Thank you, Winston. Now, if you
would, let's open our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. And basically, I'm going to deal
with one verse as my text, but we're going to explore a lot
of scripture. And so I want us to look at this
as a command. from the Lord to his people,
in which he says in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5, look at that
verse, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Now notice
that phrase, in the faith. And he says, prove your own selves. Make proof of yourselves. Know ye not your own selves? how that Jesus Christ is in you,
except you be reprobates. That term reprobate is a often
misunderstood term, but we'll look at that in just a moment.
Verse six says, but I trust that you shall know that we are not
reprobates, but we'll look at this. We're gonna be talking
about the importance of self-examination, the importance of self-examination. How do you respond if or when
somebody questions your salvation? You know, a lot of people today,
they get angry. They feel like they're, they
get insulted, maybe. Because for a lot of people today,
to question my salvation is like questioning my morality or questioning
my sincerity. But the fact of the matter is,
is that we as true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we
ought to be open to and welcome any time someone questions our
salvation. The Bible says be ready to give
an answer. Be ready to answer those who
ask you a reason for the hope that you have. Shouldn't be an
insult. We should take that as an opportunity
to do two things when someone questions our salvation. Number
one, we should take it as an opportunity to witness the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. A fellow told another
man who, a true believer, said one time, he said, you're not
what you should be. And he asked him, he said, well,
what should I be? How should I be? And the fellow answered
back in a very flippant way. He said, well, you ought to be
better than you are. And he said, I agree with you.
But you ought to be better than you are too. Salvation is not
gained or maintained by being better than we are. Salvation
is gained and maintained by looking to Christ who is perfect, the
Lord our righteousness. So we should take that opportunity
to witness the gospel to them. But secondly, we ought to take
that opportunity as an opportunity of self-examination. Examine
yourselves, he says, whether you be in the faith. Because
in reality, according to the scripture, the Christian life
is a lifetime of self-examination. That's God's command. This is
not an option here in 2 Corinthians 13, 5. Examine yourselves. Paul
writes this by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is a command
of God. This is not an option. This is
not something that you have a choice in. But it's a command. And it ought to be the desire
of every true child of God. Let me give you some scripture
here. Psalm chapter 26, the 26th Psalm, in which God puts it in
the heart of His servant. to ask for this from God. In Psalm 26 too, he says, examine
me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my reins in my heart. The reins there is what drives
us in whatever direction we go. And I think about this a lot
because when the Holy Spirit brings a sinner to faith in Christ,
The Holy Spirit, in the truth of the Lord, drives that sinner
to Christ and his truth and away from himself in repentance of
dead works and idolatry. And so he says, examine me, O
Lord. Look at Psalm 139. This is a situation that's often
talked about in the Psalms. But in Psalm 139, verse 23, it
says, search me, O God, and know my heart. I don't want to be deceived,
and I don't want to try to deceive. You can't deceive God. He knows
it all. He sees it all. But I don't even
want to be one who tries to deceive God. You know, that's a self-deceit
in itself. So he says, Search me, O God,
and know my heart. Try me, or test me, and know
my thoughts. Verse 24, he says, and see if
there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. I want to know that I'm in the
way of life everlasting. Well, what is that way? Well, Christ said in John 14,
6, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man
cometh unto the Father but by me. And then in the Lamentations,
Lamentations of Jeremiah, you know, these Lamentations were
were thoughts from the heart of the prophet Jeremiah as the
Holy Spirit inspired him to write of his lamenting, his sorrow
over Judah and their apostasy, their falling away from Christ.
In Lamentations 3 in verse 40 it says, let us search and try
or test our ways and turn again unto the Lord. Self-examination. Now what I'm about to say to
you on this issue may seem like a contradiction, but it's not.
