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The following excerpt is from a message that was delivered at Grace Community
Church in Panorama City, California, By John MacArthur Jr. It was
transcribed from the tape, GC 80-83, titled "Looking at the Cross from God's
Perspective." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace,
P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412.
I have made every effort to ensure that an accurate transcription of the
original tape was made. Please note that at times sentence structure may
appear to vary from accepted English conventions. This is due primarily to
the techniques involved in preaching and the obvious choices I had to make in
placing the correct punctuation in the article.
It is my intent and prayer that the Holy Spirit will use this transcription
to strengthen and encourage the true Church of Jesus Christ.
Examine Your Faith
by
John MacArthur
It is faith that is at the heart of our Christianity. Now, I want to give
you a little test that will help you examine your faith. I am convinced that
churches are filled with people who have a kind of faith that doesn't save
them. James called it a "Dead Faith." 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine
yourselves, whether you be in the faith." You want to be sure your faith is
real. Now, as you look at yourself and you're asking, "Am I really a
Christian? Have I really appropriated this gift that God gives? Have I
believed genuinely?" What do you look for in your life to discern whether
your faith is real? What are the marks?
First of all, let me show you some things that neither prove nor disprove
saving faith. OK? I am going to give you a little list of things that don't
prove anything. You could be a Christian; You could not be a Christian, and
still have these things. They don't prove or disprove saving faith, but you
need to know what they are so you're not deceived.
THINGS THAT DON'T PROVE OR DISPROVE SAVING FAITH
1. Visible Morality
What do I mean by that? Well some people are just good people.
Some of them are very religious like Mormon people who on the
outside appear very moral, or Roman Catholic people, or any other
kind of cult or religion. Some people are just good people.
They're honest, they're forthright [trustworthy] in their dealings.
They're grateful people, they're kind people, and they have an
external visible kind of morality. By the way, the Pharisees
certainly rested on that for their hope. They're loving people,
some of them are tender hearted people. But of loving and serving
God, they know nothing and feel nothing. Whatever the person does
or leaves undone does not involve God.
This person is honest in his dealings with everybody except God. He
won't rob anybody but God. He is thankful and loyal to everybody
but God. He speaks contemptuously and reproachfully of no one but
God. He has good relationships with everybody but God. He's very
much like the rich young ruler who says, "All these things have I
kept, what do I lack?" This is visible morality, but it does not
necessarily mean salvation. People can "Clean up their act" by
reformation rather than regeneration.
2. Intellectual Knowledge
Secondly, another thing that doesn't prove or disprove saving faith
is intellectual knowledge. Intellectual knowledge. This doesn't
prove true faith. Knowledge of the truth is necessary for salvation
and visible morality is the fruit of salvation, but neither one
equals salvation. You see, you can know all about God. And you can
know all about Jesus, and who He was and that He came into the world
and died on the cross, and that He rose again, and that He's coming
again. And you can even know more of the details of His life. You
can understand all of that and turn your back on Christ.
The writer of Hebrews writes to those in chapter 6, who knowing all
of that, refused Christ. In chapter 10 he says, "You're treading
underfoot the Blood of Christ by not believing what you know is
true." There are many people who know the Scripture and who have
knowledge but are bound for Hell! You will never be saved without
that knowledge, but having that knowledge doesn't necessarily save
you.
3. Religious Involvement
Thirdly, religious involvement. Religious involvement is not
necessarily a proof of true faith. There are people who have,
according to Paul writing to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:5, "A form of
godliness, but powerless." An empty kind of religion. Remember the
virgins in Matthew 25 who were waiting, and waiting, and waiting for
the coming of the bridegroom, who is Christ. And they are waiting
and waiting, but when He comes they don't go in. They had
everything together except the oil in their lamps. That which was
most necessary was missing. The oil, probably emblematic of the new
life, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They weren't regenerate.
They were religious but not regenerate. You can have external
visible morality, intellectual knowledge, and religious involvement,
and it may not indicate genuine faith.
4. Active Ministry
Fourth, active ministry. Balaam was a prophet. Saul of Tarsus
thought he was serving God by killing Christians. Judas was a
public preacher. Judas was an Apostle. Remember Matthew 7, "Many
will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name,
and done many wonderful works? Cast out demons in Your name?' And
He says to them, 'Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I never
knew you.'" Ministry activity, that's not necessarily a proof of
saving faith.
5. Conviction of Sin
Lots of people feel bad about sin. Listen, this whole world is full
of people that are just guilt ridden to the core. You know, fifteen
years ago, we used to talk about people going to the Psychologist,
and we used to say, and it was pretty true from tests, "That most of
the people who went to the Psychologist were suffering from guilt."
People used to write books about that. I remember the Menniger (sp.)
