Thank you Mark and Diane for leading us again. Good morning to everyone. Beautiful fall weather. We praise the Lord for that. Hopefully, we get a couple more weeks before things change. 

We are continuing our study in the book of Galatians this morning, and we've come to the last chapter. I'm beginning to feel a bit sad as we come to the end of our study of this great epistle. I love this book. In my opinion, it along with Romans is perhaps one of the most important letters in the New Testament. I always joke that I'd like to preach on Romans and then go to Galatians and then go back to Romans. That would be my dream. Certainly, all of God's word is wonderful and profitable and important, but this letter has a particularly important message for us in the way of direct application to our Christian lives.

We've seen in our studies and in the flow of the text that Paul's greatest concern is the clear gospel and especially the importance of a clear gospel to our understanding of the Christian life of sanctification. The Judaizers had come after Paul in the region of Galatia to the churches and brought a false message, one of faith plus works, one of grace plus law. This heteros, this different message was troubling the believers, hindering their Christian walk. There were some, many who were still on the straight and narrow, fixed on Christ, walking in the spirit, trusting in God's grace for holy living. But there were also some who had been affected by this false message. 

It wasn't that they had lost their salvation, that this message had somehow hindered their justification, which was completed through faith in Christ. But the law works message was having an impact on their sanctification and also their evangelism and the message that they preached. Paul makes this clear back in chapter two with the incident with Peter. Let's look at that. Galatians two, 11. It says, now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. 

But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you being a Jew live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? The issue here was the effect of the false message on the believer's understanding of the Christian life of sanctification. Paul says that when Peter withdrew himself from the Gentiles, separated himself to the legalistic Jews, and would not eat with the Gentiles, that he and the others were not being straightforward about the gospel. 

That's an interesting statement because it indicates that the problem was not one of justification, how a man is saved, but Paul makes that clear as well. The heart of the letter was concerning an understanding of how the gospel truth guides our understanding of the Christian life. After making the issue of justification abundantly clear in chapter 2 verse 16, Paul continues in the rest of chapter 2 and into chapter 3 speaking of the life that I now live, of righteousness by grace through faith, not by the works of the law. He gives us his summation of the Christian life and his understanding. 

In verse 20 of chapter 2, he says, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Paul is talking here not about positional righteousness and justification, but the life I now live, practical righteousness and sanctification. This comes not through the law, but by grace through faith. 

This is also made clear at the beginning of chapter 3 where Paul says, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Having begun in the Spirit, this is justification. Being made perfect, this is sanctification. 

As we've studied through these chapters, continuing on into chapters 4 and 5, what we see is a continual contrast between the law works life of self-effort and futility, and the grace faith life of fruit produced by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is this context, this flow of thought that brings us to our text this morning in chapter 6 concerning the brother taken in sin. 

Our text this morning is not divorced from this context, nor from the intent of Paul throughout this letter. Although these words may apply to any sin, Paul here in specific instruction to the Galatians has the sin that was currently affecting some believers there in mind, and he appeals to those who are spiritual, walking in the Spirit, living by grace through faith alone in Jesus alone, to restore their brothers, those who were being drawn away to another means of righteousness, and were now surprised, stunned, that what they found themselves in by this pursuit was sin, was the works of the flesh. 

Let's look at our text in Galatians 6 verse 1. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another, for each one shall bear his own load. 

I've given you five points on your outline this morning. First, works versus fruit. Second, overtaken. Third, a spirit of gentleness. Fourth, the law of Christ. And fifth, the sufficiency from God. 

I'd like to begin by setting the context as we've already begun to do, but let's look back to chapter 5 at verse 16. Paul says, I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law, and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

Paul tells us some very important truths in this passage. We see that the way of righteousness is walking by the Spirit, that it is the Holy Spirit living in us who produces the fruit of love as we walk by faith. This is set in contrast to the works of the flesh. The flesh is set in contrast here to the Spirit, and this is consistent throughout the New Testament, specifically in Paul's writings. 

We looked at Romans 8 a couple weeks ago and saw that every believer is in the Spirit. We are not in the flesh. We are led by the Spirit, in the Spirit, and the New Testament admonition in Paul's exhortation here in chapter 5 is this, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

You see, biblical sanctification is defined by this truth. This is who you are because of salvation, because of regeneration, therefore this is how you must live. You are a new man, therefore live like a new man. Ephesians 4 tells us to walk worthy of our calling. These words mean equal weight. Our outward walk should continually be coming into consistency with who we are inwardly. 

