TRANSCRIPT:
Galatians Chapter 6, I'd like to read verse 1 through to verse number 10. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be 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. Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Let us pray. Lord, we come to You now in the name of the risen King Jesus, and we ask that You, O Lord, would send forth Your Holy Spirit so that we might hear, that we might believe, that we might learn of our need and learn of Your mighty grace and kindness toward us in Christ. We pray that You would speak, O God, and awaken our sleepy hearts, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
We come to chapter number six of this epistle, and in verses one through to verse number ten, we have practical instructions regarding walking in the Spirit. We see in this passage the instruction to restore, to be one who bears each other's burdens; we also see that it is important that we share and that we do good. And what Paul is showing us by this is that life in the Spirit is practical, and it demonstrates and exemplifies itself in Christ's likeness in our behavior, in our conduct. Life in the Spirit is not being like a monk who ascends his tower and sits there in the presence of God with no action toward others because of his isolation. In fact, it would be impossible to fulfill any of these commands by being isolated. But what Paul is showing us here is that the gospel that saves gives the Spirit, and the Spirit indwells, breathes life into the sinner, and the believer walks in the power of the Spirit and lives a life that practically engages and influences those around him. Therefore, the gospel should influence your relationships to one another in the church, relationships at home, in your workplace, and various spheres of where you live and operate.
And in verse number one of this chapter, we have the first instruction that Paul gives, and that is the instruction to restore. Here is the charge to those who are believers in Jesus Christ, who walk in the Spirit, to see it as their duty and responsibility to restore one another. And so, Paul gives a case, a situation we could say, a generic situation; he tells us what to do, who is to do it, and how we are to do it. Very practical indeed. But the case before us is a generic case in verse number one that regards a person that is caught in sin. Look with me in verse number one: Brethren, if a man is overtaken or caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. And so here is a person that is caught in any trespass. It could happen to any one of us; in fact, I would argue that in our lives, it does happen to every one of us in certain ways and stages of our Christian experience, but it could regard any kind of sin. This is not just talking about sins that are of the most, if we could say, abominable order. This is talking about any trespass that any person is caught in and finds themselves to be somewhat stuck. The idea here in this passage is that the man or the woman or the person here is overtaken, is caught. And so this word implies an element of surprise that's at play in this situation. Here we are, Christians living their lives as they pilgrimage on to heaven, and all is going well, and they find themselves in some way or another under a surprise attack of sin, something that they weren't really aware of or ready for that leads to their being stuck.
This happens with people that are caught up in addictions. Maybe you prescribe some medication from your doctor that you then become extremely dependent upon, and when you don't need it anymore, you need it. And you're kind of overtaken in this sin of dependence upon something that you should not be dependent on. You find a sense of satisfaction in how it makes you feel. Same with illicit drugs. Could be the same with things like pornography, where things like lust lead to an ensnarement and find yourself in a situation where you did not scheme yourself to be involved in or to be going down that path. It could be matters of worry that leads to habitual patterns of anxiety, and now you find yourself to be somewhat caught in that situation. Or discouragement that happened in one case, and then it leads to anger, and then you find yourself to feel like this has now become a pattern in my life, and I feel stuck. It can happen with psychological snares, and what I mean by that is the things that we believe. We can sometimes espouse bad beliefs about God, about His forgiveness, about His mercy, about some doctrine in the Christian faith like the doctrine of election, like the doctrine of examining yourself whether you be in the faith. And sometimes these good things Christians get to know but don't get to know properly and find themselves then caught in bad patterns of thinking about God, and next thing you know, they're in this vicious cycle like in a washing machine, going around and around in their minds, feeling like they can't get out. An inaccuracy in the character of God or leading down to a path of bad habitual thinking. Sometimes it comes in the form of a new test or trial. Something we didn't know that was in us, some kind of sin, but when the trial exposed us, we found ourselves now, wow, I didn't know I had this issue, now I've got this issue, and I feel like I can't get rid of this issue, and you feel stuck. It often happens in our sanctification and in our growth. Sins you didn't know you struggle with. Could be discontent, could be a form of idolatry, but sin creeps up in an unexpected way in many cases, and believers find themselves caught. It's similar, if I could use the illustration, to being bogged.
