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Fellowship - Brethren By Richard Wilson

Let's read from Galatians chapter 6. We'll just read that one chapter together and we're
concentrating on the first five verses this Lord's day under brethren the idea
of us being brethren and now he's talking concerning the necessity of true
fellowship that comes by the Spirit. We've been talking a lot about the
walk of the flesh and the walk of the Spirit. Now if we are walking in the Spirit
there will be a kind of fellowship that Christ will be at the center of and our
love for Christ will be expressed in all our relationships amongst the brethren.
As we continue in the Paul's letter to the Galatians we come now to the first
five verses of chapter 6 and we have been looking at the anatomy of a
Christian and that anatomy is one that is constitutionally under the Spirit or
walking under the dominion of the Spirit. It doesn't mean to say that the flesh has no place
within the Christian's life because there is a constant warfare going on
between the life of the flesh and the life of the Spirit. But the life
of the flesh as the Apostle Paul says is crucified. It doesn't mean to say it's dead
it's still alive on the cross and still railing against our new life that has
been born again of the Spirit and now that we are born again of the Spirit we
are now walking according to the Spirit governed by that principle or the law of
the Spirit as the book of Romans speaks of in chapter 8. In other words we are no
longer under the dominion of the flesh that is perishing. We are under the
dominion of the Spirit and therefore the life of holiness, the life of
righteousness, the life of love is now possible to emanate from our lives
personally, directly and with measurable
outcomes in our life. And it's from this we are led to renovate any relationship
that is amongst the brethren. Now the brethren are those who have similarly
experienced the same redemption as we have in Christ. They have similarly been
born again of the Spirit. They have a love for the Lord Jesus Christ now because
the Spirit brings us to understand what he has done for us and what he is doing
on our on on our behalf now as he intercedes on our behalf constantly and
without without any remittance in his care for us. We also notice among the
brethren that there is a love for the Word of God. We are those that do not
attach ourselves loosely as a coat is put on a hook in the hallway of a house
somehow we are associated with the Word of God but we are those that exude the
very living Word that takes root in our hearts and that the doctrines and the
teaching of the Word of God become ever increasingly part of our lives. That is
where we get our lead from. We don't get our lead from secular books. We don't get
our understanding of how we're going to live this life from the latest self-help
book in psychology or business tactics. We are those that come to the Word of
God reverentially because it is the Word of God to us. It's inspired. It is without
error. It is something that is utterly personal to us because the Spirit of God
within us feeds on the Word of God that comes into our hearts and there's no
discontinuity between the God in the Godhead. The Word of God coming to us and
the Spirit of God within us finds natural fellowship within our hearts and
there's a confirmation that God's Word is true to us. And so as brethren we are
those who come together from all sorts of backgrounds. We come together from
sometimes very dislocated, strangely separated backgrounds. But soon as we
come amongst the people of God there is a fellowship that can only be there
because the Spirit lies within the midst of his people and that there is a
immediate fellowship. Now it is true that we would probably have nothing to do
with some of the people that we do with the church if we are in the world. They
come from different cultural backgrounds, they come from different socio-economic
levels and come from different interests. But when we come together, quite frankly
I'd have to say those that are my brethren here today are far closer to me
than my blood brother who does not know the Lord. Far closer and it would be
easier for me to to give my whole to you then it would be to even to my blood
brother or brothers who do not know the Lord. Now it doesn't mean to say that we
don't have any interest in our in our families or anything like that, I'm not
suggesting that whatsoever, but in terms of degrees and in terms of our affection
it comes from God the Holy Spirit. God our Father himself has melded our
hearts together in such a manner that really there is something other than the
flesh in all this. Now if this is clearly seen there is the most immediate test of
your spirituality is how we interact with the brethren. I can recall as a
matter of my own testimony, before I was converted I recall attending the church
almost every Sunday and it was in the Anglican Church in Sydney and they were
very kindly people. They put up with a lot of nonsense from me but I always saw
them as being prickly little pairs, little small minded people. I always saw
them as being people that really didn't have the note of reality about them. They
were not men of the world or people of the world and I used to to look down at
