Sowing IN the Spirit
Notes
Transcript
DISTRIBUTE HANDOUT
Review
Review
Last week, we began the four-part Bible study series by looking at some foundational truths:
Man looks at the outside, but God looks on our heart - 1 Sam. 16:7
One day, all people will be judged! (Rom. 14:12 — “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”)
God will judge everyone according to truth—the truth of God’s Word. (Rom. 2:2 — “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.” Also, John 17:17)
The Bible is reliable! In fact, it is more reliable than our own physical senses. (2 Peter 1:19 — “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”)
Many folks are trusting in their own goodness to deliver them on the day of judgment, but God’s law—the standard of judgment—shows us otherwise. After reviewing the Ten Commandments last week, we saw that with just some brief and honest self-examination, most of us are liars, thieves, murderers, dishonoring to our parents, covetous, idolaters, and adulterers. In case you feel you don’t fit into most of those categories, the Lord Jesus Christ condensed all the law into just two commands. It shouldn’t be too hard to follow just two commands, right? But those two commands are:
“Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
“Love thy neighbour as thyself.”
If you have failed, just once, to love God with all your being, then we might say you have broken 50% of God’s law! It’s not hard to say that all of us have also failed many times to love others as much as we love ourselves. By this measure, ALL of us have broken 100% of God’s law.
In case you feel that your guilt is still being exaggerated, we read James 2:10, which says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” There is no escaping it: you and I are guilty of violating ALL of God’s law! We like to “keep score,” and rank sins against others. But God sees only two conditions: total purity and righteousness, or sin and degradation. There is no middle ground. There is no “gray area” with God. If He was not perfectly righteous, He wouldn’t be God. If He could allow just one sin into Heaven, it wouldn’t be Heaven anymore.
We will be much closer to where God wants us to be once we understand and agree with Him about the extreme wickedness of sin—ALL sin. Just one sin was enough to need Christ’s shed blood on the cross for cleansing, and all of us are guilty of innumerable sins in our lifetime. We are vile, wicked sinners in God’s sight.
That was our sobering conclusion last week, but there is reason for hope!
I. Two Kinds of People
I. Two Kinds of People
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A. Lost
All those who are not God’s children—are not related to Him—are spiritually lost.
And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Very rarely is “lost” used in a positive light! It is almost universally used as a negative term. Zacchaeus is clearly referred to as the reason Christ came: because he had been lost.
Perhaps many of you are familiar with the sinking of the WW2 battleship USS Indianapolis. In July 1945, the Indianapolis had just completed her top-secret mission of delivering components for the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan at the end of the war. On her return voyage, she was struck by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine at midnight. She sank in 12 minutes. Of her crew of 1,196 sailors and marines, about 900 survived the sinking. However, their nightmare was just beginning. The Navy was unaware of the ship’s sinking. These men were floating in the great Pacific Ocean, lost.
There were few life rafts; most men just had their standard life jackets, which were rated as flotation devices for up to three days. As the sun rose in the east, the sharks began to circle around and beneath the group of men. They tried to fend them off as best as they could, but many were killed in gruesome fashion. As the hot sun and lack of food or water began to take its toll, men began to give in to the nearly irresistible urge to drink the salt water, which brought on rapid hallucinations. Some men began to see the Indianapolis below them in fine shape, complete with water fountains. As they attempted to swim down to her, they were drowned or taken by sharks. Other men would believe they glimpsed land in the distance, and would swim off, only to be swiftly killed. Others would become combative and would fight their shipmates, dragging them down into the water to die. Of the approximately 900 that survived the ship’s sinking, only 317 were rescued nearly five days after the ship went down.
The suffering of these men is hard to comprehend. How these men wished for rescue from their lost condition! But the peril of a lost sinner, in jeopardy of eternal judgment in the lake of fire, is a far more terrible threat! This is what it means to be lost.
As lost sinners proceed through life, eternal judgment threatens on all sides. Dying without Christ is an ever-present possibility! The crew of the Indianapolis were threatened by thirst, starvation, sharks, drowning, and more. The lost sinner is surrounded by things that send him into eternity. And Christ may return at any moment. If you are lost today, don’t ignore your peril!
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B. Saved
The opposite of “lost” is “saved”! If you are God’s child, you have been saved from the condemnation and guilt of your sins.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Many lost people today are drowning in their sin and despair, with death on every side. They have no assurance of deliverance, and are constantly searching for hope of any kind. But God has given us the Bible so that we may read it and be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.
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C. Unrighteous
The Bible also says that the lost are unrighteous.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Last week we saw that breaking God’s law makes one a sinner, who is unrighteous. If you are unrighteous and lost today, you are not on your way to Heaven!
