Spurgeon at the New Park Street Chapel: 365 Sermons - Friday, October 10, 2014 Self-examination “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Corinthians 13:5 Suggested Further Reading: 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 “Examine:” that is a scholastic idea. A boy has been to school a certain time, and his master puts him through his paces—questions him, to see whether he has made any progress,—whether he knows anything. Christian, catechise your heart; question it, to see whether it has been growing in grace; question it, to see if it knows anything of vital godliness or not. Examine it: pass your heart through a stern examination as to what it does know and what it does not know, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Again: it is a military idea. “Examine yourselves,” or renew yourselves. Go through the rank and file of your actions, and examine all your motives. Just as the captain on review-day is not content with merely surveying the men from a distance, but must look at all their equipment, so look well to yourselves; examine yourselves with the most scrupulous care. And once again, this is a legal idea. “Examine yourselves.” You have seen the witness in the box, when the lawyer has been examining him, or, as we have it, cross-examining him. Now, mark: never was there a rogue less trustworthy or more deceitful than your own heart, and as when you are cross-examining a dishonest person—you set traps for him to try and find him out in a lie, so do with your own heart. Question it backward and forward, this way and that way; for if there be a loophole for escape, if there be any pretence for self-deception, rest assured your treacherous heart will be ready enough to avail itself of it. And yet once more: this is a traveller’s idea. I find in the original Greek, it has this meaning: “Go right through yourselves.” For meditation: Is self-examination a foreign concept to you? It should be done as least as regularly as we observe the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:28); God is able to assist us in our self-examination (Psalm 26:2; 139:23,24). Sermon no. 218 10 October (1858)
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 07:34:54 +0000
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