Transcription
The subject of the morning is what do you do with your burdens? What do you do with your burdens?
Most little towns in past days had a character who was known as the town atheist. Generally, he was a free thinker. Generally, he was a person who was given to socialism. The little town in which I lived as a boy, it lacked many things. We did not have street lights. Fact, we didn't have electric lights in our homes. We didn't have electric lights. We didn't have sidewalks. We didn't have paved streets. We did not have running water. We did not have inside plumbing. There were many things that the little town lacked.
But the little town in which I lived, we did have a town atheist. He was a socialist, and each Sunday morning, he was down on the street corner in the center of the little town. And it was only really one street corner. He was down there speaking. These characters were generally very loquacious, and this fellow was extra so. And I remember that all is on the way to Sunday school of that day, I attempted to kill as much time as possible, and I always stopped and listened to him.
The thing that impressed me about this atheist was this: that his mouth was cut on a bias. He chewed tobacco, and he not only defied God, he defied the law of gravitation. Normally, tobacco juice would run out of the lower corner, but it ran out of the the upper corner for him. And I used to stand there as a kid and look at that and wonder how in the world that he did it. And I thought that was quite a feat.
In those days, I remember that he ridiculed the Bible. I remember that he always liked to talk about the contradictions that were in the Bible. And I well remember that he would turn to the sixth chapter, Galatians, then he would read verse two: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Then he would read verse five: "For every man shall bear his own burden." And then he would look up and leer at the crowd, and he'd say, "You see, there's a contradiction in the Bible." Well, none of us in the little town, we knew how to answer him. We just stood there in silence and listened to him.
How would you answer him? The fact of the matter is, it's the simplest kind of an answer, but we just didn't seem to know it at that time. There are in the scripture 11 different words that are translated by our one word, "burden." That means that there are different kinds of burdens. There are some burdens that you can share. There are burdens that you must bear, and you cannot share them with anyone. That seems to me to be a very simple, and yet a very satisfactory answer.
And this morning, I want us to notice these two burdens that are mentioned here. The first one in verse two: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." And Dr. Lenski, the Lutheran Expositor, has a very fine translation of this. He says, "The burdens of each other, keep bearing the burdens of each other, keep bearing." Now, that is something that we all today have in common. Not all of us here today have wealth, but all of us have burdens. Not all of us have health today, but we have burdens. Not all of us have talent. Actually, even these physical attributes, not all of us have eyes. Not all of us have ears, for there's some here today that cannot hear. There's some here today that cannot see, if you please. And certainly today, not all of us have good looks. Not all of us even have the same kind of blood, although Paul said that God, God's made of one blood all nations to dwell under the sun, yet we have different types of blood. Even we do not have very much in common, actually. But we all have burdens. That's one thing that we all have.
There is a Spanish proverb that says, "No home is there anywhere that does not sooner or later have its hush." Sooner or later, it has its hush. Sooner or later, even death will knock at the door, or some great tragedy will come there. Now, the word that is translated "burden" here is an interesting word in the Greek. It's *baros*. It means infirmity. It means frailty. It means some weakness. It may even mean ignorance. It can mean a pressure, and that, by the way, is one of its meanings. It fits right into this modern-day tension and even grief today. And we are told that we are to bear one another's burdens. This kind of a burden: an infirmity, a weakness, or something that we're going through ignorance.
And Paul began by saying this: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fall..." Ye which are spiritual? Get a baseball bat and beat his brains out? No, he doesn't say that. That's what the fundamentalist translation has it. That is some of our fundamentalists. Thank God, all of them are not that way. We have some very wonderful folk that are fundamental in the faith, but unfortunately, we have some that don't seem to have got around to this verse. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken taken in a fault." Now, this doesn't mean anything. This means an infirmity, a weakness of the flesh. "Ye are to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted."
Now, there are several things that are obvious from this. A believer does not lose his salvation because of this infirmity, or this weakness, or this sin that's in his life, this frailty. Because he says to restore him. And the word that's used to restore is the same word that is used in the Greek for a phys- to reset a bone, if you please, to reset a bone. And that is the thing that is really primary here. It requires a man who's an expert. It requires a man who has depth and experience to reset a bone. You go to a man that's an expert for that sort of thing. And he says, "You that are spiritual, you restore such a one." And you're to do it in the spirit of meekness. My, how we need today experts in this particular field, instead of all of the clumsiness today of so many people trying to straighten out somebody else. May I say that this requires an expert, if you please, to straighten out or to restore such a one. And you're to restore him. You're not to drive him out.
