So we're in this little text
here in the letter to the Galatians and we looked at the nature of
the New Testament church. We looked at what fellowship
is supposed to look like biblically. We looked at what the ministry
of reconciliation, ministry, we looked at a lot of things.
But then last week we closed out with looking at what giving
looked like in the sense of offering and tithes. And I pray that that
was a blessing to you and an opportunity for you to just at
least challenge your thinking on how you look at it. And today
we'll continue in that. And so if you will, turn to Galatians
chapter 6, and we will read together the first 10 verses so that we'll
have the context in our minds again. Let's read the Word of
the Lord. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression,
You who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one
another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone
thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to
boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for
each will have to bear his own load. Let the one who has taught
the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do
not be deceived. God is not marked. For whatever
one sows, one will also reap. For the one who sows to his own
flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows
to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us
not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap
if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity,
let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of
the household of faith." Now, there's a couple of things that
I really want to point out here. As you know, if we were going to
be in this letter, it would take a lot longer than just three
or four weeks to get through these ten verses, because there
are points here that are heavier than just a comment or a passing
phrase. But for the sake of what we're
trying to do and point out some of the key doctrines that are
found in this text that relate to the rest of Scripture, we're
sort of jumping through some of this stuff. And it may be
frustrating for you, you may not even recognize it. It's frustrating
for me, so I confess that to you this morning. But today,
I want you to see that it's not just about doing good. It's not
just about serving one another, having gentleness, giving of
our time and our treasures and of our talents. It's also about
understanding that when we do good, when we invest in things
for the kingdom, there is a benefit for us. And so it goes, like
I said last week, hand in hand with this reciprocity that we
learn sometimes through error, that we learn that if we do this,
then there is blessing to come. But let me differentiate for
a moment about what the world would teach versus what the Scripture
teaches about such things. The world teaches that if you
do something that makes God happy, God is happy towards you. And
that if you do things that God wants you to do, that God is
going to give you good things. The problem with that is that
it's partially true. There is conditional obedience.
There is conditional love when it comes to the love of God.
We see that in Scripture. We see the Lord dealing with
Judah and Israel many times in the Old Testament. If you do
this, then I will do this. But every single time there was
a conditional statement of God's blessing, every single 100% of
the time, they failed. The people of God always disobeyed. They always failed, and yet God,
though there was a consequence for that disobedience, and it
seemed like not a blessing, the Bible then teaches us that it
is a blessing when the consequences of God and even the judgment
or the discipline, let's put it that way, of God comes to
His people. For we see in the writer of Hebrews,
tells us that if we're not disciplined, that we're not legitimate children.
We're illegitimate children. It means we're not the children
of God. so that then God would do something miraculous apart
from the faithfulness of His people, He would act on their
behalf for the sake of His name. And we see that all through the
Old Testament prophets. It's not for your sake, Israel,
that I'm about to act, for you have defamed my name before the
peoples, but for my sake, for the sake of my name, I'm about
to act. What did He do? He restored Israel
to right standing. He restored Israel to righteousness.
He restored Israel to power. He restored Israel and the temple
and everything in the sense that they then could say, wow, our
God is faithful to His promise. And even in the Old Testament,
that was a shadow. It had no eternal bearing on
this nation. But we know that the eternal
bearing of God's covenant with His people is in Christ, and
that it never fails. Paul even tells young Timothy
in the second letter that if we're faithless, he remains faithful,
for he cannot deny himself. Now that faithless is not rejecting
the gospel, but faithless can mean we doubt the gospel. Faithless
is not cursing Christ and blaspheming the Lord and refusing the goodness
of God, but at certain seasons of our life, we can doubt that
it actually is effectual in our lives. But Christ is faithful
for it is in His nature to be faithful. And so that when we
see that there are someone's, that the Bible teaches that if
we sow something, we reap something. Friends, the book of James is
very clear, and I know we go in a lot of places, but I'll
get to the point in a minute, because I want you to have this in your
mind as we get going this morning. because it's here. But the book
of James says that you have not because you what? Ask not. And
you get not when you ask, even though you ask, because you desire
wrongly. And what James tells us is that
you desire it from your own, what? Passions. To spend this
blessing on your own earthly flesh and on your own passions,
so therefore you don't get. He even asked the question, what
causes quarrels? What causes fights? What causes
factions among you? It is that you are sinful and
greedy and desiring that God would give you the material things
of your life that you find joy in. But that's not the point
of sowing and reaping. Because if you remember that
the Scripture teaches us that if we delight in the Lord, then
He will give us the desires of our hearts. Friends, it's very
clear to see if we look through fleshly minds, we could say,
I desire this and I desire that. I desire this relationship. I
desire this, this, this, this power. I desire this pride. I
desire. But the scripture teaches that those things are not from
God. And so we know that that's not what the scripture is talking
about. And quite honestly, it's very clear to us who are in Christ
that if we delight in the Lord, then our delight is not in the
world. Is it not? 1 John 2 tells us that. I know
that I might quote that text a lot, but I'll tell you, it
is one of the pivotal texts when it comes to our faith. It is
one of these things that we need to understand that if we are
in Christ Jesus, then our affection for the world does wane. And our affection for the world,
even when it is strong, rises up in front of us and we go,
that is idolatry. It's even recently, a few weeks
back, that I even mentioned the idea, when I finished up Philippians,
that there are many idols in our lives. There are many things
in this world that are good blessings from God that we put a lot of
credit in, that we put a lot of esteem toward, and that we
actually begin to love more than Christ. And when we love anything
more than Christ, it is a what? It is an idol. And friends, there
is no bigger idol in my life than my children. And so it doesn't
mean that I want them to be out of my life, it means that I need
to put them in their proper place in my life. And so when we think
of that, we must look at the person of Abraham. Abraham desired
a son, and even in his old age never had a son, but God had
promised him a son. Even in Abraham's disobedience
and unbelief, he decided, he and Sarah decided to get with
Hagar and create the son that God had promised them, and we
saw what that did. But ultimately what happened
is that God gave him that son and then God told him to take
that son that was most beloved to him and sacrifice him on an
altar on the mountain to him. And the Bible says in the Old
Testament that Abraham got up the next morning early in preparation
for such a feat. And that he took his son and
he walked with him and he took the servants with him and he
left And he came to the place where the Lord had told him to
build an altar, and he built an altar, and then what? Where
is the sacrifice? The question is offered. Where
is the sacrifice? The Lord has provided one. He
ties his son's hands together and lays him on the altar and
puts the knife to his throat, and the angel of the Lord stops
him. Now, friends, he loved his son more than anything in life.
