Sermon Cloud

Holding Firmly to the End II

Hebrews 3:1-19

Grace Fellowship Church

August 5, 2007

Series 3 Sermon 8

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.  7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works 10 for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”   12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”  16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Introduction

As a congregation we hold to the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession as our statement of faith.  We believe that this confession is an accurate summation of Biblical doctrine.  One of the areas that this confession covers is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints or as some call it eternal security of the believer.  This doctrine teaches that those who have truly been saved by grace through faith in Christ will never fall from that state of grace and salvation precisely because God has eternally decreed their salvation and they have not earned in any way, shape, or form that salvation.  Therefore logically if I did not do anything to earn my salvation I can do nothing to keep myself saved.  But because of the total ruin of mankind by sin and our quickness in walking away from the Lord, God has given us His Spirit to keep us in the faith. 

Hebrews chapter 3 is a chapter and for that matter the whole letter to the Hebrews is a warning against presuming on God and assuming that you are going to heaven when your life does not match up with biblical standards.  We live in a day when a preacher preaches warning against unbelief and falling away and the importance of perseverance and a godly lifestyle he is usually quickly dismissed as a legalist.  The proper definition of legalism is the belief in a works salvation.  In other words I have to do these works in order to justify myself before God.  But that is self justification that verifies lostness and not eternal salvation.  Chapter 4 of Hebrews will address this heresy of legalism brilliantly.  So now that I have told you that I am not a legalist and I do not believe in any way shape or form in the idea of self justification let me set up the rest of our passage. 

Understanding salvation is paramount for all of us.  I can’t think of anything more important for you and I than to know what God has commanded about eternal salvation.  There are so many views in our day and our day is no different than others. There has always been many views.  But there has always only been one correct view.  For many people who call themselves Christians, understanding biblical salvation has become quite the mystery.  Some in the emerging church talk a lot about mystery and how the Bible is an enigma and can’t be understood.  So they will have a major problem in understanding eternal salvation because in essence their own sin sickened depraved futile minds are their guide because in their opinion the Bible can not be understood.  Roman Catholics believe in a works centered justification where if they complete a set of church ordinances they may gain entrance into God’s grace.  But before you come down on the Emerging church or the Catholics too hard I want you to keep in mind how many of you were introduced to the Gospel in a man centered, works oriented way. 

Some of you were told to pray a certain prayer.  And if you meant that prayer with your whole heart and were sincere then you were truly saved.  You were probably encouraged to walk down a church isle and proclaim publicly your new found faith.  In many circles, even conservative circles, the proof of salvation is in the willingness to stand before a church congregation and nod in agreement to what the preacher or evangelist is saying.  That sounds like works to me.  And this is the proof of salvation for most people.  “I prayed the prayer, I walked the isle, I got baptized, I joined the church, I attend, and I tithe.”  But this is tradition and not what the Bible describes as proof of salvation. 

What most have done in the Christian world today is to make a serious mistake in understanding the Gospel.  If you hear people who are zealous for evangelism talk today they will usually discuss the free offer to all of the Gospel.  They will discuss methodology about getting people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  It goes something like this.  “We need to preach the Gospel to everybody so they can choose to have Jesus as their Savior.” 

I think I have told some of you this but when I was in seminary a basic evangelism class was required.  Our methodology for the class was to find someone to talk to and start a conversation about spiritual things.  Our opening line was, “Have you thought much about Heaven?”  You got an answer and you went from there.  “Do you know what sin is?  Are you a sinner? Sinners can’t go to Heaven and that is why you need Jesus as your Savior.  Do you want to go to Heaven when you die?”  Well who is going to say no?  Then we were encouraged to lead them in a salvation prayer and write down their name.  The people that were in the class were excited about how many people they led to the Lord those two days employing this methodology.  Just so you know, I did not lead anyone in a sinner’s prayer nor did I skip out on talking about God’s holiness, man’s sinfulness and inability to please God.  I told them that they must repent and trust in Christ alone for salvation.  I encouraged them to read the Bible and seek the Lord while He could be found.  Because I did not utilize this methodology of the professor my grade was not as good as others.  But one day I have to stand before the Lord and give an account to Him about my evangelism and I will take a grade cut here to hopefully please the Lord and present the Gospel in the way the Bible presents it.  The methodology of our day works.  It gives people an easy way into the kingdom.  However, this methodology quickly devolves into a works centered security of salvation.  Pray the prayer, walk the isle, fill out the card, join the church.  These are all things that almost every person can do with absolutely no assistance from the Lord. 

