.
This man brings to you the witness of God. He brings to you by the
Spirit of God the truth of Christ and the accomplishments of Christ
in the preaching of the gospel. And the witness of God in that
man that he preaches, that witness is greater than he is. And if
you refuse to hear what he says, what does he say then? You make
God a liar. Isn't that what it says? You didn't just challenge a man.
You looked at the evidence of God and said, I won't have it. I won't have it. I ain't going
to believe it. I ain't going to have it. I'd
rather believe what Grandma said. You're setting Grandma on a pedestal
above God. That's what you do. Well, ain't nobody in my family
believes that. You're setting your family on a pedestal above
God. There ain't but two things to
do. You're either going to receive the testimony of God, or you're
going to look Him right in the eye and say, you're a liar. Now,
that's what it means to hear the gospel. In his second letter to this
same church, to the Thessalonians, in chapter 2, verse 13, he said,
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel. He called you by our gospel. If you were examples to all that
believe in Macedonia and Achaia, 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 8, You
were moved with a missionary spirit, and from you sounded
out the Word throughout the land. You sounded out that Gospel.
Verse 9, you turned to God from your idols. And verse 10, you
learned to patiently wait for His Son from heaven. So you were bought with His blood
and justified when He was raised from the dead. And you've been
delivered from that wrath to come. What am I saying? I'm saying
that salvation is a new creation. It's a change within, within the man. And it comes
through the gospel. It comes through the preaching
of the gospel by the Spirit of God, and we are begotten of Him. Begotten of God. Born again.
Regenerated. And faith and repentance is established
in the heart. The only way that you can know
grace is to experience grace in your heart. Now, we can sing
about it. I can read about it. I can talk
about it. But I can't know it apart from
a work of grace in my heart. I can't do it. I can't do it.
And this experience of grace in the heart is what Paul is
talking about when he says, to work out your own salvation. Salvation is a work of grace
in the heart. And God puts it in, and then
he works it out. For it is God that worketh in
you, he said. I read it to you a few moments
ago. Both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That work
that God puts in you is going to be worked out. He didn't put it in there and
then cover it all up. He said, you don't take a light
and stick it under a bushel basket. We've been studying in Genesis,
and we're talking about the light of God. If creation be created
for the glory of God, then the first thing that has to be done
is light. Nobody's going to see it if there isn't any light.
This work of grace in the heart, it comes with light. And it works
its way out. It can be seen. It has evidences. It has evidences. It's a new creation. And that's
what Paul is talking about when he says, work out your own salvation.
Look back here at Philippians chapter 1, back here in verse
6. I know this is one of Winston's
favorite scriptures here. We've talked about it often.
But if in chapter 1 verse 6, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. If God begins a work, he's not
going to walk away from it. He just ain't. Oh, what about? Ain't no what about. He ain't
going to leave. If he starts the work, he's going
to finish it. My confidence, my assurance in
salvation is that God has begun the work, and he's not going
to stop. He's going to finish what he
starts. If it's with me, I'm going to drop the ball. I ain't
going to make it. John said, they went out from
us, but they were not all of us, for had they been of us,
they no doubt would have continued with us. And you can just make
all excuses you want to. I'm telling you, God says this,
and I believe God. God cannot lie. By his own experience of grace
and his own knowledge of Christ in the heart, that blessed apostle
knew the order in which this salvation is manifest. And so
he prays to God that there be saints And he exhorts his hearers
to its necessity. It's necessary. It's necessary,
he said. This is not an option. This is
not something you can take it or leave it. This is a necessary
thing. Look at this, Philippians 1,
verse 10. He said that you may approve,
that you may see these things and see their necessity, see
how precious they are. But ye may be sincere and without
offense to the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and
praise of God." What am I saying? I'm saying
that it's impossible to know the gospel without an experiential
knowledge of Christ. That's what I'm saying. That's
exactly what I'm saying. We must be brought to see and
to some extent the exceeding sinfulness of our sin. And we
see that when we see Christ nailed to a cross. If He's my substitute,
then that's me on the cross. If that's me on the cross, how
does God react to me? He spits in my face. He hangs me up there and laughs
at me till I die. Ain't that what it says? Ain't
that what they did? Now come on, if he's the substitute,
then that's me. That's me. And I cry out, my God, my God,
why has thou forsaken me? I don't hear nothing. I don't hear nothing. I look at my substitute with
eyes of faith and I see the exceeding sinfulness of my sin. Whatever
sin is, I don't pretend to know the depth of it, but whatever
it is, it was enough for God to take his darling son and nail
him on a cross and allow men to spit in his face striped the
skin off his back, shoved a crown of thorns down on his head and
put this squirrelly little purple robe on him and a reed in his
hand and mocked his kingship. Whatever it is, it is the most
terrible thing that you could ever imagine, whatever sin is.
