Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.highlandparkbaptist.net/sermons/95087/bearing-burdens/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] We will cover Galatians chapter 6 verses 1 through 6 tonight.

[0:14] Let's go ahead and read those verses now.! Paul said, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

[0:26] Keep watch on yourself, lest you too 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.

[0:41] But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for each will have to bear his own load. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

[0:56] In these verses, Paul applies what he taught in chapter 5 to show how we should restore a struggling believer. That's the main idea.

[1:07] Paul applies what he taught in chapter 5 to show how we should restore a struggling believer. Before we dig deeper into the verses, let's clear up one potential source of confusion.

[1:19] Verse 2 says that we should bear one another's burdens. Verse 5 says, For each one will have to bear his own load. At first glance, those verses seem to contradict each other, but Paul uses two different Greek words in these verses.

[1:35] Listen to the summary of the difference. In Galatians 6.2, the word means a heavy burden. In Galatians 6.5, the load describes a soldier's pack.

[1:48] So we should help each other bear heavy burdens of life, but some personal responsibilities exist that we must bear alone. We'll cover that more when we get into the actual verses themselves.

[2:01] These verses have another potential distraction, and depending upon which translation you have, you will see the first ten verses of chapter 6 grouped differently. Some translations, such as the ESV, the Holman Christian Standard, and the New King James group verse 6 with verses 7 through 10.

[2:20] The NIV groups verse 6 with verses 1 through 5. And some translations, like the New Revised Standard, put all ten verses under a single heading. The New American Standard takes the broadest approach and has all of chapter 6 under one heading.

[2:36] Verses 1 through 10 are related to each other. The verses all deal with struggling believers. The first section, which we will cover tonight, is addressed to the spiritually strong members in the congregation.

[2:51] The second section is addressed mainly to the struggling believers themselves. And we'll cover the verses addressed to the struggling believers next week. The grouping of verse 6, then, depends upon which group you believe Paul is addressing in that verse.

[3:06] And it seems pretty clear that verse 6 should go with the stronger believers in the congregation. But when we get to verse 6 tonight, we'll look at the two conservative interpretations of that verse, because both interpretations are theologically accurate based upon other passages of Scripture.

[3:24] The only question is, which of these truths did Paul mean to teach here in Galatians? Perhaps, if it matters to you, we can ask Paul one day when we actually meet him. To set up tonight's verses, though, we need to think back to our earlier Galatian studies.

[3:41] We learn that Paul taught the Galatians the true gospel. And shortly after Paul left the region, false teachers moved in. Those teachers, you'll remember, were called Judaizers.

[3:52] And they were only told the Galatians that to be saved and to keep their salvation, the Galatians needed to believe the gospel and to follow the laws of Judaism.

[4:04] The Judaizers apparently even made the claim that Paul now agreed with them. Throughout the letter, Paul has strongly refuted the Judaizers' teaching to the Galatians.

[4:14] And some of Paul's strongest statements against the Judaizers came in Galatians 1, 6-9. So listen to Galatians 1, 6-9 again.

[4:26] Paul said, As we have said before, Here's how those verses relate to what we'll be studying in chapter 6.

[5:07] Paul has just finished what we know as chapter 5, and you'll remember that he spent several paragraphs telling us that believers should walk by the Holy Spirit and should demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit.

[5:19] The Judaizers, though, were legalists. The Judaizers' approach to life was to deal with any issues according to a black and white set of rules and regulations.

[5:30] They had little capacity for empathy. If someone failed to follow those legalist rules, that person's salvation was in doubt, according to them.

[5:41] How a person reacts to a sinning brother is a telltale sign of whether that person is walking by the Spirit or whether that person is reverting to legalism. Does the person trying to help a weaker brother demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit or does the person trying to help that weaker brother demonstrate the condemning attitude of the legalist?

[6:03] In Galatians 6, verses 1-6, Paul clearly states which approach the true believer should take. We're going to break verses 1-6 into three separate sections, each summarized by one word.

[6:20] And in verses 1 and 2, that word is restore. So restore is the first thing that we'll see. Paul says that spiritual believers should restore a sinning believer in a spirit of gentleness.

[6:35] Look at verses 1 and 2 of Galatians 6 again. Paul says, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

[6:52] Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. The term brothers includes men and women and assumes membership within the church.

[7:07] The verb caught there suggests someone suddenly falling into sin. It applies to anyone within the body of Christ who falls into a serious sin or into the practice of sin.

[7:22] Caught may imply that the person was seen committing the sin, indicating that there was no doubt about that person's guilt. But that Greek verb also allows for the idea of being caught by the sin itself.

