Let's turn, brethren, to Galatians
chapter 6. Everything that God teaches us
in His Word, God brings His child to experience
in our daily lives. principles and these teachings
of grace that we hear. God brings us to experience these
things in our lives. And He does it so that when He
sends us trials, He can make us to learn our need of Christ. It's what we saw in the first
hour. So when you hear a text like we're going to look at today,
You can rest assured, brethren, if you haven't already been brought
into a trial to experience this, you soon will. We all will, together,
as the body of Christ, get to experience this in a trial soon. That's always
the case. It's always the case. And God
may allow you to walk in your flesh. He may allow you to totally
disobey what He teaches here in this Word. If He does, if
you're His child, He's going to make you see that in your
flesh dwells no good thing. He's going to make you see never
to lean to your own understanding, but always look to Christ. Or
God may give you grace to obey what He says in this text. And
if He does, He's going to make you see You got no reason to
glory in yourself. It's of God's grace. If He hadn't
given us grace to obey Him, we'd do what any other sinner will
do. And there's one more thing I
want to say is that, you know, I said here recently, soon I
hope to preach a series on marriage. I just want to preach Christ,
our husband, and how His church is the bride. That's what I mainly
want to look at. But you know, every passage that
we come to in the Scriptures, it deals with believers and our
relationship to one another in the church, but it also deals
with believers in our relationship with other believers in other
relationships. Husbands and wives, parents and
children, so on. All these scriptures apply to
us in these various relationships that we're in. So remember that
when we look at these texts. Alright, you're going to experience
it. Pray God give us grace to obey Him. We need Christ constantly.
Alright, let's read it together. Galatians 6.1, it says, Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, And you see the marginal reading
says, although. He's in the fault. Although a
man be overtaken in a fault. Ye which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, 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." Now, it will help to set the tone of
this passage if we first understand this first word, brethren. How
is it that believers are brethren? Well, we have one and the same
God and Father who chose us freely, freely, freely by His grace. We have one and the same Redeemer
who came to where we are and who totally, completely gave
us liberty from the curse and condemnation of the law. He's
our elder brother, the firstborn among many brethren. The firstborn,
the elder among many brethren. And we're born of the same Holy
Spirit. You think about that. Every true
believer, born again of God, has the same Spirit dwelling
in you. Each of us. Of the same heavenly
family. That's why Paul said in Ephesians
4, Endeavor. Make it your aim to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Why? Because there's one body and
one Spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who's
above all and through all and in you all. How do we get this
oneness? How do we get this oneness? And
what is it? How real is it? Well, our great
high priest prayed in John 17, and he said this, The glory which
thou gavest me, I've given them. That's how we got this oneness.
The glory which thou gavest me, I've given them, that they may
be one. Now listen to this, Christ said
to the Father, Even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."
You let that sink in, brethren. Let that sink in. We're one even
as God the Father and God the Son are one. We're one because Christ is in
each of us and God is in Christ. That's inseparable oneness. And
it's all because freely, without any cause in us, God loved each
of his children even as he loves his own son. Now doesn't that
make you see what a privilege God has given us, what a great
gift God has given us to have brethren? Brethren. This is why when the Lord said,
He said, as much as you've done it, whether it be good or wrong,
as much as you've done it unto one of these, the least of my
brethren, you have done it unto me. You can't do a thing to another
believer without doing it to Christ. Maybe that believer is
your husband. Maybe that believer is your wife.
Maybe that believer is your son or your daughter or your mother
or your father. Maybe that believer is your pastor or one of your
brethren in the church. You can't do anything to them
except you do it to Christ. Alright, now look at this next
word. It says, if a man be overtaken in a fault. Although a man be
overtaken in a fault. Now what does that mean? It means
he's been totally overcome in sin. In a sin, in a particular
sin, in a grievous sin. He's overtaken, he's overcome
by it. When we confess Christ, the believer
truly has been given a heart to walk in newness of life. We
have been given a heart for that. A believer does not want to sin.
