All right, take your Bibles now
and turn back with me to Galatians. Galatians chapter five. Galatians
chapter five. Is this mine? Yes. Oh, thank
you. I don't know if I can get my electronic
device to... It's not its fault, it's mine.
I'm blaming Ed, but it's my fault. Galatians chapter 5, our text
can be found in verse 26. The apostle concludes this chapter
by saying, Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one
another, envying one another. The Apostle, again I would remind
you, the Apostle is speaking to us who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, to us who have been set at liberty. And you
remember his whole book had been about those who had fallen away,
those who had adopted the law as a rule of their life and so
the Apostle dealt with that saying no, we are saved by the faith
of Christ and this is manifest by faith in Christ. We are justified,
we are sanctified, we are redeemed by Jesus Christ alone. He says
this, stand fast in that liberty. You remember in verse 13, he
then now turns from those who had failed to those who did not
fail, those who were faithful. And he tells these brethrens,
don't use your liberty as an occasion to the flesh. And what
was he trying to intimate here? He was trying to tell us that
they were going to have these feelings of animosity toward
their brothers who fall, who fail. And so he begins telling us that
every believer has these same things happen to us when we believe.
This is the inward grace, the effect of inward grace was the
spiritual struggle that we have. And he said, you that are faithful,
I want you to know, you that are faithful and you that were
not faithful, listen, you both have this. You both have the
flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
He mentions those works of the flesh and he is telling us not
to look at each other but rather look within. This is the flesh
in this body that I'm warring against. These are the works
of my flesh. And the hope, he said, of this,
you know, that brings us down, doesn't it? You think about the
flesh and all the flesh is horrible. But what's the hope? He said,
you're not under the law. This is the hope, but under the
grace of God, and then He gives those fruits of the Spirit, this
is also in you. Love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance,
faith, gentleness, goodness, all of
these are in you as well. This is in the new man that doesn't
sin, this is in the new creation that God has made in us. And
then he said, they that are Christ have crucified the flesh and
the affections and lusts thereof. We went over that on Sunday.
We by faith see this, that our flesh was crucified with Christ. Wasn't it? When he died, I died. My flesh died. My sin died. When he was buried, I was buried
with him. When he rose again, I was raised
with him. And we know this, that the flesh is crucified. The flesh
is crucified when the Spirit comes and conquers it. And then we daily crucify this
flesh and the affections thereof. So he said, live in the Spirit.
Live by the Spirit. You that live by the Spirit.
How do you live? You that live, how do you live? You live by
the Spirit, don't you? How is it that you continually
live? You that believe, you're still alive, aren't you? Paul
said, I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I, what?
Live. How do you live? You live by
the constant power and grace of the Holy Spirit. That's how
you live. So, now because you live by the
Spirit, listen, is it not reasonable to say walk in the Spirit? Of
course it is. It's reasonable. And so now Paul
addresses them again and said, let us not be desirous of vain
glory. Why? Because this was coming.
When those believers who failed, when they heard the gospel, because
believers will hear the gospel, they may fall, but they will
hear the gospel and they will return. And when these believers
returned, it was going to be the nature of those who were
faithful to desire this. Vain glory. Vain glory. Not glory, vain glory. Why? Because any glory we have
is vain. When you see a brother fall,
when you see a brother fall into sin and debauchery and horrible
things, and by the grace and power of
God, you do not fall into the same things. Know this, it wasn't
you that kept you. It was God. So that if you desire
to look down on that one that falls, listen, it's vainglory. Don't desire it. Don't do it. And so the apostle foreseeing
that this would take place after receiving this epistle, that
some would glory in their own faithfulness and others Listen,
others would envy. Look, he said that too. He said,
let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another,
envying one another. Isn't this true of us who have
fallen? If you have fallen, you see someone
who is faithful, you not what? Envy them? Don't do that. You have no idea what their struggle
is like. Most likely, you couldn't endure
it. They make it look easy. Why? Because you only see the
surface of things, don't you? Don't envy another believer's
position. Don't envy another believer's
station. Don't envy another believer's
circumstance. It's just as bad as vainglory. Don't do it. And so then, I want to deal with
this. I guess I've entitled this message,
The Antidote for Vain Glory. The Antidote for Vain Glory. The antidote is simply this,
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the antidote for everything.
