Book of Galatians - Ch. 6, Vs. 1-18 (07/15/2001)

Exhortation to Restore the Fallen in Meekness

Sixth chapter of Galatians. Let's see what Paul has to say to us Galatians this morning. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself blest, thou also be tempted, thou also be tempted.

Babies stumble and they fall quite a lot. Adults seldomly do. This man has stumbled because of spiritual infancy. Now we're not only to lift him up, but lead him out of infancy into manhood so he'll have strength, activity, vigilance, and fall no more.

The Greek word translated restored literally means perfect. Make perfect in love. A perfect Christian, having the work of grace perfected in his heart by the utter elimination of sin, the sin principle, which caused him to stumble.

We should be exceedingly sympathetic because we ourselves are still on probation, tempted and liable to fall. Therefore, we should always reach out a helping hand to raise him up or to raise up the fallen, remembering not simply to get them redeemed and leave them in the same aptitude to fail, but we are commanded to lead them into perfection and establish them against falling.

Bearing One Another’s Burdens and Bearing Our Own

Second verse, bear you one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. This beautiful admonition follows as a logical sequence of the preceding commandment to lift up and perfect the fallen. Christ is our burden redeemer, our infallible exemplar.

Hence, we should always be striving to do like Christ would. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. The tendency to religion is to inflate people with spiritual pride and puff them up with program of some kind or other.

We have to have programs to keep the people coming. That's not right. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself and not in another. You've heard the old saying, every tub stands on its own bottom.

Those earth and isle preachers were proselyting them off into parties and carnal ordinances that they might patronize and glorify them while they were, will be found bankrupt at the judgment bar. In the true salvation, everyone looks to Christ above and has his own experience and is not dependent on another administered by a preacher or whoever.

No parties are known as concerned, but he and Jesus. Five, for every man shall bear his own burden. Now it seems like there's a contradiction between that and verse two, bear you one another's burdens.

So fulfill the law of Christ. Five says for every man shall bear his own burden. Greg, what have we run into here? We know it's not a contradiction, so it must be something else. All right. David, do you see any difference in these two words?

There is a difference, but I wouldn't expect you to know it unless you looked at the Greek. If both words were the same word, same burden in both of these verses, the Greek does not. In English it is, but in Greek it isn't.

But in verse two, it has bere. In verse five, it has protron. So we find a difference there. Entirely different words with different meanings. Instead of depending on preachers as in case of human ordinances, you are dependent on Christ above to save you.

Neither the preacher nor any other person can bear your responsibilities, but you must bear it yourself. You were right, Greg. There, unfortunately, the English is so limited in its meanings. Both words translated the same, but they're different words.

Christian Support, Sowing and Reaping, and Life in the Spirit

Ministerial support now. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. This verse is too plain and explicit to support much comment. Good things here has a temporal significance.

Those who preach the gospel shall live of the gospel. These plain scriptures are no argument for salaries, which are utterly out of harmony with God's plan, actually running into a system of hireling ministry, which Jesus positively condemns and denounces as utter unreasonable as a hireling fleeth in the time of anger or danger.

So it's right that the preacher not receive a salary. Be not deceived, God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. Dennis, can you give me an example? Well, say it again. No, I want you to repeat the first one.

All right. Do you know of a firsthand illustration of this? I don't mean it happened to you, but you know of it. Verge? Well, if you sow whiskey, what do you reap? If you sow tobacco, what will you reap?

If you sow cards, you reap gamblers. If you sow dances, you reap libertarians and harlots. If you sow idleness, you reap bankruptcy. If you sow sin, what do you reap? Hell. Yes. For he that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that sows to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.

Corruption is from the Latin con, together, and repure, to break. Hence it means a general smash-up, destruction. This follows as a logical sequence from the transparency of the mortal testament. How silly to live for the body when you know you're liable to leave it at any moment.

So why do you live for it? Still, that is the trend of all that are in the earth, to live for the body. Blind to what does not glisten, deaf to what does not jingle, as if they could take it with them.

