Now we're going to be talking
about spiritual restoration or spiritual recovery. And in Galatians
chapter 6 and verse 1, one of the things that helps us to understand
in what context we're to put these things in that Paul was
teaching by inspiration of the Spirit is the word brethren.
Look at verse 1. Brethren, if a man. Or you might
have in your concordance the word although a man. Sometimes
when the Bible says if, we think about if and when or if or this
may or may not happen. That's not the sense of it. The
sense of it is that this is a reality that's going to happen in our
lives at some point in time as believers. So he says, brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, You which are spiritual, restore. That's where I got the title
from, spiritual restoration. Restore such in one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted or
tested, and which we all will be. That's common to every one
of us who know Christ, who are believers. Our faith will be
tested. James wrote, count it all joy
when your faith is tested. And of course, we know that not
all tests or temptations in that sense are joyous. I mean, in
and of themselves. The joy of our faith being tested
is being delivered through those temptations and tests by the
grace and power of God in Christ and coming out on the other end,
looking to Christ even more, growing in grace and knowledge
of Christ. That's the joy that he's talking about, James, anyway.
But this is a message to brethren, believers, sinners saved by grace. Brethren in the faith, all who
are brought by the grace of God into the family of God. We read
about that over in Galatians chapter three when he talked
about those who are baptized into Christ, united to Christ.
They put on Christ, they believe in him, and they're the children
of God. They're Abraham's seed, that's
who he's talking about. Christ called his brethren those
who do the will of his father. And so we're talking about believers.
true believers, truly born of God, born of the Holy Spirit,
adopted into the family of God, children of God, all of those
things that the scripture says. John wrote about it. He said,
we are the true children of God. You remember in 1 John 3 and
1, he talked about how it's such an amazing thought to know that
we are the sons of God, the children of God. And then he talks about
the issues that we have to struggle with with remaining sin, overtaking
in a fall. How is that possible? Well, we're
saved by grace. We're not condemned. We're not
guilty in the sense of condemnation. We're in Christ and have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's justice, and we cannot be charged
with sin, but we're still not free from the presence and the
influence and the contamination of remaining sin. So it's always
possible that we and our forfeiture of the flesh and the spirit that
Paul had been talking about here could be overtaken in a fall. So although we who are saved
are completely perfect and righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
although sin is powerless, completely powerless to condemn us and to
keep us deceived in the darkness of unbelief, we're still under
the power of sin to influence us, to contaminate us and corrupt
us. You know, Paul wrote about that
in Romans 7. He said that I'm carnal, sold
under sin. He's talking about the remaining
flesh. We're not yet sinlessly perfect in ourselves. We will
be one day by the power and grace of God when we're glorified.
And this is why we're commanded to fight the warfare of the flesh
and the spirit. This is why Paul said, you have
liberty. You have the liberty of God's
grace, but it's not liberty to give occasion to the flesh or
to make way for it or to be complacent in the warfare against the flesh.
It's liberty to obey. So it's possible that we be overtaken
in a fault. And that word fault there is
a transgression. That's what the word means. It's
one of the many words in the New Testament used for sin. And
so some of these Galatians, and you notice the whole reason this
letter was written by God, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle
Paul, was because many of these Galatian professing believers
had been overtaken in a fault. The fault of legalism, by the
sin of legalism and unbelief. They had given credence or credit
to these false teachers who were trying to bring them under the
law in order to be saved or to be righteous or to be holy or
to be sure. And some of these Galatians have
been overtaken. Others are overtaken in other
sins of the flesh. We always think about King David,
don't we, when we talk about a man, a believer, a justified
person? Sinner saved by grace being overtaken
in a fall because he's probably one of the most glaring I don't
say examples because an example is something to be followed We
certainly don't want to follow anybody and being overtaken in
a fall But David's one of the most glaring illustrations of
how a true believer a One saved by grace can be overtaken in
many faults well We can talk about ourselves too in those
areas because we have many faults. But when that happens, when a
brother or sister in Christ is overtaken in a fault, here's
what he says, you which are spiritual. Now when he says you who are
spiritual, he's not talking about you who are holier than thou.