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Not one person can inherit the kingdom of God through their own power, because none of us is righteous!
D. Righteous
After the apostle Paul describes the kinds of people who are unrighteous in 1 Corinthians, he says this in verse 11.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Praise God that the unrighteous can be made righteous! How does this happen?
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
It’s possible for a lost person to be saved; it’s possible for an unrighteous person to be made righteous.
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E. Unforgiven
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
This verse is describing the joy of being forgiven; that is a specific blessing that some people enjoy. When were you forgiven by God of your sin? If you can’t point to a place and a time when you were forgiven, then you are still unforgiven, unrighteous, and lost.
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F. Forgiven
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
It is an amazing thing that we may be forgiven, considering the multitude of our sins! Not only that, but it is amazing that we can be forgiven, considering how wicked our sin is. All sinners do not fully understand the perversity of our sin. Our sins aren’t just “mistakes” or “errors.” They are vile attacks against the law and character of the holy God. But thanks to His mercy, we may be forgiven!
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G. Enemies of God
What sense does it make to become the enemy of God? Yet that is what we are because of our sin.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
We directly oppose and attack God’s work when we sin. We have made ourselves His enemy. But He is not our enemy. He seeks to save sinners!
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H. Reconciled to God
What is the opposite of being enemies? It is two people who have been reconciled. They are no longer at odds; they have been brought together again.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Reconciliation isn’t accomplished merely because we decide we want it. We are the offenders; we can’t just persuade God to forget about our sins! If we are to be reconciled to God, we must achieve it His way.
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I. Condemned
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
This is a judicial term, and invokes the mental image of a trial that has concluded. The jury has found the defendant guilty, and the judge has pronounced the sentence. The criminal is condemned. There is no more evidence to be submitted or deliberation to be made. The penalty for the crime has been announced and handed out. And so it is with sinners. You don’t have to do anything to get God to condemn you, lost sinner. You are already condemned. It’s not a matter of if your sentence will begin, but when.
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J. Justified
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
“Justified” is a wonderful word! A condemned person has no hope, but a justified person has no fear! There is no fear that the law might take them, because a justified person is not a debtor to the law! Only God can make a sinner justified, and pay their debt to the law. Are you justified today?
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K. Under wrath
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Justification is needed in order to rescue us from wrath. If you are still condemned, you are scheduled to endure the wrath of God. John 3:16 tells us that God loves the world, but God hates sin with a Godly hatred, and He will pour out His wrath upon unforgiven sinners who have not been justified. Being under wrath is a frightening condition!
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
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L. Accepted
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
For someone who is accepted by God, there is no more wrath to be feared! What a marvelous thing—to move from being the object of God’s wrath, to becoming acceptable to Him! What a loving and merciful God He is to sinners!
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M. Eternity in Hell
All of us will spend eternity somewhere. Those who are not God’s children will spend eternity under God’s wrath, in the lake of fire.
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Let us remember that God isn’t a vengeful God, just hoping to have an opportunity to punish us. He is a merciful, loving God, who sent His sinless Son to die for the sins of mankind! However, most people don’t want to give their lives to God and have Him as their Heavenly Father. Those who reject Christ will die and go to the lake of fire, to burn there forever.
N. Eternity in Heaven
The sinners who have been saved and forgiven, who are reconciled and justified and accepted by God, will spend eternity in Heaven with Him!
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
What a day that will be! When Christ returns, will He catch you up into Heaven to live with Him?
None of us can travel to Heaven under our own power. We need God to take us there. So how does one go about “qualifying” for Heaven?
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II. Man’s Attempts
II. Man’s Attempts
If we are honest, we will admit that we know we’re not naturally right with God. We understand we don’t meet God’s righteous standards. This is why many people are religious. They spend their time doing religious things to try to make themselves right with God. What kinds of things do they do?
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A. Good deeds
Serving at the church, volunteering in the community, helping those in need. These things impress God, right? Many people are hoping so.
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B. Read the Bible
Surely God is impressed when we take the time to crack open His book and read it, right?
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C. Pray
How could God not be pleased when people pray to Him? Just listen to the way some people pray!
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D. Give money
God commanded that people support the church, didn’t He?
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E. Attend church
Church attendance is also commanded! Isn’t this the kind of behavior that makes God pleased with us?
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F. Baptism
Again, baptism is commanded by God. When people obey this command, God must be impressed. This is how many people think, but God tells us in no uncertain terms what He thinks about all these things.
