Examining Your Heart with a Pure Conscience

Examine your heart with a pure conscience to ensure you're in the faith.

Understand the importance of self-examination to avoid being deceived.

Recognize the signs of a true Christian, including standing up for the truth and facing persecution.

Heed the warning to not let your heart be troubled by the signs of the times, and ensure your salvation by obeying God's truth.

God's Word admonishes us in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5. Let's go there, please. To examine yourselves and see whether or not that you're in the faith. To test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test. Well, look at how the Amplified Version defines this word. Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves not Christ. Do you not realize yourselves and know thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience that Jesus Christ is in you? unless you are counterfeits or a reprobate, disapproved on trial and rejected? Whoa! My point and subject of this word for you today is in the self-examination of your own souls. The word says to test and prove ourselves to see what? To see whether or not we are in the faith. But the question is, how can we truly examine ourselves to know whether or not we are in the faith? How is it possible? The question remains, what are we really testing and examining? Well, Paul's admonition here to the Corinthians was a call or a trumpet sound for them to examine their own hearts. Because he had reason to fear that many of them had been deceived or self-deceived to believe that they stood strong in the faith. And this is a very frightening thought. and even more so, it is a very horrifying place to be and not even knowing it or caring if we are or not. This is a very sobering thought and yet it was a wake-up call to the Corinthian church in Paul's day. Now Paul was in effect saying, I am urging you, my dear people, to give the first and highest and utmost importance to this admonition to give the strictest attention and impartial attention and self-examination of your own hearts to establish whether or not you are self-deceived in your own foundation of faith and salvation. Well, the call was to prove themselves here. and to prove themselves in whether or not they were true and sincere Christians grounded and founded in the faith of the living God. And of course, as I said, their faith had to be founded in God's word, in the gospel message, as is ours. And bottom line, faith is established and rooted in Jesus Christ since He is the one who is the author and the finisher of our faith. The call to prove your own selves is the command or order to examine yourselves. And I'm saying to you today, dear ones, Today is the day to take this word serious once it comes in the realm or the sphere of your hearing because we are presently living in perilous times such as the world has never seen before, prophesied by the very author and finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ himself in Matthew 24. But you may be one of those who are saying, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, I've heard this message before. Every generation has. But let me say, over these past few years, certain things have happened that are gigantic or immense prophetic significance in our generation today. they hold great significance in our time right now and we have talked about the dramatic escalation of global war and terrorism and the push for one world government and its push for worldwide economic banking system which would be a cashless society and we have talked about the push for the one world church under the antichrist And scripture clearly shows this very occurrence will come and spring upon us as a steady departure from the word of God and his son Jesus Christ increases by the inward corruption of the church and her outward conformity to the world as it happens ever so suddenly. The fullness and the height of all of this must reach the nostrils of God before he will stand up and say, enough is enough. The author and finisher of our faith also warned that false teaching would be permeating the church big time. Hear this, as you've never heard it before. Verse 12, Jesus said that the love of the body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity. Jesus said, and when this trouble comes, people will grow cold. They will not take care of first things first, and that is tending to the salvation of their souls. and there is always a pattern or signs to observe in the destruction or annihilation of one's faith. The horrible judgments and catastrophes of the book of Revelation are well within the realm of the possible as I speak to you right now. We are standing at the edge of eternity, dear church. Jesus gave the warning and admonition to not let your hearts be troubled to not let your hearts be troubled by this news so I'm reminding you all of this again and laying the foundation of where we are going today in this word how do we heed the warning given by beloved Apostle Paul in our opening scripture 2 Corinthians 13.5 to examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruit of it. To test and prove yourselves, not Christ. So unless we be reprobate, as the scripture says, that do you not realize and know yourself that Christ Jesus is in you? Unless, he says, you are a counterfeits or a reprobate, disapproved on trial and rejected. So unless we be a reprobate or a counterfeit, these warnings that we just covered is that many in these last days would fall into error, into offense. and be repelled at what is happening and will distrust and desert Jesus Christ, the very one whom they should have trusted and obeyed. They will fall away, the scripture says, and betray and pursue one another. In other words, they will join with the Antichrist gang and think that they are doing a good service, doing