Okay, turn if you would to Galatians
chapter 6. Now the last time we met we were
looking at verses 1 and 2 of Galatians chapter 6. And that
was before that cold blast came in by God's providence, which
was wonderful, wasn't it? And I'm not gonna murmur against
God's sovereignty, right? We're not gonna do that, no,
no. But where we saw that we're to come alongside our brothers
and sisters in Christ when they fall into temptation or sin. We're to come along beside them.
We're not to beat them up. Religion beats people up. Religion
kicks you when you're down. God's grace, the people who are
filled with the Holy Spirit of God will not do that. Now today,
this is amazing because this message will actually tie in
with next week's message in the book of Acts, where we're going
to look at Ananias and his wife, who were hypocrites within the
church. Oh my, this verse today actually
ties in with that as well. Let's read the first 10 verses
of Galatians chapter 6. The name of the message is self-deception. Self-deception. Brethren, if
a man, we know, or a woman, be overtaken in a fault, ye which
are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, notice that,
in the spirit of meekness, which is one of the fruit of the Spirit,
right? And it's the opposite of harshness, it's gentleness. So we're to come to our brothers
and sisters who are overtaken by a fault or by a sin, and look
what we are. Restore in one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. My. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. Well, we know the law of Christ
is love your neighbor as yourself, right? It's the royal law. Love
your neighbor as yourself. And if we do that, we'll help
them out, won't we? We'll help them, especially those
of the household of faith, right? Look at this verse. Look at this.
This is amazing. This is our verse today. 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. That, of course, is speaking
of judgment. And we're going to look at that next week. We'll
look at verses 3 and 4 next week. Let him that is taught in the
word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. God's not
mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that
shall he reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing,
for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore
opportunity, look at this, let us do good unto all men, especially
Especially, now look at, again, look at verse one. Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, now he's writing to the church,
right? Look at this, and then look at verse 10 again. As we
have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially
unto them which are of the household of faith. So we're not to kick
our brother and sister when they're down. We're not to toss them
out of the church. No, we're to come beside them
in meekness and say, come on brother, come on sister, right? Let us look to Christ together.
Let us look to the one who's forgiven us of all our sins.
And the reason being, we could fall into the same temptation
or the same sin as they could, couldn't we? We're all susceptible. We're susceptible to the worst
sin that man commits. We're all susceptible to that.
But for the grace of God. Now this brings it down low,
doesn't it? This brings us to the point where
we're beggars, aren't we? You know, see here in religion,
God's begging people to come. They've got it totally backwards. We beg God to save us. We're
the beggars, right? We're the beggars. My oh my. So again, look at verse one.
Ye which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit of
meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Have
you ever saw someone fall into sin and then you do the same
thing? Maybe not right away, but down
the road. It happens, doesn't it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we should make every
effort. We should make some effort and
some attempt to do something to recover our loved one from
any sinful trap he might have fallen into. Now, if somebody
in our family, our blood family, fell into something, we're going
to want to help them, aren't we? Especially to the household
of faith. Especially to the brethren in
Christ and the sisters in Christ. Especially. That's what it says
in verse 10, doesn't it? Especially unto them who are
of the household of faith. Who are fellow citizens of heaven. Who are fellow blood-washed believers
struggling in this world just like we are. My And we had to go to that person
in the spirit of meekness. Again, meekness is one of the
fruits of the spirit. And again, the spirit of meekness
is the total opposite of harshness. How many times through the year
have you seen someone in church being harsh to other people? We witnessed it, didn't we, Charlie?
It happened to Charlie. Not going to get into the details
of it, but it happened, and I saw it, and it was awful. But it happened three or four
years ago, so I don't have to get into details, do I? No love. And it was awful. It was awful. Yeah, it just shows you how,
and as I was putting this message together, I'm sorry, but I couldn't
be but to be struck with some things that happened in the past
too. I couldn't help but be struck
by that. We don't have that now, praise
be to God, hallelujah. We have unity, we have peace,
like we were talking, Sister Karen, we have something special. All under the blood of Christ.
