Restoration in the Spirit

Providence Baptist Church

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Galatians 6. Galatians 6.

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We're going to read the first three verses. And when you find

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Galatians 6, if you would please stand as we reverence the reading of God's Holy Word.

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Galatians 6, beginning in verse 1. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

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Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

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For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

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Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we do thank

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You for this gift that You have given us in this day that we can come and that we can worship

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You. We're so thankful, Lord, for who You are. We're so thankful for all

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Your wonderful attributes, Father God. We're so thankful for Your Word, and I pray, Father, that we would strive this morning,

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Lord, to understand Your Word rightly. That You would give me holy unction as I preach.

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That You would help me to preach it rightly, Father God. That as we tackle what can sometimes be a hard topic, can somewhat be a hard part of the church,

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Lord God, in some areas. We pray for Your grace. We pray for Your guidance.

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I pray, Father God, that You would help me to preach Your Word boldly, Lord God, but with humility and with love.

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I pray, Lord, that Your Word would not return void. I pray, Father God, if there be any here,

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Lord, that are not born again, Father God, that they don't know You. I pray that You would draw them this morning unto repentance, that they would repent and trust in You, Lord God.

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I pray, if there are any, Lord, here, that Lord, throughout the preaching of this message, that You convict them of sin, that they would repent,

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Lord, and we just pray that You would guide us in all things. In Christ's name, amen. This morning, we're going to cover just the first two verses that we read here in Galatians 6.

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But I do want to give you just a quick background as the introduction to this, give you a quick background of this letter to the

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Galatian church. This church came to fruition by God working through the preaching and the teaching of Paul.

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And the Holy Spirit brought about salvations that led to the forming of this church.

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And then, Paul, after that had happened, he moved on, and a short time later, false teachers came into the church and convinced these believers of a false gospel.

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This false gospel sought to add to the gospel and require Christians to be circumcised to truly be a believer.

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A group of the Galatian believers had become convinced of this false doctrine, and this had led to a division within the church.

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And in this letter, Paul, he sternly corrects the

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Galatian believers and he even calls them foolish for so soon turning from the gospel that he had preached.

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And I do want to note that he is more stern and critical here than in any other letter to a church.

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He takes this error as an assault upon the gospel and therefore, an assault on the finished work of Christ.

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And this was done against a holy God. Ephesians 2 .8, it says,

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For by grace ye have been saved through faith. It is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God.

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We are saved through the blood of Christ alone. It is not of our works. And Paul is reminding the

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Galatian believers of this and he rebukes them heavily. But, however, he does not believe that they cannot repent and return to the truth.

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And he provides them with a multitude of reasons to return to the truth.

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He reminds them in Galatians 5, if you'll turn back to the previous chapter, he reminds them in verse 13 that they were called to freedom.

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He reminds them of their freedom in Christ. Not of freedom of the flesh, but freedom to serve one another.

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And then he reminds them in verse 14, the very next verse, that he reminds them amongst their division, that for the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

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You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And if you continue down to verse 16, we're in chapter 5,

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Paul tells the believers to walk by the Spirit. This is meaning to walk by the will of the

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Holy Spirit of God. Under the guidance and the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

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He continues and says, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

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Gratify, what does that mean? It means to fulfill or carry out. So, how do you not gratify the desires of the flesh?

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How does it say? To not gratify the desires of the flesh, you walk by the

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Spirit. By walking by the Spirit. Go ahead, we're going to follow with me from verse 16 all the way down through the rest of chapter 5.

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The desires of the human flesh and the desires of the Holy Spirit are opposed to one another and are at war with one another.

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As one led by the Spirit, you are not under the curse of the law. Rather, they delight in it as obedient children.

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And then in verse 19, he lists, now the works of the flesh are evident. He lists the works of the flesh as opposed to the...

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How are we to view these? How are we to view these works of the flesh? We are to view them as opposed to the desires of the

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Holy Spirit. As works that are opposed to the desires of the Holy Spirit. So, take a quick look at that.

