All right, we're gonna be looking
at the passage that Brother Mike read in Galatians 6. And what
I'm really gonna focus on is the concept, the truth of sowing
and reaping. Planting and harvesting, you
might say. You know, oftentimes in the Bible,
the ministry of the gospel is likened to a farmer planting
in his field. and watering that field and reaping
the fruit of that field. And of course, anytime you see
the sowing of seed, that's the word of God. For example, in
the parable of the soils, you know, where Christ spoke of his
disciples, he began there describing the gospel ministry in Matthew
chapter 13, for example. And he says, it's like a farmer
goes out and sows seed, and some falls by the wayside. That is,
it has no effect on the hearer. Some falls upon stony ground
and doesn't take root. That's a false professor who
leaves over trouble. And some falls among thorns.
That's the thorny ground hearer. Riches of this world grows up
and chokes it out. He just doesn't have time. He
or she doesn't have time for the gospel. then some seed falls
on good ground and of course we know the good ground there
is a true believer made good not by his works or his decision
or anything like that but made good by the grace of God in Christ
and that's the ministry of the gospel. In the book of first
Corinthians chapter 3 Paul spoke of him and other ministers of
the gospel, laying the foundation and sowing the seed. He said,
some plant, somebody comes into a new area, preaches the gospel,
God raises up a church, and then that person who is called to
another place, but another minister of the gospel comes in and waters
the field. That's continuing to preach the
gospel. This is the water of the word,
the seed of the word, the water of the word. And the church grows. Not just in number, there is
some view of that. There'll be numbers, though they
be few. Remember how the disciples, they
ask the Lord, are there few that be saved? We wish there were
more numbers here. But that's not our responsibility,
that's God's work, isn't it? I often said, the moment a preacher
asks himself the question, what can I do to get more people into
this church? He's left the scriptures. That's
not what we're called to do. I'm not, I'm not called as a
minister of the gospel to populate the church. God's already done
that. And I'm, I'm an instrument of
the Lord and your instruments of the Lord to preach and to
live by the gospel and the seed is planted and God waters it
and he gives the increase. God does. And that in our numbers
and in our growth in grace. So this is a familiar analogy
of sowing and reaping. And he says in verse seven, he
says of Galatians six, be not deceived. Don't fool yourself
on this now. God is not mocked. To try to
fool yourself on this issue is a mockery of God himself. And
that's serious business. God is not mocked. You'll never
win this battle. That's what he's saying. Whatever
you say, if you think you're trying to put God in your own
little way of thinking or however, we act according to God's word. I heard a preacher preach a message
one time that said you can't put God in a box. And I thought
about, well, and he went too far with that, but let me tell
you, this is God's box right here. That's where God, God says,
if you wanna know me, this is the word. This is where we get
the seed of the word to sow. And if they speak, Isaiah said
it, Isaiah 8 20, and he was combating false preachers, and he said,
To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, there's no light in them. Understand that. Sowing the seed is not just preaching
morality. Sowing the seed is not just preaching
religion. Sowing the seed is preaching
Christ, the true Christ, from the word. that distinguishing
message that identifies and distinguishes who he is as God manifests in
the flesh and what he has accomplished on the cross, not what he tried
to do because that's not biblical. Christ didn't say the good shepherd
gives his life for the sheep, he didn't say the good shepherd
tries to give his life for the sheep, no he gives it and he
didn't say I try to get my sheep to hear my voice. No, he said,
my sheep hear my voice. He didn't say all that the father
giveth me, I'll try to get him to come to me. He said, all that
the father giveth me shall come to me. And I will no wise cast
him out. He said, this is the father's
will that sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I'll
try to get him in there. If you'll just get down there
and plead with them, play soft music. No, he said, this is the
Father's will which is sent me that of all which you have given
me, I will lose nothing. That's an accomplishment. That's
success. That's the seed we sow. It's
the gospel of righteousness. That's why I read that passage
in Hosea chapter 10 when he talked about that. So in righteousness,
raining down righteousness. Where's righteousness to be found?