It's the balm of Gilead that soothes every pain and every
trouble and every every conceivable circumstance, the gospel of Jesus
Christ is always the antidote for pride, for sin, for all sorts
of vile things. The antidote is the gospel. The
gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm going to give you another
passage of scripture because I think there's another church,
not the church of Galatians, but the church of Corinth, who
had a big envy and pride problem. They had a big envy and pride
problem. So go to 1 Corinthians. Now,
again, we're going to be dealing with the antidote for vain, empty
glory. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Church
of Corinth had similar problems. They were having a pride problem
concerning pastors and stuff. I'm of this guy and your guy's
not as good as my guy. What are they doing? They're glorying, weren't they?
They were glorying not in themselves though, they were glorying in
other men. But listen, wasn't it still vain glory? Now listen
to Paul's antidote for this. By asking a simple question,
simple question. Look at verse 7. He said this,
for who maketh thee to differ from another? What a question. There's a guy who is faithful,
and there's a guy who has fallen. There's a guy who is saved, there's
a guy who is lost. Now, who makes you to differ
from another? Secondly, and what hast thou
that thou hast not received? And if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? Now, I got three things here,
simply this. The antidote for vain glory.
Anytime we desire to glory in ourselves, anytime we desire
to boast of ourselves, This is a good question to ask yourself.
Who made you to differ from another? And so the first thing I want
us to see is the difference. Isn't there a difference? Is there a difference? You bet
there is. You bet there is. There's a difference,
there's a great difference between those who are saved by the grace
of God and those who are lost. There is a chasm of difference. That's the first thing I wanted
to see, the difference. And secondly, I want us to see
this, who made it? And thirdly, I want to say, where's
Boston? If you answer these first two
questions, the last one is going to be quite obvious. Where then
is boasting? So first of all, there is a real
difference. I want you to see this in every
believer. Now, if you have fallen and you have sinned, this should
exalt your soul to the heights. It should be so glorious as to
see what God did. He made a difference, a great
difference. If you are saved, By the grace
of God, there is a great difference between you and the rest of the
world. Now there is something that we
all have in common with the rest of the world. We all are of Adam's
defiled race. That's what we all have in common.
No difference there, is it? No difference. It doesn't matter the difference
in your appearance, the difference in your status, the difference
in your culture. But what is true of us all is
this, no matter where you come from, how rich you are or poor,
how young or old, healthy or sick, religious or irreligious,
we all have this in common, we were all born dead. You were all born dead in trespasses
and sins, no matter who you are. We were enslaved to sin. We were
blind. We could not see the things of
God. We could not know God. We were
haters of God. We knew there was a God, but
we had no idea who He was, and we had all broken His law. In Genesis chapter 3 we read
of Adam, this perfect man. God made this perfect man in
a perfect environment. He was made after the image of
God. But when he rebelled and sinned
against God, God was faithful to fulfill a just and holy sentence. He said, In the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. But we know this according to
scripture that he was not alone in that death. He was not alone
because Adam was a representative man. He represented all his race,
all his posterity. Therefore the apostle in Romans
5, 12 tells us, wherefore as by one man sin entered in the
world. Result, death by sin. Effect, therefore death passed upon all
men. Why? All at sin. When Adam sinned,
all sinned. When Adam sinned, all sinned. Isaiah said this, he said, why
should you, God through Isaiah said, why should you be stricken
anymore? God had, he was beating down the nation of Israel, he
beat them down constantly. You know what he said? That ain't
gonna do no good. Why are you, why should I stricken
you more and more? You know what's gonna happen?