it. They were unrealistic, they were not really people that I immediately attached
myself to. I was far more interested in the worldly aspirants of of my workplace
but I can recall when coming to know the Lord on that night in Sailors Bay
Road in Northbridge in Sydney, I can recall the sense of forgiveness that
fell over my soul. There was just mercy that flooded in my soul, the love of God
just flooded in my soul and my attitude had immediately changed to all those
Christians that were scattered around in my life. Particularly my cousin
Elizabeth who I always found as being very pokey about all sorts of
things. She was very prim and proper and the first thing I did I said I must
go and see Elizabeth and tell her what's happened to my life and I went to see
Elizabeth and she was overwhelmed with joy. She said you know that naughty little
boy that used to come to our house when he was three years old, I prayed for him
once and this has been this day has been the answer to that prayer and I felt so
humbled that she had taken that interest in my soul in that early early years of
my life. There's an immediate, immediate oneness that I had with my friends that
were Christians and there was a certain dislocation that was taking
place with my friends in the world even to the point that the young girl I was
going out with that was going to, that we were contemplating in marriage. I asked
her that night, not long before I got converted, I said are you a
Christian? We used to go to church every Sunday and she said coolly and comely
and says no I'm not and I said if you're not a Christian what's that make me?
Well think about that yourself you silly duffer and I said to him said to her
well that sent me the spin and as this is a word, an invisible hand came between us
and we separated, to my benefit, we separated. See our relationships with one
another is affected by our becoming a Christian and you will find that the
those who are born again in the spirit will be your natural children in the
spirit, your natural friends and and your your brethren in the spirit. It is
something that comes to us quite instinctively, internally. It's not
something we have to have to conjure up. There's a unity that exists among those
immediately who are born again in the spirit. Now of course the church is made up with
many people who are not born again in the spirit and there is often conflict
within the church because the church is made up with of people who professively
are Christians and people there actually are Christians and very often those
people come into conflict and often internally within the church the
sheep are having battles with the goats within the church. Now we can't see that
Now I understand that the church, the goats and sheep in the ancient Near East
are very similar in appearance and the only way in which you can tell a goat
and a sheep in the Middle East is the way the tail is either up or down. I'm told
that if the tail's down then it's quite clearly a sheep. If the tail's up there's
a different sort of animal there altogether and it's very hard for us to
tell and we can be living alongside and worshipping alongside people that yet
not know the Lord and yet they think they do. They attach themselves to the
church for conscience sake not for the fact that they have been redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb. And so the important thing for us is that's where the
believers are and the brethren are there is an instinctive sense of fellowship
that we'll have if we have been born again in the spirit. This doesn't mean to say
that we need to not work at our relationships even with believers
because there is the flesh in every believer's world. There is every all
sorts of states of maturity amongst believers and therefore there is always
a sense of unfinished state within the church and there may well be difficulties
and sins as we move up against each other that need to be resolved so that
our unity in Christ can be more perfectly expressed to the world. And so
the word one another is three times used in the passage that we have before us
and it says clearly
and so fulfill the law of Christ for if anyone thinks himself to be some
something when he is nothing he deceives himself but let each
one examine his own work and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and
not in another for each one shall bear his own load. Now the first portion we
have here brethren it says if a man is overtaken in a trespass or a sin you
who are spiritual shall in one shall restore such a one in the
spirit gently of all gentleness considering yourself lest you also be
tempted. Now the contrast between this verse and verse previously where it says
in verse 26 of chapter 5 let us not become the conceited provoking one
another envying one another. Now there is a danger in this even though amongst
believers and I'm not talking about the goats within the church because very
often they are unreconcilable but I'm talking about genuine believers that we
have become understanding that there has been a steady and growing
relationship with all those we we have in the church that generally know what
the gospel really is in their hearts. Conceit can be that is that spirit of one
upmanship that spirit of thinking you're better than the other is a most
destructive thing within the church and within the fellowship of the church
