We Need Each Other, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. He said the reason you do it generally and you want to restore people is because we are to love one another. We need each other.

You see, that's the point. Christianity is not a lone ranger affair. We need each other. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. Years ago, Charles Schulz in his classic comic strip Peanuts did what he so often did. He taught a remarkable truth in just a few short frames. In the very first frame, Lucy asked Charlie Brown, Why are we here on earth? A really profound question. And Charlie replies in the second frame to make others happy. Lucy frowns deep in thought. And in the third frame, she says, Then why are others here?

And that dilemma is really the dilemma for so many of us. Schulz is right. On the horizontal plane, we are here to make others happy. But I think so often we respond like Lucy. We really believe that the goal of others is to make us happy.

That'd be a mistake. The New Testament is saturated with one another's. What we should do for or to one another. Thirty nine times in the New Testament, you have a one another formula.

Twenty three different subjects. Some of them we are to accept one another. We are to pray for one another. We are to encourage one another. We are to edify one another. We are to show hospitality toward one another. We are to admonish one another. We are to serve one another. We are to confess our sins to one another. And then there's the all encompassing. We are to love one another. Because horizontally, that's why we're here. You see, why would God spend so much time telling us how important it is that we relate to one another?

I think it's simple. He knows something. We need each other. You see, I need you and you need me. We need each other as believers in Jesus Christ. And we are to love everybody, the lost as well as the saved. We are to love the lost by living out our lives and by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to be salt and light in this world. We are to love one another.

Our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to love one another in such a way that each of us help the other on their spiritual journey, that each of us help the other person grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, that each one of us, as we're being conformed to the image of Christ, that all of us partake in it together. You see, it was because of Paul's love for the Lord and his love for the lost and his love for his brothers and sisters in Christ, that he wrote the epistle to the Galatians. Paul loved the Galatians before they were even believers. He loved them so much that he shared the gospel of grace with them, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he loved them so much that when he found out that the Judaizers had come in and from their religious perspective, tried to change the gospel of grace and say you needed to believe in Jesus Christ, but you had to do certain religious things as well, particularly circumcision. It was because of Paul's love for them that he wrote that epistle. He called that another gospel. He said those who propagate that gospel should be anathema, that is, cursed. It was because Paul loved Peter that Paul was willing to admonish Peter in front of the whole church of Antioch, because Peter had fallen for the lure of religion.

And when the Judaizers came, he began to separate himself from Gentiles, even though God had given him through dreams three times, the clarity that he was not to view any food or any group of people was unclean. It was because of Paul's love for the Galatians that he spent two chapters, two chapters with six different approaches trying to make his case for grace. He used every possible way that he had at his disposal to teach that a person is saved by faith and faith alone in Christ and Christ alone. It is the grace of God. And then it was his love for the Galatians and ironically, his love even for us and his love for Christ, that he declared in Chapter five and verse one that grace has set us free.

Never underestimate those words. Grace has set us free. There is a freedom in being a believer in Jesus Christ. We are free. He says, stand firm against the slavery of religion.

I am free to stand firm. He also said then that we are free to overcome the power of our flesh in our life because God has given us his spirit and we are free to live our lives out under the control of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And then he says, and you will bear the fruit of the spirit in your life. And now as he comes to the end of the epistle, the apostle Paul says, because we are free, we have two great responsibilities, two great obligations to each other.

Would you open your Bibles to Galatians Chapter six? The first thing that the apostle Paul is going to tell us in those first five verses is this. We are free to have the responsibility. We are free to bear one another's burdens. That's a responsibility and obligation we have to each other in the body of Christ.

We are to bear one another's burdens. He starts off by talking about a particular one and then generalizes in verse one. He says, brethren, so we know it's in the context of the church.

He said, even if anyone is caught in any trespass. Now, it's interesting that he uses a term like that, caught. It's kind of an interesting word.

