Responsibilities of the Burden-Bearer

Transcript

GR 2112
2/18/2018
Responsibilities of Burden
Galatians 6:3-5
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of Galatians in your Bibles, Galatians chapter 6 as we are in the last letter of this epistle of Paul to the Galatians. The Galatians are a troubled group of churches that Paul established on his first missionary journey but things have deteriorated since Paul was there. False teachers come along, infiltrated it with false doctrine that always leads to difficulties in conduct. They were churches that were divided.

You know I was thinking, in Biblical times, New Testament times like the churches of Galatia, Paul established a church in these different cities. In Greece and Corinth he established a church in Corinth. There were difficulties there that we don’t have to face. Those people were under pressure to get along with one another even in a greater way than we are, humanly speaking, because they couldn’t leave one church and go to another. So you had to learn to get along with the people that you didn’t want to get along with and the Galatians were having a hard time doing that in their churches and so Paul is addressing that in this letter. Not only dealing with the false teachers but dealing with their issues with one another.

You’re in Galatians chapter 6, leave a marker there and come back to I Corinthians chapter 12. We think of the Corinthian church as a church that had problems and it did and Paul in the early part of this first letter to them has addressed some of the conflicts they were having within. Someone had come and visited from Corinth and had told him that there were divisions and conflicts in the church and Paul is writing to correct some of that.

In I Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12: “For even as the body is one and yet has many members and all the members of the body though they are many are one body so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews, Greeks, slave, free we were all made to drink or partake of one Spirit. For the body is not one member but many” and this emphasis that there is one body but there is diversity in the body and the various parts of the body should not be at odds with one another but they should work in harmony for the good of the body, the one body. And that is a repeated emphasis.

Come down to verse 20 in this chapter. “Now there are many members but one body.” And he goes on to talk about “I cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you or the head to the feet, I have no need of you,’” each part needs the other part and as each part contributes as God has put it in the body. His sovereignty is emphasized through this chapter in placing the parts in the body as He saw fit and we need one another. It is not God’s intention that we grow in isolation. That is the point. “By one Spirit we were baptized into one body, the body of Christ.” The manifestation of that body of Christ is individual local churches wherever they are like the church at Corinth and Paul started out in chapter 1 in reminding them with all their problems they had all the gifts necessary to function as God intended them to function. So in that sense the body is complete in each of the individual local churches but that is not all there is to the spiritual body of Christ.

Come down to the end of verse 24: “God has so composed the body giving more abundant to the parts of the body that lack that honor so that there may be no division in the body but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body and individually members of it.” One body, each individual, a member of that one body and we care for it. And Paul is using this analogy of the human body under the direction of the Spirit for a purpose. It is so clear. If one part of my body is having a problem my whole body is concerned about that problem, that part of the body that is suffering, that is hurting. That is what he is talking about in Galatians.

Come back to Galatians, chapter 6. That involvement with one another in the positive sense, that concern for one another, that harmony in helping all parts to work together. You know if I have a problem in a part of my body I don’t decide to just discard that part. I really want to work to help that part of the body function as it should. We do that. We have programs for the physical body for rehabilitation. If part of the body gets injured in one way or another to help all the rest of the body to come and help that part of the body to get back to normal. Nobody is going to say, “Lord, I couldn’t understand that. It was so complicated.” He puts it before us in a way that is clear.

So in chapter 6 of Galatians the first ten verses here focus on that very subject, our individual responsibility to God, our accountability to God, our responsibility and accountability to one another so that God will be pleased and the body will develop as it should.

Now when you put these things together there can be tension. We come as individuals. We are saved by God’s grace individually and placed in the body according to His purpose and plan and there can be tensions. We have different personalities. We have different likes and dislikes and at times sometimes a part of the body gets out of step, doesn’t function as it should. All of that works to create tension and Paul is not only concerned about doctrinal purity in the church but he is concerned about the personal harmony of the members of the body of Christ. That word we translate it ‘one another.’ We have done studies. Some of you have been involved and done studies on the one another’s of the New Testament.

