Amen. Now if you'd open your
Bibles to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6, we'll read
two verses. Verses 9 and 10. Let us not become weary in doing
good. For at the proper time, we will
reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunities,
let us do good to all people. especially to those who belong
to the family of believers. I was thinking on this scripture
the other day, and I was thinking of it as I had it memorized,
and most of my memorization comes from the King James Version.
So it says, let us do good to all, especially those of the
household of faith. The household of faith. And I
began to think on that concept, the household of faith. It's a charming, that's a word,
I know we don't use that word very much, certainly not in the
sense that the word once indicated. It's related to the word grace,
actually, charisma. But it's charming in this, that
it brings together so many good things, so many things in which
we should rejoice that the church of the Lord Jesus is described
in this way, the household of faith. Paul wrote this letter
to a church that was fracturing, a church that was experiencing
division and division over a very serious matter, a matter that
touched at the very heart of the gospel. There were those
within that church who were evidently false brethren. Because I say
they were in the church, they showed up at the church. They
may have been a traveling group who liked to go from church to
church and create trouble with their false doctrine. But they
tried to bring in the law as a means of improving upon
what Christ had done. Some had said, unless you be
circumcised, you cannot be saved. Now, we, here we're 2,000 years removed
from this. and we've never had anyone of
strong Jewish, and I mean religious Jewish conviction, come into
our assembly and claim to have laid hold of the gospel of Jesus,
and having claimed they believe Jesus to be the Christ, and then
they try to drag in all that, all of that covenant in which
under which they had so long lived. Now they, you say, well
they didn't try to bring in the entire covenant, just that one
matter. But that's why Paul says in Galatians,
a little leaven leavens the whole lump. You let in one, just that
one issue, before long, the whole thing's coming in. Because it
doesn't matter which of the laws that you bring in and make into
a requirement or qualification for salvation. It is of the same
essence as any other command you want to bring in. It's the
whole idea And this is the danger they brought in, that entire
idea that our salvation depends in any way upon what we in our
natural selves can do. And it doesn't matter whether
it is circumcision, which was the issue in Galatia, or if it
be any other of the many laws. or any, you know, of the Ten
Commandments, or any of the other moral laws or religious laws
or ceremonial laws that men have come up with since the Scriptures
were finished. If you bring in anything which
we must contribute from our own selves, by our own actions, if
you contribute anything of that to your salvation, then you have,
as Paul said, fallen from grace. Now what does he mean, fallen
from grace? Does he mean that we once had grace and now we
don't? No, he's talking about you have
fallen because the gospel, anywhere you go from the gospel of pure
grace is a fall. It's to a lesser thing. One reason
that the new covenant of the gospel completely eclipsed and
set aside the old covenant was because it was so much better.
That's what the whole book of Hebrews is about. Someone said
you could characterize the entire book of Hebrews by the word better. A better covenant based on better
promises secured by a better priest with a better sacrifice. And so if you move away from
pure grace, it is a fall. And if indeed you actually do
believe that you contributed to your salvation, you have indeed
fallen from a theology of grace, but here's the truth of it, you
never experienced grace. Let me be clear on that. Anybody,
anyone, me, you, anybody else, who drags in something that they
did and they believe that that contributed to their salvation,
they are lost and were never saved, no matter what they say
they believed at some time in the past. I'm not saying they can't be
recovered, if that's the right word to use. God can save any
lost person. It's not up to us to judge men
and say, well, he once believed, now he doesn't, and he'll never
be restored. No, he never did believe, he
still doesn't. If God wants to give him faith,
he can. It's that simple. We'll leave it to God to figure
out the things of the heart, the things of eternity. We just
tell the things we do know, and we do know the gospel. But this
was a serious issue that had come up in the church, so serious
that if the church was not recovered from it, it would, in time, no
longer be a real church. But while Paul has some sharp
