All right, let's turn in our
Bibles this morning to the New Testament and the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians chapter
six. I'm going to back up into chapter
five and study some, but I want to read from chapter six, Galatians
six and verse one. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ. What was that law of Christ that
you love one another? For if a man think himself to
be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. 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 teach it in all good things.
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth
to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let
us not be weary in well-doing for in due season, we shall reap
if we faint not as you therefore have opportunity. Let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith. That's
reading down through verse 10. How precious, precious is God's
word. Sometimes people say, you know,
I don't understand the Bible. Well, that's usually people that
don't read it talking anyhow. And when we read with an open
heart, open mind and meditate, the Lord will begin to talk to
us about things. In these 10 verses we read, there
are seven imperatives, not suggestions, not optional
advice, but seven imperatives. That is vital things, necessary
things in a believer's life. And the seven are these in verse
one, restore. Second, in verse two, bear. And thirdly, in verse four, prove. And fourthly, in verse six, communicate. And fifth, in verse seven, be
not deceived. And sixth, in verse nine, Let
us not be weary. And seventh in verse 10, do good. Let us do good. Now, all these
things have to do with the health of God's people, the spiritual
health of the body of Christ, the health of a local congregation,
whether large or small. The restore of verse 1 is instruction
on dealing with a fallen brother or sister. The bear of verse
2 is sharing the burdens of one another. The prove of verse 4
is to be yourself, live for God yourself. Don't just ride on
someone else's reputation. The communicate of verse 6 is
the cooperation, ministering one to another, to the teacher,
to the pastor, to one another, the encouragement, the assistance,
the aid given. And the be not deceived of verse
7 is continuing in verse 8, it's concerning neglect of our brothers
and sisters in Christ and living only for self, sowing to the
flesh and reaping corruption versus sowing to the spirit and
reaping life everlasting. And then the not be weary of
verse nine relates to discouragement. Discouragement in the church,
discouragement in the body, discouragement in your individual life. Why? Due to lack of results. Due to lack of appreciation.
And it's the enemy bringing you to say, what's the use? What's
the good of us? What's the good of it anyhow?
Let us not be weary in well-doing. And then the do good in verse
10. It marks a discriminatory preference. do good to all men, yes, but
especially to God's people, especially unto them who are of the household
of faith. So from God's Word here we have
a great obligation one to another to encourage, to help, to strengthen,
to share in the heartaches, to bear one another's burdens. Now
this passage has often been referred to by critics to point out a
supposed contradiction between verses 2 and verse 5. Verse 2
says, bear ye one another's burden. And verse 5 says, for every man
shall bear his own burden. Well, which is it? Well, it's
both. It's no contradiction at all.
Verse 5 concerns that which comes to us in life individually Things
over which we have no control and must bear it. We don't have
a choice. Every man must bear what God
puts on him. But verse 2 teaches that the
rest of the family, the church, the body, is not supposed to
let that man or woman bear their burden alone. We're to share,
bear one another's burden. And we have lots of sickness,
problems, and trouble in this small congregation at the present
time. About every family represented
here this morning has some serious situation you're facing. And
we cannot do too much in ministering one to another in every way that
we can by encouraging one another. by word of mouth, by phone calls,
by dropping a card, and also we cannot do too much for one
another by way of prayer, calling each other's names every single
day that dawns. That would not be too much to
ask. There's not that many of us, and we ought to do that faithfully
one for another. by personal deeds, helping one
another, doing that that needs to be done, offer to take somebody
to the doctor, go to the store, whatever. And then, of course,
there's ministering financially when there's a need we can help
with. So these things are very precise about ministering one
to another in the church. Now these seven things are not
just something to jump into religiously. We have this, you know, we just
have this convenient list of seven things. We're just supposed
to grab it up and go at it. No, it's not that simple. There
must first be a condition of heart that would glorify God
above all else in life. personal preference, self-glory, living independently of any obligation
to God or others, that attitude won't do. There is really no right way
to proceed into Chapter 6 except as it issues out of Chapter 5. And the emphasis in Chapter 5
is the Spirit of God. Back up to chapter 5 and look
