We are coming to a new passage of scripture. Galatians chapter six. You may not believe it, but we are actually finished, almost, with chapter five. We will make a reference to chapter five, but not going back there in particular. Chapter six of Galatians. Now let us hear God's word in the first part of this sixth chapter. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such in 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. Amen. We end our reading there with verse five, and we trust that the Lord will bless the short reading of his holy word. If you will carefully stay with us today, then you will see that there is absolutely no contradiction between verse five and verse two, as we are commanded to bear one another's burdens in verse two, and so fulfill the law of Christ. And then verse five, for every man shall bear his own burden. two completely different Greek words for burden in each verse. It's very interesting. And this is such a wonderful family passage. because it begins with the word brethren. And if you look down at the last verse of the chapter, closing the book, it begins again with the family name brethren, literally brothers. The Apostle Paul continues what he was teaching in chapter five in these first five verses in particular. The chapter six actually should begin properly at verse six, and because verses one to five are continuation of the themes of chapter five. And there we had, you know, the wonderful teaching of walking in the spirit, manifesting good fruit, liberty in Christ, fulfilling the law by loving our neighbor and our brethren, rather than trying to be holy by keeping Old Testament outdated ceremonies. Those ceremonies that have ended with the great atoning work of Christ. Rather than provoking one another to pride or envy, we are called upon to rescue. Rescue should be undertaken for brethren that have fallen into sin. So this morning we are going to consider Galatians 6 verses 1 to 5 under five headings. And I will go over these so maybe you can remember because they're all distinct. First of all, in verse one, bring back the fallen. Verse two, bear patiently with faults. And verse three, beware of thinking falsely. We tend to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Verse four, be attentive to your flaws. Prove yourself, the scripture says. And verse five, bear your own freight. Bear your own burden. Now, first of all, verse one, bring back the fallen. Let's notice this verse. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fall, in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted." This is the longest verse I see here in this passage, so we'll spend a little more time right here on bringing back the fallen. A congregation of God's children that are striving to obey God's word are a loving, caring people. And being a loving, caring people we should endeavor to minister to others, not just to take in truth, to spiritually fatten ourselves, but we should be exercising ourselves in caring and loving others and showing that in various ways. And right here, it's obvious that a caring, loving people cannot ignore sin that is hurting and damaging a fellow believer. To just pretend there's no problem is not loving that person, nor is it loving God, because it is God's word that's being violated. And every believer is important to Christ and should be important to us because Christ poured out his precious blood to completely save every believer. Ignoring the problem is not really loving a fellow Christian. The kind of fault that is being dealt with here is a sudden surprising fall. This sin was not a sin that was long planned out or premeditated over an extended period of time. For the word here that's translated fault has within it the element of a sudden surprise. This believer was really endeavoring to live the life of the faithful Christian. It was wrestling As the chapter 5 verse 17 teaches us that the spirit is striving against the flesh. Verse 17, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other. Just as Romans 7 shows the struggle in the Christian life is wrestling against the efforts of the flesh. This is not about a person that was prancing around, proud of their sin and defying God, but one that was endeavoring to go on with God. You which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. The command is especially directed to mature spiritual Christians, leaders, literally the spiritual ones are to restore such a one. The ancient word for restore here is the word that the person is doing when he's setting together a broken bone. Here it is. Restoring is the same ancient Greek word for setting a broken bone. Now, this restoring must be done with great care, gentleness, prayer, and meekness. I remember a situation many years ago when I should have been carefully praying over this verse. A member of this church needed help, needed restoring, needed good counsel. So after a service one Sunday, I called the member into my study without explaining that the church elders were waiting there to give counsel. Once the member realized what was taking place, that member immediately left the building not at all happy. Later, the elders realized what I had done and how I had done it, even though I had lured the church member into the counseling session under a false pretense. I had somehow rationalized and justified in my mind what I had done, but I was wrong. I thank God that our church elders were