Fallen churches likewise run off after temporalities, fine houses, big salaries, and the pomp of the world generally. A sure sign of the black hand of Satan, if that's what you're living for. It is on them the grip of an awful apostasy and swift damnation.

But he that sows to the spirit shall of the spirit reap what? Everlasting life. In the divine economy, the Holy Spirit occupies the rules, the human spirit directly, and through spirit, the mind. Through mind of the body, through the body of this life generally, the human spirit is drawn up of God.

The mind is drawn up of the spirit, while the body is drawn up of the mind. In that case, the entire being is subordinate to and dominated by the Holy Spirit, so that you really live a spiritual life.

Let me go over that again. The human spirit is drawn up of God. The mind is drawn up of the spirit, while the body is drawn up of the wind. The mind might be wind. In that case, the entire being is subordinated to and dominated by the Holy Spirit, so that you really live a spiritual life, wearing the body in a moment, in and off, wearing the body as a loose fitting garment, ready to drop it off at a moment's warning and sweep away in triumph to the spiritual world and abide with God forever.

Our body is a loose fitting garment. We'll leave it someday. How few really live the spiritual life. Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in season we shall reap, if we faint not. We should be indefatigable.

We should be impeachable. We should be in all of our enterprises for the glory of God, from the simple fact that the reality and rewards are eternal, for in due time we shall reap. So, long as we are here on probation, how many considered themselves on probation?

Anybody? You should all be on probation. We're liable to be sidetracked by the enemy and made shipwrecked. Don't think it can't happen to you, because it can. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are the household of faith, especially to Christians.

Do good. Now, the word do brings into it something physical. It's a glorious work to save a sinner, but more glorious to take care of those already saved, keep them from wreckage. Wesley says it is more to retain the grace of God than to receive it.

Do you believe that? You hear what I said? It's more to retain the grace of God than it is to receive it. What did you have to do with the receiving of it? Nothing. One can say this only after he is saved, not before.

It's better to take care of what we eat in the greenery than it is to sow a new crop which will probably never be harvested. Might not be, we don't know. A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.

The best way to save the world is to take care of the church. It is well to clear up new fields, but better to enrich and cultivate what you have, if you have it. All of this is true after salvation. Before salvation, salvation is number one.

Paul’s Large Handwriting and the Urgency of the Letter

You see how large letters I have written unto you with my own hand. Paul very seldom did his own writing on account of ocular feeble-seeing. It's hard to see him. This was an urgent case, as he had heard about the sad havoc wrought by Satan's people, his preachers among them, because they were ignorant of spiritual experiences.

As is always the case, they preached salvation by works, upsetting many of those young converts. Hence, by perhaps a prisoner of Caesarea and Luke off at Jerusalem and joined the ministry of the apostles in gathering material to write the book of Acts, he ventures to write this loving, though awful, letter, using large letters than naturally low, the result of feeble eyes.

Yes, absolutely. Something else I discovered as a sidelight, there were no small letters. Everything was capital when he was writing, down through history. The lowercase come into effect much, much, much later, so it made it more difficult to understand.

False Religion, Human Ordinances, and Glorying in the Cross of Christ

As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. Popular superficial religion, Satan's counterfeit, has always made much of ordinances, circumcision, baptism, mass, church joining, counting the converts, sociables, festivals, etc., etc.

We can go on and on in naming things that the church participates in. This arises from the fact that they all interest utterly fails unless they have something. All interest is beside the point unless they have something, something they can do.

When they are without the work of God in their hearts, which always satisfies and gives a glorious interest, they must supply the deficiency by substituting carnal ordinances and human institutions. In this case, the preacher glorified in a genuine work with the spirit of the heart, God is glorified.

A good way to tell if you're real honest with yourself, whatever it is you want to do, is God glorified? If it isn't, if man is glorified, first it's wrong. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh.

I got another in the water today. This week we put so many in the water. While superficial rivals run manipulations and human devices glory the evangelist, they do not glory God. They kill religion deader than anything else, actually destroying the popular appetite for spiritual things.