Now some of you know us well enough, we, some of us in this church, like to go on hunting trips. My first one was last year, and I don't do well when the fireplace is on in a cabin, there's six men in the room, we're on bunks, and I'm at the top bunk. I sleep best when I'm next to my wife at home in a nice climate and environment, but I love getting out, so I go. Anyhow, my dad's probably the same, but both my dad and I have this thing about waking up at early times in the morning when we're not at home and getting out, and so when you get up at three o'clock in the morning and you're just awake or woken up and you can't go back to sleep because you're not very comfortable, and you hear your dad say, "Josh, son, you want to go out?" I'm like, "Oh, let's go, all right, we'll go out, see what's out there." So we get up, and we needed a car to get to where we wanted to go. It was a little bit wet that week, and the only car that we could, well, there's two cars, one was Abraham's, the others was Peter's, and so we said we'll just take Abraham's car, right? Peter was borrowing his son's car, so we wouldn't get that in trouble, and so I said to dad, "You ask Abraham for the car keys," and so dad did that very thing. Abraham, we have the car keys, woke him up. Abraham, half asleep, says one word to us, "Just don't get bogged." Well, you could imagine what happens next. I take the car keys like we're not going to get bogged, we're just going to go around, you know, just around the cabin area, so I jump in the car, and I'm just going off slowly, just crawling around, and I go around to make a U-turn just to get onto the path, and next thing I know, the wheels are spinning, we're deep in the mud, and I can smell the clutch burning, and I thought that it can't get any worse than this. We were bogged, the wheels were moving, you know, I was trying to get out, all the things, trying all the different things. I've got out of the car, I'm trying to, you know, somehow put bricks under the wheels, we're not moving, and I'm thinking, we just can't tell Abraham, this is going to not be good, but anyway, we ended up have to confess because we couldn't get out of the mess, and so we come back to the cabin, and we had to leave that for the early morning adventure. But the next morning, or that same morning, sorry, later on, we required the help of a more able driver who had a better vehicle, in my opinion, Uncle Peter, great deacon before he was appointed, who came and winched us out of the bog. There was no way that we could get out of it apart from the help of Peter at that point and his special utilities to help us get out of this place, but the reality was we left the cabin not expecting to get bogged. We left the cabin just as we do, we're going out to have a good time, and we weren't scheming to get stuck in any way; in fact, we were trying to avoid these things, but we found ourselves caught in the mud, stuck in the mud, and we required the assistance of another to help haul us out, and this passage is a passage that describes bogged Christians. Brethren, if any of you are overtaken in a trespass or caught or stuck or bogged, a certain difficulty, a rut, your wheels are spinning, you smell the smoke of your clutch, and you feel like you are stuck. What are we to do with bogged Christians? Well, this passage teaches us exactly what we are to do with bogged Christians. It says to us that we are exhorted in this passage to restore them, that is, to restore them to their former condition, that is, to mend. The word is to mend a broken net; here is a tear in a net, and we are to mend the net, we are to put them in proper order so that they can go on and continue to operate in walking in the spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit and live their lives for the glory of God.
The text teaches us that we must not stand idly watching someone who is caught in a transgression, nor should we just say to them, "I'm going to pray for you," although you should be praying for them, nor should we take this as an opportunity to gossip because we found someone in some particular sin that we don't particularly like that person, and then we found an opportunity to speak ill of them. No, we should approach them, we should throw out a lifeline, we should be as those that are like the Good Samaritan, not like the priest and not like the Levite who saw this man in need and walked away. We ought to be like those that come and give aid to restore, to mend those that are broken and wounded and stuck in a situation where they need help to get out.
Well, you say, what if they don't want to be restored? Well, the Bible teaches us that we ought to at least attempt to restore them. We know God wants them to be restored; here is a man overtaken in a trespass, we know God wants to deliver them, but God wants to use people, His people, to help others, and if they don't want to be restored, we still have a responsibility to attempt at restoration. We still have to not take for granted; we need to not assume too much, to think that they're actually, you know, willingly wanting to go down this path. You might realize that they might not even know that they're stuck; they might be blind to the particular nature of their conduct and behavior and character that shines a negative light on the gospel, and it's our responsibility to come alongside and seek to restore and to help them.
