Turn, if you would, in your Bibles
to the book of 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. The last chapter, chapter 13.
2 Corinthians 13. Paul begins this portion by saying,
this is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or
three witnesses shall every word be established. I told you before
and foretell you as if I were present the second time. And being absent now, I write
to them which heretofore have sinned and to all other, that
if I come again, I will not spare. Since ye seek a proof of Christ
speaking in me, which is to you, word, is not weak, but is mighty
in you. For though he was crucified through
weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God, For we also are
weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God
toward you. 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 reprobates. But I trust that ye shall know
that we are not reprobates." Now, in this church at Corinth,
to whom this and the other epistle are written, they were a church
and assembly of people that had problems. There was an epidemic
of preacher worship. One said, I'm of Apollos. The other said, I'm of Cephas. The other said, I'm of Christ. And you can be assured that wherever
there is an emphasis or an elevating of a particular preacher, there
is a de-elevation of the one he is to preach, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That was one of the problems. And then they also in this church
had a problem among some wherein their moral conduct was not consistent
with the gospel of grace. Those saved by grace are motivated
by the grace of God to obedience to those things which honor,
not dishonor, the Lord Jesus. And then there were those, as
Paul mentions here, who questioned his preaching. They questioned
as to whether or not Christ was really speaking to them through
him. And what he says in this verse
5 simply flows out of what he has just said in verse 3. where he said, since you seek
a proof of Christ speaking in me, you're questioning as to
whether or not Christ speaks to me or through me, and you
question therefore what I teach you concerning Christ and His
gospel. And so what the Apostle Paul
does here in this letter, being led by the Spirit of God, he
turns their examination and scrutinizing of him back on them. And notice what he says in verse
5. He says, "...examine yourselves,
whether you be in the faith, prove your own self, or try and
test your own selves. And I have read so many times
and heard even sermons wherein it is simply left at this, examine
yourselves. Well, the first thing that I
would point out in this is that Paul says, examine yourselves,
not others. It was the way of the Pharisees
to examine others, to scrutinize their lives, and to scrutinize
what they did. Paul says, examine yourselves. But he does not simply say, examine
yourselves, period. And I would say this, and I say
it in the light of everything that this book says, if we ever
examine ourselves and find anything in ourselves that would bring
the least satisfaction, We have a real problem. If we ever examine
ourselves, and in examining who we are, or any of the things
that we have done, Religious things even, such as being baptized,
or being a member of a church, or giving of gifts, or whatever
it is, or doing anything that is positively accepted by people,
or even abstaining from doing certain things. If in our examination
we find any comfort or any assurance of our salvation in these things,
or them being any part of our salvation, we're in real trouble. If you ever find in examining
yourself any satisfaction, In any of these things that pertain
to us, we yet must be blind and dead in trespasses and sins. Salvation is all of God's grace. And it is all in the Lord Jesus
Christ, not us. We're the ones He saves. We're not the ones who are saving
ourselves. And not only that, but Paul doesn't
say this either. He doesn't say, examine yourselves
to see if you have faith. You mean, he doesn't say, examine
yourselves to see if you have faith? Let me tell you this.