Because here we are talking about self-examination. Examine yourselves. And yet the ultimate issue of
all the commands of Scripture, all the exhortations and encouragements
of Scripture, even this command of the Bible, is not ourselves. The ultimate issue in self-examination
is not yourself. Sounds weird, doesn't it? What
I mean by that is this. This command to examine yourself
is not for you or for me ultimately to end up looking to ourselves
or even at ourselves for salvation. It's a command that ultimately
is meant to cause us to look more to Christ. for all salvation. He's the ultimate issue in self-examination,
to drive our hearts to Christ, to exalt and honor Him and not
ourselves. For example, a person might say,
well, all right, I'm gonna examine myself. Have I done enough? Now,
I have several questions that I answer back, use as an answer
back to that if somebody asks that. Have I done enough? I ask
them, enough for what? Well have I done enough to be
saved? Well the answer is no. No sinner can do enough to be
saved. Now understand what I mean by
that. No sinner can do enough to be saved. Because salvation
is not by our doing. Salvation, one old preacher said
it this way, he said salvation is not by the doing and dying
of the sinner. Salvation is by the doing and
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's done enough. The question we ought to be asking
of ourselves in self-examination is, is my faith in Christ who
has done enough? Am I righteous enough? No. But
Christ is, and He's my righteousness. He's the Lord my righteousness.
Here's what I'm saying. If I believe in Him and rest
in Him, then all the righteousness that God requires of me, I find
complete in him. That's his righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to me. It's the merits of his obedience
unto death. Somebody says, well, do I believe
enough? Well, what is enough? You see,
the issue of self-examination is not the degree of your faith
or how much you believe. The issue of self-examination
is in whom are you believing? Who is the object of your faith?
Some people have faith in their faith. You ask some people, why
do you say, well, I made a decision when I was 12, or I got baptized.
Well, your faith's in your decision, in your baptism. That's bad. That's a false gospel. You see,
the ultimate issue in self-examination is to turn our eyes and our hearts
and our hope to Christ and Him alone, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. And that's the only way we can
be assured of salvation and edified and built up without being puffed
up with pride and self-righteousness. to bring us to being totally
trusting in and devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
my all and in all. And it's the only way we can
be humble without being brought to despair. I'm a sinner. I have no hope of salvation in
myself. I have no hope of salvation by
anything I do or am enabled to do. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Now, by what standard or measure
am I to examine or test myself? Well, the easy answer to that
and most comprehensive answer is by the word of God. And I
say that because it's so important that we understand what standard,
when he says examine yourself, what's the standard of self-examination? Is it my mother, my father, my
friends, my church family, do I ask my wife or my children,
what do you think? It doesn't matter what they think.
I'm talking about in self-examination, it does matter what they think,
don't get me wrong. But I'm talking about in this matter of self-examination. The standard is not them and
their opinion. The standard is the Word of God.
What does the Bible say? That's the problem with people
today in religion. People don't know what the Bible
says. They've got their thoughts and
their opinions and their denominational positions, but they don't know
what God's Word says. And what's even worse, you want
to see the depravity of man, the sin of man? Here's what's
really worse, they don't care. what the Bible says. That's even
worse. One thing to be ignorant, another
thing to be apathetic. You've heard the story about
the teacher asked the student, he said, define ignorance and
apathy for me, and the student said, I don't know and I don't
care. And that's what it means. It's one thing to not know, by
nature we don't know God, Why Christ said this is life eternal,
that they know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
thou seest. But if you want to see the real
sinfulness and depravity of man, it's because he doesn't care.
He's got other things on his mind. He's got other things to
do, better things, more important things. Well, in this matter
of self-examination, there are two things I want to know, two
things. And this is directly related
to this verse in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5. The first thing
that I want to know is this. I want to know that I'm trusting
the true Christ of the Bible and not a counterfeit. That's
what I want to know. This is what he means when he
says in verse 5, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. We think about faith as the act
of believing, but here, the faith is not the act of believing.
