Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 13. The first time we met was at
Scott Richardson's. That was in the 80s. I've got a better memory than
you do. It is a blessing to me to be able to be here and see
old friends and folks that come so far. and to be able to hear
some preaching here in a bit. But here in chapter 13, I want
to read three verses of Scripture, and hopefully, as Brother Bruce
said, give you the sense of what it's saying, give you the sense
of God's Word. The Apostle said, 1 Corinthians
13, 3, Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which
to you it 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 Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. And there's a reason the apostle
tells these people to examine themselves, whether they be in
the faith, to prove it, to test it. Now, they wanted proof of
Paul, Christ being in Paul. They said, you know, since you
seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, using me, being an apostle,
being a preacher, you want proof of that. There were people at
Corinth that didn't like Paul, didn't like his message, didn't
like his methods, didn't like anything about him. And they
got other folks to question him. But you want proof, you want
evidence that Christ is speaking in me. And he says to you, it's
not weak, but it's mighty in you. You're the very evidence.
Your conversion is the very evidence that Christ speaks in me. Your
conversion and the fact that you, I've been to you three different
times. Proof, you're proof that Christ
is speaking in me. And he is mighty in you. It's
evident that God's done something for some of you, but though he
was crucified through weakness. Crucified through weakness. Now,
beloved our Lord Jesus Christ was never weak. Never weak. No weakness about him. But here
it says crucified through weakness. That means that he yielded himself
up in his human nature. Came in here willingly, voluntarily
from the day he was born and laid in that manger until the
day he was crucified. He willingly, voluntarily subjected
himself to the infirmities of the flesh. To be hungry, to be
weary, to be hated, to be despised, to be rejected. And he who had
the very power of life in his hands, when he said, I thirst,
he's the one, the one who said that holds the waters of this
world in the hall of his hands. And yet he says, I thirst. So
this shows that he subjected himself to this weakness, this
infirmities of the flesh. But then he says, but he lives
by the power of God. He lived in his life by the power
of God, and now he lives by the power of God, set at the right
hand of God with all power and authority vested in him. And
though we may be weak in him, and you view us weak, but our
weakness is whatever we got, it's in him. And yet we shall
live just like he did by the power of God, and we'll live
by the power of God towards you, towards you. So since you seek
a proof of Christ speaking in me, You want a proof of God? I want some proof that Christ
is in you. He said, examine yourselves. You want to examine me? You examine
yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you're not that Jesus Christ
is in you, lest you be reprobates. Now, when we talk about being
in the faith, when Paul's telling them here to examine themselves,
whether they be in the faith, he's not telling them to examine
their lives, whether they're living right. whether doing something
or not doing something. That's not what he's talking
about. He's not talking about examine yourself whether you
prayed enough today or read enough Bible today, if you attend enough
services. That's not what he's talking
about. When he talks about, here you know that to examine yourself
whether you be in the faith, whether you have the true doctrine,
whether you really are a believer, the faith, the compendium of
what we believe. what we would call the gospel,
what we would call Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's
do you know Christ is what he's saying. Are you in the faith? Have you heard the gospel? Do
you believe the gospel? If Christ is in you, do you do
that? Do you know him? Do you believe
him? And I say, beloved, God's word is clear, crystal clear.
about salvation and how a soul comes to know God. It's crystal
clear about that. God's word tells us, God's word,
and as he read tonight, it don't return void. God's word tells
us, you and me, how to have a relationship with God himself and how that
relationship with God happens. Now, the scriptures makes it
plain. You know, and I know this, that if you do have a relationship
with God, if you know God and you know God in Christ, if you
have a relationship with Him, you desire to have a more intimate,
a more close relationship with Him. The more you know Him, the
more you wanna know about Him. The more you know about Him,
the more you desire to know about Him. Desire to live for his glory. And so the apostle said examine
yourself whether you be in the faith. How do you know God? How
do you know God? How do you come in this relationship?
The scripture says that he's holy, infinitely holy, thrice
holy. says he's righteous the judge
of the all earth must always do right that he's righteous
in his being righteous in his acts righteous in his doings
in this world he dwells in a light that no man can approach unto
and the scriptures tells us that this is the message then that
we've heard and declare unto you that God is light. And in
him, in him is no darkness at all. None whatsoever. There's
not even a shadow about God. God don't, we cast shadows, cause
we're substance. God is eternal being and he doesn't
cast a shadow. And he can't turn one way or
another. He's light and all beloved. And then not only that, but he's
omnipotent. He's got all power. Got all power,
all might. He's sovereign in this world.