When you set out on a journey to examine yourself to see if
you have faith, you have got an endless journey before you. I hear people talking about my
faith. They talk about how they've got
great faith and I have faith in this or that in the other. I have faith is never a part
of true faith. And to have faith in our faith
is yet still to be blind and to be lost. Now what does Paul
say here? I mean, what does he really say? What is he really saying? Not
just to them, because God has preserved this and it's written
for our instruction and admonition. What he says is this, examine
yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Are you in? the faith. Examine yourselves as to whether
you be in the faith. Now the question has to come
up, if we are honest with this text and honest with ourselves,
the question has to come up, not only are we in the faith,
but also this, what is the faith? What is the faith? You see, the
truth is, if you have faith, that doesn't mean in the natural
sense that you have faith that is based on the faith. What is the faith? Well, in the
New Testament, where we find that term quite a number of times,
the faith is used to represent the word of truth which is the
gospel. The gospel. I'll show you that
in a minute. But before I do, just remember
this warning also from this same man by the Spirit of God when
he warns us to beware lest we be led by another spirit other
than the Holy Spirit and therefore believe what he calls another
gospel. which also involves what he calls
another Jesus. And then he quickly says this,
but there is not really another. There is just one gospel. And that one gospel is here described
by the apostle as the faith. Paul, in answering some of the
charges, assured these people, and the Spirit of God bears witness
to the fact, that he did preach the gospel. And the question
was not so much, did he preach the gospel, did they know and
believe the gospel? Examine yourselves. as to whether
you are in the faith. Someone always says, oh, I was
baptized when I was a child, or I'm a member of a church somewhere
in Poduck, Alaska, or I did these things, or I don't do these other
things, or I teach Sunday school, or I preach, or I do something. That's not the question. The
question is, are you in the faith? Hold your place here and turn
over to Jude, that little book of Jude before the Revelation. And in this one chapter epistle,
Jude is led by the Spirit in this third verse to write this. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation," there's just one
salvation, "...it was needful for me to write unto you and
exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith." And then
he gives another little description of that. He says, the faith once
delivered to the saints. You see, the gospel is not just
some random message. The gospel is like God's love
letter to His bride, to His people. And every unbeliever out in this
world, regardless of what they possess or profess, their claims,
if they be outside of the faith, their claims are based on something
that was not written to them. This is the faith, or the gospel,
once delivered to the saints. All right? Turn over to 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy. Because in 2 Timothy,
the Apostle writes, and he says this in 2 Timothy 3, verses 1-8. Now we have all kinds of warnings. And I've told you so many times
that the only ones who hear and heed the warnings of God in this
book, they're His people. He says, "...this know also."
that in the last days perilous times shall come." Now what men
do is they keep trying by schemes of prophecy and end times, eschatology,
they try to make the end times to be somewhere always way down
the road. But the truth is, they began
when Christ came into this world. He says that God hath in these
last days spoken unto us by His Son. Alright? This know also
that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall
be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,
trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof from such turn away. For of this
sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly
women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning,
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as
Janice and Jambres withstood Moses, So do these also resist
the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate
concerning the faith." You see that? They don't know the faith. They don't believe the faith. They don't preach the faith once
delivered to the saints, and they never will. They are reprobate
concerning the faith. All right? Look a little bit
farther in Titus. Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter
1, verse 1. Paul. a servant of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect."
Somebody said, I didn't know God had an elect. Well, that
just shows one thing, you don't know the faith. Because the faith
has to do with this people that God loved and chose in Christ
before the world began, that He came into this world and died
for, these people that He'll save and bring to believe, guess
what? The faith. The faith. He is an apostle. He is a servant
of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledging of the truth. The truth. Look down in verse
13. He says, this witness is true. I'm not going to read you all
that, but it's virtually what he says writing to Timothy. He
says, "...this witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply,
that they may be sound in the faith." The faith. Sound in the
truth. Sound in the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when Paul writes in Galatians
1, he gives a little description of how first men received him
when he began to preach the gospel of Christ. It says, "...but only
they were hearing." This is all that they knew about him. They
only knew that they were hearing that he who then persecuted us
now preaches the faith which he once destroyed. When the Lord
saved Saul of Tarsus and began to send him out preaching the
gospel, people were afraid at the first. They said, that's
the same man who persecuted us, that's the same man who tried
to destroy the faith, and now he's preaching the faith. And
then he writes this in Philippians, He says, only let your conduct
be as becomes the gospel of Christ. so that whether I come and see
you, or else am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you
stand fast in one spirit, striving together with one mind for the
faith of the gospel." That's simply what the faith is. It's
the faith of the gospel of Christ crucified. And old Hawker said
of this verse, he said, the only caution to be observed in doing
this, in this examination, is to form our conclusion by the
Lord's standard and not by ours. You see, Paul himself also warned
of our measuring ourselves by ourselves. It isn't a matter
of whether or not that I am more spiritual or this or that or
the other, more so than you or anyone else. It's whether or
not we're in the faith. In the faith. And this doesn't
have to do with our feelings either. It's not whether or not
I feel like I'm in the faith, because fear and hope, they're
just like the seashore down there, the waves that come in. One day
hope seems to flood my soul, and then the next day fear seems
to flood my soul. But that doesn't change. You
understand that? You see, we're to draw these
conclusions from the Spirit of God's testimony in the Word of
God. We're to believe what God has
said as concerning what I am to Christ and what He is to me. You see, there are a lot of days
I don't feel so saved. There are a lot of days I'm like
that man who said, Lord, I believe, but help thou my unbelief. But that doesn't change what
he said. That doesn't change what Christ
did. That doesn't alter the purpose
and the decree and the will of God which He decreed in His unchangeable
being before the world began. It doesn't change the faith. And the unerring standard in
proving or testing ourselves has to do with God's manifestation
of His love to His people and not their sense of this love. It's kind of like the sun on
a cloudy day. And here are all these clouds.