Grace does not teach a believer to sin, to live in a life of
sin. And a believer doesn't want to
live in a life of sin. You know why? You're going to
dishonor Christ if you do that. You're going to dishonor the
Lord. You're going to dishonor His church, His people, and that's
grievous to bear. You don't want to do that. You
don't want to do that, and I don't want to do that. I can't tell
you strongly enough how important it is to live in this world to honor
the Lord. You're going to get older one
day, and when you get older and you look back on when you were
a new believer, a young believer, or even look back on before you
were a believer, if there are things in your life that you're
going to regret, that's a terrible thing. So while you were younger
and you can live starting out now, make it your aim to honor
God in everything you do. Now sin's mixed with everything
we do because we have this old nature in us and it's just going
to be that way till the day that we pass from this life. So when
this body turns to the dust, we're going to have sin mixed
in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. But sometimes, brethren,
Even worse, a believer is overtaken, surprised, falls into a grievous
sin. Now, if you're a believer, you
know that. If you've been in the faith for
any amount of time, you know that's so. I know it's so. Grievous sin. Embarrassing, shameful
sin that you just don't want to do it, but you do it. And He teaches us by that. We
really do need God to preserve us every hour. We really do. We need God to cause us to constantly,
in all things, show ourselves a pattern of good works. In doctrine,
sound speech, so that, and here's the reason, so that those that
are of the contrary part can have no evil thing to say. Nothing
to say. Do not give them any ammunition. We need God to give us a heart
to do that. We need Him to give us grace to keep that ever before
our eyes, brethren. So now, when a brother falls,
when he's overtaken in a sin, remember, this word right here,
remember, that's what I'm so capable of. And if at that time
you haven't been overtaken in that sin, remember, It's just
by God's grace. By God's restraining grace. Because
you will do exactly what any other sinner will do. Alright? Now look, before we come to the
instruction, there's another qualifying word here. There's
a word that qualifies who this is to. Alright? He says here in verse 1, Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, ye which
are spiritual, What does it mean to be spiritual? It's certainly
not what this world says when they go around using that word
so flippantly. They mean some kind of touchy-feely thing. That's not what it is. To be
spiritual is to be born again. To be spiritual is to be born
of the Spirit of God. We don't make ourselves spiritual.
God makes us spiritual by His irresistible grace, making us
to be born of God. But it means even more than that
here. It means even more than that here. Here it means to be
matured in grace, by God's grace, so that you are given grace,
so that when you see a brother overtaken in a fault, you have
the grace to be gracious. You're matured to be gracious.
Remember Paul said in Romans 15, we that are strong, that's
the word, we ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. And
you remember the Corinthians, they weren't spiritual. Were
they born of God? Yeah. But they were acting like
immature babies. They were acting like men of
the world. Paul said, and I couldn't speak to you as unspiritual,
because you weren't able to bear it. He said, because you were
carnal. Acting like babies in Christ. He said, because you had this
strife and division and envy and all these things among you.