Just look in this section. Come back to chapter 5, verse 13. Paul has this stress on one another. In chapter 5, verse 13: “You were called to freedom brethren only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh but through love serve one another.” So in love in our love for one another as family members, God’s family we desire to serve one another, do what is best for others.

Down in verse 15: “Contrary to love, if you bite and devour one another take care that you are not consumed by one another.” That is not the way we ought to function in our relationship with one another. That is destructive. That is harmful. I mean I don’t take a hammer and put my left hand down and in the right hand take the hammer and beat my left hand. You say, “What in the world, there is something wrong.” That is the kind of picture here. You know you don’t say I am hungry, I think I will eat my fingers. I don’t think so. You bite and devour. You consume one another.

Verse 26: “Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.” You see that emphasis on one another and these things that are so obviously contrary to what you would expect.

Then you come down to chapter 6, verse 2: “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” You will note the first and last of these are consistent. Chapter 5, verse 13: “Through love serve one another.” Down in chapter 6, verse 2: “Bear one another’s burdens.” If in love you are serving one another you are ready to bear that other believer’s burdens when it is necessary. Those intervening, verse 15 and verse 26 are things that are contrary to love, contrary to functioning as we should.

Let me review with you what we have done in the opening two verses. So if we walk through these, these are the summary points from the last time.

1 – Believers are members of God’s family. We are brethren. That is how we started out. He has to remind them and we looked at the numerous uses of this word and noticed Paul had to deal firmly with this church. He has to keep reminding them, You are brethren, you are brethren. You deal with the false doctrine together in standing against it. You help one another in the trials and difficulties and personal failures together. Believers are member of God’s family.

2 - He has talked about the fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh at the end of chapter 5 but in spite of the work of the Spirit believers do get caught in sin. That is what he talked about. “If anyone is caught in a trespass.” It is not necessary that we sin but the fact is we do. “There is not a just man upon the face of the earth who always does good and never sins” the book of Ecclesiastes tells us. James tells us “if we didn’t sin with the tongue we would have arrived at perfection but we all stumble in many ways” James said.

3 – When a believer does get caught in sin, believers must help restore those who sin. That is a part of the body. Something has happened. It is not functioning as it should. The body comes together to help that part, to restore it, to put it back in working order, to bring it back to harmony with the rest of the body. In this case, spiritually, in the relationship with Christ. We must help restore those. We noted these are given as commands.

4 – Believers must be gentle in restoring the sinner. We restore them with a spirit of gentleness. We don’t come in with that harshness that we are superior, we are better, we are the unfailing ones who help the failing ones. There is a spirit of gentleness, kindness. It comes out of our love. The goal is not to beat them down but to help them up like we do in our family when our children have difficulties and struggles. Our desire is to help get them back to where they should be.

5 – Believers must be careful in restoring others. Be careful that you yourself are not tempted in light of the context. Particularly what he is talking about – we could be tempted to arrogance and pride in dealing with them. I am here to help you. Of course I have never sinned like you do but I am here to be available to help you. That kind of attitude doesn’t help. It doesn’t restore so we have to be careful of ourselves. We will see more of this as we move along through this section.

6 – Believers must bear one another’s burdens. That is verse 2, “Bear one another’s burdens.” That is not a suggestion. That is a command. Restoring them means we step in to help them. That is what the rest of the body does. It compensates like our physical body does. The heart moves in to help so that the body can continue to function until that part gets restored as it should be.

So we bear one another’s burdens. We are not looking for a way to avoid helping them. What can I do? How could I be a help here? This is part of serving one another in love as we saw in chapter 5, verse 13. How could I help here? What could I do to be a positive influence here?

Lastly, obedience to Christ requires this. The end of verse 2: “You bear one another’s burdens and thereby you fulfill the law of Christ.” We are not under the Law of Moses but Christ is our authority. That would include like in John chapter 13, “A new commandment I give you that you love one another even as I have loved you.” And that would be part of what is going on here. To be obedient to Christ, I have no other choice. I don’t feel like getting involved in helping restoring this person. I have enough things of my own. I don’t feel like bearing their burdens. This is their trouble. They shouldn’t have gotten themselves into it. I guess they will have to get themselves out of it. Now I have a problem with Christ. In effect I am telling Him “I am not going to do what You told me to do.” So we have looked at those things.

