Pastor, Lost Sheep Can Be Restored

Galatians 6:1-4

Please turn your Bibles to Galatians 6. Thank you very much for your birthday wishes – the Lord has been good to me and I thank him for his grace upon me – for adding yet another year to my life.

In Galatians 6 we continue to hinge our thoughts on verse 1. Let me read that passage to us again along with a few others.

“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.”

Recap on The Restorer

Yesterday we began to consider the subject, the ministry of reconciliation. And our focus was on the restorers – on people like you and me – who are called in to walk alongside those who may be struggling in our churches, perhaps members of our flocks.

We saw two things about them. Namely their identity and their character. We saw that there is a cause and effect relationship between who they are as men, who they are as Christians, and what they achieve even in their bid to restore the fallen.

4 Observations About The Restored

We now move on to consider the restored. In other words, we want to look at the man who is overtaken in a fault. Note that again in Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one”.

1. This Man Was Not Always Overtaken By Trespass

There are four things I would like us to observe about the man who is overtaken in any trespass. First, he is a man who was not always overtaken by trespass. That this is the case is suggested in the word ‘restore’, which may mean to repair, or to adjust, or to mend.

I suggest that someone had been in a good condition, in a complete state if we may so put it. They have been damaged and now have need to be repaired – to be restored – to be brought back to what they were before.

This man was obviously justified and continues to stand justified. He would have stood fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. He would have run well the according to Galatians 5:7. He would have walked in the Sprit. He would have been led by the Spirit. He was producing the fruit of the Spirit. Otherwise he wouldn’t be said to be born again, to be a child of God.

His gracious habits were progressing in godliness and righteousness and goodness. He was a man who was not always overtaken by sin.

2. This Man Is Now Overtaken In Sin

But secondly, he is a man who is now overtaken in sin. “If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one.”

Paul is probably speaking hypothetically here. He may not necessarily be thinking of a specific person among the Galatians. But he did expect that because they are justified sinners – they have fallen, they will fall, they may very well be people who are already in that state.

Even believers can be caught in a sin.

And the point I want us to see here is that even believers can be caught in a sin.

We Are All Justified Sinners

This is because although they are justified – and justification takes care of their legal standing before God – they still have remains of sin in them.

We are justified sinners. We are not living in sin, but sin lives in us. It’s a bit like the HI virus. No one wants to live in the HI virus. But for those who have been infected by it, whether they like it or not, it lives in them. It has a presence in them. It has a being in them.

We are justified sinners. We are not living in sin, but sin lives in us.

Well sin is that kind of virus. The unbeliever lives in it and it lives in them. They enjoy living in it, and they don’t mind it living in them. The believer on the other hand, doesn’t want to live in sin! In his inner man he loves the law, he wants the law, he desires to follow it, to keep it ever so perfectly! But he can’t. It prevents him from being the perfect man he wishes to be.

He loves the law, but he finds another law within himself which militates against his better desires.

Sin Hangs On

It is for this reason that the Apostle Paul – and we must make no mistakes about the fact that he was a godly man an Apostle, a Godly man. He knew what holiness was about and he pursued it. But even he was conscious of sin living within him. He says when he would do good, evil is right there with him.

Even when you are pursuing godliness you find that sin hangs on and pulls you back.

If you are a believer, a sincere believer, you will identify with this experience. Even in your best time, at your best time, and in the best of places: you’re praying, you are pursuing God, and you find in that holiest of moments sin is imposing itself upon your mind; upon your heart.

And the very thing you may be seeking of God is present right there with you! And in ever so many other circumstances. Even when you are pursuing godliness you find that sin hangs on and sin pulls you back.

David, Solomon, Peter – All Sinned

David, a man after God’s own heart, committed adultery and shed so much blood. Solomon yielded to the impetuosity of his youth. Peter denied his Lord three times. These were believers. They stood justified. In Christ they were perfectly sanctified as they stood positionally in him! And yet sin was present in them.