And so, the passage is quite clear about this, that there are Christians that do get stuck from time to time, and both the responsibility and duty is laid upon believers to carry out the work of restoration. It says, "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness." Now, I'm going to just think about this: who is to restore? The first word of this verse tells us that, doesn't it? It just says "brethren." This is to you. If you are someone that is a brother or sister in Jesus Christ, you know the Lord as your Savior, you have been saved, you have been rescued out of your sin, you've been delivered out of the bog of your trespasses and your sins, then what the Lord tells us is that it is the duty of the Christian Church and the people of God to be restorers, people that restore. And the first word of this verse says "brethren." Yes, it talks about brethren which are spiritual, which we'll discuss just in a moment, but the reality is that we need to understand that it is our responsibility of those who have the Spirit, who should be walking in the Spirit, to restore those that are in any trouble.
I wonder if we think about that very often. You know, spiritual issues are best dealt with by spiritual physicians, and I wonder if we believe that. If anyone is caught in a trespass, they need help, not from their GP, nor from their psychiatrist and psychologist; they need help from brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ that know their own trespassers, have been in their own trouble, and know how to help lead someone back to Jesus Christ. It is important for us to realize that spiritual issues are best dealt with by spiritual physicians, and that when we're talking about matters of transgression and we're talking about matters of temptation, when we're talking about matters of our thought life that is contrary to the commandments of Christ and His gospel and the scriptures, it is the duty of Christian brothers and sisters to help that person, and we need to be aware of looking for help in the wrong places. Here the command is to brethren, if anyone's overtaken in a fault, those which are spiritual, you restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, in the spirit of gentleness, and therefore, what God is saying both to the ones that are to be restoring and to the ones that have fallen and stuck in the mud is that you need the help of brothers and sisters in your life. You need the help of Christians that can speak to you the word of truth. You need the help of God as it is mediated through those who bear His word and bear His message.
There are many examples of this in the Old Testament of kings that went to the wrong places to find help when they should have gone to the Lord. We think of King Asa, who was a man, yes, after God's own heart, and a man who served the Lord, but when he was king of Judah and he was threatened by Israel, he ran to the king of Syria to get help against the Israelites so that he could protect his kingdom, and he took money out of the treasuries and gave it to them. This was something that he did wrong. Later on in his life, we find a bit of the same kind of pattern where his dependence shifts from God and His people, and so when he's sick and he has diseased feet, the Bible says that he sought not the Lord but rather the physicians. That is not teaching that we shouldn't go to doctors when we have ailments and sicknesses, but what it is suggesting is that Asa's dependence was beginning to shift as he was ultimately not depending on the Lord. And if this is a physical matter like his diseased feet and he should be dependent on the Lord, how much more for matters of trespasses and sins which are primarily the business of God and His people who know most about sins and transgressions and mercy and forgiveness and a conscience clean from sin.
In Isaiah chapter 31, we are told of the same truth: Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek help from the Lord. You see, God is telling us in this passage that the help that we need for our transgressions and for our sins are to be found in the Lord through the ministration of His word through His people, and that we ought to find help in the Church of Christ. And I have to say that it is the sad state of Christianity today when people, and it is true, that people have lost confidence in the ability of both ministers and the people of God and churches to help them through life's problems and trials, but the Bible teaches us here that it is our duty. Who is to restore? It is the duty of brethren to restore. We are not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly; we are to seek the help of the Lord through His people, and we need to understand that this provides the church and provides one another an opportunity to help live out that commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. You see, often we look at the problems of others as a hindrance to us, as some kind of hurdle for us or problem for us, and it's like, "Ah, more problems, more problems," and I'll go find someone else to help with the problems, but what the Bible is teaching us here is this is one of the ways that we practically demonstrate that we love our neighbor as ourselves and walk in the Spirit.