But because he was born of God, his love for the Lord was greater
than his love for the Son. And that's how we ought to look
at this world. When we think of reciprocating, we think of
getting something back from God. We ought to be thinking in that
way. There is nothing that God could give us in this world that
would satisfy our souls. I want you to hear that. Because
friends, it is a gift of grace that God keeps us in poverty
during certain seasons of our lives. It is a gift of grace
that God keeps us in physical ailment. It is a gift of grace
that God causes people to leave our lives because they hate the
gospel or they hate us. It is a gift of grace when calamity
comes and it keeps our pride in check. Because if we had it
greatly made, we would not want to see the greatness of our King.
We will never grow in grace when everything's good. It's just
not going to happen. And so as we look at this text,
I want us to look then at verse seven. Last week we stopped with
verse 6, let the one who is taught share all good things with the
one who teaches. We see that insertion there because Paul
is talking about being gentle, minister to those who are caught
in sin gently, who are spiritual, be careful, don't be tempted.
So this is a really good text that shows true koinonia, true
fellowship, true purpose of the church. And now, He says, Do
not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever
one sows, he will also reap. See why I needed to go there
in my introduction? To get us in the right mindset.
Verse 8 says, For one who sows of his own flesh will reap from
the flesh corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will
reap from the Spirit eternal life. Now, why then does Paul
put these things here in such a confusing way? Well, look what
he says in verse 9. So, these are very broad And very what? Ambiguous statements. These things are not something
that are very detailed. This is just one little phrase
after another that gives us a very wide sense that Paul is teaching,
but not being very specific. Now, I'll be honest with you,
in our culture, these are not statements that we care to see.
Because it imparts this idea that then we have to interpret
what is happening. We have to interpret exactly
what Paul means. And that can be a dangerous thing.
For example, John 3,16 is one of the most misinterpreted verses
of the entire world. Second probably only to Philippians
4,13. All things to most people means
anything. And all things in the context
of Philippians 4 as we've just learned is what? suffering with
little. I can endure this. I can endure
imprisonment. I can endure all things. I've
had much. I've had little and I can endure. through Christ who strengthens
me. To live is Christ, to die is far better, Paul says. So
that's the context of Philippians 4. In John 3, there's two big
words there that everyone likes to take out of context and define
in their own way. We use our own 2016 word usage. When I talk about translation,
the word may be right in the English, but our understanding
of the word could be wrong. Therefore, our translation could be wrong.
And the word in John 3, 16, the first one that people, well,
there's three, but let's just use the operative words. The
word love is very misunderstood in John 3. Why? Because we've
misunderstood love anyway. Since the 1960s, especially in
our country, Love means everything but what the Scripture teaches.
Love is a feeling to us in our culture. Love has nothing to
do with feelings. Love has nothing to do with emotions.
Love has nothing to do with how much you like something. Love
has nothing to do with how somebody makes you feel. Love has nothing
to do with anything we feel, anything we desire. It's everything
that we are, and it's who God is, so that we who are in God,
we who are in Christ, love perfectly because we die, suffer, hurt
and grieve while we stick and hold fast to the affection that
is supernatural. So that's what love is. So God
loved the world in this way. He so loved the what? The second
word there is world. People like to say, well, that
means every single person. Well, that doesn't mean every
single person. God loves every single person in the world, but
not in this way that he gave this son so that the son now
has paid for the sins of every single person in the world. And
some of you may think, well, that's sort of strange. I thought that's
what it meant. No, it's not. And by the Lord's grace, I'm
going to start teaching John's gospel somewhere in the next four or
five months in some place if I have to teach to myself. because
it is empowering to the church. Well, how do you say then that
these words don't mean what we say they mean? Because the Bible
says that love is this, that God is love. And that there's
no greater love than this that a man would lay down his life
for a brother. That God showed his own love
for us in this, that while we were still what? Sinners, Christ
died for us. So that means that the people
that hate us the most, hurt us the worst, despise us the greatest,
These are the people who, without any enunciation of any verbiage
out of our mouth, we ought to lay our lives down and die for
them. That is love. And as we're dying, they spit
on us, pull our hair out and rip the flesh off of our bodies
and hang us on a cross to die in mockery. That's the love.
That's what it means. That's how you and I stand here,
justified before God, because we hated Him and Christ loved
us anyway. And universalism is not true.