willing to confront me with my sin. and I gradually submitted to their application of God's truth to me, and I repented of my sin, and I gave a sincere apology to that church member. So while trying to restore someone else, I needed restoring myself. My broken bone needed setting also. I thank our faithful church elders, even today, for faithfulness and not letting it slide by. So many things just slide by in churches. The scripture says, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Can we not see from this situation what's being talked about in this verse? considering ourselves that even in an effort to restore someone else, you can be tempted to do that which is not right. We are all sinners. Those born again ones among us are safe sinners, but we are all vulnerable. We are all liable to be tempted. We're not above that. So we must consider ourselves The word for consider here is the word scapeo, like a scope, a microscope, a telescope that you can look and watch and see. And we need to remember the words of Jesus, watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation. There's so many ways that we can be suddenly surprised. We could be suddenly surprised by something outside of us. but we can also be suddenly surprised by something inside of us. So there we have it. We are to bring back the fallen. And then verse two, notice verse two, bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. I say in verse two, bear patiently with faults. The burden in this verse, is like the fault there in verse one. And this burden is a massive weight that is so heavy that it could actually crush a person. For example, a young Christian is honestly striving to live for Christ amidst a world of temptations, on the outside and on the inside, so that that soul can become very discouraged and even ready to give up the struggle. Not only dealing with the temptations, but also suffering from the sense of guilt and failure that I'm not living up to what I need to live up to as a Christian. And oh, what's the use? I am such a failure, such a worthless sinner. It is our responsibility as experienced Christians to patiently help others with such massive burdens. So easy to say, well, what's the use? And there are Christians that need encouragement. and need someone to help them bear the heavy weight that could crush them. But in so doing, we face this temptation of verse three. Notice verse three. For if a man think himself to be something, I can help somebody else out. When he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. So in helping others, we must beware of thinking falsely. If we have grown in grace some over the years, if we are enabled by the Lord to help anyone bear some of their burden, the temptation to pride and vainglory is a very real temptation. Oh, I'm one of the good guys, you know. Sometimes others can detect that pride and that vainglory in us when we can't even see it ourselves. The word is fulfilled right here, verse three. We think ourselves something when we're really nothing. Oh, how we need to understand that Everything that we are or have that is good comes directly from above, from the Lord. Every good gift and every perfect gift doesn't come from within, it's from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. He alone is worthy of all glory, laud, and honor. We should honestly confess with the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 11. He said, though I be nothing. Wow. Though I be nothing. Humility is a leading trait of every genuine Christian. because every genuine Christian feels his sinfulness and considers himself very unworthy of salvation and all the grace that God bestows on him. I was rather overwhelmed with that thought even yesterday as the brethren were praying here. Isn't it amazing? that God would have anything to do with such sinful worms of this corrupted, cursed earth. When you think that even before that, in this vast, innumerable company of angels, that even after a third of them, had followed the rebellion of Lucifer, that God made no provision at all for their salvation. And yet, he would save us worms, and I think even corrupt worms at that. So unworthy of salvation and all the grace that God bestows upon him, even as Jacob said, Lord, I am not worthy of all these blessings and all the truth that you have shown me. So the more that we grow in grace, the more we know ourselves and the more we are delivered from the dominion of self love. Now coming to verse four, we must be attentive to our own flaws. What does it say here in verse four? But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. Now, This means let every man thoroughly examine his own character and conduct. Instead of looking at the failures of others, you know what's so easy? Oh, we think, even as we're thinking about earlier today in Sunday school of the things that so many people going through. And you think of all the terrible situations in homes, broken homes and addiction and abuse and all of the things that are so destroying our country. And you think of all this. And then we think of the grace of God to us. And it's easy for us to think of ourselves. And when we compare ourselves to others, we feel good about ourselves, but let us instead judge ourselves by the true standard of God's law. And when we begin to judge ourselves by the standard of God's law, we see really what we are. And thinking about that term equity, in our inequity and our failure to just keep the commandment. So as we judge ourselves, as we, in this case, in this fourth verse, as we endeavor to be true and to look at our own flaws, then we will not exalt ourselves. Our rejoicing will be the testimony of our conscience, that as Paul says, in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world. 