The following excerpt is from a message that was delivered at Grace Community 
Church in Panorama City, California, By John MacArthur Jr.  It was 
transcribed from the tape, GC 80-83, titled "Looking at the Cross from God's 
Perspective."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, 
P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412.

I have made every effort to ensure that an accurate transcription of the 
original tape was made.  Please note that at times sentence structure may 
appear to vary from accepted English conventions.  This is due primarily to 
the techniques involved in preaching and the obvious choices I had to make in 
placing the correct punctuation in the article.

It is my intent and prayer that the Holy Spirit will use this transcription 
to strengthen and encourage the true Church of Jesus Christ.



                             Examine Your Faith
                                     by
                               John MacArthur


It is faith that is at the heart of our Christianity.  Now, I want to give 
you a little test that will help you examine your faith.  I am convinced that 
churches are filled with people who have a kind of faith that doesn't save 
them.  James called it a "Dead Faith."  2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine 
yourselves, whether you be in the faith."  You want to be sure your faith is 
real.  Now, as you look at yourself and you're asking, "Am I really a 
Christian?  Have I really appropriated this gift that God gives?  Have I 
believed genuinely?"  What do you look for in your life to discern whether 
your faith is real?  What are the marks?  

First of all, let me show you some things that neither prove nor disprove 
saving faith.  OK?  I am going to give you a little list of things that don't 
prove anything.  You could be a Christian; You could not be a Christian, and 
still have these things.  They don't prove or disprove saving faith, but you 
need to know what they are so you're not deceived.



           THINGS THAT DON'T PROVE OR DISPROVE SAVING FAITH


    1.  Visible Morality 

    What do I mean by that?  Well some people are just good people.  
    Some of them are very religious like Mormon people who on the 
    outside appear very moral, or Roman Catholic people, or any other 
    kind of cult or religion.  Some people are just good people.  
    They're honest, they're forthright [trustworthy] in their dealings.  
    They're grateful people, they're kind people, and they have an 
    external visible kind of morality.  By the way, the Pharisees 
    certainly rested on that for their hope.  They're loving people, 
    some of them are tender hearted people.  But of loving and serving 
    God, they know nothing and feel nothing.  Whatever the person does 
    or leaves undone does not involve God.  

    This person is honest in his dealings with everybody except God.  He 
    won't rob anybody but God.  He is thankful and loyal to everybody 
    but God.  He speaks contemptuously and reproachfully of no one but 
    God.  He has good relationships with everybody but God.  He's very 
    much like the rich young ruler who says, "All these things have I 
    kept, what do I lack?"  This is visible morality, but it does not 
    necessarily mean salvation.  People can "Clean up their act" by 
    reformation rather than regeneration.  


    2.  Intellectual Knowledge

    Secondly, another thing that doesn't prove or disprove saving faith 
    is intellectual knowledge.  Intellectual knowledge.  This doesn't 
    prove true faith.  Knowledge of the truth is necessary for salvation 
    and visible morality is the fruit of salvation, but neither one 
    equals salvation.  You see, you can know all about God.  And you can 
    know all about Jesus, and who He was and that He came into the world  
    and died on the cross, and that He rose again, and that He's coming
    again.  And you can even know more of the details of His life.  You
    can understand all of that and turn your back on Christ.  

    The writer of Hebrews writes to those in chapter 6, who knowing all 
    of that, refused Christ.  In chapter 10 he says, "You're treading 
    underfoot the Blood of Christ by not believing what you know is 
    true."  There are many people who know the Scripture and who have 
    knowledge but are bound for Hell!  You will never be saved without 
    that knowledge, but having that knowledge doesn't necessarily save 
    you.  