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Take a quick look at verses 19 and 20. A quick but close look at this list. These things and those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God unless they repent of them and trust in Christ.

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And then if we follow down, Paul gives us another list. A list that is in opposition to the list of the works of the flesh.

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And he labels this list the fruit of the Spirit. These are perfectly agreeable with God's law and therefore perfectly agreeable with God.

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And those who walk in these and therefore belong to Christ have crucified the fleshly and sinful desires and passions.

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Romans 6 .6 tells us, we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

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No longer slaves to sin, but led and living by the Spirit. Romans 8 .13,

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for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

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So being led by the Spirit, verse 26, so being led by the Spirit, we do not esteem ourselves, we do not provoke one another, we don't envy one another.

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Through the working of the Spirit, we produce the fruit of the Spirit. And then we begin chapter 6, our text this morning, with Paul putting this fruit into practice.

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Everything that we just covered, putting it into practice. Application of the fruit of the

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Spirit. This application is important. Paul understood that if he did not apply these, then people would go wild with all kinds of unbiblical applications of these fruit.

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And we've seen this with all of them. I think of love. We have seen this with the misuse of love in a big way.

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You know, people will quote this text, well, a fruit of the Spirit is love, and they will quote it and say things like, love is love, in reference to the things like the

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LGBTQ movement or things like this. And this is to their own condemnation that they do this.

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It is of utmost importance that we apply these in a manner that is consistent with Scripture.

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And Paul is doing that in our text in regards to a weighty and very important subject.

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This is how, and that is how we handle the transgression of a brother and sister in Christ.

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This was written to a local church, and this must be understood in the context of the local church.

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And what we will be preaching this morning is in that context. Verse one, he says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

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Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. This can be seen as something we call church discipline.

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You can see it as that. This is often a really uncomfortable part of church that nobody wants to talk about.

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Nobody wants to address this. It seems hypocritical in a way to us, and we are afraid of it.

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I think of times in my ministry where I have avoided this. I've been afraid of this and not handled it in a way that it should be handled.

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We take this approach, well, that's none of my business. That's their problem.

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We take that approach and we view it from a worldly standpoint that is prevalent in our society, and to an extent, we do mind our own business.

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But here, we have this command in Galatians. We have this command that brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

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We come to this text here in Galatians, and there are others like it that we will briefly talk about.

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And my question is what are we to do with these texts? What are we to do with this Scripture? Are we to ignore them?

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Are we to act like they don't exist? Are we to believe most of God's words should be obeyed, and is needed, but not all of them?

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That is a dangerous game, and that is a slippery slope, and that is ultimately rebellion and rejection of God's Word.

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It is sin and foolishness to seek clear commands in Scripture and ignore them.

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It is a topic that needs to be examined from a strictly biblical perspective, and not from our fears and judgments.

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And I do want to note, Paul didn't just come in here and drop these verses that weren't consistent with the rest of the

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New Testament. Before we dive into our text, let's look across the New Testament and see the consistency of what

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Paul is saying here. We look in Matthew 18, Jesus addresses this matter.

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In Matthew 18, Jesus says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

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If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 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.

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If he refused to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refused to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a

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Gentile and a tax collector. So how should we handle this matter?

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I believe we must handle it in the matter as instructed. As we are instructed to do, and you will have naysayers to church discipline who will yell, legalism!

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That's legalism! I feel like the view that church discipline is legalistic is due to a wrong view of it, or maybe even unbiblical examples of it.

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Or could it be that our fear of man is greater than our fear of God?

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Philip Ryken compares Christians who are afraid to help restore a brother or sister in Christ to timid medical students who see a patient with a bone fragment sticking out of his arm, but are afraid to touch it.

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The bone is never set and the wound never heals. Sometimes Christians notice the broken bone of sin, but never get past making a diagnosis.

