My goal every time I preach is
to preach the gospel from whatever passage I'm preaching from. And
somebody may look at the passage that I just read and say, where
is the gospel there? Well, I hope you'll see by the
end of this message. How many times have you heard
You'll reap what you sow. And you felt a little bit uneasy.
And thought about something that you sowed that you fear will
come back to haunt you. You know, this is a scriptural
statement. You'll reap what you sow. Look what he says in verse
seven. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. If you sow corn, you will not
reap wheat, will you? You reap corn, you reap what
you sow. If you sow sparingly of whatever
it is you're sowing, you will not have a large harvest. You
will reap what you sow. I've entitled this message, The
Law, The Law of Sowing and Reaping. Now this is a spiritual law. You will reap what you sow. There's physical law, the law
of gravity, and this law of sowing and reaping is both a physical
law and it is a spiritual law. Spiritually, you will reap what
you So now what led Paul to make this statement? Well, let's look
at verse six. Let him that is taught in the
word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
Now I was thinking about this, what a blessing it is to be taught
in the word. No greater blessing to be taught. in the word. Do you know most
of this world's population never gets that blessing? To be taught
in the word. And we're taught by him that
teacheth in all good things. Now, if God has saved us, he
has crossed our paths with a preacher who taught us the word. Now, let him that is taught in
the word, they're taught the gospel, and you know, if I know
the gospel, if I understand the gospel, God's been my teacher.
I can't understand it apart from God, the Holy Spirit. He's the
one who's taught me, but he's done so through somebody preaching
the word. Now, Paul says, let him that's
taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth, in all
good things. Anytime I have to deal with a
scripture like this, it always makes me feel mildly uncomfortable
because I'm the man you're to communicate to. It's almost like
you all pay me. I feel like I'm very well taken
care of by this congregation, very well. I'm thankful and grateful
for your generosity toward me and the way you take care of
me. No one has it any better than
me. I'm not lobbying for raise when
I deal with this, not in any way. But he says, let him that's
taught in the word communicate. Communicate. Now that word doesn't
mean talk to him. It means share with him. Support
him. Be an encouragement to him. Let
him that's taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth
in all good Now the man who teaches the word is to give himself entirely
to that. If God has called me to preach,
my job is to preach. My job is to pray. My job is
to study. My job is to give myself to the
ministry of the word and to prayer. That's what my life is, if God
has called me to preach. Now if I'm to do that, I cannot
go out and work another job and do a good job at it. It's impossible. You just can't do it. It is the
church's responsibility to support their pastor. It's the church's
responsibility to be an encouragement to their pastor. Listen, he needs
it. He needs it. Don't think he doesn't. Communicate
to him that teaches in all good things. I love the way he calls
the gospel all good things. Everything in this Bible is good,
isn't it? It's all good. It's all blessed and we're thankful
for this book. Now look what he says in verse
seven, be not deceived. Be not deceived. God is not mocked
for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. Now to fail to communicate is
to mock God. And that's how serious this thing
is. Don't be deceived about this. This is how God views the failure
to communicate. Mocking, treating with contempt,
this great blessing that he's given you in being taught in
the word. Now, in the context of this passage
of scripture, that's what he's talking about when he's talking
about you'll sow what you reap. You fail to communicate. You're
mocking God. If I fail to communicate, I'm
mocking God and we will reap what we sow. Now, if I fail to
communicate with the one who preaches the word, God takes
it personal. Now that is how serious this
is. God takes it personal. To do so is to mock him, to treat
him with contempt. Now don't deceive yourself into
thinking things are all right. They're not. And you can be sure
we will reap what we sow in that attitude. If I have that attitude
towards the preaching of the word and the preacher of the
word, he says, don't fail to communicate. Now, this is a much
broader spiritual law than this. Now in the context, he's talking
about communicate to the preacher, sharing with the preacher and
supporting him. But this is. whole lot bigger
than that. Although that's what he's talking
about. I want us to see how big this is in the scripture. And
like I said, by the grace of God, I'm going to preach the
gospel from this passage of scripture. I want to preach the gospel as
clearly as I've ever preached it from this passage of scripture. Now turn with me for a moment
to Psalm 18. I'm going to show how big this
is in the scripture. And like I said, every time I've
ever heard any reference to, you'll reap what you're sold,
my thoughts are, uh oh, uh oh, what's gonna happen to me then?