God a good service to rid the earth of his own redeemed and sanctified people. This stems out of hatred. You see, these were the counterfeits and the reprobates who will be disapproved and rejected on the day that they stand before the great and the terrible judge who will have to say, get away from me, I never knew you. How do we ensure today that we do not fall into the category of people that exist right now at this very time in our generation and sit in the pews of churches all around the world and call themselves a Christian? How do we know? How do we ensure that we do not fall into this category? Are we truly Christians or are we a Christian in name only? The proof of a true Christian is that he is truly a friend of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 15 verse 14, you are my friends if you keep on doing the things which I commanded you to do. So it is a given when a true Christian stands up for the truth of Christ they will undergo trouble from the world and even from others who are not grounded and rooted in him. 2 Timothy 3.12 declares that Indeed, all who delight in piety are determined to live a devoted and godly life in Jesus Christ and will meet with persecution and will be made to suffer because of their religious stand. Jesus said in his warning of the woes to come in Matthew 24, verse 6, and when you hear these things he says see to it that you are not frightened or troubled you see it's not just the signs of the time that will begin to happen gradually and increasingly until at breakneck speed the great tribulation is upon the whole world and people will have already taken the mark of the beast but many Christians who did not heed this warning to see to it that you are not troubled or frightened that Jesus gave is a prerequisite to the great trouble that will spring upon the whole earth and catch many unawares because they did not do what they should be doing to ensure the salvation of their souls according to the scripture that is obey and submitting to God's truth. So right now, what does the warning in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5 in our opening word mean to examine and test and evaluate your own self to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing proper fruits of it so that we will not be rejected in the day of Christ's judgment. This word is saying that yours and my Christian faith is to be accomplished by honest, faithful, and sincere examination of our hearts and lives. and this cannot be attained any other way precious ones no way you cannot attain this by comparing yourself with your neighbor or the kid next door this can only be done in light of the truth found in God's word and by going through the trials and the tests that come along that will have proven or given evidence of the godly fruit that is a result of the victory of that trial This is the proof of your faith And these tests come every day. And we are given the opportunity to become more than conquerors in Christ. Turn with me please, Romans 8 verse 36. Even as it's written, verse 36, For thy sake we are put to death all day long. We're regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter. And yet amid all of these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surprising victory through him who loved us. For I am persuaded beyond a doubt, I am sure that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor things impending and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor breadth, depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in, hear that, it's in, it's only found in Jesus Christ our Lord. now the best way to prove your Christian faith is to present it to the actual trial in everyday life it will come up to you it will knock on your door you will meet with it and this is how you best will prove your faith by submitting it or subjecting it or presenting it to the trial that comes up. And I ask you, I provoke you in asking, how are you doing thus far? How are you doing today with what's being presented in proving your Christian faith? Are you falling into temptation? And temptation leads you into sin after sin, or error after error, or lie after lie, or compromise after compromise, and you say like millions of millions who are in hell saying, because they deceived themselves, they say, but God knows my heart, or Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. But did you know also that yes, Jesus loves you, but did you know also that you are to love him back? Did you know that this is not just a one-way street? Did you know that Jesus says you're my friend if you obey me? and another scripture says that if you love me you will obey me how can we today then examine our hearts and lives honestly and truthfully and genuinely if we have deceived ourselves and live a lie and sit in church and say we are a Christian if we do not obey what Christ commands in his words to love Him and to obey and submit our lives to Him. We should truly want the Lord to put His acts to the fallen nature in our hearts by submitting to His precepts and by overcoming the trials and the temptations that come our way in this Christian journey called life. we are commanded as Christians dear church in Romans 12 verse 2 to not conform to this world and this will be the distinct mark of the Christian this will be the proof of our faith hallelujah and this is easy to see when judging someone's fruit and that's what we have been given to judge. You will know them by their fruit. Do they love the things of the world? Are they eating and feeding on the things of the world? Do they prefer it over Christ and His Word and growing in a divine, supernatural, intimate relationship with Him by putting other things first? you see you cannot become a real genuine Christian who lives in Christ if you yield yourself to the world's ways and system because this