Morning. Turn to Galatians chapter
6. Galatians 6. Let me read the
first 10 verses, and Doug, you lead us in prayer after I read
them. Brethren, if a man 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. Bear
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own
work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and
not in another. For every man shall bear his
own burden, Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto
him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived, God
is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 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,
let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are
of the household of faith." Now, the title of this message is
Restore, Not Destroy. Restore, Not Destroy. Doug said
in his prayer, Lord, forgive us our sins. Not just his, he didn't say forgive
me my sins, but our sins collectively. And that is the very spirit in
which we deal with one another. A spirit of forgiveness. Considering
ourselves, we need forgiveness. There's nothing that I desire
any more than for God to forgive me of my sins. And that being
so, that's exactly how I should always deal with you and you
with me and with others outside of this building. And that's
what we will look at in the first part of this. And then the second
part of the lesson, he speaks of supporting the ministry and
the minister of the gospel. But Paul, look, Paul tells us
back in chapter five, about the sins of the flesh. He says in
verse 18, if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the
law. And then he says, now the works of the Spirit are manifest. And he gives a whole list here
of the sins of this flesh. But the fruit of the Spirit,
he said, is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the
affections of lust. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. And let us not be desirous, seeking
vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another." But then
he comes to chapter 6 here, or his part of the letter, he deals with someone that has
fallen. He says, you have a brother that's
fallen. This is an example. If you have a brother that's
fallen, don't think that he's lost. Don't think that because
he has fallen, he's not a believer. Because Paul just said, if you
walk in the Spirit, you'll not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
If someone falls, they say, well, he must not be born again. He
must not be saved. Isn't that what Job's friend
said? Job, you've got a real problem here. And I like the
way Paul says that. He said, if he's overtaken in
a fault, in a fault. And what he's teaching us here
is not to have a censorious, critical spirit about us. That's
just so unbecoming of those who believe God. Those who believe
grace, it's unbecoming to be very critical and very censorious. We don't want to have the attitude
of, come not near me, for I am holier than thou. A legalistic spirit, which Paul
was fighting against in the Galatians because of the Judaizers that
had come among them. Here's the evidence of that kind
of spirit, a legalistic spirit, not the spirit of grace, not
the spirit of God. It's being very censurous, being very critical.
He said, that's not of God. That's not of God. You see, those
who are led by the Spirit of God, they operate by a different
principle. They operate by the principle
of love. That's how we operate at all
times. How many times shall I forgive my brother? How many times you
want God to forgive you? That's how many times you forgive
your brother. Our Lord says, 70 times 7, He gave a definite
number for an indefinite number. 70 times 7, every time He asks. Every time He turns and asks
for forgiveness, forgive Him. I'll tell you this, forgive Him
before you even ask. Try that one. Forgive Him before
He even asks you to forgive Him. Let's look at this. Paul tells
us here how to deal with a brother or sister who's been overtaken
in a fault. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness. Considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted, do it so in the spirit of meekness. We all
still have the old nature in us. We are all still subject
to falling at any time. We can fall at any time. All we need is the temptation
to come along. And if the Lord does not support
us and hold us, we will fall every time. At no time in our
life on this earth are we strong enough to resist temptation. I don't know who it was who said
this. He said, I can resist anything but temptation. I don't remember
the man who said that, but that's a true statement. I can resist
anything but temptation. If God doesn't hold me up, If
He doesn't hold me up. The motions of sin still war,
and they do war in our members. They war to take over. They war
to take over our mind, our body. The motions of sin are still
there in all of us. So if a brother trespass, here's
how we are to deal with it. We are to restore him in the
spirit of meekness, kindness, gentleness. Considering ourselves,
lest we also be tempted." Considering ourselves, you know, we've heard this statement. Some
mean it, some just say it because they heard it. You see a drunk
go by, a drug addict, a harlot or whatever, and you say, except
for the grace of God, there go I. Now some can say that and
really mean it. They really mean it. And there
are some who say it because it sounds good. It's a good statement. But there
are some who really understand, brother, if it wasn't for the
grace of God, I'd have done the same thing. I would have done
the same thing. considering ourselves, considering
what we are by nature, considering that God has saved us by grace,
considering this, that God has kept us from it and let that
one fall. Aren't you glad that God has kept you from doing what
King David did? That he had an affair with Uriah's
wife and then had him killed on purpose? Aren't you glad God's
kept you from that? Because you'd do it, and I'd
do it if he didn't. We'd do it, I assure you we would.
And he says here in verse two, after he says, consider
one another, restore a brother who's fallen, considering yourself,
lest you also be tempted, and bear you one another's burdens.