That's showing that you weren't mature. You were carnal, he said. So that's, you see here now,
so get this, this is very important now. You know, we see a brother
or sister that's fallen in sin, overtaken in a sin, and if I
start having these harsh, judgmental, self-righteous thoughts coming
into my, welling up in me, I'm disqualified to say a word to
that brother. I'm disqualified. This is for ye that are spiritual. Mature enough in grace to handle
it the way God says deal with it. You understand that? See
that? Alright, now let's see the Word of Instruction. Verse
1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness. Restore means mend what is broken. Strengthen such a one. It carries
the meaning of using great carefulness to reset bones that have been
broken. To reset bones that have been
broken. Look over at Psalm 51. When God
makes us to see our sin, Makes us to see it's against
God. Makes us to see it's dishonoring to Christ. Makes us to see it's
a disgrace to His church and hurtful to His people. He makes
you see that, brethren. And it's as painful to a believer
as having your bones broken. Isn't it? It's just like having
your bones broken. It hurts. You didn't want to
do it. And it's painful to you. Look
at what David said here. Psalm 51a. This was his prayer
to God. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Now if we
learn the joy and the gladness that God made David hear, by
which he made his bones to rejoice, then we're going to learn what
it is that we're to say to restore the brother or sister overtaken
in a fault. Well, look back at verse 7, Psalm
51, 7. David asked God, purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I'll be whiter than
snow. Inwardly, inwardly, giving me
a new heart. And then look at verse 9, and
this also he asked, hide thy face from my sins, and blot out
all mine iniquities. And God sent Nathan the prophet
to restore David whose bones had been broken. And Nathan came
to David, and you know what he told him? He said, David, in
Christ your surety, because of Christ your surety, God is faithful
and He's just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you
from all unrighteousness. He's faithful and just to cleanse
you whiter than snow. He said, Thy sins are forgiven. You're not going to die. You're
not going to be cast out of God's presence, David. You see, that's
what, it's the unchanging, unchangeable grace and love of God that comforts
and restores the bones that are broken in that overtaken brother. That's what's going to restore
them. That's what's going to comfort them. That's what's going to
lead them and guide them and bring them to Christ is that that comfort,
that goodness of God, that our sin can't destroy His grace.
That doesn't make a man want to sin. That makes a man want
to follow Christ. Let me tell you a story. I just thought of
this. I heard recently a story, and I forgot all about this,
but one time Brother Charlie Pennington was walking through
the woods, and he came upon a dog that was caught in a steel trap. And he started trying to help
this dog get out of this steel trap. And the dog wouldn't let
him. He was trying to bite Charlie and everything else. You know
how a dog would do. And that's how we are. We don't want God
doing anything for us by nature. We were trying to bite and claw
and everything else. Can't get out of that sin. Can't
get out of that trap. So Charlie took a stick, a forked
stick, and he pushed it down on that dog's neck and pinned
him to the ground so he could get down there Loosen that trap
and take that dog's foot out, that leg out of that trap. That's
what God's going to have to do to you. He's going to have to
violate you to free you. Well, he let that dog loose and
he turned around and he started walking away, going on his way.
A little bit he heard a racket, a noise. He looked back behind
him and that dog was following him, limping along. That dog
followed Charlie to the house, and that dog followed Charlie
to the day died. Why? He freed him. He did something
for him he couldn't do. That's how God makes faithful
dogs out of His people. That's how He makes Caleb's out
of His people. It's His goodness that leads you to repentance.
And so He says to us, brother, Set those bones that are broken
with this gospel of God's free, unchanging, sovereign grace in
Christ. In Christ. Now, look here. He
says, and do this in the spirit of meekness. In the spirit of
meekness. It's the spirit of gentleness
and mildness. Gentleness and mildness. You
know, sometimes we can say the right thing, but we say it in
the wrong way. And it just disannulls the thing
we said. If your child fell, broke a bone,
they're coming to you, they're weeping, they're so hurt, you're
not going to take a ride out and whip that child. You're going
to speak as gently, as mildly, as compassionately as you can
to that child. You're going to try to comfort
that child in every way you can possibly comfort them, while
you take them as quickly as you can to a physician. That's what
he's saying right here. You comfort that child, you speak
comfortably to that child, and you comfort that child in every
way you can, as mildly and gently as you can, while you're taking
them as fast as you can to the great physician. The great physician. And he says here, and you do
this considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. What do
I need to consider about myself? Well, consider that you're a
sinner just as easily tempted as that brother is. Everything
that my brethren have done that's sinful, I've done it and worse. Some of it I didn't get caught
in. That's the only difference. I didn't get exposed. That's
the only difference. Remember that. Consider yourself.
