be in Galatians six again for
this hour, if you would like to turn their Galatians six. Paul is teaching what it is to
sow to the spirit, to sow to the spirit. And some twist these
words in false religion, and they'll say that what you do
on the outside is how you sow to the spirit. But I would remind
us that that which is spirit is spirit, that which is flesh
is flesh. It's what the Lord told Nicodemus,
that which is born of the spirit is spirit, that which is born of
the flesh is flesh. So that means it's impossible for us to sow
to the spirit in our flesh. So what does it mean to sow to
the spirit? I hope to answer that this morning.
And I've titled this message, God is not mocked. God is not mocked. Let's read
this text together, Galatians 6, six through 10. Let him that
is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all
good things. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 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 who are
of the household of faith. Title of the message, God is
not mocked, but the question I have is what is it to sow to
the spirit? Because if we sow to the flesh,
we shall of the flesh reap corruption, but if we sow to the spirit,
we shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. First thing I would
say is it says we shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Not of what we do reap life everlasting,
but what the spirit does, of the spirit. Life everlasting
comes from the Lord's spirit, when he blows upon us and causes
us to be birthed into his family. So what is sowing to the spirit? Well, very simply put, it's looking
to Christ as all in all things, looking to Christ as all in all
things that is sowing to the Spirit, that is sowing to the
Spirit, looking to Him as our only hope of eternal life, looking
to Him, looking to what pleases God as our hope for redemption,
as our hope for justification, as our hope for righteousness
before God, looking to what pleased the Lord. They're in the flesh,
the scripture says, cannot please God. So if we're in the flesh,
we cannot. Paul is not deviated from the
message that he's been given all throughout Galatians. He's
saying this, if you are seeking the law for righteousness, you're
showing to the flesh. If you're looking to Christ as
all your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
then you're sowing to the Spirit. That's the simplicity of it.
Where does your righteousness fall? Is it you or is it Him?
That's what we've been dealing with. We've been dealing with
works and grace this entire book. We've been dealing with the law,
righteousness by the law, which doesn't exist, and righteousness
by the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the only righteousness that
there is. And so he's still saying that if you sow to the flesh,
if you go to the law thinking that you're going to establish
righteousness based upon what you do or what I do, then we're
wrong. We're wrong. We're sowing to
the flesh and therefore we will of the flesh reap corruption.
Why? Because the wages of sin is death and that's all that
we are is sin. We can't fix the sin. We need
a substitute. We need a savior. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ is and that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did. sowing to the flesh is to look
to yourself. And I say this, I think every
time I stand because we've been going through Galatians, because
it's a lot of people don't realize that they do this. And it's so
important that we know the truth. But if we look to the law, as
evidence of our salvation, or if we try to look to our life
as evidence of our salvation, or how we treat others, or how
if we if we look to ourself in any way, as evidence of our salvation,
then we're looking for sanctification on the outside. Do we see that?
We're looking like we're getting better, that we're doing good
works, and that's not looking to Christ. That's not honoring
the Lord. No, the Lord said, seek you my
face. Seek you my face. Don't look to yourself, don't
look to your works. Look to the work and the finished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, God is not mocked.
God is not mocked. Some would say that you have
to go to the law for acceptance before God, that you have to
do certain things or God will not accept you. God won't accept
you the way you are no matter what. You have to be in Christ,
then He accepts you. Then He accepts me. That's why
it's funny, because people will say, you need to accept the Lord
as your Savior. We can't accept or reject Him. But He must accept
us. And what has He done by the sacrifice
of Himself? The Scripture tells us He's made
us accepted in the Beloved. Made us accepted in the Beloved.
