I want you to turn in your Bibles
this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. It's always the big
difference. what Jesus does. When Jesus comes
to save, I often think about that hymn that
has the words, All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One come
down. What is done and what is said
this morning in this place will be the same way, just vanity
apart from the work of God's Spirit. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Paul
writes, this is the third time I'm coming to you. In the mouth
of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. I told you before and foretell
you as if I were present the second time. And being absent
now, I write to them which heretofore have sinned and to all other
that if I come again, I will not spare you, since ye seek
a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you, word, is not
weak, but is mighty in you. For though he was crucified through
weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are
weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God
toward you. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Christ how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates. But I trust that ye shall know
that we are not reprobates. Now I pray to God that you do
no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should
do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. For we can do nothing against
the truth, but for the truth. Now the church at Corinth was
always plagued with issues such as immorality,
and things of that nature. It was often plagued with inconsistency
of life among the people of God. But I'm afraid, as was read in
our reading this morning, that will always be the case because
of just what the Bible says that we are. But the Apostle Paul is in this
case, as he does in every case, calling those people back to
a consistency with what they profess to believe. He's always calling them to live
in the light of the truth that they know and the truth that
is in them, except they be reprobates, that is, cast off of God, faithless,
unbelieving, lost souls. But I want us to notice this
morning the basis upon which he admonishes them and instructs
them to do this. This morning, I want us to go
under the microscope. The Bible says And ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free. What is the microscope by which
we are to examine all these things? It is the Word of God. It is the truth of God. So Paul says, though some of
them might view him as reprobate, he tells them to examine themselves
lest they are found reprobates. And so he says in verse 5, 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 ye be reprobates. Now the word here and the meaning
that is given by the word examine means something like inspect. It means like to scrutinize or
to probe or to ponder or to peruse or observe ourselves. Now, he does not instruct like
the Pharisees did. He does not say, examine others. like they were prone to do. And he does not say, examine
yourselves, period. You see, if we ever examine ourselves
and find anything in us as well as who we are or what we've done,
whether we've been baptized, whether we go to church, whether
we give, or all these things, or whether we're doing something,
or whether we've abstained from doing something. If we ever examine
ourselves and find anything as a basis of our acceptance and
our standing before God, our salvation, we are in great danger. I often hear preachers who put
people to examining themselves, something in them done by them
or abstained from doing by them as an evidence of salvation. These are all false prophets. A man who will put you to looking
at yourself Rather than looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is himself lost, reprobate most likely, and is not preaching
the gospel. And not only that, Paul does
not say, examine yourselves if you have faith. That is never
the change that is to be desired. Examine yourselves whether you
have faith. Faith in faith is a common error
of our day. In other words, they say we're
saved by grace, but it's conditioned on faith. It's not conditioned
on faith. Faith is a consequence of being
saved. It's not a condition of being
saved. But rather, Paul says here, examine
yourselves whether you be in the faith. There's a big difference. And it is obvious in anyone's
mind who looks at the book that there is a big difference in
faith and in the faith. In other words, what is the faith? We have to know what is the faith. The faith here mentioned and
spoken of and elsewhere is none other than the gospel. It is
the word of truth. And Strong said especially, especially
reliance upon Christ for salvation. That's what the faith is about. Turn over and look in the wee
book of Jude. In Jude's little one chapter
epistle, He begins by saying, identifying himself and to those
he's speaking to, and then he says in verse 3, Beloved, when
I gave all diligence to you to write unto you of the common
salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort
you that you should earnestly contend for the faith. The faith once delivered unto
the saints. In other words, the faith is
the gospel, is the truth of God that Jude says here was once
delivered unto the faith. There's not any new faith. There's not any face, but there
is simply, we are, as he says, to earnestly or sincerely contend
for the faith once delivered unto the saints. Turn over to
2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3, beginning
in verse 1. Paul says, writing to Timothy,
this know also that in the last days perilous time shall come
for men and women shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy, without natural affection, truth-breakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors,
heady, high-minded, lover of pleasures, lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying
the power thereof from such turn away. For of this sort are they
which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with
sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able
to come to the knowledge of truth. Now as Janus and Jambres withstood
Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds
reprobate concerning the faith." In other words, all these things. that the apostle speaks of here,
they are the natural consequence of all these false prophets and
false teachers which lead people away from the faith, the gospel,
the truth. Turn over to Titus, just a few
pages over, just to Titus chapter 1. He says, Paul, a servant of God
and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's
elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. It is the truth, it is the faith,
it is the faith of God's elect, it is the faith which the people
of God will believe. Look down in verse 13. He says,
this witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply that they
may be sound in the faith. And when Paul is writing to the
