Don't tell me you're a Christian because five years ago you walked an aisle. Don't tell me you're a Christian because once you signed a card. Don't try to tell God you're a Christian because you went forward in a meeting, you went into a prayer room, you talked to a counselor. And don't tell yourself a Christian because some counselor told you you're a Christian because he didn't know either. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. If I asked you how you know that you're a Christian, what would you say? Would you mention a specific moment when you prayed a prayer or when you went forward during an altar call at church? Would you point to the day you were baptized?
Well, as John MacArthur will show you on today's Grace to You, it's a healthy practice to evaluate your confession of faith, to take a hard look at what you believe. what your priorities are, and how well your life matches up to God's standards. See what sort of evidence proves that your salvation is genuine, and what evidence doesn't. That's all in John's study called Examine Yourself. If you're struggling with assurance of salvation, you need to hear this study.
So to get it started now, here's John with today's lesson. The Lord's Supper, I believe, is the most wonderful. The most sacred The most unique act of worship. that the blood-bought Church of Jesus Christ can ever experience. It's very serious to come to the Lord's table.
It is serious for a believer to come to the Lord's table while entertaining sin in his life. It is serious for a A Christian to come to the Lord's table where he does not repent of everything and desire above all things righteousness and holiness and turning from any known sin. Serious. But what is even more serious is to come to the Lord's table and drink unworthily because you're not a Christian at all.
So examine yourself. to see whether you're in the faith. Prove yourself. Say, John, how do I do that? How do I know if I'm really a Christian?
I believe. Maybe you've even been baptized. I go to church, I I think I'm a Christian. Look with me at Matthew chapter 5 and let's find out. When Jesus arrived on the scene, the Jews had already decided.
What Right living was all about. They had already built their own code. They had already developed their own system. And they had it pretty cut and dried and pretty well laid out that this was what it was to be holy. And it was all external.
It was all self-righteousness and works. And Jesus came and shattered that thing, and he said, I want to give you a new standard for living. I want to give you a new criteria by which you evaluate whether you're redeemed or not. I want to tell you how a citizen of the kingdom really lives. You want to prove yourself, here is the proof.
You take your life and let the Spirit of God compare it with the facts of the Sermon on the Mount, and the result will be an examination, and the end result will be whether you're a Christian or not. Here is the standard. And the key to it all is one word.
Now watch this. It is the word righteousness. That's the key. Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the Mount, If you are a child of the king. If you are really converted, If you really belong to God, if you've really been redeemed, the characteristic of your life will be righteousness.
Our Lord goes further. He says another thing that will characterize one who's a child of the kingdom is obedience. Verse 17: Do you think I came to destroy the law? Do you think I came to set aside the prophets? No.
To fulfill it. In fact, not one jot or one tittle shall ever pass from this law. And I say to you: whoever therefore shall break one of the least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And then he goes on to say, Your righteousness better exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Point is this. If you're truly saved, you'll be obedient. You'll be obedient. There'll be acts of obedience. The law of God will be something you long for.
Again, Romans 7. Paul longed to do the law of God. He hungered to do the law of God. He delighted in the law of God. He loved the law of God, even though sin was always tugging at him.
So examine yourself. Are you really saved? Did you come in mourning over your sin? Did you come in broken over your evil heart? Examine yourself.
Are you clearly distinguishable from the rest of the world? Examine yourself. Are you obeying God? Is the great hunger of your heart to do that which is His will? He goes further.
If you've really been converted, you'll think different. That's right. He talks about right thinking in verse 21 and following. You see, the Jews would do the outside stuff, they just couldn't handle the inner things. And so the Lord says to them, You heard you shouldn't kill.
Whoever would kill would be in danger of judgment. But he says, I want to go a step further and take it inside and say, You shouldn't even have bad thoughts in your heart against somebody. In other words, a child of my kingdom is not somebody who's a non-murderer, it's somebody who, inside his heart, doesn't even desire to hurt anybody. And he pushes the whole thing inside. If you're really a child of the kingdom, you're going to have a different heart.