I tell you this, there's no greater burden to a child of God than
to have sinned. There's no greater burden than
to have fallen, than to have brought reproach on the name
of Christ. There's no greater burden than that. And that's
one time when that brother or sister needs you more than any
other time, is when they are down. They don't need somebody
to kick them. They don't need a Pharisee to come along and
kick them in the teeth. They need a brother to come along
and reach down, just like the Lord did to you and me, and pick
them up, pick them up. Bury one another's frailties,
whether it be, now listen, whether it be in mind or body. We are
much more able to bear a person's frailty in their body, aren't
we? If they have a limp, a sore arm, a hand, whatever it is in
their body, arthritis, we bear with them. We can bear with their
frailties. We help them in the room. We'll
help them sit down. But we're not very good at bearing
with someone who has a mental problem, someone who's struggling
mentally, someone who's struggling mentally, someone who's been
knocked down and they're depressed, they're depressed. We just, we're
not good at handling that, are we? We're not that good at handling
that. Bear with one another's frailties,
whether it be in mind or body. Bear with one another's troubles.
I know that by nature, we have a tendency to turn away from
somebody that's in trouble. We have a real tendency to do
that. But when we consider what our Lord did for us, it ought
to draw us to that person and help them. You know, I had an
aunt. Her name was Freda. And I'm telling you, she worked
her whole life in a nursing home. If you took two people in the
room, and two people walked in, one walked in and was frail and
sickly, and another walked in healthy, she would automatically
be drawn to that one. It was just in her. She was drawn
to it. We ought to be drawn to one another
that's in trouble. Because in doing so, listen,
in doing so, we are serving Christ. There's no better way to serve
the Lord than serving one another, especially in times of trouble.
This is the pure religion and undefiled that James speaks of,
the visit to fatherless and the widows and their affliction.
This is what he's talking about. James also says this, in many
things we offend all. You say, well, so-and-so offended
me. Well, how many people have you offended? How offensive are
we? James said, in all things we
offend. In every area, sooner or later,
I tell you this, sooner or later, you hang around me, I'll offend
you. In something, I'll say something
stupid. I mean, I'll say something off the wall, I'll offend you.
In all things we offend. If we don't have a forgiving
spirit, we'll never get along, will we? But God's people, now
God's people have a forgiving spirit. They do. Scott Richardson
said this, life in this world begins with a slap on the bottom
and ends with a shovel full of dirt in your face and everything
between the two are bumps and bruises and headaches. It begins
with a slap on the bottom and a shovel full of dirt in your
face and everything in between is just bumps and bruises. I know this, the way we treat
those who have fallen is a very real indication of our relationship
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a real indication. I think that's a stronger indication
than what we believe. Because I do know this, if we
believe God, what we believe will be right. It'll be right. But the real indication is how
we treat others. That's a real indication of our
relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. And by doing this, by
bearing one another's burdens, Paul says, we fulfill the law
of Christ. This is the law of love. This
is the law that supersedes all others. This is the pinnacle. This is the one that sits at
the top. Love. If that is missing, you've broken
already everything below it. Everything below it. Our Lord said this in John 13,
35, By this shall all men know you're my disciples. that you
love one another, you have genuine love for one another. If you
look at the body of Christ and the variety of people that it's
made up of, it's made up of all people of all nations, all tongues,
all tribes, and every one of them love one another. Now you
get outside of that. Now listen, you get outside of
that, you have nothing but strong prejudice. That's where it's
strong prejudice. Everybody gets into their cliques
and their clans. But now in Christ, in Christ, and the love of God
shed abroad in the heart, you love your brother no matter where
he's from. You love your sister no matter where she's from. You
genuinely love them. There's people down in Mexico
that believe the gospel. We're Walter priests in other
parts of the world, but I tell you this, if they walked in this
room right now as believers, I'd love them. You know why?
I couldn't help it. You can't help but love those
whom the Lord loves. You can't help but love your
brothers and sisters in Christ. And you do love all men in general.
You do have a love for me, for humanity, because you came out
of that. You came out of that. And you
don't know, but that lost wretch that walks in the door, can't
stand anybody, That might be your brother in Christ. God may
yet save him. You don't know. In verse 3, and here's the problem. Here's the problem. If a man thinks himself to be
something, if he thinks he's somebody, he's somebody, he's
someone of recognition, When he's nothing, when he is a zero,
that's what that nothing is, you're a zero. You know, apart
from Christ, this is what makes the gospel offensive. I was talking
to Jeremy yesterday, and we were talking about the offense of
the gospel. We were talking about that, and this is one of the
things that makes the gospel offensive. Outside of Christ,
you're nothing. You're nothing. You know, God
can take one man and make him a president, another man and
make him a ditch digger, and before God Almighty, and those
two men are nothing. They're both zeros. Apart from
Christ, the Lord said, there's none good, no, not one. Scripture tells us that. You're
a big fat zero apart from Christ. And if a man thinks himself to
be something when he's not, he deceives himself. He usually
doesn't deceive everybody else. They know he's nothing. He's
just deceiving himself. But this is to think we are better
than our brother who's fallen. That's what he's talking about.
