Self-Examination

Charles Spurgeon was saved at 15, began 38 years of preaching at what became Metropolitan Tabernacle in England at 19, got married at 20—and unfortunately also was early in his death at 57, in 1892. In between, he was called “Prince of Preachers” for his oratorical skills and his ability to lead people to the Lord. At age 22, he was the most popular preacher in London, frequently speaking to crowds as large as 10,000. He also started a charitable organization and a college. He was a Baptist for the most part, but left the denomination in later years “over doctrinal convictions.” Because of his previous denomination, most people would say that he was a Calvinist, but his response to that was intriguing: “I love the name Calvin, but always regard him as sitting on one side of the room; and I love the name of Wesley, but I regard him as occupying another side place in the assembly…I am myself persuaded that the points of the Calvinist alone is right upon some points, and the Arminian alone is right upon others.” To which I agree. Here is one of his best sermons, in 1858, only reduced a bit for readership. 

 Our text is II Corinthians 13:5: Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you? 

This is a solemn text—a text that preachers must continually impress on their congregations, exhorting them to frequently meditate on it. 

The Corinthians were proud of their own skills in learning and language. But as men do, who are wise in their own eyes, they made a wrong use of their wisdom and learning—they began to criticize the apostle Paul. His letters, they said, were weighty and forceful, but in person he was unimpressive, and his speaking “amounts to nothing.” They even went so far as to deny his apostleship. So for once in his life, Paul was forced to defend himself—and scold them. And when he had verbally disarmed his opponent, he pointed the sword at them and said, as it were: “Examine yourselves—you have disputed my doctrine—examine whether YOU are in the faith. Use the powers that have been wrongfully exercising on me, for a little while, on your own character.” 

 The fault of the Corinthians is the fault of the present age. When you leave church to go home today, none of you should say, “What did you think of the sermon this morning?” Do you come here to judge God’s servants? While it is a small thing for us to be judged by man’s judgement, our judgment is by the Lord our God. To our own Master we will stand or fall. A more profitable question for yourselves might be “Didn’t that sermon strike my heart? Wasn’t it a rebuke that I deserved—a word of reproof or exhortation? Let me take it to heart. Let me not judge the preacher, for he is God’s messenger to my soul. I came to church to be judged by God’s Word.” But since there is, in all of our hearts, a great reluctance for self-examination, I will earnestly exhort myself and all of you to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith. 

 Dear friend, closely examine your heart. Question it, to see whether it has been growing in grace; to see if it knows anything of vital godliness or not. Ask your heart whether you have responded to the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Go through the rank and file of your actions; and examine all of your motives. Just as the captain of a ship on the day of inspection is not content with surveying his crew from a distance, but must look at all their accouterment; so also you must closely look at yourselves, with the most scrupulous care. You have seen the witness sitting in the witness box when the lawyer has been cross-examining him. We can often tell if he lies. Never was there a scoundrel less trustworthy and more deceitful than your own heart. When you are cross-examining a dishonest person, he is bent on trying to cover up for someone—you set traps for him, and try to catch him in a lie. Now do the same thing with your own heart; question it backward and forward, this way and that way. If there is a loophole for escape, if there is any excuse for self-deception, rest assured your treacherous heart will be ready to take advantage of it. 

 The Greek root of “examine” is reminiscent of a traveler, who cannot taste the flavor of a country by touching its borders. He must go right through the heart of the country. He climbs the hilltop. He drops into the deep valley, where he can only see a shaft of blue light coming from the lofty summits of the mountains. He is not content to gaze at the broad rivers unless he traces it to the spring from where it emerges. Nor will he be satisfied with the waving shafts of grain—he must discover the minerals that lie within its heart. 

 Now do the same with your heart. Go right through yourselves, staying not only on the mountains of your public character, but go into the deep valleys of your private life. Do not be content to sail on the broad river of your outward actions, but follow backwards the narrow streams, until you discover your secret motive. Do not look only on your performance, which is but the produce of the soil, but dig into your heart, and examine the vital principle that moves you, good or bad.

 Very few of us will examine ourselves to the fullness of this solemn exhortation. 

 Let’s look at the next phrase: “test yourself.” That’s more than self-examination. Here is an example: A man is about to buy a horse. He studies it. But after that, if he is prudent, he says to the seller, “I must determine the quality by testing; will you let me have it for a week?” You see, testing is a deeper word, and goes to the core of the matter. Do not merely sit and think. But go out into this busy world and see what kind of holiness you actually have on a consistent basis. Many men’s religion may not stand testing. It is good to look at, but when it comes to daily life, it fades. See whether you can be submissive to the yoke of gospel service. In the close testing, you may be revealed to cut moral corners. 

 And lastly the phrase, “whether you are in the faith.” One may claim, “I am an orthodox Christian, believing acceptable things. There is no fear of my coming up to the mark—and beyond it too.” But my friend, that is not the question. Yes, I want orthodoxy. But it is not whether you believe the truth, but whether you are in the truth. Think of the Ark of Noah being built, and curious men around it. “Ah,” says one, “I believe that ark will float.” “Oh,” says another, “I believe in its gopher wood, and it must be strong from stem to stern.” But they took no belief in Noah, and they were elsewhere when the rain and floods came.  Their beliefs aside, it was being in the ark that saved men. There may be some of you that say, of the gospel of Christ, “I believe it to be true; that it honors God and casts down the pride of man.” But note, it is being in the faith, in Christ, taking refuge in Him as in the ark, that counts. Only having the faith as an outward belief will perish in the day of God’s anger. He who feels that faith operating on him, and is to him a living, day-to-day principle, that there he can abide, such a man is in the faith. Being in the “right” church will not save a man; but are you in the faith? Test yourselves. Perhaps you been busy with irrelevant affairs, while the richest treasure was at home. If Jesus is not living in your heart, you are reprobates, vain pretenders, false professors. Your religion is but a vanity and a show. They are called “rejected silver” (Jeremiah 6:30) because the Lord has rejected them. 

