Galatians Week 13 • Galatians 5:26-6:5

Show Notes

Sunday, March 29th • Beau Bradberry

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." — Galatians 6:2

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Beau Bradberry

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Well, good morning, Willow Ridge Church.

Glad that each of you could join us from the comfort of your living room as we continue

on in our Galatians series.

I know this week has been crazy for everyone with everything that is going on, but it is

good to know that God gives us the abilities like this to meet together.

So today we celebrate Him.

We celebrate His grace even in these moments of difficulties as we continue studying His

Word.

If you've got your Bible, go ahead and open up to Galatians, the last verse of chapter 5,

verse 26, and we'll start reading from there in just a second.

Paul is concluding his letter to the church.

He's tying everything together and pressing forward into their lives so that they can take

the freedom they have from the gospel and now apply it to every single aspect in their life

that's going to cause the gospel to press forward.

And that's what we see here beginning in verse 26.

So if you join and read with me, Paul writes and says this, he says,

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, let you who are spiritual, sorry, you who are

spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself 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.

Well, as I mentioned earlier, the gospel, our desire, God's desire for us is that the gospel should impact every single aspect of your life.

So everything, from the way that we do our job, from the way that we interact with our neighbors,

from the words that we say, from the TV shows that we watch, everything we do, the gospel should impact it.

But primarily, what we want to focus on this morning is answering this question.

How does the gospel affect your relationships?

Now, typically, when we talk about the gospel, we consider different aspects of relationships.

But in this, what we want to see is, how does the gospel move me from regular relationships to gospel-centered relationships

in every single relationship that I have?

So I'm talking about those who are in my family and those who are not in my family.

I'm talking about how does it affect my close relationships, my close friendships,

and those that I'm just acquaintances with.

How does it affect my relationship with saved people?

And how does it affect my relationship with lost people?

How does the gospel affect the casual relationships of the people that I kind of know,

and my work relationships with the people that I see five days a week?

Because the gospel should not impact some of these.

You see, the truth is that the gospel should impact all of these relationships.

And this is what Paul is addressing.

But before he does that, he approaches it on an individual level.

You see, before Paul can deal with how we are relating to those relationships that God has brought us,

he first says it's going to begin in how we look at ourselves.

Last week, we concluded by reading Galatians 5.25, where Paul says,

if we live by the Spirit, okay, so if we live by the Spirit and not the flesh,

he says let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

So Paul is dealing with the life, he's dealing with the heart of the individual.

Now, what Paul is leading to us with is if we are growing in Christ,

if we are changing in him, then there's an internal change, right, that happens with us

that is going to lead to an external change.

Now, so when the internal change happens and the external change happens,

this begins to change who we are.

You see, that's what the gospel does.

It just doesn't change me internally.

It doesn't just change me externally, but it changes both.

And when both are changed, then I as an individual changes.

And that's when we begin to see the power that transforms our relationships.

So this just isn't an inward perspective.

This isn't just an outward perspective.

But it's when the inward and the outward are combined that we see our relationships transformed.

And so what Paul does, he gives us a relationship warning in verse 26.

And notice the first part of that verse, Paul gives us a warning.

He says, let us not become conceited.

Here, Paul is warning.

He says, look, if we're not careful, what will happen is we will wrestle with a deep insecurity

within ourselves that will lead us to need to prove ourselves, to prove our worth to other people.

Paul says, we're not careful.

We'll find that in our life we're not secure in Christ.

We don't find our worth in him.

And so what we'll need is we'll need to prove our worth to others.

And he said, this is the heart of being conceited.

So let's think about this.

When we are conceited, when that is the positioning of our heart, when that is who we are internally,

that affects who we are externally.

And so what we do is this, we compare.

We ask ourself the question, am I better than him?

Am I better than her?

And when comparisons begin to happen, the sinful tendency that begins to come out of that is one of two outcomes.

We were either going to have an attitude of what Paul points to of provoking and provoking in someone who is sure they are superior to others,

so they look down on them.

Or we begin to see that we have an attitude of envy.

The opposite of that, someone who feels inferior.

So they belittle themselves as they look up to those that they perceive that are better than them.

Do you see what the heart of conceit does when we compare ourselves?

It either makes us feel we're better, so we're belittling, or it makes us feel that we're inferior, so we belittle ourselves.

Both are forms of what Paul says are conceit.

Both feeling superior and feeling inferior.

And they cause us to focus on how others make us feel instead of how we can positively affect others.

And so what Paul wants us to do is to move from this being who we are to moving who we are in Christ.

So moving from a mindset of conceit instead to moving to a mindset of humility.

And that's what we're going to see in our relationships.

That if our relationships are going to be marked by the gospel, then they have to be marked by a true biblical sense of humility.

C.S. Lewis defined humility as this.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself.

It is thinking of yourself less.

Do you see the difference there?