I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that. If you say that, if you really
looked at a brother or anybody else really for that matter,
if you really look at him and you say, how can they do that? How can David, how can King David
do that? He's the king, he's got everything.
How can he do that? You don't understand the gospel.
You don't understand who you really are. You and I can do
anything. I mean anything. We could be
Charles Manson. We could be that crazy guy. If
God let us. If God let us. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Altogether. From the top of his
head to the bottom of his feet. He's altogether nothing. That's
what sin has brought us to. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing commendable in any way,
shape, or form. Only in Christ do we have anything
to boast about. Now he's going to give a self-examination
here. Before you censor a brother who's
fallen, who's been taken in a fault, and Paul says, consider yourselves. And let me say this while I'm
thinking of it. You remember over in Corinthians where that
man had committed incest, and Paul said, deliver him to Satan
for the destruction of the body, that the spirit may be saved.
Then later in 2 Corinthians, he writes this, receive him with
open arms, receive him back, love him, love him up. He comes
back repenting, don't you shut the door on him. You receive
him back. But he says in verse 4 and 5,
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 if we keep this in context,
Paul is saying this, it's easy It's easy to compare ourselves
against a weaker brother. You just find someone's weaker.
And this is a pet peeve with me. When somebody gets caught
at something or they've done something they shouldn't have
done, they say, well, so-and-so did this. That just burns me
up. You start picking out somebody
else's fault. You start picking out somebody else that has a
reputation. And you start picking out something
they have done. You know, that's just, one thing, it's evidence,
there's no repentance there because you wouldn't do that. Where there's
true repentance, you don't pick on anybody but yourself. You
pick on yourself. It's easy to compare ourselves
with a weaker brother who's been taken in a fault, and it'd make
us feel good about ourselves. That's human nature. See, that's
flesh. That's not of the spirit. That's
of the flesh. is when we try to take the attention
off ourself and put it on somebody else. And we feel ourselves to be a
little stronger spiritually because we haven't done this or that,
whatever it is. Well, first of all, if we have
not been overtaken in a fault, we can thank God for it. We can
thank God. Let's not break our arm trying
to pat ourselves on the back. We can thank God for it. And
in reality, we ought to fear lest it happens to us. You see
a brother or sister fallen or whatever it is, the first thing
it ought to do is cause fear because we can do that too. Peter,
Peter denied the Lord. Does it ever make you fear that
you might not do it? I'm very capable of doing it. Just put me in that same situation.
Put me in a situation. where my life is on the line.
See, my life and your life has never been on the line for the
gospel. Never. Nobody's been holding a gun to
my head and having me to deny Christ or shoot me. We've never
been put in that situation. Peter was put in a situation.
God put him in that situation on purpose. to make Peter a preacher
of the gospel, a gracious preacher of the gospel, and to let him
see, Peter, without me, you can do nothing. He said, I'll die
for you. No, you won't. You won't even
do that. You'll run. You'll run. And he did. We ought to fear, lest it happens
to us. And every man is judged by his own works. Let me say it this way, no man
is going to stand before God, and then there's this one standing
there, and this one standing there, and it's going to say,
well, you're better than that one was. No. Christ is the standard. Christ
is the standard. And thank God Almighty, we've
been judged in Christ. We have been judged in Christ. If we examine ourselves, here's
what will happen. When He says we'll have rejoicing,
and ourselves are not another. Here's what will happen. We'll walk humbly. If we examine
ourselves according to the Word of God and truth, you cannot
help but walk away humbled. That God would have mercy on
me. Well, that brother is going through
such a heartache for bringing reproach on the name of Christ,
embarrassment, whatever it brings. And you're just humbled that
the Lord kept you from it. And if you do any good thing,
if you really do any good thing, it's the Christ doing it in you.
It's the Spirit of God working in you. Every time. Every time. If you do anything
worth writing home about, it's Christ. It's Christ doing it
in you. And he says there, every man
will bear his own burden. Every man will be judged according
to his own works, not in comparison to someone else. Now let him
that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teaches in all
good things. Now he turns to this thing of support in the
ministry. This verse teaches us to support those whom God
has called to the ministry. Their labor is worthy of His
hire. You know, Scripture says you
don't put a muzzle on the ox when he's treading out the corn.