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They simply stand around talking about what bad shape the sinner is in. Wow! People say, would you look at that broken bone?

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I mean, just look at the way it's sticking out, boy! I'm glad I don't have a fracture like that.

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Meanwhile, the brother or sister continues in the pains of sin. This kind of treatment is better known as gossip.

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So the question is this, church, do we love God enough to be obedient and do what

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He says? Do we love our brothers and sisters in Christ enough to help them when they stumble?

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Even with hard things. This is a hard thing. With a lot of opposition in the world and in churches today.

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So many will point out, when you bring this up, they'll say Matthew 7 .1 Judge not lest you be judged.

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But if you continue down in Matthew 7 .1, you continue reading the following verses in Matthew 7, you will see that the main focus of that text is to help one another avoid sin.

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Jesus expects us to help take the speck out of your brother's eye. But He just warns not to be hypocritical.

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Humbly examine yourself first so that you can better help your brother and sister in Christ. Could our reluctance,

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I fear that sometimes our reluctance may be that we are harboring hidden, unrepentant sin that we fear too will be exposed.

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These are things that we must consider. But when you have a healthy view of the church, you will see that church discipline is very much a part of the love of God.

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It is very much a part of the love of God. Proverbs 3 .12, For the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father the son in whom he delights.

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Hebrews 12 .6, For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom

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He receives. God disciplines those whom He loves. We must view church discipline as an act of love.

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As an act of love to God and to fellow believers. And there's some key questions to answer this morning about this topic of church discipline and the restoring of a brother and sister in Christ.

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The first one is, why? Why does Jesus instruct us in Matthew and Paul and Galatians about this subject?

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And before we, we will get back to our text, I promise. But the first reason why

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Jesus instructs us, and these are in no particular order, why we're instructed in Matthew and Paul and Galatians about this subject, for the church to be the bride that it was intended to be.

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That the church was intended by God to be pure. Church discipline is for the purity of the church.

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Church members are accountable to God and to each other to a certain extent.

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The Bible gives examples in 1 Corinthians 5. It says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans.

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For a man has his father's wife, and you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn?

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Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit.

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And as if present, I have pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the

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Lord Jesus, and My Spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the

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Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

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Cleanse out the old leaven that it may be a new lump as you really are unleavened.

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For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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I wrote to you my letter not to associate with the sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of the world, or the greedy, or the swindlers, or idolaters, since you no need to go out of the world.

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But now I'm writing you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater or reviler, a drunkard or swindler, not even to eat with such a one.

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For what have I to do with judging outsiders? It is not those inside the church whom you are to judge.

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God judges those outside. So He says something there. He says remove the evil person from among you.

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And while I do want to make clear, I don't believe the verses in Galatians or text are referring to the same situation as mentioned here in 1

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Corinthians. I believe this in Corinthians to refer to grievous or even habitual underappended sin of someone within the church that would lead one to believe that that person is not truly a

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Christian. That that person should be removed. They are sexually immoral and apparently unrepentant.

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And are instructed that that person be removed. And while I believe Galatians to refer to genuine believers who have stumbled into sin, it is important for us to understand the seriousness of purity within the church.

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The seriousness of purity within the body of Christ and the seriousness of unrepentant sin.

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We are not perfect and we will fail. Thank God for the grace and mercy of God when we do fail.

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When we do stumble. When we do sin. But true believers delight in the law of the

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Lord. And strive to be obedient to His Word. You are not isolated in the sense where your sin, especially underappended sin, affects only you.

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We each represent not only Providence Baptist Church, but Christ.

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One member of that living a life that does not line up with the teachings of the

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Word negatively affects the body. You hurt this church by living a life full of sin and still remaining a part of this church.

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The church is defined as members who are part of a greater whole. When one member of your body isn't right, you attend to that member to get your body working as a whole again.

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We must strive to present a whole bride to Christ, pure and acceptable to God.

