Expanding Self-Examination, Part 4

Expanding self-examination. My son on the way in today said, maybe you ought to examine how long you expand this thing, Dad. And I said, well, you know, I don't know how long it's gonna be, but you know, I just think it's so important because it's such a neglected discipline. We might do it on Communion Sunday, maybe, but we don't wake up every day looking to examine our lives. And some of us like to use the excuse, well, the Bible says in Jeremiah 17, nine, that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? I can't even know my own heart. So how can I effectively examine my life? Well, that's because you match it according to what God says.

He is the examiner. He's the doctor. He's the surgeon. That's why our key text is Psalm 139, 23. Search me, O God. Know my heart. Try me. Know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way. The psalmist knew. Lord, you need to search me. Try me. Look at my heart.

Look at my head and tell me, is there anything there that needs to be dealt with? Earlier in Psalm 26, the psalmist said it this way. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Examine me, O Lord, and try me. Test my mind and my heart. Lord, I need you to test me. I need you to try me. And that's what we're asking God to do. And I'm just trying to help you work through the process that says, look, what am I asking God to do? I'm asking him to examine the reality of my faith.

I'm asking him to examine the destiny of my soul in light of what God's word says. I'm asking him to examine the authenticity of my heart, the purity of my mind, the integrity of my life. I'm asking God to search me, try me, and see if there be any hurtful way in me that I might walk in the way of everlasting life, that I might walk in truth as God's word says. Today, I wanna move to point number six, and that is to examine the quality, the quality of my walk. So important, the quality of my walk.

How is your daily conduct? How is your walk in life? Back in 1993, I hurt my back. I had no idea what had taken place, but I was in great pain. So I got this brace to put around me to kinda cause the pain to subside. And so I tightened the brace, and I took my 4 Advil every two hours, even though that's way over the top. I just did whatever I had to do to cause the pain to subside. But it didn't. It just got increasingly worse and worse and worse till finally it was so bad, I had to go into the doctor, I had surgery, and I felt so much better.

But all along, when I was walking to church, when I was walking, when I was preaching, everybody noticed that I was walking differently. I wasn't walking normal. I was walking and leaning, kinda like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Always leaning to my left because it was so much pain, so I'd walk like this. Because I was in so much pain. But everybody knew that somehow my walk was different. Well, after I had surgery, things were great. I could walk fine. Then a few years later, I couldn't walk again because I needed a knee replacement.

So I got my knee replaced. I started walking great again. Then my hip went out and I had to have a hip replacement. But every time, you could tell there was something wrong. I would either limp when I walked, I would lean to my right or to my left, and it was difficult getting up, and everybody would notice.

What is wrong with the pastor? How come he's in so much pain? Why does he walk leaning to the left or to the right with a limp? What is it about him? Is he really that old that he can't walk straight up and down anymore? And so when it was all said and done, my wife looked at me and she says, you know, honey, you're half the man you used to be. And I said, honey, I know that, but know this. Me being half a man is better than any other whole man. Just remember that. And she said, oh honey, you're living in a dream world.

So baby, I'm living in a dream world. I'm in a dream today. This is my dream life, my dream world. You know, this is the way it is. But everybody noticed something before I had the surgery that something was wrong. I was walking inappropriately. I was walking in a way that everybody could see something was wrong. The same is true in the spiritual realm. Don't think for one moment people can't notice your walk in life.

That something is drastically wrong with your spiritual walk. When someone came up to me before I had surgeries and I was walking kind of funny, and someone came to me and said, you know what, something's wrong with you. You're not walking properly. I never said, don't judge me. Don't judge me, just because I'm walking differently now.

Don't judge me, don't pass judgment on me. I never said that. Because something was wrong. But in the spiritual realm, isn't that what we do? Something's wrong, don't judge me. You can't judge me. And of course, I've always said that the people that say that are always guilty, right? Because the guiltless person wants to be judged, wants to be examined. But the guilty person doesn't want to be. But we're so quick to say, don't judge me. But there's a certain walk about the Christian that is a certain quality of life that is so unique to the believer that when you walk with Christ, everybody knows.

Oh, by the way, when you don't walk with Christ, everybody knows. We say, well, you just can't pass judgment on people. Why not? Why not? If you examine them according to the word of the Lord, then you can examine their walk. And the Bible's filled with this. Turn with me to Romans chapter six for a moment.

Romans chapter six. Paul says this, what shall we say then, verse number one, are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?