All sinners saved by grace. All susceptible to the same sin
as our brothers and sisters. And we don't look down upon each
other, do we? No, we esteem each other better
than ourselves. You can't believe sometimes what
I say about some of you. To Vicki, I'm like, my, they're
such a blessing. I look at you all, and I'm not
trying to puff you up, but I see faithful people, faithful to
the Lord. I talk to guys across the road,
and they're talking about praying and reading the Bible, and I
said, I preach to folks who read the Bible. I preach to folks
who tell me when they're praying for me, I know they're praying
for me, hallelujah. And you do. Vicki and I cherish
that, beloved. But we don't esteem ourselves
better than you. We esteem you better than ourselves. I'm just a servant. I heard a
preacher. It was wonderful. He said, the pastor's a servant
of the church. No better than anyone else. Just
called to a position to preach the gospel. Amen. That's what
I said for years from the pulpit, right? But all we see here, that there's
someone who thinks they're something when they're nothing, and they're
doing nothing but deceiving themselves. Oh my. So we need to go to our
brothers and sisters who fall into sin just like we do, right? I asked a couple guys across
the world, well when's the last time you sinned? Well, let me
think. I said, well, you're sinning right now. We're full of sin,
but we're saved if you're a believer. You know, who was it, Henry used
to say, sin isn't something we do, it's what we are. It's in
our nature until, even when we're born again, what do we still
have? The flesh. Do you not battle with it all
the time? No wonder the Holy Spirit had
Paul penned these words about come alongside your brother and
sister in the spirit of meekness and restore them. Don't beat
them down. Don't beat them down. Oh my. My oh my. We could fall into
the same sinful trap. We could even do something more
sinful. Right? You imagine if God opened up
our minds and everybody was exposed, all our thoughts and sins for
just 15 minutes. Just 15 minutes. Yeah, it could
even take a minute, couldn't it, sister? You're right. Amen. And that was exposed? Oh, we'd be in such shame, wouldn't
we? Oh, my. And we're born-again believers.
Praise God for the blood, as you said, Brother Dave. Praise
God for the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin, beloved. My, I heard a preacher say, you
know, I hope the Holy Spirit's here. And he had just finished
saying, you know, he felt like the Holy Spirit's presence was
with him. And he says, well, I hope he's here. Well, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there is Christ in
the midst of us, isn't he? We don't have to doubt that,
do we? We know he's in our midst. We know it. And just the spirit
within the church is incredible, beloved. And that comes about
by the mighty power and work of God the Holy Spirit. It's
not by us. Not by anything we do. And think
of this, if we can't forgive our brothers and sisters who've
gone astray, how can we expect God to forgive us? You know,
that's the thing. When I consider how much God's
forgiven me, is it not easy for us when we consider how much
God's forgiven us? All our sins. Is it not easy
for us to forgive others? Or makes it easier, right? Sometimes
it's not easy. Sometimes, James being honest,
sometimes it's not easy, is it? Sometimes we hold on to that
thing a little bit, don't we? But when we finally let it go,
because you know what? Do you know what? Do you know
what? When we're not forgiving someone, it's not hurting them.
It's hurting us. You ever think of that? It's
us who's getting worked up. They might not even know we're
mad at them. Isn't that wild? They don't even care that we're
mad at them. And here we are, we can get ourselves, can we
get ourselves in a fuss? Real fast, can't wait. Donnie
Bell said, I can sit in my easy chair and get so worked up. And
I'm like, yeah, I know what you're talking about, brother. And get
so worked up, he said, and just be thrashing people in my mind. Is it true? Oh, aren't you glad? that all
our sins are forgiven by the precious, precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't it make you want to shout
for joy? Oh my, it's wonderful. Listen to this. The scripture
says there, in verse two it says, bear you one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ. Over in John 13, 34 it says,
a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.
As I have loved you, and that's a agape love, right? That's a
my oh my. That's a love that we can't even
humanly touch, but we're to love our brother. That's the love
that the spirit puts in our hearts, beloved. As I have loved you,
that you should love one another. You see, God-given faith works
by love, doesn't it? It works by love. It's the first
fruit of the spirit mentioned, love. Without love, Paul says
it's like a sounding brass timbrel with nothing, just a ding, and
that's it. Nothing. but with love, oh my. You know what I pray before I
get in the public? That God would use the words to minister to you
and to minister to me as I'm putting the message together.