church at Galatia, he says, but only they were hearing
that. In other words, he's saying what
men were saying about him. He says, but only they were hearing
that he who then persuaded us, or persecuted us, now preached
the faith which he once ravaged. He was preaching the faith which
he once hated, which he once preached against, which he once
despised. And then it says in Philippians
chapter 1, I want to have you turn there, but he says, only
let your conduct be as becomes the gospel of Christ, so that
whether I come and see you or else am absent, I may hear of
your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit, striving with
one mind for the faith of the gospel. In other words, the apostle makes
as the essential item of this examination not simply an examination
of what we want or what we feel is right or an examination of
self or anybody else. It is an examination as to whether
you be in the faith. in the faith. Old Robert Hawker said of this
very thing, the only caution to be observed in doing this
is to form our conclusion by God's standard and not our own. How are we going to determine
whether we're in the faith or not? It won't be by anything
such as feeling. It won't be by any of these things
that men speak of and that preachers push upon people to do that would
surely have been a problem at Corinth because there was a lot
of failure. But Paul says to this particular
people especially, And he says it in order to call them back
to a consistency with what they believe. He says, examine yourselves
whether you be in the faith. In other words, we are to draw
our conclusions from the Spirit's testimony of the Word of God
as to what I am to Christ and Christ to me and not from what
I feel or any of these other things. One reason is because our feelings
change from day to day. The other thing is because we
aren't often as consistent with that which we believe as we ought
to be. One reason is because we fail
time and time again to be what he commands us to be. So how do we examine ourselves? It is as to whether we be in
the faith. And what this amounts to is this. We are what God says that we
are in ourselves. That is, sinners, Helpless, hopeless,
unrighteous, lost, fallen and adamant, without strength, enemies
in our own minds by wicked works. All that Andrew read there in
Romans chapter 3, we are all of them. Why? Because God says
so. That's right. You see, you may
not feel that at all. You may not admit that at all. But it's absolutely the truth. It is the faith and everyone
who is in the faith believes that. Just simply because God
said it. Just simply because it's true. And this is the faith of God's
elect. When we talk about things of
scripture such as grace, and we're talking about man's inability,
and we're talking about man's depravity, and things like that,
those who are in the faith, they confess that. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him." Every time in Scripture
that we find something that naturally goes against our flesh, unless
we have grace from God, we'll never believe that. But God gives His people grace. And though it is hard, though
it is devastating, though it is humiliating, they all admit
what the faith says about them, and they all admit what the faith
says that God's done. When he says the faith of God's
elect, We automatically know by something like that that there
must be an election. God must elect or choose a people. And then he says this. and Thessalonians,
but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brothers
beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. Do we believe that? Well, that's what the faith says.
That's exactly what the faith says. And we believe what the
Bible says about us, and we believe what the Bible says about God
and His purpose of grace, and we believe what the Bible sets
forth about the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes I see a church sign
that says something like this, just simply stating, believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, surely you can't find fault
with that, can you? Well, the only problem with that
is that James said that even the devil believes that. That's right. The devil believes
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people over history who
were totally unbelievers in the sight of God, they believed in
the Lord Jesus. Pilate believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But the Bible says, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ? Well, in that sense, believe
means to trust and to rely solely upon. It means something like
to lean all your weight upon. Is that what we're doing? Are
we leaning all our soul's weight, all our hope of eternity, all
our hope of salvation, all our entire everything, are we leaning
our weight wholly on the Lord Jesus Christ? On what He did, on who He is,
on what He's promised, in the faith. You see, he is as he is, as he's
declared to be, and for what he's declared to have done in
the testimony of God. Not heresy, not tradition, Not
all these lies that are so common to us, they are generally accepted
about Christ. But in the truth, the truth. Many say that they believe that
He's the Son of God. Many say that they believe in
His deity. Many believe that they, what
they say is this, I believe God can do anything. But the problem is they don't
believe what the faith says that He's done. They believe He died on the cross,
but most believe that His cross work will be mostly a failure. They believe that he died on
the cross, but most that he died for will perish. They believe
that their act of faith determines the success and the efficacy
of his death. That's not the faith. That's
not the gospel. Turn over to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. And I'm telling you this morning
that the basis, the most simple, down-to-earth, fundamental basis
upon which we can examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith, is
to take close examination on what we believe
about God, what we believe about His Son. Now look at this in
Romans 16. Romans 1 and verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. That's the faith. I'm not ashamed
of the faith. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek." This is how God saves his people, which are among Jew
and Gentile in every age. This is the one way, the one
gospel, the one faith. Now listen. For therein, in the
faith, therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. In one sense, faith of faith
here may mean it's revealed as spoken from one believer to another
believer. That'd be okay, that's true. But maybe, and most especially,
it means this, from the faith to faith. When do we know we have faith? When we believe the faith. When we believe the faith once
delivered. But most especially, when we
believe the faith wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. Now I'm going to tell you something.