Consider that if the shoe was on the other foot, what do I
want that brother doing to me? I want him to comfort me. I want
him to point me to Christ. I said to you in the first hour,
the Lord Jesus is going to take His hand and put it on our eyes
and lift us up from the waves and the distractions and point
us to Christ. You know who He's going to use
to do it? The members of His body. His hand, His foot, His
arm. You, you, you, you who He saved. The members of His body, He's
going to use you to speak that word to one of His brethren and
comfort them. Lift their eyes up to Christ,
away from themselves. That's what I want my brother
doing to me. And then consider yourself also that if you are
able to do this, you don't have any reason whatsoever to pat
yourself on the back. Meekness is the fruit of the
Spirit. You can go back up to Galatians 5 right there and he
tells you that. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
Just like faith and temperance and long-suffering and these
other fruits of grace. This is the fruit of the Spirit.
And he says, do this lest you also be tempted. Tempted to what?
Tempted to fall into the very worst fault. Self-righteousness. Did you know self-righteousness
is what keeps a sinner from coming to Christ? I've heard every kind of smokescreen,
foolish excuse there is in the book. You know what is keeping
a sinner from coming to Christ? He thinks he's righteous. He
don't need Christ. Christ said, I didn't come to
call the righteous. I came to call sinners to repentance. Nothing
but sick folks go to see the physician. And if you know you're sick,
you'll go. Emergency rooms don't have to use these gimmicks churches
are using today to get people to come in. Why? Because people
who are sick will go. That's right. And that's why
you're here in a one-room firehouse with noisy and all, and with
a wheel of fortune standing over here in the corner. All this
stuff because none of that matters to you. Why? You're sick. You
need Christ. You need Christ. Then he tells us this, brethren,
love bears all things. And that's the law of Christ.
That's the law of Christ. He says here verse 2, "...bear
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
You want to obey Christ? I'm not even going to hint at
the possibility that you and I can obey our Lord perfectly. You know we can't do that. But
you do in that new man, you want with all your heart, with all
that new spirit he's put within, you want to obey him. I do too. Well, look over at John 13. What's our Lord's command? What's the command of Christ?
What's He said to us? What's He instructed us to do?
Bear ye one another's burden. Look here. One night our Lord
got up from the table and He took off His outer garment, just
like Just like He took, concealed His glory and took
our flesh when He came here. And He kneeled down at the feet
of His disciples. Just like Christ came down and
took the lowly form of a servant. And Christ washed their dirty
feet. Just like Christ washed all His
people completely when He went to that cross and laid down His
life and washed us in His blood. Washed us in His blood. And then
Christ said this. This was His command. This was
His law to His child. John 13, 14. He said, If I then, If I then,
your Lord and Master, have washed your feet." And you know, brethren,
he's talking about so much more than that physical act he just
did. He's talking about what he did
for us at Calvary, what he's done for us in making us a new
creature. He says, if I've washed your feet, you also ought to
wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example,
an illustration. That's what this was he was doing.
And here's what I'm teaching you, that you should do as I've
done to you. Brethren, Christ loved us by
taking the very lowest seat that could be taken. He took the very
lowest place that could possibly be taken. He was made the least
of the least on Calvary's cross when He was made sin for us,
when He was made to bear our shame, when He bore our judgment,
when He bore the curse for His people. He was made the very
least. Love like nobody's ever known.
This is love, brethren, to bear the burden for your father you
love and to bear the burden for your children you love. And He
made Himself the least to bear our burden and washed us washed
us, washed us. And He said, now, I don't expect you're going to
do anything to the degree I've done it for you, but as I give
you grace to do it, bear ye one another's burdens like I've borne
your burden. Look over at John in chapter,
John 13, 34 there. A new commandment We're talking about the law of
love. Law of love. Why is this a new commandment?
Didn't the law say, love God and your neighbor as yourself?
That's what the law said. Why is this a new commandment?