But what does the Bible say?  Does the Bible ever offer salvation the way many do in our day? If you do a study of all the Gospel proclamations in the New Testament what you will find are the same two commands.  People are commanded to repent of sin and believe the Gospel.  It is not an offer, the Gospel is a command.  Acts 17:30 is the key verse and Paul tells the people in his hearing that God has charged all men everywhere to repent.  It does not get any clearer than that.  John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and His disciples all went out preaching repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.  They commanded people to turn from their sins and turn to Christ.  The fact that mankind by nature are enemies of God was preached and then the cure for that disease is given and that is repentance and faith.  And furthermore repentance and faith are never offered as works but as gifts of God resulting from the Holy Spirit of God regenerating a dead sinner to spiritual life enabling them to repent and believe.  See Ephesians chapter 1 and 2. 

Biblically speaking salvation is all of God.  Perseverance is another command of Scripture for the believer that is God initiated and provided for.  Those who have been given the evangelical gifts of repentance and faith will indeed persevere.

But how are we to understand the warnings in Hebrews chapter three about falling away?  What can we make of these in light of the context of the chapter, the epistle, the New Testament, and the whole of Scripture? 

I think that we first must understand the nature of Scripture.  For instance the Old Testament is all about faith in God for salvation.  There were Laws and regulations that when properly understood would order society and drive the sinner to seek divine mercy for all their sins.  It was the Law that should have driven the Jews to seek God and His mercy and grace instead of seeking self justification through outward obedience to the Law and inward disobedience.  The Old Testament pointed toward the Savior.  Read later Isaiah 53 among many other Old Testament passages.  The New Testament reveals Christ to us.  And in many passages that include Hebrews 3, it strips away from us any and all self perceived righteousness and leaves us with nothing to hold onto but Christ. 

Context

That is why, as we saw last week that we are to consider Jesus as we face the trials and tribulations that accompany the Christian life.  Christ should be our focus constantly as believers.  When we start considering our circumstances that is when the danger of unbelief comes in.  We saw last week that because of unbelief the children of Israel that came out of Egypt were denied entrance into the Promised Land.  In this punishment I believe that most of the Israelites proved that they were not true believers.  We also saw that Moses lost the reward of the Promised Land for his unbelief when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it like God had instructed.  But Moses was a man that demonstrated a changed heart that loved God and obeyed Him and would seek Him diligently.  He lost an earthly reward for unbelief but did not lose his eternal inheritance.  I believe that many of the Israelites who left Egypt were not genuine believers and were just along for the ride.  They proved that over and over again by wanting to return to Egypt, worshipping a Golden Calf, and refusing to obey God’s commands. 

So as we get back into this chapter I would like for you to keep two things in mind.  First, because of unbelief it is very possible for you as a genuine believer to lose earthly and even heavenly rewards but not your eternal gift of salvation.  Second, for those who merely think that they are true believers, the onset of trials and tribulation will highlight their unbelief and the fact that they are not true believers.  Trials and tribulation will show the world the difference between a fake and a real Christian. It is easy to be a Christian in a comfortable chair in a comfortable building on Sunday.  It is much harder as you venture into the world.    

That is what this chapter is about.  Trials will separate the pretenders from the contenders.  It will show the difference between saint and sinner.  The way we respond to trials is indicative of our spiritual standing before God.  For the believer the trial will drive us to the Lord Jesus Christ.  For the false Christian the trial will drive us away from Christ. 

The Lord Himself illustrated this in the parable of the sower.  The seed that was sown fell on different types of soils.  The Lord explained one of these soils that is very important to us understanding our passage today.  Listen to Matthew 13:20-21.

²⁰ "The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word , immediately he falls away.

