How Can a Man Discern if He is a Christian?

Introduction: The Crucial Question of Christian Identity

0:02 How can one discern whether or not he's in the realm of true, vital, biblical Christianity? That is no light question to consider. As I've turned the question over in my mind with reference to the voice of God to our hearts throughout the day, I think that we can most carefully and most succinctly zero in upon the heart of true religion by asking you two questions that have to do with your opinions. Now, this is usually not a place where we ask people for their opinions.

0:44 It's a place where there is proclamation, where there is the opening up of the word of God and the application of that word to the consciences of men. But I do want to ask your opinion. I do want to ask your opinion on two things tonight, and then I want to ask you a third question that has to do with what effect those opinions have had upon you. The first question is this.

Question 1: What Opinion Do You Have of Yourself? (Part 1: Image Bearer)

1:04 What opinion do you have of yourself?

1:09 For one of the surest marks of true, saving religion is to be found in answer to this question. A man, a woman, a fellow, or girl who has been wrought upon by the Spirit of God and brought into vital union with Jesus Christ, has a very decided and definite opinion of himself.

1:32 And so I want to press the question upon your conscience tonight. What opinion do you have of yourself? Is it an opinion based upon the declaration of the word of God made real to your heart by the Holy Spirit? Or is it an opinion based upon your own notions of what you are, your own ideas of what you are, your own hopes of what perhaps you should be?

2:01 Or is it an opinion based upon the declarations of Scripture burnt into your heart and your experience by the Holy Spirit? For you see, it's only the Christian who knows in truth what he is.

2:18 Now let me break that down into several categories. The Christian is a man who, first of all, has this opinion of himself. I am a creature created. In the image of God.

2:32 A Christian is a man who has been brought to the recognition that I am a creature created in the image of God. In other words, a Christian is a man who has been brought to own the simple fact declared in Genesis chapter 1 that in the beginning God made them male and female after his own image and after his own likeness. When the Apostle Paul was preaching, when he was preaching to the Athenian philosophers who wanted to hear something about Christ and the resurrection, the message he had been preaching to the Jews in the synagogue and in the marketplace, he knew that the distinctive focal message of Christianity, Christ and Him crucified, would make no sense to these people until, first of all, they came to understand that they were creatures of God. And so he says, and I quote from Acts 17, this God, made the world and all things therein, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is He served by men's hands, as though He needeth anything, seeing He Himself giveth to all life and breath and all things, and He made of one every nation of men to dwell upon the face of the earth. Later on he says in verse 28, quoting one of the heathens,

4:00 We are also His offspring, being then the offspring of God. The Apostle Paul knew that these people would never become Christians until, first of all, they came to understand that they were creatures made in the image of God and as image bearers made to be holy, made to be subject to God, made to hold communion with God, made to bring glory to God.

4:33 Let me ask you tonight, in pressing this first part of the first question concerning your opinion, do you regard yourself in this light? As you sit right there tonight, do you regard yourself as someone who is a creature made in the image and likeness of God? Or do you regard yourself as someone who is simply the product of a biological accident? Or perhaps the good planning of a mother and father?

5:03 How do you regard yourself? Do you in the depths of your being acknowledge I was made by God? I was made for God? I was made to bring praise to God?

Question 1: What Opinion Do You Have of Yourself? (Part 2: Fallen in Adam)

5:20 What opinion do you have of yourself? A Christian is a man who has this fundamental opinion of himself, I am a creature of God. But secondly, he is convinced he is not only a creature of God, but he is convinced he is a creature of Adam, and he is convinced he is a creature of God. He is convinced he is Adam's fallen race.

5:38 He has come to the conviction that though I was made by God, to know God, to hold communion with God, to reflect the glory of God, I am not what I was made to be. I am a creature fallen in Adam. A Christian is a man who has embraced the humbling teaching of Romans chapter 5, verses 12 and following, in which the Apostle Paul says, as through one, one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin. And so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned.

6:17 And when did they all sin? They sinned in Adam. God had constituted Adam not only a private person, accountable to God for his own sins, but God had constituted Adam a public person, the representative head of all humanity, so that the Apostle Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 15, as in Adam, all die. He says further in this Romans 5 passage, verse 18, as through one trespass, the judgment came unto all men to condemnation.