Look here in Psalm 18, verse 25. With the merciful, thou wilt
show thyself merciful. With an upright man, thou wilt
show thyself upright. With the pure, thou wilt show
thyself pure. And with the fraud, the perverse,
thou wilt show thyself perverse. You reap what you sow. The Lord
is going to deal with you as you come into his presence. Now,
let's look at another passage of scripture. Look at Luke chapter
six. Look in verse 38, give, and it
should be given unto you good measure, pressed down and shaken
together and running over shall men given to your bosom. Now
catch this, watch this for with the same measure, the same measuring
cup, the same basket that you meet with all, it shall be measured
to you again. Now this is another way of saying
you'll reap what you sow. Do you know God is going to measure
out the blessings he gives you. in the basket that you bring. You bring a little basket, he'll
measure you out a small amount of blessing. You bring a big
basket, he'll measure you out a big measure of blessing. You
reap what you sow. Same thing. Now let's look at
this passage again. Look in verse 27 of Luke chapter
six. But I say unto you a cheer, Love
your enemies. Do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you. And pray for them which despitefully
use you. And to him that smiteth thee
on the one cheek, offer also the other. And him that taketh away thy
cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man
that asks of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask
them not again. Now that's not the way of the
world, is it? That's so contrary to the way the natural man thinks.
Now let's go on reading. Verse 31, and as you would that
men should do to you, Do you also to them likewise? Now, our
Lord says the same thing in Matthew chapter seven. He says, this
is the law of the prophets. That's how important this is. You treat men the way you want
to be treated. This is the law and the prophets. Now let's go on reading. Verse
32, for if you love them, which love you, What thank have ye? Now I think it's interesting
that word thank is the same word that's generally translated grace.
What grace have you? Where's the grace in that? If
you love them that love you, what grace have you? For sinners
also loves those that love them. This is what a natural man does.
And if you do good to them, which do good to you, what grace have
you? For sinners also do the same.
And if you lend to them whom you hope to receive, you hope
you're enumerated from it, what grace is there for sinners? Lend to sinners to receive so
much again. but love your enemies and do
good and lend hoping for nothing again. And your reward shall
be great and you should be the children of the highest for he
is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be he therefore
merciful as your father also is merciful." Now here we have
the reaping and sowing going on. Judge not. and you shall not be judged. And you can write this down.
If you judge, you will be judged so harshly. Whoever it is you're
judging, every flaw you have is going to be exposed and magnified. You'll reap what you sow. If
you don't judge, you're going to be looked upon as a gracious,
kind, everybody's going to like you. But if you become a judge,
if you start judging people, for one thing, it's hypocritical.
Anytime I judge you, I'm playing the hypocrite. Romans 2.1, therefore
thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges
another. For you the judge do the same things. Now that's hypocrisy,
isn't it? For me to judge you for doing
something I do, And every time we judge, that is the case. Far as that goes, me and you
don't have the proper information to make a proper judgment on
anything with regard to anybody. We just don't have the facts.
We don't have the information. And for another thing, there's
only one judge. That's God. We're not to try
to usurp his place. Judge not. Oh, may the Lord give
me and you grace to be right here, that we be not judged. But if you judge, you're going
to reap what you sow. You're going to be the subject
of criticism. Now, I used to think that, well,
that means judging. If I judge anybody, that means
God will judge me. Well, no, it doesn't mean that, because
none of us will be saved if that's the case. Not once. But thank
the Lord he forgives us for judging. As far as in this world, you're
going to reap what you sow. You judge, you're going to be
scrutinized, you know, very unpleasant way. And then he says in verse
37, condemn not. And you shall not be condemned.
You'll reap what you sow. If you don't condemn, you won't
be condemned. The opposite is true. You condemn,
you'll be condemned continually. He says in verse 37, forgive
and you shall be forgiven. You'll reap what you sow. If
you forgive, you will be forgiven. And didn't the Lord say, if you
forgive not men their trespasses, neither shall your heavenly father
forgive you your trespasses. He sure did. He sure did. Somebody says, that almost sounds
like war. No, it doesn't. If you've been forgiven, you'll
forgive. And if you refuse to forgive,
and I mean forgive from your heart, forgive graciously, forgive
for Christ's sake. If I refuse to forgive somebody,
all I've proved by that is I've never been forgiven. You will
reap what you sow. Verse 38, give. and it shall be given unto you.
Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over
shall men give unto your bosom. You give and it shall be given
to you. Do you know you can't out give
God? Now we don't give in order to get. We give because we love
Christ, don't we? That's our purpose. Giving, the
scripture says in 2 Corinthians 8, 7, proves the sincerity of
your love. That's how important that issue
is. in order to give. We give because we find it a
privilege. It's a blessing. It comes first. However, if you
don't give, the opposite is true. You will reap what you sow. Now,
I've observed this over the years. When somebody is having a hard
time financially, you can just, for the most part, I guess it's
not always this way, but for the most part, They're not giving,
and that's why. And they say, well, I can't afford
to give. You can't afford not to. You can't afford not to. That's why, generally speaking,
we're in the place we're at. So he says, give, and it shall
be given. Didn't the Lord say it's more blessed to give than
to receive? And what a blessing it is when
the Lord enables you to give from your heart, and God loveth
the cheerful giver. What a blessing that is. You
might not get anything more financially out of it, but you'll sure be
blessed in doing it, won't you? It's more blessed to give than
it should be given to you. Withhold giving, you'll reap
what you sow. Now, that is a spiritual law. God will bring us blessings in
the basket we bring. That's what the Lord said. He
said, with the same measure you meet, it'll be measured to you
all again. Now somebody says, where's the
gospel in this? I mean, this is good instruction. I agree
with it. Where's the gospel in this? Um,
well, we're going to say, you know, even with regard to
hearing the gospel, you'll reap what you sow. You come in with an empty cup,
desiring to be filled. Speak, Lord, thy servant here.
He's not going to say no to you. He's going to bless you. You
come without that hungering heart. Well, sometimes the Lord blesses
us anyway, doesn't he? Sometimes we come into the service
with a rotten attitude. and think there's no way I'm
going to be able to hear and the Lord just showers us with
his blessing. But that's because of his graciousness. But even
with regard to hearing, hearing the gospel, you get out of it
what you put into it. And that's true with regard to
so many things. You get out of it what you put into it. Now, somebody is thinking, is
this law always in place? Will I always reap what I sow? Where's the gospel in all this? Now, it's true that if you and I reap
what we sow in an absolute sense, what's going to happen to us?
God's going to send us to hell, isn't he? If we reap what we
sow in an absolute sense. But don't forget, and here's
the point I want to try to make. God will always meet you on the
ground you come and you'll reap what you sow. And what do I mean
by that? If you come to God on the ground
of your works, you'll reap what you sow. If you come into God's presence
on the ground of pure, free, sheer grace, You'll reap what
you sow. God will meet you on the ground. You come. You come right now
like that publican did. God be merciful to me, the sinner. You come just like that. You
know what? You're going to hear the same thing that publican
heard when the Lord said regarding him, I tell you, this man went
down to his house justified. You reap what you sow. God is
going to meet you. He's going to meet me on the
ground. We come and we will reap what we sow. If you come pleading
your works, if you come pleading the things you've sown, if you
come pleading anything you've done, okay, God will meet you
there if that's what you want to do. But where's that going
to end? That's going to end in destruction.
We will reap what we sow. And this is glorious. This gives me so much encouragement.
Now listen real carefully. I don't come to God through Christ. I don't come to God trying to
figure out whether or not I'm one of the elect. I don't come
to God trying to figure out if Christ died for me. I don't come
to God trying to figure out if God's really ever done anything
to my heart and I've got a new heart. I don't come to God like
that. I come to God all the time as an empty-handed sinner, needing
His mercy. And that is the only way I come. And I come like that, I'll leave
what I've heard. Faith is not believing you're
elect. Faith is not believing Christ
died for you. Faith is not believing that you're
saved. Faith is believing that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And you come to him because he
commands you to. You don't come to him because
you believe you're elect. You don't come to him because you believe
he died for you. You don't come to him because you believe he's
done something for your heart. You come to him because he says,
come unto me, all ye that are weary. and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. And that's the way you come.
When you hear, all that the Father giveth to me, shall come to me,
and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Lord, I'm coming because you
said anybody that comes, you will not cast out. You will reap what you sow. And that's a gospel truth. That's
a gospel truth. You come, let me repeat it again.
I want everybody to hear right now. You come on the footing
of pure, free, sheer mercy and grace. That's what you'll have. You come any other way. That's what you'll ask. What's
the greatest commandment in the law? Well, how do you read it?
