Okay, open your Bibles, if you
would, to Galatians chapter 6. I've been looking at this chapter
a little bit more. At first, I thought, oh, we won't
be long in chapter 6. There's three or four or five
messages in chapter six. It's just amazing what you see
there and just wonderful portions of scriptures. And I've been
loving this verse by verse that we're doing and going slow and
taking our time. And I think this is how we learn
when we do verse by verse. Norm Wallace told me years ago,
he said, God's people just want to know what the Word says. That's
all we want, right? We just want to know what it
says. And by going verse by verse, we can break it down more that
way. And as the Holy Spirit gives us understanding, we just rejoice
even more, more and more. Today's message is called judgment. Judgment. Now last week in our
study, we looked at verse three, for if a man think himself to
be something, when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. So let's
read the first 10 verses of Galatians chapter six to see the context
again of the verses which we will look at today, which will
be verses four and five. Scripture declares, brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such an one in the spirit of uniqueness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to
be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let
every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing
in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall
bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the
word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever
man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Notice
the divide there. Notice the divide there. Believer
and unbeliever. Who's the dividing one in between
those two parties there? Christ. Amen, brother. Christ
and Christ alone. And it says, and let us not be
weary and well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men, especially them which are of
the household of faith. Now last week we saw that those
who think themselves to be something, when they're nothing, do not
have the spirit of Christ dwelling in them. They deceive themselves.
They glory in the flesh, not in the Lord Jesus Christ. They think that they've made
themselves to differ, when it's only God who makes us to differ
from anyone. They think themselves to be superior,
whether it be in knowledge or mental capacity, physical abilities,
they can go on all different things, society, standing. standing in society, and they
think that they are godlier than others because of their worldly
prosperity. And we see that in the Word of
Faith movement, don't we? Where these false preachers,
you never hear themselves call themselves sinners because they
don't think they're sinners. Isn't that amazing? Oh my. And the Word of God tells us
in 1st Timothy 6, 5, 8, tells us this, godliness with contentment
is great gain, for we bought nothing into this world, and
it is certain that we carry nothing out. And having food and raiment,
let us therefore therewith be content. So let us be content
with what we have. Let us be content with the standing
that God's put us in, right? Because we know as born-again,
blood-washed believers that everything we have spiritually and physically
and materialistically, it all comes from our great God, doesn't
it? It all comes from Him. All of it. It's His. We just
get to use it. And what did you say about our
kids, brother? They're on loan, right? Just
leasing our kids, yeah. And that's it, right? They're
the Lord's. We're the Lord's. He's the owner and ruler of all
things, whether they be saved people or unsaved, they're all
His. Now He has a special love for His chosen people, but He's
the creator of all things, isn't He? He's the creator of all,
He's the ruler over all things. Now let's look at verse four
and five. So over there in 1 Timothy 5a it says, let us be content
with what we have, food and remnant. Look at this in verse four and
five. But let every man prove his own work. Then shall he have
rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. For every man
shall bear his own burden. Beloved, we're not to compare
ourselves with others to prove our faith in Christ Jesus, right? We're not to compare ourselves
to other brethren. Who are we looking at when we
compare ourselves with other brethren? We're looking at fellow men,
aren't we? Who are we not looking at when we're comparing ourselves
with our fellow men, our brothers and sisters in Christ? Who are
we not looking at? Christ. Amen, brothers. Christ. We don't have our eye on him
then, do we? See, this is the problem in religion. You get
one group of people looking at someone, and then you get all
those people looking at them, and then the pastor's looking
at them looking at them, and no one has their eyes on Christ.
And they're all self-examining each other for their own faults
instead of self-examining themselves whether they be in the faith. Do you know? Do you know if we examine ourselves,
we will be so busy that we will not have to look at anyone else? Amen, brother. All the time. Yep. That's right. We will have
no problem with anyone else when we examine our own sinfulness.
Will we? Oh, my. No problem. And if we compare ourselves,
let's think of the text, if we compare ourselves with someone
who's overtaken in a fault, or with those who are carrying heavy
burdens, right? Whether it be sore or sickness,
right? There can be all kinds of burdens.