    3.  Religious Involvement

    Thirdly, religious involvement.  Religious involvement is not 
    necessarily a proof of true faith.  There are people who have, 
    according to Paul writing to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:5, "A form of 
    godliness, but powerless."  An empty kind of religion.  Remember the 
    virgins in Matthew 25 who were waiting, and waiting, and waiting for 
    the coming of the bridegroom, who is Christ.  And they are waiting 
    and waiting, but when He comes they don't go in.  They had 
    everything together except the oil in their lamps.  That which was 
    most necessary was missing.  The oil, probably emblematic of the new 
    life, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  They weren't regenerate.  
    They were religious but not regenerate.  You can have external 
    visible morality, intellectual knowledge, and religious involvement, 
    and it may not indicate genuine faith.  


    4.  Active Ministry

    Fourth, active ministry.  Balaam was a prophet.  Saul of Tarsus 
    thought he was serving God by killing Christians.  Judas was a 
    public preacher.  Judas was an Apostle.  Remember Matthew 7, "Many 
    will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, 
    and done many wonderful works?  Cast out demons in Your name?'  And 
    He says to them, 'Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I never 
    knew you.'"  Ministry activity, that's not necessarily a proof of 
    saving faith.

    5.  Conviction of Sin

    Lots of people feel bad about sin.  Listen, this whole world is full 
    of people that are just guilt ridden to the core.  You know, fifteen 
    years ago, we used to talk about people going to the Psychologist, 
    and we used to say, and it was pretty true from tests, "That most of 
    the people who went to the Psychologist were suffering from guilt."  
    People used to write books about that.  I remember the Menniger (sp.)
    Clinic put out tremendous amount of material on the fact that all 
    these people were suffering from guilt.  Well, the Psychologists of 
    the world have absolutely no answer for guilt, because the only 
    answer is the Gospel.  

    Now what has happened in the last fifteen years, is that you don't 
    have any people at all today who feel guilty, because we have come 
    up with a new Psychology that eliminates the guilt.  Now what we do 
    is we displace the guilt on somebody else.  And the new therapy is 
    to make the person utterly irresponsible for any of the guilt that 
    they might feel inside, and to free them from that guilt.  And you 
    do that by making the ultimate virtue pride, the ultimate virtue 
    self-fulfillment, self-aggrandizement, self-glory, self-esteem, and 
    that eliminates the need to feel guilty.  So we really have come up 
    with an utterly ungodly, unchristian, unbiblical Psychology, that 
    has taken the guilt issue and eliminated it.  

    Now what happens in the Church, instead of the Preacher standing up 
    to preach, "Freedom from guilt to guilty sinners," they expect him 
    to preach self-esteem to egocentric people.  The whole climate has 
    changed.  And we have been skewed in our message, because we have 
    allowed the philosophy of the day to create a new kind of sinner who 
    thinks he feels no guilt.  And the most important thing you can 
    preach to a bunch of sinners is the sin of their lives, and the law 
    of God which they fall short of and the impending judgment they 
    await.  But that message is not popular because the new philosophy 
    and the new psychology has long ago eliminated guilt.  

    We don't have people feeling guilt anymore, because they've learned 
    that therapy can tell them they can put that guilt on somebody who 
    did something to them.  And now I don't care who you talk to, when 
    they go into that kind of situation of counseling they will 
    inevitably say, "I have been abused!  I am a victim!  I am not 
    responsible for the way I am!"  And so the sinner is dispossessed of 
    his guilt and dispossessed of a direct approach of the Gospel.  I 
    liked sinners better when they felt guilty.  They were much easier 
    to deal with.  But there are some people who do feel guilty.  Some 
    people who do feel guilty about sin.  Felix trembled under the 
    preaching of Paul, but never left his idols.  The Holy Spirit 
    convicts many of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and many that He 
    convicts don't respond with true repentance.  Some may even confess 
    their sin.  Some may even abandon their sin and say, "I don't like 
    to live this way.  I want to shape up."  Amend their ways, but not 
    necessarily come to saving faith.  That's reformation, not 
    regeneration.  And no degree of conviction of sin is conclusive 
    evidence of saving faith.  Believe me, even the demons are convicted 
    of their sins, that's why they tremble, but they are not saved.  


