Responding to Sin in Others

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Galatians 6:4 Our time of study in the word today. For those of you that are visiting with us, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of Galatians, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to Galatians chapter 6, verse 1. And my goal initially was to try to cover verses 1 through 2, but in the first service we didn't finish verse 1, so we're going to, I have no doubt, spend all of our time in verse 1 and probably not even be able to address the very end of verse 1.

The topic of the message or the title of the message this morning is responding to sin in others.

Responding to sin in others, especially others here in the Cornerstone family. That's what we're going to focus on is how do you respond to sin in your brothers and sisters, in the Lord. And I know you're thinking, come on, Pastor Milton, give us something practical. this is Cornerstone.

No one sins here. But it may happen and you need to be ready. For when it does, no, if you've been a part of the Cornerstone family for any longer than probably 24 hours and have gotten to know, us, you, no doubt have experienced somebody sinning or sinning against you, and we're going to focus on how to respond to sin in other, people. in Galatians 5, what's interesting is Paul has taught us how to deal with sin in ourselves, right?

Right, we've got a sinful flesh inside of us that always wants to do the opposite of what God wants us to do, and here's how to deal with that. You walk in the Spirit. So we looked at what that means. But now in Galatians 6:1 and following, Paul is going to teach us how to deal with sin in other people.

And there's much to learn here in verses 1 through 5, and we're just going to be getting started this morning here in verse 1. Let me begin by just reading to you a quote from Timothy Keller in his recent book The Reason for God. I really love this, and I think it'll introduce what we're focusing on today. He says the central message of the Bible is that we can only have a relationship with God by sheer grace.

Our moral efforts are too feeble and falsely motivated to ever merit salvation. Jesus through his death and resurrection has provided salvation for us, which we receive as a gift. Growth in character and change in behavior occur In a gradual process after a person becomes a Christian. Now we all know that's true, right, but based on that, I love how Timothy Keller presses this point.

This means then that the church will be filled with immature and broken people who still have a long way to go emotionally, morally, and spiritually. As the saying has it, the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. We all come to know the Lord. We receive the Spirit.

We become a new creation, but we are infants and we bring a carry on, a lot of carry-ons from our old life into our new life, a lot of baggage with us, and that is the sinful flesh. And all of us from the point of conversion have a long, long, long way to go. I have a long way to go. You have a long way to go.

All of your brothers and sisters have a long way to go. All of us in this room have a long way to go, and we're supposed to figure out a way. Hang out together and love one another, and it is going to be a very common occurrence that we will encounter sin in our brothers and sisters along the way, and we need to learn how to deal properly with sin when we see it in other people, both observing it from a distance, maybe you see a brother who's sinning, but their sin doesn't affect you, or what happens most of the time, most of the sin we see in other people.

I sin done against us, and we feel the hurt and the sting of that, maybe between husband and wife or children and parents or brothers and sisters in the church, and we must learn how to deal with sin in Other people.

Well, let's, before we look at the responses that we should have, let's focus on some wrong responses to sin and other people so that we can, I think, appreciate the contrast that Paul's going to give us in Galatians 6. Here's some wrong responses of what not to do when you see sin in other people, but these are responses that I think most of us have been guilty of at one point or another. One wrong response to a brother in sin is to join that brother. In his sin.

Now on paper we would go, well, that's terrible. We would never want to do that, but probably all of us at some point have joined somebody in their sin, and that is what our response was. We all know that it's wrong to talk about other people behind. Their back and to gossip and what have you, but maybe there's someone in the church that right now you just don't like very well and you've tried to hold it in and not, let that come out, but nonetheless you encounter someone else in the church who also doesn't like that person and they give you an earful about that person.

