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Reading Galatians 6:1-10 where having considered the fruit of the Spirit, we now consider how we might put these spirit-filled qualities into action. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The Bible indeed calls us to correct one another, but we need to be careful not to think of ourselves as more highly than another, but to keep watch on ourselves so that we also won't fall into corruption when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of Galatians, chapter 6. Between today and tomorrow, we'll be in verses 1 through 10. Let me go ahead and read that for you here, and then we'll get to part one of our message.
This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the churches in Galatia. Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself so that you too will not 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 each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another.
For each one will bear his own load. And the one who is instructed in the word is to share in all good things with the one who instructs him. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. This is part one of a sermon entitled, Bear One Another's Burdens. So last week, we learned about walking by the Spirit, which included the fruit of the Spirit.
Again, not fruits of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit. Though we have nine fruit that are mentioned there, they are a fruit, one singular, that all believers should exhibit. Can we all repeat the fruit of the Spirit together?
Some of you may know this off the top of your head, Galatians 5, 22 through 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Now, we love to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. We even have a song about it. We sing about it like once a month in Awana, I think it is. If you will recall, the theme of our VBS three years ago was the fruit of the Spirit.
Any one of our children in this church could stand up here and give you the fruit of the Spirit. And that's wonderful to think about, that our kids have that memorized. But while we may rejoice to memorize the fruit of the Spirit, which is certainly worthwhile, we are not as familiar with the works of the flesh.
Why is it important to know what the works of the flesh are? Let me give you three reasons. The first reason is because the Spirit says that the works of the flesh are evident. In other words, we must know what they are because the Bible says so.
And we must know what these works are so that we will not do them. We go once again to Galatians 5, verses 19 through 21, immediately preceding the fruit of the Spirit. Now, the works of the flesh are evident.
Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. When we get to the fruit of the Spirit, we read that the fruit of the Spirit is first love.
We must recognize that love is not sexual immorality. Because, as verse 17 says, the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to one another.
Our world equates sexual immorality with love. But if we know God's definition of love, then we won't be taken by the world's redefinition of love. What did God say is love? Jesus said in John 15, 13, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
The definition of love is very simply Jesus Christ. And the love of Christ is sacrificial, as our love for one another should also be sacrificial. No love will ever be greater than what Jesus did for us, but in light of what Jesus did, laying down his life for our sins, we likewise should lay down our lives for one another.
Now, that does not mean that we can atone for one another's sins, but we understand the application of Christlikeness given in a passage like Philippians 2, 3, Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. And then Paul says that thinking this way, verse 5, is having the mind of Christ. Ephesians 5, 25 says this, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
Now, this does not mean that a husband must literally die for his wife. Although some of your wives might wish you would. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. The husband must consider the needs of his family ahead of his own ambitions, ahead of his own desires, especially ahead of his flesh.
It's not wrong for a husband to have personal ambitions and dreams, but his priority is first to his family. Take this principle for the home and apply it to the church. Consider one another's needs ahead of your own.
In doing this, we love one another. And if we love one another, guess what? We won't be doing the works of the flesh. The second reason that we should know the works of the flesh in addition to the fruit of the spirit is once again, so we don't do them.
The rest of verse 21 says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is the penalty for those who walk by the flesh rather than the spirit.
Whoever lives according to the flesh will perish under the judgment of God. This should cause us to hunger for the gospel. When we hear this, we want the power of God for salvation to all who believe.
Just like the hearing of the law brings knowledge of our sin, according to Romans 3 .20, the hearing of the works of the flesh will do the same. Then we reach for the gospel, which produces godliness, the fruit of the spirit.
When we walk by the spirit, again, we do not gratify the desires of the flesh. The third reason that we should know the works of the flesh in addition to the fruit of the spirit is because it helps us to understand the first half of Jesus' command, repent and believe.
Dave has been teaching through Mark on Sunday morning, right at the start of Mark, Mark 1 .14 and 15. It says, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe the gospel. The command of Christ to repent and believe means that we turn from something and we turn to something. We repent or we turn from our sin and we believe or we turn to Christ.
Apply this understanding to the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. You are turning from a sin nature, which manifests itself in the rotten works of the flesh. And you are turning to a new nature, which produces the beautiful fruit of the spirit.
So knowing the works of the flesh specifies what we are turning from and told to repent from. The fruit of the spirit specifies what we will be turned into when we obey the command to believe. Make sense?
Repent and believe. Turn from the works of the flesh, turn to the fruit of the spirit. So I have spent about the first 10 minutes here this morning talking about what we already talked about last week.
Why have I spent so much time talking about this again? So here are three more reasons. Number one, because I like talking about it. Number two, because not all of you were here last week. Number three, no conviction or condemnation intended with that statement.
Here's the third reason. Because the section on the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit is bookended with this command. Love your neighbor. Galatians 5 .14 says, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Then we get to the fruit of the spirit in verses 16 through 26. Now we start chapter 6 with the same command in verse 2. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
This is the command to love one another. Let's consider once more the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. What do you need in order to produce the fruit of the spirit?
Well, first of all, you need the spirit. Thank you, Sonia. Secondly, you need people. You need people to produce the fruit of the spirit. You need people to show love too, do you not? You need people to rejoice with.
You need people to exhibit peacefulness. Here's a tough one. You need people to be patient with. You need people to be kind to. How do you grow in kindness if not to show kindness to one another? You need people to be good to.