He rules this world. He brings everything to pass
that happens in this world. He declared the end before the
beginning ever started. Said he'd do all of his pleasure
in this world. And I tell you, beloved, and
this is why Paul asks, he says, you want proof of Christ in me,
what about you? Do you ever question how the
world can be as it is? How can this world and all of
its murder and its lying and its cheating and its economic
and spiritual condition, oh my soul, how to condition this world's
in. We think it is awful. The world's in an awful state,
but people say, how can the world be in the state it's in and then
be like this if God is love? The first thing they say, if
God is love, how can it be such a state like this? And how can my life be as it
is if God is just and loves? How can my life be such a mess?
Well, I'll tell you something, beloved. God's not like us at
all. Men who despise Him, despise
his word as it is, despise his way, despise his son. The reason
they do that because God, their God is in their image and our
God is not made in their image. That's why they despise him.
They got a God of their imagination. And I tell you, we're coming
to the time very quickly, Bruce and I were talking about, I think
we're coming to the time in the very next few years, if God don't
intervene, where we will be maligned, not only maligned, but maybe
even put out of churches and everything, because if you preach
anything that's right, just holy and true, Preach against sin
as it is and make this world and it's depravity and it's wickedness
and it's hatred of God and it's hatred of Christ, it's hateful
of God's word, hateful of our Lord's name. The time's coming
when they'll call that hate speech because there's got to be another
way. You all are bigots and racists and we're not gonna have you
up there preaching that. But I tell you, God's not like
us. God's not in their image, and that's why they don't like
him the way he is. He's not the way they want him to be. He's
not doing the things they want him to do. He's not acting the
way they like him to act. He's not controlling the world
the way they want him to control. He's not controlling doing for
their life what he thinks they think he should do. Now, oh,
beloved, so let's examine ourselves. I'll do it myself. I'll examine
me. I'll let you all listen in. See
whether I'm in the faith or not. This is what we're talking about
being in the faith. This is the first thing. When
I say examine yourselves, I'm going to preach the gospel to
you. See whether you believe it or not. See, first thing,
salvation is the work of God. Salvation is God's work from
Alpha to Omega. Jonah says this, I know this,
that salvation is of the Lord. Psalm 3 and 8 says that the salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. You see, salvation is a miracle. It's an action salvation being
saved by the grace of God, by the power of God. It's an action
that only God can perform. And he manifests his eternal
creating power in saving a sinner. That's what he does in saving
a sinner. It's a miraculous power. He takes and creates something
out of nothing. And that's what we are. We're
nothing. Less than nothing. God reputed
the whole world and everything in it as nothing. And yet he
takes nothing and creates something out of that. If he can cleanse
a leper and not be contaminated by the leprosy, If he can speak
to a dead man and say, I say unto thee, yea, I say unto thee,
live. And he called Lazarus by name.
And the scripture said, he that was dead came forth. And it's
a miracle. I mean, it's the dead being raised.
It's the lepers being cleaned. As the old hymn writer says,
it took a miracle. to put the stars in place. It
took a miracle to hang the world in space. But when he saved my
soul, cleansed and made me whole, it took a miracle of love and
grace. And for us or anybody, to ever
talk about being good, living a good life. That's to rob God
of His glory. That's to take away from God.
That's to say that I don't need God. I don't need His salvation.
I don't need His power. But, oh, beloved, God must come
and act upon a man. He must foot forth a creative
act upon a soul and upon the heart and upon the mind and upon
the will of a man if he's gonna be saved. God's gotta do it. Look with me. Now, you keep this
2 Corinthians. Look over in Jeremiah chapter
18 with me just a minute. Jeremiah 18. You know the scriptures
tells us that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if judgment
begins here, and how does God judge? He judges by His word,
He judges by His gospel. And if the righteous scarcely
be saved, and that word scarcely there means with difficulty,
and it's not difficulty on God's part, it's difficulty on our
part. What the wisdom that it took, the power that it took,
the grace that it took, for God in his wisdom, how to be just
and justified to save sinners like us. That's the difficulty
was found in us and God devised a way in his blessed son to save
us. But look here in John 18, I mean,
excuse me, Jeremiah 18. Look in verse two. Jeremiah,
go on, arise, get up, go down to the potter's house. The fellow
down there makes pots for a living. And there I'm gonna cause you
to hear my words. I ain't gonna say nothing till you get there.
