Restoration and Burden Bearing

Transcript

GR 2111
02/11/2018
Restoration and Burden Bearing
Galatians 6:1-2
Gil Rugh

We are in the book of Galatians together and we come to the sixth chapter. As you are aware in what we call the book of our New Testament where we are looking at these letters and this was Paul’s letter to the churches in the region of Galatia but we appreciate the fact that God in His providence had them arranged for us in chapters and verses which makes it much easier for us to make our way through but we don’t want to lose our perspective that these were letters. They are written as letters. They are not necessarily organized like you would if you were sitting down and putting together a theological book but there is a flow to them as the Spirit directed.

When we come into chapter 5, Paul as he has been dealing with the whole issue of the finality of the work of Christ and the completeness of the Gospel, not only for our justification through faith in Christ but for a life of sanctification and those false teachers who were trying to turn the Galatian believers over to the law as an addition to Christ to make them more complet, Paul is correcting that error. It is not part of God’s plan for salvation. It is not part of God’s plan for sanctification. That is still an issue in the church of Jesus Christ today as many promote the Mosaic Law as necessary for our sanctification.

The first 12 verses of chapter 5 Paul set forth that “We have been set free in Christ” and you can’t reject that freedom and subject yourself to the bondage of the law. That would be totally contradictory and you see something of his concern and frustration in verse 7: “You were running well. Who hindered you from believing the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who called you.” This is not part of God’s work in your life. You have allowed influences contrary to God’s will and God’s work to influence you but don’t misunderstand. Freedom from any obligations to the Mosaic Law does not mean freedom to do what you please so verses 13 to 18 emphasize that God’s provision for us is to live under the authority and control of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

So being free from the Mosaic Law and obligation to the Mosaic Law does not mean we are lawless, that we are without authority in our lives but rather we live now under the authority and control of the Holy Spirit.

So verse 13: “You were called to freedom, brethren; only don’t turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.” This is an opportunity to exercise love in serving one another.

Verse 16: “Walk by the Spirit and you won’t carry out the desire of the flesh.” There is a solution not to try to implement the Mosaic Law to be sure you won’t do wrong things, sinful things, walk by the Spirit. If you are walking under the control and direction of the Holy Spirit then you won’t fulfill the sinful desires of the flesh, the old man, the old nature and there is a conflict there as he mentions in verse 17: “But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law,” verse 18. And then he drew the contrast giving examples of how the flesh manifests itself showing things that ought not to be characteristic of a believer’s life but they manifest the fact that we were not walking by the Spirit. We are not allowing the Spirit to and it is not a complete list but verse 19 called them “the deeds or the works of the flesh which are evident.” There is no doubt that these are contrary to God’s will for us, contrary to God’s character which is being produced in us by the Spirit

And the end of verse 21, a warning, if these things are characteristic of your life you are not really a child of God and you are not destined to be a part of the kingdom that He will establish one day. You will not inherit that kingdom.

In contrast we looked at the fruit of the Spirit in verses 22 and 23. That is the character of God manifest in us. So it is not like, well it is subjective. It is how you feel and we sometimes get to that. Well, you know I feel all right with my relationship with the Lord. Well if the works of the flesh are being manifest there, you shouldn’t feel alright and He is going to deal with that. If that conduct is evident in your life, it has to be dealt with by you and other believers have to help with the dealing of that but the beauty of God’s character is what should be being produced in us.

The enablement for this, verse 24: “those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” That doesn’t mean that the flesh, the old nature, the old man, however you want to term it no longer exists but as Romans 6 makes clear, its power and authority over us has been broken.

The unbeliever is enslaved to sin. We were before we were set free in Christ but now that we are identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection we have been raised to new life as again Romans 6 develops it much more fully. So we have been set free from slavery to sin and sinful passions and desires. So “we have been made alive by the Spirit,” verse 25 and if “we live by the Spirit let us walk by the Spirit.” We sometimes make this association, “well yes, we are justified by faith but it is important now for us to have the Mosaic Law as a way of life.” Sometimes identified with present day reformed theology which is contrary to what he is saying here. “We were made alive by the Spirit” and that is now how we live. And if you are living under the control of the Spirit, why would you need the Mosaic Law? What would that bring to your life? We are to walk by the Spirit.