They've overscattered the sky dark and hard and dreary. And I look up and I can't see
the sun. But that doesn't change the sun.
That doesn't mean that the sun is any less there shining in
the sky. And if I were enabled, To get
in a jet plane and soar up into the sky 35,000 feet, I probably,
being above those clouds, I could see that sign. Always going to
be there. Why? Because God fixed it there. That's what he's saying here.
That's what the faith is all about. Examine yourselves whether
or not you be in the faith. And what this amounts to is this,
we are what God says that we are in ourselves. Now, I hate
to tell people this sometimes. I see them crestfallen. I see
them look with eyes of dismay and unbelief. But you are not
who you think you are. You are what God says that you
are. You say, well, I feel like I'm
a good person. I'm sick to death of hearing that. I feel like
I'm a good person. Let me assure you, that doesn't
make you a good person. As a matter of fact, the Scriptures
say, there are none good, no not one. And if you ever find
out what you are in yourself, and you'll have to, if you're
ever saved by God's grace, you'll have to be shown by Him, and
you will be shown by Him if you're His child. Because He says you're
a sinner. He says that there is none righteous,
no not one. There's none that doeth good. There's none that seeketh after
God. All these people, they're seeking
the Lord, they're seeking the truth. No. You're seeking a God
like you want after the flesh. You're seeking a doctrine that
will satisfy you mentally maybe, or emotionally, but not the truth. We're helpless. How do you know
that? Because God says so. In ourselves,
we're without strength. Of ourselves, we're without hope. He tells us again and again that
we are lost, that we are unrighteous, that we fell in Adam, that we
died to God in Adam, that we are enemies in our own minds
by wicked works. Who believes that? Those who
believe the faith. That's why men don't naturally
want to hear the gospel. They want to go where they can
hear those inspirational messages. That's when you're inspired to
live in this world in your own strength rather than bow to the
claims of God Almighty. You remember there was a prophet
by the name of Micaiah. He was the prophet of God. And
the king, the wicked king, when he was in deep trouble, he asked
another king, he said, after all these prophets of Jezebel,
all these prophets of the groves and so forth, all these false
prophets, after they had all said, everything's fine, go up
to Ramoth Gilead, everything's going to be fine, you're a real
king. But he had a little reservation.
He asked the other king. He said, is there another prophet
that we might ought to listen to and hear what he's got to
say? I believe Jehoshaphat was the one that asked that. And
the other king, Ahab, I believe it was, he said, there is one. There's this guy, he's not mainstream. He's not got any credentials. There's one guy out there, but
he never has anything good to say about me. That's me. I will never, in the matter of
salvation, have anything good to say about you, in yourself,
and most especially not about me. So he reluctantly called
for that prophet, and he came. This prophet never has anything
good to say about him. That's why people don't want
to hear the gospel. They go where they can hear something
good about them. Where they hear that they can
save themselves by doing, or they can save themselves by giving,
or save themselves by coming, or save themselves by joining
up with them. No. God does the saving. But He called for this prophet.
He said, The prophet, in a kind of sarcastic way, first said,
yeah, everything's okay, you go ahead. But they knew he wasn't
sincere. And they said, tell us the truth.
And he said, I saw all Israel scattered like sheep on a mountain. In other words, you go up in
that fight and you're going to lose your butts. You're going
to be losers. Well, he said, see, I told you. He doesn't have anything good
to say about me. And so they joined together and
they went up in the battle. Guess what happened? They got
severely beaten. They lost the fight. You see,
to be in the faith is to believe what God in His Word says about
me, a sinner. Not to be like that Pharisee
who patted himself on the back. and said, God, I thank you that
I'm not like these other people or even like this publican over
here. I do this and that and the other. It's to be rather
like that publican who smote himself on the breast and said,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. You see, the first point of grace,
the first issue That is to be dealt with in the hearts of men. The issue that's already settled
by God is our depravity. That we are nothing but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores spiritually before the Holy God. You say, well, you know, I see
all these criminals around me and I see all these people I
hear about in the news. all these vile, corrupt, wicked
kind of people. Surely I'm better than they are.
