-Transcript-
00:37 Amen. Thank you for joining me today. Today we are in Galatians.
00:41 Galatians 6:3-5. Very interesting piece of Scripture that challenges us to look within before making a judgment of how great we are. And oftentimes we get pretty excited about ourselves. It’s just, I guess, part of the human nature.
01:00 People can be excited about who they are. Maybe you’ve encountered someone that talks a lot about what they’ve done or who they are. Or maybe you’re a type of person that likes to talk about what you’ve done or who you are.
01:13 Well, let’s look at this Scripture and see what God’s telling us here. Galatians 6:3-5. 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.
01:26 For every man shall bear hisown burden. For every man shall bear his own burden. That’s Galatians 6:3-5. And we see here Paul writing about a very interesting principle.
01:41 There is a condition that a man or woman would think that there’s something, and they are comparing themselves to others. So if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. And some people will look at other people and say, well look at me compared to them.
02:00 And then you say, oh well that’s, you know, primitive. I’d be just like a kid saying that. No, adults could do that.
02:10 Someone in the workplace could say, now look at how much I’ve done at this job compared to other people. But let every man prove his own work, and then he shall have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another.
02:17 And what Paul is saying is, don’t compare yourself to others when it comes to judging yourself.
02:24 You are using a false barometer of success when you look to others to compare yourself. And I think we’ve all been guilty of this at some point. To say, well, and you know society pushes this narrative too.
02:35 Well we, you know, we went to school a little bit longer than this other person. Or, oh well our house is this, or our car is this. Or, and we’re comparing ourselves to others on a very worldly scale.
02:49 Scale whether it’s at school, at work, with sports, with clubs, with whatever. We’re comparing ourselves on a false scale. And the consequence is a false notion of success.
03:00 You know, this is not good because God doesn’t judge us in comparison to others, does he? God judges us in comparison to himself. The fall is a broken walk with God, deceiving ourselves, and a rude awakening at the judgment.
03:18 Can you imagine walking through this life, puffing yourself up, telling everyone you know how great you are compared to so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so.
03:29 And then one day when you get to the judgment seat, God gets a massive bucket of ice and pours it over your head and says, wake up. And oh that’d be much more terrifying than a bucket of ice. And the Lord judges you based upon his perfect ways.
03:42 Based upon his perfect standards. Based upon his perfect knowledge of you and what you could have done and didn’t do. And oh this is gonna be pretty harsh.
03:53 And yet that is what many people I believe face today. Many people that profess themselves to be Christians but have not properly judged themselves, and instead compare themselves to others in some fashion, are going to face this rude awakening. And we realize that the solution here that Paul is presenting is to judge yourself rightly.
04:15 To prove yourself. In verse 4 of Galatians 6, Paul writes, but let every man prove his own work. Prove his own work.
04:24 And then he shall have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. And what’s really interesting about this is when you’re rejoicing, you’re not rejoicing in saying, okay I compared myself alone to God’s standards and I’m good. You’re rejoicing in the fact that you compare yourself alone to God’s standards and you realize you’re no good.
04:43 This is in the Bible by the way. There’s a piece of scripture in there about how two men come to the altar and one says, Lord thank you I’m not like this sinner and thank you I’m not like that sinner and Lord thank you I’m not like this sinner. And the other one said, oh Lord help me I am a sinner.
04:58 And the one that asked for help and said he was a sinner is the one that was right and the one that just kept being prideful was the one that was absolutely wrong. So this is scriptural.
05:06 And here we see that the rejoicing comes when we judge ourselves because when we judge ourselves according to God, not according to what we think, right? But according to God’s standard, we realize that there is no good one, not one, but God.
05:22 Jesus himself, someone called Jesus the good master in the Bible. He said there’s no good one, only God. So we are not good.
05:32 The Bible says that we are not good. The Bible says that all have fallen short, that all have have sin in their life, that all need to come to repentance, okay?
05:43 So nobody is good and when we judge ourselves, we prove ourselves, what we’re doing is we’re realizing our brokenness and that is worth rejoicing. And that is something the boastful, prideful person that says there’s so much better than so-and-so, so-and-so,
06:02 and so-and-so, and wants to show you their trophy case, could never ever do without God’s help because it would be so hard, because it would be so difficult on their ego and on their discussions and their conversations, yet it’s possible with God and yet we’re all called to do it.
06:21 And how would it happen? Well, they’d maybe be in the book of Galatians reading this scripture or listening to a message like this and again, you know, that’s a whole other discussion, but they would be drawing close to God and he would show them, I believe, in his mercy, their need for him.
06:36 Because see, ever since the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, when sin entered the Garden of Eden, we have all inherited the sin curse and because of that, we all have a sin debt that we cannot pay.
06:46 We can’t solve it on our own, we can’t resolve it on our own, and God knows that and he knew that and that’s why he sent Christ to die for our sins.
06:54 And we accept Jesus Christ and his free gift of salvation, we accept what he did specifically on the cross, shedding his precious blood for the remission of sin.
07:03 When we accept Christ on the cross, we accept that, what he did for us, we realize that we have that need, that we couldn’t pay that sin debt on our own, that that sin imputed to us would lead us to hell, but that our offense was so great that God had to send his only begotten Son, his beloved Jesus, to die on the cross for us.
07:24 When we accept Christ as Savior, we’re saved and that sin’s no longer imputed to us and we are no longer judged on our own merits, we’re no longer judged on what we’ve done or who we are, but we’re judged on what Christ has done.
