What an incredible blessing. Thank you very much for all of your participation and worship this morning. I want to thank our music team for a special effort today. What a blessing to all of us. If you would open your Bibles this morning to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6, we'll be discussing the first five verses of this chapter. We have just two more weeks after today. Then on Easter Sunday, we'll welcome Daniel into the pulpit for the beginning of his ministry here at Killeen Bible Church. We're blessed to have Daniel and Daniel here today with us. They have successfully moved from North Carolina, and so they have shelter. I suspect you have food and you're well cared for. Thank you to Doris for taking care of them. We appreciate that very much. The Galatian Christians in the beginning stages of their movement backwards to Judaism, that's what we've been discussing here in the Book of Galatians, were evidently becoming highly self-focused and proud. Whenever the law moves in, whenever Mosaic law moves in and grips the congregation, you have this reversal of movement going on in the body. And I think the negative aspects of that are probably behind Paul's text before us today. The law of Christ, in contradiction to the contradistinction I should say to the law of Moses, is a law of love. It's to be distinguished from the law of Moses. The pursuit of which can only lead to spiritual disaster as it was never intended to save us. It was never intended to enable us either to know God or to have eternal life. I think Bunyan was right in his book, The Pilgrim's Progress, the movie of which we saw this past week. What a blessing it was to watch the Revelation Media's depiction of the story of The Pilgrim's Progress. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bunyan was essentially right to depict the Mosaic Law as a diversion from the right path to the celestial city. You may remember Moses up on the mountain and there's this tremendous reaction as Bunyan has Christian going up the hill trying to find the direction that worldly wise man had given him to go to the celestial city. He couldn't make it through the town of civility or through the mountain of morality there. And what happened was that he got to the point where he realized that the law was not the answer for the path to the celestial city. We need to understand that. That's a very clear message. The mountain that he went up turned out to be Mount Sinai, a fiery, dreadful mountain full of all kinds of rules and the keeping of the Ten Commandments in order to earn one's pathway to God. But there was only judgment along this rugged path. Only when Mr. Evangelist returned and redirected Christian to the narrow path of salvation by faith alone was Christian spared and enabled to continue on to the celestial city. But the story can be misinterpreted to teach that a Christian now free from the Mosaic law as a law covenant is now lawless. That is, he's free to live however he wants to live. That is exactly the wrong message to take from the story of Pilgrim's Progress. And it's exactly the wrong message to take from any church that you might go to. We are not lawless, we are now under the law of Christ. If anything, the standard has been raised in terms of our day-to-day living, not lowered. While we are no longer under grace, that is true, we're no longer under the law as our law code, we are still in fact under the law as scripture. In other words, the Mosaic law is able to point us to Christ and to understand the law of Christ. It's distinct from the law of Christ, but it points us toward the law of Christ. And we're able to understand grace because of the condemnation that is promised under the law. The law has one purpose that we all know well after all this time in Galatians, and that is to serve as our guardian, our custodian, to bring us to Christ. We need the Ten Commandments to understand how sinful we are. And it's very helpful, very instructive for us to understand that we cannot earn our eternal life through keeping the law because we can't keep the law. But what it does is drives us to the cross. Just as Pilgrim was driven to the cross, Christian was driven to understand that he had to have his burden freed from him by only one thing, and that was by the power of God, who released that burden from him as he went up the hill toward the cross. And that is exactly the way it is with us. We cannot free ourselves of all of the bondage that comes with trying to keep the law. The law, especially the Ten Commandments, shows us what vile sinners we are and thus propels us toward the Savior, who came some 1,400 years after the law was given to Israel on the desert floor at Mount Sinai. And during that time, Israel understood very clearly how sinful they were. And we, looking at the same law, understand how sinful we are as well. That is the value in the Mosaic law. We also discover that this code points us, the Mosaic code points us to Christ, which is the new law code that the Mosaic law anticipated. Our lesson in Galatians today is to talk about this law of Christ, and I hope that this will sink in and permeate our very being. We're under the law of Christ, no longer under the law of Moses, but we're under law, we're in law to Christ. That is, we're under the authority of the law of Christ. This is what it means for the believer. We as Christians now have the Holy Spirit living within us. We are now enabled and committed to keep