[0:00] Go to Galatians, chapter 1. Galatians, not chapter 1, Galatians, chapter 6. Galatians, chapter 6. One was a long time ago, wasn't it? Galatians, chapter 6.
[0:21] Galatians, chapter 6. Galatians, the last chapter 6. last chapter of Galatians. It's been a long time getting here. We'd spent nine weeks on verses 22 and 23, so it's taken us a long time to get to the last chapter.
[0:36] And we're going to just speed right through to the end now. Nope, we're doing one verse today. So, we're doing one verse. Galatians chapter 6, look at verse 1 with me.
[0:49] Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
[1:04] If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one. You know, so often I hear about people, oh, they're so spiritual. Oh, they do this. No, they do that.
[1:17] No, they do the other thing. He says, look, if you're spiritual, one of the things you're going to be doing is you're going to be helping others come back into the fold. You're going to be helping others get back to where they need to be in their walk with Jesus Christ.
[1:30] You're going to be concerned and caring about them and what happens in their life. You know, this passage of scripture today is, you know, can be a help to every Christian, every church, every home, bringing people back to where they need to be.
[1:46] Bringing people back to the walk with Christ that they should have. You know, we spend a lot of our time, we focus on the unsaved to reconcile them to Christ, which we need to do.
[1:57] But as I pointed out in those songs, we also need to be concerned about those who have wandered away from fellowship and from the church. How do we handle them?
[2:08] Second Corinthians 5.18 says, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation.
[2:22] He says, look, our job is to bring people back. Sometimes, you know, we're going to spend some time helping people restore other people who have fallen.
[2:37] They haven't fallen from salvation. You can't lose your salvation. But they've fallen from fellowship with us, with others, with Christians, with God. And so we need to help bring them back to where they need to be.
[2:52] The assumption here is, though, the person wants that. This passage is about a repentant sinner. It's hard to bring an unrepentant sinner back.
[3:05] If somebody doesn't want to, you can't drag them. But somebody who wants to, somebody who wants to have that fellowship again, he says, be there ready to help bring them back.
[3:16] And we're going to talk about that some this morning. Luke chapter 3, verse 8. Bring forth, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance. And again, not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father.
[3:30] For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Abraham. We have Abraham as our father. We're okay. We're all set.
[3:41] He says, no, no, no, no. You need to repent and come back to the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to repent and come back to God. Just because you have Abraham as your father does not mean you're all set. You need to be following God.
[3:53] So we're going to show you three, four things this morning about what it means to come back to God. what it means to have that relationship with him.
[4:08] Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray this morning that you would help us. Lord, you'd help me keep my thoughts on track, keep me focused on the thing that's before us, Lord, sharing the things that you have for us.
[4:21] Lord, I pray that you would be with those that aren't here. Lord, there are some sick this morning, I understand. There are some who are not here for one reason or another. Lord, we don't know all the reasons why, but Lord, I pray that you would just work in each heart.
[4:36] And Lord, that we'd see them next Sunday and they'd be back with us and all these folks here would be back with us next Sunday. And Lord, that you would just minister to our congregation and to our lives. Lord, we pray for those down in Texas.
[4:47] Think of those at the camp, Lord, that were there to learn about you. And Lord, yet the floodwaters came through. Lord, I pray that you would just be with them and help them to find all that are missing.
[5:00] Lord, just be with that search and rescue. Lord, I pray that you would help us to have a love for you that exceeds all others. Lord, as we talked this morning in Sunday school about the lady with the two mites who gave of our all.
[5:16] Lord, may we be willing to give of our all. It doesn't have to be money. We have other things to give as well. Lord, may we give of our all. And we pray this now, Lord, in Jesus' name.
[5:28] Amen. Amen. Amen. First of all, we need to understand we are all Christians. We are all here and we know the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? We're going to fail. There's a reality of failure that we have.
[5:42] A reality of failure. And a lot of it comes because of the affront of Satan. Satan is always attacking.
[5:54] Satan is always going at you. Satan is always throwing temptation in your way. Notice what the verse says. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault. Overtaken has the idea behind it to be overwhelmed by.
[6:08] To be caught in. Satan's always throwing temptations at us, isn't he? He's always trying to give us things to drag us off track. I've told you this before, but very first opera I ever went to.
