May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we consider His Word. Let
us turn to the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, chapter 6,
and we'll read verse 7. The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians,
chapter 6, and reading verse 7. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap." There are many words of gracious
instruction in the Word of God which are there for a very good
and gracious purpose from our God. And we are to take notice
of them and to realize that such words are relevant as much today
to each one of us as they were to those that the Apostle Paul
wrote so many years ago. And I suppose that throughout
the ages such a statement has been true and such words have
been needful Because right from the very beginning of time when
the devil tempted Eve in that Garden of Eden we know that what
happened was she was deceived. And we need to be concerned in
our lives that we are not being deceived. Satan presented a very good case
to Eve. In fact, he presented such a
good case to her that she accepted what he was saying. And yet, they'd been told by
God Himself that they were clearly not to eat of that fruit of the
truth and knowledge of good and evil. And she remembered it so
well, Eve was able to tell Satan what God had said. But she disregarded
the Word of God and the devil, Satan, deceives her. And that's a very amazing picture
that we have. A historical account in that
Garden of Eden. And throughout the Scriptures
we are warned about being deceived. And let's not forget, the devil
is always on the lookout to try and to deceive us. What he's trying to do is to
direct us away from the blessed, sacred truth of God's Word. What does he want us to do? He wants us to listen to him
And he paints a picture which is appealing to our natural mind. We are therefore to be very aware
that Satan will use every device he can to deceive us. And his great aim, his great
aim is this, to deceive our souls so that we do not believe the
truth of God's word that's his great aim and my friends you
and I might tire and get weary the devil doesn't and sometimes
when we are perhaps tired and weary the devil attacks us more
strongly as he thinks perhaps our guards down we're not guarding
ourselves and we're not guarding ourselves when we drop our guard
And what is our God? Our God is the Sword of the Spirit,
the Word of God. How necessary it is that we are
filled, as it were, with the Word of God. It's fresh in our
minds that we read the Word of God, not as something we just
think, well, it's about time I did my duty and read a few
verses. It's the Word of God we need
to have within us so that we delight. to read the Word of
God. And it's the best occupation
that we have, reading the Word of God. That's a very testing
statement, isn't it? You know, given every opportunity
to do other things, if you had a line of things laid out that
you could do, go and do this, read that, go and see that, and
there was the Bible, and you were told you can do anything
you want to do, what would you do? But I tell you, unless God
gives you grace, you wouldn't read the Bible. You'd do everything
else. Therefore, we have a word like
this, be not deceived. The devil is every day, every
moment of the day, watching for an opportunity to jump in and
deceive us and to tell us We can ignore the Word of God. We
can ignore His commands. We can ignore the truth of Scripture. And we can carry on in our own
way. We're being deceived. And so we have a statement like
this this morning. Being not deceived. What an important
thing it is. The Apostle wrote similar words
to the Ephesians. And in the fifth chapter, the
sixth verse, he says, let no man deceive you. And that means
someone acting for the devil. Let no man deceive you with vain
words. For because of these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore
partakers with them. You know, vain words are words
which people speak perhaps to Make us think we're better than
we are. And we all possess the great
sin of pride. You know, we're all, if people
speak vain words to us, very easily, we accept those words,
even if they're not true, because of our pride. We want people,
you see, to say nice things, and to encourage us, perhaps
in a wrong way, And they are vain words. Let no man deceive
you with vain words. And don't be partakers of them. And the Apostle goes on to say,
for ye were sometimes darkness. We were all darkness. But now
are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. How relevant that is, isn't it? We've all been in darkness, and
if God has shone his light into our heart, we'd all bless God
if that is so, and praise him for it. But if it is so, let
us not then walk in darkness. Let us walk as the children of
light. And as touch, let not men deceive
us. Don't listen to their vain words. Again, weigh it up. See if it
agrees with the Word of God. That's the test. In all our life,
in all our religion, in all the things that we do and say, the
test is, do they concur? Do they agree with the Word of
God? And if they don't, and be honest,
Be honest as you check it with the Word of God. If it agrees
with the Word of God, that's fine. If it doesn't, it's not.
If our walk, if our conversation agrees with the Word of God,
that's fine. If it doesn't, then it's not. It's simple, isn't it? It's simple. It is simple. But we live in
a day when simple truths, simple facts, seem to be so willingly
ignored, turned away from. And that's why we have words
like this which speak to us in this way, be not deceived. My friends, such words are written
because of the mercy of God toward us, the Lord speaks such words and
what a wonderful thing it is that we do have words like this
to correct us perhaps to put us on a right path so that we're
not wandering in that way the devil wants us to walk in the
devil wants you and me to walk in every path which is not in
accordance with God's Word And he wanted to make every excuse
why we should not walk in accordance with God's Word. He's very active. He always has been. He always
will be. But bless God, we have a gracious,
a wonderfully gracious exhortation to us here this morning. Be not
deceived, but listen to the devil. How many people have been deceived
down through the ages? How many people have been deceived?