at it with me. Verse 5, for we through the Spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, through the Spirit. Verse 16, this I say then, walk
in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Verse 17, Paul reminds us, For
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh. Then verse 18, But if ye be led
of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. And then verses 22 and
23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against
such there is no law. And then again in verse 25, the
emphasis. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. So in this latter part of chapter
5, Paul gives a contrasting description between the works of the flesh
verses 19 to 21 and the fruit of the spirit verses 22 and 23. And you want to really watch
words when you read the Bible, read it, read it closely, read
it slowly. Uh, somebody said, well, I don't
read fast. Good, good. Read it slowly. Don't miss a word and don't miss
the differences that the Holy spirit puts here. Notice concerning
the works of the flesh. It is works plural with no unity,
no singleness of mind or purpose or aim, but the fruit of the
spirit is singular. It's not fruits of the spirit,
but fruit. It is a united. ninefold fruit
with one aim and one goal to glorify God. Let's look at this contrast for
a few moments this morning. The works plural of the flesh
verses 19 through 21. He names 17 things in our King
James version. that are all sinful. Let's just
read it. Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions. heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Now, the first, these 17
things are in three categories. The first four are sexual sin. The Greek word pornea includes
the first two listed, adultery, that is immoral behavior within
the realm of marriage, and fornication, immorality outside the marriage
relationship. So now that's the first two.
The third is uncleanness. And I looked up all these words,
the Greek word, A-K-A-T-H-O-R-S-I-A, akathorsia, uncleanness. Here the reference is to homosexual
sin. Romans 1 calls it unnatural,
vile affections, what God never intended. And then the fourth
one under this category of sexual sins is lasciviousness. And I could give you the Greek
term for all of these. That's A-S-E-L-G-E-I-A, asalgeia,
means without limits. Anything goes in the realm of
sexual activity. So these are the first four names.
Then the next two, Paul mentions, are religious sins. First is
idolatry. Violation of the First Commandment.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Idolatry. Putting things or people above
God, as God. Or as Paul said in one place,
worshipping the creature rather than the Creator. Or worshipping
the creation rather than the Creator. Idolatry. And then second
is witchcraft. That's a spiritual sin. Religious
sin. And the Greek word is, and I'm
not even going to try to pronounce this, yeah, pharmakia. This is where we get the word
pharmacy. Pharmacy. And it relates to drugs or medication. Anything to confuse or control
the mind. to dull the senses, to lead into
any spiritism other than the spirit of God. And it includes
sorcery and casting spells and voodooism, hypnotism and demon
possession, which the New Testament is full of and our society is
full of. And then the last 11 he names
are social sins concerning our relationship to other people. And all 11 of these are distinct
in meaning and they're all worthy of our study. I'm going to talk
about each one of them, but it begins with hatred, variance,
emulations, wrath. strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. That is, the list could go on. All these things come natural
to our fallen nature. They come natural to sinful flesh. It doesn't take any education.
It doesn't take any teaching. to guide us into all these things,
they come naturally, the works of the flesh. Now the other side
of the contrast, verse 22, but, and that's a beautiful word here,
but, contrary to all that, but, the Spirit of God does not agree
with that list, but, The Spirit produces fruit contrary to the
works of the flesh. The Spirit produces fruit contrary
to all these things we've read about. What does the Spirit produce? Nine things. Verses 22 and 23. These nine things. Love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. All those things. And then he
says, against such there is no law. It's legal to walk in the
Spirit. All those 17 things are against
the law of God. These nine things are good. They're
not against God's law. That first list Paul gives, he
says, this kind of people are not going to heaven. Verse 21. He says, I told you before, I
tell you again, that they which do such things shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. That does not mean that a true
child of God cannot ever be guilty of falling into any one of these
17 things. It don't mean that. He does mean
this. None of these 17 things are compatible
with. or can be the continual lifestyle
of a child of God. We don't abuse the latter part
of verse 21 by reading it like this, that they which do such
things continually with no chastisement are bastards and not sons, and
cannot possibly be God's children and shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. That's the fact. But now the
ninefold fruit of the spirit belongs to the children of God.