Then I went down to the potter's house and behold, he wrought
a work on the wheel. He said he stood there and watched
it. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand
of the potter. So he made it again another vessel,
as seemed good to the potter. Then the Lord's word came to
me. Can I not do this to you? Am I not the potter and you're
just nothing but the clay? That potter can do what, it's
his clay? It's his pot, it's his wheel? And he can do what
he wants to with it. Is that not right? I remember
Tim James, years ago, he was preaching a meeting. We went
to Kmart that afternoon, and he bought a bunch of clay. Went
and bought some clay. And he got up to preach that
night, and he preached out of Romans, that's not the potter power over
the clay. He says, now I bought this clay today. I can do anything
I want to, it belongs to me. I bought it and paid for it.
I can do what I want to. He said an object lesson, what
an object lesson it was. But to be all beloved, God has
the power. He's the potter over the clay.
And let me show you something else. Look over here in John
chapter three. We're talking about salvation
being a work of God. And when you examine yourself,
I don't want to examine whether you're doing something this way,
that way, another way, this, that. And that's what folks do.
They want to run to works and they want to look for some evidence.
But Paul said, are you in the faith? Do you know Christ? Are you a
believer? Do you believe that salvation's
of the Lord? Do you believe that God saves
you or do you help save him? You help him save you? How does
this happen? Look what our Lord said here.
Nicodemus said in verse two, the same came to Jesus benign
and said unto him, Rabbi, we know you're a teacher come from
God, for no man can do these miracles that you do except God
be with you. You see, old Nicodemus had been
following our master around. that he had been watching him,
watching him do these miracles. And he says, whoa, I come to
him and says, listen, I know, you know, man can't do these
miracles unless God be with him. And he was no doubt, he was probably
gonna say, well, I want you to explain how you do these things.
Show me how you, tell me how you do this, how all this happened.
But our Lord Jesus Christ just interrupted him. And he said,
except you be born again, you can't see the kingdom of God.
You don't have a clue where it's at, you blind as a bat. And oh,
listen, but our Lord interrupted him. And oh, Nicodemus, he says,
this don't even make sense. It's not rational. It's not reasonable.
A man to be born again, look what he says there in verse four. Well, how in the world can a
man be born when he's old? I'm an old man now. I'm an old
man. How am I gonna be born when I'm
old? Can I enter the second time? This don't even make sense. It's
not rational. It's not reasonable. Enter into his mother's womb
and be born? And all beloved, but our Lord Jesus Christ said,
except to be man, be born again. He can't see the kingdom of God,
can't enter in. He said, well, how does it happen? Look what
our Lord says down there in verse eight. He said, the wind blows
where it will. And you hear the sound thereof.
Boy, where I live, you know, we've got a bunch of pine trees
and you can hear them, you can hear that wind in the pine. It
sounds like somebody coming down the road. But it's just, you
just hear it in the pine. And the oil, listen, and the
wind, you hear, but you can't tell where it comes and where
they're going. So is everyone's born of the Spirit. And here's
what we're talking about. God does something with the end.
That Spirit blows. We don't know how, we just know
the wind blows. Sometimes it comes very, very
softly. Sometimes it comes in a rushing,
mighty wind. Sometimes it'll bend over the
trees. And other times you just barely
can see a leaf blow. But oh, God does something within. How? The wind blows. Sometimes
we don't know when. And I do know that don't make
no difference to me. But you do know that it blew
on you and you've made new, something happened inside you that never
happened before. And let me tell you this, not
only is this salvation the work of God examining you, but it's
a complete and a radical change. There's nothing, nothing superficial
about it. This religion today is so superficial. People talk about it's deep.
They get into prophecy and all that and they talk about deep.
But listen, it's so superficial. Walking aisles and signing cards. and join in a church, and join
in so you can go drink coffee with the people that they're
building, and go eat lunch with them, and be with the young marriage,
and the old, and all this stuff. Everything's superficial, how
to do this and how to do that other thing. But listen, it's
so superficial, but there's nothing superficial about this salvation
that God works in us. It's a work of the Spirit of
God. It's a work that God does by the Spirit of God, and he
does it in a man's heart. Now look over in 2 Corinthians
3 with me, just a moment. I know I'm having you to look,
but I like to do that. I like us to look at the scriptures,
see what they say. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse
2, we're talking about God doing something in a man's heart. It's
a complete radical change. I mean it's a radical change.
You're talking about a radical change. You just look at yourself. What you were. The way you thought. The way you felt. The way you
lived. The way you acted. That and what
you believed about God and then when God saved you. What you
thought about yourself and then what you think about yourself
after God saves you. What you think about the world
before God saves you and then after he saves you. What you
think about flesh and then what you think about spirit. But look
what he said here in 2 Corinthians 3 in verse 2. We're talking about
hearts, you see. He said, you are our epistle
written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much
as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, written not with ink, this is not like the
law, this is not written down on paper, but with the spirit
of the living God. Not in tables of stone like unto
the law, but the spirit of the living God, but in fleshly tables
of the heart. God wrote in your heart. God
done something in your heart. And oh beloved, these new hearts,
This new birth. Paul said it's a new creation.
