Speaker 1
It's great to hear solid Bible teaching on the radio or from our pastor on Sunday mornings, but sometimes it's nice to sit down for an informal conversation with your Bible teacher. Well, that's exactly what we'll do today right here on Focal Point.
And welcome to Focal Point with our Bible teacher, Mike Fabarez. Mike is senior pastor of Compass Bible Church, located in Southern California. I'm Dave Drouy, and if you're a regular listener to Focal Point, you're familiar with the accurate and relevant teaching from Pastor Mike each day.
But every week we set aside a half hour to meet on a more personal level and ask some questions that have come in from listeners. So let's join executive director Jay Wortin and Pastor Mike for today's discussion inside the pastor study.
Speaker 2
Thanks, Dave. I'm here with Pastor Mike and Pastor Mike.
Today we have a question about a certain passage. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves to see if you're of the faith." A listener is asking, what does it mean to examine our faith and how do we go about doing that?
Speaker 3
Right. Well, the Bible has a lot to say about genuine faith and inauthentic faith, faith that's not real, real Christianity and those that just look like they're Christians. The parables of Christ, the wheat and the tares, the sheep and the goats—there are all of these distinctions that need to be made among people that are not just based on what they say about themselves or what they claim in terms of their allegiance to Christ, but the reality of that allegiance or the reality of that faith and alliance.
So, you know, we need to test ourselves and see if we are genuine Christians. It's a good thing to do. In 2 Corinthians, Paul was dealing with a lot of the people in Corinth who were questioning whether or not he was really of God. In the end of this book, Paul turns this on them and says, well, I know I am an apostle. I know I am an authority in the church of Corinth, and you should be listening to what I'm saying. Now it's time for you to examine yourself, to see if you're even a Christian, if you're of the faith or not.
So real faith and inauthentic faith—it's always something God asks us to look at, to evaluate. That sense of introspection is so fundamental to the Christian life. And here's another passage that says, take a look at your faith. Is it real?
Speaker 2
Well, certainly Paul probably had in mind what he told the Corinthians in First Corinthians 6: you've been doing your own thing in terms of sexual behavior, but your body is not your own. You've been bought with a price.
I mean, they're slaves to Christ, and they should be beholden to what God has to say for them.
How do we look at that in our Christian life?
Speaker 3
Well, yeah, and I guess you got to ask yourself the question, are you a Christian in name only? Do you just say, "I'm a Christian," and then you do whatever it is you think is best and whatever it is that you'd like to do?
Real Christianity is about recognizing that Christ is your Lord. The authority for your life is bound up in God. We follow him and his Word. And we're not the captain of our own fate, the master of our own soul and our own destiny. We are followers of Jesus Christ.
And so one of the ways we see whether our faith is real is to look at how we live our lives. Are we living it with a deference and a submission to the truth of God's word? Very important.
Speaker 2
Are there certain concrete or visible characteristics that we're going to be able to identify in a Christian? Something that's a mark of a Christian, you say, oh, yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 3
Well, yeah, when you look in the Bible, there's a lot of passages that relate to this. But one with all laundry list of things would be in Galatians, chapter five, where he's comparing what it is to live and doing what the flesh wants to do. Just the natural propensities of being a human being and then living with this fruit or this outcome of what it means to live in deference and in submission to the Holy Spirit.
As he lists all those things, you know, just doing whatever we want in terms of sexuality or impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, the list goes on. He says, look at all these natural propensities of doing whatever it is we want to. And he says, now compare what it is to follow the Spirit and the work and evidence of the Spirit in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control.
All these things in the list are expressions that really have to curtail the impulses of humanity. And we now instead do what it is that the Spirit is wanting us to do. All the things that the Spirit has written through the pen of the apostles and prophets that we see on the pages of the Bible, those are the things that are expressions of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. And the list goes on.
So those are the kinds of things I would send someone to just in counseling or in preaching and say, look at these things and see if in your life there is a demonstration of this kind of evidence of what it means to be a Christian. Are you expressing in your life a kind of unnatural, if you will, not just the human impulses that you have, but the unnatural expressions of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness?
