Fulfilling the Law of Christ

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Sermon by Bart Hodgson from Galatians 6:1-5.

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Where the Lord says brothers even if anyone is caught in any transgression you who are spiritual
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Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness each of you looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted
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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
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But each one must examine his own work And then he will have a reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another
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For each one will bear his own load I was told when my grandson came in that he brought his
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Bible today and that his plans were to come up and preach with me so again,
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I I love having our children participate with with the church and that this becomes a place for them and that I can be a pastor to them and the
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Holy Spirit can work in their lives even at a young age to communicate the truths of the gospel and so We see those in little small ways and it's just a beautiful thing for me because it's kind of an act of faith, right?
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It's like hey, shouldn't we have a children's ministry? Shouldn't we like start them off to to do something else apart from us and Hannah says no
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But you know you kind of wonder, you know, well it's gonna get kind of crazy in here But we have this we have this hope we have this faith in God that he is
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Working and he's communicating to them as they participate with us. Anyway, so that's all that I'll get into the scriptures now as this is a interesting text
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It is not easy to interpret. It seems Contradictory, especially when it says bear one another's burdens and then then in the next breath
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It says for each must bear his own load. What does that mean Paul? Come on help us out here
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And so I'll just start with with telling you something that I'm that I'm experiencing as this week as I'm studying this on my property
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I'm finding that there is a an invasive species of plants called the
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Japanese honeysuckle Is it called kudzu? Is that the same thing or is that a different thing? They're different.
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Okay, that's what Kristen said But we have the Japanese honeysuckle and it seems to be just devouring
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My landscape so the battles on in in Washington. It was blackberries here.
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It's Japanese honeysuckle So every chance I get I you know yesterday
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I went to check the mail just brought my little chainsaw down there It was an electric chainsaw to my shame.
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I mean, it's not manly enough, you know, it's kind of But I don't you know, anyway, I go down there and I cut on these these vines and I'm trying to loose the trees
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From this bondage that they're in and it's really hard work I mean I worked I worked quite a bit yesterday and then
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I looked at it this morning. I was like I didn't get much done So if you know what this stuff is, okay
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And I'm sure you do because I'm new here and you've lived here probably for a long time The trees are have been covered on my property with it for some time and now in it's literally
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Bending the trees over and I'm finding as I cut it loose that some of these branches big branches are like snapped
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They're completely snapped and broken over Some of the trees are growing sideways because of it and the picture that as I'm studying this text and I'm working on this is this picture of being entangled being captured and choked out and This is the picture that Paul talks about in Galatians 6 1 when he says brothers if anyone is caught in a transition
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Transgression, they're caught. They're captured. They're snared. They've lost the freedom of movement
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Their walk has been hindered remember. He said that previously in Galatians.
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What hindered you? You were running. So well, what hindered you right? And so now he's talking about it again, or he's pointing to that now
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This is the application part of Galatians When I spoke two weeks ago, we talked about one of the applications which is walk in the spirit
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Speaking to individuals. This is what you're supposed to do now This is what I'm commanding you to do to walk in the spirit.
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It's like I said, it's not informational Paul expects them to do it and here is a corporate
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Kind of for the whole church for the body instruction and that is that they would
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Restore their brothers and carry one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ So I'm calling this
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This message this morning fulfilling the law of Christ This This is
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I'm gonna break this up into two parts here The first part is the command in verses 1 & 2 that fulfills the law of Christ and verses 3 through 5 are a rebuke
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Okay, so you need to see these as two separate things here. Otherwise, it becomes confusing
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So let's look at verse 1 brothers If anyone is caught in a transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness
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Keep watch on yourselves Lest you to be tempted now as we move into this text
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It's always important to look at context because context helps us rightly
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Interpret the Bible. Okay now as I've and I often do as I'm studying the week
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I'm dialing up other people's sermons I'm listening to what they have to say about the text and what
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I find is that a lot of this text here is Not interpreted correctly for this simple reason they do not use the context
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So we're gonna try and stay really close to the context and in fact, it it's so pervasive that it happened to me
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Okay, so as I was working through this this passage, you know And I'm writing my sermon out and I'm getting it all ready and I'm feeling good about it on Saturday Saturday morning as I sit down drinking my coffee.
