turning your bibles to the book
of second corinthians chapter thirteen i want to read verse
five for our text this morning first five of second corinthians
chapter thirteen let me read this text of scripture
Examine yourselves, whether ye 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. There's been several thoughts
recently going through my heart and mind about this particular
text. Thought a great deal about it.
Been several things that's happened that have brought me to speak
to you this morning on this verse of scripture. I do hope that
the Lord has prepared all of our hearts to receive what he
would give us today. Paul is writing to the church
at Corinth, and he tells them to examine. He says, 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 this examine yourself, it
is a traveler's term in the original, meaning that if one was coming
to a country, to a border of a country, he would not go around
the country, but he would travel straight through. He would go
straight through the country. So examine yourself, go straight
through yourself. Go straight through yourself
and see whether or not you be in the faith of the gospel. Look
yourself over, see whether or not you be in the faith. Prove
your own selves. Know ye not your own selves? Do you not know this morning
your own selves? Have you ever proved your own
selves? Have you ever went straight through
yourself, examining yourself as to whether or not you be in
the faith? I ask this morning that you would
pay particular attention to the things that we have to say. The
Lord willing, we'll be able to say them in a short time, and
possibly, just possibly, the Lord will give us all some help.
through these things. Now, the Word of God gives us
many, many practical instructions on how we should conduct our
lives here in this world. Just a casual glance at the scriptures,
at the word of God, will reveal that there are equally as many
requisites to godly conduct as there is to faith, as there is
to inward faith. But beloved, we are never to
look to these things as a standard by which to judge whether or
not We're saved whether or not we're the children of God. We're
not to look to our personal obedience to duty, our personal obedience
to the various commands of Scripture, the various precepts of the Word
of God, and judge ourselves based on how we feel that we measure
up to those precepts or commands, judge ourselves to be saved or
to be lost. We are not to look for evidences
within ourselves, within our conduct, within our behavior,
even if we are as righteous as Mother Teresa. Even if we feel
that we're as good as Saul of Tarsus, who said, is touching
the law, he said, I'm blameless. He said, I was a Pharisee of
the Pharisees, and he said all of those things. There came a
time when I could have had confidence in that, and I did have at one
time, but there came a time when I had to lose all of that. I
lost it all. I counted it to be done that
I might win Christ. I no longer look to that as being
an evidence of my relationship with God. So, beloved, we're
never to look at these things as a standard by which we're
to judge whether we're saved or not. Now, on a scale of zero
to ten, You may this morning, zero being utter total ruin and
depravity, you being bankrupt of any righteousness of any degree
of obedience unto God, ten being perfection in the flesh, us being
totally yielded to the will of God and the things of God, where
would you stand this morning? Would you give yourself a five?
Would you give yourself a six, a seven, an eight, or a nine?
Where would you be in the scale this morning? Well, it doesn't
make any difference where you would judge yourself to be. You
can never use that as an evidence that you are saved or lost. You cannot look to yourself and
to your response to the commands of Scripture in regards to how
we're to conduct ourselves in this life and judge ourselves
on that basis as whether or not we're saved. Now, beloved, there
are many, many things that we do, we have done, and we've done
them religiously. We've done them trying to obey
the will of God, trying to do what we ought to do in response
to what the Word of God teaches. Many steps of faith that we might
have taken in this life. Many, many times when we felt
the Lord had moved upon us and we tried to obey the Lord and
walk in the ways of the Lord. And we've maybe done many, many
things that ordinary people, even people that are professing
Christians would never do. They wouldn't have done what
we've done. But we can take no, we can take no, we cannot use
that as a standard. We can take no confidence in
what we've done. And last spring, I had been preaching
for 45 years. been in the ministry for 45 years.
I never asked you or anyone else to set aside a day in which to
honor me because I'd been in the ministry for 45 years. And I would never do that. I'm
in the ministry because woe is me if I preach not the gospel. I'm in the ministry because I
was called of God to preach the gospel in the flesh. Many, many
times I'd rather have been somewhere else doing something else entirely
different than preaching the gospel. But beloved, what I'm
trying to say is I have no confidence in any sermon I ever preached
to establish whether or not I'm a Christian or not. I have no
confidence in any of the steps of faith that I might have taken
in my life to establish that I'm a Christian. I have no confidence
in the works of the flesh and in those things that we've done
outwardly. And so we're not to look for
evidences within ourselves to see if we measure up to God's
demand. That, beloved, breeds self-righteousness. And most of those people in our
day and time, and I know of many people that preached ever good
as long as I have, don't have an ounce of spiritual life in
them. I've read of many, many preachers
who preached all of their life not having the life of God in
them. I know of many, many people who
did many outstanding things. I've read and read and read of
many, many people who've done outstanding things in this world
and during the days of their life who never had an ounce.
of spiritual life, who did not know the Son of God, who never
had a living relationship with Jesus Christ through the free
grace of God. Now there is, I think, a big
difference between looking at yourself and looking to yourself. Looking at yourself and looking
to yourself. Let me try to illustrate this.