That's our acceptance, is the Lord Jesus Christ. So we don't
go to the law for acceptance. We don't go to the law for our
morality, or our way of life. Only thing that the law can bring
about is death. We love the Lord's law. We don't
preach against the Lord's law, but we preach that the law is
not given for righteousness. It was to show us what we are
by nature. And without it, we would have had no idea how holy
God is and how sinful we are. Thank God, he just didn't give
us the law, and that was the end of it. He gave us the covenant
of grace, which far exceeds the covenant of works. Far exceeds
the covenant of works. It's from everlasting. He said, I've loved thee with
everlasting love. Never had a beginning, never had an end. The covenant
of works had a beginning, and it had an end. The covenant of
grace didn't. Understand this, brethren, this
is so important. In God's sight, and how God sees it, That's how
it is. It doesn't matter how we see
it. How God sees it, that's how it is. He says in Romans 10 through
12, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are all together
become unprofitable. There is none that do with good,
no, not one. That's four times. He said none,
and one time he said all. What does none mean to us? We
that are the Lords take this book, we don't change the words
of it to make it conform to what we want it to do or the standard
of our living or make us this or that, or try to apply it to
our own standard. No, it is the standard. It is
the standard, God's Word is the standard. We take it for what
it says. It says none, there's none good,
no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. That's all inclusive. That means there is not a single
person that seeketh after God in and of themselves. That's what that means. The interesting
part is men, even though they may hear this, they may still
arrogantly say that you have to have good works. You have
to have good works. You have to have, I want to see
your Christian life. I want to see what your Christian
life looks like. I had a man ask me one time,
I think I've told you this. He said, well, how does your congregation
live? What kind of Christian life,
what kind of Christian walk are you preaching for them to live? I said, we walk by faith. He's
like, well, what is it? Well, yeah, I know that. He said,
I know that. Well, what does it really look like? And I said,
like a bunch of dead dog sinners begging from the master's crumbs. And he was taken back by that,
but that's the truth, isn't it? We don't look at ourself, brethren.
We don't look at our walk. We don't look at our talk. We
look at the walk of the Lord Jesus Christ. We look at what
he said. We look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
don't look at our works. We look at his work, the finished work
of the cross as our only hope of salvation. We don't look at
what we're doing or not doing. We looked at what he did in our
place as our substitute surety. We look to him. Men say, look how I live. Don't
look at how I live. Don't look at how I live. Look
to Christ. I'll let you down. I'll let you
down. Not intentionally, not on purpose.
I will do my very best to not let you down, but I will let
you down. I'm in the flesh. It's going to happen. Don't put me
up on a pedestal. I ain't nothing special. I'm
just a sinner that the Lord chose to save by his grace. And then
he called me to preach to you. Look to Christ. To say, look
at my life is a complete denial. The verse Philippians 2.13, it
says, it is God which worketh in you both the will and to do
of his good pleasure. It's God that worketh in you.
It's not you that are working and something's coming out. It's
God working in you. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's
our hope. He gets all the glory. If we look to our works as evidence
or part of salvation, we're sowing to the flesh. That's what Paul's
talking about here. But if we're looking to Christ
as all by the faith bestowed that the Lord gives freely by
His grace, then we're sowing to the Spirit. Sowing to the
Spirit. The good news, brethren, is everything
God requires, He provided in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen
to Ephesians 2.10. For we are His workmanship. We are his workmanship. Okay, so that's possessive. He
owns me. I am his workmanship. You are
his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Okay, so we should look for good
works. No, look to Christ. Because that's where it's created
is in Christ Jesus. His workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, unto good works. So he's going to cause
us to seek his face. He's going to cause us to look
to him as all of our righteousness. He's going to cause us to sow
to the spirit. You desire to come and hear about
the Lord and his finished work this morning, you that are here.
You desire to hear the truth about God's gospel. You wanted
to hear about how God saves sinners. This is looking, desiring to
look to Christ. That's sowing to the spirit.
That's not, and none of this, I got to be so clear because
somebody could say, well, that's a work. No, it's not. If you
can look to Christ, it's by grace that you're looking. It's by
grace. If you believe God, it's by grace
that you believe. You didn't choose to believe.
You have to have faith. And that's the gift by grace.