There could be mental burdens, right? There can be heartfelt
burdens. There's all different kinds of
burdens. The mental burdens, people don't even know you're
bearing the burden unless you tell them, right? Some could
be battling depression. Some could be battling anxiety.
Some could be battling different things. And you'll never know
it unless they tell you. And what happens when someone's
looking at someone who's maybe fallen into sin and comparing
themselves against them, they begin to have sinful, foolish
thoughts. Like, how can that person be
a Christian and do that? That's what I used to say about
people when I was a Pharisee. But see, I wasn't looking. I
wasn't doing what Galatians says here because I don't know. I
don't think I knew Christ back then. As a matter of fact, I
wasn't born again. I was a Pharisee. I knew religion. I knew doctrine.
I could go toe-to-toe with you about some certain doctrines,
but I had no grace. No grace. And I would look at
people and go, how can that person be a Christian? Or I would think
this, and we may have thought this before. Listen to someone
go, I wish such and such was here. I wish they were here to
hear that. That would be perfect for them.
I even did that to my shame. I'm thinking, now this is a message
for me now. Right? Oh my. Lord, what are you telling
me through this message? What are you trying to teach
me through this circumstance? And remember that too, when we
go through circumstances and we see someone going through
something else, And when we're going through
things, think of this. Lord, what are you trying to teach me? What are
you teaching me here? Because I guarantee we're being taught
something. And usually it's just look to
Christ. Because I got myself looking somewhere else. Oh my. And with these sinful thoughts,
These foolish, sinful thoughts comes, like I was saying, how
can that person be a Christian and do that? These sinful, foolish
thoughts of thinking we're better than others. Do you know I'm
no better than anyone? I tell people who I meet out
in the streets and stuff and at places, when they get talking,
oh, you're a preacher. And I don't bring that up. They
usually find out I am. because I don't flash the preacher
badge because right away they change and they pull out the
God card. I'm a good person. Okay, just get to know me before
you start. I know we're not good. I know
none of us is good. No, not one. But they say, well,
I'm too much of a sinner to go to that church. And I said, you're
welcome. We're a bunch of sinners. And I sit with my buddies across
the road, and I've said this many times to them. I said, I'm
worse than all you guys. And they look at me like, how
can you say that? Because they think, a lot of
religious people think they don't sin as much anymore. No more than before. No more than
before, right? There you go. Exactly, Dave. No more than before,
but they don't think that. They think, oh no, I'm getting
holier now. You know, Paul, at the end of his life, at the end
of his ministry, he said, I'm the chief of sinners. See, when
we grow in grace, beloved, we see ourselves more as sinners,
and we see the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ in forgiving
us for all our sins by the washing away of our sins with his precious,
precious blood. And we can only see that when
we're born again in the Holy Spirit of God, right? and given
grace and given faith to believe and repentance before God where
we say to all, all of you are sinners. Every one of us would
say that, wouldn't we? As believers. I think it was
Brother Todd who one time said that the only difference between
me and someone in prison who's done the worst, most heinous
sin is the grace of God in Christ. And that's true, beloved. When
we really start to examine ourselves and find out who we really are,
sinners to the core. Safe sinners, though, praise
be to God, right? Isn't that wonderful? My, makes you want to say hallelujah,
doesn't it? I'm not trying to pull a holler,
yeah. But it excites us, the fact that all our sins are forgiven.
All of them, every one. Past, present, and future. And
we don't use the grace of God for lasciviousness. We don't
use the grace of God to go out and do whatever we want, no.
No, and we also esteem our brothers and sisters based on ourselves. Norm Wells told me one time,
he said, I was a better Christian when I was in religion. I went, Norm, my goodness, I
know what you're saying. Right? We were so strict and
so staunch. But praise God, we're free. We're
free, beloved, in Christ. Let us live in that liberty.
not using it for a license to sin, but let us live in the liberty
and the freedom that we have in Christ. It's glorious, beloved. It's glorious. And this portion
of scripture, and even today we're gonna look at two hypocrites
in the church in the main message with Ananias and Sapphira. We're gonna look at those two.