You let him take a bite along the way. You can go over, and
I don't have time right now, I have it written down, but I
don't have time. You go over in 1 Corinthians 9, read verses
3 down through there where Paul talks about supporting the ministry
and giving and the right to it, the minister's right to it. And
that's why he's talking about it, Listen, it is in us by nature. It's in us by nature to take
care of ourselves. Take care of ourselves and our
own first. It's in us by nature to get all we can and sit on
the can. It's in us by nature to do that. And so Paul says here, he says,
let him that is taught in the Word take care of the one teaching
him. That's what he's saying. Be not
deceived. Be not deceived. God's not mocked,
for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. Don't be
deceived by a covetous heart or by false teachers. Don't be
deceived by them. When we withhold from those who
minister to us the Word of God because of covetousness, because
of greed, God will deal with us. God will deal with us. Martin Luther said this, he said,
this is very uncomfortable for me as a minister to deal with
this because it sounds like you're... He said he brought in the Pope.
He said, because they constantly do that. They constantly put
pressure on the people to give and they hoard it in. And Martin
Luther said, I just feel embarrassed. He said, I'm almost embarrassed
that the apostle Paul dwelled on it so much. He said, but it's
in us by human nature to take care of ourselves first and let
the things of God go. Let them go. Or just look and
see if we can afford it. You can't afford not to. Honestly, we can't afford not
to, if that's a proper way to say it. But know this, he said,
what a man sows, he shall reap. This is a proverbial statement
here, and it applies to everything, whether it's good or bad. If
a man sows wheat, he will reap wheat. If he sows nothing, guess
what he reaps? Nothing. You know, I just had
a garden plowed up out there and I'm going to, Lord willing,
I'm going to plant some beans and stuff in it and potatoes
and whatever. But if I don't go out there and plant anything
in it, it's just going to be bare. No fruit. No fruit. No
fruit. If a man sows nothing, he reaps
nothing. You can read that over in 2 Corinthians 9, 5-8. Paul speaks about this. But here's
a law now that does not fail. In verse 8. He that soweth to
his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that sows
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. If we
sow to the flesh, we take care of this flesh. That's what he's
saying. If we take care of our desires, our body, where we're
gonna live, eat, and clothe ourselves, if this is our life, we will
reap corruption. Martin Luther said, we'll reap
corruption in this life and in the life to come. It'll rot. It'll rot. Now, this being so, talking about
taking care of the minister and the ministry, You know, it's
like this, and you take care of me well here. You do. You
take care of me well. But you taking care of me is
taking care of the gospel. You know, I said this to a pastor
some time ago. I said, it's taken me, it took me a while because
I was always used to, you know, I had a business and I can go
to work and make money and, you know, just out there doing. I said, it's taken me a while
to get used to somebody supporting me, somebody giving me money.
And he stopped me. He stopped me. He said, don't
look at it like they're giving you money or they're supporting
you. He said, they're supporting the gospel. And that helped me. I said, that's good. That's the
way to look at it. It's a support of the gospel.
It's a show of love for Christ. It's literally a show of love
for Christ. That's what it is. So, let us not be weary in well-doing,
for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. It's easy to
get weary in well-doing when those who you've been a blessing
to are not grateful. And you help someone and they
just don't seem to be grateful. Remember the Lord healed those
ten lepers? Was it ten lepers? Only one turned
back and said, thank you. He said, I healed ten, where's
the other nine at? Well, they're gone. They're gone. But you know, the Lord didn't
quit healing after that. He didn't say, well, forget this. He didn't
do it. He healed. He fed people, fed
5,000. I mean, he just kept on blessing. And he does today. He keeps on
blessing. The sun keeps shining. Don't get weary in well-doing. Our Lord doesn't. He doesn't. But keep doing it, he says, keep
doing it. And know this, that in this world
or the next, it will bear fruit. It will bear fruit. God is not
unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. So, let us
do good to all, especially to those that believe there in verse
10, I quit. As we have therefore opportunity, God sends long opportunity,
you know that? You know how many times that
rich man had an opportunity to bless Lazarus as he walked out
the gate? You know how many times? He didn't do it once. Not that
we read. There was an opportunity. God
laid the opportunity at his gate. Let us not look, and I'm talking
to myself too. I'm talking to myself. Let us
not look at someone's trouble as a problem, but as an opportunity.
I had a salesman, I had a salesman work for me when I was running
that company in Huntington. He made a statement that I've
never forgotten. Every time something went wrong
in the shop, like we did Babbitt Bearings, and if somebody did,
you know, if they killed the job and it was supposed to have
been delivered at a certain date or, you know, something went
wrong. Every time, and this man was a good salesman, every time
he'd say, this spells opportunity. He wouldn't fuss, cuss, and slam
on the tables. I can't believe this has got
to be delivered. Every time he said, this spells opportunity. When our brothers and sisters
are in trouble, it spells opportunity. Let that grace and love come
out.