Let’s move into chapter 6 a little further. What Paul is doing in verses 3-5 as you might think because verse 3 begins with that preposition ‘for.’ So it connects to what he has been talking about. He is going to continue to stress our responsibility to others in the body and our own personal accountability to God and they are intertwined and I keep those two things in mind.

So he says in verse 3: “For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” This connects to what he has just been saying that “we bear one another’s burdens and therefore fulfill the law of Christ.” We are responsible to restore someone who has been caught in a trespass, in sin and being careful we don’t get tempted.

You know one of the things that can happen is, as we talked about, someone sins and if we don’t handle it Biblically we end up sinning ourselves and that is what he is warning about. Verse 3: “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself.” I have to be careful of my attitude in this that I become the judge instead of the helper. I’d rather become the one who is not in love looking how I can be used to restore this person. I become the judge on looking at them.

Looking now at something I wrote on this passage, it has been almost 20 years ago. The point is that conceit and spiritual pride are what prevent us from bearing the burdens of others. Spiritual pride causes us to look down on those who have fallen and thus keep us from having the loving concern which would make us willing and desirous of bearing their burdens. Pride always causes a person to look with contempt on those we view as weak or inferior. This leads us to an unwillingness to be a burden bearer because we can always see why their burdens are their own fault. If they had been wise and careful and spiritual as we are, they wouldn’t be in the predicament. Our view of ourselves is viewed in our contact toward others. That doesn’t mean the sin that this other believer has committed is not serious. Of course it is, but my responding in sin to someone else’s sin is just as serious if not more serious.

So we want to be careful that when God puts us in a position to be used by Him that we don’t reject that. I remind you, there are three parties involved. We talked about this recently. There is the person who sins and they need to be rebuked and then he has to repent. There is the person who is sinned against. Their responsibility is to forgive. And then there are the rest of us whose responsibility is to gossip about it. You say, “That doesn’t sound right.” He is to what? Restore. So where do I fit into this and I sometimes have talked to people about this. How do you fit into this? Are you the one who sinned? Are you the one who was sinned against? Well I am not either one of those. Are you just a nosy neighbor? Are you looking for opportunity to restore?

We want to be careful that we understand what our responsibility is. You know I say, I wrote what I read you almost 20 years ago but things don’t change. You know we have a serious issue even in a Bible believing church. This is the Word of God. We would die for this book. It is the inspired Word of God. We believe in the verbal inspiration of Scripture. We believe we ought to interpret it accurately, carefully, diligently. Then God puts us into a position to implement His Word in a situation and we decide I don’t think I will do it. Everything else becomes irrelevant. What good is it to say it is the Word of God and I want to interpret it accurately but I am not going to do what it says? Well I am no better off than the person who denies it is God’s Word, who doesn’t take any care in interpreting it correctly because if I am not going to do what it says what good is it to me?

Sometimes I fail to appreciate the situation that I am in. What someone else has done, I have to be careful. I have to consider what is my responsibility? I get taken up in what I think someone else’s responsibility is. I can share with them what God says their responsibility is. If you have sinned, you need to repent. If you have been sinned against and they have repented, you need to forgive. I can share what God says their responsibility is but the pressure on me is to fulfill my responsibility. If I am not involved in the first two groups, I guess I am the third. How can I help? What can I do to be involved in restoration? I want to be careful that according to verse 3: “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing.”

Now we take this in context. Sometimes we think, “I am what I am.” How? Why? Because I never was as bad as that other person. I am not that terrible a sinner. I am not that bad of a person and sometimes we begin to think of ourselves on the saving side of grace but with the same attitude as the person on the unsaved side of grace. They don’t see themselves as sinful enough to need salvation. I am not perfect but I don’t think I am bad enough to go to hell and then when we get saved pretty soon we may think, “Well I have been saved by grace but I never was as bad as some of these people.” You know I have to be careful that my thinking is shaped consistently by Scripture.