because we can provoke one another and we can be envying one another in all
sorts of ways. Later earlier on it says I can't find that anyway we'll come back
to that later on but here it says the way to resolve this is if any man is
overtaken by trespass you who are spiritual restore such a one in the
spirit of gentleness considering yourselves. Now as any body you know a
physical body is able to restore itself and heal itself sometimes we need to
have rest to do that but there is a sense in which the body is able to deal
with with light diseases that and it will restore itself because there's
immune system going on then there there is there's a way in which the the body
is able to re-restore itself even if you cut yourself the body is able to heal
that that cut and and eventually the skin grows back over and the everything
is restored again. Now so it is in the body of Christ the body of Christ which
is the Church of Jesus Christ must come to that understanding that we are those
that are going to be involved with the body so that the body is going to
restore itself and that is true of everyone who walks in the spirit being
walking the spirit is not some private mystical experience but there is
practical relationships expressed in our love for Christ and for one another
in all sorts of life experiences that we have with each other in in the Church of
Jesus Christ. So the emphasis here is on the brethren that is on our oneness with
one another our relationship with one another and every believer in the body
of Christ is not essentially and this this whole relationship we have with
everyone everyone it doesn't say here that we are that the leadership is to
somehow restore the church and it comes to time and it's not the focus here at
church discipline I don't believe it is but it's referring to those within the
church that are spiritually able to deal with certain difficulties that the
churches are finding within itself then we are all responsible to each other to
be concerned and to in a spirit of gentleness to care for one another
bear each other's loads and uphold one another. I've been in churches that have
seen glaring mistakes, glaring sins that are emerging within a church and I've
talked to people about it from an outsider's point of view so why don't
you do something about it? Oh the elders won't do anything about it they
you know they're not doing anything about it and I often I've actually
pointed into this verse it says well it doesn't say the elders you who are
spiritual restore one another in the spirit of gentleness and if are you
spiritual oh yes I'm not doing that sin and well so go ahead and do it go ahead
and resolve it and be those who take responsibility for this. Certainly the
elders do have a responsibility that may may have to be used at another level
altogether but this is not abrogating the responsibilities of all of us to
care for each other and bear each other's loads. Now we might ask the
question what are the kinds of things that need to be acted upon? Now this
trespass as the AV says or fault. Other translations use transgression. All of
this just refers to sin but more than more than not it is attitudes that are
designed to be the top dog and there is easily very easy for us to get into that
condition. The old AV used to say vainglory for conceit and vainglory is a
very good word for conceit and if we are conceited it's very easy for us to
provoke one another and to egg one another on and tear each other apart
envying one another you know being jealous of another's position or
another's another's job or another's family and we'd like to bring him down
to size and so we we try and belittle our brethren rather than hold them up. We
want them, we want them our size, we don't want them bigger than ourselves. We feel
more comfortable that way if we're living in a worldly situation that's how
they would handle it. Well that is not what we are to do. This does not mean
that we are to correct our brother because of all sorts of reasons if there
might be cultural problems, there may be scruples that we have that we think
another should have, there might be lifestyle differences that gets on
our irks and we say that they ought to change that. It's not referring to those
sort of things at all. It's referring to those sort of things that really are
harming the fellowship of the Church and the testimony of Christ. The kind of
things that believers should be able to see commonly among all of us that if
there is unacceptable, I mean all sins unacceptable, but remembering that we are
always those that are under reconstruction, we are all always those
that are maturing, we are those that are at various stages of sanctified
living as the Spirit works upon us and therefore we should be bearing one
another who are weaker. The stronger should be bearing the weaker in the
fellowship of the Church. So it's not being fault finding for the
sake of finding faults in one another, but things that are glaring, that need to
be resolved, in terms of relationships that are within the Church, there is
something that needs to be resolved, we ought to resolve it. And so it is, we're
not to be spiritual policemen, running around every detail of people's lives
and sort of saying oh I noticed that you had the television on on Sunday.
