Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. And the text is going to be verse
5. It says, examine yourselves,
whether you be in the faith. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Solomon said out of the heart
are the issues of life. Out of the heart. The things that pertain to our
salvation are heart things. They are heart things. It's out
of the heart. It's an issue of the heart. A true believer's faith is heart
faith. A true believer's love is heart
love. It's true love. It's true love. His love for God and his love
for his people is heart love. Real, true love. When God moves,
He moves on the heart. He goes straight to the heart.
It's a heart thing. He said, I will take out that
old stony heart and I'll put in a new heart. I'll put in a
heart of flesh. I'll put in a living heart. That's what God's people get.
That's what believers get, a living heart. When we gather around this table,
we gather with the heart. We gather worshiping what this
table represents. This represents a broken body
and shed blood. And we don't gather around this
out of habit. We don't gather around this out
of any other reason than to truly give thanks and worship from
the heart for this. Tonight, we are going to take
a moment to enter in to the mind. We're going to enter into our
mind, and with our mind, we are going to examine ourselves to
see whether or not God has moved on our heart. We are going to
examine ourselves. Now, verse 5 says, examine yourselves
Whether you be in the faith, prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates. Examine yourselves. Prove to
your own selves. know whether or not Christ is
in you or are you a reprobate. Reprobate means counterfeit. That's what it means. And may
God make this real to us right now. May he make it real to us. May he help us to examine ourselves
to know whether or not we are truly in the faith. Am I truly in the faith? May it be proven to us tonight.
One way or the other, is Christ in me or am I a counterfeit? Are my worst fears true? Am I a counterfeit? Now, I want
to begin with this. Kids, I want all the kids to
listen to this. Your parents are very wise. for
encouraging you to not partake of this table until the Lord
reveals why we take the table. They killed that Passover lamb,
and our Lord told them, your children are going to ask you,
why do we do this? And you teach them. And you explain
it to them. And your parents are very wise
to tell you to wait on this. But with that being said, if
you are old enough to understand what I'm saying, if you're old
enough to understand what I'm saying, I want you to take part
in this exam. We're going to examine ourselves.
Some of you are old enough to understand what I'm saying. You
think you're children and you are, but some of you are old
enough to understand what I'm saying. And I want you to follow
along. And I want you to include yourself in this self-examination. If it is proven to you that Christ
is not in you, I want you to beg Him for mercy. Lord, be merciful to me. Our
children learned not long ago what mercy is. You know what
mercy is. And the same thing applies for
the adults. That's the first thing. The second thing is, he
said, examine yourselves. Examine yourselves. Whether you
be in the faith, let's not examine anyone else. Naturally, our minds
are going to examine everybody else. Let's examine myself individually. This applies to me individually. Christ died for his people individually. Every soul must stand before
God individually. Right now, I need to know individually,
before I take this table, I need to know, is Christ in me? Is Christ in me? Or am I a counterfeit? I don't want to be a counterfeit.
I don't want 10 years from now to prove that man was a counterfeit. The man that God used to pin
this, the apostle, God's Holy Spirit wrote this. And the apostle
that God used to pin this, his name was Paul, and God saved
him. God saved him. Christ was in
him. God brought the hope of glory
to him. Christ in us is the hope of glory.
And he said in verse six, I trust that you shall know that we,
the apostles, are not reprobates. We're not counterfeits. Christ
was in them. He was in all of his apostles.
And Paul said in first Timothy that he was a pattern to them,
which should hereafter believe on Christ to life everlasting. He said, my self examination
is the pattern for your self examination. Christ was in him,
and he said, if you see the same things in you that I see in me,
then Christ is in you. He asked the question right here
in verse 5. Know ye not your own selves how
that Jesus Christ is in you? Do you know? Do you know? Do
you know? There are three times in this
scripture, throughout the Word of God, concerning his own self,
that Paul said, I know. I know. I know. I want to look at those three
times. And then we're going to see if we can honestly, in the
heart, say the same thing with him. Alright? Here's the first
one. Go to Romans 7. Romans 7, verse 18, the Apostle Paul said, For I know that in me, that is,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. One man described false faith,
counterfeit faith, by four things. I'm going to slowly give them
to you as we go through these three things that Paul said.
Four things that describe a false faith. The first one is this. He said a false faith, a counterfeit
faith, is never broken over its own sin. Never. Never. It is never broken over its own
sin. When Christ is not in a person,
That person never cries with the Apostle Paul in verse 24
right here, O wretched man that I am. That person never cries
that. When it's a false faith, O wretched
man that I am. Don't you mean was, Paul? Don't
you mean, O wretched man that I was? In 1 Timothy 1 15, he
said, Christ came to save sinners and I am the chief. I'm the chief. I'm the chief. Counterfeit faith, it may know
something of sin. It may know something of the
sin of man. It may know something of the
sin of the world, but it has never known the experience of
being utterly shattered over its own sin. It has never cried,
me, me. King David was not a counterfeit.
