The Distinctive Qualities of the True Christian, Part 3 A

Here are the tests, the distinctive tests of true Christianity. And you will notice that they do not speak of what you do.

They do not speak of function. They speak of attitude. Worship by the Spirit of God, glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. Those are the things that are the distinctive qualities of true Christianity. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm Phil Johnson, your host. Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune, believed she was cursed by the spirits of those who had been killed by Winchester rifles and that the only way to appease those spirits was to continuously build a huge mansion, one that would house good spirits and confound evil ones. So construction continued, without blueprints, 24 hours a day until Sarah's death 38 years later.

In all, the mansion, today known as the Winchester Mystery House, comprises 160 rooms and a maze-like array of passageways, doors, and stairways that literally lead nowhere. Sadly, many today are looking for salvation from sin, but in effect they're walking along paths like the ones in that house, paths that lead nowhere. The question is, what path are you on?

Consider that as John continues his study, The Road to Nowhere. Christianity has always been centered around the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has always been centered around the message of salvation. The heart and soul of the New Testament is the gospel of grace, the gospel which saves men from sin, death, and hell, which makes them children of God and heirs of heaven.

That is our message. And, of course, the saving gospel message which we proclaim is based on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that, therefore, is the ringing theme of the New Testament. You look into the gospels and what is the gospel record? It is the record of Jesus Christ, the one who came and who lived and who died and who rose again.

And that record is given to us, says John in the fourth gospel, that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that in believing we might have life through His name. When you come to the book of Acts, what do you have? You have the proclamation of the gospel of Christ and in its proclamation is the extension of the church, starting in Jerusalem and extending to Samaria and extending to the uttermost parts of the world. Then when you come to the epistles, what is the theme of the epistles? Whether it's Paul or whether it's James or whether it's Peter or whether it's John or whether it's Jude, every writer is extolling the virtues of the gospel, elucidating the elements of the gospel, enriching our understanding of the gospel that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners. When you come to the book of Revelation, again you have the focus on the culmination of the gospel and the exalted Christ taking His place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You have in the book of Revelation further expansion of the elements of the gospel as we see the Lamb of God in a new setting before the throne of God, as we see the Savior gathered with the redeemed in glory yet to come. So from the gospels through the book of Acts, through the epistles and out into Revelation to the conclusion of the New Testament, the theme is always the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the heart and soul of New Testament teaching. And that is precisely why that as over the years we teach through primarily the New Testament, we are constantly intersecting on the significance and the meaning of the gospel. We are not surprised then that it is a constant theme in this ongoing exposition of God's revelation.

But having said all of that, I want to note for you that there is a corollary theme as well. There is another thread that runs through the whole of the New Testament and that has to do with this fact that salvation must be assessed as to its reality. The message is salvation. But following close on the heels of that is a very constant occupation of the New Testament writers by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with the matter of who is a real believer and who might be deceived. It starts all the way back with John the Baptist. When John the Baptist confronts the religious leadership of Jerusalem, those who have come down from the Temple Mount to assess what John is doing, those who claim to know God and be the people of God, yea, the favorites of God, he says to them, let me see the fruit of your life.

To find out whether your motives are right and whether there is genuine repentance, show me the fruit that is fit for repentance. Again calling into question the fact that someone who believes they are right with God might not be. There was a genuineness question then that was posed by John the Baptist. It isn't much further into the first gospel of Matthew that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is given in which in chapter 7 He says, there will come a day when many people will say Lord, Lord, we have prophesied in Your name and we've done many wonderful works in Your name and we've cast out demons in Your name and He will say, depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. Again, Jesus Himself pointing to the fact that there are people who think they know Him, think they serve Him, think they represent Him, but are deceived. You come into the thirteenth chapter of Matthew and He gives parables and in those parables you find there are some people who appear to have a legitimate response to the gospel but they wither away and die. There are some people who appear to have a legitimate response to the gospel but they love the world and the things of the world too much to yield their lives to Christ in a genuine way and they fall away. You have the very clear description that where God sows wheat, the enemy comes and sows tares. Where God plants the true, the enemy puts the false. You come into the book of Acts and you aren't very far into the book of Acts before you meet a man who claims to be a believer in Jesus Christ but who in fact is not a true believer in Jesus Christ.