And on the list goes. So check yourself with that tangible, concrete list; that would be a good and important place to start.
Speaker 2
How would you say our relationship to God's Word would be emphasized in our Christian life?
Speaker 3
Well, even in that passage, you know, the fruit of the Spirit, the Spirit is the medium, if you will, the work of God in penning his truth on paper. So the God-breathed scriptures are God's word through the pen of the apostles and prophets. And by that, we recognize that what the Spirit wants, what the Spirit is trying to accomplish in our lives, is all pinned in the writings of the Bible.
So the Bible becomes so important to the Christian who is filled with the Spirit, who is really having genuine faith expressed in their behavior, their lives, their thoughts, their values. And you're going to see that on the pages of Scripture. One of the passages I always like people to read, I mean regularly, is Psalm 119. Look at the way here this godly psalmist is expressing his love for the Word of God.
That kind of love for the Word, that kind of resolve to do as it says, you know, it's not devoid of the Spirit. We realize what the Spirit of God enables us and empowers us. But the point is we recognize that to live out the life of Christian faith is one that has the word of God clearly before us. It's something we consult, it's something we study, it's something we meditate on, it's something we memorize.
It is the Spirit's clear directions for how the human life ought to be lived, how we ought to relate to God, how we ought to worship. All of those things are codified. They're crystallized in the pages of the Bible.
Speaker 2
Pastor Mike, you'll often hear somebody say, when asked the question, are you going to heaven? They might say, I hope so. What is that person thinking or saying really when they, when they respond that way?
Speaker 3
Well, I guess we are maybe confusing in our minds the distinction between justification and sanctification. That's a very important distinction to make. I mean, the moment we are saved, right, we are 100% qualified to walk through the gates of the new Jerusalem. We are saved, forgiven, justified. Our sin is atoned for. We are cleansed. We are in Christ. We are right before God.
But at that moment begins a process of sanctification. We are now in the process of being set apart. That's what sanctified means in a daily behavioral sense. And so I can know if I've responded rightly to the Gospel. I can know that moment that I'm right with God and I'm saved. I can know that I have eternal life. One of the ways I know is the change in the direction of my life. That is, I start to see a progressive sanctification lived out in my life. This is always something the Bible points to as evidence or fruit of who you are.
So when I'm saved, I'm changed from the inside out. To pull in a little bit of the Old Testament, the Old Testament promise was that we would have a new heart—heart of stone taken out, heart of flesh put in. Now our heart beats in sync. By that, I mean the internal part of who I really am aligns with the word of God, with the truth of God. I want to please God. Those are my core desires, as I often call them.
Now I'm in a battle with my flesh that still wants to do wrong. But the good news is the Spirit of God dwells in me and allows me to see progress in my sanctification. So while there may be days of doubt because I'm looking at my life and thinking, "Wow, this is a failure here, and I've sinned in that," we will see the direction of our lives continue to affirm the position that we have before God. Our sanctification will give evidence to our justification.
What I know is that the fruit of our lives, as imperfect as we may see it in light of God's Word, shows the direction or the course that it's on. We will see that as an affirming part of the fact that I know that I am a Christian.
Speaker 2
Well, thank you, Pastor Mike. You gave a message on this subject, so let's listen to that now. It's called being rightly concerned about real faith.
Speaker 3
Are you really a Christian?
Speaker 4
I don't care how long you think you've been walking with God. It's a question that we all need to be confronted with, because the holy inspired word of God is asking this question of us. Regardless of where we think we stand.
Speaker 3
Are we really in step with Jesus Christ?
Speaker 4
Turn to Hebrews, chapter 4. Take a look at verses 1, 2, and the first half of 3, therefore, verse 1. Since the promise of entering his rest still stands.
Speaker 3
Time out.
Speaker 4
The rest was the picture of the people in the Old Testament in the 15th century BC who were wandering through the wilderness. Actually, they hadn't started the real wandering proper. They were just up to the front door of the promised land at a city called Kadesh Barnea. And God had said, trust me and I'll lead you into the promised land. And they failed the test. That's the rest. It is an analogy of salvation.