the law of Christ. We could not do that before the cross. This message is so freeing, and yet, at the same time, in another sort of way, it's also very demanding, because we realize how important it is that we respond to this grace that God has given to us. We can no longer live the way we used to live. We can no longer enjoy the same things that we used to enjoy. God has changed our taste buds, and we now enjoy something far greater, as we saw this morning in Thomas Goodwin. What a blessing it's been to go through the Puritans. Thank you, Edward, for bringing this to us. It's just such a blessing. Brian, thank you for what you're doing and presenting this as well. We now have the Holy Spirit, and so we must fulfill the law of Christ. We have this obligation now, this commitment, it's a joyful commandment to keep. We wish to do it, we desire to do it, but the standard is much higher now. God's standard through us is not getting us out of something, it is introducing us to the great responsibilities we have under grace. I'm going to read this short but important text. It's Galatians 6, verses 1 through 5. I'm going to start at verse 25, though, of the previous chapter, just to give us the flavor coming in about living by the Spirit. Paul says to the Galatians, if we live by the Spirit, that is, if we come to new life by the Spirit, He's the one who gives us the ability to be regenerated. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. And then chapter six, our verses for today, verses one through five. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourselves, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, He deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for each will have to bear his own load. This is the reading of the word of God for today. If you didn't catch it, that last verse seems to contradict with verse two, which says, bear one another's burdens. And then it says, each one has to bear his own load. What is this all about? Well, Paul is a very, very good writer. And I think you'll see that the story as we go through this morning, let's pray that God would teach us his word this morning. Understanding that because we have the Holy Spirit, we now must fulfill the law of Christ. Father, we thank you for the gospel message. We thank you for your word. And Lord, we just thank you for the Apostle Paul. What a blessing it is to have him to enable this transition of going from the old covenant to the new and to help us understand what this means and how we should live. Father, we thank you for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that Paul preached to the Gentiles. Paul, an ardent, zealous Jewish Pharisee, converted, becomes the greatest gospel presenter to the Gentile nations of the world. What a miracle. And Father, what a miracle you worked in Galatia, and you've worked in lots of Gentile areas around the world. And Lord, at the end of this age, we know that you're going to bring the Jewish people back in as well. There will be a turning to you among them. We as one church will, with one voice, glorify our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we look forward to the day when we'll be in heaven, when we'll get to the celestial city. We know that, Lord, there is much that awaits us there of knowledge of you and understanding of your divine purpose. Prepare us today for that as we study your word. We ask in Jesus' name that you will work in the hearts of each believer here today and also in the heart of every unbeliever, bringing them to a knowledge of yourself. We pray this in the name of our Savior, amen. Because we now have the Holy Spirit, we must fulfill the law of Christ. I've got this broken down into two sections. Verses one and two deal with how we deal with others, regarding others. We're to bear one another's burdens. And then verses three through five, Paul changes gear. This is regarding ourselves. We are to bear our own load. So the first part is dealing with others around us, and the last part is dealing with ourselves as believers. I think if you understand this change of gear, you'll understand how Paul works this idea of the new covenant through both halves of this passage. Regarding others, we're, first of all, to bear one another's burdens. It could be more clear, chapter six, verses one and two. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. If we truly know Christ, if we've been made alive in him, what this verse is telling us is that we'll have a different attitude toward those who are around us. Speaking particularly of the body of Christ, but I think you could expand this beyond that. But in the body of Christ, certainly there is going to be a change in attitude toward our fellow Christians around us, specifically toward those who have been caught in a sin. We'll attempt to restore this person who's been caught in the sin. This is not time to repeat Cain's question, am I my brother's keeper? Yes, we are our brother's keeper. We're responsible for the people that are around us. And when they're snatched up in a sin, the verb has to do with being caught, being caught up with in a sin, caught by surprise, perhaps, going on in the text. The instruction in this text, though, is not for the person who's been caught in the sin. This is the important part we need to remember. This text is written for the benefit of the people who are in the same church with those who are caught up in the sin. In other words, if you're cruising along in