The Work of Restoration (Galatians 6:1-5)

The Fruit of the Spirit and the Warning Against Conceit

Greetings brothers at Set Free. This is Pastor Keith and I want to begin by saying I am sorry that I'm not able to be with you this week and I hope this video finds you well and it helps you in our continued study of the book of Galatians.

I also wanted to take a moment to say congratulations to those who blessed out this week. It was my intention to be there for the blessing out ceremony but with everything going on I was unable to do so but I did want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to God for those of you who have continued to stay with the program and to be encouraged by it.

I pray that this will be a stepping stone in your life toward moving toward the great things that God has in store for you. So today we're going to be beginning the last chapter of the book of Galatians.

So if you want to open up your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5 we're going to begin by reading Galatians chapter I'm sorry Galatians chapter 6 and we're going to read verses 1 to 5 and that will be the focus of our lesson today.

Our sermon today is Galatians chapter 6 verses 1 to 5. Now with our Bibles open I'm going to read this and then I'm going to lead us in a short prayer and then I'll begin the sermon. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch over, excuse me, keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself.

But let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. Let's pray. Fathers, I seek to give this message via recording.

Lord, I pray that it would have even more power than normal, Lord, because ultimately my presence and my words are not what matter but ultimately, Lord, it is you, it is your power, it is your presence, it is your Holy Spirit who teaches, it is your Holy Spirit who applies the truth of the word to our heart, it's your Holy Spirit who is ultimately ministering these things.

So I pray that your Holy Spirit would be among the men today. I pray that they would be patient watching my video, that they would not become distracted by things going on in the room, but that they would be able to focus on what is being said.

And I pray all of this, Lord, in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. The title of today's lesson is The Work of Restoration. The Work of Restoration. And you'll remember that chapter 6 is coming in on the backside of Paul's long expression of what we as Christians should be known for, what our lives should be marked by, that being specifically the fruit of the Spirit.

In the latter part of chapter 5, the Apostle Paul tells us to walk by the Spirit and in doing so we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And he gave us what the desires of the flesh are. He gave us a whole list of things.

The desires of the flesh are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, and he goes on down the list. He said, but, and that adversative changes, it says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love.

And you remember why I said I believe that one comes first? Because I believe that one, all of it is encapsulated in that first one, love. But it goes on, love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And then he goes on to repeat what he says in verse 25, repeating again verse 16, because in verse 16 he says, walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

In verse 25 he says essentially the same thing. If we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit. If we say we have the Spirit within us, if we believe the Holy Spirit of God has come to make His home within us, let us live according to that, let us walk according to that.

And then verse 26 he gives us a short warning. He said, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Remember this was the issue that was paramount in Galatia. The problem in Galatia was that there were those who said, unless you are circumcised, you are not a genuine Christian unless you're following all of the laws of Moses.

You cannot be a genuine follower of Jesus. You can't be a Christian unless you first be a Jew. And so therefore there were those who were conceited. They believed that they were higher than other people because of their position with circumcision and keeping of the law.

And they were provoking one another and they were causing envy among the believers. And so all of this problem is all stemmed from this issue that the Judaizers had brought in. And so now we come to verse 1 of chapter 6 where we see Paul addresses the audience of brothers.

He says, brothers. And the focus of chapter 6 verse 1 is going to be the focus of restoration. If anyone is caught in a transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him. So the focus is restoration.

Paul has just given us the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. He gave us the fruit of the Spirit. Now we get an application. What does that look like?

What does it look like when you're living out the fruit of the Spirit? Well, the first thing it looks like is that you're not going to be envying one another. You're not going to be provoking one another.

You're not going to be conceited. That's verse 26. But what you are going to do is you're going to love one another even in the midst of your brother's failures. You're going to love one another even in the midst of your brother's faults.

You're going to be willing to restore the fallen person rather than simply abandon them or look down upon them or feel high and mighty over them. What does it mean to restore someone? Again, the title of today's message is The Work of Restoration.

What does it mean to restore someone? I thought about this a lot as I was preparing this message because you men are at set free. And the very heart of set free is that set free is a ministry of restoration.

It's a ministry where many of you have come, and I know many of you have come for various reasons and from various backgrounds, and you've all come in different circumstances but all come for essentially the same reason.

You want to get out of the circumstance that you're in. You want to be, you want to be healed whether it be from addiction or something like that. You want to be restored, and it's interesting you came to a ministry for that.