Now, the sin should be condemned. There's no toleration in scripture of sin, but the sinner should be restored. David, for instance, never did quite forgive Absalom. You remember when Absalom rebelled against David, he went out on the town, and David forgot that he'd gone out on the town too. But he was not even prepared to forgive Absalom. They asked him to forgive him, and after they pleaded with him, he finally said, "Well, let him come on back into Jerusalem, but he'll not see my face." Well, that's not forgiveness. That wasn't complete forgiveness. That's not the way God forgave him. God completely forgave David when he sinned and restored him. And that's part of the difficulty in the life of Absalom, by the way. You can, I think, drive folk away by not restoring them if they want to be restored. Now, God completely forgave this man, David. And God completely today will forgive the one that is His own comes to Him for restoration. He says, "If we confess, He is faithful and just to forgive."
And then over in Luke 17, in verse three, this is what our Lord said: "Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him not." To shut our eyes to the sin? It should be dealt with. This business today of closing our eyes to the sin and think we saw it? We do not. It should be dealt with. "If he repent, forgive him." And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, "I repent," thou shalt forgive him. That's a real test of patience, isn't it? Seven times every day. After you go through a week of that, you're have to go to say to your brother and say, "Let's stop this routine. Let's start some- something else. Let's not be doing the thing that will cause you to keep coming and repenting about this." But our Lord made it very clear that he is to be restored.
Now, therefore, there are these burdens that people have that are like this, and these are burdens that we can share. These are burdens that are transferable. Someone has said, "A load is only half a load if two were carrying it." And there are these burdens today that people have about us. They may be sitting next to you this morning. Someone may have a real burden, and it's difficult for them to carry that burden today. And a little lift from you, a little help from you, would make all the difference in the world in their lives. We are so prone in our circles today to condemn. And I think we should condemn the sin, don't don't misunderstand me, but we should try to restore the sinner, if it's at all possible, if he wants to be restored, if he comes as our Lord says and repents, then he should be restored. These are the burdens that you and I can bear today.
"Is thy cruse of comfort failing? Rise and share it with a friend. And through all the years of famine it shall will serve thee to the end. Love divine will fill thy storehouse, are thy handful still renewed? Dainty fare for one will often make a royal feast for two. Lost and weary on the mountains, wouldst thou sleep amidst the snow? Cha that frozen form beside thee, and together both shall glow. Art thou wounded in life's battle? Many stricken round thee moan. Give to them thy precious ointment, and that balm shall heal thine own."
There are burdens that we can share. Now, there are burdens that we cannot share. Paul mentions that, "For every man shall bear his own burden." And Dr. Phillip, in his so-called translation, and I do not consider a translation at all, but an interpretation, and it's a good interpretation, but not a good translation. He says here, "Each man shall shoulder his own pack." That's good. Only thing, instead of transferring it to mountain climbing, the word should be transferred to the ocean. For the word is in the Greek is *phortion*, and it has to do with a ship's cargo, and it simply means that every man must bear his own cargo. Every ship must carry its own cargo.
There are certain burdens, therefore, that you cannot transfer. There are those that are nontransferable. So, every man is work, and no one can take your place. There, actually, each life today is separated, isolated, and segregated from the rest of mankind. You were born into this world alone. No one could take your place. No one could share that experience with you. You will suffer alone. There are times when there will come to you suffering, and no one can bear that. There'll come the day, maybe, where you will be put on a table, and you'll be wheeled into an operating room, and you may have loved ones standing around you who would like to take your place, but they can't take your place. You must bear your own burden. You're not only born alone, you not only suffer alone. There are problems in this life that you must face alone. And there will come the day when you go down through the valley of the shadow of death, and as far as this world is concerned, you go down there alone. And you'll be very much alone unless the One who went before us through Jordan's flood stage forest, unless He goes with you, you will be very much alone at that time. No human being can go through there with you.
And then that will come a day when you, as a child of God, even will go before the judgment seat of Christ alone. There'll be no one there to plead your cause. There'll be no loved one there to make an excuse for you. There'll be no one there to offer any explanation for you. You will stand there alone. Have you ever noticed how the word of God emphasizes that? In Romans 14:12, Paul says, "So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." He's not talking about the unsaved. He's talking to believers. And he says that every believer is to give an account of himself to God. And then that's what he said in 2 Corinthians 5:10, when he said, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of the things that we've done in the body, whether they be good or bad." He's not talking to unsaved people. The unsaved go before the great white throne judgment. This is the *bema*. This is the thing the Christians know about. Yonder in the city of Corinth, as we saw the other evening, this is where believers must go and give an account.
My friend, here the emphasis is not upon the weight. And the first word, *baros*, the emphasis is the weight. It's something heavy that we need somebody to put their shoulder under it. But here, *phortion*, it is something that must be borne, whether it be light or heavy, whether it be good or bad. You have to to stand personally before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of yourself. And if you want to know how personal it is, this word *phortion*, not only means the cargo of a ship, it means a child in the womb that a woman is bearing. That's a burden. And these little children are, I mean by that, these little sins and peccadillos, as you call them, these little weaknesses that you talk about, you have to bear them. You have to give an account to God. He's talking to believers here.
