Lord, I thank you for your incredible kindness in knowing that there was a part of the way that you made us that was meant to sing your praises. Lord, you put something in our souls when you made us in your image, a desire there to praise and to worship. And Lord, by grace, through the work of your Spirit, we know as your people that the thing that we were created, that we were made, that our deepest desire finds fulfillment in, is worshiping you. 10,000 reasons to praise your name, to rejoice in you. Lord, I pray right now that you would remind us again through the preaching of your word, your word, your revelation to us of new reasons. Help us to see them clearly. Lord, we want to sing with full hearts. We want to lift up our cup and ask to be filled when we gather corporately. Lord, we want to do that in knowledge. And your word imparts knowledge to us. So Lord, I ask through the power of your Spirit, the word would be effective now. It would change our hearts. It would take us deeper into the glories of Calvary. We want to see Jesus clearly. We want to glorify you. So do that this morning now for your name, Jesus, for your glory. Amen.
Well, it's always good to read in context, right? You always want to read your Bible. You never want to take a verse out of context and pretend it just floats around there by itself. You always want to consider what the verses around it are, what they have to say, how they help us to better understand the text we're in. So this morning, we're going to be looking specifically at chapter 5, verse 25 to 6:5. But before I do that, I want to draw us back a little bit further and start at 5:16. That's what we looked at the previous week. That's what the previous week's message was on, and that helps us to fill out the context of this morning.
So beginning in verse 16 of chapter 5, this is what Paul writes: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other. To keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit— this is today's text now— If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Brothers, 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. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, even 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.
We looked last week at the nature of sanctification, the nature of gospel sanctification, the implication that as we are justified by faith, and so we bring nothing to our standing before God, He graciously saves us. We believe in the work of Christ on our behalf. He counts us righteous in Christ. And because of that, by faith, we now seek to change. God empowers that sanctifying work. If we were to stop at last week's text, we might have the mistaken impression though that that is an individual task. And we see this morning the connection between these two passages. Paul is helping us to see the nature, importance, and significance of community for the process of sanctification. He's calling our attention to what it looks like to be a community in step with the Spirit. That's what we're going to consider this morning. What does it look to be a church? To be a body of believers? Walking hand in hand with each other and fully under the influence of the Spirit. So that's our task.
We're gonna look at several different things that should mark and distinguish a community that is in step with the Spirit. Now, as believers, Paul has shown us we owe our faith to the regenerative work of the Spirit. If we live by the Spirit is a rhetorical question. Of course we live by the Spirit. There's no other possible way for new life to have started. The dead don't resuscitate and resurrect themselves. So since we live by the Spirit, we should keep in step with the Spirit, Paul says. The implication has to happen. You have been made alive in the Spirit, and so since the Spirit gave you life, now continue to walk in the Spirit. Or with a bit more edge to it, like he says in Galatians 3, Verse 3: 'Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?' The Spirit that gave you life, are you gonna leave that behind and now try and do it all in your own strength? You don't need the Spirit any longer? That's craziness, he says. That's foolishness. As believers, we're called to continue the Christian life the same way we began it, under the influence of the Spirit. So the call to keep in step with the Spirit, to walk by it, is the call to continually and habitually place ourselves under the Spirit's influence. And the reason for that is simple. The nature of the battle against the flesh that we looked at last week, that verses 16 to 24 describes, is constant. The flesh doesn't take days off. So must our vigilance to come under the Spirit's sway be consistent, be a pursuit that we take every day. But what we made only passing reference to last week, I want to make abundantly clear this week. It's impossible to do that— remember last week we talked about the call to crucify the flesh and to cultivate righteousness, to walk by the Spirit? All of those things we talked about last week are absolutely true. They are biblical. They are inspired. That's God's revelation to us, His will for us. My will for you is that you would mortify the flesh. You would put to death sin in your life. My will for you is that you would cultivate righteousness. You seek to put on righteousness and good works, grow into holiness to reflect Jesus, and that you do all of this in the power of the Spirit. And now we see this morning that as all of those things are God's will for us, it's impossible to do them alone. We need community. Notice the language. 'If we,' he begins in verse 25. If we live by the Spirit. If we live by the Spirit, then you alone continue in the Spirit. No. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. The individual saving work of the Spirit is meant to be carried out in the context of community, which is to say, it's meant to be carried out in the context of a local church. And when we fail to realize the call to walk in step with the Spirit in community, serious troubles await. Consider this quote by Francis Schaeffer: 'The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism Nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. Nor, I would add today, postmodernism or materialistic consumerism or visceral sensualism. Lots of isms. Or whatever. All these are dangerous, but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord's work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem, problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in circumstances surrounding them.'
