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Thing #212.
All from above heavenly men by birth, once we're both the citizens of Earth as pilgrims here seek a heavenly home.
Our portion and the ages.
And it's all.
Over the sun.
Shall be.
You're always involved.
I've had cherry all everything.
Snapshot.
Gambling.
Morris Way.
There is no law.
There are sovereign grace.
Now what the Lord breathed by the unveiled, unveiled, unveiled.
You are a stranger.
Where we do not pray.
Oh my God.
Which gave everybody.
00:05:05
The process.
Every twice when it spelled us here.
So far, Treasurer. Writer's spirit.
Let's pray.
I'd like to suggest for our consideration Galatians chapter 6.
It's a book, so that.
Wakes up some dark subjects. The Book of Galatians.
But the six chapter is very practical, and it takes off in particular some good practical instruction as to how we can.
Can walk, as we've considered, together.
Pilgrims here in this world, heading towards home with the particular enemies that we have of the flesh in the world.
Those two in particular are there.
And I just suggested is something that may be helpful especially.
For all those of us who are older, but there's many younger ones here as well.
Galatians chapter 6, verse one.
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.
Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
You see how large a letter I have written unto you with my known hand?
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh they can. They constrain you to be circumcised only, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised to keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they make glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is circumcised.
Is by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, and as many as walk according to this rule. Peace be unto them, and mercy and upon the the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, Amen.
I could also suggest something. You take up the Book of Galatians there.
Can easily be a tendency to take up the negative side of it, and there's much here that is very negative in particular.
The law and the gaudy and the world.
But against that dark backdrop, we have some very, very bright things in this book of Galatians, and I think it could be very encouraging and uplifting if we maybe consider more of that side of it.
And that which would be a real help for each one of us in our Christian life.
And just to say by way of introduction of that regard.
There are two things presented to us in particular in this book of Galatians that help us as Christians, those things that we absolutely need. One is a life and an object, and we get that in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. That verse we know so well, but if we can look at that for a moment.
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It says there I am crucified with Christ and nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You have those two things there. The 1St is the life that I now live in the flesh, and that is Christ living in me when you and I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
We got a whole new life and it was his life. It's eternal life. It's a life of Christ. And that we need. That is the life that can please God, but we need an object too. And he says I live by the faith of the Son of God. That doesn't mean by his faith. It means that faith which has him as an object. That is our faith looks to Christ and according to the life that we now have, which is his.
We are enabled with him as the object to follow him.
And so we have a life and an object in the Lord. And then we also have the spirit. Now we get primarily in a number of places. Let's say chapter 3, verse three, it says you've begun in the spirit, which is true. Every one of us when we got saved, we began in the Spirit. But then in chapter five, he says in verse one, stand fast. Therefore in the liberty we're with Christ that's made us free and be not entangled again with the oak of *******. And he goes on to speak about how we do that is to our walk.
And that we have.
In later on in that chapter.
Verse 13 You've been called unto liberty.
Don't use liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but if I love serve one another and how? Verse 16 this I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Verse 18 if you be LED of the spirit and not under the law. And so now we've got a power, not just a life in an object, but there's the power to walk accordingly.
To that light that we have in Christ and these things are presented by the time we get to chapter 6 so that when we come to the.
Practical exhortations of this chapter We already find the resources that we as believers need to be able to take up with the instructions that we find here.
Our first verse begins with the word.
After it says brethren, it says if.
And we'd like to talk about that a little bit in the context of what Tim just brought before us.
There's a very powerful concept, and those of you who've been in my Sunday school class in Rio Ferry will recognize what I'm going to talk about.
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, that Brother Tim was just looking at you. Look at the word I as you go through this, the first one, I am crucified. You're crucified. You're quite dead.
And then the next expression is I live and Tim is bringing that out that we have a new life in Christ.
And then it says not I.
Does Christ liveth in me? And then it says I now live and and it's in the flesh, in your body. You live by faith. And that's what Tim was bringing forward in connection with.
The object that we have and the faith and the Spirit of God working inside us, but.
What I want to emphasize and bring out is that this eye in Galatians 2 and 20 has decisions to make.
One is to recognize I is crucified, another is to recognize I has a new life, and the third is to recognize that you're going to live by faith in Christ. Decision is to make crucify what you were I is to recognize my new life is in Christ, and then the third is to recognize you live it by faith.
And then if we turn over to the fifth chapter of Galatians.
We understand.
