I invite your attention tonight to Galatians chapter 6, Galatians 6, verses 1 through 5. We'll be looking at this paragraph in scripture in just a moment. You know, strange things get our attention. Strange things in life, strange things in nature. As a kid I often noticed, and even now as an adult from time to time, I would in the summertime see an ant that had hoisted the carcass of a cockroach and was carrying it off somewhere. This very small little critter that was carrying something hundreds of times its size and its weight. Or watching a documentary on TV. and seeing a burro, a little donkey, winding its way up a path in the Andes Mountains with two gigantic bundles or burdens on both sides of it. And you're saying to yourself, how in the world does that animal carry all of that weight considering its size? I've seen children in India carrying huge bundles of sticks and firewood on their backs, clearly out of proportion with their strength and their size. It just didn't look right. Or a woman in Africa carrying a jar on her head the size of her torso. What I really like or enjoy is watching an Olympic weightlifter Ever watch Olympic weightlifting? It's called fantasy time for somebody like me, okay? But those guys grab onto those bars, and they will sling 500 pounds or more, I don't even know the weight, up to their chest. And I mean, the bars are bending, the bar that holds the weight. It's so heavy. And their muscles, their sinews are quivering. And then all of a sudden, they let out this, and they throw it up like this. And then it looks like their arms are going to snap in half and then finally, boom, you know, they drop it on the ground. Now that's some serious, serious weight and inspiration for all of us weaklings. But I've seen well beyond the physical realm, people, animals bearing burdens that are beyond. what seems possible to be born, emotionally, in a family way, or spiritually. I've seen many times people suffering chronic or terminal illnesses, or watching a relative do that for an extended period of time, and you find yourself saying, oh my, how are they enduring that? Or the early loss of a child. Just this past week, a friend of mine lost a grandchild, two years of age. Or the agony of the waywardness of an adolescent or a young adult in a family. The tragedy of some spiritual failure of a friend or a fellow believer, a family member, or just a church member. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ spent his incarnate ministry bearing the burdens of people. The great burdens, the weighty burdens. As Peter put it in Acts chapter 10 verse 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him. raising the dead son of the widow at Nain, lifting up Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, healing the demon-possessed son of the man at the base of the man of transfiguration, or the daughter who was demon-possessed of the Syro-Phoenician woman, cleansing the leprous ones who bore the horrible burden of being filled with physical suffering, but also being terribly socially outcast, calming the sea of Galilee when the disciples are just stricken with terror because they're sure at any moment they're going to lose their lives. And in countless other ways, our Lord Jesus Christ lifted up the burden for people. So when you hear the words of Matthew 11, 29 to 30, where the Lord Jesus says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. How did he begin that statement in Matthew 11? Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I will show you how to lift up the burdens of people. Now, what we find in the epistles in the New Testament are an elaboration, an explanation of what is often presented in a simple statement in the Gospels or through an incident in the Gospels performed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that I think is the case with Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter six verses one through five that we're looking at here tonight. We have elaborated for us in this passage of scripture lessons about bearing burdens, lifting up burdens. And I'd like us to look at this paragraph. I think this is the paragraph that God has put in His Word to explicitly teach us about this. how to be people who disproportionately are able to bear burdens in a way that demonstrates the power of God, that really by our life makes us a kind of marvel when people look at us. They just sort of say to themselves, you know, it's just surprising that he is able to do that, or she is able to do that, to bear up under that pressure or that difficulty or do that ministry and continue on. I think people who are in church on Sunday night, I think I can say, want to know how to be people like this. who are in the yoke with Jesus Christ, who find the burden which is significant, substantial, a burden that is light, and can in fact be born with joy as a believing person. Well, let me begin with mentioning as we head into this first lesson. My experience newly freshly amended out of college as a ministerial student before I went back to seminary and I spent three months in an internship at my home church in Toledo, Ohio, Emanuel Baptist Church. I had a wonderful summer, worked with our youth pastor. I was the assistant to the youth pastor and at the end of the summer we had a debriefing and he wanted to know what things I'd learned about the ministry and about what I felt my place in the ministry was and I looked at it and he said, well, I've learned I don't want to be a youth pastor. I think he didn't feel he was very successful in that, but I do want to be in the ministry. I want to be a preacher and a teacher of the word of God. And I'm excited about that. And I remember the pastor of our church giving me the first book I ever received on preaching. And he inscribed the fly leaf of that book, you know, to Steve, uh, preach the word. And, and it was a great book. I still have the book on my shelf and from time to time, I take it off the shelf and look at it. That's been a lot of years ago. I was six months into seminary when I got the news that that faithful, productive pastor, who for many years had built that church in a wonderful way, had a very serious personal fall. I don't mean a stumbling on steps, I mean in a spiritual way. That was a real wake up call for me. I should have been awakened long before that happened. I mean, Peter had a time when he denied the Lord. Many men in the word of God are presented as having at times stumbled and fallen and haven't had difficulties, but it really brought me out of some youthful naivete and brought me into reality about the simple fact that people do experience spiritual failures, and we can be those who lift them out of their spiritual failure, or at least help to that end. Now let's look at the passage, Galatians chapter six. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such an one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest ye also be tempted. And let me say that the leadership in that assembly, the godly men in that assembly, were a great aid and a great help to that man. And there was restoration that came to that man. But would you look at how this verse starts? Brethren, it says. Brethren. That means all of us. It was all believers in Galatia that were being addressed, but that's being addressed to us as believers here tonight. And what does he say? Be aware of the likelihood of spiritual failure. It is going to happen if a man is overtaken in any trespass. If. You know you could really rightly translate that and I don't just mean because I want to make a point because of the language of the New Testament with the word when. When people are overtaken in a fault, there is a very real possibility of that. That's not an excuse for it happening, but it does occur. Sin is present. I mean, 1 John 1.8 says, if we say we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in us. The Satan is one with many guiles, many wiles. He is like a roaring lion walking about, seeking whom he may devour. And there is the sinister pressure of the culture and the world, the seductions that are constantly there, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Sin is just an ever present possibility and reality and it should come as no surprise to us that people might be, may be, and are overtaken in any trespass. Now there is a picture here in this. When it says When a person is overtaken in a trespass, it's the picture of somebody who suddenly, unexpectedly trips and falls. It's the person who, walking along a path on a trail, a narrow trail, catches his foot on a root, stumbles, and falls over into a ravine and breaks his leg and cannot climb back up out of that ravine. And if help doesn't come, an emergency crew doesn't come, the ranger doesn't show up, he'll die of exposure and hypothermia or whatever. Sudden, unexpected, very serious. You know, there can be in all of us a propensity to start to just sort of cut corners a little bit, not be completely transparent or honest with those that we care about and even love. A falling into a pattern of consistent and neglecting scripture or prayer And then a sudden temptation and a sudden fall. Even a propensity to untruthfulness. Someone asks us innocently a question that proves in our hearts to be a little embarrassing and we don't tell the truth. We lie. And we let it go. All of us need to be prepared in heart to help people that we know when they fall into spiritual failure. You who are spiritual, restore such in one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest ye also be tempted, the scripture says here. Ye which are spiritual, And what makes a person a spiritual person? The restorer, the lifter up, the burden bearer for other people that fail. Who does that? Well, a spiritual person is a person who obeys the Spirit's commands, the revelation of God. It's the one who's dependent upon the Spirit's power. It's the one who's committed to showing the Spirit's fruit. It's the person who's living for the Spirit's eternal purposes, who allows the Spirit of God to speak through his conscience to maintain a life of purity. That's a spiritual person. It isn't so much a matter of a stage, the stage of life, or age chronologically. It is these things that make a person a spiritual person. And you know, oftentimes younger people, teenagers with their peers who are spiritual can be this kind of burden lifter, the burden of spiritual failure. And others at different stages of life within their circle of friends will be those that serve as the burden bearers or the burden lifters. But would you notice how this happens, how this is to occur? It's to occur with a certain manner. with a spirit of meekness or gentleness. In other words, to understand this, think in terms of opposites, not harshness, not in a condemnatory way, not in a condescending way, but in a very gentle, very kind, very private, very reasonable way. Have you thought about this? How can I help you with this? How can I be of some assistance in this? And then it says, considering yourself lest ye be tempted. Now isn't that an interesting thing for Paul to say at this point? Is it possible for us to experience the very sin, the very temptation about which we're trying to help other people? Of course it's possible. You've heard of people drowning when they're trying to save someone else from drowning. You've seen or heard of someone trying to rescue someone else from quicksand and sinking in the quicksand themselves. We have to follow that urging that we find by Paul when he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that we are to take heed. When we think we stand, lest we fall ourselves. We have to be always envisioning a future usefulness for people who fail. I think this goes with that spirit of gentleness or meekness. There's never this superior attitude. There's always a desire to think of this person as what they could