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I Bring out my iPad. I'm looking through my notes and something just didn't sit right with me
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And I was like something's wrong and I and I went to Luther and Luther set me straight
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Okay, as he often does and so I was like do I do I need to rewrite my whole sermon now?
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because I got it wrong and Instead I'm just gonna let it stay as an example
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Okay, and so let's use the context to understand what is happening
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So if we're gonna use the context we need to go back to what Josh preached last week Galatians chapter 5 in verse 26
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This is a transition verse and he has many transition verses in here but going from one topic to the next so he went from fruits of the
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Spirit and Then he started he mentions this in 26 he says let us not become conceited provoking one another and Envying one another.
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Okay. So this is the context of which he's about to give this command that we read in verse 1 of chapter 6
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He's saying don't be conceited and that word is vain glory or self -glory
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Don't provoke one another or irritate one another and then also don't have envy or jealousy within within yourselves
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And he's talking to the church here. And this is classic 13 year old behavior, isn't it?
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Right if you ever done worked with Junior hires, this is what they do.
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They try to be the center of attention They try and draw the attention away from others and on themselves even to the to the point where they would make someone else look
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Bad so that they would look better, right? And and I I've always said this
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Is as a counselor bad attention is still attention, right? And so as we go through this passage, remember, he just said
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Paul just said pride Bad, okay pride bad
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The Galatians have been deceived and this is what happens and How we get caught in transgression?
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Okay Remember the he has said before who has bewitched you Who's tricked you right who has deceived you and if we look to James chapter 1 verses 14 and 15 you're probably familiar with this verse that says but each person is
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Tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires Then desire when it has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death
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So he's saying he's saying this is how you were caught you were tricked you were deceived It's kind of like throwing that bait out there and just waiting for that fish to Ignore the hook and see the bait and just take it and then they go.
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Oh, no. Oh No I've been tricked So what is the transgression that the
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Galatians have been deceived to desire because that's gonna help us to understand What this transgression is that he's talking about here.
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What is it? What did they do? What did they believe? They believed in a works -based relationship with God They had they had they stopped believing the gospel that they received from Paul and this is this is
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Something that I I heard at the conference that I was at and this is why I go to conferences. I Heard this
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I heard the epistemological sin of the heart and I was like, oh, that's so good
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Epistemology epistemo. I can't even say it Epistemological sin of the heart. What does that mean?
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Epistemology is this study of how we come to understand things and It focuses on how do we come to understand the gospel?
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How do we come to understand who God is? Right, and that's this that's that part of the study in theology epistemology, so this is a
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Epistemological sin of the heart. So what does that mean? Romans 1 18 says this for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
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Why? Who by their unrighteousness? suppress the truth and If for although they knew
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God they did not honor him or give him thanks But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened 22 claiming to be wise they became fools.
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They exchanged the truth of God for a lie That was their sin.
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That's what they did. That's that's what's wrong brothers if anyone is caught in any sin and I've been talking to you about this sin
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You who are spiritual should restore him now think about it. This makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? It makes sense that at the end of the letter to the
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Galatians that Paul would say to them if anyone has fallen into this trap Restore him gently restore
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He doesn't say shame them severely He doesn't say label them and make sure they never have a significant place in ministry in the church
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The point is restoration Right in line with what Jesus says in Matthew 18 if your brother sins against you go tell him his fault
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Between you and him alone if he listens to you. You've gained a brother You've gained a brother
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You've gained a brother. That's the point The word in the Greek here for restore means to mend or to set up a broken bone or a fracture
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Another thing that I heard at this conference that I went to was this account in Luke 9 54
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I'm just gonna go there And it hit me in two ways this is this is the account of The sons of thunder, all right, you know these two guys
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Luke 9 54, where is it? okay, so I'll read from 51 when it when the days drew near for him to be taken up He said his face to go to Jerusalem This is speaking out at Jesus And he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the
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Samaritans to make preparations for them but the people did not receive him because his face was set towards Jerusalem and when his disciples
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James and John saw it they said Lord Do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
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But he turned and rebuked them. Now. Here's here's the interesting thing at the conference
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I Think it was Doug Wilson. He said this he He said he read that he said but he turned and rebuked them and said
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You do not know what kind of spirit you are of And I went wait a second.
