Exam

When in school and the classes were coming to an end the students have what is called final exams; they always gave a larger percentage to the final grade. It was important that you pass that final exam. On this test you didn’t want to just get by, you wanted to make a high grade. In

2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5 we read these words

2Corinthains 13:5  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?

Here we are asked not to take an exam but instead to examine ourselves for the sole purpose of knowing if we are in the faith. Then we are asked not only to examine but also to prove ourselves. In other words test yourselves make sure you are not failing the test. An exam has question on it that we are supposed to know the answers to. On a history exam one of the questions might be, on what date was the attacking of Pearl Harbor?  If you fail to write December 7, 1941 then whatever answer you wrote down would be wrong. Here, we are asked to examine ourselves; in other words why do you think that when you die you are going to heaven? If you said because I have been fairly good, or I have good feelings about it or a host of other answers that’s not going to be the right answer. The reason being is the next question the proof; proof is something that will give without doubt the reason.  Jesus said this in Matthew; 

Matthew 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Examine, has there ever been a time in your life that you came unto Jesus?

Matthew 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Are you learning about the Lord Jesus?

2Corinthains 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Has there ever been a real change in your life where you just didn’t want to do the things that you had always loved doing anymore and your life was completely changed.  Let me give you an example; In the book of Exodus chapter 12 we read where the Lord speaks unto Moses and Aaron telling them to tell the congregation of Israel that every man was to take a lamb. They are to keep it up until the 14^th day and then they are to kill it in the evening. Then they are to take the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the house. For the Lord said that He will pass through the land of Egypt and He will kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt where there is no blood on the doorpost. On that night it didn’t matter if anyone inside the house was a good person; it didn’t matter how they felt. You see the Lord was only looking for one thing; the blood on the doorpost? No blood and the firstborn died; if the blood was on the door post then the firstborn lived; God’s people were to do what God’s word told them to do? The same is true today, have we done what we were told to do in God’s word? Or are we basing our salvation on how we feel, or our thinking in our good works? How much money we have given to our Church, our Church membership? That’s why we must examine and prove ourselves because when the death angel comes it will be too late. If it doesn’t line up in God’s Word then it’s not going to be any proof. The proof will be in the way we live our lives.