Remember that word ‘walk’ is not the normal one translated but it means to keep in step with the Spirit, stay in line, keep in step. I say that because that is going to come up as we move into chapter 6. And then the warning, “Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.” And that sort of bracket of what we have going to talk about because if you jump down to chapter 6, verse 3: “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself.” So you see this concern that believers don’t have an accurate self-evaluation in light of the Scripture and are not conducting themselves properly together.

So he begins chapter 6 as we have it, chapter 6 verses 1-10 are going to give some concrete instructions of what it means to “walk by the Spirit,” keeping in step with the Spirit, having Him direct and control our lives.

He starts chapter 6 with “Brethren” and the letter to the Galatians is a harsh letter. Paul has spoken firmly to these believers but his favorite way to address them is “Brethren.” It is an expression with warmth. He identifies himself with them. You know it is sort of like your children when you have to deal sternly with them and rebuke them. At the same time you tell them I love you. I am concerned for you. That is what Paul is conveying, “Brethren.”

Come back, just look at how many times he does this in chapter 1 of Galatians. After the words, verse 6, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ.” Rather blunt, firm, direct. He says in verse 11: “For I would have you know brethren.” Identify with you, we are God’s family. We are spiritual family, relatives. We are connected to one another. That is why I call you “my brethren.”

Come over to chapter 3, verse 15: “Brethren, I speak in terms of human relation.” Again that reminder. He opened this chapter as we have it with calling them, “You foolish Galatians who has bewitched you?” Doesn’t mean he is stepping back and cutting off all fellowship and relationship with them, that he sees them at least if not separated from him at a lower level than him. You are my family. You are my brethren. So brethren, I speak in terms on human relations.

Chapter 4, verse 12 and this is after verse 11: “I fear I have labored over you in vain.” This drift if it doesn’t stop would indicate you were never saved. I am concerned. But then he says in verse 12: “I beg of you, brethren.” You see something of the love he has for them and in his heart he believes they have truly trusted Christ. They are truly bound together as God’s children, partakers of the divine nature. “I beg of you brethren.”

Down in verse 28 of chapter 4 and “You brethren, like Isaac are children of promise.” I mean he was encouraging them, building them up. Verse 31: “So then brethren we are not children of the bond woman but of the free woman.” You see how he has made sure that he is connected to them. I am not this spiritual giant talking down to you. I don’t see you in a different category than myself but we are brethren. So even the firm harsh things that he said to them were said out of a love for them. It is like you deal with your family. You may be firm, you may be stern but you are driven by a love and an awareness of we are family, this repeated statement.

Down in chapter 5, verse 11: “But brethren if I still preach circumcision why am I still persecuted?” Then down to verse 13: “You are called to freedom brethren.” I mean you see how many times he has called them brethren.

We note this as a harsh letter and it is. There is no opening greeting. We see there is no closing greetings. It opened rather abruptly and it will close rather abruptly but it is all in love, we are family and I am addressing you as brethren. I don’t address you as one up here and you down here. He has certain authority as an apostle. His message is binding but in his personal relationship we are brethren.

So that is how he starts out here in chapter 6, verse 1: “Brethren.” And now he is going to deal with them in how you have to help family members who may have gotten out of step with the Spirit. “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in a trespass.” So he has talked about what the works of the flesh are. He has talked about the fruits of the Spirit. He has talked about verse 24 of chapter 5: “We have been crucified with Christ;” the passions and desires and then exhorts them, “If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit.” Keep in step with the Spirit.

But the reality of it is, believers do sin; so now if anyone in the family is caught in a trespass, in any trespass how do we deal with it? We don’t want to get confused. We talk about this as a firm letter, even harsh at times but that doesn’t mean we cut off from one another but we are involved with one another as God’s people.