Everybody's sins in the whole world are not paid for. Only
those who believe in Christ are their sins paid for. Only those
for whom Christ died. Only those who by faith receive
Christ. And that word, what does that
mean? Do you believe in Christ? You believe on Christ, you have
faith. It is not of your own works is the gift of God. And
it comes to the hearing of his word. By hearing this gospel
today, God can quicken your heart to believe. And you can see. And when we are born of Christ,
beloved, we then start to understand what He means. For if one reaps
and sows, whatever he sows he will also reap. Do not be deceived,
for God is not mocked. Let me walk us through that in
some sense. God cannot be mocked. God commands
holiness. God's power is true. God's gospel
is effective. And there is nothing that can
stop it. Nothing can stop God from saving a man. Nothing can
stop God from taking a nobody and making nothing out of the
somethings that are. That's 1 Corinthians chapter
1, by the way. Nothing can stop God from moving the world, stopping
time, recreating anything or anyone at any time. Nothing can
stop God. And so if God cannot be stopped,
surely our motives for missions and our motives for ministry
and our motives for affection and our motives for doing church
work, quote, church work cannot be hidden from God. God cannot
be mocked. God is not dead. And he sees
all things. God is omnipotent. He knows all
things. He's omniscient. He's all powerful. And so therefore, what God is
showing us in this text through Paul writing to these Christians
in Galatia, he's saying that God is aware of your motives,
beloved. So if you're doing good things
and doing good deeds amongst yourselves, friends, don't think
that the doing of these deeds are going to cause God to love
you more. You can't be loved anymore by
God. God either loves you or He doesn't. And for those of you who were
here during our series on that we did on Tuesday night about
the attributes of God. You understood we spent three
or four weeks on the love of God. God has a universal love
for all people, but it's not the same love he has for the
sun. It's not the same love he has for the church because God
will love those who he lovingly cast into the lake of fire. He
won't weep over that. It's right. The days of weeping
are the days of Christ. The days of mourning over the
lost are the days of today. Today is the day of salvation,
friend, not yesterday. Your hope doesn't lie in what
you did for God yesterday by faith. Your hope lies in the
faithfulness of Christ this day. And if it doesn't lie in Christ
this day, then there is no hope for you tomorrow. We don't play
games with our faith because of our pride. We surrender to
the fullness of the sufficiency of Christ in all these things.
Or we stand before God and give an excuse that we are doing all
we can. We are working the best we could.
We are believing in the hardest way possible. But it still fails. This morning, trying to find
a matching pair of socks, I thought to myself, if I can't keep a
matching pair of socks together, how can I keep my faith intact?
And it's amazing how the selfishness and the pride of humanity makes
us think that we're so in charge of our faith. How pompous of
us to consider that. We can't even keep our glasses
in check, our oil changed. Where did I put my phone? Where
did I put my glasses? Where did I put my pen? You still
got the same pen you had 20 years ago? I do because I found it
a couple of weeks ago and it was in a box in the bottom of
a trash can somewhere. I mean, you know what I'm saying.
No, we don't keep up with things. We're not going to keep up with
our faith. It is God's doing and it is only by the grace of
God. It is not about our works so that when we reap what God
has given us. When we reap the benefits, it
is because we have sowed them in the soil of the economy of
grace. But this is not about salvation. Yet Paul begins to make it that
way. So what is he trying to teach us? Paul is trying to say,
do not think that God is mocked. He cannot be deceived. For you
should not be deceived, beloved. For if there are motives that
are impure, don't think that these things that you do are
going to account for anything. The scripture teaches that Abraham's
faith was credited as righteousness because he obeyed God. He believed
God. Do you know faith, pistis belief,
is inclusive of obedience? That's why my hyper grace cohorts
need to get off this soapbox and learn that they are leading
people to a crisis eternity. Yes, any sin that we commit in
Christ is forgiven at the cross. But Christ compels us to love
Him and obey Him and drives us to the center of affection for
Him. And our flesh fights against the Spirit of God within us,
but the Spirit of God prevails because God is omnipotent in
Christ Jesus and the gospel is good news, not so-so news. So that we are never going to
live in sinless perfection, but we're going to drive our car
off the cliff of it every day. You see? I'm going to get there
like Groundhog Day. It's like it starts over every
morning. Okay, now this day is the Lord's
day. This is the Lord. God, you want me. Why did Jesus
teach us to pray? Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. But yet we like to pray, God,
I'm going to do the best I can today. The best we can is the
worst we could ever do. The best we can do is to submit
ourselves to the Lordship of Christ and to his power and to
his grace and to his glory in the midst of sin and in the midst
of righteousness, because neither of those things are going to
affect God's love for us. So do not be deceived. God is
not mocked. He knows what we are doing. He
knows. And so this sowing and reaping
is a clear doctrine of scripture. One receives that which he invests
in. So now let's put it into perspective. What does the man
who lives his entire life wholly get? Nothing. What does the man or
the woman or the child who lives passionately about doing ministry
get? What does he earn by doing these
things? What do I earn by preaching for
60 years if God lets me live that long? What do I earn? Nothing.
I earn nothing. And you and I, none of us will
earn anything in the face of God with how we live in this
life when it comes to His love, God loves you. That's why you're
safe today. And we can preach that gospel
to every human being who would ever walk the face of this earth,
and you can say to them. That Christ is their propitiation. And then call them to believe.
if they reject it. I had a discussion with somebody
who gets really hung up on the idea of election. I have a 30-year-old
son who rejects the gospel every time I talk to him. I'm just
going to stop praying for him and stop talking to him. When did God die and put him
as him? What man is God? What man knows
the ways and the mind of God? Friends, if there is life in
the body, and they are breathing, and their mind is moving, God
can save them. God is in the business of salvation.