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Why? Why is it important? Why are these Scriptures in here? For the purity of the church.

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Number two, we go to our text. For the individual themselves and their restoration.

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Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him.

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We are instructed to practice church discipline for the restoration of the individual in sin.

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We should strive for and want each individual person to be restored simply because we love them and we love their soul.

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We are in part responsible for the souls of our brothers and sisters in Christ that we are covenantally joined with in Christ.

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Can we do this as this small body?

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Maybe 40 people in here this morning. Can we do this for every Christian in the world? Can we do that?

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No, we can't. But that's the beauty and the necessity of the local church.

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We can do this for one another here. We can do this for this body here. Who is this restoration for and who is it done to?

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Anyone who is caught in a transgression. From our text, if anyone is caught in a transgression, that very well could be me.

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That very well could be you. That could be any one of us. What does it say at the end of verse one?

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It says, keep watch on yourself lest you too should be tempted.

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We are all susceptible. So as we preach this sermon, don't view it as a high and mighty of okay, this is somebody else that has fallen into sin.

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Keep guard. Keep watch. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted.

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We are all susceptible and that is why I believe this is brought out throughout all of Scripture.

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I used this Scripture last time I preached in reference to Christian fellowship, but it might even be more applicable here.

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Alex read it for us this morning. Hebrews 3, verses 12 -14. It says, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living

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God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

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For we have come to share in Christ if we indeed hold our original confidence firm to the end.

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According to this, verse 14. What are the means to hold our confidence firm to the end or rather to persevere?

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And I mentioned this last time. If we have come to share in Christ, if we hold our confidence to the end, if we hold our confidence to the end, we are not sharing.

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If we do not hold our confidence to the end, we are not sharing, nor have ever truly shared in Christ if we do not persevere in our faith.

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It is an evidence of true conversion. In our exhorting of one another daily, how often?

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As long as it is called today. As long as it is called today, our exhorting of one another daily is a

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God -given means. A God -given means for helping your brother or sister hold fast to Christ.

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As they do the same for you. We take care to make sure that one of us doesn't have an evil and unbelieving heart that should lead us to fall away from God.

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How do we do this? How do we take care of one another to make sure that we as this local body do not have an unbelieving evil heart by exhorting one another daily?

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Why that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. This is serious.

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The duty that we have for one another, the responsibility we have to one another in this life, in our walks with Christ is serious business.

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And it destroys the, it's none of my business, argument.

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We have a great responsibility to one another. Brothers and sisters in Christ, by the design and power of God, play a role in the hearts of their fellow brothers and sisters not hardening.

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Not one of us, not one of us are too sanctified to ever fall into sin.

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We must guard ourselves from sin, but we must also watch over one another. And when a brother and sister is caught in a transgression, we desire for them to be restored to walking by the

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Spirit. Why do we do this? It's for the purity of the church, for the restoration of the brother or sister, but also for God to be glorified in both of these.

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We do not want the world to not see God's glory on display in our church because we abuse the

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Word and don't obey it. He will be glorified in our judgment, however, if we disobey.

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In order to do church discipline, we must care more about God being glorified than we care about popularity or worldly success.

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His glory reigns supreme. It is chief in our mind.

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He is worthy. God is worthy of a healthy church here in Perryville, Arkansas that strives to be obedient and do what

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His Word says. He is worthy of that. And that is reason enough. And may we ascribe to the

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Lord the glory due His name in our obedience to His Word. Why?

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Why do we do it? That is why it is done. Who it is done to.

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But what is it that is done? Restoration. What is restoration in this sense?

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Restoration is to be returned to their former condition. To be put back in order.

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In regards to Christians, it would be this. Restored back to walking on the narrow way.

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Put back into the order of obedience to God. Restored back to walking by the

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Spirit. Rockin' highlights that this is a careful process which gradually moves in Scripture from private confrontation to public condemnation.

