“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?”
Over the last couple of months in our church we have spent a great deal of time talking about false teachers. We were in a study of 2nd Peter and that is what his letter is about.
In the context of that letter we learned that false teachers are deliberate, calculating, ungodly, deceptive, and ultimately doomed.
As I came to a close of my personal studies on that topic in my sermon preparation I realized that there is another group of people in the church who are seldom openly addressed and when they are they usually do not realize they are being addressed, because they are not in the condition they are in deliberately, but they are in as much danger of being doomed as the deliberate false teachers if they are not awakened to their need.
They are nominal Christians. They are Christians in name only. They are in the church, many are very busy in the work of the church, they are almost unrecognizable from outward appearances, but they are spiritually dead. This sermon is about them.
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS ARE IGNORANT (Of certain things)
First of all let me reiterate that Christians in name only are ignorant. I don’t mean that as an insult, I mean it in a very specific sense. They are ignorant of the fact that they are nominal Christians.
In fact, from here on I will refer to them as ‘religious people’. After all, if you are not spiritually born from above and do not have the Holy Spirit in you then you are not really a Christian in the true sense of the term. You are just a religious person. You are not clothed in the righteousness that Christ provides.
Let me explain that.
The Bible uses the analogy of clothing numerous times to illustrate either having or not having right standing with God.
For example, Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness…”
(Also see Job 29:14, Zechariah 3:4, 2 Cor 5:3)
The teaching of the scriptures is that spiritually speaking we are naked and unfit for His presence unless we are ‘clothed’ with the right standing that He supplies, and that spiritual clothing is applied in response to the kind of faith that turns the person from sin and places complete trust in God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
In the familiar story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, a couple of con men, - I guess if we were to expand this illustration they would be false teachers, or at best, liberal preachers who neglect accurate teaching of the scriptures – convince the king that they are making him a suit of clothes out of very fine and very expensive invisible fabric.
So duped is he by their constant flattery that he convinces himself he can see the wonderful new suit they have made him and he goes strutting down the street to show everyone. Of course he is naked, and because he is the Emperor no one is brave enough to tell him until a little boy shouts it out from the crowd.
This is what is happening in the case of religious people. True believers are usually shy to point out to them that they are naked because they don’t want to be censured as judgmental. In truth, the duty of the true believer is to point out error, to expose not only false teachers but empty religious people, for their own good.
That is precisely what Paul is doing in our text verse. Religious people will go on, deceived, practicing empty religion, devoid of any relationship with the Living God, until their eyes are opened to their nakedness.
When I was 23 years old, just back from a tour in Viet Nam and Thailand and visiting my parents on leave from the Air Force, my dad invited me to go to a movie with him.
We arrived about 20 minutes before the ticket booth opened so we stood by his car and chatted while we waited.
Much to my surprise I suddenly realized that the direction the conversation was taking, directed by my father, concerned the necessity for repentance and true faith in the death and resurrection of Christ for the sake of a spiritual relationship with God.
Having grown up in the church with a dad who was the preacher I heard every Sunday, it shocked me to think that my own father doubted my salvation. A short time later God did open my eyes to my actual need and in what I would have called a ‘re-dedication’ I now believe I was probably actually and finally born again.
Until that time I was a religious person and in fact I had on occasion shared the gospel with other people (usually at drinking parties after work), but I didn’t know I was naked until a true believer who cared enough got me aside and told me.
We’ll go on to talk about some signs that expose religious people for being what they are and what they are in need of. Just know, if you are a true believer, that you have as much responsibility to lovingly lead a religious person to truth as to the obviously lost and unchurched who need to hear the gospel for the first time.
Religious people are spiritually dead and don’t know that they are going to spend eternity separated from God. That should concern us very deeply.
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS ARE EASILY OFFENDED (Sometimes)
When I say that religious people are easily offended I have to add the qualifier, ‘sometimes’, because some people are just by their nature not easily offended.
But I will venture to declare that the more religious they are the more likely they are to be offended by the true believer who speaks the truth, even in love.
These are the ones that leave a church because they don’t like what the preacher says in his sermons, or, if they are deeply entrenched in what they call ‘my church’ they are the ones who ruin pastor’s lives and drive them out of the church if not out of ministry altogether.
The Pharisees were certainly offended at Jesus, weren’t they? They were equally offended at His followers. They had a nice, comfortable religious shell built up around them and there was no room for a Messiah calling for death to self, repentance, sacrifice of pride and humble service for God and men.
They were active in the church, involved on committees and in missionary outings and giving their required 10 percent into the coffers and were in no mood to have anyone getting preachy with them.
Know anyone like that?
If you read the greater context of chapters 12 and 13 of 2 Corinthians you can discern that there were those in the church of Corinth who were offended at Paul. They apparently didn’t like his straightforward preaching of righteousness and self-control, since they were not practicing these things themselves and were unrepentant, so in turn they were accusing him of being the phony.
In his commentary on our text Warren Wiersbe said:
“I have noticed in my ministry that those who are quick to examine and condemn others are often guilty of worse sins themselves. In fact, one way to make yourself look better is to condemn somebody else.”
Religious people want the status quo preserved at any cost. They want a say in the ‘big’ decisions and they want it to go their way. They want to hear what good Christians they are and they don’t want to hear any challenges toward soul-searching unless it’s very obvious that the preacher is looking at someone sitting behind them.
Religious people are not concerned about other religions or about the unchurched and needy, simply because the only people who are acceptable to them are the ones who dress like them, talk like them and think like them, and quite frankly, all the rest are offensive to them. So they just quietly shut the door of ‘their church’ and avoid looking out the windows.
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS ARE LEGALISTIC (Sort of)
Now religious people are legalistic. Sort of. By that, I mean they are legalistic about the things they deem to be important and that help them to control others around them. I do not mean that they necessarily impose a lot of rules on themselves, although that is occasionally true also.
They have all the sins classified and prioritized according to the level of degeneracy they represent but they never see any of those things in themselves.
The religious woman condemns and shuns the divorcee in the ladies study group, but for 40 years she has emasculated her poor husband with every look and unintelligible grunt of disgust at his presence.
The religious man glares with disapproval at the teenager holding his girlfriend’s hand in the church corridor, but watches with thinly veiled lust as Mrs. Sunday School teacher crosses the parking lot and the wind catches her skirt.
Let me repeat; the Christian in name only sees, or thinks he sees sin in the lives of others but he fails to recognize those things in himself.
The religious person has no personal relationship with a God of grace, so in order for their religion to have value it must be founded upon a well-laid concrete slab of do’s and don’ts.
As long as they hold firm to their self-imposed standard they feel they have the right and the duty to watch that others hold to it also, and they certainly have the right and duty to point out when someone is missing the mark.
They are the morals police of the church. If you don’t tow the line you will eventually know it, because they will either tell you themselves, or they will complain to the pastor that he needs to get you back in line, or they will simply gossip about you until word gets full circle to your ears and then they will wait to see if you come into compliance with their standard.
Since religious people are legalistic they are very concerned with appearances. They are more concerned that the pastor is a strong orator and has impressive credentials than they are with sound Biblical teaching. The only concern they have for his Christian character is that he has a good reputation in the community.
Their values mimic scriptural values but their goal and intent is not for God’s glory and the spread of the Kingdom, but for their continued approval from others and the influence they can have to better their own world.
Religious people are all about self and the faithful practice of their religion. They are in need of a Savior, therefore they need to hear the truth about their condition and they need to be told that there is a loving, gracious God who wants them to have a living and vital spiritual relationship with Him both now and for eternity.
ARE YOU A NOMINAL CHRISTIAN? (Come back here and sit down)
In response to reports he had apparently heard, of accusations being made about his character and the validity of his ministry, Paul challenged those folks to examine themselves.
It wasn’t a tit for tat reaction; he wasn’t pointing back and saying ‘You criticize me? Oh yeah? Well I’ll criticize you!” No, he was reading the signs and encouraging them in very urgent tones to be very certain that they were truly in the faith.
It is a very clear scriptural teaching that a person can be self-deceived and think he is in right standing with God, when he is not.
In John 16:2 Jesus even told his disciples that the time would come that people would kill them, thinking they were serving God in doing so.
John’s first letter to the church has numerous warnings against self deception concerning salvation and these can be the tools used to comply with Paul’s exhortation and test ourselves.
Do you practice righteousness? That is, do you have a desire to bless and glorify your heavenly Father by living in such a way that brings glory to Him?
1 John 2:29 and 3:9
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.
9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Once more I’ll say, this does not mean we cannot ever sin. It means we cannot condone un-repented sin in ourselves because we have His Spirit.
Do you have a sincere love for the brethren that manifests in sacrificial service; seeking nothing in return?
1 John 3:14
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.
Do you have the witness of the Holy Spirit in your heart that you belong to God?
Romans 8:9, 16
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
Jesus said in John 10:27-28
27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
Can you say that you know His voice? Do you know when Jesus is talking to you in your spirit? People describe it in different ways but they all mean the same thing. Jesus talks to His people and they hear and respond.
TEST YOURSELF (With scripture)
I want you to pay very close attention as we finish today, and do not assume anything.
When I was an associate pastor in Southern California during the time I was attending Bible College there was a teen in our church who was an active member of the youth group. He was very talented musically. He could pick up any instrument, from a trumpet to a banjo and in a very short time be playing it with skill.
I had been in that church for several years, but he grew up in it along with his brothers and parents. One Sunday evening at a youth meeting he stood up and announced that on that very Sunday morning he had been saved. He said in all the years he had been in church, listening to sermons, singing hymns and gospel music with the youth group, he had never really understood until that morning. He said, “I always thought I was a Christian. But today I know that I was not until now.”
The first thing I want to say to you is that you can know for sure that you are a true believer, and you can know that you are going to spend eternity with Jesus. There are those who teach that none of us can know for certain, but the Bible makes it clear that we can.
Going over all the passages that prove that would have to be for another sermon. But let me just point out today that the Bible would not contain numerous exhortations to test ourselves if there was no way to know that we pass the test.
In Job 13:23 Job prays, “Make known to me my rebellion and my sin” Why would he ask that if not for the purpose of repenting of that sin so he might know he is right with God?
In Psalm 26:2 David prays, “Examine me, O Lord, and try me; test my mind and heart” And most of us are very familiar with Psalm 139:23-24
”Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way”
Then there are the warnings of Hebrews, only one of which I will bring out here:
”For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,” Heb 2:1-3
And we have this assurance from John, again in his first letter, chapter 5 verse 13
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
I want to ask you today to once more search your heart, ask God to search your heart, ask God to reveal to your heart your true condition before Him.
By the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, He had Paul write these words to people in the church. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!”
He did this for two reasons. One, to alert them to the possibility that they were self-deceived and that perhaps there had never been a regenerating work of the Spirit in them and they were therefore not yet born from above.
The second reason He did this was that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to Him in repentance and be saved. 2 Peter 3:9
If you are a true believer, and by that I mean one who has by faith received that life from above that Jesus promised, and you know that you have the witness of the Holy Spirit in you that you are God’s adopted child and you are going to one day go home to spend eternity with Him, then you have a duty to pray for those who are only religious people; that God will open their eyes to their need and grant them a repentant heart so they can turn to Him and finally be saved also.
If you are a person who perhaps has been in the church – affiliated with the church – for a very long time, but you frankly do not understand what I am talking about today because you cannot say that you have ever enjoyed a sense of assurance that you really are acceptable to God, and perhaps as we read the various verses earlier that demonstrate the evidence that Jesus is living in a person you could not identify with them, then I have some encouraging words for you today.
Jesus said:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
You can know today with a knowledge that no one can ever take away, that Christ is in you and that His presence in you assures you of your certain hope of glory. Colossians 1:27
Ask Him with honesty to show you the true condition of your heart. If you do that in sincerity He will be faithful to reveal your need, and He stands by you always, ready in the twinkle of an eye, to hear your prayer of repentance and make you a new creation, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood, sins atoned and Heaven bound. Do not let another opportunity pass you by.
Are you a Christian in name only? Or is Christ in you, the hope of glory?
Today is the day to get it settled.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” 2 Cor 13:14
