Go with me, if you would, back
to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians 13. Our text this
morning will be verse 5. which says, examine yourselves whether you be in the law. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
you be reprobates. Did anybody have a problem with
that reading? I think maybe I got a word wrong
in there somewhere. Let me try that again. Verse
five says, examine yourselves whether you be in the law. Oh, I see it. Faith. Faith. Examine yourselves whether
you be in the faith. I received an email this past
week from a very dear sister in the Lord who lives in another
place. She lives in another state. And
she was expressing in this email her true fear that she was not
one of the Lords. very burdened by it, that she
was not one of the Lord's. And she said, if you have any
scriptures you could send to me, or if the Lord lays it on
your heart to bring a message that might help me in this matter,
she said, I'll be grateful. And the Lord did lay a message
on my heart. It's of the Lord to help any
of us in this matter. It's up the Lord to help any
of us in a matter like this. But I will say that if you belong
to him, you know what she's talking about. You know something of
what she's talking about. You understand why she is in
the place that she is in. And that's something that the
world in general does not know and does not enter into. All
of God's people immediately get what she's saying. And generally
speaking, the world does not. People start out in this world,
generally speaking, convinced that they are saved. People are
born into this world, born into Kingsport, Tennessee, just believing
that they're saved. You know, they grow up a little
bit and they start to learn a little bit here and there. And, you
know, it's pretty common in this area for mom and dad to bring
the kids to church and all that kind of stuff. Men and women by nature are not
saved, but they assume they are. It is in the nature of lost man
to assume and just be convinced of the fact that I'm saved. My
parents are saved. My children are saved. My siblings
are saved. My neighbors are saved. My church
is saved. Every law abiding citizen that
I know is saved. Yeah, that's a good, that's a
good man. That's a good woman. They obey the rules. They have
to be saved. That's the natural mindset of
mankind. And the natural mindset of mankind
will stay that way until God quickens a man or a woman to
his or her own sin. The natural mind of man will
stay that way until God quickens a man or a woman to his or her
own sin. And this is so important. I'm
not talking about the sin of the bad deeds. Everybody gets
that. Everybody feels guilty over that. Everybody wakes up on Saturday
morning feeling guilty about what they did on Friday night. I'm talking about the sin of
the good deeds. That's what I'm talking about.
The sin of the good deeds. People will stay this way and
keep this mindset until God reveals to a man or a woman his or her
total sin. Not just the bad deeds, but the
good deeds. I'm talking about the sin of
self-righteousness. I'm talking about the sin of
pride in thinking we are something when we are nothing. I'm talking about the sin of
assuming on God. That's what people do. They assume
on God. If God ever reveals sin to a
man or a woman, that man or woman will have a changed mind about
his or her standing before God. They will have a changed mind.
about his or her standing before God. All of that assuming will
be stripped away. Assuming, I assume I'm saved,
I assume I'm going to heaven. That'll all be stripped away,
every bit of it. All of that pride, it'll be brought
so low, it'll lay a man or a woman face down in the dirt before
God Almighty. Just ask our brother Nebuchadnezzar. the fear of his holiness. The
fear of his judgment, that's not something people naturally
experience. Men and women are not born into
this world fearing his judgment, fearing his holiness, that fear
of him bringing on us what we deserve for him to bring on us. That's a good sign. That's a
good sign when somebody has that. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. A preacher of the past made the
statement one time. He said, my aim in preaching
the truth of God Almighty, my aim in preaching the truth of
God Almighty is not to get men saved. He said, I'm trying to get men
lost. I'm trying to get men and women lost because that's who
Christ said He came to seek and to save. but lost, that which
was lost. That's what you don't really
find in false religion, truly lost people. You do find people
who are sorry and they feel guilty, but I'm talking about lost. I mean lost, utterly lost. If God doesn't do something for
me, I'm lost. God help me or I'm lost. Now I'll tell you this. If Christ
came to save, to seek and to save that which was lost and
you're lost, he is going to find you and he's going to save you. And he's going to do that through
his word. He is going to do that by His
Spirit. It takes the Spirit of God. It
takes the power of God. This is not by man's might or
man's word or man's anything. This is by God Almighty. God,
by His Spirit, through His Word, will call His people to Himself. Now, let's understand this and
make this very clear. Our Lord saved He saved His people
on the cross of Calvary. He saved His people in the mind,
will, and purpose of God Almighty before the foundation of the
world. And He saved His people on the cross of Calvary when
Christ came and shed His blood to pay that sin debt before God.