So what do you do with a Christian who sins? We have to get rid of them, no; “If anyone is caught in any trespass;” trespass here mentioned in verse 25 of chapter 5, “Walk by the Spirit” means to keep in line, keep in step with the Spirit. Well this word translated ‘trespass’ literally means to fall out of line, to have a false step. You know it would be like someone marching, like the military and then you have someone who is out of step and here this person is caught in a trespass. He is not in step with the Spirit. He has fallen out of step. He is not walking by the Spirit. That means now he is in an area of rebellion against God.

This word is used often in the New Testament in the sense of transgression or sin and here in the context that is what he is talking about as well. He is caught in any flesh. The flesh has manifested itself, any of these areas that we saw may have been an area where he becomes ensnared, captured by it and tangled in it. What are we to do? “You who are spiritual;” now this is not you who are up here step down to this poor, lower level brother. No brethren you are family. But those who are spiritual are those who are walking by the Spirit. So now you want to reach out to help restore this fallen brethren if you will. So he says, “You who are spiritual,” not meaning you who think of yourself more highly because that where remember you wouldn’t have the chapter division in the letter. You would have verse 26 of chapter 5: “Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”

And a warning in verse 3 of chapter 6 just after the section we are going to be looking at, “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself.” Be careful spiritual arrogance doesn’t set in in this process. It is easy when a fellow believer gets ensnared in sin, gets out of step with the Spirit and you are not out of step with the Spirit, you have to be careful because you can get out of step by not responding properly. That is the warning here. It is what we have to be careful about. “You who are spiritual,” walking in step with the Spirit, “restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness,” restore such a one. Put such a one back in proper order, restore him to his former condition. It means to repair, make complete and this word we have talked about in other contexts.

It was used in medical context of repairing a broken bone. You know if you break a bone they will talk about they had to reset the bone, put it in proper alignment, put it back in right connection, restore it as we have looked on other occasions. It is used a couple of time in the Gospels, Matthew 4:21, Mark 1:19, of fishermen mending their nets. They do. Some of the nets break in places. These need repaired, restored to proper order, workable order. That is the word here.

The point is here that these believers who are walking by the Spirit don’t know just look with disdain on this believer who has gotten out of step, fallen aside, been entrapped in sin. Now they become involved in helping get him back into right relationship with the Lord and also with other believers.

And we ought to note. This is given as a command, “Restore such a one.” It is present imperative. It is a command given in the present tense. This is not optional. If we are walking by the Spirit we will obey what God tells us to do and He gives a command here: “You must be restoring this one caught in sin in a spirit of gentleness.” This is one of the fruits of the Spirit up in verse 23, gentleness. It is to take place with the proper attitude; sensitivity, consideration not with self-righteous superiority as your spiritual superior. I am here to help you. I understand you’re weak and not very mature but I will help you out, that kind of attitude but a spirit of meekness, gentleness, understanding. The goal is restoration here. The goal is to get back in right condition and a warning. “Looking to yourself so that you will not be tempted also.” And there is a breadth to this. We get involved. It could be you might get drawn into the same sin as well but in the context what does he talk about, verse 26 of chapter 5: “Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.” In verse 3: “If anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing he deceives himself” and then he will go on as we see in a future study

So the danger is, we get the wrong attitude even in helping this person. We begin to see ourselves as spiritually better. That is true. We haven’t fallen into their sin but we understand that could happen to me. I am not so spiritually perfected that I would never sin. We have to be careful because in our categorizing of sin we can develop this kind of attitude.

I have believers who have expressed it exactly to me. I know I sin but I never sinned like that. Oh really? Well you just did. Why? We are proud, we are arrogant and we are like the Pharisees. “I thank You Lord that I am not a sinner like others.” And that is what we have to be careful of that we might get tempted in this.

But of course I’m willing to help him. I realize less mature people than me stumble and I am glad to be a help to them. This is really coming at it with an attitude of arrogance, self-righteousness which is entangled me in my own sin. That is why it is a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself that you be not tempted.

