Galatians 6:7-9
Notes
Transcript
Sunday October 9, 2022
Sunday October 9, 2022
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
In this portion of scripture, we have some fundamental truths that go back to creation. The Holy Spirit uses the analogy as it applies to mans deeds as well.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
As much as man has tried to mess with this process it has always remained true. As with all things that God created , mans actions reap consequences as well. .
8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, And sow wickedness, reap the same.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
This is an unchangeable law. But yet the Apostle warns us:
“Be not deceived” this means that we, even though we know this unchangeable law that we can very well be deceived and many times are. This is the problem of not just the world, for they are already deceived. They walk around in the dark. But we who have been given the light of the Word are expected to walk in the light. We are expected to examine everything that comes our way by the light of the Word. What does the Psalmist say?
105 NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path.
We must follow to the letter of every scripture what it says in the Word of God about everything. And it must be followed at all costs. Unfortunately it means following at the expence of sometimes family , friends, employment, affiliations or desires.
Now again the Galatians had fallen into deception by the Judiazers. They had resorted to Law and were now failing. They had to come out of it and line themselves up with the Cross or reap the consequences of the Law. We know that the consequences of those that subject themselves to Law as their salvation will only be able to reap death. But now those that are trying to restore those that have fallen away into law, have to follow Paul’s words exactly. He said that Meekness is demanded, Meekness on the part of the restorer. Meaning a kind and gracious spirit toward them is to be used. Notice I am talking about restoring Christians. If the person you are trying to reconcile with is not a Christian then you are wasting your time. But if we want restoration of the saint that has fallen into Law then with meekness we must restore them and sew meekness or else the harvest will not be pleasant. We must use discernment when speaking with that Saint.
“God is not mocked”
This means that we will not fool God. God knows our true character and our true motivation and our heart. He will judge us accordingly.
Mocked in the Greek is “mukterizo” and means “to turn up the nose, to ridicule, to ignore, to sneer”
Well people may try to turn up their nose at what the word says but God will not abide by that. We will not fool him. We will answer for our actions and our mockery.
“for what soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”
If we sow kindness we get kindness back. If we sow bitterness we get bitterness back. And if we sow a little, we get a little, if we sow much, we get much. II Cor. 9:6 says it this way:
6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
But verse 8 gets to the heart of Paul’s intent
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
At the heart of this message that Paul is giving here is a direction that the Church has fallen prey. In an effort to have more attendance it appealed to man’s flesh to get them to stay or to lure them away. The Judiazers appealed to the flesh of the Galatians, because man does not want to believe that He can do nothing to solve his own problem. That man thinks he needs to do something on His own to overcome sin. For those of us problem solvers out there this is what we live for. We want to fix things. We want to make things right. We want to be part of the process. But you see the evil in that is pride. We want to feel responsible for the solution. We want to feel pride in knowing that we did that, and ultimately the sin in that thinking is that by us doing that we have actually rejected what Jesus did. Jesus already solved the problem. Jesus already paid the price, Jesus already broke the power of sin, Jesus already kept the Law, Jesus already accepted the penalty for sin and served the sentence and was released and is free. Jesus saved us so that we could live in Grace and mercy and know that we are going to fail in our flesh, but if we keep our Faith in Him we will reach the reward he guaranteed for us. We are foolish to think that we can do any better than Jesus. Well I am doing all of this for Jesus. I am doing all of this for Him. No you are not. You are doing it for yourself.
Don’t we yet understand that the problem that we all face is sin? Don’t we all understand that the issues that we all have the root of them is sin? But I am a Christian. I am not a sinner. Yes you are a Christian. But your problem is still based in sin. Sin that is already in the world. Sin that is lurking around every corner. Sin that wants to destroy not only you but the entire world. Sin that is still in your heart that needs to be destroyed. Flesh that still wants to control your thoughts and desires. Flesh that is an enemy of God. But my problem is financial. The root is sin. But my problem is physical. The root is sin. But my problem is mental. The root is sin. But my problem is spiritual. The root is sin. Sin where? Sin in you, or sin in the world. But sin is the problem. Well I can’t fight sin. Nope you can’t I can’t fix sin. Nope you can’t now you might be getting it. You can’t fix it. Jesus already did. He fought that battle and won. He made that way. you can’t. He did . So when we want to fix the problems of the world with anything other than Jesus, we have just begun a losing battle. When we want to fix ourselves we have just begun a losing battle. WE can’t fix ourselves.
Man and the church as decided that they know better than God and they have devised their own way to fix so many things and it has caused man to do nothing but fall deeper into sin. While man has tired of waiting on the Lard to move and to heal, he has decided to accept Humanistic psychology as the answer. I’m sorry but when we stand of the day of Judgment you are going to see each one of those men that started that process get sent straight to hell. You are going to see all the evil disgusting things that were really behind their teachings and you will know that what they get they sewed. Following some of that may put a band aid on a wound but it won’t stop the rot from forming and the disease from spreading and unless you let the rot and disease be cut out the problem will get worse.
So when we “sew to the flesh we will reap the flesh” When we sow religious efforts to break sin we are actually sewing our own work. We are sowing flesh. We will reap corruption. Corruption in the Greek is “phthora “ and means “to shrivel or wither, to spoil, to ruin, to perish.”