things to say to those who are bringing in this false doctrine To the others, he has rebukes,
but they are milder rebukes. To those who are being confused,
to those who are scratching their head and maybe being led astray
some, or at least being made to consider it, he speaks to them in less harsh
words, even tender words, and always accompanies his words
of rebuke with words of encouragement. And so he is doing here in Galatians
chapter 6. He doesn't say, well, I've told
you what I needed to tell you, now you decide what side of the
line you're on, and I'll find out whether or not you truly
belong to the household of faith. Having said his peace, if that's
the way to put it, having said his peace, having addressed the
issue, He addresses them as believers. Now here's a lesson for you and
me. A person, a real believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, can
have some serious deficiencies, serious problems in matters of
doctrine and conduct. And yet they are still brothers
and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember in the preacher's class,
Henry told the story of a church, a little group that's
trying to start a church. And they sent him a copy of the
Constitution that they'd drawn up. And it was a ring binder
full of stuff. And the guy wanted, you know,
what do you think of it? And Henry tossed it in the trash. And one of the things that usually
shows up in these church constitutions is the issue, what they call
church discipline, which is all about the process through which
they will go to kick someone out of the church. I'm not saying that that never
needs to be done, but that should be a very rare thing and should
not be something that we want to preemptively set up a process
for and then keep our eye out for anybody that meets the qualifications
of being kicked out. We're trying to add to, not take
out. We want God to add to the household
of faith. And we don't want ever that we
would have to say to any who are among us that you may no
longer be considered a part of us unless you repent of whatever
it is has caused it. And one reason that I believe
in the years that we have been together that we have rarely
ever felt compelled to address an issue like that is because,
generally speaking, the gospel does all of that that needs to
be done. It's very rare that someone who
is in rebellion against God can sit and listen to the gospel
over and over and over again. Eventually, it's going to out
them. Eventually, it's going to reveal them for what they
are. It'll reveal them to themselves. and they'll be agitated by the
doctrines of free grace and they will just leave. But once in a while, someone
doesn't understand and they have to be told that what they're
doing cannot go along with what they're proclaiming to believe. But with all of this confusion
and all of this division in the church, He addresses the church
as a church, as a body of believers, as brothers and sisters in the
Lord. He doesn't put a question mark on them. And here in verse 10, he describes
this group, the group in Galatia, and the group actually made up
of all believers. from all time periods, he calls
them the household of faith. The household of faith. It says that we who are of the
household of faith should be energetic and untiring in doing
good for all. Now, doing is an okay translation,
but the word actually means working good. And I like it that way
simply because it does demonstrate there's effort involved in this.
You can't do good without effort. Now we're not talking about works
of righteousness because we're incapable of doing anything which
God could ever call righteous. But the Bible does speak of doing
good. And what is good? Doing good
means doing that which is useful, which is helpful to others. You can be righteous, at least in the
human sense of the word. You can be righteous, you know,
deal honestly with people, always give them a hundred cents on
the dollar and that kind of thing. You can do that and be no good
to anybody. But you can often fail in matters
of righteousness and still do good. Because goodness is not
saying, okay, what do I have to do for this person? That's
what righteousness says. What am I required to do? Goodness
says, what can I do? Here's a problem. What can I
do to help with this problem? That's why the story about the
Samaritan who stopped by, stopped and helped the man in the ditch,
we don't call that the righteous Samaritan, we call it the good
Samaritan. And why is that? He did more
than what the law required. The priest and the Levite that
went by, they did the righteous thing. They probably assumed
he was dead. They're not supposed to come
near a dead body. So on the other side of the road, go on your
way. Don't stop and see if this guy may still be alive and could
use some help. Don't show any compassion. Just
make sure that you don't get yourself dirty in the process.