your Christian life just doing fine and dandy and somebody else stumbles, There's a required response from you. There's a required response from me. We are to do something to assist this particular person going through this experience. The first implication, of course, is it's possible for believers in Christ to sin. I think you all know this, but it's a blinding flash of the obvious, but we believers can sin. 1 John 1.8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Christians do sin. And they do sin pretty regularly, sadly. The text does not tell us what sins qualify for this kind of treatment, this extension of grace by the other Christians in the church. It just says when anyone is caught in any transgression. So I would take that to mean, regardless of what the sin is that takes place in the church, this is how we are to respond as a body of Christ. The verb is in the passive voice. The sinner is overtaken. The person is caught in a transgression. Now, that doesn't take away the responsibility of the individual for his sin because we are all gonna be held responsible for our own sins. We'll talk about that at the end of the passage today. But it is to say there are times when sin surprises us. When temptations come up that we did not expect and people are drawn into sin, And that person truly is surprised that they have responded the way they have. They're surprised at their own sinfulness. It is possible for that to happen. However, the person is responsible. All sin at some point in time is willful, and all sin is certainly culpable. The Bible does not follow the victimhood narrative of our culture today. We are responsible for our sin when we sin. But it is possible for us to be surprised by it. Whatever the sin may be, small, medium, or large, the body of believers is to surround that sinner with the intent of restoring him or her. Our constant motive in life is to take those who are marginalized in our midst and bring them in, and to put our arms around them, and to love them, and to cause them to be drawn to the Savior, even in the midst of their sin. As we heard with Goodwin this morning, what a blessing he went through in his life, realizing that he was to get out of the introspection as he looked at the sin in his own life and look to Christ. And what we're trying to do in the church is cause people to look to Christ. I want you to always remember that the church is not a fine arts museum. You know this. We're not here with a lot of beautiful people on display for the world to see how wonderful Christianity is. We're a hospital. And we're full of people who need doctors and nurses and lots of medicine. I'm speaking in spiritual terms here. We're a congregation of believers who deal with sin every day. We need to deal with the need for forgiveness of our sins every day. And so when we come together, we're to have a compassionate heart. for those who've been caught up in sin, perhaps sin that we've been caught up in the past, or perhaps sin that we will be caught up with sometime in the future. None of us is to take pride in ourselves. Pride always goes before a fall, does it not? And so we're to take compassion upon them. We need to deal with these sinners around us because we are one of them. We don't shun sinners, we welcome them, and we surround them with the love and grace of Christ. Remember the example of Christ, who was confronted by the situation of the woman taken in adultery, and she was guilty. There's no doubt in the biblical text that she was guilty, as charged. And what he did in response to her is amazing. He forgave her. And at the end of the paragraph, he says, go and sin no more. The Lord Jesus has a way of dealing with the marginalized in society. And I think we've kind of lost that today in our very polarized culture. I heard it said when I was in seminary 20 years ago, I think it's still true today that most homosexuals believe that Christians hate them. Now, that's not true. But most people in that community believe that. And the reason they believe that is they've seen something in the church that caused them to believe that. What a travesty of the gospel. Remember Paul dealing with his Christians at Corinth said that all participants in sins such as that one All the Christians there had been guilty of some sins that compared to that. Let me read the passage, 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Okay, we know that, Paul. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Yes, Paul, we understand that. And he says, and such were some of you. In other words, gathered together in worship there in the city of Corinth were people who had been in each one of these camps. And what God had done is transformed their lives. How did He transform their lives? The Holy Spirit came in and saved them. And how did the Spirit do that? He used the Word of God. And how did He use the Word of God? Tell me, how did we get the Word of God? People preaching. People tell them. Now, if we can't proclaim the gospel to the marginalized society, we're gonna be the marginalized ones before long. If we don't preach the gospel to the culture around us, which is against God, they will never understand the grace of God, because God uses means such as us to do that. Our responsibility to all sinners, but especially to fellow believer sinners caught up in any sin, is to restore them. And when people see that that's happening within the church, they will be drawn to the gospel. When they