It is a blessing to be here this morning. We praise the Lord for the invitation and all the accommodations that the Church has bestowed upon us. I certainly rejoice in the privilege to be here with y'all. Thirty-five to forty minutes, boy. Well, you got me going already? Okay, I'll leave this alone. Man, he don't even give a fellow a break, does he? Well, let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 13, then. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. It's interesting, the tenor of these messages. We need to pay attention to that. The Lord, the messages that we heard last night, this message that the Lord's given me, this is the only one He's given me for this service. As a matter of fact, I tried to change it last night at midnight. He wouldn't let me. This is some hard preaching on the church. And it's not just on the church. There's a lot of churches represented here. Me, I'm here. It's for me, too. I mentioned Brother Frank last night. I thought he was going to start on my members, and it turned to me, and I'm serious about that. We need to heed the Word of God. We need to pay attention to what he's doing. Because I'm going to tell you, Satan is after his churches. Satan is after the Lord's churches. Don't you think for a minute he's not after it. And like Brother Frank said last night, you know how he's accomplishing it? From within. Let's heed these messages, brothers and sisters. If we truly love the Lord's Church, we want it to exist. Continue. We know that it will. But don't we want to be a part of it existing? Don't we want to be a part of it progressing? What a blessing to be a part of the Lord's Church and to see the progression of it throughout the years for our children, for our grandchildren, and on until the Lord comes. If we really care, really, It's not just some religious action that we're going through. We really care. We better pay attention because the Lord is telling us something. He's instructing us and directing us. Second Corinthians, chapter 13, and what I'm about to say is is is pointed directly inside the church, not outside. We all often time we look to the outside. But do you know the greatest enemy to true Christianity? Religion. Not just religion without, and not just everybody else, you know. Religion within. Vain religion within the Lord's Church. The greatest enemy to Christ on the earth is religion. It's religion. 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 5. Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. Now I pray to God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates." If you're familiar with these letters, and I pray that you are somewhat familiar with these letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church of Corinth, you understand some of the issues that the Apostle was dealing with and he was discussing with this church in these letters. He refers actually to some of them in those few little verses that we just read. He evidently, the Apostle Paul, now get this, he evidently didn't live up to some of their expectations. The Apostle Paul, one of the greatest, greatest Christians, that this earth has ever known, really. He didn't live up to this church that was in Corinth, the true New Testament church. He didn't live up to some of the members' expectations. When he came to them, they accused him of being too soft. They thought he should have come and really knocked their socks off. They complained that he didn't come to them and scorched them with fire, evidently. But the irony is, if he had have come that way, They would have complained about that, too, because the reality, if you read these letters to the church of Corinth, it had become all about them, me, myself and I. And when people get like that and when we get like that, you can't satisfy them. You can't satisfy them. Well, the Apostle Paul here is trying to set their minds straight and trying to allow them to see how they are really acting to the Lord's New Testament church at this time. And as a matter of fact, how they were acting is repeated several times in this passage. It's called being a reprobate. A reprobate. Let me give you a few other verses that describe this condition. Romans 1, 28. Now listen closely to these verses. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. to do those things which are not convenient. Now, when we read that verse, we start looking out here in this world. And rightly so. We can look out this world, but we better look closer than that. Because the Apostle Paul is addressing Christians within the Lord's New Testament Church. So the Holy Spirit is addressing Christians, believers, saints within the Lord's New Testament Church. There's a warning here for us. 2 Timothy 3.8 says, Now as Janice and Jambres withstood Moses, So do these also resist the truth. They resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. Titus 1 16. They profess that they know God. They have religion, but in works they deny him. Being abominable, I can't even say that word, and disobedient and to and unto every good work reprobate. The word rendered here, reprobate, in our text, it means cast away, rejected, but here it really is. Not standing the test. Not approved. That which does not prove itself such as it ought. That's the actual definition. Unfit for. Unproved. Spurious. Reprobate. He was saying, the Apostle Paul was saying to certain members of this true New Testament church at Corinth, he said, you're acting like people who do not stand the test. You do not stand the test of being the children of God. Brothers and sisters, we are the children of God. We are the sons and daughters of God. That means we should possess His character. Isn't that right? But he was saying to them, you do not stand the test of being children of God. And you know, there's something that we should all realize about