But goodness looks and says maybe there's still
some life there. Let's see. Let's see if we can render some
aid. That's goodness. And so we as members of the household
of faith are called on to do good to all. Now the word people is not in
the Greek, but that's because it wasn't necessary. It just
says do good to all. Now, that leaves us with no excuse
for not treating people good. Now I'll admit we don't always
know what is good. We see people occasionally, panhandlers
they're called in various places, or beggars or whatever, they'll
stand at the interstate with a sign. I generally don't give
them anything. And the reason is most of them
are scammers. I've seen them, you know, with
that sign, then look over there and they've got, you know, a
fairly new van that they're driving around in. So they seem to be
doing okay. Everybody looks healthy. So I don't think that they're
really in need, but we should not, we should not pass by someone
we know to be in need without doing what we can to help them
with their need. If God has given us more than
we need, that means there's somebody out there with less than they
need. And if we come across them, we're
supposed to even it out some, help them out. No matter who
it is, may be your enemy. It may be the one who did you
wrong, who defrauded you, who caused you trouble. Well, there
are no exceptions to this particular all. And we know that because
then he does speak of a specific people that doesn't include all. If there's anything that believers
should be known for, there's two things. First of all, they
should be known for Christ. That ought to stick out. One
little fellow in Sunday school, the teacher said, you know, that
when you're saved, Christ is in you. And he raised his hands,
and he said, what? And he says, well, he's bigger
than me. If he's in me, won't he stick
out? Yeah, that little fella said more than he thought. If
Christ is in you, he'll stick out. But the way that he will
stick out that's most obvious to the unbelieving world is in
goodness, helpfulness, kindness, mercy, generosity. These are the things that characterize
a believer from the merely religious. But he goes on to say here, especially
of the household of faith. Now, I wanna speak for the next 10,
15 minutes, whatever, on that concept of the household of faith. Why did Paul use that phrase
instead of just saying the church? The assembly. He said the household
of faith. Well, first of all, because the
church of the Lord Jesus is a household. In fact, our word church, English
word church, came from Older English, I think it was, Kirk. But it goes all the way back
to a Greek word, kuriakos, which means Lord's house. Lord's house. The Lord's household. The church
is a household. Now, in calling it a household, We
realize that it is an organized group, but it is not an organization
in the sense that we normally think of it. It's organized, and we'll see
how it's organized in a few minutes, but it is not a worldly or fleshly
organization. Now, we call ourselves Grace
Community Church. And sometimes people look at
the building and say that's their church. Well, really that's just
the building the church meets in. But even so, while we have
a group together like this, and in as much as we are together,
and that, you know, the word that's translated church in the
New Testament is a word that means an assembly, so we are
an assembly, and yet, we cannot know with absolute certainty
that everyone sitting here this morning is in the household of
faith. They're in this local assembly.
Now when I say we can't be sure, I'm not saying I've got doubts
about some of you. What I'm saying is we can't be
sure because it's a matter of the heart and we are incapable
of seeing someone's heart. Man looks on the outward appearance,
God looks on the heart. And in saying that man looks
on the outward appearance, it's not so much condemning man for
doing that, it's simply showing his limitations. That's all we
can see. I can see what you look like,
I can hear what you say, I can watch some of what you do. That's
as far as I can go with it. And that's as far as you can
go with me. And many of you here, You come, you listen, you say
you believe, you live decent lives, so far as I know. I've
got no reason to put a question mark on it, but still, the reality
is, I can't see your heart. And that's where the business
of faith goes on. If you will believe in your heart that God
has raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. That's what
the scripture, from the heart. And I can't tell that about you.
I can scarcely tell that about me. So the household of faith is
not this organization. And perceiving it that way has
caused some trouble throughout the ages since Christ was here. For example, there's a scripture
that says that the church of God is the pillar and foundation
of truth. And some have taken that and
they define church as the organization, in particular, the leadership
of the organization. They have divided the church
into so-called clergy and laity. And the laity are more or less
spectators. It's the clergy who is the church.
It's the clergy in their various hierarchies who are the pillar
and ground of truth. Therefore, you are not allowed
to express any disagreement with them. Because the church is the
pillar and ground of truth. Who are you to say that what
one of these men said is wrong? No, the church, the real church,
the household of faith is the pillar and ground of truth in
this world because they're the only ones that have the truth.
They don't make up the truth. They didn't come up with the
truth. The truth was taught to them. They merely declare it.
They're the ones upholding it, and that's what a foundation
and a pillar does. It holds things up, and that's all it means.
And in saying that the church is the pillar and ground or foundation
of truth, it is saying this, any group that departs from the
truth is no longer the church because they are not upholding
the truth. It's not giving an authority
to the church. It's defining the church as those
who uphold the truth. But it's a household, not an
organization. It's a spiritual household. And Paul says that we are to
show preference for this household. That would be a surprise to some.
