Morning. Our text is 2 Corinthians 13.
2 Corinthians 13 verse 5. This text has been with me all week, even
since Sunday last week. It was laid on my heart, and
I knew that I was going to have to bring a message from here,
and the Lord was very gracious, very kind, and I believe that
He really opened it up to me so that I can now preach this
message to you, and I'm excited for it. So it's 2 Corinthians
13, 5. Now this text here that we're
looking at, it was occasioned by what we see in verse 3, where
the Corinthians were seeking a proof of Christ speaking in
Paul, their apostle. And it says, verse 3, Since ye
seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you word is not
weak, but is mighty in you. Paul said, if you are seeking
a proof in me, then answer these two things that I'm going to
give you here in verse 5, and then you'll know whether you
are hearing the gospel, whether I am an apostle of Christ, speaking
by Christ unto you. You'll know that then. And one
thing we see with the trouble that legalists bring, whether
they're legalists or people who are getting troubled by legalists,
is they're always wondering about someone else. They're always
wondering about, well, what about so-and-so? And what about this
person over here? What are they doing? Is this
person even a true member of the body of Christ? And so Paul,
the apostle, he flips the script on them. And he says, if you
want to examine me, then examine yourselves. Examine yourselves
first. And here's the two questions
he gives them. Ask yourselves this, am I in the faith and is
Jesus Christ in me? So that's what we're going to
be looking at together this morning. I had to really cut this thing
down because there was so much that the Lord showed me had to
really pare it down a lot. Our title is, To All Who Seek
a Proof. To All Who Seek a Proof. And we'll look first at the Gospel
of Faith, and then we'll look at Christ in You. Alright, so
Paul's apostleship here was being called into question among the
Corinthians. That's because we see especially,
but you can see it in some of the other letters, but in Corinth
especially, there were false apostles, those who claimed to
be apostles, that came into the churches, and they were raising
doubts because they were teaching law. They were bringing in the
law, and Paul called them the concision, cutters of the flesh. These were Judaizers. And so
they were pointing out problems in the church, and they were
calling it to question what Paul was teaching as a result of that,
right? And so, you know, these Judaizers
came in and we have an idea of how they said it, what they said,
as we know from Acts 15.1, where they said to the churches, except
ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. So that's where it was all stemming
from. They were trying to bring brethren back under the law,
under the law, okay? And so these were teachers of
the law affirming either what they understood or what they
were saying, right? But they're asking these Corinthians,
saying, what are you guys hearing? What are you being taught here?
I hear a lot about grace. I hear a lot about Christ. Oh,
you're hearing from Paul. Well, Paul's pretty good on these
things, but Paul's lacking some things. Paul's lacking in the
law. If you notice, look how patient
he is among you. Look how he is when he acts,
how he's acting when he's among you, how tender, how patient,
how kind, generous he is. He's not laying on you things
that you need, this discipline that you need, the way we are.
So just pay us a little bit of money and we'll tell you everything
you need to know. Alright? They're willing to do that. And
so they were going to bring them under the law to teach them how
to live. And we know what that does, what
it results in. People begin to bite and devour
one another and to tear one another down. And there's disciplining
going on and there's bringing people up to the front and pointing
out to them what their sins are and then excommunicating them.
out of the church, right? They wanted to lay down the law.
So Paul, they came to Paul with this, right? And so this is what
Paul's addressing now. This is their concerns. And he
asks, if you want a proof that Christ is speaking in me, then
what is it that you believe? Ask yourselves, what do you believe
concerning Christ and his gospel? What's the gospel that I've taught
you as your apostle? What have I taught you, he's
saying. because then you're gonna have all the proof that you need.
If you know what I've taught you, then you have all the proof
you need. And so he says in verse five, 2 Corinthians 13, five,
examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own
selves. Let's just stop there first,
because that's what he tells them. This is the first thing
you do. Am I in the faith? Now this is an important truth
for us here that believe, that profess to believe Christ. This
is a good question for us to pause on and answer. What's the
faith that Paul is speaking of? What's the faith that we live
by? What's the faith that we live
by? Because it's not By law, the law is not of faith, and
yet we know that just shall live by faith. So what's this faith
that Paul speaks of? And what is it that we preach
and declare unto you, brethren? What are we preaching and declaring
unto you? Now, if you remember, we have
an idea, we know, well, not an idea, we know what Paul preached.