I'm not focused in on myself and so thinking of myself less, but the exact opposite of that, that I think of myself less.

So when we tackle conceit, when we seek to attack that in our life, our focus is not on ourself.

And so our perspective change.

So my perspective is now not that I'm superior.

My perspective is not that I'm inferior.

My perspective instead is that I'm both bold and humble in who I am in Christ.

And so I know these things being both humbled and bold seem like they are conflicting.

But the truth is they're not.

It's this, that I'm humbled because I understand that I'm a sinner who's saved by grace.

Do we see the humility there?

You see, my standing is not based on who I am.

My standing is not based on what I've done.

But instead, my standing is based on who Christ is and what Christ has done.

So I'm humbled by that.

But at the same time, I'm emboldened as well.

You see, I'm emboldened because I understand that I am loved and honored by God.

Do we see the beauty of the picture that happens when the believer is both humbled by God and emboldened by God?

That I'm humbled because I'm a sinner saved by grace, but I'm emboldened because I understand that I am honored and loved by God.

So now the basis for how I see myself is not through my lens, is not through my interpretation, is not through my feelings, is not through how others see me.

It's not even how I want others to see me.

But now I see myself and how God sees me as a saved saint who is both deeply loved and valued by God.

And that's the perspective that we're pushing for.

And when we begin to see ourselves in this way, that we're neither superior or inferior, but yet we are sinners saved by the grace of God who are deeply loved.

Now I am ready to love.

Now I have the perspective and I can begin to press forward into gospel-centered relationships.

And gospel-centered relationships will always be based in the growing others and the application of the gospel for their individual lives.

Remember what we just talked about earlier.

That as I press forward, that I begin to understand that my life is not my own.

And so I begin to think of myself less and in doing so begin to think of others more.

The true basis of humility.

So now the relationships that I have are not based out of what can I get from you, but instead what can I give to you?

Since God has entrusted me with this, since I'm desiring growth in my own life, how can I now live my life in such a way that I'm seeking to see others grow in their life, in their application of the gospel for their individual lives?

So here's what this begins to look like.

In my relationship with my wife, what I now do is I work to see her grow closer to the Lord.

In my relationship with my kids, I work to see them grow closer to the Lord.

In my relationship with coworkers, in my relationship with my family, I work to see them grow closer with the Lord.

Everybody that's already saved, I'm working to help them take the next step of obedience.

I'm working to help them see the fruit of the Spirit, like we talked about last week, come more and more out of them.

I'm working so that they're dying daily to their sins so that they can live for the glory of God.

But as we talked about earlier, it affects all of our relationships.

And this is also our relationship with the lost, so that I'll work to see them also grow closer to the Lord by working toward them beginning a relationship with Him.

So in all of these things, I'm working towards this.

Now, I use the word work intentionally.

And here's why I use the work intentionally.

I'll work to see them grow closer to the Lord because that's simply what it is.

It's hard.

And Paul paints a picture of this in chapter 6.

Let's reread verses 1 and 2.

Paul gives us a scenario, and we see the toil that's in here.

We see the work that's within here.

We see the burden that was within these verses.

He says,

Brothers, if anyone is caught in transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

So Paul brings this uncomfortable experience.

Paul brings this moment that we've seen where there is someone that we love, someone that God has brought into our path, someone that we see.

And the Bible tells us that they're caught.

We literally see like a snare.

They've been entrapped.

They can't remove themselves from something.

And what that something is is sin.

And we've seen people like that.

We know people like that.

We love people like that.

And so we have a burden in that moment to be put to work for the sake of the gospel, for their betterment, so that they can grow in their relationship with Christ.

And so Paul talks with us about what that begins to look like, because this is what a gospel-centered relationship looks like.

It's not that we ignore it, but instead we dive into it.

And so we begin to see and understand is that gospel-centered relationships help one another.

The first thing that Paul paints the picture is that we're called to help in these moments.

Now, if we're not where we should be, if we are operating in an area of conceit, we won't desire to help.

Instead, we'll look down on them, and we won't display the grace that we have experienced in Christ.

Or, if we think they're better than us, right, we'll ignore their sin out of fear that they won't want anything to do with us anymore,

and we'll continue to let them head down a path of destruction.

Tim Keller said this about these moments.

He said, Christians need to be neither quick to criticize nor afraid to confront, but willing to help.

I love that.

Look at the beauty of those words.

That when we see a brother or sister caught in sin, we neither need to be quick to criticize, to judge,

but not afraid at the same time to confront, but that we need to be willing to help.

And so that's what we do.

We help them.

So what does it mean to help someone?

Well, I can tell you what it's not.

It's not trying to fix them.

It's not trying to shame them.

It's not trying to beat them down.

It's not trying to make them feel guilty.

Paul says that in order to help someone, that what we're called to do is we're called to restore them.

I want to talk about this word, restore, really quickly.

It's a word that is used in Paul's day to talk about the setting of a dislocated bone back into place.

