May it please the Lord to bless
us together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us
turn to the epistle of Paul to the Galatians and chapter 6 and
we'll read verses 7 and 8. The epistle of Paul to the Galatians
chapter 6 and reading verses 7 and 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked. For whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. It is surely very gracious of
our God to record such words of instruction to his people
and instruction of words to us to be found walking therefore
in a right way and not being left to our own inclinations
and to the many temptations that Satan would bring before us. So here we have Paul writing
to the Galatians and it was written when he was of course in Rome
and no doubt he was therefore confined to his house and yet
he was able to write these important words because how necessary it
is for us to consider such words for the blessing of our souls
and for the honour and glory of our God. And so the Apostle
comes and speaks these words of warning, really, and we are
told to be not deceived. I suppose we don't like to think
that we are being deceived, do we? We don't like to think of
it, I'm sure, in natural things. We don't like to think that people
are deceiving us, that they are pretending something which is
not true. We don't like that attitude. And how much more important
it is when we consider this with regards to our own salvation,
that we should be careful to consider whether Perhaps in some
aspects you and I are being deceived. The devil is always, always endeavouring
to deceive us. How foolish we are when we tend
to forget that. But we have so many evidences
of it in the Word of God, how he tries and how he has. succeeded
in deceiving people. Deceiving people by insinuating
to them that to go in such a course and do such a thing would perhaps
not be a problem, or perhaps cause them to not even consider
whether such a path is right or wrong. It's when the evil
one, as it were, blinds our eyes and stops our ears so we don't
hear the warnings and we don't see the danger. Well, we're warned
here, be not deceived. And you know we have a supposed
and outstanding example in the Word of God of being deceived
and that was King David himself when he was deceived by Satan
to take Bathsheba and commit adultery. to arrange for her
husband to be killed to try and hide his deed. Well, poor David
was deceived, wasn't he? And let none of us think that
we are above being deceived in anything. The devil's great aim
is to blind our eyes against evil. His great aim is to make
us assume that evil is okay, there's not really a problem
with it, and to therefore try and reduce what clearly is sin
before us so that we are tempted to think, well, I can just involve
myself in this without any real problem and without any difficulty.
Well, we may involve ourselves without any difficulty, but there
will be a problem. There will be a great problem.
Because the Word of God tells us, if we walk contrary to God,
he will walk contrary to us. We should never think that we
can sin lightly. We should never think that we
can get away with sin. We should never think that some
kind of excuse route for us. We should never kind of go under
the guise, well, of course I know I suffer from this and I'm easily
taken in by this and perhaps we hide under that statement
of a besetting sin. Well, there's no excuse there. And so how needful for us to
take on board such a statement as this. Be not deceived. We therefore need to constantly
be found praying to God that we may be kept from being deceived. As I sometimes say in those two
verses, according to the Proverbs, there is a way that seemeth right
to a man, but in the end they're off for the ways of death. You see, it's a way that seems
right because it's a way of deceit. pretends it's all right. But
if we walk in that way, then we will find it's not a right
way and how solemn if it ends up in death. And so we should
be thankful for a word like this to alert us to the situation
which does exist. Very much so. And I suppose it's
the biggest way that Satan tries to get in. and to break through
our armour, to deceive us. And that's no doubt one of the
reasons why the Lord very graciously in the Ephesians gives us that
long list of the whole armour of faith, which of course we're
going through our Young People's Bible Study that James is detailing
for us. When it's good, you know, to
be able to consider these things and to not be deceived, because
Satan will say, You don't need that bit of armour because you're
okay. Well, the Word of God tells us,
take unto you the whole armour of God. Don't leave any bit off. Don't think it's not necessary.