be, what they can be, what they can do, once restored, once recovered, not as they are now in the muck and the mire and the terrible filth that they've perhaps gotten themselves into. We are to restore, it says, section one. This literally is the idea of a net, a fishing net being repaired, or a broken bone being reset. In literal context, that word is used that way. Restored to usefulness in a long-term way. Not any ostracizing, not shunning, not ignoring, no. It's seeking for long-term restoration. Years ago, when Pastor Dean was the pastor at Brookside Baptist Church, long before the thoughts of him ever being pastor here in Greenville, my wife and I actually enjoyed a family camp with their church up in Wisconsin at Northland Baptist Camp. And it was a wonderful week. There was a couple there whom my wife and I talked to at length. at their request, of course, about their daughter who had fallen away from the Lord. A girl in her late teens, seriously departed from things of the faith, was actually living with a boyfriend, an immorality, and these parents were tremendously disraught and seeking counsel about what to do, and the pastoral staff was making plans on how to proceed in that situation. It turned out that lovingly, gently, carefully, these pastors sought this young girl and urged her and pled with her, and others did as well, and many in the congregation did. At one point, it came to very serious discipline of this young woman in the congregation, but the people in the congregation kept extending themselves to her in a spiritual way, urging her, showing kindness toward her, urging her to return to the Lord, And you know there came a day when that young woman was standing before the fellowship openly testifying to her repentance of her sin and it was the fact that the people in the congregation were constantly showing kindness and attention to her of a spiritual nature appropriately and seeking her restoration that brought her to the point that she had come to. She later went on to go to Bible college and actually married a man and is in the ministry today with her husband. Well, we're to be people who lift the burden of those who are spiritual failures. We don't just let them go. We don't just forget about them. You know, someone disappears from the congregation. They're just suddenly nowhere to be found. We don't just overlook those people. We know of some actual deep sin or problem that they've fallen into. They're our opportunity to lift a horrible burden that is crushing them and their relationship from God. You, I can lift the burden of those in overwhelming spiritual failure. But you know this text goes beyond this. And it says that we can lift the burdens of those who are in overwhelming personal crises. Not just a sin difficulty or problem. Notice verse two. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now Paul broadens this out. and extends well beyond the problem of sin. And he actually uses terminology in this verse that says, you're to take up, lift up the burden that is an uncustomary burden, that is a burden that is more than can be borne by somebody. Unable to be borne by themselves or alone. You're to lift up that burden, get under that burden with them. You know, there was a young man that I know at the university, he was a student there, he's graduated, he's a missionary today. When he came to the university, he came as an orphan. His mother had died of cancer. And his father had abandoned the family while his mother had cancer. But that young man was taken under the care and the nurture of godly people who were concerned about him and interested in him and he went on to train and today is serving the Lord very effectively in Christian school ministry in a missions context. Think about that for just a moment. No means, no parental support or help at all. You talk about crushing circumstances and personal crises. When he showed up at the university, he had nothing. He had but the clothes on his back and the first month's tuition. And he graduated and went on and is serving Christ today. By stark contrast, a man that had served in a Christian college, a smaller Christian college that had tremendous cutbacks in their staffing, a man with an earned PhD, felt it necessary to engage in some sales work to support his family. His wife was somewhat handicapped because of onset MS and he was having a hard time of it, wasn't doing particularly well. Believers knew he was very discouraged. They even talked about it with each other. But the man who cleaned the tool truck that this man was driving to sell tools from to mechanics and so on, the man who cleaned it out, cleaned it up and out after the man took his life with a gun, said to me personally, I knew he was in trouble. I should have done more than I did. That's a sobering example. You know, if it seems like people are having trouble, then they're having trouble. If they seem like they're being crushed or burdened down, then it's because they probably are. And here we are, brothers and sisters, those people in Christ and given a promise from the Lord Jesus, get in the yoke with me. I'll help you lift the burden for them. The burden will be light for you and it will be light for them. I'll do it. I'll work through you. I'll work in you. And would you notice something very interesting at the end of verse 2? It says, Bury one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. That is a very infrequent phrase in the New Testament. Think about it for just a minute. How many times have you read the phrase the law of Christ? We think of the law as an Old Testament thing, don't we? The Ten Commandments and other stipulations that are presented in the Old Testament canon. But the law of Christ, I mean, here is a clear and unequivocal command of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, if we see a young man that's floundering at work, we need to help. A young mother who's overwhelmed with the care of