Paul said in I Corinthians chapter 15, verse 10: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” What would I be apart from the grace of God? Apart from His grace, I am nothing. So if I begin to think of myself as better than this person that would be true. The problem in the context here is am I going to help to restore a person, bear their burdens, am I not? There is never any excuse for sin but I step back and I am not ready to help them because I have become their judge. You stumble. There is no excuse for you to stumble. You shouldn’t have sinned. We agree on that but you have. Have you dealt with it before the Lord? Have you stopped the sin? Great, how can I help? I just want to encourage you. I want to help bear the burden that is involved because when you sin we all know this. There is a recovery point. It is like if something goes wrong in part of your body. We’ve got to get it right again, help get it back to working condition. I just want to be a help here. If that is not your attitude, then you are thinking you are something when you are nothing.

I have to remind myself, “Father, what would I be apart from Your grace?” If I look at somebody who sins and just shake my head, I think it is sad to see a believer sin. It is sad, it is disappointing but I have to be careful of my attitude here so I don’t think of myself as something. That is what Paul was saying. “I am what I am by the grace of God.” So He gets all the glory, all the credit. It’s not because I am less of a sinner than you are because in my heart, as we have talked about, I am every bit as hopelessly lost and worthless apart from His grace.

“If anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing he deceives himself.” There is delusion going on. I am deluding myself. This is serious business when now I am deluding myself with spiritual pride and arrogance. I am no longer seeing myself as God sees me so I can’t be effective in being used of Him in the situation that He has put me where I should be used of Him to accomplish what He wants to do. We want to be careful that we miss the very opportunity God has given us to be used of Him because we have decided that it is not what we are going to do and we come up with the excuses for not doing what He wants us to do.

Often we decide we are the judge, not the restorer and we are not ready to be used in that way and we provide all kinds of excuses. We talked about these: I don’t think they have suffered enough, I don’t think they really were serious in repenting. I have to obey Him. I don’t replace Him. I become an instrument He uses. He has told me what to do. I don’t want to delude myself with my spiritual arrogance. I pride myself in being so spiritual that instead of restoring someone I withdraw from that because I wouldn’t want to be around them and I pride myself, I take a serious view of sin.

I want to be serious about sin. I want to be just as serious about grace and I want to be most serious about my responsibility to do what God tells me. You must restore him. You must bear their burden and thus you are in obedience. Don’t deceive or delude yourself.

The Bible is full of warnings to believers about spiritual conceit. Come back to Romans chapter 12. Look at verse 3: “Through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you” (he is writing to believers, church at Rome) “not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think;” in the context of spiritual gifts here but that problem. Even the good things God has done for me and the way He can choose to use me, I can twist that and it becomes an occasion for spiritual pride. The gift that is a charismata, a gift of grace becomes an occasion of pride, an opportunity to be in a position to be used of God to help restore a sinning believer and helping to bear their burden to get them right again, to become an occasion of spiritual pride. “Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to” but have sound judgment. That doesn’t mean, “oh I am nothing. I couldn’t be a help. I couldn’t be used of the Lord in that. I am not perfect myself. How could I help them?” You have sound judgment. I don’t say, “Oh well, you know I don’t think I have anything to offer to the body.” God said He has given me a gift so it is not spiritual humility to say, “Oh, I don’t have anything to contribute.” Aren’t you saved? Maybe you need to get saved and then He will gift you. Oh, I know I am saved. Well then, why would you deny that you have something to contribute? It is true in every case. I have to be careful I have a proper perspective. This is where he is going further in Galatians chapter 6

Come down in Romans chapter 12, down to verse 10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor.” You see in the context of the love, the recognizing the importance of this fellow believer. It is just like your children. They are precious to you, each one. And as we saw in our previous study back in Matthew 18, the emphasis on each of these of God’s little ones is precious to Him. So brotherly love, honoring one another.

