The Ministry of Restoration

Lord, we do come before you this morning. And Lord, it is our, our intent on opening up the bread of life. We ask Lord that you would reveal yourself to us as we gaze upon the pages of your word. We pray, Father, that You would illumine the eyes of our understanding.

that you would grant to us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the true knowledge of yourself, that through your word, Lord, you might strengthen us with might by your spirit in our inner man, that Christ you would be the one indwelling our hearts through faith. We pray, Father, that you would give to us new insights, that Lord you would speak to us in such a way so as to affect transformation, that you would transform the way we think, that you would transform the way we feel, even that you would transform the things that we do, that you would Help us to gain a perspective that you want us to have that perhaps some of us have not had before.

We pray, Father, that as we break open your word that you would in fact speak to us, that you would sanctify us, that Lord, you would speak. And Lord, we just wanna commit the time that we have to you.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I wanna begin this morning by asking a few questions. These questions are designed to prime the pump, if you will, to get you, thinking in a certain direction and so bear with me as I ask some of these questions of you.

what, what should or what would you do? If you were to find out that a believer, has been overtaken by sin. Let's say that there is a believer, someone, and you come to find out that such a person has been overtaken by sin. The question that I am asking is, what will you do?

Perhaps that person has been overtaken by the sin of gossip and slander, it could be a sexual sin, maybe this person has fallen into self-stimulation or has been looking at pornography over the internet. Maybe this person has fallen into adultery. Maybe they struggle with the sin of anger, the list can go on and on and on, but just, just suppose for a minute with me that someone has, has been overtaken by sin, they have fallen into sin, and the question that I am asking is what should you do?

What will you do?

Suppose this person is a family member and this family member has been found to be struggling with pornography and has been viewing inappropriate material over the internet, as a father, as a mother, yeah, even a brother or sister, how will you respond to that? What will you do? What will your attitude in a situation like that be? Suppose a fellow church member has been found to be overtaken by the sin of alcoholism.

What will you do about it? Where will your thoughts go? Or what, what will you feel about such a situation? What should you do?

Perhaps you come to find out that someone has fallen into the sin of homosexuality or lesbianism or any one of a number of gross types of sins. What will you do is the question that I am proposing to you this morning. Perhaps you have dealt with another believer that, who has been caught in sin. What did you do?

How did you respond? There may be someone that immediately comes to your mind right now when that such a person has been caught in a trespass, has been caught in a sin, and the question is, is what is the Lord calling you to? In relation to that person. There is little doubt that you will have to deal with a situation in which a believer is overtaken by sin, and in such a case, what will you do?

How will you respond? The, the purpose of this morning's message is to help. In giving shape to your answers. The message this morning is entitled The Ministry of Restoration.

The Ministry of Restoration, I propose to you that God calls you into this ministry of restoration. We're gonna look at 10 truths, 10 truths that will instruct and motivate you to answer. God's call to restore wayward believers. Our message is coming out of Galatians chapter 6 verses 1 to 2, so if you have your Bible on you, please turn to Galatians chapter 61 through 2.

If you have your iPod on you or iPhone or whatever electronical device that you have, turn the on button on and go ahead and go. To wherever it is gonna give you Galatians chapter 61 through 2. If you do not have any electronic device or a Bible, go ahead and look underneath the seat in front of you. There may be a Bible there, if not, it's on the screen behind me, Lord willing.

The message is the Ministry of Restoration, 10 truths that will instruct and motivate you, so you're gonna have to turn in your Bibles now. Let me go ahead and read Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 to 2 and follow along with me. Galatians 6, beginning in verse 1, 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, bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.

May the Lord bless the reading of his word.

OK, 10 truths. Let's take a look at truth number 1 then. Number 1, God's call to restore is a family matter. God's call to restore is a family matter.

Children, if you have the notes in front of you, fill in the blank, family. God's call to restore is a family matter. Note Paul's address at the very beginning of verse one, he says, brethren, brethren, here Paul is under scoring the fact that his audience, that his readers are brothers and even sisters in Christ. He refers to them as brethren.

He wants for his readers to understand, to be clued into the fact as he moves in the direction of this topic of restoration, he wants them to know this much that they are in fact family, they are family, by way of extension, we are family. And so think with me for a minute about what it means that we are family. What does this entail? What does this involve?