The Word of God is likened unto a looking glass. or a mirror
in which we see our own reflection. And while looking at the holy,
perfect law of God as it's spelled out in the Ten Commandments,
as we look at it as it's spelled out in the whole of God's revealed
Word, It casts a very bad reflection upon us, for we see ourselves
as God describes us when we look in to that perfect law of liberty
of our God. And we look at ourselves in the
light of God's holy word, and we see how, for short, we come
to the perfection that He demands. Now, beloved, we don't see how
close we've come to the perfection He's demanded. We see how, for
short, we've come to the perfection that he's demanded. And every
time I think of the law of God, although now the law of God is
my friend, now the law of God no longer is my enemy, it's not
against me anymore because I have fulfill the law of God perfectly,
absolutely perfectly, and there's not one demand of the holy law
of God that now is against me, or that can arise in judgment
and accuse me of not having fulfilled it, not having kept it. Now that
is in my substitute, I have kept the law perfectly, obeyed every
jot and tittle of it, and the law can no longer condemn me. The law must declare me just
as I stand in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But when you
look at the law, Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, it condemns
you. It reflects what you are. It
shows you how far short you have come. We all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Now that kind of look is a good
one because it will cause a person to look outside of themselves
and look to Christ for their salvation, for their deliverance,
for their help. Now, beloved, when you look at
the law from a state of your nature, your human nature, it
will condemn you and drive you to look to Christ as the only
way of salvation and life. Now, the one who looks to his
works, the one who looks to his merit, We read out of Philippians
this morning, chapter 3, and if Paul would have stopped at
being a Pharisee of the Pharisees, if he would have stopped at concerning
the law being blameless, if he would have just stopped at zeal
being what it was, persecuting the church of God, if he would
have stopped right there, Beloved, let me say to you this morning
that he would have been a self-righteous man, and one who looks to his
works and his merit and his morals or his evidences and thinks he
sees something there that he can latch on to and glory in,
will no longer, he will never, look to Christ. He will not look
away from himself and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved,
my effort, the effort of my life, the effort of this ministry,
the effort of any gospel ministry that is true is to get men and
women to look away from themselves and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. To look to God's provision, to
look to that one, that God has sent into the world to bear our
sin, that one that God has sent into the world, and He treated
him like I should have been treated, and now treats me like he ought
to have been treated, I point sinners to Him, to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Yes, strive to be holy like Christ,
endeavor to live as the Word of God tells you, but never,
never entertain for a moment the slightest notion that you
have made enough progress to warrant God's approval apart
from Jesus Christ. Because you haven't. You haven't.
For all have sinned, as we quoted Romans 6 and 23, and have come
short, far short, of the glory of God. We've all fallen and
come short, and we cannot take any comfort in our progress in
the flesh. Leave it up to others to decide
if you're making any progress if you want to. if you trust
what they got to say. I wouldn't even trust what they
have to say if they tell you, hey, you're doing pretty good.
Hey, you're just quite a Christian. My, you are indeed a spiritual
person. My friend, I wouldn't listen
too much to that. I'll take it, I'll make it my
business to shut a deaf ear to that, just like I would the devil,
because you can't tell any of them. Other people don't know
your heart. And they don't know. They may look on the outward
and they say, oh, this person's all right, and that person's
okay, but only God knows the facts. But don't even take their
word for it as your evidence of salvation. That's what I'm
talking about. Take a good long look at yourself,
but look eternally away from yourself to Christ for all your
strength. all your hope, all your peace,
and all of your assurance. Examine yourself in order to
make sure you're in the faith of looking not to flesh. Paul said we're those that have
no confidence in the flesh. We're those who worship God in
the spirit, and we're those who rejoice in Christ Jesus. Our message is Christ. So examine
yourself to make sure that you're in the faith of looking away
from yourself and looking unto Jesus Christ. Now then, in Jeremiah
17 and 9, I want to try to say a few things here quickly that'll
help you just to enforce what I've already laid out in front
of you. You know many, many times, and hear what Paul said in our
text this morning, know ye not your own selves? You know, there's
so many people that do not know their own self, and when a preacher
gets up and starts talking like I am this morning, they cannot,
for the life of them, understand why that a preacher would not
encourage them in the progress that they've made and would not,
in some way or another, applaud them for their merit and for
their efforts in trying to obey the scriptures and doing what
they ought to do. I'm not here this morning to discourage you.
