I want to start our message time this morning with a question. Do you have assurance of your salvation today? Assurance. Are you certain that you are in the faith and on your way to heaven when you die? I think we all know that the Bible tells us definitively that a true Christian can have this kind of assurance. John wrote to us in 1 John 5.13, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. That is assurance. It is possible for a Christian to have assurance of their salvation, but the question really is, do you? personally have this assurance in your life? What is the evidence? If someone were to ask you that and you said yes, how could you prove it? Well, that's something that we will consider this morning as we head back to 2 Corinthians chapter 13 in our Bible. So please, if you have your Bibles, go there with us. 2 Corinthians 13. We're actually getting very close to the end of our series, even as the Apostle Paul is coming to a close in his inspired letter to this ancient Corinthian church. And even toward the very end of this letter, Paul is still having to address the church about sin and error that is within the church. And we realize that sin can be a great obstacle to assurance in a Christian's faith, in a Christian's life. In fact, Paul, as we've been reading, was even beginning to wonder about and doubt that true connection that the Corinthians had with Christ. And so Paul's been warning them. We saw this last week in the first part of chapter 13. He'd been warning them that if they do not repent and do not return to the Lord when he makes that third visit with them, he will have to initiate church discipline on them. And in the words of verse 2 of chapter 13, he will not spare. That means he will exercise church discipline to the fullest extent that is possible, which would be excommunication from that church. But that's not how Paul wants to end this letter. In fact, Paul does not even want to begin his next visit with them in this spirit. Because remember, from Acts chapter 18, Paul was their spiritual father. He was the one that God used to bring the gospel to this wicked city in Corinth, and God even told him in a dream that he had much people in this city, and a church would be born. So he did not want to be there for church discipline. He didn't want to have to go through that process. He rather wanted to be there, just like the reason why we want to come to church, for mutual fellowship, mutual edification, mutual worship. This is what Paul really wanted to do, and he didn't want to have to exercise church discipline. And so as we come to just two verses this morning in 2 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul tells them how they can prepare for his arrival. How can they prepare for his third time coming? Well, instead of looking at him and examining his character and conduct, which is what they were trying to do, look at verse 5, they needed to examine themselves. They needed to examine themselves. Again, looking at these two verses, Paul writes, to prepare themselves for his coming, examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. In verse five, Paul gives this command to that church. He says, examine yourselves. And he uses this command because he knows that it can provide all the evidence that they were looking for that Christ was indeed speaking through him. In fact, if you go back to verse 3 of the same chapter, that was one of the questions that they had. They said, we want to see a proof, Paul, that Christ is speaking in you. And he says, you don't have to look any further than yourselves. Because of what Christ did in your life through the gospel that I preached to you is proof enough that God was speaking in me. And then he says, turning the tables on them, don't examine me, examine yourself. And examine whether you really are in the faith, whether you really are a part of the church of the living God, whether you really are a Christian today. And this command that Paul gave to that ancient Corinthian church back then still applies to every one of us today. And that's really going to be our focus this morning, because in order to have true assurance as a Christian, Paul gives us a personal call in verse 5. And that call is to examine yourself today. To examine yourself. Again, in the first part of verse 5, we learn the importance of a personal and regular examination of our hearts and lives. He says, "...examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves. Now, this is not the first and only time where we find in the scripture God telling us to examine ourselves, to see whether we are in the faith, to see whether we are really a Christian, to see whether we really are on our way to heaven when we die someday. Because three times in this verse, verse 5, Paul calls us all to look within, to our own selves, because the examination he is calling us to is a personal examination. It is true that Paul is addressing the church as a whole, but the church as a whole is made up of individual Christians. There are some times in Christian families, a child that will say, well, sure, I'm a Christian because my parents are Christians. Sure, I'm a Christian because my parents took me to church my whole life. Paul's not saying examine your parents or examine your church. He's not saying examine your friends. He's saying examine yourself in your own heart, in your own walk, in your own relationship with God. And it is important for us as Christians sometimes to take a step back and take stock in our own walk and relationship with God. Are we truly in the faith? Each one of us needs to do this so that we can have the right kind of assurance of our relationship with Jesus Christ. But what are we to examine according to this verse? Well, we see the priority of our examination in this. When he says, examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Now there are all sorts of tests that you take in life, right? These tests are used to see if you're ready for something. When you are in school, there are tests that you take to see if you're ready for the next grade, right? Can't really go to third grade until you've passed all the tests and requirements for second grade. Thankfully, most of