Down in verse 16: “Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind. Associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.” Sad that God has to remind me of that. What would I be apart from His grace and yet He has to have Paul write under the direction of the Spirit, “Do not be wise in your own estimation.” And we all if we are honest acknowledge how easy, even if we don’t express it, we think it and we sort of elevate ourselves when we look at another believer and say, “Oh, I am glad I am not like them, glad I am not like that.”

Come over to Philippians chapter 2, verse 1: “If there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit.” This fellowship that has been produced by the Spirit. Remember we were all placed into the body by one Spirit. That binds us together. “If any affection and compassion make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one person;” that unity and harmony. It is God’s intention. He didn’t bring us together in a relationship with oneness with Himself and one another so we could bite and devour one another. “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,” empty conceit. When you think yourself something when you are nothing you deceive yourself. That is empty conceit. I mean it is not founded in reality.

You know we ought to have written on the inside of your forehead so we see it all the time. I am what I am by the grace of God. “But with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourself.” Now if I keep that attitude, what I have a fellow believer caught in a trespass and I view them as more important than me, I want to do whatever I can to help them, restore them, bear their burdens. They are so important to us as a body, to me in my growth. How can I help? What can I do? I have to be used of You Lord to get them restored.

So “Regard one another as more important than yourself.” It is the opposite you know of selfishness and empty conceit. It is true humility of mind. Not that false humility, “Oh, I am not that important. I know I don’t have much to contribute.” Well then get right with the Lord and you will be amazed how much you have to contribute. That is what He is saying, “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests but for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourself which was in Christ Jesus as though He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He emptied Himself, took the form of a bond servant made in the likeness of men being found in appearance of men He humbled Himself, become obedient to be point of death even the death of the cross.” Why did He do that? What did He have to benefit from that? He was doing it for me, for you and we are to have that kind of attitude.

How sad it is, how contrary to Christ we can be and yet with some kind of twisted thinking we are proud we are like we are. Where in the world, what did Christ do? He humbled Himself. What could He do to help me who was so undeserving, unworthy? And He did it. Now what is the Spirit of God saying? What is God saying to us? You be like Christ. Well, I don’t think that person is deserving of this. Well if Christ had only done it for people who are deserving we would all be on our way where? Not to heaven. So “He humbled Himself and in due time God exalted Him” and ultimately every knee will bow.

So the end of verse, down to verse 12: “So then my beloved just as you have always obeyed not in My presence only but now much more in My absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” And oh, that next verse: “Do all things without grumbling” or disputing “so that you will approve yourselves to be blameless and innocent.” If I work so hard on myself to apply myself to be all and everything God says I must be and functioning that way in my relationship with you, I probably won’t have a lot of time to be your critic, to be grumbling about this, to be disputing about this. We are demonstrating we are children of God, lights shining in the darkness.

Come back to Galatians. Look at verse 4. Verse 3: “If you think you are something when you are nothing you deceive yourself but each one must examine his own work. Then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another.” And we want to take this in context. “Each one must examine his own work.” You know where we get into trouble, examining someone else’s work. That is the problem here, right? What is he saying, “Each one must examine his own work.” The problem comes when I get involved examining your work. Sometimes believers have a hard time getting off that track. They are the examiner and the judge of other people. They keep a record of what someone else is doing or not doing and they get absorbed with this. Where do you go with it? “Each one must examine,” must be examining. It is imperative. It is a command in the presence tense, deigmatizo. You put something to the test that it might be evaluated and be demonstrated to be genuine.

You understand, I want to see if I am passing the test in the context in which God has put me. We think it is a test for this other person. In this context we are talking about someone caught in a trespass and I am to restore them and I am to bear the burden. Now I want to examine my own work here. Have I been an instrument in helping restore them? Have I been one who helps bear their burden? I am supposed to be examining my own work here.

I tell you I get so sick and tired of believers who want to think God appointed them to be the examiner of someone else and it is not that I am capable of falling into that too. It doesn’t mean we don’t deal with sin. It is this attitude that our job is to sit in judgment and evaluate and examine. He said, “Put your own work to the test.” I say, “Well you know what I think about the one caught in a trespass,” and I think this and I think that. I have to examine myself. How did I do? What did I contribute to restoring? How did I help to bear the burden that would enable them to recover more quickly, more fully? “Each one must,” is required to “examine his own work.” So I have to say, “How did I do?” What is the command given here? “You must restore” in verse 1. “You must bear one another’s burdens” in verse 2. You must be careful to not be thinking too highly of yourself.