Any gospel that sets forth Christ as having died for every person,
and yet some of those persons go to hell, is not a gospel wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. That's simple. Because righteousness,
even as far back as the Old Testament, when God begins to speak about
righteousness, as He is righteous Himself, He speaks about just
weights, just balances, dealing fairly, rightly, justly by the
judges, by people who sell. If you weigh out a pound, it
better be a pound. Because God is just. He's just. And if he sent one
soul to hell, for whom Christ died, for whom Christ paid the
debt, for whom Christ shed his blood, he would be unjust. Now there's no other way to looking
at that. John Owen said it about as concisely
as it can be said. He said, either Christ died,
shed his blood for all men and therefore all men are going to
be saved or Christ died for the sins, some of the sins of all
men, and therefore all men will be lost because they cannot pay
for their sins, any amount of them. Or either Christ died for some
men, paid their debt, and all of them are going to be saved. And the third answer is the right
one. Because it is the one, it is
the truth, it is the fundamental issue, it is the basis of the
faith. That's what separates the faith
from all these other so-called faiths. Everyone is either Christ plus
or Christ minus something. Everyone is either Christ did
his part and you'll do your part. Everyone is either Christ died
for all and some will perish in hell, but the faith The faith is the message, the
good news that Christ came into the world to save sinners, Paul
said, of whom I'm chief. What did he do? He came. He existed previously. He took
on himself human flesh. He came into this world to save
sinners. He came into this world, it says,
to lay down his life for the sheep. He looked at those Pharisees
and he said, you believe not because you're not of my sheep.
He came into this world and shed his blood to redeem the church. That's the faith. That's the
only thing that can give a real sinner real hope. That somehow Christ, and not
really just somehow, but by means of the cross, by means of his
perfect sinless being, being put to death on the cross, satisfied
God's justice so as to never having meet it again, Are you in the faith? I didn't write this book. This
isn't my own opinion. This isn't some philosophy that
I follow. This isn't some point of doctrine
that I want to toot my horn about over and over again. This is
the faith. The faith sets God apart as holy
and justice and righteous, especially in the salvation of His people. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, if He doesn't do it in a just manner. He cannot
be who He claims to be. He says, look unto me, a just
God and a Savior. If we see God as He is, it will
be as a just God as well as a Savior. Not a just God, but a Savior. I used to hear a preacher claimed
to believe grace, and he'd make this statement a lot of times.
God is just God, but he's a savior. No, he's not. He's a just God
and a Savior. If we can see how He's a just
God and a Savior, if we can answer that question of Job, how can
man be just with God? How can such as we read in Romans
3 there, in that condition, how can they be just before a holy
and righteous God? It's in Christ. So that so much so is Christ
the satisfaction for sin for all his people, that that same
justice that required that Christ be put to death, that he die,
and when all the sins of his people were imputed to him, laid
on him, so much so is that satisfied God now, such as a just God,
he demands that they go free. He's not going to just let them
go free. He's not just going to turn his
back now. He's going to demand, he's just
to demand that they go free. He's just to require that they
go free. He's just to require that they
be saved because all their sins have been put away. That's the faith. And if we don't
have faith in what is revealed, the one that's revealed in the
faith, we don't have faith. You think God gives faith to
believe a lie about Him? You think God gives faith to
believe something that's untrue about Christ? Or do you think
that God in some way gives faith to people? And that's what it
is. Faith is a gift of God. If you have true faith, God gave
it to you. But do you think that he gives
people faith to believe in those, in a work that is a failure and
makes him to be diminished in his glory? Oh, no. The Bible says that He's just. Go back and read it there in
Romans 3. That He is just and the justifier
of them which believe solely in the Jesus revealed in the
faith. It's generally accepted that
God loves everybody. You look in this book and you
see if you think that's true. You look in when he says he hates
all workers of iniquity. You look when he says, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. All the times and all the demonstrations
of God's holy hatred and just wrath against sinners. That's not the faith. That's
not the faith. sets forth God's love as particular
and powerful. He loves the people in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He loved them before the foundation
of the world. He loved them and gave Himself
for them. He loves them and sends His Spirit
to bring them to the faith and give them faith in what is revealed
in the faith, which is Christ and only Christ. You go out this morning, and you ask people if they're
Christians, or you ask them if they're saved. And they say yes. Tell me why. They'll give to
you a Heinz 57 varieties of reasons, from church membership to baptism
for the fact that they've not cussed or swore or drunk or committed
adultery, just things that ad nauseum that they've done, not
done, who they were, they're members of, but only Christ. Can you rely solely on the person
of Jesus Christ and the work that he accomplished for all
righteousness? For all God being just with you
in the matter of your sin, that's the faith. Examine yourself