Cost God His son. To some degree, In your experience
of grace, you're going to experience the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And experiencing that sin, you're
going to cry out to God. You're going to say to yourself,
it's me that nailed him on the cross. He died for me on that
cross. He's my sins, my iniquities. And I tell you this, It's absolutely
impossible for you to experience this grace and not be gracious.
That's what Paul's telling them. Huh? You can't taste of grace
and be ungracious. It can't be done. It can't be
done. It begat grace, and mercy begat
mercy. Our Lord said that He said, I'm
the vine. You're the branches. He said, if the branch is connected
to the vine, what's it going to do? It's going to bear fruit.
Has to. Has to. It has to. It ain't maybe going
to. It has to. I take a branch. I grew up in apple country up
in northern Ohio. You take a branch and graft it
on that apple tree, if the grass took, boy, you can look for apples
on there. I didn't look for grapes, I looked
for apples. I didn't look for thorns, I looked
for fruit. Why? Because it took. It took. That's what he told his disciples.
You're the branches, I'm the vine. You're grafted in. God
grafted you in. You're going to produce fruit.
You're going to produce fruit. They're living principles established
by the rule of Christ in the heart. Believing and turning
is the business of all those that believe. They're always
believing and always turning. And to manifest this work of
God, that it is the work of God, God sends tribulation and trials. He takes His gold, the precious
gold. And he puts it in you, in this
earthen vessel, and then he sends it through the fire. He sends it through the fire.
I've given you this illustration before. There's a fellow traveling
up through the mountains of West Virginia, and he went into this
little gas station and told a man, said, You won't find one gas
station up in them mountains about every 70 or 80 miles. And
he was in this old timely car, told him to fill it up, and he
went in the gas station. While he was in there, he looked
up there on the shelf, and somebody had carved one of these old dead,
clamped hound dogs. old bloodhound. And he looked
up there, and that thing, I'm telling you, it looked like it
was going to walk any minute. That thing was as real as anything
he'd ever seen. And he said, Are them for sale?
And the guy said, Well, yeah. And he said, Well, what do you
want for it? And he told him, and he said,
I'm going to take it. And he gave it to him, and man, when
he got it down here, it was even more detailed than what he sawed
up on the shelf. And he got it down, and he looked
it over, and he said, Where in the world did you find these
clear up here in the mountain? Oh, he said, old Gib out there
whittles these things. Whittles it? He said, yeah. And
he went out there, and there was an old fella out there chewing
tobacco. He was carving, had that pocket knife carving. And
he said, your name's Gib? He said, yeah. He said, you made
this? He said, uh-huh. You made this
out of pieces of that wood? He said, uh-huh. How in the world,
he said, did you ever come up with something as beautiful and
detailed as this out of that old knotted piece of wood? The
old fellow just kept wiggling. He spit, and he said, I just
cut off everything with a hound dog. That's what Paul's talking about.
This work of God he puts in you cuts off everything except what
God's purpose to be. He slices it off. And how does
he do it? In trials, in troubles, in persecutions. He proves beyond all doubt that
this is the work of God and not the work of a man. When Israel went into Canaan,
they went in. And they took it. God gave it
to them. I used to read that and wonder
what in the world was going on. God gave it to them. It was their
inheritance. He promised it in Abraham. I'm
going to give you this land. He took Israel up, and he said,
now go in and take it. Wait a minute. You gave that
to us. Now go in and take it. Huh? They're walled cities in
there. We can't take it. He said, by my name, he said,
I swear by my name, he said, every last one of you, your carcass
is going to rot in the wilderness. You ain't going in. And then
there was some people who were born in the wilderness. They
went in. But when they went in, they strapped on a sword. Now
God did the work. He did the work. He took that
place and drove those enemies out and conquered those places
that was a gift that he gave. But he did it in such a way that
no man could doubt that it was his work that accomplished it.
Read the account. He'd take fifty against ten thousand. Surround the city and blow the
horn. The walls will fall down. Everything he did in that country,
there was no doubt. But they stepped on the sword
and swung the sword and got in the battle, didn't they? That's
what Paul is talking about. This work of God is put in you,
and you're going to swing the sword. But when you get done
swinging it, at the end of your days, you're going to say, Unto
Him who is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless
before the presence of His glory. We've got to take it by force.