It should not surprise us, therefore, that this believing man in Galatians 6 should be caught in a sin.

And neither should it surprise us that some of our best members – some of our best men and women – from time to time are overtaken in trespass.

I would like to answer two questions in regard to being overtaken in trespass. There are versions who say “caught in a sin”.

What Sins Are Our People Caught In?

First, what trespass or trespasses are people we shepherd caught in? Paul doesn’t specify a specific trespass here – puts it in general. But you will notice that Paul in Galatians 6:2 refers to burdens, “ Bear one another’s burdens”. That is to say bear one another’s weight or load.

Paul shows us that burdens can include trespasses.

We tend to think of burdens in terms of sickness and unemployment, loss of a loved one, loneliness, rejection, depression. And indeed, these are burdens that many of our people carry. Perhaps we too have carried them in the course of time.

But in Galatians 6:1 Paul shows us that burdens can include trespasses – wilful transgression. They would include – and as I scan my memory banks I can see people in the various churches that I’ve had the privilege to pastor over the years – I can see them struggling with various sins. Some of our best men falling into grievous sins. Sins such as sexual immorality, drunkenness, lying.

Recently I’ve been helping a young man who’s been struggling with a love of money. And a very influential man in our church given to sowing discord, seeds of discord.

I can see people who are cynical and overly critical. I can see women, married women, who refuse to submit to their husbands, and husbands who are abusive to their wives – they abuse them verbally and sometimes even physically. And these are Christians.

I am sure you can think of cases like that in your own experience.

Sins Come From The Heart

Underlying all of these problems is the sin of pride: pride in the heart.

And underlying all of these problems is the sin of pride: pride in the heart. Every one of our sins, and every one of the sins our people commit, comes from the heart. And to be proud means to appear above others, literally.

The Dangers of A High Opinion of Oneself

To be proud is to have a high opinion of oneself. And it usually goes with having a low opinion of others. It is to be haughty, and that means the attitude people have who think they are better, and smarter, and more important than other people. Sometimes they think they are even more important than God is!

They feel they are too strong for a fall.

For this reason they think in whatever situation they are, they stand. They are great! They are powerful! Nothing can move them; nothing can make them fall. They feel they are too strong for a fall.

Led Away By The Eyes, Heart, Feet & Hands

Some allow their eyes to look upon that which is corrupting. They read books that are dirty. They watch movies on television and in the cinema halls that are dirty. And they think that somehow they are too mature to be affected negatively by that.

Others allow their feet to take them into places where they are likely to be tempted. They go to beer halls where people who lack self-control spend most of their time: drinking alcohol, feeding their eyes with tempting pictures.

They allow themselves to be in bad company and they think that, somehow, they will not fall.

They allow their hearts to take them to internet sites where they watch nude women or men; where they watch pornography. They allow themselves to be in bad company and they think that, somehow, they will not fall. They are too strong for that! They are too smart for that!

And still others are led by their feet and hands from places where they are likely to receive the best influence. They are led away from church and from good friends. They are led away from the Bible; led away from the holy. And they feel that somehow they can do without the means of grace.

Positioned For A Fall

Are you here perhaps and your hands and feet are leading you away from what is good and what is best? And taking you into bad company, to bad books, to bad influences, and you are not at your best because of that? You are positioning yourself to fall; to be overcome by a trespass.

All of them who find themselves in these situations are weakened and they eventually fall.

I’ve seen many of them. Young people, middle-aged people, older men. I find that for older men and women the temptation often is for them to think that they have served enough. They have enough in store. They have put a lot of years into serving Christ, they don’t need to pull their weight anymore. And so they sit back and do nothing, or very little. Even if they could do more, they don’t. They are tired! Tired of serving God.

And at a time when they should be doing better than everyone else, they are heading backwards, positioning themselves to end badly.

Is that where you are going?