That's a very wise statement. What's most dangerous to the church It's not the fallenness of the world surrounding us. It's the wolves who might infiltrate us, or the tendency of the people of God to seek to advance the kingdom, to proclaim the gospel, and do all those things in their own strength and not in the power and strength of the Spirit. So we want to fill that out this morning. What are the characteristics of a community that is in step with the Spirit? What are the characteristics, the things that— the defining traits that we should see marked by such a community that we see in this text this morning?
6 · Chris expounds the first characteristic of a Spirit-led community from the text: it resists conceit
Well, first, a community in step with the Spirit resists conceit. It resists conceit. This is actually the first example Paul gives of what a community in step with the Spirit should look like. In verse 26, he writes, after he's just said, keep in step with the Spirit, Walk in the Spirit. Let us, so in other words, here's an implication, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
7 · Chris unpacks the meaning of 'conceit' by noting its rarity in the New Testament and identifying its parallel in Philippians 2:3, concluding that Paul is targeting pride—the force that destroys community unity
Now the term conceit appears only here in all the New Testament. This is the only place that this Greek word exists in the whole New Testament canon. So what exactly does Paul mean by it? Well, that term has a kissing cousin. In Philippians 2. It's a derivative term that Paul uses in Philippians 2:3, and he writes this: 'Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.' So there also, Paul is instructing a community in how it should live life together in light of the cross. Remember, there's even some women in this community in Philippi who are being divisive, and there's dissension that's taking place, and it's pulling apart at the seams of the community. Encouraging them to live in the unity of the Gospel. And he points out to them that part of the problem is there's a community here out of step with the Spirit because there's selfish ambition and conceit that's happening. Simply put, Paul had in mind here pride. Pride is what he has in his crosshairs.
8 · Chris applies the exposition directly: believers walking in the Spirit must intentionally put pride to death and cultivate humility
When we believers walk together in the Spirit, we work intentionally to put pride to death, and to cultivate humility.
9 · Chris expounds how pride functions interpersonally—it provokes others, stirs up bitterness, retards unity, and renders the conceited person incapable of rejoicing in others' success
One of the things Paul draws our attention to is the way that pride produces discord. That's one of the dangers of conceit, of pride. It doesn't just afflict the prideful person. The prideful person begins to afflict those around him. And Paul begins to show us. Pride provokes people. The conceited person is someone who in their conceit is constantly tempting others to respond in kind. You've experienced that, haven't you? You get around an arrogant person and it's just like, 'Man, I'm now tempted to mirror your arrogance.' The strange thing about the sin of pride, when we're around them, we may reflect their conceit. Or we withdraw from relationship. A conceited person begins to battle for superiority. The sense of provoking actually carries this idea of challenging someone to combat. You're essentially throwing down the gauntlet when you're a conceited person. That's the word provoke means. That's what a prideful person does. They provoke people. They're constantly calling people Duel with me. Put up your dukes. Let's go. Put your pride against mine. Let's see who can win. Pride is irritating and aggravating. It gets under the skin of people. It prods people towards anger and frustration. Pride is lethal to community. Pride is lethal to the church because it retards unity and stirs up bitterness. A conceited person is incapable of rejoicing in the success and the happiness of others. You realize that? Someone who's conceited has a really hard time being happy seeing someone else flourish. It envies their good fortune, secretly rejoices in their failures. Ever been tempted like that? I have. In my pride, seeing someone else fall or fail, and a really dark part of my heart being sort of happy about it. That's evidence of pride.
