Sermon: Living Together in Christ

Well, let me pray before we open God's word this morning from Galatians six and this morning, verses one through 10.

Our Father, we are thankful that you have spoken into the darkness of this world. You're thankful that you have pointed us to the beauty of your son, that you have spoken to us, the redemption that is found in his life and his death and his resurrection for sinners. We're thankful for the great gift that you have. Let us know what it is that you desire from us and what a life lived in him is to look like. I thank you that you have not left us grasping for truth,

but that you have spoken it clearly so that the heart can receive it and perceive it, that the mind can understand it as your spirit illuminates it. And we pray this morning that as we sit and we stand in this place, that your spirit would be active in this room, in our hearts and our souls and our minds, and that you would choose to bless us with your grace and that we would find that we have indeed sing clearly the light that you have shed,

that we would hear clearly, the voice that is resounding and that we would know that our God has spoken to us and we pray all of this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Galatians chapter six verses one through 10. This is the holy ander sufficient word of God. 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 two 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. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked For whatever one sows that

will he also reap for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of of the household of faith. Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

If you remember last week, we began the close of this letter here in Galatians, and we have been through five chapters of Galatians beginning chapter six this week. And for five chapters, the apostle Paul has walked us through in different ways and from different vantage points. He's walked us through justification That is that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Let even as, uh, been praise

or prayed this morning, that great gift that we receive of the imputation of Christ's righteousness and that we are saved by his life for us, live for us, and his death for us and his resurrection for us. We're not saved by our own merit. We're not saved by our own doing. We're not saved by our adherence to the law. No, it is by grace through faith in Christ alone. But at the end of chapter five, Paul will switch from the doctrine, move from the doctrine

of the justification to the doctrine of sanctification. Now that we are in Christ, that we are saved in Christ, he is turning his attention to what does it look like to live in Christ. And Paul makes it clear, as we saw last week, that the Christian life is a life that is lived in freedom. For freedom. Christ has set you free, but as he says, as freedom is not to indulge the flesh, you are not free. He says in five six to indulge the flesh,

but rather five, six, you are to walk by the spirit or as he says in verse 25 of chapter five, you are to live by the spirit or as he says, you are to keep in step with the spirit. You're filled with the spirit. Now live by the spirit. You're filled with the spirit. Now walk with the spirit. Keep in step with it. Now, here's one of the things that often happens among Christians is that they hear this and they think, well, I am united with Christ

and I'm, I'm filled with the spirit. And so the spirit dwells in me. And so I need nothing else for me to live as Christ. Didn't Paul say that I have Christ? And that's enough? And in one sense it is enough.

I've heard of a couple who would come into church after the start of the morning worship service, and they would leave immediately after the service. This was their practice for months upon months. And those months upon months turned into years. And then a couple of years they would come in and they would, if they could avoid it, they would not talk to a single person. They served nowhere. They knew no one, they, they would come in

and they, they were pew sitters. And as pew sitters, they would come in and they had a practice. You could almost see it on their face. They were critics. They criticized others that they sat alongside of. They criticized the service. They criticized the preacher.

One week after a couple of years of this routine, they were walking out of the church and as was their practice, they would give a handshake to the pastor. On the way out though they never said anything to him, but on this day, clearly their frustration had hit a certain level. And so they said to the preacher, on the way out, we don't like your understanding of preaching. It is poor preaching.

And the preacher relayed that he wanted to say back to them, though he didn't. Well, I don't like your understanding of Christian living. It is poor Christian living.

I don't know whether they were right about the preacher, but if what was reported about the couple is correct, I know the preacher was right about them.

The Christian life is absolutely what Paul proclaims for me to live as Christ, everything is found in Christ, but for me to live as Christ is for me to live with and for Christ's body, we can't have the head apart from the body. We can't love Christ and hate his people. We can't say we serve Christ while ignoring those that Christ died for. The Christian life is lived among with and for the people of Christ. Our salvation is worked out

in the community of Christ.