In the sixth chapter of Galatians, when he says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." If you sow to the flesh, you shall of the flesh reap corruption. If you sow to the spirit, you'll reap life everlasting. Now, it's not talking about salvation, but he is talking about a reward. It's the same thing that we have in 2 Corinthians 5:10, when he says that we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of the things done in the body, whether they be good or bad. And then Paul adds this: "Knowing the terror of the Lord." That's our translation, but the word in the Greek means fear. "Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men." That is, Paul says, "I'm very much concerned about my life down here, knowing the fear of the Lord." And if you should ask me this morning, what is lacking more today in our churches than anything else? It's a conviction of sin on the part of believers. If today we had a real conviction of sin, we would not be everlastingly trying to straighten out everybody else, because each one of us must give an account of himself. You are going to have to stand before God.
Now, somebody's going to say to me, "But Dr. McGee, our sins were settled at the cross." And we can sing, "The old account was settled long ago." Sure was. I agree with that. But what about the new account? The one you've been making since you've been saved? That wasn't settled. Your life has to stand in the light of the presence of Christ. And that's for every believer. This business today, "Oh, you're saved by grace," and at the judgment seat of Christ, there's never one iota of a doubt, a shadow of a doubt about your salvation. It's about your life, and whether you receive a reward or not, whether you are going to be ashamed at its appearing, whether you actually will be a disgrace. And it's quite possible for a believer to be a disgrace to Christ. Oh, we take these things so for granted today. Listen to James: "He that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." How many sins of omission have you committed this week? Oh, I know there are a lot of folks say, "I'm a separated Christian, and I don't do this, and I don't do that." You can keep on saying, "Where were you last night?" Oh, you say, "Well, that's too much of a burden for me." Sure is. But you're going to have to answer to Him about your life, not to me. You don't need to answer to me. You're not responsible to me at all. But you sure are responsible to Him. And one of these days, you'll answer to Him for your life. You mean to tell me that you will accept the responsibility as a child of God and then not discharge that responsibility? You think that you can get by with that? You'll never get by with it. He says, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." And Paul, in the early stages of his ministry, even as a missionary, he wasn't sure. Oh, he was sure about his salvation, but he wasn't sure about his life. Do you want to listen to him for just a moment? In 1 Corinthians the 9th chapter, verse 25: "And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." Now, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air." Paul says, "As a believer today, I'm not shadow boxing. This thing is real with me." And when I go about over the Roman Empire preaching the gospel, I'm not out on a picnic. Oh, the Christians today, the only thing they do for the Lord is something that will entertain them or something that ministers to them. My friend, how much do you do for Him that costs you something? Are you willing to lose your health and your wealth for Him? You have to answer to Him, not for me. Don't be disturbed by what I'm saying, but I'm just telling you that you're going to answer to Him someday. As a Christian, you're going to have to turn in your report to Him. And I'm told that He has eyes as a flame of fire, and I do not think it's going to be easy. I don't think you can wangle through an excuse at that time. I don't think it can be some careless thought of a life that He's going to acknowledge at all. May I say this is something that ought to cause us to search our own hearts today? Each man must bear his own burden. Your own burden. Nobody, nobody can take your place. You will appear as a Christian before the judgment seat of Christ.
Now, I've mentioned the two burdens that are here. I'm going to mention a third one, and then I'm through. There is another type of a burden, and this is a burden that you cannot bear, and you cannot share it. Somebody says, "Well, what kind of a burden is that?" Because I thought that you had to divide burdens into those you could share and into those that you could bear. No, there is a third type of a burden. You cannot share it, and you cannot bear it. Will you listen to David in the 38th Psalm, verse four? "For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me." Have you discovered that yet in your life, that you cannot bear your a burden of sin? Have you discovered that you, in and of yourself, you're not self-sufficient, and that you do not have that which you can present to God for your salvation? Have you recognized that you have a burden that you cannot bear it? You cannot share it? That's the thing Isaiah said to the nation Israel: "For this is the burden of sin, a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity." The pictures of an ox or an ass that's just absolutely weighted down, because he uses that, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass's master's crib: but my people they do not know." A sinful nation, a people that are laden with iniquity.
What do you do with your sin? Well, there are many things you can do with them today, and there are many things that people are doing with them. The psychologist today gives this advice, and it's not new by any means. It's back in the Book of Psalms, Psalm 55:6. And I said, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away and be at rest." Wouldn't you just love to get out from under it all today? Wouldn't you like to get out from under the burden of the sin of your life today? And David also said that, and like a bird, I'm going to fly. They told me like a bird I was to fly away, but David said, "I tried that, but it didn't work. I flew away, but I took my burdens with me." How many people today feel like, "Oh, if I could just get away from here and get over yonder, I'd get out from it all." What do you do with your burden of sin today? You can't run, run away from it. It's on your back today.