Now examine yourselves. You must examine yourself, put yourself to the test. Your work, how did I handle this? And you know I find out I may be one caught in a trespass just like I was so caught up with this other person’s trespass, why? I didn’t do what He told me to do. And I have sinned by being proud that I didn’t sin like the person that I am so critical of.

I think, how confused can I get? I sin and in my sin I am proud that I didn’t sin like you sinned. Does that make any sense to anybody? Don’t raise your hand. You know how we delude and deceive ourselves. The end of verse 3, we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are spiritual, we are godly and we are not like that but if I examine my own actions here, I didn’t do what God commanded me to do. I wasn’t involved in restoring that person. I was involved in being the critic and tearing that person down. I didn’t help bear their burden. I was piling stuff on the burden, make it worse and then I sit back and say, “Thank You Lord that I am not like other men. I obviously have not sinned like that.

Examine it in the context. “You must examine your own work,” what you are doing, how are you are doing and you will note “Each one,” each one. It is an emphasis on this is an individual personal matter. “Each one must examine” not his brother’s work, his own work. That doesn’t mean we are blind to sin but now, here we are.

My first thought is what is my responsibility here? Otherwise I get so absorbed in what you are doing wrong and trying to figure out why you would do it and trying to decide whether I think and … wait a minute, first off, me. “Each one must examine his own work.” That word ‘examine, put myself to the test, what I have done, how I have dealt with it, how I acted, did I pass? If I failed that is sin. It means I didn’t do what God told me to do. Isn’t that what sin is? It is going to be a trespass according to verse 1. I was caught in a trespass. I got caught and was tempted by that person’s sin. It became an occasion for me to sin because I didn’t handle it right. It is amazing what goes on.

Before we go further I want to take you back to some verses in Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 16. Let’s read some and I just limited it to some close passages here. Some of you follow the pattern of reading one chapter of Proverbs a day, good discipline. This is a practical book that gives you guidelines for everyday life but Proverbs chapter 16. Look at verse 27. “A worthless man digs up evil while his words are like a scorching fire. A perverse man stirs up strife and a slanderer separates intimate friends.” You see if I don’t handle this right, it can become an occasion of sin. When a fellow believer sins we what? We come together to restore, to bear the burden. Gossip, I tell you I have had people say you get a group of believers together and it becomes a gossip center. That is sin.

Look over in chapter 17, verse 4: “An evil doer listens to wicked lips. A liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.” I want to say two things. This tongue right here, if you listen to this when a person is lying and telling slander, you know it is no better to give my ear to the devil than it is to give my tongue to the devil. It is an evil doer who listens to wicked lips. Why am I listening to what is wicked if I am righteous. I don’t want to hear that. I am not open to hear it.

You know, let’s be honest. You turn on the TV to find out what? What is the latest dirt they have dug up? You get on one channel and you can hear the dirt about this side. You get the other channel and you get the dirt about this side and you know you expect that in the world. And if they can find something that they think will pull somebody down, let’s get it out there. They end up being a lie but at least it worked for a while. Pretty soon we turn on just to hear the evil there might be and that goes on in the church. “Well I heard something. I don’t know how true this is but.” Or somebody just prints it and sets it out there as true whether there is any truth to it or not. Don’t listen to it. You don’t want to be the worthless person who digs up evil and you don’t want to be the evildoer who listens to the worthless person.

It is repeated down in verse 9. It gives you another side before we repeat it. “He who conceals a transgression seeks love. He who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.” Down to verse 17: “A friend loves at all times. A brother is born to adversity.” Wouldn’t that fit what we just read? “A friend loves at all times.” We talk about love. We serve one another. A brother is born for adversity. We don’t pile on to make it worse. We come in to lift the burden.

