Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB00012A
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00:22 Welcome to another episode of Books of the Book.
00:24 I'm Pastor Mark Howard of the Emmanuel Institute of 00:26 Evangelism in the Michigan conference of Seventh-day 00:28 Adventist as well as Goebel Seventh-day Adventist church 00:31 and I'm here today with my co-host, my brother Jim. 00:33 Yes, my name is Jim Howard and I am the Pastor of the 00:36 Detroit Metropolitan and South Lyon Seventh-day 00:39 Adventist churches also in Michigan. 00:41 Now we have been studying in the book of Galatians and 00:45 today we are going to be talking about bearing 00:47 one another's burdens. 00:48 We're pulling them out of Galatians Chapter 6 and if 00:51 you have your Bible near you at home or somewhere where 00:54 you can grab it real quick I would like to grab it and 00:57 follow along with us. 00:58 We're going to the book of Galatians. 00:59 You go to the New Testament Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 01:03 Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians and then Galatians. 01:06 We are actually going to start right before we get into 01:09 chapter 6, of Galatians 5:25. 01:15 We talked last week about walking in the Spirit, 01:19 the flesh and the Spirit, the battle between the two. 01:22 In verse 25 Paul says, "if we live in the Spirit, let us 01:27 "also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, 01:31 "provoking one another, envying one another. " 01:33 One of the things he is doing here is trying to draw the 01:37 a connection between the profession of the Galatian 01:40 believers and their actual conduct. 01:43 Jim it is so important for us to realize that as much as 01:49 our works don't justify us, a Christian who has a living 01:53 connection with Christ will bear the fruit of the Spirit 01:57 in his works. - that's exactly right! 01:59 Paul is trying to draw that out with this group of 02:02 Galatians and help them to see that if there is a 02:06 disconnect in their actions that should be an indicator 02:08 to them that there is something wrong with their 02:10 relationship with the Lord. 02:11 As he points out not becoming conceited or provoking 02:15 one another and then he says in Chapter 6:1, 02:17 "brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, 02:20 "you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit 02:23 "of gentleness, considering yourself lest 02:27 " you also be tempted. " - that's right and this 02:30 particular verse is full of instruction. 02:34 The idea that is being relayed here is that the 02:38 apostle Paul is talking about how to restore 02:41 someone who has fallen. 02:43 And he gives a couple of very important pieces of instruction 02:46 right here in that one verse. 02:48 The first is he says, "if any man is overtaken in any 02:51 "trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one. " 02:56 It is important someone who is not spiritual not be 03:00 the one to try and restore someone. 03:02 The reason is because when the Spirit of God comes in 03:06 to someone's heart, it gives a certain humility or 03:10 acknowledgment of our own weakness that enables us 03:14 to be able to empathize with someone else. 03:16 It makes me think of what the Lord Jesus said in 03:19 the book of Luke and I thought maybe we could turn 03:21 to that passage, Luke 6:41. Where Jesus says, 03:28 "and why do you look at the speck in your brother's 03:30 "eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? 03:33 "Or how can you say to your brother, brother let me 03:36 "remove the speck that is in your eye, when you 03:38 "yourself do not see the plank that is in 03:40 "your eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from 03:44 "your own eye, and then you will see clearly to 03:46 "remove the speck that is in your brother's eye. " 03:50 So Lord Jesus here is outlining the fact that when we 03:53 see something that somebody else is doing wrong, 03:58 and we don't see our own weakness then we are going 04:02 to end up fumbling through it and perhaps driving 04:06 somebody away instead of restoring them. 04:09 So we need to be able first to see that our 04:11 own house is in order. 04:13 We need to first spend time with the Lord Jesus so 04:16 that we can gain the Spirit of God in our own heart 04:19 and have the right attitude, the right spirit before 04:22 we seek to restore someone. 04:23 That is an important point, Paul of all people is 04:26 qualified to be the one addressing this. 04:29 Not because he is an impossible but because he is 04:32 and spiritual man, for example. 04:33 Go to 1 Timothy 1, which to me is one of the most 04:36 incredible passages in the Bible. 