Examine
Your Faith
By John MacArthur
|
Is
real faith at the heart of your Christianity?
I want to give you a little test that will help you examine your faith.
I’m convinced that churches today are filled with people who have a
kind of faith that doesn’t
save them. James called it a ‘Dead Faith.’ Second
Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves, whether you be in the
faith.” You want to be sure your faith is real. Now, as you look at
yourself and you’re asking, “Am I really a Christian? Have I really
appropriated this gift that God gives? Have I believed genuinely?” What
do you look for in your life to discern whether your faith is real?
What are the marks? First of all, let me show you some things that neither prove nor disprove saving faith. I’m going to give you a little list of things that don’t prove anything. You could be a Christian; You could not be a Christian, and still have these things. They don’t prove or disprove a saving faith, but you need to know what they are so you’re not deceived. |
 John MacArthur |
Things That Don’t Prove or Disprove
Saving Faith
Visible Morality
What do
I mean by that? Well some people are just good people. Some of them are very
religious like Mormons who, on the outside, appear very moral, or Islamic
people, or any other kind of cult or religion. Some people are just good
people. They’re honest, they’re trustworthy in their
dealings. They’re grateful people, they’re kind people, and they have an external
visible kind of morality. (By the way, the Pharisees certainly rested on that
for their hope.) They’re loving people, some of them
are tender hearted people. But of loving and serving God, they know nothing and
feel nothing. Whatever the person does or leaves undone does not involve God.
This
person is honest in his dealings with everybody except God. He won’t rob
anybody but God. He is thankful and loyal to everybody but God. He speaks
contemptuously and reproachfully of no one but God. He has good relationships
with everybody but God. He’s very much like the rich young ruler who said, “All
these things have I kept, what do I lack?” This is visible morality, but it
does not necessarily mean salvation. People can ‘Clean up their act’ by
reformation rather than regeneration.
Intellectual Knowledge
Another
thing that doesn’t prove or disprove a saving faith is intellectual knowledge.
Intellectual knowledge doesn’t prove true faith. Knowledge of the truth is
necessary for salvation and visible morality is the fruit of salvation, but
neither one equals salvation. You see, you can know
all about God. And you can know all about Jesus, and who He was and that He
came into the world and died on the cross, and that He rose again, and that He’s
coming again. And you can even know more of the details of His life. You can
understand all of that and turn your back on Christ.
The
writer of Hebrews writes to those in
chapter 6, who knowing all of that, refused Christ. In
chapter 10 he says, “You’re treading underfoot the Blood of Christ by not
believing what you know is true.” There are many people who know the Scripture
and who have knowledge but are bound for Hell! You will never be saved without
that knowledge, but having that knowledge doesn’t necessarily save you.
Religious
Involvement
Religious
involvement is not necessarily a proof of true faith. There are people who
have, according to Paul writing to Timothy (2
Timothy 3:5), “A form of godliness, but powerless.” An empty kind of
religion. Remember the virgins in Matthew
25 who were waiting, and waiting for the coming of the bridegroom, who is
Christ. And they are waiting and waiting, but when He comes they don’t go in.
They had everything together except the oil in their lamps. That which was most
necessary was missing -- the oil, probably emblematic of the new life, the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They weren’t regenerate. They were religious but
not regenerate. You can have external visible morality, intellectual knowledge,
and religious involvement, and it may not indicate genuine faith.
Active
Ministry
An active
ministry. Balaam was a prophet. Saul of Tarsus thought he was serving God by
killing Christians. Judas was a public preacher. Judas was an Apostle. Remember
Matthew 7, “Many will say to me, ‘Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and done many wonderful works? Cast
out demons in Your name?’” And He says to them, “Depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity, I never knew you.” Ministry activity is not necessarily a proof of a saving
faith.
Conviction
of Sin
Lots of
people feel bad about sin. The whole world is full of people that are guilt
ridden to the core. Fifteen years ago most of the people who went to psychologists
were suffering from guilt. Numerous books have been written about guilt but, in
reality, psychologists have absolutely no cure for it.
Today however
we don’t have people who feel guilty because psychology has found a way to eliminate
their guilt. How? By transferring their guilt on to something or someone else
and convincing them that they are not responsible for anything that might make
them feel guilty. Guilt is replaced by instilling the ultimate virtue -- pride,
the ultimate virtue -- self-fulfillment, self-aggrandizement, self-glory,
self-esteem, which eliminates the need to feel guilty. What psychologists have really
done is to come up with an utterly ungodly, unchristian, unbiblical psychological
method that takes the guilt issue and eliminates it.
