2 Corinthians 13 - The Importance and Danger of Self-Examination

second Corinthians 13 I'm gonna read it through I'm reading from the ESV this is the third time I'm coming to you every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses I warned those who sinned before and all the others and I warned them now while absent as I did when present on my second visit that if I come again I will not spare them since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me he is not weak in dealing with you but is powerful among you for he was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God for we also are weak in him but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith test yourselves or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test but we pray to God that you may not do wrong not that we may appear to have met the test but that you may do what is right though we may seem to have failed for we cannot do anything against the truth but only for the truth for we are glad when we are weak and you are strong your restoration is what we pray for for this reason I write these things while I am away from you that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building you up and not for tearing down finally brothers rejoice aim for restoration comfort one another agree with one another live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you greet one another with a holy kiss all the Saints greet you the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all let's pray thank you Father for giving us your word thank you for this time that we can dig into it open our hearts we pray to the Ministry of Truth through Jesus Christ our Savior amen hard to believe here we are at the last chapter of second Corinthians coming to the end of this study Paul starts off this chapter by reminding them that this will be the third visit that he's going to make to them in Corinth he spent more time with the Corinthians than anyone else as far as the collective amount of time and he says to them or reminds them that every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses that was just a rule of law in the Old Testament and he's reminding them of that and I think loosely using it to refer to his third visit as a third witness in other words this is the third time I'll be coming to you let every matter be established by at least three witnesses he speaks of his trip there as a further witness of what the Lord was doing among them and what they were doing in terms of their own sin and so forth and he says in verse 2 and these are strong words he says I warned those who sinned before and he says and all the others and now I'm repeating it while I'm away he says while I come when I get there I'm not gonna spare those in other words who haven't repented that's what he's saying here when I get there I'm really hoping that the situation's we talked about last time have been dealt with so that when I get there I don't have to be as severe as I'm thinking that I might have to be if people there haven't repented and you know he's kind of using some strong wording here to say you know time's up you know there's a period of time where we give people you know grace we give them time to respond we give them time to repent but there there comes a time where where if someone just refuses you know and drags their feet there are times when some kind of disciplinary action is necessary we don't like to think about it we don't like to talk about it but sometimes it is just the fact of the matter and he says in verse 3 you want to see proof that Christ is working through me well just you know if these guys are still walking in there unrepentant sin when I get there believe me you're gonna get a chance to see it and he doesn't say exactly what he's gonna do I always kind of wish he would but he doesn't you know I mean we know else where he talks about handing people over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that their soul might be saved and so forth maybe that's what he's talking about here I don't know specifically but he's saying I mean business and it's time and you know sometimes we need to hear that don't we it's time it's time to deal with this I've had the Lord say that to me on a few occasions Paul it's time you've been dragging your feet it's time or you've been you know ignoring this or neglecting this it's time you know and then he reminds them something about Jesus and verse 4 he says for he was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God in other words that kind of means if anybody would have been walking by Jerusalem or the area of the hill they called the skull and they would have seen Jesus up on that cross they very well might have looked at that as a sign of weakness but of course Paul's saying you know but that power the power that was manifest on the 3rd day when he raised himself from the dead proves that there wasn't weakness there but he's making the connection we - he says we also as apostles you know we are weak in him but let me tell you right now we are not weak when it comes to dealing with sin and it will be dealt with so Paul says this now I want you to notice this in verse 5 because this is going to be the center of kind of where we emphasize here this morning he says in verse 5 examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith test yourselves how many of you liked getting tests in school now don't don't raise your hand because I don't want to know because some of you probably did and I and we hated you in high school actually but you know because I didn't I hate tests yeah to this day hated tests most dreaded words are close your books put them down take out a piece of paper and a pencil I mean I just get the shakes hearing that but Paul says to the believers in Corinth test yourselves why he says to see if you're in the faith to see if you're a believer that's something we don't often do well I take that back we do it to others in fact I found a quote let me show you this David goos a great Bible teacher he says we're often ready to examine to test others but first and always first we must examine and test ourselves but it's just not something you know we very naturally do I you know I'll put the the the light of scrutiny on your life if you know pretty easily you know I don't know if she's really a believer you know but when do we actually you know point that light