All of them fall. And they do because of pride, and because God opposes the proud.

What Do We Mean By ‘Overtaken’?

Second question: What are we to understand by the fact that that they are ‘overtaken’ in a trespass?

The word translated overtaken can also be translated as caught. There is some doubt as to the precise meaning of the Greek term. It can suggest that the saint here was caught off-guard – didn’t expect it to happen. He had no intention of being overtaken… I doubt that that is the emphasis here.

But it can also suggest wilfulness in trespassing. It suggests a choice on the part of the saint to step to the side, to step away from doing what is right. What Paul has in mind, therefore, isn’t just a one off moral failure. Rather, he is specifically talking about wilful, habitual sin. Patterns, in the life of one who has been proud and careless, which are enslaving, entrapping, entangling, and even addicting. Sin does that.

We get stuck in sin – it’s like quick sand. The harder we fight, the harder we try to get ourselves out of it, the worse it gets.

We can become addicted to it. We get stuck in it – it’s like quick sand – we get stuck in it. And the harder we fight, the harder we try to get ourselves out of it, the worse it gets. Entangled.

Our People Get Stuck

The people we shepherd will likely get stuck into something. They do get stuck; they are getting stuck; and they will get stuck. And they often get stuck into things that they shouldn’t get stuck into. Paul did expect that Christians will get stuck.

The Galatians were being stuck into something! Look at Galatians 5:1. He finds it necessary to write to them and say “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

It was possible to be entangled again.

It was a particular sin to which the Galatians were prone, and there is a particular sin to which you and I are prone, and there are particular sins to which your people are prone. They get stuck.

The Definition of Backsliding

We can also refer to this state of affairs as being in a state of backsliding. Backsliding is spiritual regression – which is the exact opposite of spiritual growth. Backsliding is a season in the life of a professing Christian when his sin grows stronger, and his obedience to Christ declines.

Backsliding is a season in the life of a professing Christian when his sin grows stronger, and his obedience to Christ declines.

His ability to manifest spiritual actions that are pleasing to God declines. And this is what happens to this man. He is a man who is now overtaken in sin.

3. This Man Is Ensnared

Thirdly, he is a man who is hopeless. He cannot extricate himself from his sin; from his slavery. He is hopeless not as a non-Christian is. A non-Christian does not possess any spiritual ability to free himself from sin. He is mastered by sin. He must sin in a sense.

A Christian does have ability to overcome sin. But this Christian here is in trouble. Something has gone wrong. He has given way to some sin. Hebrews 12:2 speaks about sin that easily ensnares us. I want you to mark that word: ensnare.

Sin can prevent him from running the race and from finishing it.

To ensnare is to surround, to skilfully surround. And Paul is using the word in that context where he has in mind an athlete – someone who is participating in a race. And imagine that he was a good racer, a good athlete, and if you wish to prevent him from winning, prevent him from overtaking everyone else, you put up a plan to surround him so that he has nowhere to run, he has nowhere to go! He is trapped. He cannot run effectively, and he cannot finish the race – because he is being prevented from doing so.

Even so, sin can thwart a believer’s desire to win the crown, the prize, for which he has been called heavenwards. Sin can prevent him from running the race and from finishing it. This man is being prevented. He struggles to run the race of mortifying sin. He no longer has spiritual ability to prevent him from neglecting the very means from which he would be sustained in his fellowship with God.

The Compounding Problem of Responding Wrongly

In some cases the initial problem is compounded by a failure to respond biblically to this problem of sin. So often that is the problem: responding wrongly.

Denial

There are those who when they find they are struggling with sin deny the fact that they are enslaved – they deny it! “It cannot happen to me. I’m too strong for that. I’m too perfect for that. I’m too smart for that! It cannot happen to me.”

They deny the fact, they deny reality.

Drowning Out

There are those who choose to drown out the sin through more sinful indulgence. Maybe they turn to alcohol – to overindulgence of alcohol.