us have passed all those tests. There are tests that you take to see if you're ready for college, if you graduate from high school. And those are the SATs, the ACTs, and it really kind of assesses how much you learned and whether you're ready for the rigors of college education. There are tests that you take to see if you're ready for a job. I remember in college, I was home for the summer, and I was going to work in a factory that made cables. And these cables were ethernet cables for different computers. And I remember the test that I had to take was a color test. And it was really interesting, because they gave me a cardboard that had different pairs of wires. And I had to actually assess what colors those wires were. Thankfully, I passed. My wife wonders how that would happen because I'm not very good with colors sometimes. But I did pass. But you might have had to take a test to get into a particular job. There are tests that you even have to take, or you can take, to see if you're ready for retirement. If you have a retirement account, you go online and you put your information in to see how much you need or how much you have and where it should be allocated. We used to do this in the bank and at Charles Schwab, different places like that. But have you ever tested yourself to see if you're ready for heaven? Have you ever tested yourself to see if you're ready for eternal life? You see, it's a process. It actually takes time and energy and thought to examine yourself, to really think about your relationship with God. But this is the kind of test that Paul is talking about, and it is the most important test that you will ever take in your life. Examining yourself to see whether you're in the faith. Because if you fail this test, none of the other tests that you have ever passed in this life and in this world will matter one bit. It doesn't matter if you passed third grade or passed twelfth grade or got out of college or got a job or were ready for retirement if you're not ready for life with God. Examine yourself, he says. This test ought to take priority to all other tests. Even Jesus said this in Matthew 16, 26. For what is man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose what? His own soul. What can you give in exchange for your soul? So here's the question. Here's the test question. Are you in the faith? The question is not, do you have faith? There's a difference, isn't there? In fact, you might talk to people, well, do you have faith in God? Oh, sure, I have faith in God. But that's not the question. That's not the test question. The question is examining yourself to see not whether you have faith, but whether you are in the faith, the Christian faith. You see, there's a lot of faith out there that cannot and will not save you. There's a lot of faith out there that will not get you to pass this test. Even James puts it this way in James 2, 19. You believe there's one God? I think we'll all say, yeah. He says, well, you do well, but don't count on that being the answer to the question that we're really trying to answer here, because even the devils believe and tremble. So the question is, are you in the faith that will save you? Are you in the faith that will lead you to eternal life? So what does it mean to be in the faith? Well, it means, first of all, that you have been born again, truly, by the Spirit of God. That He has come into your life and He has quickened you and given you life from death. Well, how do you know? Well, it leads us to the next meaning. It means that you truly believe in the object of this faith, the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his claims. The way that you know that you are born again is because you believe in Jesus as your Savior from sin. To be in the faith means also that you truly belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, He abides in you and you abide in Him. He dwells within you. That is, the faith of Christ is all-encompassing in your life. There are some people that will say they belong to a church, some people that say they are a Christian, and yet, it's sort of one of those things where they go to church on Christmas and Easter. Do they really belong? to Christ, and does Christ really belong to them? Christian faith is all-encompassing. It's not just a passing interest. To be in the faith also means that you've been truly baptized into Christ. It's not talking about water baptism, but truly baptized through the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, and now there is proof and evidence of His abiding presence in your life. And we need to make this kind of examination a priority in our lives. Have I been born again? Do I really believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Do I really belong to Him? Have I truly been baptized by His Spirit into His body? But how do we go about doing this examination? Well, the key are those two words. The first is examine, and then the next is prove. They can be used synonymously. There is a little bit of a shade of difference there. But in the proof of our examination, as we test ourselves, as we take this test, we will find certain qualities in our lives that reveal Christ in our lives. That's what we're doing. When we are examining ourselves, is Christ in me? Is there evidence and proof that Jesus Christ's abiding presence is in my life? It's not unlike those DNA tests that people are taking to help them see where they're from. Be familiar with some of those places online where you can check your ancestry, like Ancestry.com, Family Heritage, all these different places. And some of them now have a DNA department, where you can send $60 to $90, and they'll send you a little swab. And you take a swab of your cheek, and you put it in there, and you send it back. And they will look at your DNA. And they have looked at the DNA samples of all sorts of people all over the world, and they will look at different markers in this DNA to see kind of what nationalities you belong to. And you might have seen these on TV, on the commercials, where they have a little graph chart, and it shows that this person is 25% European or 25% Asian and 50% African of descent. And you see all of these different things