I don't know if it's a surprise to anybody here. But Paul says,
do good to everybody, especially the household of faith. Now,
we do this in natural lives. Man goes to work, collects his
pay. Who does he take care of first?
Who should he take care of first? He makes sure his family, his
household is taken care of. And then if there's any more,
he can look beyond his own family and help others. We are of a spiritual household.
And while it should be in our heart to do good to all, our
first I hate using that word, but it's the only one I can come
up with. Our first obligation, and I mean first among the people
of this world, is our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if we can't help anybody else, certainly let us
help them. Let us help them because they
are one with us. They are family. And let us help
them Because in all reality, no one else is. The more the church distinguishes
itself by the message it preaches, the more the world hates it and
begins to not only withhold its help, but actually persecute
it. And sometimes the only one Only
ones who will help the household of faith are those who are of
the household of faith. How far do we take this? We take it this far, that there is no one in the world,
no matter how close, by marriage, by blood, by whatever, nobody
is to be given the same importance in this matter of doing good
than are our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
among purely human relationships, there is no relationship more, I don't know what's the
word to use, stronger, more intimate than the relationship between
man and wife. Yet, even that relationship in the present circumstances
is subservient to the relationship we have with one another in Christ. They say, why would that be? It would be nice if both husband
and wife in any married couple, if both of them were members
of the household of faith, that's good. I have a special consideration
for those who must go through their lives, believers who must
go through their lives married to someone who does not believe.
Because that means that at the very point, the most important
point of all, there's a disagreement. That's why I always tell people,
don't marry an unbeliever, I tell believers, don't marry an unbeliever.
Because you're uniting yourself to someone who disagrees with
you on the most vital aspect of your life. But here's another
reason that we show special preference for the household of faith. We
are of that household forever. We shall forever be the household
of faith. Brothers and sisters in Christ
are brothers and sisters in Christ forever. Even marriage comes
to an end. And I'm not talking about divorce
here, I'm talking about death. It comes to an end. There is
a time when those that God has joined together are separated. It says, let no man separate
them, but God separates them by death. And the marriage no
longer exists, but the bond we have in Christ is an eternal
bond. For it comes from being eternally
bound to him. And therefore, our first allegiance
goes to those who are of the household of faith, our first
allegiance in doing good. Now, in describing it as a household
of faith, It defines the church in this way. It's a group of
believers. This might shock you, and then
maybe it won't. It's one of those things that shocked me to where
I laughed. It was just almost unbelievable. There are churches
now, they call themselves that, that have atheistic pastors. They don't believe there's a
God, but they see value in religion. saying, I don't see much value
in religion, but I sure believe in God. You know, religion's
a troublesome thing. But not only are there atheists,
there are many more who pastor churches who may as well be atheists,
for the God they worship doesn't exist. He's a God subject to
the will of man. He's a God who cannot do everything
He wants to do. He's a God who does not do everything
He wants to do. And if He can't and won't do
everything He wants to do, He's not a God. He's just a... Actually, what
they're doing is expressing God in their own image. They just
make a big man out of Him, that's all. But he doesn't even qualify
as a very powerful man. No, it's the household. It's
the gathering. It's the group, the family of
those who believe in the God of scriptures, who trust their
souls to him, who worship him. That's who the church is. And
because it's a household, it has a patriarch. Now, in our
day and age, you know, there's this a big uprising against the
so-called patriarchy. And they've got some points to make.
I'm not here to argue political and social things. But understand
when Paul's talking about a household, he's talking about a household
in the first century. And those households had a patriarch. Generally, Quite often you had
three generation households. And actually until recently that
often went on around here because a household did not just consist
of, you know, two parents and their children. It might be the
two parents and their children and then the grandchildren and
all that. And farms, you know, a fellow
would farm some land and generally speaking his oldest son, if he
wanted to be a farmer, he'd eventually take over the farm. But dad was
still alive and he was still the patriarch. And even though
he may not be the one behind the plow or in the tractor, I
guess it is nowadays, even though he may not be the one that's
actually out there laboring, he's the one that kind of runs
the show. The patriarch. Now we could say
that the patriarch of the household of God is God himself. And he
is. But the patriarch of this family
is also rightly ascribed to our Lord Jesus Christ. Because the household of faith
is under his direct supervision. He's the one that's doing everything
and controlling everything. But there's no problem in saying
that both of those, you know, God and Christ, both of them,
they are the patriarch because our Lord Jesus Christ is God. But he is the general overseer
of the household of faith. And then in the household, there
is a father. They say, isn't that the same thing as a patriarch?