Clinic put out tremendous amount of material on the fact that all
these people were suffering from guilt. Well, the Psychologists of
the world have absolutely no answer for guilt, because the only
answer is the Gospel.
Now what has happened in the last fifteen years, is that you don't
have any people at all today who feel guilty, because we have come
up with a new Psychology that eliminates the guilt. Now what we do
is we displace the guilt on somebody else. And the new therapy is
to make the person utterly irresponsible for any of the guilt that
they might feel inside, and to free them from that guilt. And you
do that by making the ultimate virtue pride, the ultimate virtue
self-fulfillment, self-aggrandizement, self-glory, self-esteem, and
that eliminates the need to feel guilty. So we really have come up
with an utterly ungodly, unchristian, unbiblical Psychology, that
has taken the guilt issue and eliminated it.
Now what happens in the Church, instead of the Preacher standing up
to preach, "Freedom from guilt to guilty sinners," they expect him
to preach self-esteem to egocentric people. The whole climate has
changed. And we have been skewed in our message, because we have
allowed the philosophy of the day to create a new kind of sinner who
thinks he feels no guilt. And the most important thing you can
preach to a bunch of sinners is the sin of their lives, and the law
of God which they fall short of and the impending judgment they
await. But that message is not popular because the new philosophy
and the new psychology has long ago eliminated guilt.
We don't have people feeling guilt anymore, because they've learned
that therapy can tell them they can put that guilt on somebody who
did something to them. And now I don't care who you talk to, when
they go into that kind of situation of counseling they will
inevitably say, "I have been abused! I am a victim! I am not
responsible for the way I am!" And so the sinner is dispossessed of
his guilt and dispossessed of a direct approach of the Gospel. I
liked sinners better when they felt guilty. They were much easier
to deal with. But there are some people who do feel guilty. Some
people who do feel guilty about sin. Felix trembled under the
preaching of Paul, but never left his idols. The Holy Spirit
convicts many of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and many that He
convicts don't respond with true repentance. Some may even confess
their sin. Some may even abandon their sin and say, "I don't like
to live this way. I want to shape up." Amend their ways, but not
necessarily come to saving faith. That's reformation, not
regeneration. And no degree of conviction of sin is conclusive
evidence of saving faith. Believe me, even the demons are convicted
of their sins, that's why they tremble, but they are not saved.
6. Assurance
Some people say, "Well, I must be a Christian, I feel like one. I
think I am one." Listen, just think it through. If to think you're
a Christian makes you a Christian, then nobody could be deceived.
Right? Because as soon as you thought you're a Christian--you'd be
one! So you could never be deceived. The whole point of Satan's
deception is to make people think they are Christians who aren't!
That's the whole point. Many people feel sure they are
saved--but they're not. I'll tell you, there are millions of Mormons
and Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists who believe they
are on their way to Heaven! They're not.
People say, "God won't condemn me. I feel good about myself. I
have assurance. I'm ok." That means nothing, necessarily.
7. A Time of Decision
I hear people say, "Well, I know I'm a Christian, because I remember
when I signed the card. I remember when I prayed a prayer. I
remember when I went forward in a Church service. I remember right
where I was." I heard people say, "I remember right where I was the
moment I did that." Oh really? Listen, because you remember a
moment doesn't mean that moment meant anything. It doesn't mean that
decision was valid. Nobody's salvation is verified by a past
moment. People have prayed prayers, and gone forward in church
services, and signed cards, and gone into prayer rooms, and been
baptized, and joined churches, and never had saving faith.
So those are some of the non-proofs. They don't really prove anything. You
say, "Well, what does prove saving faith?" Well, let me give you quickly a
list.
THINGS THAT PROVE SAVING FAITH
1. Love For God
Now you're talking! Now you're talking down about the heart,
because Romans 8:7 says, "The carnal [sinful] mind is enmity
[hostile] against God." The non-Christian resents God; rebels
against God down inside, but the regenerate mind is set to love the
Lord with all heart, soul, mind, and strength. His delight is in
the excellency of God, who is the first and highest affection of his
renewed soul. God becomes his chief happiness. By the way, there
is a great difference between such love for God and the selfish
attitude that focuses only on my own happiness and sees God as a
means to my end, rather than as me to the end of glorifying Him. In
fact Jesus said, "If you love your Father and Mother more than me,
you're not even my disciple" (Matthew 10:37).
Do you love God? Do you love His nature? Do you love His glory?
Do you love His name? Do you love His kingdom? Do you love His
holiness? Do you love His will? Supreme love for God is decisive
evidence of the true faith. Is your heart lifted when you sing His
praises--because you love Him?
2. Repentance From Sin
A proper love for God must involve a hatred of sin. Well, that's
obvious. Who wouldn't understand that? If I love somebody, you
assume that my loving them means that I seek their wellbeing.
