 The title of our sermon this morning is Are You in the Faith? Are You in the Faith? Our text is 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verses 5 through 10. Are You in the Faith? As we come to this text, 2 Corinthians chapter 13, specifically this paragraph from verse 5 and verse 10, we realize together that we've spent nearly two years now in the second letter of Paul to this church at Corinth. It's amazing to think how quickly the time has gone for what a blessed time it's been. And as I think back over the last two years together, being able to study this letter in such detail as we have by the grace of God, there are several things about this study that I've been extremely grateful for. I pray that you've been blessed by the study that you're grateful as well. This is the Lord's blessing to us. And I'm very grateful for many things about this letter, the second section of the book. In chapter 2 verse 14 through chapter 7 really, one of my favorite sections of text in all the Bible for its theology. Just wonderful, beautiful, glorious, Christ exalting theology. We have the fullest treatment of grace-fueled, Christ-motivated giving anywhere in the New Testament, given in chapters 8 and 9. The perspective that we've been given on Christians, suffering, the recurring theme throughout the letter of strength through weakness, the whole letter really start to finish. A beautiful, wonderful exposition of Christian ministry. Not just the ministry of the pastor, but the ministry of everyone called in the name of Christ to serve the Lord's church. What we're here in the church to do, and why we are here in the church doing it, it's beautifully portrayed throughout this letter. The church at Corinth would have been a tough pastoral assignment. So often agonizing. The agony compounded by heartbreak and heartache. The people were saved out of the midst of pagan idolatry. They were saved to serve in a city that was overrun by pagan idolatry. It's not unlike the context that we find ourselves in today. But the thing that has been most impactful to me I think in studying the letter of 2 Corinthians has been the example of the apostle Paul. What a tremendous example that Paul is to believers and to pastors. The letter opens in chapter 1 with the account of the trial that Paul faced in ministry where Paul thought for sure that he was going to die. What was Paul's response to that trial? It was the Lord teaching us not to trust in ourselves, but to trust in God who raises the dead. That pretty much sums up Paul's outlook in Christian ministry. It sums up Paul's outlook on life, doesn't it? We are always powerless, and he's the one who raises the dead. It's a wondrous testimony of faith. Paul wholeheartedly, entirelessly loved the congregation in Corinth. He had begotten them through the gospel. They were like his spiritual children and Paul likened himself as to his spiritual father among them. So he labored for them. He'd labored for them. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 11 he said to them, to the present hour we both hunger and thirst. We are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless. Why? Right? We labor, Paul says, working with our own hands. Being reviled we bless. Being persecuted we endure. Being defamed we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all things until now. So I do not write these things to shame you. But as my beloved children, I warn you, for though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. I'm it, Paul says, right? For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. That's all Paul loved them. Paul often warned them. Why did Paul warn them? Because he loved them. He warned them because he loved them. He knew what was at stake. He knew the spiritual danger that they were in. He knew the precipice of apostasy on which they seemingly so often stood. And he knew what the outcome would be if they persisted in their sin. He warned them. He exhorted them. He pleaded with them. He implored them. He endured their disrespect. He endured their doubts. He endured their distrust. And when they no longer wanted to hear from him, he patiently preached truth to them and continued to preach truth and continued to preach truth. When false teachers came in to Corinth and lured their hearts away from him, Paul endured their heart-hearted, cold-hearted distance and said, I will gladly spend and be spent for your souls, even though the more abundantly that I love you, the less that I'm loved. But more, more than merely enduring all their shameful sin and failure, it was obvious that Paul tirelessly loved them through it, not simply endured it, but loved them through it and labored to see it reversed, ministering to them with sacrificial love with unwavering faith, with tremendous patience, uncompromising commitment, unparalleled devotion of the Lord into the Lord's cause, a thoroughly Christ-centered focus in everything that he's doing, doing whatever that he can for their joy, for their good, working together with them for their joy. And it's with an eye to this example among them that Paul says to them, and to us, imitate me, imitate me, imitate me as I imitate Christ, right, imitate me. And Paul has been through a lot