04:38 Really it's a humbling passage to me where the apostle 04:42 Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15 tells this young apprentice 04:47 Minister, "this is a faithful saying and worthy of 04:51 "all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world 04:55 "to save sinners, of who I am chief. " 04:58 Now this was written near the end of Paul's life. 05:01 This was 30 years of ministry for Christ, the most 05:05 diligent labor for Christ and yet he says not I 05:08 used to be the chief of sinners, 05:10 but I am the chief of sinners. 05:12 You see Paul understood that he had no righteousness in and of 05:16 himself, we read last time in Romans chapter 7 where 05:19 he says in my flesh dwells no good thing. 05:22 He wasn't trying to vaunt himself or point out 05:26 his goodness, Paul would have said, I'm miserable, 05:29 I'm wicked, he saw the condition of his heart. 05:32 He knew it was only by the grace of God that he was 05:35 anything different and because of that, you know Jim 05:38 when we realize that the only good in us comes from Jesus. 05:42 When we realize that we don't have inherent goodness, 05:44 it changes the way we treat our brother. 05:46 It is impossible to hold a grudge against somebody else 05:51 if I feel like I'm worse than them. 05:54 This is why the apostle Paul was saying in the book of 05:59 Philippians 2:3, "we are to esteem others better than 06:04 "ourselves. " He cites the example in the life of Jesus. 06:08 The whole idea is that when we really realize our own 06:12 sinfulness then it helps us to have compassion on others. 06:16 That's what it means to be spiritual. 06:18 That's right, so when the apostle Paul says you who 06:20 are spiritual, there is a lot in that. 06:23 It is important that we be spiritual. 06:25 The first key point that we would like to draw out and 06:28 the second is you who are spiritual restore such a one 06:31 in a spirit of gentleness. 06:33 The second component here in restoring someone is that we 06:36 need to do it in a spirit of gentleness. 06:38 It makes me think of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 12:20 06:43 the Bible speaks of Jesus as one who would not break 06:47 a bruised reed, and would not quench a smoking flax. 06:52 He was not needlessly abrupt or he didn't say things 06:57 in such a way that they would be void of that tact. 07:00 He always spoke the truth, but He spoke it in love. 07:04 One time in my early experience when I was really 07:08 recognizing certain wrongs in different people, 07:11 wrongs in the church I was trying to navigate 07:15 how to handle those I recognized I wasn't doing it quite 07:19 right when I read a statement in the book called 07:22 'Thoughts From The Mount of Blessings' and I thought 07:24 I would read that statement to our viewers. 07:26 It says, "no one has ever been reclaimed from a wrong 07:31 "position by censure and reproach, but many have thus 07:36 "been driven from Christ. " 07:38 So no one is won over when we censure them. 07:43 When we reproach them, but many people when that is 07:47 our spirit will actually be driven from Christ 07:50 instead of won to Him. 07:52 So when I read that I thought wow, I need to be very 07:56 careful that when I'm trying to highlight some 07:59 thing that needs changed in church or to restore 08:03 someone who is in need of change themselves, who has 08:06 been overtaken by temptation, not only am I spiritual 08:09 but that I'm also gentle. 08:11 That's right and you are going to mention I thought 08:15 that there was one other component there that says 08:19 it calls for restoration. 08:21 Oh, that's right! The reality is, though we must be 08:25 spiritual, and though we must be gentle the command 08:29 here is that we must restore. 08:31 So sometimes we want to say, you know what? 08:34 I'm going to leave that to the Holy Spirit. 08:37 This particular person is going through a difficulty and 08:40 I see that difficulty and they have begun to fall 08:43 and are drifting from Christ so we see the need. 08:48 But because we are afraid, or because it might 08:52 inconvenience us, we think well it is up to the Holy 08:55 Spirit, the Holy Spirit will have to lead them back. 09:00 The Holy Spirit makes us spiritual, but apostle Paul is 09:04 saying here the Holy Spirit wants to use us to restore them. 09:07 So though you must be spiritual, and though we must 09:10 be gentle we must restore. 09:12 That's right, sometimes I think, I'm afraid that 09:16 we call tactfulness is really a fear to address 09:21 somebody on spiritual issues. 09:23 In other words, it can be uncomfortable. 09:26 Here see brother overtaken in a fault, that is an 09:29 uncomfortable situation so I say, I don't want to be 09:32 judgmental, but the reality of my heart may be that 09:36 I'm not even thinking judg- mental, I'm thinking about me. 09:38 How am I going to be viewed and how am I going to feel 09:41 when I'm not thinking about them. 09:43 I think it is important for us to understand that true 09:46 love, to find true love as love to God 09:49 with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your 09:52 neighbor as yourself, that is true love first seeks the 09:55 honor of God and that is above anything. 