little children seemingly is often frustrated and complaining and older, more mature women in the congregation or other younger women are noticing that and realize that she's under a great deal of stress and strain or a young couple is just really having a very difficult time financially. These are all opportunities. for us to bear the burden of those who are in personal crises. We can help when it is too much to be born alone and when we can help bear that burden of personal crisis. You know, the passage goes a very interesting direction at this point in verse three through five. That talks about a different kind of burden that we can lift. And that is that we can lift the burden of our own responsibilities as we ought to. For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. For each one shall bear his own burden. God has designed burdens for us to bear. Now if we look right at this text of scripture and notice verse 5, you'll see it says each one shall bear his own burden. And the burden in this case, I mean the term itself means a normal burden. Like a soldier bearing a backpack on his back. Or a lady who's going to have a baby and she's bearing that child for the full term. Or a ship carrying cargo, normal, customary, to be expected. Yes, there are those kinds of burdens that we've been given to bear. Husband burdens, wife burdens, son or daughter burdens. the work burdens that we have based on the gifts and the stewardship that we've been granted, the burdens of our relationship with family members and extended family members, the rightful burdens that we face or have within the context of the body of Christ, and the burdens that we face as we look at the lost world and our obligation to carry the gospel. You know, sometimes it is right, actually, for us to bear the burdens of pain and physical limitations as age comes on. Christ says to us, my grace is sufficient for you. I will help you bear that burden. I will make the burden light by the power of my spirit, by the power of my grace, by the operation that I will do in your soul. In fact, the Suffering that you experienced, Paul says, which is now and which, comparatively speaking, is momentary, will work for you a far greater weight of glory. It's actually the bearing of our own burdens. It's the bearing of the burdens God maps out for us, which is a means by which we gain reward, a means by which we glorify God. God intends for the bearing of our burdens to bring us great joy in life. Would you notice that it says in verse four, but let each one examine his own work and then will he have rejoicing in himself alone and not on another. It is the God-appointed responsibilities that we take on and we fulfill that are to be the source of great satisfaction in life. No, we're not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, because if we do, we're deceiving ourselves. We're all stumbling, weak, and sinful people. That's true. But we also ought to be able to stop and examine the work that we do as we bear our own responsibilities and burdens faithfully. And what should be the outcome of that in spite of our weaknesses and our frailties? When we see work well done, when we see our responsibilities fulfilled as they ought to be, and goals reached and contributions made, what's going to happen in your own soul and your own life as a result of that? Joy. This side of heaven, this is one of God's sources of joy for us. to actually do and fulfill what we should do, what we should fulfill and what we should be as believing people. So that department well-managed, those classes well-taught, those studies well-done, those children well-raised, that life well-lived. is something that you can find great satisfaction and great joy in if you take the yoke of Christ upon you and rise to the burdens, rise to the responsibilities, and meet God's expectations for you as a believing person. Some years back now, When Tom Craig was a youth pastor here at our church, he came to the point where he felt he was called to the ministry, and I happened to be filling the pulpit, interim pastoring in a church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee at that time, and the timing was just right for me to introduce Tom to that congregation, and God called him to that ministry, and it wonderfully flourished and prospered, and there was in that church a great family, a wonderful family of people. One of their sons regularly served at the Wilds Christian Camp, and at one point, there was a very serious accident, and this young son passed away, he died. Great young kid, but these people bore a horrendous, tremendous personal burden at a crisis time in their life in an amazing way, with tremendous grace. And the congregation gathered around them in that. But do you know what it was about those folks? They had been bearing their burdens all their life. They had faithfully served Christ, met their responsibilities, raised a family for God. They were burden-bearing people who had been in the yoke for God and with Christ. And when the time came for them to experience an overwhelming personal crisis and burden, They were able to bear that burden, and others around them assisted them in that. For the glory of God, the truth of this passage was lived out right before my eyes in watching these people and many others who observed their life. By the grace of Christ, by the power of Christ, by the wonderful working of the Spirit of Christ, in their hearts as he can and will work in us to help us be those who lift the burdens we're called upon to lift. Father, I pray that you would bless the word of God to our lives tonight. Strengthen us by it. Help us be burden bearing believers. bearing the burdens of those who suffer in failure spiritually, who have personal crises, and then bear the burdens of our own responsibilities. Lord, be honored, we pray, through our lives as we bear burdens for thy glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.