So this matter of who we are inwardly becomes a very important doctrine, and we've discussed the many errors in the church concerning the reality of who we are in our heart, in our spirit. As we have a new spirit, a new heart, the Holy Spirit living in us, the life of Christ living out through us. Paul says we were sinners when we were in the flesh. In fact, here in Galatians 5, he says we have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. The old man was crucified, Romans 6:6. In Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4, he says we have, aorist tense, put off the old man with his passions and desires. We have put on the new man, and we are, present tense, being renewed in the spirit of our mind, according to the image of him who created him.

So these truths form the basis of our understanding of why we can live a new life. We are to be being transformed by the renewing of our minds to what God says is true about us in Christ because of regeneration. Our outward walk should be coming into consistency with who we are inwardly by God's grace and power and life in us as we walk by faith. So Paul is contrasting these two ways, these means of living. 

A believer can follow the way of the Judaizers. He can seek holiness through the law-keeping, resulting in bondage to the law, slavery to sin, and the works of the flesh. But Paul says those who are led by the Spirit are no longer under the law. Rather, we must choose God's means for holiness and sanctification, a life by grace through faith, knowing the truths of God's Word concerning who we now are, and reckoning them, counting them up, choosing to believe what God says, and thereby winning the battle of the mind, renewing our minds, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. 

From this Spirit-filled life, walking by faith, knowing, reckoning, and yielding to his life and power in us, we will see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. These are the things that Paul's been teaching us, contrasting law, works living with grace, faith living. The issue is what is manifest out through our members, as Paul describes in Romans 6 to 8. We are not under law, but under grace. We have died to sin and law and death. We now live by grace, producing righteousness and eternal life. 

We are to present our members, the members of our body, our tongues when we speak, our minds when we think, our hands; we are to present them as weapons of righteousness unto God. I think this is the meaning we find in verse 17 of chapter 5 in Galatians when he says, the flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. What is it that will control your physical body? 

Again, Paul says in Romans 6:6, that the old man was crucified with Jesus for this express purpose, that the body controlled by indwelling sin might be rendered powerless. Paul also says in Galatians 2, that if I build the law again in my life for holiness, that which I destroyed in coming to Christ by faith, then I make myself a transgressor. The flesh, this term sarks and its negative connotation as we find it in verse 17, is the physical body, these members, controlled by indwelling sin. This is what we find when we pursue holiness by the works of the law. 

We see the fruit of the flesh. But when we walk by the Spirit, when we choose God's means of grace by faith, his life and power producing the fruit out through our members, then we see love, joy, peace. Against such, there is no law. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

This is the vital context that brings us to our text this morning in Galatians 6:1. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. 

The word overtaken is very important here. It means to be taken unawares, literally to be surprised by a circumstance one didn't see coming. Now this is most instructive for us today. What we see here is that all the believers in Galatia are presented here as having a right and honorable motive and intent. We could contrast this with the church in Corinth, where motive and desire was an issue. But here we see that the heart desire, the intent of the Galatians, was to live a holy life, to bring glory to God, to be useful to his purpose. 

Their motive was pure, but the means that they pursued was the issue. Some of the believers had accepted the teaching of the Judaizers, had believed that the law of Moses was necessary as a rule of life, as a means to holiness, a correction from sin, and thus they had fallen away, as Paul puts it, from grace, from the principle of grace, the faith life, and although their intention was good, their motive was pure, their fervent desire was for a holy life, they thought they could attain it through the law. Much to their surprise, they found themselves in sin, manifesting the works of the flesh. 

I'd like you to listen closely to Weiss' comments on verse 1. It's a bit of a long paragraph and quotes are dangerous, but please pay attention, okay? He writes about Galatians 6:1, this verse is closely connected with the contents of chapter 5, as we just went over. In the latter chapter, two methods of determining conduct and following out that determination with the appropriate action are presented. One is independence upon the Holy Spirit for the supply of both the desire and the power to do the will of God. This method results in a life in which the fruit of the Spirit is evident. The other method is that of putting oneself under law and by self-effort attempting to obey that law. This results in a defeated life full of sin for the law gives neither the desire nor the power to obey it. On the other hand, listen, it uses indwelling sin as a means by which to bring sin into the life, since indwelling sin is aroused to activate rebellion by the very presence of the law. 

Those Galatians who were adopting the latter method in conformity to the teaching of the Judaizers were finding that sin was creeping into their lives. Since they were most earnestly zealous of living a life of victory over sin and in conformity to the ethical teachings of the New Testament, the presence of sin in their lives was a source of surprise to them. They found that sin often appeared in their lives before they were conscious of its presence and at a time when they were not at all conscious of harboring any sinful desire. 