How do you read it? Remember when he said that? Well,
how do you read it? He said, well, you shall love
the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and all
your strength and your neighbor as yourself. And I can just see him feeling
pretty good about his correct answer. And the Lord said, thou
hast answered rightly. This is due. And thou shalt live. You come to God. on the basis of doing, he'll
meet you there. You come to God pleading the
basis of what he has already done, and he'll meet you there. You will reap what you sow. It's the gospel of sowing and
reaping. Now, Lord, I'm coming simply because
you said God commands all men everywhere to repent. I'm one
of them. I'm coming because you said believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I'm doing
that. I'm pleading nothing but the
Lord Jesus Christ. You will reap what you sow. Do
you see how this sowing and reaping thing, the first thing, like
I said, the first way I thought about it. It's just whenever
I hear it, it makes me feel bad. You know, I just think, what,
what, what, what am I going to, I know some of the things that
I've, I've sold. What am I going to, am I going to come back and
haunt me? But thank God, the gospel really is a gospel of
reaping and sowing. You come by grace. You'll experience grace right
now. You come by works, the Lord will
treat you as such. And you know, this reaping and
sowing has such a broad application. You reap what you sow. You get
out of what you put into it. And I thought of so many different
things. This one really made me feel guilty. Marriage. Marriage. Take your spouse for
granted. See what happens. You'll reap
what you sow. You'll reap what you sow. You
hear this, Lynn? I had to say that. I had to say
that. Everybody knows better than that. Lynn, when we were
driving over here, Lynn said she wrote that article. She read
an article in somebody else's bulletin I'd written recently
about the Bible never tells anybody how to treat you. It only tells
you how to treat them. She thought, why don't you remember
that? Good question. But at any rate, in your marriage,
you'll reap what you sow. I think of that scripture, train
up a child in the way he would go, in the end he shall not depart
out of it. Now does that mean that if I do a good job of training
my kids and I teach them and instruct them and discipline
them and cause them to do everything when they're when they're young
and don't let them get by with anything, I'm a good parent to
them, that they're gonna end up being good and they're gonna end up
being believers. No, it doesn't mean that at all. Doesn't mean
that at all. There's too many examples of
people who were trained up right and they ended up going bad anyway.
When the scripture says train up a child in the way he would
go, what that means is if you don't restrain him, if you just
let him go his way, He'll end up going in that way. You will
reap what you sow. If you just let your kid go and
don't take parental responsibility and don't try to make them do
right, they're going to go in a wrong direction every time.
You'll reap what you sow in that sense. Now, once again, I know
a lot of people have been a whole lot better parent than I have
that have had kids go in a wrong direction. And so this is not
saying if you perfectly frame up, everything's going to go
right. But it does say if you don't correct them, they're for
sure going to go wrong. What about your job? What about
your employment? What about your career? What
about the place you work? You work hard, you're responsible,
you try to do the best job you can for the glory of Christ,
to honor Him, see where it gets you. It'll help you. You be a lazy deadbeat, you don't
do the things that you're supposed to do, see where that gets you.
You will reap what you sow. And this is true in everything. What about friendships? Friendships,
personal relationships with people. He that would have friends must
first show himself friendly. If you're not interested in other
people, they will not be interested in you. What about health? Now, I've known people who have
who have taken great care of themselves and ended up dying
early anyway of some kind of disease that they didn't have
any control of. That happens all the time. See, as far as
that goes, the day of your death is our good point. You can't
do anything to extend that your time here on earth the day of
your death has been appointed and it could be that you take
great care of yourself and eat perfectly and exercise perfectly
and all that kind of stuff and you end up dropping dead the
next day. I realize that but still as a general rule with
regard to health and so on you'll reap what you sow. You don't
take care of yourself. You don't exercise. You don't eat right.
you'll reap what you sow. If you give yourself to healthy
practices, you'll reap what you sow. I mean, this is just a law.
It's a spiritual law, sowing and reaping. Now, back to Galatians
chapter six. You know, I found this, So encouraging
to remember that I can always come to the Lord on the footing
of grace and I'm always welcome and I'll reap what I've sown.
Now that's gospel. That's a gospel. It's not just you do this. Let him that's taught, verse
six, in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all
good things, be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever
man soweth, that shall he also reap for he that soweth through
his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that
soweth through the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And once again, remember the
context, you fail to communicate, you sow to the flesh, you'll
reap what you sow. You sow to the spirit, seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these
things shall be added to you. You'll let the spirit reap life
everlasting. You'll reap what you sow. Verse nine. What an admonition. And let us
not be weary in well doing. For in due season we shall reap
if we think not. Now, I told you, I think last
week, but I want to say it again, about, I was listening to a message
Henry Mahan preached in 1979. And this was 25 years after 13th
Street had been formed. And they began with 108 adult members and kids. Pretty good size group, you know,
but that's how they began. When he was speaking, 30 of those
people had died and 78 were left. of the original people who had
pulled out and had joined 13th Street or started that church
at that time. 78 people left. He said of those
78 people, 39 had absolutely no interest in the gospel. At one time they did, but they
were all gone. They've left. They had become
weary in well-doing. They were no longer there, no
longer cared. And, you know, I thought of that
and how many of us How many of us, where will we be in 10 years,
in 20 years? What's a disconcerting thing
when you think about what he said about that original group
leaving, let us not be weary in well-doing. Now, Charles Spurgeon
said well-doing is the summary of the Christian life. It's living
by faith. It's loving his people. It's hearing the gospel. It's
giving. It's manifesting the fruit of
the spirit. Love, joy, peace, long suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. It's doing
what we do for his glory. Sincerely seeking his glory. It's Setting a good example for
others. What if everybody in this church
was just like me? What kind of place would this
be in every area? Supporting the gospel, witnessing. Now what is it to grow weary?