Don't think it's not relevant. The devil is looking for a chink
in our armour. He's looking for an opportunity
to be able to get in. And so let us remember such a
word as this. not deceived. And the solemn
truth is, as the Apostle tells us, God is not mocked. We have the Word of God. The Word of God is there so wonderfully
placed for us, so that as we read the Word of God, and may
we read the Word of God, and may we be directed by it, and
may we seek for direction from it. May we not be left to ourselves
to make our own conclusions, to come to our own views. That's
just what Satan wants us to do. He wants us to work things out
in our natural mind, in our natural way, and we should realise that
our nature, our natural nature, is sinful. And therefore if we
rely on our own abilities, we shall fail. And we need then
to commit our way unto the Lord and to trust also in him. Now that may perhaps sometimes
not seem to very satisfactory or very apt and we may think
we haven't got time for such a consideration. to commit our
way unto the Lord and to trust also in Him. Well, there is never
a situation in our lives when we have not time to commit our
way unto the Lord. And of course, if we need any
reason for that and any example, we of course have the example
in Nehemiah's day. Don't we? When there was that
situation, when he came before the king, The king looked at
him and said, well, what's the problem? You know, you've got
a heavy face. What's the problem? And what
did he do? Before he answered, he prayed to the God of heaven. Well, that's a good test and
a good example for us. So therefore, whatever situation
or temptation we may come into, to be able to come and pray to
the God of heaven, that He will direct us, that He will instruct
us. And the Lord has spoken and said,
we are to call upon Him in the day of trouble. We're not to
try and work things out in our own way. We're to call upon the
name of the Lord. Because the Lord is ready to
hear, and the Lord is ready to answer. And the Lord will hear,
and He will answer. It may not always be in the way
that you and I want, or perhaps the way in which you and I expect. Remember, in David's life, there
were many occasions when he needed direction in battle, and he could
have viewed the situation, he could have thought, well, now
I need so many men and this is what I should do and how I should
tackle the enemy, but he came And he committed his way unto
the Lord. He asked the Lord for guidance. Sometimes the Lord said, go up. And sometimes he said, do not
go up. If we come rightly to our God,
we should be ready to accept the answer we receive. And if God does say no, to a
situation, we should not rebel against it, and we should not
try and change it. You know, when Israel came out across Jordan, and they went up and they were told
to go and capture that little place of Ai, and they thought,
well, it would be easier to go up and capture it. But they didn't
seek the Lord and the Lord wasn't with them. And therefore initially
there was a defeat. Well we should realise that we
need God to go out with us and direct us. And of course there
was the other occasion when they were told to go up and possess
the land of Canaan after they'd been in the wilderness about
a year. And the spies had gone and looked at it and came back
with an evil report. And what did they do? They listened
to the evil report. And they decided not to go up
and possess the land. Well, what was occurring? They were being deceived. That
evil report was produced, of course, by the devil who convinced
those ten men to bring that report And therefore Israel decided
not to go up and possess the land. And then, when they heard
what judgment was to be upon them, they then decided to think
better of it. But you see, God was not to be
mocked. God was not to be mocked. And then you see, when they decided
to go up and attack the enemy, and of course they were well
beaten. No, they had to do What the Lord
had ordained for them, that was to spend those 40 years tramping
around in the wilderness. A year for every day that the
spies had spent in that land. What a solemn position it was. And so therefore, Israel was
deceived. And God was not to be mocked. And you and I may think perhaps
we can get away with disobeying. the Word of God, disobeying the
Word of God in our own little lives. We all know, I'm sure,
what there is in our lives that God would direct us in and have
us to do. And perhaps the devil is intimating
to us a number of reasons why we should not pursue that correct
way. The devil is very cunning and
very clever. And if we are listening to the
devil's position and his views, remember, the devil's aim is
to detract from the honour and glory of God. He does not want
God honoured in anything. And if you have before you perhaps
that desire to perhaps honour the Lord, Be prepared for constant attacks
by the devil. But don't be deceived by him. Be not deceived. And God will
not be mocked. If God has spoken, if God has
directed us, we are to go in that right way, just like Israel
was spoken of. They were told what to do. It
was clear. They were given some encouragement.
They weren't, as it were, faced with going into Canaan without
any evidence of what it was going to be like. God graciously gave them some
evidence. And yet, you see, they weren't
willing to accept the good evidence. What they did was look at what
appeared to be the bad evidence. Oh, there were giants in the
land. Oh, there were high walls. Well, they were well-fenced cities.
It wasn't going to be possible. It was a good land. No, they
weren't going to pursue. They were going to reject the
commands of God. Sometimes in our lives, my friends,
there are those things which are set before us, and we know
that it's a good land, and we know it's a good prospect, and
yet we know There are difficulties. The devil produces those difficulties
to such an extent, they become so difficult and so big, that
what we do, we back away. God is not mocked. It's a very solemn statement,
really. We read it, don't we, very easily. It's only a few
words. But how solemn it is when such
a word is applied to us. if we realise that we have not
done that which we should have done, especially if we have been
wonderfully favoured and blessed by Almighty God. Now then, the
apostle goes on to speak to us then about sowing. Sowing. We know what that is,
don't we, I'm sure, how a farmer sows his seed in the ground. But you know, what is to be done?