Well, not if you have the three-generation household. Generally, grandfather
is the patriarch. But I separate out father for
this reason. The scriptures ascribe this to
our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I and the children you
have given me. Now, many churches make a lot
out of household salvation. And they use Acts 1631, I believe
it is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved
in thy house. And they believe that if one person, you know,
if the man in the house believes, then everybody in the house is
saved. That's not what that scripture
is saying, but that's what they think it means. But when it says there in Acts 1631, all it's
saying is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be
saved. And the same is true for your household. If they believe,
they'll be saved too. But there is a household of which all shall
be saved. And they shall all be saved because
of the faith of the Father. And that's the household of Jesus
Christ. Now, I know that all of us believe,
but it was His faith, His faithfulness that brought about our salvation
and brought us into this household. And I don't know about you, on
the one hand I say I believe, on the other hand I say help
my unbelief, on the one hand I say I believe, but I wouldn't
dare try to get to heaven on my faith. That's a pretty slim
string to hang on. But his faith, I can go to heaven
on that. He trusted the Lord. I put my
trust in him, says the Lord Jesus. He is the Father and we are the
children. More than this, this household has a husband.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is considered the husband of the church because
the church is considered his bride. Husbands, love your wives
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Now he
is set forth as an example of husbands, but the reason he is
set forth as an example of a husband is he is a husband. I remember
hearing about animal husbandry. For a long time I thought, what
in the world, animal husbandry? What's that got to do, I'm not
marrying any animals. Then I, you know, did the obvious
thing, I looked up the word. The word husband just means to
take care of. So animal husbandry is the business
of learning how to take care of animals. But when a man is
called a husband, it means that he is given the
responsibility of caring for his wife, indeed caring for the
whole household. Otherwise, he's not a husband.
He's just a man. Christ is our husband. He's the
one that takes care of us. He provides us with everything
we need in this household. There is nobody in his household
that lacks anything they need. And I would say most of us must
say not only do we not lack anything we need? We have a whole lot
more than we need. He is a husband to us as a husband
to his wife. He is husband as head over the
household in which we are children and he cares for us. I said it's organized but not
an organization. Have you noticed so far that
in all these likenesses to a household that involve authority and taking
care of and all that. All of them are about Christ.
That's why I've said before in the church of the Lord Jesus
there's only two levels. There's Jesus Christ and then
there's everybody else. He is the patriarch. He is the
father. He is the husband. He is everything
that includes the concept of essential authority and the responsibility
of care. Boy, am I glad. Now he told Peter to feed the
sheep, and that's what all of us who've been called to teach,
preach, pastor, whatever verb you want to put there. But give thanks to God. I'm not really the one doing
the feeding. The most I'm doing is like a servant taking a plate
full of food to you. I didn't make the food. I didn't
cook it. I don't have the recipe. I just get it from him and deliver
it to you. That's it. He feeds his church. Like any
household, it has brothers. Now, in our day and age, we're
supposed to say brothers and sisters, but understand in saying
brothers, were actually, that is within the context of the
first century, were saying some things which it's a good thing
that Paul just said, brothers for the most part. Because in
that day there were advantages to being brethren in a household
which did not necessarily flow to the sisters of the household.
Because generally speaking the idea was the sisters were going
to be married off and they'll be part of a different household.