And we must preach the gospel to everyone, even those who spit,
especially those who spit at the faith. For I will tell you,
there are probably more who mock Christ, who will be saved, standing
before Him, than many who say they are in Christ, who are praying
to Him this morning, when it comes to the end of the world.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom
of heaven, but those who, what, do the will of my Father who
is in heaven. because that which God does effectually in beginning. The Hebrew says that Jesus is
the author and finisher of our faith. He wrote it to start it
and He takes it to the end. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
He's the one who sat down at the right hand of the Father,
propitiating as the High Priest, petitioning against the accuser. He says they're sinful and God
the Father looks and sees the blood of the Lamb on them and
He says they're not, they're righteous because I bought them.
And I paid for their sin on the blood of my son through the blood
and the body of Jesus Christ. So there is no accusation. Now
there's no condemnation. You hush your mouth, accuser,
for these are my redeemed. This is the work of Christ. It's
every moment of our lives. And it is a gift of God. And because God starts it and
because God finishes it, then the fruits of our salvation.
Listen, here it is. The fruits of our salvation are
God's to behold. So we sow. Based on what has
been sown in us. Watch this. Grace, salvation
is a gift of grace, no one in their right mind argues against
that. No one, I've never met any Christian who argued that.
They may not understand it, but salvation is a gift of grace.
Everybody really agrees in that. Secondly, grace that's given,
that brings salvation, is given through Christ Jesus. Nobody
argues that. Thirdly, that which Christ saves
which Christ produces is the work of Christ, so that if we
are in Christ, guess what? There is fruit in our lives that
is Christlike. Some of us have more, some of
us have less, some of our fruit is a little stinky during certain
seasons, and some of it's very good and ripe during others.
And it what? It fluctuates, does it not? Even
those whom we would esteem as the most righteous on earth,
it fluctuates. Even if we don't see it, it fluctuates
in their hearts. It fluctuates in their minds.
Like some pastors who just because it happens because we live in
a esteemed and idolatrous world, sometimes pastors are idolized. and great men of God who are
nobodies get put up on pedestals to be somebodies. And then these
men have to fight sin. What do you mean? It is a stroke of the ego. When you look out there and somebody's
bought a million of your books. It is a stroke of the ego when
at a place that you preach and the line so long for people want
to talk to you and tell you how good the message was. You just
want to die. And all of a sudden you're being
shared all over the Internet that imagine what that's like.
Imagine. that even in the most righteous
of people that you could esteem this day, even dead saints like
Spurgeon or Calvin or Whitefield, great Calvinist pastors, the great awakening, Jonathan
Edwards, all these. Imagine what they would think
if they were alive today to see how we esteem them. How often
we quote them rather than Christ. As they quote Christ. So even in the most righteous
of hearts, there is sin. That is a struggle and a war
inside the members of one's own body. Friends, there is sin moving
actively right now in every one of our hearts, and I want you
to hear this. There is sin at work among us at this very moment. Some of us are prideful that
we know this. Some of us are prideful that
we don't need to hear this. Some of us are prideful that
we got this. Some of us are fearful that we don't got this. Some
of us are doubting that we're even in the faith. And the list
goes on. You know what I'm saying? I'm
not reading your mind. I'm just expressing mine. And so as we
move through every moment of our lives, we know that it is
only the gift of God through Christ Jesus that brings the
fruit of righteousness. Because if we were left to ourselves,
beloved, this is what would happen. We would fall into our flesh.
We would fall into the world. We would seek other lovers. We
would find satisfaction in anything but Christ. We would never be
called back to the Word. We would never be called to prayer.
We would never have a desire to come and sit in an assembly
like this. We would never desire to love people like this. And
we would never, ever, ever, ever share our faith. We would just
fall away. But because we are in Christ,
Christ has sowed His Spirit inside of us. He has planted God the
Holy Spirit there. and the Spirit of God seals us.
He is our guarantee. Paul would tell the Roman church
in chapter 8 that this is the truth of rebirth and that the
Spirit of God, what? What does he do? He testifies
to our spirit that we are the children of God. Are you the
children of God? Are you a child of God this day?
Stop rewinding your memories. Stop putting yourself in the
place where you thought you became a child of God. Stop putting
hope in the stock of history and put your hope in the person
of Christ this moment. No greater pride puts a man in
the grave quicker than standing on the promises of his historical
faith. None. And no greater tool does the
enemy of God have in his arsenal than to sear your conscience,
thinking that's okay. Do not be deceived. God is not
mocked. For whatever a man soweth, so
much shall he also reap. There's a bunch of translations
mixed in. for the one who sows to his own
flesh. What does that mean? That means
when we invest in this life, when we invest in ministry, when
we invest our lives and all aspects of them in any way that we call
good and we are doing it for our own moral stand or our own
emotional sustenance or our own happiness in the sense that this
makes me feel good about me, along with a whole list of things
we are investing, we are sowing to the flesh, we are sowing from
the flesh and we're sowing to our flesh. What's that mean?
