Examine Yourselves Whether You Be in the Faith, Part 1 B

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 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. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. How do you respond when someone asks you how you know that you're a Christian? Do you think back to that moment when you prayed a prayer or went forward in a church service? Do you point to your baptism? Well, as John MacArthur will show you on this edition of Grace to You, it's a healthy practice to take a hard look at what you believe, what your priorities are, how well your life matches up to God's standards. So stay here to see what sort of evidence proves your salvation is genuine and what evidence doesn't. John calls his study, Examine Yourself. For anyone struggling with assurance of salvation, this study is a must.

See why right now. Here's John to begin today's lesson. The Lord's Supper, I believe, is the most wonderful, the most sacred, most unique act of worship that the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ can ever experience. It is sacred in many ways. It is sacred because it is a sacred memory of the cross. The bread speaks of His body and the cup speaks of His blood and they point to the cross where His body was crucified and His blood was shed, and so it's sacred because of its memory. But more than that, the table of the Lord is sacred because it is a present communion with the living Christ.

He meets us here. The Apostle Paul says the cup which we drink and the bread which we break is it not the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We literally commune with Him here. And thirdly, it is sacred, I believe, because Jesus said in Luke 22 19 and 20, do this. And so it is sacred because it is an act of obedience.

And obedience is a sacred and holy thing. 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 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 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 is 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.

The 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 it. 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 as 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 obstinance, 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 yea, yea 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. And in verse 43, you'll 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 enemy.

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 names. 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's 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 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've 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? How would you like to have a happy life? How would you like to have an abundant life? Have a wonderful plan for your life?

You want to know something? God has a terrible, wretched, ghastly plan for your life, apart 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 book because you can. 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 had just talked 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. And the rich man loved his money more than he loved Jesus, so he took his money and walked away. Now watch what Jesus said. Barely 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 needle gate. 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 He got the message, boys, with men this is what? Impossible. With God all things are possible. What was He saying?

Just this. 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 to 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 crud. They're like a guy going on a trip with four bags. Here's worldliness, sin, Satan and self. And they're going to 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, whoever gets saved, whoever qualifies, listen to this, enter in 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? Because you get on 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 hard way.

And the word literally means a compressed way. You can't juggle all that garbage on that way. In the first place, you can't get through the narrow gate.

You ever try to take four suitcases through a turnstile? Can't do it. You can't be done, see. You can't get in that way. You've got to drop all the garbage.

You've got to come in stripped bare and naked. Now I want you to notice something. The broad way that goes to destruction is not the road to hell.

No. People...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, or I was baptized, I walked an aisle, I went forward, I signed a card. When I was a child, my mother helped...and you can just get all your garbage and pile right on. The only thing is, it's a broad road that leads to destruction. The sad part of it is, many are on it, many. But narrow is the gate, and the only way to 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 be that find it. Listen, there are those few, but there are those many too who are on the wrong road. You've 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. 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, 21. 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 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, 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 going to say, Lord, Lord, you see there's going to 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...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 built 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 rude 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.

Cannot beneath a power divine the stubborn will subdue? Is Thine, Almighty Savior, Thine to form the heart anew or change these wretched hearts of ours and give them life divine? Then shall our passions and our powers, Almighty Lord, be Thine. 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 say, amen. You've been listening to John MacArthur. He's a pastor, best-selling author, and chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary.

He's also the featured Bible teacher here on Grace to You, and his current study is looking at the marks of saving faith. He calls it Examine Yourself. John, thinking about examining yourself, I know from experience that churches are filled with people who constantly experience doubts about whether their salvation is real or not. So is that kind of uncertainty, generally speaking, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

The answer is yes. It could be a good thing because you may not be a believer, and you may need to examine yourself. That's why Paul said, Examine yourself to see whether you be in the faith.

Of course it's a good thing to examine yourself. And at the same time, it can be an unnecessarily bad thing if you constantly doubt and doubt and doubt, because you don't know what the Bible teaches about salvation being eternal. You can't lose your salvation, or because you don't trust the gospel promises of the Lord, or because you're not looking enough into your life to see that the Lord has filled you with love for His Word, His people, His truth, hunger for the Word of God. There are evidences in your life. If you're a true believer, there are evidences in your life of that, and you certainly must know those things. They have to do with desiring to be obedient to the Lord, with loving the things that He loves, and with longing to be fed by His Word. Those are the evidences that you're a true believer. So you need to know those things and stand content when you see those things, even though you're not perfect. And I often say, it's not the perfection of your life that proves you're a true Christian.

It's the direction. Where are your affections? Where are the things that you love? What are your desires? Are you drawn toward the Lord, toward His people, toward His Word, toward communion with Him, toward worship, toward praise, toward Christian fellowship?

All of those things are evidences that you have been born again. I want to offer you a free booklet, because I know this is an issue. This is a booklet titled, Is It Real? Is It Real?

Eleven test questions for you to answer that'll help you evaluate where you are spiritually. It's a booklet that we'll send free of charge. The title, Is It Real? If you'd like one, just let us know. It's free to anyone who asks.

That's right. And whether you wrestle with doubts or someone you know wonders if he's really saved, I urge you to get this little booklet. Again, we'll send it to you, Is It Real?

for free. Just call us or go to our website. Get in touch today. Our number here, 855-GRACE, or go to our website at gty.org. This booklet will help you answer questions like, Do I reject the world? Do I love other Christians?

And am I experiencing the ministry of the Holy Spirit? Again, we'll send you a copy of Is It Real? for free. Just call us at 855-GRACE, or go to gty.org. And while you're at our website, gty.org, make sure you take advantage of the thousands of free resources that are available there. At the Grace To You blog, you can read practical articles on subjects like salvation, sanctification, and spiritual gifts. The website also has daily devotionals written by John, and you can follow along with the reading plan in the MacArthur Daily Bible. And don't forget, you can also download all 3500 of John's sermons for free. Look for all of those Bible study tools and more at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson encouraging you to watch Grace To You television this Sunday, and join us tomorrow when John continues his look at the marks of genuine salvation with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.