10 · Chris expounds Galatians 6:3-4, resolving the apparent contradiction between Paul's call to 'boast in oneself' and his later boasting only in the cross
That's the point of verses 3 to 4. 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. Now that's sort of a funny verse, especially when we consider what comes after it, where Paul is going to say, the only thing I boast in is the cross. Here he's saying you should boast in yourself and not in your neighbor. Doesn't that seem to be saying be prideful? No, this is what Paul is saying. He's not saying you boast in yourselves in the sense of take pride in yourselves. He's not promoting pride. He's not speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He's not calling us to be braggers about our own accomplishments rather than highlighting the successes of others. What he's doing is saying this: the prideful person deludes themselves into thinking they are more important than they are. In our conceit, we prop ourselves up. We convince ourselves, 'I'm sort of a big deal.' And you want others to see that as well. Paul brings us back to earth. 'You think you're something,' he says. But you're delusional. In order to prop up the delusion of your significance, you concern yourself with others, which is to say, you pay attention to their shortcomings. You keep a list of all their deficiencies, all of their inabilities, all of their sins. And by doing that, tucking away that list in the back of your mind, You're able to highlight the brother's deficiency and continue the conceited illusion that I am better than I actually am.
11 · Chris uses a personal story about playing baseball with his 3-year-old son to illustrate the absurdity of the conceited person's strategy—comparing himself to weaker people to sustain the illusion of superiority
Sort of like playing baseball with my son Case. He's 3 years old. He's actually not bad at hitting the baseball. He's getting better. And when I can convince him not to have a temper tantrum when he misses a couple times in a row, It's fun to do. But the purpose of me playing baseball with Case is not to compare myself to a 3-year-old and think, you know, I really do have a pretty sweet swing. I can hit the ball much farther than he can. I'm much more efficient at throwing strikes, and I can actually catch it with one hand. That's foolishness, right? That's what Paul is saying here. That's what the conceited person does. He walks around trying to find the person that he can say, 'Oh, you? You're right here. Me? I'm up here.' He's trying to find deficiencies in others that will highlight areas where he seems to excel. If the prideful person can't find people he can exceed, he'll recede into the background of the community. Does that make sense? If the prideful person can't find people that he can prove he's more excellent than, in other words, people he can provoke and aggravate, that prideful person will then resort to pulling away from community. I had better withdraw.
12 · Chris establishes the second characteristic of a Spirit-led community: it discerns the danger of isolation
And that highlights well the next mark of a community that's in step with the Spirit. A community in step with the Spirit resists conceit, and it also discerns the danger of isolation. A community walking in step with the Spirit, a community walking under the influence of the Spirit, discerns that there is a very dangerous thing about being an isolated person, about being overly individualistic. Conceited, divisive, envious people don't do well in community. They tend to either seek to dominate others, or if they can't do that, they start to pull away from others. People who feel no obligation to help to help those in sin, in difficulty, they pursue a life of exquisite isolation. They might even rejoice in being a loner, celebrate the fact that they're just more of a person who likes to be away from everyone. It's just simply an expression of pride. The bottom line Paul is showing us is that we need each other. Living in isolation from each other is an incredibly dangerous thing to do. You live in isolation and you are living fundamentally, Paul is saying, in a place where the flesh is meant to flourish. And those in step with the Spirit recognize the need for help. They are wary of the peril that accompanies relational distance. Scripture consistently highlights our need for biblical fellowship and the terrible consequences of avoiding it. Here's just a small sampling. Hebrews 10:24, 'And let us,' you hear the ring of community there, 'let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.' The benefits of living life together. 'Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.' Ecclesiastes 4:9: Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Proverbs 