Well, it's lovely to be here.
It's lovely to have opportunity to share the Word of God with
you. And I pray as young Samuel spoke to the Lord, he said, Speak,
Lord, for thy servant heareth. Speak, Lord. for thy servant
will hear." Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were given ears to hear
from God Almighty on His throne of grace this morning. We have
before us a passage that I was saying to someone earlier that
Martin Luther said, this verse, this passage of scripture saved
his life. Isn't that a remarkable statement?
The verse that he's referring to is Galatians 6.1. Brethren, if any 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. We're going to look at these
next few verses as well. Bear one another's burdens and
so fulfil the law of Christ. If any man think himself to be
something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let
every man prove his own work, then he shall have rejoicing
in himself alone and not in another, for every man shall bear his
own burden. This passage comes, of course,
after Paul has reminded the leaders, reminded the brethren in Galatia,
that despite what religious people said then, and religious people
have been saying for thousands of years, if you are led, verse
18 of chapter 5, if you are led of the Spirit, you are not under
law. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ, those
that belong to Him, have crucified the flesh with affections and
lust. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, of empty glory. All the glory of man is empty
glory, provoking one another and envying one another. Then
he goes on to these verses that we're looking at today. Our great
God, King Jesus, He reigns over a kingdom. He sits on the throne
of this universe and He's powerfully supreme over His subjects. His will is done. His will will be done. The law of His Kingdom will be
obeyed. His honour will be established
and maintained and His enemies will be put under His authority. That's what it means for the
Lord Jesus to be Lord. God has made this Jesus whom
you crucified both Lord and Christ. He is a sovereign ruler. But here in Galatians 6 we have
Paul answering again one of the accusations that is no doubt
brought against him and everyone that preaches the Gospel. accusation
that I have been accused of, and even recently yet again,
that if you don't give people laws, if when they stumble and
fall you don't bring some law into their lives, then they will
just live lives of licentiousness and wickedness. They'll do whatever
they like, and they will just sin. And such is the nature of our
flesh, that in verse 17, that lusts against the spirit and
the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary one to
another, so you cannot do the things you would when we find
someone who has fallen or someone who has in their fall has brought
us some pain and discomfort. You probably, and I hope not,
go to the same place I go. Unless we are led with the Spirit,
we'll go back to law and we'll want a whip. our brothers and
sisters back into line. And in many pulpits, the pastor
has just under the lectern, doesn't he, has a great big long whip,
and he can reach the backs of every member of the congregation,
put them back under some obligation to do some things. The reality
is that the children of God are not without a director. They are led of the Spirit. And here Paul comes to what people
would think is a practical lesson in how to deal with our brothers
and sisters, and it is indeed, but all of the Bible is practical
all of the time. One of the things that Luther
found comfort in of course is that Paul mentions, if many man be
overtaken in a thought. The comfort is, of course, that
we are fallen and falling and wherever we go and whatever we
do, sin is right there with us all of the time. And such is
the weakness such is the weakness and frailty of our flesh, that
it lusts, it desires against the flesh, so there's this continual
battle going on. And in that situation, what is
more natural, what is more human than for a human being to fall? But here we have these words,
these words which I trust might bring comfort to your souls this
morning. And for those of us who fall
and stumble in ways which are so grievous, it's nice to see
how the Lord restores His own. And how believers are led of
the Spirit to live with each other. in this world and in the
church. That's why the word at the beginning
is such a critical word, isn't it? He says brethren, brethren. There's a lot in that word brethren. They are to be brethren, they
are children of the same Father. They are brothers and sisters
with the same Mother. We are children of the Mother
of us all, which is the Jerusalem which is above, Galatians 4.26. They are born in the same way. They are born to be brethren
because God the Holy Spirit breathes the Gospel into their lives. They are like that mighty army
in Ezekiel 37, those dead bones that seem to have no life in
them whatsoever. and Ezekiel is told to prophesy
to dead bones. Just imagine a field of dead,
white, dried up bones. You preach to them. You speak
to them. If you go and read the chapter,
you will find a great description of the way the Lord raises up
those that have no life in them and gives them life together,
and they are brothers and sisters. They are brothers and sisters
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are joint heirs with Him. That's our inheritance, isn't
it, brothers and sisters? That is the inheritance that
He has won for us and He has assured us of. Everlasting life
forever. but everlasting life in His presence,
in a new creation, a real touchy-feely, for want of a better phrase.
