The following message is brought to you by Capital City Baptist Church of Port Mosby. We exist to bring glory to God by knowing Christ and making Him known. If you would like to visit our church, we hold multiple services on Sunday mornings, starting at 9am. We are located between Motukere Wharf and Edai Town. Pickups are available 7009-1000. Good morning, church. Let's turn to Galatians chapter 6. This morning we'll be reading verses 1 through 5. The pastor will be here this morning in this great passage. Galatians chapter 6, reading verses 1 through 5. Verse 1, 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." Thank the Lord for His Word. I trust you have your Bibles already this morning Galatians chapter 6 will be in Galatians chapter 6 and also if you want to grab Ephesians chapter 5 just put a piece of paper into Ephesians 5 will be there in a few minutes from now Galatians chapter 6 we continue our walk through the book of Galatians we found in the last few weeks from Galatians 5 that there are two ways that you can live as a believer If you've put your trust in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, and there are two ways that you can live. You can either live after the flesh, or you will live walking in the Spirit. And the way that you live will produce fruit, and there will be a result of that. We won't get to verse 8 in chapter 6 today, but I do want you to just glance down and see it. This is Galatians chapter 6 and verse 8. He talks about what will happen if you live after the flesh. Look at chapter 6 and verse 8. He says this, For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, death. Things will fall apart. Life will not go right. If you follow after the flesh, sow after the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. He made the very same statement in the book of Romans chapter 8. Paul said this in Romans 8 and verse 13, If you live after the flesh, you shall die. I hope that that's- last week, we close with this thought, that if you are a believer, and you're taking on the form of God, you will take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and you will put to death the crucifix of my slave, the desires of the flesh. I hope that that's been going on in your life. I hope that you as a believer are striving to live after the spirit, hoped after the spirit, being wed by the Holy Spirit in your life. And if you are, the fruit in your life will be obvious. The fruit in your life will be obvious. It should come out in you. Nobody walks up to a mango tree and says, I want to rip this one's a strawberry. You'll plant a pineapple and expect bananas. You walk after the spirit, you will expect to have fruit of the spirit. You walk after the flesh, you do not expect to get the fruits of the spirit. You walk after the flesh, you'll get death, and all of its accompanying works of the flesh. They will come. 19 citrus trees. I was so excited. My gift to her was me getting mandarin oranges in my yard. That was my plan, by the way, guys. I highly recommend it. And if you can get a plant for your wife, and ask her to plant it, look after it. Well, we've got 19 of them. I asked her what kind of trees she said mandarin orange. All I got to go by is what she said, right? My mom won't plant them, though. I was doing a gift to my wife for her gift. I planted 19 mandarin orange trees, so I thought they were mandarin oranges. They were definitely some kind of citrus. I planted 19, and only two survived. And those two are still alive today. I'm glad I heard that. But please don't bring anything you want to keep wild. All right, I won't. I'm not allowed to do it. And I planted those two trees. It took so many years. One of them has not yet borne. I think we're probably five years now. And I waited for it to turn orange, and finally it turned orange, and I picked it, I was afraid that someone else would pick it for me, you know, that's like, and it turned orange, I picked it right in the house, and there, the smallest mandarin orange was there, and I peeled it, oh, so very carefully, and then I took one piece of the little tiny mandarin orange that I thought was mandarin orange, and I ate it, and it was not a mandarin orange. It was calamansi. And if you're familiar with calamansi, you know, the more it gets orange, the more sour it becomes. And it was unbelievably sour for your faces out. And I did not know what calamansi was at that time. I asked these people that taught me how to eat a mandarin orange tree, a calamansi tree, a little bit disappointing, if you were expecting mandarins, I dare guess, continually bearing, and I cannot expect any mandarins to fall out of that tree. You know why? Because and you cannot expect to live after the Spirit in your life, and see that it is a flesh coming out of a person who comes after the flesh, and expect to see the Spirit come out. You have to have a change. Now, the beautiful thing, as opposed to the tree, the tree is stuck with what it is. But, the beautiful thing about the Gospel is that it transforms lives. And so the Gospel can change your life. If you have been walking after the flesh, the Holy Spirit of God can change you from the inside out. End of chapter 5. He makes a statement that we could take that statement, apply it to the legalists, the Judaizers, but I believe it also applies to us. In effect, you're walking in the Spirit, you're going to have fruit of the Spirit. It's going to be very easy, as you have fruit of the Spirit, it's very easy for you to say, hey, look at me, I've got fruit of the Spirit. And that one does not. That person, not yet. It's very easy for us to look down our nose at other brothers and sisters in Christ, and he says, wait, there's a caution here. So see it in verse 26. This is Galatians 5, verse 26. Let us not be desirous of vain glory. You do not glorify yourself. You never attained it. It was Him that did the change. So let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another. Paul says there will be some believers who need to be brought back in, who need to be encouraged to do right, and some believers will fall in sin. That's what he brings us to in verse number one. So here we are, Galatians chapter six, I'll read verses one to five, and I'll split them, outline the style. Verse one. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in fault, he which are spiritual, restore such a man in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. May ye, one and others, worship the will of Christ. For if a man thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives 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. And hopefully... So we know that there will be people, brothers and sisters in Christ, who will fall away, whether that means they fall away and they're out of church altogether, or maybe they're still attending services, but they've fallen into sin. And so then the question is, who should restore them? The natural answer is almost always within our minds, it's the pastor's job. Pastors should go and get that person, bring them back. That's the pastor's job. How many times we hear somebody says, well, he's not a good pastor because he doesn't go and get those lost sheep. Wait a second. That's not what the verse says. The verse says, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. So who is Spiritual, that's a good question. So you see it here, you which are spiritual, that's verse one. If a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such one. So who is spiritual? So we slide back up to verse 22 and we find out the marks of a spiritual person. Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit, in other words, the person that's being led by the Spirit, they're walking in the Spirit, they have the fruit of the Spirit in their life, see it in verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. And so you and I who are spiritual, brothers and sisters who have these fruit of the Spirit coming out in your life, you should be spiritual and you should be reaching out and helping restore others. It is our responsibility to lift up one another. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 24 and 25 speaks directly to this. Verse 24 says this, And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. It is our responsibility as a church to consider one another and provoke one another to good works and to love. That's not just the pastor. And so if a brother or sister in Christ has done something, perhaps they've done something against you. They've wronged you in some way. I hope you remember what Jesus' words were. Jesus' words were not, if a brother offends you, go to the pastor and let him take care of it. That's not what he said. He said, if your brother offends you, go to him alone. And if he hears you, you have gained a brother. Those are some of my favorite words that Jesus said. He said, if you go to him and he repents, you've gained a brother. Do you realize the opportunity to strengthen a relationship lies in the fact that all you have to do is go and talk to him? But oh, how often your brother offends you. And guys, I'm just going to let you in on a little secret here. Nine times out of ten, he had no idea that he offended you. But eleven times out of ten, you took it personally. Some of you missed that. Almost every time he did not intend to offend you, and almost every time we are natural human beings, we take it offensive. If your brother offends you, go to him alone and talk to him. And when you talk to him and he receives you and he says, brother, I had no idea that I offended you and I'm so sorry for that. I want you to see my heart in this matter. You've just gained a brother. But watch what happens when you take it to somebody else. Your brother offends you. You take it to somebody else and somebody else goes and deals with it. Now he knows you've been talking bad about him behind his back. That's like glaring obvious for me as the pastor. Because when you come to me and say, hey pastor, so and so, they did this to me and I need you to take care of it. I'm sitting over here scratching my head going, this would be really easy if the two of you would just sit down and talk. But instead, you which are spiritual, no wait, scratch that, you which are pastors, that's not what he said. He said, you which are spiritual, restore such a one. And so our responsibility as a body, Hebrews 10, 24, provoke one another to love and to good works. And how does that happen? Verse 25. not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is, we should be coming together. Why is it so important for you and I, as brothers and sisters in Christ, to get together as a corporate body? Why is that so important? So that we will see each other. I don't see you all week. You don't see me all week. You don't know my heart for you. We get together, you get to see my heart. I get to see your heart. I get to see how spiritual... thermometer, we check on each other, and we provoke one another to good works. And so then