6:54 And the Christian is a man who stopped fighting God and why God should have such an arrangement. The Christian is the man who is far more concerned with the undeniable evidences that he is part of a fallen race than debating with God as to why he should be part of a fallen race. If you find yourself, as it were, standing outside of Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 and Ephesians 2, debating and questioning and asking, why should it be? My friend, you've never seen your heart.

7:26 You've never seen what it is to be a fallen son of Adam. You begin to understand what it is that you as a creature have defied the Almighty. You as a worm of the dust have dared to stand in opposition to the God of heaven and earth. You as a creature have within you a fountain of arid old cesspool of all uncleanness.

7:49 And you'll stop standing on the outside looking in, debating as to why God should constitute Adam the head of the human race so that his sin becomes our sin. You'll be found on your face mourning the reality of your guilt and your pollution. And saying, oh God, as through the one man Adam I sinned, oh may I through the one man Jesus Christ find mercy. For God has ordained a deal with the whole human race in terms of two men, Adam and Christ.

The Threefold Reality of the Fallen Son of Adam: Guilty

8:23 The Christian is the man who's come not only to embrace the fact that he's a creature made by God, but he's a creature who has fallen in Adam. Now what does that mean in a more precise, and in a more defined way? Well it means at least three things. As a fallen son of Adam's race, I am guilty, liable to condemnation.

8:48 I am defiled and depraved in the totality of my humanity. And thirdly, I am helpless to do anything about it in my own strength. That's what it means to be a fallen son of Adam. Now that's what you are whether you've ever come to the recognition or not.

9:06 You see, the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is the Christian knows that he is what he is. The non-Christian lives in a fool's paradise.

9:17 Look at those three things. To be a creature of Adam's fallen race is to be guilty. To be guilty. Romans chapter 3 and verse 19 states it this way.

9:29 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God, or as the authorized version says, may be guilty before God. And those are the key words. Under the judgment of God. Guilty before God.

9:56 You see, this is not a matter of just failing to live up to the standards that I have set for myself and therefore having guilt peeling. That's a purely psychological phenomenon. You set goals for yourself. You don't attain the goals.

10:11 You feel a flop. A general all-around flop. And you feel guilty. That's not what we're talking about here.

10:18 This is guilt in the presence and in the court of God. The God who made you and has constituted you accountable to Him. That God has said to you, keep my law perfectly and thou shalt live. Fail to keep my law in the slightest degree and thou shalt live.

10:37 And thou shalt live. And thou shalt live. And thou shalt live. And thou shalt live.

10:37 And thou shalt live. And thou shalt live. And thou shalt live. And thou shalt die.

10:39 For the wages of sin is death. And to be guilty is to stand in a relationship to God as the judge of the universe in which everything in the character of God as just and holy demands the punishment of a broken law. To be guilty before a human court means that I have been proven as a violator of the laws that that court is committed to uphold and therefore liable to the punishment of the law. To the punishment which the laws of the land dictate and direct.

11:13 To be guilty before God is to stand before the moral governor of the universe in such a relationship to Him that at any time that He chooses the sentence can come forth from His presence and I can be as it were consigned to the eternal prison house of God. The lake of fire prepared for the devil. And His angels. When does my guilt begin?

11:42 My friend, the sad and tragic story is that I'm born guilty. That's why we read in Ephesians chapter 2 that we were by nature the children of wrath. That is, children exposed to wrath. And we intensify our guilt by every act of sin bringing upon ourselves the just frown and displeasure of a holy God.

12:08 Now you see, a Christian is a man who has stopped fighting that truth. And he owns it from the depths of his heart. He says, if I ever get what I deserve, I shall be consumed by the wrath of God. He has no problem with the doctrine of divine wrath.

12:28 His problem is, how could God have withheld it from me for so long? That's the problem a Christian has. He's not debating with God saying, now wait a minute, is it right for God to be angry with us? Is it right for...

12:42 My friend, a Christian has stopped debating that issue long ago.

