Burden Bearers: The Purpose of Burden Bearing

Introduction

the sixth chapter. Galatians chapter 6 will be our opening text. We’ll be looking at that in just a moment. To those who are visiting with us, thank you for joining us on this Lord’s Day as we come together to worship our great God. You may be from out of town and we’d invite you to come back and join us at the next opportunity that you have and we pray that your time together with us has been edifying to you. And if you’re from our area, we’d invite you certainly to come back in any opportunity that you have as we devote ourselves to following God, to looking to his ways, to studying his ways. That’s what we’re aiming to do this morning as well is to continue to study the ways of God and how those ways of God can help us be the brethren that we ought to be and even that we want to be.

What we’ve been talking about this month is the idea of being a burden bearer. That’s taken from Galatians chapter six and if you’re there we’re going to go and read the first five verses of Galatians chapter six. There we read that brethren if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work and then he’ll have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another for each one will bear his own load.

This idea of being burdenbearers of course is taken from Galatians chapter six and verse two where there we read that to fulfill the law of Christ, we are to bear one another’s burdens. This all comes from the standpoint that we are a family in Christ. We look at passages like Romans chapter 12 and verse 5 that we are members of Christ, but we are members one of another. And therefore, in that relationship, there is to be rejoicing and weeping. In that relationship, we ought to be able to come together, as James says in James 5 and 16, to confess our false one to another, to pray for one another, because we have become a family. And as a family, we want to help each other along the way.

We want to bear one another’s burdens. If we see that someone is under a load that may threaten to crush them, we want to help them along the way. So what we’ve been talking about so far in this short series is that first there’s an attitude that must be present to in fact bear those burdens. In fact, Paul says there in verse 1 that it is those who are spiritual. Those who are led by the Spirit, when you read back in Galatians chapter 5, who are walking by the principles of the Spirit, who love and see that as their duty to one another. They are those who are spiritual, and that must be our attitude. There can be no pride or ego or looking at their faults compared to my faults and saying, Well, I never did that.

No, I’m to look to myself also, as we’ve even read, so that I too will not be tempted. There’s an attitude that must be present. Then last week we tried to look at some practical ways in which we could, in fact, bear one another’s burdens. But this morning we want to focus on the end goal of all this. That the goal is not simply to have someone be weak under a load and just continue that way. The goal is to ultimately strengthen so that that burden isn’t quite a burden anymore. It’s not as heavy as it once was. In fact, the goal is, as Paul says there in verse 1, to restore such a one. Bring them back fully. Bring them back to full power, even, you might say.

1. Christ Came to Make Us Something Better

Restore such a one. Well, what does it mean to restore? Well, I do first of all this morning is to take a closer look at what God and Christ have done for us and even are currently doing for us. If we want to really get an idea of what it means to restore someone, then we need to first of all understand well, what is it that God and Christ want for us? What is it that they have made of us? And to do that, I’m going to do something that I haven’t done. Well, I don’t know the last time that I did one of these. We’re going to go back to a chart. I’m not a very good chart maker, so just bear with me. But I think hopefully this will help us to visualize and maybe see what God intends for us.

Of course, we all recognize that apart from God and apart from Christ, that I am in sin. And that is a lot of each and every one of us. But then we also recognize that that’s the reason why Christ came. He came because we are sinners. But what I want to challenge you this morning is to think not simply in terms of forgiveness as the reason why Christ came for us. Yes, he came to forgive. We know from passages like Matthew 26 and verse 28, even in speaking of what we have just observed and partaking of the cup, which is symbolic of the blood which was shed for the forgiveness of sins. Yes, he came to forgive us. But not just to forgive us. He didn’t come just to forgive us of our past wrongs, so that we could go and live in the way that we used to live and just commit more of those wrongs and be the same people that we once were.