That we would be built up and edified in Christ and that it
would go forth and God would use it to draw in lost sinners. That's my hope. Feed the sheep
and pray for the lost. Right? Oh my. So as this message goes, pray
with me as these messages go forth. I know you do. I know
you do. As these messages go forth. So
the sins we commit, think of this, are against God. And they're
heavy burdens for us, aren't they? They're heavy burdens for
us. Well, bear one another's burdens.
So if a brother or sister is overtaken in fault, love will
move us to bear that burden for the one we love. For the one
we love. But burdens are not limited to
sinful weaknesses. A loss of a loved one can be
a burden, a heavy, heavy burden. Financial stress can be a heavy
burden, right? Physical maladies, sickness,
pain, and many other things that we could list. Our children can
sometimes cause us heartache, right? They're making wrong decisions. My, oh, my. These are all burdens
to the people of God. So in Corinthians it says, love
beareth all. The love that's inside us from
the Holy Spirit bears all that. Bears the burdens of each other.
That's why I love how we have that little prayer list and we
can send out messages and pray for one another. It's wonderful,
beloved. To know what each other's going through and to pray for
each other. And even relatives as well, too. Family members
and friends. When true Christian love grips
our heart, there's a genuine concern for us to bear the burdens
of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And in doing so, we're
fulfilling the law of Christ, which is a new commandment I
give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved
you, that you should love one another. Let's read verse three. Here
we go. Now we're getting into the text here. For man think
himself to be something, When he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. And note the word for, at the
beginning, right, for, that ties this verse into verses one and
two. That's an immediate tie into
verses one and two. So if anyone imagines or thinks
that they're better, than their fallen brother or sister, or
that they would not do the things that that brother and sister
did because they think they're stronger,
maybe more mature in their minds, more spiritually mature, or they
could even think that they're more righteous. Do you know we
have equal righteousness in Christ? You ever think of that? Not one
of us is more righteous than the other. Isn't that wonderful? And the righteousness we have
is not our righteousness. It's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Not one
of us is better than the other. And we admit that in grace. We
admit that. Oh, so this person spoken of,
they may think they're more holy. They may think they're more righteous
than the one who's fallen. But we see in the scripture here,
they're deceiving themselves. That's what the scripture is
telling us. They're actually deceiving themselves. They're setting themselves up as the one who who is over all the other people.
Do you know there was someone here that left, that used to
sit up top there and look and say, that person's saved, that
person's not, that person's saved, that person's not, that person's
saved, that person's not. That's horrible. That's judging from the outside. That thief on the cross, he was
a condemned thief. He was condemned. Barnabas, who
was released, he was condemned to die by the law. Every one of us outside of Christ
and all the world outside of Christ is condemned by the law. The only reason we found mercy
in the eyes of the Lord is the same reason that Noah found grace
in the eyes is that. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. The only reason we're different
from anyone else in this world is because we found grace in
the eyes of the Lord and it had nothing to do with us. Isn't
that amazing? That's grace. And that grace
will produce a love. That grace will produce a love,
a love that we esteem others better than ourselves. We hear
there's a need in the body, we want to help, don't we? I remember one time we found
out that a family was in need and I think within one service
there was $1,500 raised to help them out for groceries and stuff. That's the love of God in our
hearts. Isn't that amazing? It's sacrificial giving, isn't
it? We give because we love one another. We give here for the
furtherance of the gospel. And we're going to see that in
our study in the main service that people sold their houses.
Now that was a one-time thing. I'm not telling you to sell your
house and give all the money to the church. No, I'm not like
that. But people have misused that
text and just misused it so much. But they entrusted the apostles
with the finances. We, as a body, entrust Dan with
the finances, don't we? And he takes good care of them.
And you know I don't have nothing to do with it. Brother Dan and
Sister Kathy, they plug away at it and do a wonderful job.