inheritance that goes on forever. So much for the gold of this
world. The streets are paved with gold. You'll walk on it
there. So much for jewels. Just read
those opening chapters of Revelation. So much for the things of this
world, but the glory of the new creation is that we will see
Him as He is. We will see Him as He really
is, glorious in holiness, extraordinarily beautiful, extraordinarily loving. And we'll see Him through eyes
unstained by sin. And we will commune with God
forever. And when we look at our brothers
and sisters, we will see them as they really are. They will
have their real being in a sense, individual being. But when we
look at them, we'll delight in them because they'll reflect
the Lord Jesus back to us. Well, it is the inheritance of
the brethren. They are brethren because they
have been bought with a price. They are not their own. They
have been bought with a price. They are brethren because they
are indwelt by God Himself. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. They are brethren because they
are led in the same way. They are led by His Spirit and
they are bearing the fruit of this Spirit. And here we see
this love that Paul mentions is the fruit of the Spirit. We
see it here demonstrated in a situation. Brethren, brethren, if a man
be overtaken in a fault, if any man be overtaken in a
fault. There is not one, other than
the Lord Jesus Christ, who has walked this earth, who hasn't
been overtaken in a fault. In fact, the Apostle Peter, in
this same book, was overtaken in a fault. And not only was
he overtaken in it, but he led Barnabas and others, many others,
into the same fault. David was overtaken in a fault. To be overtaken in a thought,
the word means to be caught by surprise. So he's not talking
about habitual sin. He's talking about someone who
is caught, caught, caught before he can flee from it. And there's
some things that just are self-evident regarding this, is that really
those, only those, only those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit
will be brought to see that they have been overtaken in a thought. It's only God who can show us
what sin is and how heinous sin is. And when God's people are
brought to see that, they see that sin is what they are, and
it's manifested in things which cause them to be shocked at times. But because sin is really only
ever exposed in those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the
brethren, it's the Lord's job to bring a man to see this of
himself. It's only when he's led by the
Spirit and brought by the Spirit of God that he will see that
he has been overtaken in a fault, and he will then heed the warning
and find the comfort that's in the Scriptures. So this sin here
is a sin that was evident. It was seen by others. Every
believer here in any moment of honesty will confess the sin
that they struggle with internally all of the time. all of the time. Sin is right there with us all
of the time. It's right there with me right
now and it's right there with you right now. There is this
unceasing war of the flesh against the spirit, which is why God's
children are brought to see themselves in verse 3 as nothing. So the sin here was a fault.
The sin here was evident. And the one who fell was in the
company of believers and remained so. Otherwise the words would
be meaningless. It's brethren, isn't it, if a
man be overtaken in a fault. Brethren, if a man who is amongst
you be overtaken in a fault. Brethren, if a man who is amongst
you and remains with you. He can then be restored if he's
there amongst the people. This is the opportunity, isn't it, for
the grace gifts of God that he spoke of there as the fruit of
the Spirit to be made manifest. You see, it takes grace to be
gracious. And what's remarkable is it takes
more grace to receive grace. It's so easy under trial to add
sin to sin. It is a gift of God to be gracious
and to receive God's hand from brothers and sisters in Christ.