27:17: Iron sharpens iron. Iron, and one man sharpens another. You want to be at risk of falling and unable to rise again? In other words, succumbing to some piece of the flesh and being consumed by it? Walk in isolation. Disregard the importance of fellowship. You want to be slow to be stirred up to love and good works? Neglect meeting together. You want to have very little encouragement in your life? Think of your fellow believers as optional relationships. You want to be a dull sword for God's purposes? Avoid your brother who as iron can sharpen you. Being in step with the Spirit means having a mind that says, 'I desire to build community. We desire to build community. We desire to draw near to each other.' And it's not the neglect of meeting together, this is the habit of some. We don't want to neglect these things because we see the benefits of them. So it's this, it's saying Sunday mornings, those aren't just duty, they're opportunity. There's joy to be had in gathering corporately on a Sunday morning and sitting next to my brothers and sisters in Christ. There's joy to be had in singing the Gospel together. Being encouraged, right? There's joy to be had in the way the Spirit flourishes in a room full of believers joining their hearts together in prayer. There's help and encouragement and sanctification and conviction and growth and greater affection for Christ to be found in sitting together as a community under the word of God preached. It means care groups aren't an insignificant thing. A lot of those things mentioned in Hebrews 10 can really only happen in smaller groups of believers. That stirring up, it happens in a sense corporately, but it really happens in smaller groups where you can get together and you can encourage and exhort. I was reading a message by Piper several months ago, and he looked at that passage and said just that. When we look at this text in Hebrews 10, we have to consider it is most likely that the writer of this letter thinks and has in mind small gatherings of believers for the purpose of fellowship, because the things he calls us to would happen best in those small meetings. When we fail to prioritize corporate worship, and small personal gatherings for the purpose of fellowship, we're cutting ourselves off from help and encouragement, the motivation to love and holiness. And we receive less of the Spirit. Now, we have the Spirit in Christ. We are indwelt with the Spirit. The Spirit seals us. We have union with Christ because of the Spirit. But Paul promises, right? And he calls us in Ephesians, 'Be filled continually with the Spirit,' right? You have the Spirit, but you could have more of the Spirit. And one of the ways in which we pursue and have more of the Spirit is to gather together, to recognize, 'I need others around me.' That the Spirit flourishes when many people indwelt by the Spirit are gathered together. God takes joy in pouring out more of the Spirit upon a gathering just like this. The Spirit is present when God's people gather, and only a fool avoids that.
13 · Chris contrasts the poor believer in Burma—who cannot insulate himself from relational need—with the affluent American believer who uses technology, leisure, and affluence to construct walls of isolation
We have the means, the schedules, the money to create complex barriers to community, to build very nice-looking fancy walls of isolation. The poor believer in Burma, by contrast, doesn't have a TV. Certainly no TV, doesn't have cable. He can't numb himself to the tragedy of isolation. He has no car to make travel easy. He can't drive off, drive away from problems. He lacks the means or opportunity to pursue entertainment and leisure on a grand scale. But in his hardships that he knows, and his inability to insulate him from the harshness of life in a fallen world, he's also keenly aware of his need for others. There are aspects of our lives in Johnson County, in America, that allow us, unfortunately, to insulate ourselves from the danger of isolation. In modern America, we have endless opportunities, we have busy schedules, we have few financial restrictions, and we have access to information and places and people unheard of in previous generations. And many of us, with all of that access, are more isolated than ever. We convince ourselves that physical proximity to a person while staring at a screen is relationship building. I'm next to somebody, maybe got my arm around her. We convince ourselves that virtual friends and status updates and tweets, all of which I do, are legitimate ways to have relational intimacy. For all of our affluence and access and dedicated time for leisure, and we have lots of dedicated time for leisure, we are more isolated than ever, and this is very dangerous.