He is deceived and would be a deceiver. We're not surprised at such a man for we have already encountered Judas. You come into the epistles and you find that it is of great concern to the writers of the epistles that there be an understanding of the genuine reality of salvation. So the Apostle Paul, for example, takes on those who say they know God but do not really know God. He writes about them in Romans. He writes about them in Galatians. And then you find that John the Apostle is eminently concerned about who is a real Christian and who is not.

In fact, the epistle of 1 John is a series of tests. Those who are true Christians, he says in chapter 1, don't deny sin, they acknowledge it. Those who are true Christians, he says in chapter 2, walk the way Jesus walked, love their brothers, obey the Word, hate the world. In chapter 3 he says true Christians do not continue over and over again to practice sin. In chapter 4 he says true Christians are characterized by their love for God and their love for one another. And then in chapter 5 he gives the thesis for his epistle, verse 13. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life.

This is an assurance epistle. It is designed for those who believe to know they have eternal life. In other words, to provide tests by which you can measure your salvation. By the way, the gospel of John also has a thesis in chapter 20 verse 31.

These things are written in order that you might believe. So the gospel of John is written to unbelievers in order that they might believe. The epistle of John is written to believers in order that they might know that their faith is real. And so you see then these two themes in the Scripture, the gospel and the reality of salvation running right along behind it. You come, for example, to the epistle of James and James offers tests of genuine faith.

The first one is perseverance in trials in chapter 1. And then he discusses the matter of blame in temptation. A true believer accepts the responsibility for his own sin.

False ones would tend to blame God, very much like John chapter 1, denying sin, in this case denying one as the source of temptation. James discusses the fact that true believers have a proper response to the Word of God. He discusses the fact that true believers are impartial in their love, they're righteous in their behavior, James chapter 2. Their tongue will manifest their heart, chapter 3. In chapter 4, James discusses the fact that true Christians don't love the world, they're at enmity with the world.

Their whole involvement with the system will reveal where they are spiritually. And so whether you're talking about James or John or Paul or even Peter who also is concerned to elicit a genuine faith, or whether you're talking about Jude who is very concerned about the false among the true who are polluting the church, or whether you're talking about the book of Revelation where you have a church that has a name that it lives but in reality is dead, and where you have people who say they're Christians but Christ will spew them out of His mouth, all through the New Testament you have this concurrent duality, the gospel and the measure of true salvation. And those two things run along from the beginning to the end of the New Testament. It is thus then our lot in studying the New Testament to constantly becoming face to face with this issue.

Not only the issue of the gospel, but the issue of who is a true believer. That, by the way, is the precise issue in Philippians chapter 3. It is the exact issue to which the Apostle Paul is addressing his attention. In verse 2, he speaks of the false circumcision, the religious Judaizing Jews, and he says they are dogs, they are evil workers, and they are the mutilation.

And we went into that last time. He contrasts in verse 3 the true circumcision, the real believers who are marked as those who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Again, we can see very clearly that the Apostle Paul is concerned about spiritual reality. Back in chapter 1 verse 28, the whole matter of true salvation is brought up as he mentions the opponents and speaks of their destruction but the salvation of the true believers. Here he elucidates a little more on that same subject in verses 2 and 3. Now all of that to say this, it is over and over and over again the lot of a Bible student in the New Testament to have to come to grips with this issue, which obviously in my mind says this, God is eminently concerned that the lost become saved and He is equally concerned that no one be deceived about the reality of their spiritual condition because there are many who believe that they're in a right relationship with God when in fact they're not...they're not.

In 2 Corinthians 13 5 you have sort of a summation of all of this. Paul writes, test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test. Imagine, he is saying can you really recognize that Jesus Christ is in you? Can you put yourself to the test and come to that assurance? You must. You must test yourself. You must examine yourself.

How do you do that? Well as I said, starting with John the Baptist, fruits of repentance, all the way out to Revelation where you have the characteristics of a church that lives and the characteristic of a church that says it lives but doesn't live, you have this long and continually repeated list of marks and characteristics and qualities by which we can assess our spiritual condition. It is not enough to just preach the gospel in its simplicity and majesty and beauty and assume that everyone's response to that is sufficient or right.

