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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

All right, we’re in the book of Galatians. A book of Galatians, so turn in your Bible the book of Galatians. We have covered the subject of the two natures found there in the fifth chapter and to let a Christian know that if you walk in the spirit, you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. But we still have the lust of the flesh, even if you walk in the spirit. So you know that you’ve always got this battle in your life.

You’re always struggling. You’re warring all the time. It never ends. It will not stop until you lose the body. Hey, and that could be at any time. So, theemp the Lord tells us there’s some things that if we knew and understood, it could help us in our walk with the Lord. And believe it or not, it is the will of God that Christians, when you’re not able to win a lost man, we’re supposed to be set in the right example for the safe man, be thou an example of the believer in word, and deed, attitude, and so on.

And there’s a lot of Christians that have not yet matured to where they walk in the Spirit, they walk into flesh. So part of your responsibility as a Christian is to be able to discern when Christians are not doing right and you in a very meat-mannered way try to help them. So it’s not trying to point out their faults, it’s trying to figure out a way to help them get to where they should be. We always have Christians who have been called of God to walk around with their big magnifying glass and try to expose all the wrong in everybody else’s life.

Of course they never see their own, but they are very good at spot in others. So if you will very quickly, just look there verse 13 of chapter 5. We’ve already covered this, but just as a brief review for brethren. So you know you’re talking to the believer. You have been called unto liberty. That means you trust the crisis save you. You’ve been made free from the law, free from the power of sin. In other words, you still have sin in your life, in your body, but it’s power you do not have to yield to.

There is another power that’s greater than the power of the old nature. But it does say this, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. In other words, don’t use, well, I can’t go to hell, all my sins are pain. And use my liberty as an opportunity to walk in the flesh, to live the way I want. And you’ll notice there’s lost people that will come to that conclusion. You mean to tell me you can trust Christ as Savior, and then you can just live the way you want to and you still go to heaven when you die?

Yes, yes you can. Now most preachers will always say, no, no, no, no, that’s not what I mean. Yeah, it is exactly what it means, but you can’t avoid the consequences. And this is why this portion we’re going to look at is going to deal with some of the consequences. So he says here in verse 13, but by love serve one another. So Christian living is not just winning the lost. It’s serving one another, serving each other. That’s why when we were having camp coming up in a couple weeks, we’re not going there to be served.

We’re going there to serve. Vacation Bible school is not to be served. It was to serve. It’s like Christ says he did not come to be ministered unto but to minister to give his life a ransom for many. So we’re to reach other people. That’s why we’ve been left here. That’s why we studied the Bible. so that we can be useful in helping other people. Now, a lot of times, you know, you can come to church and all your life and you can always be absorbing.

And you can know the Bible from one end to the other, but you’ve never served in your body, never done anything for anybody. You never caught anybody, you never won anybody. But you know that you’re supposed to, that’s when you really begin to live. That’s when your life becomes valuable, when somebody knows the value of what you know. And they understand what you’ve gone through and you’re able to help and to teach somebody else. So that’s why your example in life is so important.

But now take your Bible. Look there in verse 24, same chapter, chapter 5, but first 24. And when he says, and they that are Christ, that means you belong to Him. Have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. That means when you trusted Christ as your Savior, his death became yours. So Christ died for us. So we have been crucified with Christ. That means that the Old sinful nature, the desires, the lost, the affection, were all crucified. Now, we’re supposed to live as though that’s true.

And we’re not supposed to live for the affections of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. But that’s difficult, huh? I mean, we live in this world and it’s so easy we can see. And there’s things we like, there’s things we want to do, things we want to be. God says, can you sacrifice everything for what he wants? Now God says, look there in chapter two, look down verse 20. You’ll see a wonderful, wonderful verse here.

You ought to commit this verse to memory. I am confident or I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. It’s like I died, But he did it for me. Yet not I, but Christ live it in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, the body. I live by the faith of the Son of God, and gave Himself for me. So this tells you, okay, this is what happened. But this is why I live. I live for the one who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Now it would be great if all Christians did, but some Christians don’t. Now go back over to Galatians in chapter 5. And so he says in verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, in the word that’s where you have been placed. Once you trust the Christ is Savior, you’re in the Spirit. You have a spiritual birth. That’s how God sees you. God no longer sees you in the flesh as a lost man. He sees you in the Spirit as a saved man.

