Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us for this message from God's word,
the Bible. And today's message will be taken
from the book of second Corinthians chapter 13, the very last chapter
of Paul's epistle to the church at Corinth. And the verse that
I'm going to mainly deal with is verse five. Now this is a
verse that I rely heavily on and I've mentioned so many times
in our program. But I wanted to bring some things
together concerning the subject, the need for self-examination. That's the title of the message,
the need for self-examination. And here the apostle Paul writes
in verse five of second Corinthians chapter 13, he exhorts or commands
and understand now this is a command of God not just the Apostle Paul
because the Bible is the verbally inspired inerrant Word of God
and that's how we're to look at it, that's how we're to receive
it, that's how we're to respect it. So this is not just Pauline
theology as some of the the seminary professors say. They talk about
Paul's theology and John's theology. Paul's theology, John's theology,
Peter's theology are all the same. This is God's Word from
Genesis to Revelation and there are no contradictions. But in
2 Corinthians 13, 5, Paul writes, examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith. Prove, test your own selves. Know ye not your own selves?
How that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates. Now that's the verse I'm going
to look at. The need for self-examination. And In this passage, the apostle
Paul had been forced to defend himself against false preachers
who had questioned not only his message, but also his authority
as an apostle. So Paul had to defend himself.
So they were examining Paul. So Paul turns it around and he
says, well, now examine yourselves. whether you be in the faith,
except you be reprobate. So that's the issue. Now, many
of you who have seen this program before or who have followed this
program for several weeks, months, or even years, know that we are
offering some free literature, books that I have written. And
I basically have three books that I've written that I call
my self-examination series. And these books, as I said, we
offer them free of charge. We're not trying to make money,
but we're trying to get the word of God out. These books are tools
to guide people in this process of self-examination. The first
book that I would mention to you is a book about interpreting
the scripture. It's called rightly dividing
the word. You know, the Apostle Paul wrote
in 2 Timothy, he said, he said, study to show thyselves approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word, the word of truth, the Bible. And in this book,
Rightly Dividing the Word, what I've done is I've examined all
the given rules or accepted rules of biblical interpretation. You
know, there are rules of interpretation and I've got eight rules of interpretation. And I urge you to get that book.
Listen, salvation, the Bible is the book of salvation. And
I certainly do not imagine that any book that I write can even
equal or even stand alongside of or replace the word of God.
That's not what it's for. The books that I've written are
to be tools for your Bible study and to stand alongside the Bible
to guide you like preaching the gospel. Now we know that this book is
by revelation. In fact, that is one of the rules
of interpretation, the rule of revelation. It's a closed book
unless God opens your eyes. God, the Holy Spirit, has to
give life so that we can see and understand and know and believe
the word of God as it is. But the fact that the Bible is
understood by divine revelation does not suspend the responsible
and reasonable tools of interpretation. And so I urge you to get that
book, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth, Rules for Interpreting
the Bible, and that will help you to study the Bible. The second
book that I want to mention is a book, actually it was the first
one I wrote, it's called What is Salvation? It's a biblical
study of God's greatest gift. And when I think about this,
examine yourselves. Do you claim to be saved? I know I do. I'm a sinner saved
by grace. Well, put it to the test. That's what Paul writes here.
Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Prove, test
your own selves. And listen, do you really understand
what salvation is according to the Bible? Don't rely on the
traditions of men. Don't rely on your own understanding
and certainly do not rely on your feelings. Look to the word
of God. And that's what that book is
all about. What is salvation? If I claim to be saved, I ought
to know what salvation is. So that book is a tool, again,
another tool of self-examination to guide you through the scriptures
concerning the issues of salvation. And in that book, What is Salvation?
I divided salvation into four realms that the Bible teaches.
And I hope you'll get that and understand it, use it. The third book that I wanna mention
is one called What is a Christian? And that is a biblical study
of the one true faith. I believe that Christianity is
the one true faith. And if you claim to be a Christian,
as I claim to be a Christian, well, do we really know what
a Christian is and what a Christian is not? I've had people say this,
you know, well, I know I'm a Christian because I had this experience
or whatever. And again, I tell you, don't
rely on your traditions. Don't rely on the opinions of
others. Don't rely on your feelings.
Look to the word of God. What does God's word tell me
that a Christian is? And that's what this self-examination
is all about. And so what I've done in this
book, What is a Christian? It's a tool to take you through
many scriptures, not all, there's no way that I could go through
all the scriptures in one book, to show you different passages
that define what a Christian is and what a Christian is not. That's the process of self-examination.
And we offer these books free of charge. All you have to do
is call or go on our website and let us know that you want
them. We'll send them to you. I might also add that with each
of these books, we have CDs and or DVD sets with them where I
preach and teach on these subjects, preach through the books. They
accompany the book, but the books go into more detail. than what
I did on the DVDs and the CDs. But if you are interested, then
order those things, and I urge you to do that and examine yourself. But let's go back to this verse
of Scripture. Examine yourself. Test yourself. Look at yourself. And he says,
whether you be in the faith, Now that's an important way to
put that, and I'm gonna come back to it. He says, prove your
own selves, test your own selves. Know you not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you. If you're saved, if you're a
Christian, the Bible says Christ resides in you, in me. How does Christ reside within
a person? Number one, he resides within
a person by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of Jesus Christ who proceeds from Christ all the work of the
Holy Spirit in a sinner to impart spiritual life. That's called
the new birth. Raising that sinner from the
dead, spiritually speaking. You must be born again. or you
cannot see the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. You must
be born again. And so Christ, the Savior, the
Lord, resides within His people, individually, by the Holy Spirit. We have the Spirit of Christ.
