Examine Yourselves
12/19/04 AM
Text: 2 Corinthians 13:5
INTRODUCTION
This past Friday was remarkable for many people in that marked the beginning of the traditional Holiday period. For many students, including myself, it was remarkable because it meant the end of taking Final exams. I’m not real keen on taking tests, the phrase: “Clear your desk; take out a sheet of paper, and a number two pencil” still has the effect of raising my anxiety level.
And tests abound in our lives. Everywhere you turn there is a test or examination to take for some reason or another. There are college placement tests, ACT, and SAT. The military entrance examination is the ASVAB test.
To drive you have to take a drivers test, on paper and on the road. In the physical arena there are physical exams. There’s the blood test, stress test, skin tests. What about eye exams, dental exams, hearing test, and the pregnancy test?
You can have psychological examinations and emotional examinations. And without a doubt you are probably thinking about a whole lot more that I have missed along the way.
There are all kinds of reasons for giving tests or taking examinations. The main reason is to collect data or to make an assessment on what is or isn’t known.
The Bible is not excluded from the practice of examinations. They go beyond the physical, psychological, or emotional, to the spiritual.
For instance:
• The Psalmist reflects on how God gave a test to examine his heart:
Psalm 17:3 “You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.”
• The Psalmist in Psalms 26 asks the Lord to examine him:
Psalm 26:1 –2 “Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.”
• What about Psalm 139:23-24:
Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
• Jeremiah joins the bandwagon when he exhorted Israel to take an exam:
Lamentations 3:40-41 “Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD; Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven.”
• Paul encouraged the Corinthian believers to examine themselves when it came to the Lord’s supper:
1 Corinthians 11:28 “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”
• Paul also exhorted the Galatians to take an exam on the their work in the Lord:
Galatians 6:4 “But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.”
There is a balance in the Scriptures for both God examination and self-examination. Paul is exhorting the Corinthians to do some self-examination in our text this morning.
1. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul challenged the Corinthians to “test yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Examine yourselves.”
a. In doing so, he employs the present tense for the verbs “test” and “examine”
b. Indicating that such examination was to be an on-going activity!
2. This should naturally raise some important questions...
a. Why should we examine ourselves?
b. By what standard should we examine ourselves?
c. What sort of questions should we be asking ourselves?
[In this lesson, I would like for us to focus our attention on this call to “Examine Yourselves”. As we do so, let’s answer the questions already raised, beginning with...]
I. WHY EXAMINE OURSELVES?
A. TO DETERMINE IF WE ARE IN THE FAITH...
1. Paul said, “Test yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.”
a. Paul challenged his opposers in Corinth to try (peirazete) themselves, to test (dokimazete) themselves
b. Yourselves is emphatic.
1) Don’t put Christ (or Paul) to the test, test yourselves.
2) “Try,” is better than examine. Examination does not necessarily imply a practical test. It may be merely from curiosity. Trial implies a definite intent to ascertain their spiritual condition.
c. The expression “in the faith” refers to being a faithful Christian
d. So we are to examine if we are remaining faithful to the Lord!
2. We need to remember that the danger of drifting is ever present
a. It is possible to drift away if we neglect our salvation.
Hebrews 2:1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
b. It is possible to develop an evil heart of unbelief.
Hebrews 3:12-14 “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”
3. What our text implies, however, is that it is possible to know of one’s standing before God
a. In fact, the Bible was written for this purpose, that we might know.
1 John 5:13 “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.”
B. TO DETERMINE IF JESUS CHRIST IS IN US...
1. Paul challenged the Corinthians to consider whether Jesus Christ was in them
2. That Christ indwells the Christian is a wonderful thought
a. It was promised by Jesus Himself.
John 14:23 “Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
b. It begins when we put Christ on in baptism.
Galatians 3:27 “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
3. We may wonder at times “how” He indwells, but the key here is...
a. To know that He can and we can know whether He does! -- Which is why we need to periodically examine ourselves!
C. TO DETERMINE IF WE PASS THE TEST...
1. It is a given that Christ is in Christians, unless they have “failed the test.:
2. What does “failed” mean?
b. Here is how some other translations read...