It's not only the duty of a Christian; it is the privilege of the Christian to demonstrate Christian love and to live out bearing one another's burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ, as verse number two says. But so often, that is not the case with their attitude, is it? We find ourselves so often when asked by God, "Cain, where is your brother Abel?" "Am I my brother's keeper?" says Cain. Yes, yes, you are to shepherd your brother. Yes, you are to love your brother. Yes, you are to care for your sister and restore one another. God has laid upon His people an inherent responsibility as those that belong to God to be restorers of the brethren, and there's not ours to brush off but look upon the afflictions of others and say, "How can we help them when they're stuck in the mud?"
And now, this is not just the task of brethren, although it belongs to the category of those who were saved. Look at what he develops here a little bit further as his brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one or restore a person in the spirit of gentleness. And what comes quite interestingly here is that he says you which is spiritual. Now, some people say this just means those who have the spirit. I beg to differ. I beg to differ, firstly, because of the nature of the work, but I also beg to differ because of the context of the passage. We have been talking about what it looks like not only to have the spirit but to be Christians that walk in the spirit and do not fulfill the lust of their flesh. And I believe, as it says also in Romans chapter 15 verse 1, this that we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the infirmities of the weak and to not please ourselves. It is not just babes in Christ, but it is also and to those who are weak in the faith that this is given to, although it is to you in that you should prepare yourself for such a work and you should help people within your capacity in such a work so that you may fulfill the law of Christ as a restorer in this way. But Paul is specific here when he says you which are spiritual restore this person. And though it is the duty of us all, it is important to realize that this task of restoring someone who is overtaken in a transgression, to restore someone who is caught in sin, requires skillful, careful precision. It requires spiritual maturity, and you say, why? Well, there is so much mitigating against the success of this spiritual operation. Here is a person stuck in sin; here is a person that is caught in a transgression, and the world has infiltrated their thinking, so they're not thinking, as it were, God's thoughts after them at this time. This godless system of the world is screaming out to them, "You don't need God," or maybe that there is no God to help you in this situation. There is a level of sensitivity that comes from this situation. There's this consistent bad example from the world set before this person, found in their friends or found in their workplaces or among their peers and colleagues, like in the film industry, for example, things like, you know, that your marriage is going through a hard time, and the world just screams, "Leave it, be done with it, it's too hard." And so the world mitigates against the proper restoration of a marriage in that it often just gives us an easy way out. Loving your neighbor as yourself is maybe somewhere down there, but you need to love yourself first and foremost and look after your own self. And so the worldly thinking comes in here, and it really then sometimes can be difficult to get some people out of a certain rut because of these ideologies from the world that are embedded in their mind because they're caught in a transgression.
And not only from the world, but the flesh, that is already hard enough to deal with if you know the nature of your own flesh, where these people, as Paul says in 2 Timothy, they're opposing themselves. In one sense, they're doing things that they don't love doing because they're believers, but they're caught in the Romans 7 type experience here. They're knowing that "I want to do good, and I don't do it," and all these things, and they're conflicted so much internally. There's this internal war, and they keep on saying yes to sin and no to God, and they're stuck in this situation, in this particular point in their life. They're strongholds, and they need spiritual help, and the flesh is mitigating against the success of this operation. The sin nature is raging and warring against them. Then you have the devil, who as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour, and loves bogged Christians. Caught. Most vulnerable targets. You know, the arrows of the enemy strike hardest upon those that aren't moving. It's so easy to shoot a target that is not moving, and so Satan loves the caught ones. Easy target for him. Barrage of arrows flying in their direction, hitting them one by one, and they feel just absolutely feel like they're so tempted and so snared that there is no hope for them. The darts of doubt are coming one after another.
The Christian ought to realize this, that when a brethren is overtaken in a fault, your spiritual maturity plays an important part in how you address this matter. The world, the flesh, and the devil mitigate against the success of this operation and seeking to destroy this soul that is before you. The work also then not only requires spiritual maturity because it's so much mitigating against it, but the work is surrounded by so much complexity. We cannot be overly simplistic in this matter of restoring people. Some just think the answer is hit them with a big hammer, rebuke. They think of rebuke; they don't think of restore. Not that restoring doesn't have rebuke involved in it, but their goal is rebuke and not restore. There are those that like to expose those that are in trouble, but when it comes to mending and healing, that's a nurse's job. Some Christians like bulldozers and wrecking balls; they just like to set up the wrecking ball and let it go. Knock down this whole thing, and I think they're doing God's work, but because of a lack of spiritual maturity, they treat restoring a brother more like a police arrest, busting into a drug person's home and tackling to the ground, then at a person trying to tend carefully to someone in need like a surgeon performing an operation. You see the difference. Surgery is go in, cut out, stitch up with care and precision without killing your patient. That's the role of this spiritual operation, and so it is with restoration. Surgeries are designed to restore people, to put them back on track, to get them going when there was sickness or illness or cancer, and the role of the surgeon to take such care and precision and to have a spirit of meekness that you'll get to next week so that when he approaches this matter, he approaches it with much care and carefulness, looking to the benefit of the person under their care rather than them just doing what they want to do.