[6:21] When I went to Bob Jones, that was one of the things they had to do. You saw an opera every year. They were trying to help us be cultured. And so, the very first one I ever saw, Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles is based on this story of Faust, you know, and the devil's trying to get one of his soul and everything and all this.
[6:39] And it was so cool the way they did things. Because they would have the guy kneeling down and praying. And they'd have Satan off to the side whistling, doing this high-pitched whistle, trying to get his attention off of things.
[6:56] He was always, anytime he went to pray, here came the whistle. Until finally, at the end, he was doing his whistling while he was going down into the stage and flames were coming up around and stuff and Satan was going away because he would never give up following.
[7:12] But Satan is always trying to get our attention and lead us away. But he says, look, our job is to help restore people. restore people.
[7:25] And, you know, we as Christians, we fall into one of two categories. He says, we're either spiritual or we are carnal. We're either following God or we're following the world.
[7:38] We're either following God or we're following our own whims and desires. See, a spiritual Christian, because what does he say there? He says, brethren, if you may be overtaken in your fault, ye which are spiritual.
[7:50] What's a spiritual Christian? A spiritual Christian is a strong Christian. A strong in the Lord. Romans chapter 15, verse 1 says this, we then, that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.
[8:08] He says, you're strong in the Lord. You know what you do? You help the weak and not to please ourselves. I'm more spiritual than you. Let me help you, brother.
[8:20] No, that is not what it means. He says, look, if you're strong in the Lord, you're going to be there. You're going to be helping. I think of Peter walking on the water and he begins to sink and what happens?
[8:33] Jesus reached down, took a hold of his hand, lifted him back up. He says, look, strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.
[8:44] You're there to lift them up. You're there to help them get back on track. You're there to get them to the goal of being what God wants them to be. So a spiritual Christian is strong in the Lord.
[8:55] Spiritual Christian is also known by his fruit. Known by his fruit. Just a few verses before this one, we spent nine weeks.
[9:06] Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. We're going to show those things to them. We're going to show them love and joy and peace and help them get back on the right track by showing them that serving Christ is so much better.
[9:23] Their life will be so much better. They'll be so much happier. He says then, how are we going to do that? Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness. How could you do such a thing?
[9:35] What is the matter with you? I just don't understand. No, he says, you're going to lose, you're going to use long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness. And then he says, you're going to use faith, meekness, and temperance.
[9:49] Faith. Show them from the Word of God why it's better. Meekness, humility, self-control, temperance. So he says, look, you're the spiritual one.
[10:02] If you're spiritual, this is how you're going to treat that person. This is how you're going to work with them. And he says, also there in the verse, he says, you're going to do it in the spirit of meekness. In the spirit of meekness.
[10:16] The spirit of humility. So often, we as Christians, we can really, we can really be obnoxious sometimes, can't we? And it's like, I can't believe you did that.
[10:28] I would never do anything like that. That's just so far beyond me. I don't understand how in the world. He says, do it in the spirit of meekness.
[10:40] 1 Peter 3.15. It's a verse you probably know well. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
[10:58] Be ready to give an answer. Be ready to help. Be ready to show them from the scripture. But he says, do it with meekness, humility. And fear, reverence. Fear in the fact that also I could be like that.
[11:11] You know the old saying, but for the grace of God go I. I could do the exact same thing. But sometimes we get, we're spiritual.
[11:21] And so therefore, I could never do anything like that. I could never go that way. We'll talk about that in a minute. 1 Corinthians 10.12. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
[11:36] You ever watch people who do that? Oh, I would never, never, never. And then a little while later you find out they did. I think back in the 80s and stuff and how many people watch pasture after pasture after pasture go the wrong direction.
[11:52] take, you know, think because you could fall as well. Titus 3.2.
[12:03] To speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle showing meekness unto all men. He says, don't be evil.
[12:14] Don't speak evil of people. You're there to help them. You're there to guide them. You're there to uplift them. As I said, I have an illustration for you about that.
[12:27] Think of Peter. Remember Peter just before the Last Supper. Jesus is talking about the things that are going to be coming up and the things that are going to be and Peter's like, I would never do that.