We're planting seeds for our own garden. Mostly when we want credit for
it. Or worse, we want to tell God what kind of credit we've
got. You know what that looks like? Lord, I'm tithing, I'm praying,
I'm teaching, I'm handing out tracts, I'm preaching to the
church. Wow! Sound familiar? Jesus used that
exact example of a Pharisee standing. Lord, I thank you for the work
that you've done in me. Your mighty hand, your Holy Spirit,
your absolute power worked in me that I tithe, worked in me
that I pray, worked in me that I do my sacrifices, worked in
me that I teach your word. Oh, thank you so much, God, oh,
our Father in your holiness. Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Jesus, that I'm not like that publican. You remember that? And the publican dared not even
look to the heavens, tore his clothes and put his face to the
ground and screamed out, Oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And Jesus says that that man
went home justified before the Father today, the other condemned
for all eternity. Wow. Because he sowed for his
own garden. He invested in his own hope. He invested in his own feelings
so that he could feel good about himself, that he'd have a jury
of a holy God, a judge before the holy God. And he'd say, look
at me. And that God in his mind would
say, well done when he would not. He would say, depart from
me, you worker of iniquity. And that's harsh. That was a
that was a parable, right? It was a parable which reveals
the truth about humanity. In John 2, when the Bible says
that no one had to tell Jesus what was in the heart of man,
it's because he knows all hearts. He knows your heart. He knows
my heart today. He knows what we're thinking
and how we're working in our logical mind to bring something
that we don't like about this text to a different landing spot. Christ invested his life for
the life of others, and we invest our lives for the sake of the
life of others. And if we can. If we're able, listen. If we're empowered and we don't,
we've been deceived. It says we're not receiving the
grace and the power of God. It says we're not going to receive
the fruit of our investment. We're not going to receive the
dividend of our labor. Because if we sow to our flesh, what
happens? I'll show you in a minute what it looks like in 2 Corinthians
3, or 1 Corinthians 3. It says we see no value in the
family of faith when we don't invest in the lives of others.
That the church is something for us rather than who we are.
When we don't invest in the lives of others, it says we see no
power in the teaching of the Word of God, no usefulness for
gathering together as the people of Christ to be fed His Word
and thus empowered to do the what? The work of the ministry,
Paul says in Ephesians, so that we might grow each other. So many congregations want a
program put together with a lot of curriculums so that they can
invest in the lives of other people. I just chopped my leg
off. Here, read a manual about how
to fix that. And we'll pray for you. Now let's get a tourniquet
and let's get somewhere that somebody with an expertise can
fix that, lest we watch them die praying them out of this
world. Since we're receiving, we're
receiving, we're receiving. When we don't invest, we get
and get and get and get and get, but we're never investing in
others. So we're just here to receive. Now, let me get you
off the hook. Everybody has in due time, their
own load to bear. And sometimes your load is to
receive the ministry of the church. And sometime your load is to
be the ministry of the church and to give the ministry of the
church. And you can't bear every burden of everyone all the time. But God has equipped each of
us perfectly for each other in the right season. And do not
be deceived in thinking that because you can't heal me, that
your ministry to me is not important. If you pray for me, that's most
important. But the question is, do we pray?
Or do we just say, praying for you? Do we give as much time and prayer
for each other as we do over our bacon in the morning? Which
we ask God to bless that which the Bible clearly says is already
blessed. Let's just have it. But that's what we do. Bless
this food that you've already blessed. You know what I mean?
Just have it. In the verse 8 there, it says
that the flesh sows and the flesh reaps flesh. From what? Corruption.
Versus what? Sowing to the Spirit and reaping
eternal life. So this is now where Paul begins
to say that these things have a salvific backbone to them. Let me show you this. Paul's
saying that if we sow from the flesh, what we're doing is we're
sowing corruption. If we're doing things in a worldly
way, if we're sowing in worldly things, if we're ministering
for our own glory, then we're just planting seeds of flesh,
which is what? The wages of sin is death. So
that if we're doing that, that means that we're not in Christ. Hear this, church. This is a
rub. Why do we get together? So we
hear the gospel and are empowered. We are taught the Word of God
according to Ephesians from those who teach so that we may learn
the Word of God and teach others inclusive of ourselves that we
may grow into maturity, which is learning how to work out our
salvation in fear and trembling, trusting in Him who is faithful,
Him who is powerful, He who is able to keep us from falling. Jude 24, 25. As Peter would say, who keeps
us by and guards us by his power. God guards us by his power, but
his power only comes through the word. And so Paul says if
this, this is not a formula for salvation, but the product of
such salvation that comes through the grace of God, that if you
are indeed in Christ, then that which Christ is doing in you
will produce out of you and you will give your life and you will
minister in a way that is supernatural to the praise of his glorious
grace so that the heart of Christ is seen and the mind of Christ
is revealed in his church. Sound familiar? We just went
through 40 sermons of Philippians. And the heart of Christ is given
to us, the body, without which we have no faith, and without
faith we cannot please God. But I think the most important
thing we need to learn from today, though we get this and I want
you to see, not just that if we're not sowing, we could be
reaping of the flesh, But if we are sowing, we definitely
have eternal life. We don't want to put our faith
in our sowing and reaping either, do we? We put our faith in the
one who is Christ, the one who is perfect, the one who planted
truly eternal life into us. But verse nine is the key. And
let us not grow. There's a negative. Let us not
grow weary. of doing good. This is where
I start to get lost because it's very broad. It's like he says
earlier, those who are spiritual. How do you define that? You have
to go into the word of God and and dig. It's not hard. It's sort of like surface digging.
You sort of rake sort of rake. You don't have to dig to find
these answers. Just read. God will show them
to you. I promise you. And so, do not grow weary of
doing good. What causes us to become weary?
Working and working and working over and over and over. Imagine Noah's preaching ministry.
He'd already told his family they were on board because they
weren't going to disobey. And then nobody else listened. Not
10 years, not 20, not 50, not 75, but 100 years he preached
as he built that ark. Now, I imagine after the first
six months, people just, I mean, they're like, wow, Noah's got
something to say. Oh, and when they saw the skeleton, they just
came to marvel at this great big thing that he was building.
And so let's just be very, let's just be very, and this is theoretical,
but just something to think about, let's just be very, I don't know, conservative. Let's
say that people gave Moses an audience for two years. So for
two years, he'd preach every day, he'd build a little bit,
people come by, he'd preach. They'd come over there, and I'm being
very gracious. I mean, usually it's like two months, two weeks.
But let's just say for every day for two years, people came
to hear the preaching of Moses. I mean, did I say Moses? Noah. Elijah. Whoever built that boat.