we will encourage each other. Somebody's fallen away, our responsibility, spiritual ones, our responsibility, step into their life, speak into their life, encourage them to come back out of their sin. And by the way, if you happen to be the one receiving the correction, don't do the natural thing. The natural thing is to fight back, accuse back. Oh, what do you mean? You think I'm in sin? I know something about you. Wait a minute, no, the point of the moment is for you to be able to be restored. And by the way, also, a godly spiritual man does not only care about his own matters. A godly spiritual man cares about the matters of the body, and cares about the cause of Christ and the glory of God. And so he will, in moments, even though they're tough moments, and sometimes with tears, will have to go to another brother or sister in Christ and say, hey, I see this problem, and I think it's very important for you to take care of this. And so you who are spiritual, restore such a one. I wonder if your life would be described as being spiritual. And perhaps this morning might be a good time for you to examine yourself. Would your life be described as spiritual? Just like we go to the Kalamansi tree and we see it's a Kalamansi tree because of the fruit it bears, I wonder if someone could come into your life and describe your life as bearing the fruit of the Spirit. If someone were to say, how would they describe your life? Would it be, that is a lady that is full of joy, or he is described as being meek? or that one is long-suffering. But I'm afraid that many times we find our identity in many other ways, like, oh, that guy likes NRL. Comes to fishing, he's the one. It might do us well, brothers and sisters, to examine how is my life described. I would hope that your life would be described as being bearing the fruit of the Spirit. You who are spiritual, Hold your place here in Galatians 6 and come over to Ephesians 5 with me. And I want to show you some things Paul says about the life that's being led by the Spirit. You can start in chapter 4 and verse 29. In fact, all throughout Ephesians, Paul talks about the relationship of the believer with the Holy Spirit. It's in Ephesians that we find that God seals us. On our day of salvation, He seals us with the Holy Spirit. Then you look at chapter 4 and verse 29, he's going to talk about what your life should be like as a believer. Look at chapter 4, verse 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers. What's your speech like? What is he talking about? What's your speech like? Is your speech, are you putting people down or are you edifying others? Are you building them up? Because if you're not building them up, you're not being led by the Spirit. And he directly ties that in verse 30 to the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. God put the Holy Spirit into your life, believer. Watch how it is that you speak with other people. Slide down into chapter 5 and you'll see him talk more about it. Verse number 2, walk in love as Christ has loved us. But, verse 3, fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints, nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. And then you can see the end of verse 5, he says, those who do these things have any inheritance, does not have inheritance in the kingdom of Christ or of God. I see that tied directly to Galatians 5, the works of the flesh last week, 19 to 21. So those who are living out the works of the flesh do not have any place in the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit should be guiding your life. Now look down to verse 18. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. If you're being led by the Spirit, alcohol should not be a part of your life. I'll say it again. If you've got a problem with getting drunk, you are not being led by the Spirit. They are opposites. The one side, look at the wording in verse 18. Drunk with wine on the one side, filled with the spirit on the other side. And a great big word, but, in the middle. There's two opposites here. The one will lead you to mind-numbing pleasure for a season. The other will lead you to fullness of joy forever. You get to pick, guys. Your Christian life, you get to pick. Am I going to go after the flesh, or am I going to be led by the Spirit? That's completely your option. But then he says here in verse 18, if you're going to be filled with the Spirit, this is what it'll look like. Look at verse 19. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So here's the picture. I'm being led by the Spirit, and what's going to happen? Because I'm being led by the Spirit in my heart, I'm going to be singing and making a melody, And my heart to the Lord. I wonder if this last week, if you were to take a stalk of this last week, what was your heart doing through the week? What kind of songs were being sung in your heart? Were there ever moments when you just got caught off guard and you realized, wait a minute, I'm singing, Behold our God, seated on His throne, blessed be the name of the Lord. Is there a moment when you had that? I sure hope so. If the Spirit's in you and leading you and you're being directed by Him and you're walking in the Spirit, there should be a natural inclination in your heart to worship. And then he continues on in verse 20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You're continually thanking God in the good times and in the bad times. And oh, how often we in prayer come running to the Father when we run into a problem. And yet, if I'm being led by the Spirit, even in the good times and the bad times, I'm still going to be coming to Him with a heart of gratitude. For I know that both the good and the bad are being brought into my life for my good. And we know, Romans 8, 28, and we know that He works all things together for good to them that love God. So we continue on with verse number 21. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Instead of me trying to just work things out for my own way, and I'm going to stand stubbornly for my way, instead I'm submitting together, I'm being led by the Spirit. Verse 22, he comes very specific for within the family. Verse 22, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. And this is a relationship where the wife is saying, as God is the head of Christ and Christ is the head of the church, so also the husband is the head of the wife. This is my responsibility to come in in submission. But then also verse 25, it goes the opposite direction. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. And the husband is willing to give even as it were his life to show his love for his wife. and this is a spirit-led husband and wife. So what's your life look like is going to be different than what it would normally be if you were walking in the flesh. Our gathering together should be provoking us to good works, causing us to want to be more and more spiritual. If a man falls in sin, You who are spiritual, restore such a one. Come back to Galatians 6. While you're coming back to Galatians 6, I'll share a couple of verses that Paul has written a talk about how the strong should be helping the weak. Romans 15, in verse 1, he said this, We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Lift up. So in the church, you who are spiritual, restore those who are not. Help lift them up. Provoke them to good works. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 14, We exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly. They're starting to walk off? Give them a warning. Comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. And Paul gave a great example of that in the very fact that he wrote the book of Galatians. He sees these churches walking away from the faith and he writes, hey guys, come back. You've got to get back in faith. Don't walk away. He did it with the Corinthians. I see Jesus. Jesus did it with the leper. You remember the leper, the book of Luke, the lepers? They would stand at a distance from the people. They were unclean, unable to mix with the people. And there's Jesus in that setting. Jesus calls the leper to himself. Do you realize that Jesus could have healed the leper from afar? He had the power to do that. With his own word, he said, let there be light. He could have very easily said, hey, leper, be cleansed. But instead, he said, leper, come here. And then he puts his hand on the leper. Nobody would do that. If anybody ever got close to a leper, do you know why they would do it? If anybody's getting close to a leper, it was only to show off how good they looked. See, I've got my nose. I brush my teeth. I comb my hair. That leper? Oh, be careful. Strong Christian, be careful. Please don't ever try to size yourself up with another Christian. Don't ever try to, oh, look at how good I am, and that one's falling off. No, Jesus said, I'm going to step right into the mess of this one, and I'm going to change his life. I'm going to put my hands on him, and if it gets dirty here, it's going to be okay. It's going to get dirty, because I want to help this one. Guys, let us be following the example that Christ gave. And then even in the moment of his healing, Jesus said to the leper, you need to go to the priest so that you can be declared clean. And he said, go to the priest, get declared clean, and don't tell anybody that I did this. Even in that moment, Jesus didn't draw attention to himself. Let us follow his example. So I wonder then, second question, why do we not restore? It's so clearly commanded that we should restore, and so I wonder why is it that we do not restore? And I'll just give a couple of quick answers, I think, why we do not do it. One of them would be this, perhaps it's just not convenient. Sometimes in restoring somebody back into the faith, sometimes it just gets messy and we don't want to get into that And it's just more convenient to not bother with it, just let it be. Or perhaps it's because of our own pride. Because if somebody gets restored, then they'll start looking better, and now I don't look so good. Do you realize God never lines us up tallest to shortest? This one's the most holy, and that's the least? He never does that. Our measuring stick is God's holiness. He's completely perfect, and we fall short of that every time. There is not tallest to shortest. There is only He is perfect, and we are not. Therefore, make sure that you come up close to Him for grace. Don't measure among ourselves. Perhaps another reason that we do not restore is because we're afraid that we might tarnish our own reputation. Others might think, oh, if I'm trying to help another brother out, they might say, oh, look at that guy. He's hanging out with the bad ones. Even Jesus went through that. Friend of sinners. As He was bringing people to Himself, Others spoke down about him, but I think that perhaps one that might hit home for us today is because of the fear of man. The book of Proverbs speaks about the fear of man. Let me share with you what Scripture says in Proverbs 