What is righteousness? It's the perfection of the law
and the justice of God that can only be found in Christ. Because
he is our righteousness. We don't have any other. It's
not something God puts in you except by way of knowledge. You could say this, He imparts
it only by letting us know about it. But the application of it is
by imputation of the merits of Christ's obedience unto death
to us. Christ our surety, Christ our
substitute, Christ our redeemer, Christ our lawgiver, Christ our
preserver, Christ our mediator, Christ our inspiration, Christ
our goal. Keep on going. We're sowing some
seed here. We're sowing seed of the Spirit
because the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity,
brings us to look to and rest in and follow the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Word of God. And anything else, I don't care
if it sounds good, I don't care if it's moral in the eyes of
men, I don't care if it's sincere, emotional, funny, entertaining,
whatever it is, it's sown to the flesh. Now we can certainly
see somebody sowing to the flesh when they go out, for example,
to rob a bank. Rob a bank, they're going to
get money, you know, of course, that's sowing to the flesh. Well,
what does he say here in verse 10 or verse seven? Be not deceived,
God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. Well, if you go out and rob a bank, what are you going
to reap? You're either going to be killed or you're going
to be jailed. And rightly so, that's what you're going to reap.
And he says, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh
reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit,
that's the Holy Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. That's not saying that you earn
life everlasting by what you do. That's not saying that at
all. Because if that's what you're doing, you know what you're doing,
you're sowing to the flesh. You take a person, I had a man
tell me one time he had a wrist bracelet on and it had the Ten
Commandments. And he looked at me and he said,
this is my salvation. Well, you know what he's doing?
He's sowing to the flesh. Salvation by works. Trying to
be righteous by his works. Trying to gain God's favor by
his works. trying to earn his way into God's
favor. That's so into the flesh and
that's going to reap corruption. Salvation is not by works. All
who seek righteousness by their works, all they're going to end
up with is corruption. But what do we sow? We sow grace.
Now, let me show you something about the context of this passage
because this is one area where this sowing to the spirit rather
than sowing to the flesh really comes full swing here. Now, we
can talk about sowing to the spirit by preaching the gospel,
worshiping the Lord. You're right, I'm not the only
one sowing this morning. You're sowing too. By hearing
the word of God and praying that the Lord will apply it to your
life. Keep your focus on Christ. Keep your heart and your mind
and your soul on Him in all the facets. Boy, what a many-faceted
diamond it is. Christ in the glory of His person
and the power of His finished work. Doesn't that bring you
comfort? That's what you're reaping. You're
sowing it by listening to it, and the comfort and the assurance
that you get from it by the power of the Spirit, that's what you're
reaping. And you know you didn't earn it and you didn't deserve
it. That's why it's reaping, sowing to the Spirit, sowing
grace. Do you realize that? Not one
spiritual blessing that we have can we stand before God and say,
well now I deserve that, I earned that. You won't do that if you're
sowing to the Spirit. But you know that applies to
the blessings of physical life too. What blessings in physical
life that God has given us? We didn't earn them and don't
deserve them. I told the young people back
in the back years ago, we were talking about this. You know,
we've been pretty blessed as far as physical things is concerned.
Being born in this country, being born to families with moms and
dads who love us and care for us, take care of us. I don't
think there's too many times any of us have gone hungry. Had
to go out begging, and maybe some of you have at a certain
point in time. I see fellas out doing that.
Don't know if they're genuine or not. Of course, I don't have
the time to find out. But what if we were born in some
third world country, didn't know who our daddy was or our mama
was, laying on a dirt floor with our bellies swollen? Is that
what we chose to do? Is that a free will decision?
Huh? No, you know better than that.
But the blessings that we have, and I always say this, you may
get tired of hearing me say it, but the very next breath you
take is a gift from God that you didn't earn and didn't deserve.