Noah. Jeremiah. God built the boat
through Noah. Noah. That's like when we were
in Ephesians last week. And Philippians. Alright. Noah preached. Let's just say
he was preaching. Two years. And everybody was
giving him an audience. Here he is. Here he is. Here
he is. Here we are. Here we are. And they're not listening. They're
not hearing. They're not coming to believe.
They're rejecting. They're mocking him. And his
pulpit never moved. Imagine his reputation after
50 years. Imagine after 100 years. Imagine
8 generations of people watching, teaching their children. Hey,
who's that guy over there? Well, some people call him Moses,
but his name's Noah. And he says, whacko, stay away
from me. Don't listen to what he has to
say. And one generation leads to another generation, leads
to another generation of unbelievers. And they continually sear the
conscience of their own children and their grandchildren and their
great-great-grandchildren, and on and on and on. And they go, and
just out of curiosity, they still hear, and Noah preaches repentance.
He preaches judgment. He preaches the good news that
God has provided a Savior. See it? but they would not believe. Noah had a purpose, a reason
for weariness, did he not? That's why Moses is in my head.
Moses got weary. Noah had a purpose for weariness.
Jeremiah had a purpose or reason for weariness. Moses had a reason
for weariness. These people of yours versus
my people. That was the continued dichotomy
with Moses. And yet he did not give up. And
after a hundred years of preaching repentance and preaching salvation
and preaching the gospel of God, people mocked him and he did
not quit. And he was wondering, when am
I going to see the benefits? When am I going to see salvation?
Is this a joke? So growing weary never happens
when we're not working. Do you know that? You know what
happens when we're not investing in the kingdom? We grow callous.
Callous and weary are two different things. Callousness is a hardening. Beloved, listen to me. Callousness
is a judicial hardening. That when we say we believe,
but we walk in darkness, God turns us over to our reprobate
mind. When we love the idols of our own world, Church idols,
faith idols, gospel idols, preaching idols. More than we love the
truth of Christ and our Creator, we are turned over to a reprobate
mind. You don't lose your salvation,
you never had it because you put your trust in everything
but Christ. That's what the Scripture is
teaching us here. And Paul is saying, hold fast. Isn't that
the test of faith? Isn't that the proof of faith?
Does the Scripture not say that the proof of salvation is perseverance? As Baptists, do we not historically
believe from the very beginning of our historical faith that
there is no one who can snatch us out of the hand of God? Then why? Why did we fall so
far from truth? Because of well-meaning men who
wanted to see revival. and who played with the actions
of man and the affections of the heart rather than just proclaiming
the gospel of Jesus. We do not twist the scripture,
we do not do underhanded things, we do not take the word of God
except by bold proclamation of the truth, we do not change it. And if you can't see it, Paul
says to the Corinthians, if they can't see the truth by bold statement
of the truth... People tell to me all the time
when they visit, and I'll catch up with them sometimes, I just
don't know what you're talking about. And it may be the truth. It may
be the truth sometimes that's 60 minutes of preaching. But
we'll sit there and watch a two and a half hour movie and can
verbatim tell you what happened blow by blow. And I've seen a
lot of movies in my day, and I've never seen a movie that
would stand up to 2 Corinthians. I've never seen a movie that
will stand up to the first three chapters of Leviticus. Were you
thinking that? Why did I say that? Because it
is one of the most like, oh my gosh, if we get through this
and get to something. If I say begot one more time, If you don't know what I'm talking
about, go read it. We do good because we continue
in the faith. We persevere because Christ has
sealed us with the Spirit. So as we're doing good, even
though we don't see the fruit of it. Friends, you don't think
that I experience that type of stuff. And you're thinking, what
good is preaching? You ever thought that? What good,
I've read my Bible a million times today, nothing, nothing.
Lord, where is it? You ever thought that? Look,
even pastors think that. You ever sat down and wanted
to pray and couldn't pray? Can't close your eyes because
all you do is see everything but prayerful things? The old
needs changing. Where's that other sock? Will
that baby stop fussing? You walk around outside and talk
to the Lord out loud and then they put you in a jacket, take
you off to the farm. It can be that stressful, that
much of a struggle in our faith, friends, but we don't stop. Paul had reason to quit and go,
you know what, I'd be better off just to write an encyclopedia
of theology and just go back to my life. That's what I'll
do. I'll take the peaceable way out.
I'll take the easy road. I'll just do church at home.
I'll watch a sermon on the Internet. That's enough. It's not. It's
disobedient. I don't want to subject my children.
There's nothing for my children to do. Yes, there is. They can hear the Word of God
and by faith be saved. And you don't need a smarty or
a twizzler to get their attention. Matter of fact, people hated
the fact that children were in the way of Jesus. Look at the
Gospels. And can you imagine the professional
disciples? All right, get these people out
of the way. Get these children out of the way. Jesus is talking
for heaven's sake. These children. And Jesus says,
don't begrudge them. Don't do that. Matter of fact,
if your faith isn't like a child, You can't enter the Kingdom of
Heaven. So some people just can't see
it. Some people aren't used to it. But eventually, if you stick
around, you'll grasp learning to actually use your mind the
way God created it to work, which is longevity and focus. Go read Pilgrim's Progress. Here's
both versions, both volumes, right here. Go read it. It'll teach you to pay attention.
Not the abridged, not the translated one. Read the Old English, just
like that, right there. Read that. And you'll learn to
pay attention. We learn and we gain and we hold
fast. Some people give up when they
come to exposition because they think it's something different. And friends, if I have to come
up with a good outline, I've not read the text. I don't need
it. God doesn't need my creativity.