The faith is the truth, the gospel, the body of doctrine. What is
your faith, somebody may ask. Well, I believe that Lord is
greasy, you know. Well, that's true, but that's
certainly not salvation. What is your faith? The faith. Now I want to know that I'm trusting
the true Christ of the faith, of this book, and not a counterfeit. The second thing I want to know
is this, that my faith, my believing now, my profession, my claim,
I tell you, I believe in Christ. I trust Him. I want to know that
my faith is true faith, God-given faith, genuine faith, and not
just hypocrisy, not just a sham religious profession. I want
to know that. Now that's what this verse means
when it says, know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ
is in you. I want to know I'm in the faith
and I'm trusting Him who is. my salvation, truly salvation,
and not a counterfeit, and I want to know that my faith is true,
that he's in me. And that's what that's talking
about. Now let's look at these things. First of all, I want
to know that I'm trusting in the true Christ, not a counterfeit. Am I in the faith? Now the first
thing I want you to see in several scriptures here, that there are
counterfeits. In the book of Matthew, chapter
7, that's the part of the Sermon on the Mount. And there in verse
21, he begins to talk about false preachers, or he continues talking
about false preachers. He said that there's two ways.
One is the straight and narrow way. That's the way of God's
grace in Christ. That's the way of grace and righteousness
in Christ. That's the straight and narrow
way. And then the other way is the broad way that leads to destruction. That's any and every other way.
And it's always some way of salvation conditioned on man. Salvation
by the works of man. Righteousness by the works of
man. That's human religion. You can
look at it this way. One way, the straight and narrow
way, the way of Christ, is the way that Abel took. Remember
Abel? What did Abel do? He brought
the blood of sacrifice, which pictured Christ, the Lamb of
God. His hope was in Christ. The other way, the broad way
that leads to destruction is the way of Cain. What did he
do? He brought the works of his hands.
This has got to be good enough. I've worked hard. I've done my
best. And that's the way that leads
to destruction. And so Christ speaks of that. Then he talks
about wolves in sheep's clothing. You know what a wolf in sheep's
clothing is? It's a wolf that looks like a
sheep. And that's the way it is with
false preachers who claim to be Christian. They claim to be Christian, but
they're wolves in sheep's clothing. And so in Matthew 7 and verse
21, listen to this. He says, not everyone that saith
to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Now,
what is the will of the Father in heaven? It's to believe on
the Son. It's to rest in Christ for all salvation. It's to follow
Christ. It's to trust in Him. and be
so taken up with him that he's your all in all. He says in verse
22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? That's preaching. Prophecy is
not always about the future. Sometimes it's just telling forth
the word of God. Have we not preached in your
name? And in thy name have cast out devils. There's some works
in it. And in thy name done many wonderful
works. And it says in verse 23, he says, and then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Now he knew who they were. This word know there is a word
that means that intimate relationship of a savior to his people, salvation. I never knew you, depart from
me you that work iniquity. They preached in his name, they
cast out devils, did many wonderful works, and he called them works
of iniquity. You know what iniquity means? It means it doesn't equal
out. Well, it doesn't equal out to
what? Righteousness. What is he saying to these folks?
What are they saying to him? They're trusting, they said,
Lord, Lord, but they're trusting in a counterfeit. They're not
trusting the true Lord of the scriptures. How do you know?
Because they thought that they're preaching And their casting out
demons and their wonderful works is what made them righteous before
God. And it didn't equal out. Here's
righteousness, way up here. Here's their works, way down
here. You see, in order for a sinner to have a righteousness that
equals the righteousness that God demands, there's only one
way. We must have Christ. We must plead Christ in Him alone. You see, it's not my preaching
to you, even though I'm telling, I believe I'm telling you the
truth. It's not my preaching to you that makes me righteous
before God. If I pled my preaching, it'd
be iniquity, it wouldn't equal out. It wouldn't measure up.