[7:35] In other words, this could be a case of deliberate sin, or it could be a case of a person falling into sin accidentally without premeditation. Either way, the spiritually strong believers have a responsibility to restore the fallen believer.

[7:52] And you likely can interpret what Paul means when he says that someone is spiritual. Spiritual believers are those walking in the Spirit, those who are filled with the Spirit, and those who are manifesting the fruit of the Spirit.

[8:06] Because of their spiritual strength, they are responsible for those members who are fleshly. So you can see how this relates to what we've been studying in chapter 5.

[8:18] Paul says that the spiritually strong members should restore the sinning member in a spirit of gentleness. And we know that gentleness is one of the fruits of the Spirit. So let's familiarize ourselves with a couple of the key definitions here.

[8:34] The Greek word that's translated restore literally means to mend or repair, and it was sometimes used metaphorically of restoring harmony among quarreling factions in a dispute.

[8:46] But it was also used of setting a broken bone or putting a dislocated limb back into place. We just mentioned that we are to restore a sinning brother with gentleness.

[8:59] And we know all about gentleness. When we looked at the definition of gentleness under the fruit of the Spirit, we said that the word translated gentleness in the ESV is better translated as meekness.

[9:11] You probably remember that meekness has to do with the disciplined attitude about ourselves before God and one another. We sometimes hear meekness defined as power under control.

[9:25] And that fits with what we see here in verse 1. The spiritual believer is expected to harness his stronger spiritual standing to restore the weaker believer.

[9:35] Paul omits the specific steps that we should take to restore a fallen believer, but the steps in proper church discipline were defined by Jesus himself.

[9:48] And those steps are listed in Matthew 18, verses 15 through 17. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 through 17.

[10:01] Jesus said, If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

[10:14] But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

[10:27] And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. So we are to first confront a sinning believer one-on-one.

[10:41] And if that fails to bring the sinning brother to repentance, we take one or two more spiritual believers with us on the next visit. And if that fails, we bring the matter before the church.

[10:52] If taking the matter before the church fails to bring the sinning believer to repentance, we treat that brother as if he were an unbeliever. That's because his actions are opposite of how a believer should operate.

[11:05] Failure to repent when confronted could be an indication that the person really is unsaved. In John chapter 8, verses 2 through 11, we see the Pharisees and scribes failing to treat a sinner with gentleness.

[11:20] But in that same story, Jesus does treat that sinner with gentleness. Listen to John chapter 8, verses 2 through 11.

[11:31] Those verses are the record of the woman caught in adultery. It says, starting in John chapter 8, verse 2, Early in the morning, he, talking about Jesus, came again to the temple.

[11:45] All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. And placing her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.

[12:01] Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. What do you say? They said this to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.

[12:13] Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.

[12:27] And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

[12:39] Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you.

[12:52] Go, and from now on, sin no more. Jesus acknowledged her sin, but he gently told her to go and sin no more. The attitude of every Christian should always be the attitude of Jesus.

[13:08] When a believer needs help to discipline a fallen brother, he should ask for a special portion of Christ's love and gentleness. As we seek to help a sinning believer, Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 through 5, also instruct us about how to prepare ourselves to approach that person.

[13:28] Those are the verses in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talked about the proper way to judge. So here are Matthew chapter 7, 1 through 5.

[13:40] Jesus said, Judge not that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

[13:52] Why do you see 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 when there is the log in your own eye?

[14:07] 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. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was talking about a self-righteous condemning person who acts as a judge passing sentence on others.

[14:27] Such a person like the scribes, Pharisees, and Judaizers sees only the best in himself and the worst in everybody else. If such a person confesses and is cleansed of his own sin, the Lord went on to say, he then is qualified to confront his brother with the purpose not to condemn, but to take the speck out of his brother's eye.

[14:50] Only after we realize our own sin do we have the right and even the obligation to help a brother overcome that brother's sin. Romans chapter 15 verse 1 says, We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

[15:13] Going back to our text tonight, Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 has one sentence remaining. Paul ended that verse by saying, Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

[15:29] One of the risks we have when we see someone caught in or caught by sin is that we can think, I would never do that. And Paul knew that his readers would think that way.

[15:42] Stronger believers who think that they could never fall into a similar sin perhaps are at their most vulnerable. We need to recognize that in similar circumstances, we could be tempted and perhaps fall into the same sin.

[15:58] Verse 1 is relatively easy to understand, but it's harder to practice. When we see a sinning brother, will we be like the scribes and Pharisees who wanted to condemn and destroy the sinning woman, or will we be like Jesus who gently helped her and sent her on her way?