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I don't remember that in my ESV Because it's not in my
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ESV So I went back to the Greek and I went oh here it is
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It is here now the LSB the legacy standard Bible has this in there but he turned and rebuked them and said you do not know what kind of spirit you are of and That just hit me.
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I was like Whoa, I think sometimes we don't know what kind of spirit we are of That's a good question
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What kind of spirit are we of what a great question to ask yourself as you go through the day?
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Because just just two weeks ago. He was saying here are the works of the flesh. Here are the fruits of the spirit
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What kind of spirit are you of? He says we should restore in a spirit of gentleness in line with the spirit
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He's saying here's a perfect opportunity to let the fruit of the spirit become evident in your life Right.
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It is a spirit of gentleness that uses the Authority of appeals to step into the brother's life to present the truth and appeal to the
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Holy Spirit within him okay, now this is a new concept that I We were in Seattle and somebody said this that they were reading a book and they said
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They kind of brought this distinction. I've been thinking about I've been chewing on it ever since And I'll say that again a spirit of gentleness uses the authority of appeal to step into the brother's life
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To present the truth and appeal to the Holy Spirit within him. Okay.
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Remember he said if a brother one another son of God One in whom the
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Holy Spirit dwells if if he is caught in a sin restore him gently and And I in a spirit of gentleness
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Now the authority as you do this resides in the
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Word of God It is God himself correcting and reproving
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The appeal is to the very spirit that is within this brother that is warring against their flesh
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Yes, they're caught but they're warring against the flesh and some misunderstand their authority
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They use the authority of command instead To bully to control to use their title or their office to intimidate
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But they have no functional authority when they do that Matthew 20 verses 20 through 25
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Jesus calls its disciples together and he says, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and They're great ones exercise authority over them.
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And then he says this it shall not be so among you It's not your way
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But whoever wants to be great among you must be a servant So as we come and we we entreat as we appeal to our brother caught in a sin.
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We're trying to serve them We're trying to be a servant to them now
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Gentleness and meekness often are things that make men recoil Okay, I think
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I think this is sometimes why the church doesn't seem manly As we talk about gentleness we talk about meekness, but this is not niceness or passivity
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Exercising lordship as a man as someone who has a position in the church as an elder or a deacon
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Is not using your authority like a club to beat people into submission. This is what the world does
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What kind of spirit are we of? Now men Don't recoil
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Because this is not a call to be effeminate, but it's a call to have courage It's a call to be bold And if you've ever done this if you've ever stepped into somebody's life to to try and restore them
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It takes a lot of boldness it's so easy just to just Not my problem
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Man, this is how you lead your homes your children and your wife In the strength that is clothed in gentle service
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We see this in Jesus. We see this in Paul as he's dealing with the Galatians. Paul is very clear with the
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Galatians He's very Stern, he's very serious He's fighting and he's working towards their restoration.
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So this morning this first verse is a call to gentleness and meekness But we also see this call and it's very similar to a different call that we have
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That is given as we communicate the gospel to others as We defend the faith and the hope that we have to non -believers
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So this works not just within the church, but this works outside the church as well What is that?
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What is that? What is that verse? It's first Peter 3 15, right? In your hearts honor
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Christ as Lord Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asked you for the for a reason for the hope that you have in you
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Yet do this with gentleness and respect This is the spirit that we are of Josh and I as elders in this church
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We have authority To to exercise church discipline
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To have someone expelled from the body even to turn them over to satan but this process should always be done in a spirit of gentleness and sorrow and Appealing and pleading with someone to return to the faith
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The goal is restoration He says at the end keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted
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Now sin is infectious, but I don't believe we're being warned that you're going to get it on you although There are two ways.
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I think that the context tells us that to be to be wary to keep watch on ourselves
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The first one is that we would restore not in a spirit of gentleness And the temptation is to just instead of restoring just cut them off amputate rather than mend
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Because it's so easy to get angry to get frustrated I mean parents with kids
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You know, this is true, right? So easy to let to try and control their actions rather than to be gentle and patient The second reason
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I think Deception if it is left unchallenged will grow and you might also be deceived.