This can be a process of restoring a person. It doesn’t just mean you take them aside, you tell them and that is the end of it. There is a process that may get involved here. The goal is restoration.

Chapter 6, verse 1: “Restore such a one.” We don’t want to lose sight of the goal. It is restoration. That is the goal. Not to make them feel bad, not to make them feel inferior, not to make him think he is a second class citizen, not any of this, to restore him. If we lose sight of that we get wandering off here. I am concerned that sometimes we lose sight of that. This may be a process.

Come back to Matthew 18. You see the similar context before we come back and tie it together in Galatians. Matthew 18 and we think of it as church discipline but he is talking about and he uses the comparison. He starts with little children in the first part of chapter 18, “You become converted. You become like children,” that humbleness, meekness when you really have come to recognize I am a sinner and I come to trust Christ. And then he warns about how important, these are God’s little children in the picture here. He transfers from the physical little child to the spiritual picture he wants them to understand.

And down in verse 10: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” Verse 12: “What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go and search for the one that is straying? And if it turns out that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” He is talking here about the spiritual little ones, the brethren. “Your Father in heaven,” you see here now the family connection. We are brethren, why, because we are God’s children. The picture here is one of warmth and love and compassion. “It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” So then we come into verse 15: “If your brother sins,” so we have the similar picture of Galatians, “Brethren if anyone falls into a trespass.” That is the picture here. If your brother sins. Well you see how you enter into this. We are family. This is God’s concern for this little one. That is why we have the command in Galatians 6, the responsibility of those who are walking with the Spirit to act as God’s agents in putting them back together, getting them back into right relationship.

So he comes out of that, because it is not God’s will that they go on and perish, it is God’s will that they be restored. So here you get a fuller development of the restoration that may be involved but the goal is the same thing. It is “not God’s will that they perish so if your brother sins you go and show him his fault in private. If he listens you have won your brother.” So restoring, so this is how we are approaching it. It starts out I want to go and help. You are in sin. He needs to be dealt with. It says, “Go and show him his fault in private.” “Go show him his fault.”

Keep your finger here. Come back to I Timothy 5. There is a continuity in these passages that deal with this kind of subject of how you restore sinning Christians. And we need to know because it is important that we do it God’s way, otherwise we fall into the error we are warned about. Watch out that you are not temped and fail to handle it God’s way. 1 Timothy chapter 5 and here he is dealing with an elder who sins but the principles are the same. You need the same number of witnesses and note verse 20: “Those who continue in sin rebuke.” That word translated ‘rebuke’ is the same word if you will now come back to Matthew 18, verse 15: “Show him his fault.” You have in the margin of your Bible at least in my Bible a little number 2 in front of ‘show.’ And you have reprove. It is the same word, in the same mood. It is an imperative. It is a command given, reprove him, rebuke him, show him his fault and there is a firmness in it. What you are doing is sin. It must stop, “and if listens to you, you have won your brother.” You have what, helped to restore him to right relationship with God and other believers. That is God’s goal. “It is not His will that any of these little ones would perish,” verse 14.

So when they get out of step with the Spirit, His plan is they be restored back to where they should be. God has provided the cleansing for them in Christ. “If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.” But there is a process for restoration. If he doesn’t listen to you, if he does, great. The point is not to try, well first I have to make sure he feels bad enough and if he listens to you and yes, I am in sin. I don’t know how to get out of it.

I have had people come and say, “I am in sin. I don’t know what to do. I can’t get out.” sometimes if you have been a believer long enough you have probably been used of the Lord in that process or maybe somebody has helped you in that way. I want to help you. I want to be there for you. You are not in this alone. We are in a family kind of thing.

If he won’t listen, he’s stubborn, “I’m not going to give up the sin” then “take two or three witnesses with you that it might be confirmed that he understands this is serious business. If he refuses to listen to them tell it to the church.” You get the body involved; the larger family now becomes involved in this. Sometimes you know in situations even with your physical family you get to the point, we are going to have a family conference on this. Everybody, we are going to sit down. We have to talk about this kind of thing.