But we've entrusted them with that, haven't we? We love them. My oh my. But this, this person
here spoken of, they think they're something, when actually they're
nothing. And they deceive themselves.
And the one spoken of in verse 3 here, looks down at the body
of Christ, asking themselves, or thinking themselves, not asking,
thinking themselves to be better than everybody else. better than everybody else. And we see here that they deceive
themselves. And you know what else they do?
They cause division within the body. They disrupt the unity
of the body because of the way they look down on others and
consider themselves more righteous than the other believers. Turn,
if you would, to Proverbs chapter six. We'll look here. This is
how seriously the Lord takes people who cause division in
the church. And what does this look, I'll
ask you, what does this looking down at others, where's that
come from? Pride. You hit it right there,
sister. Pride. What did Henry Mahan used
to say? Pride of life, pride of self,
pride of who we are, where we came from. And yet the Lord says
in Isaiah, don't forget the rock you were hewn from. Don't forget
where you came from. I'm the son of a trailer mechanic
and the son of a housewife. Praise be to God. This common Canadian kid. My oh my. Look at this. Look at this. And note what's
the first thing. Proverbs chapter 6, verses 16
to 19. These six things that the Lord
hate, yea seven, are an abomination unto him. Look at the first one.
A proud look. You hit it sister. A proud look.
All these things stem from pride. Pride, beloved. Pride is a slayer. Look at this. A proud look. A
lion tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood.
A heart that devises wicked imaginations. Plotting things. Plotting things. With no one else knowing. Or
maybe in with coots with some other folks. Plotting a bunch
of stuff. that be swift in running to mischief,
a false witness that speaketh lies, and look at this, this
is serious stuff, and he that soweth discord among the brethren. Look at that. So these spoken of, let's go
back to Galatians chapter 6 verse 3, these spoken of think themselves
to be something when they're nothing. They're nothing. And when they see others in a
fault or sin or carrying a heavy burden, they just look at themselves
and think, that won't happen to me. Look at them. You know,
when I was a Pharisee and I was in religion, and I praise God
my wife stuck with me through this, I used to do this. And I'm so ashamed of this. I
would look at other people and I'd say, how can they be a Christian
and do that? I had no clue about grace, beloved. Now, I knew doctrine. Oh, yeah. I knew doctrine. I could go toe-to-toe with you,
but there was no grace. Praise be to God. God showed
me grace. Aren't you thankful He showed you grace? And now
I don't look at people and say, how can they do that? I look
at myself and say, how can I do that? But please forgive me, Lord.
Is it so with you, too? We're just being honest, aren't
we? My oh my. So these folks spoken
of in Galatians chapter 6 verse 3, they deceivingly think that
they're maybe too spiritual, too righteous, too holy, to ever
fall in that kind of sinful trap. And they're thinking that it
must be pleasing to God that I'm not falling into that trap! Pride. There it is, right there. Pride. Just dripping and oozing
pride. We all have it, don't we? Still,
even after we're saved. We still battle against it, don't
we? Things come in our mind, we think, what am I thinking
that way for? Right? You ever had that happen? Yeah? You know Spurgeon, don't feel
like you're alone, because we're all in the same boat, but Spurgeon
said he'd be in prayer, and the most hideous things would come
in his mind, and he'd think, where did that come from? And
he goes, oh, I know where that came from. And just plead the
blood. Plead the blood, beloved. The
blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Isn't it wonderful? Past, present, and future. Oh
my. Do you know the scripture says
man at his best state is altogether vanity? Remember the Lord said, you're
all a bunch of unprofitable servants. Yep, that's us. Without Christ,
we're nothing, are we? See, we realize that though,
don't we? We've been taught that now. We owe our being, our knowledge,
everything we know. Think of this. We own our being,
our breath, our life. We own our being. We own our
knowledge. We owe our mercies. We owe our preservation. We owe
the gifts that God's bestowed upon us. And every believer has
gifts. And we owe all that to God and
God alone. All of it. Even the stuff we
do in our everyday work and jobs and whatever, we owe all the
knowledge to be able to do that stuff to God. My oh my. My. And we know that we're nothing
without Christ. We know that now, don't we? We
didn't know that before, did we? I thought I was something
before the Lord saved me, did you? We all did. We all thought we were something.
