Let's take our Bibles and go
to Galatians chapter 6. I want to look at verses 1-5 together. Our Lord is giving
us some relevant information, instruction,
rather, here on how we are to live in Christ, walking toward
our brethren. And Paul, in these verses, is
specifically dealing with our attitude. Our attitude, first
and foremost, of how we dwell with brethren, how we help brethren
who have been overtaken in a fault. and how we are to love them and
walk toward them in Christ. And we do so recognizing our
own infirmities and our own weaknesses. So to begin, let us be reminded
of the grace of our God that we are ever dependent on. We bear the fruit of the Spirit,
and it's not by our doing. It's not by our focusing on bearing
fruit. It's looking to the Lord. It's
staying upon Christ. It's looking to Him in faith,
and He bears the fruit in His people. It's not an exercise
that we do. It's something He does in us
under the umbrella of the blessings of grace and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our Lord said in John chapter
4 verse 23 and 24 He was speaking to the woman at the well and
He said the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." He's
telling us the true worshipers must worship God in spirit and
in truth. But that's not something that
you or I make happen. We don't make that happen. This
is our Lord declaring his word of promise. This is what he works
in his child. He's making known to us that
this is a spiritual salvation, a spiritual work of God's grace,
of his doing, of his power to the glory and praise of his name. And so this worship of God by
the Lord's people It's a work of God wherein he manifests his
power and his grace in his people. This is the result of that redemptive
work of our Savior. This is born out of the blessings
which are ours, given to us and received by us in Christ, in
Christ, thanks to what he has done for his people. Oh, I have an announcement. After
services, we will have a meal together. Some good news, we
will have a meal together. Now, when I said that, you believe
it. You either believe it or you
don't believe it. You didn't make a decision. You
believe that there's going to be a meal, having said that. Now, some might say, I don't
believe anything that that guy says, and you don't. And you
say, I wouldn't take anything from him. I don't believe anything
he says. It's probably garbage food. I'm leaving right after
services. But you who hear that good news
are excited. You believe it. You receive it.
There is no decision. It's the power of God. In the
same way, in the preaching of the gospel, it's the power of
our God who declares this good news to you of what Christ has
done. And you that are his people,
you hear it. and you believe it. You didn't make any decision. You just believe that good word. And that's what the Lord is saying
to his people. He manifests this salvation in
the hearts of his people. And so where this worship of
God exists among the people, they're going to bear the fruit
of the spirit. It's going to be present because
you're the Lord's and he dwells in your hearts. and he's going
to bear these fruits because it's what he does. But it's not
by you and me focusing on me bearing fruit. That's not how
it comes about. It's we look to the Lord, and
we look to him by faith, and he brings forth that fruit. He
bears that fruit. Now, I like what Paul says in
another place over in 1 Corinthians 13. You can go there, 1 Corinthians
13 at the end of that chapter, verse 12 and 13. He speaks of some of these fruits
of the Spirit, and he connects them to our knowledge of God. In 1 Corinthians 13, verse 12,
he says, now we see through a glass darkly. We see through a glass
darkly. We know some things about the
Lord, but In reality, it's a dim view. Michelle and I have discovered
this battlefield park that's right by Battlefield, and there
was a Civil War battle that had taken place back in the 1800s,
I think 1861. There's a house there. It's called
the Ray House. I guess that's our last name.
The family is the Rays. And that house is still standing
there. And when we went, the doors were locked. We couldn't
get in. It was a day when they weren't
doing their living history. But we could look in the windows.
And we peered in various windows of that house, and we could see
certain things. In one room, it looked like a
bedroom, and we could see some beds. In the other room over
here, we looked in, and you could see what looked like a kitchen
area. There was a table in there, and
there was a fireplace beyond that table, a nice big fireplace.
And another room was even behind that window that we were looking
in. And I don't remember exactly, but I think I saw what might
have been some plates on that table. And when I went around
to the other side, I could see the other side of that chimney.
And it had another fireplace. And it warmed up both those rooms. But I couldn't make out all the
details. I saw some things, but I didn't see everything perfectly.
I have a knowledge of what's in there. I can tell you there's
probably some plates on that table. But I don't know. I don't
really know. I saw it darkly. I saw it dimly. And that's what we have. We have
knowledge of the Lord. We have knowledge of the true
and living God. But it is a knowledge that is dark. It's hidden to
some degree from our view and understanding. And he says, that's
how we know the Lord right now. But one day, we're going to see
him face to face. One day, those doors are going
to be open. And Michelle and I are going to go into that house.