toward ourselves and ask the question am I in the faith Wow and that is something that Paul is challenging the Corinthians and I think by way of the word of God you and I to do and amidst that challenge you'll notice at the end of verse 5 he posts opposes a question to the Corinthians look with me there it's at the very end of verse 5 he says do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you and what and I'll tell you what or why Paul is saying this in just a moment first I want to tell you what he's saying what he's reiterating is very simply the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and what that means is when you and I come to Christ and when we confess our sins and receive him as Savior the Bible says we receive the Holy Spirit and we receive Christ it's the Spirit of Christ we can literally say Christ lives in me even though it's through the agency of the Holy Spirit it's the spirit of Christ okay so the Holy Spirit you know and this is what he's underscoring the Holy Spirit lives within you in fact in his first letter to them he said this in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God and he says you are not your own because of that when did the indwelling of the Spirit first take place have people always been in dwell by the spirit when they believed nope not in the Old Testament people were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament the Spirit came with them the Spirit came upon them to empower the spirit did some pretty amazing things but he did not come to end well under the Old Covenant because Jesus had not yet paid the final price for our sin when did it happen it's in the book of John chapter 20 it says on the evening of that day what day Resurrection Day the first day of the week the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews Jesus came and stood among them and said to them peace be with you when he had said this he showed them his hands and his side then the disciples were glad and when when they saw the lord jesus said to them again peace be with you as the father has sent me even so I am sending you look at this and with excuse me and when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them receive the Holy Spirit would that have been cool to be in that room the very first time and have God the Son breathe on you to receive the Holy Spirit but you know what every person who comes to faith in Jesus Christ puts their faith in him for the forgiveness of sins is breathed upon by the Sun and they receive the indwelling presence of God's Spirit and that's a wonderful reminder we receive God literally living in us now what's the point why does Paul say this when he talks in relationship to them testing themselves to see if they're in the faith why does he bring up the Holy Spirit why does he say to them or don't you realize that the Holy Spirit lives in you you say that why even why even pose it as a question here's the point when the god of the universe the God who created all things who is all-powerful comes to live inside a person literally make his dwelling inside a person things change it is impossible to stay the same it is impossible to be the same person I mean it's not that you're gonna be a different person in the sense that you're not you anymore I am still the same dopehead person that I was before I knew Jesus I'm just saved but there is a work that he is doing in me and in you to transform our lives more into his image to become more like him and what Paul is saying is about this testing of yourselves when he says don't you realize the Holy Spirit lives in you he's saying don't you realize it you know this is this is how you do the test because you see it's impossible to receive Jesus Christ as Savior to have him in dwell your life and have you go on and just be completely unchanged it's impossible and there will be certain real life manifestations of his life in you and I right and so Paul is challenging us to look for that evidence evidence that Jesus has been here because you know when Jesus walks into a room but I tell you things change when he comes to live inside a person the same thing things change and so he's Paul is calling us to kind of do a spiritual examination so what should we look for perfection oh forget it yeahit's listen let's not even go there right wait we're not looking for perfection we're to aim for perfection the Bible does say that but as far as reaching it gonna happen this side of the veil you and I are going to continue to you know struggle with the sinful nature that is also in us and that will have its way from time to time and we will stumble and we will fall that doesn't mean you're not saved that means you're human and that means that there are two opposing forces inside of you Paul even talked about it you know elsewhere and said that this sinful nature is that odds with the nature of Christ which also dwells in you and he says they're there they're constantly butting heads they're you know they're they're opposed to one another and there's this tug-of-war going on on inside of all of us can you relate I sure hope you can or you're not firing on all cylinders we all struggle every one of us to live the life of Christ and and and the reason we do is because sin is always there you know but there are certain things that we should be seeing in our lives and I'm gonna give you just a few of them and this is not meant to be an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination okay you'll think of probably some others all on your own no sweat great but let me put some up on the screen for you kind of as bullet points here first of all love for God you might be thinking wait a minute how can I know that I love God you know people say that all the time you know hey he loves God she loves God do you love God we love God hey God we love you how do we know how do we know we love God Jesus answered the question John 14:23 he said if anyone loves me he will keep my word yeah there's going to be a designer there's gonna be a passion that's gonna go along with that love for God to be obedient to his word it's one of the ways we know I remember when I got serious about walking with Jesus at about age 25 and I was talking to the pastor and I just kind of said to him as we were just chatting I just said man I just I just want to be obedient to God you know and he looked at me right in the eye diego's that's proof