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That is what is done. But this right here, if you've tuned out everything, you say,

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I know, I know, I can read it. We're to restore one another. It's for the person being restored.

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It's for the purity of the church. It's for the glory of God. How is it to be done?

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How is it to be done? Well, firstly, there's three of these.

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Firstly, it is to be done upon the authority of Christ. In our text, it says if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual.

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You who are spiritual. What does that mean? You who are spiritual. In today's society, it has many false meanings.

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You'll hear people say this. I know you've heard it. I'm not religious.

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I'm spiritual. In other words, I claim to believe in a higher power, but I'm not going to obey

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Him. You hear this. The correct definition of you who are spiritual is someone under the influence and the guidance of the

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Holy Spirit. In obedience to the Spirit and done in a manner as instructed by the

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Word, authored by the Holy Spirit. This is done in Christ. So in relation to this, in relation to what we're talking about, in relation to you who are spiritual, it's someone who will handle this situation according to the

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Word of God. This cannot be done from our perspective. This cannot be done our way.

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This cannot be done based on how we think or feel. This must be done on the authority of Christ and His Word.

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We cannot correct people just because what they might be doing doesn't fit our tradition or the way we think or feel about something.

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This is based upon someone from our body directly disobeying the

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Word of God. And we'll do more on that shortly. But I believe

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Paul, when he says you are spiritual, I believe he's implying a level of maturity to the one that is restoring the brother or sister in Christ.

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You who are, you could read it as you who are walking by the Spirit. And we need to understand that the restoring of Christians in every instance is a work of the

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Holy Spirit through both the one being restored and the one who is being used to restore.

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When Paul says you who are spiritual, I believe him to mean those who are not immature believers.

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Those who have been walking by the Spirit for some time. Those who have the fruit of the

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Spirit evidenced in their lives. Those whose walk with Christ is not evidenced by, or I would say even the majority of the time, by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control, probably wouldn't be the best to restore a brother and sister in Christ.

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I don't want you to think that I'm saying only perfect Christians can restore other Christians if that were the case, there'd be nobody to help restore anybody.

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But what the point is, is that mature Christians, I believe him to be talking about mature

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Christians who have the fruit of the Spirit evidenced in their lives as the ones doing the restoring.

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And I'm saying that this matter should be handled with a great deal of care and of prayer.

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We'll talk more about that in a second. I know that's the second time I've said, we'll talk more about that in a minute.

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I think this is further solidified within this verse. He says, you who are spiritual, restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

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It is done in a spirit of gentleness. So they're restored, how are they restored?

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By the authority of Christ. Second, by walking in the Spirit and therefore walking in Christ.

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It is done in the spirit of gentleness. We don't approach this matter with pride or with arrogance.

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He is not meaning by gentleness that we overlook transgressions. That's not what he's meaning.

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He is saying that this should be done with sensitivity. This should not be done in a self -righteous way.

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Confrontation is necessary, but should be done in the right way and attitude. Luther's advice to a pastor charged with setting a lapsed brother back on the right path should be heeded in this case.

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He says, run unto him, reaching out your hand, raise him up again, comfort him with sweet words, and embrace him with motherly arms.

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That was Luther's advice of how the great care that this should be given. I think verse 2 ties in here great.

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Verse 2 says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And this could be referencing burdens more than just sin, but what burden is greater than the burden of sin?

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What burden is greater than the burden of sin? If a brother or sister is carrying the burden of sin and shame and temptation, we should desire to help them.

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We are to grieve over one another's sins. We were never intended to carry the weights and the burdens of this life alone.

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Neither were we intended to battle against sin in our lives alone. And that again is the necessity of the local church.

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We were never intended to live in isolation against sin. Have we ever tried to battle against the sin that a brother or sister in Christ is facing?

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Or have we just said, oh, you know what? That's none of my problem. That's none of my care. That's their problem.