We must examine. And so the New Testament is loaded with the tests for a true Christian. Now would you please note, just by way of brief review, the Apostle Paul was preaching the gospel of salvation by grace through faith, plus or minus nothing. He was preaching Christ crucified and faith in Christ as the means by which the gift of grace was received.

He was preaching the gospel of grace, no works at all whatsoever involved. And as he moved around and preached that and established churches, he was being followed by some Jews. And these Jews were of a mind to believe that yes, Christ and His death and resurrection is important, but God will not accept you even though you believe in Christ and even though you believe He died and rose again, God will not accept you unless you are circumcised and if you're a woman, you believe in the right of circumcision which can only be done to a man. But you must affirm physical circumcision, surgical circumcision because that's the mark of God's people. Secondly, you must keep all the ceremonies and laws of Moses.

So Paul would establish a church. Into town would come these Jews. They would be accepted because they would affirm Christ, they would affirm the gospel and then they would say, however, that's not enough, you have to be circumcised and you have to keep the law of Moses.

Major issue. So you had people on the one side who were saying salvation is by grace and works, God does His part in Christ, you do your part by being circumcised and keeping Mosaic law. And on the other hand, you had those who said salvation is by grace through faith, plus and minus nothing.

No works at all. No circumcision, no ceremonies, no necessity to please God by your own merit, your own effort. So you had those two views. Paul takes the view of the Judaizers and he identifies it in verse 2. He calls them dogs, evil workers and the mutilation.

Very clear terms. They are dogs, why? Unclean outcasts. They are evil workers, why?

Because they think they're doing good, they're working good, but the fact is they're working evil because they're attempting to please God by their own self-effort. And he calls them the mutilation because they do not have a true cleansing which circumcision symbolized. All they have is a physical surgery that's nothing more than a mutilation.

He really lets them have it. They are not real, they are not genuine. They are dogs outcasts. They are workers of evil, not good. Everything they do is filthy rags they cannot attain to God by their own effort and they are nothing more than an outwardly mutilated group rather than an inwardly cleansed group. But on the other hand, he comes then in verse 3 to the true circumcision. Now remember, circumcision was always an outward symbol of an inward reality and it symbolized the need for a cleansed life and a cleansed heart. And so he is saying we are the true circumcision, not the physical, but the spiritually cleansed. We have been spiritually made clean.

And how do we know the true circumcision? Three things characterize them. Three things. They worship in the Spirit of God, they glory in Christ Jesus and they put no confidence in the flesh.

Those are absolutely monumental things. In fact, it's almost as if you could take the New Testament list of all of the tests for true salvation and make them into a mountain range and these three would sort of rise above as the pinnacles. Paul, under the genius and the amazing economy of words that is available only to the infinite mind of the Holy Spirit, has reduced the whole thing to three statements. Here are the tests, the distinctive tests of true Christianity. And you will notice that they do not speak of what you do.

They do not speak of function. They speak of attitude. Worship by the Spirit of God, glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Those are the things that are the distinctive qualities of true Christianity.

Now, I'm not in any hurry to get through this. This I've told you in the past is I think my favorite description of a Christian. It's the description of a Christian that I like the best because it's the most comprehensive of any short sort of pithy definition.

But before we look at these three characteristics, would you indulge me for just a moment? When I was back in college and I was learning forensics and I was learning debate and I was learning speech and oratory and rhetoric and all of that, they used to tell us that the best way to make your point sometimes is to come at it from the negative. And so may I come at this whole thing from a negative before we get into the particulars of the positive? You say, what do you mean?

This is what I mean. I want to give to you some characteristics that do not verify your salvation, all right? Some characteristics that do not verify the reality of your salvation. You can't look at these.

These are not appropriate tests and I think you will be surprised. Number one, the first inappropriate non-proof of salvation is a past conversion or supposed to say it this way, a past supposed conversion event, a past supposed conversion event. Say, what do you mean by that? I mean that some people think they're Christians because of some event in the past. They prayed with a Sunday school teacher. They prayed with their mother. They prayed with their father. They went forward in a church service.