 What is “Christ in you?” The Roman Catholic hangs the cross around his neck; the true Christian carries the cross in his heart. If Christ is crucified in you, in all this world’s troubles, you will be able to sustain them. Christ in the heart means Christ loved, Christ taken in your marriage. It means Christ communed with, Christ as our daily food, and ourselves as the temple and palace where Jesus daily walks. There are many here that are total strangers to the meaning of this phrase; they do not know what it means to have Christ in them. You may know about Christ on Calvary, but perhaps you know nothing about Christ in the heart. You are not saved. He must be your joy, your strength, and your consolation. 

 Do you fail the test? May the Spirit of the living God drive the sword in all the way this morning; so that the power of God may be felt in every heart. Search and test. Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. It is a matter of the very highest importance. A retailer will examine a gold coin to see if it is real when it is offered for a large amount of product, because he may lose a significant amount of money. It would be the ruin of the man if he lost so large a sum. 

 But if you are deceived in the matter of your own souls, you are truly deceived. After all, you bother to look carefully at the title deed to your estate. And to your insurance policies. But remember; all the gold and silver you have, are nothing but residue and scum of the furnace compared with the matter now at hand. It is your own soul, your never-dying soul—will you risk that? My friend, will you think about the condition of your soul? Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes; the soul is much more to be accounted of. You would say, “Let me be robbed of all my garments, if my body is safe.” But what is my body? It is a rag that enshrines and covers my soul. Let my body be sick; I can afford to lose my body. But, oh God, I cannot afford to have my soul cast into hell. What a hazardous course it is, that you and I are running if we do not examine ourselves. It is an everlasting hazard; a course that could end up in heaven or hell--a danger of losing God’s eternal favor, and gaining His everlasting curse. If you make a mistake in your assumptions, you can never rectify it, except in this world. Hence the importance of examining. A person who has gone bankrupt once, and has lost a fortune—but still he may make another. But make spiritual bankruptcy in this life, and you will never have another opportunity to gain heaven. There is no hope, no hope, of being able to gain it again. Now or never, man—remember that. Your soul’s eternal state hangs on the moments of today. If you waste your time, your abilities; if you trust your religion solely to your priest, your minister, or your family, then in the next world, you will truly regret the error, and you will have no hope—no hope--of amending it. 

 Fixed is their everlasting state. 

 If man could repent, ‘tis then too late. 

There are no acts of pardon passed 

In the cold grave to which we haste. 

But darkness, death, and long despair, 

Reign in eternal silence there. 

 How many in this world think themselves to be godly, when they are not? In the circle of your acquaintances, you have persons making a profession—and you stand in astonishment, and wonder how they dare to do it? You know them better than they know themselves. But if others are mistaken in their assessment of themselves, is it not possible that you are too? I think I see the rocks upon which many souls have been lost; the rocks of presumption. The enticing plea of self-confidence lures you onto those rocks this morning. No, you stay on course, mariner! Let the bleached bones lying on the rocks keep you back. Many have been lost, and are wailing at this present hour, wailing their everlasting ruin. If their loss is to be traced, it is nothing more than this—that they never examined themselves to see whether they were in the faith. 

Do not tell me that you are a long-time church member, or a minister. I am glad to hear it, but still I beg you—examine yourself. We may lay aside our robes to wear belts of flames and hell. We may go from our pulpits, having preached to others what we never knew ourselves, and have to someday join the everlasting wailing of souls we have helped to delude. 

There is not a man or woman that does not have good reason to test and try themselves today. Examine yourselves, because God will examine you. God will not take His gold and silver by appearance; but every vessel must be purified in the fire. If our hearts condemn us, how much more will God condemn us? Thank God for the righteousness of Jesus Christ, or none of us would pass the test. Are you truly in the faith? God, robed in thunder, will summon you and all your fellow men to the last judgment. 

I understand that many persons always doubt their eternal condition. It also might be because of a lack of self-examination. How many captains, when lost after a storm, and tensions rise, spends a long time searching his map and the stars, and comes up announcing “I know where we are. Hoist the sails! The water is deep, and you need not fear of any rocks.” How happy you might be, after searching yourselves, to say, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I’ve entrusted to Him for that day.” 

What if your searching had a bad or uncertain result? Better to find it out now, than to find it out when it is too late. We should then pray. Pray, “Lord, if I have been living in a false comfort, Lord, tear it away. Let me know just what I am and where I am. It is better that I think too harshly of myself than too securely, and be ruined by presumption.” Can you say, “I realize that I need to pray daily. I do love God’s Word; it is my meditation many times daily. I love His people and His church. My hands are often lifted upwards towards Him; and when my heart is busy with this world’s affairs, I remember to seek His throne. That is a good sign. But go deeper; have you ever wept over the grasp that worldliness has on your heart? Have you ever been driven to rely, simply, wholly on Christ? Does your faith trust Him for direction, and not your savings, in the darkest hour? Do you seek His Word to find ever more of His ways, and follow them? If you can’t say, in the above examination, that you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, then you are reprobate. Go to Him humbly and sincerely; the Holy Spirit will help you to find Christ and find peace. Then you can rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy. Amen.