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We battle together. We bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

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What does he mean there? And so fulfill the law of Christ. What is he referencing? Turn back to Galatians 5 .14.

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For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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We show them love. We show love to them. This is not a witch hunt. This is not a, let's go turn over everybody's bucket and see what's inside.

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This isn't going and peeking in everybody's window, seeing what they have in their closet. This is an act of love.

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When we see someone we love stumble into sin, that will damage them.

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And we approach it from a standpoint of love. The verse earlier that we read said, God does what to those whom

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He loves? He chastens those whom He loves. We do church discipline because we love

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God and the people that are not living as thus saith the Lord. Because we love them.

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You know, Trey's not here this morning. He's sick. But I have to get on to these boys sometimes.

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Mainly just Trey and Jack, but Jace's day is coming. It's around the corner.

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Why do I get on to them? Why do I chasten them? Not because I don't like them.

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And not because I just like to point out all the shortcomings and point out where they're wrong.

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Why do I correct them? I correct them because I love them so much.

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And I want to see them be the best person they can be. I want to see them be obedient followers of Christ.

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I want to see them be servants of God. I want to see them be men of God, walking by the

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Spirit. And the greatest disservice I could do my children, the greatest act of hate that I could have towards my children, is to let them live however they want.

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And not correct them and show them Christ. And show them how to be obedient. It's the same.

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It's the very same here. If you see a brother or sister struggling with sin, don't just sit back and say, well, they can handle it, and just gossip about them.

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If you see someone heading for a cliff, what's the most loving thing you can do? What's the greatest act of love?

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Warn them of the cliff ahead. Warn them of the danger and the destruction that is ahead.

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Let me be clear on this whole matter though. We can go beyond Scripture in this. There's a ditch on that side.

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There's a ditch of, well, that's none of my business. I'll just let them do whatever they want.

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I won't help a brother or sister. I won't help bear their burden. That's their business.

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And there's a ditch on the other side, where we take this beyond Scripture. It can be taken to extremes with every issue that somebody doesn't agree with us on.

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We have a temptation to sometimes call something sin that isn't our preference.

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Or even if the Bible doesn't call it sin, but it's not our preference. And then we go and call out a brother or sister and impose that upon them.

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I've seen this with issues on what clothing can be worn to church. I've seen this in our area.

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A common one is the consumption of alcoholic beverages. While the

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Bible clearly teaches that drunkenness is a sin, it doesn't call for total abstinence.

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And while my family, for various reasons I'm happy to discuss, abstains from alcohol,

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I cannot force that view on a brother or call him to repent for moderate use of it where drunkenness has not taken place.

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There are things where we can go, if we're not careful, can go beyond Scripture and enforce our preferences on our brothers and sisters in Christ.

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This is referencing those who represent this church and the church of Christ who are not walking in the way of Christ, who are in sin not based upon our preference, but upon the clear

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Word of God. Churches as a whole in the recent history have not been very good at handling this subject and this aspect.

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This should not only be approached with love, but patience and humility. When someone comes to repentance, we meet them with grace.

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This process takes a lot of humility and losing of pride. This is why Paul states in v.

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26 of chapter 5, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

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The one restoring cannot be someone who thinks highly of themselves, but rather someone who thinks highly of God and His Word.

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Someone who has been shown compassion. Someone who has been shown grace. Someone who has been shown mercy and therefore handles these things in the same manner.

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It takes a lot of humility to be able to handle church discipline the correct way.

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On the part of the corrector to approach and do this the right way. And also on the part of the correctee to accept the correction as a sign of love for their soul and the church.

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And both will have to repent of any pride in their hearts. This is to be done on the authority of Christ.

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This is to be done walking by the Spirit. And this is to be done after much prayer has preceded it.

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You are absolutely out of the will of God if you have not prayed about this before going to do it.

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And I believe that if we earnestly pray before we go and talk to someone, that Christ will go with us and before us in God.

