Self-examination

This sermon was originally preached on October 10, 1858, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The text for today comes from the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 5. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test.

I feel constrained to address you today on a subject which has often been on my heart and frequently on my lips, and concerning which I dare say I have admonished a very large proportion of this audience before. You will find our text in the thirteenth chapter of the second epistle to the Corinthians, at the fifth verse. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test.

This is a solemn text, a text that preachers must continually impress on their congregations, exhorting them to frequently meditate on it.

The Corinthians were the critics of the apostles' age. They were very proud of their own skills in learning and in language. And as most men do, who are wise in their own eyes, they made a wrong use of their wisdom and learning. They began to criticize the apostle Paul. They criticized his style. His letters, they say, are weighty and forceful. but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing. No, not being content with that, they went so far as to deny his apostleship. And for once in his life, the apostle Paul was compelled to make a fool of himself. For he says, you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you. for I am not in the least inferior to the super-apostles, even though I am nothing.

The apostle wrote two letters to them. In both he is compelled to scold them while he defends himself. And when he had fully disarmed his opponents and wrestled the sword of their criticism out of their hands, he pointed the sword at their own chest, saying, Examine yourselves to see You have disputed my doctrine. Examine whether you are in the faith. You have made me prove my apostleship. Test yourselves. Use the powers which you have been so wrongfully exercising on me. Use it for a little while on your own characters.

And now, my dear friends, the fault of the Corinthians is the fault of the present age. Let none of you, as you leave church today, say to his neighbor, how did you like the preacher? What did you think of the sermon this morning? Is that the question you should ask as you leave church? Do you come here to judge God's servants? I know it is only a small thing for us to be judged by man's judgment, for our judgment is by the Lord, our God. To our own master we will stand or fall.

But dear friends, you should ask a more profitable question to yourselves than this. You should say, didn't that sermon strike my heart? Didn't that message exactly relate to my condition? Wasn't it a rebuke that I deserved? A word of reproof or of exhortation? Let me take it to heart that which I have heard, and let me not judge the preacher, for he is God's messenger to my soul. I came to church to be judged by God's word, and not to judge God's word myself.

But since there is in all of our hearts a great reluctance to self-examination, I will this morning earnestly exhort myself and all of you to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith.

First, I will expound my text. Secondly, I will enforce it. And thirdly, I will try and help you to put it into practice today. First, I will expound my text. Though in truth it needs no exposition, For it is very simple, yet, by studying it and pondering it, our hearts may become more deeply affected with its tender appeal. Examine yourselves to see. Who does not understand that word? And yet, by a few suggestions, you may know its meaning more perfectly.

Examine. That is a scholastic idea. a scholastic idea. A boy has been going to school for a certain time and his teacher puts him through his paces, questions him to see whether he has made any progress, whether he knows anything. Christian, closely examine your heart. Question it to see whether it has been growing in grace. Question it. to see if it knows anything of vital godliness or not. Examine it. Pass your heart through a stern examination as to what it does know and what it does not know by the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

Again, it is a military idea. It is a military idea. Examine yourselves to see or renew yourselves. Go through the rank and file of your actions and examine all of your motives. Just as the captain on the day of inspection is not content with merely surveying the men from a distance, but must look at all their accoutrements, so also you must closely look at yourselves. Examine yourselves with the most scrupulous care,

And once again, this is a legal idea. This is a legal idea. Examine yourselves to see. You have seen the witness sitting in the witness box when the lawyer has been cross-examining him. Now note this. Never was there a scoundrel less trustworthy and more deceitful than your own heart. And just like when you are cross-examining a dishonest person, one who is trying to cover up for someone, you set traps for him and try to catch him in a lie. Then do the same thing with your own heart. Question it backward and forward, this way and that way. For if there is a loophole for escape, if there is any excuse for self-deception, Rest assured your treacherous heart will be ready to take advantage of it.

