Christian, You Don’t Always Have To Examine Yourselves - [2 Corinthians 13:5-7]

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It is a pleasure to be able to minister the word of God to you. And with that in mind, you will be helped by having your copy of God's word open on your lap to the book of second
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Corinthians, second Corinthians, chapter 13. We'll look at second
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Corinthians 13. We will take a gander in a moment into a couple of chapters before this, but we will focus on verses five through seven of Paul's second letter to Corinth.
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And in second Corinthians 13, beginning in verse five, it is written. 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?
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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.
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This is the word of the Lord. Let me pray and ask for his help this morning. Our great
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God and father, we ask that you would unite our hearts to fear your name. That you would open our eyes to see your glory in the face of Jesus and each soul here this morning would be resting in him wholly and completely for salvation and freedom and life in you.
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We pray now you would be with the one who preaches your word and with all who hear that Christ would be exalted even as we've prayed in song and that you would continually conform us into his image that we would testify of him until he returns for us.
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We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. The unexamined life is not worth living.
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So Socrates apparently said that at his trial when he was condemned to death in Athens and Socrates effectively said to his condemners, well, if I cannot continue my quest for truth and examination, then
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I'd rather not live anyway. And then there's a some sense where as Christians we can agree with the underlying sentiment and that life is a quest for truth, the truth of God and how he's revealed himself to us by his creation and especially in his son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. We live to know the truth. But do we live to examine life and whether we have it constantly in Christ?
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Now, many look at this passage here, this command in Second Corinthians 13, verse five, and say that very thing, that Christians are to continually examine whether they are in Christ.
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Dear Christian, if I have one point this morning, it is that you do not always have to continually examine whether you are a
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Christian. And that's not what this passage says. It's been misunderstood and misapplied.
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Many claim that, and then they will set out their own tests alongside of it, whether it's a list of private spiritual disciplines, or maybe certain practices of obedience that we should all pursue, but yet are set as an examination as to whether we are in Christ.
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But what is forgotten here is perhaps one of the most basic things that we are to understand when we engage the
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Word of God. None of it was written to us, though all of it has been written for us.
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You and I tend to remember that better when we're in other parts of God's Word where the genre is far removed from our own experience, like the book of Numbers, perhaps, about Israel's journey in the wilderness.
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We know the book of Numbers is a type, and it's pointing to our sojourn in this life as we move through the wilderness of this world in Christ and await our homeland over the
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Jordan, as it were, in eternal glories in Him. But you and I both know that we have to cross several bridges of history and literature when we go into the book of Numbers to understand it and to interpret it properly about Israel in the wilderness.
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But sometimes when we come to the epistles of the New Testament, like 2nd Corinthians here, because they're letters to churches, and we're a church, we know letters, we tend to read them as though they're speaking directly to us in our immediate experience, requiring no context or examination.
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But that is not the case, especially in a complex letter like this, where the
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Apostle Paul is making an impassioned appeal to Corinth to turn from the false teachers that had infiltrated them and to turn again and regard his true apostolic ministry.
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You see, here in chapter 13, the Apostle is building on what he has already stated throughout the letter.
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And so the last thing we want to do is drop right in here to chapter 13, verse 5, and think we could understand what's being said without getting a running start.
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So if you would, glance back to chapter 5. We'll start there and skip a stone just across a couple places.
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It's important to know as you're turning there that in 2nd Corinthians, what Paul is basically doing is defending his apostolic ministry to restore relationships between him and the church in Corinth.
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And Corinth is effectively split into two groups, and Paul alludes to it in chapter 2, verse 6, when he refers to a majority that have repented.
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You see, there was a great schism the last time Paul had visited Corinth, and the church effectively blew up.
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But the majority of them had repented and had sought to reconcile with Paul, which, if there's a majority, that implies what?
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There's a minority that is still sort of on the fence, as it were, and needs to be brought over and reconciled to Paul.
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They need convincing. This is why Paul, throughout 2nd Corinthians, is defending himself. He does that even in chapter 5, verse 20, where Paul refers to himself as ambassadors for Christ.