This gives us the true motive that the law of Moses didn't
give us. Look here. A new commandment
I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you. That you also love one another. By this all men shall know that
you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." You
know, when I am given an indication that a place is not not full
of God's disciples. You know what scares me about
a place? If I see them or hear about them
taking the rod out and hurting one of God's already chastened
children rather than loving them. He said, men are going to know
you're my disciples if you bear one another's burdens. That's
the law of Christ. We're not under the law of Moses,
brethren. We're under grace. And grace teaches you to walk
by faith. That means you're totally looking
to Christ to work this in your brethren just like He's worked
it in you. And you're doing whatever you're
doing constrained in your heart by the love of Christ. Law doesn't
motivate me. I'm not motivated by a whip.
I'm not like this world where I either have to be whipped or
have a carrot dangled in front of me. That's not what motivates
me. Christ motivates me. I see His
love for me. I see Him bearing my burden.
And that makes me, by His grace, want to bear the burden of my
brethren. Have you ever borne shame? Shame. When you've sinned, when you've
sinned, and especially when that sin is exposed and people know
you've sinned, you are filled with shame. If you're a believer,
it makes you ashamed. It really makes you ashamed.
Because you know that's against your God. That's dishonoring
to your Lord. That makes you ashamed. That's
just a little, small, small taste of what Christ bore for His people
on the cross. And yet, for the joy that was
set before Him, for the joy of declaring His Father just and
the Justifier, for the joy of saving all His people from our
sins, He endured that cross, despising the shame. And He sat
down at the right hand of the Father, When your brother or
sister is overtaken in a fault, God's chastening hand is sufficient
to correct them. And when they're mourning their
sin and they're hurting over their sin and they're shamed
over their sin, they don't need our rod to break their bones
further. They just don't need that. They
need to be comforted in a spirit of meekness and mildness and
brought back to Christ. Brought back to Christ. Bear
ye one of those. What about that? What about the
sin? Just bear it. Just bear it. Well, they've offended me. So
what? Who are you? Who am I? Hadn't
we offended God constantly? And yet He continues to bear
our burden? Well, I think we ought to pull
out the law. Alright then, let's pull it out. The law of Christ. Bear ye one another's burden. Alright. If I do become self-righteous,
I lift up myself to the judgment seat and decide I'm going to
try to dethrone God off of His judgment seat and I'm going to
sit in judgment of my brother and deal harshly with him and
condemn him and what have you. God says the only thing I'm doing
is deceiving myself. That's all. Look here in verse
3. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself. You know, whenever you get upset
and you begin to unload on somebody, let go of what they've done wrong
and how they've offended you, you know what we're really doing?
We're saying, I am really something. I am something. God says, no,
you're really nothing. You've just deceived yourself.
That's all. Don't you hate self-righteousness?
Oh man, I hate it. I hate all my sin, but I'll tell
you the sin I hate the worst is self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. We're not to attempt to force
others to do as we think they ought to do. We're not. It's our responsibility to examine
ourselves in this work. Now hear what I said. It's not
our responsibility to force our brethren to do what we think
they ought to do. It's our responsibility to examine
ourselves, make sure we're doing what we ought to do. That's our
responsibility. Listen to this now, verse 4.
Let every man prove his own work. You see there? Let every one
of us examine ourselves. Let me judge myself and correct
myself. I'll find enough to do in that
so that I don't have time to be censuring you about anything. I have a By God's grace, by the
gift of God, I have had a wonderful marriage for 18 years. I pinch myself sometimes. The Lord has truly blessed me. And you want to know one thing
that makes it such a happy marriage? One reason that we've gotten
along together for 18 years? We don't try to make the other
one do what we think they ought to do. Usually, whenever a husband or
wife has problems, one of the chief reasons is they are trying
to force the other one to do what they think they ought to
do. Look to Christ and ask Christ
to make one another willing. Restore such a one, speaking
graciously, to remind them what Christ has done for them. and
just bear their sin, put up with it while you do it. If that's
the key to a happy church, and that's what he's telling us here,
it's certainly the key to a happy marriage. Verse 4, you do this, you examine
yourself, you keep yourself in check. I got enough to do to
try to make sure I'm loving that woman like she ought to be loved
where I don't have time to be trying to make her love me like
she ought to love me. It's a full-time job just loving
her like I ought to love her and making sure that that's what
I'm doing. That's my business. That's my
business. You've heard brother Todd Nybridge
say this, the scriptures don't tell you how other people ought
to treat you. They tell you how you ought to
treat others. Alright, now look, verse 4. You do this, you examine
yourself, then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and
not in another. Now let me show you what this
means. If you look down the page at
verse 13, Galatians 6 verse 13. He's talking here about the legalists,
those who are Pharisees by nature. He says, verse 13, "...neither
they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire
to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh."