One, I owe it. from trying to obey the word
of God and do what you know the scripture teaches you ought to
do. But I'm going to try to show you quickly here this morning
why you cannot trust what you're doing and why you cannot trust
in what you're doing. Now in Jeremiah 17 and 9 it says
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately or
incurably wicked who can know it. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things. Our hearts are so deceitful that
none of us knows his own heart Before we're converted, neither
do we know it after we're converted. The heart of man is deceitful. I'm talking about your heart
and mine. In Proverbs chapter 28 and verse
26, the scripture says, He that trusteth in his own heart is
a fool. The heart is so deceitful that
nothing in it can be trusted. That's what that verse says.
Nothing in your heart can be trusted. Some trust in themselves
that they're righteous, the Bible says, and despise others. Some
trust in themselves that they're rich and increased in goods and
have need of nothing, not knowing that they're wretched and miserable
and poor and blind and naked. All who trust in their own hearts
that they're good are fools, for the heart is as wicked as
it is deceitful. I'm talking about the heart of
the natural man. The heart of man is desperately,
it's incurably wicked. Think a little measure of grace
would cure that wicked heart of yours. My friend, I'm here
to tell you that until you die and put off this body, you're
going to have that incurably wicked heart of yours beating
right here in your breast. Only when you die and you're
buried will that old wicked heart be put away. Now, beloved, it
is true that God does give his people a new heart in that that
he puts his nature in them, but yet the old flesh heart of man
is desperately and incurably wicked. It is wickedness itself,
Psalm 5 and verse 9. It is enmity against God, Romans
8 and verse 7. Like Babylon, man's heart is
a cage of every unclean and hateful bird and every spiteful spirit. The heart of man is the cesspool
from which all sin evolves, the forge where all iniquity is formed,
the slime pit from which every transgression springs. Matthew chapter 15 verses 19
through 20. The thoughts of the heart, the
imaginations of the heart, the affections of the heart are all
wicked. They're all wicked. No good thing
comes out of this Nazareth for there's nothing good in it. Nothing
good spiritually ever came out of the heart of man. The heart
of man is a dunghill and nothing good comes out, nothing spiritually
good comes out of the heart of man. So dark is the heart of
man that it has no light in spiritual things. 1 Corinthians 2 and 14. The understanding of the heart
is so depraved that its judgment in spiritual matters is always
wrong. It calls good evil and evil good. It calls light darkness and darkness
light. The plague of the heart is so
deep and secret that none can understand its errors. And there
is no hope for cure but by God's sovereign grace through the cleansing
blood. of the Lord Jesus Christ. I like
that song, There's Power in the Blood. There's no cure except
we come to rest in and trust in the Lord Jesus. Know ye not
your own selves? Know ye not your own selves?
Could you say Amen this morning? Do you know what I'm talking
about when I'm talking this way about the natural heart? Do you
know? Well, know ye not your own selves that you can't trust
in yourself? No, you're not your own self.