And Paul details in Colossians, in Colossians three there, and he's speaking about the Christian life and he says, these are things that you're to put off and these are things you are to put on. And you start reading through that list. They're all things that evidence themselves in community. Just last week we, we looked at the deeds of the flesh and we looked at the fruit of the spirit. And when you look at that fruit of the spirit, they are

manifest, they are evidenced in community, whereas the works of the flesh are the opposite. They are deeds, but they are deeds that are shown in evidence in community. We walk and we live and we keep in step with the spirit as we live with and for one another.

Now, not knowing that couple, they, they may have been hurt by the church, they may have been hurt by a preacher. They may have gone through an incredible season where it just felt like there was so much on their plate. They couldn't add one thing more, not one more relationship. They just needed to, to to be isolated as a family unit for a season, for a time. And then that can be fine for a season,

but it can't be a way of living the Christian life because it's not Christian.

Look at the language of this section. Paul begins verse 26 with two one anothers. Let us not provoke one another. Let us not envy one another. And then verse two of our passage, he, he speaks of what we are to do. We are to bear one another's burdens. And then he does all this with reminding them throughout we are united as family. Verse one, he calls them brothers. Verse 10, let us do good to everyone, especially those

who are of the household of faith. You, you belong to a household. He will call them brothers again in verse 18, right before the final amen of letter, he, he's in essence and you, you've been brought into a family.

You're part of a family.

Christian life has lived to the glory of Christ with and for one another. When we are saved under Christ, we're saved under one another. So our living by the spirit, it's not an independent project.

It's maybe what you hated most in school. It's a group project.

Three things in this text of what it looks like to live together in Christ. One, we fight for one another. Two, we support one another. And three, we labor with one another. We fight for one another. We support one another. We labor with one another. First we fight for one another. He says in verse one, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore him in a spirit of gentleness. We are in the midst of a fight.

You're in it whether you want to acknowledge it or not. We're in the midst of a fight, but it's not with one another. It's against sin. It's against the temptations of the world. It's against our adversary. Sin will happen in our midst. I don't need to tell you that. If he says if anyone is caught in any transgression, we could surely change that. It's not if it's when, when anyone is caught in any transgression because it's going to happen.

Why? Because faithful churches are filled with those saved by grace through faith. But those saved by grace through faith are still sinners.

As Luther famously used to say in Latin simul, justice at PE were simultaneously justified and sinners both.

Now, the word that Paul uses here, he makes it clear that he is not speaking about a habit of sin, but rather someone who, who suddenly and surprisingly, has been overcome by sin. When that happens, he says, when it's brought to light either to them or it's brought to light within the body, the the great aim he says is to restore them.

They're not the enemy. Sin is went to see them restored.

And that requires true confession. That requires true repentance. And Jesus would walk through those steps and Matthew 18. But what we're focused on here this morning is what Paul is focused on, and that is our responsibility to fight for one another in this regard, to fight for one another, not fight one another. He's already made that clear in the passage proceeding that enmity and strife and jealousy and fits of anger

and rivalries and dissensions and envy, those are works of the flesh. That's not walking by the spirit, that's not living according to the household code of God. We're a family. You don't do those things. We don't fight each other.

I told you before, my two children when they were younger and they would squabble with one another, we had a exercise that we would go through every time I would call them to myself and I would say to them, grace and Ethan, what are you? And they would say in unison, we are brother and sister. And then I would ask, should brothers and sisters fight? And they would respond in unison, no, brothers and sisters should not fight.

But why? Because they belong to one another.

I often say to my family, the Lord put us together and he put us together for a reason to fight for one another so that we finish the race with one another.

We don't consume one another. As Paul says in five 15, when a brother or sister commits sin, the sin is our enemy, not our brother or sister.

In Ephesians four, Paul echoes this. He's focusing on our belonging to one another in Christ. And he says this, he says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Well, how do you not grieve the Holy Spirit? Well, he says this, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Don't do these things to one another.

And then he says, do this, but this is what you are to do. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. That is, there's a family way.