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I think about wokeness and how it has has just Snuck in and consumed our western evangelical church
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How did it get in? Well, someone was deceived And then no one said anything
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And then soon Others were deceived and it just grew and grew until well,
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I guess this is just what we're doing I think that that could be why paul is saying be careful
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Or you might also be tempted The next verse bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of christ
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Okay, my questions here. What are these burdens? And when I go to the greek and do my word study the word in greek is bare which means heavy loads
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Which doesn't help me at all. So, um, I look and I go. Well, let's look at what the word says
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It could be these burdens are what christ is talking about in first peter 5 7 when he says cast all your cares upon me
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Because I care for you so the cares would be their health concerns financial concerns Man salvation for my family members my struggles with sin
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My struggles with anxiety or depression or whatever is going on in your life right now circumstantial
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It could be that That would be one two It could be what christ calls each person to do as as they follow christ when he says take up your cross and follow me
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All right It sounds but he also says and josh preached on this last week. He says my my yoke is easy and my burden is light
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But it's still a burden Maybe that's what it is Okay, that would be two three would be just sin the burden of sin i'm reading to bow every night
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Uh the story of christian in pilgrim's progress and if you're familiar with that story
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He christian leaves the town the city of destruction and he's on this journey to the celestial city
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But at the beginning he has this burden on his back and it's so heavy and it's so hard for him to walk
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And he gets tired often and he just can't he just he hates this burden that is slowing him down And as he enters the narrow way
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One of the first things he finds is this cross upon a hill and at the cross the burden falls away
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Right, so that could be that could be the burden, right? um, well I believe
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One and two rightly can describe the burden But that's not using the context
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And this is what Luther hit me with on sunday because that's a great sermon And I could preach that sermon
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And you'd say man, that was a great sermon That was a good sir, and i've heard a lot of people say that bear one another's burdens
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You know whatever care that they have this should be a place where we care for one another great sermon
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Not what paul was talking about here Uh three we're going to talk about later in the text but I think
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What is the burden The burden is what you talked about in verse one
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The burden is that it's a heavy load To confront your brother and to restore him when he's caught in sin
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That is a heavy burden now uh he says
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If you do this, you will fulfill the law of christ. What is the law of christ?
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I believe that Paul is referring back to john 13 34 through 35 where jesus says a new commandment
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I give you Jesus is saying to his disciples. I'm giving you a new command. Here's the new command
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This is the command of christ This is the law of christ that you would love one another just as I have loved you
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Okay, you couldn't have this this command before because you didn't know me You didn't know how I loved you
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You're gonna see how I loved you and I want you to love one another in that same way and by this all people will
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Know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another Now That puts all the responsibility on our shoulders to do this bear one another's burdens
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From other passages and I could build the case and I did this is this is the sermon that I repent of but I Because it it works it does work that we're to care for one another right and we see that in first corinthians 12 12
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When paul is talking about the body for just as the body is one it has many members All the members of the body though many are one body so it is with christ and you jump down to 26 if one member suffers all suffer together for if For if one member is honored all rejoice together
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It makes sense If somebody here in here at cbc is suffering In some respect we all suffer
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He's trying to teach us that now. We know this to be true in our body I scratched my cornea early on in my life and like only had one eye for a while That messes you up like I was bumping into things and stuff
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You know, you don't realize how your peripheral vision matters until you lose an eye, right? and so Yeah, my whole body was affected.
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I have tennis elbow. It's like when I want to scratch something I'm like, I can't do that. This one doesn't work either.
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And so then I have to find a tree or something, you know Your whole body is affected
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The well -being of the body is affected by the well -being of all the parts The other reason that I think that that that is a good sermon
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Although it's not this sermon is that man caring for one another is a beautiful benefit To being among god's people.
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It's a blessing to be among god's people because you don't have to suffer alone
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That's powerful that'll preach And often god uses mediating agents secondary causes to accomplish his will
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God is caring for individuals in the church Through you through me
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And so in my sermon that I repented of and then it's not this sermon I asked the question.
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How is the church doing with that? How are we doing? I mean, it's a valid question today And what would the church look like if we actually obeyed that?