You deserve the judgment of God. There's not a hell in which others
are eternally suffering today for sin, but what we justly deserve
and would fall into if the Lord had not spared us. Do you know
the very worst about yourself? Do you? You'll never know the
grace of God. You'll never be a champion in
the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither
will you be one who can honor God greatly, talking about His
mercy and His grace. Until you know yourself. Know
yourself. Do you know yourself? Have you
went right straight through yourself? Do you know your own condition? Have you ever proved your own
self? To know you. To know what you
are. Examine yourself. You will not
be received into heaven on the basis of what you profess to
be. Now remember that. You say, well,
I answered your question a few moments ago and I am a seven. I am a seven. I measure. Clear
up. I'm a seven. You'll never be
received into heaven on the basis of what you profess to be, but
on the basis of what God reckons us to be as we stand in a substitute. Now listen to me carefully. You
say, I'm a 7. Somebody says, I'm an 8. I'm
a 6. Somebody says, I'm a 5. Or a preacher, I'm a 4. Or I'm
a 2 or a 3 or a 1. I'm way down the ladder. But
listen to me. Nobody goes to heaven except
they are a 10. You don't get to heaven unless
you're as righteous as Jesus Christ. You must be totally,
absolutely without blame. You must be holy and without
blame. You must be presented perfect
before God to be accepted of God. And there's only one way
for that to be. And that is, notice here, he
says, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you,
only as you stand in Christ. Can you be accepted? So do away
in your mind and your thinking about this zero to ten business
where you stand. Rejoice in a Savior who has given
you a perfect ten and has given you a right standing with God
Almighty. Now listen to me. I said you
cannot be received on the basis of what you profess to be, on
the basis of what others presume you to be. You cannot be accepted
on that basis. You can only be accepted on the
basis of the merit and righteousness of your substitute alone. There
are a great many people in hell today who while they lived upon
earth presumed with great confidence Children, they lived, they died
under the delusion that all was well, when nothing really was
well. There are many in the religious
world who live in peace today, they're confident that they've
been, as it were, born of God, who are strangers to the grace
of God in Jesus Christ. They're religious, they're zealous,
they're outwardly obedient to duty, and their motto is, we
do, we do, we do! Well, beloved, the Christian's
motto is that Christ has done the work that it took to save
us. Our effort is to set forth that
Jesus Christ has finished the work of salvation on the behalf
of his people. They're without Christ and the
wrath of God is upon them if they're trusting in their own
works, in their own merit. These sayings concern me. And
if you're honest today, I think they will surely concern you
as well. That there's multitudes of people
who have this idea that they're just okay and that God's going
to accept them. John Newton said, "'Tis a point
I long to know. Oh,' he says, "'oft it causes
anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? Where do I really stand?' Now,
beloved, no one can settle this issue with you. I can't settle
this issue for you, you can't settle it for me, but the Spirit
of God can settle it for the both of us, and He will settle
it by the Word that He has spoken, by the Word of God. So I urge
you to do what He tells you to do, and travel right through
this morning, examine yourself, know yourself, because if you
make a mistake, In this thing, this business we're talking about,
whether you be in the faith, whether Jesus Christ be in you
or not, if you make a mistake, you can never rectify that mistake
except in this world. It's only here in this world
that you can get this business settled between your soul and
Almighty God. Fixed, the poet said, is their
everlasting state. Could man repeat? 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. So
beloved, if you make a mistake in this situation, whether Christ
be in you, whether you be in the faith of the gospel, whether
you're trusting, whether you're relying, whether you're embracing
God's provision, Jesus Christ, wherever you stand this morning,
only be rectified in this life. not in the life to come. Examine
yourself. Prove your own selves. Now, beloved,
we're not to examine one another and we're not to subject ourselves
to the examination of others. We like fellowship. We like to
talk to each other. But we must be very careful that
we are not judgmental of those around us and that we do not
subject ourselves. If somebody makes a comment about
you one way or the other, that shouldn't bother you very much.
Don't let it bother you. Somebody says, well, you'd think,
you know, if a person's been saved as long as you have, their
attitude would be this and their attitude would be that. Well,
maybe it should be. Maybe it should be. I'm not saying that
it's not or that it shouldn't be that way, but I'm saying you
just don't let that bother you a whole lot. Don't let that deter
you from going ahead and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, because
if you'd have followed them around a little bit, it wouldn't be
long before you'd find out that there's a whole lot of ways in
which they don't measure up to their age either. that there's
a lot of imperfection in their life and in their conduct. It
is neither my prerogative nor my desire to examine you, to
examine anyone. I do not have the ability to
do that. We have no ability to distinguish between the wheat
and the tares, the sheep and the goats, and believers from
unbelievers. Now then, to support what I just
said, let me turn quickly to Matthew chapter 13, and let me
read here verses 24 through 30. I want you to listen to these
verses. Another parable put he forth
unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his
enemy came, and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit,
then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the household
came, said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy
field? From whence then hath it tares?