12:47 He's had a sight of who God is. And having had a sight of Himself, his cry is, Lord, how could You withhold Your wrath when my sins rose up and cried out for judgment?

13:03 At times when my own heart is lagging in its devotion to my Savior, I find there are a few things that bring it around, to new measures of devotion, as does the exercise of thinking where I would be had God given me my just desserts before He drew me to His Son. And I ask, O Lord, how could You have borne with me all those years when day after day my life of self-interest and self-sufficiency, my life of overt and covert rebellion against Your law cried out to heaven, judge that sinner, seize upon that sinner, lay hold of that sinner, crush that sinner? God said no. He stayed the hand of justice and He stayed the hand of inflexible and holy and righteous anger that should have broken upon me. What is your opinion of yourself tonight? Do you have this opinion? That in and of myself I am a guilty son of Adam,

14:09 deserving of the righteous anger of God? Can you say that without tongue in cheek?

14:16 And can you say it not because it's a phrase you've learned and so you can parrot it? Can you say it from the depths of your heart as Paul could say it? Christ Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am chief. In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

14:35 Can you say it like Isaiah? We are all as an unclean thing.

14:40 The opinion you have of yourself is a great revelation as to whether or not you have saving religion. A Christian is a man who has this opinion of himself. I am a Christian. I'm a creature of God.

The Threefold Reality of the Fallen Son of Adam: Polluted and Depraved

14:50 But I'm a creature of Adam's fallen race. I am guilty. Secondly, he's come to understand as a creature of Adam's race that he is polluted and defiled. Now by that I mean to reflect the biblical teaching that sin has invaded and pervaded the entirety of his human personality.

15:14 That doesn't turn him into a beast. Man as an image bearer at his worst is worthless. Whirls above any beast at its best because he's an image bearer of God. He's not junk.

15:28 But oh, how the image has been defaced. And a nature that when it came from the hand of God, if we could have, as it were, put a pane of transparent glass over the whole inner life of Adam and looked through, we would have seen nothing but pure light.

15:45 And sin entered. It all became dark and murky. And crawling with the vile, vermin of human depravity and uncleanness. You say that's strong language.

15:58 It's not as strong as the Bible. But the scripture says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Again, Jesus said, for from within, out of the heart of man, proceed.

16:16 And then he lists these sins in the seventh chapter of the gospel according to Mark. These things coming, from within the heart, verse 20. Evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness, all these things proceed from within. You can't have anything come out of something that wasn't in there first.

16:45 Well, how did it get there? Who put it there? Did society put the evil thoughts within? Did society teach men and give them desire for fornication and adulteries?

16:59 Did society pressure the spirit of thievery and murder into the hearts of men? No. Jesus said to these proud, spotless Pharisees on the outside, he said, if we put a transparent pane of glass over your heart, you know what we'd see? This is what we'd see.

17:19 This seething cauldron of uncleanness, this vile cesspool of evil thoughts, of potential evil, all within the heart of man.

17:32 Jim is a man who's had just enough of a peek in the direction of that terrible, bottomless pit of his own polluted heart that he has no controversy with God about it. He doesn't go around making poetic statements about it. The less he talks about it, the better. But it's when he's alone with God, that's where you find him saying, Oh God, this heart of mine, even as a Christian, to think that there can still learn, work within me, all of this potential for evil.

18:03 And it's a reminder of what he once was. The Christian has that opinion of himself, that he's not only by nature guilty, but by nature he's polluted. Sin has affected the heart, the wellspring of all of his activity. It has affected his will.

18:21 And the Christian knows what sin did to his will. Jesus said, whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8, in verse 7, The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God.

18:35 Neither indeed can it be. In other words, the human will by nature is a rebel. And the Christian is the man who's come to see and say from the depths of his heart, Oh Lord, how true. You say, but I've never been a...

18:48 My friend, listen, listen. If you're offended by that term, that the human will is a rebel, it's because you've never seen what your will is by nature.

18:58 God commands you to love him with the whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And for years, some of you have thrown a few hours to God a week and you thought you did God's service.

19:10 But the thing that has driven you and motivated you throughout all the total spectrum of life's activities has not been love to God, but love to yourself.

