Galatians chapter 6. Now we who
are the redeemed of the Lord, we're all saved sinners and we're
conscious of our own weakness, aren't we? We're conscious of
our own flesh. Now in religion And I've seen
this so many times, because I was in it, and those of you who were
in it, you probably saw it too. When a brother or sister falls
into sin, they just kick them while they're down. And I'll
tell you what, just drag them through the mud, excommunicate
them, all kinds of stuff, right? You know, what I found in the
grace movement, it's a lot different. They don't do that. We like to
practice what's called burden bearing, don't we? Bear one another's
burdens. And here's a, you may have heard
that too. You may have heard that. We're
going to see it in the text today. We who are born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, we know our own frailness, don't we? We know
our own weakness. I remember hearing a preacher
one time said, the only difference between me and the worst criminal
in jail is the grace of God. We'd all say amen, right? We
know ourselves. We know how we are in our flesh. We know that left to our own
self, we could do the most wicked things that anyone else could
do in this world. But we've been saved by the grace
of God. And all of us, all of us in our
weakness have fell prey to sinfulness, haven't we? There's not a person
in this building, there's not a saint of God in this building,
there's not a saint of God on this earth that doesn't struggle
with sin. Doesn't struggle with sin. Oh
my. It's just a lot of people aren't willing to admit that. In religion
they don't want to admit that. You know why? You know why? Because
they're getting jumped upon. But in grace, we all admit we're
just a bunch of sinners. Someone said, I can't come over
to that church, Wayne. I said, why not? We're just a
bunch of sinners saved by the grace of God. I said, you're
a sinner, too, right? Yeah. I said, well, you're welcome,
too, then. Come, we're a hospital of sinners
over here, aren't we? And Christ is a great physician,
isn't he? Oh, my. Oh my, so we all have
weaknesses in our flesh. There may be some place where
you're strong and then I'm really weakened and vice versa. But
if we got together, men and women, we all struggle. All you women
struggle with the same thing, I guarantee you. All us men,
we struggle with the same thing. And then put together, there's
things we all struggle with together. Every one of us. We're just a
bunch of sinners saved by grace. And we who are the redeemed of
the Lord, we've been showing that, haven't we? We wouldn't
say that in our natural state, would we? We'd say, well, the
bad sinners down the street there, my neighbor there, he's that
guy, man, he's just brutal. But now we look and go, I'm my
own worst enemy. Oh, my. It's me who's the chief
of sinners. Now let's read verses one to
10. We're gonna look at verses one
to three today, but let's look at the context. I want us to
read the context. And remember, this is right after
Paul has written about the fruit of the spirit. And in the original,
it's just a letter. There's no chapter breaks or
anything like that. So he's just written about the
fruit of the spirit. and what they are, he's identified,
then he's told us to walk in the Spirit, right? And then look
what he says here. And remember who the true author
of this is, is God the Holy Spirit, right? He knows our frail, he
knows how frail we are. He says this, brethren if a man
be overtaken in a fault, it doesn't say, it says if a man be overtaken
in a fault, it's a statement of truth. It's gonna happen. We're sinners. Ye which are spiritual, restore
such one in the spirit of meekness. Remember what one of the fruit
of the spirits was? Meekness. Oh my. Look at this. Considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted. My. So we don't look at maybe
a brother or sister falls into grievous sin and go, look what
they've just done. We go, there go I but for the
grace of God. And then we pick our brother
and sister up, don't we? Because we're just as prone to
the same sin, aren't we? That's what we're being exhorted
here. And this is an exhortation for
us, right? Look at this. Bear ye one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ. bear the burdens of one another. We're all going to pray for Travis's
and Karen's niece. We bear each other's burdens,
right? We're praying for Fran and Kevin
and Brad because we're bearing the burdens with them, right?
We pray for one another and when we put the the note out in the
little prayer chain and letting people know, pray, please pray
for me, please pray for me. Right? Oh my. Look at this. For if a man think
himself to be something when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. You ever, you ever met someone
in a church that thinks they're something? They're not hard to
spot, are they? Thankfully, we don't have folks
like that here. But I've seen it in churches.
There was one fellow. I'm not going to say who it was. You guys wouldn't know him anyways,
but out in Oregon. And Vicky knows who I'm talking
about. This fellow, he'd walk in the building. It was like,
I'm here. And he'd walk up the stairs. And everyone knew he had a lot
of money, you know, he made that well known. But he walked in
like, hey, I've arrived. I'm here. And it was just sad. It was just sad to see, right?