Christ be in you. Secondly, Christ resides within
his people by his word, his truth. The Holy Spirit is the spirit
of truth. He gives life from Christ, that's
the resurrection life of Christ. And he brings sinners by the
word of God through the preaching of the gospel. The gospel wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. What is the righteousness of
God? That's the merit of the obedience unto death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, which has been imputed, charged,
accounted to his people, so that they have a right standing before
holy God by his grace and his mercy, so that they can stand
before God justified, not guilty, righteous, not in themselves,
but in Christ. And what the Holy Spirit does,
He applies that truth in giving life, begotten again by the Word
of Truth, to each and every one of God's chosen people in each
successive generation. He writes it on their heart.
He convicts them. He gives them a new heart. That's
what the Scripture says. That's how Christ resides within
his people. And he says, no you not, this
is 2 Corinthians 13 5, no you not your own selves, how that
Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates. Now the word
reprobate, it means to be disqualified. It means to fail the test. The test that God has in his
word. Now, Men and women and religious
people, they'll give you all kinds of tests that they've devised.
But what you need to know and what I need to know is what God's
word says. Well, let's go back here, 2 Corinthians
13, five. Now listen, I wanna show you
two things that this verse is not saying, okay? Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. This is not a command for me
or you to look within ourselves to find assurance of salvation. You see, we all want to know
about evidences of Christianity, evidences of salvation. But those
are not what gives a true believer assurance of salvation. Over
in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, after After, I believe the Apostle
Paul was the human instrument to write Hebrews, some disagree,
but it doesn't matter, it's God's work. So we'll say the writer
of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 12, after having dealt with the
hall of faith, he makes this statement in verse one of Hebrews
12. He says, wherefore seeing we
also are compassed or surrounded about, with so great a cloud
of witnesses. That's talking about believers
who have gone on before, who had given their lives. He says,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily
beset us. Now that sin that does so easily
burden a believer is the sin of unbelief. You see a believer,
a sinner saved by grace is not in a state of unbelief, but because
of the remaining sinful flesh, the corruption of the flesh,
they're still unbelieving and he'll have times of doubt and
he has to fight those. Well, how do you fight those?
He says, let us run with patience. Verse one, that word patience
is endurance, the race that is set before us. Now, how do we
run the race? How do we endure? We who are
saved. Verse two, looking unto Jesus. not looking within myself now,
looking unto Jesus, the author, the beginner, and the finisher,
the completer 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. What he's telling us
there is that assurance of salvation does not come by looking within
myself for assurance. And assurance of salvation does
not come by looking at my works for assurance. If I gain assurance
by looking within myself or by looking at my works, then my
friend, that's presumption. That's unbelief. But we have
assurance. We who are truly saved have assurance
by looking to Jesus Christ. as the Lord our righteousness,
as the one who died for my sins and satisfied the justice of
God. My sins were imputed, charged,
accounted to Him and He died for my sins. He established righteousness
for me. He's the author and the finisher
of my faith. My faith comes from Christ, it
didn't come from me. And so that's what Paul means
when he says examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Now, this doesn't mean examine
yourself to see if you have enough faith. I've heard people say
that. I heard a preacher preach that one time. Do I have enough
faith? Well, my friend, that's not the
issue. You know, the scripture, you know, Christ told the disciples
one time, he said, oh, ye of little faith. He said, one time,
if you had faith as small as the grain of mustard seed, you
see how much faith you have is not the issue. The issue is this,
in whom is your faith? Who is the object of your faith?
Who are you looking to? Paul wrote in 2 Timothy chapter
one and verse 12, he said, I know whom I have believed and I'm
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. What have I committed unto Christ?
Well, I've committed unto Him my whole salvation, my whole
justification, my whole sanctification, my whole redemption, my whole
preservation, my entrance into glory is committed to Christ.
It's not committed to me. It's not conditioned on me. It's
all conditioned on Christ and He fulfilled completely, perfectly,
all the requirements, all of the conditions, of salvation,
of my salvation. Christ is the end, the finishing,
perfection, fulfilling, completion of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. The faith here is a noun and
it's talking about the gospel, the doctrine of Christ. In other
words, if I believe I'm saved, is it really gospel salvation
or is it a false gospel? You know, many people today,
they talk about, well, we're living in the last days. Well,
we've been living in the last days since Christ came the first
time, suffered, bled, and died, was buried, rose the third day. That's the completion of his
work, righteousness established. He made an end of sin. He finished
the transgression, Daniel said, and he ascended under glory.