Ezekiel 36, the Lord says, When you become redeemed, he takes out the stony heart, the heart of obstinacy, and he puts in a heart of flesh, a new heart. And further, he says in verse 27: you heard it said you should not commit adultery, but let me take it inside, you shouldn't even want to. You shouldn't even look at anybody that way. You shouldn't even think that thought. In other words, a citizen of the kingdom is different.
And when somebody says, well, I'm a Christian, I just have problems in that area, and they continue to be an adulterer, or continue to be a fornicator, or continue to be a homosexual, or continue in some kind of thing like that, I always go to 1 Corinthians 6 and say those kind of people do not inherit the kingdom of heaven. You didn't come to Christ on his terms, you came on yours, and they don't make it. Until you're broken and shattered over those things, until you weep yourself to tears and crawl into his kingdom mourning for righteousness, you'll never know what true redemption is. Further than right thinking, he says: if you're really a child of the kingdom, you'll have right words. Not only thinking right, but talking right.
And in verse 33, he talks about that. He goes on to talk about Perjuring and about swearing and about how your communication should be yay, yay, and nay, nay. In other words, it's going to come out right because out of the abundance of the heart, what? The mouth speaks. And so our Lord is saying: if your life is set to hunger after righteousness, it'll result in obedience.
And obedience means you've got right thinking going on. And when you open your mouth, right words will come out. And when you act, verse 38 and following, right deeds will be the result. You won't retaliate, instead, you'll be kind. And if somebody asks you for one, you'll give them two.
In verse 43, you love your neighbor. And then down further, you'll even love your enemy. You'll even love tax collectors. In fact, in verse 48, he says, This is the whole idea: be like God, he loves his enemies. Do you see the point?
Prove yourself. Don't tell me you're a Christian because five years ago you walked an aisle. Don't tell me you're a Christian because once you signed a card. Don't try to tell God you're a Christian because you went forward in a meeting, you went into a prayer room, you talked to a counselor, and don't tell yourself a Christian because some counselor told you you were a Christian because he didn't know either. The worst thing you can do to somebody is talk to them about Christ, and when they've prayed a prayer and Verbally invited Christ in their life, then to sit there and assure them they're really saved because you don't have any idea whether they are.
That's the Holy Spirit's work. He's the one who grants assurance. And he grants it by the inward testimony, Romans 8, and by the outer exhibit of works that prove it. Because faith without works is what? It's dead.
You know, one of the legacies that we've had from the kind of evangelism that's gone on in our country is that we believe salvation is attached to a decision. But the assurance of salvation has nothing to do with the decision in the past. It has to do with what's going on in the present. Jesus put it this way in John 8: if you continue in my word, then you're my real disciple. It's always continuance.
It's always present tense. And so our Lord says: if you're really a child of the kingdom, you come in the right way mourning over sin. And your life is totally different, distinguishable from the world. And you are characterized by obedience, right thinking, right talking, right doing. He goes even further, right motives.
The right kind of religious expression, the right kind of worship, we might call it. When you worship God in chapter 6, it's real. It's not like the phonies who blow a trumpet and come and pray to make a parade. He talks about the hypocrites. whose religion is phony.
Yours is real. And when you pray, you pray right. You pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. He's saying if something's really changing your life, your religion isn't phony, it's real.
Your prayers aren't like the prayers of the phonies. They're real prayers. And your fasting isn't the fasting of public display, it's the fasting of the closet that no one ever knows about.
So he says, you obey, you're going to have right thinking, right words, right acts, right worship. and right relations too. You're not going to love money. Verse 19 of chapter 6. And I'm just talking you through the whole thing here.
He says you're not going to lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. You're not going to get hung up in serving money. Because you can't serve God in money. Don't say you're a servant of God when your whole life has been on getting money. Those two are incompatible.
You're trying to be a friend of the world and a friend of God, and you can't. If you're a friend of the world, you're the enemy of God. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. He's saying citizens of my kingdom have a right relation to money. Then in verse 25 through 34, he says in chapter 6, they have a right relation to material things.
They're not always concerned about what they wear or what they eat or where they should sleep because they know God will take care of that. God handles all of that. Verse 31, why would you be anxious saying, what do we eat or what do we drink or with what would we be clothed? That's what the heathens seek after. If you're a child of my kingdom, you know God the Father takes care of that.