And so he calls us all brethren. And actually, even in the secular
world, they understood that word brothers to include all of a
particular group that were joined together. But in calling us brothers
of a household, he has said that we are all heirs, heirs of God. Because you see, for the most
part, the women of a household did not inherit. And if you think
that's ridiculous, remember until probably 125 to 150 years ago,
women in this country didn't inherit either. The general rule was it goes
from a man to his firstborn son. That's the ancient way of inheritance. There are sons, brothers, therefore
there are heirs, but there's also a firstborn. And under Jewish law, and Paul's
gonna be speaking from that context, under Jewish law, the firstborn
got the double portion. And so, you know, you had the
12 sons of Jacob. That meant that Jacob's property
was divided into 13, and the firstborn got two. And interestingly enough, the
firstborn who got two It was not, and now I can't even
think of his name. I guess it's not all that important. But it
wasn't the actual firstborn of Jacob, the first son that he
had. It was the first son he had by
his preferred wife. Now you say, OK, that sounds
like a whole lot of wrong right there. You're right. There's
a whole lot of wrong going on there. He had two wives, and
each of them had handmaids. He had children by both his wives
and by both those handmaids, but the first one born from the
woman he loved and who he intended to marry first, but his uncle
tricked him. But he went on to work seven
years for this wife named Rachel, and her firstborn was considered
his firstborn, Jacob's firstborn. You notice there's no tribe of
Joseph. Say why? Because a tribe was
given to each of Joseph's sons. And in that way, Joseph got the
double portion. Who is the Joseph in the household
of faith? It's our Lord Jesus. He's heir
of all things. I read recently someone was claiming
that Jesus Christ is not God because he was the first thing
God created. Because it says he's the firstborn of all creation.
Missed the point of what that means. The firstborn is not necessarily
saying that you were the first one born. It's a position in
the household. The position of preeminence.
And that's our Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, this is one of
those households that doesn't have any problem with that. In
most households, if any of the heirs get more than one of the
other heirs do, there's a big hubbub about it. In this household,
all the heirs are happy for the firstborn to get all of it. And as much as it's a household,
it has its problems, just like the households of this world
do. Family members fall out with
each other, don't talk to each other. I'm often surprised by that because
that kind of thing just didn't happen in the family that I grew
up in. There never was. That is my parents
and me and my two sisters. We were always happy with one
another. So it always surprised me when I'd find that there are
households where brothers and sisters don't talk to each other. But you know, when natural brothers
and sisters don't talk to each other, they're still brothers
and sisters. They're still part of the household.
And when the church of the Lord Jesus, expressing the fact that
the members of it are still flesh, when they fall out with one another,
when fellowship is broken with one another, it doesn't change
the fact that they are of a single household, the household of faith. Because it's not a house, a household,
a household of agreement on everything. We just agree on one thing, Jesus
Christ. We shouldn't fall out with one
another. We should be able to put every difference between
us under the one thing we have in common. But we're weak flesh. And so we fall out, we have our
squabbles, we have our irritations with one another, and may even
build walls, but it does not change the fact that we are brethren
in the Lord Jesus Christ of one household, under one patriarch,
cared for by one father and husband. And one other thing, just as
with a household, when there's a family reunion, in natural
households, when there's a family reunion, there are those who
do come, those who can't come, and those who won't come. But
they're still the family. I believe that it's very important
that people make every effort to physically attend the assemblies
of this household for worship. My heart goes out to those who
can't. And my heart also goes out to
those who won't because they're missing. But just because someone doesn't
come doesn't mean they're not part of the family. It doesn't mean that we set them
to the side or consider them lesser. There is no such thing as being
more of a brother to someone. You either are or you are not. A household of faith. What a
good name. We're a household. A household
of believers. And just like the households
of this world, there's someone who rules it. someone who cares
for it, someone who leads it. And then there's us. Brothers
in our Lord Jesus Christ, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ
Jesus, and despite all of our failings, which are too many
to count, despite all the flesh that shows
up, even as we come together for worship, Despite all that,
we're brothers. And down in the depths of our
heart, we do love one another. So what should we do? Do good
to all, but especially your brothers, your sisters in the Lord, the
household of faith. And rejoice. that this is your
family. And though you're not at home,
all of us are brothers of this household. We've not yet got
home, but we're going there. Some of us are closer than others,
but none of us are more sure of it than others. Our elder brother, our father,
husband, elder brother, already there. And he's bringing all the rest
of his brethren to be with us. Well, may God bless his word.