Galatians 6:6-10B

Introduction

Please turn with me to for our Scripture for today.

Read and Pray

Recap of last weeks message. Explain how I’m sure several were confused as to how I found that in the passage but even Calvin, Luther and Spurgeon agreed with where I took that passage.

Yet as I stated last week, we first examined the historical understanding and how that should apply within the Church.

And today we will take the principle here which Paul lays out and examine it and apply it to much more than what Paul was addressing because the principle goes far beyond the Church providing for the pastor.

This theme goes into almost every aspect of our lives.

Move into Intro: We live in a society that believes contrary to this passage.

1. Explain that “Most people believe that they can live their life however they see fit with no thought about the Lord.” (Carnality in all forms)

One example is the happy slapping of Europe which turned into random public beatings.

On June 7th 1998 in Jasper Texas, James Byrd who was a black man accepted a ride from 3 strangers who were white men. Lawrence Brewer, John King and Shawn Berry. The offer was that the 3 men would give Byrd a ride home. Yet instead of taking the man home, they took him to a secluded and wooded area where they proceeded to beat and whip Byrd until he was beyond recognition. They broke his jaw, 4 ribs, his left shin, his orbital bone and then proceeded to smash his genitalia with a wrench. After this they removed his pants, tied a rope to his ankles and drug him behind their truck for 3 miles. Their goal was to make this as painful as possible for James Byrd. In the midst of their pulling him around, Byrd was decapitated and the 3 men scattered his body around town and in the black cemetery. All three men were indicted and charged with Capital Murder and Hate crimes and two of them recieved executions. Brewer who was executed for his crimes on September 21st 2011 remained adamant that he had done the right thing. As the guards walked him into the execution room and strapped him to the gurney, he is reported to have laughed and smiled the entire time. When the chaplain came to see him, he spit in his face and laughed about how we wasn’t sorry and that he would do all of this over again if he had the chance. He believed Byrd to be a worthless chunk of human flesh on the basis of the color of his skin. Now you might be wondering why in the world I told you such a grotesque story. It actually serves two purposes.

The first is that it reveals something that is intrinsically wrong with humanity in that they believe that God can be mocked. (Repentance was offered even in his last days)

Many live their lives as if there shall come no time of reckoning before God. They shall reap what they sow!

They believe that all of us will one day slip away into an eternal sleep, but He is there and He is not to be mocked. Whatever one sows, one will also reap.

Cory are you comparing us to these men in that story? If you honestly knew your own heart, you wouldn’t be asking me this question. The restraining hand of God holds back our wickedness.

Not to mention, God see our sin in much of the same ways. The very same God who was omnipotent, omniscient and omni-present when that happened to that young man is also present in every other life around. A mere disbelief in Him does not excuse one from having his sin known by God.

God will not stand by idly while His laws are broken with impunity, His name is defiled, His Gospel is despised and His Son rejected.

God sees all of creation. In every word, in every action and in every last thought. And one day, either now or in the future, what humanity is sowing will be harvested.

This goes far beyond what we would presume to be sinning in general. Did you realize that for someone to hear the good news and to reject it or even delay accepting it is one of the most atrocious rejections or mocking of God that we can commit?

God commands all men everywhere to repent and to believe the Gospel and tells us that God has made Himself so clearly visible in all of His creation that all men everywhere are without excuse.

God commands much more than some form of external recognition. He demands your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength and without surrendering that all to Him, you’ve failed to surrender to Him.

What is saddest about this is that there are probably millions over all of creation who know what I am telling you and think that they’ll have plenty of time when they’re near death. They cry out for the pastor to come and to comfort them and yet this whole time, they’ve rejected the very God who had given them the air they breathe.

I am not saying that deathbed conversions don’t happen, I am just saying that I don’t put much stock in them. To know all of this and to reject God until your soon to be face to face with him is to do nothing but to mock the King of all creation.

This is where we are at in a society though. This is where the natural man is at and by God’s grace, we can call them to repentance by the Sovereign hand of God.

2. I’d like to move onto my second point now and that is this, “God’s Moral Laws as well as God Himself will not be mocked by Christians.”

I’d like to move onto my second point now and that is this, “God’s Moral Laws as well as God Himself will not be mocked by Christians.”

Many Christians live as though since Jesus has died for their sins, they can now live how they want. The danger of this...

Often in this Christian life, we as Christians coddle sin. We take and dabble in little things by planting them. We run back to them time after time which results in them being watered. And yet somehow we are surprised when in the midst of our lives this fruit which springs forth is corruption.

Think about that in light of . “We are His handiwork created unto good works.”

Those good works are obedience to God’s moral Law.

We no longer desire to have other God’s before Him because He is the only true God.

We don’t bow down to carved or graven images because we worship the God who cannot be restrained and cannot be contained to those images.

We’ve no desire to blaspheme the name of the Lord our God because we can now see His holiness.

We come together to remember the Lord’s day in recognition of Christ and His atoning work.

We seek after honoring our parents in all aspects of our lives when we are able.

We don’t deface the image bearers of God through murder or hate because we have now been restored into a right relationship with Him and we see man’s need of a redeemer.

We don’t commit adultery because we see that it mocks and smears the image of Christ and His Church.

We don’t take from others what rightfully belongs to one another.

We don’t lie to or about one another.

And when it’s all said and done, most of us don’t covet what God has given to others.

On the surface it appears as though we’re pretty good at keeping God’s Moral laws and not mocking.

But as we dig deeper, is that really true?

I’d argue that this actually cannot be said for most of us. In some way, each of us are still struggling through in these areas.

