He did name the message encouragement. Encouragement. We all need to
be encouraged, don't we? We all need to be encouraged.
My, oh my. We'll continue our study today
in the book of Galatians chapter 6. Let's read verses 1 to 10 of
Galatians chapter 6. It says, brethren, so this is
written to our dear brothers in the Galatian church, believers,
believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, brethren. If a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such one in the spirit
of meekness, considering myself, lest I also be tempted. Bear
ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own
work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and
not in another. For every man shall bear his
own burden. Let him that is taught in the
word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. So the preacher's responsibility,
we see there, is to preach Christ. Preach Christ. Look at this. Be not deceived.
You see these Judaizers were coming in to the Galatian church
and they were deceiving. Deceiving the people. They were
deceiving the people. They were saying you must be
circumcised to be saved. Along with having faith in Christ.
So they were deceiving the people. With another gospel. And Paul
we see here brings forth another Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Now, men, women in this world,
they mock God, don't they? We may have even mocked God before
we were saved. But don't be deceived, God is
not mocked. God will not put up with false
gospels. There will be a judgment, beloved.
There will be a judgment. These false teachers will be
judged. Look at this. Be not deceived,
God is not mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that
shall he also reap. And then we see, he that soweth
to his flesh, he that soweth to his flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption. They're going to perish in their
sins. They're going to perish in their
sins. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Now look at verses
9 and 10. Let us not be weary in well-doing,
for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them
which are of the household of faith. We see here Paul continues
to give the Galatians And we who are reading here today, about
what it is to walk in the Spirit. Remember he's been talking about
walking in the Spirit. He gave us the fruits of the
Spirit. And then he says, let us walk in the Spirit. Let's
not walk in our flesh, let us walk in the Spirit. And look
what it says in verse 9. And let us not be weary in well
doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. What did
Christ go about doing? He went about doing good, didn't
he? He went about doing good, beloved. Oh my. So let we who walk in the Spirit
go about doing good. Right? And we see how it's manifested
as we have therefore opportunity to let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Now remember too, all who are
of the household of faith, they've been ordained by God. to be of the household of faith,
haven't they? Just as we have been. And in
Ephesians 2 it says, it says this, for we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. Now we don't know what
these good works are, but we seek to do good, don't we? We
don't want to go out and live a life of sin. We don't desire
that anymore, do we? We don't use grace as lasciviousness
and go out and... We don't desire that. Do you
desire to live the same way you did before the Lord saved you?
Not at all. Not at all, do we? I always find
it amazing when people say, you know, if I believe like you,
I can do whatever I want. They don't understand grace. What
they're telling you right there is, I don't understand what you're
talking about. That's exactly what they're saying.
And how do I know? I was in it before. I used to think, oh man, I used
to think election, what are you talking about? God chooses people?
Oh my gosh, what about man's free will? I was so ignorant. God makes us willing, doesn't
he? In the day of his power. Otherwise, we would never be
willing to come to Christ, period. You see how good God is to us? It's amazing, beloved. So we've
been ordained to do good works. And again, I've mentioned this
before in the book of Matthew, when the saints, they say, when
did we do these things? Well, when you came visit me
in the hospital, when you came visit me in the prison, you visited
one of mine, you visited me. You know why? Because he's the
head and we're the body. Isn't that amazing? Why do I go visit
people in their homes or go out for breakfast? Because we're
all one. I love you all. You're my family.
Why are we meeting next week and having a breakfast? Because
we love each other. We want to be with each other.
Right? My. This is where we can come
in from the week of slugging and having bad days and even,
you know, people say, well you're a believer, you never have a
bad day. Oh my gosh. Okay. That may be some guy who
wants to continue to deceive people thinking he's on the mountaintop
when he's not. He's got trouble just like everybody
else. We just know that God's sovereign, don't we? We don't
have to, do we get down? Yep. Do we get depressed? Yeah. Do we get anxiety sometimes?
Yeah. But what happens when we look to our great God as sovereign
on the throne? That stuff just starts to disappear,
doesn't it? And we get a calm, we get a peace that passes all
understanding. That comes from the Lord, beloved. That comes
from Him. My, look at verse 8 here, it
says, for he that soweth to the flesh shall the flesh reap corruption,
but he that soweth to the Spirit shall the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Now those who live to the flesh, they're going to reap eternal
woe. They're going to reap eternal
hell. The wages of sin is what? The
payment, that's the payment. In the Greek, that's what a Roman
soldier would be paid. So the payment for sin is death. But Christ paid our payment when
he died for us. Now we're going to die physically,
but we won't die in the second death, will we? What does it say? Born twice,
die once. is the old saying. Because we're
born in the flesh and then we're born again in the Holy Spirit
of God and we only die once. We will not partake in the second
death. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. Makes you rejoice, don't you?
Why? Because Christ died for us. He died for our sins. He
paid the price for our sins. And Paul's not telling us here,
he's not telling us, because it says, but he that soweth in
the Spirit shall the Spirit reap life everlasting. He's not telling
us we're justified or sanctified or we gain rewards or lose rewards based upon the basis of our works.
He's not telling us that. People take that and say, oh,
look at that. You're going to lose rewards. I'm going to say it again. I've
said, Christ is my reward. I don't need nothing else. Do
you? He's everything, sister. Amen. We don't need nothing else
but Christ. Oh my. He's everything to us. My. Paul's simply telling us
as believers, who are people of faith, that Christ is manifest
by by our works, by the fact that God the Holy Spirit has
regenerated us. We're born again. You know, works,
so-called good works, follow us. They don't go to heaven before
us. They follow us. You see? Religion says your good works
go before you. No. Our works follow us. They're manifestations of our
faith. And it's the Holy Spirit working
those in us. That's why Paul said, or James
said, faithful that works is dead. Faith will have works. Those works are for Christ. We desire to serve him, don't
we? In our hearts. And in no way do they justify
us before God. Absolutely no way do they justify
us before God. See, when we were dead in sins,
our works were just filthy rags to the Lord. Even now, our works are still
tainted with sin, aren't they? My, oh my. But God has ordained
us to good works. We just don't know what they
are. Isn't that wonderful? Aren't you glad you don't know?
Because you're going to say, I did a good work for the Lord.
Because that's what we do, right? We all know we would. Oh, my. My, oh, my. He's simply telling us here where
the source starts. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. Then the fruit of the Spirit
is brought in us. Faith is a gift from God. Faith and repentance
are like a piece of paper on both one side and one side. You
won't have faith without repentance. And you won't have repentance
without true faith. And that faith and repentance
is a gift. We can't muster it up, can we?
Is this not encouraging that it's something that we don't
do? Do you see when the Lord says,
come unto me all you that are laden, heavy laden? You know,
works just weigh you down. Trying to do stuff, trying to
accomplish things, to get rewards or to do this, religious works
just weigh you down. You ever think when the Lord
said that if we're free indeed, if the Son sets you free, you're
free indeed? We're free, beloved. We're free. I hope that's an
encouragement to you. The fact that we're free in Christ.
And these things that Paul's talking about here, that he that
soweth to the Spirit, shall the Spirit reap life everlasting,
that's worked in us by God the Holy Spirit, beloved. This verse is encouraging to
God's saints and the pastors. Look at verse six. Let him that
is taught in the word communicate unto him that teaches in all
good things. What an encouragement. We're to share with others our
faith. We're to tell them about Christ.
And God's preachers have one message, don't we? One message, Christ and Him crucified,
Christ dying for sinners on Calvary's cross, Christ's perfect sin atoning
work. Our souls redeemed by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. My, and then Him rising again
from the grave for our justification. What a Savior, what a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. My, and as you said sister earlier,
he's everything to us. He's everything to the believer.
You take Christ away, I have nothing. Do you? We don't have
any salvation, we don't have any justification. My, but in
Christ, oh my, we're so rich in Christ. What shall profit
a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? If you
had all the gold, think of this, and it wouldn't even fit in this
building. All the gold piled up, though, in a huge pile. All
the gold in the world piled up. All the silver in the world piled
up, right? What we have in Christ is far
more valuable than all that. And all that gold and all that
silver couldn't pay for one soul. It's already God's gold, isn't
it? It's already all his silver.
You ever think? Everything's already his. And then it says, what shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? Nothing. There's nothing
we can give in exchange for our soul. I was talking to Brother Norm Wells
last night, and he said, God required a perfect sacrifice,
and he provided one. The Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
that wonderful? He provided that which we need,
because we can't buy our way to heaven, we can't earn our
way to heaven, we can't merit our way to heaven. And if God hadn't sent Christ,
we'd all be dead in trespasses and sins. But our God planned
and purposed the salvation of a people, that they would be
redeemed. You ever think of this? I was
listening to a message by Norm yesterday. And he was talking
about how, you ever think how Israel, they rebelled and God
sent them judges and they still rebelled. Why didn't God just
destroy them? Right? They just kept rebelling. They just kept, why? Well, because
out of the tribe of Judah would come the seed of the woman. out
of the tribe of Benjamin would come Saul of Tartus. Isn't that
amazing? Peter, James, John, they all
had to come out of the Israelite line of lineage. See, even when
those, they sent those spies in and eight of them came back
and said, oh my, they just manifested unbelief, didn't they? We can't
do it. And Joshua and Caleb said, yeah,
we can. But the Israelites went with the majority, didn't they?
And God had them wander in the wilderness. My, till another generation was
raised up and then they went into the promised land, didn't
they? And even when they came out of
Israel, it was a mixed multitude, wasn't it? There was believers
and unbelievers together. But God had a people on that
midst, didn't he? Oh my, they had me come out of bondage just
as he promised. Why didn't, why didn't, why didn't,
let's bring it right home. Why didn't our parents die when
they were real young? Because we had to spring out
of our mother's wombs. You ever think of that? Dee was
telling me that her, I don't know if it was, I don't know
if it was Joel's dad was in World War II on a boat. Okay, I was
talking to her one time about that. I said, do you know why, you
know why he didn't die? In one boat he was one of five people
that lived, right? Yeah, but just really a low number. And then he was sunk on another
boat. Three times, three times in World War II. And I said,
you know why he lived? Because Joel had to come from
him and Sylvia. And I don't know if anyone else
is, but two of God's elect, right there. Neil was telling me, his
dad was in World War II in the Battle of Balch, and he was sitting
by a, his dad was sitting in a Jeep. His dad was sitting in
a Jeep by a barn. And his buddy said, let's move
back a little bit. I don't like sitting here. And
they moved back. They moved back. And he said,
about a minute or two later, a shell comes down and blows
up right where they were. Do you know why he couldn't die?
Because Neil, and I believe his brother Paul, professes Christ.
They had to come out. They had to come out of it. And
his dad was a believer, too, from what he told me, his mom.
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing how God works
sovereignly? What an encouragement. Oh, our God is so great. He's
so great. So God's preachers, we point
to Christ. We point to His sovereignty.
We point to His perfect, sin-atoning work. And again, Christ is all
to the believer. Listen to this. Listen to this.
But of Him, of God, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has
made unto us wisdom, Christ has made unto us wisdom. I'm looking
at people who are wise in Christ, made that way by God. Isn't that
amazing? Oh my. You know why? Because
we've had revealed to us that Christ is here. We didn't know
that, that he's the only savior of sinners. We didn't know that
before, did we? We'd be made wise to that by the revelation
of God. Isn't that amazing? Oh, it's so, it's so amazing.
He's made us wisdom and righteousness. He's all our righteousness. We
don't have any righteousness that make us fit for God, but
He's perfect. He's sinless. He's spotless. In sanctification, we're made
holy in Christ. only in Christ and redemption.
He's the one who redeemed us with his precious blood that
according to his written he that glorieth let him glory in the
Lord. So God's preachers are sent to preach and proclaim the
Lord Jesus Christ and to give all glory to God. And that's
what we do, right? All of us as believers. We just
give God all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise. He
gets it all, beloved! He gets it all! My! And when we preach Christ, we
teach the good things of the gospel. The good things of the
gospel. The gospel's good news, isn't it? It's good news for
sinners. Natural man hates it, but it's
good news for sinners. We may have hated it at first
when we heard it. I know I did. And oh, I love
it now. Do you love it? Do you love it? Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
encouraging? God takes a sinner, a rebel, and turns him into one who loves
the gospel, loves him, loves the scripture, loves his people.
There's hope for our lost loved ones, aren't there? My, we don't
know if they're the, Zane and I were talking about this week.
We have no idea who God's people are. So the gospel gets sent
out. I preach to whoever the Lord,
you know, every day or every Sunday and every Wednesday, the
Lord ordains who will be here to hear the gospel. Isn't that
amazing? Oh, it's wonderful. And God uses
the preaching of the gospel to call his elect out of spiritual
darkness. That's what we were in. We were
in spiritual darkness, and he uses the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ to call his elect out of darkness by
the power of God, the Holy Spirit. And the preaching of the gospel
is what Christ uses to establish his blood-bought children in
the faith. This is why it's vital for us to be here when the gospel
is preached. Because it encourages us. It establishes us in the
faith. It's vital. You know, it's vital
for our spiritual well-being. That's why the scripture says,
don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. It's
vital for us. We need each other, don't we? We encourage one another. When I see you guys come through
the door, it's encouraging for me. I love it. It's wonderful. Turn if you would, turn if you
would to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. My oh my. See, we come here and
we hear that we've been redeemed. We hear we've been redeemed by
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll tell you. It's wonderful, isn't it? We
hear the gospel preached and proclaimed. And then we have
the sweetness of fellowship with one another while we're here.
In between services, after service, before service. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. Look what the
Word of God says here in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 7 to 11. Who goeth
to warfare at any time at his own charges? Who planteth the
vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth
the flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flocks? Say these
things as a man. or sayeth not the law the same
also. For it's written in the law of
Moses, thou dost not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth
out the corn. Does God take care for the oxen?
Does the Lord take care of the oxen? Does God take care of this
world? Does he take care of all the
animals in the world as well as his people and as well as
unbelievers? The rain falls on the just and the unjust, doesn't
it? Even though man says, look what I've done, God provides
all the food. If God didn't give the increase,
we'd have nothing to eat. And this other food they make,
plant-based food, it all comes from plants, right? If God didn't
give the increase of plants, there'd be no plant-based food. If God didn't allow the fish
in the sea and in the rivers to spawn, there'd be no more
food that way. He takes care of us, doesn't
he? My. No doubt, it says. This is written
that he that plows should plow in hope. Sow in hope. And he that thrashes in hope
should be a partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual
things, it is a great thing if we shall reap. Is it a great
thing that we shall reap your carnal things? No. If we sow spiritual things,
we pray that the Lord will prosper those spiritual things, right?
When we speak to people about Christ, we pray the Lord will
save them, if it be his will. We don't pray they'd still be
dead in trespasses and sins. No. No, Lord, please save them. Please, if it be your will. My. And you know, God's people, the
people of God, they will support the work. I mentioned a few weeks ago,
I don't have to preach on money. God's people will support the
work, support the preachers, support missionaries if we have
them. God's people will do that. Right? It's just natural. It's just
natural. That's why I say, I can't do
what I do without you guys. See, we're in this together.
Right? We're in this together. It's
amazing. And, you know, you love the Lord
Jesus just as I love the Lord Jesus. You want to see the gospel
go forth just as I want to see the gospel go forth. My. And so God's people faithfully
support the preacher, support the work. I told Zane, I said,
I'm going to hit on a few things I don't want to really hit on
because I don't usually talk about money at all. But God's people,
he said, don't worry, God's people, they won't. My, oh, my. And God's pleased to give the
increase. As the gospel goes out, he's pleased to give the
increase as he sees fit, right? You know, isn't it neat? We don't
know what God's doing with the message as it goes out, but we
know it won't come back to him void. So downloads every month or in
the last five years, he's been using them for his glory. We
don't even have any idea. And we all have a part of that. We do. People think, oh, it's
the preacher. No, we all have a part of that,
beloved. I remember listening to a Navy SEAL he said he got
the Medal of Honor and he said you know he says I'm thankful
that they gave me this but I couldn't have done it without the night
stalkers which was the helicopter guys that came in. I couldn't
have done it without the ground crews for the helicopter. I couldn't have done it without
the guys that prepare our ammunition and all that stuff. I couldn't
have done it without the guys who purchase all that stuff.