The Lord said, he's a man after my own heart. He was not a counterfeit. And he cried, my sins are ever
before me. My sins are ever before me. When I look inside and examine
myself, if I do not see the worst sinner on this earth, I'm a counterfeit. I'm a counterfeit. Oh, wretched man. Oh, wretched
man. A false faith is never broken
over its own sin. Here's the second thing that
describes that false faith. A false faith never hungers and
thirsts for the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
never does. Look with me at Psalm 51. Psalm 51, verse 3, this is where
David cried, I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is
ever before me. My sin is ever before me. I acknowledge what I am. In verse
4, he said, Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when
thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. But he said in
verse 7, If you will purge me with hyssop, the hyssop that was dipped in
the blood, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me. Wash me. You ever find yourself crying
that, Lord, please wash me. Wash me in your blood. Wash me
in the blood of God's lamb. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. If you wash me, oh, I'm a wretched
sinner. I acknowledge it. My sins are
ever before me. My sins are ever before thee.
But if you wash me, if you purge me and wash me, I'll be white
as snow. When we look inside and examine
ourselves, do we honestly say, I must have the blood of Christ? I must have the blood of Christ.
Oh, wretched man that I am, if he does not cover me and wash
me, I'm going to die in my sins. Is that honestly what we say?
Is that honestly what we say? A counterfeit does not say that. A counterfeit does not cry that. When he looks inside, he says,
I really don't know what you're talking about. I really don't
see that bad of a person. I hear what you're saying, but
I mean, I think it'd probably be the polite thing to do to
agree with you, but I don't see it. I just don't see it. I really don't need the righteousness
of Christ. I'm satisfied with my own righteousness. My own goodness. And that's what
we mean by righteousness. I really don't need the goodness
of Christ. I'm good too. I'm satisfied by
this goodness I see in myself. I really don't need the blood
of Christ. I'm satisfied with my own sacrifice. All these sacrifices
I've made in life to be religious, I'm satisfied with my own sacrifices. That's a counterfeit. That's
a reprobate. If when we look inside, though,
we say the same thing Paul said and we cry the same thing David
cried. then we have a hopeful exam. We have a hopeful exam,
right? Now here's the second thing the
Apostle Paul said he knew. Second thing he knew. Go over
to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. He said in 1 Corinthians 4 verse
4. For I know nothing by myself. By translates of. I know nothing of myself. I know nothing. I know nothing. In 2 Corinthians 12, he said,
I be nothing. I know nothing. I am nothing. I'm nothing. A counterfeit, a
false faith never believes itself to be nothing. Never. It has never seen its total inability. Total inability. Counterfeit
faith believes somehow I took part in my own salvation. Somehow
I did. There was some role that I had
to play. But when Christ dwells in the heart of a sinner, that
sinner knows. That sinner knows. He by himself
purged my sins. By himself. That's what that
table represents. He by himself. purged our sins. Salvation is totally of the Lord.
I'm a wretched sinner in need of a Savior because I can't do
anything for myself. Nothing. Here's the third thing
that Paul said he knew. Go with me to 2 Timothy chapter
1. 2nd Timothy 1 verse 12 says, For the witch calls, I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed. I know that in my flesh dwells
no good thing. I know nothing of myself. But I know whom I have believed.
I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day." Here are all four of those statements together that describe
false faith. Number one, false faith is never
broken over its own sin. False faith never hungers and
thirsts for the blood and righteousness of Christ. False faith never
sees its own total inability. And false faith never bows to
the absolute sovereignty, the absolute ability of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. When we take this table, we are
acknowledging, when we partake, when we eat and drink of this
table, we are in that acknowledging that He accomplished everything
He set out to accomplish. Every single thing. We are confessing
it's finished. It's finished. My salvation is
not a what, my salvation is a whom. I know who saved me and I trust
him. If you look in your margin next
to believed, it says trusted. I trust him. I trust him. I'm going to go meet God trusting
him. I'm going to go stand before
God, trusting that that took care of it, that finished it,
that completed it. When you look within and examine
yourself. Do you say I'm a wretched sinner?
Who needs the blood and righteousness of Christ? Because I cannot save
myself. But he did. And it's finished. It's over. It's over. I'm fully persuaded. I fully
believe it's over. When we look inside, if that's
what we find, then let's take the table. When we look inside,
if that's what we see, that is not counterfeit faith. Christ
is in us. And we take this table together.
Now, in just a minute, I'm going to read from First Corinthians
chapter 11. And if you'll turn with me over
there. First Corinthians chapter 11. This is exactly what the Apostle
Paul told us to do before we take this table. He said in verse 28, But let
a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and
drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord's body. If we in this do not see our
own individual need of His body and His blood, because my righteousness
cannot stand before Him, it's filthy rags before Him, and all
that I am is sin that must be covered, sin that must be paid
for. If we do not see that I need
this personally to stand in His presence, if we do not see our
successful, finished, finished, finished, not almost finished,
finished salvation in His body and in His blood, then that would
be taking this table unworthily and we should not take the table. If, though, we see that Christ
is all. Christ bore it all, Christ paid
it all, Christ finished it all. If we see Christ is all, then
Christ is in us. He's in us. We have been made
to be partakers of his body and his blood. All right, let's remember
that together.