What does it mean when he says, let us not be weary in well-doing? Spiritual indifference. neglecting the means of grace,
neglecting reading the word, neglecting prayer, neglecting
the preaching of the gospel, no longer interested, no concern
for the salvation of others, no interest in other believers,
no interest in other churches, just become weary in well-doing. pride instead of humility. The
way Paul said, oh, that I may know him. Well, if you're weary
in what you're doing, you already know him. You already know him.
You don't have to make that cry, oh, that I might know him. You're
very much, if I'm weary and wearily doing, I'm like the church at
Sardis, living off the past. Living off past experience, past
understanding, living off the past. Like the church at Latter-day
Saint, rich and increased with goods and having need of nothing,
yet not knowing I'm wretched and blind and poor and miserable
and so on. weary in well-doing. Now what
causes this? This thing of becoming weary
in well-doing? Because this is an important admonition to the
Church of God. Be not weary in well-doing. What
causes this? Well, I can think of all kinds
of causes. First thing that comes to my mind is the flesh. Do you know, child of God, that
right now you are no more Everybody believes that. You see, holiness does not know
of degrees. You're either holy or you're
not. When God said, be ye holy, for I am holy, the only way you
can be holy is if you are holy. That's the only way. Now, the
fact that when I make that statement and we think, Man, I can't see
it. That shows us how far the flesh
drags us down. Because you really do. If you're
a believer, you're no more holy now than you will be when you
stand before Christ and the inheritance of the saints and light. But
that gives us some idea of how powerful this thing called the
flesh is and how much it brings us down. The world. The world, all that's of the
world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. Listen, all of those things have
an attraction. The devil. He can turn me and
you inside out so easily. And he's, he's walking about
as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And if he gets
hold of me or you, he's got plenty to work with, doesn't he? Plenty
to work with. And what about unbelieving friends? We make such a mistake when we
make our friends the world, unbelieving friends, and start listening
to them. The scripture says in Ephesians 5, evil communications
corrupt good manners. They corrupt good manners. If
you listen to a worldly person, they're always gonna bring you
down to their level. You'll never bring them up to yours. Evil
communications corrupt good manners. And I suppose this is seen most,
this thing of wearying in doing good is seen in my attitude toward
hearing the gospel. Be not weary in well-doing. And we have this promise, look
in verse nine, let us not be weary in well doing for in due
season, in God's own time, we shall reap if we faint not. If we don't lose heart, if we
don't give up. Now, I know the only way I'll
be kept is if the Lord keeps me. Don't you know that? Don't
you know if he doesn't keep you, you will fall away. You will
for sure. I will too. If you can fall away,
you will fall away. Thank God you can't if you're
a believer. I'm so thankful for that. And
I know this is equally true. It's only that person who endures
to the end that shall be saved. It's only that person who, um,
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. You know what is the evidence
that God is preserving you? That He's doing it all. What
is the evidence that God is preserving you? It's in your perseverance.
It's in your continuing. It's in my continuing in the
faith and not becoming weary. in well-doing and we know we
can, because of our flesh, because of the world, the devil, all
those things, we see how easily that can take place with us.
So it says in verse 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. And you know that word opportunity
is generally translated time, time. Don't know how much time I've
got. You don't know how much time you have. But while we do
have time, let us do good unto all, especially. And I love this name of the church. I just love it. I've never really
thought about it that much before. He says, especially to them who
are of the household of faith. What a man for the church. You
know, somebody that has faith. Someone that believes the gospel.
Someone who really does rely on Jesus Christ only, has everything
in their salvation. Someone who comes to him on the
footing of pure free grace. You love that person, don't you?
Somebody loves Christ, you love that person. And you want to
do good to them, especially to those who are of the household
of faith. Now, this is a promise. Let us
not be weary in well doing. And here's the promise for in
due season, we shall reap. Don't give up. Don't lose heart.
Don't quit praying. Don't quit seeking the Lord.
Don't quit asking for the same thing over and over again. In
due season. We shall reap if we don't lose
heart and give up. What came to my mind just now
is Bruce Crabtree was preaching here some years ago, and he used
the word perseverance. And he coined a word that is
probably the best word regarding that, perseverance. If you're preserved, you'll persevere. So may that be the truth regarding
me and you. Let's pray.