You've been sealed with the spirit of Christ. You've been united with the person of Christ. You've been forgiven by God, the Father in love. There's a family ethic

and your children, he says of this God,

restore him. Paul says, it has the idea of putting something right, of repairing something that was used outside the New Testament, uh, times to speak of medical things like if you broke your leg, that it, it would be, it would be restored by being splinted and, and it would be put right. He's saying restore the man. But he says, do this with a spirit of gentleness. This is how the spiritually mature function. Paul says for one another say, well,

where does that come from?

Well, listen, all of our sanctification, all we are seeking to do is look more and more by God's grace, by the power of the spirit, look more and more like the Christ who bod us. And did he not say, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

I'm gentle and lowly and hard.

It's what it looks like to be spiritually mature to look like him. Gentleness is a sign of maturity. I I love how Martin Luther counseled a pastor to, to tend to a fallen believer. He said this, he said, run unto him and reaching out your hand. Raise him up again. Comfort him with sweet words and embrace him with motherly orange. Run to him. Reach out to him, embrace him. We want to see them restored and not restored as some kind of second class citizens.

No, you truly walk in repentance. You truly walk in faith. You're restored. You're part of the household.

But Poe gives a warning in our fight for one another. He says this in verse one, keep watch on yourself lest you to be tempted. That is minister to others have compassion, but as you do so, be on guard as well that there are two great temptations as we minister others, as we draw near enough to to fight for one another. The, the one is the older brother syndrome that we see in the, the parable of the prodigal son that Jesus tells that that older brother who,

who had no compassion, he had no spirit of gentleness. The older brother just believed and articulated that the younger brother got what was coming to him. No spirit of i, I too am a sinner, just haughtiness, just self-righteousness.

The the other heir, what he may be referring to is to naivete being taken in by the sin of another. When we get near someone else's sin can quickly become something that we suffer from.

I think it was David Palon who first said it. I search this week trying to figure out where in the world I heard this. I think it was from David Palon, but I can't find it anywhere out there. I know it's not original to me. It's from somebody. But they made the comment, and I remember coming across it about 20 years ago, and it's always stuck with me. They said, if you get close enough to the puddle, eventually you will be splashed.

Now, what Palin had in mind was that if you draw near enough to someone to minister to them, you're going to get close to their, their little morass of sin.

And as you draw near, you are gonna eventually get splashed with that sin. If that's an angry person, they're eventually gonna get angry with you. If that's a bitter person, they're eventually gonna get bitter with you. If that's a person that lies, they're eventually going to lie to you. If that's a person that covets, they're eventually going to covet what you have.

The other is, if you draw a near true transgressor and you're not watchful, you can be splashed by taking on the sin that marks them. So Paul says, keep watch. Eve was not watchful and was tempted with the devil's mistrust of God. Jezebel was tempted with Ahab's coveting. Ahab was tempted with Jezebel's scheming. Ray bone was tempted with his young friend's. Pride have compassion. You draw near you bear one another's burdens

and you keep watch.

Just wanna stop here for a second because it's so important. I want you to understand that sin breeds sin.

Sin breeds sin. You have to keep watch.

Major moral failings never just happen. They never just happen.

Sat with a number of people over the years and have heard almost the exact same thing.

I've had some great moral failure and I'm sitting across from them and they will say with tears and with with utter shock and despair that they will say to me, they'll say, I never imagined I would be here. And then almost inevitably, the very next words that they say are, I don't even know how I got here.

What's so ironic is that it's almost always that way.

It always begins subtle and small. We simply entertain what we would consider an insignificant discretion. And often we rationalize these indiscretions sin say, well, that's just who I am. It's just part of my makeup. It's just part of what my family does. It's just part of what my so-called Christian friend group does. We just drink a little too much. We just engage in a little bit of gossip, a little bit of harsh joking, a little bit of flirting, a little bit

of coarseness, a little bit of slander, a little bit of complaining, but sin breeds sin. And all of a sudden it's no longer a little bit.

And what you would've recoiled from because you would've said, that is moderate sin. I can have nothing to do with that. What you would've recoiled from before you no longer do.