You'll rebel more and more. Isn't that something? God can have earthquakes and
tornadoes and all these things happen to you, calamities, leprosy
fill your body and nobody will repent. You know what you'll
do? Rebel more and more. Why? He said this, the whole head
is sick, the whole heart is faint. You see what's the problem? The
whole head, the whole heart, the whole man, from the sole
of the foot to the head, there is nothing, there is no soundness
in it. None. I like this, in Genesis chapter
6, when God looked upon man, he said, God saw the wickedness
of man was great in the earth that every imagination of the
thought, get that, the imagination of the thought, before it actually
became a thought, where did it come from? It came from the heart. The imagination of the thoughts, of his heart was only evil continually."
Now, we didn't differ from that. We all had this by nature. Carnal mind is what? Enmity against
God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. In that same chapter and same
book in 1 Corinthians 2.14, He said, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
to him. I watched this celebrity, and this man he was interviewing
said he had found Christianity, found Christ. He became a believer
in Jesus Christ. And he's sitting there trying
to tell this man about Christ. And he's throwing out what he
calls evidence. I'm having difficulty. A lot
of people are reading these evidence books. on Christ and they say,
well, I believe because of this evidence. No, this is the evidence. I don't need any of that other
stuff. The Word of God is the evidence I need. That's it. But he's saying he believes,
and he's throwing out all these facts at this guy. You know,
the guy's looking at him like he's talking about, you know,
the tooth fairy or something. He thinks this guy is bananas. He thinks he's foolishness. Why?
Because that's what the natural man does. Natural man thinks
what we believe is foolishness. He just does. Neither can he
know them. He can't know them. Got that?
Why? He's spiritually condemned. He's
spiritually judged. Jesus said, no man can come to
me except the Father which has sent me to draw him. Got that?
That's easy. Man, that is so plain and simple.
I love our Lord Jesus Christ's word because he talks to dummies. I mean, he talks to people on
such a low level that you can't miss unless you just want to.
You have to really twist that to misunderstand that. No man
can come to me except, here's the exception, the Father draw
him. Anything else, you ain't going to come to him. Why? Because
we're spiritually dead. In this, there was no difference.
We all had sinned and come short of the glory of God. So it matters not then how outwardly
moral a man is or his circumstances. This is who we are by nature. This is who we are by nature.
In this there was no difference. And I say to anyone who is in
this nature still, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell
you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing this, it takes
the power of God to do it. And I know this, you are absolutely
100% responsible for what I just said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Repent. Repent and believe on Him. He was the Son of God come in
the flesh. He was the second Adam, the representative
of God's elect. Believe on Him. Because He, by
His obedience, has merited the righteousness of God. By His
blood He has satisfied the justice of God. Is there any sinner who needs
salvation? Anyone? You know Jesus Christ
came to save one group of people? Sinners. You know who know they're
sinners? God's elect, they're the ones
that know they're sinners. And they know that He alone can
save them. Our Lord said this, He has given
me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given Him. Therefore the Holy Spirit is
now sent into the world to do exactly that, to give life. The wind blows where it lists
it. You can hear the sound thereof
but you can't tell where it's coming You don't know where it's
going. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. I
know that. I know the Spirit will give life. I know that. He'll give life
to whom He will. Therefore, sinner, have you believed
on the Son of God? That's a question. If there's
any difference, here it is. Have you believed on the Son
of God? Behold then the great difference
between the child of God and all of Adam's race. Here it is,
the new birth. The new birth is the great difference,
isn't it? It is the great difference. It
is spiritual life. What we have in common with everybody
else is spiritual death. The difference that God makes
in the believer's life is this. He gives us life. Life. spiritual life. Isn't that what Paul said? And you had the quickened. See the difference? You were
dead. Now what? You're alive. Big difference,
isn't it? Isn't that a great difference? The same Father who sent Christ
now sends His Spirit to give life through the preaching of
the gospel, the calling of the elect. And so it is with us who
were dead in sins, unable and unwilling to come to Christ.