I can do it on the fly. It comes natural. Because I've
got more years in secular ministry than I do spiritual ministry.
They might be even now. But it just comes easy. So we
don't grow weary in doing good. We stand firm, not like the Galatians
who, what Paul says there in Galatians chapter 5, he said,
you once were running strong, what happened? You start running. You've settled on this circumcision
issue. You've settled down with the
Judaizers. What's going on? Why are you not fighting? Why
are you not running? Why are you not persevering? Go! Go for the gospel! Sounds like a pep rally, doesn't
it? Where's the drums at? We'll get it going. Don't grow
weary. Hold on. And in due season, that
which you're running for will produce a fruit. Some of it tenfold,
some of it a hundredfold, some of it a thousandfold, ten thousandfold. But what Paul will show us in
just a minute is that that's the fruitfulness of God. comes
and that reaping, what comes from that is a joy, is a satisfaction,
is knowing that we're ministering to the needs of others, is becoming
a true worshiper with power, living for Christ, being secure
in our eternal life, seeing God at work through us in the lives
of others and His grace powerfully being manifested in the hurting
people of this world so that they may celebrate, that they
may say hallelujah, at the cause of Christ in the midst of anything
that may come. And doing good is one of those
things that's so misunderstood in our world. But friends, let
me show you something. Doing good is clearly shown in
the Scripture. We ought to love each other with
an affection that Christ has by laying our lives down for
each other. We ought to pray for one another.
We ought to encourage one another as long as it is called today
to do what? Unto love and to good deeds. We ought to be concerned with
the interest of others over the interest of ourselves. We must
be ready to give up the last piece of bread that we have so
that our starving brother and sister might be able to eat. And this is why so few people
want to really be the church. They want to go to church. They
don't want to be the church. And by the grace of God, I pray
that this truth doesn't move any of you out of our fellowship. You might say, well, who? Look
at verse 10. So then as we have opportunity, that means any time
that we have opportunity. Let us do good to everyone. So
we are to be willing to do good to everyone. That includes those
of another faith. That includes those of no faith.
That includes those of our enemies. That's why I think it's deplorable.
And I'm gonna say some political things real quick because it
seems to apply. That's why I think it's deplorable to hate anyone
who is an enemy of the United States. Because the United States
is an enemy of God and has been since its inception. Why? Because
there's no government that is redeemed by Christ. Never has
been, never will be. And the church has no place in
becoming a platform for political things. There's no king but Christ. There's several families in our
church who will not come because of that stance that I take on
that issue. Why would I waste time feeding
you politics? Just turn on the news if you
want to hear all that trash. Look at it. Is it important? Yeah,
but it's really not. It's as important as making sure
you got antifreeze in your car. As we have opportunity to all
people, but especially, what does he say? The household of
faith. The church is our first priority.
We beloved are our first priority. Now, let me share something with
you. This this blows people's minds, too. They don't they don't
like the idea that I teach this, but I'm not teaching it. God's
teaching it. Is that there is a there is a. Real. Polarizing reality of the gospel.
Now, hear this. Though we may have an affinity
with our families. Though we may have an affinity
with our lifelong friends. They not be in Christ, they are
not our family. Jesus said himself, I do not
come to bring peace. But a sword. And I will pit father
against daughter and mother against son. The enemies, your enemies
will be in your own household. Did you hear that? That ain't
my words. Those are the words of Christ. So that at no time do we subject
preferential treatment to someone outside the faith over someone
in the faith ever. Why? Because just as it is in
my marriage, if I die, I am no longer a husband. But forever
and eternally, my wife and I will be siblings in Christ Jesus. This is the only gathering in
the world, friends, that has an eternal reality. Except we
won't be cold, we won't be sick, we won't be
frustrated, we won't be suffering. But if we are the body of Christ,
we better be investing our seeds into each other's lives because
they reap an eternal reward. And investing in one thing doesn't
mean it's not mutually exclusive of the other. But one does take
precedence. We'll look at that as we look
through. The Thessalonians. Take a peek with me. Really quickly,
the first Corinthians chapter three. I won't read it all, but in chapter
three, starting in verse one, Paul says these words. He says,
I'd like to address you as spiritual people. This is the first letter
to the second letter, but first Corinthians or chapter three,
one Corinthians. Maybe did you get that? OK, some
of you watch the news. Not two Corinthians, but one
Corinthians. I could not address you as spiritual people, but
as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ, he says, I fed you
with milk, not solid food, because you were not ready for it. And
even now you're not ready for you're still of the flesh. For
there's jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh
and behaving only in a human way? Are you not in the flesh
when you're jealous? Are you not in the flesh when you have strife?
Are you not in the flesh when you're not living? by the Spirit
of God. Are you not in the flesh when you're discouraged?" Yeah,
you're in the flesh. This is a rhetorical question. He answers
it out. When one says, I follow Paul,
what was that issue? Oh, Paul is the guy that led
me to faith, or Apollos is the guy. He says, you are being merely
human, are you not? Just human. Nothing more, just
human. Then Paul asks some questions.
Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? What are we? We're
slaves. We're slaves, tools, pawns, peons
through whom you believe. We're just like Balaam's ass
that God spoke through us that you might live. We're just the mouth of non-import. Now, how do you know that? Because
he said the whole first chapter of 1 Corinthians talks about
that. Where's the wise? Where's the soothsayer? Where's
those of great reputation? Where are you now? God chose
to take the nothings of the world and bring to nothing the things
that are. Paul would tell the Romans, professing to be wise,
you became fools. He says, there's nothing. The
Lord just used us. We were like little seedlings,
and God stuck us in by His mighty finger into the soil of your
heart, and then He watered it, and then He grew it, and then
it came out and produced fruit. This is the work of God. I'm
just a tool of God, Paul would say. He said, he who plants and
he who waters are one and each will receive his wages according
to his labor. Now see, this is where I think
Paul explains this idea of sowing and reaping very clearly. You'll plant and you'll get the
growth. And you received a wage according
to the law. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's
field. You are that which God is building.