Well, in a healthy functioning family, family members love one another. Family members care for one another. Family members look out for one another. They spend time with one another.

They seek to enjoy the relationships that they have one to another. Family members spend time with each other and they protect one another. They're on the lookout for one another. When someone in the family is hurting or struggling, the other members of the family rally around that person to try to help such a person out.

The apostle Paul in underscoring the fact that his readers belong to a family, is wanting them to understand that, that they cannot just let their fellow brothers and sisters go on their merry way struggling with sin without any thought about what to do about it. This idea, this address of brethren assumes a sense of unity that has been purchased through the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, they are brethren because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ through his shed blood has made them to be sons of God.

And so the reason that they are brothers in the Lord, and, and to expand upon that, the reason that they are brothers and sisters in the Lord is mainly because Jesus Christ shed his blood at the cross so that they might be brought into a relationship with themselves and be made to be brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. So you see, the apostle Paul wants very clearly to communicate to his readers by way of extension to us that, that we are family. We are related to one another, we are connected to each other, we are joined to each other, we share the same Father, God the Father, and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are in relationship to one another, we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is important to understand as we move in the direction of this ministry of restoration.

And so our understanding of the ministry of restoration is set against the fact that we are family. Unfortunately, sadly, there are times in which not all is well in the family. This will lead us to the next truth, truth number 2, God's call to restore implies that believers can struggle with sin. If you look at the passage here, it begins by saying, brethren, then Paul goes on to say, even if a man, more literally it would be even if any man is caught in any trespass, And so here he is talking about the fact that we've got a believer here, and such a believer has been caught in a trespass.

He is not specifying the man, and he is not specifying the trespass. What does the word caught mean? Caught carries with it the idea of being entrapped, overtaken, taken by surprise. It's the idea of being tempted and then ensnared to be captured, that of being pursued by sin and being caught by sin.

So you've got this picture of a person who's running the race, and they're running, and somewhere along the way they begin to slow down, perhaps they begin to tire, they get weak, and eventually sin catches up with them and sin jumps upon them and sin grabs a hold of them and sin brings such a person down. This person finds him or herself having been caught, having been ensnared by sin, which has finally caught up. Up to him or her. This speaks of the powerful lure of sin.

The lure of sin is powerful, sin is enticing, sin can take a hold of our hearts, and we can desire it so strongly that we will find ourselves yielding to it and giving in to sin, and the apostle Paul knows that this is possible, it is possible for a child of God to be caught in any trespass. Here we're not talking about a professing believer who is willfully and even defiantly sinning. This is not an unruly person needing admonishment. This is a person who is caught in the clutches of sin and who at the end of the day feels miserable because of it.

This is a person who has been caught in a trespass. The term could also speak of a believer who has been caught in the sense that he has been discovered to be in sin. This is a person who got caught in the sense that someone found this person out. Someone came to this maybe this person was caught in the act or whatever and so they've been caught and so what do we do when something like that happens and brothers and sisters, mind you the fact that there are times in the life of a believer in which a believer does get caught.

They get caught, they're trying to hide, they're trying to cover up, then lo and behold, they get caught by another person. I want you to understand that if you get caught, or if you are the one who catches someone in sin, this is a clear indicator of the grace of God. God loves His people so much that when they find Themselves struggling with sin, when they find themselves overtaken, there are times in which God will cause such a person to get caught for the purpose of that person's restoration.

And so the idea of being caught is a good thing.

It's like when Adam and Eve sinned, and as a result they were fleeing from God, what happens? God catches up to them. And the hound of heaven will catch up to a child of God from time to time when such a person finds himself to be dealing with sin, such a person may in fact find him or herself to be caught in that trespass. The sobering reality here is that there will be those in the church who will fall into debilitating sin.

This begs the question, why? Why do believers fall into sin? What causes a child of God to move in the direction of sin? Well, we know that a big part of that is because of the effects of the fall, and the, and the reality is, is that there is not a one of us that is freed from the presence of sin.

We know from scripture that we have been freed from the power that sin has over our lives, but we are not in fact freed from the presence of sin, until we die and are in the presence of the Lord and glorified. It's upon that day. In the future that we can rejoice in the fact that no longer will we ever have the ability to sin, but as long as we are alive in these earthly tents, there's not a man alive, not a woman alive who is a believer and who has, who has not the potential for sin.

