Ethics With A Fallen Brother

Revival Fires Baptist College
Christian Ethics
Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle
Ethics with a Fallen Brother
I. Galatians 6:1-6, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such
an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one
another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something,
when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then
shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own
burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good
things.”
II. We are the only crowd who kill their own wounded.
A. It is unethical for me to overlook someone’s sin.
B. It is also unethical for me to just write them off because have.
C. It is unethical for me to not take Biblical steps to try to restore them back to what they
ought to be.
III. Word restore is used four different ways in Scripture, all of which are applicable to this text.
A. To recover or to get again.
1.When someone is overtaken or overpowered by another force, I am trying to
release them from the other force.
2.I am trying to recover them back to where they are supposed to be.
B. To give back again.
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1.Luke 19:8, “And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the
half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any
man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.”
2.Giving back what was taken.
3.Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the
soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
4.Our job in restoration is to give back to God what has been taken from Him.
C. To bring back to its original condition.
1.Acts 1:6, “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him,
saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”
2.Wil you bring it back to its zenith?
3.Will you give us independence again?
4.When you restore an object, you are trying to get it back to the original
condition as possible.
5.It takes more work to restore that which has deteriorated than it does to build
it originally.
D. To heal or cure
1.Matthew 12:13, “Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he
stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.”
2.To set back the bone.
3.To get it back in line where it belongs.
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IV. “Brethren”
A. Includes all of us that are saved.
V. “If a man be overtaken in a fault”
A. What are the chances that someone will recover themselves after they have sunk if they
couldn’t keep themselves afloat?
B. Once overtaken, they will not recover without outside help.
VI. “Ye which are spiritual”
A. Spiritual means I am under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
1.I am as spiritual as I am yielded to the Holy Spirit of God.
2.I am as yielded to the Holy Spirit of God as I am obedient to the Bible.
B. If I don’t do what I am responsible to do, I am unethical.
1.I am wrong.
C. I have a responsibility to be spiritual so that I can help.
D. I have a responsibility after becoming spiritual to restore them in the spirit of meekness.
VII. “In the spirit of meekness”
A. Don’t get proud because you haven’t fallen.
VIII. “Consider thyself lest thou also be tempted”
A. If you get proud about how you did not mess up, you will soon find yourself in the
same shape he is in.
B. Don’t get proud that you stood and they fell.
C. Realize your own vulnerability.
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D. Realize that the potential is within you to make the same foolish mistake.
E. Be careful not to over-expose yourself.
IX. The average Christian would say, “Ye which are spiritual, finish him off and put him out of
his misery.”
A. If someone errs, we destroy them totally or drive them out of our crowd instead of
trying to correct them and restore them.
X. We are more willing to restore someone who is immoral than we are to restore someone who
is erring doctrinally.
A. Not for false doctrine or immorality.
B. We should try to recover people who have erred doctrinally and those who have erred
morally.
1.Both of them are in violation to Scripture.
2.Both of them are wrong.
3.I cannot agree with either of them.
4.Both of them need help.
5.I may not be able to help either of them, but I should make an effort.
XI. James 5:19-20, “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him
know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from
death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
A. Talking particularly about doctrine.
B. Convert means to turn around.
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1.He was going the wrong direction and you turned him around.
2.I should turn people around whether they are turned wrong morally or
doctrinally
3.If they are in conflict with the truth, I am supposed to try to turn them around
and get them back going the right direction.
4.A conversion is a change of usage.
a. The day I got saved, I was saved immediately.
b. The turning around takes time.
C. When you convert or restore something, you change its looks, its use, and its destiny.
XII. It is God’s will for people to be restored rather than rejected.
A. If that weren’t true, God would have never saved us to start with.
XIII. There can be restoration, but it is based on one element – Repentance.
A. I cannot restore anyone who does not want help or forgiveness.
B. I cannot force them to be restored.
C. When someone is willing to be restored, too often they are rejected by the people of
God.
XIV. Restoration is not immediate; it is a process.
A. It is not sin today, and a back in the saddle tomorrow.
B. They should forfeit positions of leadership at least temporarily.
C. There are some things they will be able to do based on whether they repent.
XV. Who is to be restored.
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A. They that are overtaken in a fault.
1.Not someone who is in pursuit of sin.
2.Can’t help someone who is hot after sin.
B. I cannot restore someone until they are willing to be restored.
1.I cannot restore a person who won’t admit they did anything wrong.
XVI. How to restore the fallen:
A. Write no one off immediately.
1.David did wicked sin!