[16:17] Moving to verse 2, Paul says, Bear one another's burdens The word translated bear there has the thought of carrying with endurance, and burdens refers to heavy loads that are difficult to lift and carry.

[16:37] Here it represents any difficulty or problem that a person has trouble coping with. The context suggests a burden that tempts a sinning believer to fall back into the sin from which he's just been delivered.

[16:52] You know, persistent oppressing temptation is one of the heaviest burdens that a Christian can have. Notice the assumption that lies behind this command.

[17:04] It says, Bear one another's burdens, so it assumes that we all have burdens. God does not mean for us to carry those burdens alone. And we know that some people try to.

[17:17] They think it is a sign of fortitude not to bother other people with their burdens. And others remind us that we are told in Psalm 55, 22 to cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you.

[17:31] And we know that the Lord Jesus invited the heavy laden to come to him and promised to give them rest. Of course, that's from Matthew 11, 28. Some people argue that we have a divine burden bearer who is adequate and that it's a sign of weakness to require any human help.

[17:49] But that is a big mistake. Jesus Christ alone can bear the burden of our sin and guilt. He bore that in his own body when he died on the cross. But that is not so with our burdens.

[18:02] Certainly, we can cast our burdens on the Lord as well. We know that 1 Peter 5, 7 says we can cast all our anxieties on him because he cares for us. But we need to remember that one of the ways in which the Lord bears the burdens of ours is through human friendship that he provides to us.

[18:22] Paul understood that one of the ways God bears our burdens is through human friendship. Listen to what he said in 2 Corinthians 7, verses 5 and 6.

[18:34] 2 Corinthians 7, 5 and 6 say, So here we see that Paul says God comforted them by sending Titus to them.

[19:03] So the moral is that we are to be alert and quick to ease a fellow believer's burden. It's a totally selfless act when we do that and that's why we need the Holy Spirit's fruit-bearing work.

[19:15] In our flesh, it's natural to be concerned with our own burdens, but we know that the Spirit produces love and that involves caring about our burdened brother or sister. And when we ease a fellow believer's burdens, Paul says that we fulfill the law of Christ.

[19:32] And we learned about the law of Christ when we studied Galatians 5, verses 13 and 14. Listen again to Galatians 5, 13 and 14.

[19:45] For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[20:02] Listen to this comment from John Stott when he discussed the end of Galatians 6, verse 2. He said, the law of Christ is to love one another as he loves us.

[20:15] That was the new commandment which he gave. And he's talking about John 13, 34 and John 15, 12 there. Stott goes on to say, so as Paul has already stated in Galatians 5, 14, to love your neighbor is to fulfill the law.

[20:31] It is very impressive that to love your neighbor, bear one another's burdens, and fulfill the law are three equivalent expressions. It shows that loving one another as Christ loved us may lead us not to some heroic, spectacular deed of self-sacrifice, but to the much more mundane and unspectacular ministry of burden bearing.

[20:56] Now that Paul has told us to restore the fallen believer and told us how to do it, he moves to the second point of this passage. Paul reminds us to reevaluate ourselves.

[21:08] So reevaluate is the second heading. We must reevaluate whether our actions demonstrate that we have an accurate view of ourselves.

[21:21] Listen to Galatians 6, verses 3-5 again. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

[21:33] But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each one will have to bear his own load.

[21:47] The implication of verse 3 seems to be that if we do not or will not bear one another's burdens, it's because we think that we're above doing that. We will only think that we would never demean ourselves to do such a thing that it would be beneath our dignity.

[22:04] But as we saw in Galatians 5, verse 26, our conduct to others is governed by our opinion of ourselves. We provoke and envy other people when we have self-conceit.

[22:18] That's when we think we're something, and that's when we decline to bear their burdens. But look at verse 3 again. He says, For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

[22:31] Think about how countercultural that statement is. Our culture today would flip that statement around. Our culture says that if we think we are nothing, we deceive ourselves.

[22:44] Our culture tells us what we need is self-esteem and self-confidence. But the truth that we see here is that we are nothing. And that's really not an exaggeration.

[22:56] Seeing ourselves as nothing is a sign that the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to see ourselves as we truly are. We're rebels against the God who made us in his image, deserving nothing at God's hand but destruction.

[23:10] When we realize and remember this, we won't compare ourselves favorably with other people, neither will we decline to serve them or bear their burdens. And Paul expands on this thought in verses 4 and 5.

[23:24] So here are those verses again. But let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor for each will have to bear his own load.

[23:39] Paul's telling us here that we need to do the regular practice of self-examination. But we must not examine ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. We can always find those that we consider our spiritual inferiors.