Will you listen to the psalmist? "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." What do you do with your burden of sin? The Lord Jesus gave a note that when He gave it, the people who knew the Old Testament, they detected in it an invitation that they had heard for years, and it was a new message that He gave. He had been saying to them, "Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And then He denounced their cities because He says, "The mighty works I perform here, had they been performed even in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented long ago." But this people have not repented. Is He through with them? The nation was turned aside, but not the individual. Listen to Him: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll rest you. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I'm meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest for yourselves. My burden is light, my yoke is easy." 1900 years ago, He came, died on a cross to take your burden of sin. And in light of that, He gave that invitation. He says, "Come unto me, all ye that are laboring under this load of sin, I'll rest you. I'll rest you. I'll give you rest." The rest of redemption, of a finished transaction.
In London, a lady got on a with a basket. She came in and she sat down, took this big heavy basket and put it in her lap. Man sitting across from her looked at her for a few moments, and finally says, "Lady, if you'll just put the basket in the seat next to you, the train will carry you and the basket both. You don't have to carry." How many people today are tempting to carry their burden of sin through this life when the Lord Jesus says, "Bring it to me. Bring it to me." Bunyan, in Pilgrim's Progress, is reciting his own experience. He tells about how he, as a wretch drinking heavily in the ale houses of that day, had this burden of sin on him. And he said that as he saw himself in the light of the word of God, he was not just a sinner, but he was sin from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. He couldn't get rid of it. It was a burden. He said, and when he wrote Pilgrim's Progress, you find Pilgrim carrying this heavy burden, and finally he comes to the cross and he leaves the burden at the cross. It's gone.
You can try everything that's imaginable today to get rid of this guilt complex that people are trying to get rid of. The psychiatrist today says that that is the number one problem that we all have is a guilt complex. And they tell you even to break over from your traditions, from your mores, from the way you were raised, because that's the reason you have the guilt complex. You have the guilt complex, my beloved, because you're a sinner, because you have fallen short of the glory of God, and you have a burden you cannot bear it, and it'll finally take you into the pit of hell unless you get rid of it. And the only place in the world to get rid of the burden of sin is yonder at the cross of Christ. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll rescue."
I heard Miss Ranny say several years ago, Mr. Miss Ranny, members here, they're now up at Mount Hermon where they have a cottage. They stay up there during the summer. While she's gone, I guess I could tell this little story, but I heard her say this long before I came to the Church of the Open Door, where she did. I think the most conspicuous piece of work in this country in child evangelism that anyone has ever done, he was outstanding as one that dealt with children. And she made this statement to me. She says, "You know, Dr. McGee, children have a burden of sin. All of them do." And she was telling about an experience she had out here in Santa Monica with a class of child evangelism, and a little fellow out there that they had really had trouble with, a little towheaded fellow that nobody could bring in line. And they were all surprised there in one of the classes one morning, and this little fellow accepted Christ as his Savior. And he got down on his knees and he prayed a prayer to accept Christ, and he got up and he says, "Well, I sure got rid of that burden." May I say to you, the little fellow had no inhibitions. But that's what a great many people need to be able to say today. Oh, to get rid of that burden of sin that we have in our lives.
Your sin this morning is in one of two places. It's on you, or it's on Christ. If it's on you, it's too heavy for you to bear. We're such helpless creatures. Even the natural history book says, "Man is the only one that knows nothing that can learn nothing without being taught. He can neither speak nor walk nor eat, or in short, he can do nothing at the prompting of nature, only but weep." When we are born into this world, the only thing we do naturally is weep. We are helpless. God reminds us at the very beginning, even physically, that we are helpless creatures. You have a burden today, you cannot bear it, and it's either today on you, or on Christ. For 1900 years ago, He took the burden of your sin and He bore it on on the cross. And this morning, your sin is either on you, or either by faith you've accepted Christ, and it's on Him today. It can't be both places. He doesn't share it. He bore it all 1900 years ago. Where is your sin today? On you, or on Christ? It's in one of those two places. This is the burden you cannot bear. He says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll rescue. I'll rescue."
Shall we pray? Our gracious Father, God, we do rejoice this morning that there was One who came to this earth to lift the load and the burden of sin from the human heart. We thank Thee for Thy so great love today. We would pray this morning for these who've lifted their hands. Thou dost know each particular need, and we do pray that Thou wilt meet that need and enable us by Thy grace, here and our workers, to to be helpful to these folk and any others that may be in our midst today. But we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
[Music]