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Now, it's popular in many evangelism programs to say that every Christian is an ambassador for Christ, but Paul here is not encouraging personal evangelism among Christians.
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He's defending himself. He's just said in verses 18 and 19, here just before this, that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation and entrusted us with the message of reconciliation.
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Paul here is talking about the gospel, and he's saying that he, as an apostle, has been entrusted with the gospel of Christ.
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He reveals Christ. To be an ambassador means what? It means you hold forth the message of the
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King. He's the King's messenger. You see what Paul is saying here? By saying he's an ambassador for Christ, he's making an apostolic claim.
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He's making a claim of the one who reveals Christ. The message of the true
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God and His Son comes through this apostle. That's why he says in verse 20, we're ambassadors for Christ.
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God is making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
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Now, why does Paul have to assert his apostolic authority and then call the church to be reconciled to God?
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Well, because if you're out of step with the King's ambassador, then who do you have a relational problem with?
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The King Himself. What Paul sets here on no uncertain terms is that if you reject me, the
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Apostle of Christ, what you were doing by that very act is rejecting
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Christ Himself. That's the problem. Paul is appealing to their minority in the church, influenced by false teaching, and he's calling them that their relationship to God has everything to do with their relationship to Paul, because Paul is
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God's appointed ambassador. That's why he says, moving into chapter 6, now is the day of salvation, and immediately then in verse 3, starts speaking of himself.
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We put no obstacle in anyone's way, and no fault can be found with his ministry, and so on.
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You see, the point that Paul is driving home over again is that to reject the true
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Apostle is to reject the gospel, to reject the day of salvation, to reject
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Christ. Inextricably, the revelator, the
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Apostle Paul, and the revelation, the gospel of Christ, are interwound together.
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They can't be separated. The same issue confronts us today. It just confronts us in different ways, because we don't have a personal relationship with the
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Apostle. He didn't found Bethlehem Bible, but we do have his writings.
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We have his letters. We have the Scripture. And today, you still run into the perennial folly of those who will claim,
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I love Jesus, and I really want to follow Christ, but I don't really like the
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Apostle or his writings in the Bible, especially when it comes to things like family and sexual morality, and all these other aspects of his writings.
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The assumption underlying that is somehow Jesus could be known or understood apart from his appointed revelators, his ambassadors, who've written here in Scripture.
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But beloved, we know, and we need to know on no uncertain terms, there is no such thing as a
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Jesus outside the Bible. The only God there is has spoken in his
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Son, and has revealed his Son in his word through his appointed revelators, the
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Apostles and prophets. There's no way of getting to Jesus apart from the gospel of Scripture, where God has revealed
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Jesus to us authoritatively and inerrantly. And so this was the issue in essence in Corinth, but it was personal because Paul knew them, and they knew him.
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Paul is saying that Jesus cannot be known outside of himself. There's no way to separate
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Jesus from the gospel that Jesus has brought to them through Paul. So to reject
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Paul is to reject the gospel, is to reject the message of reconciliation. It is as he warns in verse 1 here of chapter 6, to receive the grace of God in vain.
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If they're now, Paul is saying, if you're going to turn to false teaching, that that means your prior profession of faith in Christ and my gospel was vain, it was temporal, it was useless, it was merely superficial, it wasn't real.
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But you see what Paul had to contend with is that he didn't look like Corinth expected an apostle to look.
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So if you move forward to chapter 10, Paul refers in verse 10 of those who say, his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech is of no account.
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In other words, you know, he wrote some great posts, but he's a bad preacher and we don't really want to look at him.
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He's weak. He's not impressive, like the commanding sophists of the first century.
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Beloved celebrity pastors and impressive handsome speakers are not a new phenomenon. And Corinth is saying essentially,
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Paul, you don't measure up. When we think of spiritual power, when we think of winning friends and influencing people in religious ways, we don't think of you, especially when you open your mouth in front of us.
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He's not impressive. But beneath such slander, Paul recognized what was happening and he identifies it in chapter 11.
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In chapter 11, in verse 2, Paul talks about his divine jealousy to present the church the pure version to Christ.