It's remarkable, it's one of the most amazing statements in
scripture, I think, about the believer's sins, is in Luke 22,
the Lord Jesus is at the Last Supper and he speaks to the boastful
apostles, and he speaks to the most boastful apostle. They all
boasted, didn't they? All 11 said, don't you worry,
we'll be there, we'll be there with you. These things might
happen. We'll stand by you, Jesus, don't
you worry one little tiny bit. I'll be there." And then Peter
says, well, the other ten, I know the other ten, they're a little
bit dodgy, but I'm strong, I will. And that's where his big mistake
was. As soon as he said, I will, you knew that he was going to
fall and fall big time. The Lord said to him, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift
you as wheat." That's what believers do experience in so many of their
trials, sifted as wheat. And then he says, But I have prayed for you." That's
the hope of the believer, isn't it? That someone's praying for
us. On the basis of his work and
his shed blood, I've prayed for you. That's the greatest comfort
a believer can have, that he's prayed for us. I have prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not. And anyone looking on would
have to say that Peter's faith fell in a great big heap when
a little girl about the age of Emily possibly caused this great
big strong tough man Peter to fall like a wind. and to curse
and swear before her and others to prove that he had nothing
to do with him." And we'd all look on to Peter and say, well,
his faith failed. The Lord Jesus prayed that his
faith failed not. So he stumbled and he was picked
up because the Lord carried him. And then this remarkable statement
is, when thou art converted, when you are returned, strengthen
your brethren. Isn't that remarkable? You would
think in a normal sense that you would strengthen your brethren
by being tall and standing strong and resisting the devil and being
there as a bold man with your sword in the courts of Pius and
Caiaphas and others. But he strengthens his brethren
in his fall. It's a beautiful picture, isn't
it, brothers and sisters? When we are weak, then we are
strong. How would he strengthen his brothers
in all of that? He would remind them, wouldn't
he? He would remind them again and again that he abides faithful
to his promises. He would remind them again, he
would have opportunity in his fall to remind his brothers and
sisters of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. that our righteousness
before God and our standing before God is not on the basis of what
we do, it's on the basis of what He has done. He'll strengthen
His brethren in the midst of their falls by reminding them
of who the Lord Jesus is. He is our strength, the only
strength we have. And that's why this restoration,
as Peter's restoration, is done in such a way that the grace
of the Lord Jesus is magnified and faith is grown. are always sins, is another point,
which is why this restoration is so important. Sins of believers
are always sins that affect the body of believers. You're not
your own. You're bought with a price. And
so those sins that are public and exposed by the work of the
Lord are sins that affect all of us. My sins affect you. Oh how much we are debtors to
grace. So why, the question remains
again doesn't it, why does the Lord leave sin in a believer?
There are so many reasons, I'm sure you'll think of more, but
one of the main ones is that he uses sin in the lives of his
people to humble us. He uses the evident sin that
we see in our lives to help us to see the faults of others through
more sympathetic eyes. to be able to say when he stumbles,
I've done exactly the same thing, I am doing exactly the same thing.
And it's the opportunity, isn't it, in the midst of trials, it's
the opportunity for us as believers to exercise the gifts that God
has given. The gifts that God has given
are always gifts that are given for the body of believers. the sins that are exposed, both
internal and external, make us cling to Christ for righteousness,
for sanctification, for wisdom and redemption, and to lead us
to a rock that is higher than I, because we all have that same
disease, the same disease, that I disease, I want, I wish, I
will, And it's to give the Church an
opportunity to declare that even though believers sin, and they
stumble and fall, and believers are honest about it, the reality
is that the liberty of the Gospel does not lead to licentiousness. The Church is a self-correcting
mechanism. The legalistic response, isn't
it, to someone who falls is to bring people back under the law,
to give them some duties to do, and to show them what they have
done in their own lives. Look, I have obeyed the law,
and look how pure I am. And you can be pure and holy
like I am. The problem And one of the difficulties
that confronted the Galatian believers and believers through
all generations is that it seems to work, doesn't it? To bring
people back under some rules and regulations and have them
bound in by some strict rules that are overseen by people,
it seems to work. Alcoholics Anonymous has been
remarkably successful. Narcotics Anonymous. There are
so many organisations that seem to work, and so many legalistic
organisations seem to work. They can get hundreds of thousands
of people to look like they're very willingly obedient and living
very moral lives, don't they? And they close themselves off.