So if we're looking and we're believing and we're hoping and
we're trusting and we're begging, it's because God made us to do
so. We're sowing to the spirit because he's given us faith to
believe, to believe. And he gets all the glory. Paul
is trying to, well, I don't think he's trying. He's, he's putting
the, the hatchet to the root at this point in this chapter,
we're coming to the end of it. And he's saying, listen, You
sow to the flesh whenever you're going to the law, and if you
do, you're gonna reap corruption, you're gonna reap death, you're
gonna be doomed. But if you sow to the spirit, if you look to
Christ as all your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, you're
sowing to the spirit, you shall of the spirit, that means by
him, he's gonna do it, give you life everlasting. God's elect, we won't see these
good works, but because we're in Christ, we're looking to him
by faith, by sight, we're sowing to the spirit, that's what this
means. So this is the contrast that he's given us all throughout
this is it's been law and it's been grace. It's been it's been
works and it's been it's finished. And so it's the same contrast
here. So looking to Christ is sowing
to the spirit looking to the flesh is sowing to the flesh.
God is not mocked. God is not mocked. If we could
do anything as part of our salvation, God would be a failure. If he
needs me to do something to make the blood of Christ effectual,
then Jesus Christ failed to redeem on the cross. Do we see that,
how dangerous and serious that is? But God's not going to be
mocked. Calvary, the, event that took place on Calvary, the salvation
of God's elect. God's not going to be mocked
for that. He successfully redeemed His people on the cross. He successfully
put away their sin. He successfully became the propitiation
for them once and for all. And He sat down after He had
purged our sin. He sat down at the right hand
of God. It's finished. The work is completely finishing. God
is not going to be mocked. It's not going to be mocked.
He's not gonna let you and I have glory that belongs to his son. He's not gonna let you and I
have glory that belongs to him. God's not mocked. God's not mocked.
He's God. Thank God he successfully redeemed
his people when he died for them. God's not mocked, brethren. If
we choose to live looking to self, we're sowing to the flesh. And so often we are tempted to
look to self. We look to self. Anybody else
testify to the point whenever you have something that goes
a little wrong in your life? You immediately try to just grab
it by the horns and take care of it immediately. You don't
even stop to pray. And I'm just confessing my failures
to you right now. It's just how it works. We're
just so natural to look to self and our own power, our own ability.
What about those times where it's like there is nothing at
all I can do? I am powerless. It's a scary
feeling. It's a frightening place to be.
But the scripture says we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous. He said, let your requests and
petitions be made known. We can cry out to him. And that's
the best place to be is crying out, Lord, have mercy. If you
don't have mercy, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. Lord, you're
gonna have to have mercy. He's gonna continually cause us to
look to him for his. He might let us look to ourself
to try to fix certain things, but we never go back to the law
for righteousness. No, he keeps us looking to Christ
as all our righteousness. Isn't that glorious? He makes
us believe the Lord Jesus Christ. He causes us to sow to the spirit,
not to the flesh. He doesn't leave us to ourself. I was thinking all throughout
scripture places that appeared like the Lord was mocked. There's
one place where the Lord was mocked. That was at Calvary.
Lord Jesus Christ was mocked by the people, but the resurrection
of the Lord proved that that mocking was Nolan Boyd. He wasn't
mocked. He was resurrected as the sovereign savior and redeemer
of his people. So he was exactly who he said
he was. They were making fun of who he said he was, but he
proved who he was. Therefore, he wasn't mocked then
either, technically. But you go all the way back to
the garden. Was God mocked in the garden when Adam sinned and
made everyone a sinner? Wasn't mocked then. Was he mocked
whenever Adam, I meant to bring, I had a fig leaf at home. They
sewed fig leaves together. It looks like a man's hand. I
don't know if you've ever seen a fig leaf. I'll try to bring
it next Sunday or Wednesday if I can remember. I've had it for
months to bring. I just keep forgetting. It looks just like
a man's hand, and it's a picture of works. Adam and Eve said,
we're naked, we have to have a covering. And so they go and
sow fig leaves together, which is the shape, about with the
shape of man's hand, and they cover themselves. Lord said that's
no, that's not gonna work. That's not gonna work. Was God
mocked in the garden? No, why? Because he provided
a lamb. He provided a lamb. It was God
mocked whenever Cain brought his fruit under the Lord, the
work of his hands. I said, look at me, look at my,
look at the amazing vegetables and fruits that I have grown
with these hands. And in my mind, I'm thinking, you didn't grow
that, God grew that. You might've planted it, watered
it, but God's the one that gives the increase. And yet he brought
it to God and said, look what I did. And Lord says, Lord said
to Cain and to Cain's Sacrifice, he'd had no, I can't remember
the word. Respect, thank you, respect.