[12:41] I will always be there with you. I will give my life for you. Before the night was over, what did Peter do? Denied him. Three times. Three different occasions Peter said, nope, I don't know him.
[12:56] Nope, never heard of him. Nope. And you think of the sin there and we think, oh, I can't believe Peter did that.
[13:07] I would never do that. Probably most of us do that almost every day at some point or another. Somebody starts talking and we may say, no, I'm not going to say anything. They're talking.
[13:17] I could correct, you know. What did Christ do? Do you remember? After he rose from the dead, there in that morning, they've been out fishing all night, they come in, Jesus is there, he's got breakfast on the beach there.
[13:38] Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord. Peter, do you love me? Oh, you know that I do. Peter, do you love me?
[13:51] Peter got the message. And you think about it. Peter, we think of him from the Bible and we say, Peter denied Jesus Christ. How could he do that?
[14:04] That would be our normal thing, wouldn't it be? Look at him. But what did Peter do after Jesus spent that time with him?
[14:15] Peter, do you love me? Peter saw over 3,000 people saved in one service. Peter went out and spread the gospel all over the place.
[14:26] Peter wound up giving his life for Christ. Did Peter come back stronger and better from the time that he fell? See, our tendency is to write people off.
[14:40] Jesus said, no, I'm not writing Peter off. No, I'm not giving up on him. See, it's not our place to necessarily chastise people who have fallen. Our job is to bring them back.
[14:54] God gets to do the judgment. Our job, you which are spiritual, restore. See what it says? We just are spiritual, restore.
[15:05] You've probably heard this old saying, Christian army is the only army in the world that shoots its own wounded. Somebody sins, somebody falls. We try to help them.
[15:23] I think of another illustration in the life of Jesus. In John chapter 8, beginning at verse 3. I don't think I put this up there. I think I just put the reference.
[15:34] Yeah, I did. John chapter 8, verses 3 through 11. It's a story you know though. The scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.
[15:51] Now Moses in the law commanded us that she should be stoned. But what say you? No. They're trying to set him up. They're trying to trick him.
[16:01] They're trying to see if he's going to agree with Moses or not. Is he going to follow the law or not? They bring her. I love, always love this part. They said that she was taken in adultery in the very act.
[16:15] We caught her red-handed. Question. Where's the guy? Didn't they catch him red-handed too? But he's not there.
[16:26] Hmm. Interesting. Moses said she should be stoned. Verse 6. Then they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him.
[16:40] But Jesus stooped down and with his finger he wrote in the ground as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted himself up and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her.
[16:57] And again, he stooped down and wrote in the ground. I love that. Because I think, I know, I can't prove this from scripture, but I'm like a lot of other pastors.
[17:09] I think when Jesus stooped down and he started writing in the ground, I think he was writing different sins. And then when he stood up and he says, He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.
[17:23] and I think he's pointing at what he wrote in the ground. And he says, and he stooped down and he started writing some more. Verse 9, And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last.
[17:47] And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, he saw none but the woman and said unto her, Woman, where is thine accusers?
[17:58] Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. What was Jesus' whole purpose there?
[18:13] To restore. Ye that are spiritual, restore such a one. Don't point at him. Don't condemn. Don't. He says, Bring them back to where they belong.
[18:26] It's not our job as Christians to add guilt. It's our job to, he says, if you're spiritual, restore such a one. 2 Corinthians 2.7 says, So that, contrarywise, ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
[18:53] I don't know if you remember the story in 1 Corinthians. I don't have it up on the screen, but in 1 Corinthians, there was a man who was sinning in the church.
[19:04] And Paul's writing to them, and he says, I know all about what's going on there, and I know what's happening, and you're not doing anything about it. And he finally tells them, look, if he's not repentant, then you have to put him out of the church because of the sin that he was doing.
[19:22] And he says, look, you have to do this. It's better to give him over to Satan for now, and hopefully he will come back. If he goes and follows Satan and finds out just how bad it is, hopefully he will come back.
[19:36] Then we come to 2 Corinthians, and apparently the man has come back. And there's some people who are questioning the fact whether we should let him in or not because, and what did Paul say there in verse 7?