In a
great many churches today, people don’t expect their preacher to stand up and preach
“Freedom from guilt to guilty sinners,” people expect him to preach self-esteem.
The Church has allowed the philosophy of the day to create a new kind of sinner
who thinks he feels no guilt. And the most important thing you can preach to a
bunch of sinners is to point out the sin in their lives, and the law of God
which they fall short of and the impending judgment that awaits them. But that
message is not popular because the new philosophy and the new psychology has
long ago eliminated guilt.
We don’t
have people feeling guilty anymore, because they’ve learned that they can put
that guilt on somebody who did something to them. I don’t care who you talk to,
when they go into that kind of situation of counseling they will inevitably
say, “I have been abused! I’m a victim! I am not responsible for the way I am!”
And so the sinner is dispossessed of his guilt and dispossessed of a direct
approach from the Gospel which has the only real cure for guilt.
There
are however some people who do feel guilty. Some people who do feel guilty
about sin. Felix trembled under the preaching of Paul, but never left his
idols. The Holy Spirit convicts many of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and
many that He convicts don’t respond with true repentance. Some may even confess
their sin. Some may even abandon their sin and say, “I don’t like to live this
way. I want to shape up.” Some amend their ways, but do not necessarily come to
a saving faith. That’s reformation, not regeneration. And no degree of conviction
of sin is conclusive evidence of a saving faith. Believe me, even the demons
are convicted of their sins, that’s why they tremble, but they are not saved.
Assurance
Some
people say, “Well, I must be a Christian, I feel like one. I think I am one.”
Listen, just think it through. If just thinking you’re a Christian makes you a
Christian, then nobody could be deceived. Right? Because as soon as you thought
you’re a Christian -- you’d be one! So you could never be deceived. The whole
point of Satan’s deception is to make people think they are Christians who aren’t!
That’s the whole point. Many people feel sure they are saved -- but they’re
not. I’ll tell you, there are millions of Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses and
Christian Scientists who believe they are on their way to Heaven! They’re not.
People
say, “God won’t condemn me. I feel good about myself. I have assurance. I’m ok.”
That means nothing, necessarily.
A
Time of Decision
I hear
people say, “Well, I know I’m a Christian, because I remember when I signed the
card. I remember when I prayed a prayer. I remember when I went forward in a
Church service. I remember right where I was.” I heard people say, “I remember
right where I was the moment I did that.” Oh really? Listen, because you remember
a moment doesn’t mean that moment meant anything. It doesn’t mean that decision
was valid. Nobody’s salvation is verified by a past moment. People have prayed
prayers, and gone forward in church services, and signed cards, and gone into
prayer rooms, and been baptized, and joined churches, and never had a saving
faith.
So
those are some of the non-proofs. They don’t really prove anything. You say, “Well,
what does prove saving faith?” Well, let me give you quickly a list.
Things That Prove Saving Faith
Love For God
Is true
love for God down in your heart? Romans 8:7
says, “The carnal (sinful) mind is enmity (hostile) against God.” The
non-Christian resents God and rebels against Him down inside. But the
regenerate mind is set to love the Lord with all its heart, soul, mind, and
strength. His delight is in the Excellency of God, who is the first and highest
affection of his renewed soul. God becomes his chief happiness. By the way,
there is a great difference between such love for God and the selfish attitude
that focuses only on my own happiness and sees God as a means to my end, rather
than as me to the end of glorifying Him. In fact Jesus said, “If you love your
Father and Mother more than me, you’re not even my disciple” (Matthew
Do you love
God? Do you love His nature? Do you love His glory? Do you love His name? Do
you love His kingdom? Do you love His holiness? Do you love His will? Supreme
love for God is decisive evidence of the true faith. Is your heart lifted when
you sing His praises -- because you love Him?