Like all men, we tried to please God by our works, but God sent
someone to point us to Christ. Didn't he? I remember that story that Spurgeon
told of this preacher that he was snowed out. He couldn't make
it to the service. And there was a young man in
the congregation. And the deacon got up and he
didn't have anything and he said, look and live. That's all he
said. Look to Christ. You, young man,
look to Christ. And he said that young man looked
to Christ right then. Why? Because the Spirit of God
called him to look to Christ. You look to Christ? You looking
to Christ? Who made the difference there? God makes a difference. He called us to Christ. He preached
Christ on Calvary's tree. that His blood is a fountain
open for uncleanness. You unclean? Anyone here unclean? His blood is a fountain open
for specifically uncleanness. Isn't that good? If you're unclean,
that's good news. And so then the evidence of this
great difference of life was what? What's the evidence of
life? The Spirit is the means. But
the result is always faith. Faith is the evidence. Faith
is always the evidence. Evidence of life. You're breathing.
That's how you know you're living physically. How do you know you're
living spiritually? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ alone? This is vitally important. Alone
is vitally important. The whole book of Galatians,
everybody believed on Jesus Christ, but the ones that were failing,
the ones that failed believed on Christ plus something else.
True faith and true life is this, do you believe on Christ alone,
period, as all your standing before God. Well, there's the
evidence. I just told you, the wind bloweth
where it listeth. You can hear the sound thereof. You can't
tell where it's coming, where it's going. So is everyone that
is born in the Spirit of God. And just a few verses down, he
says this, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Listen, that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Son
of Man was sent to be lifted up and whosoever believes on
him shall not perish." Why? Because that's the effect of
the Spirit. The wind blowing, the Spirit
blowing upon the heart of the lost, the effect is, I believe! I believe. I believe on Him who was lifted
up. Oh, the wonder We who believe on Christ, listen to this, here's
the difference. You not only have life, you not
only have faith, listen to this, you are a son of God. That's a vast difference. Huge
difference. As many as received Him, John
said, to them gave ye the right to what? Become the sons of God. which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. You were born of God, what's the evidence of God? You've received
Him, haven't you? You receive Him, guess what you
are? Your son. Your son. Not all men are sons,
don't buy into that garbage. We're all sons of God. No, you're
all creatures of God, they're not all sons of God. Jesus told
those Pharisees, most surely they were not his sons. He said,
you are of your father, the devil. That's pretty blatant and honest,
wasn't it? Not everybody's a son of God. But as many as received
him, they're a son of God. Secondly, listen to this. Here's
the difference. You were washed, you were justified,
and you were sanctified. There's a difference. Look at
that. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
Look at just a couple pages in what we're looking at in that
text. 1 Corinthians 6 and look at verse 11. Look. In verse 9 it begins, Do you
know not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Be not deceived into fornicators, adulterers, adulterers,
or effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind. Nor thieves, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you changed
your tune." No, you didn't. Your flesh hadn't
changed one note. All of those things he just mentioned
are still, you are capable of any of those things. Why? Because the old man didn't change.
What's the difference? The difference between me And
all of the other adulterers, fornicators, idolaters, effeminate,
abuse themselves of mankind, thieves, drunken, the difference
is this. He washed me. Here's the difference. He washed
me from my sins. I'm washed. You're justified. That's a difference,
isn't it? That's a big difference. The
world is guilty. God says you're innocent. Big
difference. You are sanctified, you're holy.
You're not just innocent, you're holy. You're holy. While the world
seeks to wash their sins away in baptism, they seek to be justified
by the power of their works, they seem to be sanctified by
their obedience to the law. But praise God, here's the difference.
We were washed by the blood of Christ. My sins were washed by
His blood. I was justified by the grace
of God through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Justified.