    6.  Assurance

    Some people say, "Well, I must be a Christian, I feel like one.  I 
    think I am one."  Listen, just think it through.  If to think you're 
    a Christian makes you a Christian, then nobody could be deceived.  
    Right?  Because as soon as you thought you're a Christian--you'd be 
    one!  So you could never be deceived.  The whole point of Satan's 
    deception is to make people think they are Christians who aren't!  
    That's the whole point.  Many people feel sure they are 
    saved--but they're not.  I'll tell you, there are millions of Mormons 
    and Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists who believe they 
    are on their way to Heaven!  They're not.  

    People say, "God won't condemn me.  I feel good about myself.  I 
    have assurance.  I'm ok."  That means nothing, necessarily.  


    7.  A Time of Decision

    I hear people say, "Well, I know I'm a Christian, because I remember 
    when I signed the card.  I remember when I prayed a prayer.  I 
    remember when I went forward in a Church service.  I remember right 
    where I was."  I heard people say, "I remember right where I was the 
    moment I did that."  Oh really?  Listen, because you remember a 
    moment doesn't mean that moment meant anything.  It doesn't mean that 
    decision was valid.  Nobody's salvation is verified by a past 
    moment.  People have prayed prayers, and gone forward in church 
    services, and signed cards, and gone into prayer rooms, and been 
    baptized, and joined churches, and never had saving faith.  

So those are some of the non-proofs.  They don't really prove anything.  You 
say, "Well, what does prove saving faith?"  Well, let me give you quickly a 
list.


                    THINGS THAT PROVE SAVING FAITH

    1.  Love For God

    Now you're talking!  Now you're talking down about the heart, 
    because Romans 8:7 says, "The carnal [sinful] mind is enmity 
    [hostile] against God."  The non-Christian resents God; rebels 
    against God down inside, but the regenerate mind is set to love the 
    Lord with all heart, soul, mind, and strength.  His delight is in 
    the excellency of God, who is the first and highest affection of his 
    renewed soul.  God becomes his chief happiness.  By the way, there 
    is a great difference between such love for God and the selfish 
    attitude that focuses only on my own happiness and sees God as a 
    means to my end, rather than as me to the end of glorifying Him.  In 
    fact Jesus said, "If you love your Father and Mother more than me, 
    you're not even my disciple" (Matthew 10:37).  

    Do you love God?  Do you love His nature?  Do you love His glory?  
    Do you love His name?  Do you love His kingdom?  Do you love His 
    holiness?  Do you love His will?  Supreme love for God is decisive 
    evidence of the true faith.  Is your heart lifted when you sing His 
    praises--because you love Him?  


    2.  Repentance From Sin

    A proper love for God must involve a hatred of sin.  Well, that's 
    obvious.  Who wouldn't understand that?  If I love somebody, you 
    assume that my loving them means that I seek their wellbeing.  
    Right?  If I said to you, "I love my wife, but I could care less 
    what happened to my wife," you'd question my love.  Because true 
    love seeks the highest good of its object.  So if I say that I love 
    God, then I will have to hate sin, because sin offends God.  Sin 
    blasphemes God.  Sin curses God.  Sin seeks to destroy God and his 
    work and His kingdom.  Sin killed His Son.  And if I say that, "I love 
    God, but I tolerate sin," then you have every reason to question my 
    love.  I cannot love God without hating that which is set to destroy 
    Him.  So true repentance involves confession, it involves turning 
    from sin.  I should be grieved over my sin.  

    I should ask myself, "Do I have a settled conviction of the evil of 
    sin?"  Does sin appear to me as the evil and bitter thing it really 
    is?  Does conviction of sin in me increase as I walk with Christ?  
    Do I hate it not merely because it is ruinous to my own soul but 
    because it is offensive to my God whom I love?  Does it more grieve 
    me when I sin then when I have trouble?  In other words, what 
    grieves me the most--my misfortune or my sin?  Do my sins appear 
    many?  Frequent and aggravated?  Do I find myself grieved over my 
    sin--more than the sin of others?  That's the mark of salvation.  
    True saving faith--it loves God and it hates what God hates, which 
    is sin.