At the same time, the rites and ceremonies so conspicuous in their superficial revivals actually symbolize the genuine work of the spirit, that of the Holy Spirit and the sacrament, the very body of Christ out of which saints subsist by faith.

It may be that we have a revival and no one responds. Maybe a lot of people responded, but we had very few join the church. We had very few come down to the front. Is that the way you judge a revival?

Reality, you can't. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul says, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. And this for a double reason now, the cross redeemed him from sin.

Has it redeemed you? Everybody say yes. Well, it redeemed you from sin, death, hell. When it is on Jesus laid down his life, a vicarious sacrifice for a guilty world. Two of every true disciple must follow Jesus to Calvary and die on the cross.

Do you reckon yourself dead to the law? Do you reckon yourself dead to the law? You are in this way exterminating the man of sin in the heart, the enemy of God, confirming the heavenly title received in justification.

Hence the cross is both the historical and experimental hemispheres of religion. The cross covers it all. Therefore, it is all or nothing. No wonder the Roman church always stickler on formulas, gives such a wonderful prominence to the cross.

Like all dead religions, they have Christ on the cross, dead. She magnifies the symbols, utterly obvious, oblivious of the experimental reality. The world has been crucified to me and I to the world, is what Paul said.

Ignorant people ask, where does Paul profess sanctification? Among the innumerable instances, this is one. Here he makes a double profession. The world has been crucified to me, consequently is fully divorced and has perfectly spiritual freedom and is sanctified wholly.

Paul was sanctified entirely to God. Me and I to the world, hence we see the double of his testimony, certifying to a double crucifixion, each one respectively affecting a complete, total, and eternal separation from the world.

Consequently, we have a clear and unequivocal profession of a double sanctification. If you can eclipse Paul's testimony to entire sanctification, I'd like to hear from you. You can't. Fifteen, for in Christ neither circumcision availeth anything or uncircumcision but a new creature.

The New Creature and the Israel of God

Now, this brief, clear, unmistakable declaration of God's word sweeps all controversy aside. Anything except the regeneration wrought by the Holy Ghost in the heart. That's all it takes. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God.

Paul here boldly announces his blessings on all who agree and verify the above affirmation, that nothing has anything to do with salvation except the new creation. You get truly born of the Spirit from above and so abide, and you are all right forever.

If you run off after humanism, Satan will get you in the end. Christ is the only Savior. If you do not take him alone by simple faith, he will turn you over to water, over to the water God, small g, or any other human devices you see popular.

You first come to Jesus alone for an uttermost salvation. It is as though you stay low at his feet till you get to know him better. You are alive. Israel is a Hebrew word that means one that prevails with God.

You know God, and have prevailing grace within, peace and mercy will abide on you forever. Just that simple. If you really know God, as you flourish among the beauties of the new creation through time and all eternity, if you know God, from henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

The Marks of the Lord Jesus and the Closing Benediction

The marks of the Lord Jesus, this leads us to time, leads us to something that occurred to Paul. What are these marks, Craig? He is directing our attention specifically to his marks, and he had plenty of them.

He had been whipped, I don't know how many times, had been stoned. Each stone left a mark, each whip left a mark. He was literally crippled for Christ. Paul was beaten, stoned, variously persecuted by Jews and Gentiles in all lands, whether he traveled in his wide world travels, hence the scars were conspicuous.

He calls them the mark of Jesus, because he received them for his sake. Can any of us point to such a mark? No, we can't. We know not how safe and secure we are, even though it's getting less in the Bible belt.

You don't hear that much anymore. How long has it been since you saw this? Not much shame, is there? Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. This benediction is so commendable for its brevity, comprehensibility, and force.

I would recommend it for anybody. All right, that finishes Galatians. Is there any questions? We do really, only it's called Philippians. We'll go to Philippians next. Is there anything anybody wants to say?

Well, if not, let's stand and we'll be dismissed. Dennis, dismiss us please.