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It’s amazing to me how many folks have refused to hear what the Bible says. They are not interested in hearing God’s opinion on the matter, because they like their own opinion better. But let us remember that Heaven is God’s home, and eternity is God’s domain. We NEED to know and obey what He says about the matter!
III. God Says
III. God Says
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
NO deeds of ours can justify us before the law. Our deeds have condemned us!
But we are all as an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
And we all do fade as a leaf;
And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
How can someone who is thoroughly polluted by their own sin produce anything that is clean in God’s sight? We can’t.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
No matter how much good a murderer tries to do, he is still a murderer. He cannot remove the murder from his past…and we cannot remove our sin from our record. No good works of ours can wipe away our guilt! Only God can cleanse us.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
The sin is ours, the unrighteousness is ours, and the guilt is ours. It is impossible for us to save ourselves. Only God can save us, and it is without the assistance of our works!
Which group of people are you in today? Are you lost, or are you saved? Are you unrighteous, or forgiven? Are you the enemy of God, or are you accepted by Him? If HE has never made you accepted, then you are still condemned. If you are, don’t ignore your peril! Come to God today.
IV. The Saints Must Sow In the Spirit
IV. The Saints Must Sow In the Spirit
If you’re saved today, then you need to be occupied in bringing lost sinners to Christ! There is a right way and a wrong way to go about this. At least most of us here today are familiar with what the book of Galatians tells us about living according to the flesh, vs. living according to the Spirit of God.
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.
In Galatians chapter 5, we see these differences described more fully.
Gal. 5:16-25
As the children of the Heavenly Father proceed to life, God expects them to serve Him. We’ve been discussing the need for vision and for laboring in the spiritual “harvest fields,” working to preach the Gospel to lost sinners. As we do this, it is absolutely imperative that we sow the seed of the Word of God under the control of the Holy Spirit of God, and not in the power of our flesh.
It may be easy for us to think of Gal. 5:16 as no more than an “antidote” to sin. “If you want victory over sin, then you need to walk in the Spirit.” This is a true statement, but the truth in this verse goes much deeper than that. We may think of “walking” in this verse as essentially “acting in the interests of.” If a saint is walking in the flesh, he is acting in the interests of his flesh. What his flesh wants, he will seek to obtain. That may include necessary things like food, clothing and shelter, but it also will most certainly include fulfilling sinful desires.
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
If a person is acting in the interests of his fleshly desires, how can he possibly please God, even if he is involved in distributing the Gospel? If God is able to use the Gospel in that situation, it is most definitely in spite of the saint, not in partnership with Him. As we seek to witness of Christ to a lost world, it is absolutely critical that we do so as we walk in the Spirit, acting in the interests of God. When we do this, we WILL see God do great things. Consider these examples.
Ananias and Sapphira — Acts 5:1-11
This couple clearly were walking according to the flesh. Their flesh desired the praise of men that came with great sacrifice, but they also wanted the profit that came with less sacrifice. So they tried to have both. They were acting in the interests of their fleshly desires.
Peter, on the other hand, was clearly walking in the Spirit. I believe God gave him the discernment needed to see through the lie in vs. 3. When we are living in the interests of God, He will help us to do that according to His will!
But maybe Peter heard about this sale elsewhere; maybe he already knew the sale price of the possession. We still know that he was walking in the Spirit, because of his response in vs. 3-4. Instead of taking Ananias’ sin personally and getting offended and angry, Peter identified the real sin. Instead of threatening Ananias for lying to the church, Peter truthfully stated that Ananias had lied to God, and sinned against God. (THAT is the most serious offense here!) If Peter had not been walking in the Spirit, but had been trying to serve God in the power of his flesh, how might this episode been different?
If you go through your day living in the interests of your flesh, how will you be prepared to properly respond to the challenges of the day? How will you be ready to “preach the Gospel to every creature”?
Christ and the rich young ruler — Mark 10:17-22
By studying Scripture, we understand that this young man was very deceived. He believed he had kept the commandments! (Even in our deception, we are left lacking and wanting a real relationship with Jesus Christ.) Christ was, of course, walking in the Spirit. He answered this young man according to the will of God. If I had been talking to this man, I probably would have tried to correct his thinking that he had NOT kept the commandments! That may very well have started an argument, leaving us both frustrated. However, when the Spirit of God is in control, He will help us give the answer that others need to hear. Even when others do not come to Christ—this man left empty and grieved—we may rejoice, knowing that God was at work. How can we think we can possibly do the work of the Great Commission in the power of our flesh? We need to ALWAYS be walking in the Spirit, but especially before we go to sow the seed of God’s Word. We need to sow IN the Spirit.
May God use the saved here today to bring the lost in this room to Him!