I has a decision to make and if you look in Galatians 5.
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And verse 17.
Says the flesh lost us against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary 1 to the other. So you cannot do the things that you would. So there's a conflict that is going on and I has a decision to make.
All day long, all kinds of circumstances.
That are presented before you that you I are in. Are you going to walk and let the crucified what you were come down off that cross and come back to life If it were or you're going to choose to walk in the spirit.
There's choices that get made all day long.
And the point that in verse 18 of chapter 5 is if you be led by the Spirit.
You're not under the law. What is it that enables us to live a successful Christian life? Is it a set of rules? Is it constraints No. What is it that enables us to live a successful Christian life is walking in the spirit I saying yes to the Spirit of God and letting him guide in our lives and so.
We're not always successful.
And that's what is being addressed first in chapter 6. If a man be overtaken in a fault. I'd like to say this right up front, that Christianity is about when you get knocked down, the flesh gets in control and I makes the wrong decision.
The devil gets advantage through a certain set of circumstances that the real life that you have from Christ, the power of the Spirit means you get back up, you say you're sorry to the Lord, you repent, and in the power of that new life and the power of the Spirit, you get back up and start following the Lord again.
So Christianity is not a one time decision leading to a failure. If it leads to a failure, and it doesn't have to, you have the power of the Spirit of God dwelling inside you. You have the new life of Christ inside you in conflict with what you were before you were saved. You have the ability to get up.
Get cleaned up and carry on following the Lord Jesus. And that's what Christianity is about, if I can put it that way. Verse six, it's about restoration.
And the recognition that we need to have is that each one of us is capable.
Of fallings, of yielding to the flesh and not walking in the spirits. And so part of being Christian and being is being part of a Christian fellowship. And that is part of helping each other get back up and carry on following the Lord Jesus. And that's part of what we have in the in this first verse starts out with a thing that's a little bit negative, but there's a real positive light in it.
Yes, there can be failure in my Christian life.
Thank the Lord He's given me brothers and sisters in Christ who can help me get back up and carry on.
And thank the Lord that He's given the Holy Spirit inside me to help me give back up and carry on. I think this first verse also.
Makes a lot more sense when you consider what the back the dark backdrop was. And that was the law which only condemned So if somebody.
With fall, the overtaking in a fall, well, you would be like the priests and the Levite passing by on the other side saying I'm not going to get dirty by that one and not like the Good Samaritan who is our example, the Lord Jesus.
And so we're told to be like the Lord here, the man the And it's even clearer in the new translation, says, Brethren, even if a man be taken in a fault, you which are spiritual restore such a one.
We're to be like the Lord in that regard. Now, what is a spiritual person say? Who's going to say that they're spiritual?
Oh, we can't be like the Lord entirely in that regard because we have the flesh and the Lord didn't have the flesh, but the spiritual one is a Christian who judges himself and recognizes that he has the flesh and judges that before God. And so it goes on to say that the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest I'll also be tempted. This part the Lord could not do, but we must. And if we will do that, then we're going to act in the spirit of grace, which is what we have in in the first part of this verse, that we're going to be like that Good Samaritan to get right down there.
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With that one who fell and get dirty with him in the ditch and lift him out of that place, that's what we're called to do. That's grace, and that's what we're called to do in the Christian life, in our path.
Rob just mentioned that we have those two opposing forces within us, the flesh and the spirit.
And sometimes we don't recognize when the flesh is active in our own life. It's.
We're oblivious to it.
And our brethren do see it.
And So what do we do when we see somebody who is walking in the energy of the flesh? Maybe it is in the context of this epistle. They're walking in law or any other fault or trespass. Fault here isn't like some little white lie, some little incidental thing. It's translated elsewhere. Trespass, trespasses, it's sin.
And So what, what do we do? Oftentimes what we say is, well, so and so is so and so, and they'll always be so and so. But that isn't true.
And, and what we really are trying to do is to absolve ourselves of responsibility.
To take this verse and to say Lord you don't understand this person is just always going to be the way this person is.
But this verse doesn't say to absolve ourselves of responsibility. It says to not only to administer self judgment as Tim just said, but then to go to that person in an attempt to have them recognize that sin is sin and to judge it. And then they too will be spiritual and be able to go to the next person and say this is the flesh, this is sent, this is all it is. So we need to be able to not only recognize the flesh, but recognize that that isn't normal to Christianity.