These believers wanted to live a holy life. They wanted to glorify God, but in leaving the spirit-filled life and looking to add law to faith as a rule of life, a means of holiness, they were giving place to the sin that still dwelled in them—the sin that they had died to and were no longer enslaved to—and this overtook them unawares. They were surprised to see sin in their lives. They were trying really hard to keep the law. They were walking by the flesh in the works of the law. 

Now the admonition here to the spiritual, and I want to just stop and define that term; he says, you who are spiritual. Spiritual here refers to those who were presently walking in the Spirit, living by grace through faith. Every believer has the Spirit, is indwelt by the Spirit, is in the Spirit, but not every believer walks by the Spirit, or lives by the Spirit, and this can change at any time. Mark just mentioned to me this morning, Sam walked in with those three little boys, and he said, that reminds me of when we were young, and he said, it was amazing to me how getting ready for church could knock me out of the spirit. 

It can change at any moment, as we see it did for those in Galatia who chose to go back to the law as a way of life. They were no longer spiritual; they were not walking by the spirit. So Paul is saying, those of you who are still walking by the spirit, understanding the gospel of grace, walking by faith, and have not strayed off the path of righteousness by grace to the bondage of the law and sin, you restore your brothers. Get them set back on the right path and way of thinking in a spirit of gentleness regarding yourselves, lest you are tempted. Tempted to think something of yourself, right? Or think that you're better than them because you don't struggle with the sin that they do. 

This is so intensely practical. Paul wants those who are thinking clearly, who are straightforward about the gospel truth, who have shunned the perversion of the Judaizers and continued looking unto Jesus and walking by the spirit through faith, to gently, lovingly go to these brothers and sisters who are living and preaching a law works life and help them back onto the right path, to help them bear their burden, lift them up, get them back to focusing on Jesus and living by grace alone through faith alone. 

Some of you may remember this illustration from years ago, but I think it's so fitting here I'm going to use it again. Many years ago in a different century, I was a young farm boy in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, and my brother and I were friends with a local scout group, a group of men really, and traveled all the way to the very end of the earth up in Ely, Minnesota. We were going to go on a canoe camping and fishing trip in the Boundary Waters. My brother and I were promised it was a fishing trip; it turned out to be a canoeing and backpacking camping trip, but the fishing was good. 

There were 10 of us loaded into a van, and we traveled the 15 hours through the night and came in in the early morning hours to this remote northern town. We rolled out of the van and we went into this little cafe, and the waitress came over to me and she said, what would you like? I said, well I'll have the biscuits and gravy, and she mustered up her best southern drawl and said, you want grits with that too? I didn't know there was a place on earth where they didn't have biscuits and gravy, or apparently grits either. By the way, you can all thank me for biscuits and gravy up here, because when Bobby and I moved up, I talked Denise Thompson over at Tom's Cafe into making biscuits and gravy, and now it's spread far and wide. 

So we were a long way from home, but we had an amazing time, the beauty of God's creation, the fishing was amazing, we went back with many stories, some pictures to share, and one of our friends back home decided he wanted to go with us the next year. His name was Bob, but we were all concerned because Bob was not in the greatest shape, but he exercised, he dieted, he was diligent working out for that next year. He lost 75 pounds and was in the shape of his life when we loaded up the van the next June. 

The first portage was a very steep hill, 90 rods, rocky, a bit treacherous, but Bob did okay; I was impressed. We paddled across the next lake and came to a flat but very long and swampy portage about a half a mile long. Bob loaded his pack on his back in his canoe and took off ahead of us, and about halfway through the portage, I could see a canoe lying off the side of the trail in the swamp. When I got up there, it became apparent that Bob had stumbled and fallen off the path and was lying with his pack on, his canoe sort of off to the side, and had pulled his mosquito head net down and was just lying there breathing heavy. 

I said, you okay, Bob? He said, yep, just resting. So my brother and I hurried to the end of the portage, ran back, picked up Bob, took his burdensome pack, took his canoe, set him on the path, and helped him walk down to the next lake. At the end of that week, Bob sold all of his gear to anyone who would buy it. He burned all of his clothes because they wouldn't fit any of us. He made his son carry the canoe out, and he walked out of those boundary waters carrying nothing and vowed never to go back. 

