I ask you to take your Bibles tonight and open it to the second epistle of Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 2. I want to share with you tonight a few thoughts on something that has been a real burden of my heart, and I believe something that's probably been a burden to all of our hearts these days as we as we look at what's going on in our world, especially the professing Christian community, many of our Baptist churches, and many of our friends and families seem to be caught up in this, and something that I've looked at in the past and intended to preach, and it seems like the Lord just keeps bringing me back to this verse with the same thought. And I've given tonight's message a really unusual title, not because I'm trying to be cute or trying to be funny, but I'm giving it this title because I believe, especially for us that have a few years on us, we'll understand what it is that I'm talking about. And I'll give some explanation for the younger folks so that they'll be able to understand, too. But I've titled this message tonight, The White Elephant in the Room. the white elephant in the room, and I'll give an explanation about that in just a moment. But let's read the scripture together. Verse 19 says, Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Let's read it one more time. Father, I pray tonight that as I open the Word, Father, that you would take the burden of my heart, the things that you've placed on my mind and so stirred my spirit with. Lord, I feel ill-prepared, not because I haven't studied, but because, Lord, I feel like I'm slow to learn, slow to absorb. But, Father, I pray in the name of Christ that you'll help me to convey the burden of my heart and that which troubles my spirit. And Lord, I pray God tonight that it will be something that we truly and earnestly commit to prayer, Father, tonight, that you'd help us in our witness, Lord, for you to be strong and to stand strong in the Lord and to hold fast the principles of the old faith that we profess. I pray, God, that you would indeed lay your hand upon us, Lord. Touch our pastor as he's at home. Give him grace and strength and recovery in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, let me just give a brief explanation of my title. And again, it's not for the purpose of being cute, not for the purpose of being funny. But I believe that many of us, again, if we're over a certain age, we'll understand that metaphor, that idiom of the elephant in the room. And I took a few minutes to look it up today, where that phrase originated from, et cetera, and what that means. But here's what I found on Wikipedia about that phrase. It's an English language metaphorical idiom for an obvious problem or risk that no one wants to discuss or a condition of what they call groupthink that no one wants to challenge. And what I have kept coming back to and the reason that I've given it this title is there seems to be in modern day fundamentalism and evangelicalism this elephant in the room, so to speak. Some people have called it a white elephant. Some have called it a pink elephant. I've even heard it referred to as an 800-pound gorilla, which is the same idea. It's something that everyone sees and knows is there. but you can't get anyone to talk about it because no one wants to deal with it. And to me, one of the greatest problems that fits that category in our day in the religious community is the issue of people professing to know the Lord and yet their lives are lived in a way that is completely devoid of God, completely devoid of all desire for holiness and for sanctification. and they go on with their lives just like normal before they ever made that profession of faith, there's no change in them, there's no desire to serve the Lord, and yet if you ask them, they would be most insistent that, yes, I do know Jesus Christ as my Savior and that I am going to heaven when I die. And they will do that many times based upon the fact that they came forward in a meeting, that they knelt, that they prayed a prayer, that someone said to them that if you will do this and if you will say this and if you meant it with all your heart, that you now know the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I believe that the scriptures are full of verses and statements by the apostles where this kind of thinking is challenged, where we don't define what being a Christian is ourselves, but instead the Word of God must define what it is to be a Christian. See, you and I, as our pastor has said to us many times, cannot take anybody's word for the fact that we know the Lord. We must take only the Word of the Holy Ghost and the Word of God and prove our pedigree, if you will, and find out what the Scripture has to say about do we truly know the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, it seems like many people in many places are holding on to a profession, they're holding on to something. If you ask them, they may have a date written in their Bible where they got down on their knees and they repeated a prayer, but their lives have not changed. They've gone on just as they were before, completely unchanged, undisturbed in their route, in their pattern of sin. and really and truly on their way to hell and enjoying the trip, but calling it salvation and calling it the Christian life. And this has come to my mind a number of times here lately as I've heard different individuals talk about things going on in their lives and things going on with their children. I don't believe there's