the Church of Corinth. If we if you have studied these letters, you should realize that this church, the Church of Corinth, resembles modern New Testament churches, perhaps more than any other church in scripture. You may say, well, wait a minute, Church of Corinth, that's the church with all the problems. Yeah, it is. We have the same problems today. Study the letters. We have the same problems today. We have the same mindset today. The same mindset that was there then is in our churches today. The same sins that is there that are pointed out are in our churches today. The same carnality. He was telling them, you're too carnal. You've got too much world in you. Same problem. So it's imperative then that we Ask ourselves, do we look like each one of us? If you profess to be a believer, you need to examine yourselves and ask yourself the question, do I look like, do I act like a reprobate? Do I possess any of the traits of these reprobates that we just heard about in these verses? Notice with me, verse five, examine yourselves. Whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you're not your own selves. How that Jesus Christ is in you. Accept you. Accept you be reprobates. First of all, I want you to know something very important here. It's imperative that you understand this. First of all, notice this is a present tense command. A present tense command. Examine yourselves now. Now. Prove yourselves now. To see now if you be in the faith. The reality is today in the religious world that we live in and the religion within, even in the churches, it's actually a symptom of the religious system that exists in some of our churches and perhaps in some form in all of our churches. When one is asked to examine himself, he looks back. He looks back. He looks back to a day. He looks back to a day when he made a religious motion. He looks back to a day when he walked an aisle, or said the ABCs, or 1-2-3s, or whatever, or said a prayer. He looks back to that day, to that time, even to the time when he was baptized. And here's the thing, the reality is that many who have walked an aisle, many who have said the ABCs and 1-2-3, many who have said a prayer that a preacher told them to pray, Many who have been baptized are indeed today reprobates. They are. They did not stand the test of a child of God. And they'll also tell you when you ask about the profession, well, I would say when I was younger, but I'm not really all that religious anymore. That's a reprobate. That's a reprobate. The fact is, true Christianity is a supernatural gift of God. And that gift that God gives us only and solely by His sovereign grace, it is a persevering gift. It is a persevering gift. It does stand the test. Now, that's not to say we can't fail. That's not to say we can't fall into sin. That's not to say that we can't fall out of fellowship with the Lord's churches, even bring its discipline upon us. And when that's the case, it is just as Paul says in verse seven, we are as reprobates. We are. We look like we act like reprobates, but brothers and sisters, children of God, we should know how shameful that is. We are the children of God. He has saved us. He washed us with the blood of His Son. He sent His Son to give Himself for us. And He did that for us. He saved us by His Son. He took us from the fires of hell itself. And here we are acting like a child of Satan. What a shameful thing that is. A person in whom the Spirit of God dwells, grieving and quenching the spirit By his sinful life, you understand we can grieve the spirit. We can quench the spirit by our sinful lives. When that happens, it'll break our hearts. It'll break our heart to dishonor. Our Savior's name that bought us with His precious blood. Do you know what Jesus Christ went through to save you? Do you know what God has done? I know it's been made a little thing in religion today, but is it a little thing in your heart? What God has done to save you from yourself and save you from your sin and save you from His wrath that is to come and save you from eternal hell and judgment. Do you understand what Jesus Christ has done? And you would just throw that away, put that aside and go about in your sin, acting as a child of Satan? Not standing the test when we do that. We act like a reprobate. Hebrews chapter 10 explains it so clearly. And man, it ought to break our hearts. For if we, in Hebrews 10, verse 26, for if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sore punishment. Suppose ye, child of God, Of how much sore punishment, suppose ye shall be thought worthy who had trodden underfoot the Son of God and had counted the blood of the covenant wherewith He was sanctified. You counted His blood as an unholy thing and a common thing and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace. You understand that's what we do when we walk in our sin. We literally say the blood of Christ is nothing. It's nothing. I'll walk right over. I'll run right over back to my sin. We count it as a common thing. Lord, help us. Help us. You don't break our heart. It ought to break our hearts so much so that we must take this command, the present tense command, to examine ourselves, prove ourselves, seek out our own self to see if the Spirit of God does indeed dwell in you. We have to take to heart. God didn't write this word for us just to take it or leave it. You are a child of God. God wrote this word to you. He wrote to me. He wrote it for me. And what we read in it, we have to take it to heart. Examine yourself. See whether you be in the faith or whether you're a reprobate, or whether you're acting like one. I would say, if you're indeed a reprobate, you've kind of got an excuse. You're a reprobate. You're dead in your sins. But if you're a child of God, if the blood of Christ has been applied to you by the power and the grace and the Spirit