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said
unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But
he said, Nay, lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root
up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I
will say to the reapers, gather you together first the tares
and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into
my barn. So beloved, it's not our business
to here in this world to separate the tares from the wheat, the
sheep from the goats, and to make a judgment. as to who does
believe and who does not believe in that sense of the word. We're
to examine ourselves, and we have no ability to go beyond
that. Man judges man by the outward
appearance of things. We cannot look upon another person's
heart. If we ever learn that we do not
have the ability to see into the hearts of our brothers and
our sisters in the Lord, we'll be more gentle, we'll be more
kind, more patient, with one another if we learn that we have
not the ability to know what's going on in the hearts of the
Lord's people. Now, if you subject yourself
to the examination of others, you'll have nothing but the words
and the opinions of men as the basis of your confidence, your
assurance. Your assurance, if you get any,
will be nothing but temporary, self-righteous confidence bearing
with the opinions of the preacher of whom you are listening, just
varying with the opinions of people. The point of examination,
beloved, is this. This is the issue, whether ye
be in the faith. Now it does not matter when where
or how you came to be in the faith, or even who was preaching
when you believed the gospel. It only matters that you be in
the faith. Most of God's people, for them
conversion, is not a climatic experience, but it's a gradual
process. Listen to what I'm saying. Some,
like Saul of Tarsus, have climatic experiences, but most are brought
to Christ one faltering step after another. Most of the Lord's
people are brought just in that way, one step at a time. And even those who have Damascus
Road experiences, climactic experiences, they need to be gently led on
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ like Ananias was
in Acts chapter 9 verse 6 through 18. Now are you not the question
is are you not or are you are you not now in the faith now
if you are this is the issue then you're saved and if you're
not in the faith of the gospel. If you do not believe in the
record that God hath given us of His Son, then, my friend,
you are not saved. You are not saved. This is the
record. Eternal life is in His Son. And they that believe on Him
have life, and they that do not believe Him have not life, but
are under the condemnation and sentence of the wrath of God.
Well, beloved, there are five questions that I use to examine
myself. And I want to give you here these
five questions and I'm not going to preach on them. I'm just going
to give them to you. and you can use them as a basis
to examine yourself this morning as to whether or not you are
in the faith. Now the first question I would
ask myself today is standing here in this pulpit somewhere
between time and eternity, facing a long eternity, a never-ending
eternity, knowing that I'm going to stand before God, knowing
that unless Somebody, somebody does something for me that if
I were to make it to heaven I'd be uncomfortable there and I'd
be a pauper there for all eternity. I stand here this morning and
there are five questions that I would ask myself and the first
one is this. knowing who I am, having somewhat
understanding about myself, having, I believe, somewhat come to maybe
to understand the worst, not totally, but the worst about
myself by nature. The first question is this, is
Jesus Christ in me? is in me. Paul said, prove your
own self, no you not, your own selves, how that Jesus Christ
is in you, in you, in you, except you be a reprobate. except you
have rejected Him and God has rejected you because you've rejected
Him. The only one who can save your
soul is Jesus Christ in me. Now if Christ is in me, then
I am in Him and there is a union formed between me and Him. And
I am one with him. He is my head and I am a member
of his body. If so be that Christ is in me. Now salvation is not Christ upon
our lips. Remember that. It's not Christ
in our conversation. It's not Christ on the paper
that we're writing on. We're writing and we're writing
about Christ. That's not it. Salvation is, listen, Christ
in our hearts. It is Christ in you, living in
your heart by faith. Do you know his presence? In
Colossians 1 and 27, Paul said, this is the mystery that's now
revealed in the gospel. In you, the hope of glory. I would ask this question of
my own heart. Is Jesus Christ in me? Do I know
he's present? Do I know that he lives in me? Do I know? Now listen, beloved.
This is it. This is it. This is the question
that must be asked. Is Christ in me? Secondly, Here's
the next question. Is He, Christ, at the root of
my joys? What does it take to make me
happy in this world? What does it take? Do I find
my happiness in the work, will, and worship of Jesus Christ or
in the things of the world? What does it take? to make me
happy. I'm alive in this world and there's
something that will, as a fellow says, that will turn me on. What
is it? What is it in this world? What
is it really? I mean, when you come right down
to the bottom of it, that really makes you joyous and happy in
this world. Am I most at home in the Lord's
house among His people? or somewhere else among the children
of the devil. Listen to me. Is he the root
of all my joys? Followers of Christ are like
their master. They delight to do God's will. The Lord Jesus came and he said,
lo, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I come to
do thy will. O God, followers of Christ delight
to do God's will. Number three. I would ask myself,
is Jesus Christ king upon the throne of my heart? Is he king
upon the throne of my heart? If he lives in me, he's the root
of all my happiness and joy. Is he king upon the throne of
my heart? of my heart. Now if Christ is
my Savior, He also is my Lord. You can't get around it. You
can't get around it. I heard for years that a man
could have Christ as his Savior and later on make Him Lord, but
it don't work that way. It just doesn't work that way.