No, he came, even as he says in John 10 and verse 10, speaking of himself as the good shepherd, he came to give life and life abundantly. He came to make us something better than what we once were. That’s why we read pastors like John 3 and verse 3 when Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus. He says, Those who would be born again. It’s a new life. It is a new creature that we read about in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. It is a new creature that even Paul talks about here in Galatians chapter 6 and in verse 15, that there is neither circumcision any, neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. What he came was not simply to forgive. He came, and we might also say, to sanctify, to make holy, to give new life, to make us something better and more than what we once were.

That’s why pastors like 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 11 are very important. That it puts that in terms not simply of forgiveness, but of something more than that. Paul in reminding the saints in Corinth, who have been giving themselves over to all kinds of impurity and immorality, he says to them in verse 11, such were some of you, speaking of these who would not inherit the kingdom of God, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

That you are made right in the eyes of God. Those sins, those trespasses have been forgiven, so now you can stand before God just you can stand before God having been justified because you’ve been washed in Christ. But you’ll note that’s not the only thing that God did for you. You were sanctified as well. That is the idea. You have become holy to God. We understand that. We are a holy people, that chosen generation that Peter talks about in 1 Peter 2 and in verse 9, that we have become that to God, a holy people. So that’s what Christ did for us. But we also understand that really holiness is a process, isn’t it? We’re made holy by the blood of Christ. And we’re to continue to be holy, and if you will, we’re to become holier, if we might say that.

You’re made holy in the eyes of God, but we’re to become holier. We’re to continue to practice this and to become holy in his eyes. Passages like Ephesians 4, 13 and 15, if you’re there and you want to turn there. Know what that says about what our end goal is, as we become holy in God, and yet we’re in growing times. We’re in a growing process. And so in Ephesians 4 and in verse 13, speaking of why these people who’ve been given the word of God and they’re equipping the saints for the word of God for the building of the body, verse 13, until we attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

Then again in verse 15, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. Peter talks about in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 4 that we become partakers of the divine nature. What is that saying? That because in Christ we have been forgiven of our sins, we have become sanctified, we’ve become holy. And then as God’s Spirit through the Word, and as He leads us, and we are putting into practice those principles that make us more and more and more like Christ. We’re becoming holier. We’re holy to God, yet we are growing up into all things into him who is Christ. Now, just to complete this idea and to give us a full picture, we think of Christ and we’re becoming more and more like Christ.

And then if we’re to put this in a spatial arrangement, well, where is Christ now? Well, Christ is in heaven, so we’ll put a nice little cloud here to say that Christ is in heaven. Well, it just so happens when you look at a passage like 2 Peter chapter 1. And 2 Peter chapter 1 is very similar to Galatians chapter 5, because in Galatians chapter 5, you have the fruit of the Spirit. You know, if we’re walking in the Spirit, if we’re being led by the Spirit, then here are the fruits of the Spirit that we’re going to exhibit. Well, in 2 Peter chapter 1, we’re told about the characteristics that we’re to be adding to your faith, supply moral excellence. And to your moral excellence knowledge and knowledge self-control, and then the perseverance and godliness and brotherly kindness, and then brotherly kindness, love.

But you’ll note what he says is the end of all this in verses 10 and 11. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you. For as long as you practice these things, practice what things? Well, you go back up to what he’s just said. To your faith, you’re adding moral virtue, to your moral excellence, knowledge and knowledge, self-control, all those things, so long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. The idea is we are becoming more and more as God is, we’re becoming partakers of the divine nature, he says, the entrance into the eternal kingdom is abundantly supplied to you.

2. Why Sin and Burdens Are So Bad

And I would say, of course it is. If the goal of Christianity is to become more and more and more as God and Christ is, putting on those characteristics, then of course the end of that is to be where God and Christ are. The entrance into the eternal kingdom is abundantly supplied to you. So that’s what God and Christ have done for us. He didn’t come just to forgive me of the wrongs that I’ve done. He’s come to make me a new creature, created in his likeness. He has given to us that which we need, and the Spirit which leads us to become as he is, so that we will be with him forever. Now, here’s why sin and burdens are so bad. Because what the devil would use those sins and those burdens would be to take our mind off of Christ, to take our mind off of holiness, and to take us away.