[19:49] So that contrarywise, you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him unless he be overtaken, swallowed up. See, the purpose of all of our things that we do when it comes to those who have fallen away is the restoration.
[20:11] The restoration. We need to bring them back. That word restore means to mend. To mend. Think of Jesus again.
[20:25] He comes to the shore of the Sea of Galilee one day. People are following him. They're pressing against him. They're backing him up into the water basically. And so he finally goes over and there's four guys, Andrew, Peter, James and John who are there.
[20:39] They come in from fishing. They're mending their nets. And he wants to go out on their boat so he can speak from the boat. But he comes in and they're mending their nets. The word restore here means to mend.
[20:52] The word restore means to put back together. To make it so the holes are closed up. To make it so it gets whole again. To make it so it's useful again.
[21:04] He says, look, here's what I want. I want you to restore those that are fallen. That one that's overtaken and fallen, restore men.
[21:16] Help him get to be whole again. Help him to get to be useful again for God. Help bring him back. Romans 15.1 again, we looked at already.
[21:31] We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, not to please ourselves. We're to bring it back to their hole again so that they can be used of God.
[21:46] A few years ago, a crazy man went into a museum in Amsterdam and they had Rembrandt's painting the night watch in there.
[22:02] Famous painting. A man got in there and he took out a knife and he slashed the painting. A few months later, a man went into St.
[22:12] Peter's Basilica in Rome and he had a hammer with him and he smashed the piada. The piada is the one that Michelangelo did.
[22:23] It shows Mary and she's holding Jesus in her lap after he died, before he went to the grave. Slashed the painting, hit the sculpture.
[22:37] You know what they did with those things? Okay, they're done and over with, they can't fix those, let's just throw them out. No, that is not what they did. They found people, some of the best artists of the day and they paid them a lot of money to put those things back together again.
[22:57] So here's a painting done by a man, here's a statue done by a man and we're worried about putting them back together. Ye which are spiritual, restore such a one.
[23:13] Put them back together again. How do we do that? We help the sinner recognize his sin. We help them understand what the word of God says. We don't stand there going, ah, Steve, oh man, let's go after Steve.
[23:27] You know what Steve did? No. No. Steve, can I help you in any way? Because, you know, the scripture says, you know, this about, let's sit down and take a talk and let's take a look at it and try to help him realize that, okay, what he did was a sin and needs to be taken care of.
[23:48] And then the second thing is we help restore the sinner to fellowship. Bring him back into fellowship. Bring him back so often. You don't have anybody from the jail here today.
[24:02] People come in from the jail. They've been in jail. They did this and they did that and that. What's our job? Bring them to reconciliation of Christ.
[24:14] Some of them claim to be Christians. Bring them back into fellowship. Restore them. Ha ha ha. Nope. You ever notice when you do that? Ha ha ha.
[24:27] What are these three doing? Right back at you. You know, we point fingers at people and these three are pointing back at us. We're just as guilty.
[24:39] We've done the same type of things. Dr. Howard Hendricks, who's an author and teacher at Dallas Theological Seminary.
[24:51] He tells the story of a young man who fell away from the Lord and was finally brought back because of the help of a friend who really loved him and really wanted to see him restored.
[25:04] When full restoration and full repentance had taken place, Dr. Hendricks was talking to the young man and he said, what was it like to be away from the Lord?
[25:18] And a man said, I felt like I was out to sea, really deep waters, really deep trouble. He said, and all my friends on shore were hurling rocks at me.
[25:35] They would hurl scriptures, they hurl accusations, they hurled and he said, they were just trying to hit me and hit me and hit me. He said, but this one friend, this one brother, said he actually swam out to me.
[25:52] He wouldn't let me go. I tried to push him away, I tried to shove him off, get away from me, I don't want you. He said, but he grabbed a hold of me. He put a life vest on me.
[26:03] He dragged me back to the shore. He says, he's the reason I'm standing here today. He's the reason I've been restored.
[26:15] He would not let me go. Is that the attitude we have? We need to have that same attitude. Third thing, the reasoning of the faithful.
[26:29] The reasoning of the faithful. What is our reasoning need to be that's going to make us go out and do that? What is the reasoning need to be that's going to make us concerned about those people and bringing them back in?
[26:41] Notice he says, concerning, he says, well, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself.