And they too are in three categories. The first three concern our relationship
to God. The spirit issues in love for
God. It's impossible for the Spirit
of God to live in a person that don't love God. It's impossible
for a person to love God without the Spirit of God living in them.
So that's first, love for God. Second, joy in God. Aren't you
glad this morning that the Lord came your way, changed your heart,
put you in His family, put you in His Word, to put you in the
fellowship of the saints, to worship together and sing together
and laugh together and pray together and cry together for that matter.
It's part of our united joy in God. And then thirdly, peace. Peace with God. These three things
concern our relationship to God. The second three concerns our
relationship to others. Long-suffering. Which means patience. And boy, some of us are a little
bit lacking there. Some of us are a lot lacking
there. Patience, long suffering with others. Gentleness. That is kindness
toward others. Goodness. Our treatment of others
has to do with others. And then the last three concerns
our relation to self, in our self. Faith! Not just the initial
God-given faith, saving faith, but steadfastness in the faith. Reliability, trustworthiness,
firmness in the faith. Not wishy-washy. Affirm in the
faith. Meekness. That is a lowliness
or literally a teachableness. A teachableness. Oh, how sad that so many people
come to church and some tote a Bible. And they're not teachable. Temperance. That is self-control,
not extreme in anything other than what concerns the glory
of God. So the Spirit of God produces
the fruit of doing God right, doing others right, and doing
yourself right. That's what the Spirit of God
produces. Isn't that wonderful? Now verse 24. And they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. Does that mean a child of God
never falls into sin? No. Does it mean a child of God
never gets tripped up, never deceived, never starts down the
wrong road? No. But it does mean that he
or she don't want to. Verse 25, if we live in the Spirit,
that is, if our life is in and of the Spirit of God, if we're
born again, if we are one of God's children, and our life
is by the Spirit, we live in the Spirit, then let us also
walk in the Spirit. Paul strongly exhorts us here. You see, we were born physically
in this world, and we must walk physically in this world. And we are born spiritually from
above. We are born of the Spirit of
God. We must also walk in that atmosphere. We are to seek those
things which are above. set our affections on things
above. I'm telling you, this world we're
in, I believe, and I know you're going to say what many have said,
well, I've been hearing that long as I can remember. Yeah,
I have too, but I'm going to say it again. This old world
is just about history. I think it's about had it. And all God's people, we must
set our sights on a higher plane. I want to tell you right now,
you lean too much on Washington, and you're in for a big shock. You lean too much on what any
of the wisdom of this world says. You're headed down the wrong
road, but we need the wisdom of God in these hours. Now while we're here, Paul goes
on in the sixth chapter to say this, Brethren, if any man be overtaken in a
fault, he is giving a hypothetical here, he's not talking about
any individual. If a man be overtaken in a fault,
of course, this means man or woman. And the emphasis on the
word man in these 10 verses. Reminds us that we're but human
The best of men are fallen verse 1 if a man Verse 3, but if a
man verse 4, but let every man verse 5 for every man verse 10
do good to all men at our best we're but men and women People
make mistakes people fall we get into trouble and Now the person referred to here,
man or woman, is a believing man or woman. He's not referring
to an unbeliever because the instruction here in verse 1 is
to restore, that is to bring back to the former condition. It's impossible to bring one back to somewhere they've never
been. That's not a restore, so it's talking about the believer.