You’re of course familiar with the parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13. And you’re also familiar with those kinds of soils that the parable is talking about. And how some seed falls among stony ground. And what’s that stony ground? Well, when opposition to the word comes up, it dies, it has no roots. Then you’re also familiar with that seed which fell among thorny grounds. And you’ll note what he says those thorny ground, that thorny ground is. It is when cares or worries of the world and temptations choke out. What have we been talking about this whole time? What kind of burdens are we to bear for each other? It’s when those cares and worries of the world become so great that someone is becoming overwhelmed, and those temptations to sin are becoming greater and greater, and we’re to help them.

What did our Lord say those kinds of things will do? It’ll kill growth. It’ll prevent someone from becoming the person that God wants them to be. That’s why burdens and bearing those burdens is such an important thing to God. Because if you and I can aid one another and restoring one who’s been caught in a trespass and bearing those burdens, then what are we doing? We are helping them right along the road back to what God intends for them. God intends for each and every one of us to be holy, to grow up into all things and do even as Christ is, so that we can be with God in Christ forever. Burdens and sin would lead us away from that. So here we are to step in.

3. More Than Forgiving, Not a Quick Fix

We, as God’s ambassadors, God’s ministers, we are to aid one another to help them back in the way of holiness. So that’s what God intended for us. And that’s why God gave us each other as well. To aid each other in bearing those burdens so that we can, in fact, become the people that He has envisioned for us. So how do we do that? Well, first of all, I want to emphasize that what we’re talking about when bearing burdens and restoring such a one, we’re talking about more than simply forgiving. Just as Jesus came to do more than to forgive us, he came to make us new creatures. The forgiveness is a central part of that, but it’s not the all of that. He forgave us so that we can be something new and better.

We can become more like Him. And so when we’re talking about the burdens that we are to help each other with, and we’re talking about the sins that can entangle us and we can get called in. Then the process of bearing those burdens and restoring people is more than forgiving them. Forgiveness is essential. And as we talked about last week, oftentimes people experience God’s forgiveness first and experience the forgiveness of others. They know and appreciate further that God has forgiven them when they experience the forgiveness of their brethren. But that’s not all we’re talking about. And so because that’s not all we’re talking about, then we’re not talking about a quick fix either, are we? Someone is burdened. And so they have opened up to us.

Maybe even to a congregation they have opened up. And immediately we rush to them. We want to comfort them. We want to aid them. We want them to know I am there for you. And so we want to overwhelm them with this feeling of love and appreciation, and you are important to us. As well we should.

And so we ought not to think that the fix to those things is going to happen overnight. That because someone has opened up to us, whether it be individually or to a congregation, and they’ve maybe confessed wrong and they want help. We ought to go to them and we ought to let them know that they’re loved and appreciated and we are there for them. But if after that Sunday or whenever that occasion came, and then we’re not there for them the next Sunday or the next Tuesday or Wednesday or a month from now, the chances are that that burden wasn’t completely lifted. Because they haven’t really been restored yet. They haven’t begun the process of walking holy lives again. They’re still dealing with these other things.

They’re being burdened again. So that’s why we see oftentimes when people have been struggling and we want to help them, and we mean well, and we have good intentions, and we’re there for them, and yet it seems that after a month or so that things didn’t get better. Well, of course they’re not going to get better. Problems don’t get fixed overnight. Burdens aren’t lifted overnight. Temptations don’t disappear overnight. When we look at the definition of love, the one that we often go to in 1 Corinthians 13, there’s some terms that perhaps should stick in our mind about love. The first thing it said is that love is patient. Love is patient. If we’re looking at someone who’s been caught in a trespass, then our love is going to have to be patient with that person.

