August 9, 2026 - Victory Strategies: Discipleship | Galatians 6:1–2, Baptist Bible Church, Sparta MI

Galatians chapter 6 this morning.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

If you've ever had kids or been around kids, you know that there comes a time in their life when they begin to embrace the mentality of independence.

And they begin to repeat a phrase over and over again.

The phrase goes something like this I can do that by myself.

And my kids have certainly all reached the age where they have done that.

Sometimes that's you know a good thing.

You're proud as a parent for your kids to start embracing that independence, but there's other times that maybe you get a little afraid.

I know for me it's when they take out the full gallon of milk.

Here, let me help you pour that.

No, no, dad.

I can do that by myself.

And I'm like watching, and like their hand is like shaking as it's got the full gallon, and I'm like shaking in fear.

Don't spell.

There's times though that that mentality can border on delusion, can't it?

There's times when a child has the mindset of the mentality that they can do something, and the reality is they can't.

They simply can't.

Just last week I went out to go vote, and I took Hudson with me, and Hudson told me, Dad, driving is easy.

I said, Oh.

Why do you think it's easy?

He said, it's all you have to do is have long enough arms and long enough legs.

And then it's easy.

Then you can reach and then you can drive.

And I said, Oh, if you think it's easy, you know, then you got to tell me what some of the rules are of driving.

There's a lot of rules for driving.

I said, if if there's no speed limit, or if you don't know what the speed limit is, if you don't know what the sign says, what should how fast should you drive?

And he thought for a minute and a minute and looked at me and said, Dad, get it to a hundred.

Get it to a hundred, dad.

And I said, Nope, not ready.

You failed the test.

I can do it on my own.

I don't need help.

What I'd like to ask you this morning is, as a believer, are you living in that same delusion this morning?

The mindset, the mentality that I can fight sin, I can grow in holiness, I can progress in sanctification, and I can do that by myself.

I don't need help.

I don't need anyone.

I can do it.

What we're going to notice this morning from the text is as we continue on in our series on spiritual warfare, is that it is God's design for you to fight sin and grow in holiness with the help of other believers.

God has designed for you to grow in your sanctification with the help of other believers.

So we're going to notice that here in the book of Galatians this morning, Galatians chapter six.

But before we get to chapter six, I just want us to notice a little bit of the context in the book of Galatians that will serve as the on-wrap to get us into the couple of verses we're going to look at in chapter six this morning.

So if you look just one chapter previous to chapter five, we're going to notice that Paul warns against two dangerous ditches in the book of Galatians.

And in Galatians chapter 5, verse 1, we notice the first ditch.

Galatians 5:1

He says, this, for freedom Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

It's interesting in this verse, Paul uses the imagery of slavery.

The question is, what is it that we're called, what is it that we're being warned about here, not to submit to a yoke of slavery to?

And the answer is in the context of the book of Galatians, the answer is the Mosaic law.

These would be all of the commandments of the Old Testament that God gave to the nation of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.

And Paul's warning in the book of Galatians, one of the dominant themes to the book of Galatians, is that you can't earn your righteousness through the keeping of the law.

You can't do it.

You can't earn your way to heaven.

You can't make yourself righteous before a holy and righteous God by perfectly obeying all of the commands of the law.

Paul goes to great lengths to explain doctrinally and theologically and practically how that is completely impossible.

So Paul says, stop trying.

You'll make yourself a slave to the law if you do that.

And you won't get any closer to God.

You won't earn one more degree of closeness to God through your attempts at law-keeping.

He says, This is the first ditch that you are warned against.

It's the first ditch, the ditch that we could refer to as legalism.

I need to earn my way to heaven.

A lot of times people use legalism today and they don't really use the word correctly.

Sometimes when we think of the word legalism, we just think of rules.

And if if you have rules that I don't like, guess what?

You're a legalist.

I don't like your rules.

Yeah, you must be a legalist.

Well, that's not what legalism is.

Legalism is the belief that I earn my way to heaven through the keeping of the law.

That's legalism.

And Paul says, don't fall into that ditch.

You've been saved by grace through faith.