Isn't that amazing? It's the same here. The preacher
gets to stand up and preach Christ, which is a great honour. Travis,
you know that's a great honour. But we could never do it without
the support of others. And that's just God working through
us. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing how he does
that? Absolutely incredible, beloved. Absolutely incredible. My. My, oh, my. My, oh, my. God's people are
cheerful givers. Cheerful givers. Look at verse
7. Be not deceived. God's not mocked.
For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If a
man sows corruption, he's going to reap corruption. That's all
there is to it. And you know the heart is deceitfully
wicked? Deceitfully wicked. My. That's
our hearts by nature. My. That's why we need a new
heart bulb. Okay, let's look at verses 9
to 10. Look at this. And let us not
be weary in well doing. Let us not grow weary in our
labors for the Lord. Let us not grow weary in that.
Lord, please give us strength, right? Give us a desire to serve
you, to come, and to sit, and to listen, and to be with God's
people, right? Give us a desire for that. You
know, that desire that we have doesn't come from us. It's wrought
in us by the Holy Spirit. I ask you this. Did you want
to come to church before you were saved? No. Couldn't drag me through them
doors, could you? What do you think, Sister Marcia? This is
the last place we wanted to be, right? And now you can't stop
us from coming. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. Why? Because
this is the place where I can come and I can I can even let
you guys know how I'm doing. And if I'm struggling, or if
I'm really feeling down, and you guys won't judge me, you'll
come alongside me, you'll pray for me, you'll love on me. Right? That's what we do for
one another, isn't it? We ask how each other's doing,
how our weeks went, because we're interested in each other's lives.
Dave mentioned something on Wednesday night. We're knit together in
love. And scripture talks about that.
When we go into the book of Philippians, we're going to see that brought
forth in the scriptures. That our hearts are now knit
together in love. I remember, do you remember when
your moms used to knit? Or you might have knit yourself.
And you're knitting. And that string becomes one And
you may break off another string and put it in a different color
and string that all in. And it all becomes one, knit
together, all intertwined. That's how we are. That's how
we are. And that love, knit together
in love, that's not natural love. That's the love that's the fruit
of the Spirit. That's wrought in us by God the
Holy Spirit. Now we want to be with God's people. Now we want
to, now we want to We want to rejoice with our fellow brothers
and sisters in the gospel, don't we? We love it. Do you want to
hear anything else? You know, we hear stuff all through
the week, you know, stuff on TV and stuff on this. But, you
know, some of it penetrates for a little while and it has no
effect. But the gospel has an effect
upon us, doesn't it? When we hear that Christ redeemed
us with His precious blood. When we hear that He gave His
life for us. We're not the same people we
used to be. Therefore, let us not be weary and well doing.
For in due season, we will reap if we faint not. Now, you see
that faint not there? God's not going to let us fall.
He's going to keep us. He's going to keep us keeping
on. If we're His, He's going to keep us keeping on. That's
what He does. My. Look at this. As ye have
therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially
unto them who are of the household of faith, especially to our brothers
and sisters in Christ. You know why? Because they're fellow sinners
who've been redeemed by the blood of Christ and born again of the
Holy Spirit of God. Isn't that wonderful? Why would we not want to come
alongside our brothers and sisters? And remember, that's what this
whole passage is about. Tie it up to the first verse
and second verse. A brother or sister falls into
sin and they're like, well, kick him to the curb. That's religion,
right? Paul's saying don't do that. Actually, Norm said this last
night in the message I listened to, and I thought, this is why
I'm going to start saying this. Paul's just the secretary. He's just writing what God wants
him to write. So the Holy Spirit's telling
us, don't kick your brother when he's down. Come alongside them. Don't kick your sister when they're
down. Come alongside them. You know what's going to happen?
And I've seen it in religion. When someone gets treated like
that, they just walk away. And if they do want to have something
to do with the church again, that's the grace of God in Christ.
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? So let us
not grow weary in well doing. And I hope this message has been
an encouragement to you. Let us keep looking to Christ
together. Brother Brian, can you close us in prayer?