Now, I want to tell a little story.

And if some of you have weak stomachs and don't like medical stuff, then this might gross you out a little bit.

But when I was in college, we were playing basketball at a church.

And there was a friend of mine named Seth who played college football at Presbyterian College.

And he was home on the weekend and he was playing basketball with us.

And Seth went up for a layup.

And I'm telling you, no one was around him.

No one touched him.

No one was anywhere close to him.

And as he came down, he just crashed onto the floor.

It's like his legs never touched the ground.

And instead, he just completely collapsed.

And we all ran over there to him.

And we looked down as he was holding his ankle.

And we noticed that his ankle had dislocated and was like sitting on the side of his leg.

Now, apparently, this had happened to Seth before in football.

And so he said, can somebody pick me up?

And we said, yeah, sure.

So we pick him up and we think we're taking him to the emergency room because that would be a normal thing to do.

And he said, take me over by the wall.

I said, okay.

So we took him over by the wall.

And he held his leg back and he kicked it against the wall as hard as he could.

All right, that's the gross part.

But in that moment, we saw his foot go right back in place.

And I looked at him and said, man, why in the world would you do that?

Didn't that hurt?

And he said, yeah, it hurt.

And it hurt really bad.

But if I ignored it, it would be catastrophic.

You see, when we're willing to help someone, that's what we're doing.

It may be difficult, it may be hard, but it's catastrophic if it's not dealt with.

So we restore, we help, we work toward this, but we restore in what Paul says through gentleness.

Here's what it means to be gentle in this moment.

That we don't think that we're better than they are.

And that we understand that we're capable of sinning equally as well.

Maybe our sin that we struggle with is different, but we understand that all sin is offensive to God.

That all sin offends his holiness.

And so when we confront in gentleness, we maybe not have that struggle.

We've maybe never made that decision in our life, but we approach it with gentleness

because we understand, right, that we're not better than them.

Let's read verse 1.

Paul says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Notice this.

Keep watch on yourself, Paul says, lest you too be tempted.

You see, you and I, we can't help someone with their sin if we don't understand our own sinful capabilities.

Because we have that tendency as well.

We could be on the other end of that.

And what we'll find all too often in our lives is that we are on the other side of that.

And if people love us the way that God loves us, then they'll be willing to confront in those moments to restore us as well.

And so it's work.

It's hard work.

It's painful work.

It's uncomfortable work.

But it's the work that God calls us to.

So the gospel-centered relationships help one another, but also gospel-centered relationships, Paul says, they bear with one another.

And so when we bear with one another, what we're willing to do is we're willing to press through the difficulty.

When we bear with one another, we're willing to work for each other's betterment.

When we bear with one another, we're willing to confront sin.

When we bear with one another, we're seeking to restore each other.

And it's what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.

It's what we desire for ourselves.

It's what we want others to do for us.

We don't want to be left.

We don't want to be stranded.

And so we seek to do the exact same things.

That's why Paul writes in verse 2, bear one another's burden.

And so, look at this, underline it in your Bible, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Paul is sharing what Jesus shared with the disciples in John 13, 34 through 35, where Jesus gives a commandment.

And he says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you.

You also are to love one another.

By this, all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

So let's think about this.

How did Jesus love us?

What does that look like?

What do we experience when we experience the love of Christ?

Jesus loved us by bearing us, by bearing our burdens, and bearing them all the way to the cross.

You see, we can't love people the way that Jesus loved us if we give up on them when things get messy.

We can't love people the way that Jesus loved us if we aren't willing to get into the fire with them.

We can't love people the way that Jesus loved us if we aren't willing to be vulnerable about where we are in our journey and the struggles that we are having.

We can't love people the way that Jesus loved us if we don't meet them right where they are.

And so we bear with, we come alongside, we hold each other up, we encourage each other, we confront, we do all of those things as we seek to press forward in our relationship with him.

But the only way this happens, church, is it has to begin here.

It has to begin internally with who we are.

It has to be manifest externally through the things that we do as we live in a way where we understand that we are simply sinners saved by grace who are now saints that are loved and valued by God.

Would you pray with me?

God, help us understand the impact of the gospel on our life.

Lord, help us see what you long for and what you desire for us.

Lord, as your word tells us, as we are ministers of reconciliation, reconciling people back to you.

Lord, we have to be done in a simple sense of boldness and humility.

You do humility because of who we are in Christ.

But boldness because of who we are in Christ as well.

So Lord, may we be willing to do the work that you've laid before us.

Lord, may we count it a blessing, the men and women that you've placed into our lives, the individuals who are there.

Lord, may we count all the people that we work with.

Lord, all of our neighbors, all of our family as a blessing.

Lord, may we count all the people that you've chosen us to strategically be in their lives for the glory of the gospel.

So Lord, may we go and may we live this way, loving people the way that you loved us.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

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