Only the believer can experience restoration. Unbelievers must
experience regeneration. So this person, Paul knowing of many cases in
reality, And the Holy Spirit of God causing this to be included
in the Holy Scriptures for our benefit. Knowing our situations
in this day and hour on every hand. It's right here. It's right here. Now he says, suppose they're
overtaken in a fall. Notice it doesn't say sin, it
says fault. It may be sin, or it may be heading
towards sin, but at least it's a fault he's talking about. A
mistake, a wrong road, a bit off track. It's slightly out of tune with the Lord. Slightly out of
tune with the fellowship of the saints. A fault. Now look at this word, overtaken. For man be overtaken. Now this
suggests an element of surprise. Overtaken from behind. It suggests
helplessness. Overtaken. Overpowered. It suggests
deception. Either the person didn't know
what was happening or was not conscious of the seriousness
and the danger of it and the damage it could do. And this passage teaches us when
somebody messes up like that, you don't look at them and say,
you dummy, you already had more sense. That's not the way you
deal with things. Or you can do like most religious
folks do and look at them and say, well, I sure ain't having
no more to do with them. I'm not going around them. That's
not what Paul's teaching us in this passage. Overtaken. Deceived. Or just not real conscious. and starting the wrong way. You
see, our adversary, the devil, he has the ability to get you
to look at something nobody in history has ever got by with, and he'll tell you that you can
do it. And he can tell you in such a
way as to almost convince you to believe. that you're the one
person in all the history of humanity that could ever get
by with this. See? Now when this happens, Paul says,
ye which are spiritual, and that does not mean those who shout
the loudest and jump the highest, never seem to have any problems.
That's not spirituality. That's hypocrisy. And some have tried to make these
spiritual ones here, the leaders in the church. But I, I see no
reason to interpret it except as in the overall context, backing
up into chapter five, those who are God's children, those who
are indwelt by the Holy spirit. Those who know God and desiring
to walk in the spirit, striving to walk in the spirit. You're
the ones qualified to be instrumental in restoring a brother or sister. You've got to be out of the ditch
yourself before you can help anybody else out of the ditch.
You say, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anybody
really in trouble. Well, hey, Paul is teaching us how we're
to live the shape we're to be in to be able to help somebody. when it happens. We all need restoring constantly
to some degree. Isn't that what the psalmist
said? He restoreth my soul. We need to walk in the Spirit
of God to be His instruments. in restoring and helping, encouraging. What does this word mean? Restore?
Well, the Greek word that's used here is also used in Matthew
four and Mark one. And of all things, it's translated,
mending, mending the fishermen, James and John. Jesus came along
walking the shores of Galilee to call him some disciples. It
says that these two brothers, fishermen, they were by the seaside,
mending their nets, restoring their nets, repairing the damage,
bringing them back to a condition of usefulness. Once again, restore. Paul says if a man be overtaken
in a fault or a woman gets in trouble and is in great danger
or has committed some awful offense, you do amending work. Not a rending
work. They're already torn and already hurting. There'll
be enough people to just kick them while they're down. You
do amending work. James and John, looking at that
place in the Gospels there, they didn't just, this here's a net
with a hole in it. Well, that can't be. Here they're
trying to catch fish and the fish will go right through that
hole. They're doing amending work.
They're doing a restoring work. And how do they go about it?
They don't just jerk those nets up and jerk it around and tear
it even more. No, they're very gentle. The nets were valuable, not that
easy to come by. And so are our brothers and sisters
in Christ. But James and John very gently
and very patiently They did what needed to be done to mend the
nets. Paul says, you do that with one
another. You do that with one another. This word restored also means
to set back in place as a physician would set a broken bone. Why is a physician so careful?
in this because he knows there's a possibility
of him doing greater damage than he's already done. That's why
it's such a patience and carefulness with
it. X-rays study the case, a very
strategic procedure and this word restore. means to bring
back to its former condition of wholeness and soundness. I'm telling you folks, 99% of
all church problems are not dealt with in this way. And it's wrong. We're in such
a mixed up generation. When religion is just something
people practice any way they choose. You do what you will,
where you will, when you will. You start out, you start whatever
you will, whenever you will, wherever you will, and you quit
it whenever you will, wherever you will, whatever you will. Don't even bother with what God's
word says about anything. That's where we are in this generation. The instruction here is not to
part company without any effort. To just say, bless God, I've
got a problem with so-and-so and one of us has got to go. And they look at the pastor and
say, if he's going to side with me, so-and-so will have to go.