And yet once more, this is a traveler's idea. A traveler's idea. I find in the original it has this meaning. Go right through yourselves. As a traveler, if he has to write a book about a country, then he is not content to merely go around its borders but goes, as it were, from Dan to Beersheba, right through the heart of the country. He climbs the hilltop where he bathes his forehead in the sunshine. He goes down into the deep valleys where he can only see the blue light like a strip between the lofty summits of the mountains. He is not content to gaze on the broad rivers unless he traces it to the spring from where it emerges. He will not be satisfied with viewing the crops on the surface of the earth, but he must discover the minerals that lie within its heart. Now do the same with your heart.

Examine yourselves to see. Go right through yourselves from the beginning to the end. Stand not only on the mountains of your public character, but go into the deep valleys of your private life. Do not be content to sail on the broad river of your outward actions, but follow backwards the narrow streams until you discover your secret motive. Do not look only at your performance, which is but the produce of the soil, but dig into your heart and examine the vital principle.

Examine yourselves to see. This is a very big word. A word that needs to be thought about over and over. And I am afraid there are very few, very few, if any of us, who ever completely satisfy the fullness of this solemn exhortation.

Examine yourselves to see. There's another word you will see a little further on if you will look at the text. Test yourselves. Test yourselves. That means more than self-examination. Let me try to show the difference between the two.

A man is about to buy a horse. He examines it. He looks at it. He thinks that possibly he might find out some flaw, and therefore he carefully examines it. But after he has examined it, if he is a prudent man, he says to the person who is selling it, I must determine the quality of this horse by testing. Will you let me have it for a week, for a month, or for some given time that I may test the animal before I actually invest in him? You see, there is more in testing than in examination. It is a deeper word and goes to the very root and core of the matter.

Just yesterday I saw an illustration of this. A ship before she is launched is examined. When launched, she is carefully looked at. And yet before she is allowed to go far out to sea, she makes a trial run. She is tested and tried. And when she has roughed it a little, and it has been discovered that she will obey the helm, that the engines will work correctly, and that all is in right order, then and only then does she go out on her long voyages.

Now, test yourselves. Do not merely sit in your closet and look at yourselves alone, but go out into this busy world and see what kind of holiness you actually have. Remember, many a man's religion will stand examination that will not stand testing. We may sit at home and look at our religion and say, well, I think this will do. It is like the cotton prints that you can buy in various shops. They are guaranteed to have colors that will not run. And so they seem when you look at them, but they are not washable when you get them at home. There is many a man's religion like that. It is good enough to look at, and it has got the guarantee stamped on it. But when it comes out into actual daily life, The colors soon begin to run, and the man discovers that the thing was not what he took it to be.

You know in scripture we have an account of certain very foolish men that would not go to a great supper. But foolish as they were, there was one of them who said, I have just bought five yoke of oxen and am on my way to try them out. Thus he had at least worldly wisdom. enough to put his oxen to the test, so also must you test yourselves. Try to plow in the furrows of duty. See whether you can be submissive to the yoke of gospel service. Do not be ashamed to put yourselves through your paces. Try yourself in the furnace of daily life, for it may be that in the close examination of your heart you are revealed to be a cheat and will prove to be a castaway.

Examine yourselves to see, test yourselves. There is a sentence which I omitted, namely this one. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith, whether you are in the faith. Oh, someone says, You may examine me whether I am in the faith. I am an Orthodox Christian, fully up to the standard, good and genuine. There is no fear whatever of my coming up to the mark and going a little beyond it too. Ah, but my friend, that is not the question. I would want you to be Orthodox, for a man who is unorthodox in his opinions will most likely be unorthodox in his actions. But the question now is not whether you believe the truth, but whether you are in the truth.

Just to give an illustration of what I mean, there is the ark and a number of men standing around it. Ah, says one, I believe that ark will float. Oh, says another, I believe that ark is made of gopher wood and is strong from stem to stern. I am quite sure that ark will float, come what may. I am a firm believer in that ark.