Because it doesn't matter what our station in life is. We're
still just a bunch of sinners, aren't we? Right? My, now I love
seeing you all. You walk in, I'll give you a
hug, and we greet each other, and that's so genuine, I love
that. But there's no one here that
toots around like the head rooster, right? It just don't happen here.
You know, it may have in the past, but it doesn't happen now,
does it? Nope, not at all, not at all. My, look at that. For a man thinking himself to
be something. See, we think we're nothing. Because we've been humbled by
the grace of God, haven't we? Man thinking himself to be something
when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. So, you ever seen these
folks in religion? Look at that person. They fell
into sin. I would never do that. How could they be a Christian
and do something like that? Well, let me tell you. We Christians
are prone to anything else that people in the world do, aren't
we? You see? So Paul, by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, is bringing forth something here. That someone
who thinks themselves to be something, they're actually nothing. And remember what Scott Richardson
used to say? You remember this, right? We're all a bunch of zeros
until you put the one in front. And that's Christ. Right? Isn't that true? Who gets all the glory? Amen! Christ gets all the glory,
don't he? He gets it all! And we want him
to get it, don't we? My! But let every man prove his
own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and
not in another. For every man shall bear his
own burden. Let him that is taught in the
Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
Be not deceived. God's not mocked. God's not mocked. All he not mocked. Right? For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he reap. Now we've experienced that, haven't
we? You ever feel the guilt of your
sin? Now we know the guilt of our
sin is bought and paid for, but when we sin, and when we sin
grievously, we feel it, don't we? Even as believers, we feel
it, don't we? Even though it's forgiven. We
still feel it. Now this though is talking about
that a man will reap what he sows. If they sow corruption,
they're going to reap corruption. This is serious business. Look at this. For he that soweth
into his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that
soweth to the Spirit, shall the Spirit reap life everlasting."
Now this isn't talking about, well if we sin then God's just
going to cast us away. It's not talking about that.
No. It's talking about a saved man
and an unsaved man. Right? We walk in the Spirit,
don't we? You know I heard the most ridiculous
thing I've ever heard in my life as a believer this week? I was
talking to a fellow about Christ, and I had mentioned that a local
church here is not preaching the gospel, and they got pretty
mad at me. But I said, well, I'm not going to apologize, because
it's true. I've listened, and the guy's not preaching the gospel.
Before I say that, I've told you guys, I've listened to the
different preachers around here to see if anyone's preaching
the gospel, and there's not a lot of gospel preaching going on
at all. Well, this guy, my buddy brought
up that he believes this fella I was talking to, you can lose
your salvation. You know what he said? I told him, I said, that's the
most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. You just blasphemed
God. You know what he said? He said, you know how the scripture
says no man can pluck you out of the father's hands? This is
how these guys who believe that you can lose your salvation,
which you don't have salvation from God. You know what he said?
Well, you can jump. You can jump out. I said, you tell me that the
God of the universe who controls everything and all things, he's
going to go, oh, I lost one. He jumped out of my hand. That's
blasphemy, beloved. But you see how this stuff is
justified by people? And then when we kept talking
to him, and he basically, we said, well, how do you keep from
jumping out? Or if you jump out, how do you
get back in? Well, by doing stuff that's right.
And my buddy, oh, I love that. He said, well, that's works.
Number one, it's works, you're jumping out. And number two,
Number two, it's works you're jumping back in supposedly. What
foolishness. But he's been taught that, see?
So he's gonna reap to himself corruption, beloved. That's a
religious man. My, oh my. Let's pray for him.
Pray for my friend. His name's Gary. Pray for him.
