The Blessed Holy Spirit (Part six)

Communion.

Greet everyone and first time visitors!

This morning we will be continuing our series entitled, “The Blessed Holy Spirit”. And over the course of the past 6 weeks, we have taken a look at who the Holy Spirit is, we have answered the question of why Yeshua sent Him to us and we’ve talked about how He operates within the life of a true born again child of God.

Today, I thought that we were going to take up from where I left off last week. In last week’s message, I talked about the directive that the Apostle Paul gave to us about our “walking” in the Holy Spirit of God. And I was going to talk more today about walking in the power of Holy Spirit and also about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And as a reminder, in case you were not here before, I mentioned that Paul issued some commands in his epistles for the Body of Christ to adhere to, for the sake of our walk with the Lord. He said that we are to be continually “filled” with the Holy Spirit, that we are to “sow” to the Spirit and that we are to “walk” with the Spirit. And it was the latter of the three that I began sharing with you last week, “walking in the Spirit”.

As of yet within this series, I have not really talked about the command of “sowing” to the Spirit. But there does exist a spiritual law and thus a command given for each and every believer to follow that Paul speaks about in Galatians 6:7-10, where he says,

Galatians 6:7–10 ESV

7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he 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 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

For the sake of clarity and because I have mentioned this particular spiritual law and command to you again this morning, I’ll spend some time today sharing about this command and then at a later time and date, I will devote more time and attention to it.

And then, time permitting, we will move on this morning to where I said that we would be going from last week’s message, but that may not happen today!

Let me say, right from the get-go, that it ‘s imperative that we understand exactly who the apostle Paul is addressing in this letter. In fact, you really need to understand who Paul was writing to, in each one of his epistles.

And as far as that goes, we need to understand who all of the epistles were being written to by the Biblical authors in their day and time.

The epistles, the letters that were penned by the New Testament writers, were all written to the body of Christ in that day and age.

In other words, these authors were not writing letters to encourage and instruct non-believers “at that time”, but rather, they were writing to other fellow believers in various places where the gospel message had already been preached.

These letters were being written to encourage fellow Christians who were facing trials and persecution, they were written to instruct the new believers in the various locations as to how to operate as the Body of Christ.

They were written to exhort, to rebuke, to strengthen and encourage, to indoctrinate and to make sure that the precious gospel truth was going forth in clarity and without wavering in the face of a hostile world.

These letters were written to body of Christ, as instructed by the Holy Spirit of God, to help the believers in their walk along the path of sanctification, as well as how to lead other non-believers onto that path.

Now that everyone is clear about the writing of these letters, let’s move forward, shall we?

Now, back to our passage and as to the command that Paul issues to us in Galatians 6:7-10.

Paul begins in this chapter by addressing the issue of those believers who have begun wandering off of the path of righteousness and falling back into sin.

He tells tells the faithful Christians in Galatia that they are to “gently” and “humbly”, help to lead that person back onto the right path, the path of righteousness.

And as soon as he says this, he follows it up with the command to make sure that they are careful and that they not lured into the same temptation and sin, themselves, while helping the the believer who has fallen back into sin.

If you’ll remember, the Lord God said to Cain all the way back at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis 4, where He warned Cain, “But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

Sin and the temptation that leads to it, is always going to right around every corner in the life of a believer.

And sins of others and the lifestyle that they may have fallen prey to, can become very alluring to any one of us if we are not careful in guarding our hearts and minds and thoughts according to the Word of God and by listening to the Holy Spirit and His convicting and prompting us about that situation.

This goes back to what we talked about last week, from Galatians 5:16, where Paul commands us to “walk by the Spirit”. Paul instructs in saying, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

If we will listen to Him as He leads and directs us, and we thus “walk” in Him, (that is, live our daily lives) in accordance to His will and His directing of us, then will be able to withstand the fiery darts of the enemy and abstain from the temptations to sin!

If another believer falls back into sin, they become completely beaten down with shame and condemnation from the enemy. That is the way that he manipulates and controls the sinner.

Through the weight and burden of condemnation and shame and lies that hold them captive in their heart and mind!

And for this reason, Paul says that we are to come alongside of them and lead them back to the path of righteousness and thus help to bear one another’s burdens.