But since that’s where he sees you, that’s where you’re supposed to walk abide where you’ve been placed live according to who you really are you are a child of God so you should live like a child of God but of course we know that you’re also a child of the devil so that’s why sometimes you have a problem you want to live like the Lord and you want to live like the devil let me remember in Romans chapter 7 when I want to do good evil is present with me evil is present with me that’s a real sinful nature that you have inside of you.

Every time you want to serve the Lord, you want to do what’s right. Evil is always there telling you not to, not to. So he says in verse 26, let us not be desirous of Vanglory. What is Vanglory? Walking into flesh. Using the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, and that becomes your goal. It’s going to cause you to live your life in vain. It will be empty. It will not satisfy.

You’re not going to get out of life what you really think you’re going to, because you see, a Christian has much more to live for than himself. A Christian lives for the Lord as he serves people and tries to reach the lost. So he makes the statement here in verse 26, provoking one another. In other words, we’re not supposed to provoke one another to vain glory, to empty living, the life that doesn’t count. Remember there’s a statement someone made only what’s done for Christ will last.

But he says here in verse 26 and go to the underlying that we’re provoking one another because this is what you do. Let us not be desire to vain glory. One another and we provoke them to end the indelency because see let’s say for example If you get the goods of the world and that’s your purpose in your golden life, you know you’re causing people to envy you And to be jealous of what you have Now doesn’t mean the things that you have is wrong You got to be able to use what every God gives to you for his honor and for his glory Because that God may give it to you today, but you know he may take it away tomorrow tomorrow.

The Lord giveth, the Lord take it the way. You should stay the same. You shouldn’t be any different. Your character should stay the same. Your character is what you are. Character is revealed by your conduct. Nobody knows what kind of a person you are except by the way they see you handle pressure or decisions, choices and life. Our whole theme of the camp we got coming up is going to be making decisions, making decisions, learning to choose how to decide.

Because isn’t it true that all of our life we’re making decisions every day of our life of what we’re going to do? Who we’re going to be, where we’re going to go, what we’re going to eat? Everything, all about decisions, decisions. Well, if that’s so true, shouldn’t we try to make the best decisions we can make? Well, then that means you’ve got to have a certain amount of knowledge in order to do that. You’ve got to be able to discern right from wrong.

So that’s why you have the Bible. Remember this, one hour of your condensed study of the Word of God will do more for your soul than a month of studying all the wisdom in all the libraries. So this is pure wisdom. When you say scripture, it’s pure, it’s pure script. Holy, it’s the Word of God. This can do something for you that all the wisdom of the world can’t do. And that’s why a little of this is better than a lot of that.

And so I think sometimes we have gotten sidetracked. We chase the wisdom of the world instead of the Word of God. Now in chapter 6, let’s look there in verse 1, brethren, so we’re still talking to the believer and that you have an old sinful nature mentioned there in verse 17 and 19 of chapter 5. You also have in verse 22 and 23 about the fruit of this Spirit. So we are serving the Lord and part of our service to the Lord is to discern where other believers are in their walk with the Lord.

Not to be judgmental or condemning but to come alongside and try to help them. I enjoy watching people who who were at one level in their Christian life, and then after a little of my influence in their life watching grow, where they know more, they can do more, more challenged, wanna participate, wanna do something with their life. Because, see, serving the Lord is the power of God in your life is the power of influence that you have in other people’s lives.

Some people have very little power in people’s lives. They can influence them. You can lose the power of your influence by a sharp word, a dirty look. Just be an unkind. And you have lost the influence and that person’s life that could have helped. In other words, you can provoke a person to envy and jealousy and meanness and bitterness by the way you are. If you sow hatred, you reap what you sow. If you sow bitterness, you’re going to reap bitterness.

You sow ugliness, you’re going to reap ugliness. That’s why a lot of people are ugly. But you reap what you sow. And if you sow lava, you just love it or reap some. And if you sow mercy, you just love it or reap some. And so you want to sow the good things. And if you don’t get it from people, you get it from God. That’s why you always serve the Lord and do what is right and trust the Lord to bless you because you know there’s an eye up on how I watch in you.