We need to understand this.

Oftentimes sin is rooted in a failure to fully grasp and to apply the gospel. You see, the, the problem with the Galatians is this, someone had come along and they were preaching a false gospel. And the apostle Paul is keen enough to know that anytime the people of God begin to embrace a false gospel, the potential for being ensnared and entrapped increases. The path towards sin is to deviate from gospel centrality.

The apostle Paul knows that he's ministering gospel truth to the Galatians, he's wanting them to understand justification. He's warning them against the deadly influences of legalism, and the apostle Paul also is wanting for these people to just grasp the gospel because he knows that in so doing, the potential for them to not fall into sin and be overtaken by sin would decrease. Oftentimes, sin takes place when one fails to walk according to the Holy Spirit. And again, this is a big part of what Paul wants to accomplish too.

He wants for his Galatian believers to lay hold of the gospel and to walk by the power of the Spirit being filled with the Spirit, meaning that they are controlled, that they are ruled by the Spirit, that the Spirit is reigning over them and causing them to bear fruit. And so these are but a few of the reasons why a believer might fall into sin, the list can go on and on. But the bottom line is that Paul here knows that his readers are being exposed to a false gospel and therefore anticipates that some in Galatia would struggle with sin.

Paul wants his readers to be ready to heed God's call to restore and so this leads us to the next truth regarding the ministry of restoration.

Number 3, God's call to restore involves a community of believers. In the passage, if you read with me, it says, brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, literally you is in the plural, speaking of you all and who are spiritual can be translated as the Spiritual ones, this is plural as well. Paul is not just speaking to an individual here and there, he is speaking to the entire body of Christ. He is speaking to the believers at Galatia, and he is saying to them all, you all, the spiritual ones.

You see, simple one on one counseling, though helpful, may not be sufficient. It may require more than a spiritual one. It may require a plurality of spiritual ones, a community of believers in order to help the person who has been ensnared to be rescued, to be delivered, to be restored. It is often helpful in the path of wisdom for restoration to involve a number of folks.

We do well. We do well not to underestimate the cumulative effect of the local body of Christ to affect restoration in the life of a fallen and struggling believer. Paul is not directing this call to restore at any one particular person or groups of persons to the whole body. He's not just speaking to the pastors, the elders, the overseers, the shepherds or whatever.

He's speaking to anyone who is a spiritual one. And so as Paul Tripp has once said so eloquently, spiritual growth or your growth is a community project. The restoration of a fallen believer is a community project. However, there are some requirements if one is to engage in the ministry of restoration, and this is going to lead us.

To the next truth. Truth number 4, God's call to restore requires being spiritual. If you're gonna engage in the ministry of restoration, which I'm gonna submit to you a little bit later, that's what God is calling you to do, you've got to be spiritual. He says even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, Restore, you who are spiritual, spiritual ones is who he is talking to.

You are the ones who must be engaged in the ministry of restoration. If you are to restore, you must be spiritual. To be spiritual essentially is to know and To embrace the gospel, to be spiritual essentially is to understand that you have sinned against God, but that through faith in Christ, your sins have been forgiven because you've repented and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and as a result, his spirit has come to indwell you, you enter into the realm of being a spiritual one.

So you've got to know and you've got to embrace the gospel, but to be spiritual also entails intimacy with the Lord, it means knowing him personally, it means being intimate with the Almighty, it means enjoying a personal relationship with him, and as you are doing so, you are walking by the Spirit, you are filled, meaning that you are controlled by the Spirit, the Spirit is ruling and reigning in and through you, you are being strengthened with Powered by the spirit in the inner man, that is what it means to be a spiritual one and it means also to be manifesting the fruit of the spirit, and Galatians talks about the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

This is what it means to be a spiritual one, and I submit to you that God's agenda for everyone in the body of Christ is that everyone is a spiritual one in this sense of the word. Granted, there are those who need to be restored, but the goal of the restoration is to bring them to the place where they are in fact a spiritual one. They are walking in the power of the gospel, they are living in the good of the gospel, they are experiencing the gospel in all of its fullness, they are experiencing intimacy with the Almighty, and they are enjoying life, they have the Shalom, the peace, the presence of God with them.