Come over to chapter 18. I will leave out some of this. Chapter 18, verse 8: “The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsel. They go down into the inner most parts of the body.” Don’t listen. There are people I don’t want anything to do with. I don’t want to talk to them. I don’t want to hear from them. They have put thoughts in my mind and it will get down there and I think I can handle it. I sift it out. I know what they are saying is not true and lo and behold, then something comes up, and what they told me comes back to mind and I think, hmmm. Maybe there was something to that. Don’t listen to this.

Now how does this stuff go on and the internet makes it worse. Now you can put anything you want out there and you can lie and slander and say whatever. What kind of person are you that reads it, not only the person that puts it out there, the person who pays attention.

Chapter 19, verse 5: “A false witness will not go unpunished and he who tells lies will not escape;” same thing in verse 9 of chapter 19. Come down to verse 28. I like this word, “a rascally witness.” There are not too many times that word is the word used, “a rascally witness.” “Makes mockery of justice and the mouth of the wicked spreads iniquity.”

Chapter 20, verse 19: “He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets. Therefore do not associate with a gossip.” Well how will I know what is going on? You know I want to hear what they have to say and then I can sort it out. Well God is either right or you are. What does he say, “Don’t associate with a gossip.” If you are around professing believers who gossip you have to be bold and you have to say, “I would appreciate it if you don’t talk about those things when I am around. Not because I am better than you are but because I am just like you are and it might influence me. It is sin. I don’t want to listen to sinful things.” If they want a verse quote Proverbs chapter 20, verse 19.

Chapter 22 and then we will be done here. Chapter 22, verse 10: “Drive out the scoffer and contention will go. Even strife and dishonor will cease.” Rather simple isn’t it? You know that is how sin multiplies. You sin and I become the judge and instead of wanting to help, you deal with it and get over it and get restored I become the person who “And oh yes, I know this about it and I have this and I have that” and all of a sudden sin multiplies.

You have to come back to Galatians and on your way stop at James. You didn’t know James was on the way to Galatians did you? All the way to the back, James chapter 3. What we have just read about the tongue in Proverbs James says it, warning about being many teachers. Verse 2 “We all stumble in many ways.” So we all can be ready to help one another. I may not have sinned like you but I haven’t led a perfect life. That doesn’t excuse sin but I want you to be understanding and help me. I don’t want to live in sin and where I need to deal with it and I need others to come along and carry me through, I hope you do it. “If anyone does not stumble in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body.” Then he uses an example of small things that have great impact. Down in verse 5: “The tongue is a small part of the body. It boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire and the tongue is a fire, the world of iniquity.”

You know we categorize sin but we rarely put the tongue up at the top or near the top. Someone gossips and slanders and all the things the book of Proverbs was condemning become acceptable. “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity” and note that, “It is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body.” When you sin with your tongue, you have defiled yourself. “It sets on fire the course of life. It is set on fire by hell.” It doesn’t get any more serious than this.

The devil lights a match to my tongue. That little fire is like a forest fire. Then I go out with that tongue and, boy, I am spreading it out and all of a sudden it’s like we see with some of the fires on the coast. You know, it just consumes everything. How did it get there? It started; somebody didn’t distinguish a match. They didn’t put out a little fire. All of a sudden it is consuming everything.

You know what happens? Sometimes we deal with sin like that. We don’t deal with it Biblically and we turn it into a fire storm. That is what he is saying. And verse 8: “No one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil. It is full of deadly poison and with it we bless our Lord and Father with it and we curse men. We have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren” (here’s our word) “these things ought not to be this way.” And he uses an example. “Can a fountain spread out both fresh and bitter water? Does a tree produce good fruit and bad fruit?” Something is wrong. Well what’s this got to do with it?

Come back to Galatians, chapter 6. What it has to do with it, this is what happens when we don’t function Biblically when someone sins we are to get involved and see it is a restoration we want to get involved in. It is a burden bearing job we want to get in. We turn loose the tongue and all of a sudden that particular sin is minor with the effect and impact that is being created by us using that as an excuse to light fires all over and create a bonfire burning the church down or whatever.