May never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. As God's glory was put on display through the resurrection of his Son, so now God's glory is put on display through the spiritual resurrection of the saints.

God's glory is put on display every single day, all the time. We walk in newness of life. And the word there is kynos, which is new in terms of quality. It's a quality of life. It's a distinct kind of life. It's not neos as in chronology, but kynos in terms of quality of life. And when you've been buried with Christ in the likeness of his death, and raised in the likeness of his resurrection because you have crucified the flesh, as Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

Christ dwells now in me. I walk in newness of life. That's what the Bible says in 1 John 2, 6. He who says he abides in him ought himself to walk even as he himself walked. If I say I remain in Christ, if I say I'm a believer in Christ, then my walk is to magnify the walk of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can do that because 2 Corinthians 6 says he dwells in me and he walks in me. So if he walks within me, it's gonna dictate the quality of my life as I walk with him every single day. And when I'm not walking with him, guess what?

Everybody knows. Now, I can hide it for a while. I can disguise it. I can live hypocritically. But eventually, people are gonna realize that the quality of your walk is not Christ-like. And therefore, you need to get right with the Lord. So important. You need to have spiritual surgery so that you can walk appropriately in line with the word of the Lord. Listen to what the Bible says.

When it talks about the believer's new life, in Ezekiel 36, we have a new heart. Ezekiel 18, a new spirit. Revelation 2, a new name. Psalm 40, a new song. 2 Corinthians 5, we are considered a new creation. Galatians 6, we're new creatures. And Ephesians 4, we are new men. Everything's new. It's called the new birth. It's not old, it's new. New in terms of quality. The quality of your life is revolutionized. You're not adding Jesus to your existing life. No, God is transforming your life. That's why if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things pass away, behold, all things become new. Why? Because Jesus now walks in us. That's the promise of the new covenant. That I might learn to keep his statutes and follow him and walk with him. That's the beauty of it. So how does that manifest itself? What is the quality of my walk? Well, listen to what the Bible says in the book of Ephesians.

The fourth chapter says these words. "'Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, "'implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling "'with which you have been called.'" Paul says, I beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling whereby you have been called. The Bible says that our calling is a high calling, Philippians chapter three.

It's a holy calling, 2 Timothy chapter one, and it is a heavenly calling. And that heavenly calling is recorded in Hebrews chapter three. So we have a high, holy, heavenly calling. Paul knows that, so Paul says, I want you to walk now worthy, I want you to walk in a manner that is equal to a holy calling, high calling, a heavenly calling. I want you to walk worthy of the one who called you. Paul would pray these words over in 1 Thessalonians chapter two, to those in Thessalonica. 1 Thessalonians two, verse number nine, just as you know, we were exhorting, encouraging, imploring each one of you as a father with his own children so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and his own glory.

That was Paul's prayer. And this should be the prayer for every one of us. As we begin to bring our children before the Lord and our husband before the Lord, our wife before the Lord, our church before the Lord, we're saying, Lord, we want them to walk worthy of the calling by which they've been called, that high, holy, heavenly calling. The new life, the newness of life is expressed in a worthy walk. That's a quality walk. Not only that, it's expressed in a humble walk. Not only do you walk worthy, but you walk humbly.

Look what it says in verse two. With all humility. Wow. Walking humbly. Walking in a way that manifests the lowliness of Christ. Remember what he says? Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. That was our Lord. So if we say we abide in him, we ought then to walk even as he himself walked. How did he walk? He walked the lowly walk. He walked the humble walk. He was meek. He was lowly. And so if we're gonna walk in a manner with which our Lord himself walked, we walk that way.

Remember John the Baptist? Made it very clear. He must increase, I must decrease. That's the humble walk. I have to decrease. Christ must increase in my life. But see, we have that reversed. We think that we must increase. We must be seen. We must be admired. We must be glorified. But the believer says, no. Lord, I must decrease. You must increase in my life. The Bible says in Acts 20, verse number 19, Paul served with humility, humility of mind.

Wow. Peter said it this way over in 1 Peter chapter one. I'm sorry, 1 Peter chapter five. He says, you younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders, and all of you clothe yourself with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Clothe yourself with humility. It's a word that means to tie in a knot, okay? And where did Peter get that from? John 13, the eve of the crucifixion, when Christ would take a slave's apron, tie it in a knot, and begin to serve his men.