1) “ye be reprobates” (KJV, ASV)
c. reprobates - disapproved, disqualified. The image in the Greek is of metal that has been tried and found impure.
d. Literally, “not standing the test”, and in the context it refers to the test of...
1) Being in the faith
2) Having Christ in you
3. This verse is simply another among many that reveal that a Christian can indeed fall away from grace!
a. Paul warned of falling from grace: Galatians 5:4
b. Peter likewise warned of falling from one’s own steadfastness:
2 Peter 3:17
c. Jesus described what would happen to those branches who did not bear fruit - John 15:1-11
d. Again, through self-examination we can know what our true condition is!
D. TO DETERMINE IF WE REALLY KNOW OURSELVES...
1. As Paul calls for self-examination, he asks “Do you not know yourselves...?”
a. We can easily fall into the trap of self-deception.
James 1:22-25 (The face in the mirror)
b. Our religion is “useless” if we deceive our own heart. v26
2. Only through periodic self-examination can we avoid deceiving ourselves!
[So the need is ever present to “examine yourselves”, to “prove yourselves”. That leads to the next question...]
II. EXAMINE BY WHAT STANDARD?
A. NOT BY THE ESTIMATE OF SELF...
1. We cannot trust solely upon what we may think of ourselves
a. We are approved only if the Lord commends us.
2 Corinthians 10:18 “For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends.”
b. Therefore even though we might “think” we are right, ours is not the opinion which counts.
1 Corinthians 4:3-4 “But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.”
2. We can be wrong in our basic assumptions, which can lead to wrong conclusions about ourselves
a. Paul had thought persecuting Christians was pleasing to God - Acts 26:9-11
b. There will be many people at the Judgment who thought they were pleasing God during their lifetime: Matthew 7:21-23
c. We must therefore look for a standard outside of ourselves by which to examine ourselves!
B. NOT BY THE ESTIMATE OF MEN...
1. We cannot compare ourselves with others, or trust their approval
a. John 12:42-43 “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”
b. The approval of others is a small thing.
1 Corinthians 4:3 (human court)
2. People are often wrong in their thoughts and evaluations
a. Mark 7:7-8 ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
C. WE MUST TRY OURSELVES BY THE STANDARD OF GOD’S WORD...
1. Again, it is the commendation of the Lord that makes one approved - 2 Corinthians 10:18
2. It is the Lord who is the ultimate Judge.
3. As the Lord Himself has said, we will be judged by His words - John 12:48 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”
[The only appropriate standard to use when we examine ourselves is the Word of God. We cannot trust our feelings, or what others might say. Finally, let me share some...]
III. QUESTIONS TO ASK OURSELVES
A. IS CHRIST IN ME?
1. Have I put Him on in baptism? - Galatians 3:27
2. Am I keeping His commandments? - John 14:21
B. ARE THE “MARKS” OF DISCIPLESHIP PRESENT IN MY LIFE?
1. Am I abiding in His word?
2. Do I love my brethren like Christ loved me?
3. Am I bearing fruit?
a. Such as the fruit of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22-23
b. Showing zeal for good works - Titus 2:14
C. DO I HAVE THE ATTITUDE OF THOSE WHO WERE TRUE DISCIPLES?
1. Under inspiration, Paul wrote:
2 Corinthians 13:6 “But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test.”
…what was his frame of mind?
2. We can glean the mind of a true disciple from Philippians 3:7-14
a. We read of his goal in life (7-11)
b. We read of his attitudes in attaining that goal (12-14)
3. We will ALL have this “frame of mind” if we are “in the faith” and “Christ is in us” - cf. Philippians 3:15-17
CONCLUSION
1. Other questions might be appropriate to ask when examining ourselves, but I hope this illustrates how we need to use the Word of God to “prove” ourselves
2. Consider the sad plight of those who are “reprobate”, “disqualified”, who “fail the test”...
a. Paul describes some of them in Philippians 3:18-19
b. Because they set their mind on earthly things, their end is destruction! -- How much better to be like those described in Philippians 3:20-21!
To ensure that you will not be “disqualified”, then frequently “Examine Yourselves” in the light of God’s Word!
Invitation