The word is Pro Lombano. And the word means a snare or a trap. When you set a trap or a snare, you try to catch a prey, a rabbit or a bird. And he's saying that's the way we're often caught in trespass. He's not talking about the long term premeditated thing.

In this case, he's talking about when we're caught. That's kind of interesting because have you ever been caught, just caught by a trespass? You might wonder and say, well, no, I don't think so. I bet you have. How many of you have ever had a great day? You're just having a great day. Some of you have two or three days in a row that are great.

You know, we envy you. But you're having this great day and it seems everything is right between you and the Lord. Everything seems right between you and the world. And then someone has a conversation with you.

That's all it is. Someone comes up and starts talking to you. Or something happens to you. Somebody pulls out in front of you in traffic. You get in the wrong line at the grocery store. You never think you're going to get out of there. Or you get a phone call and someone begins to talk to you. And whatever it is, have you ever noticed what can happen to your great day? Bam.

Caught. I mean, you know, you could be here right now in a very pleasant mood. You could have a conversation somewhere in the lobby or in the parking lot or even in a car with the person you came with. And what happens? I've seen it. I've seen people yelling at each other as they're leaving the parking lot.

They just came to worship Jesus and now they're yelling. You see, because that's what happens to us. You can have a conversation with something about something someone else has and all of a sudden you feel jealousy. You feel envy. It's immediate.

You might even gossip every now and then. Things change fast. And he says when someone is caught, he says anyone caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore. You see, religion or the legalist or the Judaizers, they're not into restoration. They're into condemnation.

They want to condemn you when they think you've done something wrong. Paul experienced that in Acts chapter 21. The Jews almost killed Paul and they killed him because they thought that Paul had defiled the temple by bringing a Gentile into the temple. All they had was an accusation. No proof.

They wanted to kill him for that. Paul says, if anyone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. Notice the idea, you who are spiritual.

Now you might think, well that leaves me off the hook. I'm not spiritual so I don't have to worry about that. That's why we pay the pastor. You see, that's his job.

But that's not really true. He doesn't mean spiritual in the sense of maturity. He means spiritual in a very different way. Look at 518. But I say to you, walk by the Spirit and you'll not carry out the desires of flesh.

516, excuse me. Then 518, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. And verse 22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and against such things.

There is no law. That's what he means. When you are not involved in sin in your own life and you are walking by the Spirit of God, you are living under the control of the Spirit of God, you can restore a brother or sister in Christ who are caught in a trespass. That's what he is saying.

And it's all of our responsibility. And notice, he uses the word restore. That's a great word. The word itself is katartizo. And katartizo has a very particular meaning. It's what the words the Greek used to when you had to mend a fishing net. If you had to mend a net, you katartizoed it. Or if you had to set a broken bone, you katartizoed it. To mend or to set.

And it has something built into it. Why do I mend a fishing net? So that it will work like a fishing net.

I mean, if you have a net and it's got a gigantic hole in it, it's not going to really work very well as a fishing net. And so when you katartizo it, you make it so it works as a net. But if you have a bone set, what's the point? You want to restore the bone. You want to be able to walk again. You want to be able to run again.

He said, that's the word I want to use. In other words, when you restore a brother and sister in Christ who are caught in sin, you restore them back to their function in the body of Christ. You restore them so that they can live the life God intended them to live. That they can contribute to the glory of God. That they can restore others. That they can be back on track with the Lord.

That's what he says. Brethren, if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. And now he tells us the attitude we're to have. The spirit should be gentleness.

See, this is a problem for some of us. Gentleness. When you're going to restore someone, you would do it in a gentle spirit. See, the Judaizers would not be gentle. You know enough of the New Testament and the Gospels. How were the Pharisees at this? Were they gentle with people?

Not at all. God was never gentle. He said, but you are spiritual. You do it.

You restore them. And you do it with a spirit of gentleness. Why?