Think about those people who've died in these plane crashes,
especially that small plane, had a little girl and her mother
been to the Shriners Hospital to help cure some disease. And that plane just blew up. And you say, that's sad. And
it is sad. It does. It makes a tear. If it doesn't
make a tear come to your heart in some way, there's something
wrong with you. But the thing about it is, why am I 71 years
old? Somebody said 72 the other day,
didn't they? And I said, no. I'm 71. I haven't been given freely the
gift of a 72nd year yet. But if I do get it, I don't deserve
it, and I certainly don't earn it. It's a gift. And that's living
your lives in the grace of God, sowing to the Spirit, understanding
that, making sure that that's on my mind and my heart, and
that I don't get puffed up and proud and say, God, I don't deserve
this. Now, we all do that. We're human. I get the why me
Lord syndrome all the time. Job got it, and I'm gonna talk
about him just in a minute here. But look back at verse one of
chapter six. Listen to this. This is a good
context for this idea of living to the Spirit, sowing to the
Spirit, living by the grace of God. He says in verse one, brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault. Now, we're all sinners. We all
have our faults. But there are times you read
your Bibles and you know this is true, but you know it's true
from life. Even true believers can stumble and fall publicly,
what I call talking about being trapped, being overly expressing
their sinful nature. Maybe that's a polite way of
putting it. Probably the unpolite way to
put it is just we act like idiots sometimes, you know. And we get
off kilter. We don't express our gratitude
to God. And even to the point of bringing
scandal on the church, that can happen. And that's why we say,
Lord, keep us from the evil one. That's why we say, put on the
whole armor of God to withstand the wiles of the devil. Lord
keep me a good steward of your grace, a good witness of the
gospel because I know that I have the potential to go off kilter
and that's what he's talking about. He's not talking generally
about the fact that we who believe are sinners saved by grace, but
he's talking about in a situation in the church where a person
is overtaken in a fall. The book of First and Second
Corinthians deals with a man who was committing incest with
his stepmother, bringing scandal on the church. And it had to
be dealt with because you just couldn't let it go. So he says
in verse one, you that which are spiritual, now every believer
is a spiritual person. OK? But sometimes we don't act
spiritually. Sometimes we'll act in the flesh.
You understand what I'm saying? And I'm going to talk about David.
You know, we beat up on him all the time about this thing. But
he's a good example not to follow, but to understand the issue. David, you know what happened.
He committed adultery with Bathsheba, brought a lot of problems. And
he says, you that are spiritual, that is in tune with the spirit
in your life, restore. Now you know what the opposite
of restoration is? Condemnation. You do that, you're
going to hell. Is that so into the flesh or
to the spirit? Which one? The flesh. Restore such a one, recovery. And when we seek their recovery,
we're so into the Spirit, so in grace. Listen, in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted or
tested. You ever had anybody deal in
any situation like this as if it's not possible for them to
do the same thing? I'd never do that. Ooh, really? Is that the spirit of meekness?
No. I've often said that there's
only one sin, I'll put it that way, that a true believer cannot
commit. Now what do you think it is? Totally apostatizing away from
Christ. You cannot lose your salvation
because God won't let you, he'll keep you. in the palm of his
hand. My father and I are one, and
he said, none shall pluck them out of my father's hand. That's
what John's talking about in 1 John 3, incidentally. But he
says in verse two, bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill
the law of Christ. Well, what law is he talking
about? He's talking about the law of the gospel, the grace, love. Bear one another's burdens. Understand
that, look. And you know, this is a common
saying. This saying is not written in
quotes in the Bible, but we use it and it is biblical. And here
it is, there but for the grace of God go I. Can you say that? Paul said it
this way, he said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. By the
grace of God. And it's because of God's power
and God's goodness and God's love and God's grace in Christ.