Oh my. My, oh my. But those who soweth
in the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let
us not be weary in well-doing. See, don't tear your brother
down if he fell. Don't tear your sister down if they fell. Come
alongside them. Lift them up. Point them to Christ,
the only Savior of sinners, knowing that we could do the, we could
fall too. Oh my. And let us not be weary
in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
And as we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men." Look
at that, all men, not just believers, all men, right? Especially unto
them of the household of faith. We're not to be like religious
folks and just tear up somebody who falls into sin. Because we're
gonna look at our brother and sister and go, that's our blood-bought
brother and sister, purchased by the same blood I am, the blood
of Christ, right? And they fall, and I could fall
too. That's what this verse is bringing
forth, beloved. And remember too, what's the
first fruit of the Spirit? Love. Love. The first one of the cluster,
right, is love. Love guides everything. And that's
love that's not natural to us, remember? It's a love of God
in Christ, put in us by the Holy Spirit of God, and nurtured in
us by the Holy Spirit of God. Let's read verse one again. Brethren,
if a man, and we know also a woman, if a man be overtaken in a fault,
ye which are spiritual, restore such one in the spirit of meekness. Again, that's one of the clusters. Considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted. Listen to this in the Greek literal
Bible. Brothers, even if a man should be caught in some trespasses,
you, the spiritual ones, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness.
Gentleness. Considering yourself, lest ye
also be tempted. You know, the scriptures declare
that God has called his people out of the darkness into the
light of the kingdom of his dear son. And that's all of us. That's
all of us. And that's a work of God, the
Holy Spirit, right? That's his work. He regenerates
us. He takes us, he transforms us
from the kingdom of darkness that we were in to the kingdom
of God's light. Now, do we still fall in sin?
Yes, we do here and there. Well, not here and there, everything
we do is tainted with sin, but we're forgiven, we're forgiven,
aren't we? So if we see a brother or sister
fall into a gravy of sin as the scripture, should be caught in
some trespass, you yourself consider that, lest you also be tempted. We get tempted all the time,
beloved. All the time. But when we're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God, when he's enlightened
our minds, he gives us a spiritual understanding that we are redeemed
by the blood of Christ, saved by the blood of Christ, and not
left in the state we were in, of which we could not get ourselves
out. My! Brother Travis, do we not
rejoice in the fact that nothing can be laid to the charge of
God's elect because it's God who justifies? Brother Jim, do
we not rejoice in the fact that there's therefore now no condemnation,
no judgment to those in Christ Jesus who walk not after the
flesh but after the Spirit? We rejoice in that, don't we?
It's wonderful! We rejoice in those things. Oh,
and knowing that the motions of sin are still in us, and knowing
that we're still in the flesh, and that we can manifest weakness
just like anyone else, right? Knowing that to be true, and
that's every day, all day long, right? I was talking to one fellow,
and I said, well, when's the last time you sinned? And he
said, well, let me think. I said, you're sinning right now. Oh my goodness! Oh beloved God,
let us be quick to rush to the aid of our brothers and sisters.
Let us be quick. That's what this is saying. Let
us be quick to rush to the aid of our brothers and sisters who
fall into sin. Right? Quick! With gentleness. With gentleness. Come my brother. Come my dear brother. Right? Come, my dear sister. Let's look
to Christ together. Right? In the spirit of gentleness.
Not like, well, there's the door. Not like that. No. Why would you ever want to send
someone packing out the door where they're not going to hear
the gospel? Right? If you have the gospel,
you want that brother and sister there, right? Because the Holy
Spirit's going to correct them, right? We don't have to, you
know, I asked Donny Bell one time, how much church discipline
have you done in 21 years? You know what he said? Zero.
He goes, when I preach the gospel, the Holy Spirit does the discipline.
You ever listen to a sermon and You're just like, oh my gosh,
Lord, please forgive me. Happens all the time, doesn't
it, beloved? Preacher don't even know it's happening. I mean,
listen to my brother in preacher. Boom! I'm like, oh man, Lord,
I'm such a wretched man. Praise God for your salvation
in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we just go
into Christ again, don't we? It's not a one-time thing. We
just continuously keep going to Christ. Oh my, it's wonderful,
I'll tell you what. So let us be quick to rush to
the aid of a brother or sister in Christ when they're overtaken
by a fault or by sin because we could be right there too.
I used to go down to the gospel mission, preach the gospel mission
in Oregon. And I'd see these guys, and they
were all kinds of different things. Some were being strung out and
drinking, some being strung out and drugged, some just something
happened in their life. And every time I'd go there,
and I'd go down there, and I didn't get dressed up. I just went down
there, and I didn't want to be like them, right? Hudson Taylor
did that when he went to China. He just dressed like the other
folks, right? I'd go down there and I'd even
sit in with them while they're singing and I'd just get up and
preach and afterwards I always had a bunch of guys come talk
to me, you know, they wanted to talk. I'm not better than them. And
what the Lord impressed upon my heart was Wayne, not Wayne,
I don't want to say that, God's speaking to me like that, but
you know what I mean, just through the scriptures. And what was impressed upon me
was that portion of scripture, there go I but for the grace
of God. Right? There go I but for the grace
of God. That's how the Lord speaks to me through the scriptures. Man, there I am. There I am. It wasn't for the grace of God.