And I'm sure you and I have been deceived in our lives. The great question is, if you
and I have been deceived today? Let us pray to God. He might
open our eyes to see whether we are being deceived or not. Remember our adversary the devil
does everything in his power to deceive us and what he will do is to bring
attractions before us which will not bring light to our souls
They'll bring darkness to the soul. So you can analyse it in
this way, can't you? To examine whether that which
we are being tempted with, I'll put it that way, tempted with,
to do or not to do, whether it is in accordance with God's Word
or whether it is in accordance with our desires. follow that
which is not good. And that which is good is light. And that which is good will bring
us nearer to Christ. So, in examining ourselves, let
us see whether those things are a temptation to us, that we may
be involved in, whether they are for our eternal good, and
whether they will bring honour and glory to God and whether
they will bring us more into the light or whether they will
bring us more into darkness now if God gives you an honest heart
you won't find it very difficult to decide whether and which way
you're going no you might perhaps on the surface
think well I'm not sure but if you follow it through in accordance
with God's word designed to be able to determine whether it
is for the blessing of your soul to bring you further into light
or for the furtherance of evil to bring you more into darkness
you will then observe whether you are being deceived or not
Be not deceived. Oh, bless God this morning that
we have such a word here in the Word of God to encourage us. Be not deceived. Now, the Apostle
then moves on and he says, God is not mocked. We can look at it this way. God
has given us his truth his word and if we are being deceived
the truth is we are mocking God we're mocking God what we're
really saying is well I don't think that's true or I don't
think I need to adhere to that position or I don't think I need
to follow that path Are we mocking God? That's a
very solemn thought, isn't it? Are we mocking God? I read that
chapter this morning in the 19th Genesis where we read about Lot
and his family and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and you
may have noticed that when Lot went to his sons-in-law to encourage
them to come into his home to be delivered. The words that
he spoke, they just mocked. They didn't believe it. They
didn't believe the truth of what Lot was telling them. They just
seemed to mock. How very solemn that statement
is, isn't it? To think that they were, they
just mocked, didn't believe God. If we don't believe God, we've
been told God's Word, which we have. All of us here this morning
have been told God's Word. If we don't believe it, we're mocking God. We're mocking
God. Now the words that Lot spoke
to them were true. The words which God speaks to
us through his word are true. What happened to those people
that mocked God? What happened to them? God utterly
destroyed them. Utterly destroyed them. What
a warning that must be. To think today that we may perhaps
be mocking God. And how solemn it would be if
God came and destroyed us. And God can destroy us so very
simply. I'm sure we're all aware of that.
We can be destroyed very easily. Yes, the Lord can bring an illness
upon us. We can have a stroke, or a heart attack, or an illness,
or we've been knocked over by a car, or struck by lightning,
or whatever. There's many ways the Lord can
strike us down. Those people, all those people,
you see, they ignored the truth of God. They mocked God. or how searching it is for us
today, that we are not found in that same path, mocking God. It's a very, very searching consideration,
isn't it, to think that we should ever be found in a position like
that, that we mock God. And yet, I'm sure if we're honest,
we have mocked God. We have mocked Him. That's what
immunisation to consider that we have indeed mocked God. We read in the end of Chronicles,
the second book of Chronicles, where we read what was being
spoken to the children of Israel. Moreover, all the chief of the
priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations
of the heathen. and polluted the house of the
Lord, which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of
our fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes
and sending, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling
place. But they mocked the messengers
of God, and despised His words, and misused his prophets until
the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no
remedy." It's a very solemn word, isn't it? You see, they were
warned, it was spoken of the right way and their condition
was to mock the messengers, we could say, to mock the preachers
of God and despise the words that were spoken. The Lord observed what was occurring. The Lord observes what's occurring
in your life and my life. We read these solemn words until
The wrath of the Lord arose against His people till there was no
remedy. There was no possibility of being
reprieved. They mocked. Oh my friends, let
us not mock the Word of God. Let us not mock the preaching
of the Word of God. Let us not turn our back upon
it. As though it is of no consequence. We are greatly blessed to have
the Word of God. We are greatly blessed to hear
the Word of God preached. But we have a solemn responsibility
before God not to mock God. Not to mock God. You may think, you may have thought,
well I don't mock God. We all need perhaps to examine
ourselves carefully in order to determine whether we are mocking
God or not. It's a very solemn thing to mock
God, a very, very solemn thing. When Basil, Nehemiah and Ezra
that they were called of God to come back and to restore Jerusalem
as much as they could in the burning of the wall and also
in rebuilding the temple. And there was, of course, opposition,
as there always will be in the things of God. If you desire,
as Nehemiah Ezra did, to follow the Word of God, you'll find
there's opposition. You'll find there's opposition.