My mind went blank, I apologize. To Cain and his sacrifice, he
had no respect. But to Abel and Abel's sacrifice,
he had respect. Why? Because God provided a lamb. He wasn't mocked then. Ended
up cursing Cain. He was a vagabond for the rest
of his life. God's not going to be mocked. The lamb is going
to get all the glory. That's the point I'm making this
morning. We cannot sow to the flesh and give glory to the lamb.
The lamb's going to get all the glory because God's not going
to be mocked. So we must sow to the spirit. How do we do that?
We look to the lamb. We look to the lamb. That's the message
this morning. Was God mocked when the children
of Israel were in bondage for 400 years? No, he, I love the fact that
the last plague that he sent, they were protected because the
blood was on the door. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass by you. What does that mean? God provided a lamb. God provided the blood to save
his people. And he brought them out. Scripture
says by his mighty hand, he brought them out. God didn't, God wasn't
mocked by the Egyptians. No. The Lord brought his people
out all because of the blood. Was God mocked when David sinned
with Bathsheba? Committed adultery, committed
murder? Was he mocked then? This is a man after God's own
heart. No, he wasn't mocked then. He was made to confess, I have
sinned against the Lord and heard the most glorious news a sinner
can hear. Fear not, David. God hath put
away your sin. And how did he put it away? By
the sacrifice of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God provided
a lamb. His lamb will not allow him to be mocked. The work is
finished. The work is finished. And to
say anything else or add to or take away from that finished
work is mocking the finished work of Christ. That's what it's
doing. But he's telling us plainly here, God is not mocked. Christ's suffering was accepted
by God. His blood was sufficient in putting away sin. His death
successfully satisfied the law's demands. Satisfied the law's
demands. His resurrection's evidence that
his people's been justified freely by the grace of God. This is
what we believe. This is what we hope in. If we're
made to look at Christ as all, made to cling to the land, made
to beg for his blood, Made to plead nothing but the blood of
Jesus. You know the song that says,
what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood. That's
it. We're made to plead that. We're made to cry out from the
heart of faith God's given us. We're sowing to the flesh because
we're looking to the one that pleases God. To the contrary, if we look to
this flesh, and I mean anything we do, anything we do, I remember in false religion,
if we didn't pray before we ate something, we thought we were
going to get a stomach ache. I mean, that's how superstitious
we were and thought that that's how God worked. If you want to
pray over your food, do that. I'm not saying don't, I'm not,
but don't do it out of righteousness. Don't do it as part of righteousness
and don't do it in public so everybody can see you because
that doesn't honor the Lord. That's what he told the Pharisees.
They desire to be seen and heard. Don't do that. My point is, is
this. What we do is we look to Christ. We don't look to self. If we
look to self, the smallest thing, it doesn't matter what the smallest
thing is, you can just fill in the blank with whatever you might
think. If we look to that as evidence,
part of our salvation we are sowing to the flesh. We are returning
back to the law and we are trying to establish righteousness or
sanctification by the law. He says you are sowing to the
flesh and you shall of the flesh reap corruption. That is what
He is telling us here. It is a denial of Christ that
He actually accomplished the salvation of His people. It is
offering our self up to God in the room instead of Jesus Christ.
It is not even adding to the blood. It is saying the blood
is not good enough you need this. That is what it is doing. And
that's why the Lord said, I'll disannul your covenant. Whenever
the overwhelming scourge comes, when death comes upon you, he
said, I'll disannul your covenant. The only covenant that's gonna
stand is the covenant of grace. That's the only covenant that's gonna
stand. Paul's saying, to go to the law
is to sow to the flesh, but to live looking to Christ, believing
on him as all and trusting in him alone. This is sowing to
the spirit. Be not deceived. God is not mocked.
Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. Now, lastly, I
want us to look in verse 10 because verse 10, um, The only reason I put that with
this text is because it says, and as we have therefore opportunity,
therefore means in light of everything he just said, everything he just
said. So let's read this together. As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men, especially unto those, them who
are of the household of faith. What does that mean? It means
exactly what it says. It means exactly what it says. But in the light of the previous
verses, we do what we do as his people all by his love bestowed. His love is what gives us the
desire to do good unto our brethren, to do good unto all men. What
do I mean do good? Now we're going back to works
now. Is that what I'm talking about? There is nothing I just about said more good or
that have been terrible. There is nothing better that can be
on your lips and on your tongue than the confession that Jesus
Christ is all, that Jesus Christ successfully redeemed his people,
that Jesus Christ saved his people from their sin. That is doing
good unto all men and to your brethren. That is doing good,
reminding your brethren that we're sowing to the spirit because
he's made us so to the spirit. It's not by what we do. It's
not by works of righteousness I have done. Oh, it's all of
free grace. It's all of sovereign grace that
we're his, we're his. Also this good that we do, I'll
tell you this, the hardest thing you'll ever do is to forgive
somebody that don't deserve it. But what does the scripture say?
God committed his love toward us, and that while we were yet
sinners, while we were still the enemies of God, Christ died
for us. Forgiveness is not for them,
it's for you. It's for you. It gives you rest
on your pillow at night. And we forgive, those that can
forgive, can forgive because they see how much they've been
forgiven. How much I've been, if I can't
forgive, it's because I'm failing to look at Christ and see how
much it costs for me to be forgiven. So we forgive out of love. Also, the hardest thing you'll
do is love someone that hates you. Love somebody that hates
you. But oh, I'm reminded of the Lord
on the cross. He said, forgive them, Father, for they know not
what they do. He was being crucified by them. What an example we have. We get so bent out of shape over
the most littlest things. Well, I don't want to tell on
myself, and I don't like getting cut off very much in traffic.
Maybe somebody here likes that. I don't know. Sometimes it really
bothers me. I try my best to behave, and
I do a pretty good job. I've got a good co-pilot that
smacks me. It's all right. But do I love that person right
there at that moment? Don't ask me that. You know what
I'm saying? So what is he saying here? He's saying As he said
in many places, with everything that lies within you live peaceably
with all men. A lot falls in the lap, but the
whole disposing's of the Lord. We love the Lord. We love the
Lord's people. And we love sinners because our
hope is that some of them are elect unto the eternal life and
that God will bring them in. God will call them by his grace.
And we don't know who's his and who's not, do we? So we try to
do good in that light. And what is good? That's looking
to Christ. It's telling about Christ. Ain't
that what the Lord told just about every person that he healed?
There's a couple he didn't. He said, go tell what good things
the Lord's done for you. Go tell. The Lord tells us this, when
you're dealing with your brothers and sisters, and it's in our
text, that's the only reason I'm speaking on it. When you're
dealing with your brothers and sisters, Ephesians tells us this,
be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Why? For
even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. That's our
motivation to forgive. He is. He's our motivation to
forgive. He's our motivation to love.
Everything he required, he provided by bestowing this. How do you
do good? You tell of his goodness. You
tell of the good news. How? Well, you look to him and
pray that he gives you the right words. There's been times when
I would be talking to somebody about the goodness of the Lord,
talking about the gospel, and I just felt like I fell flat
on my face. You ever felt that way before?
There's been plenty of times I've preached and I thought I
fell flat on my face. But the point is, if you love me, tell me about
it. I love you, so I'm telling you about it. That's the whole
point. That's the whole point. We look to Christ, and that means
we're walking and sowing to the Spirit, never as any part of
our righteousness. None that I've said, and I want
to end with this because I don't want any confusion. Everything
that I said, is not for righteousness, but it's because Christ is our
righteousness. Everything I've said, we do not
to become redeemed, but because Christ is our redemption. We
don't do this to become justified. We do this because he justified
us freely by his grace. We don't do this because we're
trying to see ourself becoming sanctified. We do this because
he is our sanctification. He is our wisdom. And he is he's
all he's all. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your. That you're not mocked, that
you can't be mocked, you won't be mocked, that you were successful
in redeeming your people. We ask now, Lord, as we take
these elements, that you would bless them to us. Remind us,
Lord, of the body and the blood that was shed and broken. Remind
us, Lord, that the work is finished. Give us rest in you. We ask this
in Christ's name. Amen. Mack, if you and Steve
will come and disperse the elements. Everyone remain seated.