19:21 We have turned every one of us to his own way. We should no longer live unto ourselves. 2 Corinthians 5.15 Well, you see, the Christian is a man who has this opinion of himself.

19:33 Not only is my... My heart by nature, this foul cesspool of uncleanness, my heart is this, but my will stood in rebellion to my God.

19:43 It was like an unbroken coat. He's come to see that his mind was darkened. The scripture says, the Gentiles by nature have the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. Ephesians 4.18 The understanding darkened. Darkened to what? Not to the beauties of vanity fair. As we pass through this world and we come to those booths that call for our attention.

20:15 It may be the booth of sensual pleasure, the booth of material gain, and the hawkers cry out for their various wares as we find in pilgrims' progress. By nature we see much beauty in the wares and we hear the voice of the hawkers. But the scripture says, concerning the Lord Jesus, there is no beauty, in Him that we should desire Him. The voice of God can speak to us from His creation, for there is no language nor voice where that message is not heard.

20:46 Their line has gone out to the ends of the earth and the heavens under which we live day after day cry out, God is great! God is good! God is wise! God is gracious!

21:00 And we never hear the message. God speaks through His servants and in His word of the beauty and the glory of His Son and calls us to repentance and to faith. But our minds are darkened. We see no beauty in Christ.

21:15 A Christian is a man who's come to see that that's what his mind was by nature. Dark. Dark. That's what it means to be a polluted son of Adam.

The Threefold Reality of the Fallen Son of Adam: Helpless

21:24 Sin affecting all the faculties. And then thirdly, to see yourself as a fallen son of Adam is to see yourself helpless. Helpless. Listen to the words of Paul in Romans 5.

21:36 For when we were without, strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5, 6. When we were without strength. Without strength to do what?

21:50 Oh, we have much strength to carry out our own given ideas and plans and enterprises if God sustains our lives in His sovereignty. But there is no strength to do what? To blot out one's sin. No strength to break one chain that binds us.

22:07 No strength to subdue our own rebel wills. No strength to move one inch in the direction of the living God in a way of saving faith. Without strength.

22:24 What do you think of yourself that Christian has come to see that's precisely what he was when God was pleased to bring the Savior to him? Let me ask you tonight, do you have that opinion of yourself? You say, that's a low opinion. Well, you see, that's the mystery.

22:41 It is the highest and yet the lowest. It is the highest opinion of oneself that is the true opinion of oneself. The highest because I'm not junk. I'm not merely the accidental epitome of the evolutionary process.

22:57 The highest on the scale of the beast. I'm a creature made in the image of God. That's the height of my glory as a man. But the depths of my shame is this, that I have foully revolted against that God and His image has been so defaced in me that it's well nigh been lost.

23:20 I am guilty, polluted, and helpless. Do you have that opinion of yourself tonight?

23:29 Don't answer out loud, but will you dare to answer right there where you sit?

23:34 Get as close to saying it as out loud as you can. Get the words right up here, but don't say it. Do you have that opinion of yourself wrought in your heart by the Spirit through the Word? Do you?

23:48 Every Christian, every Christian can say, Blessed be God. Yes.

Question 2: What Opinion Do You Have of Jesus Christ? (Person and Work)

23:55 But then in the second place, the Christian is known by the opinion not only that he has of himself, but the opinion that he has of Jesus Christ. The crucial question that comes down from the pages of Scripture is this question. What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He?

24:16 Jesus asked it of the religious leaders of His day. What think ye of Christ? Whose son? What is He?

24:23 Identify that personage. Jesus asked the question of the disciples. Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And Peter answering his spokesman, say, Well, some say this prophet, some say another, some say another.

24:42 But now the crucial question. But who do you say that I am? Having cleared away what other men think, Peter, my disciples, what do you say? Do you see in me?

24:54 That's the crucial question. And the Christian is known not only by the opinion which he has of himself, but by the opinion which he has of Jesus Christ with reference to two very basic things. The uniqueness of his person and the uniqueness of his work. And I use the word unique not in its present sense.