Because he, you know, we have two large letters which were
written to the Corinthians. And in the beginning of the first
letter, he tells them plainly, I determined not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that means
that he preached to them very clearly, abundantly, so that
they understood that salvation, the salvation of God is by grace
shown to these brethren through Jesus Christ. through His righteousness
whereby we are made righteous in Him by faith. He's our substitute. He put away our sins, what we
couldn't do for ourselves, and He fulfilled all righteousness
so that by faith we fulfilled all righteousness. We fulfilled
all righteousness in Christ our Lord and Savior. Now turn over
to Romans 3. Just want to make sure, because
Romans 3 and 4, Paul gives a very good summary of these things. He gets right to the heart of
it. Romans 3, 21. He declares, but now the righteousness
of God without the laws manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith, or
by the faith of Jesus Christ, his faithfulness unto all and
upon all them that believe, that have faith. For there is no difference,
that is, no difference between Jew and Gentile, because all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So God's provided
this salvation. This is his salvation. This is
the righteousness he requires for us to stand faultless before
his throne in the day of judgment. And so he's saying none of us,
none of us, we've been taught and shown that none of us, by
our works of righteousness, can cleanse ourselves of our sin,
but rather, verse 24, we are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now turn over
to Romans 4. Romans 4 and look at verses 5
and 6 with me. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness, to whom God imputeth righteousness
without works." All right, so that's how the believer lives,
upon the faith of Christ, and it's upon his righteousness,
because his righteousness is my righteousness by faith. I've
so done that, right, that's the imputed righteousness. Lord,
don't look at me in my righteousness, not by works of righteousness,
which I have done, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I stand in Him. That's how I come boldly before
your throne, because I know that in Him I've fulfilled all righteousness. He's the righteousness that you've
provided for me, by your grace, freely, apart from any works
that I've done. That's what he's done, and so
the question is, am I in the faith? Do I believe that Jesus
Christ is the righteousness provided by God? That he's given a propitiation,
the means of forgiveness to put away the sins of his people.
That he was delivered for our offenses, and he was raised again
for our justification. Do we believe that? Is that the
faith that we believe? Is there still some kind of tickle
that we're having to scratch by doing the law and to make
ourselves righteous? Are we still nervous and worried
that he's not enough, that there's still something I gotta do to
establish righteousness before holy God? All right, so that's
the thing Paul wants us to answer, because he says, if you're not
saved by the grace that God has shown us in the preaching of
the gospel throughout his word, revealed to us in His Son, Jesus
Christ. If that's not your hope, then
it doesn't matter how good your works are or my works are. It
doesn't matter how sweet our poop smells. It's still dumb. It's still dumb. It's not going
to do anything for us if we're not in the faith. And we're not
righteous, therefore, before God, and He doesn't accept our
works. So, am I. in the faith. First things first. That's why
he asks it first. Are you in the faith? Am I in
the faith. So, to those that would examine
other people, Paul says the question that you need to be asking yourself
is, am I in the faith? So, we see that therefore this
is important to the Apostle. It's an important thing to the
Apostle that he says to these Gentiles to answer, am I in the
faith of Christ? Because that's the gospel. That's
the power of God unto salvation. And therefore, know, we need
to know the answer to this question, right? If it's that important
to Paul, then we here today, 2,000 years later, we want to
be able to answer that same question, right? And so how are you going
to know the answer to that question? How are you going to know the
gospel of faith that Paul preached, except a man preach it to you? Except I come and preach it to
you, right? I'm going to have to meet together because I don't
know who's going to walk through those doors on any given service
any given day and I don't know when you that do come in regularly
when the Lord's going to open your ear and cause you to hear
that word and it to be blessedly received by the power and spirit
of God so that you hear receive it believe it all right and as
we can see by these Corinthians who were troubled by what they
were hearing from these Judaizers, we need to hear it often. We're
reminded of the Galatians. We need to hear it often because
in the flesh it's so easy to be moved out of the truth. In the flesh, not the spirit,
but in the flesh we can be troubled. It needs to be said a lot. And
I was thinking, you know, Christ himself said of the promise of
the gospel. He said in John 12, 32, And I,
if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. And our Savior was lifted up
from the earth when he was nailed to that cursed tree. And when
he shed his blood on the tree. by His righteousness. He put
away our sin. He put that sin away so that
we would be drawn unto Him. And our Savior was raised from
the earth when the Father, being pleased with what the Savior
did, raised Him from the dead. declaring unto us that God has
given him all authority and power to execute his will in the earth
in drawing all his people unto himself. And Christ our Savior
was raised from the earth each and every time his ministers
stand preaching and declaring the gospel to you that God receives
all the glory and we as men, as sinners, receive none of the
glory. And so that's how Christ is raised
from the earth and draws all men unto himself, all right? Even as in Galatians 3.1, Paul
was saying to those Galatians, you've been charmed. Someone's
charming you. Someone's flattering you with
lies appealing to your self-righteousness, that by your works of righteousness,
you can please God, that there's things that you can do. to please
God. You're being charmed, right?