[23:54] And we can rationalize our behavior by comparing our behavior to others or even blaming others for our sinful response because we all know that James provokes us to sin sometimes, for example.

[24:06] At least that's what the ungodly people would think. But when we examine our lives by the standard of God's word, our response will be to God alone.

[24:16] God never gives us credit for thinking that we're superior to another person either in terms of gifts or sanctification. And that's because we answer to God alone.

[24:27] And he's the one who sets the standards. Verse 4 teaches that we should never try to justify ourselves by thinking that we are better than someone else. After all, that's what the legalist tried to do.

[24:40] Almost everybody is better than Adolf Hitler, for example. But when we stand before God on Judgment Day, being better than Hitler is unimportant.

[24:54] The important thing is whether we have trusted in Christ alone for salvation. Have we recognized that, just like Hitler, though hopefully not to the same extent, we have sinned before a holy God and our sins deserve death?

[25:07] The gospel is good news because through God's grace in sending His Son, those who believe in Christ can have eternal life instead of the death that we deserve.

[25:20] There is a proper boasting and that boasting is the boasting of a clear conscience before God. And we each must seek to maintain a pure conscience.

[25:31] So how do we come to such a proper boasting? It's in Christ and not in ourselves. It's in grace and not in our works. It's on the basis of daily confession of sin and the assurance of pardon that we get from God.

[25:48] And by these means, we keep the conscience clean. John MacArthur summarizes verses 3 and 4 like this. He said, A believer's first responsibility is to examine himself to be sure his own attitudes in life are right in the eyes of the Lord before he attempts to give spiritual help to others.

[26:12] Then and only then will he have the reason for boasting in a proper way. If anything remains for boasting after honest self-examination, it will be that which induces boasting in the Lord.

[26:26] Paul gave the Corinthians similar advice in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 12 through 18. Let's go ahead and look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 12 through 18.

[26:40] Paul said, Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves, but when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

[26:56] But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God has assigned to us to reach even to you.

[27:07] For we are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others, but our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence.

[27:36] Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, for it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. Let the words of 2 Corinthians 10, 17, and 18 sink in.

[27:52] Again, those verses say, Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, for it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

[28:03] And we see the same principle in the Old Testament. In 2 Corinthians 10, 17, Paul is quoting from Jeremiah. Listen to what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 9, verses 23 and 24.

[28:20] Again, these verses are Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24. Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.

[28:49] For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Going back to tonight's text, let's look at Galatians 6, verse 5 now.

[29:01] Paul says, For each will have to bear his own load. The Greek word translated load there refers to anything that is carried and it has no connotation of difficulty.

[29:13] It was often used of the general obligations of life that a person is responsible to bear on his own. John Stott said, There is one burden which we cannot share.

[29:26] It is a pack light enough for every man to carry himself. That pack is our responsibility to God on the day of judgment. You cannot carry my pack and I cannot carry yours.

[29:40] Joseph Pippa said, The law of Christ, to love your neighbor as yourself, calls you to enter into the sufferings and weakness of your brother and sister.

[29:51] The law of self-examination warns you that you answer to God alone for your actions. You bear your own load before him. Paul here demolishes the victim mentality of modern western culture.

[30:04] We are responsible to God for our actions. Each of us must live his life before God and we are all going to give an answer for the deeds done by us. We bear our own load before God.

[30:18] So once again we see how God's word is counter-cultural to what we hear in our society today. So far Paul has told us to restore and to re-evaluate.

[30:31] The last thing we need to see comes in verse 6. And in verse 6 we are told to reinstate the fallen believer. So reinstate is your third heading.

[30:41] The previously fallen believer should be reinstated to the proper level of fellowship. Here's verse 6 again.

[30:53] Let the one who has taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. I mentioned this in the opening but among conservative scholars this verse has two different interpretations.

[31:08] And the common interpretation is that it relates to paying our pastors properly. You probably can tell from the heading that I side with the less common view. The less common view is that the verse pertains to reinstating someone to fellowship.

[31:24] Reinstating someone to fellowship goes a step beyond restoring the person. As we saw when we looked at the definition of restore restoration pertains to fixing what is broken.

[31:36] reinstatement to fellowship involves continuing to strengthen the restored person in his faith. So it's one thing to fix a broken bone for example.

[31:46] It's another thing to help someone strengthen that bone so that it doesn't get broken again. We'll look at the two different interpretations of verse 6 though because as I said in the introduction the two most common interpretations are true and are supported by other passages of scripture.

[32:04] one commentator even suggested that Paul was intentionally ambiguous here so that we could see both possible interpretations. Believing that Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to be intentionally ambiguous is kind of difficult to accept so we'll skip looking at that view and only look at the two common interpretations of it.