You don't need to earn your way to heaven.

Rely fully and completely.

Depend fully and completely on the grace of God.

It's a gift.

But if we fast forward to Galatians chapter 5 and we fast forward to verse 13, we notice there's another ditch Paul warns about in Galatians.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

If you look in verse 13, he says, For you were called to freedom, brothers.

So you notice the connection.

You're free.

You are called to freedom.

You're free from the legal demands of the law.

Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

So here we notice the other ditch, the other side of the road that you don't want to fall into is, here's your technical term, antinomianism.

Everybody memorize that word?

It comes from the Greek namas, anti-namas, no law.

The idea here is that God's grace is a license for you to sin.

So you see how these are two ditches on two opposite sides of the road.

One ditch is I'm gonna earn my way to heaven by perfectly following the law.

The other side of the ditch is because I'm not a slave to the law, now I get to live however I want.

And it doesn't matter.

I can sin and I can live in sin, and it's it just doesn't matter because I have my free ticket to heaven through God's grace.

So Paul warns against both of these sides of the road, and he challenges us not to fall into either of these ditches.

And the challenge flowing out of this is then found in Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

If you look with me in verse 16, he says, But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

So Paul now lays out this is the path.

Walk by the Spirit.

Walk by the Spirit.

You're free in Jesus.

You're free in Jesus.

You're not a slave to the legal requirements of the law to earn merit before God.

But now, because of that, because you have been saved by grace through faith, you have received the Spirit, so submit and yield yourself to the Spirit, instead of walking according to the flesh.

Now, the reason why I want to set all of this up here is because all of this then leads us into what Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 6.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

After chapter 5, verses 16 and 17, Paul then lays out here's what a life lived by the flesh looks like.

And then he says, here's what a life lived by the spirit looks like.

We see that in Galatians 5 referred to commonly as the fruit of the Spirit.

So if we're called to live by the Spirit and allow the Spirit to produce his fruit in us and to have a transformed life that's transformed through and by the Spirit, we then get to Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1, and he says, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

Do you notice the connection here?

Do you notice what Paul's doing here?

Live by the Spirit.

And by the way, you're gonna need some help.

You can't do it on your own.

There are going to be times where you are going to need the help of other believers in your calling to live by the Spirit and to fight sin and to grow in holiness.

So what I want us to notice in Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 and 2 this morning, first of all, discipleship is the pathway by which you can assist another believer in their fight against sin.

Galatians 6:1

Discipleship is the pathway.

If we notice in chapter 6 and verse 1, the scenario Paul lays out is a believer that's caught in a train, he says, in any transgression, in any kind of sin.

Now, this doesn't necessarily mean caught in the acts, like, aha, caught you.

The idea here is more like a web.

I'm caught, I'm stuck in it.

Or maybe a different way to describe that, just a couple weeks ago, it was about 10.45 or so at night.

It was late for me, very late.

And all of a sudden I heard coming out of Lincoln's bedroom a blood-curdling scream.

I thought, what in the world?

And so I went into his room to figure out what was going on, and he had somehow jammed himself in between his bunk bed and the wall.

And he was so stuck his head couldn't even move.

Like it was stuck, it was, I like I have no idea how he got his entire body jammed between the bed and the wall, but he had.

And he couldn't get out, and he was screaming, I mean, it was a loud blood-curdling scream.

We had just gotten him and Baniaya a new bunk bed.

And Baniaya was out like a light.

I mean, he didn't even move.

I thought, how on earth are you sleeping through this?

But what's funny is all three of our older boys have all done this.

It's crazy.

I don't know why.

But each one has at some point gotten themselves jammed in between the bunk bed and the wall.

And so we're just waiting.

Benah's turn's coming.

Don't know how or why, but I'm just ready for it.

But the this is the idea in the text that you're caught, you're stuck, you're trapped, you can't get out.

Like a like a fly in a web, or like somebody that falls into a pit, you're stuck there.

This is the scenario.

Could I ask you, is this you this morning?

As you look at your own life, would you say there are so there are some things that I feel like I am just stuck in?

There's a sin I just struggle with over and over again.