that show who you are and what you're made up of. Of course, we're all people. Well, what we find is that the Bible itself will reveal to you different Christian DNA markers to show if you really are part of the family of God and spiritually related to Jesus Christ. There are markers that are given to us in the Bible that will reveal if you're part of this family. Markers like obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, markers like love, for Christ and for his people. Markers like grace, receiving God's grace and extending God's grace to others. Markers like perseverance, where you will continue to walk with God no matter what you face in life. Now, does it mean that there are ups and downs and struggles in life? But on a consistent, persevering way, you are obeying and loving and having a grace-filled life just like Christ. It means that there will be a family resemblance with other Christians and with Jesus Himself. So as you examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith, look for the markers of Christ in your life. Do you see Him? It won't be in its full perfection. But are there seeds of His love and seeds of His grace and seeds of His life in you? This is the spiritual DNA that we are to examine and to prove in our lives. So each one of us needs to hear and heed this call given to us by Paul this morning to examine yourself personally, whether you be in the faith. Make it a priority to prove your own self. Do you have Christ's spiritual DNA in your life? This is the only way for you to have assurance as a Christian. Can Christ be seen in me? But then we also find a personal conclusion from the spiritual self-examination. You know, tests aren't just made to take just for the fun of it. I've never met anybody that liked to take tests. I didn't like to take tests, and I was fairly good at taking tests. I crammed a lot, but I retained a lot, at least for the test. But I didn't enjoy taking tests. But no, the task that Paul is giving here is to come to a personal conclusion, to find out really what it's all about. Paul did not give these Christians in Corinth this call and command to examine themselves to get them to doubt. No, he wanted them to come to a personal conclusion of assurance. So this question, do you have assurance in your life as a child of God, is not to cause you to doubt, but rather to give you more assurance as you go through the process of this examination. Look at verse 5 again. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you? Again, Paul is saying, this ought to be the conclusion that you come to when you examine yourself. Paul wants them to see in themselves what he saw in them, that there was genuine spiritual life because there was genuine Christian faith. And Paul wants them and us to have that same assurance. For example, he wants us to have assurance of the power of the Lord in our life. He says, know ye not your own selves how that Jesus is in you? What does the name Jesus mean? Jesus means Savior. Jehovah saves. God is the Savior. When there is spiritual DNA in your life, when there is the life of Christ coming out in your life, it means that Jesus Himself has saved you from your sin and is still using His omnipotent power to sanctify you and continue to rescue from even the power of sin itself. You can know the power of the Lord in your life. You can be assured of the power of God in your life. But do you? There also can be assurance of the promise of the Lord. That's why Paul adds, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus, the Christ, is in you. Christ. The word Christ means that Jesus was the long ago promised and the long awaited Messiah. He is the one who came to be your substitute and to die on the cross for your sin. And he now is the object of your faith. He is Jesus, the Christ. And you can know the promise and the promises of the Lord in your life. You can be assured of the promises. There are exceeding great and precious promises all throughout the Bible, all throughout the New Testament that you can claim as a child of God. Do you have that assurance today? As you look at those promises, can you say that promise belongs to me? Because I have Christ's spiritual DNA in my life? You can. There can also be assurance of the presence of the Lord in your life. Again, verse 5, Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus the Christ is in you? In you. You see, as a Christian, when you start to examine yourself, your eyes cannot help but turn from yourself to your Savior. That's one of the marks of a true child of God. When you're taking this test and examining yourselves and you're thinking about your walk with God, your eyes no longer stick to yourself, but they turn again, looking to Jesus, who's the author and finisher of our faith. even as paternity tests are often taken to prove who the parents of a child are. In fact, I think just recently in Indiana, there was a law that was passed that if a child has been adopted, that they have the right now to find out who their biological parents are. And sometimes they would need to take tests to make that proof, to have that evidence. You don't just rely on the resemblance of things, do you? Well, that person, that baby, has the same nose as his mother or the same nose as his father. Have you ever seen some babies, a lot of them kind of look alike, you know? Sometimes it's hard to know whether they look like so-and-so or so-and-so. Sometimes it's pretty clear, but other times you can't go off resemblance. Think of my family. Most of you have met my family. My dad had red hair. My sister has red hair. My brother has red hair. And I don't. Many of their children have red hair. I still don't. So they would joke and tease me and annoy me when I was a boy and say, you were adopted. And sometimes I wonder, well, how would I prove that? But it's the DNA. So yes, we look at the resemblance that we have to Christ. Oh, I look like Christ because of these qualities, these Christ-like qualities in my life. But it goes deeper because it's not just looking at me, it's looking at Christ. It's looking at Him. He is the one who will promise to dwell within us when we come to Him. So it is true with Christians. Our assurance, as