Well, I think there's at least three reasons. One, the Lord is gentle. You see, how did the Lord restore people? Remember the woman who was caught in adultery in John 8? How did the Lord treat her? Now remember, the enemies brought her in. And it's still ironic, by the way, one person really can't commit adultery. So if you're bringing someone in for adultery, you need to bring them both.

So you know this was a setup. But what I want you to understand is how did the Lord treat her? Gentle.

Neither do I condemn you. He did tell her to go and sin no more. But he was gentle with her. What about the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman? What about that woman? The woman who had all those husbands and Jesus said, and the man that you're living with is not your husband. Was he harsh with her or was he gentle with her?

He's extremely gentle. What about someone who should have known better? What about one of the disciples who is one of the inner three? What about Peter who three times denied Jesus Christ? When he met Jesus Christ again, how did Jesus restore him?

Do you remember? Do you remember what Jesus did? Jesus said, Peter, do you love me? Peter said, yes, Lord.

Then he said, feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord.

Then 10 to the flock. Peter, do you love me? Lord, you know that I love you. You see, what was his attitude toward Peter? Gentle. You see, you don't do it with a hostile attitude. You do it with a gentle attitude. And the reason is that Jesus Christ himself was gentle. There's another reason we should be gentle. We're all vulnerable ourselves, all of us.

We all need this from time to time. Jesus spoke of it differently. Hold your place here and go to Matthew chapter 7, the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7 and verse 1.

Jesus is going to give us a picture of how we should go about this. Jesus says in verse 1 of Matthew 7, do not judge so that you will not be judged. He said, for in the way that you judge, you will be judged.

And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. That's a warning. He's warning you about your attitude, how you judge people. And then he says this. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? He said, or how can you say to your brother, let me take that speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye.

Jesus says, you hypocrite. He said, first you got to take the log out of your own eye, and then you'll be able to clearly take it out, the speck out of your brother's eye. It always has to begin with you first. That's one of the reasons we have to be gentle.

We have to be, we're vulnerable ourselves. Imagine all of you have had something in your eye from time to time. You ever get something in your eye, a little speck? And then you've got to get someone to help you.

You know what it's like. Someone comes up, they say they'll help. They now pull your eye, they push your eye open, they get out of Kleenex and they twirl it, you know, get a little point on it, and you're moving like this and your eye's moving around, and they're trying just to touch. Now, I want you to imagine you have a speck in your eye, and I say, hey, look, I'd like to help you. And I come up to you and I have a popsicle stick stuck in my eye. All right?

And it's just stuck there. Now, what are you going to think? You're going to think, I think I'm going to use somebody else.

You know, because the whole point is, how do you restore, how do you take a speck out of someone's eye when you have a popsicle stick in your eye? That's what Jesus is saying. He says to begin with you, we're all vulnerable, and that's what he said.

You have to judge yourself before you start judging other people. Back to Galatians. The Lord was gentle, we're all vulnerable, and when we do it in a gentle way, we fulfill the law of love. Remember what he said last week in verse 13 of chapter 5. For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, you serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. He said in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The law of love.

You see, it's the law of love. He said the reason you do it generally and you want to restore people is because we are to love one another. We need each other.

You see, that's the point. Christianity is not a lone ranger affair. We need each other. It's interesting, in John 13 and John 15, Jesus was talking to the disciples and he said to them, I'm going to give you a new commandment. And he said that you love one another.

And what makes it new is the part he adds on. He said because if you love one another, all men will know you're my disciples. In other words, if we love each other the way that Christ says we are to love each other, all people, notice, that aren't in the body will know that we're disciples of Christ. I hate to say this, but that's certainly not the reputation of the church. You won't find people who are unchurched, want nothing to do with church, and they will say, well, you know, I'm not sure about the claims of Jesus Christ that he's God incarnate. They lived a perfect life, that he died a substitutionary death on the cross for man.