Oh naughty. And getting that one sorted out. Well it may not be a good idea to have
television on Sunday. There probably isn't and some of you have got very
strong views about that. But another is not as strong as you on that matter, it's
not going to make any difference. If a person hasn't come to that conclusion
that we're not to put television on Sunday, it's best for the Lord to get to
the get to the conviction about that, rather than us fault finding and picking
and putting people under, because of such a sin. Now I don't know, you've got to be
very careful about that kind of spiritual policeman type attitude, because
that in itself can cause real untold resentment that's not really helpful for
the general harmony of the body of Christ. So as we are identifying things
that need to be resolved, often it's a matter of people just not exhibiting the
spiritual graces they should be exhibiting in their relationships with one
another, we can often say look brother really you really need to sort this one
out. There's a lot of things I find it very hard to do but this is really
getting under the under the skin of a few people what you're doing and I
suggest you repent of it right away. That kind of thing is helpful for us to
make sure that we are looking to it. Those courses are other other really
deep-seated problems within the church that can really tear a church apart and
these may be issues that must be dealt with by by the leadership of the church
directly and specifically under the process of church discipline. But in all
this we are called upon to restore that which is gaping problems within the
church in the spirit of gentleness. Not in the spirit of lording it over at one
another but in the spirit of gentleness and care. So in doing this we're going to
heal and restore the body of Christ. We need to be ones that are supporting one
another. In verse 2 it says bear one another its burdens in some and so
fulfill the law of Christ. The great obstacle of all this is our higher
mindedness and and we are to, as the Apostle Paul says in another place, is
that we are to think soberly of ourselves. We are to have a reality check
about ourselves and we need to think carefully and realistically about how we
are living ourselves. And the implication seems to be that if we do not or will
not bear one another's burdens in this sense it is because we think we are
above it and we couldn't care less and then we've got a careless sort of
attitude. That is not the spirit of Christ. That is not expressing the love
of Christ. The real situation is that you are you you fill nobody really. What you
really do are you are deceiving yourself when you've got this high-minded sort of
attitude and we need to be very careful of it. It seems here that something of a
contradiction between this this verse and verse 5 where we are called upon to
bear one another's burdens. And in verse 5 it says that each one bear each
other's load. It is not a contradiction but it would appear to be and we need to
be careful in having this corrective in our relationships within the
Church. There are those that substitute the fellowship of the Church for their
faith in Christ. And there are those who are so independently minded that have
their faith in Christ that they forget the fellowship of the Church. And those
who are those who got their faith in Christ and forget the fellowship in the
Church need to have that corrective and say bear one another's load or
burden. But those of us who have so weak in their faith that really have only got
a faith in the Church or the fellowship of the Church and they look to the
fellowship of the Church as a mainspring of their faith, of their
Christian faith, they need to be told that they are to bear each other's own
load. In other words they need to have a focus upon Christ not on the Church.
