26 THE BOOK OF GALATIANS – CHAPTER 6:7-8 - Message 26 – WHAT IS SOWN MUST BE REAPED – THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES. WHAT ARE YOU SOWING?
[1]. INTRODUCTION
These verses follow on from the last message which was all about sharing what we have with those engaged in the work of the Lord. The next set of verses moves us to another area, though I am sure these verses are related to the previous one, verse 6.
In that last message we looked at the financial support of God’s true ministers. I am always sad at the offering monies going to charlatans and to men in positions that have nothing to do with God’s work. I suspect too many are on the gravy train. There is nothing you or I can do about all these hangers-on but we need to be circumspect in the money we give. Some churches in Australia were promoting a well-known charity supporting overseas relief work but around 40% of the money that was given went into Australian administration salaries. The CEO did very well out of it. Good stewardship should not support that.
In our small church group, all our money in offerings goes to genuine Christian ministries – Leprosy, Barnabas, Voice of the Martyrs and a couple of others where none of it is lost in extraneous personnel. I feel that is more in line with what the apostolic age churches were like. All I would do is caution those of you in certain denominational churches to make sure you know where the finances are going. If you are unhappy before the Lord about misuse of offering money, then give independently.
Just before I leave this subject, you remember in Galatians 6:6 - {{“Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.”}}. We concentrated in the last message on money but the verse actually goes deeper than that. The words “all good things” covers time and certainly material things such as donation some necessary item to the family or to the children. It also means taking the full time worker and his family out sometimes. The applications are wide but I leave it there.
[2]. DON’T FOOL YOURSELF FOR WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN
{{Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for WHATEVER A MAN SOWS, THIS HE WILL ALSO REAP,
Galatians 6:8 for the one who SOWS TO HIS OWN FLESH shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who SOWS TO THE SPIRIT shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.”}}
In these two verses there is a general principle but more specific ones. The general principle is “You will reap what you sow.” The world has expressions for this:- “the chickens come home to roost”; “what goes up must come down”; “you need to pay for your actions”; “what goes around comes around”; “your deeds shape your fate”; “you made your bed, now lie in it.”
All the above mean that there are consequences for behaviour. This is just so common to us that we don’t even question it. Drop a glass and it will probably smash; go out in the rain and you will get wet; exceed the speed limit and possibly you get a fine; turn the ignition key in the car and it will start.
A scientific principle is that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is just a law found in science but it also has application to us. “To every action, there will be an outcome; for every action, there will be consequences. These may be good or bad depending on the action.
That is how sin works. It is also how the leading of the Spirit works. Almost all non-Christians do not consider that sin will have its day of reckoning. They sin without a second thought. In fact most do not count their actions as sin because what they commit is just part of normal life for them. It is as simple as a cat chasing a mouse it spies.
I am sure that a person who sins is most satisfied with him/herself as it has a “natural feel” about it. Some bicycle person stole from my car while it was unattended for just a couple of minutes, about $150 which really annoyed me, and sometimes I think about that and try to reason out what the thief must feel. I concluded that the person has no conscience about what was done, for he is just following the natural instincts of the old sinful nature.
However that person, unless he repents, will have his actions called into account one day for all sin has its penalty. Likewise all good works done by the leading of the Holy Spirit will have their rewards. The universal law of good and evil operates.
There are two statements that open verse 7 and important ones they are. The first says “Do NOT be deceived.” This is the state where one is deluded into believing what is not real. Someone who says that God will not judge them because they have a moral life, or that their sins are not rape and murder, so God will overlook them, is deluded. They are deceived by sin. Sin is the greatest net of deception there is.
People are deluded by evolution, and humanism, and philosophy, and advocacy for homosexuality, and all the remainder that would be on God’s list. When God says, not to be deceived, the world is too deceived to understand God is speaking with the citizens of the world.
However, this verse was written not to the unconverted but to Christians, so it is to them the meaning of the verse must apply. The sowing to the flesh and the sowing to the Spirit must apply to Christians. We will look into that in more detail shortly.
The second statement opening verse 7 says, “God is not mocked.” What does that mean? Mocking God here is to disregard what He says and throw it in His face. Men before the flood mocked God by rejecting the message of Noah. The residents of Judah mocked God before the Babylonians overthrew them. They ill-treated Jeremiah, laughed at him and treated him with ignore.