And so you'd have a right relation to money and to material things, and you'd even have a right relation to people, chapter 7 says. You wouldn't be running around misjudging people. You wouldn't be going around trying to play pious when you got problems in your own life.
So you see, the Lord is really laying down some basic things, isn't he? He's saying, You want to know whether you're a Christian? How did you come to Christ? Did you come just saying, hey, Jesus, if you can give me a happy life, I'll take it. I would desire to have a happy life.
College like to have abundant luck. I have a wonderful plan for your life. You want to know something? God has a terrible, wretched... Ghastly plan.
for your life. Part from Christ. And you only come to him on his terms, not yours.
So you come broken and contrite, shattered over your sinfulness. And he changes you immediately and gives you a new heart, and you're different. You're salt and you're light, and you're on a hill, and the world can see, and you're distinguishable if you're really a Christian. And your life is characterized by a hunger for righteousness, which means you're going to want to obey more than you want anything else. And that's going to result in right thinking, and right talking, and right acting, and right kind of worship, and right kind of relationships.
And you know, and immediately somebody says, Well, who can ever live like that? Good. I'm glad you got to that point. Because you can't. You want to know something?
That's all impossible. I can illustrate it to you by looking at Matthew 19. Matthew 19. Verse 23. Jesus said, just talk to the rich man, a rich young ruler.
Told him to go sell everything he had and give it to the poor and then come and follow him. The rich man loved his money more than he loved Jesus, so he took his money and walked away.
Now watch what Jesus said. Verily, I say unto you, that a rich man shall with difficulty enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, now listen to this statement. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Now, let me ask you something. Can a camel go through the eye of a needle? You say, well, you don't understand. That's the needle gate. That's not the needlegate.
That is exactly what it means. It is easier. for a camel. to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to be saved. You say that's impossible.
That's exactly what the Lord wanted you to conclude. Verse 25. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed.
Now, if he had been talking about some needle gate, they wouldn't have been amazed. And they said, Who then can be saved? They knew he was saying a rich man can't be saved.
So what do you say? Jesus beheld them and said unto them, I think you got the message, boys. With men this Is what? Impossible. With God all things are possible.
What was he saying? Justice. The standard is impossible. Nobody No time. could ever be saved.
But with God. It's possible. Do you see what he's trying to say? We don't have the resources on our own. We can't do it.
And that's why you've got to be ready to strip that baggage off and cast yourself on the mercy of God, and the rich man wasn't willing to do it. He was willing to climb on the religious bandwagon carrying his luggage of materialism. and he couldn't get on with it. It was like trying to go through the eye of a needle with a humpback camel. Impossible.
That's the whole point. The only way anybody ever enters the kingdom. is when He realizes he can't. and strips himself naked and arrives back at Matthew 5, 3, broken in spirit and mourning and hungering and thirsting for a righteousness which is absolutely impossible for him to ever attain. You say, but you know, most people don't want it.
Meet those conditions, you're right. Most people want to go to heaven their way. That's right. They want to get on with all their cred. They're like a guy going on a trip with four bags.
Here's worldliness. Sin? Satan and self. And they're gonna get on. And they're saying, Jesus, I want the happiness you're going to give me.
I want to stay out of hell. Here I come. There's a road for them, by the way. Go back to Matthew 7, 13, let me show you. Matthew 7, 13.
Now, you see, the disciples at this time, along with the multitude, are probably saying to themselves, boy, with these kind of standards, whoever gets on. Who whoever gets saved. Who whoever qualifies. Listen to this. entered in at the s at the narrow gate, For wide is the gate.
Broad is the way. That leadeth to destruction, and watch this one. Many there be who go in that way. Why? You can go in there with all your baggage, it's a wide gate.
It's this huge thing. You just take all the garbage you want on there. All your works and self-righteousness, and I'll do it my way. And I want Jesus, but I always want the other stuff too. Like the guy Who was saying that he was a singer in Las Vegas and then he got saved, and then he continued to be a singer in Las Vegas.