You won't believe what they did and they're blathering on about them and before it, you have just joined them. You begin to say, Well, I've got some things to add to that, and here's what they did to me, and here's why I don't like them, and And 30 minutes later you hang up the phone or you get done with the conversation and you're like, I can't believe what came out of my mouth. I have joined this brother in a sin. Maybe there's someone in the church that is making plans to go to a movie that in your conscience is a movie that a Christian has no business watching due to the objectionable content that is in that movie and the celebration in that movie of anything that that is contrary to what Jesus Christ died for, what he's all about, and what he came for.

And in your conscience that it's wrong, but nonetheless, this is a Christian, this is someone from the church and a respected person, and they're inviting you to come along with them, and you end up going to the movie with them and throughout the whole thing, your conscience is condemning you. Your response to that brother's sin in that moment is that you joined them. Other illustrations could be given, but let's move on. Another wrong response to a brother in sin is to feel superior to that brother.

And don't act like you don't know what that's like. I've never experienced that. No, we are so wicked, aren't we? That, we should grieve whenever we hear or witness a sin in somebody else, but, but there is also that sinful flesh in us that when we see or hear of sin in another, that there's a part of us that enjoys the comparative holiness, that, that's a sin that maybe I've never committed or it's been a long time since I have committed that sin.

And we began to congratulate ourselves and feel superior to that person. Another wrong response is to give up on and withdraw from. Somebody, this is actually very common in the church. Someone is messing up in some way and it's like, what, just don't, I don't want to talk to that person.

I don't want my children to hang out with that person's children, and I see the way they parent their children. I see the way their children behave, what? I just, I don't want my family to have anything to do with that family. You give up on and you withdraw from.

That person and you never go to that person to try to address the issue of concern. Another wrong response is to talk about that person behind his back. Some people read Galatians 6:1 to say, Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, go to other brothers and sisters and talk to them about the sin of that sinning brother. That's a wrong response.

Another wrong response that I've actually had happen to me, and so I know that sometimes this happens, is to call the elders. All right, you've got a brother who's in sin. You've never talked to that brother, and maybe their sin is against you, and you're like, what, this needs to be dealt with. I know what I'll do.

I'll call Pastor Milton. I'll call one of the elders and ask them to go to that brother and deal with that brother. That's actually happened. Someone's called me and said, Pastor Milton, I've got a ministry opportunity for you, and here's what this person, here's what this person has done, and it's hurt me greatly, and I, I, I want you to go talk to them, to which I reply, have you spoken with this person or confronted them about this sin?

And their reply is, no, I haven't. That's your job. And so their response to a brother's sin is to call the elders or the pastor. Another wrong response is to vent on, I didn't know how to express this or to wig out on, to rebuke harshly, and we can do this as parents.

Our children have, have maybe been lazy or they've had an attitude or they've done something for the 1000th time, and in a recent period of time and maybe their attitude towards you is not what it should be or or whatever and you just flip out on your children and you're rebuking harshly and carelessly or even venting out on or wigging out on your spouse or even someone else in the church. Another wrong response is to retaliate against someone. They cop a bad attitude towards you, so what, I'll cop a bad attitude.

towards them.

My children are talking smack to me. So what, I'll talk smack back to them. And we basically respond in kind. That's another wrong response to, to wrongs that are done in the church.

And another wrong response, which is probably the most common, is to do nothing, to do nothing. And I hope the Lord will send somebody across that person's path to deal with them, but I'm not going to be a part of the solution. And in going to this person, I've got enough going on in my life, enough burdens to want to mess with that. All of these are wrong responses.

In Galatians 6:15, Paul is going to lay out for us a number of right responses to a brother in sin. Let's just read verse 1, because that's as far as we're going to get. Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. I want to share with you, I think we'll have time to look at 6 responses to a brother in sin.

And so children, you who are taking notes, I think there's 7 blanks, 7 points to fill in. You don't have to fill in the last 1 or 2. You just fill in however far we get and you'll get a piece of candy when, when you're done. All right.

all right. Response number 1 to a brother in sin is to realize that your sinning brother's family. Realize that your sinning brother is family. Look at how Paul begins this section.

