Does Self-examination Destroy Peace?

“Does Self-Examination Destroy Peace?” (2 Peter 1:5-11)

I. Introduction. A. Orientation. 1. Shepard has proven that it’s possible to know whether or not we’re saved, and he has shown us something of how we can know. Last week, we saw that we are to look for two things: a. The first was evidence from the past: if we know from past experience that we have God’s grace we can know we now have it, since salvation is something you cannot lose. b. The second was from our present experience – if we see that grace now – which is better than remembering it from the past – then we can know we’re saved. c. This is very much like Stoddard’s view: we might have grace in our souls well enough, but we must see it to know. 2. Shepard also gave us a warning: a. Be careful that what you’re looking at is genuine and not a counterfeit. (i) The flesh can produce effects in our hearts we might mistake as gracious. (ii) How can we know the difference? b. The Lord has given us three things to show us: (i) The light of His Word, where He plainly shows us how they differ. (ii) The light of His Spirit, who shows us whether those differences exist in our hearts. (iii) And the light of experience, as we learn to distinguish between the two in our lives. B. Preview. 1. This evening, Shepard deals with some common objections to using the marks to gain assurance. a. There are those who say that the marks are not helpful, but actually harmful to assurance – that they weaken assurance, rather than strengthen it. b. How can this be? (i) To know whether we have them, we must examine our hearts. (ii) But when we examine our hearts, we will see more sin than anything else. (iii) This sin will have the effect of weakening or destroying our assurance more than anything else. (iv) And so we must look somewhere else to gain that assurance. c. Shepard will show us how wrong this view is, and how self-examination is the only way to know whether or not we’re Christians.

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2. We’ll look at four things: a. First, the main objection that self-examination destroys peace. b. And then three further objections: (i) That looking to Christ is how we should gain assurance. (ii) That the internal witness of the Spirit is enough to settle the case. (iii) And finally, that the sin we’ll uncover through self-examination will have the opposite effect of taking assurance away, rather than strengthening it. II. Sermon. A. First, self-examination destroys peace. 1. Shepard deals with a common objection that is raised in connection with examining our hearts, namely, if a man searches his heart in this way, this will “interrupt and break his peace” (Parable, 223). a. Those who say this don’t like what a search of this nature reveals. (i) When we look in our hearts, what do we see? A great deal of sin. (a) We don’t love God with all our heart, even for a moment. (b) We don’t love our neighbor as we love ourselves. (c) We struggle with many thoughts and desires that are contrary to the Word of God. (ii) If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll see a lot of sin, but little or no grace. (a) There are many who don’t want to deal with this. (b) They don’t want to hear about their sins or see their sins in all its ugliness. (c) They don’t want searching sermons to expose them, but sermons that talk purely about grace, uplifting sermons that will make them feel better about themselves, rather than worse. (d) I’m not sure that the Bible ever gives us warrant to think good about ourselves – at least not as we are in ourselves. (e) It exposes our sins to humble us, and then presents a Savior that we might run to for safety. (f) Our only security must always be in Christ, not in anything we do. b. There is a Reformed tradition that places our assurance solely in our faith in Christ: the Continental tradition that comes to us from Calvin. (i) This is reflected in Heidelberg Catechism, question 21, which asks, “What is true faith?” and answers, “True faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in his Word is true; it is also a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit, through the Gospel, that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation.”

3 (ii) In this view, faith is not simply trusting in Jesus Christ and His merits to save us, it’s the conviction that what God reveals in His Word is true, coupled with an assurance that what God has done through Christ He has done for me. True faith is knowing that I am saved by Christ. (iii) If this is true, you don’t really need to look at your life, or the state of your heart, to determine whether Christ has saved you; all you need is the conviction that God’s Word is true and the internal confidence that you are Christ’s. (iv) How do you get this, and having it, how do you strengthen this conviction? Look to Christ: a stronger faith will produce a stronger assurance (we certainly agree with this, if we understand it correctly). 2. What does Shepard have to say about this? a. First, he tells us that self-examination won’t interrupt a true peace, but it will a false peace. (i) This is one of the good things about self-examination: it will help us not to deceive ourselves regarding the true state of our hearts. (ii) Remember what Flavel said: If I should find that I’ve been deceived my whole life regarding my Christianity, it’s better to find out now, while there’s still time, than to find out on the day of God’s judgment. b. But what about true peace? Will self-examination disturb this? (i) Shepard tells us, far from interrupting the peace of the true saint, his peace is certain to be disturbed if he does not examine himself. (ii) He writes, “Neglect of this yields most unpeaceableness, even in them that are sincere. You have peace, and then break out into pride and passion again; then question all” (Ibid.). (iii) If we don’t know the condition of our hearts during good times, what will we think when we fall into sin and are can’t discern anything of God’s grace in our hearts with any certainty? (iv) How will we know whether the struggles we’re having are merely signs of Christian imperfection or that we’re unconverted? (v) The only way we can know for sure is by knowing the real condition of our hearts. (a) If we don’t know we have grace before we fall into sin, we may very well despair when we do fall into it. (b) But if we know that true grace is present, though our sins will grieve us, we won’t despair; for we know the work God has begun, He will finish (Phil. 1:6). (c) Far from robbing us of peace, self-examination will bring us peace when we need it the most (2 Peter 1:7-9; Matthew 11:29, 30; ibid.). B. Next, Shepard deals with three more objections to this method of assurance: 1. The first deals with the continental objection head on, that looking to Christ is enough.