You know, the world promises a lot of things, but the world cannot deliver what only the Word provides. The Word provides true reconciliation with God because the Word tells us about Jesus the reconciler.

The Word promises true restoration, not restoration based on false hope and pseudoscience, but true restoration based on the work of Jesus Christ. And that's the restoration that we're going to talk about today because we're going to talk about what happens when someone falls.

Even though they're called a brother, even though they're called a Christian, even though they consider themselves to be a disciple of Christ, what do we do when they fail? What do we do when they fall?

How do we treat such a one? That is Paul's concern. That is Paul's message in Galatians chapter 6. And again, I call your attention to the audience. He said brothers. Brothers. That is a statement of affection.

You don't call someone brother if you don't have any care for them at all. And especially within the church, when you identify someone as brother, you're identifying them as part of the family of God.

There is a false assumption that all men are brothers because all men are created by God. And there is in that sense a brotherhood of man and that we are all we are all related to one another because we are all created by the same creator.

But when the Bible talks about brotherhood in the church, it's talking about those who have been adopted into the family of God by the work of Jesus Christ. That's genuine brotherhood. That's true brotherhood.

It's important to consider the fact that our Christian brothers are often more family than even our blood family is to us. I know for certain for me that those who I consider my Christian brothers and sisters are genuinely closer to me, know more about me, care more for me than those who are simply blood relatives.

Blood relatives can and are can be and are important. But remember this, you've heard the term blood is thicker than water. People think what that means is family is more valuable than not family. Blood is thicker than water.

But that's not what that means. That phrase properly understood is the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. What does that mean?

Those who we are in relationship through Christ's blood, the blood of the covenant is much thicker. That relationship is much stronger even than those who we are related to by the water of the womb, by our heritage, by our parentage.

These are our brothers. And Paul speaks to them. He says, brothers, if anyone is caught. And notice the word caught there. Caught is not designating how we normally think of catching someone like maybe you catch someone doing something wrong or maybe you've maybe you've walked in on somebody and they're doing something they ought not do or or something.

That's not the idea here. The idea of being caught here is the idea of someone not necessarily doing something in secret, but rather someone who is caught up in something. They have been caught up by the flesh.

You know what the Bible says. The Bible says sin basically waits at the door, waiting to pounce upon us, waiting to attack us. And any of us at any time are subject to that battle. I know that myself, I I deal with my own issues, my own proclivities for the flesh, and I know there are times when sin catches me like a snare, like a trap.

And it's in those moments that I'm reminded of passages like this, which remind me that that's that's common to all believers. We all at times get caught in the trap of the flesh. I mean, you just go down the list back up to chapter five and you go down that list.

I mean, sexual morality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions. And it goes on. Envy and all those things. Is it not so easy to get caught in those things?

Is it not so easy to give way to the flesh? I know that there are times when that battle overcomes. We get caught up. And another thing that to consider from this word caught is that this isn't this isn't a perpetual.

Habitual act of sin that this is referring to, if this were a perpetual, continual act of sin, then the person would need to be restored in a way that may include a form of discipline. Matthew 18 tells us that this is a person who has fallen.

It's they've been caught up in sin. And the goal of the church, first and foremost, is to restore that person. Don't let them stay where they've fallen. It's like a person. It's like a person. Imagine you're walking through the forest and you're next to a friend and he's walking with you and he steps his foot onto a bear trap and that trap smacks against the sides of his ankles.

He's caught in the trap. What do you do? Do you just stare at him? Do you laugh at him? Do you do you mock him? Do you feel yourself better because you were not so foolish as to have stepped on that bear trap?

Or do you reach down and try to set him free? That's the picture here. Your brother's been caught in a sin. Your brother's been caught in a transgression. That's what the word is here. Transgression. And notice it says in any transgression, a Christian is caught.

A Christian can fail in any area. Christians can and do fail in any area. You say, I can't get this. I can't. I can't help him. Well, run and go get help. Find someone to help restore him. But understand that what's needed is to be released, not to be left.

So he says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, and then we have this statement, you who are spiritual should restore him. Now, that's making specific the person who should be doing the restoring.

But I want you to understand something when it says you who are spiritual. This isn't talking about any type of special type of Christian. This isn't talking about a particularly spiritual person. If you read the context and go back to chapter five, what you understand is this is talking about someone who is a Christian because a Christian bears the fruit of the spirit and is therefore a spiritual person.