And we're going to see everything in great detail with plenty of
light, nothing obscured, no corners hidden from our view. We'll see
it all exactly as it is in that house with clarity. That's how
it is with us and the Lord. One day, we're going to see him
face to face. And you're going to know. Everything,
even as you are known. And you're going to see the glory
of your Lord. Faith shall become sight. And you won't hope anymore, because
you'll have what you hope for now, today. And love will continue. And he says, and now abideth
faith, hope, love, or charity, or love. These three fruits,
but the greatest of these is charity. And so we have this
imperfect knowledge. When we're dealing with our brethren,
and we're living with our brethren, Always remember love. Love. Why? Because love beareth all
things. Love beareth all things. Love
believeth all things. Love hopeth all things. Love
endureth all things. Charity or love never fails. Even when I put an article in
the bulletin that doesn't seem to make sense, love bears those
things and says, you know what? Let me not assume what this is
about. Let me find out. Let me wait
and ask my brother. And so we have a better understanding
in time. And so the love of the spirit,
that's that fertile field in which these other fruits are
born of the spirit. Love is overarching all these
other fruits that we bear. It's why we want to have peace
with our brethren. It's how we bear long with our
brethren and our long suffering with them. It's where our gentleness
and goodness toward our brethren is found because we love. We
love them, and the Spirit's in us, and the Spirit brings forth
these precious fruits of his grace. And so, take that love
now, and let's bring these fruits, that understanding of these fruits,
and let's bring them to bear on these verses here in Galatians
6, verses one through five. He says, brethren, if a man be
overtaken in a fault, what's a fault? It's speaking of our
sin. and the foolish things that we
do, but especially sin. Whether that sin is in thought,
word, or deed. Whether that sin is an immoral
sin or it's a spiritual sin. Someone has erred according to
the truth. Maybe you have a bad attitude. Maybe you have a bad attitude
about something and you're just bitter about some providence
or something that's going on and you have a bad attitude toward
the Lord or toward another person. You're just upset about things.
It could be anything like that. We're overtaken in a fault. And
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, What
does that mean, you which are spiritual? Well, let's take it
in context. Restore such in one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. You which are spiritual, you
have an understanding of what we are, what you yourself are
in this flesh. We know what we are in this flesh.
We know our infirmities. We know our weaknesses. We understand
our coming up short. And ourselves, we're all sinners
by nature. The reality is there's no sin
that's done in the earth that we ourselves are not capable
of doing. We may not like to think that
we are capable of such things, but the reality is Every one
of us is capable of any sin. We're only kept by the grace
of God and delivered from things by the grace of God. And so in
this flesh, we're capable of anything. And that every child
of God, not that this is an excuse, but we've all fell. We've all
sinned. We've all fallen short and see
our faults. We're all made to know I'm a
sinner saved by grace. I'm not a child of God because
I'm good, because I know what I'm doing, and because I'm perfect
and holy and without fault. Not at all. In spite of what
I am, the grace of God has delivered me from death and darkness, from
loving and going in the course of this world, and following
after that which is not profitable but is sinful and destructive. And so we see and know how the
grace of God has restored us and kept us and delivered us
from death and destruction. And he's done it through his
word, through the preaching of his word. He's done it through
the teaching of the Lord. He says in another place, the
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. The goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance. And that word goodness there
in Romans 2.4 is the same fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.22
that's translated gentleness. It's God's gentleness that leads
you to repentance. In other words, turning us from
trusting our goodness and trusting our righteousness and dead things
that cannot save. And he makes us to see that it's
not what I do that saves me, but what the Lord has done for
me through the Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior, my God, who as the
Lamb of God sacrificed himself unto the Father to shed his blood,
to make an atonement, a covering, for me, to cover my nakedness,
to give His life that I should live before God in perfect holiness
and righteousness, accepted of the Father by the grace of God
in Christ. And so the Lord is gentle to
us, not giving us what we deserve, what we've earned by our debts,
but rather giving us mercy and grace for Christ's sake. And
so I think the temptation is that when we see a fault, we
come at it typically of I know. I know what needs to be done
there. I know how to fix that. And there is a temptation in
the flesh that wants to fix it or deal with it based on knowledge.
That's sin. That's unacceptable. Let's fix
it. Let's root that out and deal
with that. And so it's being handled with
knowledge and not handled in the fruit of the spirit by faith.