Now it's often the case within discipling new Christians. It comes to a
point very often as a pastor is discipling these new Christians so they
get unfurled within the Church and they are feeding along with the rest of the
body of Christ they need to they very often become very attached to the
evangelist and the evangelist becomes Christ to them. And they make almost a
God out of you. And it's got to be very careful you don't do it you don't allow
that to happen. They have got to be able to stand on their own two feet before
God themselves and they need to have strength in their spiritual being to be
able to walk with Christ themselves not having the evangelist and the discipler
to to hold them up all the time and act as a spiritual crutch for them. Now we
need to be very careful that now as many people who are immature within the
Church that are really trusting in the fellowship of the Church not in their
relationship with Christ. And so we need to have that corrective at times. Now
it's true that we must nurture our disciples but not to the extent where
the disciples are not walking with Christ but they're sort of somehow
loosely talking about walking with Christ but they talk really about their
dependence upon the fellowship of the Church and they complain when the Church
doesn't do enough for them. You heard that haven't you? You complain. And they
they also seek the pastor when the pastor has to pull back to make sure
that how's this man standing before God and and they find wanting that then they
turn around and say oh the pastor is the worst pastor in the world and and turn
against him and that can be often the great detriment. So there's a to be a
pastor of souls it takes a lot of wisdom to know where to where to assist and
where not to assist because in the end we've got to do the same thing around
children don't we? In the end children have got to become independently able to
walk in this world giving glory to Christ themselves and we can nurture our
children but if they're not able if they stay in our houses until I 30 or 40
we've not done a very good job at all. That's right isn't it? But if they are
able to to take hold of Christ and move into this world as people that are
able to to really live for Christ within this world independently and yet
dependently upon the Lord then we've done a very good job. If they're able to
leave as they move out of our own homes into their workplace and into their their
new life to their life for the Lord as the Lord leads them to wherever they go
we've done a very good job. We've discipled those children well so they're
able to live for the Lord for the rest of their lives looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what we've got to do and it's no different to any church as
well we yes it's true we must bear one another's burdens in to fulfil the law
of Christ and we must because sometimes we just get so overwhelmed we need the
help of other brethren to give us the correctives and to get us focused on the
Lord Jesus Christ again but we do not substitute Christ for anything else. Now
this law of Christ is this James speaks of it in another way the Royal Law or
the law of Liberty this law of Christ is none other than the love loving one
another with the very love that he loved us even under the cross that's the kind
of love that we are God of love one another. It will hurt it will be costly
it will cost us very dearly at times but how did Christ love us even to death so
we are to express that kind of love to one another and if we don't it's really
a test me against our salvation if we fail to do so we are really you might
have all the doctrine in the world you might be able to tell us all about the
the high doctrines of predestination if you have not the love of Christ for the
brethren you're a going symbol you are nothing
you're just fiddling around with religion rather than getting into the
substance of it and so we also we are called to establish the Lord in our in
our life first and make sure the Lord is established in everyone that we have to
do with within the church as well. Now we are called upon here to let each one
examine himself his own work and there are two things that we find from this
this one if we examine ourselves if we go into a state of self-examination my
wife always says I do this too much because I get very melancholy in the
process and I do I'm my worst own worst critic in these things but it's
strangely enough when you realize that you are somebody a noted reality comes
to your own life when you start to examine yourself you know that you are
man with clay feet as well and so do other people that are around you in the
church they are people with clay feet and you might say to say that this is
I'm more sympathetic now to the plight of my brother that really gets on my
nerves and I wish you behave in a different way but the point that we have
here is that this are caring for one another for yourself in this whole thing
you will see what God has been doing in your life as well you see that you have
you have been living by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and if you've been
living by faith there the good works of God the works of faith will be evident
to you now I think the psalmist says count your blessings one by one and
those blessings really been the the the work of God there's been going on in
your life if God's brought me this far he's going to bring me to to heaven
itself this is going to be something that that God gives us great joy in in
understanding that God has dealt with us with me mercifully and has given me
many good things that he has in in that we are about God's work knowing that God
has been has entrusted us with many useful things that he has granted into
our lives and that is the basis of our of our joy the joy of the Lord is our
strength and what's going to give us the joy is to know that God is for us God
has been dealing doing things in a most amazing ways and maybe not so amazing to
many but to us it's God at work and therefore it is something that gives
great pleasure to our souls and and reassurance that God is with us so the
practical out working of walking the Spirit is that we will be involved in
healing and restoring the body of Christ and to do that we need to be those that
are supporting one another in very practical ways but in and in supporting
one another we need to be take care to yourselves as well and we need to
examine ourselves carefully and in doing that not only do we see the reality of
our of our insufficiencies and that will humble us to some degree but we will
also see the works of God in our life that will also give us a sense of
pleasure joy and a sense of God being with us which will be our strength in
the future. Well let's close by seeing our final psalm which will be...