And I've I've dealt with it.

Maybe you're here this morning, you'd say, I've dealt with this for years.

And I'm I just can't seem to get out of it.

It's easy in that scenario to lose hope, isn't it?

It's easy to start to believe the lie.

This is just how it's always gonna be.

I'll never grow out of this.

I'll never be able to grow in defeating this sin in my life.

Or it's easy to start believing the lie.

I guess the power of God isn't enough for me here.

I think that there are all too often Christians who get caught, they lose hope, and their progress in growth and sanctification and holiness stalls because they've given up.

But notice what Paul says here.

He says, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him.

The word for restore here refers to the mending or repairing of something.

It was used commonly to refer to the fishing nets.

If you were a fisherman, your your uh nets would oftentimes tear or break, and you'd have to go to shore and you have to fix it, you have to repair it, you have to make it whole again.

And this is the imagery that Paul is giving us here that if someone is caught in sin, they can be restored.

They can be mended, they can be made whole again.

But notice the avenue by which the restoring takes place.

He says here, from another Christian.

He says here, someone who is spiritual.

And we notice the connection, the flow in the text going from chapter 5 into chapter 6.

Who is the person who's spiritual?

The one who is being led by the spirit, the one who, if you look in chapter 5 and verse 25, is living by the spirit and keeping in step with the spirit.

And if you look in verse 22, is producing the fruit of the spirit, and in verse 16 is walking by the spirit.

This is the spirit-dominated person.

And Paul says, if you are struggling in sin, if you are caught in sin, there's a way out for you.

There's hope for you.

And he tells you how to get out through the help of a spirit-filled, spirit-led believer.

Notice this isn't someone with a degree.

This isn't someone with experience, necessarily.

This isn't someone with a specific job or job description.

Who is it?

Spirit-filled believer.

That's it.

Spirit-filled believer.

So what this helps us to understand this morning is that if you are spirit-filled, if you are walking by the spirit, you are qualified to help someone grow in holiness and fight sin.

And if you are here this morning and you are struggling in sin, you can be helped out of that sin by another believer who is simply yielding themselves to the spirit.

It sounds simple, doesn't it?

But what I want us to notice this morning is the significance and the importance of discipleship.

What is the context?

What is the means by which verse one actually takes place?

It's in the context of one believer mentoring and discipling another.

Notice what he says in verse one.

He says, Restore him in what?

A spirit of gentleness.

A spirit of gentleness, which speaks to the nature of the relationship that's in place here.

This speaks to the nature of the relationship.

Restoration should be done with a spirit of gentleness.

It's reminiscent of how Paul described his disciple-making efforts in the book of 1 Thessalonians.

In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, in verse 7, Paul refers to his relationship with the Thessalonian believers as a mother, and he says it like a mother loves her child.

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

I loved you.

Gentleness.

I cared for you.

I developed an intentional relationship with you, so that you felt my love.

You knew my love and my care for you.

But then going on in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul then later writes, like a father instructs his children, so I taught you.

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

And it's interesting to notice that the both parents that Paul uses, the mother and the father, to describe the mentoring, discipling connection he had with the Thessalonians, which shows us that intentional discipleship that works and that's helpful includes a side of where there's a genuine relationship, a genuine friendship, a genuine love and care for someone where you're serving someone and investing in them in a loving and caring way.

But but it's not just a friendship either.

Because Paul says, also like a father instructing his children, there's a component in which there's teaching that's happening.

There's digging into the word of God together and studying through the word together and working through the text and seeking to bring it to bear on your life.

And Paul says this happened in the context of discipleship, and it's that same context that's that's bursting out of the text in Galatians 6:1, isn't it?

Galatians 6:1

A believer that's struggling in sin, how do they get out?

They need someone who's investing in them and discipling them and loving them and caring for them and helping them walk through the path and walk on the path and sticking the hand out and saying, Come on up.

I'm here.

Let's walk through this together.

At the end of verse one he says, keep watch on yourself.

There's a warning.

Remember, this is addressed to the brothers who are spiritual in verse one.

The warning is that nobody's arrived.

