The sermon by David Green, based on Galatians 6:1-5, emphasizes the Christian responsibility to restore those caught in transgression with a spirit of gentleness and humility. It underscores the importance of community and church membership in bearing one another's burdens and fulfilling the law of Christ, which is rooted in love. The sermon contrasts walking in the Spirit with following the flesh, urging believers to self-examine without comparing themselves to others. The speaker highlights the need for personal accountability and warns against self-deception. The sermon also draws parallels with teachings from James and Matthew, advocating for mutual support and confession within the Christian community. Ultimately, believers are called to live a life that pleases God, characterized by giving and serving others.

Galatians chapter 6 and this evening as we start this new chapter we're going to read for a text verses 1 through 5. Verses 1 through 5. So Galatians chapter 6 beginning with verse 1 and going down to verse 5. Says, Brothers even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, Each of you looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself But each one must examine his own work, then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load." Let's again go to the Lord in prayer.

Our Father in heaven, we are thankful for your word, for the truthfulness of it. Lord, even now as we've come together to worship and to look into your word. I pray that it may find a lodging place, a home in our hearts and our minds. Lord, give us ears to hear. Lord, I pray that your people be strengthened and edified.

Lord, if it's in your will that if there's any among us today who knows you not that today may be the day that they come to know you as their Savior and be added Lord to to your church. Lord I pray that you'll be with each one who's here, each family, each home represented. Lord, I ask that you'll be with those that have been, who have requested prayer, those that were mentioned on the prayer list. Our Father, I pray that you will help us to to be what we ought to be, that we may be a light and a testimony to you in this world that we live in. And our Father I pray that you'll forgive us of our sins and our shortcomings What's in Jesus and then we pray amen So this is the reading of the text on Galatians 6 verses 1 through 5 and Paul had already laid it out in chapter 5.

There is a vast difference between walking in the Spirit and following the flesh. Tonight, even as sure as I'm standing here today, there are those who are in sin, there are those who are spiritual and you and you who are in the sound of my voice whether you're in this room or listening online you're either walking in step with the Spirit or carrying out the desires of the flesh. And with that in mind as he writes this Paul says to the churches of Galatia he says brothers even if anyone is caught in any transgression and that's the title of my message I struggled to put a title on it but I just take that from the beginning of the paragraph there, if anyone is caught in any transgression. And as he starts this paragraph out, he says to them brothers, He's practicing what he's preaching here. Though he has admonished them and rebuked them very very sharply, because of their error he addresses them as brothers.

These churches, these brethren, these These churches, these brethren, these individuals, they were not enemies. They were brothers. They were children of God. They were part of the family of God, just like him, though they were in error. And so he says to them, brothers, It's good for us to bear that in mind as we think about this.

This is one of Paul's toughest, if not his toughest, letter that he wrote to any group and for good reason. But still, he did not lose sight of the fact that these were brothers. You and I, when we deal with differences and disagreements and some of them may be very very important to the life of the Christian, to the life of the church, and to the to the cause of Christ even. Let us not lose sight of those who are our brothers, those who are kindred, those who are kin in Christ. He says, brothers even if anyone is caught in any transgression you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness each of you looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." What's the transgression that someone might be caught up in?

Well in the context here we could go back to chapter 5 and verses 19 through 21 and we could look at that list there to start off with in Galatians chapter 5 verses 19 through 21 as he says, Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. A believer can fall into these things. It's important to realize that the believer won't remain there, but he can fall into these things. It's not an excuse to sin, it's just it ought to be an encouragement to us and not discouragement. But what do we do?

What do the spiritual do when things like that happen? Indeed We can't just think to ourselves. Well, I know so and so I know so and so and I he says he says if anyone is caught in any transgression you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness each of you looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. When someone else falls and you're able to help them up thank the Lord for it with the realization that the time may come that you may be the one who's down there in the mud. What do the spiritual do?

If anyone is caught in the transgression You who are spiritual. What do you do you sit back? Watch what happens? Do you laugh do you point? Do you do you?

Call up all your friends and say, hey look at so-and-so, look what he's done, you'll never believe what brother so-and-so has done. Now you won't, you can't imagine my sister so-and-so's then. Do you expose that person? No. Not if we're truly spiritual.