This is not saying only the elders can restore someone or only Pastor Mark or Pastor Keith can restore someone. Now, it might be that we have more experience in restoration. It might be that we have more experience in dealing with someone who's caught in a trap.

We might it might be that we have more experience in loving a person through this, especially Pastor Mark, who has dealt with hundreds of people in various stages of brokenness. But this is not applying a category of Christianity that is, OK, you've got your Christians and then you've got your spiritual Christians.

I don't think it's doing that. I think what it's saying is you who are Christians should be spiritual. Brothers should be spiritual and you who are spiritual should restore him. Now, restoring can include several acts.

It could include rebuking him. Do you understand what you have done is wrong? If you don't let me help you understand why it's wrong. Take them to the word of God. It could it could be correction. Do you understand what you've done is wrong and this is what you should have done?

It can involve instruction. Let me help you to do what you should have done. Let me help you see how to do what you should have done. And it can include even training. Notice the four things I just said, rebuking, correcting, instructing and training.

Notice what all of them have in common. If you know your Bible, then you know what those things have in common. Second Timothy 316. All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for rebuke, for correction, for instruction and training in righteousness.

So if a person has fallen, what is the tool that you use with them? The word of God. That's the tool. You take them to the word of God. You say, well, maybe they don't want to hear what the word of God has to say.

Well, that may speak something about where their heart is at that moment. They may be in a spirit of rebellion at that moment, but that doesn't mean that you you say, well, they don't want to hear it, so I'm not going to use it.

I don't let the person I'm talking to dictate whether or not I'm going to use the word of God. Because the word of God is the tool. The word of God is the sword. The word of God is the the pickaxe that's going to break apart the stony covering around their heart.

The word of God, not the word of Keith. But God's word is what is going to be needed. Now, again, I don't want to sit there and stand above them with the Bible with their foots caught in a bear trap. I'm standing above them with the Bible and say, don't you know that stepping on bear traps is wrong?

It says here in First Thessalonians that bear traps are bad for feet. No, that's not the point. One of the things that I do realize is oftentimes when I deal with people and I do when I deal with people who are caught in transgressions, so often they don't realize the weight of their sin.

They justify it. They justify all kinds of things. Men are the best at justifying themselves. And the word of God, you know, the Bible says the word of God leaves our mouths shut because we can't justify ourselves when we're faced with Almighty God and his righteous standard.

So. You who are spiritual should restore him, verse and continues on to say in a spirit of gentleness. Now, again, this is hearkening back to the fruit of the spirit. What's this? What's the fruit of the spirit?

Love. There should be gentleness when you're restoring a brother. There should be love when you're restoring your brother. You cannot correct in a spirit of acrimony and expect it to be well received.

You can't correct in a spirit of insult or hatred. It does no good to enter the situation wagging your finger and hope for them to be restored. We are to restore in a spirit of gentleness. Now, I want to say sometimes people make that hard.

That doesn't always mean gentleness is not weakness. Sometimes you have to take a firm stand with someone who is caught in sin, but we don't do so arrogantly or pridefully, we do so gently, even though.

The situation may be difficult, and then this verse, verse one ends with a caution, keep watch. On yourselves, lest you to be tempted. See, that's the thing. When you're restoring someone else, it's essential that you don't get caught up in that sin with them.

It's essential that you don't let them so justify their behavior that they begin to justify your desire to do the same thing that they're doing. He says, keep watch over yourself, lest you to be tempted.

Now, as I said earlier, I want to bring this up again. There may be a moment where this person is caught in a sin and they show that they do not want to be restored. They show that they do not want to be rescued.

They do not. They like their foot in the bear trap. They're enjoying the suffering that it's causing them for whatever reason. And if they claim to be a brother in Christ, that may be a time where discipline is necessary.

And that involves the church. That involves more than just one individual. But that's not the point that's being made here. That point's made in Matthew 18. That point's made in 1st Corinthians 5. The point that's made here, though, is brother to brother.

If you see your brother caught in a transgression, make sure you don't get caught in that same transgression, but instead be the spiritual brother and restore your brother. That's verse 1. But then he goes on in verse 2 to say this.

Bearing One Another's Burdens in the Law of Christ

We're going to go to verse 5. That's my hope today. These will go a little faster because verse 1 is a little longer. Verse 2, he says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Notice he's saying bear the burden.

He's saying apply care rather than criticism. I'll say that if you're taking notes. That's an important statement. We should apply care and not criticism to the person who has fallen, to the person who has failed.

