Series: Things That Accompany Salvation
Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
Message 9: Sixteen Signs of a True Believer (Part V)
(2 Cor. 13:5; 1 Jn. 3:20-23)
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
• “Examine” - peirazo = to test, to scrutinize.
• We are to examine our faith.
• But with what are we to test it?
• We are to examine ourselves by the revealed word of God.
• 28 times in 23 verses John tells us that we can “KNOW” that we are saved!
• We cannot afford to ignore what John, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is telling us!
• There is the danger that we may be “reprobates.”
“reprobate” - to be tested by God and rejected as unapproved, found to be worthless and cast away.
ILLUS: These are the gauges on the dash of your life!
NOTE: These tests are not for you to judge your fellow church member’s salvation. They are to be applied by each person to himself!
REVIEW
Thus far, we have considered:
1. The Companionship Test: Do I demonstrate that I love the fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Saints?
2. The Comfort Test: Am I sensitive to sin?
3. The Cleansing Test: Have I experienced and accepted the forgiveness of God?
4. The Commandments Test: Am I keeping God’s commandments?
5. The Conformity Test: Does my life conform to the will of God?
6. The Conduct Test: Am I doing rightousness?
7. The Coming Test: Am I showing that I am looking forward to the coming of Christ by living in such a way that I would not be embarrassed by His coming? “He that hath this hope ... purifieth himself.”
8. The Conquering Test: Am I winning the battle over habitual sin?
9. The Charity Test: Am I demonstrating by my actions and attitude a genuine love for my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I. The Conscience Test (3:20-21,23)
Am I free from moral guilt? (3:21)
• Some may object to using the word conscience.
• Yet 31 times in 29 verses the Word of God talks about our conscience.
• Listen to the words of Scripture:
1 Timothy 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
NOTE TO ME: Use WS7 to look up the references to conscience and use several. Preach a series on this soon.
A. A Condemnation that is Felt (20A)
1 John 3:20A For if our heart condemn us,
• Guilt is an horrible creature.
• We saw earlier in the chapter that the true child of God cannot practice sin.
• It tells us that this is so because His seed dwelleth in us.
• That is the Spirit of God!
• God has so made us that sin will bother our spirit.
• The Holy Spirit living within us makes sin and the believer incompatible.
ILLUS: Smoke alarm. Sometimes it may go off when cooking, especially when I cook! If we get tired of hearing it, then we may tape over it. But in so doing, you may set yourself up to burn in a real fire! You cannot ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit without bringing yourself into eventual peril! And if you don’t get that alarm to shut up, you may lose your mind!
B. A Confidence that is Found (20B-21,23)
A Confidence in Our Salvation from God!
20B God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ,
• When we have dealt with our sin problem ...
• When we have dealt with our sins problem ...
• We remove the monster of guilt from our lives.
• And then we can enjoy the confidence of KNOWING that we are saved!
APPLICATION:
Topic: Guilt
Title: Phantom Guilt
Amputees often experience some sensation of a phantom limb. Somewhere, locked in their brains, a memory lingers of the nonexistent hand or leg. Invisible toes curl, imaginary hands grasp things, a "leg" feels so sturdy a patient may try to stand on it. For a few, the experience includes pain. Doctors watch helplessly, for the part of the body screaming for attention does not exist.
One such patient was my medical school administrator, Mr. Barwick, who had a serious and painful circulation problem in his leg but refused to allow the recommended amputation. As the pain grew worse, Barwick grew bitter. "I hate it! I hate It!" he would mutter about the leg. At last he relented and told the doctor, "I can't stand it anymore. I'm through with that leg. Take it off." Surgery was scheduled immediately.
Before the operation, however, Barwick asked the doctor, "What do you do with legs after they're removed?"
"We may take a biopsy or explore them a bit, but afterwards we incinerate them," the doctor replied.
Barwick proceeded with a bizarre request: "I would like you to preserve my leg in a pickling jar. I will install it on my mantle shelf. Then, as I sit in my armchair, I will taunt that leg, 'Hah! You can't hurt me anymore!'"
Ultimately, he got his wish. But the despised leg had the last laugh. Barwick suffered phantom limb pain of the worst degree. The wound healed, but he could feel the torturous pressure of the swelling as the muscles cramped, and he had no prospect of relief. He had hated the leg with such intensity that the pain had unaccountably lodged permanently in his brain.
