Temple Baptist Church - 9-22-2024
Galatians 6:1-10
Introduction:
A. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been exploring the importance of our context as it speaks of three states of believers. The key word of our context is the word “Brethren!”
Galatians 6:1 Brethren …
2 Thessalonians 3:13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
1. Paul writes to and about saved people when he classifies them as: Carnal, Spiritual, and Weary in well doing.
2. I believe that the Bible teaches that there are degrees in each:
a) Carnal – you do not get overtaken in one step but there is a process of decline that leads to it.
b) Weary – you do not just suddenly for from spiritual to weary, thus a process of slow decline.
c) Spiritual – not everyone is an Apostle Paul, though we can be such, but there is a slow spiritual growth involved.
3. If God only used a Paul or Peter, then He would have very few to work with. So, if you and I are not a Paul or Peter, we can still be used of God in His work.
B. Everyone of us fits into one of these three categories. It is not up to me to determine where each of you fit into these verses. It is up to me to determine where I am this morning.
C. Life is hard and full of disappointments and discouragements. Then, we live in the days of “fat bodies and lean souls.” But God’s grace and strength are still available!
D. We have discussed the carnal believer. He is in an ALMOST helpless condition. There are exceptions who see their condition, repent and get back right with God, but these are the few and not the majority. The majority of carnal believers need a little help from their friends and brethren to recover.
E. We have discovered the “weary in well doing.” This believer is slowing down then slipping down then stumbling down then falling. He/she will eventually become the carnal believer overtaken in a fault if this state is not corrected.
F. Now, let us look at the context. Who is the Apostle Paul speaking to? Not the carnal or already getting weary believers, but the spiritual believers. He is warning of the possibilities of slipping, stumbling, and falling while helping them to guard their spiritual state.
G. Now, you may not think that you are spiritual this morning.
1. I have often said that I never met a spiritual person who thought that he or she was spiritual!
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
2. Why? Because the more you give up of this world and get closer to God, the more that you see the things in your life that need to be corrected. The closer to the Light the brighter the Light the more dirt becomes apparent.
3. When we think that we are somebody, we become nobody. When we think that we are nobody, we become somebody because it is then that we rely upon Christ and Christ alone.
H. Spiritual is a descriptive term used for both men and women. Who is this spiritual man or woman? Believers who “walk in the Spirit.” Obedient to the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
J. How do they maintain spirituality?
1. By being Faithful. Proverbs 20:6 Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?
a. We live in days of unfaithful people, both saved and lost. People who cannot be depended upon to either be here or to serve. Not trying to discourage you, but just stating a visible fact.
b. By faithful, I mean a “steady roller” as we used to say in the mines. These were always there on the job. Some say that the greatest assets of an individual are availability and dependability.
2. By being Busy. Luke 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
a. Two things are found in this verse: “having put his hand to the plough” and not “looking back.” Spiritual believers are busy “ploughing!”
1) A spiritual believer is one that Ploughs. Interesting term because ploughing is tilling the ground. In the parable of the Sower, we see four types of ground that produce different “fruit.”
2) There was only one ground that produced and that was “good ground,” ground that was prepared by someone who ploughed it. One sows, one waters, and God is able to give the increase.
3) The work of the Lord is multifaceted and needs everyone to do his or her part in ploughing the field of the world! Who will go and work in God’s vineyard today?
b. A spiritual believer is one that is Purposed. He or she has their eyes on the Point.
1) Ploughing straight furrows in long fields requires one to pick a point in the distance and keep their eyes on the point. The purpose is to plough straight furrows!
2) The Point of the spiritual believer is the Lord Jesus Christ. When we keep our eyes on Him, we will plough right. When we get our eyes off Him, we plough crooked rows.
Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. By being a Sower! Not to sow right is to end up in one of the other two spiritual conditions found in our text: overtaken in a fault or weary in well doing.
a. The Direction Of Sowing – 8 “To the Spirit”
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
The inward fruit of the Spirit is a result to sowing to the Spirit. Hearing him speak in a “small still voice” that only the child of God can recognize.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
b. The Desire Of Sowing – 8 “Shall of the Spirit reap”
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Sowing to the Spirit is a desire live for Christ and not the world. Being heavenly minded and of much earthly good.
John 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
c. The Dividends Of Sowing - 8 “Life everlasting”
Galatians 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Sowing to the Spirit is trading the temporal for the eternal, the corruptible for the incorruptible.
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Matthew 6:19-20 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: (20) But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
d. The Discipline Of Sowing - 9 “Let us not be weary ... faint not”
1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Sowing to the Spirit takes spiritual discipline which brings about spiritual integrity which brings about spiritual character. Living for Christ is a hard road and one less often traveled.
e. The Dereliction Of Sowing - 9 “Weary in well doing
James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
Sowing to the Spirit is often hard and lonesome. Many get tired along the way.
Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
f. The Duty Of Sowing – 10 “Good unto all men ... especially ... household of faith”
1 John 3:13-19 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
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