If I were to be able to cast out a demon, exorcise a demon,
That's the power of God, it's not the power of man. But if
I were to be able to do that, that's something God enables
a person to do. If I pled that as my righteousness
before God, it wouldn't equal out. It falls short for all of
sinning. That's why it's iniquity. And
whatever works that I could do, with or without the aid of God,
they will not equal. There's only one way that a sinner
can be made righteous before God. And that's through the Lord
Jesus Christ and his righteousness imputed, charged to. And we receive
him by faith. You see, even my faith does not
make me righteous before God. My faith is in Him. If I think
my faith makes me righteous, then I have faith in my faith. That's a counterfeit. Let me
show you another scripture. Matthew 24. In Matthew 24, here's
what's happening. The Lord is teaching His disciples
about the future. And He talks about the future
of Israel, Jerusalem. And then He talks about even
on into the last age, which is what we're in, and His second
coming. And look at verse 4 of Matthew 24. He says, And Jesus
answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive
you, for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and
shall deceive many. They'll claim to be Christ. Now,
you know, a person who comes along and says, I am the Messiah,
they don't fool a lot of people. There's some who do that. There
was that Jim Jones back in the 70s, and I think there was, you
know, David Koresh, people like that. They fooled a group, but
they don't fool many. But now look down at verse 22 of Matthew
24. In verse 22, he says, and except
those days should be shortened, there should be no flesh saved,
this is in the last days, but for the elect's sake, that's
God's elect people, That's whom he chose before the foundation
of the world and gave to Christ. For the elect's sake, those days
shall be shortened. He says, then if any man shall
say in you, lo, here is Christ or there, there is Christ, believe
it not. For there shall arise false Christ
and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders
in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. People who claim to be preaching
Christ, like me today. I'm claiming to you, I'm telling
you that I'm preaching Christ. All right? How do you know I'm
telling you the truth? Well, don't take my word for
it, folks. I'm telling you, do not take
my word for it. You test the spirits, and we'll
look at that in just a moment. Let me show you another passage,
2 Corinthians chapter 11. Listen to this one. Paul was preaching here to the
Church at Corinth, in verse 1, he says, I would to God, or I
desire, I wish to God, that you could bear with me a little of
my folly, and indeed bear with me, for I'm jealous over you
with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband,
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Now what he's
saying here is, I've preached Christ to you, and I've told
you to look to Christ, and him alone, not anybody else, you
see, I've espoused you as a chaste virgin." In other words, you
look to Christ alone. Like a woman being married to
her husband and a husband being married to that woman, you're
to be faithful to one another. You're not to look to others
or look upon others. You're to be faithful to one
another. You're to be faithful to Christ. That's what Paul's
saying. You're not to look to anybody else for salvation or
for blessing. You look to Christ. And then
he says in verse three, listen to this, he says, but I fear
lest by any means as the serpent begot Eve through his subtlety,
so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in
Christ. That word simplicity there is
singleness. And what it means is this, Christ
is singularly my whole salvation. Not the church, not you, not
baptism, Not any, Christ is singularly my whole salvation. He's my single
aim. He's all my righteousness. He's
all my forgiveness. I'm forgiven from all my sins
by one thing, single, the blood of Christ. My tears of repentance
and remorse do not wash away my sins. What can wash away,
here's the way we state it in the hymn. What can wash away
my sins? Nothing. Single nothing, but
the blood of Jesus What can make me whole again? Nothing, but
the blood of now are you looking to anything else? Rededication
cannot wash away your sins Even repentance cannot what it takes
the blood of the Son of God incarnate to wash away my sin but look
at verse 4 of 2 Corinthians 11, he says, for if he that cometh
preacheth another Jesus, now that Greek word another means
another of a different kind. Another Jesus, whom we've not
preached, or if you've received another spirit, which you've
not received, or another gospel, which you've not accepted, you
might well bear with, and that should be me instead of him.
Him there is in italics. That means it was supplied by
the King James translators. It's an objective pronoun they
put him instead of me. But Paul's saying, you bear with
me. He tells you not to bear with false preachers. Look down
at verse 13 of 2 Corinthians 11. He says, for such are false
apostles, deceitful workers. transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, don't be amazed,
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore
it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works."