That's just what they did. And we read in Nehemiah chapter
4, the first verse, But it came to pass that when Samballot heard
that we had builded a wall, he was wrath. Of course he was. He was an agent of the devil. There are many agents of the
devil today who very quickly become angry when the things
of God of being fulfilled and being worked out. Oh, there's
many about. And so here was Sam Ballat, when
he heard that we'd built an award, he was wroth and took great indignation
and mocked the Jews. He mocked the people of God.
Again, don't be surprised, if you are mocked, if you are concerned
and desire to follow the Lord, To do His will. To do His work. Don't be surprised if there are
those who will mock you. It's not easy to stand and be
mocked. It's not easy to have opposition and to be mocked in that opposition.
But we should not be surprised to receive it. because God's
people do receive it and we are therefore to recognise
that God is not mocked God is not mocked we perhaps may be
mocked but if we are able by God's grace to stand firm as
indeed Nehemiah was in his day he carried on you know there
was that time when they were tempted to go down, they said, come down
we want to conference. And they said, we cannot come
down, we're doing a great work. Yes, they weren't deceived. They carried on in the work that
God gave them to do. You may remember when they rebuilt
the wall, they had to build it. They didn't take their clothes
off, apart from when they washed, they slept in them at night time,
And in the one hand they held the sword in case there was the
enemy creeping in to destroy them and to attack them. And
so they built. And the war was completed. God
was with them. Again, let's come back to that. They held the sword. My friends, you and I hold the
sword. The Word of God. Let it not be left on the shelf.
Let it not be a closed book. Let it not be a book which is
not read. Let us have it in our hand, so when the devil comes
and tempts us and tries to deceive us, we may be able to resist
the devil, but he may flee from us. And so we have this situation
in Nehemiah's day. We have these accounts to encourage
us. There was great opposition in
the days of Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuilding The wars of Jerusalem. The devil thought he'd won. He'd
destroyed the temple, the place of worship. And they were people
in exile. They were in Babylon. They'd
gone away. No. The Lord was still on the throne. The Lord is still on the throne
today. Blessed be God. And He's still today able to
do great and wonderful things. And we're thankful today He still
does. great and wonderful things. But the Church of God is given
a word of exhortation, a word of warning. Be not deceived,
God is not mocked. Remember the very solemn scene
we have in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ as He came towards
the culmination of His work on this earth and as he was taken
a captive the Lord Jesus Christ taken a captive and he was taken
into the common hall and they gathered together the whole band
of soldiers and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet
robe and when they had plaited a crown of thorns they put it
upon his head and read in his right hand and they bowed a knee
before Him and mocked Him saying, Hail King of the Jews. They didn't mean what they said.
It was a mockery. They were just pretending that
He was their King. Well, my friends, let us not
be amongst those who pretend. to worship the Lord. Let us not be amongst those who
appear to bow on knee, but in fact we are just mocking the
Lord. It's a very solemn statement,
isn't it? It's a very solemn realisation.
You may think, well I'm sure I don't do that. I hope we don't. We need to look
carefully in our hearts to see whether there is an occasion
where there is an inclination in our heart to pretend to worship
God and yet there's no real desire in our heart. It's just an outward
performance. It is a mockery. Well, these soldiers, they mocked
the Lord. They mocked the Lord. They spit
upon Him and put the reed and smote Him on the head. And after
that, they mocked Him. They took the robe off from Him
and put His own raiment on Him and led Him away to crucify Him.
There was no real desire to acknowledge Him as their true Lord and Master,
as their King. There was no real true desire. And there are many people today
who pretend to be Christians, but are not prepared to follow
the Lord. They're not prepared to be aligned
with the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not prepared to do His
will. What do we conclude? Well, I
hope it's not a correct conclusion. But the evidence points to mockery. The evidence points to mockery. It's very searching, isn't it? Yes, you see, they didn't really
love the Lord Jesus. Because if they had, surely they
would have not mocked Him. Surely they would have done His
will and His bidding. Again, we come to the question,
don't we? The great question. The all-important question. What
think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? What do you think today of Christ?
All of us. You children, you young people.