The point is that you are not an either-or this morning.

You're not an either-or.

Either I'm here and I'm struggling, I'm caught in the sin, or I'm the spiritual one.

The point is, sometimes you're one, sometimes you're the other.

Sometimes you're the one struggling in sin and you need help.

And sometimes you're the one living in the spirit that's able to offer the help.

Paul's warning is don't think, don't make the mistake of thinking that you who are spirit-filled are always going to be that.

There are times where you will struggle in sin too.

You'll need someone in your life investing in you, discipling you, offering you the hand to get out.

We need help fighting this sin this morning.

We need help for several reasons.

We need help fighting sin because every single one of us is susceptible to sins that easily ensnare us.

This is the writer of Hebrews Warning in Hebrews 12, 1.

Every single one of us here this morning has a weak spot.

We have areas in which we are susceptible to struggle in sin.

We need help fighting sin, secondly, this morning, because the heart is deceptive, and because the heart is deceptive, we have blind spots.

We develop blind spots to our sin.

You're here this morning, you say, Wow, I don't have, I didn't know it's been a long time since I've struggled in sin.

The reality is your heart is probably deceiving you because you probably have some areas where you are struggling in sin, and maybe you just don't even realize it.

As Paul writes in Ephesians, you've become calloused.

You've developed a callousness to sin.

You've lost sensitivity.

You need someone in your life who's willing to say and who has established the credibility to be able to say, Hey, I noticed this in you.

I noticed this area where you are not reflecting Jesus.

Why?

What's going on?

Let's walk through that together.

In Philippians chapter 3, verse 12, Paul writes that he himself, if we think there's any believer that arrived, any believer that reached a state where he didn't need help anymore, he'd he'd finished.

Philippians 3:12

What he'd set out to start, it would probably be Paul.

And yet in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 12, Paul says, Not that I have already attained, not that I have already apprehended.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

He says, I still push forward, I'm striving ahead.

I need to keep running the race.

None of us have finished the race yet.

So we need help.

We need help.

Do you believe me?

Thank you.

I think it just is bursting out of the text here, isn't it?

It's bursting out.

You're not meant to do it alone.

You're not meant to do it alone.

What does he say in verse 2?

Bear one another's burdens.

Bear one another's burdens.

This is the challenge to us today, this morning.

Bear one another's burdens.

Intentional, relational discipleship enables you to bear the burdens of others.

Discipleship enables you to fulfill Paul's challenge in Paul's challenge to us in Galatians 6, 2.

It's interesting in the Greek text in verse 2, the first word of verse 2 is one another.

The first word is one another.

And Paul does that in order to emphasize its importance.

The importance of one another here.

The idea he's communicating.

It's like he's trying to put an exclamation point on the one another.

Don't go it alone.

One another.

Bear one another's burdens.

The burdens here would be oppressive burdens.

This is not a light load, but an immense weight that you are simply physically unable to carry on your own.

This is the concept in the text.

A burden that you can't bear.

Can you come carry this?

Can you come lift this?

Can you help me bring this out of the house?

Or can you help me bring this into the house?

And you know why I love that phrase?

Because it's my time as a man to shine.

It is my time to rise to the occasion.

I might not be useful for many things, but there are some things I am useful for.

Lifting heavy objects.

Men, can I give an amen?

Right?

This is our time.

This is our time.

And I love if I hear and I say, let's go, let's go.

I start, you know, I do a little stretching sometimes, start doing a few jumping jacks, loosen up, get ready, because it's time to bear the burden for someone who can't bear it on their own.

And Christian, Christian, this is the attitude Paul wants you to have this morning.

He wants you to have this mentality.

The burden is what?

Helping someone grow in their holiness, helping someone fight sin.

Helping something, someone become more sanctified and more into the image of Christ.

And he says it's hard.

It's a burden.

Sometimes, sometimes you're trying and you're crushed.

You're crushed under the weight of it.

You need help.

And Paul says, That's your spirit-filled Christian, it's your time to shine.

You come up under that way, you come next to that, you get right next to that person.

You say, Come here, come here.