anybody sitting in this room tonight that does not want to see their children or their grandchildren in heaven. I don't believe there's anybody here tonight that does not want to see them saved. But I will tell you this, all of our hoping and our wishing and our saying it so is not going to take any of our children or any of our grandchildren to heaven. The only thing that will get them there, the only thing that will get the job done is if they come to God through Jesus Christ and earnestly believe and repent of their sins and trust in Him, the mark of which will be evident because at salvation the Holy Ghost enters into the life of every true believer. He sets up His abode there, He takes up residence there, and he begins immediately to do an extreme makeover of the heart and of the life and of the will. And that will be evident in all of our lives as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now we heard this past Sunday our pastor preach on taking up your cross and following Him. And he emphasized it, that it's a message to the lost man as well as a message to those of us who know Jesus Christ. And it's something that you and I have to do every day. You see, what we have on our hands nowadays is many that are so full of their own self and their own self-will and their own self-motivated desires, but they just want to add Jesus to the equation of their life in order to have respectability, in order to have a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose. They're more interested in keeping up the appearances in their life. and of giving an evidence, at least appearance-wise, to men than they are about truly following on to know the Lord. I believe God's people want to follow on to know Him. When God births us into the family of God by faith in Jesus Christ, He gives us a deep desire to hear His Word, a deep desire to draw close to Him and to walk with Him, a deep desire to have fellowship with those of like faith and of like mind. Now, I will be quick to tell you that the purpose of this message tonight is not so that I can throw rocks at other people's profession of faith. It's not so that I can say, this person says they're a believer, but they don't give any evidence of it. Because I believe the very first and foremost place that each one of us must start in examining this great problem is with our own heart and with our own life. The Bible says that we're to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith or not. In fact, if you'll turn in your Bibles tonight to the book of 2nd or 1st Corinthians, let's see, I'm in the wrong, got the wrong card in front of me here. I apologize tonight. I'm a little scatterbrained and I apologize for that. But the scripture simply says that we are to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith or not. And 2 Corinthians chapter 13 is the verse I'm looking for. 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5. So we're told constantly... that you and I are to be examining ourselves, that we're to be making sure of who we are in the Lord. Verse 5 of 2 Corinthians 13 says, Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate. And so we're constantly told that you and I are to be checking up to making certain of our salvation, to making certain of where we stand with God, and that's something that you and I must be constantly doing to make sure that we're staying in right relationship and right fellowship with God. What I believe is that a true believer cares about their testimony. They care about the reality of their profession of faith. One that is a false professor may just be simply interested in keeping up the appearances, may just be interested in those around him looking at his life and thinking that he's a Christian and yet he wants to do what he wants to do and no one's going to tell him that he can't do it. It's very interesting that in this day and time, we have what I've referred to as the phenomenon of Christless Christians. That is, it seems like there's a whole host of people that want to name the name of Christ, that want to say, I'm a believer, that want to expect to go to heaven, but do not have any desire for the things of God. They do not have any desire to live for God, or to serve the Lord, or to walk in the Spirit, or to be obedient to the will of God. And as it relates to the truth of God, it seems as though, and our pastor preached this on Sunday, it seems as though people abhor Jesus Christ, they abhor the Word of God, they don't want anything to do with anyone telling them what the biblical standard is. But are they saved? If you ask them, absolutely. Are you going to heaven? Absolutely. And they may tell you, again, a date and a time, and with absolute confidence in their voice, that yes, I know I'm saved. And yet, their life does not line up with the Word of God. Well, if you look at the second epistle of Timothy here, you will find the apostle Paul, this aged preacher of the gospel, preparing Timothy for his soon departure and laying upon Timothy the burden and the understanding that, Timothy, this is a warfare that we're in. There are many hardships, there are many difficulties that you will face, particularly as a God-called, Spirit-filled, obedient preacher of the gospel. you will face many a hardship and many a difficulty and many an opposition from the world around you. Because again, there are those who want to insist that their way is right and who will refuse the Word of God and will refuse to walk in obedience to the Word of God. And so