understand that the church is compassionate towards sinners. I'm not saying advocating the sin in which they live. We don't ever do that. We cannot do that. We cannot compromise the truth of the gospel. We've always got to proclaim God is holy, man is sinful, and God sent Christ to die for our sin. We've got to proclaim that gospel. We need to repent and believe the gospel. But the means by which we do it is by love and grace. and we extend this grace toward people around us. We start with people within the church who need to be forgiven, who need to be restored to the community of believers because they have fallen into sin. Now, this doesn't compromise church discipline in the least. Matthew 18 is very clear. There's a very wonderful, clear process, how you deal with sin in church. You all know what it is. We've got it in scripture, Matthew 18, 15 through 19. We've also got it in our church constitution. The first step is an individual confronts another individual privately. The idea is that you solve the problem at the lowest level possible, in secret, in private. You go to the person and say, you know, I'm seeing this in your life. and you confront the person. Now, if the person is guilty of the sin and will not respond, then you have to take two or three witnesses, it ratchets up to the next level, and the person still refuses to receive it, then you elevate it to the level of the church, and if they still refuse to repent, then they have to be dealt with with excommunication. Treat them as tax gatherers and sinners, is what the Bible says to do. This is the process. But it starts down here at the lowest level, where we gently confront at the individual level. We start by spiritual people surrounding the sinner with gentleness and grace. Notice it says spiritual people. You who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. The you who are spiritual in this passage is kind of unclear. Is there a two-tiered system of Christianity where you got the spiritual Christians and the non-spiritual Christians? I don't think that's what Paul's intent to say here is. I don't think he believes in a classed society of believers in the church, but I do think he's emphasizing that this is a place for those believers who have been particularly affected by the ministry of the Holy Spirit to come to the rescue. In every church, there are people who have really, there are certain people who have experienced the grace of God in a special way. Perhaps those who have been through the same kinds of sins and God has rescued them, or perhaps they have known of others and they've been crushed by it, by that sin. And what God has done is he's raised them up to be a huge help in the body of Christ, raised them up as mature believers in Christ. These are the kind of people that you want to be involved in this rescue mission of going after folks who have been left by the wayside. Those who have been caught in a transgression need to have spiritual ones to rescue them. There are various levels of Christian maturity in a church. We can't deny that. While all believers are supposed to be walking in the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit, the three things we talked about last week, I think they're all talking about basically the same thing. They're guided by the Holy Spirit of God. There are some in the church who are more gifted, more capable, more mature in Christ who are able to go after this person. These Christians in particular are to step in and restore the offender with a spirit of gentleness. Some of us tend to be like bulls in china shops. That's the way I've always thought and the Lord has been working on my hard head over the years to try to get a little gentler. What God does is he breaks your heart through knowledge of your own sin. And I sometimes think that the most mature believers are the ones who love Christ most because they have been forgiven the most. This is the kind of person you want going on this rescue mission. These are not the sanctification police of the body, okay? These are the gentle physicians who come in to, using the verb that's used in the Greek here, to carefully set the bones Like a physician would carefully set a bone that's been broken, or to repair the nets that have been broken in fishing, that's another way the word is used in the Bible. Or in the Old Testament, to carefully rebuild the foundations of Jerusalem, that's where this word is used with Ezra. As they came in to rebuild, they carefully reset the foundations, this word is used for restoration. And by the way, the risk in pointing out the sins of others is, guess what? you have the risk of running the risk of doing the same thing yourself. Remember the old adage, when you point a finger at somebody, how many are pointing back at you? Whenever you accuse someone else of another sin, you are at risk of, it's not certain that you will do this, but you're at risk of being someone who commits exactly the same sin. This is why you want mature believers to be on this rescue mission, to bring people back, people who can deal with this kind of thing. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Verse 2 then goes on by elaborating, Paul says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. It amplifies what we just heard in verse 1. Christians are to certainly go after those who have fallen in sin, but verse 2 seems to expand the horizon and go beyond just those who have stumbled in sin. It seems to include all who are carrying burdens. You remember the depiction of Christian in the story of the Pilgrim's Progress? He has this burden on his back in the city of destruction. And the more he learns about his sin as he reads the book, the larger the burden gets. And the more he goes down the pathway, the more convicted he is of his sin, and even larger does it get. There are people who are walking around with huge burdens on their back. that may not have to do with sins. It could be anything that is oppressive, such as guilt, or financial problems, or illnesses. There are many of the fallen conditions that are in our post-Genesis three world, as Al Mohler likes to talk about. We all have fallen conditions that we have to deal with, and that's, by the way, what preachers are supposed to do. They're supposed to identify the fallen condition in the text and identify it with himself and the people with whom he is preaching. We all have burdens that need to be dealt with, and the way they're dealt with is by people in the church coming around us. Here's what the text says here, verse two. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. The amazing thing about dealing with burdens in the church is this actually accomplishes what Christ intended for us to accomplish as a church body. We fulfill the law of Christ when we bear someone else's burdens. Most of us usually, most of the time, almost always, are so overwhelmed with our own burdens, we don't even know that anybody else has any burdens. You know how the story goes. You get so wound up with your life that you're so consumed. The phrase that the gentleman used this morning discussing Thomas Goodwin used the phrase navel-gazing. I think that's a great term. There are a lot of Christians just involved in watching themselves. And as a result, they don't have any idea what's going on in the lives of people around them. They don't know what the burdens are that are around them. Paul understood what it meant to get outside of himself, and so he's trying to tell the Galatians what this is all about. And so he uses this term, the law of Christ. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. So I guess we need to identify what the law of Christ is. It appears only twice in the scriptures. Once here in Galatians 6, and once in 1 Corinthians 9, in verse 20. I'll just read this quick passage and we'll refer back to it. To the Jews, Paul says, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not myself being under the law." After he became a believer, he was no longer required to keep the law of Moses. That I might win those under the law. In other words, I might win Jewish people who hear the message. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law. In other words, he was able to become what was necessary to preach the gospel in terms they could understand. to one outside the law became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ. Here's where the term is used the second time in the New Testament, that I might win those outside the law. So the law of Christ is here. So back in the Old Testament, we had which law? The law of Moses. That's called the Old Covenant. I'm oversimplifying here, but the Old Covenant. And in the New Testament, we have the New Covenant. Jesus is the mediator of this New Covenant, where Moses was of the Old Covenant. And there's been a change that's occurred, a huge change that's occurred. And this is one of the problems in identifying what the law of Christ is. How much is it alike and how much of it is different from the Old Covenant? How do we deal with the differences? How do we deal with the similarities? In the Old Testament, for example, Jeremiah 31, anticipates the coming of the law of Christ with the coming of the new covenant. For this is the covenant, Jeremiah says, quoting the Lord, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer will they teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me. Jeremiah, writing six to 700 years before Christ, is anticipating what's going to happen with the coming of the cross. What's going to happen with the coming of Christ, he's anticipating this huge change in redemptive history from the old to the new. Ezekiel does much the same thing. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, referring to the coming of the new covenant. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you. One of the major changes with the new covenant is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." So what God is doing is giving us advance notice of the change that's about to take place from the law of Moses to the law of Christ. Okay, and we should understand this is what's going on. Now given the transition of the old covenant to the new, the question that we need to ask ourselves about the law of Christ is, How is the law of Christ related to the law of Moses? And this is a question we've been dealing with for many years here at Killeen Bible Church as we believe in New Covenant theology. We understand that there's a significance to the New Covenant coming. Is there total continuity? In other words, is everything the same? Is there total discontinuity? Is everything different, kind of what you would see more in a dispensational-oriented church? Or is there some mix of the two? Is everything the same? Is everything different? Or are there things that are both the same and different? That's the question before us today in this understanding the law of Christ, which we have to