That's what he said, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you, who hath charmed you, put a spell on you that you should
not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth crucified among you. What he means by that is Christ
was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem, not in Galatia.
He's saying, I preached. The sum and substance of my message
to you was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I showed you our salvation. The hope of our salvation is
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's how we're made righteous.
So Paul preached the gospel. He preached the faith so that
you and I might be able to answer this question, am I in the faith? Is that the hope of my righteousness?
Is Christ all my righteousness? Have I laid aside my works of
righteousness to try and please God? That I trust Him, that I
trust Christ. So that's no question for us
to blow by, right? We shouldn't just go by that.
It's important because we see how even these Corinthians who
heard the Apostle themselves were being troubled by this Word,
right? And we know that there's going
to be many in that day who say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? Lord, in thy name have we not
cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works, all
as they're going over the cliff into the depths of hell. And
there's many that do a lot of things. So to all who seek a
proof, first we want to settle that question. Before we get
on to our works, we have to settle that question, am I in the faith? Am I resting in his work or still
trying to work righteousness for my assurance, for my assurance
and for appearances sake? All right, so that's first. Now,
having settled that, am I in the faith? Do I believe? Is he
my righteousness? So having settled that question,
now we go on to the second of Christ in you. Let's read 2 Corinthians
13 5 now. 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? And when he says reprobates there,
he's meaning except you're ignorant of this truth. Do you not know
this truth that Jesus Christ is in you? I'm speaking to believers,
those who are professing Christ. Do you not know that Jesus Christ
is in you or are you ignorant of this truth? Are you yet ignorant?
that Christ is in his people. So we're to know this truth just
like we're to know the first truth. We've got to know both. Both are equally important, should
not be divided, cannot be divided. Because if you are in the faith,
Well, that's not of the flesh, so Christ must be in you, right? Ye must be born again. That's
how we know and believe Christ. That's how we know that we're
sinners and need His grace and mercy, because He makes us born
again, to see our need of Him, and He gives us that faith whereby
we believe Him. So, is Jesus Christ in me? That's our next question. Now,
the legalist hates the first proof, right? The legalist doesn't
care for the first proof because it's speaking of grace. And the legalist wants to rejoice
in glory in his works. He wants to be seen and proved
by God and patted on the back for his works and what he's doing
to please God by his righteousness. And then Paul said of those in
2 Corinthians 5, 12, so earlier in that, he said those are those
which glory in appearance and not in heart. So there are many
that glory in appearance but have no heart for these things.
They're not in the faith of Christ. He's saying there's many who
don't have life, they don't have faith. They do not have the Spirit
of Christ, though they have works, but they don't have the Spirit
of Christ. It's just a dead letter knowledge
without the Spirit. So that one is working for his
righteousness because for whatever reason, whatever he's hearing,
Christ is insufficient. Christ isn't enough for him in
that regard. But even if he doesn't love grace,
he's probably gonna like this part of the message but he just
doesn't understand it fully, but it's because he knows how
to appear holy, right? There are some who know how to
appear holy. They know how to do certain works,
they learn what's expected of them, and they can get very good
at doing those things, which is why it's so important to answer
the first question, am I in the faith? Do I believe the faith
of God? Do I really understand what God
has shown me through His Son, Jesus Christ. And so that's why
I've got to preach each and every week. I've got to preach Christ
to you and preach His salvation, preach His grace, because in
the pointing of His time, one day you're going to hear it.