This is what is going on spiritually here. And then if he won’t, he has to be put out of the family, cut off from the family. Not because now you hate him, now you despise him. You don’t consider him as an enemy but you continue to admonish him as a brother. That is the process.

So when we read “to restore” you get some idea on how do we follow this through? Now the question is “How often do I go through this?” So Peter speaks up and came to them and said, “Lord, how often shall by brother sin against me and I forgive him?” And it becomes personal. You know this is where it can become an issue. Someone sins against me, one sins against you in the body. Well you become aware of that right away. Well the response is not to run and go tell somebody. “You know what they did?” You confront the person about the sin.

Well how often do I go through this process? Whether it is sin against me or I am dealing with a believer’s sin. He said to me, seven times. “Jesus” and you are aware “says ‘I say not to you up to seven times but 70 times seven.’” Then He told the account of a slave who ran up this huge debt against his master. His master forgave him. Then he had a fellow slave who had a minor debt but he wouldn’t forgive him and so Jesus bringing it down to verse 33: “Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way I had mercy on you?” Then he hands them over to the torturers. Verse 35: “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if you do not each one forgive his brother from your heart.”

The point here is for those who have truly become God’s children,we understand and appreciate the magnitude of God’s forgiveness of us. It is overwhelming. The point is no one could ever sin against me as much as I have sinned against God. My life has been a life of sin and rebellion against Him yet He stepped in and forgave me. My sin was so great I deserved an eternal hell and yet He stepped in and forgave me. The point is if you are not forgiving you are not a forgiven person.

We talk about love being the mark of a believer and it is. Jesus said it is but so is forgiveness and an unforgiving believer is an oxymoron. God says if you don’t forgive I won’t forgive you. That is a mark that you have never been forgiven, yet how can I refuse forgiveness to someone no matter what they have done if I understand something of the greatness of God’s forgiveness? That is true even as believers. We can slip and especially if you were blessed by God to be saved at a younger age and by God’s grace you were spared in involvement of some of what we call the horrendous kinds of sins. We tend to play down the others. We can, over time, forget we were just like them.

We have gone to Titus 3. Remember, Paul tells Titus to remind the believers to treat the unbelievers with understanding, graciousness because you were one day just like them. There is something ugly about believers with that disdain toward unbelievers. I don’t even like to be like them. I don’t want to be involved with them in the things they do but I want to have an understanding – I was just like them. I’d be doing what they did. I would be living like they live if it weren’t for the grace of God. I would never have done some of those things. Maybe not but as God looked at your heart, what did He see? A heart that was deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.

So then forgiveness becomes required, 70 times 7. “I don’t think he was sincere in asking for forgiveness.” You know I try to simplify things. We have talked about this in Galatians. We as believers have to be clear on what our responsibility is. We become experts in what other people’s responsibilities are. What is my responsibility here, as Jesus lays it out, when someone sins against me and acknowledges it and wants forgiveness? Forgive them. What if they do it multiple times? I forgive them. “Well I don’t think they are genuine.”

Come over to Luke chapter 17, similar issue. Not the same context as we have in Matthew but it is a similar point he is making. Pick up with verses 3 and 4 for time. “Be on your guard.” Here is something we must be alert to because here is a serious responsibility for us. “Be on your guard. If your brother sins rebuke him.” Same kind of thing we were told. We looked at I Timothy 5 and we are told in Matthew 18. Not the same word but the same point, “Rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I repent’ you will forgive him.” Now that is put here in a firm way and a number of commentators note at the end of the verse, “You will forgive him” or as you have in the margin, “You will forgive him.” That is not a command. You must forgive him. That is a statement of something you will do.