He's not talking about you who think you're better than everybody
else. That's not what he's talking
about at all. you who are some kind of self-righteous super-Christian
or something. He's not talking about a person
who'd say, well, you look at a brother or sister in Christ
overtaken in a fault, like David, for example. He's not talking
about somebody who would look at King David and say, well,
I would never do that, or that couldn't happen to me. And he'll
deal with that in just a moment here. But he's talking about
spirituality here, referring to those who are by the grace
of God, walking in the spirit, and at present, not overtaken
in a fault. Now, not to be overtaken in a
fault doesn't mean that we're sinless, again. We're still sinful
people. But here I believe the issue
has to do with faults, transgressions that bring scandal on the gospel
and on the church and on the ministry. And that's why those
things have to be dealt with. You remember Paul dealt with
a man who was committing incest with his stepmother in the book
of First Corinthians. That was bringing scandal on
the church. We're all sinners. But not all
sin brings public scandal on the church. I'll give you an
example of what I'm talking about. There's none of us here, believer
or unbeliever, who can say we love God perfectly. And that's
sin. But the fact that we don't love
God perfectly doesn't bring public scandal on the ministry of the
gospel here. You understand that? So scandalous
sins. So overtaken in a fault is a
brother or sister in Christ who's been so overwhelmed in sins or
sins of the flesh that they bring public scandal. And here's what
he says. You which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou be tempted. Now, there's
the key. We're talking about restoration.
So now we know he's not talking about unbelievers. Unbelievers
don't need restoration in this sense. Unbelievers need regeneration. They need to be born again. Nicodemus,
you must be born again. That's what unbelievers need.
They need salvation in the way of the new birth and regeneration.
Here he's talking about one who has been born again by the Spirit,
who's come to believe the gospel, and they need to be restored,
they need to be recovered. And this is the goal. of dealing
with one who has known and professed belief in the true Christ, but
who's fallen into some particular and scandalous sin, and we're
to seek their recovery. Now, how do we do it? And that's
what Paul's doing writing this letter. That's what he's doing
here. Now, notice he's not seeking
this kind of recovery for these false preachers. He said, if
a man preach another gospel, a false gospel, let him be anathema.
In other words, a false gospel is damnation for the soul. Any
gospel that is not in tune with the gospel of God's grace in
Christ Jesus is a damning thing. And that's what he's saying there.
And of course, we even pray for their salvation. You know, Saul
of Tarsus was a false preacher. And what happened? God saved
him and used him in a greater way than any other apostle. And
especially in the conversion of the Gentiles, Paul was a great
instrument of God's power and grace in the conversion of the
Gentiles, even these Galatians. So we do pray for their salvation,
but those who preach a false gospel are preaching a message
of damnation and eternal death. Any message that doesn't lead
a sinner to look to Christ alone for all righteousness, forgiveness,
salvation, glory, is a damning message. So Paul is writing this
letter to recover them, and this is God's word of discipline or
chastisement to his children, and he doesn't lie to them. He
tells them the bare truth. You remember back in Galatians
3, he said, oh foolish Galatians, who's put a spell on you? That's
what that literally means. Who hath bewitched you? You all
been put under a spell. He didn't lie to them and say,
well, you know, these fellas, they mean well, you know, we
gotta have this compassion that is at the expense of the truth.
Remember what he said in Galatians 5? Now he said, if you go with
them, Christ will profit you nothing. You're a debtor to do
the whole law. This is the situation, this is
how serious it is. So he doesn't lie, but he does
it in a way not to condemn, but to restore them. And he does
it in the spirit of meekness, that's the key there. Now what
does that mean? Well, the attitude that we're
to have in this process of recovery is humility, knowing this. Look
what he says, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Knowing
this, that but for the sovereign grace and power of God and the
goodness of God, I'd be in the same situation. Are we capable
within ourselves of all sin? And the answer is yes. Yes. That's why we have to pray. You
remember over there in Galatians 5 when he talked about the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. Verse 17, for the flesh lusts
against the spirit. That's our flesh lusting against
the spirit of God. What the spirit of God who indwells
me, tells me, and inspires me, and motivates me to do Had that
fleshly human nature sinful nature that goes against it desires
that go against the desires of the spirit Thoughts and goes
all right and the spirit against the flesh. Thank God. We have
the Spirit of God who's given us life and And these are contrary
one to the other so that you cannot do the things you would.