Now Peter picks up on that and says, clothe yourself with all humility. God resists the proud. Peter knows that because he was proud. I will not deny you. I'm not like the other guys. I'm the chief of the disciples. I'm the leader of the 12. I am not gonna be the one who denies you. Though all men do, I will not, but he did. They all denied him, but Peter's put up as the hallmark of denial when it comes to Christ. Peter knows that. He says, oh, God resists the proud. He opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

So then he says this, look at this. Therefore, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time. What a great statement. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. The phrase mighty hand is an Old Testament phrase used in two specific ways with the nation of Israel. It was used in the discipline of Israel, and it was used in the deliverance of Israel. They were delivered by God's mighty hand. They were disciplined by God's mighty hand. So Peter says, listen, God's mighty hand of destiny, when it comes to your discipline, when it comes to your deliverance, you need to fall under.

You need to submit yourself under that because God is sovereign. Don't buck against it. Don't fight against it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God's delivering, chastening power to receive all that he has. Walk humbly. Walk worthy. And then he says these words. I want you to walk separately. Separately. This is hard for some of us, but we need to walk separately. Let's go, it says in verse 17 of chapter four. So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, the emptiness of their mind, the vaneness of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart and they having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

But you did not learn Christ in this way. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in the righteousness and holiness of the truth. Wow, you need to walk differently than the world. You ever notice that the church just likes to be so close that we wanna identify with the world because we think that if we identify with them, we win them.

You win them, but you don't. Whatever you win them with, you win them too. So be careful what you use to win them. If you use the gospel, the truth, you win them to the gospel and the truth. But if you're willing to compromise that, you win them to a compromising spirit. Be careful. We need to walk separately. Peter said it this way because Peter knew in 1 Peter chapter four, he said these words so that those saints who were scattered abroad would begin to understand God's call upon their life. He said in verse one of chapter four, therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lust of men, but for the will of God.

For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries and all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excess of dissipation and they malign you. Peter says, you're not running with them. This is the way you used to live. You're no longer living that way. And guess what? They're gonna malign you because you're not gonna associate with them in their drinking parties, in their sensualities, in their idolatries, in their sinful behavior.

You're not going to do that anymore because you're gonna walk separately from the world. The Bible says we're not to love the world.

Neither the things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, because they're of the world and the world's passing away and the lusts are of, but he who does the will of God abides forever. We need to see ourselves as the Bible calls us, as Peter says, as aliens and strangers in a foreign land. We're not like everybody else. We have a new birth. We have a new life. We have a new heart. We have a new direction. We have a new spirit. Everything's new. There's a quality about our life.

We walk worthy of our calling. We walk humbly before our Lord. We walk separately from the world in all of its sinful devices. If you read on, it also says that we as believers are to walk lovingly. Chapter five of Ephesians, therefore be in cares of God as beloved children and walk in love, just as Christ also loves you and gave himself up for us in offering a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. We are to walk lovingly. That is, we're to imitate God. We're to mimic God. He's the God of love. So we walk lovingly.

In other words, we manifest God through our lives by our ability to love our enemies, right? Christ said, love your enemies. He did. On the cross, he loved them. When he healed Malchus's ear there in the garden of Gethsemane, when he didn't have to, he loved his enemies forever to the end. He loved Judas to the end. He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing. The love of our Lord was demonstrated for his enemies. So often we want to hate our enemies. We want to despise our enemies.

We get angry with our enemies. The Bible says we're to love our enemies. We're to do good to those who persecute us. We are to pray for them. We are to extend kindness to them because that's what our Lord would do. We are to walk lovingly, being the kind of people that God wants us to be. At the same time, that doesn't mean that we just let go of doing what God has said in his word when it comes to confronting sin. The Bible says in the book of Leviticus, the 19th chapter, the 17th verse, you should not hate your fellow man.

Okay, who wants to hate their fellow man? Nobody wants to do that. You should not hate your fellow man in your heart. In other words, you might not demonstrate it outwardly, but you hate him on the inside. So you shall not hate your fellow man in your heart. You may surely, surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. In other words, Christ says, how do you know you don't hate your brother in your heart?

You rebuke him when he sins. In other words, if you don't rebuke him when they sin, you truly hate your brother in your heart because you're not concerned about their purity. You're not concerned about their holy, not concerned about their calling, right? It's a high and holy, heavenly calling, but we're not so concerned that you manifest a heavenly calling or a holy calling, even though it's really, really high. We're just gonna let you go on in that sinful attitude, that sinful behavior. You don't wanna incur a sin or the effects of a sin, so what do you do?