[26:59] Considering thyself. Stop and take a look at yourself put the scope on you. I think of it like this. So often what we do, got a pair of binoculars.
[27:13] Ooh, Addie back there. Addie, ooh, ooh, you know what she's doing? Ooh, Addie, ooh. Christina, ooh, ooh, Christina, look at that smile.
[27:26] Keep an eye on the shy, you know, smiling. Keep an eye on him. Fred. Ooh, Fred. What he's saying is you take those binoculars and you turn them around.
[27:42] Look here. Look at me. Look at what's going on there. Put the scope on yourself is what consideration means. 1 Timothy 4, 16.
[27:54] Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
[28:07] Keep yourself in view. Keep yourself listening to the doctrine. Keep yourself continuing in the doctrines.
[28:18] Keep yourself so that you can go out and help others. Are we following the things that God has for us? We must continually be diligent.
[28:32] We must continually guard our purity to make sure we are what God wants us to be. And then he gives a caution. A caution. Lest thou also be tempted.
[28:47] The last of the verse. Lest thou also be tempted. Proverbs 16, 18. Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before appalled. Yes, I'm spiritual. I'm more spiritual than you. Yes, I can.
[28:58] Let me help you. Let me instruct you. Let me give you. No, not with that attitude. They're not going to listen to you with that attitude anyway.
[29:11] He says, look, don't go. How many times did he use the word meek there in the different verses we looked at? Humble. 1 Corinthians 10, verses 11 through 13.
[29:25] Now, all these things happen unto them for examples. He's just given some illustrations through the Old Testament of things that happen to people. He says, now these are all examples for you, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
[29:40] Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. He says, be careful. You think you've got it okay. You think you've got it all taken care of. You think you've got it.
[29:51] He says, be careful. You're setting yourself up for a fall. Verse 13, you all know well, there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which he are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it.
[30:11] He says, yes, Satan's going to tempt you and tempt he says, remember, God is with you all the time. He's made a way of escape.
[30:22] It may be that friend who's saying, I see this, I see that, let me help you. Let me show you maybe this verse from scripture might help you with that issue or that problem.
[30:34] See, the reality is we are all going to fail at one point or another. So be so very careful because we're all going to do it.
[30:44] is there anyone here who has never, and don't raise your hand because if you do, I know you're lying, because we've all failed the Lord at one point or another.
[30:58] We've all messed up. We have all sinned even after being saved. Why does that verse in there for 1 John 1, 9? Confess your sins.
[31:11] Faithful as he, all of a will also do it. No. No.
[31:23] Anyway, 1 John 1, 9, look it up. It says all of a sudden, what? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[31:35] Yes. That verse is in there because he knew we're all going to fail. We're all going to stumble at times. So while we walk in the spirit, which, remember back in chapter 5, verse 16, walk in the spirit.
[31:52] While we walk in the spirit, we also fight the flesh. Talks about that in verse 17. We're going to fight the flesh all the way through our life because we're human.
[32:03] We have a human, sinful nature. But he says, look, if people are failing and people are falling and people are going through temptations and stuff, ye which are spiritual, can I emphasize that enough?
[32:19] Ye which are spiritual, restore. Don't point, don't accuse, don't, ye which are spiritual, restore. We have to love them, we have to want to mend them, we want to have to bring them back into the path where they're following Christ.
[32:39] we have to go through the process of restoring them and when we do we have to be cautious that we don't fall ourselves. I've watched people in the past try to help others.
[32:53] Oh, you're having this problem, let me help you, let me guide you, let me give you advice, let me do this and then the person winds up doing it themselves. Same sin. We need to be so, so very careful.
[33:07] Keep the focus. ye which are spiritual restore. That's what God wants us to do. That's what the church is. You know, the title for this was the restorative church.
[33:19] That's what we as a church should be doing, bringing people back into line with Jesus Christ and who he is. How do we do that?
[33:32] We make Jesus our passion. We make Jesus our all in all. we talked to Sunday school this morning about the lady with the two mites. She gave her everything that she had to God.
[33:46] It wasn't just giving the two mites, it was her whole self. Everything went to him. That's what we need to do. Everything to him. Take your hymn. Turn page 371.
[33:57] 373.