14 · Chris establishes the third characteristic of a Spirit-led community: it restores sinners gently
The isolated person doesn't feel the love of community, and the community doesn't feel the love of the isolated person. A community in step with the Spirit recognizes our hardwired need for deep, substantive, vulnerable, and intentional fellowship with other believers. And the member of those communities, the members of those communities are vigilant to protect and promote and prioritize gathering together, even when it gets messy, even when the prioritizing of gathering together begins to get a little uncomfortable and hits a little close to home. Hence, 6:1: Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself. Keep watch, lest you too be tempted. A community in step with the Spirit restores sinners gently. A community that walks in step with the Spirit has an awareness of the nature of sin, an awareness of the way the community needs to respond to sin, and also an awareness that as the community in its calling to respond to sin in the lives of individual believers, that it needs to do that in love. In a spirit of graciousness. It needs to restore gently. The great danger of isolation is that it cuts us off from help when we need it most. When you keep people at arm's length, you're keeping grace at arm's length. You're keeping a means of grace, other believers, at arm's length. God has designed us to need each other. He's ordained that His Spirit is stirred up in community, that it's poured out freshly and in greater power when we gather. And so we isolate ourselves at our own peril. Consider the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic Life Together: 'The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In confession, the light of the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light. The unexpressed must be openly spoken and acknowledged. All that is secret and hidden is made manifest. It is hard to struggle until the sin is openly admitted. But God breaks gates of brass and bars of iron.' He highlights there the danger of isolation. He highlights the need for sin to be pummeled in community. The need for sin to be confessed because sin flourishes in the dark. It grows stronger. Its power flourishes. Its hooks sink deeper. Deeper.
15 · Chris reinforces the call to confession by citing James 5:16 and Hebrews 3:12-15, establishing that sin's deceitfulness hardens the heart and increases the danger of apostasy
James 5:16 calls us to the clear task of confessing our sins to each other. And the reason is simple. In confession, the grace of the gospel in community is brought to bear. The delusions of the flesh are exposed. Your sin deceives you into thinking it's not so bad or that there's really enjoyment there or that you're flourishing in some way that you're not, and when confession happens, community is able to say, 'Do you realize how foolish that is? How silly that is? Do you see how it's hurting this person? Do you see how it's hurting you? Do you see how your joy in Christ is diminished because of this activity, this disposition of the heart, this attitude?' It's exposed in confession. Every sin that remains in darkness carries the potential to blacken the heart, carries the danger of falling away. As the body, it's our task to assist each other in putting to death the flesh. Hebrews is a book devoted to warning after warning, lobbied about the dangers of falling away, and the summons on the other side of considering Jesus. Don't fall away! Don't harden your heart. And likewise, consider Jesus. Do all these things that you might consider Jesus, that you might see Him more clearly. This is what he says in Hebrews 3:12: Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Every sin that remains in darkness can blacken your heart, increases the danger of apostasy. And the remedy that Hebrews gives us, that Paul gives us in Galatians, that the New Testament constantly and consistently highlights for us, the remedy is for the body of Christ to exhort and to counsel and to get dirty together to ensure that none are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
16 · Chris applies the exposition directly: when a brother is caught in sin, the loving, Spirit-filled action is to get involved
When a fellow brother is caught in transgression, the loving, courageous, Spirit-filled action is to get involved. Love doesn't allow a friend to flounder in sin. The sense of being caught carries the idea that often our sin catches us unawares. It sneaks up on us. It assaults us when we least expect it. And what we need in those situations is a gracious believer who restores us gently.
17 · Chris illustrates the two modes of love—comfort and confrontation—through a personal story about his college football coach, who told the team that love sometimes looks like a hug and sometimes like a kick in the butt
My football coach in college consistently told us he loved us, and he was always quick to add, 'Sometimes my love's gonna look like a hug, and sometimes my love will be a kick in the butt.' And that wasn't to say it wasn't gentle or gracious. That was to say he recognized sometimes love means and recognizes this individual needs comfort. And sometimes love sees and realizes and recognizes this individual is walking towards danger. I'm going to grab them by the collar graciously and gently and walk them back to the path. That's what love does. It calls us to have the hard conversation. Love doesn't allow others to remain ensnared in sin.