And then a few days later, the New Testament, New Covenant Church
was inaugurated at Pentecost. And we've been living in the
last days ever since. But there's no doubt as time
wears on, we are headed towards that time when Christ will come
again the second time. I believe in the second coming
of Jesus Christ, because the Bible teaches that. Now, as we
get closer, to the second coming of Christ, the end of all things,
the end of the last days. Satan has been loosed to deceive
the world. And Satan's main weapon of deception,
let me tell you, Satan's main weapon of deception is false
religion, especially false Christianity. Satan is sowing his tears throughout
the world. As the Lord Jesus Christ is saving
his people, bringing them to him, his true church, raising
up his preachers, going out and preaching the true gospel, Satan
has been loosed to deceive the world by preaching a false gospel. And he's a clever devil. He's a deceiver. He would love
to deceive me and you into thinking we're saved when we're really
not. into thinking that we're Christians
when we really aren't, into thinking we believe the Bible when we
really don't. So the Apostle Paul writes, examine
yourselves, will you be in the faith? What is the faith? Well,
over in the book of Romans, chapter one, the Apostle Paul begins
that epistle by talking about how he has been raised up to
preach the gospel. He suffered for the gospel. He
was an evangelist. He told the good news of the
gospel. And over in Romans chapter one in verse 16, listen to what
he says. He says, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. This gospel, the faith, what
faith are you? What do you believe? It's not
how much faith do you have. Whatever faith I have, it's the
gift of God. It didn't come from me. It didn't
come from my goodness. It didn't come from my so-called
free will, which is a myth. It didn't come from my decision.
In other words, God grants faith to his people and then they willingly
come to Christ because they see by the power of the Spirit who
Christ is and what he accomplished. So it's the gospel of Christ,
Messiah. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God
in human flesh. Matthew 1.21, you shall call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
Christ is God in human flesh, Matthew 1.23, his name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted, God with us. The word was made flesh, that's
who he is. Now, if you're in the faith,
truly in the faith, you believe Christ to be God-man. God in human flesh. Every bit
God in every attribute of divine nature and character. Every bit
human in every attribute and characteristic of humanity without
sin. That's the only difference. You
say, listen, Christ was every bit as human as we are, except
for one thing. He had no sin. He's God man. And in his humanity, he suffered
the weaknesses of the flesh. That's human nature. Sinless
infirmities. He was tempted like as we are
yet without sin. In other words, when he got hungry,
he was just like me. When I get hungry, I want to
eat. But Christ, in order to fulfill his hunger, he had absolutely
no thought of sinning against his father to relieve that, like
I would, or you would. So he's God in human flesh. And
then secondly, it says here in Romans 1 16, It's the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first, also to the Greek. Verse 17,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith, that's
the body of doctrine, the preaching of the gospel, to faith. That's the gift of faith given
to God's people to receive Christ. And he says, as it is written,
the just or the justified shall live by faith. The gospel, the
faith, is the revelation, not of the righteousness of men and
women, not of the goodness, but the righteousness of God. Now,
what is the righteousness of God? Well, we know God is holy.
He must be just when He saves. He must be righteous when He
forgives. He must be truthful when He has
mercy. God cannot save me, a sinner,
I'm a sinner. I have no righteousness and I
cannot work a righteousness. And I'm spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins. You see, that's the natural man,
as we're naturally born. I need a righteousness I cannot
produce. I need a righteousness I cannot
work. And if I'm going to be saved, if I'm going to be justified.
To be justified means to be not guilty. It means to be righteous
before God. If I'm going to be saved, I need
a righteousness, not of man, but of God. Where am I going
to find that? In the Lord Jesus Christ, by
His obedience unto death. His blood is His righteousness.
His death was the satisfaction to God's justice. and having
been born spiritually dead in trespasses and sin in order to
be saved, I need spiritual life. Well, I can't give myself spiritual
life. You can't give yourself spiritual
life. Where am I gonna find that? I find that from Christ who is
my life. He died, He was buried, He was
raised from the dead. In other words, because Christ
in His death satisfied the justice of God, because Christ brought
forth righteousness, which demands life, He was raised from the
dead, and what the Holy Spirit does in the new birth is He imparts
the resurrection life of Christ in God's people. You see, the
righteousness of God is the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So to be in the faith, as Paul
writes over here, is to believe in Christ, rest in Him, submit
to Him as the Lord my righteousness. He is my righteousness, I have
no other. Am I looking elsewhere? Think
about this. Think about those false preachers. in Matthew 7,
21 through 23, who claim to be Christian. And here they are
standing before the judge of all, the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what is their ground of acceptance before God? Well, they said,
haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we cast out devils? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Only to hear him say, Depart
from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. Do you want
that to happen to you? I certainly don't want it to
happen to me. You see, people will look at passages like that
and they say, well, those fellas weren't sincere. First of all,
you don't know that. And that passage is not about
sincerity. That passage is about the narrow
way of salvation through Christ and his blood and righteousness
by the grace and power of God. or salvation by works. What do you plead for salvation?
Do you plead your works or do you plead the righteousness of
Christ? Hope you'll join us next week for another message from
God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.