In John chapter 15, Jesus talks about the fact that I am the vine, you are the branches apart from me, you, you can do nothing, and, and, and so, and so the idea then is that, we've got to be abiding in him, spiritual ones abide in Him and as a result, they, they can accomplish much through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, If of someone who has been overtaken by sin, and if you would lay claim to being spiritual, then listen well to the next truth. Please heed truth number 5, God's call to restore is a command. It is a command. This verb is an imperative, meaning it's a command, it's in the present tense.

It means right now as I am speaking, I want for you to restore. Right now as I am writing, as I am speaking, there may be someone that comes to your mind and that they have been caught in a trespass. I want you to right now be thinking along the lines of restoring such a person. It's in the active voice, meaning that the person who is to be doing the restoring is to be actively doing the restoring.

They cannot just simply let go and let God take care of it, but God is here calling such a person, a spiritual one into the ministry of restoration. Brothers and sisters, this is the very heart of this sentence. The subject you is implied and the main verb is restore, you restore, you can cut everything out and at the end of the day, this is what the apostle Paul is going after. This is what the apostle Paul wants to accomplish among his spiritual ones, amongst the Galatian people, that there is this ministry of restoration that the spiritual ones are participating in.

Paul knows that he cannot do everything. I'm sure if he could, he would go out there and do the restoration himself, but he understands he's, he's a limited man with limited ability. He cannot be all things to all people, so he's calling upon the people of God, get involved in the ministry of restoration. This is not an option.

The spiritual ones then must at some level engage in the ministry of restoration. We are family as we have talked about before, and we are to have one another's backs. Note what the text does not say. It does not say to attack, to come down on, to shred.

It calls rather believers to restore. Anyone in the body of Christ is to restore again, it's not just for the pastors. The goal is to build the fallen person up, to put that person on the path towards pursuing holiness. The word restore has with it the idea of mending nets, and imagine a fisherman's net.

If such a net were to get, to have holes in it, it would not be able to do what it is designed to do. Supposedly it's supposed To catch nets, but the fish can go right through the holes in the nets and it is rendered unable to do what it is designed to do and in a similar way, we are to restore the people of God who have fallen so that such people can, can operate in the way that God has, has designed them to operate. They can function in the way that they were meant to function.

This idea of restoring also suggests setting a broken bone.

It's the idea of putting the broken bone back in place so that it can be useful, so that it might work according to its design and similarly then, so we are to, to restore one another, we are to mend the nets of people's lives so that there are no holes and then we are to, we are to, to set the broken bones so that it might be healed and so that might be useful and able to function in a way in which it is supposed to function. Please again as we, as we move on, just, just note clearly what the text does and does not say.

It does say to restore, restore, restore. It does not say to ignore, to criticize, to withdraw from, to shame, to censor, to dismiss, to isolate, to slander, to yell at, or to look down upon.

And so, God's call to restore is more than a request, it is a command, and such a command takes on greater significance when understood in light of the next truth. Consider truth number 6 with me then, God's call to restore involves anyone with any sin problem. God's call to restore involves anyone with any sin problem. Please read with me, he says, restore such a one, who is the one?

It is any man who is caught in any trouble. Trespass, that is the one that he is talking about. If of anyone, I don't care who, who is caught in any sin, I don't care what sin, I want you who are spiritual to restore that person. We are not to show favoritism.

We are to restore those who strike us as lovely as well as those who might strike us as unlovely. We are to restore those who are wealthy, as well as those who might be materially poor. We are to restore those of any ethnic background. It does not matter what ethnic background the person comes from, if such a person has been overtaken by sin, we are called to restore such a person.

This speaks against racism. We are to restore the physically attractive as well as the physically unattractive, and the reality of the matter is, is that there are some of us who are better looking than others of us, but that shouldn't matter, right? We are to restore irregardless of what a person looks like, whether they're big or small, short, tall, skinny, fat, it don't matter, and we are to restore the clean, as well as the dirty. There are some folks who are just cleaner than other folks.

Some folks just carry themselves with a more pleasant smell than other folks, and irregardless, we're called to restore. We are to make no favoritism of a person. We are to restore those who sin struggles are somewhat common. As well as those who sin struggles are severe, perhaps even to the point of grotesqueness, it doesn't matter, we are to restore, showing no favoritism.