And you don’t have to tell everybody all the sacrifices you make because the one you did it for saw it. If you do it just for people and they don’t see it, then you’re going to be discouraged. And then you sometime you have to let them know what you did for them. You know, just got to let them know or let somebody else know all the good things you did.

So he says, brother, if a man be overtaken in a fault, that means that you’re able to discern that there’s a Christian brother walking in the flesh. Now, who can discern when an other man’s walking in the flesh? Well, another man is walking in the flesh, but he’s not going to be able to help him. You which are spiritual, those that are walking in the spirit. You see, there’s two things. to be spiritually minded means you mind the Spirit, to be fleshly minded means you mind the flesh.

And so it’s just like having a child, does your child mind you? When you say does he mind you, it means does he obey you. So we talk about being spiritually minded means you mind the Spirit, you do what he says. To mind the flesh means you do what the flesh tells you to do. So you’re always listening and you’re always obeying. The thing is, is what kind of a choice did you make? And it all depends on you.

So he says here, if a man be overtaken in a fall ye which are spiritual, try to get him saved again. No, restore such a one in the spirit of meatness, consider yourself lest you also be tempted to do the very same thing you’re condemning. So an arrogant attitude may lead to an identical temptation. You know you have to be very careful how you perceive what other people are going through and the condemnation because God may just allow you to reap the same thing.

I’m serious. You put down other people and you mock and make fun and you provoke. Did you realize that it’s coming back? It’s coming back. You’re sowing a win but you’re gonna reap a whirlwind. Now you say I don’t want that you didn’t. There’s enough problems in the world. There’s enough trouble in the world. Well that’s seeking more. I was always told don’t trouble trouble trouble trouble trouble you. So you try to leave trouble alone. Don’t look for trouble, seek trouble, try to make trouble, but sometime when trouble comes, you’ve got to stand up to it and do what’s right.

But give what he says, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. You ought to underline that. That means though you may have the opportunity to say, I told you so. And you should have listened to me. You should be like me and you can be proud and pat yourself on the back. I never did this. And I never did that. You’re only by the grace of God. And if you get too big for your britches, you know God has a way of cutting people down the size.

If you humble yourself to the Lord, then he says He says He will exalt you. You exalt yourself. And God says He’s gonna humble you where He can bring you down quick. That’s why don’t try to keep up with the Joneses, just wait and catch them on their way back. But it says restore such a one. That means trying to get the person that’s walking in the flesh to walk in this bed. So sometimes it takes time. And a person wants to know that you really love them and you really care about them.

Do you want the best for everybody in your family? You really want the best for your wife or for your husband? Do you really want the best for their kids? Then they need to see the best example they can. That good example of love and compassion and discipline will go a long way toward challenging and motivating others to do the same thing. Where do people see you the most? Home. Work. You should not be one kind of a person at work, in another one at home, and in different in church.

The way you are in church, you should be the way you are at home, or on the job. You shouldn’t be, there shouldn’t be three of you. You ought to be real and genuine wherever you are at all times. If you see me at a grocery store, it should still be the same Yankee you see in church. And I believe that I ought to be just as godly and holy and righteous out there as I am here on Sunday morning.

And if I am, aren’t you? Should you be here? be holy and holy and then the devil the rest of the week, main and ugly and unkind. He says, you which are spiritual, spiritually minded. You’re obeying the Lord. He says, obeying this. Love one another. Don’t provoke people to do the things that are wrong. Guard you words. And then he says, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. So that’s your job is to get them restoration, get them back to where they ought to be.

And there’s a lot of Christians that are hurting and stumbling, worried, they got all kind of problems. And there’s opportunities, good lore. You can be an isolationist if you want. In other words, I don’t bother nobody, nobody bothers me. I’m not interested. Nobody else is alive. I want everybody to leave me alone. It’s just me. If I was to live according to that, I’d be on the backside of some mountain up there in Alaska. In my little cabin, I could be totally satisfied, but knowing the Lord and knowing the book, I can’t do it.

