Sermon Tone Analysis

Three Marks of Maturity

Gal 6.

Introduction

In the verses closing chapter 5, Paul has contrasted the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, concluding that Christians are to live Spirit-led lives.

eph 5.22

gal

But what does it mean to live a life characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, and the other virtues?

It is easy to talk about the fruit of the Spirit while doing very little about it.

It is easy to talk about the fruit of the Spirit while doing very little about it.

Here Paul gives marks or identifying characteristics of a mature believer.

in other words the acting out of the fruit of the spirit.

gal 5.22 acted out produces marks that can be identified.

Marks of old age

Marks of a marathon runner

marks of a football fan

it just comes out

Immature believer

I just don't want to get involved

They deserve what they get

I can’t help them i have enough to deal with

A great church is one that care for each other

A great church is one where sin is addressed not glossed over and loving forgiven

A great church is one where people carry the loads for those that are temporally hurting

I Restore the Wounded

I Restore and Install

wounded assumes he/she understands that there has been a fault/sin!

Golden Key - Wounded assumes he/she understands that there has been a fault/sin!

With out this there is nothing to restore! it just they are sorry for the consequences ; i got caught

You are wasting your time.

The key is they the offender must understand the nature and consequences of sin.

They understand they are at fault and need resorting

Too mnat time we try to restore a sinning brother that does not think he has done anything wrong or it just not a big deal.

illustration - Jim parentti - yes and no I was wrong

How we restore reveals the real character and spiritual maturity of a believer.

1 The first situation is one that, more than any other, inevitably reveals the real character and spiritual maturity of a believer.

Paul imagines a hypothetical situation—which is, however, not at all infrequent—in which one believer unexpectedly learns that another believer is trapped in some sin.

What is he to do?

Is he to overlook the sin?

Does love mean that he is to refuse to face the facts?

Or should he expose the sin openly and so gain for himself a reputation for superior holiness?

Paul shows that a Spirit-led person should not proceed in either of these ways.

In presenting the proper course of action, he shows what to do, who should do it, and finally how it should be done.

How we restore reveals the real character and spiritual maturity of a believer.

One believer unexpectedly learns that another believer is trapped in some sin.

What is he to do?

Is he to overlook the sin?

Does love mean that he is to refuse to face the facts?

Or should he expose the sin openly and so gain for himself a reputation for superior holiness?

Paul shows that a Spirit-led person should not proceed in either of these ways.

In presenting the proper course of action, he shows what to do, who should do it, and finally how it should be done.

First, Paul shows what should be done.

Restore - He says that Christians are to restore the person who has fallen into sin.

The verb (katarizō) is a medical term used in secular Greek for

Restore - Setting a Fractured Bone.

He says that Christians are to restore the person who has fallen into sin.

The verb (katarizō) is a medical term used in secular Greek for setting a fractured bone.

What is wrong in the life of the fallen Christian is to be set straight.

It is not to be neglected or exposed openly.

What is wrong in the life of the fallen Christian is to be set straight.

It is not to be neglected or exposed openly.

You don’t ignore the fracture and hope it will go away

You don't expose the fracture to the elements and infection

You set it in place and put a cast on it

The work of restoring must be done by those who are spiritual.

“Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual instead of a carnal Christian?

Well, then, here is a way you can test it.

Restoring an erring brother is exactly the kind of thing that spiritual Christians do.”

On the other hand,

Paul is reminding his readers that only those who are genuinely led of the Spirit have the maturity to deal with sin in others.

Every Christian should desire such maturity and be mature.

The restoration should be made “gently” (using the same word he used in the list of virtues in 5:22) and with the consciousness that none, no matter how spiritual, have immunity from temptation and that all can fall.

Stott’s comments (in loc.) are valuable:

If we walked by the Spirit we would love one another more, and if we loved one another more we would bear one another’s burdens, and if we bore one another’s burdens we would not shrink from seeking to restore a brother who has fallen into sin.

Consider thyself

The spiritual person will be quick to see a brother’s peril and need, he will be ever mindful of his own frailty and danger because temptation lurks in the path of all of us.

No state of holiness exists in this life that is beyond temptation.

More than one would-be counselor has fallen into the very sin from which he has been seeking to rescue someone else.[1]

[1] Phillips, J. (2009).

Exploring Galatians: An Expository Commentary ().

Kregel Publishers; WORDsearch Corp.

A greas

A great theme or warning would be consider thyself!

How would you want to be treated

The 2nd mark of maturity is :

II Help and Carry

gal 6.2-6

Help carry the Load

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (v. 2).

The Judaizers were trying to load the believers with the intolerable burden of the Law and Jewish tradition.

The Lord denounced the religious leaders of His day for this very thing.

He said to the multitudes and His disciples concerning the scribes and the Pharisees, “They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” ().

At the Jerusalem conference, convened to consider this very issue, Peter said to his fellow Jewish Christians concerning Gentile believers, “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” ().

The Lord Jesus came to fulfill the Law and to deliver us from its burden.

Far from putting additional legalistic burdens on each other, we should look for opportunities to bear the already heavy burdens that some of our brothers and sisters in Christ are bearing.

Others are burdened because of unsaved relatives and friends.

Some are carrying the burden of a broken home.

Some are burdened by the deplorable spiritual condition of their local church.

There are plenty of burdens to be shared.

The law of Christ, far from causing us to add to burdens already borne, will move us to seek ways to alleviate existing burdens.

Think of Simon the Cyrenian.