If all we do is criticize them, if all we do is beat them down in their failure, we cannot expect to be restoring them. All we're doing is heaping upon them guilt and shame upon what they have already done.

Remember this. Remember what a burden is. A burden is something you carry on your back. A burden is heavy. If you remember the movie The Pilgrim's Progress, you'll remember Christian, the main character of Pilgrim's Progress.

What did he have on his back? He had a burden. It was heavy, hard to carry. And the point of this is we're supposed to bear one another's burdens. You see, if you're carrying something heavy and I come along beside you and I get up underneath your arm and I lift you up, then that burden on your back becomes easier to carry because the load is now being carried by two rather than one.

Burdens can refer to failures, temptations, testings, and trials. And instead of just watching another go through it, we should come along and help them, not get tempted to get caught up in it with them.

But again, imagine the guy. Keep going back to that image in my mind, the person whose leg has been busted up over that bear trap. They've been caught in that sin. We've released them. We've gotten down there.

We've opened up the bear trap. We've restored them. Now they're still limping and they may need our help. They may need me to get up underneath his arm and carry him or even throw him over my shoulder.

This is about care. Verse 2 is the reason why we do verse 1 is because we care about them. That's verse 2. The reason why we restore someone is because we love them. Guys, I know y 'all live in a difficult situation.

60 guys sometimes in tight quarters and I know there are situations where you're frustrated, you're tired, you're hurting, you get tired of one another. Listen, I get it, but this is a call to love one another because that's what he says.

Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ? The law of Christ is also known as the law of love. Write down this verse. John 13 34. I talked about this last week.

What is John 13 34? A new commandment I give to you. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples. A new commandment I give to you. Love one another as I, Jesus, have loved you. You see, the Old Covenant says love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus says love your neighbor as I have loved you. Jesus sets the standard for love. Jesus sets the standard for and love over legalism. People say well it's a law, the law of Christ. Yes, but the law of Christ is the law of love.

It's called the law of love. It's called the law of liberty in James 125 and James 212. It's called the law of Christ in this passage and in 1st Corinthians 921 and I believe John 13 34 tells us it is the law of love because Jesus said this is the new commandment I give you.

Love one another as I have loved you. And think about Romans 13. I'll turn there very quickly. Romans 13 tells us this. Verse 8. Oh no one anything except to love one another. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

For the commandment you shall not commit adultery, shall not murder, shall not steal, you shall not covet or any and any other commandment is summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is the reason why you restore. Love is the reason why you bear one another's burdens. This is the fruit of the Spirit.

You are spiritual. Love one another the Apostle says. Now verses 3 through 5 may seem like Paul is taking a different direction but I assure you he is not but you have to understand how this all fits into the same context.

The context is your brother has fallen. Restore him. Why? Bear his burden. Why? Because of the law of Christ which is the law of love. And then verse 3 he says if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself.

Now what does that got to do with what he just said? Well this is what he's referring to. It is easy when you see someone else fall into a trap of sin that you yourself would fall into a trap of pride thinking yourself higher than them and thinking yourself better than them.

And notice what it says if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself. I imagine you see somebody who sinned you see them fallen and I imagine saying I would never do that. I would never do something that bad.

Paul is saying in verse 3 let us not in seeking to restore another put ourselves on a pedestal. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. It can also be a warning to someone who thinks they're too good to restore.

I'm too good to reach down and help you. I'm too good to sully my clean hands on your dirty blood-soaked foot caught in that trap. I can't help you. I'm I'm too good. Let me tell you this a person with a superiority complex will never be willing to bear the burdens of someone else.

Verse 4 but let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. Again this seems disjointed but it's not. It continues the thought. This is a warning against comparison.

Let each one test his own work then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. See if you see someone fall and you say well I didn't fall therefore I'm good. I'm not the one who stepped on the bear trap.

I'm not the one who was foolish enough to fall into that sin. I'm not the one who was who was unspiritual enough to get caught up in that sin. Therefore I'm better. This is a warning against comparison.

Again listen to it. Let each one test his own work. Rather than testing my work by him let me look at myself because when I look at myself I realize that I have my own failures to deal with. If I see somebody who has fallen into sin and I look at them and say well I I would never fall into sin like that.