I mean, sometimes clarity and light needs to be brought to
a thing, to make something known to somebody if they don't see
their fault or understand why it's a fault. But always remember
gentleness and goodness. Always remember goodness. What
that means is, what's the end result that we're looking for? Is it to thrust someone out? to shame them, to expose their
sins so that they're thrust out and ashamed to ever show their
face here again, or is it the end result restoration? The end
result, when thou art converted, Peter, feed my sheep. All right,
when you're turned when the Lord shows you personally, and I'm
talking to me personally, when he shows us what we are. And
he turns our heart from death and wickedness and from foolishness. It's for our good. The purpose
is for good. It's not just to make our sin
known and to shame us, but it's with the purpose of restoring
us and setting our feet in Christ again, standing in Him and in
His righteousness and His salvation. And so we show that goodness that fruit of goodness because
we want what is edifying and profitable for our brethren and
the body as a whole. And the Lord gives us that. As
we read in 2 Timothy 2, verses 24 and 25, Paul said, the servant
of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt
to teach, patient, And he says, in meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and turning away
from dead things to hear and to believe Christ. Therefore,
Paul says back here in Galatians 6, verse 1, restores such in
one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted. We're all susceptible to any
sin, any fault that we see in our brethren. We can do the same
thing if God permitted. I remember many years ago I read,
I was reading something from John Gadsby, no William Gadsby,
the elder one. William Gadsby, I think he was
alive in like the mid 1700s to early 1800s. He said when he was a young believer,
he had stopped into a tavern after work. I guess they typically
did it. It's what it sounded like to me. That's just where,
like you going into a fast food place to get a soda or something
like that. But they would drink a lager or something, a beer.
And he saw a member of the church coming out. And they were clearly
drunk, in his estimation. They were drunk. And he judged
them. And he despised them for that. And he was not pleased
at all with them as they were. He was just another working man
himself at the time. And he judged them. And so the
next week, he wrote that the very next week, he said, I went
in, I had one beer, one beer only, and I was drunk from that
one beer. I don't know if he didn't eat
anything. I don't know what kind of regulations they had when
they manufactured their their beer, but sometimes maybe it
had the higher alcohol content. Whatever it was, the Lord purposed
it, and he was drunk. And he saw, just like that, I
just committed the exact same sin that I condemned my brother
for. And he was ashamed. And he was
ashamed. And we all have experiences that
we can think of where we accuse somebody of something, and then
before we knew it, we were doing the exact same thing. And so
that's what Paul's saying there. Lest thou also be tempted. Who
of us can keep ourselves and our own heart? We need the grace
of God always. Now Paul says in verse two, bear
ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Bear ye one another's burdens.
In other words, not everything that we think is a fault with
our brethren is a fixable or correctable thing. Just because
something that somebody does rubs us the wrong way or we just
don't like. I don't like the way they laugh.
They laugh too loud. I'm going to fix that. Oh, are
you? That's going to cause division. That's going to cause a problem.
Because they're going to know. They're going to recognize right
away you're insincere. You just don't like them. And
it's going to provoke and cause that strain. How are you going
to fix someone's laugh? That's what they've been doing
since they were a little kid. What the Lord's teaching us is
we bear with one another. Not everything has to be fixed
the way we think it has to be fixed or corrected because we
don't like it. Not everything is a correctable
offense or fault. We bear with one another's burdens.
We do stumble. We do have faults and issues
and quirks and personalities and things that, from time to
time, can clash with one another, but in Christ, We look to him. We look to him. And that's how
we're long-suffering, and patient, and bearing long with one another,
because we love Christ. We love Christ, and we love our
brethren in Christ. And so we want peace, and we're
under the law of Christ. Not the law of Moses, we're under
the law of Christ, who commands us to love one another. to love
one another. He said in John 13, 34, a new
commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. If you love one another as I
have loved you, that ye also love one another. When I think
of just how long suffering the Lord is with me, and how he bears
with me and my folly, my foolishness, how slow I am to hear the word
of the Lord, how slow I am to believe the Lord, how unbelieving
I am of the Lord, and think of how patient He is with me, how
many years He's borne with me and my faults and my unbelief. Can I show that same long-suffering
with my brethren? I can if I'm looking to Christ. and looking to him and believing
him, then I'll bear long and love my brethren and forgive
them even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven me and how
patient he is with me. So we're under the law of Christ.
