Test Yourself
May 24, 2009 Morning Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: Does Jesus live in you?
Focus Passage: II Corinthians 13:5-7
Supplemental Passage: Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won't show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we'd rather the test showed our failure than yours. (2 Corinthians 13:5-7)
The Message
Living Bible - 5. Check up on yourselves. Are you really Christians? Do you pass the test? Do you feel Christ’s presence and power more and more within you? Or are you just pretending to be Christians when actually you aren’t at all? 6. I hope you can agree that I have stood that test and truly belong to the Lord. 7. I pray that you will live good lives, not because that will be a feather in our caps, proving that what we teach is right; no, for we want you to do right even if we ourselves are despised.
Introduction:
I. Test your salvation
a. Preacher Salvation - Following a preacher instead of Jesus will lead to Hell
Acts 4:12 “No other name whereby ye must be saved”
b. Denominational Salvation - Are you saved? “I belong to…”
I am proud to be a Southern Baptist but church membership does not save. John 10:9 – ‘I am the door”
c. Salvation of Sincerity - Many are sincere in there beliefs (Mormans, Islamic, Jehovah’s Witness), but they are sincerely wrong. Rom 10:2-3 – “they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”
d. Emotional Salvation - Goosebumps, hot feeling, running salvation, pew jumping.
These "may" be an expression of a feeling, but salvation is not a feeling, it is faith based upon a promise from God. I John 5:11-13 Salvation isn’t a feeling, but a promise!
e. Ritualistic Salvation - Tongues, baptism, communion
Galatians 2:21 (KJV) I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Although these are part of the Christian faith, they do not bring salvation.
f. Salvation by works - Good ole boys die and go to Hell. Saved die and go to Heaven.
Rom 3:10-11 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; (Romans 3:10-11)
II. God brings salvation
a. Salvation by Grace - For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; (Ephesians 2:8)
b. Salvation is through Jesus - Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6)
c. Salvation is available to all - that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Romans 10:9-10)
III. If you fail, you’ve failed for eternity
a. KJV says “reprobate” means rejected or castaway
b. Matthew 7:21-23 – Jesus says that not everyone who says, “lord, lord” will enter His kingdom. Don’t be caught short or don’t try to argue your way into heaven; it won’t work.
Invitation: Is Jesus Christ in me? If Christ is in me, then I am in him. Salvation is not Christ upon our lips, but Christ in our hearts. It is Christ in you, living and reigning in you as your Lord and Savior, which is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).
Is Jesus Christ King upon the throne of my heart? If the Son of God is my Savior, he is also my Lord. Faith in Christ is giving up the rule of your life to him (Matt. 16:25). If I belong to Christ, I give up and lose my life to him willingly.
Is his presence in me manifest in my spirit, attitude, words, and actions? Believers love one another. Our love for one another is far from perfect; but it is constant and is manifest to those who benefit from it (1 John 3:14).
Is Christ before me as the goal of my life, the hope of my soul, the end of my journey, the prize of heaven toward whom I am pressing? If my faith in Christ is genuine, if I am born of God, then Christ is what I desire and seek (Psa. 17:15; 27:4; Phil. 3:7-14); my heart’s great ambition is to be like him and with him forever.