Little groups close themselves off so they can't be tainted
by the sins of the world. And from an outside point of
view, They look for all the world like it's successful. See the
power to some extent of these false teachers that went to Galatia
was the fact that they did live outwardly moral lives. They wouldn't have drunk and
sworn and cussed and done other things. They would have looked
pretty good. They look good enough to get
themselves into positions of authority in the churches that
Paul has left. And so that's where the danger
is, isn't it? Because if you can do something, if you can
achieve some sort of righteousness without dependence 100% on God,
then you will cling to what you have done, and you will trust
it, and your hope And your assurance will be based on your ability
to do those things. I wonder Paul says to the Galatians
in chapter 3 verse 1, who has bewitched you? Who has cast a
spell of goodness and morality over you? Goodness and morality
worked by legal obedience. Who's cast this spell over you? Who has bewitched you? Who has
bewitched you to turn to another gospel, to turn to the situation
where Paul is no longer considered one of the brethren but an enemy,
to turn to another gospel, another Jesus, another basis of hope? So he says then, doesn't he,
brethren, if a man be overtaken, if a man be surprised in a fall,
You which are spiritual, you which are led by the Spirit. Led by the Spirit. you which bear the fruit of the
Spirit, you which are no longer under the law, you who are indwelt
by God Himself, you which are spiritual, you, as verse 24 says,
they that are Christ's, they that belong to Him. the truly regenerate. He asks them to manifest this
grace of the Spirit in their conduct towards this fallen brother. To be led by the Spirit is to
be laid hold of by the Spirit, to be accompanied by the Spirit,
to be accompanied by Him. For as many as led of the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God." So he's saying when this
brother is fallen, it is those people who are brethren with
Paul, those who are not under the law,
they are the ones which are enabled of God to restore such a one. It's a lovely word, restore,
isn't it? It means to mend, to mend that which was broken. It's
a medical term for setting a broken joint as an understanding physician,
dealing gently with the one he loves, inflicting as little pain
as possible, but seeking the best cure, the soul's cure, the
restoration of this brother to the Gospel. You restore such
a one in a spirit of meekness. It's one of the fruits of the
Spirit. In a spirit of gentleness, you don't bring the harshness
of the law to him. You restore. You want to mend. You want that union of brethren
to be restored. You want that person to be back. as that Gadarene demoniac was,
sitting at the Lord's feet and clothed in the Lord's righteousness
and in His right mind. Proverbs 17 verse 9 says, He
that covereth a transgression seeks love. To cover a transgression,
brothers and sisters, is to seek love. He that repeats a matter
separates very friends." It is the fruit of the Spirit, isn't
it? To love, to joy, to peace, to long-suffering goodness, gentleness,
faith, meekness and temperance. It is to come to a brother with
all of those things in mind. It's to come to a brother who's
fallen and restore them by the Gospel. Even I, says the Lord,
even I, I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions. Why? Isaiah 43, 25. I blot them out
for my own sake, and I will not remember thy sins. As David said,
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. It's interesting, isn't it, how
Paul dealt with wayward believers. The Corinthians had a shocking
problem. They had a man in their congregation
who seemed to be in a position of prominence and esteem among
them. And he was living with and sleeping
with his father's wife. I don't know all the details
of it, but it's a shocking scene that you probably have never
even heard of in the churches of this last thousand years or
so. But there it was in the church of Corinth. And what does Paul
do? You would think that the opening
lines of his letter would have been to expose this and deal
with it so severely. The Corinthians were proud of
it. There he is with this church that is publicly behaving in
a way which is bringing the Gospel into disrepute. But you think
about it, where in the book of 1 Corinthians does he mention
it first? It's in Chapter 5, brothers and
sisters. He writes four chapters of Gospel
to these people before he even mentions it. And it's wonderful when we turn
to 2 Corinthians we find that this man is restored. See the restoration is the Gospel. It's restored God's people to
Himself. in conversion, and it restores
God's people to Himself in their walk in this world. The Gospel
restores because it's good news. It's not good advice. It's good
news about something that's done. It's not good advice about something
to do. It's good news about the fact
that God's children are complete in Him. and we live before Him
on the basis of His righteousness and not our own. It's good news
that we are dead, but we are alive in Him and alive with Him. It's good news that God saves
sinners. The self-righteous and those
that can restore themselves are in no need of a Saviour. It's
good news that He promises that He will present you, He will
present you, His brothers and sisters, wholly unblameable and
unapprovable in thy sight. So you restore them, you go to
them with the gospel, you go to them with the spirit of meekness,
you go to them, as the next word says, considering thyself, considering
thyself. lest thou also be tempted." When
we see our brothers and sisters stumble and fall, we are to be
looking again, not at them, but looking at ourselves. We fall
where they have fallen, and we will continue to fall where they
have fallen. Therefore let any man think that
he stands, take heed lest he falls, says Paul to the Corinthians
in chapter 10 verse 12. We are to be tender to the errors
of others. because of who we are in ourselves. Consider thyself, lest thou also
be tempted. As Paul said, in my flesh dwells
no good thing. In Acts 21 you'll see that Paul
himself was not immune from a serious stumble, and he was saved, as
all of God's children are, by the sovereign hand of a gracious
God, as he did with Peter, saying, You can go that far, and you
cannot go any further. lest thou also be tempted. Spiritual
ones know that in my flesh dwells no good thing. No wonder the
Lord taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation, because
every time I encounter temptation I fall. I either fall in my heart
or I fall physically. Lead me not into temptation. Where he has fallen, so might
I." The Galatians had fallen, hadn't they? They had fallen
from the Gospel of God's grace, and they had fallen into legalism. So might all of us. We are what
we are by the grace of God, not by how good we are and how zealous
we are. Then he goes on to say in verse
2, bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ. So he calls it the law of Christ
because it operates as a guiding and directing principle in the
hearts of his people as he applies his word to their lives. This is Christ's law, isn't it?
This is my beloved son. Hear him. Believe him. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things which could not be justified by the
law of Moses. Where then is boasting? It's
excluded. By the law of works? No, by the
law of faith. The law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
I am free from it and in my freedom from it I'm not to bring any
others back under that law. That's why James calls it the
law of liberty. It's the law of righteousness. So these burdens, you could bear
one another's burdens, it means those spiritual sorrows. those
things that can be aided by spiritual nourishment and spiritual reminder
that it is Him that we are dependent upon. And He in grace and mercy
has exposed this. that we might care for him as
a brother and lift him up and carry his burdens. The Lord Jesus,
of course, is the great burden bearer. He's borne our own sins
in his own body on the tree. But we are not without law to
God, but we are under law to Christ. because he is a sovereign
monarch in the hearts of his people. The law of Christ is
the law of love. A new commandment I give you
that you love one another and love bears one another's burdens. That's why as he exercises grace
in the lives of his people, he strengthens the shoulders of
his people that we can carry in one another's burdens. Love
believes all things, it hopes all things. Love endures all
things. You see, it's not what they must
do. This restoration is not going
to them and saying what they must do. The scriptures don't
ever tell us those things. It tells us about how we are
to respond. when someone has stumbled in
such a way that there is a burden presented before us, a burden
that's presented in such a way that we can bear it. It's our
task. It's a delightful task under
the grace of God. for the sake of Christ, to forgive
one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you." We are, by grace, to carry one another's burdens.
For we are by grace made to see that we are empty of ourselves."