He says, brethren, chapter 6, verse 1, brothers, keep in mind that these believers were not getting along with each other. In verse 15, they were biting and devouring one another and consuming one another. verse 26, there's evidence that they were boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. This is a church that is not getting along very well, with one another right now.

And, and the reason that they're having attitudes against one another is because of real or perceived wrongdoing on the part of another. Paul gathers them together and says, brothers, You are brothers of one another. Contemplate this. I'm going to tell you how to deal with sin in other people and wrongs that they have done, but I want you to look at yourselves, look at your brothers as family.

It's important that when we see a brother in sin, that we remember that he is a brother, and he is family. When someone's your brother, you want to look after them, you want to take care of them, maybe even more so than anyone outside of your family, and that's actually true in the family of God. In verse 10 of chapter 6, Paul says, So then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men and especially to those who are of the household of faith, especially family. When you see a sinning brother, remember that he is your brother.

Remember that she is your sister and she is a descendant. He is a descendant of the same Heavenly Father that you are a child of. He and she is a descendant of Abraham just as you are. He or she bears the family name, the name of Christ, just as you bear his or her behavior is a reflection on you and the rest of the family, and most importantly, the name of Christ.

And so as family we look out for one another. And so we need to remember that we are brothers and sisters. When we look at a sinning brother, we should remember that he is family. Some people, when they see someone acting out in a sinful way, they say, Well, I don't think a true Christian could ever do such a thing.

So I doubt that that person's even a brother, and thus they exempt themselves from instructions like we find in Galatians 6:1. But my response to that is always this You have no right to question the salvation of a brother or sister in Christ until all of the steps of Matthew 18 have been carried out. You come to me, Pastor Melton, this person's doing such and such in the church. I don't even think they're a real brother in Christ.

I would then ask, have you confronted that brother? Well, yes, I have, and they didn't, they didn't heed my confrontation. So can I now count them a non-brother? Well, did you take 2 or 3 with you?

oh yes, I did actually, and they still didn't heed what the rebuke that we gave them. So can I count them a non-brother? Have you taken it to the church? Have you taken it to the leadership of the church?

Has the church gone after this person and confronted this person? See, it's not until the very end of that process that someone could be counted as a non-brother, as a nonbeliever. Your default setting should be in the church. The family of God.

When you see sin in the life of another is to assume that they are a brother in Christ if they profess that and let their response to the increasing levels of confrontation reveal their heart and reveal their true status as either a brother or a non-brother. A second response to sin in the life of another in the church is to stay in the spirit when dealing with your sinning brother. Stay in the spirit when dealing with your sinning brother. Look what he says in verse one.

Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, And then follows the instructions. The instruction that follows is not for everybody. It is only for those that are spiritual. All right.

Now, what does it mean to be spiritual? Does it mean to be perfect? Does it mean to be pious? according to the context of Galatians, a spiritual person is a person who walks in the spirit.

All right. Someone who's led by the Spirit, they walk in the Spirit, they are walking in step with the Spirit. Paul is saying that when you see sin in the life of a brother or sister in the Lord, it is absolutely important that you be spiritual. In other words, that you be walking in the Spirit as you go to address this issue in your brother's life.

We're very good at addressing sin in others when we're in the flesh. We do so in a fleshly way. Paul says you must be walking in the Spirit. Remember what it means to walk in the Spirit.

it means to be ever listening to the gospel with faith, which means every day you're consciously mindful of the magnitude and the depth and depravity of your sins, and you are also mindful of the wrath of God that you deserve for those sins, that you deserve to be in hell today, every day reminding yourself of that, but then appreciating this incredible grace that God has given to you, the forgiveness of all of your sins and all of the blessings. Of your salvation and to walk in the Spirit then means that you are ever enjoying the Spirit mediated blessings of your salvation.

All of the riches, all of the blessings of your salvation that Christ wants you to experience. He mediates those to you through His Spirit.