And so, in this matter of restoring, there must be brethren that take to the task of restoring, but it must be spiritual brethren and mature brethren who take to the task of restoring because this is a complex situation, and this is a spiritual operation with so much mitigating against it. And let me just tell you, if you go to restore a brother or a sister in Christ, and you are perceived as uncaring, they won't continue to hear you. If you go and try to restore a brother or sister to Christ, and they perceive that you are forceful, they will clam up, and you won't be able to, as it were, diligently cut out all that you need to cut out. If you're perceived as an enemy straightaway, the walls and the fences will go up, and your influence in terms of helping them will not help them at all and probably even drive them away from help that they need from Christian brothers and sisters. And also, on the flip side, if you are perceived as always agreeing with someone who is caught in the transgression and sin and not applying the knife in any way to try and help them, what you might end up doing is burying them deeper in sin and giving them a justification to continue in sin.
I hope you understand that this is a complex matter that requires much care. We are dealing with the souls of men in this matter of restoration. We walk a tightrope, a careful line, and there is no room for carelessness or pride in this spiritual operation. Now, I don't know about you, but if you've come to this text of scripture and heard the things that I've been saying, I feel like, "Lord, help me to be more and more a spiritually mature Christian." And I believe that this text should call us then to a life of spiritual maturity and godliness. We should look about the needs of others and the fallen brethren that are around us in our lives, in this church, in our families, in our homes, mothers and fathers, and with their children, and brothers and sisters with one another, and friends and cousins, and all the rest of it. We should see their problems and be propelled to holiness so that we might know how to handle the Word of God and assist them in restoring them to live for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just as a person looks upon the sick and is moved with compassion and pity, so they pursue to be a doctor or a nurse or an ambulance to go and help those in need, just like those who look upon the oppressed and desire for their protection, they may join the army or they might join the police force, or they might involve themselves in some kind of noble rescue like being a firefighter or something like that, or join the police or the army so that they can help one another, help others, and fulfill that noble task. So the sight of the fallen should cause us as believers in Jesus Christ to pursue holiness, to know our word, to know the Word of God, to know how to carefully craft arguments and statements, and to understand the heart of man and to understand the Word of God and the heart of God and how to restore those that have fallen. This passage should prepare, should cause us, and spur us to prepare to aid and help people. Remember, the text begins with the word "brethren." This is a word then to you. You who are brethren, prepare yourself for the work of helping. Be spiritual, be holy, walk in the Spirit, stop fulfilling the lust of the flesh, dive deep into the scriptures, study to show yourself as one who is approved of God, and to know how to handle the Word of God in assisting people in their needs. It's not just the job of the pastor; it's brethren. There are people that you can help that I cannot help. There are situations and counseling needs in the life of a church where even a male pastor has limited access to that some women that love God and search out the scripture and prepare themselves may be able to go places where I cannot go for the help of that person. There are people that you have closer relationships to in this fellowship than I have, that you are able to speak more clearly into their lives and understand them or sit their particular situation more than I can, and I will cry perhaps hours and to get to where you've already got by nature of your friendship with them, that you knowing the Word of God and growing in spiritual maturity might be able to help and deliver them from their sin which they're caught in.