If you side with him, I've got to go. This is why the Pharisees could
not and never would agree with the Lord Jesus. You remember in John 8, they
dragged a woman into his midst, his presence. And here's what
they said, basically, all right, it's us or her. You decide. The Pharisees said, we're not
accepting anybody that has any such marks of shame in their
past history. And Christ says, strange, you
should say that. That's exactly who I've come
to seek and to save. So Paul, in the spirit of Christ,
exhorts us to Restore such a one and to do it still in verse one.
In the spirit of meekness. That is with no feeling of superiority
over them. Don't say, I'm glad it's you,
not me. I've heard that many times. No,
in Christ, it's me. Because we're one. When there's trouble at your
house, there's trouble at my house. When your heart is torn, mine
should be torn more than it is. When you're grieving, I should
be grieving because we're one. I thought of an incident in Scripture
that's seldom mentioned. I know our time's getting gone,
but let's just hold on just a little bit. I thought of this. It's seldom mentioned in scripture. The, uh, one of the, one of the
sons of, well, it's about Noah after the flood, Genesis chapter
nine, Noah got drunk. And I've heard preachers try
to explain that away and they say, well, you know, he didn't
know the grapes would ferment and such and such and so-and-so
and this and that. Well, that excuse is not in the
Bible really. It's just not in there. Uh, the bottom line is
Noah got drunk. A believing man, a preacher of righteousness. A man obedient to God, faithful
to God, built the ark, got drunk. And one of his sons, by the name
of Ham, saw his father in his tent, drunk, naked. And you remember
what he did? He went out and told his brethren,
Shem and Japheth. Why didn't Ham just cover his
father up and help sober him up and do
a restoring work? Why did he have to go jump on
the phone and say, have you heard? No, but he'd rather do nothing
for his father and run and tell somebody. He must have been a
Baptist. His brothers, on the other hand,
Shem and Japheth, they took a cloth, put it behind them, over their
shoulders, and backed in their father's tent, went in backwards,
and covered his nakedness so they wouldn't see. And then I'm sure they proceeded
to try to help him sober him up. That was restoring work.
Restoring work. And those two responses to the
situation resulted in blessing to the one response and cursing
to the other response. That ought to sober us. We don't
want to be any part of a wrong response to anyone's trouble. I know too many religious people.
I know too many preachers that are more anxious to reject
than they are to restore. Some preachers will just about
say it. I don't have time for anybody that can't keep their
life straightened out. Well, I don't know anybody that
can keep their life straightened out. Oh, they've got a few rules to
go by. Gagging and that, and swallow a camel, and call that
Christianity. They deny that we're all made
out of the same stuff, but we are. Oh, may God give us a heart to
be right with him, right with each other, compassionate with others in
all things. Martin Luther, the great reformer
of the 1500s, wrote about this verse in his commentary on Galatians. I want to read this to you, and
I'm through. This, by the way, was given by
him in his preaching in the year 1531. That's almost 500 years
ago. And it's as true today as then.
Let me read you what he said. Brethren, if any man be overtaken
with a fault, do not aggravate his grief, do not scold him,
do not condemn him. but lift him up and gently restore
his faith. If you see a brother despondent
over a sin he has committed, run up to him, reach out your
hand to him, comfort him with the gospel, and embrace him like
a mother. A repentant sinner is not to
be given gall and vinegar to drink. Considering thyself, lest
thou also be tempted. This consideration is very much
needed to put a stop to the severity some show the fallen with no
mercy. Augustine said, there is no sin
which one person has committed that another person may not commit
it also. We stand in slippery places.
If we become overbearing neglect our duty, it is easy enough to
fall into sin. One of the fathers is reported
to have said when informed that a brother had fallen into adultery,
he fell yesterday, I may fall today. Paul therefore warns not
to be too rigorous and unmerciful toward offenders, but to show
them every affection, always remembering This man fell into
sin, I may fall into worse sin. If those who are always eager
to condemn others would investigate themselves, they would find that
the sins of others are but moats in comparison to their own. Wherefore,
let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. First Corinthians 10, 12. Let
me read this verse once again. Brethren, If a man or woman be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, ye which
have the Spirit of God living in you, restore such an one,
do amending work, not harshly, not meanly, but in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Let's stand together. Thank you
for your attention today.