If any man be in Christ, it's a new creation. And the Scriptures
tells us, you know, that we're created. Paul told the Ephesians
there, he said, we're created in the image of Him who created
us in righteousness and true holiness. Now when God creates
something, and He brings into existence something, you reckon
God messes it up some way? He says he created us in the
image of him in true righteousness, restored that knowledge of true
righteousness and holiness. And God brings into existence,
and I know this without a shadow of a doubt. That's why I say
examine ourselves in the faith. I know this without a shadow
of a doubt. When God saves a man, when God opens a man's heart
and gives him that new heart, makes him that new creature,
radically changes him, God brings into existence a person that
was not there before, and that's a new person, a new creature,
and everything about him's new. Everything about, he's got new
life. He got a life that never existed before. That's why the
Lord said, except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he can't
enter the kingdom. The Spirit of God's got to come and do something
for him. He has new life, a life that
wasn't there before. He has an understanding that
he never had before. I remember years ago, when I
was about 21, I went and bought me a Bible. I'd never owned a
Bible before, except a little old New Testament they gave me
at Southern Baptist Church when I was a little boy. And I went
and bought a Bible. I thought, man, I'm gonna read
the Bible, and I'm gonna start living right. I'm gonna change
my ways. I'm gonna change the way I do
things. I'm gonna become a better husband, a better father, and
I'm gonna become a better employee, and I'm gonna get me a Bible,
and I'm gonna read it. I'm gonna start living right. So the first
thing I've done, I went out to this bookstore and bought me
a little old world Bible. And the first place I started
reading, Don, was in the Sermon on the Mount. About halfway through
that, I said, oh, me. I can't live like that. It just
showed me how awful I was. I couldn't do it. I closed it
up and never read it again till God saved me. But that's what
I said, new understanding. Now I can open the Bible. And
I have an understanding of it. I have an understanding of myself.
I have some understanding of God's holiness and power and
glory and righteousness that I never had before. And God's
Word, God's Word speaks to us now. There was a time it didn't
speak to us. There was a time it didn't have
anything to say to us. When a preacher got up and opened
it, we said, oh boy, I wish this thing was over. You know, but
now this book speaks to us and it comes to us and speaks to
us with power and peace and joy and rebukes us and chastises
us and exposes us and it does all that for us and nobody knows
what's going on with you but God and the Holy Spirit at any
one given time. And oh beloved, and we have a
new outlook. I look at things, oh how I look
at things different now. New desires. I never desired
to be around the Lord's people before. I never desired to pray. I never desired to read the Bible.
I never desired these things. But we have new taste. We love
the taste of grace. We love the taste of God's holiness. We love the taste of righteousness.
We love the taste of our Lord Jesus Christ. We love everything
about Him. He is our life itself. Our wives will be gone, but Christ
will still be there. Our children's gone, but Christ
will still be there. He is, there's nothing in this
world compared to Christ. And that's what Paul's saying
here, so examine yourself. Is Christ in you? Oh, he's in
me. And oh, beloved, we like the
Bible, we love to pray, and we love to be with God's people.
Oh, we love to be with Him. And let me tell you something
else about this being in the faith. Salvation's the work of
God. It's a complete and a radical
change. And this change is satisfying. It satisfies you. This gospel
satisfies you. It satisfies you completely.
Its results satisfy you. What God done for you satisfies
you. You're not trying to add anything to it now. You don't
want nothing to do with. You want him to get all the glory.
You want him to have all the honor. You want him to get all
the praise. You don't want to take nothing
to yourself whatsoever. And then in the effects of it.
Do you know this blessed gospel, this faith that God brought to
us and this faith that God put us in, it gives us a sweet, sweet
rest. There's an old song that they
sang at home. It says, in Jesus I found a sweet
rest from sin and from sorrow and shame. In him I am happy
and blessed. In Jesus I found a sweet rest. I call it reposing. I call it
reposing. I got a chair. I bet every man
in here's got a chair that's just his chair. And you get in that thing and
you got that thing done molded to you, don't take long to get
it molded to you and you kick that thing back and you just
repose in that. And that's what we do at Christ.