James says the same thing in James 5:19-20, where he instructs the believers in saying,

James 5:19–20 ESV

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

When you see a brother or a sister who is falling back into sin and you come alongside of them, gently and humbly and out of love for that person, you direct them back to repentance, according to the Word of God, and thus back onto the path of righteousness, then you are leading them away from a life of future sin and corruption and, invariably death.

That is the path of sin, that is the future of sin and that is the ultimate climax for a life lived in unrepentant sin.......DEATH!

For this reason, James listed out for us the lifecycle of sin.

He said that because of the lusts in our hearts (the carnal side of us), we are “carried away” (away from the what is right according to the Lord God) and thus we become tempted to sin.

And if we yield to our desire and thus to the temptation for sin, then our lust conceives and gives birth to sin.

And when sin is allowed to grow and mature in your life, then its end result is DEATH!

DEATH is the spiritual finality of unrepentant sin.

Your faithful actions can help to cover and prevent a multitude of future sins and thus the spiritual death of another person.

And then Paul comes out and openly states in the passage that we read a few minutes ago in Galatians 6:7-10, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked”.

And I love the way that the AMP version of the Bible expounds on this verse. It says it like this, “Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.)

In other words, you’re only fooling yourself if you think that yo can live in sin and escape the justice of God and His Word and His will!

And then Paul states the spiritual law, “For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap.”

You ALWAYS harvest, reap what you plant!

If you sow to your sinful nature, then you will definitely reap, you will harvest in the proper season, death and decay and destruction!

“BUT.........he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life!”

You and I get to choose which one we will sow into and what we will end up harvesting, reaping from our lives and the way we live them.

The command is thus, “SOW TO THE SPIRIT and you will REAP ETERNAL LIFE! SOW TO FLESH and you will REAP DEATH and DECAY!”

It’s your choice! It’s the same thing that Moses stated thousands of years ago, when he stood before the Israelites, before they were about to enter the promised land and he said to them, “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. It is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.”

In other words, Moses was saying, “Here is the command; I have given it to you and now it is recited from your own mouth and engrained into your own heart and mind. You are without excuse for what you do from this point forward.”

And then Moses says it, “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live!”

This is what Paul is calling “sowing into the Spirit”!

“BUT.......if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods (i.e. living in “SIN”and rebellion against God), then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed.”

This is “sowing to the flesh”!

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life.”

“God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap!”

If I plant green bean seeds, then I will reap, I will harvest, green beans.

If I sow cucumber seeds, I will reap cucumbers.

If I sow melon seeds, I will reap melons!

And if I sow apple seeds, in the course of time (not quick like summer vegetables), the plant will mature into an apple tree and in its due season, it will produce for me a harvest of apples.

In the course of time, whatever you sow, you must reap!

That is a natural law and it is MOST DEFINITELY a spiritual law as well!

If you sow to your own flesh, you reap corruption.

If you sow to the Spirit, you will, from the Spirit, reap eternal life!

And Paul closes this section by reminding us in saying, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up!”

This is not a “one and done” sort of thing!

We don’t sow into the Spirit for one season of our lives and then expect to keep reaping from the Spirit, from then on!

The law states that whatever you sow to, you will reap from.

One season of sowing in the Spirit, followed by a lifetime thereafter of sowing to the flesh. What do you think that the end harvest will be?

We MUST keep sowing to the Spirit. As Paul said, “in due season we will reap, if we do not give up!”

Or, as our Lord Jesus said in Luke 9:62, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

If you grab the plow handle and want to plow a straight line for your harvest, you must keep looking forward.

If you stop to look back, then you will allow the plow to deviate from the desired path and you are thus nor worthy to be behind the plow.

What good is a worker who is all over the place with the plow, cutting into other lines of the garden that are being sown for other crops, just because he will not devote himslef to looking in the right direction?

He is not fit for the position and he will not be allowed to finish the job, because his heart and mind are no longer invested in what he was called to do.

A plowman who can’t plow is of no worth to someone wanting to grow crops.

Just like salt, if it has lost its saltiness, is no longer of any use to anyone.

And Jesus called every believer, “the SALT of the earth”, right?

Starting off salty and then losing it, is of no use to the kingdom of God!

Just like a light that is meant to shine, but is then put under a basket, is of no use at all to anyone!

We MUST keep our eye ahead, ever looking ahead.