I am sanctified by the will of God and by the obedience of Christ. Sanctified. If you look these
scriptures up later, God said this, I have blotted out thy
sins as a thick cloud. Not just any cloud, a thick cloud.
It's so thick that I won't even see it no more. I've blotted
out your sins. I've washed it. They are gone. Never to be seen of me again.
That's how perfect the blood of Christ was. That's how powerful
it was. You're washed. You're justified. It's not just as if I never sinned.
That's not what it means. If it were just as if I never
sinned, it means you really did it. It's not justified. No, you never did it. You know
why? Because you were in Christ who
never did it. He never did it, did he? Well, neither did I. Justified. and I am sanctified by the will
of God. Hebrews 10 said by the witch
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ
once. How many times are you going
to be sanctified? Once. You were sanctified by
the will of God, you were sanctified by the blood of Christ, and in
time God gave you that holy nature, that sanctified nature, but it
was already done. It was already accomplished.
See the difference? You're washed, you're justified,
you're sanctified. There's a difference in our wisdom.
You who believe, you have wisdom. Wisdom is defined in this, in
answer to one question. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? You answer that question, you're
wise. If you can answer that question, you understand wisdom,
because the answer to that is Christ. And who is what? The wisdom of God. He's the wisdom
of God. That's the only one who can answer
that question. God can be just and justify me only through Him. That's it. And that's the answer
God gives. And what does He say to all those
who have that? Listen to what John says. He
said, You have an unction of the Holy One, you know all things.
Joanne, you know all things. Don't shake your head, you know
all things. Didn't He just tell you, you know all things? You
do. Why? You have an unction of the
Spirit. You know all things. What is it to know all things?
It's to know Christ. To know Christ, He is the key
to all things. All things. There's a great difference. There's a great difference in
our hope. We have hope. You that believe, you have hope. Why do you have? What is your
hope? My hope is this. I have eternal life. Didn't I
just read that? He that believeth, whosoever
believeth in the Son of God shall not perish, but have everlasting
life. Eternal life. That's a big difference
because those who are outside of Christ, they shall receive
eternal death. Big difference. And listen, you
have an inheritance. Here's a big difference. You
have an inheritance. an inheritance. I know this, that every one of
us want, if we have something, we want to leave it to our children.
We want to. We want them to have some type
of inheritance. But you know what? No matter
how big or how small, it's going to be gone soon. Why? It fades
away. It's corruptible. It changes. You may have it stored up and
something may happen to it. But what does Peter tell us about
our inheritance? He says this in 1 Peter 1. He
says this, to an inheritance incorruptible. Listen, no matter what you do,
you can't corrupt this. It's incorruptible. It's undefiled. You can't defile
it. And it doesn't go away. It never
fades away. It is reserved in heaven for you. See the difference? Doesn't that lift your spirit
to know that you have life? You have faith in the Son of
God. You are a son of God. It's a big difference. You have eternal life. It is
your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. You have
an inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, that doesn't fade
away. This is totally different than what the rest of the world
has. They don't have life. They don't
have faith. They're not sons of God. They're
not heirs of heaven. They're not saved by the grace
and the blood of Christ. They're not washed. They're not
justified. They're not sanctified. You see
the difference? It's just meant to exalt the
soul to the very presence of God and say, Glory to God! What does the flesh want to do
with these things? If I just left you there, most
likely our flesh would grab a hold of something we did and try to
get glory from it. Now, you are different. Here's
the antidote for vainglory. Who made you to differ from another? Who is it? Who made you to differ from another? Did we who believe on Christ
believe because of our spiritual intellect? Were we just smarter
than everybody else? Did we hear and weigh the options
and make a reasonable choice? When Christ came to me, you listen
to me, I had no choice. He was the only choice. And I wouldn't want it any other
way. He was a necessity. I have to
have him or I die. No choice. Many believe that their will
makes a difference, that their works make a difference. The only one who has the will
and power to make a difference is God. No man can come to me
except what? Except the Father draws him into
another way. There's no other way. If you've come to God, it took
the power of God to draw you to himself. And so then this is really a
rhetorical question to us, who made thee the difference? Is
that not a rhetorical question? That's a self-evident question.