understand before we can be submissive to it. Douglas Moo has the best approach I've seen on this, and he has a very simple way of looking at it. He said in his commentary on the book of Galatians, he says, really, there are two general directions of thought. One is that the law is the law of Moses, the law of Christ he's talking about, that the law of Christ is the law of Moses, the Torah, as fulfilled by or interpreted by or focused on Christ. That's one major view. The other view, major view, is the difference view. The law is a law distinct from the law of Moses, either as the love command singled out by Christ, you know, love your neighbor as yourself, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and mind, your neighbor as yourself, the ethical teaching of Christ, the example of Christ, or some combination of these. But the two ways to look at it are basically, is the law of Moses the law of Christ, just embellished a little bit, or has there been a fundamental change? Now, Moo takes the view that despite the use of the word law in the book of Galatians being primarily to the Mosaic law, which it is, he believes very strongly, and also, even given the fact that Paul writes, referring back to children, honor your father and mother in Ephesians, referring back to the Ten Commandments, and And also to the passage in Galatians 5.14 where he says, the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbors yourself. Even though those texts are there, he sees that the second view that the law of Christ is distinct from the law of Moses is the better view. And I'm inclined to agree with him. I do think there's a combination of similarity and difference, but I think the fundamental contrast is more important than the comparison. For him and me, the title, the law of Christ by itself, of Christ, you don't need to know this, but in the Greek there's a genitive case, and it has to do with possession. Of Christ means it belongs to Christ, or it's under the control of Christ. It stems from Christ, or it belongs to him. This genitive of possession, I think it's very important that we've got that phrase there. There is such a thing as the law of Christ. Also, in 1 Corinthians 9, 20, which I just read a moment ago, The law of Christ is contrasted with the law of Moses, side by side. And I'll let you read that on your own when you go home, but when you put them side by side, you see very clearly in 1 Corinthians 9, 20, and 21, that these are two different codes, two different law codes, if you will. There is more difference than there is similarity. I would say that there is similarity, and we need to understand that the entire new covenant is rooted in the old, and that everything in the old points us to the new, and that the new fulfills everything in the old. And so I haven't given up my Old Testament, please understand. And I will not give it up. The Old Testament is necessary for us to understand who Christ is, as he's described in the tabernacle and as he's described in the prophets and the rest of the law. What a blessing it is that we can preach the gospel from the Old Testament. But we don't stop there. We come to Christ. We get to the cross. This is what's very, very important. We need to understand that when we become Christians, we're now under the law of Christ. That's the point of the passage here this morning. Thus, since we are under the law of Christ, we need to bear one another's burdens. Remember what Paul said in Romans chapter 15. I'll just refer to this for sake of time. We who are strong, this is after a whole chapter on disputable matters, you know, people who want to keep the Sabbath day, people who want to eat certain foods. And there's a big discussion in the Roman church, evidently, about this. And Paul's writing to answer the question, do we keep the Old Testament law or do we Or do we go to the new? And he says, there are some items that it is disputable. That is, honest Christians have different views on certain things, such as we do with the Presbyterians. There's no question about that. With anyone in covenant theology, we have honest differences. But we can agree to disagree. where each one be convinced in our own minds. And I would urge you to hear these arguments out very carefully, but come to a decision as to how you're going to do. But in the end, what Paul does at the end of that passage in Romans 14 is he gets to chapter 15, and he's talking about with one voice, glorifying the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the end, we have to come together, and we have to say we worship the same Christ. We who are strong have an obligation, he says in 15.1 of Romans, an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me. What Paul does is he teaches us how to deal with the marginalized in our own body by saying that we've got to bear their burdens for them. In other words, it is my responsibility to go after those who are bearing burdens and assist them in carrying that burden, because that's what Christ did. And Christ demonstrated that by going to the cross. the cross in our behalf. He himself, Peter says it this way, bore our sins in his own body on the tree. This is what we are doing. We're not saving anybody, but we are taking their griefs upon us. We're helping them with their financial difficulties. We're taking that burden upon ourselves. We're helping them through their grief as they go through the loss of, and you could name anything that goes in that blank. When you lose something, it is a horrible experience. Your health, your spouse, whatever the case may be, we help them. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. We're also to deal with every weak thing around us in the body of Christ. That's what Galatians is talking about. Bear one another's burdens. It doesn't limit it to sinful things. It's everything difficult, everything challenging that people go through. So that's regarding our relationship with other people, we're to bear one another's burdens. And then Paul does this huge dynamic 180-degree change of turn as he goes into verse 3. He talks about we're to bear our own load in the second part of this passage, and you stop and shake your head. But when you see what he does, you'll understand what he's trying to accomplish. He closes this with what seems to be a contradiction. If anyone thinks he is something, verse three, when he is nothing, he deceives himself, but let each one test his own work. And then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not his neighbor. He's talking about positive boasting here. What is this all about? For each will have to bear his own load. Paul seems to be saying in this verse that we are to bear our own load just after he said in verse two and three that we are to bear each other's burdens. What's going on? I think it has to do with the change of people, number one, with the people around us versus with ourselves, and number two, with the tense of verb. From the present tense, looking forward to the future. We're to bear each other's burdens in the present tense as we go through this life. But as we deal with ourselves, although we're dealing in the present tense, we're doing it with an anticipation of what's going to happen in the future, because he uses the future tense. And I'll show you that in the text here in just a moment. Romans 12 in verse three, Paul talks about this issue of being kind of self-focused. He says, for by the grace given to me, I say to every one of you not to think of themselves more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. In other words, whereas in the first part of the text, we're concerned about the interests of others, we also have a responsibility to deal with ourselves. We have to have an accurate self-assessment first. A lot of people have a problem with over-inflated self-assessment. I think I can do anything. I'm a macho man, I can do anything. Just bring it on, I can handle it, I'm a big guy. There are other people who have just the opposite problem. They have too low a self-esteem problem. And clearly, they walk around living timid lives. Now, most of our popular psychology is geared toward that. They don't deal with the sin of the pride. They deal with the other one. But nonetheless, these are both issues. We have to have a divine self-image. That means we have to understand the theology of man. I was created in the image of God, I'm a sinner, and I'm only redeemed, I'm only able to live as God intends when God changes my life. We need to have a divine perspective. We're to not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. This is Romans 12, three. Each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. God gives us the ability to understand who we are. And it's very important that we understand who we are. Not an inflated view, not a deflated view, but an accurate understanding of who we are and what gifts and abilities God has given us. We have to do that in order to bear our own load, which is the theme of the second part of this passage. We also have to pay attention to our work in verse four, let each one test his own work. And then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. Okay. As we constantly reevaluate our own ministry, everybody does this. You go through self-examining, we've done this here at KBC. Well, this didn't work, this didn't work, let's try something else here. We reassess and we adjust, and that can be a very healthy thing and a good thing. If it has its proper motivation, and that is conformance to the law of Christ. The failures of others are not my failures, okay? I know that doesn't sound right coming from a Christian pulpit. The failures of others are not my failures. Now we experience the grief of others and we identify with them as they go through grief, but ultimately, who do they have to face for their own sins for eternity? They have to face God. And so when we present the gospel, when we work with Christians who are abusing other Christians as they live their lives, not intentionally perhaps, but they're doing it, and the church is being hurt by this going on. We have to deal with that. We have to deal with that situation, but we as leaders need to understand that ultimately these people are responsible to the Lord. And we need to bring them to the understanding that they've got to deal with God on these things. We can't take credit for the motivations of others, and we cannot take blame for their failures, okay? This will be encouraging to your parents, okay? Because you go through life thinking it's all my fault, or you say it's all my glory that they do well, and we're never settled on that. Kind of just go up and down and up and down. Ultimately, we have to get to the point where we understand that each person has to bear his own load. Now, the word load and the word for burden are different words in the Greek, and there's all kinds of commentary about the difference. In the end, I don't think there's a lick of difference. I think they're talking about the same thing. The first part of the chapter is talking about us helping with people who have pressures in their life. We're trying to deal with them. The second part is we're understanding that we have the pressure on our lives of making sure that we do the tasks that God has given us in conformance with the law of Christ and prepared for eternity. Each one will have to bear his own load. There's coming a day when each one of us will face the judgment seat of Christ, and then we will give an account as believers of how we lived our lives here on this earth. 1 Corinthians 3 tells us about this. It's also in chapter 5. We have this, of 2 Corinthians, we have this tremendous understanding that one day there's going to be an accountability that we and we alone are responsible for. Paul has an interesting comment, 1 Corinthians 4, where he talks about faithfulness. The criteria for a steward of God is that he be found faithful. And what he says here is very interesting. I just need to read this verse. This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. More it is required of stewards, you know what a steward is, that's somebody that you hire to manage your household and you pay them to properly administer your household. This is what they did in the first century. It's required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me." So as he gives the instruction in Galatians about bearing our own load, what he's saying is, I need you to prepare for the future. The verbs back here in Galatians, as I mentioned earlier, and the future tense. Let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone." It's speaking there of the future. It's a future tense verb, will be in himself alone, not in his neighbor. And then it says, for each will have to bear his own load. That verb is also future. Will have to bear his own load in the future. Brothers and sisters, I would encourage you to think healthy thoughts about yourself today. Think biblical thoughts. God has given you a sphere of responsibility, and what is required of you in that sphere of responsibility? Results? Are you supposed to have five conversions a day, and then you're a successful evangelist? Are you supposed to have so many salvations on the mission field and whatever evaluation they're going to use for you? No. Your requirement is one thing only, and that is to be faithful. And as you prepare to meet the Lord, you're not gonna come and impress him with your numbers. You're gonna come before him and say, Lord, everything that happened in my life that's good has happened because of your grace, something you've given to me. And I'm responsible for all the bad stuff. And we come before him needing his grace at that point, and guess what? He gives us that grace. God gives us that grace that we need. So as we sum up this particular text today, we need to have both ideas in mind, the helping of the marginalized around us bearing the burdens of those that God has placed in our path in our church. We have to have the maturity to actively but gently restore these people to the gospel. And may God use this text to cause us all to see where there is need in the body and to help those who are in need. We must be willing, secondly, to share the burden. I'm just reading off of the application, so you know where I'm going with this. We must be willing to share the burden of all who come to us, and there'll be some surprises that come to you at surprising times from surprising people. And may God give us grace to be receptive to those needs as they come, and then give us the ability not only to perceive the need, but to know how to help. How much is enough? How much enables them to be able to become dependent upon the Lord themselves? Thirdly, we need to pay attention to our work. We need to be ready to give account to God. We don't know how much time we have left. It's terrifying preaching a passage like this when you realize how many opportunities you have wasted to be faithful. May God help us in the days we have remaining to faithfully perform the tasks that he has given us to do. And then lastly, right now, we must all of ourselves repent and believe the gospel. If you've never believed the gospel, you don't know what I'm talking about here today. But if you repent and believe the gospel, then you become someone who is able to help those in need. You become someone who is able to be the conduit of the mercies of God as he proclaims his grace to other people. and God will give you the blessing of that faithfulness. He will do that. As we go into the Lord's Supper this morning, let us turn our eyes to the cross and understand who Jesus is, that he went before us in all of these things. He is the one who has taken on himself our burdens, number one, and number two, he gives us the ability to understand ourselves and take responsibility for the tasks that he has given to us. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the gospel this morning. We thank you for the Apostle Paul and for the humbling message he gives us here. Lord, how we have all failed in each of these areas. Father, we thank you that you stand ready to give us your grace. We thank you for the grace of our Lord Jesus. who took on human flesh to be like us so that he might die in our behalf. Thank you for this, Lord. May we be willing to give ourselves so for our brothers and sisters in need in Christ. For it's in Jesus' name we pray.