the Apostle Paul spends much of this particular epistle reminding Timothy of the warfare that he is fighting in. He reminds him that it's not an easy road. He encourages him over there in chapter 1 and verse 13 to hold fast to the sound words, to hold fast the doctrine that he has heard of him. And why is he telling them to hold fast to it? Because there are many winds of change, there are many who would assault the Word, there are many who would try to change the Word, who would try to direct in a different direction. And I believe what we're seeing today in many of the modern churches is this attempt to go easy on sin. This attempt to convince the people that are in attendance there every weekend, sometimes by the tens of thousands of people, that God's greatest idea is you. That God's best new idea that he's had in a long time is when he created you and they massage people's ego and they're building them up, they say, and they're fattening them up, if you will, like a hen that you've stuck over to the side and you're feeding her so that you can kill her and eat her for Sunday dinner. And that's exactly what seems to be happening in most churches. building the ego, massaging the ego, trying to convince people that they're all right, when the Scripture declares plainly that they're not all right, that they're lost in their sin, and if they die in the condition that they're in, they will indeed go to hell. And as our pastors told us, oftentimes the preachers in these churches are much more interested in the people liking them than they are getting to the Lord Jesus. And I'm telling you, we hear this from our pastor, but it's the reality that's out there. This is the reality that people everywhere are massaging the egos of those who attend their churches, telling them all kind of mushy and gushy things, telling them all kind of things that honestly, in all honesty, just make me sick to my stomach. when I hear how sugary sweet they are and they never give them an ounce of truth, they never give them an ounce of gospel, they never hold before them the fact that God is angry with them over their sin and they must repent and believe the gospel. Well, as the Apostle Paul charges Timothy here in this book of II Timothy, he reminds him that, son, you've got to be strong. You've got to stand strong in the faith and you've got to keep your confidence in the Lord and understand that, yes, you are in a warfare, Your God is with you and He will walk with you and He will keep His hand upon you. And He goes on and He even brings up to Timothy's mind in two or three places here in this epistle, He names names of people who have departed from the faith. He names names of people who have been inconsistent in the faith. And he tells Timothy to stay away from those kind of people and to not walk after their will and after their ways. And he gets over there in chapter 2, around verse 16, and he reminds Timothy to shun profane and vain babblings. And he gives him this warning concerning two men named Hymenaeus and Philetus. whom the apostle says concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some." He said, this is what you're up against, Timothy. You're up against people that will pervert the gospel, that will subvert the truth, that will try to twist the truth and will try to say things that are not true in order to get a following, in order to get people to follow them. But he said, Timothy, your responsibility is to stay with the book. Stay with the book. He tells in there in verse 15 to study, to show yourself approved unto God as a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now he's going to go on in chapter 3 and he's going to remind him and give him some specific warnings about the perilous times that are coming. And I believe that it's interesting when you look at chapter 3 to examine all the things that the apostle says are coming in this day and to remember that he is speaking in a religious context primarily. He is saying that men would be lovers of their own selves, and covetous, and boasters, and proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents. And I believe that primarily he's speaking in a religious context those who claim to be servants of Jesus Christ, and yet their lives and their walk denies their profession, and it denies everything that the Scriptures teach, and he warns him to stay away from those things and to be sure that he stays lined up with the Word of God. And after reminding him that in the days to come that evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, he again reminds him in chapter 3 and verse 14, but Timothy, you continue in the things that you've learned. You see, we've got the good Word of God. We have the good Word of God in front of us. We do not need a substitute. We do not need to change horses in the middle of the stream. We have God's Word, and what He tells us to do is to remember that we are to continue on in it, this Scripture that is given by inspiration of God. This is literally the breath of God put down on paper for us so that we would know the mind of God and to be able to walk in it. And all the false teaching and the false doctrine and the error of any age cannot undo the Word of God. You and I need to cast anchor there. You and I need to affirm our faith that God's Word is true and that we're going to stay with the Book. Have church like God prescribed that we should have church. Follow the will of God as He prescribed that we should follow it. And walk on and follow on to know the Lord. That's the charge that the apostle gave to Timothy and that's the charge that comes down to us. He further went on in chapter 4 and he said, Timothy, I want to charge you again that you preach the Word. Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming and one day all the living and all the dead will stand before Him and is appearing in His kingdom. Timothy preached the Word. Preach the Word. Be instant in season. Be instant out of season. Be faithful to reprove and rebuke and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. He said, because the time is coming, and he emphasizes to him again, The time is coming when men will not endure sound doctrine. I believe we're there in many, many ways today. Men will not endure. They won't have sound Bible preaching. But instead, they'll heap to themselves teachers having itching ears that will turn away their ears from the truth and turn them unto fables. They want those ear-tickling preachers. who will massage their ego, who will build them up in a wrong way, not a scriptural way of edification, but build their ego and build their self-esteem to the expense of their souls. So Paul says, Timothy, you be a faithful preacher. You keep preaching the Word. Now right in the middle of this context, right in the middle, Of all that he is saying here, the Apostle gives in our text verse of 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 19, he gives Timothy something that you and I need to hang on to and understand and take great comfort in and hold on to as our measuring rod and our place where we understand that God indeed has a right way, He has a holy way, He has a true way that this world will never overcome. Again, in spite of the false teachers, in spite of those who have subverted the faith of others, these men there in verse 18 of chapter 2, they were evidently teaching that the resurrection had passed. Now, I listened to Dr. Peter Masters from over what's the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, Spurgeon's Church, and he was saying that what he got from this was that these men were saying that the resurrection of Jesus Christ did not literally happen possibly, and then going on to say that the resurrection of the body was not going to happen. We are told that Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and that we also are risen to walk in newness of life, and at the end, when after we've died, that our bodies will be raised up, and we'll stand before God, and that kind of a thing. And these men were teaching that the resurrection had passed already. Dr. Masters points out that what they were teaching was a spiritualized version, and what they were saying was that there is no true resurrection that is coming, but rather it's a spiritualized resurrection. That is, when you're born again, that you're only resurrected in that way, etc., so that there's not a resurrection of the body to look forward to. The result of it was that they were teaching error, and that the faith of many was overthrown and the faith of many caused many to stumble and to fall away. And right in the middle of that and right after giving that warning, the apostle says to Timothy, nevertheless, now I'm glad for this nevertheless, you and I are facing hard times. You and I are facing difficult times. Nevertheless, that being said, we've got to keep on standing on the truth. So the apostle says, nevertheless, even though they're teaching false doctrine, let's understand that the foundation of God is still in place. The foundation of God's truth is still in place. The foundation of God's gospel is still in place. The foundation of God's church, which he hath purchased with his own blood, is still in place. God has not changed His mind regarding the truth. He has not changed His mind regarding the gospel. He has not changed His mind with regard to the church. And He lets us know that the foundation that God has laid in His truth is still standing and it is still secure in spite of all the assaults of the enemy. I'm comforted greatly to know that tonight. I hope you are too. God's Word is true. God's salvation is intact. God's Gospel is still relevant in this day. And God's Church is that place where He has chosen to work and to move and to call men to Himself. And He's chosen us to preach the Gospel. The Apostle says, Remember, Timothy, that the foundation of God stands secure even in the midst of the assaults of the enemy. And he gives two things here that he says to us is the seal of the fact that God's church and God's truth and God's gospel, this foundation of God that he's talking about here, still stands true. The first one is that the Lord knoweth them that are His. You see, many men may claim to know Christ. Many people may claim to have a relationship with Him. Many people may claim that they are walking with God, but when the end comes, the Lord is going to know and He does know who is His and who is not His. And the Bible speaks of a time when the sheep will be separated from the goats. The sheep will be placed on His right hand and the goats will be placed on His left hand. The Lord knows who His sheep are. In fact, turn back in your Bible to the book of John with me. The book of John chapter 10. And the Lord Jesus was very clear on this in John chapter 10. Our pastor preached on this not too long ago when he preached on these iambs in the book of John. In John chapter 10, And verse 14, here's what the Lord Jesus said, I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. See, the Lord knows who's a sheep and He knows who's a goat. He knows who His saved people are, and He knows who is lost. Look over at verse 27. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." You see, the shepherd knows the sheep, and the Father, God the Father and God the Son, knows His people, and they know who is truly saved, who is truly born again, and who is not. And while a person may make a claim to be walking with God, and they may make a claim that they are saved, that they prayed a prayer, that they walked an aisle, that they did these things, the proof comes when God says, I know you, or if He says, depart from me for I never knew you. The Lord Jesus said, I know my sheep. Verse 24. Well, that's not the right verse there, I'm sorry. But the Lord Jesus says to them, or verse 27 is what I'm looking for, "...My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." And he goes on and says, And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. So you see, Jesus said, I know my sheep. Paul said, The Lord knoweth them that are his. When it all comes down to it, we take great comfort in the fact that God knows who is His. You see, what He is giving here when He says this seal of this foundation of God, a seal is a mark of authenticity. A seal is a mark that something is genuine, that something is real. We have, for instance, a legal document may be sealed with a seal by a notary public or it may be sealed with a seal of the state of Georgia or of the United States, and that marks the fact that it's an authentic document, it is an authentic thing. And so the church's foundation, the foundation of gospel truth, has been sealed with this seal of authenticity. Even the dollar bill that you may have in your pocket this evening, if you were to hold it up to the light, you could see watermarks in that that are seals of authenticity that show that it is genuine and show that it is not a fake and not a phony and not a counterfeit. So He gives us here this seal, the first one being that the Lord knows them that are His. And then the second one, and this is the one that really my heart feels more drawn to tonight, although I rejoice greatly in that first mark there, but also I believe that you and I can tell, as true believers, when we look and we observe our lives and the lives of others, look at what it says in the last part of Our text verse, 2 Timothy 2 and verse 19, it says, And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So there's this twofold seal. One side of that seal is Godward. The Lord knows who are His. The other side of that seal relates to our responsibility in Christ and to what evidence we will give with our lives, and that is that everyone who names the name of Christ, and he's speaking here in terms of authenticity. He's not talking about someone who is an empty professor but one who has been truly born again, who has truly called upon the name of the Lord and been saved and been converted, they will indeed depart from iniquity." In other words, the saved man is not going to go on in his sin just like before he was changed and before he was saved. He's going to abhor that sin. He's going to run away from that sin. He's going to depart from that sin. And he is going to get away from it as quickly as he possibly can. A changed life is the greatest evidence of the work of God in our lives that we can see. That changed life, that life that has been renewed, that life that has been brought out of bondage and into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Now, I found this very interesting. I not only heard Dr. Peter Masters say this, but I read this in a couple of commentaries, that it is believed that what Paul says here is reflective of something that you see in the Old Testament. Turn with me to the book of Numbers chapter 16. Numbers chapter 16. And you may realize that this Numbers chapter 16 is what's spoken of as the rebellion of Korah, where Korah and Dathan and Abiram came up and they said to Moses and to Aaron, you take too much upon you All the congregation is holy before the Lord, and you say that God has told you to rule, and He has told you to lead, and told you to hold the priesthood. And so they literally challenge the God-given authority of Moses, and they challenge the God-given authority and leadership of Aaron. And Moses spoke to them and he gave them warning. And he told them, God is going to show who is the one whom He's placed in authority. But look at what he says here in verse 5. And it is believed that this is reflected in what we've just read in our text verse. where Moses is now speaking to Korah and all his company, and he says, even tomorrow the Lord will show, watch it, who are His. The Lord knows who are His. He knows who His sheep are, and He knows who is holy, and He's going to show here, He says, who are His, and will cause Him to come near unto Him. Even Him whom He hath chosen will He cause to come near unto Him. And then over in verse 26, You see, the Lord knoweth them that are His, there in verse 5. Look at verse 26. He also, now that He has dealt with these men and He is now challenging them and telling them that they are going to witness the power of God, demonstrating who is the chosen one, now in verse 26, He spake unto the congregation. Moses now puts out a warning and a word to those who are not of the company of Korah, and he says to them, the rest of Israel, he says, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins. Dr. Masters and others pointed out that here in this chapter, You have these two things that the Holy Ghost brought to Paul's mind, and he said, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one of you depart from iniquity. Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. And so, this twofold seal reminds us of the authenticity of the foundation of God's truth, and reminds us, and it lays out very clearly for us That if we know God, first of all, God knows us. If you say that you know God, but God doesn't know you, you've got a problem on your hands. And if you say that you know God, and yet you continue to walk on in your sin, unchanged and unhindered and unconvicted, then you definitely have a problem. And I would say that from what the Scripture says, that person who makes such a profession does not truly know the Lord. Now, do Christians sin at times? Yes, we do, to our shame and to our regret. We do sin at times. But let's be reminded that over in 1 John 2, the apostle wrote to us and said, I write unto you that you sin not. It is God's plan for us that we stay away from sin. And then he went on and said, and if any man do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sin. But again, that doesn't change the fact that God's plan, God's purpose, God's ideal for every one of us is that we sin not. You know, the Apostle John also went on to say that he that is begotten of God doth not commit sin. Now, he's not speaking out of both sides of his mouth here. He's not saying that we do sin and then we don't sin. What he is saying here is, and we might understand it better if we were to put it this way, he that is begotten of God doth not commit to sin. We stumble and fall at times. We are flesh. We sometimes are fooled by our own flesh and by our own human and earthly desires and we may stumble and we may fall, but the true believer will never go on in a happy career of sin without being convicted in his heart, without being challenged to turn and repent, because for one thing, the Holy Ghost within that heart will raise a protest and a cry, and He will say to us, you can't go that way anymore, you've got to get right with God. And it will create such a conviction within our heart and such a burden within us and such a friction, if you will. I remember using this illustration. We were out of town this past fall where just before we left town, I realized that the brakes on my work truck were beginning to wear down. And you know how I knew it? I heard that scrubbing sound, that grinding sound. Did you know that when you and I as the people of God get outside of the will of God, if you will, and we begin to stumble and follow our nose like sheep often do and go our own way, I believe that the Holy Ghost will make that grinding in our hearts and He'll say to you and to me, you're not going anywhere until you get this right with me. What did David say about his own sin? David professed that my moisture is turning to the drought of summer. He testified to the fact that for months he'd been miserable. And he pleaded with God that the Spirit of God would not depart from him and would not leave him alone. Take not away the joy of thy salvation or restore to me the joy of thy salvation. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me, he pleaded with God. So in the life of every true believer, when we do sin, when there is a stumbling and a falling and a tripping up and a following of our own senses and our own will into sin, the Holy Ghost will arrest us and He'll convict us and He'll grind on our spirit and on our heart. Why does He do that? Because He loves us, because He knows who are His, and because it's His will that we depart from iniquity. And I believe that the true child of God, the one who's truly been born of God, will indeed say, I cannot stay comfortable outside of God's will. I must get back to God just as quickly as I can. I must flee from that thing that has now gummed up the works of my life and brought my life to a grinding halt. And I must get back in the will of God just as quickly as I can. You see, It's a seal of authenticity that he that nameth the name of Christ departs from iniquity. And I think it's kind of interesting the way the apostle words this here. And in fact, it's very interesting that even though it is something that he is stating as a definite thing, the word he uses is the word let. Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." And I find it very interesting that he uses it that way because I believe that what he's stating here is not only that they will depart from sin, but they're free to depart from sin. You and I have been freed from the old life if we know Christ. We've been delivered from the old life if we know Him. And we are now free not to walk in sin. We are free to walk in the will of God, free to leave that sin behind, those things that we were once bound up to. We are free to leave that behind. Now, this word iniquity obviously is another word for sin, but there's much more to it than that. It means legal injustice. It means the quality, or by implication, that moral wrongfulness of character life or act. In other words, God, Holy Ghost, when He comes within us, He's cleaning up our act, He's cleaning up our heart, He's cleaning up our character, He is changing us day by day and conforming us into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is constantly making me more like the Lord Jesus Christ. He's remodeling my heart. He is taking out the old and placing in the new. He is disciplining me in the Word of God. He is training me. He is chiseling on me. He is