Even the legalist is going to hear it one day, and they're
either going to hear it and be delivered from their legal bondage
and love it and be settled in Christ, or they're going to hear
it and say, I don't like this. This isn't what I think is the
truth, and they're going to leave it. They're going to leave. And
so that's why I've got to preach it. All right. Let's see here,
so another, oh, but there's another unbeliever here. It's not just
the legalist, there's other unbelievers. There are other types of unbelievers
and they're just as dead and deluded as the legalist. Who are they? Well, this one
loves the first point that I made. They love grace. Oh, I like the
sound of that. I believe that. I like grace. I like grace, right? They like
grace. But they don't like this point
at how that Christ is in you. They don't like to hear that
Christ is in them because Christ isn't in them. Maybe Christ isn't
in them. And so they don't like this point
because Christ isn't in them. They can appear to bear that
fruit of faith, but Christ isn't working in them. That's about
all the fruit that they bear. Maybe a couple other things here
and there, but that's about all that they bear is just the fruit
of faith. And so, this one also is dead
to the things of Christ. Now Christ said in John 15 2,
John 15 2, because there are some that are dead branches and
have no fruit. He said in John 15 2, every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. He meaning God
the Father who's the husbandman of the vineyard. If they don't
bear fruit, he takes them away, that are not going to bear fruit.
And what he's saying is that those that are not abiding in
Christ, they will not bear fruit. They dislike the sound of salvation
by grace, but they don't take up their cross daily and follow
the Lord. They're not dying to self. They're
living the dream, right? Oh, I have the promise of eternal
life because I believe by grace God saves, but they have no life
in them. They've just said, I believe
that. But there's no real truth. There's no evidence. They're
not dying to self and walking after the Lord and trusting Him. Now listen closely, because this
is what Christ said in John 15, verse 6. If a man abide not in
me, if he's not connected to me, he's cast forth as a branch
and is withered. And men gather then and cast
them into the fire, and they are burned. So this is a good
question. Is Jesus Christ in me? Is he in me? I believe, it's
by grace, is Christ in me? Right? Because if Christ be in
you, this is what he says in John 15 verse 5, I am the vine,
ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. much fruit, right? Not just the one fruit of faith
on the lips, but much fruit, because without me you can do
nothing, right? And the flip of that would be
what Paul said, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens
me, right? Philippians 4, 13. Now, you and
I can't do anything to put ourselves in that vine. We can't. We can't. We're dependent upon the grace
and the mercy of God. There's many that do try to put
themselves in the vine, but have no faith. They don't understand
that it's by grace, so they're working and laboring to put themselves
in the vine. And you that believe and know
that it's by grace and mercy, we don't put ourselves in the
vine. God does. He does that. It's his promise. He connects us to that vine,
right? So it's not a work of the flesh,
but rather it's an operation of the grace of God for the sinner. Now the church, he tells us,
is his vineyard. The church is his vineyard. He
makes that claim and makes that known to us, right? We saw Wednesday
that he planted his vineyard with the choicest vine, the most
fruitful, abundant vine that he could provide. He's given
us Christ, his son, Jesus Christ. He's the vine, and we abide in
the vine by grace. Now listen to the promise. We
saw this Wednesday, Isaiah 27 verse 6, he shall cause them
that come of Jacob, those who believe, those who can only be
saved by grace and his mercy, he shall cause them that come
of Jacob to take root. He's the one that causes us to
take root in this vine. Israel shall blossom and bud
and fill the face of the world And his people fill the face
of the earth with fruit, giving all the glory and the praise
to God. They do things that shout and
declare the praise and the glory of God, of what he's done for
them. And Paul tells us in Colossians 2.7 that we are rooted and built
up in him and established in the faith. These are all the
works that God has promised to do for us. He roots us in Christ,
the vine, whereby we will bear much fruit, some thirty, some
sixty, some hundredfold." Not all of us bear the same amount
of fruit and all the same fruits, but he brings them forth. He
even said in John 15 that those that do bear some fruit, he prunes
those vines, those branches, so that they bear more fruit,
to make them more fruitful and more abundant in their fruit
bearing. Alright, so what does this mean
about Jesus Christ in me? What does that mean that Jesus
Christ is in me? Well, it tells us that we will
be fruitful in the Lord. But understand, not by the works
of the law. That's not going to produce and
bring forth those precious fruits. Those who labor under the law
can only bring forth fruit of the cursed flesh. Thorns and
thistles. That's all that we can bring
