The Obligation of Liberty

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, June 24. Most of the time, the focus of liberty in Christ is about how it affects us personally and individually. Today, the Book of Galatians challenges you to see how your commitment to walking and freedom should impact others. The Bible had one word on it, and that's others. And that was the key, I believe, of his whole life, always thinking about others.

If you think how many times in the Bible, it talks about loving one another, here bearing one another's burdens, pray for one another. And what he's really saying in the sixth chapter, the first part here is this, that having been redeemed and delivered from this hang up and this bondage of trying to match up to acceptance of others and match up to expectation, we think God has. We know that we are freed and liberated.

Now watch this very carefully. Now that we've been freed from all of that, we are free to best do what? To love somebody else. Listen, if you are hung up on trying to get God's acceptance, you have little to give to somebody else if your whole life is wrapped up in trying to get you straightened up. That's why sometimes people say, well, I'll tell you, I just can't get involved in that because I got enough problems of my own.

What they're saying is I've got my own hang ups and I'm in my own bondage to the point that there's not much I can do for anyone else. So he spent the first five chapters telling us how freed and liberated we are because of our relationship to Jesus Christ. Now on the basis of that, and because we've been set free by the grace of God and the work of Christ in our life through the Holy Spirit, now that you and I have been set free and know that we're accepted, now it is time for us to understand their obligation.

It isn't that we've got to match up. We know that we're free. So it waits till five chapters later after the five chapters of telling us how free we are to say now, based on your knowledge and understanding and experience of your freedom in Jesus Christ, now is the time you need to understand that that is an obligation with it. And that obligation is to love somebody else. So notice, if you will, what he says in chapter five, verse twenty six, he said, Let us not be desirous of vain, empty praise of men and conceit, provoking one another.

That is challenging each other and getting in a competitive spirit with some other Christian. He says, Don't do that. And in being one another, he says, None of that's of God.

Now, you've just been liberated from all the hang ups. So he says, remove yourself from that. And then he tells us here what our obligations are. Our first obligation as a liberated believer is what? My first obligation, he says, is to restore a fallen brother. Look in verse one. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Now, listen, notice what he says. He says overtaken in a fault. What that means is that a man slips up. It's a fault step, a blunder, a slip, a lapse in his life. He says a man who's overtaken in a fault. He doesn't intend to do that. And he says when he does, it is our responsibility to restore him. That is to repair him.

And the same word in the Greek here is like repairing a broken leg. He says when we see a brother who has been overtaken, that is Satan has snared him. He didn't intend for it to happen. He's overtaken.

The scripture says something grabbed him and he's overtaken in a fault. He says the liberated brother. Now, watch this.

And I cannot tell you how important this is. Listen to me. The liberated brother. And he's the only one who can really do a good job at this, who is not worried about whether that fellow who's been overtaken in a fault accepts him or not. He's not trying to get his acceptance. He's not trying to get his approval.

He's not trying to get into liking. But because he's liberated, he's to go after his brother and attempt in a delicate fashion, whatever the problem may be, to restore him and to repair his fellowship with Jesus Christ and his fellowship with his brethren. He's not talking about a lost man. He says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, he's talking about a Christian brother who slips and falls. He says, now do that remembering this. He says, do it in the spirit of meekness, not you blew it.

And we say, you know, we could see beforehand you aren't going to make it doing what you were doing. Now, let me show you something here, because there are two ways to come to a brother. You can come to him in the spirit of legalism or the spirit of love.

That's the only two ways to go. Remember the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery that brought to Jesus and throw down said, now, good master, what do you say? The law says, stone her to death. Here are the legalists.

She's a fallen woman. Stone her to death. That's what the law says. That's what legalism says.

Give her her just rewards. That's the response of legalism. When a fellow gets down, kick him real hard. And then when you've kicked him, you just sort of grind him in the dust spiritually.

After all, he had the same chance you did. The response of love is what Jesus said. Neither do I condemn the go and sin no more. Let me tell you something.

There's not a man or woman in here whose feet are not made of soft clay. And you know what he says? He says, restore such in one in the spirit. Listen, of meekness, of humility and love, not from the point of view of a legalist.

You should have known better. But in love, which says, man, God's forgiven you. I've forgiven you because for the grace of God, it could have been myself in the spirit of meekness. Why in the spirit of meekness? Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. There's not a one of us that is beyond, beyond temptation and falling, not a one of us. He says, whatever we do, it is to be in the spirit of love and not from the legalistic viewpoint. Well, after all, you had the same chance I did.