29, verse 25. It says this, The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Here's the fear of man. I don't go and restore such a one because I'm afraid that if I come and start talking to him, either he's going to talk back, no good about me, or maybe he's going to go and talk to somebody else about me. Or perhaps, The fear of man. And the book of Proverbs says the fear of man is a snare. just like a trap set for a couple. It's a snare. And the fear of man is there. All you have to do is avoid it. Don't be afraid of it. and it won't get you. But the opposite side of the coin, on the one side is the fear of man as a snare, but on the other side, whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe. And that's a promise, by the way. Last week we said that if you're walking in the Spirit, you're trusting the promises of God. So here, trust the promise of God. Don't let the fear of man snare you. Instead, put your trust in God, and He will give safety so that if I don't fear man. Instead, I'm going to speak up like I'm supposed to. Provoke one another to good works and He will provide safety. And then even further, I'm walking in the Spirit. And so, let's not allow these excuses to get in our way. So then, another question. How do we restore? How do we restore? I see it in verse number one. How do we restore? Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one, and here it is two ways. One, in the spirit of meekness, And then number two, considering thyself also, lest thou be tempted. So I see a spirit of meekness. So how do we restore? How? Who's doing it? It should be all who are spiritual. You're walking in the spirit, you should be restoring others. But then how do we do it? And we do that in a spirit of meekness. The word meekness literally means gentleness. We're coming carefully. You might remember Moses. Moses standing in the backside of the desert, looking at a miracle of a fiery bush speaking to him. That's God, by the way. God's speaking to him. He's seeing this miracle, and God says, I want you to go to Egypt, and you're going to go speak to Pharaoh. Now, normal human beings are going to go, yes, God just anointed me to go tell Pharaoh what to do. I'm on my way. That's pride. And you remember what Moses did? I don't think so. Meekness. Jesus Himself was described, He described Himself in Matthew 11, 28. We saw that promise last week. Come unto Me, all you who are weak and heavy laden, I will give you rest. It says, Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. Here's Jesus bringing a light burden and taking the heavy burden for Himself. He says, when we come to restore a fallen brother, we come in a spirit of meekness. I'm going to help them. If that means I carry the heavy burden, it's okay. I want to come with a spirit of meekness. But then also a spirit of awareness. We need to have a spirit of awareness because I'm not the big example here. I'm coming to restore. I want you to be restored, but I've got to be careful about myself, because I too am a fallen human being. I'm a sinful man. I'm very much capable of doing the very same sin. You can see it at the end of verse 1. Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. And that brings us to the caution that we see in verse number 3. So we saw the command in verse 1. Now let me see the caution in verse number 3. The caution is this. Compare yourself to other believers. Never. Never compare yourself to other believers. Verse number 3, For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Did you see the word that was used? You think yourself to be something when you are nothing. You deceive yourself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not another. For every man shall bear his own burden." None of us deserve the grace of God. If we understand grace, and if we understand the Gospel, we will not find ourselves measuring ourselves, comparing ourselves among ourselves. And that very statement, comparing ourselves among ourselves, the Bible says, is not wise. Don't go there. You don't want to be a fool, according to the Bible. Instead, I'm going to think of myself as the way I should be thinking of myself, as a nothing. You were not a lost puppy dog when God came along. You were not a lost puppy dog that He just took compassion on and said, I think I'll take that one in. No, you were dead, nasty, laying on the side of the road, roadkill. Rotting. It's Ephesians 2's words. And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. He didn't come along and say, oh, I think I'll take this one because he's so beautiful and I just want him to be healthy. No, that one's dead and I want it. That's an amazing love. It does not make any sense because we were at enmity against Him. We had no right. And I don't know if you've ever thought about what it cost God to make you right with Him. 2 Corinthians 5.21, but God made Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. God took all of my sin and placed it on Jesus. That's what it cost God to bring you in. He put your sin on Jesus. And then He put Jesus' righteousness on you. Oh please, when He says, if you think yourself to be something when you are nothing, every one of us is a nothing. And I'm so thankful that He chose to bring us in. And so a caution, don't ever compare yourself with other believers. You're a nothing. And if you think in terms of walking in the Spirit, as we said the other week, walking in the Spirit, I'm nothing but a 40-foot sea freight container. I don't have a brain for myself. And if I'm left to myself, all I'm going to do is wreck and make a mess of stuff. But instead, if I get led by the Holy Spirit, we're going to go places. It's going to go really awesome. He leads, I just follow where He wants us to go. That's some pretty awesome living. And yet, you and I get the choice. You can live whichever way you want to. We're not righteous by our comparison. Look at verse 4 and 5 again. 