And here's what the text says. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, the NIV reads, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also had the gospel preached to us just as they did. But the message they heard was of no value to them because those who heard it did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest just as God has said. So I declared on oath and my anger, they shall not enter my rest.
But take a look at this text. We'll break it down real simply: verses 1, verse 2, and verse 3 to try and understand that as God is challenging these pew-sitting Christians, these Sunday Christians who are going every week filled with genuine believers and people that think they're believers and some people that know they're not believers, he says, listen, you gotta examine yourself.
Now what I want you to do is put some brackets or a circle around what's very first in this Greek sentence, okay? It's translated into English. Let us be careful. Four words, okay? Unfortunately, that's a really, really wimpy translation of the word. The word comes from the word. And I'll use this word because you know it.
Speaker 3
It's got cognates.
Speaker 4
In English, it's the word phobio. Okay, does that sound familiar? We say you've got a phobia. Phobia means fear, afraid. Let us be afraid that none of you miss or fall short of the promise of this rest that still stands for.
Speaker 3
You gotta be afraid, you don't miss it.
Speaker 4
And the only way you're gonna be afraid to miss it is begin to concentrate on things that the modern Christian church doesn't like to concentrate on. Number one, on your outline. Let's just put it this way. We need to think seriously about heaven and hell because that's what's constantly put before us.
Start at the beginning of the Bible, go to the very end. Whether their understanding was short term in terms of this life or the afterlife as it developed in the latter prophets into the New Testament. The point is, you got two choices. You're going to end up here in a place of blessing or you're going to end up here in a place of torment. And you got a choice to make.
And that sends a shiver down your spine, or at least it ought to. And the Bible says you ought to be afraid that you don't miss it. I need to be concerned that my Christianity is real because I'm looking down the corridor of life and saying it dumps into two places. One goes to a place of blessing and protection and one goes into a place of suffering.
We ought to make sure we don't miss the off ramp kingdom of God.
Speaker 3
Jesus said it all the time.
Speaker 4
Here's a great statement in Matthew 25. He says, "When I return on my glorious throne and I sit before the nation, I will separate people like a shepherd separates sheep from the goats." Remember that.
And I'll say to those on my right, "Enter into the kingdom of God, prepared before the foundation of the world. Enter into your rest to my Father's glory." Boom.
And then I'll say to those on my left, "Depart from me into accursed fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Boom. Done.
Speaker 3
You and I face that.
Speaker 4
Gotta get right with God. I've gotta make sure I'm right with God. It has nothing to do with how.
Speaker 3
Long you've been in church.
Speaker 4
It has nothing to do with how much Bible you know. It has to do with the reality of your faith. And if it's not real and if your repentance isn't genuine, you will wake up in this terrible place.
Matthew chapter seven says it. Many will come to me on that day and say, "Lord, Lord, did we not?" And he'll say, "Depart from me, I never knew you." And that'll be a wake-up call for a lot of folks.
Verse number two, Hebrews, chapter four.
Speaker 3
He makes an analogy back in our.
Speaker 4
Minds to the 15th century BC when here Moses with Caleb and Joshua are standing in the shadow of the promised land and they're about ready to march in. And here he says, you know what? They are just like us in that they were presented with a proposition, with a contract, with a promise.
And the promise was, if you trust me, we'll go into the kingdom together. In that sense, it was this physical place called Canaan, the promised land. If you trust me, we'll go to this place of promise that's called the gospel. Their gospel was temporal, it was physical. It was based on the promised land of Canaan.
For us, it's spiritual. It's an analogy. It's a real place. But the point is, my spiritual salvation hangs on this. And it's the same thing.
Speaker 3
Trust him.
Speaker 4
And it's a trust that's got to go beyond mentally saying, "I know that message." Because the bottom of verse two says they had that message. It was received in that they heard it, but it was of no value to them because those who heard it did not combine it with faith. They didn't really trust him. A lot of people said they did. A lot of people looked like they did. But when it came down to it, representative of the nation, only two guys were willing to stand up among twelve and say, "I trust God. We can take it, and we're going in. We're just going to hang on to God. I don't know how it's all going to work out, but we're going to trust him." Only two out of ten were willing to say that.