Well, before that sowing takes place, the ground is prepared,
isn't it? A farmer would be very foolish,
wouldn't he? Just to cast seed into a bit of rough ground and
just hope for the best. Oh, that ground would need to
be prepared, it would need to be ploughed, it would need to
be harrowed, the soil would need to be broken down before the
seed could be sown. And so it is really in our spiritual
life, there may be rough ground which needs to be prepared. And
You may say, well, how am I to prepare ground for the seed to
be found in that good ground? Well, the way that our ground
is prepared is, of course, prepared by Almighty God. But the Holy
Spirit brings into our heart that spirit of prayer, to pray
to God that he will indeed go before us, and that he will prepare
the way so that when that seed is sown it will prove to be a
blessing. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall
he also reap. And so we need to therefore realise
the position of the preparation of the sowing, and then when
the sowing is sown, We need to realise that there is then a
watching and a seeking that there may be that right growth and
if there are those weeds that grow up, those weeds are removed
and perhaps the seed may need watering and need caring for
so that it does grow and it does then grow up well and produces
then some 30, some 60 and some 100 fold. Well, the Apostle then
It gives us this picture, and the picture is very simple. There's
a sowing to the flesh, and there's a sowing to the spirit. Now, the easy way is to sow to
the flesh, and the difficult way is to sow to the spirit. and how easy it is for us to
find ourselves sowing to the flesh. That means sowing those
seeds which will just benefit our material life, will just
perhaps improve our natural life. And we can find that we occupy
a lot of time in sowing seed just for fleshly pursuits. Now we may think, well, I'm sure
what I'm doing is okay, there's not a problem with that, I'm
sowing in this way. Well, I think sometimes we need to consider
the words of the Apostle Paul, when he said, all things are
lawful for me, but all things are not convenient, they're not
always prosperous, not always lawful. All things are lawful, but they
may not be those which are truly produced to be a blessing. We
need to examine everything in the light of God's shining light,
not to rely on our own light, because our own light is really
darkness. So here we have this statement, for he that sowed
to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. There won't
be any benefit. And when I say that, there won't
be any eternal benefit. There won't be any true blessing.
It may satisfy ourselves. We may think, well, that's rather
nice and that's rather pleasant. But has it benefited our soul? That's really the great question,
isn't it? You see, we're often deceived
in this way. When the devil insinuates to
us, well, we can spend our time doing this and doing that, but
is it really the benefit of our souls. The devil will try and
make us lose sight of the fact that we have an eternal soul. He tries to make us lose sight
of the fact that our life, the length of our life, by comparison
with eternity, is minute. In fact, it's virtually unable
to observe the actual length of life compared with eternity. The devil never wants us to consider
such a truth as that. If he can, he will try and bring
eternity down to a very small scale and try to enhance our
life and the the length of our life so that we may be able to
enjoy our life on this earth and spend our time and all our
abilities and all our strength sowing to the flesh. And here this statement is, the
flesh shell of the flesh reap corruption. Well there's no true
blessing is there, is there? No true blessing. What a favour
it is that the Spirit of God then comes and shows us how foolish
we are. That's really why the Lord in
His mercy gives us such description here. Be not deceived, God is
not mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that
shall he also reap. For he that sows of the flesh
share of the flesh reaped corruption. Well, I'm sure we are all guilty
of sowing to the flesh. We need to be aware of the danger
of doing this, because it won't benefit our souls. It won't benefit
our souls. But, on the other hand, if the
Spirit leads us and directs us to sow to the Spirit, what is
the benefit of this? shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting. There is an eternal blessing
in sowing to the Spirit. Now you may say, well, how do
we sow to the Spirit? Well, we sow to the Spirit as
we come in prayer to our God, sowing in prayer that He will
look upon us and have mercy upon us, and that He will Indeed,
come and help us as we read the Word of God. We can easily come
and read the Word of God without any sowing. We need to pray the
Lord will come and bless His Word to us. You know, we fail,
I'm sure, very much in this. Now, it's always good and right
to pick up the Word of God and to read it whenever possible.