Many who walked out of Egypt rejoiced greatly as they left slavery.  But the minute the first trial started they immediately wanted to go back to Egypt.  Many in our day pray a so called salvation prayer and are ushered into the church only to have the first trial destroy their confession.  To hear many pastors, evangelists, and missionaries talk nearly the whole world has been converted. But look at the state of the church.  It is more worldly and man centered than ever. 

But it was the Lord who said, “narrow is the path that leads to salvation and few there be that find it.” 

All the instruction in the world will not be of any benefit to the false Christian about trials.  But, true believers need instruction so that we can avoid the trap of unbelief and the risk of losing our rewards.  Plus, in the face of difficulty, we as true believers will desire to bring glory and honor to our Savior and Lord and not disgrace His holy name in any way.

PNP

So, this morning from our text I want you to see the second of four ways we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief.   Last Lord’s Day we saw that: 

1.  The first way we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief is by having the right focus. (1-6)

We were to do two things here.  First we were to continually look to Christ and we were to hold fast to our confession.  That was from verses 1-6.

This morning we will see:

2.  The second way we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief is take constant careful inventory of the condition of our heart.  (7-12)

 Purpose

My prayer for you this morning is that you will both hear and heed these words and appropriate them into your lives so that you do not fall away into unbelief in a time of testing or if you are at present living in the condition of unbelief that the Lord will use His Word proclaimed to draw you back to Himself and strengthen your faith. 

RPNP

So look with me at the second of four ways we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief. 

2.  The second way we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief is take constant careful inventory of the condition of our heart. 

Notice verses 7-12.

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works 10 for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”   12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

One of the greatest spiritual dangers of all is taking for granted that you are a believer.  Many who hold to a works based salvation are a lot like the Pharisee praying at the Temple.  'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'

This is spiritual pride that will lead to unbelief.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees that saw the miracles that Christ performed were unable to understand because they had been blinded by spiritual pride.  “How could this Galilean who is not of either religious party do all these miracles?”  Because Jesus was not one of them He was excluded. 

I want you to first notice that the writer of Hebrews affirms that the Bible is indeed the Word of God.  Look at the beginning of verse 7. 

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

Psalm 95 is about to be quoted and the authorship is attributed to the Holy Spirit of God through the pen of David.  This is important for us to understand and know because we live in a day where theories abound as to how the Bible came to be called the Word of God.  As Paul says the Scripture is God breathed.  Peter affirms that the Bible was written by holy men moved by the Holy Spirit.  The Bible as the Word of God is not a new invention.  This has been the testimony of true believers throughout the ages.  So don’t listen to the lies on the Discovery channel and from so called Bible experts that are nothing more than wolves in sheep’s clothing.  The writer of Hebrews affirms the miraculous nature of Scripture in the First Century and we can affirm the same thing in the 21^st Century. 

So what does the Holy Spirit of God say through David in this 95^th Psalm? Look at verse 7 again.

“Today, if you hear his voice,

Psalm 95 is a call to worship and then a warning against unbelief.  But right in the middle of the Psalm we have this interruption.  “Today, if you hear his voice…”  What should strike in us fear and trembling is how few people indeed hear the call of the Lord in their lives.  What should cause us to walk in a way that pleases Him is to understand that we have indeed been privileged not only to hear the voice of the Lord but we have it in print and can read it and God has supernaturally opened up our understanding so that we can believe.  We have been made alive to spiritual things and not by anything we have done.  God has placed within His children a love and hunger for His Word so we can hear His voice. 

In other words, the opportunity to hear the voice of the Lord is a high privilege.  It is less of a privilege to get to meet and talk with kings, celebrities, or even the President.  Hearing from the Lord of the Universe, the Creator of all things is an opportunity of such immense magnitude that it can not be overstated. 

That is why Grace Fellowship is committed to expository preaching.  Because as long as a preacher saying what the text of Scripture is saying you are hearing the Word of God.   That is why James warns to not let many Christians be teachers because we will incur a stricter judgment.  If you teach the Word of God precision and preparation is of the utmost importance.  Paul told Timothy that he was to rightly divide the Word of Truth.  And where the Word of truth is being rightly divided the ears of the true believer should perk up. 