18 · Chris expounds the cultural lie that love doesn't confront, contrasting it with the biblical truth that sin is like a trap—love doesn't see someone caught and not intervene
Our culture's delusions about tolerance bombard us with the concept that love doesn't confront. That's not a loving thing to do. It's not loving to confront someone. It's not loving to say that what they're doing is wrong. It's not loving to call all that sin. That would presume to judge them, wouldn't it? This is built on a neutered, unbiblical vision of sin. When someone is caught in sin, they're like a rabbit with their foot in a trap. And if you've ever seen a trap— my babysitter when I was young had traps in their stairway into the basement. He was a trapper. And I was just, I would look at them when I was little and just sometimes get the courage to reach out and touch them and run my finger along the rusty jagged edge. They were nasty things. Not a pleasant thing for an animal to get its leg caught in a trap. Love doesn't see a brother or sister caught and ensnared by sin. And not say, 'I want to intervene.' Gently restore. Gently pull the trap apart. Restoring gently, though, is the key. If you don't restore gently, you risk driving a person deeper into sin.
19 · Chris illustrates the danger of ungracious confrontation through a personal story from his high school years
I experienced this in high school. I was the conceited, arrogant, typical, probably 17 at the time, 17-year-old. We were sitting after a basketball game. Details are a little foggy. What I do remember is one of my best friends was in conversation with us and he walked away, and another girl who was a friend of ours who who we know sort of had a crush on him, said something to try and get his attention or to say something of effect to keep him there in the conversation. I don't even remember what I said, but I just remember the sense of guilt and shame afterwards because I said something incredibly cutting to her, and I just tore into her. And it was one of those examples of just being caught. I remember even a minute later being ashamed. Where did that come from? But in my pride, refusing to admit that I had done anything, pretending like I was just fine and having ripped her heart out in front of a bunch of people and humiliating her. Well, the next morning at Phillips 66 full-service gas station, we will fill up your tank and wash your windows, I was working with my buddy Jared. Jared was a believer. And, you know, we're 17, so we're immature. He was affected and convicted and offended by what I had said to that young lady. I didn't have the maturity to initiate repentance, and he didn't have the maturity to restore gently. And so he showed up at 7 AM and just came guns blazing, blasting away at my sin. And I was already convicted it was sin, but in response to his blasting away, how do you think I responded? I got defensive. I got angry. I yelled back. We spent, we had to work 10 hours together that day. It was the most awkward, horrible 10 hours you've ever seen. I was convinced I couldn't stand Jerry by the end of the day. I don't ever want to talk to him again. I had been thinking, I need to call her and apologize and repent to her that night before. By the end of the workday, all I wanted to do was take all my anger out on Jared. I was just sinning more. Jared had meant well, but he hadn't restored gently, and it just drew out more sin from me. That doesn't mean it was Jared's fault. I was still sinning, but he wasn't helping me in that situation. We need to restore gently. Gently. That doesn't guarantee that the one you restore and help to walk out of sin will respond correctly. That responsibility rests with the individual.
20 · Chris expounds the balance between communal and individual responsibility in Galatians 6:4-5
And there's a balance in this text between the community and the individual. If you look in verses 4 and 5, '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 one will have to bear his own load.' The call to bear his own load is in the context of Paul saying we have to bear one another's burdens. So what does he mean? I think here he's saying there is a community task at hand. There is a community way to walk in the Spirit. And we need to restore each other gently. We're going to see in a second we need to bear burdens. But let's not forget that because the community has responsibilities, that that absolves in some way the individual from the ultimate responsibility. We need to restore gently. The community has a task to play in sanctification. In walking in the Spirit and helping someone trapped in sin to see it and to grow and to walk away from it. The individual is also ultimately responsible.
21 · Chris cites Matthew 18:15 to show that if we restore gently and graciously, we may gain our brother—graciousness in confrontation is critical to its effectiveness
If we do it gently, if we do it graciously, we might see Matthew 18:15, that if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. And if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. There's a sense of graciousness in that exhortation that we can't forget.