To me, phantom limb pain provides wonderful insight into the phenomenon of false guilt. Christians can be obsessed by the memory of some sin committed years ago. It never leaves them, crippling their ministry, their devotional life, their relationships with others. They live in fear that someone will discover their past. They work overtime trying to prove to God they're truly repentant. They erect barriers against the enveloping, loving grace of God. Unless they experience the truth in 1 John 3:19-20 that "God is greater than our conscience," they become a pitiful as poor Mr. Barwick, shaking a fist in fury at the pickled leg on the mantle.
-- Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 3.
SO, sign #10, is my salvation evidenced by freedom from moral guilt?
II. The Communication Test (3:22)
Have I experienced answered prayer? (3:22)
A. The Promise (22A)
22A And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him,
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
B. The Prerequisite (22B)
22B because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
ILLUS: Death of Comedian
On April 10, 1992, an up and coming comedian made an appearance in a night club. He preferred the night clubs because television censors had to bleep out every other word of his act. He made fun of God, he made fun of women, and did it all in the filthiest language of any act on the night club stage of his day. When not on stage, he made no attempt to hide his ravenous appetite for drugs and alcohol. He was so desperate for alcohol, that one night, when the time had passed for alcohol to be legally served in the city where he stayed, he rented a fleet of limousine so that he could raid the mini bar in each one and keep the party going. His name was Sam Kinison.
One more thing – before he started his night club acts, he was a Pentecostal preacher. A revival style, Hell-fire preacher. But then he divorced his wife and left the ministry. Thus began his blasphemous comedy career. He later married again and began to try to come off the drugs, but it was merely an attempt to “clean up” and not a return to God. Then, without renouncing his language or career, he persuaded someone to let him back into the pulpit and preach again. And on April 10, 1992, just six days after his wedding, God’s patience ran out for Sam. God would no longer allow him to blaspheme His name.
Witnesses tell us that, as stood in the parking lot after an act, a friend waited to drive him to his next performance. Sam walked away from the car, stood off to himself and was heard to say (this is incredible) "I'm not ready" followed by a pause then saying a resigned "Alright." (Who was he talking to?)
On his way to a performance in Laughlin, Nevada, on a two lane highway in the Mojave Desert near Needles, California (ironic), his car was struck head on by a drunk driver (again ironic). He was either thrown or pulled from the car, and as he lay on the pavement said, "Oh God, I don't want to die like this." It was a prayer that God would not hear. Sam Kinison had not been doing His commandments. He had not been obeying His will. He had not been doing those things that were pleasing in the Lord’s sight! His grave is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It reads, “In another time and place, he would have been a prophet.” Sam was just 38 years old!
EIGHT REASONS FOR HINDERED PRAYER
1. Not praying in Jesus name.
John 14:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
• It is no wonder that even the ACLU will tolerate prayers not made in Jesus’ name.
2. Not praying according to the revealed will of God.
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: (1 John 5:14)
3. Making a pretense of our prayer.
Matthew 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
4. Praying half-heartedly.
Jeremiah 29:12-13 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. [13] And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
5. Allowing unresolved issues to remain in our family.
1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
6. Praying with unconfessed sin in our heart.
Psalms 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
Prov. 28:9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
7. Praying with unresolved anger.
1 Tim. 2:8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
8. Praying with an unregenerated heart.
Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. (John 9:31)
The LORD [is] far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. (Proverbs 15:29)
Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
SO, Sign number 11, Can I know that I am saved by having seen answers to my prayer.
CONCLUSION:
1. Are you free from moral guilt?
• Are you living, tormented by guilt, unable to accept the forgiveness of God?
• It could mean that you haven’t been able to be forgiven of your “sins” because you have never asked the Lord to save you and forgive for being a “sinner”.
2. Have you experienced answered prayer?
• Not even the apostle Paul had EVERY prayer answered.
• But if we cannot see clear answers to our prayers, we must “EXAMINE” ourselves.
• Maybe you are saved, and some of the other factors are hindering your prayers.
• But it could be, that the Heavenly Father is not answering your prayers because you have never made Him YOUR Heavenly Father.