2 Corinthians 1.12. Reflecting back on verse three, the only way we can prevent ourselves being self-deceived is by constantly judging ourselves by the holy word of God. And when we judge ourselves that way, when we are honestly attentive to our own flaws, then we don't worship ourselves. And then finally in verse five, verse five, for every man shall bear his own burden. And here we come to this seeming conflict. Bear your own freight, I say, because in this matter of dealing with our own flaws, it is our own freight. that we're dealing with. The Holy Spirit and Christ have done such a beautiful job in showing us the difference between the use of the word burden in verse two and the word that's used in verse five. These are two totally different words in the Greek text. The word translated burden in verse 2 refers to a huge, massive burden that can crush a person. People are being crushed. The hymn writer had this in mind, writing these words, "...and ye beneath life's crushing load." whose forms are bending low, who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow. Look now. Why? Because there's help. There is help for those that are suffering under such massive burdens. Real help, real friends, true brethren that will help. What a blessing it is to help others. to be a real friend and not a fair weather friend as so many are. Like the man back in 2008 who had over 700 friends on Facebook. And he was feeling pretty good about that. And he thought how wonderful it would be for all of them just to get together and have an evening of fellowship and food and just time to get to know each other, you know, with some real interaction. And so he told him all about what he was going to do. He got a place reserved. He paid for catering because 15 of the 700 promised to show up and 60 said they might come. And when the evening came, one person showed up and he didn't even know her because she was a friend of a friend. And after a few minutes of small talk, she made an excuse and left. He waited on his friends until midnight, and he concluded that though he was a man with 700 friends, he was all alone in the world. Well, dear brethren, this is not the way that we are to relate to each other in the church. We must endeavor to be real friends, to ask questions, to get to know each other, and to encourage those, especially those of the household of faith. As others try to walk with God, we must give real help to those who are struggling with the massive burden, that burden that's being spoken of in verse two. May the Lord help us and move us to do this very thing. But the word here in verse five is a different word. It is a burden like a small backpack. Really, it's like a little thing. Our own burdens that we bear, personal burdens, it's not the crushing burden of verse two. Now, how can we be certain about this? Don't take the preacher's word. I'd encourage you to take Jesus' word, because Jesus used this same word in Matthew chapter 11. He spoke clearly to this issue. He calls to those that literally are toiling under overloaded burdens. He says, coming to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. All right. promises in the next verse 29 that he will give them rest and that his burden is light. This is what the very same word right here is the same Greek word translated burden. It means in comparison to that huge burden of verse two, like the weight of a small backpack. The point of verse five is that everyone has his own faults. Everyone has his own sins, his own infirmities. No one is without personal burdens. And therefore none of us are entitled to think of ourselves greater or better than others because they have burdens that cause them anguish. We have our own burdens. It is clearly the will of God for us to help our brethren to bear their burdens. And as far as our own burdens go, we are to endeavor to bear them ourselves as God gives us daily grace. So let us remember the teaching to bring back the fallen. And we have to be very prayerful and careful and biblical. Bear patiently with faults, verse two. And verse three, beware of thinking falsely. Thinking that we are the greatest and everyone else just needs to get their act together. Verse four, be attentive to your own flaws. And then fifth, bear your own freight. Don't put your burdens on others. If they want to help, they'll let you know. And when we see great problems in others what should we think? We should think there go I except for the grace of God. When we see all this suffering and all this misery let's remember we've got our own burdens and there merciful to us. Let us pray together. Oh God we thank thee for the truth of thy word and Lord we thank thee that we can confess to thee our sin and thou dost forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus. Oh Lord we pray that that thou will cause us to be conscious of the needs of others, of the need of encouragement, of the need of help in so many ways. Oh God, help us even as we sang in that hymn. Oh master, let me walk with thee in lowly paths of service free. We pray in Jesus' name.