You know it is sort of like with one of your kids. You say “You must clean your room.” That may leave it open. Maybe they won’t but they will have broken what you require. Jesus doesn’t say that. It is sort of like you would say to them, “You will clean your room.” What he is really saying, “No matter what it takes, what has to be done, you are going to do it.” This is what Jesus says. “If he comes to you seven times a day and says ‘I repent’ you will forgive him.” The disciples understand, “Lord, increase our faith.” I mean seven times a day. I sat down to figure this out. If you take out time for eating, for sleeping this means every two hours he is sinning against you. Maybe he even sins against you when you sleep. Maybe every three hours then. You know what you begin to say? You begin to take upon yourself responsibility.

I was reading what someone wrote and talking about repentance, forgiveness. “Of course the doctrine of forgiveness is all important but it is predicated on an accurate doctrine of true repentance.” Now the danger of this is we set ourselves up to what, not concentrate on my responsibility, you will forgive him. I set myself up as a judge. I don’t think his repentance is genuine. So I have made that subjective judgment that God hasn’t entrusted to me and I take that as an excuse for not doing what He tells me I have to do.

I went through to check one of my studies. The word ‘repent’ or ‘repentance,’ the noun and the verb form for repent or repentance is used 56 times in the New Testament. I could not find one place where it says my responsibility is to be sure someone else’s repentance is genuine. Now it is true before God He is looking at the heart but I need to be careful that I fulfill the responsibility He has placed on me. I don’t try to take God’s responsibility on myself. Jesus said, “If he comes to you seven times a day saying, ‘I repent,’ you will forgive him.” My reaction was “Lord, after about the third time I have serious concerns about the genuineness of his repentance. And if the repentance is not genuine then you can’t expect me to be forgiving.”

Now you see what has happened. I have created an excuse to justify for myself not doing what God says my responsibility is.
I look at it like this. When sin happens there are three parties involved ultimately. There is the person who sins. Their responsibility is to stop the sin, repent, turn from it, make it right. There is the person who is sinned against or is aware of the sin perhaps. Either way you have to rebuke the person, confront them for their sin and if they repent, you forgive them. And then there is everybody else whose responsibility is to be involved in restoration in way or another. I wasn’t the person who sinned. I wasn’t the person sinned against. I am just an observer. How can I help? What can I do?

Now when we lose perspective, you know what happens? We become those who justify themselves for not doing what God says to do. How am I going to stand before the Lord in light of Matthew 18, in light of Luke 17, in light of Galatians 6:1 and say, “Well, why didn’t you forgive them?” Well Lord, 490 times. Anybody with common sense knows that their repentance wasn’t genuine. Seven times in one day? Lord, I have common sense. I knew it wasn’t genuine.” How am I going to answer when the Lord says, “I didn’t tell you to evaluate whether it was genuine. I didn’t tell you ‘if it is genuine you will forgive them.’ I told you – you will forgive them.” “Well.” “Why didn’t you do what I told you?” “Well I thought if they did it seven times a day it wasn’t genuine.” “I didn’t tell you to think about that. I didn’t tell you to evaluate it.” Galatians 6:1 we have to restore this person.

There is no excuse for me not doing what I should do. Now if I am the one who sins I should be rebuked or corrected and if I say, “There are times when people say, ‘you know, I repent. It is sin. I want to stop it. I want to get right with the Lord.’” There are times when I think, “I really wonder if they are genuine?”

There are occasions when the board has dealt with people and it comes into the process. A person on more than one occasion, the week I was going to announce to the congregation they sinned, they came in. “Oh, it is sin. I repent. I want to get right with the Lord.” Alright, we won’t – you wonder – did they do it just to avoid it? That person later ends up back, came to the same point. I can’t tell. Sometimes those I thought who weren’t genuine ended up being by the pattern of their life afterwards to demonstrate that they were genuine. Sometimes it seemed that those who seemed the most genuine were just looking for a way out. You know, “Yes, I repent. I am going to deal with it.” All they were looking for was so they didn’t get disciplined. A month later we get a letter in the mail. We have left the church. Please take our name off the role. Well, that is so you can’t discipline me.