25:13 Someone shows up with green trousers and purple shirt and chartreuse hat and yellow bracelets and we say, That's a unique outfit he's got. And what we mean, it's far out. It's unusual. But now the word unique in its classical sense means one of a kind.

25:34 One of a kind. And the Christian has an opinion of Jesus Christ in which he is seen in Christ, person and work, one of a kind. And what has he seen in his person? He has seen in Jesus Christ what he can never fathom.

25:49 He has seen what he increasingly understands as far as the biblical distinctions, but can never plumb the depths of it, that in Jesus Christ is the true God joined to a true humanity. That's why John could say, Whosoever confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. He that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, Great is the mystery of godliness.

26:21 God was manifested in the flesh. The Christian is a man who has this opinion of Jesus Christ. He is the God-man. And that opinion again, though God may have used the careful catechetical instruction of parents or the church, the line by line instruction of a godly Sunday school teacher or a preacher, whatever the means that were used, the Christian is a man who has come to the place where the Lord can say to him, The opinion you have of me has not been revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father who is in heaven.

26:57 Some of us can well remember that for years we were taught accurately who Jesus Christ was. And if you asked us, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? We would have said, Without any reservation, Son of God, Son of man.

27:11 But that confession came from the larynx up. That's all. And you know what transformed us? When God moved the confession down about 12 inches.

27:24 That transformed us. Because when it was just in the larynx, we could say, Son of God, Son of man, and live indifferent to his claims as God. The Holy Ghost reveals that he's God. You know what happens?

27:44 John chapter 21. Thomas fell at his feet and said, Ha-choriosmu, the Lord of me. Ha-pheosmu, the God of me. See the person element?

27:59 The Lord, objective, but my Lord. The God, objective, but subjective, my God. That's it. The Christian is one in whom that same revelation has occurred.

28:14 He sees the uniqueness of Christ, person as Son of God, Son of man, the only appointed Savior of sinners. And that confession is not something he simply parrots because it's gone from the ear to the memory and out of the larynx. But the Holy Spirit has revealed it to his heart so that he loves a Christ whom he's never seen in the words of Peter, whom having not seen, ye love. And by the grace of God, he would die for that unseen Christ.

28:44 But what about his work? He not only has an opinion of the uniqueness of Christ, person being Son of God, Son of man, but he has an opinion of the work of Christ, his work of obedience, his work of obedience unto death, his work wrought in his resurrection, his work at the right hand of the Father, his incarnation, his perfect life upon the earth, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his ascension, his intercession. The Christian is a man who has an opinion of the uniqueness of the work of Christ. He looks upon him not as one religious leader among many who has suffered for his cause, but he looks upon the death of Jesus Christ in such a light that he can say with the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2.20, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. He has seen in Christ crucified the head of all who will come unto him and he sees in Christ death, his death, in Christ satisfaction for sin, his satisfaction for sin. He sees in Jesus Christ, and the work that he has wrought for sinners, the one ground of his acceptance with God.

30:07 So again he can say with the Apostle Paul in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the focal point of his glorying because Christ in his work is unique and precious to him. May I again press the question to your conscience?

30:29 What is your opinion of Jesus Christ? What think ye of Christ tonight? What think ye of Christ? Now get the answer right up to here.

30:39 Don't say it, but get it that far. What is your view of the person of Christ? Could you fall at his feet tonight, sincerely and without hesitation, and say with tolerance, My Lord and my God. He is the Lord of glory.

31:03 He is God made flesh. But he is my Lord and he is my God. Do you see what that means? If he's my Lord, he's on the throne, not only of the universe but of my heart.

31:17 If he is my God, he's not only the sovereign ruler and originator and end of all, he is my end. The one to whom I live so that I can say for to me to live is Christ. What think ye of Christ? What's your opinion of his person?

31:37 The second half of the question, what is your opinion of his work? Can you say without reservation, what Jesus Christ wrought in his life and death and resurrection? What he is accomplishing at the right hand of the Father is not just part of my hope that I shall be a forgiven sinner, that I shall be found numbered amongst those who enter his presence with eternal bliss, but Jesus Christ is the whole of my company. You see, the two key phrases that sum up the heart of the Gospel are these.