Look at verse 10. Here we go. According to the
grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid
a foundation. Picture this. He wrote it this
way so that we could picture it in our minds. I laid a foundation. And someone else, so Paul poured
the slab, and someone else is over there nailing up the framing,
nailing up the studs. Someone else built upon it, and
let each one who builds upon it take care how he builds upon
it, for, verse 11, no one can lay a foundation other than the
one that is laid. Now did you hear that? If Paul
poured the slab, nobody's going to come in there, some moron,
and pour another slab on top of it. Because that's one heck
of a staircase to get to the front door. You don't need another
foundation. You've got the foundation. No
one's going to pour another foundation. And if anyone builds, they might
say, well, I could build a better foundation than that. I could
build a nicer one. I could build a more sturdy. I could build
a more beautiful. I could build a more, what? Valuable. So Paul answers that question.
Because some of these people are thinking, I'm better builder
than Paul. I can preach better than Paul. Many people came to
that task when he was in prison. Remember the Philippians? Anyone who builds with gold?
Well, I won't build a new foundation, but I'll build something better
than the foundation on top. I'll build some gold. I'll put
silver and precious stones. Or maybe I'll just use normal
stuff like wood and straw and hay. What does Paul say in verse
13? Each one's work will become manifest.
That means it will be seen for what it is. How? For the day
of the Lord will disclose it, because it will be revealed by
fire. It's as if God is saying through
Paul that everything we do in the name of ministry will be
put into an incinerator and burned. And on that conveyor belt, as
it runs through, whatever comes out is true. That's what Paul's
saying. And the fire will test what sort
of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built
on the foundation, listen, survives, he will receive a reward. If
anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself
will be saved, but only as through fire." Now, I'm going to stop
because I don't have time to go through all that, but here's
the point as it relates to Galatians chapter 6. When we invest, we're
not buying microphones. We're not making people feel
good about themselves. We're investing. We're sowing
into the lives of people that they become worshipers of God,
that at the end, when the fire has come, we stand together with
our face on the ground before our Savior and we rejoice. Wow,
my work was not in vain. So our labor, our sowing, reaps
human lives for the glory of God. That's the point. And all the little pieces therein,
all the little touches, all the little ministries, all the little
cups of water, all the things that we can't provide, they must
always come to the culmination of Christ's gospel. They must
always come to the reality of the faith of those who are giving
and receiving the ministry. So that we can then see our work
actually be someone, not something. What a horrible testimony. Listen
to what I'm about to say. It's going to make some of you
a little uneasy. What a horrible testimony of the last centuries
evangelists who tout and labor and fundraise based on the numbers
who come and profess Christ based on the amount of people that
they reach. And yet There's no fruit of that
labor at all. I'm not saying God doesn't save
some. Friends, I've worked on staff
with large evangelical people. And I have been a follow-up coordinator
after a crusade with 50,000, 32,000 people in attendance. And I know what the fruit looks
like. A lot of cleanup, a lot of debt,
a lot of salaries paid, a lot of people running like crazy
to find people who don't exist. Don't exist. But yet George Whitfield,
with nothing but his mouth, can travel six months on a boat to
come and preach in the colonies of this state, all up and down
the seaboard. And it's recorded that almost
15,000 people at one time would come to hear him preach outside. And even then, you never saw
anybody on staff with George Whitfield. I'm not saying, I
don't want to esteem you, I'm just talking about practice. Preach anything
but Christ and Him crucified, and then he left it to the church
to disciple them and grow them in the grace of God. And even in the labors of our
church, if we share the faith with a thousand, one may come.
But let's make sure that what we're doing is sharing the faith
and not something else. But especially those of the household
of faith. We ought to be sharing our faith
with each other 10 times over. Did you hear that? Living life
as the body means sharing the faith, preaching the gospel,
equipping each other, because this Word was written to the
saints. Not one lost person is the recipient of any of these
letters. But yet it is through the church
that God brings lost people to faith. As they go and proclaim
the word that enters the ears, the human ears, of a lost person,
then God's Holy Spirit opens their spiritual ears. Romans
10, 17, that they might believe. Let no one deceive himself, Paul
would say to the Corinthians. If anyone among you thinks that
he's wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become
wise. For the wisdom of this world
is foolish with God, for it is written he catches the wise in
their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of
the wise that they are they are useless, futile. So let no one
boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos
or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the
future. All are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's. Beloved, you are Christ's. We are the body. And because
we are the body, we must tend to our body. First and foremost, above all other things. And next week we'll look and
see the fruit of such things. Let's pray. Lord, may your gospel ring in
our hearts. Would you just not allow us to
contemplate anything but what we've heard? And father, by your spirit, Lord,
would you work in us greatly? These truths. Help us to be mindful of each
other's needs, prayerful of each other's burdens. Not neglecting the lost. And
also not neglecting each other. Help us to carry. The banner
of your son, Jesus, into every corner of our lives. That we
would not be ashamed of your gospel. For it is your power
unto life through Christ. For all who believe. And father,
help us not to get caught up in the language of doctrine,
but see the reality and the truth of what you teach us. And Father, help each of us to
examine ourselves today and tomorrow and the next to see if we are
in the faith as we resolve each moment to look to Christ and
say only by him, only by his mercy, only by his blood. And it's in his name we pray.
Amen.