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But in verse 3, he's afraid as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
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Beneath the slander of the apostle, the representative of Jesus was the hiss of the serpent going back to the garden, laying doubt in the minds of the
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Corinthians about who the true Christ was and what the true way to God through him was. So Paul goes on and explains here in this chapter that what they have, verse 4, is another
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Jesus than the one we proclaimed. A different spirit from the one you received. A different gospel from the one you accepted and you put up with it readily enough.
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The problem is that a new Jesus, a new gospel, and a new spirit has been brought to Corinth by these false teachers whom
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Paul refers to in the end of verse 5 as these super apostles.
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And he means that ironically. These really impressive worldly speakers.
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These greater than apostles. And they come with a gospel of personal power.
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They come with a gospel, as he refers in verse 22 of chapter 11, of Jewish heritage.
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They come with a gospel, as he refers in verse 21 of visions and revelations.
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You have these powerful, charismatic speakers that fill stadiums, that have endless lists on their social media following.
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And they boast of all of their revelations and visions. They boast of their lineage. And that's who
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Corinth was drawn to. But what Paul says, what you're accepting with that and what you're swallowing is another
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Jesus, another gospel, another spirit. He gets right to the point at the end of chapter 11 when he says that these, verse 13, these men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, who've disguised themselves as apostles of Christ, just like Satan does.
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And this brings us then back to chapter 13, where we're focused on. Corinth here,
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Paul says in verse 3, has been seeking proof that Christ is speaking in Paul.
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Paul knows what the issue is, and as he comes to the end of the letter, he's now focusing upon it.
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They want proof of his spiritual power. They've been examining him.
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And so Paul then says in verse 5, instead, you need to examine yourselves.
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And what Paul is doing here is very simple. He's exhorting the Corinthians to remember who he is by recalling who they are in Christ and how they came to be so by Paul and his gospel and his ministry.
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Paul here is not commanding every Christian to daily examine whether they're a Christian. No, what he's doing in this passage is calling the church to hold fast to the gospel and to consider their union with Christ according to his word.
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This is a call for the church to never forget the gospel of Jesus Christ and who you are in him.
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And what I want to do is examine these three short verses in three angles. We want to look at its corrective setting, we want to look at the congregational standard, and we want to look thirdly and finally at the continuing significance.
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So we'll see the corrective setting, the congregational standard, and the continuing significance. And all the points start with the same letters so you know it's biblical.
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That's why we do that. So let's look first in verse 5 at the corrective setting here of this passage.
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The corrective setting. The reason Paul says in verse 5 for them to examine themselves is because Paul says when he returns in verse 1 at the top of this chapter, every charge will be established by two or three witnesses.
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What does that remind you of? That's the standard of assessment in discipline.
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You remember Jesus in Matthew 18 said it's by the evidence of two or three witnesses in confrontation that church discipline was to be conducted.
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The corrective discipline of those who have continued in unrepentant sin. And here
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Paul is saying corrective discipline is coming for those who have followed the false teachers and their teaching.
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This correction and accountability is before them. Now the whole letter has been moving towards this.
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We didn't look at it, but in chapter 6 verse 14 Paul says do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
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And there he was not talking about business contracts, he was talking about church membership. He was saying get the unbelievers out of your church.
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Get the false teachers and the other Gospels out of Corinth. And so Paul writes here to the minority in verse 2, those who had sinned before, they won't be spared of church discipline if they haven't repented by the time he's come.
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And this is what he says, the proof of Christ in him. In verse 3
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Paul says 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.
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For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
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What Paul does is he maps his his long -suffering patience with the errors in Corinth alongside the weakness of the
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Lord Jesus for our salvation and his coming in church discipline alongside the return of Christ to triumph over a new creation.
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We have been saved through weakness, the weakness of God in the
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Lord Jesus. God the Son became a man to save sinners by crucifixion.
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He died on the cross to suffer the judgment that that we deserve, that sinners deserve from him for our rebellion and sin he took in our place.
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But we know that the gospel doesn't end there, does it? Jesus didn't stay dead.
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The victim of crucifixion, the Lord Jesus, was raised by the power of God three days later and now, as Paul says in verse 4, he lives by the power of God.