And not go and many were here on Tuesday or Wednesday night when they'll mention something in relation to this in regards to.
Seeing something or a brother coming to us and confessing something, and not not for the point of hitting the person over the head, but for the point of winning them, as this first goes on to say that that is the goal. But we have to be willing to take God up at His word.
A difficult thing to do.
And we also need to be willing to recognize when somebody comes to us and says, hey, the word of God says this and you're doing this. That's not right.
So we do have a law.
And there is that in the next verse. Bury one anothers burdens, and so fulfilled the law of Christ. So what is that law then, if we're not under the law?
Well, there's the law of Moses, and this speaks about the law of Christ, and it's a very different thing. And we have that presented perhaps first and foremost. And John 15 just turned there for a moment.
It's actually the 1St I was thinking. I believe is in town 13 find it sorry.
Verse 34.
A new commandment I give unto you.
That you love one another as I have loved you. That you also love.
Love one another.
Another by this shall all men know that you're my disciples. If you have love one for another.
So this is really what the Lord gave. It was love, and He showed this by His own example. He came down from heaven to earth.
And took our burden on the cross. You couldn't have a greater example than that of what we have in this second verse and so he says we need to go and do that same thing. That's the commandment that the Lord gave us. It's the new commandment. It's not the law of Moses. Love your neighbors yourself would be this summary of the second table of the law. The first would be love God. So love is even the summary of that, but it has all these commandments that were to do this goes infinitely beyond.
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And it's something that can be done in the power of the spirit with that life that we have from the Lord himself is something that's far beyond the law of Moses. And he says having that, having that motive of love that came from the Lord himself, he says that's what you use to bear one another's burdens. And what's the burden that he mentioned already we had once, one overtaken in a fault, one who needs help, one who's struggling with some sin or another.
And like her brethren have presented, you know, to go to them and bring before them what the consequence of that sin is, and the way to get back up, the way to get restored to the Lord and help that one that's wrong beside them. And so that's how we bear these burdens, first and foremost. But it's not limited to that. You see somebody struggling with anything in their Christian life. You can go to them and be a help to them.
Perhaps I could tell a story that might be a little help.
An example of this some of us are playing hockey when we're a little younger and.
One of the brothers in this room that I was playing with did something that I considered to be unacceptable, so I went over and I spoke to him about it and he didn't listen to me.
So it says here to consider thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
My response was then to do something wrong because he didn't listen to me.
It's something to consider when we speak to somebody. We have to consider ourselves too, that we do it in the spirit of meekness, that we don't take offense because sometimes people don't receive what we say. And to to recognize that even when we reach out to help somebody, we're vulnerable as well. So we need to do it in the spirit of meekness, recognizing that's the Lord's strength and it's going to be him that restores.
Hopefully we all have that heart 1 towards another to reach out to, one that we see that's hurting or struggling.
Speaking of illustrations, Kevin.
I've been on job sites with some of the carpenters in this room and.
The difference between chapter 6 and verse two and chapter 6 and verse five is interesting. I've seen you all walk on with your own burden in the morning. You're all carrying your own lunch bucket. Some are bigger than others, but all of them are fairly big. It's my observation that you guys.
Work for a living. I've been in a situation with you guys and I've seen somebody, two guys carrying something, other people working around them and somebody will realize that somebody struggling with the end of a load. And I've seen you all drop tools and run to help grab that heavy item.
Grab a hold on it and start lifting it up. One of my biggest recollections was working on your garage roof and there was a forklift lifting trusses on to the onto the under the roof. And then the Truss started to slip and there was somebody going to go over the edge. And a couple of you guys grabbed a hole that crossed and stabilized that and saved the person from being killed. And that to me, that's an example of what we have in verse 2. Bear you one another's burden. The fact that you all jumped in and grabbed the whole of that trust and kept stabilized.
Save the person's life potentially and but none of you help each other carry your lunch box boxes.
You all carry your own lunch box.
So the same thing works in our Christianity. There are times when you see somebody that's on the verge of failing, and if you can get in there and help them, that's a great thing. And do it safely in the context of what you're just saying, considering yourself.
That word is different, isn't it Robin? I understand in the Greek the first one is exactly what you said, a heavy bird, and the second ones a light burden. It really helps to see that otherwise it looks like you have a conflict between.
One of the problems that we have, why we don't consider ourselves that we also as we also be tempted is that.
We tend to think a lot of ourselves, and that's of course the subject of verse three. If any man thinked himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceived himself. So, so helpful to think about what we are as a Christian.