Just as Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us,

Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV)

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let me ask you a question. Jesus, the Son of God, was the Messiah, right?

He was the perfect, spotless lamb of God. And no one else could ever do what He did, correct?

The author of Hebrews points out that Jesus, although He knew the shame and humiliation and the physical and mental torture and ultimately the death, of the cross that He would go through ahead of time...........He still endured the cross and as a sign of His completed work, He is now seated at the right hand of God!

My question is this, “If Jesus would have cried out, right in the middle of the crucifixion, and had He had called upon legions of angels to come and remove Him from the cross and stop His suffering and He thus never finished the process of paying for our sins, would we still have the offer of salvation today, just because He started the process?”

I think that you know the answer to that question already!

NO.........all hope for us would have been lost at that moment!

BUT, praise be to Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” for our sake!

For this reason, Paul said to the Christians in Colossae, in Colossians 1:21-24,

Colossians 1:21–24 (ESV)

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

22 he has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him,

23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the church,

Paul is stressing to the believers in Colossae, that they MUST continue and finish this walk with the Lord that they started and not fall away from it.

And for that reason, Paul said he was “filling up what was lacking in Christ’s affliction for the sake of His body”.

In other words, Paul is saying that just as Jesus suffered ridicule and public humiliation in His earthly ministry and then counted it all joy to suffer and endure the cross for our sake and He finished that work on the cross, completely and forever, so then Paul MUST also continue in the work of Jesus and carry the gospel to everyone he can not stop, or turn away from this calling he had.

When he says that he was filling up what was lacking in Christ’s affliction, he was not saying that Jesus’ work on cross was incomplete, but rather, he was saying that because of what Jesus did for us on the cross as well as the life that He endured for 3.5 years leading to that cross during His ministry, he (Paul) must now take up the mantle of suffering for the cause and sake of the Christ and continue, like Jesus, in taking the gospel message to everyone, everywhere that he could!

Paul is saying, that you and I, us, we, are never to stop and turn back, once we start this walk and this task of suffering for the cause of Yeshua, because He never stopped in His suffering for us!

This is why Paul said to the Christians at Philippi, in Philippians 3:7-8, 10-11, 12-16,

Philippians 3:7–8 ESV

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Philippians 3:10–11 (ESV)

10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:12–16 (ESV)

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

And then Paul exhorts and encourages the believers and says, “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.”

Paul patterned his life after Jesus and imitated Him and then he encouraged the believers to follow his example and do the same based upon how they saw Paul living his life.

Paul stated in verse 18 of that passage, “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.”

Paul was saying that these are the people who want the glory and benefit of the savior, but they want nothing to do with the sacrifice and suffering of the cross!

They wanted it both ways.......to enjoy the things of this world and and still have the assurance of eternal salvation, without the denial of this life to get it!

And there are many today who teach that this very thing is possible. That is never the will of the Lord for us to suffer, or give up worldly things for the cause of His Kingdom!

And that we can live plush, comfortable lives until He calls us home, and that the suffering part for the cause of Christ, is to be left to those who live in these other third-world nations, because they were not born into a nation of blessings and favor and that is just their burden to bear!!

That is horrible for anyone to think that way. Like there are classes or grades of Christians and not all of them are entitled to the benefits of the kingdom, like others!

It all comes to back to the spiritual law of Galatians 6:7-8 that we looked at today. Whatever you sow into, that is what you will reap. Both here and in the life to come! God is not mocked and His laws of the kingdom will not be overturned by anyone and no exceptions will be made for anyone once they stand before Him, to answer for the life that they lived!

If we sow to the Holy Spirit, that is, if we live our lives following Him and listening to Him and adhering to God’s Word, which was inspired by Him, then we will reap eternal glory!

Or, if we sow to the flesh and try to live our lives enjoying this world and all that it has to offer, and ignore Holy Spirit and serving the Lord God with our lives, then we will reap eternal destruction!

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life!”

Dear friends, every thing that we do in this life right now matters. We are sowing seeds in one kingdom or the other.

I pray that you know the Lord intimately and that you are sowing seeds of righteousness into His kingdom with your life!

I know that I never got around to speaking today about the truth of walking in the power of Holy Spirit and also about the 3 baptisms, but that will just serve to wet your spiritual appetites for another message!!!!