We're not under the law of Moses. We're under the law of love,
the law of faith, believing our Lord, trusting him to do all
things. when we apply to any other law
and we're looking to any other law to deal with our brethren
we cease to look to Christ we're not walking by faith anymore
now we're walking by the flesh and wherever there's flesh there's
divisions and there's anger, and there's wrath, and envy,
and all kinds of ugly fruits. In fact, go back to Galatians
5, verse 26. Look at verse 26 there, last
verse. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another. So what
he's saying there is that when we compare ourselves to other
men and other behaviors, We might look at them and say, man, did
you see what they did? Did you see what they said? I
can't believe that. I would never do that. That's
terrible. And we think pretty good about
ourselves because we would never do that. But they could also
look at you and say, did you see what they did and what they
said and how they're behaving? I would never do that. And you
find out we all stink. We're all dirty sinners. We're
all filthy. We all have our shortcomings
and our issues. So the flesh loves to compare
itself to others in order to justify ourselves and feel good
about ourselves. I'm not like that man in the
gutter who's doing drugs and just wasting his life. Well,
maybe you're not doing that, but you're just as vile and just
as guilty. of eternal death and condemnation. So in Galatia, at this time,
there were Judaizers that were telling men how to live, how
to fix things, how they're supposed to live, and it started with
circumcision, and it brought them under the law of Moses,
and they did it so that they could glory in the flesh. They
were looking to glory. They thought they were something
and had some angle on on righteousness and acceptance with God. And
as our brother, I believe you coined that phrase, they became
fruit inspectors. They became fruit inspectors.
And that's where we go and examine what our brothers and sisters
are doing and whether it's up to par, or whether it's past
the right date and it's getting smelly now. We become fruit inspectors
of one another, and that's a great way to bring in division and
to hurt one another. And so Paul isn't doing that
at all. He's declaring Christ. He's declaring
Christ gives his spirit. and he bears these fruits of
righteousness. Look to Christ, look at him.
Don't be looking at your brethren. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and don't be looking for yourself to bear fruits, because you won't.
Look to Christ. He bears the fruits in you. It's
by his spirit. He brings forth this love and
patience and kindness because you keep looking at things. You
know, sometimes when we do things over and over again, all of a
sudden you pick up and someone's clicking a pen, And you pick
up on that, and it gets real annoying, real fast. And then
all you can hear is that pen clicking. And you're just thinking,
oh, why are they doing that? And they won't stop doing it.
And then that's all you can think of. You sat with it for 30 minutes. It didn't bother you until you
finally heard it. And the thing is, when you're looking at your
brethren, you're going to hear the pen clicking. When you're
looking at Christ, that pen can click. And by God's grace, you
don't hear it. You understand what I'm saying.
It's just an illustration. When we're looking for trouble, you're
going to find it when you're looking to Christ and you're
just trusting him. Not praying, Lord, help me to
be more patient because you're going to be tried for patience.
If you want to be more patient, you'll be tried until you learn
patience. So you realize, Lord, I need
grace. I don't need patience, I need
grace. Save me, Lord, because I'm in a bad place. The Lord
does it. I mean, he knows providentially
exactly what, where to bring us and how to teach us. So, restore
those gently who have fallen in sin, looking to Christ, knowing
Lord, This could be me. And not everything is to be fixed. Some things are just to be born
and bear long with your brethren. Because they're the Lord's, and
the Lord loves them. And when you remember, the Lord loves
them. Lord, I want to love them. I
want to love them too. I don't want to fix things. I want to love my brethren in
Christ. And so the Lord does that for
his people. I pray he does that in my heart
always for you, brethren, and that it's mutual for us all.
Verse three, Galatians 6.3, for if a man think himself to be
something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. That's a description of a conceited
man. All right, that's conceit. And
that's what verse 26 was saying, that word vainglory, desirous
of vainglory, that word is conceit. And that description there is
of us in conceit. That's what we are in conceit.
That's when we think highly of ourselves, and a conceited person
will remove a fault. They'll remove the person, they'll
throw everything out. just to be right, just to do
what their knowledge tells them is the right thing to do, forgetting
the grace of God that knows what I'm worthy of, knows the hell
I deserve, but for Christ's sake, hath forgiven me, who loved me
and gave himself for me. Put yourself in Adam and Eve's
shoes and what they did in rebellion against God, and tried to cover
their own nakedness and were fearful of God and mistrusting
of him. That's exactly our nature. That's what we are in nature.