A Christian is one who has an old nature.
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That old nature's file, it's condemned. It's a flash, we call it.
And we're not taking it to heaven.
Christian is one who has a new nature. It's the life of Christ and that life is perfect. And then there's a responsible eye that Rob was talking about whereby we can choose which one we're going to walk in, but it's terms of our natures, we only have those two.
And when we really understand that and recognize it, and that's where self judgment comes in, as it recognizes that I have that vile, corrupt old nature, then we don't look at ourselves as better than a brother. He's got the same flesh that I do and he's got the same.
Life of Christ that I do, and so does my sister.
And when we see that, when we truly recognize that and understand that I myself, I'm nothing as to myself, anything that I have is Christ and that's the recognition of what I am as a Christian, then it's going to be easy to consider ourselves and recognize that we are weak.
As far as that responsible eye, we can so easily go straight. We have to stay in that position, close to the Lord, asking for help all the time to act the same way. But we're going to fall just like that other brother, and we really understand that. Then we're in a position to be useful and helpful. If we don't, we're going to have a hard legalistic attitude, which was what the problem was in Galatia. What was being addressed here?
Mr. Darby's translation actually is helpful in the.
First verse it speaks of, it says there's a little reference where it says restore to it says as mending Matthew 421, which is when James and John were called by the Lord to follow him. And so bending is something that takes effort and skill, but also time and it's a process. You don't amend a ripped pair of pants or shirt or something in a minute.
Sometimes it's a long ordeal and just have enjoyed the thought of when we can somebody draws alongside of us and is gentle and meek and mends us with the Lord's Holy Spirit doing the work, then there's real, real benefit to that experience that I think that's why inverse at the beginning of the verse it says brethren.
Really a loving expression to encourage us to recognize that we need to be a help to our brethren, our brethren, and we need to really be exercised about being a healthy people.
Second and third verse really help us with this definition of spiritual.
Sometimes we really have a mystical idea of what spiritual is.
And it has to do with a lot of times what is external. And so we try to mimic what we feel looks spiritual.
And.
For ourselves, we might think I'm quite spiritual. Look, look at me and we might look at somebody else and say that person is quite spiritual. Look at them and it isn't on the internal, it's all on the external.
And so when somebody is put into a situation like what we have here on these.
1St 3 verses, it is the supposed spiritual brother going as if they are the Pope having no fault or failure, impossible to fail, impossible to send because they are godly and spiritual, going to give instruction to somebody who is just a lonely Sinner. That isn't what spiritual is and it's not what these verses are presenting. These verses are presenting that we all fail. We we do fail, we do sin, and the person who goes, goes in the recognition of I do fail and I do sin.
But there was a recognition that that was sin. And he takes the stuff of touching it and he's seeing somebody else is failing to do that. And so he goes and he doesn't consider himself to be something because he recognizes that he that he fails.
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If he goes in that attitude, he deceives himself.
Thinks that he is something when he really is not.
And I think verse four goes along with this. It's a hard verse for me, but my understanding is this is let every man test, has proved or test his own work. That is, examine it. What's my motive? What am I doing it for? Is it's for the Lord or is it for having some appearance of spirituality over others?
It says, Then shall we have rejoicing in Himself alone? If I do something truly for the Lord, there's going to be in the end.
A a delight that it was truly of the Lord and for Him. And then it only came from Himself. It wasn't from me anyway.
But not.
In I think Mr. Darby has here what belongs to another, and that's what we so often do.
We often start rejoicing in a way in those things that belong to another. In other words, the other one fell down and I didn't fall. And so I'm rejoicing about that. I did better than them. It's and they that compare themselves, Paul says in Second Corinthians among themselves are not wise. I think that's the gist of what we have here and that's what the hard spirit in us as Christians does it exhaust ourself and put down our brother and we take rejoicing.
About how we did better, where they felt.
He says no, no, no. If we actually come and test our own work, examine what our own motives are, is this truly for the Lord or not, Then he says in the end they'll be rejoicing. Not if we go and take this other attitude.
Just like to point out another thing about verses 2:00 and 5:00.
The one case it says they're each other's burdens. The other says it says bear your own burdens. One thing it doesn't say is have others bear your burden. That's not neither verse and sometimes we have a tendency to want that. I want everyone to help me and I'm looking and calling out for help. Whereas the Scripture says the Lord says in Matthew 1128, this is coming to me. All you that labor and a heavy lead now will give you rest Scripture we always have.