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We actually cared for one another loved one another and what's preventing us from doing that But then if we look at it in context, then we have to ask this question
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If the church is a place where we bear one another's burdens Which is restoring us when we're caught in sin. Do we really want to be a part of the church?
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Do you really want to invite that into your life I think you should
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If it's done in the spirit of gentleness What spirit are we of so you keep asking that question
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Verse three it begins the Paul's second part, which is the rebuke
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He says if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself Remember verse 26.
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Don't be conceited. Don't provoke one another don't envy one another But this is the definition of being conceited right pridefully thinking that you're something more than you actually are
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Here's Why he commanded this last week I think one of the reasons also in context is he's saying you've had bad examples people who've wormed their way into your church to deceive you
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And you need to understand who they really are so you don't keep following them. It says he deceives himself
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He's doing the work of sin I mean if sin is crouching at the door waiting to deceive us
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What happens when he opens the door and goes oh you're already deceived Thanks Good job
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Now you can take this section in two ways or perhaps they apply to two different groups one Paul is anticipating a response and brings rebuke to that way of thinking
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So someone who is caught in a sin their brother is trying to restore them gently He may be speaking now to that person caught in a sin
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You think you're something when you're nothing You're deceived Paul anticipates a prideful response and maybe we do too.
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Maybe this is what keeps us from Actually jumping in and being responsible for our brother's burden is because we go.
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Oh, man, it's gonna You know as soon as I bring it up they're gonna say well, yeah would you now when we hear someone say act conceited, maybe they say something like You don't know me, but i'm kind of a big deal around here
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You kind of think in your head you're like man that guy's that guy's prideful he's
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Bit of a windbag maybe braggart blowhard or Maybe just insecure
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But what happens when the person who is saying that is you in your own head? I don't know if you know this or not, but i'm a pretty big deal around here
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I think that our reaction is a little bit different Sometimes we go.
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Yeah, that's a good point I feel justified in my greatness now
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Maybe give a little yeah Paul says bear one another's burdens and our pride says
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I don't need anyone's help. I don't need their sympathy. I don't need their pity They're just gonna gossip about me.
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Anyway, I don't trust them to not judge me They don't understand I'm independent.
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I can take care of this myself. I'm responsible. I'm manly blah blah blah blah blah and it's just pride
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It's all pride If you don't think you need your brother You think you can go it alone if you're too busy to care about your brother's distress.
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There's another one Then you don't understand that the love of god
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You don't understand the love of god. You don't understand his command that binds us together Again, we're responsible for one another
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This is the deception that will lead you to sin it will lead you to disobey the law of christ the other way to understand this section is to see this rebuke directed towards the teachers of the law who have rejected christ and are
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Promoting false salvation and perfecting the law They think they're something they think they're self -righteous.
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They're they're influential. They're important. They're above reproach these judyizers They don't think that they need correction
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And they have a fleshly need for people to need them and to listen to them
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They're puffed up. They're blinded by their own opinion. And yet paul says you are nothing paul says that without love first corinthians 13
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No matter no matter how many miracles you do. You're nothing Jesus says abide in me because if you don't
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Believe it or not You can do nothing Paul is outing the opposition
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Revealing the truth of who they are. He's instructing the galatians because Of these legalistic teachers
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They're they're deceiving them. They're putting them on a destructive prideful path And we see that today in the church
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It is common for church church leaders political leaders even To present a public persona that is very different from who they really are and it's hard to Even though it's hard to keep up the charade and keep people, you know on that side of the curtain
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It becomes an exhausting task the longer you're around people to keep up the farce
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But I believe that That that just brings destruction Because we start to believe that deception these leaders start to believe that deception and they start to justify who they are
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And say no i'm, right And they they're they're okay with the dissonance in their life
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Verse four he speaks directly to that prideful superiority That that spirit that is says i'm better than others that they're holier than thou
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He says but let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor
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Okay. So what is this about boasting now? I thought he was like Duncan on pride right and he's like he's actually telling them that they need that have a reason to boast well this word here
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It refers more to glad exaltation Rather than self -promotion. Listen to what calvin says
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He said it often happens that we compare ourselves with others and from the low opinion that we form of them
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We set a high price on ourselves And it is not what we gain from detracting from others
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But what we have without any comparison that is truly praiseworthy So what he's saying there is you want you want to find something praiseworthy in your life
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If you're going to find it when you stop comparing yourself to other people He says if a person is valued for his own worth and not for the low
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Loneness of others the praise is just and substantial Test yourself test yourself on your own merit.