is governed by saint and the devil and we cannot serve two masters and when you do this you are a friend of Satan rather than Christ's friend because if you really loved him scripture says you will obey him rather than submit to Satan's system of lying and telling half-truths and laying your eyes on the filthy and perverted and clining your ears to hear the vile and the evil rather than the holy, the lovely, and the beautiful. And the list could go on and on and on. And only the Holy Spirit is the one capable of convicting the heart and the soul. And I pray, Holy Spirit, that there will be a release through this word today, that you will release your spirit of conviction upon the hearer of these words of this word, Lord, that you have laid upon my heart. And Lord, which I eat and feed on as well and take as I present it as serious as the one who would hear it and embrace it. Hallelujah. Lord, if there be an outpouring in these days and these times. Let it be an outpouring of a spirit of conviction upon the whole earth where we know time is short and you are coming soon. Lord Jesus, Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus, come. Can I tell you, precious ones, that even the smallest inconsistencies in your spiritual life are dangerous. Inconsistencies are very dangerous and detrimental to spiritual growth. God is rigidly righteous and so should you be in this matter of holiness. Me too. If you profess to be a Christian then the mark that is upon you is a distinct one that shows fruit now and this fruit is measurable and this is what the call is all about today that is being sounded in the ears of the hearer of this truth. The call today is to examine, to test and evaluate your own heart to see that you are truly well grounded in your Christian faith. How can you honestly judge or evaluate yourselves in this matter? How do you know whether or not you will truly evaluate yourself with fair and uncompromising judgment? Let's turn to 1 Timothy 1.5, where as the object and purpose of our instruction and charge is love, which springs from a pure heart and a good, clear conscience and sincere, unfeigned faith. But certain individuals have missed the mark on this very matter and have wandered away into vain arguments and discussions and purposeless talk. Well, a key word here in this verse is conscience. And conscience in the Greek is pronounced sunidesis sunidesis and it means having a co-perception of understanding and having a moral conscience moral compass of the conscience and being informed or being aware of something that pertains to the truth in Acts 24 16 Paul said I always exercise and discipline myself, mortifying my body and deadening my carnal affections, my bodily appetites and worldly desires, endeavoring in all respects to have a clear, unshakable, blameless conscience, void of offense towards God and towards men. How do we offend God? we offend him by our sin amen Paul says I'm not conscious of anything against myself and I feel blameless but listen to what he adds but I'm not vindicated and acquitted before God on that account it is the Lord himself who examines and judges me so do not make any hasty or premature judgments before the time when the Lord comes. He will both bring light and secret things that are now hidden in darkness and disclose and expose the secret aims, the motive, purposes of men's hearts. Then every man will receive his due commendation from God. So, back to what Paul said in 1 Timothy 1.5 when he said, Whereas the object and purpose of our instruction in love which springs from a pure heart and a good, clear conscience and sincere, unfeigned faith. Verse 19, holding fast to the faith, that leaning of the entire personality on God, in absolute trust and confidence, and having a good, clear conscience by rejecting and thrusting from them their conscience. Some individuals have made shipwreck of their faith. People who did not heed the word in maintaining, holding fast to the faith, they did not heed thrusting and rejecting those things from their conscience. Once they came to them as a temptation, they bid on to that temptation, and thus they sinned, and of course this scripture showing shipwrecked their faith. they harden their hearts to conviction of the Holy Spirit. So holding on to the faith will only come by way of having a clear conscience or an astute or insightful and clear working of knowledge of the truth of God with present fruit of it in your life right now. Not tomorrow. When you grow old, But right now, this way of life isn't for little old ladies or for grown-ups, but it's for the very young in the Lord. So we know that every individual born into the earth has a conscience. But what is it that makes for a good conscience? Remember this, please. A clear good conscience must live. It must live. It must be impregnated with God's truth to be vibrant and living. But first you should know that there are two things that make up people with dead consciences. There are a lot of dead consciences walking around sitting in the church pews today. And the first one is that there are those who have never had their consciences quickened with the Word of God. They've never been quickened. The light of God's truth or the eternal and life-giving seed of His Spirit was never allowed to enter into their darkened souls to quicken their understanding that they needed a Savior and that he loved them with an undying love It wasn allowed They didn believe it They said there no God They wouldn't allow God's Spirit to quicken them with the truth. Remember and recall several different times the Lord said, Go speak to this one. Go speak to that one. and one man I knew he couldn't even speak Spanish but I went up to him and I said sir are you a Christian? the Lord had already told me he was dead but to prompt the conversation I said sir are you a Christian? he said