You know there is no excuse for me not functioning like Christ tells me to function. I can’t control how you function. You can’t control how I function but “We must each examine our own work Then he will have reason for boasting in regard to him who himself alone not in regard to another.”

It is this idea. If I can show myself your spiritual superior then I can boast that I am better than you are. The only reason I will have to boast is what God has done in my life and that is not self-boasting. I boast about the God that I serve and there are passages here we don’t have time to go to. We will pick up next time.

You know we don’t want to be like Luke chapter 18, verse 11, that very religious Pharisee. “God I thank you that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers or even like this tax gatherer.” That is what he is talking about. If I compare myself to someone else then I am boasting. I am more righteous than they are. I am more godly than them. I thank You Lord that I am more holy than that. I boast in the Lord. I am what I am by the grace of God. It is His grace that has sustained me, that has kept me and in my stumbles He has picked me up and the blood of His Son keeps on cleansing me.

“Each one will bear his own load,” and that future tense. When we stand before God we will be judged before Him with a personal accountability. That word “Load” here is different than he talks about up in verse 2. In other words a reminder, we are encouraged to bear one another’s burdens but when it comes down, my personal responsibility and accountability will be for myself. It won’t be “Gil, how did you do in comparison to so and so? Well Gil you did better than them.” No, “how did you do with the grace I gave to you, with the grace I bestowed upon you.” “Well Lord You know what they…” Each one will bear his own load. We stand before the Bema seat of Christ. I won’t be standing there looking - “I hope He compares me to – it will be me.” What I did, how I did with the gift of His grace to me, with the opportunities given to me. In this context how did I respond to that? “Oh Lord, I was glad I wasn’t a sinner like that.” “Well I put you there to help restore that person. I put you there to help bear that burden.” “Oh Lord, I was so taken up with how terrible I thought it was that they would do that. I guess I didn’t do what you told me.” Do you want to be there with that kind of response to God? I don’t think so.

We go through these passages. We fold up our Bible and say, “Oh yes, that was good.” On we go. A situation comes up and it is like we never heard it.

Alright let’s close. I am going to do some review points with you quickly. We will put these up.

1. Love moves us to serve one another. I took it back to where we reviewed in chapter 5, verse 13: “Through love serve one another.” That is simple, do it.

2. Christ requires us to bear one another’s burdens. That was the command in verse 2. You can’t honor Him without doing it. You can’t obey Him without doing it.

3. Arrogance keeps us from bearing one another’s burdens. That was verse 3. We think we are something but we are nothing in and of ourselves. We just delude ourselves in thinking we are better than them because we never did that particular sin.

4. We must examine our own work, put our own work and actions to the test.

5. We glory in God’s work in us, not in comparing ourselves to others, verse 4. We have reason for boasting in regard to self alone, not in regards to another. I thank God for what He has done in my life. That is my boast, God’s work in me, God’s grace in gifting me, God’s grace in enabling me to be used and helping restore one of His fallen little ones and helping bear their burden. Thank You Lord for giving me the privilege of being used of You in that, that which was important to You. That which You placed me there so I could be used by You to accomplish Your work. I boast in that. What a blessing God brought to my life was to put me in a place where I could be used by Him in that person’s life. We glory in God’s work in us not in comparing ourselves in that negative way to others.

6. And lastly verse 5: “We will be accountable for ourselves before the Lord.” That is an awesome thought. We don’t want to forget it. When I stand there it will be my accountability. I will give an account for myself, how I have obeyed, how I have honored Him, how I have been quick to be ready to be used of Him and we all want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your Word, for its riches and Lord we do acknowledge we easily move through passages. We think we have learned them but then when given opportunity to put them into practice, we sometimes stumble, we fail and Lord what can we say? We even become proud in our failure as we compare ourselves to others. Lord we want to take these truths to heart. Lord we want to grow and be mature and not make the same mistakes over and over, not fail again and again but Lord to become more consistent in the manifesting of Your character and carrying out Your will for us. May that be true of us in the days of the week before us we pray in Christ’s name, amen.