So let us be quick to rush to the aids of our dear brothers
and sisters, right? And help them and lift them up. Oh my,
in religion, when someone falls into, I've seen this too, when
someone falls into a sinful trap, most professing Christians will
manifest, and this is not in the grace community, I haven't
seen it here, but most professing Christians will manifest hate
rather than love. And I used to be, I was there,
I'd be like, how can, how can that person be a Christian? I
was such, I was so full of pride and so condescending. I thank
God that my wife stayed with me, to be honest with you. I
was so, I was, I was a Pharisee. I was awful. You could ask Vicki,
I used to complain about people, and this was out north, I used
to, and then the Lord saved me, you know what? He shut my mouth. Right? My oh my. My oh my. But in religion, when
someone falls into a sinful trap, they, instead of restoring them,
they just beat them down. And sometimes cast them right
out of the church. My, oh my. And then they start
gossiping, and they start judging. You know what happens when, you
know, and this is something I'm very thankful that we don't have
this here, but I've seen this in churches. Tell me if you have.
Just nod your head. You get someone, someone falls
into something. Well, people start talking. And
they all start talking. And then the preacher gets into
it. He starts talking. And they're all talking. And
no one's looking at Christ. They're all looking at the sinner.
Hey, that's my brother then, right? That's my brother in the
flesh, at least, right? We're all brothers and sisters
in Adam, or we're brothers and sisters in Christ, right? Scott
Rich, I love him, he used to call everybody brother. And the
reason he did was because, well, he's either my brother in Adam
or he's my brother in Christ, one or the other, right? But
here you are, this poor sinner, just getting beat upon and raked
upon, and no one else is looking at Christ. They're all looking
in self-righteousness at each other. And even the preacher
starts looking at everybody. I've seen it. It's horrible,
beloved. That's why when I came here,
someone asked me, they said, will you ever preach against
someone in the congregation from the pulpit, and I said, I'll
never do that. It is not my job to shear the sheep. That's not
my job. My job, my calling is to preach
Christ and Him crucified. Preach the balm, right? Sister
Diana, you know, the balm of Christ, the balm of Christ. Look
to Christ. He's the balm. He's the Savior.
We're on level ground, aren't we? See, but some religious folks
think they're on a little bit of a pitcher's mound there. No. They're sinners just like everybody
else, aren't they? Whether they believe it or not.
Oh my, enough of that stuff, right? So they start condemning,
they start... But those who are guilty of doing
that, we see in the text, they're not spiritual. It says here,
brother, if a man or If a man be overtaken in a fall, ye which
are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest I also be tempted." So walking in the
Spirit and being spiritual is restoring our brothers and sisters
in Christ. Coming alongside them. Right? Lest we consider we could
be in the same situation. My oh my. And you know what? Love worketh no ill. to his neighbor. Romans 10 13, therefore love
is the fulfilling of the law. And look in our text here in
Galatians chapter 6 verse 3. Oh no, verse 2, bear ye one another's
burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Well the law of Christ
is the royal law of love. Right? Love your neighbors yourself. And then we see in here too,
we're especially to be gentle and meek and loving to those
who are of the household of faith. We saw that when we read that
section. And again, the first fruit of
the spirit we studied was love. Out of that God-given love flows
this burden bearing. You see? In religion, or in the natural
flesh, we were more concerned about ourselves and I didn't
pray for people then, or I'd say, oh yeah, I'll pray for you.
But that was me as a Catholic. I never prayed for anyone. I
only prayed for myself, saying, Lord, I'll never do that again.
When I fell into something or when I was doing something I
shouldn't have been doing. Right? now. We care for those. We care for
those. We care for families of those
we love in Christ. We care for, we care for those
we love in Christ. Our brothers and sisters, right?
We pray for them. The Lord puts them on our heart.