See, grace teaches us a right view of who we are. Galatians
6.3 is a glorious verse, isn't it? If a man thinks himself to
be something when he is nothing, What a great description of humanity.
All of humanity, you bundle them all up together. The good ones
and the bad ones, the whole lot, nothing. You get all of humanity
and you get all the nasty ones there and you get all the really,
really good ones together and put them all in one great pile,
nothing. You take all of your good deeds
and all of your bad deeds and put them into one great big pile
and what do you write across them? Nothing. Nothing. That's what he makes us. That's
what God's people are. Nothings. It's a great thing
to be a nothing, isn't it? You can't take anything away
from a nothing. Very hard to hurt a nothing, isn't it? It's
very easy when there's a nothing to fill it with something, isn't
it? You'll be emptied of yourself
to be filled with the Spirit. To be made a nothing is a glorious
thing in God's sight. All glory that man has is empty,
it says in verse 26 of chapter 5. For if a man thinks himself to
be something, isn't that exactly what we learnt in the garden? That was the bait that we took.
You'll be a something. You will be a something. You
will be a very big something in fact. You will be the biggest
something possible. You will be like God. That's
how big you are under Satan's kingdom. And the problem is that
when I am like God, and John Newell wants to be like God,
we have a problem. In my kingdom, he will be subservient. And in his kingdom so will I. Hence when you get two sinners
in class proximity there is always going to be a need to bear one
another's burdens. There is always going to be another
need to think of who you are. So you deceive yourself, the
Holy Spirit says. You don't deceive God, and ultimately,
as much as you might puff yourself up and think that you're something
special, you actually don't deceive me for very long, because I'm
sitting on my own throne, thank you very much. You don't deceive
anyone, you deceive yourself. Puffed up little peacocks deceiving
themselves. Puffed up little peacocks without
any feathers. Strutting around just the same.
Dear oh dear. Nothings. Nothing in works, nothing
in righteousness, nothing in law keeping, nothing in love
and faith and wisdom, nothing in repentance, nothing in godliness,
nothing in preaching, nothing in prayers, nothing. See the
false teachers were somethings. They were such big somethings
that they could come along and say, well look how well I am
doing, thank you very much, you can join with me. You don't follow
that Paul who preaches grace, who preaches Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. You come and follow me and I'll
give you a bunch of rules to live by and we will have a party. We will get you doing all sorts
of things together and we'll be able to boast about each other.
Look how many people, look what wonderful things we are doing,
look what amazing people join with us. See Paul was a something
once, wasn't he? Paul was riding on his horse
down to Damascus. He was a something. And God made
him a nothing, eating dirt. That's what he was, made to be
a nothing. As he says, I no longer live,
but Christ lives in me. You see, the power of restoration
is going to be an exercise of God's Spirit working in the lives
of both the fallen one and the restoring one. Because we are
nothing in power, but we are strong in Him. We're nothing
in righteousness, but we have the very righteousness of God
in Him. We're nothing in usefulness,
but we are used of Him in His fellowship. We've got nothing
in our doings to boast of, but through Him we can do all things. We're nothing in esteem. The
world considers us nothings. but we're highly esteemed in
Him. We're nothing in this world,
but we have a world to come which will be our everything. We are
made nothings in our father Adam when we fell, but we are made
in Christ to be the very heirs of God, beloved children of God. nothing in myself, but beloved
in Him. Christ makes His people complete
and perfect. So if any man thinks himself
something when he is nothing, he deceives himself But let every
man prove his own work, then he'll have rejoicing in himself
alone, and not another." This seems extraordinarily selfish,
doesn't it? But in fact, it's beautiful,
isn't it? If he has proved himself to be
nothing, he has proved himself by simple faith to be resting
on Christ's righteousness alone. If he has proved himself to be
just waiting, waiting for God to do, what He alone can do. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. Prove Himself. Prove Himself as one who hears
these words of Paul as the words of God to His immortal soul. to prove himself to be one for