God's call to restore involves anyone with any sin problem. Moving on then, number 7, God's call to restore requires gentleness. It requires gentleness, he says, restore such a one in a spirit. Of gentleness, there is much that can be said here.

Gentleness, of course, is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:23. The idea of gentleness is to be non-harsh, to be non-severe, to minister to the sinning believer in a loving, merciful, kind, compassionate manner. Consider some of these passages with me.

Proverbs 15:1 says, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger, and so here the writer of Proverbs is underscoring the importance of gentleness. In your relationships one to another, and if you're gonna come alongside and restore a struggling person, understand that you've got to do so in a gentle manner because if you are not gentle, you may provoke such a person to wrath, a harsh word that says here stirs up anger, and that's the last thing that you want to do.

On the contrary, you want to encourage and instill hope and help to mend the broken bone and help to, to, to put together this ruined net. Matthew 5:5, the Lord Jesus Christ himself says, Blessed are the gentle, blessed, happy are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 11:29, Jesus himself says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is described as gentle, he is gentle, and we are called to emulate him, and so as we engage in the ministry of restoration, we must do so with gentleness. He says, I am gentle. and humble of heart.

First Thessalonians 2:7, the apostle Paul in referring to himself and his companions when they ministered to the Thessalonians, he says, we proved We proved ourselves to be gentle among you. You saw how we lived, you saw how we treated you, you saw how we responded when we detected sin in your lives, you saw how our response was when we saw that some of you were overtaken by sin, and you noted, you saw, you can be, there's, there's no argument against us, we were gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.

And some of you have observed nursing mothers caring for their children. There is a gentleness, there is a sweetness to that.

The apostle Paul is likening himself to that nursing mother who tenderly cares for her own children. That is the way in which we were gentle while we were among you. First Timothy 3:3 Gentleness is a qualification for being an elder. An elder must not be pugnacious but gentle, uncontentious.

James 3:17, listen to what James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ himself said, James says, but the wisdom from above, and so when you're gonna come alongside and restore a person, you've got to have wisdom, you cannot Restore in the arm of your own flesh, in the strength of your own flesh, you need the Lord Jesus Christ, you need God, you need wisdom that comes from above, and so when you're gonna come alongside to minister to one, to restore one who has fallen, James 3:17 says the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable, gentle.

Reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy, but here James is talking about the wisdom that comes from above, it is marked by gentleness, there is a gentleness in how you come alongside, to restore a person. What Paul is describing here then is an antithesis to the spirit of legalism. Which is what Paul in Galatians is combating.

This gentleness ought to mark one's thoughts, their attitude, their disposition, their expressions, their bodily posture, their emotions, their speech, the tone that they use as they speak, the volume, the choice of words, their actions, their responses, and so on and so forth. Gentleness should just exude from the person that is seeking to restore someone who is Gone astray. Again, whether it's a church member, someone in the care group, or even a family member, a child or whatever, gentleness is absolutely essential.

Let us move on to the next point, then number 8, God's call to restore requires humility and caution.

God's call to restore requires humility and caution. Now follow along with me, he says restore. Such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Gentleness also carries the idea of humility, but I think humility flushes itself out a little bit more when we continue to read what Paul says immediately after, gentleness, each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.

This is a call to humility and caution. Here's the deal. Any time someone is caught in a trespass, and perhaps it is a trespass that for all intents and purposes is a life dominating sin in their lives and they're dealing with this, they're struggling with it and they're caught in it. Whenever you come alongside to restore such a person, that's what God calls you to do at some level, at some level, OK?

But whenever you come alongside to engage in the ministry of restoration, please note, you've got to be humble and you've got to be careful, OK? You've got to be humble in the sense that you dare not. come to a person with a holier than thou attitude as if I have it all together and I am going to impart to you the wisdom that you need so that you can be on, on the path you need to go. You want to be very careful that you approach this person with the attitude that basically communicates of all of the sinners, I am the foremost.