Because while we have embraced that person and we have outpoured our love for that person, the fact is the next day that person is going back to his workplace. Or if that person is coming from a situation at home where godliness does not reign, they’ve returned back to that. They’ve got all these other things, all these other factors in their lives that are trying to get them to go away from God. Our love for that person and our wanting to restore that person has to be patient. Because even though we can be confident and that God has forgiven that person, that person is still going to be facing those challenges and those same temptations going forward. Not only that, the text says in 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 17, love endures all things.

Endures.

That was that was an endurance. Well, for some of us, okay. 10 yards, maybe. We understand, though, the idea of endurance has to do with this is something that is protracted. This isn’t something that I can just give my love to this person today and everything’s okay. Love endures all things. Even as we talk about when people are married and for richer for poorer. You know, the idea that our love is going to endure for each other regardless of whatever this life brings. Well, that has to be our attitude toward each other. That if we have brethren who are burdened by something, then our love for them has to endure whatever it is that they’re going through, too. It’s not a quick fix. And so if we were to look at some practical ways which we could look to restore a person.

4. Giving Heed to the Word of God

Again, not simply let that person know that he has forgiven. That is essential, but to truly restore a person, to bring them back to the ways of God, to help them live holy lives. How are we going to do that? Well, of course, we’d always start with giving heed to the word of God. Sanctify them by your truth, our Lord said in John 17, your word is truth. We have got to be a people who are in the word of God. Because while forgiveness comes by the blood of Christ, sanctification comes by the word of God. Holy lives are lived when led by, as we read there in Galatians 5 and 18, when we’re led by the Spirit. So we, we need to hear. We need to be able to give people that are going through burdens and problems guidance from God’s word.

Not just my word, not just my experiences, though, but those may be available, uh valuable, especially if they’re combined with the word of God, but it’s the word of God that sanctifies. So if I don’t want to restore someone, then what I need to do is, I need to get that person in the Word of God. I need to get that person in the Word of God as much as possible. I need to be reading and studying the Bible with them. Even if that’s just coming together and reading a chapter or two at a time. I need to get them where the word of God is, where holiness can be put into their lives, where they can be led more and more by the Spirit. I need to look to that word.

5. Keep Their Focus on God

I need to keep their focus on God. This is where Bible study becomes more than simply an academic measure. This is something where we are talking about God, where we’re really serious about, that we have a relationship with Him. Because here are the facts. When one has been tempted and one has succumbed to sin, when one is caught in a trespass, the chances are they have lost sight of the fact that God is offering them something better. God is offering them something better. They are looking for something in the world that is but a substitute, a cheap knockoff, if you will. What I need to do, what you need to do, is that if we’re serious about this God we serve, we need to remind each other, always opening our eyes to each other, that what God gives is in fact better.

Paul says in Romans chapter 6 and beginning in verse 20. Romans chapter 6 and beginning in verse 20. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you were now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derived your benefit, resulting in sanctification and the outcome eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. What’s Paul saying there? You’ve got to remember that what Christ and God are offering you is far better. That when you were serving the world, you were receiving what you deserved and what you deserved is death.

And as always, what we’ll receive because that’s the wages of sin. But when you followed Christ, what did he offer you? What did you receive from him? You derived your benefit. Sanctification and eternal life.

That needs to be what we’re talking about with each other. Not simply politics and sports and everything else. We need to be talking about how God is real and what God offers is better than the cheap stuff in the world. One who’s dealing with a spiritual burden may have lost sight of the fact that God will in fact be faithful to his promises. We have that assurance in Hebrews 10 and verse 23 that he who promised is faithful. But sometimes we are tempted to lose sight of that. I am burdened, I am weighed down in my spirit. How is God going to work all this out? How is God going to keep those promises? We have to keep each other focused on that this is our God, and our God is going to do what he’s doing.

We talked about last week of how we can misapply or misinterpret Romans chapter 8. Well, there is a proper interpretation of Romans chapter 8. And we need to be thinking about Romans chapter 8 and getting Romans chapter 8 into our minds. We need to let brethren know and keep before them always that in all things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. God has got to be the central part of our lives. We cannot live by the religion that we have grown up with if that religion has been that God is something reserved for Sundays and Wednesday nights.