“but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting”
This is what we all want. This is what we think that we are all going to get as believers. This is what we are all hoping for. This is the goal. We all know and believe that. I don’t think that there is a single christian out there that doesn’t want Life everlasting. That doesn’t want that end result. But how many have actually committed to truly following what the Lord has commanded. How many Christians are holding out on God. How many Christians are saying Lord I trust you in this area but not in this one. I still don’t quite believe you can help me here. I still want to eat everything I want and expect to lose weight. God I trust you with my salvation, but I don’t trust you with my money. Well… I trust he can save my soul but he can’t heal my mind. He can’t fix my problem with ..... I still want to do this my way. What the real problem is, is our faith. It is our unbelief. When we walk like that we completely shut off all areas of help from the Holy Spirit and we go into a dark zone with God. He will not act on our behalf or speak to helping us with sin in that area unless we do it his way.
Well what is His way? I’m so glad you asked. His way is that as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Ok, yes we are saved by Grace. then he says that to sow the spirit we must walk in the spirit and we will reap the spirit. Well I thought I got the Holy Spirit at salvation? You did. He is with you but his power to work in your life is hindered. This is why he commanded his followers to tarry and wait in the upper room because He knew that they would need supernatural help to accomplish the task at hand. In order to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ they needed to be equipped with the Power of the Holy Spirit.
4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
So they did as commanded and they were all baptized with the Holy Spirit.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
In order to sow in the spirit you must be filled with the Spirit. You must have the power of the Holy Spirit. But Stacy that sound like works to me. No it is not because you are forgetting that the Holy Spirit only works through the Cross. Even thought you are filled with the Holy Spirit and Speak in tongues which is wonderful you must operate in Faith in the cross in order for His power to be revealed in your life. And you must exercise this Faith every day. You can’t do it one day and expect it to carry through to the next day. Do you only drink water and eat once a week? Well you might try it but you are going to kill yourself.
When we place our Faith in what Jesus already did for us by the power of the Holy Spirit all those things that are sinful in our lives begins to fall off. Those bondages that plague us begin to fall off. All things that pertain to the flesh, whether it be cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, immorality, depression, uncontrollable temper, jealousy, envy, malice, racism, anything. Will it happen instantly? It can, but most likely it could take some time for those desires to completely go away. Some may never go away. Does that mean God doesnt;’ love me, know it means that he wants to keep you leaning on Him. Looking to Him. Relying on Him. does that mean that I can continue in my sin, because my desire is still there? I’m gonna respond like Paul did to that question. God Forbid.
But it must be done daily. This is why Christ said in Luke 9:23
23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
But I failed. So what. Get back up. This is a daily thing. And Jeremiah told us in Lamentations that God’s mercies are new every morning.
22 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Verse 9 of Galatians continues.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Oh how this is the one that trips everyone up. We grow weary so quickly. We live in the microwave world and want instant everything. I can’t even really say microwave world anymore because it is more like the internet world. information is at a blink of an eye. Entertainment is constant. We want things to be instant and constant. Well God does not work that way. We must know that and submit to that. But I am preaching from complete experience on this matter. I grow weary all the time. I get so tired. But that is when I have to dig deeper, what is when I have to say it is not my will but thy will, that is when I have to trust that god has a plan and that I need to follow that plan. That I have to continue to do what He has told me to do and that If I seek Him and want to know the reason for the wait, all I have to do is ask and sometimes He will tell me. Or better yet, when I wait I am rewarded out of the blue it seems. As the song says ‘He never failed me yet.”
“for in due season” this means He works on his own time and the time that we have to wait for the reaping of the harvest is long but it is necessary and there is so much growth that happens in not just what we have planted but also in us. How long is that season? Depends. On what? I don’t know. it depends on the situation and God. But hold on to the next few words ‘we shall reap”. It doesn’t say we might reap. it says we shall. Now farmers know the struggle of planting and not getting the yield that they hoped for. They know the struggle of weather and storms and what can destroy a crop and pests. They know that there is much to ward off and that they might not get to have the reward of the harvest. But that is not the promise of God. He said that if we faint not that we shall reap. We will reap. With the caviot, “if we faint not.” We we don’t quit if we stay in the fight, that is the Fight of Faith. If we stick with God he will never give up on us and we will see the end result. We will get the harvest. Will we always see it in our lifetime? No. But we will see it.
There is a song that as I was preparing this that rolled through my mind. You will have to forgive that it was written not as a sacred song but for a musical. But I believe that it speaks this message quite clearly. The title it Hold on.
What you've got to do is
Finish what you have begun,
I don't know just how,
But it's not over 'til you've won!
When you see the storm is coming,
See the lightning part the skies,
It's too late to run-
There's terror in your eyes!
What you do then is remember
This old thing you heard me say:
"It's the storm, not you,
That's bound to blow away."
Hold on,
Hold on to someone standing by.
Hold on.
Don't even ask how long or why!
Child, hold on to what you know is true,
Hold on 'til you get through.
Child, oh child!
Hold on!
When you feel your heart is poundin',
Fear a devil's at your door.
There's no place to hide-
You're frozen to the floor!
What you do then is you force yourself
To wake up, and you say:
"It's this dream, not me,
that's bound to go away."
Hold on,
Hold on, the night will soon be by.
Hold on,
Until there's nothing left to try.
Child, hold on, There's angels on their way!
Hold on and hear them say,
"Child, oh child!"
And it doesn't even matter
If the danger and the doom
Come from up above or down below,
Or just come flying
At you from across the room!
When you see a man who's raging,
And he's jealous and he fears
That you've walked through walls
He's hid behind for years.
What you do then is you tell yourself to wait it out
And say it's this day, not me,
That's bound to go away.
Child, oh hold on.
It's this day, not you,
That's bound to go away!
You will have to forgive me but there is truth there. Hold on. Hold on to your Faith. Hold on to God. Hold on to Him and he will never let go of you. Don’t quit believing. Fight to keep your faith. That is the only fight you have.