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That's what he's saying here because you can rejoice in that And that actually has some value
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But you could say, um Uh, you could say it this way you must test and truly see your work or your ministry without comparing yourself to others
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Or in what others say about you So and and we do this all the time, but I I've noticed this in some podcasters that I listen to They'll receive some
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Some critique and then they'll have a podcast where they kind of open up their podcast going
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Can you believe what this person said about me? And I I think they're just watching the chat going No, that's totally terrible.
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You you're so right I can't believe they said that about you and they're just kind of building themselves up and feeling good about themselves, you know as they take their platform and use it to kind of Justify themselves, of course, it's totally one -sided right?
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Totally one -sided But I do that too
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I don't have a podcast but when conflict happens There are people that I go to who will tell me the same thing
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I avoid the person he's going to say Challenge me or say yeah I probably should think about that a little bit more
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I go straight to the people who go you go girl. You're so right
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They're so bad Paul is saying let every man scrutinize his own conduct and then he will find out
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Not with reference to another but with reference to himself what he has to boast of He's saying do this and see if you've got anything to boast about or Discover if you are poisoned by vain glory seeking self -justification in the praise of people
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The last verse For each one will have to bear his own load Again load is a different word from burden
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And the the word here kind of refers to a soldier Shouldering his own pack What he's saying here is that every man shall bear his own judgment
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The burden of sin that christian bore And the sin that every one of us bears before a holy god
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Is the judgment that is coming for deeds done in the body? Luther says this this phrase should terrify everyone who pursues fate or praise from other people should terrify them
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Because judgment is coming when each one of us will be held accountable None of your followers on twitter will stand by you on that day
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So you've got two options Either you believe in faith that jesus alone pays the penalty for your sin and allow jesus to carry your responsibility before the the god before god almighty or You can stand in your pride
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And be responsible for yourself That's what paul is saying there now sons of god
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This is this kind of big picture here as we as we move into kind of application. What does this mean for us? What is god asking us to do?
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The big picture is that sons of god transformed by grace are now
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Enabled to demonstrate grace to one another And we must we must operate in grace in order to be obedient to christ and display that we are his
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Let me say it again Sons of god transformed by grace are now because of christ because of the cross are now enabled because of the holy spirit dwelling
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Inside of us are now enabled to demonstrate grace to one another And we must operate in grace
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In order to be obedient to christ and display that we are his Grace is a family trait
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Of blood -bought sons of god What spirit are you of?
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What spirit are you are you of and what is god asking of us? I think one as the body of christ we do need to carry one another's burdens
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Including and specifically this morning the the the burden the heavy burden
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Of trying to restore a brother who is deceived Who is caught in sin just like that tree just bound up entangled
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Their life is being pulled out of them. They're being twisted and deformed It's not the way they need to be free.
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They need to be freed. So how does how does that work in cbc? um
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Go we try and carry each other's burdens and we can't do that when we're isolated And that's why we push you towards Discipleship man, if you're not being discipled you need to be discipled
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Two weeks ago I talked about walking by the spirit and how it's kind of confusing and how do you do that?
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You know And and many of us are still growing in that How do you grow more and more in an understanding of what that is?
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You do that when you're discipled by someone else who's a little bit further down the road than you who can say, you know, what?
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I'm gonna pray with you I'm gonna walk with you And together with the word of god and the help of the holy spirit
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We're gonna see You find freedom from that so That's one way hospitality another way, man
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Well, we are in one another's homes and this is a blessing not just for us in the church But also those who are outside the church who we invite in That we get to know each other.
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I know what's going on in cooper's life. I can be praying for him I know what's going on in mike's life.