that you're saved and you know I I knew nothing about nothing at that point in my life but I remember thinking you know it's one of those proofs you know because that's not something before you know Christ you know when you're living in the world going your own way and doing your own thing you don't see unbelievers just walking up you're going I just really want to obey God it just doesn't happen but when somebody gets saved and the spirit takes up residence there we you know we begin to have this desire and so forth and again I want to repeat we're not going to do this perfectly we're not gonna do it without issues and and so forth and you know even after I said what I said to my pastor back way back then I I went on to experience some pretty colossal failures in my life and I continued to mess up some of the things that I did even after saying I want to obey God were pretty serious in terms of the level of failure but that doesn't change the fact that there was a passion and a desire to do what was right out of a love for God what else should we see when we're testing ourselves how about this an ability and willingness to hear truth John 10:27 check this out jesus said my sheep hear my voice and they follow me and then in the in chapter 18 he said to Pilate actually everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice that's just one of them and again there is going to be times we're gonna stumble over God's truth there's even going to be times we're gonna resist God's truth that's possible for a believer to do but ultimately we're going to be able to say the that's true I've seen that you know even though there might be that resistance for a period of time because some of us are stubborn and hard-headed and so forth ultimately we come to a place of saying that's true that's true and it really is quite amazing when you get a bunch of believers together who don't even know each other but they're all believers in there I don't care how big of a room packet is as many people as you can you're gonna find a unity of agreement among them as it relates to knowing truth hearing the voice of Jesus they know when they hear truth they know it that's the voice of the Savior because they're his sheep right and and and and even though we disagree on some of these peripheral issues that make up hold denominational structures who cares it's the it's the significant things you know we hear the voice of the the the Shepherd here's another test the ability to understand spiritual realities check this out from first Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 Paul writes the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them why because they're spiritually discerned now this is a negative example or a negative statement he says that the the man that doesn't have the Spirit of God cannot understand does not accept right why because things are foolishness to him but what about the what about you if the Spirit of God is living within you you can accept the things of the Spirit truths of the Spirit and you will recognize them as wisdom not foolishness now the world will call them foolishness as Paul says here and that's where you might be tempted at times to back away and maybe even compromise what you believe because people are gonna go you really believe that nonsense that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life that's the man without the spirit he can't understand it it can't be anything but foolishness to him right because he doesn't he has not the spirit for it to make sense it is the work of God's Spirit by which those things make sense right I got to taste something in this day and age of internet communication you know where we talk to people about everything and anything going on in this room in our Christian life I have say that I cringe when I I see or hear or read Christians making comments about things and I cringe because they say things that their audience has absolutely 100% no ability to understand because they have not the spirit and they're in a they're in a public forum that's filled with unbelievers in there going well don't you realize that it at it and no they don't they don't get it and they never will apart from the spirit right and Christians we forget we were just it to us it's just like oh yeah I mean the Spirit is is making us aware and we're like yeah yeah well of course and we just kind of assume other people are you know supposed to get this - and we forget that Paul says the man without the spirit cannot accept it you can't understand it and it will be nothing but foolishness anyway end of rant alright next point what should we also be seeing in our lives how about this the witness of the Spirit let me give you a verse that goes along with that Romans chapter 8 verse 16 the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God please understand Christians this is not a burning in the bosom this is something far more significant it is the witness of the Spirit the Spirit is a person did you notice that that the passage says the Spirit Himself Himself is a personal pronoun and as a person he witnesses or speaks to the individual right and says you belong to God you're his okay and it's a wonderful thing and it's very very difficult to explain to people you know who don't have the witness of the Spirit in their lives you can tell them how to be saved but you can't explain it's like the Holy Spirit speaks to me and just says I belong to God right it says it's what he does that's what Paul says here you know so these are some tests the and I didn't again this wasn't exhaustive I didn't bring up anything about love for one another you know the ladies just finished 1st 2nd and 3rd John what was the major emphasis of that Bible study ladies in your women of the word study group loving your brother right loving the people in the body of Christ Oh John even came right out and just said it's a mark of those who are born again they will love one another isn't that a scary thought you know especially when people are kind of getting up in your business and stuff like that so I you know I could have talked about that I could have talked about several other things but for the sake of giving a little bit of understanding of this situation I need to also say something that Paul didn't say in this passage I believe that this self evaluation that he's talking about and make no mistake about it