Where the Lord wants us to go to Him with our burden. That's your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you. I think every case, if you look it up, that's what it is. It never tells us to take our burdens to our brethren.
It always tells us to go and help our brethren with their burdens, but there's an order to that, and it's so important to see it. And for you and I, when we get into trouble and difficulty, the point is we need to go to the Lord.
That should always be the first place, and if the Lord directs it, others should come in and help us. And He often does. That's His general way. Then leave that to Him.
He can put it on the hearts of our brethren. Her brethren aren't blind either, but to just run out and look for help all over the place. We don't have that in Scripture and the other hand for each one of us. Let's be looking for those needs. We can't miss that. That's here in both verses that we need to first of all.
Own burden so that we're not a burden to others and we can be a help to others and then look around for those needs that are around us and try to help with them as well.
There's a there's a part of every burden, whether it is this life or whether it isn't the flesh that we have to bear. So even if the Lord does send someone, there's a need to be on our part that we have to address. Our brethren can come and they can be a help to us. They can show us the word of God. They can present to us Christ, but we that I that that Rob was talking about still has to act and the good of that we have to bear that burden.
We also say that the flash inside of us doesn't like to be confronted or contradicted. So I've been in that position where someones come to me and maybe the brother came to me with a different, maybe not the best attitude, but I think he had a heart to help me and maybe I wasn't ready to receive it and it wasn't maybe in the state. But I think sometimes you have to realize that even if.
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Person coming to help us there, they have the flesh too, right? And they might come out, they might not do it in a perfect way. They might not wash her feet with might be hot water or cold water. But at the same time to have to just try to take it from the Lord and see if there's anything there that the Lord might be trying to show us.
That might be for for our health and for the benefit of the body of Christ at large, or for a local assembly.
Next section I take it to be a connected thoughts from verses 16 down to verse six down to 10. I should say the subject is sewing and reaping which is a spiritual thought in the middle, but it begins with.
Giving to the one who teaches and ends with doing good to all men.
So it really has to do with sewing, giving, and this too is connected with the subject of this epistle, where the law really just required.
But it didn't have any that overflow to others. And in Christianity we have grace that overflows. It goes beyond the Lord himself who was a great giver who didn't just require, but came here to give all that was needed to give everything. And so that is to characterize this as well, that we're to be ones who are sellers or givers. And of course then it brings out a spiritual principle in connection with it.
That the things of God, when there is a sowing or a giving, there's a reaping that goes as well and that has both a positive side and a negative side is is brought out in verse.
8.
So verse six would be one of the verses that.
Is used for.
Scripturally giving to those who labor in the Word.
Speaks about let him that is taught in the word that would be most of us communicate or give of your substance is the idea of that word. Communicate doesn't mean to talk. It means to give of your substance, whatever it may be. Material goods come out this day mostly money.
Unto him that teaches and all good things. And so there were those like the apostles who went around and they didn't have other means of support. Paul did. He was an exception. He worked making tents and he supported himself for the gospel sake. But others didn't. And today we have those who don't have secular means of support, and they go around and they teach the word and they seek to be a help to the Saints in other lands in this country in many different ways.
Some of them are involved in literature work and distribution, and it's right that we who have benefited from that should send money to support them in their work, and this person would teach that.
I agree with what you said, Tim, but they just wanted to highlight the first part of what you said.
That it says of all good things, by far the I shouldn't say by far the easiest, but often the easiest to do is to write a check or give some cash or Western Union or whatever it might be.
For moving money, but I think the other aspect is of all good things if you don't have money to give.
The Lord's given you some other things. It's possible for you to pass on the.
A good meal or accommodation or fixing somebody's car, Oregon, whatever it is that you're capable of doing, helping them with their house if they happen to live near you. Any of those things that the Lord would put in your heart based on what he's given you that you could pass on and share is included under the all good things sometimes harder to to give to share from things that are not monetary.
But it is possible, and I've seen some good examples of people doing that with their I've seen it for everything from their boats to their carpentry skills to their electrical skills, whatever it might be that they're able to share to be a blessing to those who serve in teaching or otherwise.
Sometimes it's just time.
00:45:02
That brother might need 10 year.
Encouragement.
123.
Jesus Spotless.
Blood plus all the same by God.
We are by the Lord.
There is a sweet landing for living, Lord.
Let's wait.
We are thine.