We are not to stand by; we are to help; we are to serve one another in love, and the way that we do that is being ready to restore people and preparing ourselves to help those that are in need. You see, our spiritual walk is not just about what we can get from God for ourselves alone; it is about what we get from God so that we can help others. So we walk with God and receive grace and strength from Him. We say, "God, open your word to us that we might behold wondrous things out of your law," so that we might worship you and know how to live for your glory, but it is also so that we might know how to handle this tool called the Word of God in helping and restoring our brothers and sisters in Christ. This applies to mothers with children, fathers with children. Do you look elsewhere for help? Not that that's wrong to do, but are you preparing yourself to better help your children, understanding their needs, understanding their struggles, understanding how they think and how they or whatever they're going through, and equip yourself with the Word of God and with carefulness and precision deliver God's Word to them in such a way that can help them out of their ruts.
Wives and husbands, fathers and brothers, and friends, we are all to be restorers of the fallen within our own quarters. We are, yes, to get help when we need help; yes, we are to ask for others even to step in. This relates to all brethren; there is no doubt about that. But we must not be like the leech which cries, "Give, give," but never gives itself. We are to be a people that are not just receiving but a people that are giving, a people that are serving, a people that are laying down our lives for one another and helping one another. If you have been comforted, go comfort another with the comfort wherewith you have been comforted. If you have been challenged, go take that challenge with kindness and grace to a brother or sister in need and help them get out of the mud. You have been strengthened; go and strengthen someone. Has lent their ear to you; go and lend your ear to another. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
So here is a Savior who was a restorer of the fallen, who gave Himself for our sins that we might be restored to God, in fellowship with God, as Adam and Eve were in the garden in the very beginning. And He condescended into the lowest place, and He was made in the likeness of men, and He took up the towel like a servant, and He loved, and He served, and He took the Word of God as a prophet, and He spoke the Word of God to the people of God and to the lost and the sinners, and He restored them to Himself. This is all about the messianic mission, isn't it? One who will heal the brokenhearted, who sets the prisoners free, really one that just lives a life that delivers people from their spiritual bog. And so, Paul is saying here, if we have received this gospel of free grace, and we have received the Spirit of God that dwells within us, we ought to be walking in the Spirit and demonstrating Christlikeness in delivering people and helping them out of the transgressions in which they are caught.
Let us not be slothful; let us not be fearful. Let us pray, "Lord, use me in the life of my children. Use me in the life of my brothers and sisters. Use me in the life of my wife, in the life of my husband. Lord, prepare me, work in me Your word so that I might know how to help others. Refine, Lord, my attitude so that it is more like Christ, so that when I help someone, I don't push them away, but I draw them near. And when I open the wound, I don't cut them too sharply and harshly so that they move away from me, but rather that they would allow me to work in their hearts by the truth of God's Word, and I can pray for them and shepherd them alongside all the way through this problem."
Perhaps this morning, you are a bogged Christian. If that's the case, I ask you, are you looking for help in the right places? Are you seeking worldly wisdom, or are you seeking godly wisdom? Are you going to God-haters and deniers and atheists to help you live for the glory of God, or are you going to God's Word and to His people who will assist you to live for God and His glory? Do you trust in the sufficiency of Scripture? What I simply mean by that is that the Bible teaches us that the Word of God has been given to us to make the man of God, the woman of God, complete, fully equipped for every good work. Whatever God wants you to be, you can be by reason of His Word and by His Spirit. Yes, you may get help for matters outside of this, if I could say, sphere of transgression and sin and whatever it may be. We go to a doctor to get help with our physical ailments, but where does our dependence lie when we need help for our souls? Where do we run? Do we run to God and to His Word and to His people, or do we run to the world?
God has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him. And this very Jesus that walked among men and helped people day after day in His three and a half years of ministry on earth that we read in the Gospels and are so enamored by is still alive and ascended into heaven and is still speaking through the Word of Scripture to His through His people to your heart so that you might experience what He did here on earth when He was here right now in your life. The Jesus that said, "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest," still says that now. "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." If this Jesus saved you, didn't He liberate your soul? Didn't He remove the biggest burden of sin? Did He not restore your conscience so violated and broken where you could not find remedy anywhere else? Did He not set your heart free from addiction, from slavery, from sin? Well, I'm simply saying to you, dear brothers and sisters, look at the cross, see there power not only to save but power to sanctify, that the one who bore your sins may bear your burden.
Look on Christ, come to Him, desire that His word will be spoken into your heart to help you be restored in your life. Let us pray.