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I can be praying for him I know what's going on in dylan's life. I can be praying for him But I can't do that If this is the only time we hang out on sunday morning, that is scary
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Because you're going to encounter issues and problems That you're going to go
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I'm uncomfortable with this conversation I don't know what to say And it is
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It is But we're responsible for one another And we need to just get okay with the awkward
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We need to ask each other. We don't need to just check the box. We need to walk with one another as a family does um
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The other thing that that is hard Is this this challenge that we have that as we live together in christ community as we
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Because it's a community of growing sanctification that we're going to begin to see the sinfulness with Within each other if if we start hanging out together
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We're going to start to see Some stuff that we don't want to see you know my mentor in both times in seminary said
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If you stay in this church long enough Someone will sin against you He said and if you stay even longer i'll probably sin against you why?
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Because that's what this place is all about no because we're broken people and we're pursuing restoration we're pursuing sanctification which means that we will have to Endure that We we don't get the option to walk away
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We don't get the option to turn away from our faith and to say oh that they they hurt me No We stay
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That's what paul is saying we stay and we restore one another in a spirit of gentleness
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I'll end with a story, uh from my life a story that is not a story of Victory but of defeat there was a man in my church, uh in oregon
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I was there at that church for 11 years longest place i've served At the end of my tenure there it didn't end well probably stayed a little too long or god was moving me uh but I Things got heated me and the elders didn't see eye to eye and it you know, we're trying not to affect the church and things like that, but Um, you know,
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I challenged them with some stuff and I just kind of felt like you guys aren't listening You guys we're going in different directions
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And so it became clear that we needed to to I needed to move on.
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Um and one of One of the members of the church and an elderly gentleman by the name of gordon wilson
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Blue collar guy. He he put up plaster. He was a master at doing that. It's a lost art now, but uh quiet man, uh
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Had a soft voice he came and he he said hey, I I need to talk to you And I said, okay
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And I thought that he was going to come in and he was going to say hey I heard you're moving on and just want to tell you what a great pastor you've been and how
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I appreciate you and How the other people are wrong things i've heard about you. He didn't say that He sat down with me and he said hey, um
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He said there was a time probably four or five years ago that I came to an elder meeting
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And I was really convinced that we needed to be congregational rather than elder ruled
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And I made my case And you said some things that were very arrogant
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And I said whoa Okay And maybe it was because it was kind of a nathan moment
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Where nathan comes before david and says you're the man As I was in disagreement with these elders that i'd so Voraciously, uh and aggressively defended before and in that brokenness
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I understood His point better the irony is is that we're a congregational church now, so perhaps, uh, gordon wilson's gentle restoration of me
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Had a lasting effect But also I had to I had to say i'm sorry
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Somehow in that moment god gave me the grace as he appealed to the spirit within me
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And I said you're right I don't even remember what I said But that sounds a lot like me.
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I was that man As an elder of a church who ruled with tyranny
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Who was aggressive Who said? It's my way because god has given me this position
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I was a young elder i'm not anymore Another mentor of mine the one who said stick around this church.
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He'll somebody will sin against you He sat with me listened to all of my hurt from that church
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And he said someday you're going to be able to see your part in this
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He said it may be a small part but you've got a part in this and those two men
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Restored me Those two men helped me to see that being an elder in a church and to have authority is or even as a man in my house
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Is a heavy burden It's not it is not what
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I thought it was before And so I just tell you that in humility, um Um and ask the question is that the kind of church that you want to be a part of Because I want to be obedient to this
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I want to be a place where we don't let deception run wild And we become something that is not what christ wants
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And that takes humility That takes you being able to look at yourself and go
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And not be prideful Not Yeah, but it takes both sides right it takes people who are willing to be gentle It takes people who are willing not to be prideful
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And then it works and then it's a beautiful thing and that's what god desires I think that's what paul is trying to tell the galatians this week
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If you uh don't know who jesus is if you've never accepted christ as your lord and savior
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I want to tell you this morning that salvation is here Salvation, uh is for you.
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God loved you He sent his son to die on a cross and if you will respond to that today, man, you'll have
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Not just life eternal. You will have a brand new life in christ It's exciting.
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You get to know who jesus is the the truth of the scriptures will come alive to you And I man
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I want that for you. So if you're here today and i'm talking to you right now Come and talk to me afterwards come and talk to me.