At that moment, He eternally saved His people. When He laid
down His life and died, when He said, it is finished, it was
finished. That's it. He saved His people
from their sins, period. But in time, I wasn't alive 2,000
years ago, and neither were you. And in time, as His people come
into this world, He quickens them to a knowledge of what He
did for them. And they see, once they're quickened
and made alive, they see what their sin did to Him. And they realize it was their
fault that he had to endure all that. That was my fault. And then when they see their
sinful flesh is no better now than it was before he quickened
them. I hate to say this, but I'm just
as bad now as I always was. I just realize it now. I realize
more of it now. But when God's people see that
they're just as sinful as they always were, they sink into despair.
They sink into guilt, they sink into shame, they sink into worry. The reason why God's people worry
that they're not one of the Lord's, and it's this way every time.
When there's no knowledge of sin, there's no worry. If you
don't think you've done anything, is anybody worried about you
know, death row at the moment, I don't know. You worried about,
you worried somebody's gonna come haul you off? If you don't
think you've done anything, you're not worried about it. But this is something that I
believe at some point all of God's people experience. I mean,
if you belong to the Lord, he's gonna prove to you you're a sinner.
He's gonna prove that to you. And the reason God's people worry
that they do not belong to the Lord is because they still see
the same old sinful flesh in themselves that they've always
seen. And they say to themselves, if
I'm a child of God, why do I continually break His law and His commandments
to me? If I'm a child of God, I call
myself a child of God? If I'm a child of God, why do
I not, in my flesh, look more like Jesus Christ? Aren't we
called to be conformed to His image? Why is my fleshly will and my
fleshly desires so far from what I know is good and right? Oh, wretched man that I am. Oh,
wretched man that I am. A man named John Newton knew
this feeling very well. He said, "'Tis a point I long
to know. Oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no?" Do
I love the Lord or no? You know, I hath not seen, ear
hath not heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man
the things that God has prepared for them that love Him. All things
work together for good to them that love God. Do I love Him? Do I love Him? Am I His or am
I not, John Newton said. If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? You know what he's talking about. Hardly sure can they be worse
who have never heard his name. Could my heart so hard remain? Prayer a task and burden proof. He said, I find it hard to pray. You know, there's 24 hours in
a day. We sleep eight of them, roughly. That leaves 16. Do you all, I'm sure you don't
spend half your day praying. You probably don't spend 16 straight
hours praying. But what about just a quarter
of your day? Does anybody here spend four hours a day praying?
What about an eighth? Two hours, just two straight
hours. One eighth praying to God. What about a 16th of the
day, one hour? He said, can you not pray with
me for one hour? I mean, really, really, what about, I can't do
the math anymore, what about one minute? One minute of true,
honestly. He said, could my heart so hard
remain prayer, a task and burden prove? Every trifle out there
give me pain if I knew a Savior's love. When I turn my eyes within,
all is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Can I deem myself a child? Am I one of God's? Do I belong
to Him? If I pray or hear or read, sin
is mixed with all I do. You who love the Lord indeed,
tell me, is it thus with you? I'm so contrary to what this
word of God's commandments says I ought to be. How could I belong
to him? How could I belong to him? Here's
how. Here's how. Now let's scroll
through some scriptures together, okay? We're just going to take
a minute and we're just going to read some scriptures. Just
roll through these with me. Let's go to Romans 3. Romans
3, verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is that good news to anybody? By faith without the deeds of
the law. Turn to Romans 9. Verse 11, For the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. It's not of him that willeth. It's not of the willers. It's
not of the runners. It's of God that shows mercy.
Turn with me to Galatians 2. Relations 2 verse 16 says, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. It's not law. Look at Galatians
3 verse 10. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Any soul who has himself
or herself convinced that God is happy with what he sees me
doing here, that's a cursed man or woman. We don't live up. We must obey it in every jot,
every tittle. Verse 11 says, but that no man
is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident for
the just shall live by faith. What is faith? It's looking to
Christ. It's hoping in Christ. It's trusting
in Christ. Verse 12, and the law is not
of faith. The law is not faith and the
law is not of faith. What that means is faith does
not produce the law. Faith produces a heart that looks
to Jesus Christ and trusts in Jesus Christ. Verse 12, the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith, through faith, faith. Look with me at Ephesians 2. Verse 8 says, For by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Walk in what? Them what? The works of Jesus
Christ. His workmanship. God ordained
that we should walk in them. Go to Philippians 3. Verse 4. Paul said, though I
might also have confidence in the flesh, Any other man thinketh
that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
and Hebrew of the Hebrews is touching the law of Pharisee.
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. but what things were gained to
me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ and
be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith, that I may know Him and the power
of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made
conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead." Paul said, I threw away my goodness
of the flesh that I might win the goodness of Christ's flesh.
It's not the goodness of my flesh, it's the goodness of His flesh.
Go with me to 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1 verse 9. The last word
in verse 8 is God. Verse nine says, who hath saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. Whereunto I am appointed a preacher,
and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which
cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed. and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words,
which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus." Paul said, I'm persuaded of this. God has persuaded me
of this. Two more, Hebrews 11. Verse 1, Hebrews 11 verse 1 says, Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for. What are we all hoping
for? Christ. Eternity with Christ. We want
to belong to the family of God. We want to be members of the
family of God in Christ. What is the confidence of that?