whom these words are the words of life, that this trumpet has
sounded a clear note and he has fled." That's what Paul's writing
this letter for, isn't it? That these Galatians, sitting
in a church, with a legalistic preacher would be made to run
out the door as fast as possible for fear that the whole thing
would fall on them. They flee, don't they? God's
children flee to Christ. They flee to the refuge. They
hide in Christ until the storm passes. They flee from the law
and all of its warnings and all of its promises of reward and
they just flee and they find themselves running to jump into
His arms. The only one who's ever matched
the strict demands of the law is our Lord Jesus Christ. They
flee to Him. They flee to His sin-bearing
death. He proves His own worth. Then
you have rejoicing. There is rejoicing for the children
of God. Not rejoicing in anything that
they do, but rejoicing, an internal rejoicing. in God's work of grace,
restoring them yet again to Himself. They rejoice in God the Holy
Spirit and they have no confidence in the flesh. So the success
of our activities doesn't depend upon what the world sees in so
many ways. We just cling to Him and we wait
for Him to produce that fruit. For every man shall bear his
own burden. Every man shall bear his own
burden. Obviously the apostle is talking
about that burden that God's children bear as the flesh lusts
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and there's
a contrary one to the other and you cannot do the things that
you do. And the bearing of one another's burdens is a burden
that does weigh on the children of God. that we are made to bear
it, not because of strength that we have in ourselves, but because
of strength in Him. He is the great bearer, isn't
it? The Lord has laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. He in His own body on that cross,
He bore our sins, He carried our sins and He carried them
away to a place where God can't find my sins ever again. But there is an activity, isn't
it? There is a personal activity that's going on and that in large
measure is born by the person himself. As Proverbs 4, verse
10 says, the heart knoweth his own bitterness. And a stranger
does not intermeddle, does not share with his joy. The reality is, brothers and
sisters in Christ, we have burdens to bear which we cannot share
with others. I don't know all of the trials
that all of you go through. I know that we live in a world
of unbelief. I know that we live amongst people
of unbelief. I know the promise of God is
that our Gospel pleadings to them fall on deaf ears and it
grieves us. It grieves us that there are
fellowships and friendships broken because we won't compromise the
glory of Christ to worship in places where He is dishonoured. by bringing people back under
the law and causing them to look at their own works. Where Jesus
Christ and Him crucified has become so precious to us that
we must say that there is a line in the sand and we cannot compromise
His glory. For the good of the souls of
the people that we love, we are forced to make stands in this
world for the Gospel. And it hurts. It hurts. And they are hurts that we can
talk about in a setting like this. and there are hurts that
we can't talk about in many other places at all. The heart knows
its own bitterness. That bitterness might be in so
many ways that I can't speak of this morning, but you know
them, brothers and sisters. And there is, as Proverbs 14
says, there is a joy There is a joy, a resting, a
restoration that God brings to the hearts of His people. And
that joy we can talk about to some extent, but it's a personal
thing. Salvation is a personal issue. It's an emotional issue. But in the glory of God, The
place that he has determined that he will get glory for his
son in this world is the church. This is the intent, isn't it?
The fellowship of the mystery, this brethren, the fellowship
of the mystery which is from the beginning of the world has
been hidden God who created all things by Jesus Christ to the
intent, the intention, Ephesians 3.10. is that now, under the
principalities of power in heavenly places, might be known by the
Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal
purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." So all
things, all things are of Him, the burdens of the faults that
our brothers and sisters stumble into are opportunities for grace,
and opportunities for us as we wait in faith to see the Lord
do wondrous things. It's at Psalm 72, 18, that's
all He ever does. is wondrous things. The restoration
of a brother to fellowship is a wondrous thing, a wondrous
fruit of the Gospel, a wondrous exercise of the fruit of the
Spirit by our great God. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven,
we thank you again