Maybe better outwardly compared to them. But there is one who
looks on the heart. There's one who looks on your
very most intimate thoughts. There's one who knows that hatred
that rises up in you in a minute, that jealousy and that covetousness,
that hears that word that you utter in the quiet concerning
somebody, and much, much more. Who knows your real motive? And
he says you're a sinner, lost, and you can't save yourself.
He said, no man can come to me that they might have life. People
are told, well, you can decide for Jesus if you want to. No,
you can't. And your decision does not bring
you any closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember old Pontius
Pilate? He stood before, or rather had
the Lord Jesus Christ to stand before him, and when he spoke
to Christ, Christ didn't give him an answer. You know what
he said? He said, you don't answer me? Don't you know that I have power
to take your life or I have power to give your life? No, he didn't. That's the most. I brought a
message on that somewhere I was preaching. I called it, based
on that text, the poster child of free will. There he is. Don't
you know I've got the power to take your life or I've got the
power to give it? He didn't. You say, well, He
died, didn't He? Didn't He have Him crucified?
Yes, but before that, Peter says in the first sermon after Christ's
resurrection, it was all according to the determinate counsel and
foreordination of God. God slew His Son in His purpose
to save His people from their sins. You see, this is the faith
of God's elect. We read that, didn't we? This is the faith of those who
were chosen, Paul says in Ephesians 1, in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And they were blessed in Him
with all spiritual blessings. You say, I didn't know that.
It's been in Ephesians 1 for about 2,000 years. You say, I believe the Word of
God. Well, you don't know the Word of God. Can't be in the
faith if you don't know the faith. Can't believe, Paul says, on
that one of whom you've not heard. God's elect believe the faith.
And they only believe it because He gives them the faith to believe
it. They don't have some kind of a Dormant faith. That's the way men are preached
today. You've got this dormant faith
and what you need to do is exercise your faith. It doesn't matter
that the Bible says that all men have not faith. That faith
is the gift of God. And no one believes unless God
first gives them faith. Paul writes to the Thessalonians.
And he contrasts God's people that he saved to those that he
describes as those who receive not the love of the truth. And they not only receive not
the love of the truth, he says, and for this cause God sends
them strong delusion. They don't believe the faith.
But he says this, he turns and he says, But we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brothers beloved of the
Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Not like a preacher I heard recently
who said, I believe that God gives everybody a chance. I believe God has chosen a people
in Christ unto salvation. But listen to this, through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, the elect are brought
to believe the truth, the faith. But not only do we believe what
God says about us, we believe what the faith sets forth about
the Lord Jesus Christ. I passed a church sign down the
road. It said, Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And my first thought was, really,
that's about the closest thing to anything scriptural they've
had on that board forever. But I got to thinking, that didn't
sound exactly right. Because James said the devils
believe that there's such a person. And they tremble. But they're
lost. They're condemned to eternal
judgment. So what is it? What's the difference? Well, the difference is that
the faith says, according to what we find in Romans 10 and
other places, that that jailer was told to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. You see, to believe in something
is just to have a an intellectual thought concerning the possible,
maybe, existence of somebody. I believe that there's a bridge
called the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but I've never
trusted my life to it. From the shots I've seen of the
wind sometimes that gets hold of it, I may never do it either.
I believe on it. If I go on it, if I cross on
it, and stake my life on it, there are lots of folks who believe
in God. They say they've got some kind of consolation that
comes out of that. I can't imagine it. But we're
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And by that I mean we're
to believe on Him as He is declared to be, and for what He's declared
in Scripture to have done according to the testimony of God. Now,
I'll guarantee everybody here this morning has in their mind
a little package, if you will, of what they think they believe
about Jesus Christ. Why do you believe it? Well,
when I was growing up, that's what preacher so-and-so taught.