There are times when we need to expose and rebuke sin publicly, yes. There are times when we need to call out heresies in public, yes. But, mark it well, there is a work for those who are spiritual and that work and only those who are spiritual can help the backslider in their time of backsliding. This is why, one of the reasons why it is very dangerous as a child of God to to refuse to be a member of a church. That's why it's dangerous for a Christian to have worldly friends instead of Christian friends.

Your worldly friends, they won't help you. They won't be there when you need them. Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted bear one another's burdens so fulfill the law of Christ. That's why Our God has given us the church. And if you go through the New Testament and just look at the one and others of the New Testament, you'll find that these things can only happen in the context of church membership.

There's no real room for growth for a lone Christian in this world. And you know what Paul is writing here is very similar to what James wrote in James chapter 5. I want to point this out. James chapter 5. This out.

James chapter 5. Love the consistency of the Bible. In James chapter 5 beginning verse 13 and going down to verse 20. James 5 beginning verse 13, is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray.

Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church there to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will save the one who is sick.

The Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. He prayed again and The sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.

My brothers, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." There in this text, James brings out a lot. We could preach a whole sermon on this but in verse 14 He says is anyone among you sick that that word there is a word that means in the Greek is any weak or without strength. In verse 15, we find the word sick there too, but it's a different word in the Greek. That word there doesn't mean exactly the same thing. In verse 15, It means one who's laboring under a disease What what do we get from this well, well there's some sicknesses who are indeed unto death some sicknesses that are really, really terrible, but ultimately all sicknesses, even the lesser sicknesses, have the potential of causing spiritual weakness due to the suffering that is attached.

Discouragement, weakness, and so on and so forth. And so you should desire, You should desire that there be prayer. That's why he starts this whole thing off with this paragraph. Is any among you suffering? Then he must pray.

Is any among you sick? Call for the elders and so on. The spiritual help of the elders in the church is a good thing in these cases. As a matter of fact, as much as possible you should be in church and around God's people for encouragement and prayer. But notice how raising this one up and forgiving sins is all tied together and and he brings all this out in this in this text not that sickness is a result of sin as some have misused this passage they say well if you're sick then you must have some sin in your life that's not necessarily the truth but some people misuse that and misinterpret this which is why the scripture here says the prayer offered in faith verse 15 will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins they will be forgiven him.

Speaking of sins in verse 16 I do want to point this out while we're here in this text he says therefore confess your sins to one another and praying for one another. The King James translated this as false. Confess your faults one to another. Now some have said that the newer translations have some sort of Catholic doctrine inserted here. And I just want to point out that this is not Catholic doctrine.

It does not say for us to go and confess our sins to the priest. That's not what's taught here. It says confess to one another. James is talking about reciprocal confession which Catholic confession is not. Secondly, as we think about this text here, the world would be better off if we would confess our sins to one another, Not always, but there are some that we would and should.

In Matthew 18, for instance, there's good example of that. In Matthew chapter 18, we'll just go over there while we're on this kind of chasing this little rabbit so to speak but in Matthew chapter 18 and verses 15 through 17 Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector." And so if your brother sins, if your brother sins against you is the context there. And go tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens you've won your brother. This is all about, and it does all come together because this is about winning your brother. Winning your brother.

And if anyone is caught in a transgression, You see how this all kind of comes together. Tragically though, oftentimes what happens is in their world and in our world, The idea is to go and tell your brother's sins to everybody else. And in our text, he said to bear one another's burdens. Bear one another's burdens. A burden is something that is heavy.

Only the spiritual can do that. And in fact when Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 verses 3 and 4, Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye. Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye and behold the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. And so he says, he says look, he said, he said how in the world, why do you look at the speck, That little piece of sawdust that's in your brother's eye when you've got a whole log sticking in your eye.

He said first take the log out of your eye so then you can help your brother. You see, otherwise it's hypocritical. It's hypocritical. Don't be like those who have some big sin in their life, always stirring up trouble about other people's sins. This happens in churches and homes and all in the country and all over the place.