That seems to me like you're trying to get on a narrow gate with a pile of baggage. You know, the narrow gate and the wide gate are different in that sense. Verse 14: the narrow is the gate, and hard is the way which leads to life, and few there be that find it. Listen, it's a hard way. And the word literally means a compressed way.
Very thin. You can't juggle all that garbage on that way. In the first place, you can't get through the narrow gate. Do you ever try to take four suitcases through a turnstile? Can't do it.
It can't be done, see? You can't get in that way. You gotta drop all the garbage. You got to come in stripped bare and naked.
Now I want you to notice something. The Broadway. that goes to destruction is not the road to hell. No. This isn't people piling on a road to hell.
This is the road to heaven, only it's the wrong road. They think it goes to heaven. They're all getting on the Jesus road. This is the broad road. You don't have to drop anything.
You don't have to live any different. You don't have to think any different. You don't have to do anything. All you have to do is say, I made a decision.
Well, I was baptized. I walked an aisle. I went forward. I signed a card. When I was a child, my mother helped me.
and you can just get all your garbage and pile right on. Only thing is, it's a broad road that leads to destruction. The sad part of it is many are on it. Many. And Narrow is the gate, And the only way you get through is to drop your sin, Satan, self, and the world.
And Hard or compressed is the way. Which leads to life and few. There are bees that find it. Listen. There are those few.
But there are those many too. Who who are on the wrong road? Here on that road, you got all your worldliness, all your self-righteousness, all that other garbage. You've never cut the cord with the world. You've never cut the cord with your evil lifestyle.
You've never changed your own self-righteous approach to God. You still think it's good works, and you're going to make it. And I'll tell you, you're on the broad road, and you're going to come up someday to the very portal of heaven. And, like John Bunyan says, find out there's an entrance to hell from the portals of heaven. You want to know something?
Lots of people get on that way because it's easy. And there's a lot of people selling tickets to it. Did you know that? In fact, it talks about them in the next section. Beware of false prophets, verse 15 said.
What are they doing? They're trying to get you on the broad road. They're trying to get you on the easy way. You don't have to change anything. Just jump on and take Jesus.
But you know what's going to happen when you get to the end of that road? Verse 21 tells you. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out demons, and in thy name have done many wonderful works? Can't you see?
This is the whole mob on the road, the broad road. You see the word many in verse 13? Many are in that way. And then verse 22, and when many finally arrive, they say, Lord, Lord. you Have we not done all these things?
We're the gang from the church down there, Lord. We were involved in the deliverance ministry. We were preaching. We did wonderful works, and I will profess unto them, I never knew you depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. They're gonna say Lord Lord You see, there's gonna be a lot of people.
Who don't find out till the end, they're on the wrong road. And I guess that's why I'm telling you what I'm telling you. You can't do this. I mean, don't lull yourself to sleep. Few there be that find it, because few are willing to get on on God's terms.
See? And then he gives an illustration to close.
Now, if you want to know how this works, he says, let me tell you a story about A wise man, verse 24, who built his house on a rock. And the rain descended. And the floods came. And the winds blew. And beat upon that house.
And it fell not. for it was founded on a rock.
Now there's the guy who came on God's terms. And he was on the rock and he built his house. He built that house on the rock. And it stood. Verse 26: Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not.
This is the disobedient one. Shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his house on the sand. Listen, this guy builds just as beautiful a house. Boy, his religion looks great. Great sides, great windows, great walls.
Roof is super. Fabulous religious house. Oh, we've prophesied, cast out demons. We've done all. Lord, Lord, look what we've done.
Only thing is He never got in on God's terms, so the foundation was sand, and when the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house, it fell and great was the fall. You see what he's saying? What a disaster. to come to the moment of judgment. and have the root awakening.
That the only thing waiting for you is hell. Because you never came on God's terms. And so I repeat to you. Beloved. Examine yourselves.
Whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. These are God's conditions. Let's bow our heads. I'm reminded of the words of Isaac Watts.
How helpless, guilty nature lies, unconscious of its load. The heart unchanged can never rise to happiness in God. The will perverse, the passions blind, and paths of ruin stray. Reason debased can never find The safe, the narrow way. Can aught, beneath a power divine, the stubborn will subdue?