with this church at Corinth. We saw last week that he's preparing to visit with them a third time now, laboring with them again. Paul again is concerned about where they are spiritually. He's concerned about what condition he's going to find them in when he shows up the third time. But he has been long suffering with them, a tremendous example of patience. But there's a point, Paul knows it, we know it. There's a point at which further patience becomes counterproductive. And so Paul applies a principle from the law to his own experience with the Corinthians. He says, this will be my third visit to you, and by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word, every judgment shall be established. I'm writing to those, Paul says, who have been persisting in sin all this time. Writing to you who are unrepentant, and to all the rest, that when I come this time I must take action. I will not spare. It's for their good. Why does Paul do this? Because he loves them. Why does Paul do this? He loves the church. He loves the Lord. He loves the Lord's people. It's necessary work. Even these statements, statements that would sound harsh, statements that would sound authoritarian to the godless, this godless world, statements that would sound harsh or authoritarian to professing Christians that have a whimsical pie in the sky kind of notion of what genuine love is. Even though these statements would sound harsh to them, these statements reflect the love of Christ to this wayward, beleaguered church. It's the it's the grace and mercy of God to them yet again. It's in this love and in this care for these people that motivates the apostle Paul to his next statement in chapter 13, verse 5, where Paul says there, examine yourselves. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not yourselves know that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified? And many professing Christians today would respond to that kind of a question with a kind of self-righteous indignation, right? How dare you question my salvation? How dare you? And that response actually communicates a lot about where they are spiritually, right? Communicates a lot about what their spiritual condition actually is. Some would say that we should never question our salvation. Why would you ever question your salvation? It's like a failure of faith to do so. If you question your salvation, the devil, the devil is the one who makes us doubt, right? You shouldn't question your salvation. And if you question your salvation and it's a failure of faith, Paul is commanding them to examine themselves in our text. For others, for many, to question their salvation or to call for a self-examination is to hammer away, hammer and chisel at the self-justifying defenses that they have carefully built up around their deceitful and deceiving hearts. You see? Spend our time building up concrete walls around our heart to keep us from the truth. They've walled themselves in behind a defense of deception and a call to self-examination, question about the fruits of their salvation, chips away at that wall. Paul's concern for the Corinthians, of course, is pastoral. Why does he do this? Because he loves them. It is the loving, right and good thing to do. It's loving, right and good for Paul to have brought them to this point of self-examination. It's loving, right and good for us to come to a point of self-examination in our own experience. We'll see that in the text. So what does Paul do then? Paul confronts them in the text with a pastoral imperative in verses five and six, and then he encourages them with a pastor's prayer in verses seven through ten, a pastoral imperative, a pastor's imperative in verses five through six, and then encouraging them with his prayer for them in seven through ten. Consider first with me now Paul's pastoral imperative in verses five through six. Look at verse five with me. Paul says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified? Now Paul is calling the Corinthian church to self-examination, to self-examination. To understand this call, the first thing that we want to do is to understand Paul's purpose for doing that. We want to understand Paul's purpose, and then we want to consider together a personal application. First Paul's purpose and then a personal application. Thinking about our context, what is Paul's purpose here for calling the Corinthians to examine themselves? If you look at verse five, the verbs there are imperatives, they're commands. Paul is commanding them, examine yourself, test yourselves. In the Greek, the word order is reversed for emphasis, yourselves examine, yourselves test. What is Paul's purpose here? Think with me. Paul's ministry from the beginning really in Corinth has been under attack by false teachers who have infiltrated the church. False teachers are attacking, assaulting, the reputation, the credibility, the ministry of the Apostle Paul among the people at that church. These false apostles, these ministers of Satan have been undermining Paul all along. Their accusations against him have taken their toll and the people themselves now have begun to doubt. They've begun to question Paul's authenticity as a legitimate apostle, as the Lord's apostle. They have begun to