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. Prove your own work. Examine your own work. And you'll see, there should be a projection in your Christian life. There should be a projection. But notice that your rejoicing will not be in comparison against another one, but instead in your own growth. So you should be able to look at your own growth and say, yes, look at how far I've come. Five years, look what God's done in my life. This has been awesome. But it's not, look at how I'm doing against that one and that one. No, it's my own walk with God. Then you will have rejoicing, verse 4, you'll have rejoicing in yourself alone and not in another. And he says, don't compare yourselves with yourselves. Let me bring us back to verse 2 and we'll finish up in verse 2. I don't know if you noticed it, we skipped verse 2. I'm going to finish with verse 2. Verse 2 brings us back into that command, but I think the command also has the caution in together with it. Verse 2, bear ye one another's burdens And so fulfill the law of Christ. I won't take much time to develop the burdens there. The burdens in verse 2. There's also a burdens in verse 5. And it seems like, on a quick reading, it seems like they actually are opposites. I'll show it to you. Bear ye one another's burdens. And then verse 5. Every man shall bear his own burden. It seems on one side where he says we all need to bear each other's burden and on the other side it says you bear your own burden. It seems like they would be opposites against each other and yet what we have translated in English is not the same words that Paul wrote. So Paul wrote in a different language, he wrote in Greek, and the two words are different in Greek, they're different words. The one in verse 5 is burden, and that would be your everyday burden. You're going through life, that's your everyday burden, and you are responsible for your everyday burden. And yet the one from verse 2 is a much heavier burden, and here's the idea. Sometimes the word would even be associated with a ship's cargo. And so you can imagine as a ship, and especially Paul's day, they didn't have trucks. They didn't have trains. They wanted to move big cargo, you did it in a ship. So you can just imagine a big ship load with all of its sails, and it's going to go from point A to point B, and you would never ask a person, one single person, to lift that up and carry it. No. But sometimes there are burdens that come up in your life that just seem like they're too much for you to carry. And that's when you bring in others. I don't know if you've ever heard that phrase. There's a phrase, some became popular in years past. Somebody said, and it's way wrong, God will never give you more than you can bear. That's not in the Bible. Sometimes God will bring along things in your life that are too much for you to bear just for the very fact that you realize you need other people to get around you and help carry that. And that's what he says here in verse 2. Bear ye one another's burdens. So I would like for you to take just a moment and start thinking about what other burdens. I know we always easily think about our own burdens. That's natural. but maybe stop and think about what other burdens might be carried within our own body. Some, health burdens. Some, I would say, among us, some of us have health burdens that many people in the congregation know nothing about. Some of you have shared with me your health burdens, and yet majority of the church would not know about it. Some issues between spouses, where one spouse will come to church faithfully and loves Jesus, and the other spouse has nothing to do with God. And can you just imagine, for just a moment, brother, sister, could you imagine having to carry that load? And Paul says, bear one another's burdens. Have compassion on one another. come alongside of each other, realize that others have needs as well. And in so doing, the end of verse two, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. So here it is, bear one another's burdens, and when you bear one another's burdens, you're gonna fulfill the law of Christ. Now, I don't know if you caught this, but that's kind of an important sentence in the book of Galatians. Because all through the book of Galatians, he's been telling us, stop following the law. Stop following the law. He keeps saying it over and over and over, and now he says, bear one another's burdens, and you're going to be following the law of Christ. Now, I hope you see that there's a difference there. The one law is those ten commandments in the 613 from the Old Testament. That's another different law altogether. And this one is the law of Christ. And so he says, stop doing that one and instead do this one. So that leads me to think, okay, what is the law of Christ? Well, he has outlined it all throughout chapter 5, so let me just touch him, I'll point at him. Look back to chapter 5 and verse 6. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. But, here it comes, but faith which worketh by love. There's going to be a love within the brethren, the church. You're going to have faith. It's going to be working itself out in love. Now look down to verse 13. For brethren, we have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. You're freed from that law. You're freed from that law. But because you're freed, don't use that freedom to just go do whatever you want to. Thou shalt not murder. No, I'm not free. I'm not held back by the law not to murder anybody, so I don't murder people. No, you don't use that freedom to go do what you want to, but instead you use that freedom so that you can, by love, serve one another. We're called, this is Christ's new law. Look at verse 14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Even, verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit, the very first one in the list, the fruit of the Spirit, verse 22, is love. Jesus' command, this is John 13, 34, a new commandment, Jesus said, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another. This is a new law, and so if I'm loving within the church body, we're loving one another, we're going to naturally be bearing one another's burdens. I care about you. I see your problems. I'm going to come in next to you. I'm going to care enough to ask about your problems. I'm going to step into this, and you two, you're going to carry my burdens. We're going to carry each other's burdens that are so strong and so heavy that we cannot carry them on our own. We need each other. We bear one another's burdens, and when we're doing that, we're fulfilling the law of Christ. I don't know if you've thought about the way that love works with God. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. So God loved us, so He sent Jesus. And then Jesus loved us so much that He went to the cross. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Neither height, nor depth, nor sword, nor peril. None of these things will ever separate us from the love of Christ. So then Jesus gives us this commandment, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another. And here we are bearing one another's burdens and fulfilling the law of Christ. So, love flows from the Father, through the Son, to us, to one another. It doesn't just stop with you when you got it. It keeps on going. As I think of Galatians 6 and restoring, I think also of the words that were used to describe Jesus in the book of Matthew. Jesus was described in Matthew 12, verse 20. It was a quote from Isaiah about the Messiah, and here's what he said. A bruised reed... This is talking about Jesus. A bruised reed shall he not break, and a smoking flax shall he not quench. It's a description of Jesus and how gentle and meek He is. Let me describe these. A bruised reed, he will not break. So you can imagine, as a little shepherd boy takes his sheep down to the water, going to get water for the sheep, and there along the side of the water edge, there's reeds that are growing. And so he cuts one, and then he punches holes in it, and he begins to play it. It's a little flute, a little reed. And I think we would probably be familiar with that with the kids in the village. cut a reed, play with it, make sounds with it, but it doesn't last forever. It's just a reed. And as the little shepherd boy plays with the reed, maybe he doesn't look after it, he throws it in his bag, it cracks, it's useless. Or maybe he plays it so much that the moisture begins to break it down and it's just, it's bruised. And the natural thing is, when it's useless, break it and toss it to the side. But Jesus, no. A bruised reed, He will not break. He cares. A smoking flax, He will not quench. And you can just imagine, there's the oil lamp, and there's a flax wick is inside. The light has gone down. There's no more flame there. All that's left is just the smoking flax. It's not giving light anymore, it's just giving smoke. It's annoying now. It serves no purpose. And the natural thing to do would be to quench it. And yet, Jesus, to the smoking flax, and guys, don't think that he's talking about just a smoking flax, because there's so much more to this. Oh, the smoking flax, he rekindles and brings back to life. And he does the same thing with you and I. Aren't you glad that our Heavenly Father, when we become bruised, doesn't kick us off to the side and toss us away? And when light just isn't coming out, and we're just a smoking flax, nothing but an annoyance, aren't you glad that He can rekindle a fire in your soul? So then let us do it for one another. Bury one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of God. Guys, may we be careful, follow His commandment, take heed with caution. So, Father, I pray that we would, with meekness and awareness, restore those who have fallen. Father, I pray that we would love, as we've been commanded, that we would love one another, even those who have hurt in their falling away. I pray that we would come around provoke to good works, show love one towards another, and bear one another's burdens. Father, thank you for this commandment that you've given us so clearly, and thank you also for the caution. May we never think highly of ourselves. Thank you for your grace, and thank you for the gospel that changes our lives. I ask these things in your beautiful name. Amen. Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Matt Allen of Capital City Baptist Church of Port Mosby. We would love to have you join us for service if you are in the area. If you need help with transportation, please give us a call on 7009-1000. Again, it's 7009-1000.