I can’t do it. So you’ve got to sacrifice some things that you might like to do because of what you know. So you’re always trying to figure out how can I, but you know what I found out long enough? If you serve the Lord, it seems like God gives you your desires. He lets you enjoy this and enjoy this and joy. And he says, I have given you all things freely to enjoy. You see, God made this world for us to enjoy.

And I love to enjoy it. But I’m not in love with the world. But I can enjoy a lot of things in the world. To me, going to church and studying the Bible and making Christians and challenging and ranch and camps and all the things you’re with. I love that. I love it. I don’t mind sitting in the office and trying to get a radio broadcast done. I enjoy it. I love it. But I also like to travel and get out and do this and that and the other.

Now get what he said. In verse two, bear ye one another’s burdens. But look down in verse five, for every man shall bear his own burden. Oh boy, that don’t look like a contradiction to me. Part of your burden is to help bear someone else’s burden. But every man is responsible to bear his own burden. But not every man bears his own burden and needs some help. That ain’t complicated. You want to make sure that you can look at yourself in the mirror and say, am I doing the will of God for my life?”

Look at that verse there. You see there in verse two, bear ye one another’s burden and so fulfilled in your underlineness, the law of Christ. The law of Christ is the law of love. The whole law is fulfilled in one word, love. And that’s why it says in verse 15 and it says up there verse 15 last part of verse 13 of previous chapter talks about the concern that you have for others love and so he says bear you one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ the law of love give what else he said for if a man think himself could be something when he is nothing he deceived with himself.

Is it possible that a person who walks in the flash thinks he’s walking in the spirit and thinks he’s okay. Everything’s fine. You know if you put on road colored glasses, everything has a road colored tint to it didn’t. And it looks fine to you, but everybody else can tell that something’s wrong. Kind of like this man one day, he to sleep. Had a much cash. His roommate came in there and had some Lindberghur cheese, put it all on his moustache.

Name by note, Lindberghur cheese just don’t smell the best. Founded the guy. He woke up and he walked over to the sink. Sink stinks. He opened a refrigerator. That meant refrigerator stinks. Walked up to his friends. stink too. He says the whole world stinks. Where was the problem? Right under his nose. He was the problem and sometimes there’s people who, you know, everybody’s wrong but me like mama watching the parade and there’s a little Johnny shit. Look at that.

Everybody’s out of step but Johnny. I guess it is perspective. But says in verse three, when he has nothing, he disables himself. If you don’t love the lost and you don’t love one another, enough to discipline your life, then God says, you’re deceiving yourself, you’re nothing. There’s no value there. The reason God left us here is that we might be profitable one to the other. I just finished teaching on that in the book of Corinthians that he has given this all gifts to profit with all.

Now look what else he says in verse 4, but let every man prove or test his own work. Do you know the will of God for your life? Okay. How you doing? Are you doing what God wants you to do with your life. Are you learning to walk with the Lord? You’re trusting Him. You pray unlike You should. Do you study His Word like You should? Do you witness like You should? Or you’re concerned about lost people like You should?

You see those are areas where you ought to examine yourself and then if you’re doing what God wants you to do then yourself approval between you and God your peace of mind. Well, it doesn’t depend on what somebody else says or think. You know between you and God, everything’s fine. See what it says? But let every man prove or test his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing, get this, and you ought to unline those two words himself alone.

You see, serving the Lord, you have to learn that my walk between me and God, it’s a personal thing. And whether somebody else sees it or don’t see it, agrees with me, it doesn’t agree. My walk between men God is where I have my peace. And I’m satisfied. Otherwise, you see, you try to live up to somebody else’s standards and you’re always going to let them down and let yourself down. But if you can just get to the place where you just, I’m satisfied that I’m doing what I can with what I know where I am between men God.

then say you can have peace and you’re like, then you can try to help somebody. Do you know a person without peace, without joy, doesn’t have much to offer anybody? Because most people are already miserable and you don’t need to give them that. But don’t you need to give people some hope, some joy, a little life, purpose for living? Well then don’t you think you ought to have some? You ought to be an example of a happy Christian Or are you an example of a miserable Christian?

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771. 771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvary of Tampa dot org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.