Now, if you asked the people that were walking up to the front door at Kadesh Barnea, ready to walk into the promised land, and said, "Are you God's people?" you know what they'd say? "Absolutely, we are. We are God's chosen people. Is God with you?" "God is with us. Look at the cloud. Look at the pillar, man. God is all around us. He's guiding us. He loves us. We're his people." But if you could peel back the veneer and look into their heart, very few of them actually trusted God.
And you know why the real faith is demonstrated? You know how I can say absolutely sure that real faith is demonstrated by trust in everything less? It's because that's how Jesus approached people all the time. He said to people like the rich young ruler, "Follow me." And he looked through the veneer of his life because he's God. Jesus said, "Ah, you're not really true. You don't trust me." And to test him, he said this: "Sell all your stuff then." And you know what he said?
Speaker 3
I can't do that.
Speaker 4
Well, then you don't really trust me. That's why he comes up to people and people say, well, you are the Messiah. He says, great, then leave your nets and follow me. Can you do that? And they go, yeah, we can do that. Then off they go.
And he says, I'm glad to give you the kingdom because God's hidden it from the wise and the learned. But he's revealed it to you.
Speaker 3
You're trusting the king.
Speaker 4
They had the message, the good news preached to them just as we do. Ours is, on a larger magnitude, obvious. But the message they heard, it wasn't combined with real faith. It was more of this: head knowledge.
Take a look at it. What is the essence of your Christianity? You think you're going to heaven. Great. Tell me why. You know what people normally do? They look to the dumbest things. They look to things like, "Well, I go to the right church, right? I read my Bible, I pray." We say things like this: "I've experienced God's presence in my life."
Do you think the people at Kadesh Barnea could say they had experienced God's presence in their life? They had seen God's miracles taking place before their very eyes. That's why I think in Matthew 7, Jesus throws that in. I don't care if you're a miracle performer, he says; God might say to us, "Depart from me. I never knew you."
Why? Well, maybe we never looked at our faith. Maybe we never really examined it. Maybe we never put it to the test because we were told if you walk the aisle, pray the prayer, or say the right words, go to the right church, carry the right Bible, or do whatever it is they're telling us to do, then your faith will obviously be there. By default.
The text says no. Look for it. Examine it. Are we like the people in Kadesh Barnea who are in the right group, heard the right message, agree with it, have a mental assent to the facts, but our lives are not transformed?
Speaker 3
Our faith is not abiding, man.
Speaker 4
Make sure that's not a reality for you.
Speaker 3
Think seriously about heaven and hell.
Speaker 4
Objectively evaluate your Christianity.
Speaker 3
Verse number three, Hebrews four.
Speaker 4
Now, we who have believed genuine faith, our trust is real, we enter that rest. Current present tense. Real Christians enter into that rest. The rest again is an analogy of walking into Canaan, which is the reality of us having genuine conversion to where we are children of the kingdom. We're going to the new Jerusalem one day. He says, if our faith is real, that's the reality for us. We enter that rest.
And then he says, note this. Flip it around. Just as God has said, so I declared on oath in my anger, they shall not enter my rest. And he's looking back now at the contract with those people in Kadesh Barnea saying, you know what? God didn't let them in. See, here's the contract. You trust me, we'll go in. You don't trust me, you don't go in. And God is a God who lets folks into the kingdom because of the trust that is wrought in their hearts. But he's also a God who, on the flip side, just as he says God has said so, I declared in my anger, they shall not enter my rest.
What you and I need to do is we need to stand back. Can you see the contract there, number three? We need to respect God's contract. God is a God who makes the rules. And he is a God that historically has shown us that he is willing to enforce those rules. You can read what happens to the Kadesh Barnea crowd when God says, fine, then you don't want to believe Caleb and Joshua. You don't want to follow, you don't want to trust me, fine. And you can't go in. You're going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Remember that.