    3.  Genuine Humility

    It manifests genuine humility.  This obviously comes through in the 
    Beatitudes.  The poor in spirit; those who hunger and thirst after 
    righteousness; those who, in Matthew 18, are like a little child, 
    humble and dependent; those who are in self-denial, willing to take 
    up their cross and follow Him.  The Lord receives those who come 
    with a broken and contrite spirit.  James says, "He gives grace to 
    the humble."  We must come as the Prodigal Son.  Remember what he 
    said in Luke 15, I think about verse 21, he said, "Father, I am not 
    worthy to be called your son."  There is no pride.  There is no ego 
    about religious achievement [or] spiritual accomplishment, but 
    genuine humility.               


    4.  Devotion to God's Glory

    There is a devotion to God's glory.  True saving faith that 
    manifests genuine salvation shows devotion to God's glory.  Whatever 
    we do, whether we eat or drink, we are literally consumed with the 
    Glory of God.  We do what we do because we want to glorify Him.  Oh 
    sure, we fail in all of these things, but the direction of our life 
    is in loving Him and hating sin, and being genuinely humble and self- 
    denying, and knowing our unworthiness and being totally devoted to 
    the Glory of God.  


    5.  Continual Prayer

    Humble, submissive, believing prayer marks true faith.  We cry 
    "Abba, Father" because the Spirit within us prompts that cry.  
    Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon titled, "Hypocrites are 
    Deficient in the Duty of Secret Prayer."  It's true.  Hypocrites may 
    pray publicly, because that's what hypocrites want to do is to 
    impress people, but they are deficient in the duty of secret prayer.  
    A true believer with true saving faith has a personal prayer life;  
    private prayer life; seeks communion with God.


    6.  Selfless Love

    Another mark of saving faith is selfless love.  John says, "If you 
    don't love your neighbor, your brother, or one in need, then how are 
    we to believe the love of God dwells in you?"  And also in 1 John 3, 
    John says, "If you love God you'll love whom God loves.  And we love 
    Him and others because that's the response to Him loving us."  John 
    13 says, "By this men know that we are true disciples--by our love 
    for each other."  


    7.  Separation from the World

    Paul told the Corinthians that we haven't received the spirit of the 
    world but the Spirit which is from God.  And John put it this way, 
    "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If 
    any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."  A 
    true believer is separated from the world.  Again, I say, we fail in 
    all these areas, but these are the direction of our lives.  We 
    aren't perfect.  We haven't arrived, but we love God and want to 
    love Him more.  We hate sin and want to hate it more.  We have a 
    genuine humility and want more of it.  We are devoted to God's 
    glory.  We have a prayer life that is private and personal.  We have 
    a love for others that comes from God, and we find ourselves 
    disassociated from the world, as a general rule.  


    8.  Spiritual Growth

    If you are a true Christian you are going to be growing, and that 
    means that you are going to be more and more like Christ.  Life 
    produces itself.  If you're alive you are going to grow, there's no 
    other way.  You'll improve.  You'll increase.  You'll grow, because 
    whoever has that new work begun (Philippians 1:6), is going to see 
    it perfected.  It's going to go on; it's going to keep moving.  The 
    Spirit is going to move you from one level of glory to the next.  So 
    you look at your life.  Do you see spiritual growth?  Do you see the 
    decreasing frequency of sin?  The increasing pattern of 
    righteousness and devotion to God?  


    9.  Obedience

    Obedient living.  "Every branch in me bears fruit."  "Bears fruit," 
    says John 15.  In Ephesians 2:10, Paul says, "Look, you are His 
    workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has 
    before ordained that you walk in them."  That's obedience.  We are 
    saved unto the obedience of faith.  

Look at your life.  Do you see all those things?  Including Selfless Love, 
Separation from the World, Spiritual Growth, and Obedience?  If so, that's 
evidence of a saving faith.  


Transcribed by:

Tony Capoccia
BIBLE BULLETIN BOARD
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