that's what it is he's telling you to self evaluate see if you're in the faith there is a resident danger here and the danger comes from individuals who struggle in this area of their assurance in Jesus Christ you may be one of those individuals and what I'm talking about are people who doubt and they are brought to a place of doubt on a fairly regular basis as to whether or not they are genuinely born-again and one of the things that makes it so difficult for these people is that there's this enemy we've got who loves to bring up that sort of thing and get you to doubt let me show you a passage from the book of Revelation chapter 12 it says then I heard a voice in fact a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren note that has been thrown down he who accuses them before our God day and night notice what Satan is called in this passage the accuser of our brethren in this passage it says that Satan is constantly before the throne of God accusing you and me to God okay in other words he's saying did you see what she did seriously she's your daughter you know or look at here what bozo brain pulled off today did you see that just like you know Satan accused job to God you know but Satan doesn't stop there he accuses us to one another and he accuses you to yourself in other words he loves to bring up a reminder to you of all of your mistakes all of your failures and so that you will parade them through that marquee in your mind and focus on them and become so focused that it will produce in you doubt doubt of your salvation now let me just say something and this is very important the reason that Satan is able to get this foothold in some people's lives I'm just gonna call it what it is it's because their faith is weak sure Satan can attack anybody at any time but understand this Satan is not going to attack you where your faith is strong he's not an unlimited being and he doesn't have time to waste and if there's an area that you have dialed in and you're really there's a strength in your life he's not gonna throw that situation in front of you as a stumbling hazard he is going to seek to get in where he can do the most harm with the least amount of effort and that is the area where you are the weakest and if you are weak in your faith as it relates to your salvation he's going to hit right there and he will be able to do some damage because of that now listen a strong faith when someone's faith has been made strong in this area that person understands that my failures my blunders have nothing to do with my salvation you with me I am just like you are and I make as many mistakes as you make but one thing the Lord has just allowed me to hold on to for all of my Christian life is the understanding that Paul I saved you not because of anything you ever did or didn't do I saved you because of what my son did what he did was he died for you and he was successful and he paid it all so now your salvation is stable because of him and you can't make it unstable you with me by your own actions yes you're going to sin but that's not gonna change your salvation and you know for some reason or another I'm just dumb enough to believe it well not dumb you know what I mean simple enough I accept it I do I accept 100% that God loves me and there's nothing that I can do to threaten my own salvation with my acts of dumbness and and sin and and stuff like that I have never questioned my salvation but you know what there's a lot of people who do I know that because I've talked to a lot of them and for those individuals self-examination like this could be a very dangerous place to go without help I would strongly encourage those of you who are just your faith is still growing maybe you have occasional bouts with doubt or maybe you're riddled with doubt on a fairly regular basis what I am talking to you about today is something you need to be very careful about because I know you guys and you'll flunk yourselves every time and because I've I've watched you do it I've sat and talked with you and I've talked to you about your salvation and you give yourself an F every time and you end up doubting your salvation and I say this as gently as I can it is because your faith is weak but it can be made strong you can get beyond this when you sit down to do self-evaluation do it with someone you trust do it with someone who is mature in the Lord who knows the scripture and who is willing to take you back to the beginning to say all right let's go back and let's revisit how is a person saved right that's what I have to do with people when they come at me with questions like you know if I do this you know such-and-such you know would I go to hell okay let's go back and let's talk about how is a person saved is it by doing good things no well then how can you lose it by doing bad things oh yeah and it takes a while you know but it eventually people will start to and then their faith becomes strong wait a minute it's all about Jesus it's all about you it's not about me it's about him it's about what he did Jesus died for me on the cross I believe it I accept it right and that doesn't make me careless with my personal failures it doesn't make me kind of have this casual attitude about oh yeah hey sin today no big deal I'm forgiving you no no no no no that's exactly the kind of criticism the Apostle Paul got when he preached the gospel of grace people told him you can't tell people they're just forgiven they're gonna go off and take advantage of it and you know some people probably will but the fact of the matter is when you are genuinely saved and when you understand what God has done for you there come such a great work of appreciation that you just want to live for him remember we talked about that desire to obey that desire to love and obey that's a work of the Spirit that keeps you and I from becoming casual about our sinful behavior and when you're truly and genuinely born-again there's going to be a a genuineness to our sorrow over our sin as well I mean if I if I ran into somebody who claimed to be a Christian who kind of laughed off their their sin and didn't you know I would question their salvation I guess I would question the genuineness of their conversion because when the Spirit of God gets ahold of a person's heart it's it was a transformation there's a whole different attitude about sin now and it there there begins to grow in us you and I this