And to walk in the Spirit is to be ever enjoying the gospel, ever enjoying the riches of your salvation, and then to be ever seeking to satisfy the desires of the Spirit with. you. It is only as you are walking in this way, and hence in a state of awareness of your own sin, of God's grace of His goodness, you are in a state of utter amazement at the goodness and grace of God that He has given to you in spite of the judgment you deserve for your sins. It is only when you are walking in that gospel mode or spirit mode that you can rightly see and address sin.

And a brother or sister. And Paul is saying, you who are spiritual, in other words, make sure you're in the spirit when you are addressing someone else in their sin. it's easy to walk in the spirit, is it not, when like we're having our devotions and no one else is around, isn't it? to have love, joy, peace, when we're at a ladies' retreat or a men's retreat or on a personal retreat where we've just gotten away for a couple of days and, experiencing God in His fullness and it's easy to walk in the spirit on those occasions, but then we come down from the mountain, we walk into the house and we confront our spouse.

And we see sin in them, and maybe the sin is against us or our children. Maybe they're fighting with one another or having a bad attitude, and the challenge is to stay in the spirit when we're confronted with those things. Your attitude might be, it would be so easy to walk in the spirit if it weren't for my husband. It would be so easy to walk in the spirit if it weren't for my wife, if, if it weren't for these children that are driving me crazy, it would, it would be easy to walk in the Spirit.

And then you let their sin. knock you out of the spirit, and then you come with guns blazing, fleshly guns blazing to respond to all of the sin that you see in them. It's critical that you be spiritual. It's critical that you be walking in the spirit as you respond to and deal with sin in your brothers and sisters in Christ.

there's a third response to sin in others that should characterize us. when we see sin in somebody else, and that is that we need to view our sinning brother's sin with compassion and understanding. We need to view our sinning brother's sin with compassion and understanding. I want to be extremely careful how I say this, and I just really try to listen to everything I'm about to say and, and hang with this train of thought because I think it's a biblical concept.

when you look at what Paul says at the beginning of verse one, look at this, brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, That word caught means overtaken or surprised or caught. When you look at his wording here, this is about the most charitable way of describing someone else's sin. That you'll ever find anywhere in Scripture, is it not true that biblically all sin that we commit is a willful, deliberate defiance and rebellion against God, utterly odious and detestable to him?

It's a willful choice.

Yes, that's a biblical way of looking at sin, but this is also, in addition to that, another way of looking at sin, and that is that your brother has been surprised. He's been caught. He's been overtaken. By a trespass.

In other words, the trespass is the enemy, not your brother. The picture is your brother walking along the path, and sin has caught up to him and has overtaken him and has tackled him and surprised him. And Paul says, when you see your brother, In sin. You need to look at your brother and say, oh dear.

My brother's been overtaken. By sin That indwelling presence of sin that is within sin has caught up to this brother. See, what I'm asking of you and what I think Paul is asking, you guys know how to do this. how to view sin this way, because you look at your sin this way.

Right? This, this is, this is the compassionate, charitable way we always look at our sin, that yes, I was wrong. And I know I shouldn't have made the choice that I made, honey, I should not have said what I said and done what I did, but You did this, and I sinfully responded to you doing this. And I made a wrong choice, to which your spouse replies, I think I understand that, dear.

But the reason I did this that caused you to do that is because you in the first place, we're doing this over here. So I was wrongly responding to what you did, that caused you to then wrongly respond to what I did. So ultimately, It lies at your feet for all this whole, you ever had those conversations? Have you?

OK. And, and we're willing to acknowledge that we're wrong, but we feel like, what, I, I would like to be understood. OK. But we're not good at giving that understanding to other people, are we?

when, when other people have messed up, man, we can just view them as two dimensional creatures, and we get on our judge and jury costume, and we are clinical and man, they have rebelled against God and made a willful choice. And, and we don't speak about the sins of other people the way that we often speak about our own sin. what, we all know that the flesh rages against the spirit inside of us. We need to look at our brothers and sisters that way.