09:59 Then next, loving your neighbor as yourself, what is 10:03 the most precious thing we can receive in this life? 10:07 Salvation, so if I love my neighbor as myself then 10:11 true love leads me to seek the honor of God and 10:14 the salvation of souls. 10:16 So this idea of restoration means that if I see 10:19 a brother overtaken in a fault, I'm not going to be 10:21 in different to that. 10:22 As much as it's an awkward situation if I am a 10:26 spiritual person, and if I had that gentleness and love, 10:30 it is going to prompt me by the grace of God to pray 10:33 prayerfully to come in close to that person and seek 10:36 to help to reclaim them because otherwise they may be lost. 10:40 I think that is what the apostle is saying in verse 2. 10:42 That's right! When you go to verse 2 where it says, 10:46 "bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law 10:49 "of Christ. " And this is how he talked about this earlier. 10:54 This law that says love your neighbor as yourself. 10:57 Then he points in verse 14 and of course that is 10:59 a summary of God's commandments. 11:01 He says bear one another's burdens, sometimes we read 11:05 that and think, oh yeah that means to help them out. 11:08 To buy groceries that they need it, shovel the 11:11 driveway if they need it in the wintertime and that kind 11:13 of thing, and those are all good. 11:14 But the context is talking about a person overtaken 11:19 in a fault and the burden is a burden for their soul. 11:23 It reminds me of an interview I saw not too long ago 11:27 where there was a woman who had converted to Christianity 11:32 and her husband owned a dry cleaning operation in 11:39 Salt Lake City and she was talking about how she first 11:43 came to church and she began to see all these people that 11:48 had come in and out of her store all the time. 11:50 They were so glad you are here, we are so glad you're 11:54 here and praise the Lord you are with us. 11:56 She said I addressed them at one point and told them 12:00 if you guys are so glad how come all those years you 12:04 were coming into our store and you never said anything 12:07 to us about the Gospel? 12:09 So they said to her, you seem so happy in your experience 12:14 and we didn't want to disturb it. 12:15 But she said, I was lost in my experience, I was lost. 12:20 So the whole idea is bearing one another's burdens, 12:24 we need to have the same burden for souls that Jesus 12:28 had, that burden that led Him to give Himself to seek and 12:33 save the lost. 12:34 Exactly, you know the verse actually says that. 12:37 The end of the verse says, "and so fulfill the law 12:41 "of Christ. " You mentioned earlier the idea of 12:44 the Golden rule, do unto others as you would have 12:48 them to do unto you. 12:49 What will we want someone to do to us but to help us 12:53 if we had fallen, if there is eternity at stake we 12:57 would certainly want someone to help. 12:58 Yeah we always think that, I wish they would smile 13:00 at me and I would smile at them. 13:01 I wish they would give me preference and let me sit 13:04 in the front seat, you know these little things. 13:07 Instead of thinking in terms of salvation. 13:09 The whole picture that he is painting here is to 13:12 bear burdens and when you think of fulfilling the 13:15 law in line of Christ, but thought that keeps coming 13:18 to my mind is that Christ is a burden bearer. 13:20 There is one passage maybe we can look at in Isaiah 53 13:23 that touches on this point beautifully. 13:25 Isaiah 53:4 it says, "surely He has borne our grief's 13:32 "and carried our sorrows. " See there, He is bearing 13:37 our burdens, "yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten 13:41 "by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our 13:44 "transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, 13:47 "the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by 13:50 "His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have 13:53 "gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own 13:56 "Way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity 13:59 "of us all. " The Lord Jesus is the one who bears 14:03 our burdens, He is the one who ultimately teaches 14:06 us what we ought to do when it comes to somebody 14:09 else being overtaken in trespass. 14:11 That is right He is our model and that should be what 14:14 we are seeking an incidentally that kind of heart 14:18 religion, and that kind of burden bearing is 14:20 impossible for somebody with an outward religion. 14:22 - That is exactly right! Paul is drawing and saying 14:26 your circumcision and your salvation by circumcision 14:29 is not bringing in to you the fruits of righteousness. 14:31 Well we are going to come right back after the break. 14:34 We have to take a break right now, 14:35 But join us as we return. |
Revised 2014-12-17