And God slew those animals before their very eyes, shedding the
blood and showing them those animals gave their life for your
covering. And that's exactly what we have
in Christ. That's exactly what the Lord
is showing us in salvation, that he sent his son and he laid down
his life, shedding his blood, dying the death I deserved, that
I would live being clothed, my nakedness being clothed with
his righteousness." That's exactly the picture that we're given,
and that's exactly what we see, and no, I only live because of
Christ. I have, my only standing before
holy God is Christ. alone. And that's the same thing
for my brethren. So in meekness, we instruct those
that oppose themselves or we consider ourselves, we consider
what we are. And so if you seek to make an
example out of someone, if you seek to put them up and expose
their sin, you're going to just provoke the flesh and you're
going to miss that mark entirely. So meekness considers myself
to be the sinner and my need of grace. So our Lord said in
Matthew 7, verse 2 and 3, for with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet,
it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye? You're looking at that little
splinter, or that little eyelash. Let me take that out of your
eye for you. And you don't realize every time
you turn around, you're smacking everybody in the head with a
two by four coming out of your own eye. And that's what we are. And it becomes very obvious when
you really start picking on somebody and trying to help them. And
it makes that beam coming out of your own eye all the greater.
And so he says, but consider us not the being that is in thine
own eye. And that's what Paul's saying,
consider, considering yourselves what we are in the flesh, be
very gentle and kind and understanding and patient in the Lord. And
so now this leads nicely to the last two verses, verse four and
five, 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. So based on the context here,
What he's saying here, because it's a little hard in the English
translation here, he's just saying, don't compare yourselves to others
and glory in your flesh. Just because they're falling,
the religionist, the legalist, looks at them and steps on them
and says, look how great I am in comparison to them. I don't
do that. They need to fix that or get out. But when we consider
what we are, and we look at our own need of grace in Christ,
then we're bearing our own burden, which means we're not trusting
in our goodness. We're trusting in Christ alone. He's all my righteousness. He's all my salvation. Because to compare ourselves
to another and say, well, I think I'm better than them, that's
not justification. That's not redemption. That has
nothing to do with our salvation. That's just folly. That's just
fooling ourselves to thinking that we're something when we're
nothing. And so the only work in us that
matters is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We look to Him,
and we want to stand in Him, and live in Him, and grow in
Him, and love in Him, and love our brethren in the Lord Jesus
Christ. When we know things, we condemn
others. But when we know Christ, then
He's all our righteousness. We know our brethren, and we
love them. And we understand where they're
coming from, because we that are spiritual know what we are,
because we have the same issues and the same problems, maybe
a different color, a different smell or something, but it's
all the same rotten flesh when you boil it down. So we look
to Christ for all our hope and all our salvation. That's how
we bear our own burden. Lord, you know what I am. And
this flesh is always going to be this flesh while I'm here.
I'm a sinner. I don't love it. I don't want
to stir it up and live in the flesh. But it is a reality that
I have to bear and understand. I'm bearing that burden, but
thanks be to God, you've shown me Christ and set my eyes upon
Him who is my righteousness. And the reality is he's bearing
my burden. He bore it. He bore it on the
tree and put it away forever. And one day soon, though I don't
see what I would see in my flesh, one day he's going to return
and I'm going to be made like unto him and you're going to
be made like unto him for you shall see him as he is. And he's going to take care of
the whole thing. He's already taken care of it. He's already
made provision. It's already yours, brethren. It's already
yours in Christ. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts every day, keeping you in Christ. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your grace. We thank you for your
mercy, your provision in Christ. Lord, we see how foolish we are,
how easily upset we're made, how how conceited we can be in
this flesh, and how condemning we can be of our brethren. Lord,
you know everything. You know all things. Lord, keep
us. Forgive us. Cleanse us. Keep
us ever looking to Christ, not looking for fruit, not looking
at ourselves, because that's just a rabbit hole of darkness. Lord, keep us ever looking to
Christ, your salvation, your perfect, holy salvation for your
people. Lord, give us years of faith
to hear and to believe him and just trust you and walk in that
faith, that hope, and that love, that precious love, which is
born in us by your spirit. Lord, bless my brethren, bless
and keep us. Help those who are sick, those
that are in the hospital, those that keep getting sick, Lord,
help them, heal them. And cleanse us, Lord, keep us.
In Christ's name we pray and give thanks, amen. We'll be in Judges next, Judges
chapter 8.