You should not hate your brother in your heart, but you should rebuke him when he sins. See, we forget that that's what love truly is. Love is not giving people what they want. Would you please remember that? Love doesn't give people what they want. Love always gives people what they need. People need what? They need truth. They need righteousness. They need the gospel. So we are need-meeters. We are need-givers. We meet the needs of those around us. That's the essence of what love is. I will love you as Christ loved the church, so I will sacrifice to get you to understand the gospel, to understand the truth, to understand Christ.

I will do whatever it takes to get you there because that's what's important in life. Life is so short, so we walk lovingly. But you know what? We also walk wisely. Look what it says down in Ephesians chapter five, a little further down. Oh, and before I get there, let me do verse number eight.

For you were formerly darkness, and now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Walk brightly. Walk brightly. We're children of light. We know Christ is light. He's the light of the world. The incarnate word is the light of the world, but the inspired word is also a lamp unto my feet. For the commandment, Proverbs says, is light. Listen, what happens when light shines? You're able to see, right? It dispels darkness. And when light shines, it allows me to be able to see and understand all that's around me.

We are to walk so brightly that what people see in me is Christ, in the beauty of Christ, the glory of Christ, because his glory rests within me, and I wanna reflect his glory. Therefore, I'm gonna walk brightly. We as believers should always have joy in our hearts. Circumstances might be negative. Our physicality might be on the decline, but there's joy in the heart. There's a brightness about our lives. That people see and understand because of the goodness that's there, of the goodness of God.

So, Paul says, walk as children of the light, for the fruit of the light consists of goodness, righteousness, and truth. That defines walking in the light. Goodness, righteousness, and truth. We're to shine forth those things. So, we examine the quality of our walk. Do I walk worthy of the calling by which I've been called? Do I walk humbly, submitting myself under the mighty hand of God's destiny and deliverance and discipline? And do I tie the slave's apron around my waist that I might serve my fellow man?

Do I walk humbly? Am I the kind of person that walks lovingly and brightly? Do I walk wisely? A little further down. Therefore, be careful how you walk. Verse 15, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil. Walk wisely. Walk in wisdom. We know that Proverbs 2 tells us that wisdom comes from God, right? And in Christ are the riches and the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And so, we get to understand God's wisdom by understanding his word. We need to walk wisely.

And the way you walk wisely is you redeem the time. Every moment of our lives needs to be bought back for the sake of eternity. We are great time wasters, are we not? We love to put our minds in neutral and waste time. I love what China's doing. You know what China's doing? They're restricting their teenagers to three hours a week on video games and social media. Three hours a week and only on the weekends. Wow, we can't do that. Yeah, as parents, you can do that, right? As parents, you can. But China has to mandate it because parents don't do it.

So China mandates it for their children because they know the effects of social media. They know the effects of video games puts your mind in neutral and doesn't cause you to think and grow and know. They know that, how come we don't know that? We should understand that. Are we redeeming the time? Are we buying back every moment of every day for the glory of Christ, for the honor of Christ? That's what we do. Walk wisely, walk in wisdom, knowing that this moment is for the Lord. You've walked wisely today because you're here to hear the word of the Lord.

You've bought back this moment for the sake of eternity. Now, when you leave here, will you buy those moments back? Will you purchase them for the sake of eternity? Will you invest in every moment throughout the day? How am I walking wisely in this arena, in this situation, in this conflict, in this moment that Christ is put on display? Do you walk wisely? Do you walk truthfully? The Bible says that I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

That is just such a great thing. My father, I went to Israel one year, my father bought chains for all of his grandchildren with 3 John 4 written on it and gave them to all of his grandchildren to remind them that they should always walk in truth. That that was the highlight of his life as their grandfather. And he went to the grave praying that all of his grandchildren would walk in truth because he knew that that's what, that really mattered. And you know, as I, as now I'm getting older and I'm having grandchildren, I begin to realize that, you know what?

As my children walk in truth, that will be passed down to the next generation that they and their children will walk in truth. And that's just a great joy. That's a great joy. Every year my children say, dad, what do you want for your birthday? What do you want for Christmas? What do I say, Kate? Obedience. That's it. Listen, but that's cheap. I said, oh no, it's not. It's gonna cost you to obey the Lord. It costs big time, right? What I want for Christmas, what I want for my birthday, what I want for Father's Day, I want obedience.