[32:26] So let's look at Galatians 6 6 first under the assumption that it means that we should pay our pastors appropriately. That certainly is taught elsewhere in the New Testament.

[32:38] When Jesus sent the 72 others ahead of himself in Luke chapter 10 here's what Jesus told them. This verse is Luke chapter 10 verse 7 and Jesus said in Luke 10 verse 7 and remain in the same house eating and drinking what they provide for the laborer deserves his wages do not go from house to house.

[33:02] Paul wrote about ministers compensation in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 7 through 14 so listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 7 through 14 Paul said who serves as a soldier at his own expense who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk do I say these things on human authority does not the law say the same for it is written in the law of Moses you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain is it for oxen that God is concerned does he not certainly speak for our sake it was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing the crop if we have sown spiritual things among you is it too much if we reap if others share this rightful claim on you do not we even more nevertheless we have not made use of this right but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of

[34:13] Christ do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings in the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their Paul's reference to avoid muzzling an ox when it is treading out the grain comes from the Old Testament Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 4 says very simply you shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain Paul's illustration to support paying our pastors may be the only time that we can refer to them as oxen and have them take those words as a compliment but even then you may want to refrain to Mike or Tyler as a big ox the less common conservative interpretation of verse 6 is the view that's reflected in tonight's lesson and this view holds that Paul is encouraging the spiritually strong to restore a fellow believer to fellowship and to reinstate that person to fellowship some reasons supporting this view come from the text itself and that's because verse 6 says share is from the word which is the basic idea of sharing equally it's the verb form of the word that's commonly translated as fellowship

[35:43] Paul is talking about mutuality here not of one party serving or providing for the other but of both parties sharing together good things in that verse translates the plural of the word which is used in the New Testament primarily of spiritual and moral excellence and Paul uses the same word when he describes the gospel himself it's the word translated good news in Romans 10 15 the writer of Hebrews uses it the same way when he talks about the good things to come of which Christ appeared as a high priest and that comes from Hebrews 9 11 and then again the writer of Hebrews uses the same word when he says the law was only a shadow of the things to come and that comes from 10 1 conversely the most common term for material things that are favorable or good is from a different word and that different word is missing from the text here the context is another reason supporting the view that the reinstatement of the fallen believer is what

[36:51] Paul has in mind remember what we saw in Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 that verse says if anyone is caught in any transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness you can see here that Paul is instructing all spiritual believers to restore a sinning believer he's not limiting that command just to pastors so suddenly inserting a reminder to pay the pastor seems out of place with the context of what he's talking about here it would be as if Paul stuck in an infomercial in a late night movie and then went back to what he was saying later on and we might prefer that this instruction be limited to pastors but Paul's teaching here is clearly broader that all spiritual believers have an obligation to help restore a sinning believer in verses 3 through 5 we saw where Paul talked about re-evaluating ourselves to make sure that we are in the proper frame of mind before we attempt to restore a fallen believer and expecting the restored to the teaching of those verses look at verse 3 again for if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself so how could someone who thinks he is nothing expect payment for any help provided to a fellow believer it doesn't seem right that

[38:17] Paul would be telling us to help the believer only if he's willing to pay for that help first John MacArthur said the spiritual Christian who has picked up his fallen brother also builds him up in the word in whose good things they fellowship together the Bible is full of passages that support strengthening each other through God's word going back to the Old Testament Isaiah chapter 35 verses 3 and 4 say strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees say to those who have an anxious heart be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance with the recompense of God he will come and save you here is Isaiah 57 15 for thus says the one who is high and lifted up who inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit to revive!

[39:25] and to revive the heart of the contrite and then listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9 1 Corinthians 1 9 says God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord and of course we should never forget 1 John 1 9 1 John 1 9 says that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness we could look at many other verses to illustrate the importance of believers fellowshipping with each other by studying God's word together and by sharing in those good things with one another!

[40:17] 1 Thessalonians 5 11 1 Thessalonians 5 11 says therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing so those are the two interpretations of verse 6 you can clearly tell which one I lean toward but regardless of which interpretation you favor both are supported by scripture elsewhere remember the main idea of this passage Paul applies what he taught in chapter 5 to show how we should restore a struggling believer and the bottom line comes down to treating a struggling believer like what Jesus would the writer to the Hebrews said it well in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 23 through 25 here are Hebrews 10 23 through 25 let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who!

[41:15] promised is faithful and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near!

[42:02]  proper spirit too in Jesus name we pray amen