We learned this from Galatians 5. Let's apply this to our brothers and sisters. our brothers and sisters based on Galatians 5, every one of your brothers and sisters has a sinful flesh in them, and their sinful flesh always craves against the Spirit. what a battle this is for you.

Parents, when you look at your children, you need to realize they have a sinful flesh inside of them that always wants the opposite of what God wants them to do. And when you tell them to do something, there is always a part of them that passionately wants to do the opposite of obeying you, which is obeying God. They have this that rages inside of them. Your spouse has this that rages inside of him or her, your brothers and sisters have inside of them a fleshly lust, and the spirit and the flesh are constantly raging war against one another inside of them.

And hence it is true that they, any of your brothers or sisters may sin at any time, and they just may sin against you. And they often will be stunned themselves at the sin. that comes out of them. And their attitude will be that of Pa, the good I want to do, I don't do.

Don't just hear Paul say that. Hear the heart of your brother or sister who may be sinning against you that. The good they want to do they're not doing, and the evil they hate they're doing. I know there's a part of them that doesn't want to do this and that's even hating themselves for doing this, but what?

sin has caught them off guard. Sin has overtaken them and caught them by surprise. Can you look at your brothers and sisters that way? With compassion and understanding.

When a brother or sister is wronging you, and they're talking to you, and they, they've got the worst attitude and they're sinning against you in their speech, maybe your spouses can, can, can you look at them and tune out just briefly enough to say, oh dear, they've been overtaken. By a trespass, sin is the enemy here, not this person. Who is sinning right now. Paul says If any man is caught, overtaken, And a trespass.

This is the way God is towards us. In Psalm 103, the psalmist says the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. He has not dealt with us according to our sins as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Just as a Father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him, for He Himself knows our frame.

He is mindful that we are but dust. Yes, sin is odious to God. He hates it so much that He sent His Son to die for it. God absolutely despises sin.

Sin is willful rebellion against Him in every case. But God also, in addition to seeing sin that way, knows our frame. He knows we have a sinful flesh inside of us. He knows it's a battle to do right, and that if in a moment's notice we're not paying due attention to ourselves, we will be surprised and overtaken by sin.

And so he has compassion. He forgives, and as the psalmist says, he doesn't deal with us according to our sins. So the challenge is to view your brother's sin even when you're on the receiving end of hurt as a result of their sin. View your brother's sin in as compassionate and understanding of a way as possible.

And view sin as the enemy and not your brother. There's 1/4 response to sin in another in the church, and that is seek to restore your sinning brother to spiritual wholeness. In other words, you need to kick into gear and get actively involved constructively in seeking. to minister to your brother who is in sin rather than giving up on and pulling away from and just, man, I can't believe this person did that and did you see what this person did and see what their children did?

Did you hear what they said? And I don't want my children hanging out with, with their children. Rather than responding that way, actually step towards your brother and be constructively engaged in his life in that area. Of sin, seek to restore your sinning brother to spiritual wholeness.

He says, You who are spiritual restore such a one. Now the word that is translated restore is an interesting word in the Greek text. It can mean to restore, but this word is used, I think, in Matthew 14:27 to speak of mending nets. James and John and their dad were mending nets in Matthew 14, and that word mending is the word that is translated restore here rather than taking the nets that are broken and torn and throwing them away and never using them again.

to actually mend the net so that it's usable again, this word was used in Bible times to speak of a doctor repairing a broken bone, and this word restore was used to speak of that action. Interestingly enough, in Ephesians 4:12, Of the passage I read last Sunday night at our annual meeting. Paul speaks about how Christ gave gifts to the church, apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, and that word equipping is the same word that is translated restore here.

So this word means to get involved in someone's life in order to fix.

What is wrong. But it also has the idea of providing whatever help is necessary, whatever equipping or equipment is necessary in order to help your brother out of the sin, and to establish right patterns of behavior. You don't just go to a brother Hey, I just wanted you to know that you blew it here. All right.

I've done my Galatians 6:1 thing. I'll talk to you later. That's not what you're supposed to do. You get involved in that brother's life and, and maybe you point out the area of concern, but you're also, there to help that brother.

maybe you noticed that the brother is not the parent that he should be, and maybe he is being very inconsistent and angry with his or her child and, and you're like, man, God wants me to be involved in this for the sake of these children and for the sake of this brother or sister, so you go to them after praying about it. And, and you very humbly just try to address the issue and you may not even say, hey, I noticed you're sinning here, but you may just go to them and just say, Hey, I, I struggle daily as a parent, and, I'd like for you to pray for me and also, here's a book, Age of Opportunity by Paul Tripp, that's really helped me and my parenting, and you're welcome to read it.

In fact, maybe we can go through this book together and be praying for each other and lifting each other up. Here's a CD set of seminar tapes from so and so on parenting or whatever, but the point is that you're constructively getting involved in, this brother's life, seeking to restore them to the place where they should be and providing whatever help and assistance and equipping is necessary to help them to be what they should be in that particular area.

So this is a call, guys. I, I really want you to hear this. This is a call to active engagement in the lives of your immature brothers and sisters who sin at times. And by the way, you're immature and you sin, right?

We need to be actively involved in each other's lives. That is so counterintuitive to our culture today. The mindset today is I'm OK, you're OK, or I got enough problems myself. I'm such a sinner myself.

Who am I to ever go helping anyone else in their sin? Paul says, I've told you how to deal with your sin. You walk in the Spirit, and I am calling you to active engagement in the lives of your brothers and sisters. That is a call from God.

We need to be helping one another with our sin issues. Paul Tripp said something to the effect that we are not hardwired by God, either through creation or the new birth to deal with all of our sin issues by ourself. That's why he gives us each other. But if all of us are just living in isolation from each other and we're never going to anyone else that we see an area of concern and we definitely don't let anyone come to us, maybe someone years ago tried to come to us about some issue in our life and we just blew them off and responded in a way to where everyone in the church knows just leave that guy alone.

Don't, don't ever go to this person and address any issue with them. But we need to open up our lives and help each other with sin issues that are in our lives and in the lives of our brothers and sisters, but as we do so, there is 1/5 response that needs to characterize. us as we respond to a brother or sister in sin. And that is let the gentleness of the Spirit govern your approach to your sinning brother.

Be gentle. All right, look what he says, brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Now, let me explain a couple things about this expression. Probably all of your translations translate spirit of gentleness.

They translate the word spirit as spirit smalls. Does anyone's translation have a capital S? With every head bowed, every eye closed, if you would say, I have a capital S in my Bible. Just raise your hand.

No one? OK. This is actually a decent translation. I don't want to argue against this and say it's a bad translation.

The reason that translators translate this smalls with the word a in front of it is because there's no Greek equivalent of the in front of the word spirit, and so this is a legitimate translation choice. The only interesting thing though. If you go back to verse 16, Paul says, walk by the Spirit. There's no the in front of spirit there either.

And yet every one of your translations say Spirit, capital S. All right, go to verse 25. Paul says, if we live by the Spirit, every one of your translations say the and then Spirit capital S, right? However, there is No Greek equivalent of the in front of spirit at the beginning of verse 25.

Look what he says at the end of verse 25. Let us also walk by the spirit. Every one of your translations has the word the with spirit capital S. However, in the Greek text, there is no Greek equivalent of the in front of spirit.

Now we come to chapter 6, verse 1, and Paul says, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. I just want to suggest to you guys that it's perfectly legitimate to choose to translate this. word spirit, exactly like the other three instances. And understand this as spirit capital S.

Either way, the meaning is pretty much similar, but I want to emphasize this because it's not like in chapter 5, Paul is talking about walking in the spirit. But now chapter 6, we're going to move to a totally Different topic of dealing with sin in other people. No, the Spirit is still all over this. Look at verse one again, brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the Spirit.

of gentleness. In other words, you bring your spirit walk into this situation. You bring the spirit with you, and namely of all of the fruit of the Spirit, definitely you want to bring all of the fruit of the Spirit into this. But he singles out gentleness.