It's not because of my power or my goodness. I am to determine in my mind
to live a life of godliness, to live a life to the praise
of the glory of his grace, to be an example in every facet
of life, as a pastor, as a husband, as a father, a grandfather, a
brother or sister. I'm commanded to do that, and
I want to do that. I don't want to bring shame upon
this church or upon the gospel that I preach. But I know that
for the grace of God, it's possible, isn't it? Bear one another's burdens. Well,
now that doesn't mean condone the bad behavior. It doesn't
mean say, well, let's all go and do it, you know? or it's
okay for you to do that. But here's the thing, look at
verse three, he says, for if a man think himself to be something
when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. If I think I'm above
that, no possibility, I'm deceiving myself. Because you know what
I am when it comes to this thing of fighting, I'm nothing, and
you are nothing too. You say, well, wait a minute,
can't we be something? only in Christ, washed in his
blood, clothed in his righteousness, called by his spirit. So he says
in verse four, but let every man prove his own worth. Think
about yourself. Don't go around hatting your
eyes on everybody else. I hear these people talking about,
well, I'm not a judge, but I'm a fruit inspector. You're a fruit,
that's what you are. Setting yourself, look inward. The man and the woman in the
mirror. That's where we have to deal. I know my thoughts.
I don't know your thoughts. So let every man prove his own
work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another.
In other words, if I look out at somebody who's having a problem
overtaking a thought and I say, boy, well, I'd never do that,
you know. Yeah, I'm rejoicing in myself. I'm rejoicing in another actually. Look at yourself, take inventory. Examine yourself whether you
be in the faith. That's what he's saying. And
so he says in verse five, for every man shall bear his own
burden. And then he says, let him that is taught in the word
communicate, that word communicate there means share, unto him that
teacheth in all good things, be not deceived. What he's talking
about there is sowing the gospel, supporting the gospel. That is
seed. So I get so sick of these false
preachers talking about seed money. And that's all they talk about.
Well, we can give money, and you all do, but to support the
gospel. So when somebody is overtaken
in that fault, A person who is under the umbrella and up on
the basis of the grace of God, what does the scripture tell
us to do? To be gracious. And how do we do that? Not by
promoting the kind of behavior that brings that fault or scandal
in the church. And I wanna show you in 2 Samuel
chapter 12. Turn over there with me. Now
this is where the prophet Nathan was sent of God to deal with
King David after David having committed adultery with Bathsheba
and all that, and you know what all that led to. It led to many
more sins. He had Bathsheba's husband murdered. David was an adulterer and a
murderer. All of that. And I'm not gonna
read the whole chapter here, because it'd take too long, but
You know how Nathan did, the prophet Nathan, he came to David
and he told him a story. Here's a man who has a lot of
sheep, rich man. And then here's a poor man who
has only one lone sheep. Now you know the rich man is
typical of David, the king, who was rich. He had many wives,
many concubines, which is not the right thing to do, but that's
what he had. And then here's a man named Uriah who had one
wife, Bathsheba. Many sheep, one sheep. David
looked at her, lusted after her. He's the king. He wanted her.
He had her. And she became with child. And in order to cover it up,
he tried to get Uriah to go in unto her. so that he could say
the baby was Uriah's. But Uriah wouldn't do it, being
loyal to the king and to his country. And Uriah was a Hittite. He wasn't a Jew. He said, oh,
I'm not going to do that, have pleasure with my wife while those
men are out there fighting the battle. And of course, that upset
David's plan. So he got with his captain. He
said, when you're putting Uriah on the front line and when the
enemy comes back up and let him have him. And Uriah was killed. Well, Bathsheba had her baby.
And so here, Nathan comes to him and tells him the story of
the man with many sheep who stole the sheep of the poor man who
only had one. Look at verse five, and David's
anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan,
as the Lord liveth, the man that has done this thing shall surely
die. he shall restore the lamb fourfold
because he did this thing and because he had no pity." And
verse seven, now you talk about a bold prophet, he's standing
before the king now. Nathan said in verse seven to
David, thou art the man. You're that man David. Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel. Nathan's going to preach the
word of God. He said, I anointed thee king
over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul.