God made the difference. God the Father made the difference
when He chose me in eternity. He chose me, I did not choose
Him. I like this, in Exodus chapter
11, you know, He tells the nation of Israel, He's going to deliver
them, and He said, listen to this, In chapter 11, verse 7, he said,
the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and you.
He made the difference by a sovereign election. He chose us out of
his grace. He never looked down the portals
of time and saw anything about you. He loved you solely based on his
grace. Therefore God made the difference
before the foundation of the world. This difference was made
long before you came in the picture. This difference was made long
before you knew anything about it. God says, I'll take that
one. I'll take that one and they're
mine. I choose them for myself because I love them. Why? Why? Grace. Grace is the only answer. Who made thee to differ? Christ,
the Son of God, made thee to differ, didn't he? Who washed
away your sins? Who offered himself to God as
a spotless sacrifice for your sins? Was it you? Did you have anything to do with
that offering? What did you have to do with that? You weren't
even there, physically. But because the Father chose
you, you were there. Christ obtained righteousness
by His obedience for you. Christ offered His blood for
your sins on Calvary Street and satisfied the justice of God
for you. And then by the power of the
Holy Spirit, we know this, that the Holy Ghost made a difference,
didn't he? There we were in our sins, not looking for God, not
searching for God. Why? The scripture said no man
seeketh after God. Isn't that something that the
world thinks, the religious world thinks men are seeking God? God
said nobody's seeking me. Now who's right? I mean, people argue with me
about it. I tell them, they say, no man
seeketh after God. And they say, well, I was. I
say, well, you talk to God. You argue with God about that.
I mean, God said you weren't. So I don't take his side. I don't
think you were. I don't think you were. No, I was seeking after
a God of my own imagination. I was seeking after a God that
I liked. I was seeking after an idol. that I could use and
manipulate. That's what I wanted. While I was seeking after an
idol, guess who was seeking me? He saw me. He found me. I didn't find him. He found me. Somebody said, this boy said,
you need to find Jesus. And the guy said, well, I didn't
know he was lost. He's not. You were lost. And he found you. He found you. See who made the difference?
It's the Spirit of God gave you life. It's the Spirit of God
gave you faith. It's the Spirit of God that gave
you love. It's the Spirit of God that gave you peace. It's
the Spirit of God that gave you joy. It's the Spirit of God who
gave you faith. It's the Spirit of God who gave
you meekness and gentleness and goodness. All of the fruit of
the Spirit are the fruit of what? The Spirit. They're not your
fruit. They're His. And the measure of that fruit
is in His hands, not yours. seeing then that He made a difference. He chose me. I did not choose
Him. He saved me. I did not help Him. He found
me. He gave me life. He gave me the
fruit of the Spirit. He gave me this inward struggle.
He gave me life. And who keeps me? Who keeps me? Am I keeping me? Am I, you know,
that's the word, go and make a difference. No, you don't make
the difference. God does. God made the difference. Every time the gospel's preached,
I hope you see this, it does two things. The gospel always,
when it is preached right, exalts God. And secondly, abases man. Preach right, it does those two
things automatically, all by itself. I don't mean, don't have
to intend to, it just does. Exalts God. And so lastly, seeing this, that
God did make a difference, don't deny the difference. This is
another thing. I don't want you ever to deny
the difference and call it humility. Don't do it. what God did, and remember he
told that demoniac of Gadara, he said, go and tell what great
things God had done for you. You should tell people great
things God has done for you, but do it with a mind knowing
this, that he alone made the difference. He said in our text, he said,
go back to your text for a second, Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what hast thou thus not received? In this all salvation have we
not received it? There's a difference between
receive and accept, isn't that right? You accept something based
on equal ground because you can either accept it or reject it.