Bring with you as you approach your sinning brother or sister, bring the Spirit of gentleness. Gentleness is identified in verse 23 as one of the fruit. Of the spirit. Carlos defined gentleness last Sunday.

Let's elaborate just a little bit as we linger over this thought. Gentleness, guys, you, you, you will never understand gentleness if you divorce from its explanation power. Gentleness implies power. You don't ever tell someone to be gentle who has no power.

All right. Gentleness is an instruction given to somebody who has the power to hurt. And they also have the power to do good. Someone who is gentle is someone who is extremely careful.

It is the careful use of one's power so as not to cause undue hurt, but only to do good. Every once in a while, like recently, I went over to someone's house in our church that had just had a newborn baby. And inevitably, I'm always asked, you want to hold the baby? And I always, my heart starts pounding inside, because they're so small and they're so fragile.

I don't know why I didn't worry about this with my own children. But, I love them just as much. But with, with other people's children, when I see a newborn, they look so fragile, and when they're put in my arms, I'm always stiff and rigid and extremely careful. why?

Because I know I have the power to hurt that child. I could drop them. And I also feel like they're just, they're so breakable. And if I hold them wrong, they're gonna, they're going to break.

And, and if they start to cry at all, it may have nothing to do with me, but I always assume I'm doing something wrong and handling the child, maybe I'm not gentle enough. But that's, that's the spirit here. It's, it's understand that you have the power to cause hurt. And be very careful not to.

When you're about to go to a brother, a spouse, a child, you're responding to sin in another person, you, you need to tell yourself, I can really hurt this person. If I speak in a certain way, and I have a certain attitude, and even in my countenance, and, and, and however, I respond, I can do enormous damage to this person, to this child of mine, to this spouse of mine. If I come at this in the flesh, I can do enormous damage. And not only can I do damage in directly dealing with the sinning brother, but I can go talk to other people about the sinning brother based on this sin that I know, and I can do enormous damage to their reputation.

I have the power to hurt, and to do huge damage here, but I will be extremely careful so as not to cause any undue hurt, but only use the power I possess given to me by God to do good. Now notice on the screen that It says so as not to cause undue hurt. There are times where we do need to hurt a brother or sister. Faithful are the Wounds of a friend.

and sometimes maybe you're coming to someone, they don't even see their sin, they don't want to talk to you. They think they're totally fine. And yet, or maybe they know they're in sin, but they don't want to deal with it right now. And sometimes you need to speak to them in a way that, that, that is hurtful to them.

But even when you do that, you are careful so as not to cause any more hurt. Than necessary. If somebody has a 2 inch tumor right here in their abdomen, You don't make an incision from the top of their head down to their feet and open them wide up to remove that 2 inch tumor, do you? And yet some of us are like that in the way that we respond to sin in other people.

Sometimes parents can be like that, their children, and just lay the child open and just cut them to pieces. Through our words and our attitude towards them in order to remove that 2 inch tumor that is inside of them, gentleness is being extremely careful in the use of one's power so as not to cause any undue hurt but only to do good to them. And I've got a heart here on the slide to remind myself to say this to you guys. I want you to see the heart of your Heavenly Father.

And just this expression., when you read your Bible, this is something I started doing over a decade ago, and it's radically changed my life. 2 Corinthians 3:18, as we are beholding as in a mirror of the glory of the Lord, we're being transformed. I reached a point where I was fed up with trying to change myself, when I was in seminary, and I just told the Lord, what, all I'm going to do from now on is just stare at you. And according to this passage, you will change me.

So I will stare, I will behold, you change me. And so from that point on, whenever I would read the Bible, even if God was not mentioned in the verse, I always would ask myself, what does this show me about God? And I started seeing God like in every verse, his heart was being revealed and everything. And a verse like this is a classic example.