no comprendo and the way he said it I knew he wasn't Spanish because it knew that much no comprendo I knew enough to know that he's saying I don't comprehend what you're saying so shut up he didn't want to hear it I said sir Jesus Christ loves you he died for you to come to him so you see there are those who never allowed their consciences to be quickened with the life giving seed of God's spirit to allow their darkened souls to be enlightened with the truth that they need their Savior and that Christ loves them. And the other category of the dead conscience is those who have been quickened but now are dead. They have been quickened with the life-giving seed, so once saved, always saved is not the truth. Once saved, always saved is a lie that has infiltrated the church in many denominations. And people cling to this and they live life as they want to, believing that since they received Jesus Christ as Savior, now they are saved. Once saved, always saved, they can live life hell on earth. But when in fact they're dead. And Judas Iscariot was one of those. sat, walked with the Master. See, they heard the truth. They knew the truth. They accepted the truth, but they departed from it because of the cares of the world, pride of life, and so on. They loved what the world had to offer. They tasted every day to see that it was good rather than taste and see that Christ our Savior is very good and sweet. You see, the pure and undefiled conscience must rule our new nature, which is founded and grounded and rooted in Jesus Christ. And this is what Paul was talking about in 1 Timothy 1.5 when he says, Whereas the object and purpose of our instruction and charge is love, which springs from a pure and clear good conscience and sincere unfeigned faith. Paul's life was living and vibrant with love. It pulsated with love for his Messiah and his Master. And his conscience was clear of offense of man and clear in its direction of where he was going, what he was going to do and for whom he was doing it. Hallelujah. and his heart was pure in his motive and that was to bring the lost to his redeemer and to ground them in the truth and warn them of the deceivers and the apostates who would be there to steal them off the track. And his heart was simply deeply seated above and without compromise in living his daily life or making allowances or justifying sin or making excuses for falling into temptation. and for this he could not be faulted. His conscience was clear and his motives were pure. A good conscience is something that you must exercise daily, dear ones, if you wish to keep it. Acts 24, 16, Paul declares, Therefore I always exercise. Always, he said, always. exercise and discipline myself, mortifying my body, deadening my carnal affections and bodily appetites and worldly desires, endeavoring in all respects to have a clear, unshakable, blameless conscience void of offense towards God and men. now our consciences then in order to be true to our own estimation or evaluation must not be lukewarm by having one foot in the world which is again Satan's system of evil and superstition but our consciences must be ruled by the word of God and God's will if we are to judge ourselves honestly and sincerely. Otherwise, we will be self-deceived, believing that we are on the road to eternal life, only to be shocked by sudden reality of eternal gloom and doom. And if your conscience is ruled by the standards, by the norm of what goes on today or what is common, or normal in today's society, or in the corrupt church that compromises the truth of God, then you have a fallen or a bad conscience, and you will not be able to truthfully and honestly evaluate your own heart because you have a double standard, and it is perverted in God's eyes and by His standards for His holy people. Having a good conscience is essential to true Christian spiritual growth, to his peace and power in Christ and his effectiveness and usefulness in God's kingdom. It is absolutely essential having a good conscience. It's kind of like this with our consciences. without our physical senses, we would never feel our connection with the material universe or the material world as we see it or know it. Without our senses, we could never experience the green grass under our feet or the blue skies overhead that completely surround us and engulf us. and so it is with our consciences. We would have no idea of either God's wonderful government in our lives nor for that matter of God himself altogether. Proverbs 14.12 declares there is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him but at the end of it is the way of death. without a clear conscience, a pure conscience. It's like being born blind and deaf and the idea of beauty and sweet words and sounds of nature that give us awareness of a great and living God who created these things was given to awaken our consciences to the fact that He exists and He created us to have relationship and fellowship with Himself. But having a good conscience indicates several things here, precious ones. It means that you are going to have the right judgment of mind in deciphering and respecting right and wrong, and that you will make right choices based upon the moral truth founded in God's Word. And the one having a good conscience will instantly condemn the wrong choices that will come along in everyday life. and the one with the bad conscience will approve them and go along with the offer and temptation to do wrong or evil, to chew on it, to feed on it, to lay your eyes on it, to incline to hear it. And this is where you will be able to judge or examine your own heart in this present moment. If your spirit is properly enlightened to know the difference between right and wrong and is not under the dominion or the rulership of ignorance and superstition or legalism or fanaticism or that it is being prompted to violate the