of God, you're without excuse. I'm without excuse. True salvation. Listen, the proof of your salvation is not in the past. Stop looking back. It's not in the past, it's in the present. There are multitudes of lost people bound for hell right now. Who can look in their past and say, well, I did that then. I was saved then. But upon examination of their present life, there's absolutely no evidence of it. So what is it if we too can look at our past What does that mean? If we see those same evidences, they're bound for hell. What does it mean if we can see those same evidences in the past? We have no more assurance than they do. We have to look right now. Right now. What's your right now? Matter of fact, another apostle wrote in great detail about this very thing. John. Turn to 1 John. 1 John chapter 2. He speaks of those who were either reprobate or were acting like them. He speaks of them in 1 John 2, verse 18. 1 John 2, verse 18. Little children, it is the last time, and as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come even now, or there are many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. Notice what it says. They went out from us. But they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. What's he saying? So they did not stand the test of time. And we could say, well, yeah, these members, we've had them, we've had them come. What about right now? I'm persuaded that there are people sitting on church pews this morning that are not of us. That have gone out for us, really. I mean, they're here in body, but that's all. They're just coming, you know, no more than coming to Mass and clicking your time clock off. Punching your car. That's all it is. There are those, he says, that have not stood the test of time. But flip back to chapter 2, verse 1. There are some things that He gives us here that helps us to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith. And I want to point out just three of them here. Chapter 2, verse 1, My little children, these things I write unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. I know there are those that say, ooh, you Calvinists, you must hate that verse. Well, for one thing, I'm not a Calvinist. I'm a Baptist. For the second, I don't hate that verse. I love that verse. You know why? You know what that means? As far as I know, I'm a Gentile. And if Christ has not come to save the whole world without distinction, not without exception, without distinction, he did not do that, then there's no hope for us Gentiles. But the good news is, Christ has come for Jew and Gentiles to save the people from every nation and every tribe. That's wonderful news. But that's another subject for another time. Verse 3, And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him, barely is the love of God perfected. Hereby we know, hereby know we that we are in him. He knows everything about this present tense. None of this past tense. This is how you know today, presently, that you are in him, that you are in Christ, that you are a true child of God, if you keep his commandments. If you keep Christ's commandments. Did He not tell us? If you love Me, keep My commandments. Do you love? Do you presently love the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you presently love Him? Now, understand, this keeping of the commandments is not the perfect keeping of God's law because verses 1 and 2 speak of sin. It speaks of the forgiveness of sins. It speaks of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to eradicate our sin in all of its forms. This keeping of the law is guarding God's Word, which means, this is what it means, this Word, this book that we have before us and its truth and its author really means something to us. Does this book mean something to you? Is it your final rule of practice and faith? Is it this book? Not well, I know God's Word says it. I know the Bible says this, but you know, That's an old, outdated book. Now, does it mean to say something to you presently? Is it God's Word to you? Is it your Creator, your Owner, your Ruler, your Governor? Is it His Word to you? Is it His Word to your life? A true child of God is a present keeper, a present guardian of God's Word. Is that true of you? Not in the past. Right now, this Word, the truth of this Word, the God of this Word, does He mean something to you? Is He your God? Is He your Lord? I'm told that this Word here rendered cheap in verses 4 and 5. It has a nautical background to it. When a mariner wanted to keep a certain course, he'd study and watch the stars to guide his way. That would keep him in the right heading. That's what it means. It meant something to him. It didn't just mean something to him yesterday. He's got to study the stars today to keep that heading in the right way or he's going to be off course. Boy, that's the truth of God's Word. We've got to keep the heading today. We've got to guard this Word today. It has to mean something to us today. A true child of God is not someone who has studied, not someone who has read God's Word. Once upon a time was a follower, a student of God's Word. But a true child of God is one who is presently studying, presently learning, a present student of the Word of God. He is presently seeking to be a follower of the Word of God. He is actively, right now, this moment, guarding God's Word. Is that you? Is that you? If you love me, keep my commandments. Right now, a true child of God is actively, presently looking for God's direction. How? Through God's Word. Not what I think. Not what some man thinks if it's against this Word. But what does God think? What is God saying? What is He teaching? All of these things are present tense. There's nothing past tense. It's all present. A true child of God is a present keeper, present guardian of God's Word. Then verse six, he that saith he abideth in him