Or growing up, that's what my mom and dad believed, or believe
today. That doesn't make it the truth. We only believe on Christ. as when we believe on what the
Bible says about Him. Not even what a true gospel preacher
says about Him. He may tell the truth about Christ,
but we don't know it for being true until we are brought to
the Word of God itself and read it for ourselves, and the Spirit
of God calls us to believe it's the truth. We believe it then
because God said it. Paul was a... he's a preacher's preacher. He
wasn't anything like most people have him idolized as. He wasn't so great a preacher
that there weren't some people there in this church at Corinth
who said, well, we're not so sure the Lord speaks to you because
he stated it Bible truth after Bible truth, he had no authority
except God Himself. He had no message except Christ
crucified. They were saying things like
this probably. He never preaches on the end times. He never preaches
on godly living. He never preaches on the family
or the home. No, he said this, he said, Woe
is unto me if I preach not the gospel. I determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But he declared the testimony
of God And those who believe the faith, they don't believe
something about God, or about Christ, or about themselves based
on tradition, or hearsays, and certainly not lies, nor half-truths. I look back in my religious history,
growing up in a Southern Baptist church, had all those Sunday
school pins. You know, they had it where you
could clamp one onto the other. And I got down to where I looked
like one of those, I looked like a Muammar Gaddafi or somebody
like that. But it wasn't the truth. It wasn't
the truth. There were some things true that
were said about Jesus, but not the truth. You see, many say
they believe that He's the Son of God. They believe in His deity. I'm glad of that. But, they make
the God-Man, they make Him to be a failure, because they make
His cross work to be a failure. I promise you this, you'll never
hear of Christ's work being made in any way a failure. in the
faith. Here's a one-verse illustration
of the faith. And I've quoted it until I've
worn it out probably, but it's what was said concerning what
Jesus was to be named. He was to be called Jesus, the
angel said. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins." You think about
that a while. You think any of them will be
lost? You think He's going to save or try to save any except
these who are His people? Do you think that anybody, by
an act of their will, or by a so-called decision, will ever be able to
make His work effectual or ineffectual? They believe He died on the cross
for every person, but eventually, most of them will perish. I don't believe that. He said,
I laid down my life for my sheep. And they'll never perish. It's
kind of like that bridge. Some people like a bridge that's
real wide. There's just one problem. It
won't take anybody all the way across. Christ is described as
a narrow way. And all His people and Him, they
all get across. They believe that their act of
faith determines the success or the efficacy of His death. That's blasphemy. You see, God-given
faith relies solely upon the person and the work of the one
who is set forth in the faith. You ask a person, you say, well,
I believe on Jesus. Well, let me ask you a few questions
about Him. Who did He die for? Who does He love? Who is He going
to save? And just in an instant, they
believe what is most generally believed by a world that's going
to perish, not the faith. The Bible says the love of God
is in Christ Jesus. And outside of Him, God's a destroying,
consuming fire. The Bible says that He died for
the church. He purchased the church with
his own blood. You see, if most would simply
read, study the Scriptures, hear the true gospel, they would find
out they do not even know the faith. Paul said to those Ephesian
believers, he said, you heard, you believed on Christ, you trusted
in Christ. after that you heard the word
of truth." What is that? The gospel of your
salvation. And yet multiplied millions probably
will sit in churches this day and they'll be told, the gospel
of how to be saved. Now, this is the gospel of your
salvation. That when you were nothing but
a sinner, had no thought of God, had no earthly existence, God,
for a reason known only to Himself, according to His own sovereign
will and purpose, He set His affection upon you and determined
to save you, giving you to the Lord Jesus Christ. making Him
responsible for everything necessary to save you. And saved you, He
coming in human flesh, died in your place on the cross. And
therefore you will be saved. That's why He said they'll never
perish. But when men and women hear of a salvation that gives
all the glory to God, which takes things out of the hands of a
sinner where they never were to start with, and assures that
they're in the hands of God, For those who trust in themselves
that they are righteous like the Pharisees, they hate the
faith. And that's why these preachers
who hate the faith as much as they do, they have their message,
and they run to them, and they have itching ears. That's just
what they're looking for. God's sheep can never be satisfied
in it. And when they hear the faith,
When they hear that gospel that begins with God, when they hear
of that salvation that's already accomplished in Christ, when
they hear of that man abasing work and see the beauty of the
King, God giving them ears to hear, they believe it. And if
you don't know the faith, you certainly cannot have faith in
Christ. You go read Romans 10 yourself.
