I. CHRISTIANS OUGHT TO KNOW THEMSELVES
We may not know each other for the best and worst of every man is hid from human observation. But ourselves we ought to know.
1. We ought to know our depraved nature. The Bible gives us a revelation of ourselves. We may know the character of our old nature from its pages and so know what power once worked within us. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, Col 1:21; echthros {ech-thros'} hated, odious, hateful.
2. We ought to know of our propensity for evil. It is dangerous not to know what we are capable of. Peter was deceived about himself and it contributed to his fall. Matt 26:31-35. Had David borne it this truth in mind he would not have sinned with Bathsheba.
3. We ought to know our tendency to self-deception. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye, Matthew 7:5. We whitewash our own sins while painting other people's wrongs darkest black.
4. Thus we can prove ourselves. Paul was able to know himself. 2 Tim 1:12, as did John, 1 John 3:14. Do not this lead to much comfort and assurance?
II. SUCH A KNOWLEDGE OF OURSELVES MUST BE MAINTAINED BY CONSTANT SELF-EXAMINATION
1. We must start with whether we are in the faith. We should ask ourselves whether we have come to Christ as sinners, pleading for mercy solely through His blood and desiring to be found in Him, accepted by the Father through the merits of Christ’s death and passion.
We should ask whether we daily seek to live by faith in the Lord Jesus, receiving everything through Him alone. Are we manifesting the faith of God’s elect?
2. We must conduct a personal, thorough and proving examination. We examine our bodies for disease and ailments. How much more so the heart and soul to see if we be joined to Christ. Deut 4:9; 1Tim 5:22; James 1:27, Jude 21.
3. Such an examination is necessary before worship. Lamentations 3:40, 1 Cor 11:28.
4. We must examine ourselves remembering we are open to Christ's scrutiny. John 2:24-25; Jer 17:10. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, Hebrews 4:13.
III. WHATEVER WE MAY THINK OF OURSELVES, IF CHRIST IS NOT IN US, WE ARE REPROBATES
The word reprobate refers to impure metal, valueless and fit only for casting away. Religion without Christ is worthless. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them, Jeremiah 6:30.
Better to find this out in time than to find it out in eternity. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God, 1 John 3:20-21.