Galatians 6:7-10

7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

I. Do not be deceived (verse 7)

7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

A. You can be deceived or

B. You could be deceived

C. You are likely to miss this aspect of what Paul is covering here

II. God is not mocked (verse 7)

A. God set up the sowing and reaping

B. He designed it

C. God is not to be argued with on these points

1. There will be rewards and punishments

Rev 22:12

“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.….

2. We will not escape the separation of sheep and goats

a) Just because we have wool and say baa does not make us a sheep of Christ

b) We must know, He must know, we must follow

John 10:27

27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

3. God is not impressed with mere confession or a bare profession will suffice to save us

Matthew 25:45-46

45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

4. Godly sorrow is what leads to repentance and change

2 Corinthians 7:10-11

10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

11 For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. ….

5. Or by superstitious supposition that a certain rite will set all straight at last, whatever our lives may have been

6. Henry David through was asked at the point of his death by a loving aunt if he had made his peace with God, and his response was “I did not know I was at war with Him?”

a) Our ignorance of the treaty that we broke does not change the capture of our person by the enemy once the territory line is crossed

b) Nor does it change the outcome of our sentence

c) Napoleon tasking a city in Europe and was out flanked for a moment and was fleeing for his life

(1) He ran into a furrier and asked for a place to hide

(2) The furrier put him under a huge pile of furs that the opposing soldier went through with their bayonets, the furrier did nothing to interfere

(3) Napoleons soldiers defeated the solders in the furrier was spared

(4) Napoleon came out from under the furs and the furrier asked “What was that like being so close to death”

(5) Napoleon replied “I’ll show you”

(6) Solders take this man out blind fold him, and have him executed by firing squad, prepare the squad, but I want to give the order, because he made no effort to spare me in my time of despair

(7) All that Napoleon command was done

(8) The man had a blind fold on was lined up he heard the muskets and the drum role and the words, ready, aim, then nothing,

(9) Napoleon walked up to the man, removed the blind fold and said, “that is what it felt like”

(10) He was spared

d) Some times we really do not need or wish to know “what it feels like?”

e) We too have been spared and yet we feel the need to know what we have been spared from, it is a dangerous curiosity….

III. We are called to freedom

A. But not to freedom without responsibility

Galatians 5:13-26

13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,

20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,

21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

B. This summarizes the theme of personal accountability and mutual responsibility.

IV.God’s law can not be set aside any more then any other

A. There is no getting out of gravity

1. Jump off the cliff and the ground comes up quickly, your body loose in a battle with the ground

2. No parachute in a sky dive, no life after

a) Guys to be sure…… It is not the fall but the sudden stop

b) Guys to be sure ….It is not the life, but the sudden stop of it

(1) Did we have our grace parachute on?

3. The Other way to avoid gravity is by artificial means or man made means which can and does fail

4. IT WILL kill you if you stepped out of those means

5. Or if those means fail

6. Is there any sin that we flirt with that is a sure thing, which is reliable?

V. The principal is defined of Sowing and reaping (verse 7)

A. Specific examples (verse 8)

8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

1. Sowing to evil

a) Lust, idolatry, temper, appetites, which are never satisfied with “enough”

2. Reaping corruption

a) The prophet Hosea, “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind” (Hos 8:7).

b) Think for your self what you reap with each one of these things

3. Do we know how to Sow to the spirit? What are its seeds?

a) Toward God—we sow in the Spirit, faith and obedience

b) Toward men—love, truth, justice, kindness, forbearance

c) Toward self—control of appetite, purity, etc

4. Reap eternal life, what is the reaping of the Spirit?

a) Life everlasting dwelling within us and abiding there forever.

! VI.We are sowing

A. It is not a question whether I sow or not today

1. The only question to be decided is:

a) Shall I sow good seed or bad?

b) Every person is always sowing for their own harvest in eternity either tares or wheat

c) As a man sows, he also reap

2. Suppose a we collect a quantity of small gravel and dye it carefully, so that resembles wheat, and sow it in fields in spring, expecting that it reap a crop of wheat like a person who actually sowed wheat…

a) What will be the result of harvest for each

3. We are foolish to think by resembling something that we can be that something

a) We can not evade the laws of nature, and mock nature and God’s design

b) For us to be wheat we must be transformed form being a tare

c) If we sow wickedness now, and expects to reap safety at last. We could be sorely mistaken…

d) Sin or bad seed is not only profitless and disastrous; it is eminently a deceitful work

(1) We do not set out to be godless; sin cheats a sinner out of his soul.

4. But sowing righteousness is never, lost labor

a) Every act done by God’s grace, and at His bidding, is living and fruitful

b) The seed we sow may appear to go out of sight, like seed beneath the furrow; but it will rise again

c) We do not see the seed once it is sown,

d) We sow in faith, might sow in fall, the evidence of things not yet seen…..comings in the springing forth of life

(1) Evidence of life is not the time to harvest

(2) Evidence of ripeness is

(3) The word for “the proper time” is kairos, the same word Paul used in

Galatians 4:4

4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

(4) To describe the opportune moment, the fullness of time, in which God sent his Son into the world. The same expression is used in

1 Timothy 6:15

15 which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

(5) To describe the second advent of Christ—“which God will bring about in his own time.”

e) We will reap in joy after the harvest

Psalm 41:1

1 How blessed is he who considers the helpless;

The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.

B. There is a harvest, being delivered now out of the day of trouble

C. Is that all? No!

Matthew 25:35

35‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;

“Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you”;

1. There is a harvest at the end of it

VII. Let us not loose heart do not quit (verse 9)

9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

A. Natural tendency is to loose heart in doing good

1. Natural tendency of gravity is to pull downward

B. Paul included himself in this

C. Paul had several things for the Galatians to do

1. To persevere in the faith, knowing that,

a) God will fulfill his promise and bring to pass all things in accordance with the good pleasure of his own divine will

2. Throughout Gal 5&6 Paul instructed the Christians of Galatia

a) Expel the agitators, love your neighbor as yourself, keep in step with the Spirit by manifesting the fruit of the Spirit in your lives, practice church discipline by restoring those who have fallen, bear one another’s burdens, examine yourself in light of the judgment seat of Christ, and provide material support for those who instruct you in the faith.

b) Paul summarized all of these duties under the description of “doing good.”

D. In due time

1. It takes time to see the results

a) They are not instantaneous

2. We will reap

3. If we do not grow weary

a) One of the greatest frustrations in the Christian walk, and a principal cause for “weariness in well doing,” is the inability to calculate the spiritual outcome of faithful labors in the work of the Lord

b) For this reason we must be cautious in putting too much stock in what we often call “visible results.”

c) We serve a Sovereign God who has promised that his Word will not return void

d) The ultimate harvest is assured, but it will only come “at the proper time,” that is, in God’s own good time.

VIII. So then, while we have the opportunity (verse 10)