And that thing that is a, a grievous sin that you look at, you say, I cannot understand how anybody could do that. All of a sudden it becomes something that you can indulge in and you don't run from.

Why? Because over time, the heart has just hardened. The conscience has just been seared.

Sin breeds sin.

And before you know it, you're sitting there in a stupor and you say, I never imagined this would happen to me. Don't know how I ever got here.

Keep watch. Paul says,

give it no opportunity.

Paul's admonition here is in the present tense. It has an idea of of keeping, keeping watch on yourself. It's a, a continuous activity. Keep on keeping watch on yourself lest you be tempted as you fight for one another.

Second and our life together for Christ, we support one another. We support one another. Paul says here, verse two, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. We we need each other to fulfill the law of Christ. Well, what is the law of Christ? Well, we could go to various passages. John 15, 12, maybe the best. Jesus says this, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. You realize it isn't possible to fulfill the law

of Christ apart from one another apart for living for his people. We support one another. This means that others need me.

The burden they bear may be financial, it may be material, it may be social, it may be physical, it may be medical, it may be emotional, it may be spiritual. It isn't limited. Paul just gives one example in this text in verse six, he, he mentions that the preachers to support others by sharing the word and those in the congregation are to support him financially as he teaches the word. But that's just one example that we support one another

as we live by the spirit, as we keep in step with the spirit, he put us together to help one another.

So when the chair prayer chain requests go out, and if you help one another carry that burden, you fervently pray.

I had a member this week who we were talking on the phone and this person is mostly home bound. And they're saying, I, I just want to, to serve the church. I I don't, don't know what I can do anymore. So we were talking through it and it's a person that has suffered for a long, long period of time, has, has waded through deep, deep hurt and pain and trial in this life. And yet it's just an encouragement when you talk to this person, well,

what if you just started calling people in the church that you knew are suffering and in pain and in hurt? And talk with them and pray with them. He said, oh, give me a list

and maybe let's befriending the friendless, providing childcare for the overwhelmed young parents so they can go out for a dinner where there's not food being thrown on the floor. Maybe it's taking that new husband that has just married that young woman and you look at him and he looks like a deer in the headlights. He's happy to be married and he's overwhelmed, has no clue what he's doing.

Maybe it's slipping a few dollars to the widow. Maybe it's simply looking for those in pain on Sunday morning, inviting them out for coffee just to listen to them where a body, the burdens that each of us carry, it's not just his or her burden, it's ours.

It's

in fact, it may be this or that person in our midst was given that burden so that you have the opportunity to help them carry it. Just maybe the lord's not just working out theirs sanctification with that burden, but he's working out yours.

Let's be clear. It's not just that others need you. You need others. Say, I have Christ indeed.

Is Christ not sufficient? He sure is.

Does he not carry my burdens? Yes, he does. I have Christ.

Yes. But part of the way that Christ gives himself more and more to you is through his people, extends His grace through his people, even as he does by his word, even as he does in prayer, even as he does by the sacraments. He does in the fellowship of his people.

Paul says verse three, for if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. That is when you've been gripped by God's grace. You realize all that I am is simply by his grace. And all that I will become is simply by his grace. And one of the ways that he works, his grace in my life is through the lives of brothers and sisters supporting me.

They support me. I support them.

And what should this look like in your life of supporting others? Well, it isn't found by comparing yourself to others. You, you're not going to look like Betsy over there or Bob over there. No, because you are your own person. You, you have your own gifts that the Lord has given you your own abilities, your your own background, your own experience. And that's the point of verse four. Comparison is not the game that we're playing.

Instead, we measure ourselves by God's standard. We, we are simply seeking to be faithful and fruitful with and in the body of Christ for the glory of God, for the blessing of our brother and sister with the gifts he gave me, with the life he gave me, with the abilities he gave me. That's my responsibility.

And I'm responsible for me before God. I'm not responsible for you using your gifts before God. Me, that's verse five. For each will have to bear his own load. That that seems odd in relation to verse two, but they go together. We, we need others to help us bear our burdens. Verse two and yet verse five, we also bear responsibility before God for our own loads may help to know that those are two different words that are being used there.

And, and, and they give a good picture here in verse two. That that word refers to a heavy weight. It's something that's unwieldy, something that I, I couldn't quite do myself. That you, you need the help of others. But verse five, that word there that is used for load, that that that's used sometimes to speak of a backpack.

There's a weight in the Christian life that requires our leaning into and upon the body of Christ for help. And there's a weight in the Christian life that I must bear alone. And that's the weight of how I use what he has given to me for his glory. And for others. We fight for one another and we support one another.

Finally, we labor with one another. We labor with one another.

Paul here uses and employs the illustration of agriculture, which was common as we see in the New Testament. And he's talking about sowing seeds in a field. And you and I are the, the seed sowers and the field we labor in. He's saying it, it will show what we have sown, what we sow. We will reap what, what you fill your mind with and meditate upon what, what you're talking and conversing about. What it is that your heart desires.

How it is that you use your hands and your feet, how you employ your time, all those things. Your sowing seeds and saying, look, what you sow will be reaped.

It's not hidden because God cannot be mocked. If you're sowing things that are of the flesh, you're going to reap destruction. If you're sowing things that are of the spirit, you're going to reap the things of life. It all gets revealed sometimes here for sure. There.

So Paul just gives this admonition. So, so to keep doing good, he says, just keep doing good.

It's one of the, I think the amazing things in awe of creation. It's one of the fruits of God's goodness that that which he could do in and of himself. He chooses to do through sinners like you and I. And he does the work in us, and he does the work through us by his spirit. And then he chooses to reward us for it in glory.

Put that equation together. It's just his goodness. He gives you and I the great privilege of laboring for that which lasts so many people chasing after so many things in this world, and they won't outlive them. And if they do outlive them, it's, nah, it's menial. You. And I get the labor for what lasts, the glory of God and souls. Paul saying, keep at it. Look, you, you're going to reap what you sow. Keep at it. The the world keeps saying, ah, give up.

It's you. You're not doing anything that's worthwhile. You get discouraged as you're laboring and, and you're seeking to love people and pour out in love for them. And then you find, oh, I'm getting very little in return. Or maybe you're getting a lot in return, but it's not the things of love and grace and mercy. It's those things that he spoke about at his clamor and his gossip and his envy and his hatred. And Paul says, don't be discouraged.

You keep doing good

'cause the harvest will be shown that's not mocked. Just sing it at the end where the thy high ye uh, highly mighty gates, right entering into Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus as he came. So he's coming. And when he comes and returns upon the clouds with the angels and the archangels, there will be a harvest and everything will be shown for what it's

Paul just says, just keep at it. Just just keep, keep doing good. Because our time is so very short. Our labor comes to an end. And there's a time where you and I no longer get to, to do these things, get to store these treasures in eternity. No longer get to labor in this kind of way for fallen sinners, for the glory of God. It's quickly ending and then we're just at rest. So labor, keep laboring together. Keep laboring together until the end.

He's saying, when Christ returns, you and I, we will never regret. Not for a moment at any time, spent, not any sacrifice made at any hardship we endured for the sake of the kingdom. You won't regret any of it.

Not even for a moment,

he says, in due season, we will, we will reap. It's a promise. Promise.

So then he closes As we have opportunity and you have a lot of opportunity,

let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of of the household of faith. You've been given such grace by such a great Christ. Ah, how do we not want to return that with thanksgiving? For his glory and for the good of his people.

We are saved unto God and unto one another, fight for one another, support one another in labor with one another. Let's pray.

Our Father, we are thankful for so great to salvation. We're thankful for Christ who has secured it for us. And we're thankful that you have given us not only your spirit, the spirit of our Lord to dwell within us, but you have given us one another to walk arm and arm, shoulder to shoulder as pilgrims through this life together. We pray that you would help us to strive with and for one another, that we would labor for your glory

and for one another's good looking more and more like the Christ who bought us, looking forward to that day when we shall see him as he is. And so we shall be like him. And we say, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. We pray this in his strong name. Amen.