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Our words and our actions. Things would go a lot better if Christ is the one handling the situation through us.

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The greatest way that we can be a part of the restoration of a brother or sister and bear one another's burdens is through prayer.

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Through praying for one another. Taking these things to God who has the power to both restore these and either remove the burden or give them strength to bear it.

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James 5 .16 says, Therefore confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another that you might be healed.

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The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Healed from what?

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Their sin sickness. Their sin sickness. Because there is power in prayer to a sovereign and almighty

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God. I have shied away from this in the past, but if we are under the authority and the guidance of Christ, then we have no reason to shy away from this and not obey these instructions.

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God has commanded us to restore one another in gentleness and to bear one another's burdens.

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In church there is grace. There is grace. There is grace for the lost person.

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If you are lost this morning, you don't need restoration. You need to be redeemed.

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Repent and trust in the finished work of Christ. There is grace for the

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Christian who is in sin. If you have heard this, you say, I'm in sin. I'm harboring sin in my life.

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I'm harboring unrepentant sin. There is grace.

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There is grace. God wants you to be restored. God desires for you to be restored.

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If you are entangled in sin, run to Christ. For He has died for your sins and He has rose for the justification of sinners.

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Run to Him. Brothers, sisters in Christ, if you see someone in sin, if you see a brother or sister in Christ, pray for them.

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We must pray for them. We must approach this in a manner as we are instructed in Scripture.

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And church, may we handle these things biblically with the grace and the mercy that we have been shown.

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I have the words here. I'm going to close with this. I have the words here from part of a church covenant from England in the 1700s.

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And I have no clue where it came from. I found it in some notes from five years ago, and all

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I put down was part of a church covenant from England in the 1700s. But I believe it is applicable today.

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So I'll close with this. This is part of the, it's not the whole thing, but part of that church covenant.

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We agree to walk in love towards those with whom we stand connected in the bonds of Christian fellowship.

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As to the effect of this, we pray much for one another. As we have opportunity, we will associate together for religious purposes.

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Those of us that are in more comfortable situations in life than some of our other brethren with regard to the good things of providence, we will administer as we have ability and see occasion to their necessities.

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We will bear one another's burdens, sympathize with and encourage one another. We will watch over one another for good.

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We will studiously avoid giving or taking offenses. Thus, we will make it our study to fulfill the law of Christ.

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These things and whatever else may appear enjoined by the word of God, we promise in the strength of divine grace to observe and practice.

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But knowing our insufficiency for anything that is spiritually good in and of ourselves, we look up to Him who gives power to the faint, rejoicing that in the

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Lord we have not only righteousness, but strength. So hold us up,

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Lord, and we shall be safe. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we do thank

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You for Your grace and for Your mercy. We are thankful, Father God, that it is

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You who holds us up. Father God, as we have discussed what can be a weighty matter,

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Father God, as we have discussed something that in recent times, in recent church history,

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Father God, churches have not handled this according to Your Word. May we be people of Your Word.

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May we be people who strive to live in obedience to Your Word, not just in the things that we find easy,

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Father God, but in the things also that may seem hard to us. May we rely on Your strength.

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Father God, may we not depart from Your Word in these matters. May we, Father, desire,

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Father, to search the Scriptures even more. That, Lord, all matters concerning the church may be handled according to Your Word.

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Father God, if there be any here, Lord, that have never repented of their sins,

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Father, who have never trusted in Christ, I pray, Father God, that by the power of Your Holy Spirit, that You, Father, would regenerate their heart, that they would repent of their sins, that they would put their trust and their faith in You.

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If there be any here, Father, a brother or sister who is harboring sin,

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Father, I pray that they would repent of it. I pray that those, Father, who may see the sin of a brother or sister,

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Father, would not just approach it as not any of their business, Father God, but would approach it with love.

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And love, most of all, for You and for Your Word, but also in love for their brother and sister in Christ, that they may be restored unto