put him to the test, so to speak. They've begun to put him to the test. The false teachers in many in Corinth have begun an examination of the Apostle Paul. Paul essentially is saying here, if you want proof that I am an apostle, then look no further than yourselves. Rather than putting me to the test, Paul says, test yourselves. Rather than looking for evidence in me, yourselves examine. Do you see? Now in verse 5, verse 5 is connected to verse 3 above, where in verse 3, since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, that's what they're doing, they're testing Paul, examining Paul to see if there's a proof of Christ speaking in him, since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, examine yourselves. Test yourselves. Calvin said this, the Lord has shown his power in Paul's preaching in such a manner that it could be no longer doubtful or obscure to the Corinthians if they were not altogether stupid. If they weren't stupid, they're going to get it. They're going to figure it out. Where did the faith come from? Where did it come from? It came from the Lord through the preaching of Paul. Is Jesus Christ in you? How did he get there? He got there by the Spirit through the preaching of the Apostle Paul. You want proof that the Lord is at work in my ministry, Paul says? Then yourselves examine. Do you see the context? Now he said essentially the same thing in chapter 3, verse 1 where he says in chapter 3, verse 1, he says, do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need as some others epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Paul says you are our epistle written in our hearts known and read by all men. Clearly you, Paul says, are an epistle of the Lord Jesus Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is tablets of the heart. You want proof that the Lord is at work through me, Paul says? Look to yourselves. You want proof. You want proof. You want evidence that the Lord is at work in this church? Then look to yourselves. Look to yourselves, Paul would say. Are you making progress in the faith? Then you cannot deny it. Do you see the fruits of the Spirit in the lives of the people here? Then praise the Lord. Be encouraged. Be encouraged. Did you get converted on the preaching and teaching of the church here? Well then how in the world did that happen? It's because of the Spirit of God is at work here, amen? Paul says you want proof of my apostleship, verse 5, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. As similar to chapter 11, verse 4, prior to the preaching of the false teachers in Corinth, they had no other Jesus, but the one that Paul had preached to them. They had no other Spirit, but the one that they had received through the preaching of God's Word by the apostle Paul. They had no other gospel that they had accepted, but the one that Paul had proclaimed to them. So Paul says essentially, examine your own condition rather than picking at mine, and there you'll find your answer. And Paul asks them a question. And when Paul asks them a question here, Paul assumes the answer. He believes the best about them. He says, do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Paul essentially is saying, of course you do. Unless indeed you are disqualified. Unless, of course, you are adachimus, disqualified. Even that word adachimus itself isn't negative, right? It has in mind testing the genuineness of something with the intention of finding it true, right? With the intention of proving it, finding it qualified. That may seem amazing to some that Paul has such a positive outlook like this, considering the church at Corinth, but there's no mistaking Paul's outlook. He believes the best about them. After all the heartache that they've caused him by their sin, after all the ways in which they failed the Lord, all the ways in which they've failed the apostle Paul, all the ways in which they failed the church, there they are following the Lord in Corinth. There they are persevering in faith, following the Lord in Corinth. And Paul believes the best about them. And Paul believes the best about them. Paul's not leveling as it were, right? The 50-pound hammer against them, Paul believes the best about them. And believing that they will undoubtedly come to a correct conclusion about their status in the faith, Paul adds this then in verse 6. But I trust the word El Pizo is better translated hope. I hope, Paul says then, that you will know, that word's a compound word, it has the sense of knowing for certain, without a doubt, that we are not disqualified. But I hope that you will know for certain, Paul says, that we are not disqualified. In other words, if you find, Paul says if you find that you in fact are in the faith, if you find that Jesus Christ is in fact in you, then I trust you will draw the inevitable conclusion. I trust that you'll make the proper connection and know for certain that we then are genuine also. If they pass the test, then Paul passes the test. Do you see? They're bound up in this together. Now that's Paul's purpose for the command, for the imperative. Paul has that purpose in mind as he calls the church at Corinth to examine themselves. That's the point. I remember years ago, being away to conference, spending