hammering on me to make me more like the Lord Jesus Christ day by day. You see, that's what's taking place in the heart and the life of every true believer, everyone that truly names the name of Christ. They are departing daily from iniquity, as our pastor said to us this past Sunday. They are daily taking up their cross and following after Him, and they delight for it to be so, and they rejoice in the fact that God is in control of their lives. You see, a true believer, as we've been told, and as we've been well informed in this church, is one who's happy about the Lordship of Christ over their lives. When I look back at my life before Christ, now the Lord saved me at the age of 13, but I was already on a trajectory, on a path, that if I had continued in that path, you wouldn't know me today, you wouldn't know me to be who I am today, and I'm grateful that God stepped into my life and He cleaned up the mess that my life was, and He planted me on the right road and in the right path, put my feet upon the rock, and He is now Lord and Master over me, and He gave me the ability to depart from my sin, and He's cleaning my heart, and He cleansed my spirit, and He cleansed my life by the will of God. You see, that's a mark of authenticity. So not only do we have this phenomenon of Christless Christians that we see represented here in this book, plus also in the world around us and the religious world around us, but we have what I'm going to refer to as the prototype or the proof of Christian confidence. You see, you and I can rest in the fact that God is not confused about who's saved and who's lost. God is not confused. You and I have to wait to see the proof in the pudding. We have to wait and see. And I believe that it will bear out in our own lives as well as in the lives of those around us who is truly converted. Because those that are converted will grow in grace. Those that are converted will follow on to another Lord. They'll care about their character. They'll care about their soul, they'll care about their testimony, they'll care about living a life that is pleasing to God by Jesus Christ. So he gives us here this prototype or this proof of the fact that we can be confident about what a true Christian really is. A true Christian is one whose life has been redeemed by the grace of God. And a true Christian will be evidence to those around them by the fact that they begin from that point to no longer walk in the paths of sin, but they begin to walk in the path of righteousness. That's our desire. Now, not one of us has arrived yet. Not one of us has gotten to that place where we can say, I am the perfect example of what a Christian should be. But thanks be to God, He's still working on me. He's still chiseling away on me. He is still directing me. He is still guiding me and leading me by the will of God and showing me what His will is for me. Again, I mean to throw no rocks tonight at anybody. But again, when I see someone who professes to know Christ, who professes that their children know Christ, and a lot of times they may say, I was there when they prayed the prayer. I was there when they bowed the head. But has the life changed? Is the life changing? Have they moved on with God from point A to point B? Are they moving ahead? Are they growing in grace? And so this tonight has been the burden of my heart to share this and to preach this word to you tonight and remind us that you and I don't need to be caught up in this world. There is a white elephant in the room, and I believe it's very prevalent in our fundamental and evangelical circles. But the Bible says, first of all, that the Lord knoweth them that are His, and secondly, that let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Growth and grace, I believe, can be seen. It can be evidenced in a life that is well-pleasing to God by Jesus Christ. Christian, do you desire to walk with God? Do you desire to follow on to know the Lord? Or is this smugness overcoming you? Is this contentment to be in your life of sin still there? Well, I believe if there is still a contentment to stay where you are, to not move forward, to not walk with God, that you need to examine yourself. You need to determine if you're truly in the faith or not. You need to give all diligence, as Peter said, to make your calling and election sure. And that's a mark of a true believer right there. That's someone who will follow on to know God and walk in obedience to His will. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your truth. Thank you, Father. I know that I've done a very poor job of representing this tonight, but I pray, Lord, that some way that you will indeed cause this truth to grow in our hearts and grow in our minds and help us to follow on to know you. And Father, we pray for our lost loved ones and family members and those, Lord, that we're concerned about who may profess faith, who may profess godliness, but in works they deny Him. Lord, I pray, Lord, it's a kindness when you show us our sins so that we can get right with you. It's a kindness when you convict our hearts so that we can follow on to know you. And I pray, dear Father, that you would indeed do so. Help us, Father. Help us to stand strong. Help us to stand in the Word of God. Thank you, Lord, that you're not confused, that you know them that are yours. And we thank you, Father, that that mark of everyone who names the name of Christ will depart from iniquity. Thank you that we are free to leave our sin behind and walk with you. In Jesus' name, amen.