divine laws of God's truth which dictates that his truth must be obeyed and the proof of our love for him is rooted in this, then you may properly evaluate the mandate to examine your own heart with a clear conscience. You see, under an unenlightened and misguided conscience, only a masquerade of Christianity with the most atrocious crimes against God and His people have been committed. and no one should infer or think that he or she is doing right because they're following their conscience. And so those who are doing these things think because they are following their conscience that they're okay with God. But that's a misguided, unenlightened conscience. And no one should act against the dictates of his conscience. but where there are many who have not had their consciences purified and sanctified by the revelation of the truth of the living God, therefore, and again, their consciences are not in right alignment with righteousness to discern what is right according to God's holy standards. So let's get this right and understand that conscience is not a revelation. And nor does it answer the purpose of a revelation. It communicates no new truth to your spirit or your soul. but it is a safe guide only as far as your mind is concerned where it's been enlightened to see and know the difference between right and wrong and the holy from the profane and the purpose of your conscience is to prompt you to the performance of responsibility according to God's word not according to what you think is right and wrong but according to God's Word, what is right and wrong. Remember, God has a standard that we are called to obey, precious ones. And it is not an option to be tried out or considered. It is a mandate or an order from the captain or the general, and Jesus Christ is the captain of our salvation. You cannot have a pure conscience without having faith in the captain of your salvation. No way can you have a pure conscience without having faith in Christ and living in Christ. You cannot have a good and clear conscience if you're not following Christ's orders without having strict adherence and without compromise. You cannot reach honest and true faith in your captain through your good conscience. Do you hear that? You can't reach honest and true faith in Christ through your good conscience because your good conscience comes through faith in Christ, not in your good conscience. and a good conscience grows like faith like fruit grows on a tree not faith on a good conscience it like a compass without faith it is impossible to please god it does not say without a pure good conscience it impossible to please God But without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith in His Son Jesus Christ. So your good conscience does not produce faith because only honest and pure faith will or can produce a good conscience that is impartially able to examine your own heart and determine where you stand in the faith. A pure conscience is impartial, honest and pure faith in God and in His Word produces good fruit. So good fruit in your life, that is the fruit of God's Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, long-suffering, and so forth. That's where our good fruit is founded. now in parting I believe I must share one of the greatest Bible characters of all times besides our Lord Jesus Christ who represented the outstanding example of one who had an excellent spirit and was elevated to a high position because God could trust him and this man is Daniel he was tried and his faith in God proved to be genuine and very real. The scripture in Daniel 6.3 says that Daniel was distinguished above the president and the ruler because of an excellent spirit that was in him and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Now this is saying of an excellent spirit being in Daniel. It's saying that he had a good conscience. Daniel had a good conscience and was able to make good choices regarding his faith in God. Now a good conscience is something more than a sincere conscience, dear church. Many sincere consciences are bad consciences because they are sincerely wrong in their choices and decisions which lead to sin. Daniel gives us insight into our subject regarding a good conscience which allows us to honestly evaluate the command to examine our own hearts. We see in Daniel's account in Scripture that he was inflexibly honest and upright in all of his transactions with man and especially with his God. You see, where there is true loyalty to God, there will be honesty towards men. Daniel's right choices invoke the antagonism of unjust or evil men around him. And this is ultimately what led up to the crucifixion of our precious Savior. Daniel was bulletproof when it came to his loyalty in God. In extreme danger, he did nothing. But he just went on with what was right to do in his life, regardless of what the outcome might be. He didn't bow to the whims of those around him, and he didn't go along with their worldly ways, but he set the example and would not offend God by his choices. Daniel exemplified a fervent and a fiery hot passion towards God in his faith and even in his worship, even when it was not a popular thing to do. We see where his unyielding and unbending faith in God shows that he had a spirit of self-control and high spiritual standards that pulsate with loyalty and reverent fear to the God in whom he served. He kept his body under control and he kept his eyes upward. Daniel held the mastery of his animal nature in check when the temptation of the king's food came to him and also showed that he refused payment from the king for proclaiming his God-given message once he interpreted the handwriting on the wall. Daniel would not succumb to selling the truth because the truth is not for sale. Grie and covetousness was not found in Daniel. He's a good lesson for all young men who purport to be