How to "Measure" Your Spiritual Warmth | Clip from Final Warning

So, you want to give us an overview?

Yeah. The sermon is a solemn warning, or a final warning. And, as you mentioned, it's from Proverbs 29 .1. A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy. That's the New American Standard Version, that verse.

And he makes the point as he begins that a person who receives rebukes, how they receive rebukes is a strong indication of whether or not they're reconciled to God. And so, very simply, three points. He says that God has carefully provided for you to receive many reproofs or corrections.

And he lists a number of ways in which we receive reproofs throughout our lifetime. Second, every reproof causes an effect. We're either humbled by those reproofs or we're hardened by them. And he's writing primarily to the person who does not receive these reproofs, so they're being hardened.

Third, the consequences of repeatedly hardening yourself against God's reproofs is that you will be destroyed suddenly and without remedy. So, those three points and a few reflections is the sermon. Very simple.

Really, this final chapter is a good spiritual test for anybody who wants to give an honest examination of where we're at spiritually. You can do that in a number of ways. You could look at external duties, which are important in the Christian life.

So, those do often make a thermometer for us, a measure. Are we doing well? So, church attendance, Bible readings, book studies. You could look at how the people in the church think you're doing. Do people say to you things like that you're very helpful as a teacher or as a preacher?

Or, you know, people just say nice things about your life. You know, you're very encouraging as a Christian. But one of the ways we could do it is we could look and ask ourselves, before we even look at those six things he mentions that God uses to correct us, do I eagerly, easily receive correction?

Or do I make someone really pay for it if they correct me? You know, am I such a monster that they just dread saying anything to me? And when they rebuke me, do I love them for it? Do I really change?

And so, he mentions a verse from Proverbs 9.

Verse 8,.

So, which one are we? Are we the people that are offended and kind of hold a grudge toward those who have really had to sit down with us and say some hard things to us? Or are we people who, for the rest of our life, there is, you know, at least in some measure, a real sense of gratitude.

I look back and I remember a significant time in my life where a hard talk turned me. I mean, can you think of any of those in your life, Chuck? I mean, you don't have to give us the exact details,.

But, yeah, I can think of a few. One in particular, it's been quite a few years ago now, our friend Clyde Granford sat me down. I was bothered about something, had been bothered for quite a while, and I guess I didn't realize how proud I'd become about it.

But Clyde saw it and famously busted me. And when he first did it, I was, I mean, at first, I was a bit angry, you know, that he said that. But the anger quickly became kind of anger that it was true and I was what he said that I was, and God did use it to bring about repentance.

And I'm thankful that he did that.

Yeah, the same friend, Clyde Granford, I was able to live with him for a number of months, soon after he led me to the Lord. And so, you know, I look back on that time as a time of pretty structured discipleship.

But I remember that some of the talks, he would always introduce them the same way. He would say, Buddy, I need to talk with you. And that meant bad news, you know, like, oh, no. And so, I mean, I lived with him.

And I was kind of an open book, especially back then. And so it was just like everything I thought I said. And so he just, so he always had plenty to correct. I'm sure he thought, you know, he would not live long enough to get to all the topics that needed to be gotten to.

So when he would do that, I would just think, maybe I could climb out the window and escape, you know, and never see him again. And because it would just be so, it would be pretty, you know, it'd be pretty rough to listen to the rebuke, not because it made me mad at that time, but because I felt bad for him having to have those talks.

I think one of the, you know, as we look at this chapter, one good thing to kind of think of for yourself, if you're having to give a difficult talk, would be it ought to cost you more than it costs the other person.

You know, in preparation, making sure I'm saying it in the right way. You know, knowing that this is going to hurt for someone else to hear it. That's generally a good rule. Have I paid a high cost to bring a hard word to a friend so that it will do them good?

I mean, it's much easier just to get it off my chest immediately and you just shoot it off and it does damage, even if what you said was right. The way you said it, the timing, not right. So Clyde paid a high cost and the things he said, I can still look back and remember saying to myself when he told me he needed to have a talk, I would go get my notebook that I wrote down everything, you know, that he said in our talks.

I would go get this notebook and I would kind of walk slowly to the execution chamber, the living room, and I would say to myself, humble yourself, John, humble yourself, John, humble yourself, John. This is the kindness of the Lord.

And I did actually reach a point where I could be glad that he was about to say something hard because I knew it would be, if I wanted it, it would be a map to Christlikeness, you know. And those months, that year, year and a half, was probably, I would look back on that as the time I grew most quickly as a believer.

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