Magical Thinking

There are others who give themselves to what someone calls “magical thinking.” It goes something like this: “I won’t repent, I don’t have to repent. But I know that God, somehow, will sort it out for me. I won’t give myself to what this preacher is suggesting: that I run away from sin as Joseph did. But I know that somehow – somehow – there will be a breakthrough. God will do something.”

It’s magical thinking.

Blame Shifting

And then there are those who don’t take responsibility for sin. Just like the magical thinker – they don’t take responsibility for sin. And these days they blame their sins on someone else, and especially on demons.

Making Demons Responsible for Everything

Demons are responsible for everything! They are responsible for their sicknesses, and they are responsible for their bad thoughts, and bad choices, for their immorality, for their lies and for their gossips. So they have this legion of demons who are playing different roles in their lives.

Just like in Greek culture of old, they had all kinds of gods responsible for different kinds of things, they have demons who are responsible for different kinds of things. They won’t take responsibility. And in their churches or communities they have men who are specialised in delivering them from demons.

They no longer go to Christ you see, they go to these men of God who specialise in deliverance and they pray for them, and exorcise those demons out of their lives.

They don’t take any responsibility for their sins!

It Doesn’t Address The Main Problem

All these ways are not able to take away sin – are not able to deliver them from this problem Paul is describing here. They have placed their hope in something that can’t help. They have placed their hope in worldly means, indeed I dare say wicked means!

When Proverbs 10:28 says the hopes of the wicked come to nothing, they never win! Because their hope is like that of the wicked. Wilhelmus à Brakel suggested that some believers do not recover from this condition. He writes, and I quote, “they fall victim to spiritual consumption and languish until their death”. That’s a most frightening condition indeed.

There are Christians who die like that.

4. This Man Can Be Restored

Which brings me to my final point. This man is restorable. He is restorable. Paul says “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual…” give up on him! No, no, restore him. He can be restored.

If indeed he is a child of God, if indeed he has be regenerated by the Spirit of God, if indeed the Spirit has begun a good work in him he can be restored!

How so?

He Has Resources At His Disposal

Well, he has resources at his disposal through which he may be reclaimed. Paul is not calling this man to restore himself, because he is in trouble! He needs help. And Paul incites these helpers to go after this man and restore him – not to neglect him. And he does that because he believes he can be restored.

The Holy Spirit Working In Him

What resources does he have? Well he has the Holy Spirit living within him (we saw that last night). And the Spirit who lives in him has a mission.

He may have grieved the Spirit. Very often he may have quenched away the Spirit’s fire. But the Spirit who lives within him still has a mission in this man’s live! And his mission is to mortify sin, to mortify it. And to vivify the new life that he put there! And the Spirit will not stop doing this work until he has brought it to accomplishment.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t begin and then step aside and cheer the believer to do it on his own. He will complete it.

Philippians 1:6 reminds us that he who began a good work, that really is what the final perseverance of the saints is really about, isn’t it? The persevering of the work of the Spirit in our hearts. He has begun a good work, and He will carry it to completion.

He doesn’t begin and then steps aside and begins to cheer the believer to do it on his own and to get to the end on his own. For sure he does participate in this work. He does co-operate with the work of the Holy Spirit. But it’s the work of the Holy Spirit! He begun it, and he will complete it.

And you, as the one called to help, must know that – must understand that. He can be restored.

What other resources does he have?

The Rule, Protection & Provision of Christ

Well he has the Lord Jesus Christ ruling over him. He is ruling over him as king. And as king it is his call to defend his people, to provide for his people. And he will provide even for the believer who is overtaken in any trespass.

He has the Lord Jesus as his Chief Shepherd. And this shepherd will not abandon his sheep.

He will conquer the enemies that have brought him down: He will conquer sin, He will conquer the devil, He will conquer the world! He will bring him to the end. He has the Lord Jesus as his Chief Shepherd. And this shepherd will not abandon his sheep. This shepherd will bring him back to Himself.