And it's not a war of things that you can see, but a spiritual
warfare. He says in Ephesians 6, verse
11, he speaks of standing against the wiles of the devil, wrestling
against principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of
this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places. And
he tells us in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4, that carnal weapons
ain't going to get the job done. Ain't going to happen. What's
he talking about? He's talking about you can't
go out here and rally up and down the street and accomplish
anything. That's what he's talking about. You can't organize into
some vast organization and bring about the kingdom of God. It
ain't going to happen. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but they're spiritual. It takes the weapons of God that
are mighty through God to pull down strongholds and cast down
the imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against
the knowledge of God. And it brings into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's what that warfare
is all about. That's what it's all about. There
is in each and every believer a work of grace that will testify
of its source and its object and its goal. And it is the testimony
of grace that is the earnest token of our inheritance. But
to the unbeliever and all those who deny the gospel, all those
that are damned, this damnation, like the salvation of God's elect,
is a manifest token of their perdition. That's what he's talking
about up here in verse 28. These men that are out here jumping
up and down and railing against Christ and railing against His
picture. That man who hears the gospel
and goes out and picks over every little thing. That man who goes
around in spirit and attitude causing division. Those people
who stir up trouble. Those people who come talking
about endless genealogies and questions that just generate
strife and not edification. And not to the learning and not
to the maturity of the saint. Those folks, he said, what they
do is an evident token of their perdition. And that word perdition
means hopeless loss. Think about it. Hopeless loss. Evident token. What's he talking
about? You go to trial. The judge calls for the evidence.
Somebody brings it in and sets it down. That's an evident token. That's what that is. It's an
evidence. Something you can see. Something
you can see. And Paul says you can see these
things. You can see them. And these things that you see.
rails against the gospel. When a man resists that gospel
constantly, constantly, constantly, he's warned or she's warned,
and they hear it over and over and over and over and over. And
they just get angrier and angrier and angrier. He said this is
an evident token of their perdition. What's that mean? It means it's
an evident token that God is taking His hand off. That's what
that means. I know folks talk, and the language
of Scripture is kind of like that, but we misunderstand it.
Where he talks over there in 2 Thessalonians 2 about sending
strong delusion, God doesn't send delusion. He lifts His hand. That's how He sends it. He just
lifts His hand. It's already there. You're already
deluded. You're deluded by nature. You're
deluded by Satan. He just lifts His hand of restraint
and allows Satan to have his way. That's what he does. And so when he's talking about
evident tokens of perdition, he's talking about God lifting
his hand. That's all he has to do. All
he has to do is lift his hand. You'll go your way. You'll go
according to the course of this world, because we are by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. We'll go our way. All
God has to do is lift his hand. That's evident totally. Let me tell you something. He said, I read it to you a while
ago in John chapter 3 in a Sunday school lesson. He that believeth
not shall not see the light, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. Where the wrath of God abides,
there is no grace. You know what? It ain't there. It ain't there. Where the wrath
of God abides, there is no mercy. There is no wisdom. There is
no kindness. There is no gentleness. There
is no caring. There is no concern. There is
no salvation. But Paul said, these things that
become the gospel, when you begin to have an appetite, And you
begin to have a desire after these things, he said. This is
an evident token to you of salvation and that of God. Do you see what
I'm saying? When we do what we do, we leave the church, we go to
our jobs Monday morning, go out here on the job. Everything we
do in our daily lives, is a testimony of the gospel we hear and of
what this church believes. It's a testimony of everything. This building is a testimony,
this lot, what we say, what we hear, what we wear, how we cut
our hair, how we appear in the community, how we talk, our conversations,
how we act, our spirit and attitude, it all testifies of what we believe. None of it is unimportant. None of it is unimportant. Some
people ask me, why do you wear a suit every Sunday? I know it's
hot in there. Why don't you just wear a t-shirt? I went to a church
here not too long ago. A pastor wore a t-shirt and blue
jeans. Would you walk into the White
House tomorrow morning in blue jeans and a t-shirt if you were
called in to the presence of the President of the United States?
Now come on, you wouldn't do it. You wouldn't do it. You might not have a suit, but
you put on the cleanest shirt you've got, a clean pair of pants,
you take a bag and get a haircut. It'd be important to you how
you look in the audience of the President. We'll talk about coming into
the audience of God. Talk about coming into His presence.
Worshipping Him and talking to Him and we can dress any way
we want to. Huh? Wear our hair any way we want
to. We go out here and live any way we want to. You don't know
this God. If you can do that, you don't
know this God. I'm telling you everything you
do. That's what Paul's telling them. Be careful. Be careful
how you act. Be careful what you say. Be careful
with your attitude and spirit and things that you do in your
daily life. Be careful, because these things
are evident tokens of salvation and that of God. Ain't that what we profess? It's
God that worketh in us, both the will and to do of His good
pleasure, and then we go do whatever we want to. Paul said, you better
be careful. You better be careful.