I am no better than you. And this sin that you're struggling with, yes, it is bad, but all this is, is a reminder to me of what is inside my own heart, and we are in this together, and I am here to bear this burden with you. You will not go it alone. OK, you've got to come at this person with an attitude of humility, you've got to communicate in no uncertain terms so that this person knows without doubt that you're not coming down on them, you're coming alongside, yeah, you are even coming underneath them and you're there to be a source of encouragement and blessing and you want to lift them up, you want to bear their burden with them.

But see there's this caution, and please listen to the caution. When you get involved in the life of a person struggling with sin, it may very well be that you do not struggle with that sin at all, but there is the potential as you come alongside and minister hour upon hour, day upon day, week upon week, month upon one as you minister. With this person and as you are in the trenches with this person, and as you're really trying to help them out, and as you're stepping in their shoes and trying to walk this walk with them, there is the potential that you can fall into the very same sin that that person is struggling with.

That's exactly what he says, each one looking to yourself lest you too be tempted.

And so this call to restore this ministry of restoration comes with a warning label. There is a caution that is associated with it, and that caution is as follows, helping one out of his or her sin increases the potential for you to struggle with that same sin. So what do we do? Well then, I'm not gonna get involved.

In some instances, who knows, that may be the course of wisdom, but ultimately what God wants is for us to be spiritual so that we can come alongside and restore. That's what he wants. And if you are spiritual and if you are coming alongside to restore, it is absolutely essential that you are basking in the glory of the gospel continuously. It is absolutely essential that you are throwing yourself down at the foot of the cross and that you are enjoying intimacy with the Almighty and that you are prayed up and that you are armed for battle.

And that what, to the degree that you're gonna be involved in the lives of people, ministering to them, trying to restore people, so to, to the degree that you must be on your knees before the throne of God's grace at the foot of the cross and taking in all that you can from the Almighty One, enjoying His presence. See, as we behold him. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 at the very end there, as we behold him, We are being transformed from one level of glory to the other. Conversely, then you might say as we behold sin and evil and wickedness, there's a transformation in the opposite direction that can happen.

So we want to be very careful, brothers and sisters also understand this if you are one who has been caught. In a, in a, in a sin, in, in a transgression, know that as people come alongside to minister to you and they should, but know that you have within you the potential to contaminate such a person, OK? just know, see sin is serious and God wants for the church to be pure. To be rid of sin, be holy, he says, even as I am holy.

So humility, And caution Moving on to number 9, God's call to restore requires perseverance. It requires perseverance. Listen to what Paul says. 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.

Verse 2, bear. One another's burdens. Again, we have a command. This is an imperative, present tense, active voice.

The idea is to keep on bearing. How long should I bear with this burden? How long shall I come alongside. This believer who has been tripped up and who has fallen, how, how, how much time, how much energy, how much effort, he says, bear with that person's burden.

He does not place a limit on it. He just simply says bear one another's burdens. And so this indicates a need for patience as well as perseverance. The burden that we're talking about can be understood as the burden of sin that such a person is struggling with and so this can take us back to the person who has been caught in a trespass.

I don't know that we are limited to that person and that type of burden, but that would definitely fall underneath the umbrella of the burden that is being talked about here. Bear one another's burdens. Heavy burdens, burdens of sin are tiresome. They leave the one carrying the burden worn out, even to the point of exhaustion.

God is calling those who are strong, those who are spiritual, to come alongside and help. Such a burden can be understood as sin, and thus the man caught in a trespass is carrying a burden. The spiritually strong are called to come alongside. And to help those carrying heavy burdens, and this person is being called to exercise patience, to persevere, to persevere.

I believe that somehow, some way or another, God in His sovereignty sometimes allows, it's not as if it's his A plus plan, but he allows Even for a believer to enter into a place of great testing, to come to a place of stumbling and falling, not that he's the author of sin, we want to be careful, but in his sovereignty within that context, he allows for, for a believer to be overtaken by sin, and he does it for our sanctification. How will you respond? Will you do anything? What will you feel in your gut?

When such a person is overtaken by sin, do you feel that? Do you find yourself broken? Do you find yourself concerned? Do you find yourself praying?

Do you find yourself weeping with and for that person? And in so doing, you're demonstrating the very heart and attitude of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Well, let's move to the last point, number 10, God's call to restore is ultimately a call to flesh out the gospel. That's what it's all about.