But what happened to the Israelites coming out of Egypt?  They heard the voice of the Lord.  They saw His grace and mercy and they experienced His wrath.  But did that do them any good?  Absolutely not.  Over and over they did what the writer of Hebrews warns us not to do when we hear the voice of the Lord.  Look at verses 7-11 again.

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works 10 for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”  

The example of a destroyed faith is obvious here.  This example has served many generations of believers.  Look at how the Israelites who experienced for forty years the miraculous works of God ended up.  They ended up in apostasy and unbelief and God slams the door on them by saying, “They will not enter my rest.” 

Folks, this is a heart issue.  This is the proof of the deadness of sinners to spiritual things.  Spiritual deadness is alive and well in our day.  I have personally experienced the wrath of those who were offended at the preaching of the Word of God.  I had a deacon ask me one time why I thought I needed to preach through books of the Bible.  He did not ask me in a nice way but was very sarcastic.  My response was brief and to the point.  “Because that is how God gave the Bible to us.”  I was told that I preached from the Bible too much by people who had called themselves Christians for decades.  I was told that twenty minutes was plenty of time to preach and that after that no one was listening anymore.  This highlighted for me the understanding that people who would say they are believers will be offended at the Word of God. 

But didn’t this happen even in the ministry of the Lord Jesus?  John 6 is one such event.  The Lord Jesus explains some spiritual truths that are very difficult for unbelieving ears.  As a result many people stopped following the Lord Jesus.  Listen to John 6:66-69.

As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?"

Here is where the rubber meets the road.  The majority has gone away.  There are twelve people standing there with you.  One of them has just offended a very large group of people and they left Him and refused to follow Him anymore.  What does the true believer do?  Listen to verse 68 and 69.

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ "We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."

Peter held onto Christ like a desperate man.  Peter knew who the Lord was.  He had been given the gifts from God of repentance and faith.  He knew there was nothing else on this earth as valuable as knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. 

How many prophets were killed because of the Word of God and the hardness of the heart of the people?  The Bible is literally papered with the deaths and persecution of the men who spoke the Word of God. 

The danger is evident.  People exposed to the things of God are not free from the possibility of a hard heart that bucks against the Word of God. 

So what do we do?  How can we avoid the sin of unbelief?  How can we inoculate ourselves against this heinous disease?  We must take constant careful inventory of the condition of our heart.  Look at verse 12. 

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Notice the first two words in the text.  Your translation may say, Take heed or beware, or be careful.”  It is the Greek word that means to look.  It is the same way that you would call someone’s attention to something they needed to look at or notice.  The verb is a present, active, imperative.  That means that you are commanded to look and you are to look right now.  This is a constant active watching.  What are we to watch?  Look again at verse 12.     

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

It is your heart.  You know, most people have a very high opinion of their heart.  They say things like, “I love you with all my heart.”  “I have a good heart.”  “God knows my heart.”  To that I would heartily affirm that God indeed does know your heart and He never said anything good about it.  God said that our hearts are stubborn.  They are wicked and desperately sick.  They are hard and we all must have a heart transplant in the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration in order to repent and believe the Gospel.  So when someone tells you to follow your heart, you tell them no thanks, you prefer a map.

What the writer of Hebrews wants us to do here and is commanding us to do is to take a spiritual inventory of our hearts.  What is the present condition of our heart?  Have they become hard and dead to the things of God?  I want you to pay particular attention to the description of this heart that we are commanded to watch out for.  Look at verse 12 again. 

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

There are two descriptions here for this heart.  First it is evil.  The Greek word the writer uses even sounds bad.  “Poneros.”  Within its field of meaning it can mean evil, bad, wicked, worthless, and even sick.  The second way this heart is described is by the word unbelieving.  It is evil in opposition to the good. 