desire I don't want to grieve my Savior look what he did for me right look what he did for me I am so undeserving of his love I am so undeserving of his forgiveness how could I just spit in his face and casually do that you know and say I don't care I guess gods in the forgiving business I've heard that one yeah that's that's like okay let me kind of back away or just case a lightning bolt no I'm just kidding when we understand that our salvation is because of what Jesus did and not about what we do and again I'm not excusing you I'm not giving you a license to sin and that's why Paul talks in the New Testament about not allowing grace to become a license for sin it's for that very reason because some people probably will take advantage of that so him whose faith is weak be care when you do the test be careful that you don't provide the enemy a greater foothold to jump on your back and make you miserable get with somebody who you trust who knows the Word of God and is willing to look the situation over with you in an understanding gentle and compassionate way but is also true to the Word of God and don't be afraid of what the tests might show you know I think there's a lot of people who are really afraid they're like I don't want to take a test like that what if I what if it comes out bad well there's still time you don't want to figure this out on Judgment Day or when you die or you know what you that's not when you want to figure this thing out and kind of go oh wait a minute I thought I was saved right you want to know now this is a great suggestion from the standpoint of hey listen if there are any issues you have time to get it taken care of so Paul goes on he says in verse 6 I hope you'll find out that we've not failed the test it's almost like he's anticipating the question being thrown back at him are you a Christian Paul he says but we pray to God that you may not do wrong not that we may appear to have met the test but you may do what is right though we may seem to have failed and you know that's really kind of what all those accusations about Paul that we've been looking at over the course of this study have kind of concluded though I don't know this boss'll Paul guy maybe he isn't one of us but that's because they were using worldly standards to judge him paul says verse 8 for we cannot do anything against the truth but only for it we're glad when we are weak and you are strong we want your faith to be strong even though our lives may show great weakness and he says in verse at the end of verse 9 or ya 9 your restoration is what we pray for that word means your completion we're constantly praying that you would be caught to completion in Christ he uses that word again here a little bit later in the letter if a couple of verses away and then he reiterates at verse 10 the why he's writing these things and being as strong in his statements as he is is that he wants to you know make sure that when he comes he can enjoy the fellowship and not have to be constantly correcting verse 11 finally brothers rejoice aim for restoration that's that word that that word in the NIV they translated it perfection and he says aim for perfection and that's literally what he's saying he isn't saying in that sense be perfect or you know you better be perfect or you're not gonna get into heaven he's this aim aim for perfection aim for the best you can be in Christ that's what we're to shoot for right he says comfort one another instead of being critical and backbiting and so forth bring comfort to one another agree with one another live in peace with one another these are signs that we've been saved verse 12 greet one another with a holy kiss I want this is for you people that don't like that feel uncomfortable whenever we say take a minute and greet one another what if we said turn to the person next to you and give them a holy kiss I just wanted you to know it could be worse and we're not going there don't worry verse 13 all the Saints greet you oh really the Saints who are the Saints I mean yeah it's a football team but what is he talking about who are the Saints Roman Catholicism for those of you they've been raised in it would teach you to believe that Saints are individuals who the church chooses who have met certain markers of the miraculous and and works of whatever and they then say to the they get together and kind of have a holy convocation and say boom he or she is a saint and then we call them Saints oh and so from that time onward is that who Paul is talking about here when he says the Saints greet you the word means holy ones or sanctified ones Paul uses it to describe believers all believers that means you you can I you have permission to change your license plate to Saint Dave or whatever the Bible says you are a saint in the sense that doesn't mean again perfection it means you've been set apart you are a set apart one for God you have been set apart to know God to love God to serve God you are set apart you are a saint all that other stuff that the church gets together to do that's tradition and it has nothing to do with the Bible the Bible knows nothing of the church getting together and calling people Saints beyond the biblical definition they're welcome to do that if they want to they just don't have any biblical grounds on which to do it okay Paul closes here in verse 14 by saying the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all and I hope you noticed the Trinity and we sang it this morning didn't we God in three persons Blessed Trinity Paul says may the grace of the Lord Jesus made love of God the Father may the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you I've heard people say to me in the past I don't believe in the Trinity because the word Trinity isn't in the Bible can I just tell you that's really dumb to say because the idea of the Trinity is clearly in the Word of God right here God the Son God the Father God the Holy Spirit one God three persons don't ask me to explain it it is the triune unity of God which he has revealed in the word which you and I can know but not never understand you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

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Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament, Test yourselves, Examine yourselves

Id: Oax4lMrjR_I

Length: 40min 19sec (2419 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2017