This is a fleshing out of the gospel. Let me read the entire passage one final time, drawing attention to the last bit there. 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, bear one another's burdens, and thus, And thus fulfill the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ?

It is the law of love. Where do we go to in order to more fully, to most fully understand and comprehend the law of love? We go to the very foot of the cross itself and we see Jesus laying there, hanging on a cross of wood, in total agony and excruciating pain. and we go there and we gaze upon Christ suffering with a crown of thorns pressed upon his brow and with the, with the, with the spikes driven through his hands and his feet, and we see him naked upon the cross in total humiliation and shame, and we listen to Jesus and we observe Jesus and we see him and we hear him, and he says, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

We see Christ dying on the cross, saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We observed that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself experienced that no man in his dying moment should ever have to experience total isolation. total abandonment, and we see him crucified on the cross as the res as, as the one who is restoring lost sinners into a relationship with himself. The cross is the grandest demonstration of restoration, and so when we heed the call to restore, what we in fact do, in effect do is we flesh out the gospel.

We flesh out the gospel. Can there be any question then that God calls his people into the ministry of restoration? Can there be any question then that when of someone who has been caught in any trespass, it could be any person that in some way, form, fashion or the other, God wants you, yes, you, the collective body of Christ, to stand up and to do something about it. It may be pray for that person, it may give that person a visit, it may be a note of encouragement, it may be, it may be some, it may be just direct counsel, I don't know, just come alongside, knock on the door, I will pray with you, I will pray for you.

It is something, but God holds us as the church responsible to heeding his call to restore those who have fallen, to restore those who have been caught in a tran transgression, who have been ensnared by sin. We can't, we can't just put our head in the hole. We can't just, look in the other direction. We're family.

We are family, purchased by the blood of Jesus. And we've got to do something. And God is calling the people of God, not just the pastors, not just the elders, he's calling the people of God to heed this call, to respond to the ministry of restoration, and so, our message has been entitled The Ministry of Restoration, 10 Truths that will instruct and motivate you to answer God's call to restore wayward believers. Let's review them.

Quickly, God's call to restore is a family matter. It implies that believers can in fact struggle with sin. It involves a community of believers. It requires being spiritual.

It is a command of God given to us through His word. It involves anyone with any sin. It requires gentleness. God's call to restore requires humility and caution.

It requires perseverance and God's call to restore at the end of the day is ultimately a call to flesh out the gospel. We began this morning with a question. What should you do if a believer has been overtaken by sin? And I trust that you have some answers to that question.

I trust that you have been instructed and informed and even motivated that, that, that God has taken you a distance anyway towards being able to answer the call to restoration in a way that would glorify Him and that would be, that would prove to be helpful to the body of Christ. I wanna ask the ushers if they would to come forward. And if you would bow your heads with me in prayer, If you filled out your information slip, please feel free to drop it off into the offering bag as it goes by.

Let us look to the Lord and let us pray to the Lord.

Father God, we thank you so much for your word, we thank you for its clarity, we thank you for its challenge, we thank you for its encouragement. We thank you, Lord, that in your word this morning, Lord, we laid, we were able to lay hold of you and your heart, oh God, you are loving and kind and compassionate and merciful, oh God, you've got your eye on the fallen ones, and you wish to go after such a person, but Lord, you call us to heed the ministry. of restoration, to listen to the call to restore and you're asking us to join you in your work, to be involved in the lives of people, to have relationships with one another so that out of, out of the overflow of these relationships when someone is caught we can come alongside and restore.

Oh Lord, fill us with your Spirit, oh Lord, forgive us for the ways in which we are complacent.

Forgive us, Lord, you understand who we are, you, our frame, that we are but dust, Lord, you understand our weaknesses, Lord, and better than we how much we need you, and we confess to you, Lord. Our ignorance, our weakness, our pride, our self-centeredness, our laziness, Lord, we confess these things to you as sin, and we pray, Lord, that you might grant to us the grace that we need to be like you. Oh God, help us. We pray Lord that you would take our offerings, you would multiply these for your glory, that you would advance your kingdom through the giving, Lord, that Lord, we would be, we would be faithful stewards of the monies that you have given to us, and that Lord, even as an elder board, we would use these funds wisely, Lord, help us and grant to us wisdom, Lord.

Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.