You can't separate the saving power of Christ, the saving ability
of Christ from the office of his lordship and kingship. Faith in Christ is giving up
the rule of your life to him willingly. Matthew chapter 16
and verse 25, listen to this verse, listen to it. For whosoever
will save his life will lose it. The man who says Christ will
not be king over my life, The man who says, I'll not bow to
the Lordship of Christ. The man who says, I'll do as
I please in this life. I'll do what I want to do with
my life. I will not bow my knee and consult
God about the personal matters of my life. I will do as I please. That man will lose his life.
He'll lose it. And whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, Jesus said. The man who will lose it for
my sake, The man will stay where I put him for my sake, not because
it's comfortable, not because he's doing well there, but for
my sake. And the man that stays in his
situation for the sake of Christ and does what Christ would have
him to do, that man will find his life. He will find it, Jesus
said. He'll find it. And so my question
to myself this morning, is Jesus Christ king upon the throne of
my heart? Do I bow to Him? Do I bow to
Him? Do I submit to Him? Do I just
get my orders from Him? Do I take in consideration Him,
His gospel, His truth, His sake? when I live and move about in
this world. What do I do? Well, this is the
question. Is he king upon the throne of
my heart? Number four, is his presence
in me, is his presence in me manifest by my, and in my spirit,
is it manifest in my spirit, in my attitude, words and actions
of my life. Now believers, they love one
another. We're taught of God to love one
another. Our love for one another is far from being perfect because
we're in this body of flesh, but it is constant and it is
manifest. to those who benefit from it.
1 John 3 and 14 says, we know that we have passed from death
unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not
his brother abideth in death. So is the presence of Christ,
we say he lives in us? Is his presence, is it manifest
in our spirit, in our attitude, in our actions in this life? Is it? Is it manifest? Brother,
sister, if it is not manifest, he that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Number five, and lastly, is Christ
before me as the goal of my life? I mean by that, is he the only
hope of my soul? Is he the end of my journey? Is he the prize of heaven toward
whom I am pressing? Is he all of that to me? If my
faith in Christ is genuine, if I'm born of God, then Christ
is what I desire. Christ is what I seek. Paul said,
oh, that I might know him. I give up it all, he said, that
I might know him. that I might know Him. I counted
it all as done for the excellency of the knowledge of God in Jesus
Christ. I want to know Him. And so the
desire, He's the goal of my life. He's my only hope, the hope of
my soul. He's the end of the journey as
far as I'm concerned, the prize of heaven toward whom I'm pressing. If I'm born of God, then Christ
is what I desire. Christ is what I seek. My heart's
great ambition is to be like Him and with Him forever. Psalm 17 and 15 says, As for
me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied
when I awake with thy likeness. Psalm 27 and verse 4, One thing,
David said, have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my
life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his
temple. This is found in Psalm 27 and
verse 4. There was a man asked one time
about Jesus And he said this, if asked what of Jesus I think,
though still my best thoughts are but poor, I say he is my
meat and my drink, my life and strength, my store, my shepherd,
my husband, my friend, my savior from sin, my hope from beginning
to end, my portion, my Lord, and my all. I thought this morning, as I
was putting the last touches on this message, of Horatius
Bonar's song. He said, I heard the voice of
Jesus say, come unto me and rest. Lay down, thou weary one, lay
down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was, weary
and worn and sad. I found in him a resting place,
and he has made me glad. So, beloved, this morning I hope
that we can see what the issue is. Are you in the faith of the
gospel? Say, well, I've had the religion,
preacher. You can have the religion and go to hell. Are you in Christ? Are you in the faith of the gospel?
Does Christ dwell in you? Is He in you? Is He in you? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Everyone in whom Christ dwells,
I think the Spirit of God gives them witness to the fact that
He is theirs and they're His. The witness is given. It's Christ
in you in the hope of glory. Now, beloved, if all you got
is your do's and your don'ts, you're in an awful shape. Even
if you're a nine, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. You're in
trouble. You gotta be a ten. And Christ
is the ten, and I'm a ten in Him. And if you're in Him, you
are a ten. Praise His name. Amen. Glory
to God. Mike.