I was talking to someone last night. They said, well, I think
they were saved. And I said, well, every commentator I read said
this is two hypocrites in the church right off the bat. Right
off the bat. And God deals with them. There's
a warning. There's a warning, beloved. Don't
mess with God. We see it even in our text, the
text that we read. Look at verse 7. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. A lot of people
mock God, don't they? Oh, God's not mocked. For whatsoever
man soweth, that shall he also reap. And then he talks about
if you reap corruption, which is sinfulness, not paid for by
the blood of Christ, right, an unsaved person, then you're gonna
reap death. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
My oh my. Again, the only one who's made
us to differ than anybody in this world is the Lord Jesus
Christ and him alone. Think of this, if we compare
ourselves with someone else, we think we're pretty good. But
you know who we're to compare ourselves with? You know who we're supposed to
compare ourselves with? We all know it, right? The Lord
Jesus Christ. And when we do that, what happens?
Woo, I'm such a sinner, man. I'm a sinner, thoughtward indeed.
Praise be to God for salvation in Christ, right? Woo, man, there
you go. It's terrible, isn't it? It's
wonderful. It's wonderful, beloved. Absolutely
wonderful. So we compare ourselves with
Christ, who is the mark of perfection, who is perfection incarnate,
right? Then we realize we've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Don't we? Romans chapter three, 23, which
alludes to an archer who can never hit the target. In our sinfulness, we can never
hit the target of perfection. We always go way wide. We can't
even go near the target, can we? But the Lord Jesus Christ
is perfection. He's perfection. He's our target
too, isn't he? Oh my, he's perfect. And we are saved from all our
sins in Christ Jesus our Lord. So when we see a brother or sister
falling into sin, let us come alongside them, lest we also
be tempted. Let us build them up in Christ,
right? Pray for them, come alongside
them. Don't kick them while they're
down. As I said, I've been in religion,
and religion kicks you when you're down. And in religion, what happens
if you get caught up in sin, everybody just scatters from
you. They do the opposite of what the text says. Instead of coming alongside you,
they're like, you're a pariah. I'm coming near you. That's not right, is it? We're
to bear one another's burdens in love, beloved, in love. Oh,
my. Look down at verse 14 of the
same chapter, look at this. You wanna know what we should
glory in? This verse gives us the answer. Galatians 6, 14,
this is a message all by itself. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. May we lay to heart the scripture
that says, by the grace of God I am what I am. I am what I am. We are only saved by the grace
of God. Remember Noah? What made Noah to differ? He
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Brother Zane, what made
you to differ? You found grace in the eyes of
the Lord, didn't you? Sister Diane, you found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. The only thing that made you
to differ from anyone else. Isn't that amazing? Only thing, only
thing that made me to differ from my brothers, from all my
friends in high school, all my friends back in Canada that I
grew up with, the only one who made me to differ is Christ. I was dead in trespasses and
sins and so were you, right? And God came and rescued us,
didn't he? saved us from our sins. Brother Travis, we were
happy in the world, weren't we? And we didn't even know how lost
we were. And he came and saved us by his
mercy and grace. He made us to differ. My, what
a great God. What a great God we have. But
God forbid, see now, now, Sister Marsha, now the only thing we
can glory in is Christ, isn't it? We can't glory in nothing
else. Nothing else. Don't wanna glory
in anything else. We're gonna glory in the cross
of Christ. We're gonna glory in what Christ done for us. How
he saved us and redeemed us with his precious blood. And paid
the price to purchase our eternal souls with his precious, precious
blood. And we just, all we want to do is glorify him now. And
now, now we look upon our brothers and sisters as fellow saved sinners. Right? I look at you all, you're
fellow saved sinners. That's all we are. And we're
gonna fall into sin, we sin all the time, but praise be God,
we have an advocate with the Father. Now that's not an excuse
or a license for us to sin, no. No, but 1 John says if we sin,
He's faithful and just, right? To forgive us our sins. We confess
our sins to Christ. My oh my. And we give him all the glory.