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The resurrection of Jesus justified the Lord. It demonstrated he didn't deserve to die.
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He died in our place. He is fully righteous. That's why the Bible says he was raised for our justification, because if he is righteous established by his resurrection, that means, dear
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Christian, if you trust in Jesus you are fully righteous by faith in him. All our sins are forgiven and we stand before God in the righteousness of Jesus.
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But as the righteous one, the resurrection also establishes Jesus as the judge.
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And Paul also draws those lines for the Athenians in Acts 17. In Acts 17, verse 31,
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Paul said, all people must repent because he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
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Because Jesus was raised from the dead and declared to be the Son of God, then all men everywhere must either be justified by faith in Jesus or be judged by Jesus when he returns.
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But there's no third option. Either we will all turn in faith to the
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Lord Jesus Christ who justifies us through faith alone in his righteous works and his risen life, or he will return and be our judge and the judge of all nations because he is the righteous one.
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This is a call for us to trust and rest in the Lord Jesus alone. And this is the reminder that church discipline brings to the people of God.
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Church discipline is a rehearsal of the judgment day. When I do a wedding and you do the rehearsals on the night before, typically on Friday night, there's always that moment when we run through the processional the first time and you see it on the soon -to -be bride and groom's face.
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This is actually happening. This is real. We're getting married tomorrow and it starts to dawn on them in various emotional ways at that moment on Friday night before the wedding.
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The dress rehearsal. Well, church discipline is a dress rehearsal of another kind.
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It's a dress rehearsal of judgment day. And God's intention is it is to bring forth the great victory of Jesus in his judgment over all.
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Because on the day when he returns, the Lord Jesus in power will establish every charge with perfect righteousness.
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And every false claim to know him will be personally evaluated. And those who have not turned to faith in Jesus will be excluded from his presence forever.
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And the church has been given the task to remind those who profess faith in Christ of this very reality by confronting sin and false doctrine and those who profess to follow
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Jesus in mercy and show them how one day it will all be perfectly evaluated by him.
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That judgment is real and judgment is coming. So when
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Paul says in verse 4 that we will return to deal with you, it will be by the power of the risen
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Christ to judge. And then, ironically, Paul says you'll have proof that, verse 3, that Christ is speaking in me.
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But it will be proof too late because Jesus will be speaking in judgment through their discipline.
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You see, the question of examining Paul's claims as an apostle has been gaslighting the whole time.
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The false teachers have been gaslighting Paul and the Corinthians. Paul says, no, verse 5, examine yourselves before we come and disciplinary proceedings are bought.
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Before the judgment breaks forth in the courts of the church, Paul says, quit judging me by following the false teachers and examine yourselves.
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That's the corrective setting that Paul is making this claim in. And then that brings us to then, well, what's the standard of examination?
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That's confessional standard. Secondly, the congregational standard. And Paul, in verse 5, sets out a two -pronged look at this single standard.
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It's confessional and it's Christological. That is, Paul draws them back to the faith they confess and the
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Christ to whom they're united, which is the reason they make that confession. What is, verse 5, first, the confessional standard, the test that Corinth is to use?
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Examine yourselves, Paul says. Test yourselves. What test would you use if you were asked?
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Well, how someone to examine themselves as a Christian? Many fill this with whatever checklist they think marks a
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Christian. A daily Bible reading, a certain length of praying, and so on.
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Things to avoid. You don't smoke, drink, or chew or go with girls that do. That's what good
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Christians are. But however true and wise any number of counsels might be given for the
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Christian life and to seek to glorify God, do you notice that none of these are here? Paul does not go down a list from verse 5.
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Those weren't the issue here in this letter appealing for Corinth against false teachers and false
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Gospels and a false Jesus. No, the issue was, end of first sentence of verse 5, the faith.
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Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Now, when
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Scripture refers to the faith or a standard of teaching or the whole counsel of God, it reminds us that the
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Bible is a coherent whole. It's internally coherent because there's one author and one message.
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There's a single revelation. And so the Bible teaches a body of doctrine. That's why we can say
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Scripture interprets Scripture or that the Bible is analogous to itself. We can understand all of what
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Scripture as a whole and we can summarize it because it is the revelation of the only single
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God who has come to us in his son Jesus. This is why, because the
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Bible refers to itself this way, that Christians have for centuries summarized what the Bible teaches in creeds and confessions.