I can’t control those things. I can only do what the Lord tells me to do. I get concerned. So many times it seems like we just lose our way and I have to stop and think, “Lord, in this, what is my responsibility? If I am the one who sinned, I am responsible to make it right. I take the rebuke. I want to correct it.” But this idea, of course there is forgiveness but it is dependent upon true repentance. That is true when God looks at a heart but that doesn’t change my responsibility. “Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him, seven times?” God didn’t tell Peter, “Well Peter first you have to be sure the repentance is genuine.” Who am I to insert this into God’s Word? He simply says, “You don’t forgive him seven times. You do it seventy times seven and furthermore if you don’t, God won’t forgive you. You are on your way to hell.” Oh! But my responsibility to be clear, seven times a day. He says “I repent.” You will forgive him. Is there any reason for me to be confused? I sometimes wonder, “do we as God’s children listen?” There are times when I was young, my dad was a supervisor at U.S. Steel. He didn’t know how delicate I was growing up and there were times he would tell me, “What did I tell you to do?” “Well you told me to do this but Dad this is what…” “What did I tell you to do?” “Well you told me.” “Did you do it?” “No.” That is all that matters. I think standing before the Lord, “Gil what did I tell you to do?” “Well, yes You said if he repents, forgive him. But Lord he did it five times in one day. What did you expect me to do?” “I expect you to do what I told you to do. You will forgive him.” Then we are involved there with the restoration process. Now if he lied the Lord will deal with that. I am not God. He didn’t ask me to intrude my subjective evaluation into this.

Come back to Ephesians 4. That is just after Galatians so come back to Galatians and turn over a few pages and then we will come back and wrap up the opening verses here. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the Day of Redemption.” Another way of saying that, “Don’t walk out of step with the Spirit.” “Walk by the Spirit,” stay in line, under His control. “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other.” Note the standard: “Just as God in Christ has forgiven you. therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us.”

So come back to Galatians 6. We are to be restoring one another. Verse 2: “Bear one another’s burdens.” This is another command, present imperative. This is not just an isolated case. This can become a regular thing. We are bearing one another’s burdens. We are commanded to do it. We are to step in for what it takes to help this believer. I don’t know. Every time I help I get up, get right in line, he falls back down. Well you keep on bearing one another’s burdens. That is our responsibility.

I Corinthians 12 “As members of the body of Christ have the same care for one another. If one member suffers all the members suffer with him. If one member is honored all the members rejoice with him.” You know we lose that perspective and all of a sudden we have a distance between someone in the body because they have failed, they have stumbled. Oh well, that has affected my relationship. I don’t know. “Keep on bearing one another’s burdens.” This must be a regular part of our lives as God’s people. We can’t claim to be walking in step with the Spirit, under His control and not doing what He says. That would grieve the Spirit. “We were sealed for the Day of Redemption.” I am not walking by the Spirit when I am grieving Him and not doing what He would have me do. “And therefore fulfill the law of Christ.”

The law of Christ is not the Mosaic Law. The law of Christ is what Christ would have us do as His people. We are not without authority. He is the master. We are the slave. I obey His commands. Just because it is called here, the law, but it’s not the law of Christ.

Come back to I Corinthians 9 so you are not confused on this. Some people say, “Oh it says law. That must be the Mosaic Law.” No, it’s the law of Christ. I Corinthians chapter 9 Paul says in verse 20: “To the Jews I become a Jew that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law as unto the law.” No, I am not under the law but when with the Jews I don’t eat ham sandwiches. Fine. I am not looking to offend the Jews but I want to win them.

Verse 21: “To those who are without the law as without law though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ.” So the only law Paul submits them to is the authority of Christ and His law, His command. So we fulfill the law of Christ. His requirement for us as His slaves. It is remarkable. We are His slaves but we are His fellow heirs. We are the children of God. We are blessed.

When we fulfill the law of Christ we will be walking by the Spirit. So we have to do this. If we are not handling this right no matter how proud we are, the danger is we swing from one side to another. We say, “Oh people are getting soft on sin.” So we want to correct that. We are going to show how hard we are with sin and we are not functioning any more Biblically than they are. Yes, we don’t tolerate it here and those who get involved in sin we deal with. Well, la te da. We are just sinning in another way. We are not fulfilling the law of Christ by bearing one another’s burdens. God’s goal is restoration, not rejection.