presently, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked, even as he walked, Christ walked. Even as Christ walked. A true child of God is presently a follower of Christ. He's seeking, desiring to walk as Christ walked. Well, how did Christ walk? Well, if you boil it all down, put it all together, you can sum it up like this. He walked in perfect obedience. He walked in perfect obedience. Brothers and sisters, is there any disobedience in your life? Is there disobedience in your life? Is there an area in your life that you just can't seem to listen and to obey your heavenly Father? And I know we don't like to get personal. We don't like to talk like that. We don't even like to talk to God like that. We think we can hide it from Him. Maybe it's the motive. Maybe it's not the action. Maybe it's the motive. A true child of God is presently seeking to walk as Christ, and Christ walked in perfect obedience. So what's the area in your life that you just can't seem to obey? You remember the rest of those verses we read in the beginning, it says, describing the reprobate, they did not retain knowledge or not retain God in their knowledge. He meant nothing to them. They resisted the truth. They were disobedient. Surely, when we examine ourselves, sometimes we may find those areas of disobedience That should break your heart. We should be actively, presently trying with all that we are, as God would lead us. My brother Frank, are we doing all that we can? Can any of us say that we're doing all that we can to eradicate the sin in our life? We should be presently, actively trying and repenting, repenting from disobedience. As a matter of fact, children of God, we know who God is, right? I know your pastor teaches you who the true God is. I know He does. I know these pastors that are here teach their churches who the true God is. Then you should know that He is God. He is Lord. You don't make Him Lord. He is Lord. He is God. He is the Almighty. He is the Sovereign. He is the Supreme. He is the One who rules everything without exception. He gives you breath and He gives you life. And I'll tell you something else, He's right. Everything that He says, He's right. This book is right and there ain't nothing wrong about it. He's right. He's right. If you know who God is, if you truly know Him, you know He's right. So why would you want to continue to walk in disobedience? Because He's right. Everything that He has put in this book is not to harm you, child of God. It's to help you. It's good for you. Well, I would rather do it this way and I would rather do it this way. Well, you know all these people, they're doing it this way. All of those things will bring destruction upon your life. What God says will bring you joy. There's satisfaction in here because there's satisfaction in the true God of heaven and earth. He is the supreme satisfaction. If you want a fulfilled life, follow Him. Follow Him. If you want a life that really matters, follow Him. If you want a life that's not wasted, follow Christ. Oh, but I've got to get out of here. I've got to do this. No, follow Christ. Follow Christ. Put away the things of the world. Put away your sin. Turn from your disobedience. Repentance is not a past tense thing. Repentance is a right now, constant, present thing, and it always will be as long as we are in this flesh. Repent. It's not something you have done. I pray you have done it, but you better be doing it now. I mean, just ask yourself. If the Spirit of Christ dwells within you, that is the spirit of perfect obedience. If He really dwells within you, can you be satisfied to be disobedient? Do you think you really can be okay in disobedience if the Spirit of Christ dwells in you? I can tell you by personal experience, no, you can't. You can't. Do you want to be obedient? I want to be obedient. May the Lord help us. May He give us grace and strength to be presently, actively seeking to walk, to follow Christ in obedience to our God and His guarded Word. And then verse 8. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, Because the darkness has passed, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes." We know, present tense, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love, present tense, we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. That's pretty straightforward, ain't it? Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him presently. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives. for the brethren. We are to spend and be spent for the brethren. Chapter 4, verse 20, if a man say, I love God, I'm a true child of God, I love God, I'm a believer, I'm a saint. If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." Wow, that's a lot. The Lord has a lot to say about that thing, doesn't He? Yeah, because it's so important. A true child of God is a present lover of a brother. Do we love our brothers and sisters in Christ? Let me narrow it down a little further, make it a little easier for you. Do we love the church? I want to tell you something. A professing child of God that has no love for the Lord's church, a professing child of God that doesn't want to be a part of the Lord's church has a real problem. According to the Scriptures that we're reading, he either is a reprobate or he's acting like one. That's the reality. Again, if we have the Spirit of Christ in us, and if you're a believer, you own the Spirit of Christ. He lives and abides in you. If we have the Spirit of Christ in us, Christ loves His church, doesn't He? Shame on modern religion that has made the church into something that you can just throw away. You can take it if you want to. You can take it or leave it. The New Testament doesn't bear that out. As a matter of fact, the New Testament doesn't hardly know a believer outside of the Lord's Church. Christ loves His Church so much. Number