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Because we reject that God has given us a Bible so that anyone could just interpret and invent Christianity in their own image.
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Or that they can say whatever they want of Jesus. Or they can take one part of it and isolate it from the whole.
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We say no to all of that. No. God has spoken in his son and we need to take all of it.
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And we measure every claim about Jesus and God and the gospel against the whole of the faith of what
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God has said. And that's exactly what Paul wants Corinth to do.
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They're flirting with these false teachers. They're receiving this false gospel. And Paul wants them to ask, are you in the faith?
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Remember the faith. Remember the standard that you received through me and my ministry.
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Remember what I brought to you. He wants them to ask the very same question about the gospel that he began the book of Galatians with.
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You remember Galatians 1 .8 where Paul says, even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
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Even if we, Paul says hypothetically, if it were possible for him to become deranged and bring another gospel, that is to be rejected.
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The gospel he brought to Galatia, the gospel he preached in the world, that's the standard even of his ministry as an apostle.
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The faith. So Paul is saying examine yourselves by the same standard by which I'm examined.
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The gospel of Christ, the only gospel. You see what Paul is not doing here, he is not sending individual
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Christians on a navel -gazing quest to see whether they have felt right enough about Jesus or have obeyed enough this week.
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That is not what he's doing. He's calling the church to remember the faith.
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Remember the only true gospel. Have you believed it? Have you received the gospel that I've brought that examines even me?
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The only gospel that Christ died for our sins and we're all forgiven by faith in him.
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And that brings him then secondly to the Christological standard. Notice in verse 5 as Paul moves into the next sentence he's optimistic about the answer.
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He doesn't call Corinth to examine themselves to see if they're in the faith because he's in doubt.
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He calls them to examine themselves because he knows the answer. Don't you realize, he says this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you.
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Paul shifts from the faith to its ultimate cause. If anyone professes faith in the
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Lord Jesus, what does that reveal? That Jesus in his grace has revealed himself to them.
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That they are united to him. You see, Paul does not have any doubt about Corinth standing with Christ.
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That's why the letter opens in chapter 1 verse 1 to the saints in Corinth. Because they are saints by faith in Jesus and by his holy life.
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And Paul knows that because he's the one who brought the gospel to them in the first place. He preached
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Christ in Corinth. And that's been his repeated refrain throughout this letter. Let me read to you from chapter 1 verses 19 to 20, where Paul describes this.
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He says, For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you,
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Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes.
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For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.
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You see what Paul is doing there. We proclaimed Christ among you and when we did, it wasn't vacillating yes and no.
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All the promises of God are yes in Jesus. What does that mean? That means the false teachers claim that you need visions and revelations outside of Jesus to get to God.
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Nope. All the promises of God are yes in Jesus. That means the false teachers claim that you need other works to be more right with God than Jesus has made you.
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That you need other steps to ascend to get to the presence of God. No. All the promises of God are yes in Jesus.
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That's why it is through him, he says, we say our amen to God. That is the only way you come to the presence of God the
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Father is through Jesus Christ his Son. And he's opened the way. He satisfied all the demands of righteousness and holiness.
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And he has risen to bring us into the presence of God. So it is through Jesus we say amen to God and add nothing to it.
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That's the gospel Paul had brought. And that's the gospel Corinth had received.
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That's why in chapter 3 verses 1 & 2 Paul writes this. Do we need as some do letters of recommendation to you or from you?
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You yourselves are our letter of recommendation. You see the false teachers they they used a system of self -promotion.
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Promoting one another. Again I told you the celebrity preacher circuit it's not a new thing.
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Guys recommending one another and sharing one another's promotional videos. And Paul says yeah no
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I don't play that game. You know why? You're my letter of recommendation. Because you exist in Christ.
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Because I brought the gospel. I don't need anything else. I don't need to play this game.
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So he's been saying throughout this letter to the Corinthians you're in Jesus by the true gospel because me and Timothy and Silvanus we preached it to you.