So there are counterfeits. Now I told you, I want to know
that I'm in the faith. I want to know that I'm trusting
the true Christ and not a counterfeit. Well, what is the faith? The
faith is the body of truth, the body of doctrine revealed in
this book, the Bible, to identify and distinguish the true Christ
from all counterfeits. The Bible talks about the faith
in the book of Titus, for example. Paul starts out as calling himself
a servant of God. Titus chapter 1 and verse 1.
An apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect. And the acknowledging of the
truth. You see, the faith and the truth are the same. Which
is after godliness. In hope of eternal life, which
God that cannot lie, God is truth, promised before the world began,
this gospel is older than this world. Paul said in 2nd Timothy
chapter 1 that this salvation that we partake of was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. But he says in verse
3, but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching. Preaching the word. How am I
going to know I'm in the faith? As I see Christ preached from
this book. as he's identified here, who
is Jesus Christ? What did he do? Why did he do
it? What did he accomplish? What
did Jesus Christ, you say Christ is your salvation, all right.
What did he actually accomplish for you, according to this book,
if he's your salvation? Well, he made me savable. No,
that's not what this book says. He made it possible for me to
be saved if I just cooperate. That's not what this book says.
And so it's manifested in his word through preaching, which
is committed unto me according to the commandment, the word
of God our Savior. He said, go into all the world
and preach the gospel. To Titus, mine own son, after
the common faith. You see that word, that phrase,
common faith. That's the faith that every believer
has, every true believer has. You know, every true believer
believes the same thing concerning who Jesus Christ is, what he
accomplished in our salvation, why he did it, and where he is
now. There's no denominationalism there. And he says, grace, mercy,
and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our
Savior. Over in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, the apostle
spoke of the church. Talking about the church of the
true and living God. And he said this church is built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. Now what he's saying there is
this, whatever this book, whatever the apostles preached and wrote
and the prophets concerning the Old Testament, whatever it says
about Jesus Christ, that's the Christ I want to believe in.
That's the Christ I want to lay hold of, not a counterfeit. Over in Ephesians chapter four,
he speaks of this when he's talking about unity. Ephesians 4.1, he
says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that
you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. Called
unto salvation, called unto grace. With all lowliness and meekness,
with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. He says,
there's one body, one spirit, even as you're called in, one
hope of your calling, one hope, you see, our hope is in Christ,
one Lord, one Savior, one faith, not many. You know, a lot of
people, they'll say they're Christian, but they'll say, well, I believe
there's many ways to heaven or many ways to God. You go your
way and I go mine. No, Paul says there's one Lord,
there's one faith, one baptism. I think it was back during the
80s that they took a survey of so-called Christians, and they
said, now you claim to believe salvation by grace, but don't
you really believe that if a person tries to be a good person in
this life that ultimately they'll make it to heaven? And 85% of
them said yes. Well, that's salvation by works.
That's another way. He says, there's one God and
one Father of us all who is above all and through all and in you
all. That's pretty plain. There's one Savior. There's one
way of salvation, not many. In the book of Acts, chapter
2, when Peter had preached that great sermon at Pentecost, and
it says, God began to call his people out of that group into
the church, it says in verse 41, it says, then they that gladly
received his word were baptized. That's the confession. The confession
of the faith. I trust Christ alone for my salvation. That's what we're going to do
this morning. Confessing Christ. I trust Christ alone. Not a counterfeit. He says, they were glad they
received his word, were baptized, and the same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. Wouldn't you love to see that
today? And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and
fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer. You see,
we can know that we are in Christ. Remember he said back here, examine
yourselves whether you be in the faith. Am I really in Christ? Am I really trusting Him? We
can know that we're in Christ, in the faith, as we measure this
by the doctrine of Christ. 2 John speaks of that. Verse
9. John wrote, he says, whosoever
transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ hath not
God. That's the doctrine of his person,
who he is. He's God and man in one person.