the Lord's day with brothers and sisters at a godly mature biblical church, a church that we love. Sweet people, sweet fellowship, they love the Lord. They love the Lord's word. They love the preaching there. But they had not long before lost a beloved pastor, a pastor that had been there a very long time, a man that they loved dearly. This pastor had been replaced by a godly man, a good brother, a faithful brother, faithful pastor. But things were different, right? He was different. The circumstances were different. A young lady that I was talking with didn't know how to process or even really understand the sense of loss that she felt at her pastor moving away and that things were now different, just didn't understand the feeling. And so she wondered to herself, as probably others may have as well, that maybe the spirit of God was no longer at work in that church, that the spirit of God had left the church, no longer at work there. She was fearful, she was discouraged by that feeling. And so I asked her, we're sitting down and I asked her, I said, do you have the spirit? The simple question, are there others here with the spirit? In other words, the church is not a building. The church is not a building. The church is the people of God with Christ in them, the spirit of God in dwelling them and working in them and through them and among them. That's the church. So I said, do you have the spirit? You say, well, yes. Do others here have the spirit? Do you see the fruits of the spirit at work? Wind blows where it wishes, right? You hear the sound of it, cannot tell where it comes from, where it goes. So is everyone, the Lord says, who is born of God's spirit. Now I'm not talking here about emotional hype. We know the difference, don't we? Those that feel like the spirit is moving because you feel all warm inside when the music is playing. Churches by the thousands, professing Christians by the millions confuse a work of God's spirit with mere emotionalism. We're not talking about mere emotionalism. We're not talking about emotional hype. We're also not talking about the guy who's manipulating the masses to get a bunch of lost people down an aisle to ask Jesus in their heart. We're not talking about hype. And then he boasts in a work of the Lord when 300 people in a year get saved by that, not saved by the Lord, saved by that. And then 75% of the people who say they got saved by that aren't even attending church any longer. We're not talking about hype. I'm talking about real fruits of the spirit. Paul is referring to real, genuine, spirit wrought fruits in the Lord's people, in the Lord's church, a love for God's Word, a hatred for sin, a hatred for all those things that God hates, a love for all those things that God loves, a heart for evangelism, a heart to see sinners saved, an affection for God's people, a devotion to the Lord's work, joyful, heart-faith-filled obedience to God's commands, loving, accountable, involvement, fellowship in the lives of God's people, increasing holiness, maturity, increasing knowledge, increasing faith, increasing love, a bounding in the grace of God. That's the fruit of the spirit. It was a bitter old curmudgeon that used to attend our church years ago. We didn't do the things around here the way that he thought they should be done. And so he'd walk around the church telling people that the spirit of God wasn't here. Spirit of God has left this church. Spirit of God is not at work at this church. He thought he was being faithful by overseeing a ministry of discouragement in the Lord's church. That's not faithful. That's ungodly. That's ungodly. That's despising the grace of God. Look around, folks. Right? Be encouraged. Be encouraged. Don't just be encouraged. Be grateful. Be grateful, right? Praise the Lord for his grace. Praise the Lord for a work of his spirit in our church amongst his people here. Right? That's Paul's point. Paul is calling them to self-examination to see what the Lord has done in and through them. And Paul trusts that when they recognize a work of God's spirit in them, among them, and through them, they're going to connect that with the preaching and teaching of the apostle Paul. Paul. They are a living epistle ministered by Paul. Be grateful. Be encouraged. The spirit of God is at work here. But now, think with me, what about you personally? What about you personally? That command for the Corinthians to examine themselves, to test themselves, wasn't merely a command to some nebulous corporate entity called the church. It's a command to individuals in the body of Christ. Test yourselves. Examine yourselves. Paul had a distinct purpose in calling the Corinthians to a sober self-examination. He believed that, by and large, they would come to a positive conclusion regarding their condition, their spiritual state. But the test, doesn't it, certainly holds out the possibility that one may be found to be a document disqualified. That in mind, those are serious stakes. And so Paul's command to self-examination isn't to be taken lightly. It's not to be taken lightly. The question can't be passed over trivially. Every sober-minded believer, follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, should take this seriously. Paul may have