Warning to The Church: Do Not Fail The Test

Do not fail the test. There are those people in the church, some of them are here this morning as always. Christ is not in them. By the way, Jesus Christ is in you as a great truth, isn’t it? If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he’s none of his, Roman says. Christ lives in you, Galatians 2 20. The life you live is really Christ living in you. And this manner, this presence of Jesus Christ, in you and in me, produces manifest discernible transformation called new creation. And then, in verse 6, he says, Now, when you’ve done the inventory and passed the test, I trust that you will then realize that we ourselves do not fail the test.

If you don’t fail the test, then I don’t fail it either. If you’re authentic, I’m authentic. If you’re a true Christian, then I was a true preacher. Understood? Now, it is possible that some of you can fail the test. The genuineness of any preacher is tied to his followers. That’s why Jesus in Matthew 7 16 said, By their fruits you shall, what? Know them. You look at somebody who says they’re a prophet and wears the prophet’s garb and they’re inwardly a wolf. Look at their followers. Look at the people that follow them.

You’ll know them by their followers. The credentials of any pastor are his people. Their lives are the evidence of whether or not Christ has spoken through him. Hosea said, Like people, like priest. Jesus said, And when a man is fully discipled, he will be like his teacher. And what about you? I say to you, test yourselves, examine yourselves. If you were asked to do that, and I’m asking you to do that, what tests do you apply? I’m asking you to see if there’s evidence that the power of Christ has changed your life.

I’m asking you to determine your true spiritual condition. What are you looking for? If I say, test yourselves, examine yourselves, what are you going to look for? Somebody might say, well, I prayed a prayer x number of years ago. That’s not it. That is not a valid basis on which to test your spiritual condition. You say, yeah, but it was very emotional. And I asked Jesus to come into my heart. Still not valid. You say, when I was very small and my parents were there, still not valid. You say, well, actually I was in a revival and I walked an aisle on an invitation.

Not valid. Not valid. Verbalizing a prayer and physically walking an aisle. But I was very emotional. I cried, not valid. I laughed, not valid either. Somebody says, well, actually I was baptized. I was baptized. I was even immersed. I was not valid. I, I go to church. I’ve gone to church. I’ve been in church for years. Not valid. I, I have really have good feelings about God and I really believe in God and I have good feelings about Jesus, not valid. None of that has any bearing whatsoever on the authenticity of your conversion.

You say, well, well, then what am I looking for? I’m going to give you five things. I’m only going to mention them. And tonight in our communion service, I’m going to go through them more carefully in preparation for the Lord’s table where we are called, aren’t we, to examine ourselves. Here are the five things you need to look for. Number one, penitence. You don’t ever look for something in the past. You look for something in the present. The first thing is an attitude of penitence. Jesus said, remember in the beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn over their sin and are meek.

Matthew five, three to five. The first thing you look for is an attitude of penitence towards sin, repentance towards sin, disdain for sin. You cannot continue in sin. First John says and call yourself God’s child. You’re going to be like Paul. You’re going to see sin in your life, but you’re not going to like it. Romans seven, Paul said, I see things in my life I hate. You’re going to confess your sin. You’re going to acknowledge your sin. There’s going to be an attitude of penitence. Secondly, righteousness. You’re going to be characterized not only by penitence, but by righteousness.

Remember when Jesus said, you’re never going to be in my kingdom unless your righteousness exceeds that of whom? The scribes and the Pharisees. Now theirs was purely external righteousness. They just went through external ceremonial things, external, moral and social things. But the kind of righteousness that the Lord looks for, the kind that belongs to people in his kingdom, is not an external righteousness, but an internal one. And what that means is the love of doing what is right. If you’re truly Christ’s, you love righteousness, you love what’s right. It’s far more than the superficial righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

It’s doing what is right from the heart. You long to do what’s right. The third key word is submission. You eagerly, gladly, joyfully, happily submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. You count the cost, you pay the price, you yield up your life, you give all you have, if need be, the opposite of what the rich young ruler was willing to do. You count the cost. You make whatever sacrifice, because nothing, nothing, is as valuable as the lordship of Christ in your life. You gladly proclaim him your sovereign, and joyfully follow him whatever he asks.

That’s your heart cry. Even though you sometimes aren’t willing to follow as you ought, that’s your deepest longing. The fourth word is obedience. The truth of God’s word is compelling to you, and you’re not just a hearer of it, you’re a doer of it. You say, oh, how I love your law. Scripture compels you, you love to be obedient to it. Penitence, righteousness, submission, obedience, and the fifth word is love. Your life is marked by love for God, and love for God’s people, love to the Lord, and love to other people who are in Christ.

You can’t ever verify your salvation on the basis of a past event or events, no matter how emotional, ecclesiastical they were. When you look for the inventory, this is what you’re looking for, an attitude of penitence towards sin, a pursuit, a hunger and thirst after righteousness, a willing and joyous submission to the lordship of Christ, a longing to obey the word, and a compelling love toward God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, other believers. That’s what identifies you as being in the faith, and evidence that Christ is in you. Now tonight, we’re going to expand on those.

Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the warning to the church. Do not fail the test. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].