Our Year In Review
12/06/09 AM
Text: 2 Corinthians 13:5
INTRODUCTION
This past Tuesday, December 1st, I received an email from an online search company informing me that they had just made available their “Annual Year in Review: 2009.” And it took my brain a minute to register that we had indeed entered the final month of the year (and then I was a little irritated that this company saw fit to “end” the year a full thirty days early.)
It is hard to believe that year end has come so quickly but it is not unusual to feel that way, particularly as the total number of years one has seen pass increases. The rate at which a year passes seems to be directly proportional to the number of years one has lived, or at least that is my experience.
And this email was just the first of what will literally be hundreds of newspapers, magazines, websites, and television programs doing various "2009 Year in Review" pieces on ever category we can imagine (best movies, biggest news stories, richest people, biggest celebrity, etc.) It is that time of year, the end, and it is a time when we pause and reflect and consider the year past. We examine our lives over the past year to decide whether we had a good year of a bad one, were we successful or not, to what degree did we accomplish our goals, did we keep even one of our New Year resolutions? We will all engage in this self-examination to some degree or another, it is part of the human condition.
What I’d like to bring to your attention this morning is that the concept of examining self is also found in scripture.
Jeremiah exhorted Israel to self-examination:
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 told the Galatians to examine 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.”
On this first Sunday of the last month of 2009 I’d like us to consider conducting our own “Year in Review” in light of another scripture penned by the Apostle Paul:
2 Corinthians 13:5 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?
1. In this verse Paul challenged the Corinthians to self-examination.
a. In doing so, he employs the present tense for the verbs “test” and “examine”
b. Indicating that such examination was not an annual activity but meant to be a continuous one.
2. In rising to the same challenge we need to also examine ourselves and consider 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, we will focus our attention on this challenge to “Examine Yourselves” and we will conduct our “year in review” by answering these questions, beginning with...]
I. WHY EXAMINE OURSELVES?
A. TO DETERMINE IF WE ARE IN THE FAITH...
1. Paul said, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.”
a. Paul challenged his opposers in Corinth to test (peirazete) themselves, to examine (dokimazete) themselves
1) peirazete implies a practical test, one base on a standard not merely curiosity. It implies a definite intent to ascertain their spiritual condition.
2) Dokimazete is used in testing the purity of metals, the proof of authenticity.
b. Yourselves is emphatic.
c. The expression “in the faith” refers to being a faithful Christian
d. As we consider our year in review we need to do so from the question of our faith in Christ.
2. There is the real and ever present danger of drifting from the faith.
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. (The word spoken by God through His Son.)
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. This text implies that by test ourselves it is possible to know our standing before God.
a. In fact, that we might know this lies at the heart of the written Word.
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 THE TRUTH OF OURSELVES...
1. As Paul calls for self-examination, he asks “Do you not recognize this about 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 honest self-examination can we avoid deceiving ourselves!
C. 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 examine ourselves.
D. TO DETERMINE IF WE PASS THE TEST...
1. It is a given that Christ is in us, unless we “failed the test.
2. What does “failed” mean?
a. Here is how some other translations read...
1) “ye be reprobates” (KJV, ASV)
b. reprobates - disapproved, disqualified, counterfeit. The image in the Greek is of metal tried and found impure.
c. 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
d. By self-examination we can know the results!
[So the need is ever present to “test ourselves”, to “examine ourselves”. That leads to the next question...]
II. TEST 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.
Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
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 or opinion of others)
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 TEST 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 for our year end review is the Word of God. We cannot trust our feelings, or what others might say. Finally... ]
III. QUESTIONS TO ASK OURSELVES
A. WAS I IN THE FAITH WITH CHRIST IN ME?
1. Did I keep His commandments? - John 14:21
2. Did I abide in His word?
3. Did I love my brethren like Christ loved me?
4. Did I bear fruit?
a. Such as the fruit of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control)
b. Showing zeal for good works - Titus 2:14; James 2:17
CONCLUSION
There may be other questions appropriate to ask when conducting our year in review, but I hope this challenge from the Apostle Paul provides us a place to begin an honest assessment of ourselves for our year in review.
Invitation
Consider the condition 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!