22 · Chris establishes the fourth characteristic of a Spirit-led community: it bears burdens
Community in walk, in step with the Spirit, restores sinners gently, and as I was just alluding to, it also bears burdens. This is verse 2. Paul says, immediately after saying we're meant to restore those gently caught in transgressions and keep watch over ourselves, lest we become arrogant, like my friend did in his confrontation. We must bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. A community in step with the Spirit doesn't just confront sin, it also comforts the afflicted. If the Spirit drives out conceit and pride and divisiveness, on the flip side, it stirs up care for others. The flesh promotes selfishness, but the Spirit fosters selflessness that looks to the needs of others.
23 · Chris expounds the reality that all believers walk with a limp—we all live in a fallen world, we all continue sinning, and we all have seasons when our limp is more pronounced
Here's the reality: there's not a person in this room who doesn't walk with a limp. You might not feel gimpy, but you are. Now, some people have more pronounced limps than others, but we all walk with a limp because we all walk in this fallen world and And we are all sinners saved by grace. We are all saints who continue sinning. And so we all limp. Until Christ returns and grants us resurrection bodies, we will keep on limping. Now, some days we need crutches our limp is so bad. Other days we can almost mask it to look like we're okay. But we all limp. We all have seasons when those limps are more pronounced. When we see a fellow believer dragging their limp, leg. The Spirit calls us to come alongside and to give assistance, and it will undoubtedly require sacrifice on your part. In the flesh, in the flesh, that sacrifice is going to seem hard, or you could say better, In the flesh, that sacrifice will seem inconvenient. In the spirit, that sacrifice will look like an opportunity. There's still sacrifice, but in the spirit it looks like it's an opportunity.
24 · Chris transitions to the story of David and Jonathan to illustrate the beauty of bearing burdens
And we see this beautifully in the story of David and Jonathan.
25 · Chris narrates the story of Jonathan and David from 1 Samuel 23:15-18, highlighting Jonathan's selfless, sacrificial act of encouraging David at great personal risk
Remember their story? David, the Lord's anointed, The undistinguished youngest son of Jesse, the one out with the sheep. Father doesn't even think he's worthy of being seen by the prophet and considered for anointing, but he's God's man. And so God anoints him to be the next king of Israel, even though he's not the king's son. Now, if there's ever a relationship that seems like it's set up for a lot of enmity and strife and bitterness, it would be the relationship of David with the king's son, right? Jonathan, the one who should get the throne, shouldn't he have a lot of reason to despise David? Absolutely. If Jonathan was a conceited individual, we'd be in trouble. If Jonathan was like his father Saul, the story wouldn't be pretty. But Jonathan is not. In 1 Samuel 23:15, as Saul is seeking to hunt down David and put him to death, we read this: David saw that Saul had come to seek his life. So David was in the wilderness of Ziph in Horesh, and Jonathan, the one who should get the throne according to man's rules, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh. And at that point you pause and think, what's he gonna do? Is he gonna kill the one to get the throne? No. He strengthened David's hand in God, and he said to David, 'Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.' The two of them made a covenant before the Lord. It's a remarkable remarkable example of someone coming alongside a brother and bearing burden at significant sacrifice to himself. Saul is insane at this point in the story. He's crazy. He's heaving spears across the throne room at people that rub him the wrong way. There's nothing to say or assume that Saul, if he found out Jonathan had done this, wouldn't put Jonathan to death. He's seeking out a rebel on the run, hiding out in caves. He's seeking someone the state has said should be put to death, and he goes at great cost to himself, not thinking, 'This is inconvenient that I have to go seek David out,' thinking, 'At great sacrifice to myself, I have an opportunity to bear the burdens of my brother.' He goes and he encourages David. He speaks truth to David's soul. He reminds David of God's promises.
26 · Chris applies the Jonathan illustration directly: he prays that Providence would be filled with Jonathans who notice evidences of grace, encourage people, and bear burdens in all their forms—praying, assisting, visiting, and showing hospitality
I pray that Providence would be filled with Jonathans, not Sauls. Purpose tomorrow: to notice evidences of grace. To see the fruits and gifts of the Spirit and to inform those around you about the grace in their lives. Notice. Take note. Do the hard work of seeing it. Walk alongside and encourage people. Commit yourself to find those and see those and pause long enough to notice those who are struggling and then to respond to their struggle with encouragement, to bring gentle accountability when you perceive sin. There is a bearing of burdens here in this context that is connected to the hearing of confession and the helping of a brother caught in sin. Bearing burdens has many forms: praying for the sick, assisting those in financial hardship, visiting and showing hospitality to the lonely. Whatever the opportunity or context, bearing burdens is an expression of the Spirit's influence and fulfills the law of Christ.