This shepherd will continue to call the falling: “Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden – come to me! And I will give you rest.” And they will come. He will come. He will find rest.

And this Chief Shepherd wants to use you as an under-shepherd; wants you to participate in his work of drawing his own, of bringing them back to their Lord, to their Chief Shepherd.

They can be restored.

The Reviving Power of The Scriptures

Thirdly, he has the scriptures with him. And I reminded us last night of Psalm 19:7-12 where we are reminded of the reviving power of the word of God. And this man is within the precincts of the Church, isn’t he? And although he’s caught in a sin, he does – I trust – still have opportunity to sit under the sound of the preaching of the word. And if he doesn’t, he has you who is seeking after him and going to him and taking the word to him – and perhaps encouraging him to read the word.

And so he has hope. He is restorable. And through the power of the Holy Spirit – working through the truth – he can be brought back to the fold.

The Community of God’s People

Another resource he has is the community of God’s people around him.

None of us can survive on our own: only the proud think they can. We all need the family of God.

Dr Paul David Tripp refers to the work of sanctification as a community project. I like that. It’s a community project. None of us can survive on our own. Only the proud think they can. We all need the family of God. God has put resources there that he uses from time to time in our moment of need.

When a man is overtaken in a trespass he needs the people of God. He needs the body, he needs the Church. He needs a people to surround him – to speak into his life – to walk with him and to pray for him. To hold the Saviour before him, to encourage him, perhaps even to rebuke him. He needs the people of God.

And being among them, in itself, speaks hope; announces restoration and it’s possibility.

The Help of Pastors

Finally, he has the pastors. He has the physicians of his soul. He has the Chief Shepherd – the great and chief physician – but he has the pastors, he has you! Indeed I ask this morning, does he have you?

When he falls are you there? When he falls does he think about you, does he come to you? And are you happy to walk alongside him?

In Acts 20:28 the Apostle Paul counsels the Ephesian elders to shepherd the flock of God. He has pastors, men who are available to help him.

Let me conclude with a number of points briefly.

Anyone Can Fall

Paul ultimately is saying to us first of all that an understanding of who we are helping is important. Just like the Lord Jesus Christ in John 2:24-25 when we are told that he knew man and what was in man, even so, as a shepherd you must know your people and what is in them.

Although believers stand justified before God, they still have sin present in them.

You must know that although they stand justified before God, they still have sin present in them. You must know that. You must understand that. Otherwise when they fall you will always be in shock! “How can they fall? Just think of it! This man of all people! He’s been a great man among us, he’s been a holy man among us, she was a great example among us and she has fallen. I can’t believe it!”

You respond in that way because you don’t understand that any man can fall.

Paul says, “let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). Understand that.

Understand The Sickness To Treat It Appropriately

Secondly, Paul is saying an understanding of the specific trespasses into which the saints may have fallen is also important.

Paul speaks in very specific terms: “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass”, some trespass will befall your people. And when you know what it is they have fallen into you can go to the stores of grace and draw. out the appropriate medication that would meet that need.

What Is Lost Can Be Found

Finally, you must have hope as a restorer that the same saints who have fallen are restorable; they are reclaimable. You must know that. You must have hope in that.

Sinners can be restored, and that must give you hope.

And our hope should be inspired through the example of Christ. Some of the examples the Lord Jesus Christ gives us in the parables speak to this fact. It speaks about the lost coin and the lost son. And picturing the man who goes in search of the lost coin and in search of the lost son and sounding the note constantly that the lost coin can be found and the lost son can be found! There is hope in the kingdom of God for those who are so lost and so overtaken.

I referred last night to the Lord’s ministry to Peter who had sinned grievously, who had sinned with impunity. And the Lord restored him. Sinners can be restored, and that must give you hope as a restorer.

May God bless this word to each one of your hearts, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.