He's God in human flesh. You know, there are people who
claim to be Christian. They'll claim that Christ is not God.
Well, they trust a counterfeit. There are some who claim he's
not man. They trust a counterfeit. He's
God and man. He's Emmanuel, God with us. And it's the doctrine of his
finished work on the cross of Calvary for our sins. And he
says, he hath not God, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ,
he hath both the Father and the Son, and if there come any unto
you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
and neither bid him Godspeed, for he that biddeth him Godspeed
is partaker of his evil deeds. First John chapter four, I want
you to listen to this. Verse one. He says, beloved,
believe not every spirit. Now what he's talking about there
is preachers. He's talking about everyone who comes claiming to
preach by the spirit of God. But try or test the spirits,
whether they are of God. Because many false prophets are
gone out into the world. And hereby know ye the spirit
of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh, is of God. Now, I'm running out of time,
and I know that. I'm aware of time. Y'all don't
think that, but I am. But I want to give you these
three things real quickly. Confessing that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh, what do we confess? Number one, we confess
that he is God. He's the eternal word of God.
We confess, secondly, that He came in the flesh. He's man. Why did He come in
the flesh? To put away the sins of His people,
not to try to save anybody. We confess that He accomplished
our redemption. And we confess that He is our
only righteousness before God. Is that what we confess? That's
how we know that we're trusting the true Christ of this book
and not a counterfeit. That's how we know that our faith
is real and not a sham profession. That he's brought us to faith
in Christ and not in ourselves. That he's brought us to trust
him and rest in him for all my salvation. It's not Christ plus
me or Christ plus you. It's not even Christ plus my
faith. My faith is in Christ alone. It's not His righteousness plus
mine. Even in the new birth, which
is a necessity. You know, we talk about evidences
of salvation. We can talk about Christ who
died for my sins. His righteousness is imputed,
charged to me. How do I know that? We're born
again by the Spirit. How do we know we're born again
by the Spirit? We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. and we
repent of our dead works and our idolatry. We turn away from
ourselves. That's what it is to examine.
Have I turned away from self as forming any part of the ground
of my salvation? Am I looking to Christ alone?
It sounds so simple, but I'll tell you what, no sinner will
do it apart from the Spirit of God. Over in 2 Corinthians chapter
13, He says, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobate. That word means to fail the test. It means to be disqualified.
And Paul writes in verse six, but I trust that you shall know
that we are not reprobate. We haven't failed the test. Now,
what is the test? Well, think about it. The test
is Christ himself too. Let me just quote this verse
for you. Acts 17, 31, I quote it quite a bit. It's talking
about when God, through the Apostle Paul on Mars Hill, spoke to the religious and the religionists
and the philosophers of Athens, Greece, on Mars Hill. And he
says, God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. In verse
31 he says, because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
in that he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath
raised him from the dead." The test is Christ. And anything
that you plead, listen to me, anything that you plead for your
salvation and the assurance of salvation that does not measure
up to Christ is false and fails the test. When you talk about
the forgiveness of sin, are you a, you see, the issue of the
Bible is not are you a sinner or am I a sinner, we're all sinners.
The issue is this, am I a forgiven sinner? Am I a pardoned sinner? And if
I claim to be, then what is the foundation, the basis, the ground
of my forgiveness? Well, if it's anything but the
blood of Christ, it's a failure, it's iniquity, you're disqualified. The issue is this, am I righteous
in God's sight? Not in your sight, really. The issue is, am I righteous
in God's sight? Well, if I claim to be, if I'm
saved, that's what I'm claiming. I'm righteous in God's sight.
Well, anything that I claim as a ground of my justification
before God, being righteous before God, that doesn't measure up
to Christ is disqualified. You fail the test. You don't
measure up, it's iniquity. You say, well preacher, where
does that leave me? It leaves you with no hope but Christ and
Him crucified in risk. That's where it leaves you. And
when I examine myself, that's what I want to know. I want to
know, am I trusting Him and am I really trusting Him?