one, He founded her through great adversity. And then He gave Himself for her. And He promised His unending presence with her. He promised His unending protection over her. She is His bride and He is her groom. If you don't love the Lord's Church, and the Lord's Church is His people within that body, if you don't love the Lord's Church, you've got a serious problem. Because if the Spirit of Christ truly dwells in us, will we not also love the Lord's Church? Again, I know there can be times of failing, but that can't persist. Will we not also love the Lord's people? You know what? Glory. Eternity will be full of them. A lot of people today say they want to go to heaven. They ain't going to like it very much. For one, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be the preeminent one there. It ain't going to be them. They're going for the pearly gates and the streets of gold and the mansions just over the hilltop. That'll be nothing. Nothing when we see the King in His glory. Nothing. And then you know what's second there to Him? His people. His church. His bride. If you don't love the Lord's church, you've got a serious problem, I'm telling you. Again, if we get to where we're spreading all this out and looking everywhere else, no, no, no, no. If we don't love the Lord's church. If you presently, actively, don't love the Lord's church, you're either a reprobate or you're acting like one. Do we see these present, active proofs of a true child of God? Not what we used to do, not what we used to think, not what we used to believe, but now presently. Now presently, are we presently guarding, keeping the precious Word of God? Does it really mean something to us? Is this book truly precious to you? I mean truly precious to you? Is it valuable to you? Lord, help us that we realize what this book is. We can't even get that right. We don't approach this book like we all do. We don't. I don't. Maybe you do. I'm going to say you don't. It's God's Word. It came from His lips. That's how He pictures it. He breathed it off His lip. And I'm a child of God and I can take it or leave it. I'm telling you. You ain't going to get away with that. He said He esteems this higher than His name. I'm going to tell you, God is committed first and foremost to His own glory. That's His name. But He esteems His Word higher than that. I don't know how high that is, but it's serious stuff. Serious stuff. Does the Word of God mean to you something? Are you presently walking following Christ? Walking as He walked in obedience to your Heavenly Father? Do we presently love? And the definition of love is in 1 Corinthians 13. Do we love like that? Our brothers and sisters? In Christ, yes, yes, you say, oh, that we could say yes. Oh, that by the Spirit of God, might it truly be that we could say yes. Yes, I can examine myself and I can see that in my life. If it's yes, then we must remain. We must persevere. 1 John 2, 24. Let us therefore abide, let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning." Ooh, watch this word, if. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he has promised even eternal life. And that's all conditioned on that if. That present tense if. Colossians 119, for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell in Christ, and having made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Glorious thing that is, but it don't stop there. Next word is if. If. If you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am a minister. If present tense. If you continue. Conditioned on that if. If you continue, John 8 31, then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, if. If you continue presently in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. First Timothy 4 16. Take heed unto thyself present tense. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this. What's that, this? Continuing in them. For in doing this, listen to what it's about to say. If you continue in them, in doing that, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Romans 11, 22, Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God on them which felt severity, but toward thee, goodness. If, there it is again, over and over and over and over, the same truth. If thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shall be cut off." You might say, well, I believe in grace. Yes, I do too. That's the only salvation there is, is by grace. Those verses are not works to keep your salvation. It's not worse to keep your salvation. This is what those verses I just read to you and what this whole message is about is the present tense perseverance of the saints. It's the grace that God gives us, but it's still there. There's still a condition, which means there's still a responsibility. Yes, I believe in the sovereignty of God. Absolutely, I do. But I also believe in the responsibility of man and the fact that he's sovereign enforces that responsibility. Remember the Parable of the Talents, that last fellow that said, well, I knew you were something else, so I hid your money. You know what he was? He was a hypercalvinist. That's what he was. No, he said, don't you understand? If you knew who I was, then you would have done what I told you to do. There's responsibility to that sovereignty. In reality, this if is... If we don't continue in the faith, if we don't persevere, if we don't continue, then we never had it to begin with. We never had it to begin with. We may have religion. A lot of people have religion that don't have Christ. Examine yourselves. That's what Paul is speaking of in our text. We must continue to stand the test of our profession, lest we indeed are reprobates or seem to be one, acting like one. May the Lord grant us His persevering grace. We certainly need it. You know Christ is coming. He's coming. Examine yourselves now, presently, actively. May the Lord bless us.