Do you know what they did in response to that? Deuteronomy chapter 1 makes it very clear. You know what they did? They repented. They said, oh, God, we're sorry. You're serious? Wow. You're telling us we can't go in now? Oh, no, no, no, no. Do you know what Deuteronomy 1 says? They picked up their weapons and they came to the leaders and said, okay, we're ready now. We'll go in now. You know what God did?
Speaker 3
Oh, all right. Come on in.
Speaker 4
Is that what God did? No way, man. God honored his contract. And his contract was, if you don't trust me at the front door of the promised land, you cannot come in.
And when the door slammed in their face, they all went, oh, man. He's serious, isn't he? Okay, we'll do it. We'll do it. Your kids ever do that? After they're totally busted, right? Oh, okay, dad, I'm sorry. We'll do it.
And God says, listen, I'm a God of my promise. That's how this chapter starts. The promise remains epangelion. It is a contract. It is a quid pro quo. You trust me, we go in. You don't trust me, you don't go in. And when the door slams, that's it. Done.
Speaker 3
Spurgeon said it well when he said.
Speaker 4
It is shocking to reflect that a change in the weather has more effect on some people's lives than the dread alternative of heaven or hell. This is serious stuff. And if you've never come to the place of genuine repentance and authentic faith, today's the day for you.
And if maybe, like me, you have a testimony which I had for years thinking, well, I believe, I trust I'm a part of the family of God. Just like those people who wandered up to the front door of the promised land in Catospyrnia. Everything looked good on paper, but their hearts were not transformed by a real, genuine and abiding faith.
Maybe it's time to ditch the veneer of your Christianity and exchange it for genuine Christianity.
Speaker 3
I became a Christian in Bible school.
Speaker 4
Hello.
Speaker 3
Supposed to be a Christian to get into that, you know, institution.
Speaker 4
I can be deceived, you can be deceived.
Speaker 3
We all need to examine ourselves.
Speaker 1
A serious warning from Mike Favares today on Focal Point. His message is titled with the question, "Am I really a Christian?" Nothing is more important than to know with certainty that you've received the good news of Christ and that you have the assurance of entering his kingdom.
Though we all struggle with doubts from time to time, we know that living a Christian life begins with the assurance we're saved and that His Holy Spirit resides in us, causing us to move forward and leave our sinful past behind.
Maybe you've never soberly examined your heart to know where you stand with God until now. Perhaps as you listened, you've been convicted to take a clear stand today.
Well, here's Pastor Mike with a final thought.
Speaker 3
Perhaps after today's message, you've gotten to the place where you recognize you need to be right with God. And if that's the case, I just need you to remember that that's something that takes place right now, no matter where you're at. It could be driving down the road, sitting in your home. Whatever the case, you need to go to God and affirm the basics. He is the Creator. You're responsible to Him. He's holy, He's perfect, and He's just. Our sins require a payment, and that Jesus Christ came, lived in the flesh for us. He did all the things right that we've done wrong, and then He went to the cross and took the wrong on Himself that we deserve.
The response in the Bible is for you to right now repent of your sins. You're saying, "I'm done with a life lived for myself. I'm going to live for Christ. I'm going to put my trust in Him right now." That response to the Gospel, if you've done that, means your life is going to change.
I want you to get involved in a good Bible teaching church. I want you to let us know here at Focal Point. I just want you to be the kind of person that makes a vocal expression to the people you talk to that you've become, today, a follower of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1
If you've made that decision today, we want to hear about it. The next step is to join a local Bible-believing church where you'll find resources to help you walk in this new life.
To stay connected with Pastor Mike and continue to grow, go to focalpointradio.org or call us at 883-205-885. You can also write to us at Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, CA 92654.
Well, is there a question you need answered? Send your questions to us by going to focalpointradio.org or contact us at either facebook.com/pastormike or twitter.com/pastormike.
I'm Dave Drouehe. Be sure to set aside another half hour on Monday when Mike Favares continues our journey through Rome with an important message called "Why Just Trying Doesn't Work." That's right here Monday on Focal Point.
Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.