And we find out we're nothing. What a change in us. We admit
it. Right? We thought we were something.
Now we say, I'm nothing without Christ. Only God can take a rebel,
a sinner, and turn him into one who praises a saved sinner who
says, I'm nothing without Christ. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful,
beloved. God's done that to each of us
as believers. Praise his mighty name. That's
all we can say, right? Praise his mighty name for his
goodness and mercy and grace. Oh my. In all such pride and self-righteousness,
we saw in Proverbs there, it's all an abomination to God. It's
an abomination in his eyes. Such an attitude in anyone shows
them to be destitute of God's grace. As Dave said earlier,
no love. Now they know doctrine, they
can come dressed up, they can come any way, they can shake
your hands, but there's no grace. There's no love. And that'll
become manifest over time. That'll become manifest over
time. My, someone can only put an act on for so long. God's not mocked, is he? What
a man soweth, that shall he reap. My, oh my. See, now we know why
the scripture says for us to examine ourselves, whether we
be in the faith, right? Who am I trusting right now?
I'm trusting Christ and his righteousness and his perfect sin atoning work
right now, are you? That's my only hope. I'm just
a nothing, and he's the one, as Scott used to say. I love
that. And you put the one beside the
zero, and we're only something because of him. You take him
away, we're still a zero, aren't we? What a great way to bring it
out. My oh my. This is why we need to be saved
from our sins, beloved. This is why we need to be safe. And a person in this kind of
attitude, they're destitute of grace. They have no grace with
other people. They don't manifest love. They
manifest harshness. And they're unforgiven too. My oh my. I knew someone who
left. They were angry with a fella
for 20 years because he didn't go out to dinner with them. when
a preacher was visiting. 20 years! And he kept telling
me, kept bringing it up. I said, well, you haven't forgiven
him. I said, well, that's the fact.
See, I got myself in trouble just being me, right? My, oh, my. But isn't that not
true? If you're still bringing something
up 20 years later, that's the spirit of unforgiveness, beloved.
We need to let the, keep short accounts, beloved. Keep short
accounts, I'm serious. It'll be the most blessed thing
for you to keep short account. Just let stuff go again, because
it's not hurting them, it's hurting you, right? It's festering in
you. It's, scripture says, building
a tree of bitterness within us. Take the ax to it, man. Take
the axe. Go, God, take the axe to that
bitterness tree. Chop it down, Lord, please. Oh,
and how does it get chopped down? With the gospel. You're all a
bunch of sinners. You're no better than each other. Just blows from the master's
axe. And it takes someone who thinks
they're something and makes us into nothing, doesn't it? Nothing without Christ. Something
in his eyes. Now think of that. We think we're
nothing. And he says, you're jewels in
my eyes. You're jewels in my eyes. Oh my. Isn't that wonderful? And let us never forget these
questions. Who makes us to differ? And what
do you have that you didn't receive? Right? And when thou didst receive,
now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou
hadst not received it? If God's given us grace, we can't
boast in that, can we? Because we're just a bunch of
sinners. We don't deserve it. So let we who are the redeemed
ponder these truths, that in our unregenerate state, We were
nothing in the sight of God. Now we were his sheep, right? But we're just sinners like everybody
else. He knew who we were. He knew
who we were. And think of this, if God hadn't
chosen us in Christ, if he hadn't chosen us in Christ, if he hadn't
redeemed us by the blood of Christ and made us willing To come to Christ, we'd be nothing
in his eyes. But instead he says, you're mine. Brian, doesn't that make our
heart sing, brother? You're mine. Mine. And we say, take my life,
Lord. Let it be consecrated, Lord,
for thee. Do with me whatever you will.
Use me for the furtherance of your kingdom. My oh my. And let us remember that God
himself is the one who gives us all things that pertain to
life and godliness. Everything we have that has eternal
value, all spiritual blessings, they're all in Christ and they
all come from God. And I'll tell you this, if you
have Christ, you have everything. All that a sinner needs is found
in Christ. Everything we need is found in
Christ.