Often in this Christian life, we as Christians coddle sin. We take and dabble in little things by planting them. We run back to them time after time which results in them being watered. And yet somehow we are surprised when in the midst of our lives this fruit which springs forth is corruption.

And in case we think we’re doing pretty good in keeping God’s moral Law and not breaking it, let’s look at them real quick.

Think about the greatest commandment. The Shemah and how Jesus put this.

Hear O’ Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might and with all your strength… And the second is like it.. Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Jesus and the NT Clarifies much of the OT.

This is where I believe we as Christians actually mock God.

Do we really love the Lord with all we have and also love one another as we love ourselves? Explain how we don’t. Failure to care for one another. Failure to have a genuine interest in each others spiritual well being. Failure to pour our lives into the lives of those around us for the edification of the saints.

This is nothing more than sowing to the flesh and we can see this by what it reaps. Look around and see the discontinuity and lack of genuine care for one another.

Because of this, we reap a harvest of self interest and selfish gain. (Out of everything everyone wants to complain about from the past here, the one thing I can see today is that there used to be a genuine care for one another)

God’s Word stands true, we reap what we sow.

So often in this Christian life

In terms of the Church here, we reap what we sow. Failing to put into the body a true care for the Church will reap a harvest of dissatisfaction and dissension.

If you sow a gossiping and slanderous seed, don’t be surprised when thats what we see come to the harvest.

Evil sowing will bring evil reaping. Sowing to the flesh breeds nothing but corruption within the heart of man. Even in those who are redeemed.

Listen to Spurgeon on this very issue, “Ah, my friend, if you go on living in sin, you will wake up, one day, surrounded by the fruition of your own guilt in all its awful enormity. On every hand, the harvest of your sowing to the flesh will stare you in the face, and God will place in your hand a sharp sickle, and will say to you, “Reap here! Reap there!” You will say, “I cannot do it;” but you sowed it, so you must reap it. What terrible misery there will be for you there; yet it will only be your own sin in its ripeness, your own transgression fully developed; and that awful harvesting will be infinitely more than you will be able to bear.”

Ah, my friend, if you go on living in sin, you will wake up, one day, surrounded by the fruition of your own guilt in all its awful enormity. On every hand, the harvest of your sowing to the flesh will stare you in the face, and God will place in your hand a sharp sickle, and will say to you, “Reap here! Reap there!” You will say, “I cannot do it;” but you sowed it, so you must reap it. What terrible misery there will be for you there; yet it will only be your own sin in its ripeness, your own transgression fully developed; and that awful harvesting will be infinitely more than you will be able to bear.

Everything that we do in this life is sowing to something! Explain from the minimum (sleeping in) to the Extreme (adultery of the heart). Children and our discipline in their lives.

Not a single moment will pass by in your life that your are not sowing to something. Because of this, we as Christians must actively pursue sowing to that which will bring a good harvest.

3. That brings us to the last point of our text and that is this; We are called as Christians to sow to the Spirit so that we will reap that which is eternal.

Many have claimed this is speaking now about salvation by works. Let’s remember the context. Paul just got done expounding Justification by faith alone, in Christ alone which is by grace alone. I assure you he was not speaking in terms justification.

We sow towards our sanctification in this life. God has called sinners to Himself, He has Justified them and He will Glorify them, but the process of sanctification is progressive. It continues every day of our Christian life.

Because of this, we must so through the Power of the Holy Spirit within our own life to reap what is everlasting and truly meaningful. (To sow by the Spirit we must be guided by the Spirit, Go back and check our hearts with Spiritual fruit from ).

Cory, how can we tell the difference?

Examples of sowing to the Spirit. We live our lives poured out for Christ Jesus as an offering to Him. We no longer think first about what will satisfy us, instead we think about how this will impact our brother or sister in Christ. We spend our time praying for one another.

Examples: We spend our time encouraging one another. Exhorting one another away from sin when it shows up and towards Christ.

You pursue Jesus with everything you have! You give up that which might be enjoyable for you but of no profit eternally. You set your eyes upon the person and work of Jesus and you run to Him!

You set out your finances that the purpose of the Church which is to glorify Christ and make Him known to all the world may be advanced.

You take the things that are taught from this pulpit and you pursue their truth within the text of Scripture to see that they are true and when you find them to be true, you change your position or your belief and you conform to the image of Christ.

Lastly, you set out to make this wonderful Jesus who upon the cross of calvary, took what rightfully belonged to you and recieved it fully from the Lord and you tell this lost and dying world about it.

Can you imagine how joyous your heart will feel when you proclaim God’s answer for mans issue to someone and God draws that person to Himself and you get to witness that lightbulb we call regeneration take place? That is sowing for all of eternity. That person came to saving faith by the Sovereign hand of God who used you to share Christ. They will spend all of their eternity with Christ our King in part because you sowed to what is eternal.

All of these are mere thoughts on ways that you can sow to that which is eternal.

At the end of the day, I want you to see that this life which you have is fleeting. It is temporal and in an instant it can be over. Not one of us in this room on the day when we enter into our eternal rest will ever be dissatisfied because we won’t get to watch another youtube video.

We won’t be dissatisfied because we can’t kick back and do nothing with our afternoon. Yet I’d be willing to bet that each of us would be extremely disappointed to see what we could have had in eternal reward if we would have just been faithful with what we were given.

4. Before we end I want to give a word of exhortation to those who don’t have Christ as their redeemer.

Every single day that you live as one who is unredeemed and rebellious against God is another day you spend sowing into an eternity with a destructive harvest coming your way.

Would you please listen to my words on this issue. You have this very day a chance to sow towards that which will reap an eternal reward for you.

Gospel

Prayer