By the grace of God, I am what I am. And we're not compare ourselves
to other, what does Henry say? Other worms. other worms in humanity, we will
give all the glory and all the honor and all the praise to the
Lord Jesus Christ, because it's he who saved us from our sins.
And if we have the strength to resist certain temptations that
others might not have resisted, it's only because of the grace
of God in Christ. Do you know that? That's it.
Where you may be strong, I'm weak. And vice versa. And the
only reason that is, is because of the grace of God. Because
otherwise, remember how we were before we were saved? We had
no strength, did we? We headlonged right into whatever
we wanted to do, didn't we? There was no restraint in us. Now praise God, God did restrain
us even when we were dead and trespassed us in sins. So we
didn't destroy ourselves. Right? I can look back now and think,
my Lord, you restrained me from so many things that could have
ruined my life. And you restrained me. Praise
your mighty name. My oh my. Let's read Galatians chapter
6 verse 4 again. But let every man prove his own
work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and
not in another. Let every man prove his work.
How? How? Well, by this God-honoring truth,
Christ in me, the hope of glory. Right? Christ in me, the hope
of glory. Do you have Christ in you? You
have the hope of glory, beloved. My, oh my. And we declare that,
we believers declare that it is God who works in us. It's
Him who works in us, right? My, turn if you would, to Colossians. Look at what it says here in
Colossians 1.29. I remember this from our study
in Colossians. And this just struck me. This
just struck me so much. Look at this, Colossians 1.29.
Paul writing to the Colossians. He says this. When to I also
labor, striving according to the working, to his working. That's God's working, right?
God's working, which worketh in me mightily. See, the only reason we can labor
for the Lord, the only reason we have strength to overcome
sin, the only reason we have different things that we can
overcome is because the Lord is working in us. The Holy Spirit's
working in us, beloved. Think of this. Think of this. Did sin bother you before you
were saved? Not at all, right? didn't even
know what it was, brother. We were sinning all the time
and we had no clue at all. Now we're conscious that we sin
all the time and it grieves us. And that's because the Holy Spirit
working in us mightily. You see that? That's the Holy
Spirit working in us by showing us our sinfulness, showing us
daily, every day, our need for Christ. Isn't that amazing? We need a
Savior, brother, amen. We need a Savior. We must have
a Savior. And God's provided one. His name
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And all who come to Him shall
be saved. Shall. Because he came to save
his people. Sent by God, he shall save his
people from their sins. Sent by the Father, my oh my. Oh, what a glorious God we have.
And so let us always remember, when we keep our eye, think of
this too, think of this too. When we keep our eyes on Christ,
We're not looking at other people. We're not even looking at ourselves,
are we? We're just looking at Christ. You know, Joe Terrell told me
one time, the hardest thing for us to do is enter into the rest
of Christ, and that's just looking to Him. It's the hardest thing
for us to do, just to look at Him all the time, no matter what's
going on in the world. Lord, I'm just going to keep
my eyes upon you. It's a struggle, isn't it? Let's be honest, beloved. It's a struggle. But that's why
we're exhorted in Colossians, set your mind on things above.
That's why we're exhorted in Isaiah, look unto me and live. Right? Look unto Christ. Don't look to yourself. Now we
have examined ourselves whether we be in the faith, but don't
look to yourself for any strength over sin, because we got none. It's the Holy Spirit working
in us mightily. Isn't that amazing? So again, who gets all the glory?