assumed the best about the Corinthians, but we're not to be presumptuous about the state of our own soul. We'll see from the text why. Far too much is at stake. Far too much is at stake. We're talking about eternity, heaven and hell, life and death. This is a critically important test. One indication that this is a critically important test is found in the nature of the question. It's found in the nature of the question. What is the nature of the question that Paul is asking? Paul essentially commands the question, are you in the faith? Is Christ Jesus in you? In other words, do you belong to him? Has he saved you? Have you been delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of his love? How do you know that you're going to go to heaven when you die? Are you in the faith? Is Christ Jesus in you? There's ultimately nothing more important than asking that question, asking and answering that question. Amen? Is there? Now some would say, well that Paul referring here to the faith, he's referring to the objective body of revealed truth, the content of our faith. Right? The content of our faith. Do you objectively believe what the Bible says? Well, if you say that you believe that objective set of facts, well then Christ is in you. You believe that's all that's necessary? You pass the test? Listen, that's nothing more than mere intellectual ascent. That's nothing more than mere mental agreement with a set of facts presented in the text of Scripture. Mental ascent, they hear me now, listen, mental ascent, intellectual agreement falls short, woefully short of genuine saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not simply agreeing with a set of facts. Even the demons believe those facts and they tremble. They're terrified of the judgment that awaits them. The nature of this test that Paul is calling us to would certainly include the objective content of our faith. It certainly matters what we say that we believe. That's definitely important, but Paul has something more in mind here than simply the content of our faith. Paul's point is made clear by the nature of the question, the nature of the question. The command to examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith is clarified by the following question. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? In other words, being in the faith means that Jesus Christ is in you. That's getting at the heart of the issue, isn't it? It's getting at the heart of the issue. Is Jesus Christ in me? Is Jesus Christ in you? Am I in vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ? Does he live within me, as the Bible says, by the Spirit? Am I a branch that is connected to the vine? Hear Calvin again. Our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. None of our salvation and none of its parts are comprehended apart from Him. It's all found in Him. Am I in union with Christ? That's the nature of the question that Paul is asking. That's the nature of the question. We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us and we are separated from Him, all that He has suffered and all that He has done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value to us. Therefore, to share with us what He has received from the Father, He had to become ours and to dwell within us, Christ in us, amen. We also in turn are said to be engrafted into Him and to have put on Christ. If we are not in Christ, if we are not in Christ, and if He is not in us, if we are not in vital union with Him, then we have no place, no part of His death on the cross for sinners. If He is not in us, we are not in Him, if we are not in vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ, we have no part of His perfect righteousness, no part with His atoning work. We have no part in His resurrection from the dead. How is it that will be raised? Will be raised in Him, amen? If Christ is not in us and we are not in vital union with Him, we are not justified. We are not sanctified. We are not glorified. We're not saved apart from union with the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ being in us. We're not adopted. You die in Christ, you go to heaven. You die outside of Christ, you go to hell. It's just that clear. It's a matter of life and death, do you see? A matter of life and death. It's amazing to me how lost people, people outside of Christ, people without the Spirit, continuously labor to suppress that truth in their unrighteousness. It is just that clear, just that simple. If you're in Christ, if Christ is in you, if you're in vital union with Him, if you die in Christ, you go to heaven. If you die outside of Christ, you go to hell. Why aren't people scrambling to figure it out? Am I in Him? Is He in me? Has He saved my wretched soul or not? The stakes are high. It is eternity that is in question. Examine yourselves, test yourselves whether you're in the faith. Do you not know that Christ Jesus is in you? Do you? Unless you are disqualified? It's a vital, critical question. And yet in self-justifying defense of some religious experience or some profession of faith or some prayer that was prayed or some sacrament that was taken, people will fight tooth and nail to avoid the implications of that question. What does it mean? What