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So we know. You see Paul's language here is ironic. It's not pessimistic.
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They question Paul because the false teachers have thrown doubts and deluded them.
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But Paul brought them the Lord and the gospel. That's why he says examine yourselves.
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Do you believe the gospel? Are you in Christ? Well if the answer is yes, remember why.
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You're in Jesus because of my ministry. This is the line of thinking he wants to bring them down.
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Unless verse five, unless indeed you fail to meet the test.
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That is if their faith was superficial and they really are going to embrace the false gospel and the false
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Jesus of these false teachers and receive the grace of God in vain. You see what
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Paul is doing here he's not laying out a test. He's giving the test.
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The test of tests. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you shall be saved.
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Do you believe or not? It's the only question. Do you rest in Jesus alone according to the gospel?
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Are all of God's promises yes in him and you say your amen to God only in the name of Jesus? Is that true or not?
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That's the question Paul is laying out. His logic is clear and rigorous. If they remember that Christ is in them they must remember that Christ is in them by Paul's ministry.
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He's an ambassador of God who brought the gospel and if they belong to Christ then they must conclude that Paul does too.
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That Christ speaks in them. That's why the very next verse in verse 6 is about Paul because if you follow that line of thinking
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Paul says I hope you will find out that we've not failed the test. If you remember who you are in Jesus and that you really believe the gospel then what must you say about me?
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I am a true apostle and he is the one who speaks for God not these false teachers.
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So Paul's prayer then in verse 7 is that regardless of how he appears to others that they would see
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Jesus rightly because if they repent then Paul won't have to display his power and discipline.
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The church discipline court meetings can be canceled and but that will mean then that Paul will still be slandered in weakness but Paul says in verse 7
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I don't care whether we appear to have met the test but that you may do what is right though we may seem to have failed that is
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I don't care if we don't get to demonstrate power in a judicial court in the church I'd much rather that you all just receive and trust in Jesus and reject these false teachers regardless of what they continue to say about me and how they continue to slander me.
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Hold fast to Christ and do not do what is wrong and turn away from him.
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This whole section is an appeal to hold fast to the faith and who the church is in Jesus.
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During the counter -reformation the Roman Catholic Cardinal Robert Bellarmine wrote this the greatest of all
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Protestant heresies what do you think he would say? He says his assurance it's exactly right that we might know that we have life eternal by faith in Jesus.
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Now Romanists call it a heresy because they think that it will encourage a depraved life.
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That is it well if you tell everyone that they can know they're going to heaven then why won't they just live like hell but that's carnal reasoning it's not the reasoning of Scripture it's the opposite that is true it is false teaching that leads to immorality and and rejection and pride but those who have faith in Christ do so because they have life in Christ and life in Christ will show up with life life in God you see what
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Paul is doing here is arguing from that very point he is not arguing to unsettle their assurances
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Christ he's arguing from it from their standing in Christ he's not writing to erase their assurance this is not a command here in verse 5 to keep your standing in Jesus a continual open question you're not to wake up every
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Monday morning and wonder am I still a Christian today no it's a call to always remember who you are in Christ never forget your standing in Jesus never reject the gospel that says all the promises of God are yes in him and only through him do you say you're a man to God to never forget the faith as the standard against all subtle different Jesus's different spirits and different Gospels who will add anything else to the gospel that Paul preached this is what this passage means and that means it brings us thirdly to think about what is its continuing significance we've clarified
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I hope what it means does it teach us anything today well of course and I would say there's at least three questions that this passage causes us to ask three questions the first am
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I a church member in good standing am I a church member in good standing you see many
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Christians today assume that assurance before God is a purely private individual endeavor but that's never been the case you've probably heard it said as I have no one can tell me
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I'm not a Christian actually God assembled his entire church to do that very thing that's one of our main jobs actually one of our main jobs as the
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Church of Christ is to put our hands on and identify these are the Christians professing the true gospel and these aren't that that's that's what we're called to do in the world