They signed a card. They were at a youth meeting and a guy spoke at camp and they went down and they prayed a prayer or they knelt by their bed some point in the past. Well, you know, I was over there.

I was in Northern California one time in a church and so and so and I prayed the prayer. Okay? No past event of a supposed conversion is a verifier of true salvation.

Let me tell you what I mean. Now listen very carefully. It is no proof...it is no proof that a person is not a Christian because they cannot remember when they were converted. Did you understand that? It is no proof that a person is not a Christian because they cannot remember when they were converted. There was no event. There was no moment in which in their own mind they knew the time and the place and the event. Now I would dare say that those people in large measure were raised in Christian families. And they do not know that moment in time when they went from not believing to believing and so they can't nail down that event. Or some of you people may have lived in a pagan situation, you may have been raised in an unsafe family and maybe at some point you began to be exposed to the gospel and you were more and more exposed to it and you realized one day that you had committed your life to Christ, but you can't necessarily identify the moment in time because the Lord was taking you through a process of opening your heart to an understanding of the Word of God. Listen, I say it again, it is no proof that a person is not a Christian because they don't have an event, because they can't identify a moment.

I can't...I can't nail down the event in my life. And even if there was an event, it wouldn't necessarily mean that I was a Christian, so let me say it that way. Nor is it any proof that a person is a Christian because they had an event.

You have to have both of those. Just because you walked an aisle, prayed a prayer, signed a card, went to camp, did whatever, that in itself is not a proof. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, here on Grace To You.

His current study is titled The Road to Nowhere. Now near the end of today's lesson, John said something that I imagine could be a bit jarring, even frightening, if you're not a Christian. He said that no works, no attitudes or behaviors, there's not one thing that can earn God's favor. And that sounds hopeless, like there's no way to be certain God is pleased with us, certain that we belong to Him. But John, thankfully, that's not the case.

No, it's just that you can't get there on your own. You can't earn God's favor, because you can't be righteous enough, because the standard is be holy as I am holy. Secondly, you can't earn His favor because you have to pay for your sin. So you're trapped in an inability to be righteous and burdened by the massive accumulated guilt of sin. So in order to be righteous enough, you have to have some other righteousness than your own. And you also have to have all your sins forgiven. And that's the heart of the gospel. Christ came to die on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. But He also came to live a perfectly righteous life.

That life that He lived can be credited to your account. You can be righteous enough if you're in Christ. You can be forgiven if you're in Christ, if you died with Him, and you live with Him.

I want to offer a free booklet called Unshakable Assurance to anyone who requests it. There are many things you can be wrong or deceived about but none are as dangerous as being wrong or deceived about the genuineness of salvation. This booklet called Unshakable Assurance drills down on what it means to come to Christ on His terms and how you can know that you've put your trust in Him. At the heart of the booklet, 11 test questions for you to answer that will help you evaluate where you are regarding salvation. It's possible to know for sure, yes it is, that you're not just going through the motions. Can you know whether your salvation is real? Of course. Unshakable Assurance is a booklet that will get you to the bottom of those questions.

And here's the good news. We'll send you Unshakable Assurance free of charge. All you have to do is let us know you want a copy. Request your free copy today.

Thanks, John. Friend, nothing is more important than understanding where you stand with Christ. This booklet can help you know for sure. Again, we'll send you Unshakable Assurance for free, so contact us today. Let us know where to send your booklet when you call 800-55-GRACE or visit our website, gty.org.

Unshakable Assurance is an ideal resource to put in the hands of someone you've been discipling. It's a quick read, but it's filled with powerful truth. Again, to request your free copy, call 800-55-GRACE or visit gty.org.

And when you visit our website, gty.org, make sure you take advantage of all the study tools available there for you. You can listen to past episodes of this broadcast. You can read multiple daily devotionals from John. You can visit the Grace To You blog and catch up on everything that's there. At the blog, look for the series of articles called The Believer's Inheritance. It's an encouraging supplement to John's current radio study.

That blog and many more resources are available for free at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace To You television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378, and join us tomorrow as John unpacks five things that many people trust in for their salvation. But these are false hopes. So what are you trusting in? Consider that when John returns with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.