Repentance
From Sin
A
proper love for God must involve a hatred of sin. Well, that’s obvious. Who
wouldn’t understand that? If I love somebody, you assume that my loving them
means that I seek their wellbeing. Right? If I said to you, “I love my wife,
but I could care less what happened to my wife,” you’d question my love, because
true love seeks the highest good of its object. So if I say that I love God,
then I will have to hate sin, because sin offends God. Sin blasphemes God. Sin
curses God. Sin seeks to destroy God and His work and His kingdom. Sin killed
His Son. And if I say that, “I love God, but I tolerate sin,” then you have
every reason to question my love. I cannot love God without hating that which
is set to destroy Him. So true repentance involves confession, it involves
turning from sin. I should be grieved over my sin.
I
should ask myself, “Do I have a settled conviction of the evil of sin?” Does
sin appear to me as the evil and bitter thing it really is? Does conviction of
sin in me increase as I walk with Christ? Do I hate it not merely because it is
ruinous to my own soul but because it is offensive to my God whom I love? Does
it more grieve me when I sin than when I have trouble? In other words, what
grieves me the most -- my misfortune or my sin? Do my sins appear many?
Frequent and aggravated? Do I find myself grieved over my sin -- more than the
sin of others? That’s the mark of salvation. True saving faith -- it loves God
and it hates what God hates, which is sin.
Genuine
Humility
A true
saving faith manifests genuine humility. This obviously comes through in the
Beatitudes. The poor in spirit; those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness; those who, in Matthew
18, are like a little child, humble and dependent; those who are in
self-denial, willing to take up their cross and follow Him. The Lord receives
those who come with a broken and contrite spirit. James says, “He gives grace
to the humble.” We must come as the Prodigal Son. Remember what he said in Luke 15, I think about verse 21, he
said, “Father, I am not worthy to be called your son.” There is no pride. There
is no ego about religious achievement or spiritual accomplishment, but genuine
humility.
Devotion
to God’s Glory
There
is a devotion to God’s glory. True saving faith that manifests genuine
salvation shows devotion to God’s glory. Whatever we do, whether we eat or
drink, we are literally consumed with the Glory of God. We do what we do
because we want to glorify Him. Oh sure, we fail in all of these things, but
the direction of our life is in loving Him and hating sin, and being genuinely
humble and self-denying, and knowing our unworthiness and being totally devoted
to the Glory of God.
Continual
Prayer
Humble,
submissive, believing prayer marks true faith. We cry “Abba, Father” because
the Spirit within us prompts that cry. Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon
titled, “Hypocrites are Deficient in the Duty of Secret Prayer.” It’s true.
Hypocrites may pray publicly, because that’s what hypocrites want to do is to
impress people, but they are deficient in the duty of secret prayer. A true
believer with true saving faith has a personal prayer life; private prayer
life; seeks communion with God.
Selfless
Love
Another
mark of saving faith is selfless love. John says, “If you don’t love your
neighbor, your brother, or one in need, then how are we to believe the love of
God dwells in you?” And also in 1 John 3,
John says, “If you love God you’ll love whom God loves. And we love Him and others
because that’s the response to Him loving us.” John 13 says, “By this men know that we are true disciples -- by
our love for each other.”
Separation
from the World
Paul
told the Corinthians that we haven’t received the spirit of the world but the Spirit
which is from God. And John put it this way, “Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him.” A true believer is separated from the world. Again, I say, we
fail in all these areas, but these are the direction of our lives. We aren’t
perfect. We haven’t arrived, but we love God and want to love Him more. We hate
sin and want to hate it more. We have a genuine humility and want more of it.
We are devoted to God’s glory. We have a prayer life that is private and
personal. We have a love for others that comes from God, and we find ourselves
disassociated from the world, as a general rule.
Spiritual
Growth
If you
are a true Christian you are going to be growing, and that means that you are
going to be more and more like Christ. Life produces itself. If you’re alive
you are going to grow, there’s no other way. You’ll improve. You’ll increase.
You’ll grow, because whoever has that new work begun (Philippians 1:6), is going to see it perfected. It’s going to go
on; it’s going to keep moving. The Spirit is going to move you from one level
of glory to the next. So you look at your life. Do you see spiritual growth? Do
you see the decreasing frequency of sin? The increasing pattern of
righteousness and devotion to God?
Obedience
Obedient
living. “Every branch in Me bears fruit.” “Bears fruit,” says John 15. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul says, “Look, you are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that you walk in
them.” That’s obedience. We are saved unto the obedience of faith.
Look at
your life. Do you see all those things? Including selfless love, separation
from the world, Spiritual growth, and obedience? If so, that’s evidence of a saving
faith.
John MacArthur is pastor of