To receive something is a level of submission. To receive something
is, you got a man without money and he's starving to death and
somebody feels compassion and gives that man food. He receives
it. He doesn't say, well, I don't
like chicken. He throws it over here. That man's not hungry.
That man's not starving. You take a starving man and give
him something, he's not going to reject it. He's going to,
what? Receive it as an inferior receiving from a superior. That's
exactly right. So salvation is, we are the inferior
receiving it from the superior. You say, what do you have then?
This whole thing of salvation, what do you have that you haven't
received? Name something that you have that you have not received. To a believer, there is nothing
we have that is not of God, especially our salvation. I keep picking on Joanne, but
why are you still here? I guarantee you she's probably
heard more messages than anybody in this room. Why are you still
listening to the same thing? Why do you still believe the
same gospel? Who's kept you all these years? Who's kept you? Who's kept you? Are you keeping you? Who keeps
you? Last question then. Where then
is vain glory? What do you have to brag about? Nothing but him. I can brag on him. But I have no room to look at
you and cast aspersion on you. Why? I didn't make the difference
in me. He made the difference. So then
if you fall, how then should I treat my brother
who has fallen? Later on he's going to say this, Back in Galatians, look with
me in Galatians. I'll close, I'll close with this.
He said, Brethren, if any man be o'er taken of fault, you that
are spiritual, you that maintain, you that were, listen, kept.
Because that's the only reason you didn't go with them. Isn't
it? Is that not the reason why you
are spiritual? Because you were kept. Now he
said this, Restore such an one in a spirit of meekness, considering
thyself, lest you be tempted, lest you do the same thing. Apostle
Paul wrote that. He wrote that. Not fully yet
understanding that he himself would do exactly what Peter did. He was right to rebuke Peter.
He was right to write that epistle. But you know what? The same thing
that was in Peter was in Paul. Peter denied to eat a pork sandwich
and Paul rebuked him. You know what Paul did? Paul
shaved his head and was about to go and sacrifice an animal
on the altar until God arrested him. You see, we are all capable
of very vile things, and we should not, when our brother falls,
we should consider this. Who made you to differ from another? What have you received? What
do you have that you haven't received? And if you received
it, why do you act like you didn't? Isn't that vainglory? is to act
like you did something, like you had something, like you're
something special. No, Christ is special. Christ
is glorious. Christ has made the difference. I want to give you that illustration
anyway. I'm going to give it to you. I know you're going to
stay here. You're just going to have to stay here. Judas and
Peter. Who made the difference? Judas denied him once, Peter
denied him three times. Why is it that Judas lost and
Peter saved? There's no difference in their
sin. None whatsoever. Here's the difference. When Christ
looked at Peter, thou shalt deny me thrice. But I have prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not. The difference is God. He makes the difference. Where
then is vainglory? God help us to not be desirous
of vainglory. And you that God made a difference
in, why would you envy anyone else? Though we may have fallen,
yet everything that belongs to the faithful belongs to us too,
isn't that right? God restores his people. I pray that God would help us
to love. I just know this is going on.
In some of God's churches, we have men that have fallen. And
you have some men who have this holier-than-thou attitude. They're casting on themselves
as the means of repentance. They say, well, you need to repent!
Who, you? No. Men don't need to repent
to you. You need to repent to Christ,
sure. But if they've done that, what
do I have to say about it? Who am I? It's nothing but vainglory. God help us not to do that. And
the only way to do that is humility. The only way to humility is the
gospel. That's the only way. It's the antidote for vainglory.
I pray God will help us with this. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. And I was late, so. Our gracious Father dismisses
with your blessing and mercy. Please be merciful. Please pour
out your spirit upon us. Oh God, be merciful to show us
the great difference you've made. God, be merciful to never let
us be boastful in ourselves. Give us hearts of love and affection
toward Christ and one another. help us to give you thanks when
you do it because it's all of you. I pray you do this in Christ's
name.