whether you be in the faith. Don't spend time examining others. Don't spend time examining yourself. I call it belly button introspection. I'm going to look in here and
see if I see any evidence of being a Christian. If you find any, you better run
from it. You better flee to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You better believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, bear all your weight upon Him. You see, the Spirit of God bears
witness to the faith. And the Spirit of God, Christ
said, when He's come, He'll take all the things of mine and show
them to you. That's what the faith is. And
the Spirit of God takes the faith, takes the gospel, which shows
all the things that are in and given and done by Christ and
shows them to us. And we believe on that. You see, the truth of the matter
is, you can't have faith if you've never heard the faith, if you
don't know the faith. Somebody said, well, why do you
preach righteousness all the time? Why do you make this the
center of your ministry? Why don't you tell people how
to live and how to do and all these things? My friend, When Paul admonished these people
against some of the sins that they were committing, immorality
and all these other things, he called them back to what they
professed to believe, and God's grace and mercy to them, and
that is the basis upon which he instructed them. He didn't preach 50 messages
on how to live. He didn't preach 50 messages
on the home or 50 messages on the marriage or any of these
things. He wrote to them. He preached
to them about the grace of God that was shown to them in Christ
Jesus. And that is always and only the
motivation to godliness. If I wanted to make Pharisees
out of you, I'd spend every waking moment just telling you what
to do. But that's not the way we're
saved. We're saved by God causing us to hear and believe and to
know the faith. The faith. Billy Graham said he thought
that there were a lot of faiths and that there were a lot of
faiths by which men would get to God. But God didn't say that. They said there is no name given
unto heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved but
this one. By faith we have hope in Christ. as He's revealed in the faith. The truth. You ever notice how
it's always singular? The gospel. There's not anymore. Gospel is
good news. The gospel. The only good news. The faith. There's only one.
The faith. The truth, the way, the life,
it's always singular. And Paul said, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Turn over and look again at Colossians. In Colossians, Paul says, chapter
1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and
Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren
in Christ, which are at Colossae, grace be to you and peace from
our God and Father. and our Lord Jesus Christ, we
give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,
and the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel. Now, where'd you hear all this?
Or did you hear about Christ? Or did you hear about this matter
of hope, a basis of hope? In the word of truth, in the
gospel, in the faith. I'm telling you that if we examine ourselves We won't find anything good. We just won't find any reason
to hope. That's why when men say, begin to talk about
evidence for salvation, if you do this, if you do that,
if you do the other, you can find some evidence for salvation.
I can't find evidence for my salvation for any reason or basis
or standing or anything else except Christ crucified. Some days I feel like I'm saved. Some days I don't. Some days I try to, I'm pretty
good at conducting myself. Some days I'm not so good. Some day I have great thoughts
about Christ. Oh goodness. Some days I hardly
think of him at all. But the faith is still the faith. And it still shows, sets forth,
tells about the Lord Jesus Christ and the work that he accomplished
in his cross death, the work of righteousness as being everything
in our acceptance before God. He made us accepted in the beloved. So if I examine other people,
I'm only disappointed. I'm sorry, I know you think you're
real good. Or if I examine myself, I'm just
disappointed. But if I examine myself, whether I be in the faith, I'm confident of this. I'm sure
of this. This is the faith. This is what
God's Word says. This is how it sets forth Christ. This is the one basis of hope,
and it is a good hope through grace. You see, when you examine yourselves,
whether you be in the faith, you examine yourself in the light
of what the faith says that Christ did. And He saved His people from
their sins. He died for the ungodly. And His Spirit bears witness
with our spirit when we look to him alone, to only Christ, that we're the children of God.
That's what John said. But his spirit will not bear
witness in this sense to anyone who believes in another Jesus
that is not the Jesus of the faith. So rather than looking at us,
we're to examine what we believe. most especially what we believe
about God. Because repentance is acknowledging that what we
once believed, what we once thought, what we naturally thought about
God was wrong. Paul said, There I was, a Pharisee,
a moral man. As we say, cleaner than a hound's
tooth. People respected me. I had a righteousness under the
law, I thought. Sat at the feet of Gamaliel,
taught, knowledgeable. But I was before. a blasphemer. I was before a blasphemer. Examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith. Seek to know the faith. Seek to learn the gospel. Seek to study God's Word. Seek to lay hold of Christ. Because if we in the Bible sense
lay hold of Christ, lay hold of eternal life in Christ, it's
because He has laid hold on us. Our Father, we pray, that you would cause us to know,
cause us to hear, cause us to believe the faith, faith of God's
elect, the faith once delivered to the saints, the faith that
sets forth Christ and all his glorious person and all his work
of righteousness on the behalf of those that look to him. all
the elect. May we be found among them. May
all the glory, all the praise be to you. For we pray in Christ's
name. Amen.