Christian and who would do well to learn from his example to invest their time wisely by tending to what they are laying their eyes on and inclining their ears to hear. Daniel was a true man of God. He had a spirit of genuine purity, and what he professed, he lived. He lived without compromise, and he represents a prime example of one having a good and clear conscience, who was tempted and tried, and yet was able to examine his own heart when he came out of the lion's den untouched, and said to the king, My God has sent his angels and has shut the mouth of the lions so they would not have hurt me because I was found innocent and blameless before him and also before you, O king, as you very well know, I have done no harm or wrong. Well, Daniel's way of life had not offended God and he knew that he stood innocent before him not on his own merits, but according to God's commands and his love for his God to please him and keep his life free of sin. You see, sin offends God, dear ones. But Daniel knew that the testimony of his own conscience concerning his sincere and pure evaluation of his declaration when he said to the king, My God has sent his angels and shut the mouths of the lions so they will not have hurt me because I was found innocent and blameless before him. Daniel's conscience was also clear in the fair and honest service and treatment of the king whom he served. He stood blameless before the king. He stood blameless before God and men. Dear ones, can you say that about yourself today? You see, Daniel's faith in God carried him through all of his troubles, and he never once, not once, lost confidence in God. He didn't sit in the midst of the lion's den with a fearful heart, mistrusting or begging God to deliver him out of the mess, nor did he have confusion or doubt in what or who he believed in. Let me say this in closing. If your faith is established in Christ and you are deeply concerned about the condition of your conscience in being able to examine the state or standing of your own heart or soul as it is soundly based in God's Word, then I say to you, be anxiously vigilant against all evil, against all temptation, against all sin, and be ever so watchful as to all opportunities to do good and speak kindly to one another every day. Your conscience should be guarded with extreme care and should be guarded with great jealousy. Let your constant concern be to live and act under the watchful eye of the captain of your faith and obey his commands with unwavering and uncompromising allegiance. Jesus Christ is the very one to whom all things are laid open, made bare and naked, and the one to whom you and I must give account in the way that we lived according to his truth. And let me tell you this, we cannot pass off hypocrisy for sincerity. Christ will judge you and me according to his truth and the way we lived it, not according to our appearance and how right we are from our own minds of reason. Christ's holiness and righteousness is the plumb line here, dear church. we are living in the days that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24 and these days just ahead are going to usher in a time America has never seen or known before we are living in perilous times to say the least and many professing Christians are going to be shocked at what will come and will come suddenly upon them because they were not tending to the warning to examine their own hearts. We cannot pet sinful practices and deceive ourselves to think that God loves me just the way I am. Or the saying that, oh, God knows my heart sort of thing and continue on in sin, compromising and justifying that sin. When you came to Christ initially, he said, Behold, I make all things new. The newness of your heart depends on your diligence in cooperating with the Holy Spirit who has given to you to bring life and change to the fallen nature within your soul. And this fallen nature is due to sin in your life and only the divine and supernatural intervention, internal change by way of the Holy Spirit, will allow you to see the truth, and it is only the truth that will set you free. Free of what? Free of sin, of bondage, of hatred, of strife, of jealousy, greed, covetousness, perversion, and the list goes on. Sin that remains robs you of having a good clear conscience that affords you the divine ability to give fair and honest evaluation of the mandate in 2 Corinthians 13.5, our subject today. and that again is to examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you're holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test to prove yourselves, not Christ. Do you not yourselves realize and know thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience that Jesus Christ is in you unless you are counterfeits or a reprobate, disapproved on trial and rejected? And lastly, I exhort you, dear church, to be diligent and habitual in the work of self-examination in regards to sin in your life, lest you be found a hypocrite, a counterfeit or a reprobate, who is disapproved and rejected on the day that you stand before your great judge. and let this examination of your own heart or soul be without compromise, be without excuse and without self-justification. Then you shall know always and only then that the examination of your heart in regards to sinful ways, to wrong decisions, to self-justification and compromise will be with an honest and sincere evaluation because it is the result of a life that you are now presently living in Christ. He is the one who is the captain of your salvation, the guardian of your soul, and your soon-coming judge and high priest to whom you will give account. May we all, with good and pure consciences, be able to stand confidently before Jesus on that day and say, as Daniel said, I was found innocent and blameless before him. Thank you.

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