Obedience to God and his word. That's it. Because there is no greater joy than to hear that your children walk in truth. My children can give me pictures and prizes and trinkets and all those kinds of things. And they're nice. I don't refuse them. I don't toss them. Well, maybe sometimes I do. But the bottom line is, is that their obedience to the Lord is everything. It's all that matters. But as parents, we have to walk truthfully, right? We can't compromise the truth, the standard of God, because we want our children to walk in truth.

Oh, so much to say about that. Not only that, but walk intimately and walk thankfully. I wish I could go through all these for you because they're so, so rich. Colossians 2, verse number six, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him. That's walking intimately. I'm walking in him. He is in me. I am walking in him because I am on the same level as he is. I'm on the same page. I am doing the same things. I'm gonna walk as he himself walked. I'm gonna walk intimately. It goes on and says this, having been firmly rooted in now, being built up in him, established in your faith just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude.

Walking thankfully. Walking thankfully. But there's one more. And all those were kind of introductory to this one anyway, but I wanted to give them to you because I think they're very important. The quality of your walk is crucial. These be examined every day. Do you know, the things I'm giving to you are things that I go through my mind when I pray in the morning, when I read the scriptures, everything about the purity of my mind and the quality of my life, the authenticity of my heart. Lord, examine me.

I go through this all the time. And I want every one of us to be aware that examining the inner man is crucial according to God's standard, not my opinion or your opinion, but what does God actually say? And the quality of my walk is so crucial, so important. And so here's the one I'm gonna give you and I'm gonna conclude it next week, okay? Not the series, okay, but this point. I will conclude the series on the first Sunday in October.

Because that's Communion Sunday and I'm gonna conclude the examination on that week. That's the plan, that's the plan. And then the following week, Hebrews 11 verse number one.

That's the plan, that's where we're going unless the Lord comes again or I die, okay? So here's the good thing, here's the good news. All right, we walk dependently. We walk dependently. This is very hard for us. Why? Because we love our independence. We love to walk independently, not dependently. We love autonomy. Do you know why we love autonomy? Because we don't like accountability. That's why we love autonomy. We love to be alone, we love to be left alone. We wanna do what we do, we wanna handle situations on our own.

We wanna make decisions because we're in, we're smart people. We wanna make decisions because in our own minds we're wise. I don't need to trust God for this because I can do this. I don't need to trust God for this because I can do this. But you do. That's why the Bible says walk in the Spirit so you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh, Galatians 5.16.

Walking dependently requires that we walk in the Spirit. And so next week I wanna show you how important this is, how this is such an imperative for us. Because this is what God's going to do, right? God is going to do all He can to shatter your independence from Him to establish your dependence upon Him. And God will stop at nothing until you live walking in the Spirit, dependent upon Him for everything. That's why Paul said to the Galatians, oh, how foolish can you be? Having begun in the Spirit, you now try to accomplish everything in the flesh.

Paul says that's foolishness. That's stupidity. That's ridiculous. You can't do that. Because Christianity is known for the spiritual realm, infused by spiritual power, by the Spirit of God Himself. You can't walk without Him. You must always walk dependent upon Him. Because if you don't, you will engage in the lust of the flesh. You might do it sparingly. You might do it haphazardly. But it will happen, and it will become more and more part of your life. So walk dependently upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

In this reason, I'm going to show you exactly how that happens and how that is manifested in our lives and show you how Jeremiah couldn't live without the Lord, how Isaiah, same way, how Paul, the same way. They just didn't walk out on their own and make their own decisions. They were decisions based on dependency upon the living God. And every one of us needs to be that way. May God give us the grace in the quality of our walk to honor Him. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for today. You are a great God and worthy to be praised.

We ask that You go before us. I thank You, Lord, for those who are here today. That You bless them in a very special way. Because of their commitment to You. And Lord, they've walked wisely today. They've bought back this moment for the sake of eternity. Help them, Lord, as they leave to walk worthy of their calling, to walk lovingly with those that are around them, to walk humbly, looking to lift others above them and submit themselves to Your Word and Your will. Help them, Lord, to walk truthfully.

They walk in Your truth. That they'd walk intimately with You, hand in hand, arm in arm, close, not be like the disciples who followed You from a distance. And when they did, they succumbed to temptation. Lord, we don't want to follow You from a distance. We want to be up close and personal. Lord, go before us that we might walk that way, that we might walk thankfully, always giving praise to our God for what You've done. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our soon coming King, amen.