But you know what? I have never seen people who love each other like Christians do. I've never seen that. Christians love each other in a way that's just amazing. No one says that. You ask people in our culture what they think of people in the church and you know what they usually say? Judgmental.

Condemning. We should be known by the way we love one another. And by the way, if you love each other that way, there'll be the path to your door because all of us want that in our lives. So we need to be gentle because the Lord was gentle. We're all vulnerable and we fulfill the law. He says we fulfill the law of love.

Notice then, he then says this. He says in verse two, bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ or the law of love. Bear one another's burdens.

This is more than just when someone sins. Life's a burden for a lot of people. You know, it's tough. I remember years ago reading an author, a Christian psychiatrist who said, life is wounded. You know, you live your whole life wounded.

He's right. Life's not easy. We need to bear one another's burdens. And the word for burdens there is the word buras, and it means a heavy load. And I don't know about you, but I think everybody I know, including myself, there are times in your life where you go through a heavy load. And boy, to have somebody go through it with you, a brother and sister in Christ who would go through with you, who would listen to you, who would pray with you, who would encourage you.

You see, it's tremendously important for us. We are free to bear one another's burdens, and we do it with gentleness, and we do it with humility. Look at verse 3.

He said, if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. We should be humble about this. You see, if you believe in the grace of God, there's one thing then. You can't be proudful. You can't be.

That's an oxymoron. Because grace means unmerited favor. Grace means that God has given me the gift, and all I have to do through faith is receive it. And so consequently, what am I proud of? You see, how could I be proud? Christ did everything. All I did was put my faith in him.

That's it. You see, there's no place for pride. And that's why Paul says, if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Remember Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, that's all you have. It was said centuries ago that even evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. That's evangelism.

We're all beggars. And all you're doing is telling someone else. How we can be proudful about this is beyond Paul. Then he says in verse 4, each one must examine his own work. And he says, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another.

Now, please understand something here. He is not trying to say, he's not advocating boasting. What he is saying, though, is if you really look at yourself, you won't be proudful. You won't boast. I mean, really examine yourself. What have you done in the last week? Last week.

Worst things you've done. Let me go further. How about your thoughts? How about your thoughts?

Do you have any thoughts in the last week? Impure? Anger? Jealousy? Envy? Any of these things?

Do you have any of that? Really examine yourself. Has that shown up in your life at all? You see, and Paul says when you do that, now boast.

And of course you can't. See, that's exactly what religion or the Judaizers couldn't do. Remember the Pharisee who stood on the temple grounds and said, God, I thank you that I'm not a sinner like that guy right there. I am such a righteous man.

That's what religion can do. But there's no room for boasting in grace. And then he says, for each one will bear his own load. And here, though, the word is not the same as the burden. This is a different word. This is the word for time. And it means a soldier's pack. It means a lightweight pack that a soldier uses, a Roman or Greek soldier, to move into the battlefield.

It has only a few essentials in it. Each one of us have to carry our own lightweight burden. But we should all try to help the other person carry the heavy burdens that are on them. So far, Paul then has said, we are free by grace. We are free to stand firm against a slavery religion. We are free to overcome the power of our own flesh in our lives. We are free to live our lives under the control of the Spirit of God and bear its fruit. And he says, and we are free to bear one another's burdens.

Free to apply the law of love. There's something more, though. In order to do that, doesn't that require something? Real relationships with people. You can't bear burdens of someone if you don't have real relationships.

You can't. You see, it just doesn't work that way. And that's one of the sad things. So many Christians don't have real relationships with other Christians.

And I don't mean, the churches try to address that, all churches, over the years. And so they try to have a small group or a support group. They try to put people together. And they think that maybe this will work.

And sometimes it does, but so often it doesn't. And the reason is to have this kind of relationship with someone that you can bear the burden and that you can restore them if you're caught in a trespass. It's going to require something of that relationship.

You better have a trusting relationship. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com.

That's oneplace.com. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .