All right, take your Bibles,
turn back with me to Galatians chapter six. Text be found in
verse six through 10. I know that I'm not going to
get there. I don't hold any, I never do. So, you know, barring
a miracle of grace, I guess, but we'll see what the Lord provides. Let's read this passage together. I'm going to title this message,
Sowing Saints. Sowing Saints. You know, he's
continuing with that theme of the agriculture, the fruit of
the spirit, and now he's talking about sowing. Now notice what
he says in verse 6. He says, Let him, let him that
is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all
good things. 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. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men, especially unto them that are
of the household Now remember, the apostle is speaking to those
who profess to believe on Jesus Christ. He calls them in verse
1, brethren. He exhorts us who are brethren
to know our warfare, to remember that we have in each one of us
a struggle, a constant warfare of the flesh and of the spirit. And therefore, he exhorts us
to walk after the Spirit. We that are given life by the
Spirit, is it not feasible then that we should walk in the Spirit? We should walk looking to Christ,
constantly, steadily looking to Jesus Christ. Those who walk
by faith shall have The fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the
Spirit. All who have the fruit of the
Spirit are going to manifest this fruit. They're going to
manifest the fruit of love, joy, peace. All of these, you believer,
you have all of these fruits. And they're not worked up by
you. They're worked in you. And then
they're what? Produced out of you. What good is a fruit if the tree
keeps it inside? It's no good to anyone, is it?
But the fruit of the Spirit is always something that comes out
of the believer because this is what God the Spirit has put
in us. So if we have any love, It is
the work of the Spirit. If we have any joy, it is the
work of the Spirit. If we have any peace, it is the
work of the Spirit. All of these fruits. And then
he begins in chapter 6, brethren, he talks about restoring. This
is what? This is the manifestation of
those fruits, isn't it? When one is fallen, what is the
manifestation of love? It is the desire that this one
who is fallen be restored. That's what it is to love. It's
to restore our brother. And not only restore him, when
he comes in, bearing his guilt, bearing his shame, what do we
do? Do we press down on him? We make sure he's felt it good
enough, you know, has he hurt enough? Well, Lord, we're gonna
make sure he's hurt enough. No, that's not what we do. We
bear under him. We bear under his guilt with
it. And how do we do that? You do that by pointing him to
this. Point him to this verse. There is therefore now no condemnation. Those are in Christ Jesus. You
feel condemned? You feel condemned? Well listen
to this, there is the door for right now, no condemnation, those
are in Christ Jesus. You bear under that burden with
Him, not just His spiritual burden but physical burdens, anything
that they have that have need of, bear under with it. And all
who walk in the Spirit This is one of the fruits of it, is that
we are going to consider ourselves. When we restore someone, we're
going to always consider that we are just as vile as that person.
By nature, we are no different from them. We will consider ourselves We consider our own nature, we
are brought low and made to see that it's God's grace that makes
us to differ in any way. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Isn't that what Paul said? And what hast thou that's
not received? Name one thing you have that
you haven't received. You that have been faithful.
Your faithfulness, did you receive that or did you earn that? You
received it. And he said, if you received
it, then why in the world do you act like you did? You act like you
earned it. Why do you act like you earned
it? And all who walk by faith will
have a heart of meekness to restore their brethren in this way. They will consider themselves,
therefore we should never seek as the legalist to exalt ourselves
by looking down on our brother. We must not ever judge our spiritual
state and standing by comparing ourselves to each other. That's
a major error, to look around you and compare yourself to someone
else. Listen, if you want to find somebody
lower than you, you can look right here. You watch me enough. You can ask my children. They'll
tell you. They know more of my faults than
you. If you want to find somebody lower,
here's one right here. But that won't do you no good.
It won't do you no good. We don't compare ourselves with
others. And in verse 6, the apostle now
speaks to those who are taught. He says this in verse 6, Let
him that is taught in word communicate unto him that teacheth in all
good things. Now, he says, Let him that is
taught. Remember, this brings to mind
that we have not come to the knowledge of the gospel on our
own. We were taught. We were taught. We have not learned the gospel,
nor have we known God by the merits of our flesh. The word
of God is clear in this, that no man by nature knows God. This is against what religion
is telling people, that all men know God. Listen, all men know there is
a God, they don't know who He is. They know He's all-powerful,
they just don't know how to appease Him. Listen to what Paul says
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He says, The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Now why? Why is it? I'm sitting here preaching salvation
to the soul. I'm preaching that Christ has
come to give eternal life to anyone who believes. WHOSOEVER
BELIEVETH ON HIM SHALL BE SAVED. HE THAT BELIEVETH ON HIM AND
IS BAPTIZED SHALL BE SAVED. HE THAT BELIEVETH NOT SHALL BE
DAMNED. Isn't that a great message to someone who needs to be saved? Anyone NEED to be saved? And
yet why do men reject this message? Here it is, FOR IT IS FOOLISHNESS
UNDER THERE. It's foolishness. The gospel
of salvation by grace is foolish. Salvation by works is logical
to them. Salvation by merit is just reasonable
to the natural mind. But salvation by grace requiring
nothing from you is illogical to them. It's foolishness. Now listen to this. Neither can
he know them. There was a time when I thought
I was a good teacher. I knew the gospel backward and
forward. Surely I could get someone. And I would sit there and I'm
blue in the face. And this was so plain and simple
to me and I just couldn't understand why I didn't get it. You can't. You can't know it. Why? Listen why. Because He's already
judged. He's condemned. He's already
spiritually discerned. The word discerned means judged.
Judgment has come. Condemnation has come. And God
said this, In the day thou eatest Herod, thou shalt surely die.
And we know this wherefore as by one man sin entered in the
world. And death by sin. What? So death passed upon all
men. This is why no man can know it. Give you an illustration, I don't
think there's a greater illustration of this inability of man than
John 6. John chapter 6, you remember
the Lord fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread. Took five pieces of bread and
passed it out and fed 5,000 men beside the women and children.
Conservative estimate, at least 10,000 people. And this, they took up fragments
after it was over. They ate until their bellies
were about to pop and they took leftovers. And they said, man, I want this
guy to be my king. In the middle of the night, the
Lord said, ìHey boys, get in the boat. Weíre going over to see him.î They
said, ìWhat in the world? This is a good start, Lord.î
ìNo, donít worry about them. Weíre going over here.î And he
left them. And they took passage. They cared enough that they even
paid their boat fare to get across to go see him. And they said,
ìLord, why did you leave us?î And the Lord began to preached
to them, he said, I left you because all you care about is
the physical bread. It's all you want. You don't
care about me. You don't know anything about
me. And he said, this bread you ate, it's going to go in, it's
going to go out, and you're going to want more of it. Then he began
to preach to them about him. He said, I am the bread of life.
Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood shall never
hunger and never thirst. And they didn't understand. Matter of fact, they rejected
his message. They hated his message. Now,
wait a second. This man fed 5,000 people with
five loaves of bread, and you're going to reject him? They did. That's what Jesus knew that the
apostles were unaware. In John 6 he said this, No man
can come to me. This is a plain and very simple
truth. You don't need to be a theologian
to understand those words. Ask the question, can come to Christ. Jesus said no man can come to
me except. This is the glory of the gospel,
isn't it? A divine exception. Why? Because you've come, haven't
you? You that believe. You've come. How is it that you've
come? You've come because God had made
an exception. Except the Father which hath
sent me, draw him. As it is written, this ends all
debate, as it is written in the prophets, they shall all be taught
of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father, listen to what they do,
they come to me. You that have come to Christ.
Who taught you? Who taught you you were a sinner? Who taught you that you needed
a Savior? And who taught you that Jesus
Christ is the only acceptable Savior? Who taught you that? And when you learn that, There
was nothing else you could do but come to Him. You did come, didn't you? You came, why? You were taught. You were taught. We have believed on Him, we who
have not forsaken Him, we gladly profess as Peter, we believe
that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. How did
we do this? By the grace and power of God. You have been taught of God.
Ephesians 2 and verse 8 says, For by grace, grace you are saved. How are you saved? You are saved
by grace. Through faith. Never apart from
faith. No one is saved without faith.
No one is saved without coming to Christ. Through faith, and
that faith is not of yourself. If faith is a gift of God and
not of worse, why? Because you'd brag about it.
If faith came from you, you'd brag about it. You'd have something
to boast over your other fellow man. But you don't, do you? You were taught of God by grace.
It was by the sovereign power of the Holy Spirit that you were
quickened to spiritual life and faith. He alone gave us power and will to believe. John says, as many as received
Him, to them gave He the right to become the sons of God. Now, how did they receive Him?
Which were born. In order to receive Him, you gotta be born.
Not of blood. You're not going to be saved
because your parents are saved. Nope. Nor of the will of the
flesh. You're not going to be saved
because you willed to be saved. Nor be born again by your will,
nor the will of some other man, but of God. Remember over in Matthew 16,
Peter made that statement, he said, we believe thou art the
Christ, the Son of the Living God. And he said, listen, blessed
art thou, Simon bar Jonah, son of Jonah. Why? For flesh and
blood hath not revealed this unto thee. Can you say those
words with Peter? We know and believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. You know that? Is
that something that's, is that, Flippant knowledge, or is that
concrete? Do you really know that? You
know that, listen. It is God who taught you that. God who taught you that. From
our Father which in heaven has taught you. And so it is with
all who believe on Jesus Christ. But now that we have been taught,
what was the means that God used? When God taught you and you came to Christ, by what
means did God communicate His message to you? We know according to the Word
of God that the only means that God communicates His message
is through the preaching of the Gospel. The preaching of the
Gospel. You see, God sends a man just
like you. He sends a man who was born in
sin, who was dead in trespasses and sins, and he teaches that
man by the gospel from somewhere else. Somebody else taught him
that God preached the gospel to him, and he believed. And
then God sends him to declare the message of his grace to you. He sends a man who has himself
been taught, and he preaches the gospel, and it is through
this that God communicates His gospel. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter
1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. So when
Paul says, you that are taught, how are you taught? You're taught
of God, first of all, we know that, it's of God. And the means
that God is using to teach us is what? The preaching of the
gospel. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 17, Paul's saying,
for Christ sent me not to baptize. And we just had a baptismal service
and it was wonderful, wasn't it? I enjoyed that, that was
great, wonderful. That's what God commands. He commands us to be baptized
if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You should be baptized
in obedience, but that's not really why I'm here. That's not
my main purpose here. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to what? Preach the gospel. Now how do you do this? Not with
wisdom of words. You don't do this in my own wisdom.
I don't give you, how many times did I give you my opinion here? What good is my opinion to you?
I don't want to give you my opinion. We don't preach with words of
wisdom lest the cross of Christ be made a none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish what? What is it? What is preaching
to the lost? Foolishness. Isn't it evident? Isn't it clear? Look around you. Isn't it clear?
They don't care for this. Why? Listen why they don't care. Because they're perishing. I could be saved and not go to
church. Nope. I don't know. Don't give me that. No. Like I told you, when God
gives life, he gives what? He gives fruit, doesn't he? And
fruit of this is love. And love desires to be with those
that they love, don't you? Isn't that right? Don't you desire
to be around those you love? Of course you do. So we preach the gospel because
this means, look, he said, them that perish foolishness. But
to us, what is this gospel to us? To us who are saved, what
do we know about it? We know this, it's the power
of God. One day, I'm telling you what, this gospel to me when
I was lost was the worst thing in the world. It was the most
useless waste of time to me in the world. But when it came in
power and demonstration of the Spirit, I knew this, this was
the only way I could know him. He revealed himself through the
preaching of this gospel to me. It was powerful. It don't mean some emotional,
overwhelming experience. That's not what I'm talking about.
Not like lightning coming down or anything like that. I knew
this. When God pulled the scales off
my eyes, I knew this. Either I changed or the world
changed, but something changed. And I knew this more than anything
else. I needed Him more than anything else. I had to have
Him or I'd die. I knew that. This was done through the power
of the gospel. Now look at verse 21. For after
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You're
not going to know God by academic means. Listen, we can go, I can
sit up here and teach TULIP all day long. Total depravity, unconditioned
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance,
preservation, we can academically, systematically go through this
and you can academically understand everything that I'm saying in
such a way that's not salvation. There are many Calvinists that
will die in their sins. Why? Because they believe their
knowledge saves them. They don't know anything at all
about the Savior. Now listen, when you know Him,
all that stuff falls right into place. You tell me man's totally
depraved? Well, yeah, of course he is.
How do you know that? I know Him. God unconditionally chose a people
for Himself. How do you know that? Well, I
know Him. That's right, because I know Him. I know that that
death that Christ made was so perfect, yet it was limited to
the ones that God chose. I know that. Not a big deal,
I know Him. And when that is irresistible
grace, don't you know that? Of course you do. When He came
to me, totally irresistible. No way. I was going to overcome
Him. And I know this, everyone He
saves is going to keep Him. How do you know all that? I know
Him! I know Him because when the gospel was preached, it was
preached in power and demonstration of His Spirit. He revealed Himself
to me. Can't do that by the wisdom of
the world. For the world by wisdom knew
not God. Listen, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. Why do we preach? Listen to these
words, it pleased God. Why preaching? Listen to me,
it pleased God. I don't need any other reason,
do you? It pleased God. Now please, God, for a very specific
reason, listen to this. Why preaching? Look at verse
29. That no flesh should glory in
his presence. Not the preacher and not the hearer. See, there's
no power in the preacher. There's no power in the preacher.
Listen to this. There's no power in the hearer. Yet this is the means that God
chose so that neither one of us get glory. See, God takes a sinner, saves
him, gives him the gospel, tells him to communicate it to you,
and somehow, in a great power of the Spirit, he gives life
by that message. so that no one would. Now the
importance of preaching, now listen, the importance of preaching
in this generation cannot be overstated. The importance of preaching cannot
be overstated because this generation has deemed it unnecessary and
outdated. I'm thankful for this. thankful that we have means by
which we can preach the gospel and it goes out into all over
the world. That's good. But I'll tell you, there is nothing
in the world like sitting in a congregation among God's saints
when Christ is present with us when the gospel is preached. Listen, if you can't do anything
else, this is great. But I'll tell you this, if you
have any breath in your body and power in your body to get
up and go, you should. Because why? Listen to what our
Lord said about preaching. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there I am. Now, I'm at a loss for words because
I know Christ has a body. And I know He's sitting on the
throne of heaven, yet I know this, He's right here with us. He's here. Every time his word
is preached, he is with us. He's with us. Preaching is necessary
to this generation. It's just outdated. It's nothing
more in this generation than good for storytelling and motivation. Go to a modern church and what
you're going to find is a storyteller or you're going to find some
motivational speaker. What you're not going to find
is a gospel preacher. Listen, preaching of the gospel
is the only means. Why? It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save in their belief. You see, men will not come to
Christ by themselves. They're not going to wake up
one day and see a vision. They're not going to wake up
one day and just, oh, an epiphany! Not how it works. Why? It pleased
God. That's why it doesn't work that
way. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. Now God had used
many of these things in time past, visions and so forth. But
now that Christ has come, there is no need for these things.
He has sent forth His messengers in the world to call out His
elect people. Now listen, I've seen this. I've
seen men with these overwhelming epiphanies and visions. My brother had one. My brother was a lost man. steeped in the things of this
world. And one day he was in a parking lot and he said, I
saw a light. And he gave up all of that evil,
I mean he turned his, I mean Overnight, he just wouldn't,
he wouldn't drink, wouldn't do any of that, and started going
to the worship service. We were all excited. I was, of
course, I wanted him, the Lord, I wanted to know Christ, I did.
Even though his story didn't sound, I mean there was alarm
bells going off in my head, but I ignored that because he was,
I wanted my brother to be saved. You know the story then. It didn't last long. What does
the scripture say? As a dog returning to his vomit. What a loss, man, when he gets
religion. It only lasts for a little while.
Why? Because he wasn't taught of God. trusted in a vision he'd seen.
This is not how God saves his people. He saves them through
the preaching of the gospel. I think of that Ethiopian eunuch.
How was he taught of God? How was he taught of God? You
listen, this man, he knew something. Ethiopia at that time was very
wealthy. Candace the Queen, and he was a eunuch in that service
to the Queen. And he had wealth and riches
and power. And what he did is he traveled
from Ethiopia all the way to Jerusalem to try to learn the
truth. He couldn't understand this book
he had. I know he had the book of Isaiah, I don't know what
other book he had, but he had that one. And he went all the
way to Jerusalem, went through all their rituals, all their
ceremonies, and he went back home the same way that he came. Lost. Not understanding. Couldn't understand it. So on
his way back in the middle of the desert, he's reading the
book of Isaiah, and there come a man, just so happened, right? What a coincidence you found
this chariot in the desert. You got a preacher come. No,
God sent Philip. He said, go on up there to that
chariot. And Philip went up there and
he's listening and he heard him reading the book of Isaiah. And he looked in that chair and
he says, do you know what you're reading? And the man said, how
can I unless some man come and explain it to me? And Philip
said, and Scripture says, and Philip, beginning at the place
where he was, preached to him Jesus. You read this book, you
turn anywhere, and I'll preach to you Jesus. Why? Because this book's about Jesus.
It's about Jesus Christ. And you know what that man, he
believed. And he said, hey, what hinders
me to be baptized? He said, well, if you believe with all your
heart, you may. He said, hey, there's some water. Let's get that. And
he immediately went down and was baptized and never saw Philip
again, didn't care. He was saved. The Lord sent that
man to preach him the gospel. This is how men are taught of
God. They're taught of God through
the preaching of the gospel. Now then, the second thing I
want you to know about this, the preaching of the gospel is
not just a calling of the lost. God said this about His people. He has an elect people, and I
don't know where they are. I know that they're out there. He said,
say you to the north, give up, and the south, keep not back.
Bring my sons from afar. And you know what God's going
to do? He's going to call everyone each other. Everyone Christ.
purchased with His blood, He's going to call them, He's going
to send a preacher to them, and they're going to hear at the
appointed time, and they're going to believe on Him. Now then, that you have believed,
well, now I've believed, I guess I don't need preaching anymore,
right? No. Preaching is not just for calling
the lost, but is encouraging the saved. You that believe, do you need
encouragement? Are you not surrounded by enemies? Are you not troubled on every
side? Man, I need comfort. I need encouragement. I need strength to make it through
the day. What gives me this? It is the
Word of God that gives us this. The preaching of the gospel is
for the encouragement of the saints. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. I
know I'm going to quit. I told you I'm never going to
get through this. I just got to the first three words. Go to Ephesians and look at verse
4. Let's look at chapter 4 in verse
8. He said, Wherefore he saith,
When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave
gifts unto men. When Christ ascended on high,
what did He do? He led captivity captive. He saved His people. And then what? He gave gifts
unto men. Now what did He give? Look at
verse 11. Here's the gifts. He gave some apostles. These are the ones who wrote
the books that we have before us. Very specific office. They were intimately acquainted
with the Lord Jesus personally. They saw Him bodily as He lived. They saw Him bodily when He died.
They saw Him bodily when He resurrected. They're the apostles. He gave
those gifts to those men. And some prophets. These were
men who confirmed the gospel, like Philip. Philip and others
had many prophetic gifts of the Spirit. And then he had some
evangelists, some establishing these churches. And listen to
this one, and some pastors and teachers. Pastors and teachers. Notice, and is not in the middle.
He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some. See the word
some in between those? That's a division. But he didn't
say he gave some pastors and some teachers. Pastor, teachers,
same thing, same office. For what? Verse 12, for the perfecting
of the saints, for the maturing. You believers, are you done growing? You've
reached that pinnacle of growth and you don't need anymore. No,
we gotta grow. As long as we live, we're going
to need to grow. For the work of the ministry, for what? The
service of the saints. What are preachers sent for?
To serve. We serve you, the gospel. We serve you for the edifying
of the body of Christ, for the encouragement, for the comfort,
for the joy, for the peace, in the midst of this painful and
turbulent life. And how long do we do this? Till
we all come in the unity of faith, till everyone's brought in. You
know why we gotta keep doing this? Because they ain't all
brought in yet. When they're all brought in,
everybody's gonna know. How do you know when everybody's
brought in? What's the telltale sign that everybody's brought
in? Christ comes. When Christ comes
back, we know this, it's over. There's no more to be saved.
This is it. When He comes. Till we all come in the unity
of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man. In other words, when all that
Christ promised and fulfilled is done. unto the measure of the statute
of the fullness of Christ. So now that you've been taught
of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel, Paul
sets forth in this attitude of you who walk by faith. Listen
to this. Have you been taught? Have you
been taught? Who taught you? You know who taught me? The same
one that taught you. You know what He taught me? He
taught me the same thing He taught you. Is there any reason that we should
elevate ourselves above one another? Any reason? I didn't earn His teaching. I
didn't learn it on my own. He taught me. How'd He do it? He sent a man to preach to me
the gospel. And by the power of His Spirit,
I learned. I learned who I am, a sinner. I learned who He is. He is my
Savior. And this preaching of the gospel
is something that is needful for us. I need to be reminded. I can
ask you this, you know, we've been going through Galatians
since January. How much do you remember? We forget easily. So we need to be reminded. Reminded. Now, when I stand up
here and preach to you, I'm not here to tell you anything new
and exciting. I tell you is exciting, but it's
not new. It's not new. I tell you the
same things. It's safe for you that I tell
you the same things. I don't deliver political advice. I don't care. I don't deliver
any of the, you know, modern news or what's going on. I preach
Christ. preach Christ, because I know
that this is the means God chooses to both save and comfort, to
cause you to grow, to be encouraged and strengthened. And now then,
listen to what he says, let us who are taught, what? Communicate
unto him that teacheth in all good things. I think we'll deal
with that next time. I'm just going to have to stop.
Well, I was true to my word. I must be some kind of prophet,
right? No, I just think I know myself. So I think we'll pick up from there
concerning giving on the Lord's day, if the Lord's willing. Now, I did think I'd make it
past that, but I didn't know I'd end up short. Boy, man. I was telling Terrence, sometimes
I get up here, I don't want to leave. I know you want to go,
but I don't. I love these things. I need them as much as you do. They are more than my necessary
food. To hear of his great love, of
his great mercy that he taught me. Is this not Omelas? Does this not
abase us? It should. And when we are abased, it is
then we're able to come alongside someone else who's abased. And
love them. Care for them. Even as Christ has done for us.
Stand and be dismissed in prayer. Land dismisses, please.