You need people to be faithful to. You need people to be gentle with. And you need people to be self-controlled toward. Anybody who has brothers and sisters understands. And furthermore, my friends, you need people that they may display the same fruit back to you, lest any of you think more highly of yourselves than you ought to think.
You need to let people love you. And don't make it hard for them to love you. You need people to take joy in you, to show you peace, to show you kindness, to give you goodness, to be faithful to you, to be gentle with you.
And through accountability, you need people that you may develop self-control. A lot of us have this sense that the Christian walk is all about just me and Jesus. Or as I've heard Jared C. Wilson say it, it's me and my Bible Christianity.
Just my relationship with God. It's just about me and God. That's all it is. My friends, it's not about just you and God. You certainly have a relationship with God through faith in Christ. Yes, but Christianity is not just about your association with God or even just you and your family trying to tough it out in this crazy world.
The Christian walk requires fellowship with other Christians. Jesus did not call you to closet Christianity. He called you to love one another. And you need each other in order to fulfill what Paul calls here the law of Christ.
As author and theologian Tim Challies has said, sanctification is a community project. You grow in holiness and righteousness and the knowledge of God and therefore also the fruit of the Spirit with other believers.
You cannot fulfill the law of Christ by yourself. You cannot grow in your faith on your own. 2 Timothy 2 .22 says this,. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
That passage, by the way, is Galatians 5 .14 through 6 .10 simplified in one verse. Flee youthful passions, that means works of the flesh, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, which you might recognize as a truncated list of the fruit of the Spirit, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Means that you do this with the church, the body of believers who call on the Lord from a heart that together is being made righteous. Sometimes loving one another means that we will need to call one another to correction.
And in the context of loving one another and growing together, we have Galatians 6 .1, our first verse this morning, restore him in a spirit of gentleness, which of course is a fruit of the Spirit. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
My friends, calling to one another to correction is a requirement. It is a command of Christ. Consider this passage in Matthew 18 verses 15 through 20, and we have this section of Scripture even included in our own constitution as a church as to how we deal with sin in one another.
Matthew 18, 15 through 20, Jesus said, If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. Now, that last statement in verse 20, we often tag onto our prayer gatherings and Bible studies where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.
That's not about a prayer gathering. God is with you when you are praying by yourself. Amen? This is in the context of church discipline, and it is the command of Christ that we follow it. Where two or three are gathered as witnesses regarding one who has been walking in sin, they speak with the authority of Christ when they call a brother or sister who is wayward in the faith to repentance.
Notice something in this progression of discipline. It starts with a one-on-one confrontation. And if the person refuses to repent, it gradually becomes more and more public until the entire church is involved.
Understand plainly, my friends, sin is not, nor has it ever been, a private matter. And when we try to keep it private, what we teach others, even you as parents, what you teach your kids, is that it's really not all that bad as long as nobody finds out about it.
But our Lord God knows and sees all. He is the one who tests mind and heart. It takes the body of Christ to help one another overcome those sins that want to cling to us so closely. James 5, 15 through 16 says, Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
Consider that in Philippians 4, the Apostle Paul calls out two women in front of the whole church. I entreat Jodea and I entreat Sintesh to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, talking to the rest of the body, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel.
Well, how about that? There are names written down in the Bible for the entire church for the last 2 ,000 years to hear about this disagreement that had happened between these two women in the church in Philippi.
We don't know what the conflict between these two women was exactly, but we get the sense that it had been going on for a while and had not yet been resolved. Paul names two disagreeable women before the church, and it's written down in history for all of us to read.
And then the Apostle commissions the church to restore them in a spirit of gentleness, treating them and regarding them as sisters. And reminding them that they are sisters with one another. All throughout this process of discipline, we are told to correct in a spirit of gentleness.
1 Peter 3 .15, we are told to answer unbelievers with gentleness and respect. In 2 Timothy 2 .25, we're told to correct opponents with gentleness. That same gentle spirit most definitely should apply to the way that we correct disagreement among brothers and sisters in the family of God.
2 Thessalonians 3 .13 -15 says this,. As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. Sound familiar? We've read that even in this Galatians passage. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed.
Do not regard him as an enemy. Now, that's so compassionate for Paul to include that because he just said, if this person continues in sin, they will not repent, have nothing to do with him so that he may be ashamed, but then clarifies he's not your enemy.
Warn him as a brother. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Notice that this directive on discipline begins with this,. Do not grow weary in doing good. In other words, don't hesitate to issue correction.
Proverbs 12 .1 says,. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. Now, we often take a verse like that and apply it to the person who hates to receive correction, but this also applies to the person who will not issue correction.
But love helps one another. We help one another even in fighting against sin. Galatians 6 .2 says,. Bear one another's burdens. And this is right after we read,. Restore him in a spirit of gentleness and keep watch on yourself.
To admonish a brother or sister or even to pray for them and be heartbroken over their sin is to bear their burden. Some of us are going to struggle more than others with temptations of our flesh. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, the law to love one another.
John 13 .34, Jesus said,. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. And didn't Jesus love us though we had sinned against him?
My friends, anyone's betrayal in this body against you or against the whole church, that sin will still never be greater than the sins that we had sinned against God. And yet we read a glorious verse.
I can't quote enough. Romans 5 .8, God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.