Yes, but when the rain descended and the floods came, it was not believing in the ark as a matter of fact, it was being in the ark that saved men. So there may be some of you that say of the gospel of Christ, I believe it to be true, and you are quite correct in your judgment. You may say, I think that gospel is one which honors God and casts down the pride of man. Herein too, you are thinking correctly.

But note this, it is not having an orthodox faith, but it is being in the faith, being in Christ, taking refuge in him as in the ark. For he that only has the faith as an outward belief and is not actually in the faith will perish in the day of God's anger. But he that lives by faith, he who feels that faith operates on him and is to him a living principle, he who realizes that faith is his dwelling place, that there he can abide, that it is the very atmosphere he breathes and the very belt to strengthen him, Such a man is in the faith.

But we repeat again, all the orthodoxy in the world, apart from its effect on the heart as a vital principle, will not save a man. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you? If you don't, You have neglected your proper study. What benefit or advantage is there of what else you may know if you do not know that Christ is in you? You have been roaming around the world while the richest treasure was lying at home. You have been busying yourself with irrelevant affairs while the main business has been neglected and ruined. Do you not realize this fact? that Jesus Christ must be in your heart, formed and living there, or else you are reprobates. That is, you are worthless persons, vain pretenders, false professors. Your religion is but a vanity and a show. They are called rejected silver because the Lord has rejected them.

Now, what does it mean to have Jesus Christ in you? The Roman Catholic hangs the cross around his neck. The true Christian carries the cross in his heart. And a cross inside the heart, my friends, is one of the sweetest treatments for a cross on the back. If you have a cross in your heart, Christ crucified in you, the hope of glory, all the crosses of this world's troubles will seem to you very light and you will easily be able to sustain it. Christ in the heart means Christ believed in, Christ loved, Christ trusted, Christ taken in marriage as a husband, Christ communed with, Christ as our daily food, and ourselves as the temple and palace where Jesus Christ daily walks.

Ah, there are many here that are total strangers to the meaning of this phrase. They do not know what it is to have Jesus Christ in them. Though you know a little about Christ on Calvary, you know nothing about Christ in the heart. Now remember that Christ on Calvary will save no man unless Christ is in the heart. The son of Mary born in the manger will not save a soul unless he is also born in your hearts and live there. He must be your joy, your strength, and your consolation. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test. The second point was to enforce the text. To enforce the text. I have proved it. Now I am to enforce it. And here is the tug of war. May the spirit of the living God drive the sword in all the way this morning, so that the power of God may be felt in every heart, searching and testing.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Examine yourselves to see, first, because it is a matter of the very highest importance, because it is a matter of the very highest importance. Small businessmen may take copper pennies over the counter without much examination. But when it comes to a gold coin, they will examine it well, for they could not afford to lose a significant sum of money out of their little profits. And if it comes to a five-pound note, there is a careful holding it up to the window to see if the watermark is there. And whether all is correct, for it might be the ruin of the man if he lost so large a sum.

Ah, but merchants and businessmen, if you are deceived in the matter of your own souls, you are truly deceived. Carefully look at the title deeds of your estate. Look carefully at all your life insurance policies and to all the business that you do. But remember, all the gold and silver you have are nothing but residue and scum of the furnace. compared with the matter now at hand. It is your soul, your own soul, your never dying soul. Will you risk that? In times of panic, men will scarcely trust their fellow man. I would to God there was a panic this day, so that no man would trust himself. You may trust your fellow man far more safely than you do trust yourselves.

My friends, will you think about the condition of your soul? The life is more than food and the body more than clothes. But the soul is as much more to be accounted of than the body. And the body is more important than the clothes. Here are my clothes. Let me be robbed of all my garments if my body is safe. And as for my body, what is it? What is it, after all, but the rag that enshrines and covers my soul? Let my body be sick, let it become like a worn-out coat. I can afford to lose my body, but, O God, I cannot afford to have my soul cast into hell.