27 · Chris establishes that the law of Christ—love God and love your neighbor—is fulfilled when the Spirit flourishes in a community
The law and commands of Scripture find their fulfillment and their goal, their telos biblically, in Christ. And in Christ we see perfect love on display. Galatians 5:13: For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. As Knox Chamblain wrote, 'The Spirit does not take His pupils beyond the cross, but ever more deeply into it.' When the Spirit flourishes in a body of believers, the law of Christ— remember we talked previously that the law of Christ is the call to love God and love your neighbor, and in so doing fulfill the moral callings of Scripture? The Spirit calls the body of the believers. When the Spirit is flourishing in a body of believers, the law of Christ flourishes. There are constant barriers to love. There are constant hazards to faith in a fallen world. We get trapped in the mire. We get cast down by cares. We get lulled to sleep by the temptations of this world. God doesn't call us to suck it up in isolation. He doesn't look at the difficulties and say, 'Just try harder by yourself.' His grace is expressed in the command that his people reflect his love, that his people bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. His yoke is easy and his burden is light, and he's arranged his household in such a way that no one should ever toil alone.
28 · Chris establishes that the purpose of bearing burdens is to help people see Jesus—to raise their eyes to the cross, the empty tomb, and the interceding Christ
The body is called in the power of the Spirit to extend grace and care and and help and accountability for the purpose of strengthening faith and promoting love. For the purpose of helping each other see God's promises in the time of need, like Jonathan did for David. And when you're helping each other see God's promises in the time of need, when you're bearing burdens in such a way, you are helping people to see Jesus. When we say relationships are important at Providence, we're saying relationships are important because they're the means by which we get down together and help each other to lay hold of Christ. We help the afflicted person, the discouraged person, to raise their eyes and to see Jesus, to to see His wounds with fresh vision, to see His bleeding side, to see the cross that He's upon. You remind them that there is an empty tomb. We call their attention to the fact that Jesus now sits seated at the right hand of God and that He is interceding for that person along with you as you pray for them. You remind them that because Jesus is seated there, he has hope. You remind them that the promises of Scripture will be true for them just as truly as Christ was raised from the grave. You draw their attention again and again and again to Christ. You help them to lay hold of Christ in the midst of their difficulties. You bear their burdens with them. And as you do it, you consistently, intentionally, prayerfully, graciously help them to cling to the cross.
29 · Chris cites Colossians 3:12-16 to reinforce the call to put on compassion, humility, and love—the virtues that bind everything together in perfect harmony and fulfill the law of Christ
Or as Colossians 3 puts it, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. If one of you has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, the law of Christ. Which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
30 · The closing prayer asks God to help Providence pursue the Spirit, recognize their need for community, and help each other bear burdens
Let's bow our heads. Lord, we want to be a community of a life of providence that pursues the Spirit, that prays for more of the Spirit, that walks in step with the Spirit, recognizing that it is the Spirit that gives life, recognizing that your Spirit does nothing but bring us closer to Jesus. Lord, we also want to recognize that we need the help of your Spirit in seeing our own desperate need for community. So I pray that you would help us to see, to recognize, to take note of those who are hurting, those who are ensnared in sin, those who have burdens they need help bearing. And God, I pray that you would help us, or those who are ensnared in sin, help those who are hurting hurting, help those who do need burdens, they need assistance with, to put their own pride aside and to ask for help. Lord, we want to see the Spirit in full effect at Providence. We want to see fellowship happening. We want to see love on perfect display for each other and for the world. And we want all of that because we want Jesus. And that is what your Spirit stirs up in the body of Christ. So we ask, Lord, would you give us Jesus together? In your name, amen.