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Jesus charged us with that very task at the heart of Matthew's gospel the first gospel the beginning of your
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New Testament in two key texts Matthew 16 and Matthew 18 and in both those passages the
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Lord discusses binding and loosening which referred to opening and shutting admission as it were into the membership of the church were brought in by our profession of faith and the waters of baptism and were put out if we quit professing faith and repenting of sin by the act of excommunication
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Peter declared in of Jesus in Matthew 1616 that is the confession of Christ is the basis of the church that Jesus is building and those who receive his word confess his name and faith in him and those in the community who stop confessing or to be confronted by the brothers first in private and then in widening circles of accountability and finally put out of the church if they refuse to listen even to the church
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Jesus says in unrepentant sin so ordinarily and formally it is visible churches who speak to the sincerity of someone's faith and beloved this really needs to loom much larger in our understandings and the understandings of professing
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Christians today than it usually does and it needs to loom large because self -deception is really possible but it's possible in more ways than one it's possible to be deceived that you're a
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Christian when you're not and there are many such deceived people in our nation and culture even today professing the name of Jesus falsely and vainly but it's also possible to be deceived in another way you and I can be self -deceived into doubting whether we're
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Christians when there's no reason for us to doubt that either it's possibly to be self -deceived in more than one way and Christians need encouragement that the church gives even as Paul gave to Timothy in 2nd
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Timothy chapter 1 verse 5 where he said I am reminded of your sincere faith
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Timothy now what is Paul doing giving this assurance to Timothy because he knew him he knew his faith he knew
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Timothy and so it is to be for all the members of the Church of Christ who know one another and can encourage each other because you and I tend to have the least accurate views of ourselves than anyone else and so God has given us one another to give us accurate perspective to say brother dear sister
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I know of your sincere faith and have seen it it's been wisely said that membership in a church is like joining an assurance co -op as we hear and we respond to the gospel before others we're encouraged that we're real
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I really believe and I see real faith in my brothers and sisters and they see it in me and we share that encouragement with one another and that is the primary basis of church membership if you thought that membership in the church was just a tactic that men have created to keep track of giving you've been sorely mistaken church membership is mainly about putting our hands on one another and saying this is a
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Christian professing the true gospel and we are set apart therefore from the world and all the other claims and we're to receive by that assurance and encouragement from one another as you and I are encouraging each other as we are corrected by one another and we respond in repentance and faith
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God is reminding us in his spirit again and again that we're real we are in him we have sincere faith so the first question that we were to ask of this passage that is all about church discipline and it's approaching and Paul is am
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I a member of a church in good standing has have brothers and sisters led by elders place their hands on me and said this this sinner is now a saint confessing
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Christ and they're real is that me and this raises then another question though doesn't our second question it raises a question about the church does my church hold to the faith that's our second question does my church hold to the faith remember here this passage is a corporate call of examine exam examination examine yourselves
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Paul says to the church in Corinth and the test is the faith it is the sound gospel we're reminded of how the
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Lord Jesus in Revelation in the seven letters to the church is called the churches to remember remember the gospel that established them
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Revelation 2 verse 5 Jesus said to Ephesus remember from where you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first to Sardis in Revelation 3
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Jesus said remember what you received and heard keep it and repent
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Jesus continually appeals to the church remember remember the gospel don't forget it the gospel is so contrary to everything in our sinful nature in the world outside that we're constantly tempted to neglect it and forget it so Jesus says repeatedly remember remember and what is
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Paul appealing here in Corinth by examining yourselves to see whether you're in the faith don't you realize that Christ is in you he's essentially calling them to remember don't forget the gospel who cares who these impressive speakers are who have shown up with these false gospels remember the gospel what you heard what established you what makes you right with God by faith in Jesus hold fast to it it is the church that is the guardian of the faith no other gospel is to be permitted in our walls the only gospel that we are to resound here from the pulpit and to encourage one another is the gospel that says all of God's promises are yes in him and only in him do we bring our amen to God that's the only gospel there's no different spirit than the
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Holy Spirit who unites us to the Son by whom we say Abba Father in Jesus name it's the only spirit admitted so this passage means dear