But he says, bear one another's burdens. You who are spiritual, how in the world? What's going on? What's the context? Well, these Galatians had foolishly sought to burden themselves with a load that neither they nor their Jewish ancestors were able to bear.

In being set free by the gospel, they had gone back to the yoke of bondage. And he says, no, no, don't do that. Don't be like that. Bear one another's burdens. Bear one another's burdens, so fulfill the law of Christ.

What's that all about? What's that about? About? What's that about? Well, it's the law of love which is fulfilling the entire law.

It's what James was talking about when he says my brother if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back Let him know he who turns the sinner from the air of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins The flesh doesn't like it The flesh wants to roll right in the mud. The flesh wants to be like the dog that turns back to its own vomit. A dumb dog thinks it's a tasty meal and you've got to pull him back and say get out of that stuff someone has to be the one to say no no you're going the wrong direction Jesus said this in John chapter 13. John 13 and verse 34. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

And Of course in verse 35 he says, by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. This is the love, the law of Christ, this new commandment that He gave us, this identifying mark of God's people in Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. Begin in verse 8 he says, Oh nothing to anyone except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

For this you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. If there is no other commandment, if there is any other commandment, It is summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does not work evil against a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. That's what he's talking about there. It's not enough just to say I love you.

I love my brother. I'm praying for him There's got to be action behind it. It's the type of love that Christ has for his people It's the type of love that God has for us. John chapter 3 and verse 16 type love, God who sent his only begotten son, There needs to be action behind it. That's what the scripture is teaching us.

That's what Paul is telling the churches of Galatians. Bear one another's burdens. So fulfill the law of Christ. And so, back into our text there in Galatians chapter 6, Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, You who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

For if anyone, verse 3 says, thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. For each one must examine his own work, then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, not in regard to another. Not in regard to another. The man who is not spiritual is different than the one who is spiritual. The man who is not spiritual, the one who is living in the flesh, he thinks himself to be something when he's nothing.

Paul says, if you think yourself to be something when you're nothing, you deceive yourself. A man or woman who thinks that they can stand alone when they're weak in the faith and weak in love deludes themselves. They've deceived themselves. And a lot of times we do think ourselves to be something when we're nothing. We think ourselves to be at least better than what we really are.

You know, and that happens not only spiritual life but physical too. I used to manage, I used to be a manager and I'd ask my team to evaluate themselves. I mean everybody, everybody thought that they were the best employee, even my worst employees. They thought that they were up here somewhere when they were down here somewhere on a scale. But that's the way they judged themselves.

That's the way they thought themselves to be. He says, in this text, if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. We read that and the flesh rises up and says well that's not me. That can't be me, that's someone else. How's your Bible reading?

How's your prayer life? Sometimes we imagine ourselves to be something when we're nothing, imagining and thinking that we can go through this world. Living for God while we live life like practical atheists. Spend more money on a cell phone than what we will in a Bible. Have more TVs in our home than we do Bibles.

Spend more time on the screens than we do in the Word of God. Spend more time on these things than we do in prayer and then think that we're some spiritual superstar have our names on the church roll and think because we were a Baptist we've got it made made. Alva Hovi wrote in his commentary on this verse, he said, Conceit is not only unsympathetic, it is also unchristian and delusive. The man whose piety is not in his life but in his imagination is subject to a fatal but cherished error. Faith that does not work by love will not be recognized as genuine in the last day.

What do we do? When we think about something like this, we tend to measure our lives by our neighbors, by our friends, by people we know, by people we see on TV, by someone else. We compare ourselves with others. And so while I'm not as bad as my neighbor, I'm not as bad as my co-worker. She can't say two sentences without cursing.

She's not a member of a church. He don't go to church. He doesn't do this. She doesn't do that. I'm better than them.

So I must be pretty good. And if we don't compare ourselves to someone else, sometimes we'll compare ourselves to ourselves. And so, well, I'm better than I was last year. I'm better than I was, than I used to be. I'm not what I once was." And so in our self-love we tend to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.