But, you know, we should, in fact, Before we start reading
the Word of God, seek God's blessing upon his Word. Seek that the
Word we read may be blessed to our souls. Many, many times,
I'm sure, we read the Word of God, and if we were honest, it
has not produced any benefit. We may think we've been sowing
to the Spirit. But you see, the devil may have
taken the words away from our hearing almost. We haven't even
heard it or we haven't even understood what we read. And how important
it is then that we come in a right way when we read the Word of
God and when we come to read the Word of God to actually seek
that there may be that right saying in prayer that as we read
the Word of God it may speak to our hearts and speak to our
hearts. And if the Word of God is to speak to our heart, what
would it do? Well, it will show us our need,
it will show us more of our need, and more of our need, and it
will show us the great blessing of the Saviour. It will show
us the work of the Saviour. It will show us the greatness
of God. It will show us the mercy of
God. It will show us the love of God. It will show us the grace
of God. So if we are to be found sowing
to the Spirit, if we are to be found therefore reading the Word
of God and praying over it, that as we do therefore sow in this
way, that we may be blessed as we do read the Word of God. that it is made of spiritual
good to us. And it's not just passing through
an exercise which we think is right, and it is right. Nothing
wrong in that at all. But we need to be careful how
we read. And not just a read for reading's
sake. We often do. And how we fail. And so we have this wonderful
word here, be not deceived. The devil wants us to just read
the word of God without knowing what we've read. That's his great
desire. He may perhaps allow us to read
it, but what he does then is to distract us from reading it
and bring into our minds something which is just of the flesh. And therefore when we come to
read the Word of God, when we come to read the great and glorious
truth of the Saviour, does it really touch our hearts? Is it
really beneficial, or do we find that in actual fact, rather than
sowing to the Spirit, we've been sowing to the flesh? For he that soweth to the flesh
shall the flesh reap corruption, but He that saith to the Spirit,
Shall the Spirit reap life everlasting. This surely should be our continual
desire, that we may know the blessed work in our hearts of
the Spirit. And the work of the Spirit of
God in our hearts will generally work contrary to that which is
in nature, in our natural life. That which the flesh wants to
do is usually contrary to that of the spirit, because the flesh
wants fleshly things, corruptible things, whereas the spirit desires
incorruptible things, things of the spirit. And there will
be that continual battle in our hearts as we journey on in our
Christian life. The devil wants us not to be
found seeking after the Saviour, not to be found reading his word,
to find out that which is suitable for our soul, that which will
comfort us, perhaps that which will correct us. You know how
difficult it is, surely, to come to God and to pray that if we're
wrong, we may be corrected. We may perhaps pray that we don't
want to be corrected. What a blessing it is when we've
been able to sow to the Spirit and the Spirit has come and graciously
shown us where we are. Shown us perhaps our attitude. Shown us perhaps our desires
haven't been as pure as we thought they might have been. Perhaps
shown us that our motives haven't been as good as they should have
been. a blessing to be found like that,
sowing to the Spirit, willing to be taught, willing to be shown,
willing for the Spirit to indeed come and direct us to that which
is right and to show us that which is wrong. Well, but he
that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And it does mean to come in that
right way and to submit ourselves to Almighty God. We have plans,
don't we? You and I have plans in our lives. We've probably got plans for
tomorrow. Well, are those plans God's plans
or are they our plans? Will they bring us into spiritual
benefit, spiritual blessing? Or will they just refer to our
natural life, to our natural possessions in this world? He that soweth his flesh, shall
the flesh reap corruption. And he that soweth to the Spirit,
shall the Spirit reap life everlasting. We read together in that previous
chapter what was the fruit of the Spirit. It's a lovely list.