What do you think of Christ? Or do you think nothing of Him? Do you perhaps pretend to think
something of Him? Or are you just mocking Him in
your pretense? They spoke words. What a mockery
it was. How solemn it is to be numbered
amongst those who mock the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, may you and I be blessed
with abundant grace to be a true follower of our blessed Saviour,
never forgetting His death, never forgetting His
agony, never forgetting what it cost the Lord of life and
glory to deliver our souls from the wrath to come. May we have views of the suffering
Saviour. And may those views be so great
and so precious and so glorious that we are therefore not deceiving
ourselves and are not mocking the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, these truths are very important,
aren't they? They're very solemn. We live
in a day lukewarmness and a little zeal in the things of God and
people carry on thinking well I hope it'll be alright in the
end and that's where they stop well what a blessing it is if
we follow the man the Lord Jesus Christ who was despised and rejected
of men And Isaiah says, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet
we did see him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes. We are healed. What does that
mean to us today? We're thinking of Christ. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've all wandered off. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Is that true? that we turn everyone
to our own way. That means a way which is pleasing
to our self, our old flesh, our wretched flesh, weak that we
are. Yes, we're not prepared perhaps to take up our cross
and follow the law of Jesus Christ and the The Apostle says, I take
up our cross daily, every day. Today, tomorrow. Yes, because we realise what
this great and glorious Saviour has done to save our soul. Yes, now the blessing is, the
Lord Jesus Christ He saw the trouble of his soul, and was
satisfied. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the small with the
strong, because he had poured out his soul unto death, and
he was numbed with the transgressions, and he bare the sin of many. Where has he borne your sin and
my sin? O blessed be God, if it is such,
May it be so. May it be our great concern.
May it be our great desire. We are not amongst those then
who mock God. Oh, be not deceived. God is not
mocked. My friends, let it sink right
down into our hearts. These great truths. God is not
mocked. Let us not be amongst those then
who mock this great God. The apostle goes on, For whatsoever
a man's poeth, that shall he also reap. And he explains that
like this. 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. what a division there is. Now remember, the devil wants
you and me to sow to our flesh. That means he wants you and me
to do those things which please our flesh. It doesn't matter
whether it's in opposition to the Word of God. He wants us
to sow to our flesh. Do those things which we want
to do. And to turn away from those things
that we don't want to do. For he that sows to his flesh,
what's the result? Shall reap corruption. By nature
we are corrupt. We're sinful. And that's what
we shall reap. If we sow to the flesh, corruption. No blessing there. No comfort
there. No peace there. Sown to the flesh. Are we sown
to the flesh? It's very easy to sow to the
flesh. Oh yes, the devil wants you to do that. If you're sown
to the flesh, he'll give you an easy ride. He'll let you get
on with it. There won't be any opposition. No, the devil's pleased with
what he's doing. Yes, he's rubbing his hand, he's saying, well I'm
doing alright here. That person's sown to his flesh. Be not deceived. Whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he reap. If you and I, my friends, please
our flesh, we'll be in darkness. We won't
be in the light. But, oh there's some wonderful
buts in the Word of God. Here's one. But, he that sows
of the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Life everlasting. Eternal blessings
with Christ forever. Sowing to the Spirit. That means
doing those things which are in accordance with God's will. So to the fresh, they're not
in accordance with God's will. You know what it is, don't you?
To sow. It's a good illustration. Farmers sow, don't they? If they
sow wheat, they don't expect to find oats grown, do they? If they sow oats, they don't
expect to see wheat grown, do they? It's so true, isn't it? And so
if we sow to the flesh, don't expect to find any blessing. Don't expect to find any blessing.
And don't assume that you can do things and get away with things
and still find yourself in a spiritually healthy state. That's why. the Lord very graciously
gives us the Word of God directs us in a right way so that you
and I may be followers of the truth followers of God and not
so to our flesh but so to the Spirit so to the flesh that means
it's sowing for time If we sow to the Spirit, it means we're
sowing for eternity. And try and remember the vast,
vast, vast difference between time and eternity. If you and I sow to the flesh,
it will only be for a very short time. If God gives us grace,
desire spiritual blessings and follow the word of God and the
ways of God brings with it eternal blessings no time now goes on
forever and ever and ever oh my friends today may we hear
the word of the Lord which is so direct and so powerful It's
so true. Let us never ignore it. Let us
not say, well, I don't think that's relevant to me. It is
relevant to you. It is relevant to you. It's relevant to me. All of us. Everyone. And may we be blessed today with
the greatest work of Holy Spirit in our hearts, directing us to
observe this gracious Word of God in exhortation as it is and
be truly concerned to follow it out and to walk it out. My friends, let there be nothing
that hinders us in this walk. Let nothing be allowed to come
between us and our God and to do that which you and I know
in our heart is the right way, the God-honouring way, that way
which brings with it the blessings of life everlasting. Be not deceived, God is not mocked,
for whatsoever man sows, that shall he also reap. Amen.