I got it.

I'm there with you.

I'm ready.

Let's bear up that burden together.

I'm here for you.

Church, that doesn't just happen.

That doesn't just happen organically.

That doesn't happen unless you know somebody.

Unless you're developing a close connection and relationship with somebody.

Unless there's an intentionality to that relationship where you're saying, hey, let's get together.

Let's grow.

Let's work on becoming more like Christ.

That happens in the context of discipleship.

It's why discipleship is so essential to the local church.

Family, it's why I'm so passionate about us engaging in discipleship at an individual level here at BBC.

Because I want us to do this.

I want us to do this.

I want us to grow together in holiness, in purity, fighting sin, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder.

Don't go out of here and try to do it on your own.

You'll be crushed by the burden.

You'll be crushed by it.

I hope you're seeing this morning.

Paul is not telling you, you lift the burden, you fight sin, you get uncaught by coming to church more.

And I hope I don't get in trouble for saying that.

You need to serve more.

You need to do more.

You need to give more.

You need to serve in this specific ministry.

No, what does the text say?

Are you seeing what the text says?

It says you need a person.

You need a person.

You need a spirit-filled person who will bear up the burden with you.

You can have all those things.

And those things are important.

But if you have all of those things and you don't have this, you're missing a key ingredient to your growth in Christ.

The beauty of all of this, I think, is at the very end of verse 2.

This is just so good.

Because he says, by bearing one another's burdens, what?

You what?

You fulfill the law of Christ.

Now, what has Paul been teaching about this entire time in the book of Galatians?

Don't be a slave to the law.

Don't be a slave to the law.

Don't enslave yourself to the law of Moses.

You can't do it.

Don't earn your righteousness.

You can't do it.

And now, here, the beauty of all of this is here now in chapter 6, where we're called to live the spirit-filled life and live in obedience to Christ and have the Spirit produce his fruit in us and fight sin.

And he says, When you as a believer come alongside someone else and you help them with their growth in this way, what does he say?

You essentially are doing?

You are fulfilling the law of Christ.

You fulfill it.

You fulfill it.

Not the law of Moses, the law of Christ, which means every command, every teaching, everything Jesus taught and instructed, all summarized together.

Paul says, when you do this, when you come alongside somebody else and help them grow, you are fulfilling the entirety of what Jesus was teaching us and commanding us to do.

If you go to Matthew chapter 28, it's what was Jesus' commands to the church.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Go and make disciples.

Go and make disciples.

You're doing it.

Paul says, when you do it, you're you're fulfilling what Jesus said.

It's a beautiful thing.

So church family.

Do it.

Can I just say that?

Can I just say that?

Do it.

Do it.

And you'll be blessed.

You'll be blessed.

Growing in Jesus is always worth it.

Fighting sin is always worth it.

And what an immense blessing there is for you, spirit-filled Christian.

When you do it, when you help someone.

Immense blessing.

Father, thanks for today.

Thanks for the opportunity to open up your word and to once again study the topic of spiritual warfare.

How do we fight sin?

How do we do it success successfully, the way that you've designed?

And we noticed this morning that one of those significant ways in which we engage in the fight is by doing it together.

Doing it together.

Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder.

So, Lord, I pray, I pray on the one hand, I pray for everyone here this morning.

I pray that we would humble ourselves to seek out, if we don't have one already, seek out someone who would walk with us, who would invest in us, who would engage in an intentional discipleship relationship with us, because we want to grow.

And we want someone in our life who we can be honest with and we can have real conversations with and share what's really going on in our hearts and what's really going on in our lives.

And to have someone who walks through that with us.

We all need it.

None of us here this morning have arrived.

And Father, I also pray, on the other hand, for those here this morning, we ask, Lord, for a willingness and openness to do the work of coming beside someone else and helping to bear those burdens.

That's a significant investment.

A significant investment of time and effort, and it's an emotional investment, a spiritual investment.

There's no doubt work involved.

But Lord, impress upon us the significance, the importance of engaging in that work of discipleship.

Impress upon us the need for us to do that.

As we seek to fulfill the law of Christ.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.