forth in our effort and our labor. So it's not under the yoke of
the law, but believers aren't under the yoke of the law. And
this is why Paul spent a lot of time by delineating or separating
and showing us those who walk by the Spirit versus those who
walk in the flesh. Now I can't say a lot of time
for time's sake, but he said in Galatians 5 verse 16 on this,
he said, this I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. And then he said in verse 18,
but if ye be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. So
don't forget, the law is not a faith. So that's not how we
live, and to just live by faith. So it's not by the law. We're
to walk in the Spirit. But he talks about the flesh,
and that's because we still have this flesh. We have Christ in
us. We have his Spirit in us. but we also have this flesh,
alright? Now the spirit in us is that
creation of Christ. It's the creation of his spirit,
whereby in the new man, not in his flesh, Not the lusts and
the passions and the affections of our flesh, which we know pretty
well. Not in that, in the flesh, we don't believe. But in the
new man, his new creation in us, or a new creature, a new
creation, that's whereby we believe and trust and rest in our God. His flesh doesn't change, right?
So neither does the law, like we saw earlier. The law doesn't
change our flesh. The law doesn't improve our flesh. but also we know that now our
flesh isn't changed. The flesh isn't improved. Christ
hasn't redeemed that, to use the language of scripture, that
he redeems it when he comes again and raises us in his image in
a new body, right? But right now, this flesh is
still what it's always been. It's still dead and corrupt and
brings forth thorns and thistles, so it hasn't changed, it's not
improved. The law was given to make sin
appear sin, but it did nothing to change our lusts and passions. The law, even the law, those
beating themselves under the law, their lusts and passions
aren't changed, they're just constrained, if you will, under
fear, threat of punishment, wrath of God, so that we say, wait
a minute, maybe I better not do that. It's still there, there's
still that burning, there's still that desire, but we don't do
it, because we don't want to be punished. We hear it in that
sense. You can see that even in our
own government's laws. There are certain things in place
so that people know if you do that, this is what's gonna happen
to you, so that there's some kind of decency and order among
society so that we can live and not harm each other just at will,
whoever's the strongest and most fit, all right? But that enmity
is still there, that enmity in the flesh, right? Paul said in
Romans 8, 7 and 8, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God, So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But, those that are born of the
Spirit, born from above, we don't serve under fear, threat of punishment,
or fear of that wrath of God. That's not how we serve our God. But now, having seen and been
shown His grace, and tender mercy toward us while we are yet sinners,
while we were enmity against God, while we did nothing to
earn or gain His approval or affection or kindness or mercy
or compassion for us, He yet showed us mercy and compassion
in His Son, Jesus Christ, so that He bears in us, in that
new man, love for Him and a desire to know Him and a desire to fellowship
with Him, to know Him more and to grow in the knowledge and
the grace of these things which He's shown to us abundantly in
His Son, Jesus Christ. So, turn over to 1 John 1. 1st John 1. This is what John
describes as walking in the light. We walk now in the light. By
His Spirit, we walk in the light of God, knowing these things.
1st John 1, look at verse 7. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all
sin. In this flesh, where sin is yet
present, sin is present in this flesh, but in this light of his
fellowship, walking in him, praying as the Spirit leads us, We're
praying, we're seeking his word, we're assembled here, hearing
his word, hearing of the gospel, hearing what he's accomplished
in us. Our God reveals sin. us what we are. And he says,
verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. So being in the light, as God's
revealing sin to us, he's showing it to us and we're not hiding
this fact. We're confessing it and saying,
Lord have mercy on me, save me, deliver me from this sin. I don't
want to keep walking in the sin because I want fellowship with
you. I'm in love with you. You delivered
me from these things to serve you. And he says, if we confess
our sins, verse nine, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. All right, so stay there in 1
John. We're gonna go to chapter four,
actually. So it's not walking in fear under the threat of punishment
because we know what our God has freely and abundantly given
to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. But we walk in love and in the
grace that we have in Christ. And this is what Paul is talking
about. We walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. We're not trying
to improve this in the flesh, but we want to know Him. There's
a desire, and I'll speak on that more in a moment. 1 John 4.13
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because
he hath given us his Spirit. This is what Paul is saying.