You ever been sitting there just doing something and all of a
sudden somebody get put on your heart and start praying for them? Isn't
that amazing? That's the Lord doing that. And
you just start lifting them up to the throne of grace. You don't
even know what they're going through. They might be going through something
at that time. They may need strength at that time. And sometimes the
Lord lets you know and you don't even say anything. They say,
well yeah, I was really struggling last week and little did you
know. And you don't ever tell them
that the Lord put them on your heart and you were praying for
them. Isn't that amazing how the Lord
works? Oh my. Love is the fruit of the Spirit.
We don't gossip about others. We don't judge others. We don't
condemn our brothers and sisters who've been overtaken in a fault
because we could be there too. We come alongside them. Listen
to this. The love that comes from God,
it doesn't work in a hateful way. Listen to this. Charity,
which is love, suffereth long. It is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaulteth not itself,
is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly. Seeketh not
her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. 1 Corinthians
chapter 13 verses 3 to 5. That's the same love that God
the Holy Spirit gives us, you see. For the law is fulfilled in one
word, even in this, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.
Galatians 4.14. Oh my. Brethren, we're under the law
of Christ. And that's a law of love. That's
a law of love. Christ fulfilled God's law for
us. Now we've been commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves.
And we all love ourselves, don't we? You know, even when we say,
oh, I'm such and such and such, deep down we still love ourselves.
Right? We just do. But see, now with
a regenerated heart, things are different, aren't they? Things
have changed. We're not looking out for number
one now. We're looking to Christ together. Isn't that wonderful?
Here we are, a group of sinners. And we're looking to Christ together.
We're looking to the one who's redeemed us, together. And if
our brother or sister fall into sin, we're gonna go help them
out, aren't we? We're not gonna kick them while
they're down. We're gonna come alongside them. We're gonna say,
I love you. I love you. And we're gonna help
them, aren't we? Oh, my. My, oh, my. And we should seek to recover
those who've fallen into those sinful traps. Recover them. Come, like I said earlier, let's
look to Christ together. And if you need to sit and talk
with them, be there for them. Right? I love how we all talk
after service and everyone's getting even more so than ever
before. It's wonderful. But that's cultivated
by God the Holy Spirit, isn't it? He's the one working all
that in us. I love Sundays. And I love Wednesdays. Those are my two favorite days
of the week. Do you know that? Because I get to see you all.
I was chomping at the bit to come today. It's like, man, it's
nice to get back in the groove of Sunday school and Sunday morning.
It's so wonderful, beloved. And then I get the blessing just
to see you all. You're my family, beloved. It's
wonderful. We've been through thick and
thin together, haven't we? Even though I've only been here
eight years, we've been through a lot together, haven't we? God's carried
us through it all, hasn't he? My. And in our weaknesses, we
prayed for each other. My, isn't that wonderful? Went through COVID together.
My. And Lord just, He just keeps
making, I see what He's doing. It's amazing. He's just making
the church stronger and stronger and stronger spiritually as we
grow in the grace and truth of Christ. We don't see our own
growth. But God does, and other people
do. And it's amazing to see what
God's doing. So let us remember, too, it tells us in this text
here that we're to restore our brother with meekness, or sister
with meekness, right? And remember, again, it's the
fruit of the Spirit, not the fruits. Every born-again believer
has this. We look at ourselves and go,
well, I'm not very meek. I don't have much goodness, but
it's in us. But it's being worked by the
Holy Spirit of God in us. The love that we have for one
another, that's being worked in us by the Holy Spirit of God.
That's being cultivated. That's why we desire to go and
restore our brothers and sisters. Oh my. Oh my, we're to go to the one
who's fallen into that sinful trap in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. The motions of sin, again, is
in all of us. We all have the potential to
fall into that same sin or other sins. Therefore, if a brother
or sister falls into the spirit of sin or attitude or flesh,
we're to make every attempt to recover and restore them, not
beat them down. Isn't that wonderful? My. We settle him to his place of
fellowship. The attitude of a strong, mature, restrained believer toward
the fallen one is not to be critical or holier than thou are condemning. No, we're to come in a spirit
of meekness. Being humble. Right? For we know that the potential
to commit any sin is in every one of us. It's in every one
of us, isn't it? my beloved rejoice we're redeemed
children of god indwelt by the holy spirit of god the holy spirit
of holiness and grace but we're still just sinful human
flesh aren't we oh let us bear one another's
burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Amen.