does it mean for Christ Jesus to be in us? What does it mean to be in vital union with Him? What does it look like? What does the Bible say? You're not going to find the truth of that in your own heart. You're not going to come up with the truth of that in your own mind. You can't make it up. The Bible tells us what it looks like. The Bible tells us what it is. The Bible tells us what it means. We've got to go there for the answer. And listen, your soul depends on it. But now, right now, considering that question, we've moved from something objective, like the objective content of our faith. Do you believe these facts? A lot of people can say yes. I believe them. Many will say no, I don't. But that's pretty objective. It's pretty objective. We've moved now from something objective to something far more subjective. Something far more subjective. How do I know? How do I know that Jesus Christ is in me? How do I know that I'm in vital union with Him? Notice that Paul isn't asking you if you sincerely prayed some prayer to receive Christ. He's not asking that question. He's not asking that question. Who cares? That's not the point. We don't even know our own hearts. Are you going to rest and trust in your perceived sincerity, saying some sacramental, superstitious little prayer for the basis of your eternal soul, the basis of your eternal salvation? Are you going to base it on that? Paul isn't asking you if you sincerely prayed a prayer or received Christ or asked Jesus into your heart, right? People often want to lay hold of something more objective so they can hang their hat on that. So they can embrace that and holding on to that gives them a sense of security. And if you start chipping away at that, they get defensive. They can even get hostile. They can even get angry. Paul isn't asking that. Paul isn't pointing to that. For many, for many, self-examination means looking back to some prayer that they prayed. Looking back at some religious experience that they had, relying on the sincerity of some profession of faith, relying upon the efficacy of some religious ritual that they performed, something that happens, something that they did. They look back and they place their security in that. If that was real, I'm saved and I'm okay. And they labor to assure themselves with those facts, those experiences, relying on feelings that they believe they have about Jesus or God or His Word experiencing sorrow or conviction over sin, feeling guilt or shame because of sin. Because I'm guilty, I know the Lord has saved me. I'm okay. Living an outwardly moral life because I put down some bad habits and I picked up some good ones, now I'm okay. I know I'm saved. I know I'm okay. Hanging their hat on that, simply believing the truth because they fear God's judgment, being outwardly religious or believing that because of all that, they have eternal life. Paul isn't asking about any of that. Paul isn't pointing to any of that. To look to a prayer or some religious activity for title to eternal life is to put your faith in the shifting sand of some human experience and not upon the bedrock that is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Do you see? It is a false faith. It is a misplaced faith. And listen, the people who peddle that kind of deception are peddling a false gospel and a false faith and they are false teachers. It is false. It's an ingenious masterful construction of our enemy to deceive you away from the truth. Is Christ Jesus in you? Are you in vital union with him by God's spirit? That's the question. Do you see? That's the point. Are you in him and is he in you? Can you say I am his and he is mine? Test of authenticity is this. Is Jesus Christ in you? Because the answer to that question is more subjective. The answer is open to abuse, open to deception, open to delusion. So one, listen, one, the nature of the question, that's the question, right? The nature of the question is an indication of how critically important this test is. Secondly, the nature of man's deception is also an indication of how critically important this test is, the nature of man's deception. The Lord himself reminds us, turn with me to Matthew chapter 7. The Lord himself reminds us of this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7. He reminds us of the importance of self-examination, reminds us of our propensity to deceiving ourselves. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7, look beginning with me at verse 13. First, the Lord opens by reminding us of the danger. The danger of deception reminds us how critically important this question is. Look at verse 13. The Lord says, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go in by it. We'll see that the many who go in by that gate are many who will call him Lord. These aren't the atheists and agnostics and God haters. These are many who call the Lord Lord. They're entering in through the broad gate. Narrow is the gate. Wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate, difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Then, communicating with us about the danger, the danger of understanding this rightly, the Lord gives us the evidence that we need then to answer the very important question. Look at verse 15. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. Inwardly, they are ravenous wolves, something very profound. Verse 16, you will know them by their fruits. You'll know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit. Axiomatic, right? Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. By their fruits, good or bad, by their fruits, you will know them. Then he reminds us, then he reminds us of the danger of deception. Verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name. Now listen, that is a, it's not a comprehensive list, that's a representative list. There are many who will say before him who'd never cast out a demon, who've never done any wonders in his name, but certainly have prayed a prayer, went to church every Sunday, served as a deacon, was a pastor. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't I meet it when I said that prayer? Wasn't I at mass every week, twice a week, three times a week? Didn't I do all of these things, Lord, in your name? Then I will declare to them, verse 23, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness, that which is produced in the life of a person outside the spirit of God is characterized as lawlessness. Only that produced in a person by the work of God, by his spirit is that which is righteous in his sight, that which is performed in a vital union with his son. Only that could be considered righteous in God's sight. I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Are you in the faith? Are you in the faith? Is Jesus Christ in you? The question may be more subjective, but the Lord gives objective evidence for seeking an answer. He says you will know them by their fruits. You will know them by their fruits. The Bible teaches that these fruits are produced by Jesus Christ in you by the spirit. These fruits are produced by his spirit. The Lord says, listen, in John chapter 15, verse four, abide in me, the Lord says, and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit of yourself unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and they throw them into the fire and they are burned. Are you abiding in the vine? First John chapter four, verse 13, by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit. We know that we abide in him because he has given us his spirit. Paul says in Galatians chapter two, verse 20, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Do you see? If by the spirit you are producing the fruits of the spirit, Jesus Christ is in you by the spirit. Paul says this again in Romans chapter eight, verse 16. Listen, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. When Paul asks the question in 2nd Corinthians chapter 13, verse five, do you not know that Christ is in you? Paul has confidence in them that they will see God's spirit at work in them confirming spirit wrought fruits in them giving them an assurance that they are children of God. Do you see? That's how it works together. Assurance comes by the spirit. Paul feels confident about those in Corinth that they're going to find a work of the spirit of God within them and is confident that they're going to find themselves to be in Christ as a result. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then we are heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. Assurance comes from the spirit of God. We'll look at the evidence in more detail as well as the rest of our text Lord willing next week. For now consider this with me. There are some of you in this room who are in the faith genuinely truly Christ is in you. You are accepted in the beloved. You are trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone for salvation. You are partakers of the divine nature, partakers of the heavenly calling. Your citizenship is in heaven and you eagerly await the Savior. But there are others of you in this room who are not in the faith. Jesus Christ is not in you. You may believe that he is and your belief may be misplaced. You may be deceived about that which points to whether or not Jesus Christ is in you. You may have been deceiving yourself. You may know that he's not. I've not turned for my sin. I've not put my faith and trust in him. What are you waiting for? Your soul is precious. Others of you though are deceived about that. You've built up a lie. Comforted yourself with a placebo. But you are under the just condemnation and righteous wrath of a holy God who will not acquit the guilty. The answer to safeguard against deception is faith alone in Christ alone. Stop living for yourself. Put faith and trust alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. If you come to him, he will in no wise cast you out. Put your faith in him. Faith in him is the safeguard against deception. The spirit of God preserves his people in the faith. The spirit of God is the guarantee of our inheritance. We must have Christ in us by his spirit. We must have the spirit of God. The answer to safeguard against deception is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll look at the evidences of faith. We'll look at the answer to that question and the rest of our text. Lord willing, next Lord's day. All praise, honor, and glory for the riches of his glory. This mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together.