But beloved, the standard has got to be God and His Word. This has got to be our standard. Otherwise, we'll deceive ourselves. And the sad thing is there are people today who are in this world thinking that because they walked grandma across the road, because they they don't cuss, they don't smoke, they don't drink, and they voted Republican, that they're going to heaven. They believe that.

But a Christless religion, a religion without change, A religion without change is not Going to get you into heaven And Paul says to them as they as they were dealing with this legalistic type Battle there And they thought that they were something because they had circumcision and they had the keeping of the law and they had all of these other things going for them. He says, if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. They had all this kind of division and all this sort of thing going on and he says, bear one another's burdens fulfill the law of Christ for if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing he deceives himself. But look there verse 4, but each one must examine his own work, No have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, not in regard to another. Each one of us must measure, must examine our own work.

Not based off of somebody else, not based on what your neighbor is doing, not based on your sister, your brother, your parents, your children, not based on the man on the news who's in trouble. When you stand before God, you're not gonna be able to say, well, it's my parents' fault. You won't be able to say, well, I'm better than my neighbor. You won't be able to say, no, no. Each one must examine his own work without regard to anyone else, you see.

Then he'll have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another verse 5 says for each one will bear his own load." Kind of interesting here, Paul has laid this out. You may remember the King James translators translated this as burden. Some people questioned a lot of times, Is there a contradiction here? Is there a contradiction? In verse 2 it says, bear one another's burdens and then here says, for each one will bear his own load, bear his own burden.

Is there a contradiction? No. Why do the translators here use a different word? Well, the reason is because in the Greek, Paul actually uses two different words here. They're similar.

They can be translated as burden, but to kind of show that there's a difference, the LSB translators put load there. Still you might wonder is there a contradiction? Galatians 6-2 and Galatians 6-5 are not contradictory, but rather these are complementary verses. They're addressing different aspects of Christian responsibility. Aspects of Christian responsibility.

If you're a child of God today, you're called both to support one another and at the same time Take responsibility for your own actions and obligations. Here's the deal, folks. In verses 1 and 2, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." All right, this is laid down for us, but now think of it this way. If you are the one caught in the transgression and nobody is there to restore you in a spirit of gentleness, if nobody is there to bear your burden to fulfill the law of Christ, what then?

Will you be able to March yourself straight up to the judgment and say to Christ, my life would have been better if them other Christians would have helped me out. No. Not at all. Well, you know, I know I fell and I know I shouldn't have done this and I know I should have been better, but. And I wish I had more rewards and all, but it's not my fault.

That church I was a member of, they weren't there to help me. No. No. I thought that I was really saved and all of that, but you know, here I am, and you know, I was baptized and I was a member of a church and all of that, but this isn't my fault, you know. Lord, Lord, I did all these wonderful things in your name.

No. You see, whatever scenario a person could play out in their mind in this world to blame other people, to make themselves look good, to be a victim or whatever. Those sorts of things may work out okay in the human court, but not in God's court. In God's court. One of these days we'll all stand before the judgment will all stand before God.

You will stand there and I will stand there. And we'll stand not in the light of what others have done, will not stand in the light of what others did to us or what they didn't do to us, what they might have, could have, should have, no. Should have, should have, no. Now if you're saved, you won't be judged for your sins. Let me just make that clear.

Those were taken care of by Christ on the cross. But if you're... Those who are saved, you'll be judged. Your works will be judged, and your service, and all of that. Those who are lost, you will be judged for your sins.

Regardless, Regardless, we only have one life. One life to live. Oh dear friends, will your life be lived in accordance to God's will? Will it be a life that is pleasing to him? Or will it be a life that is wasted away?

Examine your own selves. There's only so much we can do for others and we ought to, We ought to do what we can to help others. That's why he starts out. Brothers, Even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual restore such a one. You see, the Christian life isn't all about receiving.

More blessed to give than to receive. You want great joy in your Christian life? Put Jesus first, others next, and yourself last. There will be people who will fail. There will be people who will hurt and all of those things.

Don't get bitter about that, but do what you can in the service to our Lord. This right here being your guide. So that when you do stand before the Lord, He'll say to you, well done, good and faithful servant. May God help us to be faithful in the life that we have. We'll close with that and go ahead and have a season of prayer.

Thank you.