There is rejection when it becomes necessary. When they are cut off is when they will not, under any pressure, be willing to give up their sin. If they won’t then we have no choice. But we are working it as hard as we can, with as much love as we can, with as much patience, with as much consideration, because restoration is the goal because He has commanded us to bear one another’s burdens, to help this stumbling Christian. This Christian has fallen into sin and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

Let’s summarize this. I have put some summary points together that we will put up on the screen.

1 – Believers are members of God’s family. We started out calling them brethren. Remember we are God’s family. I mean how easily people get offended and walk out. We are family. We are God’s family. He has brought us together in this place. That ought to mean something. We don’t give up on one another.

2 - Believers do get caught in sin. I am not saying that there is an excuse for it but before we become too self-righteous, remember James says, “The sin of the tongue is a problem for all of us.” And we just don’t get that. We like to talk about those terrible sins. You know we put the big three up here, something like that. James says it is the tongue that is set on fire by hell and turns into a raging blaze. We have seen the picture of that when we get the fires going in parts of our country. How destructive they are. James says that is the tongue. So believers do get caught in sin and we don’t want to be accepting of any sin. We start with our self, being careful with ourselves.

3 - Believers must help restore those in sin. It’s not an option. It is a command. If we want to obey Christ, the law of Christ, you must restore. You’ve got to be part of that process, those who sin.

4 - Believers must be gentle in restoring the sinner. There is to be a meekness, a humility in it. I don’t come because I am spiritually superior to you. I am weak in so many ways myself. It is only by God’s grace that I haven’t been involved in something or other. I am here to help them. I understand. That doesn’t mean we are tolerant of sin. Our goal is not to beat them down. Our goal is to restore them. We must be gentle in restoring the sinner.

5 – Believers must be careful in restoring others and that is the other side of be gentle. Be careful about your attitude, otherwise you may slide into sin with that pride and arrogance and wrong attitude. You don’t want to get off track.

I mean how God is. You read about Israel in the Old Testament. He keeps telling them in spite of all their rebellion over the many years He says, “If you will just repent, turn back to Me, I will take care of you. I want to forgive you.” That is how He deals with us. We must be careful when restoring others.

6 – We must bear one another’s burdens. Their burdens are our burdens. It doesn’t mean their sin is my sin but I have the concern for them. There is something crushing them down. I want to help pick them up. You are not in this alone. God put us in a family and what the family does when one member gets sick, the other members work to help. When one member is having trouble, how can we help out? How many times do parents bail their kids out? We must bear one another’s burdens. That is all the things believers must do and

7 – Obedience to Christ requires this. It is not optional. So we want to go through this. Remember, it ended, obedience to Christ requires it. I can’t be an obedient child of His, walking by the Spirit, if I don’t do what He tells me. I am not keeping in step with the Spirit if I don’t.

So it is amazing how self-righteous we can become, how expert we can become in how terrible someone else’s sin is and fail to do what we should do which means we have sinned in another way. We want to be careful that as a body we are manifesting and demonstrating all that God says we are to do and to be. And it is His grace that provides the enablement and the strength.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your blessing, the blessing of forgiveness. Lord not only the forgiveness we experience when we placed our faith in Christ but Lord that forgiveness and cleansing. The blood of Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin. Lord it is a sad reality, we do stumble. We do trespass. We all stumble in many ways as You have told us and the tongue is a great offender. Lord we want to examine ourselves in light of the Word and then be ready to help those who may be in difficulties, in stress, maybe out of step with the Spirit, maybe grieving the Spirit, maybe in rebellion in an area of their life. Lord we don’t come to help them because we are spiritually superior. We come to help because we are fellow members of the family. We have a concern for one another. We are instruments of the Spirit to be used in bearing their burden, strengthening them, restoring them to fellowship. May that be the characteristic of our body as we continue to grow and serve together. In Christ’s name, amen.