32:16 Christ, Christ alone to meet the sinner's need, faith alone by which the sinner's need is met in Christ. And it's the little word alone. Now some of you wouldn't have much controversy. With Christ, he enters in somehow, but can you say Christ alone?

Question 3: What Have These Opinions Produced in Your Life? (New Creation)

32:43 The Christian is known by his opinion of Jesus Christ. And then in closing, the third thing that marks a true Christian is this, what those opinions have produced in his life. For the Scripture says, everyone who comes to these two opinions, biblically, the opinion of himself, that he is a creature of God, that he is a creature who has fallen in Adam, he is guilty, he is polluted, he is helpless, everyone who has come to that opinion, and there is joined to it this opinion of Christ, who he is in his person, what he is in his work, and if those opinions have been wrought by the Spirit of God, they are always wrought in such a way that then they do something more than merely expand the head with new notions about myself and about Christ. By the Spirit of God, those truths applied to the heart make a man what the Bible calls a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17, If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away.

33:59 Behold, all things have become new. You say you hold these opinions. The question I ask is, what have they done? What are they doing right now?

34:16 What difference do they make in the way you live, in the way you think, how you work, how you play, what you do when you are in private, what you do in public, the patterns of your thought, your social life, what you do on a date, what you don't do on a date, how you speak to your children, how you speak to your wife. This is what we are talking about. These opinions applied to the heart by the Holy Ghost make a man or woman a new person. Not perfectly new, but radically new.

35:00 You say you hold these opinions. What evidence is there that you become a new creation? What is there about you that defies any explanation, but that Almighty God has broken across the threshold of your life and laid hold of you and made you a new man or a new woman in Christ? Thank God there are many, and we've heard their testimony today, who at the end of this day, if they give themselves time, will have to sit on a little bench somewhere and scratch their heads and say, who in the world are you?

35:29 And they'll look themselves in the mirror and say, that's you, but it ain't you. That's you, but it's not you! Why? Because a Christian is basically a man who's a mystery to himself.

35:43 If you don't believe it, listen to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2.20. He was terribly mixed up. Listen to it.

35:50 I have been crucified with Christ. Well, good. Crucified men don't write letters. And he says, yeah, that's right, and I am writing one in that truth, so I must be alive.

36:01 So he says in the next phrase, I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. And just when you're about to say, well, look, Paul, were you crucified or are you living? He says, well, I have been crucified, but I am alive. But he says, on the other hand, yet I'm not alive.

36:16 Well, what are you? Dead or alive? I'm quoting Galatians 2.20.

36:20 Look at it. I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Oh, so you are alive. Well, cancel out the first phrase.

36:27 Well, no, not exactly, because yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Oh, so now you've been blotted out, and you're just sort of a channel and funnel, and Christ is living through you. No, he says, no, no, because the life which I now live in the flesh. Oh, so you do live the life, yes.

36:46 Oh, so it's not Christ but you. Well, that's right. But the life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He's a mystery to himself.

36:57 I've been crucified, yet I'm alive. Yet I'm not living. He's doing the living, and yet he's doing the living in such a way that I'm doing the living. He's all mixed up.

37:08 My friend, if you're not mixed up that way, you're not a Christian. Christian is the man who's been confounded. God's done something that confounds him. Some of us can sit here and say, is this me?

37:26 Am I the same person that when Mom and Dad said, time to go to church, if I dared to, I would have cussed? And Mom and Dad said church four times in one day? At a double cuss? A quadruple cuss?

37:44 Am I the same person that once had that attitude of gathering with God's people who's found sheer holy delight, intoxicating joy in being with God's people one, two, three, four, five times a day? Sunday school, Sunday morning baptism, Lord's Supper, evening service? And whose only regret is that this mortal frame can't hold anymore? Is that the same person?

38:11 No, not on your life. Something's happened. Something's happened. And it's so radical that God says the old life has died, and a new one has emerged.

38:24 And yet the new one has so emerged that it's lived in the same human personality, with the same faculty, same eyes, same ears, same crooked nose, everything the same, but everything different. Are you a mystery to yourself tonight? Or can you explain yourself? Can you explain yourself?