Yeah, he gets it all, doesn't he? Mine. He gets it all. Mine. Listen to what Paul wrote to
the Philippians. He's in prison. He's in prison and he writes
this in Philippians 3. We are the circumcision which rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. None at all. See, if we look at ourselves
and examine ourselves, we're gonna go, I got nothing. Except
by sin. You said that last week. The
only thing we contribute is our sin. And it's true. Our sin. My, oh my. So we see then in
verse four, that the rejoicing is not in ourselves, Because
there's nothing in ourselves, look at this, but let every man
prove his own work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself
alone and not in another. Our rejoicing's not in ourselves,
it's in Christ. It's in Christ. Christ who dwells
in us. Who saved us from our sins. How,
how, how? Sister Bobbie saved us from our
sins by his perfect sin atoning work. Isn't that wonderful? We're
saved by his work. By His work, He done it all. He done it all. My, oh my. My, He hung on Calvary's cross,
redeeming His people, shedding His precious blood, sent by God
to save His people from their sins, and He did it. Let we who
are the redeemed of the Lord rejoice. Praise be to God that
God is absolutely satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. So satisfied
that he says to his people, your sin and iniquity will I remember
no more. He's gone. He's gone. And all our sins were
future at Calvary's cross, weren't they brother? Every one of them. And God says, when I see the
blood, That precious blood. I'll pass over you. My, what
a Savior, blooming. My. And we're not to prove ourselves
by other man's sins. We're not to look at a brother
and sister and go, well, I don't do that, so I'm better. We're
not. No, we're worse. If we really disarm ourselves,
we'll say, oh, I could have fallen to that just like them. Oh, my. And praise God, be the God Christ
was raised for our justification. So that now, we as sinners, even
our fallen brother and sister, who are gonna be restored by
the Lord, right? Because if they're truly one
of God's sheep, he's gonna get them still. They're his, he's
not gonna lose one. He says, I won't lose one of
them. See, we forget about that. It's God who keeps us. We should
be looking at our brother and sister and going, man, that could
have happened to me too. But God kept me. So I'm going
to go alongside my dear brother and sister, and I'm going to
come alongside them, let them know I love them, let them know
I'm here for them, and exhort them for them and I to look to
Christ, who is the forgiver of all our sins. My oh my. So it's easy to compare ourselves
with so-called weaker Christians. We're all weak. Well, there are
weak Christians. We're all weak. We're all weak,
beloved. Every one of us. Or less gifted
believers. Why are you posting something
the Lord gave you? Right? Or even fallen brothers
and sisters. And begin to think we're something
special. The only reason we're special
is because God chose us. And we're special in his eyes,
right? We're gems in his eyes. His people
are gems, jewels. But it's only because God gave
us to Christ and chose us in eternity. Did
we have anything to do with that? Nope. So when we can say praise
be to God, it's all God's grace. It's all God's grace. So we're
not to prove ourselves by other man's sins or action, but in
light of God's glory and holiness, none of us, none of us come close.
And if we can find some measure of genuine spiritual growth and
some evidence of the fruit of the spirit in us, we can rejoice
because it's God who's done that. It's God who's done that. It's God who's done it all. He's been pleased to show us
that, and rather than being bullied up by vain hope, simply because we're not like
other men, God shows us you're no better than anyone else. My oh my. Every man is judged
according to his works, not in the comparative view of others, but according to our own works.
For every man shall bear his own burden. Look at verse 5.
For every man shall bear his own burden. Bear his own burden.
Every child of God is burdened with our own sinful nature, aren't
we? Every one of us. How can any of us stand in judgment
of another brother or sister when we're battling with our
own flesh as it is? Knowing our sinful weaknesses,
how can we exalt ourselves over a brother or sister in Christ? Wicked men and women will bear
their own burdens. Do you know that? The Great White
Judgment, that is the punishment of his own sins. One's own sins,
and not another's. See, people will go to hell not
because of someone else's sin, but because of their own sin.
You know what I heard Henry say, and I love repeating this? He
said, if you go to hell, it's 100% you. And if you go to heaven, it's
100% God. Isn't that true? Who made you
to differ? Amen. God made us to differ. Listen to this. There are some
against whom no crimes, no sins, no offenses can be found. even
by the all-knowing and all-searching God himself. Listen to this in
Jeremiah 50, 20. I'm out of time, so I'm going
to stop here, but just let this flood your soul. Meditate upon
this wonderful scripture this week. Listen to this. In those
days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, shall be looked for, and there shall be none. There shall be none. And there shall be none in the
sins of Judah, and they shall not be found. Listen to this. For I will pardon them whom I
reserve. There you go. Let us think upon
that this week, beloved. Well, let's meditate upon that
this week. My oh my. Brother Travis, can
you close us in prayer?