I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy
bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah. And if
that had been too little, I would moreover have given thee such
and such things, Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment
of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah
the Hittite with the sword and has taken his wife to be thy
wife and has slain him with the sword and of the children of
Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine
house because thou hast despised me and has taken the wife of
Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife." In other words, trouble. David
is about to reap what he sowed. Now let me say a word about that.
Do we always reap in the exact proportion of that which we sow
when we sow to the flesh? And I gotta tell you, the answer
is thank God, no. Because if we did, there wouldn't
be one person in this congregation, including the man behind the
pulpit, who'd be able to lift up our heads. Does God always punish physically
now? You know in eternity, those who
perish in eternity, they're getting exactly what they deserve. Because
they have no media, they have no Christ, they have no righteousness,
they have no blood for forgiveness. But you know that in eternal
condemnation and death, there is no payment for sin? You'll
never pay for it. I heard a man when I was dealing
with this subject years ago talking about David who did this, and
he said, yeah, but David paid for his sins. No, he didn't.
He suffered consequences, but he didn't make the payment. Because
you know, folks, what the payment for sin is? The payment for all
sin? Eternal death and damnation,
which we all deserve and have earned. That's why we need grace. That's why we need Christ. That's
why we need his righteousness. And he says, the sword will not
depart from your house, David. You've brought this on yourself.
And you know David had trouble from then on. The kingdom was
in shambles, his own family was. remember in his deathbed he said
although in my house be not so with God he hath made a covenant
with me ordered in all things and sharing this is all my joy
and all my salvation well look down at verse 13 or verse 12
he said for thou didst it secretly but i will do this thing before
all israel before the sun and david said unto nathan i have
sinned against the lord he admitted it And Nathan said unto David,
the Lord also, listen to this now, here's what, you know what
Nathan's gonna do? He's gonna sow to the spirit,
he's gonna sow grace. The Lord also hath put away thy
sin, thou shalt not die. Now the penalty for murder was
death. And he said, the Lord's put away your sin. Wait a minute,
that just, get David to go out and do it again. No. No. But now he went on to say, how
be it, verse 14, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion
to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that
is born unto thee shall surely die. David suffered consequences,
but he was still a child of God. And Nathan sought to recover
David not by sowing to the flesh, threatening with eternal damnation,
but by sowing to grace. And let me tell you something,
when all that happens, if it happens in our lives or whatever,
if sowing to grace, sowing to the Spirit doesn't do the job, nothing else will. Oh, you can
threaten them. You can hold out a carrot of
reward and say, well, if you do this, you'll get more. Or
if you don't do this, you'll go to hell. That's so into the
flesh. You remember Job's three friends?
Job suffered, and it wasn't because of any specific sin. Sometimes
we suffer not for any specific sin that we've committed, but
God's testing us. He brings us under the temptation,
but He keeps us. He'll bring us through. He will
not give us that which we cannot bear. By His grace and His power,
But Job's three friends, they came along and they sowed to
the flesh. Now, Job, let's figure out what you did to bring this
on you so that you can take care of the problem. That wasn't the
problem. God used Job in a great way to
make a great point. And it's right here in Galatians
chapter six. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. So let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. That if there is an evidence,
not a condition, What he's telling us, he said,
as we have opportunity, let's do good to all men, especially
unto them who are of the household of faith, especially our brothers
and sisters in Christ. And what happens? Live our lives
sowing to the grace of God and reap life everlasting, not because
we've earned it and not because we deserve it, but because we
are in Christ, who forgives us of a multitude of our faults
and our sins. Somebody says, well, I can't
forgive you, or you can't forgive me. Well, you fleshly person,
that's what that is. You mean Christ? You claim Christ
has forgiven you of all the sins, even your secret sins, sins you
don't even know about. And God is just to justify you
by a righteousness you had no part in producing? And we can't
forgive each other? Be not mocked. Be not deceived. God is not mocked.
Let's sow to the Spirit. That's what we're to do, isn't
it? love one another because he loved us unconditionally.
All right, let's turn to hymn number 359. We'll sing this as
our closing hymn. My faith looks up to thee, thou
lamb of Calvary.