We just repose in him. And I heard the voice of Jesus
say, come unto me and rest. Lay down, thy weary one, lay
down thy head upon my breast. And Augustine says this, Lord,
thou hast made us for thyself, and our souls are restless until
they find their rest in thee. And when they find their rest
in him, they are at rest. They are at rest. When I talked
about it satisfying, it satisfies our mind. Satisfies our mind. Satisfies our intellect. You
know, a lot of folks think, man, people that are believers are
so ignorant, you know, to be a Christian, to be a believer,
to believe the Bible, you just got to be so ignorant. But, beloved,
you tell me something. How many people that you know
that this blessed book, I've been listening to that and I've
been reading it now Lots and lots of years like Don and Bruce
and Larry and all of you all and this things get bigger and
bigger and bigger to me all the time. Just a bottomless well. By the time I think I've learned
something, I'll pick something else up and I've done forgot
that and I'll see something else over here. Oh, it's oh we and
you know and we can ask the scriptures questions in the scriptures will
answer our Questions of our mind our intellect we ask where the
world come from Bible tells us Huh, why is man like he is why
is he the sinner like he is the Bible tells us? What's going
to happen at the end the Bible tips? Bible tells us what will
happen to us after this life here. I The same life we have
here is the same life we're gonna have there. Only thing is, we
won't take this body with us when we get there. And not only
does it satisfy our mind, our intellect, but it satisfies our
emotions. I'd say it satisfies my emotions. I'm a pretty emotional
person. And I'm not talking about sentiment.
I'm not talking about sentimental. Like, you know, reading a book,
bring tears to your eyes, watch a movie and just ooh, ooh, ooh.
You know, we're talking about deep emotions. We're talking
about God doing, putting the love of God in your heart, shedding
abroad the love of God in your heart. We're talking about the
joy that our Lord Jesus Christ said is, we're talking about
that peace that passes understanding. We're talking about this thing,
it meets the needs of our heart more than anything we ever thought
or dreamed of. Christ has met the needs of my
heart. The gospel's met the needs of my heart. And I'll tell you
something else why it satisfies us. It gives us a purpose in
life. I never, you know, I mean it
really gives us a purpose in life. What is that purpose? To
live for Christ. To live to Christ. To live in
Him. To live for Christ. To honor
Him. Speak of Him. Call on Him. Tell others about Him. Our purpose
in life Since God saved us by His blessed grace. This is how
you know you're in the faith or not. Oh, how you want other people
to come to know Him. You want your thoughts to be
right about Him. You want your words to be right
about Him. You want your family to know Him. There's a dear,
dear man in our congregation. He prayed for his wife the other
night. He went to crying because here
she is. She's got cancer. She ain't long for this world.
And she's not a believer. And he just cries and prays,
Lord, save her, open her heart, gives her messages, reads the
Bible to her. And oh, maybe God will do something
for her. But I know that his whole desire
is for her to know Christ before she leaves this world. Faithful,
and I mean his own daughter, says, Daddy, that ain't fair
for God to be that way. He said, Honey, one thing you
don't want, you don't want God to be fair with you. And then he started telling her
the gospel. And oh, beloved, so we have a purpose, we have
objectives. And I'll tell you another thing, another objective
we have. We're looking for something. You know what we're looking for?
A city. I started looking for a city
a few years ago, and I'm like Abraham, I'm going to keep on
looking until I find that city whose foundation is made by God,
whose builder and maker is God Himself. And one of these days,
I'll walk through, I'll land in that city. And God is the
builder and maker of that city. I'll lend her one of these days.
And you will too. And all listen to this, talking
about it. And for us to keep on keeping
on. When obstacles are in the way. How many obstacles has been in
your way in your believing life? Has life separated you from Christ? Has the death of somebody you
love very dearly separated you from Christ? Has family members
and their hatred and enmity for Christ and their foolishness
ever kept you, separated you from Christ? Has pain separated
you? Has sorrow separated you? Has sickness separated you? No,
for us to keep on keeping on when there's so many obstacles
in our way, that shows you that salvation is of God and that
for us to keep on It's a miracle. And I tell you what, this life
that God gives us, it grows. Once God breaks in on a man and
he breaks in on him, we want to know more. More about Jesus
would I know. More of his grace to others show. More of his saving fullness see.
More of his love who died for me. And lastly, let me say this
and I'll be done. Our salvation. Are you in the
faith? Now you see, when we talk about
examining ourselves, we're in the faith, that's what we looked
at. We looked at the faith, God, and the new birth. Keep it on,
keep it on, how it meets our needs. And let me say this, if
you're saved by the grace of God and you're in the faith,
your salvation is a surprise to you. It was and it still is,
ain't it? It still amazes us. It still
amazes us. And as many times we heard the
gospel, we just started, just started. Ah, you reckon you're
in the faith? I believe there's a few here
that's in the faith. The Lord bless you. Thank you very much,
preacher.