That God has got to be front and center.

Someone who’s dealing with a physical burden may lose sight of the fact that God’s greatest blessings are not about the here and now. That although we would do all in our power to aid someone’s burden in whatever physical trials that they are under, the ultimate restoration for that person is to come to the full understanding that even as Paul was told by our Lord in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, that my grace is sufficient. And ultimately, what we have to help each other to see is that while we are here for you, and we will be with you, and whatever sickness that you have, we will do our best to aid and comfort you. The best comfort, the ultimate comfort is that God and his grace are still there, and that hasn’t changed.

Even when someone has lost a dear loved one to death, the ultimate comfort has to be as much as we want to shower our love, as much as we want to be there with them and spend time with them, the ultimate comfort will only come when we appreciate that ultimately death is going to be conquered, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 50. That ultimately death will end, Christ will be triumphant over everything, including death, and that there’s your comfort. Because it comes from God. And this is what God has said he’s going to do. Will they still feel the loss here and now? Sure, absolutely. But that’s why we’ve got to keep each other and our minds focused on God. Because he’s the only one that can offer true relief for the burdens that we are bearing.

6. Help Each Other Practice Holiness

And then I would add, if we really want to help each other be restored. And that idea of being restored, being more than forgiven, but practicing holiness in our lives again, then we need to actually help each other practice holiness. Two passages that I mentioned this morning, Galatians chapter 5, which is significant to us because of the fruit of the Spirit that’s mentioned there. And then 2 Peter chapter 1, where we talk about adding to or supplying to your faith, moral excellence. And to moral excellence, all these other characteristics. Those are more than attitudes. We’re not just talking about a person’s disposition. We are talking about a person’s life, the way that he lives, his practices. Because that’s what Paul stressed in Galatians 5. When he talks about in Galatians 5 and in verse 16, that we are to walk by the Spirit.

And then again in verse 25, he’s saying that this fruit of the Spirit, this love and patience and joy and all these other things, that is to be seen in your daily walk in your life. In 2 Peter chapter 1, when we talk about the moral excellence and the faith and the godliness and all these other things, Peter said there in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 10 that the one who practices such things, it’s not just someone who feels like he’s patient. It’s one who practices patience. It’s not someone who just feels that he is honoring God, that idea of godliness. It is someone who is literally practicing godliness. He is practicing an honoring of God in his life. So if there’s one practical thing that you and I can do for each other, it’s that we can actually involve each other in practicing these aspects of our faith.

Are there works of ministry that you are currently doing? Whether you want to talk about, whether it be in reaching out to the lost, visiting the sick, being engaged in benevolence in a variety of ways. Are there works in ministry that you can be doing? Well, then look for opportunities to involve your brethren in those ministries. If you see a brother or sister who is burdened, if you see your brother or sister who’s been subject to temptations, then by all means, let them know that they are forgiven. But by all means also help them to live the purposes and the practices of what true faith is. Because the fact is, whenever we’re doing practicing these things, that’s when that’s when godly living seems to be easier.

If our focus is on doing God’s things, then that may in fact lessen the desire to do what’s wrong. What God saved us for was so we could be holy, new. And if you’re doing some things in that line, in that walk about being a holy child of God, about being that new creature, about practicing holiness, then look around and see someone who’s struggling. Help that person know he’s forgiven. Help that person also practice their faith. Let them aid you in ministering to the sick. Let them aid you in ministering to the poor. Let them aid you in ministering to those who are burdened in some way. Let them practice holiness. So that they too will be on the path to becoming more and more and more as Christ is.

Conclusion

And that is what it means to restore one. Because our aim is not to just have someone perpetually weak, always in need of having a burden born, but to help that person become more and more and more as Christ is.

Through baptism or by praying with and for you, then won’t you come as we stand and as we sing?