Right? If I said to you, "I love my wife, but I could care less
what happened to my wife," you'd question my love. Because true
love seeks the highest good of its object. So if I say that I love
God, then I will have to hate sin, because sin offends God. Sin
blasphemes God. Sin curses God. Sin seeks to destroy God and his
work and His kingdom. Sin killed His Son. And if I say that, "I love
God, but I tolerate sin," then you have every reason to question my
love. I cannot love God without hating that which is set to destroy
Him. So true repentance involves confession, it involves turning
from sin. I should be grieved over my sin.
I should ask myself, "Do I have a settled conviction of the evil of
sin?" Does sin appear to me as the evil and bitter thing it really
is? Does conviction of sin in me increase as I walk with Christ?
Do I hate it not merely because it is ruinous to my own soul but
because it is offensive to my God whom I love? Does it more grieve
me when I sin then when I have trouble? In other words, what
grieves me the most--my misfortune or my sin? Do my sins appear
many? Frequent and aggravated? Do I find myself grieved over my
sin--more than the sin of others? That's the mark of salvation.
True saving faith--it loves God and it hates what God hates, which
is sin.
3. Genuine Humility
It manifests genuine humility. This obviously comes through in the
Beatitudes. The poor in spirit; those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness; those who, in Matthew 18, are like a little child,
humble and dependent; those who are in self-denial, willing to take
up their cross and follow Him. The Lord receives those who come
with a broken and contrite spirit. James says, "He gives grace to
the humble." We must come as the Prodigal Son. Remember what he
said in Luke 15, I think about verse 21, he said, "Father, I am not
worthy to be called your son." There is no pride. There is no ego
about religious achievement [or] spiritual accomplishment, but
genuine humility.
4. Devotion to God's Glory
There is a devotion to God's glory. True saving faith that
manifests genuine salvation shows devotion to God's glory. Whatever
we do, whether we eat or drink, we are literally consumed with the
Glory of God. We do what we do because we want to glorify Him. Oh
sure, we fail in all of these things, but the direction of our life
is in loving Him and hating sin, and being genuinely humble and self-
denying, and knowing our unworthiness and being totally devoted to
the Glory of God.
5. Continual Prayer
Humble, submissive, believing prayer marks true faith. We cry
"Abba, Father" because the Spirit within us prompts that cry.
Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon titled, "Hypocrites are
Deficient in the Duty of Secret Prayer." It's true. Hypocrites may
pray publicly, because that's what hypocrites want to do is to
impress people, but they are deficient in the duty of secret prayer.
A true believer with true saving faith has a personal prayer life;
private prayer life; seeks communion with God.
6. Selfless Love
Another mark of saving faith is selfless love. John says, "If you
don't love your neighbor, your brother, or one in need, then how are
we to believe the love of God dwells in you?" And also in 1 John 3,
John says, "If you love God you'll love whom God loves. And we love
Him and others because that's the response to Him loving us." John
13 says, "By this men know that we are true disciples--by our love
for each other."
7. Separation from the World
Paul told the Corinthians that we haven't received the spirit of the
world but the Spirit which is from God. And John put it this way,
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If
any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." A
true believer is separated from the world. Again, I say, we fail in
all these areas, but these are the direction of our lives. We
aren't perfect. We haven't arrived, but we love God and want to
love Him more. We hate sin and want to hate it more. We have a
genuine humility and want more of it. We are devoted to God's
glory. We have a prayer life that is private and personal. We have
a love for others that comes from God, and we find ourselves
disassociated from the world, as a general rule.
8. Spiritual Growth
If you are a true Christian you are going to be growing, and that
means that you are going to be more and more like Christ. Life
produces itself. If you're alive you are going to grow, there's no
other way. You'll improve. You'll increase. You'll grow, because
whoever has that new work begun (Philippians 1:6), is going to see
it perfected. It's going to go on; it's going to keep moving. The
Spirit is going to move you from one level of glory to the next. So
you look at your life. Do you see spiritual growth? Do you see the
decreasing frequency of sin? The increasing pattern of
righteousness and devotion to God?
9. Obedience
Obedient living. "Every branch in me bears fruit." "Bears fruit,"
says John 15. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul says, "Look, you are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has
before ordained that you walk in them." That's obedience. We are
saved unto the obedience of faith.
Look at your life. Do you see all those things? Including Selfless Love,
Separation from the World, Spiritual Growth, and Obedience? If so, that's
evidence of a saving faith.
Transcribed by:
Tony Capoccia
BIBLE BULLETIN BOARD
BOX 130
SHREVEPORT, LA 71110
MODEM (318)-949-1456
300/1200/2400/9600/19200/38400 DS HST