one writer says, this is on your message guide, our assurance and our certainty does not depend upon our own will or our own works, but rather upon the promise of God through faith that Christ is in us and we in Him. Therefore, we shall not miss the performance of His promises. You see, the results of our self-examination is not to prove how much you know about the Lord, but to show how much the Lord is in you. I remember when we were taking tests in high school, and sometimes after we took a test, the teacher would say, okay, hand your test to another student. We're going to grade through this, right? It's not always the wisest thing to let the student who took the test degrade the test. I know for a fact that there were some of the students that when there was a question or even not a question, they would still mark it right. Or if they didn't like the person, they would mark it wrong. It's not always wise. So it is with our own self-examination as a Christian. As we prove to our own selves and examine ourselves, we don't look to ourselves for the answers to that question. We rather look to the one who gave us the test, the one who gives us the answer, the one who gives us that DNA, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul says it this way in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So what we find is that you as a Christian can know the power and the promises and the very presence of Christ in your life because of what He does in you, not just because of what you do for Him. Do you know this in your life? Do you have this assurance? If Jesus Christ is in you, then you will also see the mind of Christ in your mind. You will see the joy of Christ in your joy. You will see the spirit of Christ in your spirit. You will hear the word of Christ in your words. May this conclusion. Be your conclusion and the conclusion of your own heart's examination. May you be assured that you know your own self, that Jesus Christ is in you. That is what assurance is all about. Christ is in me, the hope of glory. But what if you don't come to this conclusion? What if you don't see any evidence of Christ? There are no DNA markers that make you look like Christ. Well, there remains, in verse 5, a personal concern of Paul. Again, at the end of verse 5, Paul says, Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you? And then he adds, Except ye be reprobates? except he be reprobates. The word reprobate here does not mean what we often think of. It doesn't mean someone that has left the faith, if you will, or left the church and turned their back on God completely. The word reprobate here means someone who has not passed the test. Remember the test that you're taking? The test that God gave you? It means that you haven't passed this test. It can also be translated as someone who has not been approved. So he says, prove yourself. And now he says, some of you may not be approved. But that cannot mean their own approval. Remember, the student cannot grade his own paper, grade his own test. This phrase, to be not approved, or this word, reprobate, has the idea, and it points to someone who already knows all the answers to the test. It has to point to not their own personal assessment of their spiritual condition, but God's. Are you approved not in your sight, not in the sight of your church, not even in the sight of this world, but are you approved before God? So Paul shows his concern here about their failure of this test, because he knows that God himself is the one who will grade the test to see if someone is in the faith or not. So yes, we need to take this test. We need to examine ourselves. Next Sunday, we're going to be having the Lord's Supper. And so often we read through 1 Corinthians 11, that reminds us of what the Lord's Supper is all about. And remember what one of those verses tells us to do? It says, examine yourselves. It's the same process, the same idea here. So yes, we take the test, but ultimately it's God who grades it. Not us. But God does not grade on the curve. Because for someone to truly be in the faith, they must also be in the fold of Christ. And the way into that fold the Bible teaches is very exclusive. Remember Jesus said in John 10, 7, He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door, Jesus says. By me, if any man shall enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. So the only way that you'll ever pass this test to have assurance as a Christian is to make sure that you've gone through the door of Christ and Christ alone. It's not Christ plus works, not Christ plus this, not Christ adding this. It's Christ alone. John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. This is God's condition to pass the test. That's the only way to pass this test. And if you are reprobate or not approved of God, you will not know and you cannot be assured that Christ is in you. So yes, Paul was concerned about their failure, but he was also concerned about their fruit. Because what happens when Jesus Christ is in you? What happens when He truly has His life in you? You will bear spiritual Christ-like fruit. This is one of the ways that God puts his stamp of approval on a Christian's life. He allows them to bear his fruit. Listen to what Jesus said, using another illustration in John 15, verses 1-8. I am the true vine, Jesus says, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, Jesus says, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be My disciples." Is there spiritual fruit in your life today? This spiritual fruit is the evidence that Jesus Christ is in you. Think about Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit, same thing. And this fruit will help provide assurance that you are in the faith. So is there this spiritual fruit in your life? There is a final fruit also that Paul wants to focus on. especially for the Corinthian church. And that is what we find in verse six. And that is a personal confirmation, a personal confirmation of their relationship with and approval from the Lord. Again, verse six, Paul adds, but I trust that can also be translated. I hope, I'm hoping, I'm trusting that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. Same word as verse five. The idea is I