So why did you blow it? Because he says, if you do, you must remember that any one of us can fall. Second thing he says we must do because we've been liberating, not worried about people's opinions, not trying to get their acceptance. He says, we're to bear one another's burdens. Verse two says, bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. He says, we're to get up under the burden of somebody else and help them share whatever they're carrying. Now, you know, the best burden bearers there are.

The folks who had to bear the same burden. There's just something about knowing how it feels, isn't it? When somebody comes to you laughing and joking, say, I hear you're in trouble and I want to help you out.

Boy, don't give me that kind of help. If my heart's broken and I'm shattered, I want you to come to me, letting me know that you're getting up under burden because you know exactly how heavy that is. He says we are to bear one another's burdens. That's part of the obligation of the believer. He says, fulfilling the law of Christ.

What did Jesus say, for example, the two laws that satisfied all the rest of them? He said we're to do what? Love God and then what?

Love my neighbor as myself. Now, listen, look at that. If I love somebody else the way I love myself, I'm going to hurt with him.

That's bearing one of those burdens. All right, let's move on. He says, for if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Now, I want you to notice what he means here. He says what a man does when he thinks he's morally superior to other people. Satan subtly uses that sense of moral superiority in order to back him off to say, well, you know, that's not my responsibility because I wouldn't do that.

I'll tell you, Satan can trick us, trap us and suddenly deceive us in more ways than we could ever imagine. That's what he's saying. He says, now, don't let yourself think that you are morally superior, that you're beyond temptation because what you do, you're deceiving yourself. And what you're doing is you will shirk your responsibility to bear someone else's burden and attempt to restore a brother. Verse four. But he says, let every man prove his own work. Then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. Now, what he means here by proving is the word is dakimadzo, which means to be tested, to be tested and the end result is to have approval. That is, that you stood the test. He says, let every man prove his own work, that his own work and his own, that is, test himself out.

Then he knows that his rejoicing is in what God is doing in his life and not something that he's doing. And he's not comparing himself with someone else. He says, not in another. We're not to compare ourselves with other people because, you see, there's just one you. So you can't be inferior. How can you be inferior when there's nobody to compare you with? Anybody else would be an unjust comparison because there's only one you and God intended that you be different. So he says, don't compare yourself with each other.

All right. Verse number five here. He says here we are in verse five.

What he's saying is because I'm a liberated believer, I am to maintain my responsibility. And look at this verse. For every man shall bear his own burden. Now, here's the difference. The fellow up here in verse two is really loaded down with something that he needs to get off of. But there it is.

Verse five. This fellow also has a burden. But this man is like a soldier who has his pack on his back. He's got a tent rolled up in that pack and a shovel hanging down beside it and the stakes. And he's got a food compartment and so forth there. So he's got a pack on his back. It's a burden.

It weighs 20 pounds. He's on a 40 mile hike. He'd like to get rid of it after the first mile. But it's there now for him. That burden is a responsibility in his training as a soldier. He is responsible for carrying his own tent, his own shovel, his own food, his own ammunition, all the rest. That's part of his responsibility. So he's not to let anybody else carry that. And he's not to shirk that responsibility by giving it to someone else. As a liberated believer, God says that you and I have certain responsibilities that we are to fulfill because we are God's believers. And those responsibilities are God given responsibilities not to bear us down and weight us down, but they are there because that's part of living. And you see, we can't shirk our responsibility by saying, well, I'm a liberated Christian. God doesn't expect anything of me.

And you see, for the first five chapters, I have emphasized, underlined, overemphasized. You don't have to do anything to be accepted. You're freed in the eyes of God. But that does not mean that I do not have some responsibility as a believer.

For example, you have a Sunday school class to teach on Sunday. You don't show up. You say, I'm free. Well, that's a distortion of freedom because God freed you in order that he may use you to the maximum of those people so you don't show up. That's not freedom. That is irresponsibility. So he says here that we have a responsibility in some areas. And the word here for burden in the Greek is fortion, which is a different word than you find up here in verse two. And that word is baros, which means weight.

So we're talking about two different kinds. I am to share my brother's burden. But then there are some burdens that I can't give anybody else because they belong to me because I'm a child of God. Move on to verse six. He says, Let him that is taught in the word communicate. And that word here is the word cornea, which means fellowship and the word here in the as a verb tense is to share or to give or to participate in.