But you see, Bob was overtaken. He was taken unawares. He stumbled under all that weight and fell off the path, and what he needed was a brother to bear his burden, to pick him up and set him back on the right way. We didn't think any less of Bob. We didn't judge him. We just helped him in a spirit of gentleness and got him back on the right way. 

That's what the believers in Galatia needed, the ones who had been drawn to the false teaching, who were moving away from the gospel of grace as the only way of life, and seeking to find righteousness through the law, which placed a heavy load, a yoke, like that yoke on that canoe, that law placed a heavy load on those believers, on their necks. They needed those who were spiritual to love them, to restore them with gentleness, to point them back to Christ and the spirit life by grace through faith alone, to remove that burden of the law as a rule of life. 

Well, next we see in our text the law of Christ. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ is love, and this love is the fruit of the Spirit. 

It is only those who are spiritual, that is, walking in the Spirit, letting the Word of Christ dwell richly in us—those who walk by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us—only those can fulfill the law of Christ, can love. 

Under the Old Covenant law of Moses, there were many laws, and those under the Old Covenant lived under the bondage to the law. Peter says it was a yoke of bondage that they could not bear. It gave a standard, but no power to keep it. It is in the New Covenant that we experience regeneration and a solution to the sin that dwells in us that dominated and controlled us in Adam. In Christ, under the New Covenant, we have died to sin; we have died to the law; we've been released from the fear of death; and we have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the very power that raised Jesus from the dead, Ephesians 1:19 says, is at work in you, and it is the Spirit that imparts strength to our inner man and produces the fruit of love. 

The command of the New Covenant, the law of Christ, is found in 1 John 3:23 and 24, it says, and this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment. Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him, and by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. 

Fruit, sanctification, love for God and the brethren and the lost come by faith, by believing Jesus. Now in order to believe what God says is true about these things, we must first know them, and thus the importance of knowing the Word of God, the truth, and continually renewing our minds to it, but the real issue is believing. 

Think this through with me, even the loving is a fruit of the Spirit by faith. We don't need more love; the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us; what we need is more believing. The battle is truly in believing, knowing, and reckoning—choosing to believe God and his Word and trusting in his grace alone. 

You see, in the New Covenant, in this grace-faith life, our sufficiency is from God. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 3 with me, 2 Corinthians 3 at verse 1. Paul says, do we begin again to commend ourselves or do we need as some others epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You, the believers, you are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart, and we have such trust through Christ toward God. 

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 

For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels; for if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is more glorious. 

The law engraved on stones was a ministry of condemnation, a ministry of death; the law can only bring wrath, but the ministry of the Spirit is a ministry of righteousness, producing holiness and fruit in our lives. Paul clearly draws a distinction between the Old Covenant law and the New Covenant; he calls the Law of Covenant, that engraved on stones, a ministry of death. He says the New Covenant far exceeds in glory, and the essence of the New Covenant is trust in God, in his sufficient grace through faith. 

Nothing is of ourselves, our works, our law-keeping, but it's all of God, his life, in and through us, by grace, through faith, and we are a living epistle of the transforming power of the gospel of grace, of the new birth, of regeneration, the life and power of Christ in us as we live in him. 

That's why Paul writes in verse 3 of our text, if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another, for each one shall bear his own load. The very essence of our life in Christ is that his grace is sufficient, his life is sufficient, his spirit is sufficient to make me like Christ, to produce his fruit in and through me for his glory. 

I'm not sufficient; I cannot do anything of myself. I'm not better because I don't struggle with a certain sin like my brother does; I have my own issues. This Christian life is one of a branch abiding in the vine, attached to Jesus in union with Him in every way, and all His riches and glory is my resource through faith in Him. To go to law is to go back to the flesh, to yield to indwelling sin, to try to accomplish my own sanctification by works, and it's a dead end, a disappointment, a futility, for Jesus said, without me you can do nothing, and you cannot add law to grace. 

Romans 11:6 Paul says, you destroy grace. You fall from grace when you put yourself under the law. It is His life in us by grace through faith. It is the fruit of the Spirit as we walk by faith. We live by the Spirit, not by the letter. The law has no answers for the Christian life. Jesus is the answer, and it's only through an abiding relationship with Jesus, walking in the Spirit, that we can experience the fruit of love. This is who we are, and this is how we should walk. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the simplicity that is in Christ. Help us to know these things, to continually study them, renew our mind to them, and help us to choose to believe you, and to yield to you and your Spirit in us, and see you produce the fruit of holiness, of righteousness, of love in our lives. Love for you, love for men. Help us to encourage one another, to love one another, and help us to be witnesses to the lost for your glory. In Jesus' name.