The fruit and the spirit. The previous statements, of course,
refer to the works of the flesh. But this speaks of the fruit
of the spirit. And that means the fruit which
comes from that good sowing. That which is sown well produces
fruit. That which is sown badly produces
corruption. So may we be concerned, therefore,
to be blessed with this good sowing, that we may sow to the
Spirit. And the Spirit, of course, tells
us the fruit of it is. And this, I believe, relates
principally to a spiritual application. And the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
And when the Spirit of God enables us to sow to the Spirit. That means seeking for His will,
seeking for His blessing, seeking that we might be a true follower
of Him and not follow our own way. I believe the effect is,
in our hearts, the Spirit brings that love, love to the Saviour
because He has made us willing in the day of His power. You
see, it's not the flesh then. Because the Lord has given us
that willing spirit which we would not have had, had it not
been for His work. And so there is then, I believe,
the outcome of this wonderful blessing of love and joy. Joy to realise that the Lord
is mindful of us. Joy to realise that He has heard
our prayers as we've sown, as we pray to God, and He would
help us. He would give us strength to
do His will. To follow that narrow way which leads to eternal life,
to follow a despised and crucified man, joy, peace. There's no peace to the wicked. There's no real peace in following
the devil, because your conscience will prick you. You'll know it's
not quite right. You might try and push it aside
and think, well, I think it is all right. Our conscience, my
friends, pricks us when we're doing wrong things. However small
they may be, the Spirit of God is working in our heart. We won't
be able to avoid the blessed work of the Spirit and so the
peace won't exist really. We may try and fool ourselves
like this and come into this kind of condemnation. Be not
deceived, God is not mocked. Peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith. The child of God is called to
be one of long-suffering, to suffer. Yes, much opposition
and much persecution. You may say, why is that? Because
the true child of God is a follower of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what was his path? long suffering,
wasn't he? What he suffered, how long suffering
he was against all the adversaries that came against him. And then
you see the effect of this sowing to the spirit is to bring the
right attitude so that we are gentle in our treatment of others. We're not harsh, we're not hard,
we're gentle. Gentleness is a grace of the
Spirit. It is quite clearly a fruit of
the Spirit. Goodness. The difference between
goodness and wickedness. Goodness follows the things of
God. Wickedness follows the things
of the devil. If it's the blessed outcome of
this grace of the work of the Spirit, there will be goodness.
And then, faith. Well, what a fruit that is, faith. What is faith? It's the gift
of God. It's the gift of God to be able
to come and submit ourselves unto Him. He that sowed to the
Spirit. Now remember, the great and glorious
outcome. Shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting. So you might think some of these
things are difficult and hard. Well, they may be. And it probably
will be, because the Christian path is difficult. He goes on,
meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. And they
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. It's really a wonderful statement,
isn't it? To, as we might say, encompass everything. They that
are Christ's have crucified the flesh. That means to not be found
sowing to the flesh. We crucify it. And crucifixion
is putting to death, mortifying the flesh. And it's painful. Crucifixion was a painful death. My friends, crucifying our flesh
is a painful thing. It's painful to our flesh, but
we have the answer of a good conscience. And that's what brings
us peace. Peace with God. To realise, and
it's a wonderful blessing, in some measure, to enjoy fellowship
with his sufferings. You see, if we've crucified the
flesh, then there is the evidence of fellowship with Christ. And
there's no greater blessing than that, is there? fellowship with
Christ, but he that soweth in the Spirit, shall the Spirit
reap life everlasting. And there's a wonderful evidence
of eternal life, because the Lord gives us that ability and
also that desire. Against nature, we don't like
to crucify our flesh. We like the flesh to be free.
But when the Spirit works, we realise What a blessing there
is, because it's an eternal blessing. To crucify our flesh with the
affections and lusts, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk
in the Spirit. These are sound words. These are important words. These are words which we so easily
pass over and don't really absorb them. We read this together tonight,
these two chapters, very significant chapters really, for our spiritual
life. We've no doubt read them many
times, but I wonder whether we really sat and pondered the truth
of God, pondered these things. Well, if we have, what is it? It's sowing to the Spirit, desiring
that God would give us grace. to submit ourselves under his
mighty hand to his will, to his will whatever that might be.
It's a good place because if it is so, what's the result?
Life everlasting. Life everlasting. How important,
how wonderful to be blessed with this grace. So that because of
His love and mercy, the Lord grants to us the blessing of
life everlasting. And He's granted us that grace
to follow this path. He's granted us that desire to
do His will. He's given us that help to not
be deceived by the many temptations of Satan. Don't forget He goes
about, still today, and he uses two guises. One as a roaring
lion trying to frighten us away from doing the things of God.
He says, no, they're too hard. You needn't do them. Or as an
angel of light saying, well, it's not really necessary. You
see, he's very cunning. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Amen.