What a frightful, hazardous course it is, that which you and I are running, if we do not examine ourselves. It is an everlasting hazard. It is a course that could end up in heaven or in hell. A danger of losing God's eternal favor and gaining his everlasting curse. The apostles said it well, examine yourselves to see. Again, examine yourselves to see. Because if you make a mistake, you can never rectify it except in this world. If you make a mistake, you can never rectify it except in this world.

A person who has gone bankrupt once may have lost a fortune, and yet he may make another. But make bankruptcy, spiritual bankruptcy in this life, and you will never have an opportunity to gain heaven. A great general may lose one battle, but with skill and courage he may retrieve his honor by winning another. But get defeated in the battle of this life, and you can no longer fight again. You are defeated forever. The day is lost, and there is no hope, no hope of you being able to gain it again, not even so much as to make the attempt.

Now or never, man. Remember that, now or never. Your soul's eternal state hangs on the moments of today. Waste your time, waste your abilities, trust your religion solely to your priest, to your minister, or to your friend, and in the next world you will eternally regret the error, and you will have no hope, no hope of amending it. Fixed is their everlasting state. If man could repent, tis then too late. There are no acts of pardon past in the cold grave to which we haste. But darkness, death, and long despair reign in eternal silence there. Examine yourselves to see again, because many have been mistaken. because many have been mistaken. That is a matter which I will undertake to affirm on my own authority, certain that each one of you can confirm it by your own observation. How many in this world think themselves to be godly when they are not? You have in the circle of your own friends persons making a profession of whom you often stand in astonishment and wonder how they dare to do it. Friend, if others have been mistaken, is it not possible that you are too? If some here and there fall into an error, is it not possible that you also do the same? Are you better than they? No, in no way. You may be mistaken also. I think I see the rocks on which many souls have been lost, the rocks of presumption, and the enticing plea of self-confidence lures you on to those rocks this morning. Stay on course, Mariner, stay on course, I beg you. Let the bleached bones lying on the rocks keep you back. Many have been lost, many are lost now, and are wailing at this present time, wailing at this present hour, wailing their everlasting ruin. And their loss is to be traced to nothing more than this, that they never examined themselves to see whether they were in the faith. And here, let me appeal to each person now present. Do not tell me that you are an old church member. I am glad to hear it, but still I beg you, examine yourself. For a man may be a professor of religion for 30 or 40 years, and yet there may come a day of trial. when his religion will finally snap and prove to be a rotten tree of the forest. Do not tell me that you are a deacon, that you may be, and yet you may be deceived and damned. Yes, and do not whisper to me that you are a minister. My brethren in the ministry, we may lay aside our robes to wear belts of flames in hell. We may go from our pulpit, having preached to others what we never knew ourselves, and have to join the everlasting wailings of souls we have helped to delude. May God save us from such a doom as that. But let no man fold his arms and say, I do not need to examine myself, for there is not a man or woman here today or anywhere who does not have good reason to test and try themselves today. Furthermore, Examine yourselves to see, because God will examine you, because God will examine you. In the hand of God, there is a scale and the balance. You will not be taken into heaven for what you profess to be, but you will be weighed in the balance. Every one of you will be put on the scale. What a moment that will be for me and with you when we are on God's great scale. Surely were it not for faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for a certainty that we will be clothed in his righteousness, we might all tremble at the thought of ever being there. Lest we should have to come out of the scale with this verdict. You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. God will not take his gold and silver by appearance, but every vessel must be purified in the fire. Each one of us must pass through a most searching test and scrutiny. Beloved, if our hearts condemn us, how much more will God condemn us? If we are afraid to examine ourselves, then we have good reason to tremble at the thought of the dread searching of God. Some of you feel that you are condemned this very day by a poor creature like myself. How much more, then, will you be condemned when God, robed in thunder, will summon you and all your fellow men to the last infallible judgment? O may God help us now to examine ourselves. And I have one more reason to give. Examine yourselves to see, my dear friends, because if you are in doubt now, The speediest way to get rid of your doubts and fears is by self-examination. I believe that many persons always doubt their eternal condition because they do not examine themselves. Self-examination is the safest cure for one half the doubts and fears that vex God's people. Look at the ship captain over there. He is in his ship and he says to the sailors, You must sail very cautiously and carefully and be on your watch. For to tell you the truth, I do not know where I am. I do not exactly know my latitude and longitude. And there may be rocks very close ahead. And the ship may soon be broken up." He then goes down into his cabin. He searches the chart. He makes an inspection of the stars. He comes up again and he says, Hoist every sail and go along as merrily as you please. I have discovered where we are. The water is deep. There is no need for you to be in any trouble. Searching has satisfied me. And oh, how happy it will be with you if after searching yourself you can say, I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I've entrusted to him. for that day. Why, then you will go along merrily and joyfully because the searching has had a good result. And what if it should have a bad result? Better that you should find it out now than find it out when it is too late. One of the prayers I often pray and desire to pray as long as I live is this, Lord, let me know the worst of my situation. If I have been living in a false comfort, Lord, tear it away. Let me know just what I am and where I am, and rather let me think too harshly of my condition before you than think too securely and so be ruined by presumption. May that be a prayer of each heart and be heard in heaven. And now, how are you to search yourselves? I am going to try and help you, though it must be very brief. First, if you would examine yourselves to see, begin with your public life. Are you dishonest? Do you steal? Do you swear? Are you given to drunkenness, immorality, blasphemy, taking God's name in vain, in violation of His holy day? Stop right there. There will be no need to go into any further test. For the scripture says, he that does these things has no inheritance, no inheritance in the kingdom of God. You are reprobate. The wrath of God remains on you. Your state is fearful. You are cursed now. And unless you repent, you will be cursed forever. And yet Christian, Despite your many sins, can't you say, by the grace of God I am what I am, but I seek to live a righteous, godly, and serious life in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Remember, Professor of Christianity, in the last day you will be judged by your works. Your works cannot save you, but they can prove that you are saved, and if they are evil works, they can prove that you are not saved at all. And here I must say, every one of us has a good reason to tremble, for our outward acts are not what we would have them to be. Let us go to our houses and fall on our knees and cry again, God be merciful to me a sinner. And let us seek for more grace, more grace that from now on our lives may be more consistent and more in accordance with the Spirit of Christ. Again, another set of tests, private tests. How about your private life? How about your private life? Do you live without prayer? Without searching the scriptures? Do you live without thoughts of God? Can you live as a habitual stranger to the Most High? having no love to him and no fear of him? If so, I make short work of the matter. You are full of bitterness and a captive to sin. But if you are right in your heart, you will be able to say, I could not live without prayer. I have to weep over my prayers, but still I would weep 10 times more if I did not pray. I do love God's word. It is my meditation all day long. I love His people. I love His church. And I can say that my hands are often lifted upwards towards Him. And when my heart is busy with this world's affairs, it is often going up to His throne. That is a good sign, Christian. A good sign for you if you can pass this test. You have hope that all is well. But go a little deeper. Have you ever wept over your lost condition? Have you ever mourned your lostness before God? Have you ever tried to save yourself and found it a failure? And have you been driven to rely simply, wholly, and entirely on Christ? If so, then you have sufficiently passed the test. Do you now have faith in Christ, a faith that makes you love Him, of faith that enables you to trust Him in the darkest hour? Can you truthfully say that you have a secret affection towards the Most High, that you love His Son, that you desire after His ways, that you feel the influence of the Divine Spirit and seek every day to experience the fellowship of the Holy Spirit more and more? And lastly, can you say that Jesus Christ is in you If not, you are reprobate. Sharp though that word is, you are reprobate. But if Jesus Christ is in your heart, though your heart sometimes is so dark that you cannot hardly tell He is there, yet you are accepted in the Beloved, and you may rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy. Amen.