4 a. Surely, “If I have him I have all” (224). Shepard agrees. “But,” he says, “Because you look for all in him, will you look for nothing from him? Will you have Christ sit in heaven, and not look that he subdue your lusts by the work of His grace, and so sway in your hearts? You despise his kingdom then. Do you seek for pardon in the blood of Christ, and never look for the virtue and end of that blood to wash you and make you without spot? etc. You despise his priesthood and blood then. Do you look for Christ to do work for you, and you not to do Christ’s work and bring forth fruit to him? You despise his honor then. John xv. 8. If I were to discover a hypocrite or a false heart, I would say, It is he that shall set up Christ, but loathe his work. To have Christ is sweet, as Capernaum; to follow Christ is heavy. John xiv. 21, 23” (Ibid.). b. We need to remember that Christ is not merely a Savior from guilt of sin, He is also a Savior from the power of sin. (i) Antinomians want to have Christ as Savior, but they don’t want to have Him as their Lord. (ii) This view, though it doesn’t necessarily lead to antinomianism, often does. (iii) It’s so easy to convince ourselves that we’re looking to Christ, when we don’t take an honest look at ourselves to see whether our lives have really changed. (iv) We should never rest easy until we see Christ being formed in us – until we see His character, His love, His mercy, His determination to serve the Father – that’s the only way we can know that we are genuinely looking to Christ. (v) Remember what John wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). These things did not have to do with looking to Christ, but with the evidence that we were looking savingly to Christ – the evidence of a transformed life. 2. Shepard deals with a second objection: that the internal witness of the Spirit, bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, was by itself enough. a. This is often misunderstood as a purely subjective knowledge, a feeling of security, an internal rest or comfort, that is understood as the Spirit’s testimony that a person is His child. Shepard writes, “But if I have the witness of the Spirit, what need I have any other difference?” (Ibid.). b. What is this witness? Is it merely a feeling that I belong to Christ? (i) Shepard tells us it is something that comes after “a man is a believer and in Christ, and justified, called, sanctified” (Ibid.). It is the witness He bears to these things after they are true of us. (ii) If this were not the case, then He would be bearing false witness. (iii) This means that the witness of the Spirit is not a mere confidence that I’m a child of God based on feeling, it is His witness to the objective, concrete evidence of holiness in our lives.

5 (iv) When He shows us Christ being formed in us, this is what gives us the confidence to call God our Father – because we are like the Son. 3. Finally, Shepard deals more directly with the objection that self-examination will do more to take away assurance than strengthen it. “But if I should do this, I should look to find some cleanness in myself, whereas I am to see nothing but ungodliness” (Ibid.). a. If all we see when we examine our hearts is sin and not grace, won’t this destroy our assurance? The answer is not necessarily. (i) Sanctification must be seen for what it is: it’s not perfect, but mixed with a great deal of corruption. (ii) We should expect to find sin even in the most sanctified person: Sin is there, but the real question is whether true grace is there. (iii) Shepard notes that Paul saw a great deal of corruption in himself (Romans 7). (iv) But he was also aware of another principle, the law of the Spirit of life. This is what proved he was in Christ (225). b. When we search our hearts, the sin we find can be very disheartening. But we shouldn’t let it destroy our assurance. (i) Yes, there will be sin and lots of it. (ii) But if we’re believers, there will also be grace, and when we see that it is grace, it will show us that we are truly in Christ. (iii) So let’s not be afraid to examine our hearts, but do a thorough search to assure our hearts on this most important of all questions. Amen.