trust that you shall know that we are not not approved. Double negatives make it a positive. I trust that you will know that we are approved of God, that we have passed the test, that we have the spiritual fruit that you've been looking for. So even though Christian faith and self-examination is a very personal thing, what we find in verse 6 is that it is also a very public thing within the church as a whole. There's a relationship component to assurance. Paul himself here, who I believe practiced what he preached, when he says, examine yourself, I think at the same time he was examining himself. He was wanting to make sure he was in the faith. He was wanting to make sure he had the spiritual DNA of Christ in his life, that there was the fruit being born in his heart. And it was a continuous, regular thing in his life as it should be in ours. But here we find Paul, the apostle himself, seeking a confirmation of his own message and his own ministry from the Corinthians. Again, verse 6, I trust, I hope that you will know that we have been approved by God as well. He sought this confirmation because he believed that it would lead to a greater certainty and a greater assurance of the truth. A greater certainty. Paul was hoping and trusting that they would come to know the truth about him. If you remember back in verse 13, there was some doubt about him. They were seeking proof of Christ speaking in me. And now he says, all the proof you need was the assurance that Jesus Christ was in you through the faith in the gospel that I preached to you. That certainty about the truth is what he wanted. their confirmation that he was both the messenger and the one who gave the right message from Christ. But that certainty about the truth would also lead to a greater communion and fellowship with each other as Christians. That's what Paul was after. In fact, all throughout 2 Corinthians, isn't this what Paul was after? I want there to be a greater fellowship and a greater communion, a greater love for each other, a greater unity in the faith of Christ. And in spite of all that was said against him, all that was done against Paul, he continually pursued after communion and fellowship with them in love and unity and peace. There still ought to be this desire for confirmation of our faith with other believers in the body of Christ. So yes, assurance is a personal thing, but it's also a public thing. I may be struggling with assurance in my life, and that's why I need to go with my church and fellowship with my church, because that too is where I receive confirmation of my faith and assurance. That's why we're told in Hebrews 10.25 that we're not to be forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of Son is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. There are a lot of people who have doubts. because they do not attach themselves to the body of Christ. But as you examine yourself, you will find assurance through Christ and through His church. So examine yourself today. This is not just something that you speak to young people about. It's something that applies to all of us, no matter how long you've been in the faith. Examine yourself. Why should you do this? Because if you are a true Christian, it is not meant to lead you to greater doubt but to greater assurance, greater confidence, and greater confirmation. But with this assurance that you have as a Christian will come a renewed desire, as we're going to see next week from verse 7, where Paul says, do no evil. Do you realize that sin is always an obstacle to assurance in your life as a Christian? If you're struggling with sin, and if there is unconfessed sin, probably not a good thing for you to have assurance in that. You're just continuing to live like that. Sin is always an obstacle to assurance, and that's why when we have that assurance, we go on to do no evil. But examine yourself today. Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. And our prayer for you today is that you may find Christ in you, the hope of glory, that Christ's spiritual DNA is truly in you so that you can go on and live with that newness of life that he's given you. because he is your Lord and Savior and Christ. Examine yourself. Have you? Will you? Let's close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, I know that sometimes when we come to these passages, we think, well, this would have been a really good message for somebody else. This would have been a good message for someone that's not here. And yet, Lord, we trust in your providence that this message on this day was meant for the ears of these people. And ultimately, Lord, that command and that call for self-examination was directed to me. Oh, Father, I pray that you'll help me help us even now today to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith. Not just that we have faith, but we truly are in the faith. We've been born again. We believe. We belong to Christ. We've been baptized by your spirit into this body of Christ. And there is fruit, fruit that is coming out, perhaps in seed form, but it's there. And the spiritual DNA markers are exhibiting themselves. And so the way that we see whether we are in the faith is to know that Christ himself is in us. Oh Father, I pray that if we know that Christ is in us and we have the assurance of that in our life because of the evidence and the fruit that is being born, that then Lord, we will seek to live according to that life that He has given us. To go out and sin no more, to do no evil, but to live a life that honors and pleases you. to go out and share the gospel with others, to be the light in the darkness, to be the salt in this world that you've called us to be, to be like Christ in what we think about Him, to be like Christ in how we speak, to be like Christ in all of these ways because Christ is living His life through us. And so, Father, I pray that You will help us each to examine ourselves by the working of Your Spirit in our life and to come to the right conclusion, the conclusion that, yes, Jesus Christ is in me. because he is the only one, and he is the only way to provide us the assurance that we need, that we belong to you. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.