In other words, folks who are preaching law and they're trying
to force sinners into obedience, they don't keep that law either.
What they're trying to do is they're trying to force you into
obedience so they can glory in what they made you do. And part of that glory is not
only in this glory into one another what they made you do, but they
want to come to God. Christ said they're going to
come to God one day and say, Lord, Lord, look, didn't we do a bunch
of wonderful works? Look at all these devils we cast
out. Look how obedient we made this person. We forced this person
to be obedient. The Lord said, depart from me. That's work in iniquity. You
see what I'm saying? But if I examine myself, if I
bear this burden myself and bear my responsibility myself, if
I found myself to be obedient, I know you're not going to look
at yourself and say, boy, I sure am obedient. And start rejoicing
in yourself. What he's saying here is, When
God brings you to check yourself and to keep your eye on Christ
and to look to Him and trust Him and not to be trying to force
others to do things, you have rejoicing in your own heart now,
glorying in Christ and what Christ has constrained you to do, rather
than forcing somebody else into compliance and then glorying
in what you made them do. That's glory in the flesh. We
want a glory in Christ. We want to give Christ glory.
We want to see Him exalted and honored and glorified by what
He's doing for us and in us. That's what He's talking about
here. That's what He's talking about. Prove your own work. Verse
5, For every man shall bear his own burden. If I hear this message
right now, and I'm thinking, I hope she hears this, I hope
he hears this. I've missed it. I've missed it. Every man has to bear his own
burden of proving his own self. And what about my brother that
I see in sin? Bear his sin. Put up with it.
Bear his burden of sin while you bear your responsibility
of looking at Christ yourself. That's what he's saying. Remember
whenever the Lord came and Peter that night, after he washed their
feet, he said, now you're going to forsake me. Peter said, I
won't. He's might, but I won't. Well,
Peter found out he would. He did. The Lord came back to
him after he arose and he said, he restored him. He set those
bones that were broken. He did it in gentleness, mildness,
pointing them to Christ. That's what he did. And after
he did that, listen to the Lord tell him to follow Him, to look
to Him, to trust Him. Peter looked around and there
stood John, Apostle John. And Peter said, well, what about
Him? Lord, what about Him? The Lord said, Peter, what is
that to thee? Thou follow me. You concern yourself
with following me. Let me take care of my other
child. So I pray, brethren. Lord, give
us grace. Give us grace. We're going to
get to experience this. You always do. You always do. I found that when I preach a
message on Sunday, in some capacity, usually Monday, I am going through
the wringer. And it's usually very close to
what I preached on Sunday. Being wrung out. We're going
to go through this. I pray God will give us grace. to be spiritual, be mature, to
restore in the spirit of meekness, to consider ourself, lest we
be tempted into self-righteousness. Pray He'd give us the grace to
bear one another's sins, to obey our Lord Jesus Christ,
that He'd make us not deceive ourselves to thinking we're something
when we're nothing. And I pray that as we do this,
as we come into the trial, first thing He makes you do is to examine
yourself. Bear your own burden. Make sure
now, I've got to make sure I'm looking at Christ. I've got to
get the beam out of my eye. I can't help another unless I
get the beam out of my own eye. I pray God will do that. Don't
you? That's what we're going to do with one another. We're
not going to beat one another. with the Lord. We're going to
love one another. Love them to Christ. Love them to Christ. Alright, Brother Eric.