And here's what he's saying. Let him that is taught in the word of God share in or share unto or with him that teaches in all good things. Which says, for example, the body of Christ, when someone teaches you the word of God, you are to share in that person's life in all good things.

For example, the word communicate here means the sharing. And as a liberated believer, we are to share with those because our life is being blessed through them. He says we're to communicate all good things to them. Verse seven. He says now, likewise, as a liberated believer, I am to invest my life wisely. He says, Don't you be deceived. God is not mocked.

That is, you can't turn up your nose at God. For what several men soweth, that shall he also reap. If he sows to his flesh, he's going to reap corruption.

If he sows to his spirit, he's going to reap life everlasting. Let me show you what he means here. He says, Don't be deceived. Who's the author of deceit? The devil. He says, Don't let Satan deceive you to think that knowing the truth, you can turn up your nose to God.

Because here's what he says. There is a law in the universe. It will never be changed. It is the law of sowing and reaping. He instituted that when he created the world. So here is the principle in the universe.

It can't be changed. I reap what I sow, more than I sow, later than I sow. And if you live to be a million years old, you won't change the law. That's why he says, Be careful, don't be deceived. He says, You're going to sow in one or two directions. He says, You will either sow your life to the flesh. That means that you will, listen now, you will invest your thinking to fleshly things. That is, sensual ideas or greed or jealousy or envy or whatever it might be.

He says, You can sow your thinking processes that way. And in return, you will get back into you what jealousy, envy and sensuality and greed will reap. That is, when you become sensual, you distort your life and God's plan in your life. When you become bitter, you reap the rewards of bitterness, which is dissension within.

Broken up emotionally within, a divided mind, a leak in your energy, all kinds of things happen. He says, Now, if I sow to the flesh, if I attempt to gratify my flesh and I get out of the Lord's will, the only thing that I want is I want to satisfy me the appetites, the human natural appetites of the man or the woman. If that's what I sow my thinking and my energy and my time and my money and my talent to, I'm going to get what all that reaps and sow to the flesh, I get flesh. More flesh and later, I'm going to get everything I sow, I'm going to get more of it and later than I sowed it. And that's why you and I need to say to our children, Here is the will of God. And if you step out of that thinking that you're going to wait till you get about 25 years of age, then you're going to get your life straight.

And I want to tell you, you can wreck a whole lot of lifetime from 18 to 25. He says, Don't let Satan deceive you, thinking that you can sow and sow and sow and sow and sow and sow and sow to the flesh and reap in the Spirit. He says it is a divine law that says you cannot do it. On the other hand, he says, if you direct your mind to spiritual things, soaking up the Word of God, fellowshiping with people who will build you up, seeking the mind of God, wanting to know the Lord, walking in the ways of God, learning to trust Him, learning to pray, sharing your faith.

He says you're going to reap all that that brings and you're going to reap more than you sow and you're going to reap it for a whole lifetime. In fact, beyond that, into eternity, when you deliberately premeditate, decide beforehand, program to sin against Almighty God. And in your hip pocket, you have the promise of forgiveness.

So why not? After all, God's going to forgive me. There's one thing you forget. Even though God forgives me, that doesn't eliminate the consequences of certain sins.

No way to eliminate it. He says, if you notice in verse nine, Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we think not. What is He saying here? He says don't lose heart, don't despair in well-doing.

You say, you know, man, I've plotted along for years and tried to do my best and wanted to be what God. He says don't lose heart in doing the right thing, for in due season we shall reap if we think not. Verse ten, as we, listen, as we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. You know what He's saying? He says as the opportunity presents itself to us, as liberated believers, not trying to get anybody's approval, not worried about their rejection, not worried about all the things we used to be worried about, but just because we're liberating and freeing Him and accepted by Him, He says let us do good, let us do good to what? All men.

And isn't this interesting? He said especially those fellow Christians. Now, only you know where you are in your own emotional makeup if you're freed, liberated, unhung, and just joyous in the Lord. And if you are, He says, start pouring your life out into somebody else. And if you're not, you need to get freed and the primary obligation of the liberated person, pouring their life into somebody else and loving them. And listen, the more you pour, the more you get filled up.

And the more you pour, the more you get filled up. Not because you want to prove anything, just because you love. That will magnetize this unbelieving world. Thank you for listening to The Obligation of Liberty. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.