How that Jesus Christ is in you, he's talking about we have the
Spirit of Christ in us. Look at verse 17, here in his
love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment
because as he is, so are we in this world. All right, Christ,
we see Christ, we behold Christ in his word, we see the pattern
of Christ and not just the pattern but that he is our righteousness. We behold, we behold this and
so in Christ we bear much fruit by His Spirit. We bear the fruits
that we bear. The fruit of the Spirit is born
in the Spirit that Christ has created in us and that He dwells
in us. And we being connected to Him,
we bear fruits of righteousness, right? And so, looking at Him,
we see how He dealt with us and our brethren in godliness, right? God condescending to us who don't
deserve mercy and kindness. and God showing us kindness instead
of wrath, Christ showing us kindness, and Christ showing us brotherly
love instead of hatred and casting us out. He's very kind and gentle
to us. He's not an exactor the way the
Pharisees are exactors. You meet him in judgment, he's
an exactor more so than you'd ever want to know, but in Christ,
he's very patient, very tender, very kind, to us. And he says,
verse 18, there's no fear in love, but perfect love casteth
out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. Right? We don't need to have
fear. You're not under the law. You're in grace, in the grace
of God in Christ. And we love him because he first
loved us. There's no love for Christ. And
what is there? Are you in the faith? Is Christ
in you? Because He creates love in us. He does. Love for Him. And then
He teaches us how to love our brethren the way He loves us.
He works that in us. There are coldness. I'm not denying
that we don't feel coldness and hardness at times. But doesn't
He always turn you and bring you back? to behold Him and cry
out to Him and look to Him in this? So we're going to bear
the fruit of the Spirit, which is seen in good works, walking
in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Let me read Ephesians 2.10, for
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. That all lines up, doesn't it,
perfectly, that we bear much he's prepared that we walking
in Christ will bear and bring fruit as he's ordained it. All
right, and then in Titus, Titus 3, Titus 3 verses 8 and verse
14, he says, this is a faithful saying, Titus 3 8, meaning this
is important. He's telling Titus, this is very
important Titus, this is a faithful saying, and these things are
I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed
in God, you in the faith of Christ, you that are resting and knowing
that it's by grace that we are saved, that we might be careful
to maintain good works, to maintain those good works, to look after
them and to bear good works, to do good works in Christ. And
he says, these things are good and profitable unto men. They're
good and profitable unto men. I was thinking about, I don't
remember her name, but when Peter came there and all the women
were crying because she died. And they showed Peter, look at
everything she made for us. All these sweaters to keep warm.
They didn't have heat blown in their house. They had to keep
warm. And she made them sweaters. She labored to make them and
in love to give them these things. And they were so blessed by it.
And they prayed Peter, Would you give her life again? Could
you bring her back from the dead, Peter? And he did. He did. and
she continued to labor among them. There's love there, so
she maintained good works. That was what she could do, and
she did it. She did that for the brethren in love. And then
he says in Titus 3.14, and let ours also learn to maintain good
works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. So the
point is not to create fear or concern in you, but to not discard
the fact that we've been given a promise that you who know Christ,
that rest in His grace and faith, that He promises. You do that
by the Spirit in you. You're connected to me. So don't
just discard this promise that we will bear much fruit. He tells
us it's His purpose to bear fruit in us, that we bear fruit and
be fruitful in Him and to do things useful and good and profitable
unto one another. These are good things. It's good
for one another. All right, now exploring this
a little bit more. Think of the believer, right?
I'm gonna go to Galatians 5.22 real fast, but a believer, they
go to do a good work in Christ, right? We wanna do good works.
Things born of the fruit of the spirit, right? Love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
because against such there's no law. So we go to do those
things in the spirit of Christ, springing forth from Christ divine
in us. We're connected to Him. Well,
what happens? Well, the flesh rises up to meet
it. The flesh not changed. The flesh not improved. And the
flesh says, I don't want to do that. I have no desire to do
that. I could care less about doing
that. Forgive. I don't want to forgive.
I want to take their face, put it like you put a dog's face
in a pile of poo. I want them to see and know what
they've done to me. You don't cross me. You don't
speak to me that way. I'll show you. That's the flesh.
That's how the flesh wants to deal with our issues. And that
carnal man who maybe has faith, but doesn't have Jesus Christ
in him, not having the Spirit, they won't do it. And if you
go to them and say, what are you doing? They say, don't talk
to me. And don't accuse me of anything. I'm under grace. I'm
fine. I believe. I'm not worried about
it. God's going to have to deal with
that, because I ain't dealing with it. I believe. Don't bother
me or trouble me with that. it'll manifest in them because
they won't hear the word, they won't submit to Christ. We do learn to submit. The Lord
will break us of things that we have need of being broken
of, that he's purpose that we be done with. The Lord will teach
us and he'll deliver us from that so that we learn to submit
and trust him. But in a believer, a true believer,
that flesh also rises up to meet that. And there's times where
we feel the burning and the infirmity of this flesh. There's the lusts
and the passions of what we want to do, not what the spirit wants
to do. We feel that. We know that. It's
really there because it hasn't changed. It hasn't improved. Like Peter had to say, brethren,
I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly
lusts. which wore against the soul.
So it's in the believer. They have that passion because
the lust or the flesh is improved. And so what happens? We see our
weakness. We see our infirmity because
it's the Lord as we're walking in the light. He's showing us. He's showing it to us and it
is a chastening. We feel it and we know, Lord,
I've failed again. Lord, I'm not walking as I should
be walking. And what? We mourn, we mourn
our sin because here I am again doing that. How can I call myself
a believer? When I see this over and over
and over again, I keep failing. But the Lord, he shows us. And
so like in Romans 7, 24, we cry out by the spirit like Paul,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? I thank God. through Jesus Christ,
right? We learn to pray. And so through
that, through the experience of it, and we do go through it
more often than we like to admit to one another, but through that
we learn to seek our God, to pray, and to walk by His Spirit,
not in the flesh. Because we're reminded, I keep
walking in this flesh. But I've called to walk in the
Spirit. He's given me His Spirit. Let me walk in Him, right? Because
we love Him and we want to know Him more. We want to be useful
to our brethren. We don't want to be a burden
and a pain to them and constantly showing how much flesh we are,
right? We want to serve them. Let me
go on to Romans 8 if you want to turn there because I'm going
to look at a few verses, but Romans 8 15 says, for ye've not received, Romans
8 15, for ye've not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear. I'm not talking about law and
whipping you and beating you at all. We've not received that
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, Daddy, right? Like your children call up to
you, Daddy, right? That's what we're doing. We're
crying out to our Father, Lord, save me. Here it is again, this
flesh, doing what it does, right? Verse 24, for we are saved by
hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth,
why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. And as we're waiting
patiently to see the Lord turning us and helping us, so we are
learning to be patient with our brethren. Lord, you're being
patient with me. Why can't I be patient with my
brethren and trust that you love them and they have your spirit
You're teaching them just like you're teaching me. Don't hold
them to something harder than you're asking the Lord to hold
you to. Be patient with them as well. Verse 26, likewise the
spirit also helpeth our infirmities, because this flesh is still infirmed,
still sick, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought,
but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered, and he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God." Meaning that God
has even ordained and purposed all these steps that we're stepping. And every time, even when we
see our infirmity and our weakness, it's all working. The Lord uses
it as we walk in the light there, because we are walking in the
light. We have a spirit. We can't help but walk in fellowship,
so he teaches us. Even when we sink real low, The
Lord will bring us back in his time to show us what we had need
of seeing for the fruit that he has purposed us to bear. Not
that we seek out that low state. We don't seek it out, I'm not
saying that, but when you do go low, like David, the Lord
brings you up. The Lord will restore you because
you're his and he loves you and he's going to do that work for
you. So we begin to seek him for the promise, Lord, what of
those fruits that you promised that I'll bear in you? So he
teaches us that. One more thing on that, just,
so when you, you know, feel that flesh rise up, right, and there's
always that temptation, like, if I do this, you know, we begin
to pull back, when, you know, when we in the flesh begin to
pull back, because sometimes, you know, we that know grace
and believe our Lord by his grace and mercy, sometimes we think
of doing something that is a good, useful work for one another,
but we pull back, because we think, well, maybe I'm doing
this now out of a legal heart, And so you kind of pull back,
but how's that good and useful to anybody? Because you're still
pulling back. So again, ask yourself, am I in the faith? Do I know
that it's by grace and mercy? Then if you know that it's by
grace and mercy, then go ahead and do that work which is useful
and profitable to others. Don't not do it, because that's
not useful and profitable to anybody, but take up your cross
and bear the sacrifice of it and serve one another, do that
which the Lord has laid on your heart, even if you think there's
certain motives in it that aren't questionable, because what do
we do that isn't tainted with sin and corruption? We're always
confessing, Lord, you get all the praise and glory, but you
know my heart wasn't right in that, not perfect. But do it
anyway, because it's the right thing to do, right? Because the
Lord has shown us, because again, go back, am I in the faith? Yes,
I know salvation is by grace. then Christ is in me and he's
promised, he's bearing fruit in me. So don't settle with just
practicing sin just because you don't feel the Spirit at that
moment. Don't settle into sin and just
continuing in it just because you don't feel it at that time.
trust his word of promise that Christ is in you and we will
bear fruit and he'll teach you and help you because the flesh
is lazy and the flesh will use any excuse. Are you sure you
want to do that? Sure you're not doing that because
of some kind of legalistic thing? Maybe you should just sit down
on the couch and not worry about it anymore. That's what the flesh
will tell you to do. So that's not right either. Alright,
so let's very quickly go back to 2 Corinthians 13 We'll just summarize this in
looking at verse seven and eight. Paul says after this, he says
verse seven, now I pray to God that ye do no evil. All right,
I pray that you don't do evil. You that are under grace and
you that believe and know that Christ is in you, don't do evil.
Don't keep sinning because you're under grace. Not that we should
appear approved. He's saying, I'm not saying this
to you for appearance sake, right? I know that there's legalists
there. I know that there's people accusing you of sin and me of
sin and various things I know, but do what's right. Not that
you might appear approved, not that you're putting on a show
of appearances without heart, but listen, but that ye should
do that which is honest. Just be honest. You're disciples
of Jesus Christ. You're His disciples. You believe
Him. Walk after Him. Take up your cross. Follow Him.
Do what He's called you to do, even if it's hard and difficult
in the flesh. You have a spirit, so walk in
Him. though we be as reprobates. Though we that preach grace are
accused of being lawless rebels and people who are antinomian,
have no law, are lawless, right? For, verse eight, we can do nothing
against the truth. We can't help what God has shown
us. We know it's by grace. We can't help that. We know it's
by grace and that he's given his spirit to us. But we can't
do anything against the truth, but for the truth, We can for
the truth. What's that? We can walk by his
spirit adorning the doctrine of grace which we believe and
rest in. We could do that. We could do
what he's called us to do by his spirit. So those are the
two questions to ask yourselves that I ask myself and you ask.
Am I in the faith? Is Christ Jesus in me? So those are our questions. So
I pray the Lord will lead us by his grace in answering those
questions for ourselves. I pray the Lord will bless that
and help you with that. It was a blessing to me to see
it and help to me. So I trust it's a help to his
people as well. So let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father. Lord, we need your help every
hour, every day. Lord, we need your grace and
mercy. Lord, to know the truth that
it is by grace that you save your people, settle us in Christ,
believing that he is our righteousness. And Lord, teach us how that Jesus
Christ is in us, that by your Spirit we know and believe these
things, and that you have purposed in eternity that in Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who is glorious, wonderful, lovely, that in him we shall
bear much fruit unto the praise and glory of your name. And it's
in Christ Jesus' name that we pray and give thanks. Amen. All
right, brethren, I'm sorry for going long, but I pray the Lord
will bless it. All right.