Most are looking to themselves and not to the One who is revealed
in the Gospel. Look quickly at what Paul says
in the next part of that fifth verse. He says, "...know ye not
your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you
be reprobates?" That word, reprobate, actually, in the Greek, is a
word that's used with respect to silver that's not really silver
and gold that's not really gold. God Himself uses that. He said
in that day they'll be called reprobate silver, not the real
thing. He says that Jesus Christ is
in you except ye be reprobates. How is Christ in someone? I tell
you, I hear some things sometimes that scare me by some who claim
to preach grace. It almost becomes like mysticism,
that there's this some kind of mystical being that has got inside
of you somehow. Well, how is Christ in anybody? by the Spirit of God who bears
witness to the truth of the faith, to the things of Christ." Now,
I want you to turn to John 16, John 16, and listen to the Christ. Verse 13, "...howbeit when He,"
He's talking here about the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, that he would
sin. When He, look at this now, the
Spirit of Truth, not the Spirit of a lie, the Spirit of Truth,
when He has come, He will guide you into all truth. Does that mean you'll know everything?
No. But you'll know this, everything's
in Christ. For he shall not speak of himself,"
wherever you hear somebody always talking about the Spirit, it
ain't the Holy Spirit. Listen, "...he shall not speak
of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak,
and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me." If
you want just a rule of thumb as to figure out whether or not
this is the Spirit of God, or the Spirit of God is in this
preaching, or the Spirit of God is in this place, just use this
one. Does it exalt man, or does it
exalt the Lord Jesus Christ? What do they sing? Does it exalt
man? Oh, I can't wait to get to heaven,
build my mansion next door to Jesus, or does it exalt Christ?
Just what they preach, does it have to do with what men are
told to do, or does it have to do with what Christ did? "'For he shall receive of mine,
and shall show it unto you, all things that the Father hath are
mine. Therefore said I, that he shall
take of mine, and shall show it unto you.'" How is he going
to show it to you? He's going to show it to you
from the faith. He's going to take the Word,
not what you heard about the Word, but He's going to take
the Word, the gospel of Christ, and show you the glory of God's
saving grace in Christ plus nothing. And we have hope. when we are
enabled by the Spirit of God through this Word to look to
the things that God has freely given us in Christ. I know how you are by nature,
just like me, just like those Israelites who kept telling Moses,
if you'll just tell us what God wants us to do, we'll do it,
we'll please Him. They never did. We never do. We're in the faith when the faith
is in us. We're in Christ if the Word of
Christ dwells in us. And we're in the faith if we
continue in the faith. Paul said, You continue in the
faith, grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which ye have heard and which was proclaimed
in all the earth by such as me," Paul says, a servant. You see,
the Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth, to the faith. So Paul says, that rather than
doing a critique on his preaching as they were doing there at Corinth,
he's really saying, you take the Scriptures and then you decide
whether or not God's speaking through me or not. The Scriptures
call in one place and acts a group of people who heard Paul preach.
They're described as the noble Bereans. Why are they noble? Why would God call them that?
It says, because they searched the Scriptures to see if the
things that Paul said were true. Don't believe what I say. You
search the Scriptures, and if what I say is what God says,
you believe Him, and may the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Examine yourselves as to whether
you be in the faith. Our merciful God, we thank you
that you are as you always have been, that in you there's no
variableness, neither shadow of turning, that our Savior is
the same yesterday, today, and forever, that He is the immutable
One, the unchanging One, and the One who alone saves His people
and therefore receives all the glory. Lord, we pray that You
would call out Your sheep, enable them to believe the faith once
delivered to the saints. Deliver them through the maze
of false religion that characterizes almost every life and every day
in this world. Bring us to look to the precious
bloodshed of Christ as the payment for all our sins. and grant that
we might be found in Him, ceasing to go about to establish our
own righteousness, but resting in that righteousness that you
impute to your people, charge to their account, and therefore
receive them in Him, and bless them in every way. Get honor
and glory unto yourself, for we ask it in the name of Christ. Amen.