2.They may not be what they could have been if they had not sinned, but there
is often a lot still left in someone.
3.Samson slew more in his death than in his life.
a. He didn’t have a long ministry.
b. What he accomplished in his death was a greater achievement than what
he ever achieved in his life.
4.Jonah refused the call of God.
a. He still ended up going.
b. He ended up in the whale’s belly.
c. He was used of God.
5.Peter cursed and denied the Lord.
a. Quit the ministry.
b. When he was restored he was used.
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c. Jesus told him, “When thou art converted, strengthen the brethren.”
d. When you get turned around to what you are supposed to be, strengthen
the brethren.
6.Prodigal son had acceptance and usefulness afterwards.
7.Condemn the sin while doing what we can to restore the sinner.
a. Condemn the sin, love the sinner.
B. Practice immediate forgiveness upon repentance
1.Luke 17:3, “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee,
rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.”
2.Forgiveness means you give them another chance.
a. No man can be restored unless they have first been forgiven.
b. If someone won’t repent and receive Christ, they will die and go to hell.
3.If others have repentance in their lives, I should have repentance in mine.
C. Give them the benefit of the doubt.
1.Don’t be cynical or skeptical about their sincerity.
2.Too often they really want to make it right and we make it impossible.
3.We push them back out.
4.They give up.
5.If you will not forgive someone when they have repentance, the problem is
no longer theirs, it is yours now.
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6.You must have the willingness that if they come to you tomorrow, you will
forgive them.
7.I would rather get burned twice than to burn someone back.
D. Do not make them relive the pain of their failure.
1. If you are trying to make something heal, you shouldn’t keep peeling the scab
off of it.
2.Don’t keep tearing open the wound every day.
3.Don’t make it bleed every day.
4.Let the past be the past.
5.Choose to forget it.
E. Dwell on where they are headed instead of where they have been.
1.Dwell on the cure.
2.If I drive down the road with my head over my shoulder, I will get in a wreck.
3.I need to get their eyes going in the right direction, not just their feet.
4.We spend too much time redigging up their past.
5.Reach forth toward those things that are before.
6.Give them principles that are positive instead of negative in nature.
F. Get that person in the Bible
1.Psalm 119:9, 11, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking
heed thereto according to thy word. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I
might not sin against thee.”
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2.The Bible will keep you from sin.
3.It will help you cleanse your way.
4.You are not going to make it and the person you are trying to restore will not
make it unless you both get in the Bible.
5.You better find out what the Bible says and believe it with conviction.
6.You can learn things from others, but you’d better get a devotional life with
God.
G. Bear ye one another’s burdens.
1.When Jesus bore my burden on Calvary, He made the impossible possible for
me.
2. I could not pay for my sin or bear the load of it.
3.If I fulfill the law of Christ, the law of love concerning the fallen, I will do for
them what Jesus did for me at Calvary.
a. I lift their weight so that they are not lugging that burden around.
4.Galatians 6:2, “Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
a. It is not my job to do your responsibilities.
b. It is my job to help you if the outside forces of sin are bearing you down.
c. If I don’t tend to that responsibility, I am unethical.
H. If they can’t be what they used to be, try to help them be all that they can be.
1.When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost the Garden of Eden.
a. They would never get the Garden of Eden back.
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b. It is gone for good.
c. They did get their relationship with God back.
2.When the prodigal son squandered his inheritance in riotous living, when he
came back home, the father did not redivide the inheritance.
a. He lost it for good.
b. He did get a ring of identity.
c. He did get shoes for his feet.
d. He did get a coat, a place to live, etc.
e. He got a job, but he wouldn’t be joint-heirs anymore
3.When people fall and wreck their lives, they may forfeit something, but that
doesn’t mean they should forfeit everything.
a. We should help them to be everything they can be for God.
b. When God decides it is time for you to retire, He will retire you.
c. As long as you are breathing, there is something for you to do.
d. I need to help them to reach whatever potential they still have.
4.When someone wrecks their lives, they may have lost the potential they could
have had, but they still have some.
a. I should try to help them get all they can get out of it.
I. Move slowly
1.Be patient.
2.Don’t try to get them back into the saddle with a tight responsibility.
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3.When someone sins, they still know everything they used to know, they are
not what they used to be.
4.They are a lot farther from what they used to be than what they think they are.
5.To put someone back into leadership can damage them.
a. If it damages them, it will damage someone else.
XVII. Restoration is a greater show of the power of God than the original building.
A. When you restore someone, someone will not like it.
B. It is someone who ought to be excited about it.
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Revival Fires Baptist College

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle