Now this message from Galatians
6 begins in verse 6, and we're going to be talking about sowing
and reaping. The law of sowing and reaping.
What you sow, so shall you reap. That's the law of the scripture.
It's a law of life. It's a principle, somebody said,
of existence, and it is. Set down by God from the very
beginning, But there's a context here that we have to recognize.
You know, the Apostle Paul, he was inspired by the Holy Spirit
to write these letters to the various churches, Galatians,
Ephesians, Romans. Many times he'll address particular
problems that exist in the church or in the churches. I'm gonna
deal with one in the message today on 1 Corinthians where
he addresses a very bad problem. of divisions in the church over
preachers, over true preachers. And he addressed in Galatians
the heresy that had crept into these churches by false preachers
who were trying to gain support for themselves and their false
message. And so a lot of times when Paul
closes out these letters, he kind of gives a list in his in
his conclusions of Encouragements for the people in light of the
problems that existed and that's what this is and to show you
that look at verse 6 He says let him that is taught in the
word That is you who are being taught in the word Communicate
unto him that teacheth in all good things and So what he's
talking about here is the relationship between the teacher whom God
has appointed and put in the place of leadership as an under-shepherd,
like a pastor or an elder, a teaching elder, and the people he's teaching. And what he's saying here is
let those who are taught communicate. Now that word communicate here
means to share with and support in fellowship. And what he's
saying basically is that you who are taught in the word are
to support and share with those who teach you, whom God has appointed
and equipped. And he says, in all good things,
that refers to all worldly goods necessary to live. He's talking
about the support of pastors. And that's the issue. The issue
here is this, should we support the true gospel ministry and
ministers who preach that true gospel, or should we support
these false preachers who came in preaching a false message?
That's the issue, because understand now, that's what these false
preachers were doing. They were spreading this message
of salvation by the works of the will of men, and they were
seeking support. They were saying, don't support
Paul. Support us, support us with your worldly goods. And
that has to do with your time, your money, it has to do with
all those things that it takes that are necessary to live. So
they were trying to sway the people against Paul. Now obviously,
we know that what we support should be the truth. And we know
that no one's gonna support a false gospel unless they're deceived
into believing that it's truth, we know that. But Paul is confident,
he expressed that earlier in this letter, he's confident that
the Galatians, those who profess to believe the truth, would hear
him and that they would be recovered from that error. He'd spoken
about recovery before this. about how we should seek to recover
each other, that is, those who have heard and profess to believe
the truth of salvation by the grace of God, not by circumcision
or by keeping days, but by the blood of Christ, by his righteousness
imputed that establishes our complete, eternal, unchangeable
right relationship with God. And so he says, let him that
is taught in the word share or communicate unto him that teacheth
in all good things. The people of God, sinners saved
by grace, are responsible to support those who preach the
gospel, those who have God has called and put into a position
and given their lives to preach the gospel, to study the word. Now again, these false teachers
who'd crept into the churches of Galatia were soliciting financial
support and discouraging them from financially supporting Paul
and other true gospel ministers. So understand that. Now, you
know, over in 2 John, John brings this issue forth too. And he
talks about how in 2 John, there are many deceivers who are gonna
be spanning the countryside who preach a false gospel who claim
to be Christian, who claim to be preaching Christ, and they'll
be seeking your fellowship, they'll be seeking your support. And
you remember what he says in 2 John verse 9? He says, whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God. In other words, this is a person
who is not saved by the grace of God. They don't know God.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father
and the Son, those who preach the true gospel of salvation
by the sovereign mercy and grace of God in Christ Jesus. Those
are the ones who are the people of God, the ministers of Christ.
And he says, if there come any under you and bring not this
doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed,
for he that biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker or a sharer or
a fellowshiper of his evil deeds. In other words, if you support
that kind of message, then you're in fellowship with him and his
evil deeds. I often use the example, I said,
none of us, if a known drug pusher, came to your door and knocked
on the door and said, now I'm out here pushing drugs and I
want your support. I want you to help me financially.
You wouldn't even think about doing that, I hope. You'd say,
well, no way. Well, it's the same thing if
a false preacher preaching a false gospel comes to you seeking your
fellowship and your support. What should you do? Well, you
should say no way. That doesn't mean we're to be
mean to people or take vengeance on them or something like that.
Doesn't mean we can't work with them in the workplace or even
deal with them in the family relationship, but we cannot support
them either prayerfully, financially, or in fellowship in promoting
their false message. That's what it means. And so
Paul is giving them this encouragement, and here's how he does it. Look
at verse 8 back in Galatians chapter 6, verse 7 rather. He says, be not deceived. Now
the reason that has to be said is because people think, well,
you know, there's no harm done. There's no harm done. If I send
a false preacher $100, or if I pray for their ministry, there's
no harm done. Paul's saying, now don't be deceived
about those things. And you know how a lot of people
think, well, my intentions were good. And you've heard the old
saying, good intentions pave the road to hell. Don't be deceived
in this issue. He says, God is not mocked. You
can't mock God. You can't deceive God, you see. You know, a lot of people, and
the reason we have to understand this is a lot of people say,
well, God's just gonna look over that. Well, you know the issue
of the ministry of preaching and showing sinners the way of
salvation, you know the issue is the glory of God. And He will
not share His glory. God is going to be glorified
or else. Now that's it. And if the salvation
you perceive and claim does not glorify Him in every attribute
of His character as a just God and a Savior, And if the salvation
you claim to, you believe and claim to have does not cause
you to take your proper place as a sinner who deserves nothing
but condemnation and wrath, then my friend, God knows the difference. He's not mocked, you see. You
can't mock God. And here's what he says in verse
seven, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. What
you sow, you reap. Now, many take a verse like that,
grab it out of its context and pervert it, and try to make Christianity
some kind of financial investment program or a way to earn rewards
in heaven. There's a fella that comes on
TV, he's all over TV, just about every day. Every time I've ever
flipping through the channel, you know us men, we have to flip
through the channels. So I'll see him and every time
I see him, he's talking about you sow your seed and he's talking
about money. Well, there is, I mean, you know,
when you give to support the gospel, that is, in essence,
sowing a seed. That's not the only type of seed,
but that's all he talks about. And he promises people, if you
sow this much money, you'll get this much return. Salvation is
not an investment program. That's not what it's all about.
What is he talking about here? God promises no financial return
based on our investments of money or good works. Now, God may bless
us financially, that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that.
But God does expect his true children to invest their time,
their efforts, their money, their prayers to support the gospel
ministry. The truth. all for his glory
and for the salvation of his people. So don't be deceived
about this issue. God is not mocked. That's what
Paul's saying here. We cannot fool or make a fool
out of God. We cannot deceive God. And to
think we can is to be deceived ourselves. If we claim to be
saved by God's grace based on the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, then how can we fail to support the ministry
of grace and righteousness? How could we ever support a ministry
of legalism and self-righteousness? You see, that doesn't make sense.
Supporting the truth. Now look at what he says in verse
eight. He says, now whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. That's not teaching salvation by works. Verse eight, he says,
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 everlasting life. Now what does he say? Well, supporting the truth, supporting
the gospel, ministering the gospel of God's grace is sowing to the
Spirit. When he says soweth to the Spirit.
In other words, we're spreading the word. We're telling people
the good news. We're not doing that to earn
our salvation, are we? The very good news that we're
spreading teaches us that we cannot earn salvation. The very
good news that we're spreading teaches salvation that is freely
given to sinners by God through his sovereign will and based
on the one righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
we're doing. And reaping to the Spirit is
being blessed of God in so many ways, we don't even have time,
but it's not as if we earn the blessings. I've often made this
statement, like, you know, people say, well, if I do this, I'll
earn the blessing. No. For example, we're never
to think in terms of being blessed by God based on what we earn
from God. Now, how do we know that? Well,
because of the covenant. What covenant are we under? as
believers, as sinners saved by grace. What is the covenant we're
under? The covenant of what? Of grace. Now that's a foundation, and
you might even say a dome that covers everything we think, say,
and do. I'm working on a message, I think
I'm gonna preach this on television too, about interpreting scripture. And a lot of times when people
read the word if, in Scripture, they automatically see that if
as a condition that we must meet in order to attain or maintain
salvation or some aspect of salvation. Like, for example, in Colossians
1, he talks about salvation if you continue in the faith. And
then people will often quote 2 Chronicles 7, talking about
if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves.
There's if passages. Well, an if can be interpreted
in two different ways. An if can be a condition we must
meet in order to attain or maintain salvation or some part of it.
Or an if can be evidence, an evidential if, of something that
has already taken place. And often it's like this. How
do you know which is which when you read the Bible? It's the
covenant. Back in 2 Chronicles chapter
seven, that was spoken to Israel under the old covenant, which
was a conditional covenant, a covenant of works, that their blessings
from God, their temporal blessings from God were conditioned on
what they did or did not do. And what happened to them? Well,
they failed. They didn't meet any of the conditions
of the covenant. That was a grand testimony of
the fact that we're sinners and that if salvation were ever conditioned
on us, we'd all fail. But now when Paul wrote, if you
continue in the faith, who was he talking to? He was talking
to believers, the church. What covenant are they under?
The covenant of grace. That shows you that the if there
is not a condition in order to attain salvation, it was an evidence
of salvation already attained by the grace of God. It's the
covenant. And this is what this is. You
sow what you reap. Or you reap what you sow, rather.
And what is he saying? Are you trying to earn your salvation?
Are you trying to work for it? To get it? To earn it? To deserve
it? Well, if you're doing that, you're
so into the flesh. That's what these false preachers
were doing. They were telling people, now, yes, we're saved
by the grace of God in Christ, but you have to do this or you
have to not do that in order to really be saved. That's sowing
to the flesh. And what are you gonna reap if
you sow to the flesh? Corruption. If I get up here
and preach to you salvation based on what you do or what you don't
do, What am I doing? I'm sowing seed to the flesh. And you're gonna reap corruption.
But if I get up here and preach salvation totally, 100% by the
sovereign grace and mercy of God based on the blood and the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, what am I doing? I'm
sowing to the spirit. And sowing to the spirit, listen,
That's not based on our efforts. It's like a farmer who goes out
and plants. I'm gonna be talking about that in the message, too,
in 1 Corinthians 3. Paul talks about ministers going
out, and they plant the seed of the gospel. And someone else
comes along and waters that seed. He's talking about a preacher
who lays the foundation, and then another preacher comes along
and waters it, preaches the gospel, But who gives the increase? Who
makes it grow? Who does that, the preacher?
No, God gives the increase. But we sow to the spirit. And
so whenever we support the gospel, that's what we're doing. Now
if we support a false gospel, we're sowing to the flesh. Now
you can take that principle of sowing and reaping and apply
it in a lot of different areas. A person who goes out here and
lives immorally, is so into the flesh and they're gonna reap
corruption. That's true. You're gonna reap the whirlwind.
But what's Paul talking about here? He's talking about supporting
the gospel. supporting the truth, that which
God uses to glorify himself in the salvation of sinners. And
so he says, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Now again, a person who sows
to the flesh, to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.
Those who seek and support salvation by their works will harvest eternal
damnation and wrath. That's the result. You reap what
you sow. And a person who sows to the
Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Those who seek
and support salvation by God's grace will harvest eternal glory
with Christ. Not because they earned it or
deserve it, but because this is the way it is. This is the
way God set it up. It's by his grace. So supporting
the gospel truth gives evidence of the reality of God's grace
in our lives. and in our hearts. And this is
not earning life everlasting, but it's showing that we truly
possess life everlasting because of the merits of Christ's obedience
unto death as our substitute and surety. So I hope that's
clear. You know, as you go through Scripture,
we hear so much. People trying to spin this in
different ways to get gain and whatever. It's all there. You've
heard it. But that's what he's saying.
If you give your support to these false preachers, he's saying,
then you're reaping, you're sowing to the flesh and you're gonna
reap corruption. But you who love Christ, you who have been
brought by the grace of God to believe in and trust and love
Christ and his people, you sow it to the spirit. Because the
Holy Spirit is the one who applies it to the people. And then verse
nine. He says, and let us not be weary in well-doing. Since
we now, as sinners saved by grace, have a noble motive for obedience,
motivated by God's glory, motivated by God's grace, motivated by
God's love, motivated by our gratitude to God and our love
for him, his free unmerited love, and since we are blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, then
it just stands to reason that out of that, the power of grace
is going to motivate us and energize us to seek to be diligent and
zealous to serve the Lord in well-doing in every way we can.
He certainly, he doesn't specify a lot of things here. But in
other passages that we can see, that has to do with supporting
the gospel, it has to do with praying for one another, it has
to do with doing good wherever we can. And this is perseverance
in the faith. It's the obedience of faith.
We have a sure reward of inheritance all based on the merits of Christ's
righteousness alone, don't we? That's what we have, that's what
we possess. And you know something that can never be taken away
from us? I love thinking about the righteousness of Christ wherein
we stand before God. Because it's a righteousness
that cannot be corrupted, it cannot be tainted, it cannot
be marred, and it can never be taken away. That's how secure
we are in Christ. And all of that welling up within
us by the Holy Spirit through the word preached is the motivation
of how we should treat each other and how we should treat our neighbor.
You know, love your neighbor as yourself. That includes our
worst enemy, and I know there's a struggle. We have that struggle. But listen to what he says. Look
at verse 10, or verse nine. He says, let us not be weary
in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. What are we gonna reap? Well,
he's already said it. Life everlasting. And that comes
to every sinner saved by grace who perseveres in the faith.
Now, will every sinner who is saved by grace persevere in the
faith? Yes. How are they gonna do that? Is it because we're so good or
so strong? No, by the grace of God, he preserves
us. I love that passage. Let me just
show you that in Hebrews chapter 10. And you know in the original
manuscripts of the New Testament, There were no punctuation marks
at all. They were always added by the
translators. And there's a statement here put in parenthesis, and
the parenthesis are added by the translators, but sometimes
when you read something in parenthesis, you think, well, it wasn't originally
there, but this was originally there. And it's verse, well,
let's look back up at verse 19 of Hebrews 10. Now listen to
this. This is something, this has to do with this don't be
weary in well-doing. And we know that no well-doing
is done in order to earn salvation. All well-doing in God's sight
is done for his glory, motivated by grace. So he says in verse
19, having therefore brethren boldness, that's liberty, free
access, to enter into the holiest. Now what is the basis of that?
By the blood of Jesus. That's our liberty, the blood
of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. It's the same thing.
He says, by a new and living way. Now that's a new and way
of life which he, Christ, hath consecrated for us. Christ made
this way. Remember Christ said, I'm the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And it says, through the veil, that is to say his
flesh. This refers to his sacrifice, the God man. giving his flesh,
sinless human body, on the altar of God to put away our sins by
the sacrifice of himself. Verse 21, and having a high priest
over the house of God, the house of God meaning the family of
God, the household. Christ is our high priest, he's
our advocate, he's the Lord our righteousness. Now having that,
having Christ, Verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of faith. Now a true heart is an honest
heart. It's a heart of faith. It's a
heart cleansed by the blood of Christ. It's a convicted heart.
You remember the Bible talks about God is pleased with a broken
and contrite heart? That's the true heart. That's
the new heart given by the Holy Spirit. And he says, let us draw
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. What's the
full assurance of faith? Well, a lot of people interpret
that as meaning, well, it means full assurance that I've believed
enough. That's not what it's saying. The full assurance of
faith is the full assurance that we have in looking to Christ
as the author and the finisher of our faith. In other words,
my assurance comes not from anything in me or of me or by me, it comes
from the assurance that I had that Christ did his work, that
he did put away my sins by his blood, that he did establish
all righteousness required by God to save me, to justify me,
to reconcile me to God. So he says, having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience. An evil conscience is a condemned
conscience. What removes condemnation from
the conscience? Well, sprinkled, he says. What
does that refer to? You remember back in the old
covenant? The high priest would go into the holiest of all with
the blood of a lamb and he'd sprinkle it on the mercy seat.
That's the sprinkling. That was a metaphor, a symbol,
a type of the Holy Spirit applying the blood of Christ to the conscience
of God's elect. So that when we look to Christ,
we can say, as Romans 8, 1 says, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. We can say, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Christ took my charge. My sins
were imputed to him. He put them away. I have his
righteousness. That's how the heart is sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
That's a metaphor for my whole person is accepted before God
as I'm washed in the blood and clothed in his righteousness.
Now there's the foundation right there. That's the motivation. That's what energizes, that's
what the Holy Spirit uses to energize us to do what follows.
Look at verse 23. For let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, and then look what's in parentheses,
for he is faithful that promise. In other words, our holding fast,
our persevering, our continuing is based upon the faithfulness
of God in his promise. And what did he promise? He promised
to save me completely by his grace based on the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ. And then he says, let's consider
one another to provoke unto love and to good works. We'll go back
to Galatians 6 and I'll hurry. So he says, don't be weary in
well doing, in due season we'll reap, we'll reap life everlasting
by the grace of God if we faint not, if we don't quit. Verse
10, as we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all, all
men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
So what he's saying here is that God's people, sinners saved by
grace, sinners who have all spiritual blessings already, sinners who
are secure in Christ, sinners who by the grace of God have
security and free access into the holiest by the blood of Jesus
Christ, that we're commanded to love our neighbors ourselves.
And that even includes our enemies. He said, do good unto all as
we have opportunity. We can talk, there's a lot you
could talk about that throughout the scripture. But notice what
he says, but especially unto them that are the household of,
especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We're to help whenever we can,
whenever it's needed, but especially to those, as John puts it in
1 John 3, those whom the world hates, Remember he talked about
that marvel not if the world hates you. Just like Cain hated
Abel. And he said when your brother
or your sister, they need something, they're in need. Especially back
then, we've talked about how that applies back then to the
people who were going through such hard persecution because
of the gospel. Many of them lost their jobs,
many of them lost their homes, their way to make a living. And
the brethren in the church were responsible to help them. That's
the love that we show in Christ and that's the love of God shed
abroad in our hearts.