The heart of God is revealed here. God tells your brothers. That when you sin, to be gentle with you. I want you to hear that from God.

I want you to listen in. Maybe this past week, you've really blown it. You've acted out in ways that were surprising to you. You would have never expected it.

You didn't start the week saying, I want to do these things this week. You didn't want to do these things, but you ended up doing them. You're stunned. humbled, you're shattered by the things that you've done.

Maybe some of you have looked at stuff on the internet this week that you had no business looking at. the list could go on and on and on, and you're sitting here, and you're like, man, if anyone knew about this, they would, they would cast me off forever. If God, if he could speak to me, he would, he would just say, get away from me. But imagine that a brother or sister in this church finds out about that sin that you committed this week.

And they're about to approach you. And you see them starting to walk towards you and you're like, Oh no, I'm in for it. But then you see your Heavenly Father stop them. And say, hey, I, I know where you're going.

You're going to talk to this, this brother who's messed up this week, who's been caught in a trespass. And if I could just tell you this before you get to your brother. Be gentle. With him.

With her This is God's spirit. Speaking through Paul, to your brothers and sisters, who are going to try to help you with your sin problem. And God says, be gentle. With them.

Why would God want your brothers to be gentle with you? It's because that is God's heart. Towards you, is it not? Is therefore he not the God?

that we can come to With our sin and know that we will be forgiven. God knows our frame. He knows that we are dust. Yes, our sin is rebellion against Him, and he hates it.

He detests it. But God also knows our frame, knowing the flesh we have inside of us. God knows that we've been caught in a trespass. And to all of our brothers who will come to deal with us.

He urges them to be gentle. To not hurt us beyond any point at which hurt is absolutely necessary. Brethren, brothers, just imagine God standing in front of us today. And he says, brothers and sisters.

family. If anyone in this church is caught, overtaken, surprised, In a trespass. Those of you that are walking in the spirit, the way that I've been teaching you, Make sure you keep walking in the spirit. And get actively involved in that person's life.

To restore such a one. And as you go to them, Bring the Spirit and his gentleness. With you. That's as far as we're going to get today.

But let me ask you to bow your heads. This verse, though this is not even the intent, this is to help me deal with sin in other people. This verse makes me want to run to my Heavenly Father and crawl up on his lap and say, God, I am so sorry for my sins, and to confess my sins, knowing His grace, his gentleness, and see, it's as I experienced that from him, as we all experience that from God, that's the only way we can be gentle towards others, because that's how God is towards us.

We come to God and say, God, the good I want to do, I don't do.

The evil I hate, I do, and he says, I know, I know. You could have done differently. You could have done better, but I forgive you. I forgive you.

And then with that grace, that gentleness, That healing We then go forth and simply imitate our Father, as we respond to sin in other people. Let's, let's pray together. Lord, you, you are such a faithful shepherd to us. that this is an area where we need instruction.

We, that left to ourselves, we would be a mess. We would be when someone wrongs us, we would just kick into flesh mode and stuff would fly all over the place. Lord, there would be outbursts of anger, retaliation, strife, all of those deeds of the flesh we learned about in chapter 5. But we see here a different picture, and it's a beautiful picture.

It's the picture of what you've done for us, and now you call us to engagement, Lord, to community. to engagement in the lives of our brothers and sisters. And you call us to be constructively involved in helping one another, and to invite and allow others to be constructively involved in helping us. And the whole thing is characterized by love.

By repentance, by gentleness, carefulness. Mindfulness of our own sins. There's much to learn still, Lord, even in this verse that we didn't even get to and much to learn in this section of Galatians 6:15. But we thank You for what You've revealed to us today.

You've given much for us to think on and to practice, and we will have plenty of opportunity to practice this as long as we are on this side of glory, living side by side. With our fallen but saved spouses, children, and brothers and sisters in this church. So help us Lord, and teach us. And help us to be imitators of.

As we respond to sin. We give ourselves to you. And all God's people said,