Tis thine, Almighty Saviour, thine to form the heart. Anew. O change these wretched hearts of ours and give them life divine, then shall our passions and our powers Almighty Lord, Be thy. Father, we call on you to change us. For anyone who is counting upon a salvation that is invalid.
May they be shaken out of such confidence. Shatter such assurance drive them to the place of penitence, They may come on your terms. Saying goodbye to self and sin and Satan and the world. to embrace your holiness. We pray in Christ's name.
And everyone said, Amen. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is looking at the marks of saving faith. It's a study called Examine Yourself.
Now, friend, thinking about what it means to test the validity of your faith, we received a call on our QA line that John MacArthur responded to, and the question was about the issue of salvation assurance.
So, let's hear that question now, and then we'll hear John's response. Hello John, my name is Roberto. For years I've been claiming to be saved and I've come in, you know, revolving dwell with God back and forth and back and forth. You know, in between pot and alcohol and sex and everything else, I'd come back and forth. And then I find out that I I finally indulged in the method world and for like about almost three years I even got into homosexual sex and finally I came out of that and I totally gave my life to the Lord and I believe that I'm saved but that question still lingers in my mind sometimes.
Am I truly saved? Am I fooling myself? I mean, my dad has seen a great change in my life, and other Christians around me have seen a great change in my life, and they've seen my commitment to the Lord. My question is, could I be deceiving myself, or could I be truly saved? I believe I'm saved.
I want to be saved. I don't want to go to hell. I want to serve the Lord and I want to live with Him forever and do His will. But again, that doubt lingers in my mind.
So if you could answer that question, I would really, really appreciate it. God bless you. John. Hey, Roberto, thank you so much. Bless you, my brother.
Look, all of that stuff that you did. is forgivable. You put your trust in Christ. and that's all washed away. That's removed as far as the East is from the West.
That may be a more unacceptable litany of behaviors than some of the more Uh acceptable sins But in God's eyes, they're all sins. and none are unforgivable except one. And the only sin that is unforgivable is an Open and final rejection of Jesus Christ. You obviously haven't done that. You desire salvation.
Jesus said, whoever comes to me, I will not turn away. Because if you've come to him, you've come, he said in the same passage, John 6, because the Father has drawn you. The Father has drawn you Because The Father chose you. ordained you to be saved. He chose you He drew you You came Christ says, All that come to me I will receive, and I have lost none of them.
What does it take to be a Christian? A recognition of sin. and crying out to Christ to save you, That's what we're talking about. And if you've done that, then you can be sure your salvation is the real thing. Are you going to be tempted?
Sure. Are you going to be tempted some of the ways you were in the past? Of course. But that's not going to be the heart and soul of your life. The passion of your heart is going to be to love Christ and honor Christ, even though it's a struggle.
It's not the perfection of your life that indicates your salvation, it's the direction. toward Christ. And From what you say, it seems to me that is the direction you're going. Lord bless you, Roberto. That is certainly an encouragement to all of us.
It's the direction of your life that demonstrates genuine faith, not perfection. And friend, if you, like Roberto, have grown in Christlikeness from studying God's Word with us on grace to you, would you let us know? Send us a note when you can. You can email your story to letters at gty.org, or you can mail your letter to Grace2U, post office box 4000. Panorama City, California, 91412.
Perhaps your family has been encouraged by the Bible study resources on our website. Gty.org, or maybe someone you know has come to faith in Christ after hearing one of our broadcasts. We would love to hear about that and thanks for mentioning this station's call letters when you get in touch. Our email address again, letters at gty.org. and our mailing address, Box4000.
Panorama City, California, 91412. And let me encourage you to check out the thousands of free resources we have at gty.org. You can download more than 3,600 sermons for free. along with blog articles, daily devotionals, You can also follow along with the reading plan for the MacArthur Daily Bible. Our web address again, gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace DU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for joining us today. Be here tomorrow for some more tests to determine whether your salvation is real. We're continuing John MacArthur's study, Examine Yourself, with another 30 Minutes of Unleashing God's Truth. one verse at a time on grace to you.