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Christians in Bethlehem Bible Church hold fast to the gospel remember the gospel and never neglect it never forget it keep out all pretenders all forms of legalism and mysticism that would suggest to you that something other than faith in Jesus is needed to get to God you keep those lying spirits outside these doors you hold fast to the truth today when
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Christians think about churches they will ask whether it's relevant or impactful or exciting or whatever but the first question we need to ask about our church is it a church that's the question the
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Reformers wanted to ask us to ask is there the right preaching of the Word according to the faith is there the right administration of baptism in the
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Lord's Supper according to the faith is there a right use of church discipline according to the faith do you realize
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Christians in the past if those things weren't ticked off true they wouldn't even call it a church because it's the gospel that establishes us so does this text have something powerful to say to us in our generation absolutely
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God says across American Christianity are you in the faith do you hold fast to the gospel against all the distractions of entertainments and self -help political rabbit trails are you in the faith do you hold fast to Christ in Christ alone this is the call he gives here and we ask of ourselves continually do we not realize that Christ is among us we are his temple by his spirit and if the faith is present and so is he and so we're to walk circumspectly before him this is the call of this passage of God's Word for us to live according to the gospel of his grace to live by the presence of his spirit all secured by the visible fact that we confess the faith that we hold to Christ so this question this text gets us to ask does my church hold to the faith and then thirdly and finally this text asks us do
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I consider myself in Christ do you consider yourself and look at yourself in Christ you see what you don't have in this passage is a leading into introspection because when you turn inward you find what
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I find when I turn inward to disappointment sin we discover our faith is not as strong as we'd like it to be our hearts are not as stable or as pure as we wish they were our affections they're always mixed aren't they always but Jesus came fortunately for sinners in his perfect life for us who are confused and contradictory and Paul understands this and acknowledges it and still addresses this church in verse 5 as those in whom
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Jesus Christ is in and for any of us in our life before we deal with any of those contradictions and in sins and disobedience and immaturity and all the ways you and I both need to grow in Christ we start there considering ourselves as those who are joined to Jesus Christ that's where the
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Lord Jesus began when he was asked in John 6 what must be due to be doing the works of God Jesus answered this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent that any
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Paul writes here for the church to consider themselves we are to consider ourselves as Romans 6 11 says consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus realize that Jesus Christ is in you you are now alive to God and dead to sin
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I now live to him and can walk in grateful obedience before him by his power and grace the fight against all our sin and all our struggles begins right there it begins with our confidence in Christ Archibald Alexander at Princeton in the 19th century said this to despondent
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Christians look not so much within look to Christ dwell on his person on his work on his promises devote yourself to his service and you will soon find peace if you grasp that Christ gives himself for you then you can be assured that he is drastic your father dear
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Christian wants you to know that he loves you and just as Alexander laid out you don't get these benefits by pursuing them alone you get them through Christ and his promises that's why
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Purse Spurgeon said this I looked at Christ and the dove of peace flew into my heart I looked at the dove and it flew away you strangely don't get peace by pursuing peace as a thing you get it by pursuing
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Christ and knowing who he is and what he's done and our union in him and the dove of peace will fly into your heart and we then work out against all our sins and all our needs and all our immaturities from that basis beloved
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God didn't put 2nd Corinthians 13 5 in your Bibles to unsettle your assurance in Christ it's there to ensure that you never look for assurance anywhere else that you get rid of every other false gospel that dances around in our world and would like to come in here to your church and in your heart this passage reminds us that our assurance is to remain only firmly placed in the work of Jesus and that any other gospel will not only remove us from the only foundation that can be laid which is in Jesus alone it's a call to remain firm in the faith now should you think about how you should excel still further as a
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Christian absolutely should you as a church think about how you could be better glorify
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God more give more faithful witness to his great name of course but we don't do so so that we hope
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Jesus remains with us by those works we do so because we know he is with us by his works and by his grace because he is a sufficient
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Savior and then in that place we turn away from what is inconsistent with trusting him amen let's pray our father we thank you for your all -sufficient grace and its only foundation in your son risen for us we pray that you would cause us to rest in him and from our rest to work faithfully for your glory we pray especially that any or discouraged this morning would be encouraged by the hope of the gospel and by their brothers and sisters around them even here this morning we ask that you would be honored and glorified and that you would cause your church even