I cannot go the full swing of the spirit in perfection and
being like Christ, but I thank God I cannot go the full swing
of the flesh unto death. It's a warfare. So considering
thyself, none of us know how much or how many times we'll
be tested in matters of this warfare of the flesh and the
spirit and in what ways we'll be tested. And those who look
at somebody who's overtaken in a fault and say, well, I'd never
do that or I'd never act like that. They have no real understanding
of their own sinfulness and they really have no understanding
of the grace of God in saving sinners from sin. We need to
understand that given the right circumstances, we're capable
of committing every sin known to man. unless we're restrained
and protected and covered by God's power and grace. And that's
what he's talking about. Considering yourself lest you
be tested. What if you're tested in a given
way? What's gonna happen? Well, I
know this. If left to myself, it's gonna
be bad. I can tell you that right now.
I've told you all a lot that people talk about being tested.
And it's inevitable. And I learned this probably more
in going through trials in my own life as a pastor, as a husband,
as a father, whatever. But I know a few years back I
preached verse by verse through the book of Jehovah. And I know
whenever people hurt, whatever way, emotionally, physically,
whatever, It's almost inevitable that we all, and I'm including
myself, we'll all compare ourselves to Job. And I want us to know,
go back and read the book of Job. Whatever suffering, I don't
know of anybody who suffered like Job. Do you? I mean, Job lost all his possessions,
and then he lost all of his family, And then his wife turned against
him and said, why don't you just curse God and die? And then he
lost his health, everything. Job is an example of a person
losing everything. Everything a person can have
in this life that we hold dear. We all hold our families dear,
our possessions dear, and our health dear. What was it that
Jewish saying? If you have your health, you
have everything, and all that. At least you have your health.
Well, Job couldn't say that. At least you have your, he didn't
have his health. It was taken away from him. But we all, our
suffering is like no other because it's personal to us. But here's
the thing, whatever test I go through, I can tell you honestly,
I never come out on the other end feeling good about me. I
don't. I never come out of that test,
that temptation, by saying, boy, Bill, you did it this time. You
made it, you scored 100. A plus, no. But I always come out on the
other side feeling better about Christ. my savior, my righteousness. Thank God that salvation is not
conditioned on me. That's what I'm saying. Well,
look at verse two. He says, bear you one another's
burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. This is true Christian
love and empathy. Rejoice with them that rejoice,
weep with them that weep. What he's saying is we can carry
the weight of one another's burdens because we all have the same
burden of sin and sorrow in this world. Now I may not go through
the same things that you go through and experience, but I have the
same problem of sin that you do. I'm just a sinner saved by
grace, preaching to sinners, some saved by grace, some who
need to be saved by grace. I don't remember who the preacher
was, one of the older preachers. I don't know if he was one of
the Puritans or not or after them or what. But he said, I
preach as a dying man to dying men and women. That's what it
is. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus, but we have the way to
sin upon us in our spiritual warfare. And whenever we're victorious
in any way to any degree, we know it's always by God's grace
and power and not our own. And so we know that our full
and final victory over sin is because of God's grace in Christ
Jesus. Oh, death, where is thy sting?
Oh, grave, where is thy victory? I thank God through Jesus Christ.
Oh, wretched man that I am. Let's say it this way. Oh, wretched
people that we are. Who shall deliver us from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So we help one another. We empathize
with one another. We pray for one another in Christian
love, seeking each other's recoveries. We encourage one another in the
ways of grace and faith. And then in verse three, he says,
for if a man thinketh himself to be something, when he's nothing,
he deceiveth himself. Now in our salvation and in our
Christian life, we're nothing, Christ is everything. Christ
is our all and in all, the scripture says that. John the Baptist,
I've got to decrease and he's got to increase. Our whole lives
as those who possess eternal life is all about Christ. It's not about me, it's not about
you, it's about Christ. And if we take on an attitude
of self-righteousness and arrogance in dealing with a fallen brother
or sister in Christ, we're in essence thinking more highly
of ourselves than we should think. That's pride. We're deceiving
ourselves into thinking we're better than our brothers and
sisters in Christ. We need to realize that in ourselves
and left ourselves, we're nothing. In ourselves, we have no righteousness.