What's the ground? What's the substance? Faith.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things
not seen. Not law. Faith. Hebrews 12 verse 1 says, Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset
us." What is the sin that so easily besets us? Not looking
to Christ in faith. The sin of unbelief, unbelief
in the finished accomplishment of Christ, in the keeping power
of Christ, in the word of promise from Christ to sinners like you
and me. Verse 1, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight
in the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God." Verse 3 says,
"...for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds."
He said, so you won't be weary and faint in your mind, you just
look to Christ. Just look to Christ. You just
believe and trust and rest in the good news of what Christ
endured to save sinners like you and me. You believe Him and
rest. We say, I am so ashamed of the
wretched sin that I see in myself. That's what we say. I am so ashamed
of the wretched sin that I see in myself. Yes, God the Father was too. And that's why he sent Christ.
That's why he sent the Lord Jesus Christ to us. It's because Christ
was not ashamed. Call us brethren. Christ was
not ashamed to take upon himself the seed of Abraham. the likeness
of sinful flesh. He was not ashamed to humble
himself as a servant and to become obedient to death, even the death
of the cross. And because Christ was not ashamed
to do all that for us, as us, in us, because he was not ashamed
to do that, we have nothing to be ashamed of before God. We don't need to satisfy the
law. We want to. Let me be clear on this. Every
child of God in here wants to. I wish I did. When we say, oh,
wretched man that I am, what we're saying is I hate this opposition
to the law that I see in myself. I want to be just like Jesus
Christ. One day in glory, we will be
like Jesus Christ. But thank God we don't need to
satisfy the law. Christ satisfied it for us. We
don't need to pay the debt for sinning against the law. Christ
paid it for us. That was His grace to us. That
was His mercy to us. And because He did all that for
us, He is our hope. He's our assurance and our hope.
No, we don't have a perfect obedience to the law in our flesh. We don't.
But we have a perfect hope in Christ's obedience to the law
in His flesh. The perfect obedience that He
endured, perfect obedience He earned, the perfect obedience
He gave. And I'll tell you this, if we
examine ourselves, hoping to see obedience to God and obedience
to His law in our flesh, that's how people read that verse naturally.
When it says examine yourselves, everybody runs to the law. Everybody
does. Examine yourselves, and if we
do that, trying to find that obedience in our flesh so we
can cling to that as our hope of salvation. Yes, I see obedience
here. If we do that, if our efforts to obey and satisfy
the law is our hope of salvation, we're clinging to a hope that'll
never come to pass. And it'll be the evidence that
we do not possess the satisfaction of Christ that he accomplished
for his people. And we're going to die in our
sin of disobeying God and disobeying his law. If we examine ourselves
to see whether or not we live up to the law, assuming that
we do, ignorantly, blindly believing we do, that's the evidence that
God has not opened our eyes to our sin. He has not quickened us to the
reality of the truth, and we don't belong to Him. But if He
has quickened us to our true condition before Him, and if
He has stripped us of everything that we think is worthy to stand
in His presence, and if He's left us with nothing to hold
on to but the life and the death and the mercy and the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ, do you have anything else but that?
Do you have anything else but Him? If that's where God has placed
us, then that's our evidence that we belong to Him. Christ
is all that God's people have. Christ is all that God's people
have. Looking to Christ, hoping in Christ, trusting in Christ,
that's all that God's people can do. That's it. So let's close by reading the
text one more time. Go to 2 Corinthians 13. Second Corinthians 13 verse 5
says, examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith, not the law, not the works of man's flesh,
but faith in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. Alone. Verse 5, he said, prove your
own selves. Prove it to yourselves. Prove
it to yourself. Look deep. Dig deep. Do you see anything good in there? I don't see anything. Nothing
worthy before God? Nothing. You're convinced that
Christ is all you have? I'm convinced. The law is not
in me. Righteousness is not in this
flesh. Sinlessness is not in this flesh. If I don't have Christ, I have
no hope. That's a good sign. That's a
good sign. That's a good evidence. Because
that's the only condition that will not leave a man or a woman
reprobate. That means lost, outcast, rejected. That's the only condition that
will save a man or a woman's soul. Know ye not your own selves
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobate. The condition of Christ alone.
That's all we have. Christ alone. I pray that Christ
alone may live and reign in each one of us, every soul here. I
pray that Christ alone will be our assurance. I pray that will
be our confidence. I pray that will be our comfort.
I pray that'll be our hope. Christ alone. Do I belong to
God Almighty? Well, I'll tell you this, all
I have is Christ alone. Amen. Amen. All right.