07:39 And it’s a beautiful, beautiful picture of what the Lord Jesus has done for us when we look at this idea of proving ourself, this idea of coming to the idea that we can’t help ourselves, and that we aren’t anything, and that we are no good, and that here in this actual book here in Galatians, Paul writes that he shouldn’t glory in anything but the cross.
08:00 And I’ll never forget that verse, I believe it was Billy Graham that had said that later in his life. He was around all these famous people and he had all these massive moments.
08:10 I don’t think I could ever have had that ministry because my head would have gotten too big. Almost anybody’s head would have gotten too big. And Billy Graham cited that verse that Paul wrote there, that he should glory in nothing but the cross, because we are nothing good, and we can do no good thing without God, amen.
08:30 And so we have to realize our need, and when we realize our need, and we’ve proved ourselves, we’ve judged ourselves rightly to judge ourselves down to the core of knowing that we need a Savior, then what happens?
08:42 Well, we accept Christ, and we truly accept him. We now really understand that the ground is level at Calvary. We understand that we all need, the rich man needs Christ, the poor man needs Christ, the prisoner needs Christ, the lawyer needs Christ, the doctor needs Christ, the politician needs Christ, the student needs Christ, the preacher needs Christ, we all need Christ.
09:05 And we go there, say, Lord, you know, we go to the get to the point, we’re on our knees, we’re at the altar, we say, Lord, please, you know, help me, you know, save me.
09:17 I can’t do it on my own. We’re at a point of brokenness, and when we’re at a point of brokenness, that’s when God can use us.
09:24 Like in the Beatitudes, when Christ mentions, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those that mourn. That idea of being poor in spirit and mourning is being poor in spirit, realizing your need for Christ. Mourning, realizing your need, your need for salvation, because you are a sinner.
09:40 Christ is showing us the antithesis of pride. How did the devil fall from heaven? Pride. The father of all sins is pride.
09:48 The motivator of every argument is pride. It’s I’m right and you’re wrong, or I have the right idea, or I’ve been done wrong. It’s all pride.
09:56 And what God is showing us is, get the pride out of the way, understand your need, humbly, with meekness, understand your need. That’s why I believe Jesus said, you must be like a child to enter into heaven.
10:08 You know, a child, if you tell a child they’ve done something wrong, a lot of times they’ll look at you with those innocent eyes and say, okay, you know, they’re not gonna deny it.
10:16 They realize there’s a need, that there’s a problem, they did something wrong, right? And an adult, you tell them they did something wrong, and they get very uncomfortable, and they want to tell you about, you know, whatever accomplishments they’ve had, or their positions in the church, or in the corporate world, and look, we all need Jesus, amen.
10:37 And we need to understand our need, and if we never get to the point of understanding our need, how can we be sure that we have salvation if we don’t realize our offense?
10:46 You know, how can you say, Lord save me, the idea of like, you’re drowning, and you’re asking for saving, how can you say save me if you don’t think you’re drowning, right?
10:56 If you don’t think you’re in trouble, do you really cry out and say save me, or are you just doing something ceremonially? I tripped over that word a little bit. The solution here, the result, is a close walk with God.
11:13 When we get right with God, when we prove our own work, when we realize our need, we will rejoice in the fact that God has provided a Savior, just like Abraham was gonna have to kill beloved Isaac, and there, Ram was caught in the thicket, and do you think Abraham rejoiced to see that Ram?
11:31 Amen, that Ram’s a picture of Jesus Christ, and he didn’t have to kill his beloved son, because God provided a sacrifice, and we don’t have to die and go to hell, because God provided a sacrifice in the person of Jesus Christ, and that will result in a reverence and a beholding of Christ, not just for salvation, but through the rest of our lives.
11:55 We should be thanking Christ. We should be honoring Christ with our lives. That’s our reasonable service.
12:02 We should give our lives to Christ. We should live for him. It shouldn’t be, oh, well, I just don’t know what I’m gonna do, and this, that, and the other, and let me hedge my bets, and keep a foot in the world, or keep two feet in the world, and, you know, flirt with the idea of going and doing something for God.
12:16 No, our whole life should be given to the Lord, because he gave his only begotten for us, and we needed that. We had that need. There was no other way to resolve our sin debt, to be reconciled to God, but by Jesus Christ, and it’s by faith alone, through grace alone, in Jesus Christ alone, and when we go through this process, which is not fun, I guess, for a lot of people to realize their need, it can be difficult, especially for someone that has a lot of pride, or maybe has had a lot of worldly success.
12:48 It’s very difficult to kind of unwind all that and unwrap all that. Paul said he had to count all his worldly accolades like dung, like a pile of dung, and he was basically a triple PhD.
12:59 He was mentored by someone on the Supreme Court of the time, and he was just absolutely genius, brilliant, brought up in the…he was a Roman citizen and also a Jew.
13:09 I mean, there’s a lot that he had to kind of unwrap there and say, none of this matters. It’s all Christ. It’s all Christ, and we have to do the same, whether we’re aware of it or not.
13:21 We need to do the same. We need to realize, we need to prove ourselves before the Lord and realize our offense and our need, and then accept Christ as Savior, and then live for Him wholly and just thankfully that He has given us Jesus, and that He is here with us today,
13:39 and that He’s alive and well, and He’s working within us to make us into who He’d have us to be, so that we can bring glory and honor to Him. And by the way, when we do that, we’ll have true peace that surpasses all understanding, and we’ll have joy, and we’ll have it more abundantly, all through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
13:58 It’s worth it. God has our best interest in mind. Let’s step forth and do it today.
14:04 Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. Take care.God bless, and amen.