In ourselves, we have no goodness. In ourselves, we have no power,
isn't that right? That's the way it is. That's
like the lady one time, I can't remember who it was, going out
the church door back here years ago, she said, you don't have
anything good to say about any of us. And I told her, I said, well,
you're probably right, I said, but I have a lot of good to say
about our savior. And that's what this thing's
about. Our whole existence as true children of God is owing
to Jesus Christ alone and his righteousness imputed to us and
received by faith. And God saves us, God keeps us,
God protects us, and he'll bring us to glory by his grace in Christ
Jesus. And to think anything else is
a deception. To think anything else of ourselves
is pride. So look at verses four and five.
He says, but let every man prove or test 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, what does that
mean? What is he talking about rejoicing in himself? Well, he's
not talking about rejoicing in our works. He's not talking about
rejoicing in our persons, pride of person. Look at who I am. He's not talking about that.
Let me put it in the context for you. Now he's talking about
dealing with a fallen brother or sister, right? One who's been
overtaken in a fall. So many people who claim to be
saved, even claim to be saved by grace, and who claim to be
Christian seek to prove their claim of salvation and gain assurance
for themselves by doing what? Comparing themselves to other
people. Isn't that what they do? And
you know, that's natural to man. You know, somebody said, well,
you know, I know I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as whoever. Not as bad as some. And even
those who claim to be Christian do that. People love to compare
themselves with other people. And it's always somebody like
a less gifted person or a weaker person, weaker Christian you
might say, or even fallen brothers and sisters. And of course, that's
not wise, is it? Paul said, for we dare not make
ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend
themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and
comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Second Corinthians
10, 12. You'll do yourself no good by
comparing yourself to me. You'll do yourself no good by
comparing yourself to the ones who didn't show up for church
this morning. Or even that one who's out doing what they should
not do. You'll do yourself no good by
comparing yourself to them. You can thank God, but by his
grace there you go too. But you don't do yourself any
good by comparing yourself to any other human being. Why? Because
God, how many times we quote this, Acts 17, God has appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained, he's appointed a man, in that
he's given assurance unto all men and that he raised him from
the dead. Because anytime we compare ourselves with other
people, it's usually people who we judge in our minds are less
diligent, less moral, less strong, or whatever, and we always come
out feeling better about ourselves. And that'll do us no good. That's
what he's talking about here in verses four and five. If we
truly wanna see the extent of our own sin and weakness, Let's
not compare ourselves with others, but let's compare ourselves to
Christ. And here's what we'll find. It's stated in the Old
Testament, Isaiah 64, 6. But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all
do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
Now that's what we see when we compare ourselves to Christ.
The perfect one, the perfect God-man. We'll see even more
that Christ's righteousness imputed is our only ground and hope of
salvation now and forever, at our best and at our worst. And in matters of faith and assurance
of salvation, he says in here, but let every man bear his own
burden. Look at it again. Verse five,
for every man shall bear his own burden. Prove yourself, test
yourself, and then you'll find rejoicing in yourself, for every
man shall bear his own burden. What he's talking about in matters
of faith and assurance, every man shall bear his own burden,
that is, shall bear the responsibility of his own situation and not
others. You're not responsible for the
salvation of others. Now you're responsible to love
them, to be compassionate, If they're a brother or sister who's
fallen, to restore them and to encourage them and to help them,
you're responsible, but you're not responsible for their salvation.
And what is our own burden? Well, it's the same as Paul expressed
in that Romans 7 passage. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? How do we each
deal with that burden? Is it by looking down on and
exalt on others? and exalting ourselves above
fallen brethren, is that how we deal with it? If so, we're
deceived. We're to deal with our own burden
in the same way Paul did. Remember, he expressed it at
the end of that passage in Romans 7. I thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord, so then with the mind, I myself serve the
law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And that's the situation. That's how we're to deal with
the restoration of a fallen brother or sister in Christ. It's always in the context of
salvation by grace for all the people of God. And we should
never act like, well, we've earned or deserve what we get by way
of blessings and benefits. It's always, always by grace. All right.