In Romans 11 Paul uses this same word for unbelieving.  Listen to the warning starting in verse 17 going through verse 22. He is talking about the rejection of Israel and the Gentiles coming into the Kingdom through Christ.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, ¹⁸ do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." ²⁰ Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; ²¹ for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. ²² Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

Notice the phrase in verse 7 that points out to whom the writer is talking to.  12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

The writer is highlighting the very real possibility that there were some who were hearing this letter that fit right into that category.  The possibility of self deception is very real.  In our day the possibility of being deceived because of being taught bad theology and methodology is overwhelming.  Many people are convinced that they are true believers because of something they have done.  They prayed the prayer, they were baptized, they meant it with all of their heart.  They are good people. But wait.  Does that describe you? 

Have you examined your own heart?  Have you been able to see that God has done a miraculous work in you in giving you a heart that loves His Word, His people, and His presence?  Are you boasting in Christ alone for your salvation and not anything that you have done?  I am not saying this morning that if you prayed a sinner’s prayer, or walked an isle, or have been baptized that you have not been genuinely converted.  God works often in spite of bad theology and methodology.  But what I want you to do this morning and even as you go home this afternoon is to spend some time examining your own heart to see if you have an evil, unbelieving heart or if you have a new heart that God has given you. 

This is a biblical command.  Listen to Proverbs 4:23.

Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.

Deuteronomy 11:16 warns us about the waywardness of our hearts.

¹⁶ "Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them.

Proverbs 28:26 says, He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
But he who walks wisely will be delivered.

When Solomon was dedicating the Temple to the Lord he commanded the people in 1 Kings 8:61.

"Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the LORD our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day."

2 John 1:8 tells us:  ⁸ Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

Spend some time this week examining your own heart.  A good place to look at in Scripture is Psalm 119.  Compare your own heart to that of the heart of the Psalmist. 

Why must we do this?  Why should we constantly and carefully pay close attention to our hearts? 

Conclusion

I will close with this.  Look at verse 12 again.

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

It is because an evil, unbelieving heart can lead you to fall away from the living God.  All of us must deal with the real possibility that we may have deceived ourselves about our salvation.  That is what the writer is saying.  So we must examine our own hearts in light of Scripture to make sure our hearts have been changed.  I think there are two reasons the writer says this.  First, because only true believers will do this.  A self deceived person will rely on easy things to prove their salvation.  It will be what they have done.  This is hard work in laying yourself bare before the Word of God and the Spirit of God and asking the Lord to show you the true condition of your heart.  I think the second reason he writes this is because if God is drawing a deceived person into the faith He would use this searching and seeking to show that person the sinfulness and evil of their hearts so they could cry out for salvation.  The danger that these First Century readers faced was going back to Old Testament Judaism.  The persecution and trials came and they were quick to want to return to Egyptian bondage.  A changed heart would be like Peter’s when he told the Lord, “Where do we go?  You have the words of eternal life. We have both believed and seen that you are the Holy One of God.” 

But this verse goes against popular modern evangelical methodology.  I don’t know how many times I have heard preachers and teachers tell me that I should never doubt.  I should never question my standing before God.  Many say that if you were sincere at the moment of your salvation that you have no reason to question your standing.  But folks, this is the epitome of deception.  I have met many people that needed desperately to question their standing before God. 

We have many warnings in Scripture about this deception.  The words of the Lord Jesus ring loud and clear from Matthew 7:21-23.

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. ²² "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles ?' ²³ "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

These whom the Lord were speaking to had all of the outer trappings of Christianity.  They were super Christians if you will.  They prophesied in the Lord’s name.  They cast out demons.  They performed many miracles all in the name of Christ.  But the Lord knows the heart and He tells them, “I never knew you.”  Which proves the Bible when it boldly proclaims in Ephesians 2:8-9 that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Christ and apart from works.  Works can prove nothing or at best very little.  The heart is what the measure of Christianity is.  Do you have a heart that is self satisfied with how good of a person you are?  Or do you have a heart that clings to Christ like Peter did when he asked the Lord, “Where do we go?” 

Let me close with a couple of other passages.  Listen to 2 Corinthians 13:5.

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;

Have you examined yourself lately?  I don’t care if you are five years old or 105, we all must do this.  Lay yourself bare before God and allow Him to search your heart.  This was the prayer of David in Psalm 139:23 and 24.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts; ²⁴ And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.

Let’s Pray.