38:43 Well, there was my godly mom and dad, and they taught me this, and they taught me that, and I go to churches, and I do all that. Oh, my friend, listen, if you can explain yourself, I entreat you to consider seriously whether or not you may have missed the whole point of all that we've been talking about. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

A Searching Call to Self-Examination and the Gospel Invitation

39:06 These opinions of himself and of Christ have been so burnt into his heart by the Spirit, and in conjunction with his life-giving work, they emerge with him as a new creature in Christ Jesus. Simple question, but oh, how searching if we're willing to face them. You've been with us today, perhaps a visitor. Some of you have just come in for this evening.

39:35 Could it be that God has directed this word for your own well-being? You think hard thoughts of God. You may have been sitting here even tonight and saying, why in the world does that preacher have to look at me? Somebody must have told him about me.

39:47 He's looking at me. He's pointing his finger at me. Why, why that? Oh, my friend, listen, listen.

39:53 God who knows your case has graciously sent His word of salvation to you, not to harm you. For He says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of good, not of evil. I have no plans. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that He turn and live.

40:10 And I stand to soberly tell you in His name, if you do not have this biblical opinion of yourself and this biblical opinion of Christ and these two opinions have not by the Spirit of God been joined to His transforming work in your life, you're not a Christian, my friend. If you're not a Christian, you're not prepared to live nor prepared to die and much less prepared to go to judgment. But to you this night is this word of salvation sent. I got a letter the other day and with this little word I'll close from some people who've been listening to some of our tapes out in the Midwest.

40:48 And they were helped by them because in their area the standard of ministry has so fallen where they can't get any solid biblical preaching. They were all thrilled until they listened to a sermon recently in which apparently I was entreating sinners to flee to Christ and opening wide the door of mercy. And they said, now, Mr. Martin, we understood that you were of such and such a theological persuasion and that you believe thus, thus, thus and thus.

41:12 And how is it that believing that you can so freely offer Christ to all men? Oh, I can't wait to dictate the letter on Tuesday. Because I want to tell them that I can in Christ's name offer Christ freely to all men, urge Him upon all men because He Himself has warranted such an offer and such an urgency. Amen.

41:37 The gospel feast is spread, he said. All things are ready. Go out into the highways and hedges and hide behind a bush and once in a while squeak out, come to the feast. No, no.

41:53 Go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. And they do so and the Lord says, yet there is room. Ah, my friend, that's the gospel. We cannot compel you with physical coercion.

42:09 If we could, we'd try it and be willing to get our noses bent some more in the process because we desire your good and not your ill. But we're to compel you with words of entreaty based upon gospel facts. Christ has come. Christ has died.

42:25 Christ has risen. Christ lives, mighty to save. And He says from His throne in royal majesty and in regal compassion, come unto me. I will give you rest.

42:42 Come. Find rest. Tell Him, Lord, I've been proud. I've had such a high opinion of myself.

42:50 Oh, Lord, teach me what I am. Be my prophet to show me what I am. He'll do that. Or maybe you've come tonight with a low opinion.

42:59 You've regarded yourself as junk, something not worth saving, something that God of heaven would never look upon. That's a lie of the devil, my friend. You're of such worth to God that all eternity will find your existence a monument to that worth either in heaven or in hell. You only destroy and crush and recycle what is useless.

43:21 God says human beings are not useless. I'll never crush them and destroy them and recycle them. They'll live for eternity, a monument of how important they are to me, either in heaven or in hell. Oh, my friend, whatever your opinion has been of yourself, too high, too low, ask the Lord Jesus to teach you what you are.

43:42 Then whatever your opinion has been of Christ, ask him by his Spirit to show you who he is and pray that there will be no rest until what he teaches you of yourself and of himself transforms you into that blessed mystery to yourself. God is able. Cast yourself upon him and find his promised mercy and dear child of God, go home tonight and don't let the night find you pillowing your head upon your bed until you've at least said one hallelujah, one amen, one bless God for his mercy to you and to us as his people and to these others whom he has graciously drawn to himself. Let us pray.