I make myself out to be the liar that I am because I not only could fall into the sin that they're in but I could fall into greater sin. And he goes on to say then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

And some people say wait a minute what does that mean? His reason to boast will be in himself? Isn't that a contradiction? Doesn't Paul in other places say we should boast only in Christ? Yes but context matters.

Paul is not talking about salvation here. In salvation we don't boast at all. And likewise he's not calling us to boastful pride but what he is saying is when we examine ourselves for our virtues and our failures our metric for comparison cannot be our neighbor.

Especially the one struggling with sin. Ultimately I'm going to have to deal with myself and my issues. Any boasting I have must be in me not that I was better than him. And the reality the reality is I don't have any reason to boast in me.

And that's why he says in verse 5 for each will have to bear his own load. For each will have to bear his own load. Earlier Paul tells us bear one another's burdens. Again is he contradicting himself here?

No. This is a reference to coming judgment. You will not be required to bear the weight of my sins neither will I be required to bear the weight of your sins. We're going to be responsible for our own lives.

Therefore when I look at you and I say oh look at the sins you've done I'm so much better. No I'm making the wrong comparison. I understand that when I compare myself to anyone it should be comparing myself to Christ.

And when I compare myself to Christ I realize what a worm I am. What a destitute man I am. How unrighteous I am. When I compare myself to Jesus I realize that I have quite a load to bear. A load of sin and the only one who can help me bear that load is Jesus.

Ultimately no other Christian brother is going to be able to hold my load of sin on the day of judgment. I'm not going to be able to to blame anyone on that day. Oh by the way that's a huge issue. A lot of people who get caught up in sin want to blame people.

You will bear your own burden. You'll bear your own load. The only person who can help you is Jesus. The only person who can take that burden off of you truly, finally, completely, and absolutely is Jesus.

So my encouragement to you today, my question for you today, is right now do you know Christ? Because one day you're going to face him at judgment. You're either going to face him as the one who has taken your burden, the one who has taken your sins, the one who has held on to you and protected you and given you life.

He's going to stand as your judge and the burden upon your back is going to crush you. And that weight of sin is going to carry you into an eternal pit of hell forever. There is the only two options. Either Christ be your Savior or Christ be your judge.

As brothers and sisters in Christ we help each other. We carry each other's burdens throughout this life. We restore one another. We pick one another up. We love one another. But we know this at the end of the day the only person who can save us is Jesus.

When I pick a man up if he's fallen I point him to the Savior. That's again the whole purpose of set free. They know they can't save you. Brother Mark knows he can't save you. None of the overseers believe they can save you.

All they can do is point you to Jesus. Only he can bear the burden that you have. I want to finish today by reading to you a quote from Martin Luther. Actually it's a couple of quotes that I put together.

This again is from his commentary on Galatians 6 1 to 5 and I want you to just hear his heart in this. It's so encouraging to me and I hope that it'll be an encouragement to you. When I finish the quote I'll end with prayer.

Let the ministers of the gospel learn from Paul how to deal with those who have sinned. Brethren, he says, 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. When you meet a willful sinner who does not care, go after him and rebuke him sharply.

But this is not the treatment for one who has been overtaken by a sin and is sorry. He must be dealt with with the spirit of meekness and not in the spirit of severity. A repentant sinner is not to be given gall and vinegar to drink.

This consideration is very much needed to put a stop to the severity of some pastors who show the fallen no mercy. Saint Augustine says, there is no sin which one person has committed that another person may not commit also.

We stand in slippery places. If we become overbearing and neglect our duty, it is easy enough to fall into sin. In the book entitled The Lives of Our Fathers, 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 the passers not to be too rigorous and unmerciful towards 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 so eager to condemn others would investigate themselves, they would find the sins of others are moats in comparison to their own.

Wherefore, let him who thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. If David, who was a hero of the faith and did so many great things for the Lord, could fall so badly that in spite of this advanced age he was overcome by youthful lust after he had withstood so many different temptations with which the Lord had tested his faith, who are we to think we are more stable?

These object lessons of God should convince us that of all things God hates pride. And that ends the quote by the great Martin Luther. God hates pride. If we see a brother fallen, restore him in gentleness.

Do not stand over him in pride. Let us pray. Father in heaven, I thank you again for your word. May your word go out and teach and bless those who hear it. Lord, may the Spirit cause this lesson to go into the heart and that it be mixed with faith.

And Lord, may those who hear it be moved by it. In Christ's name, amen. Boys, gentlemen, I love y 'all and I'll see you next time. God bless you.