{{Jeremiah 10:15 “THEY ARE WORTHLESS, A WORK OF MOCKERY; In the time of their punishment they will perish.”}} This is what Jeremiah is declaring about the people. Mockery owns them, controls them, and will doom them, and it did. Incidentally, that verse was so important that it was repeated late on in the prophet’s ministry – {{Jeremiah 51:18 “They are worthless, a work of mockery; In the time of their punishment they will perish.”}}
The other verse I want to mention is this one – {{Jeremiah 20:7 “O LORD, YOU HAVE DECEIVED ME and I was deceived. You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long. EVERYONE MOCKS ME.”}} In his reflective time with the Lord he is burdened to share what his soul and body is feeling. He feels God deceived him because he is copping such abuse and persecution. I think Jeremiah may have thought because the Lord sent him to Judah, then the people world listen but they did not and they turned on Jeremiah. They all mocked him.
God is not mocked, nor accepts deception from human beings, but all actions will reap what has been sown, and what they are sowing.
[3]. THE CONTEXT OF VERSES 7 AND 8 IS TO CHRISTIANS
It is very possible for Christians to have the wool pulled over their eyes so they don’t see aright, and it is nothing more than delusion. Setting this in context, a Christian can think of himself more highly than he ought to do; think he is something important when he is not. He can excuse himself from sharing with others especially with those in ministry, making trivial “proofs” for himself.
He can be slack in assisting the needs of others and not lifting the burdens of others to his shoulder. {{Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for WHATEVER A MAN SOWS, THIS HE WILL ALSO REAP.”}} The worst deception is when you think you are acceptable to God but you are not. Is a Christian sowing godliness and harmony and advancement of the kingdom?
If a Christian is not measuring up then he is like a worker given a patch of ground to grow watermelons. After 5 months the supervisor comes along to inspect the fruit and there is none. “What is the meaning of this?” he asks. “Master,” came the reply, “did you not notice the splendid building I constructed and the drainage channels, and the sturdy fence?”
“But where is the fruit, demanded the Master, “the reaping from what you have sown for my desire?” There was none, not one watermelon. We may be engaged in so many things but what about the will of our heavenly Master and the serving of the Lord?
What did that man sow? He sowed to his own desires and fancies. Christian, if you do that then you have mocked God and you deceive yourself.
[4]. THE ENORMOUSLY BIG CONTRAST
{{Galatians 6:8 “for the one who SOWS TO HIS OWN FLESH shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who SOWS TO THE SPIRIT shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.”}}
Paul gives the two outcomes for reaping and they are corruption and eternal life. There is no other option. There is no such thing like a pass mark of 51% - getting there only just.
The outcome is determined by the base; as a duck will produce ducks and not chickens, then the base will be true to itself. The flesh will produce corruption and the Spirit will produce spiritual goodness. Which base are you building on, Christian?
Sowing to one’s flesh is according to the old evil nature inherited through our birth and its fruit will be selfishness, pride, dissention, carnality, dishonesty, laziness, preoccupation with the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the pride of life, friction . . . Try Galatians 5 for more of them. Is a Christian capable of those wrong attitude and behaviour just mentioned? Yes, he and she can! We need to take serious stock of ourselves and do what verse 4 says – {{Galatians 6:4 “but let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another,”}}
On the other hand, sowing to the Spirit means being under the Holy Spirit’s direction, under His leadership, but how can we know that? This is an area that concerns Christians who wish to follow the Lord, especially younger believers.
A Christian is led by the Spirit when he lives with the Spirit. That is, he is committed to the Christian aspects of growth. What are they? Imagine you have married a Romanian wife and you intend living in Romania. You only speak English and you do not know Romanian culture. Well, you begin to study it by reading books and guides on all this. You try to learn some basic communication.
A new convert is similar to that. He now must learn the language in communication, and the “Christian culture” and do so earnestly. How is that done?
Well, the communication is called prayer and meditation. The “Christian culture” comes from studying the scriptures. You must thirst after the word of God and absorb it so that it becomes part of you. {{2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately THE WORD OF TRUTH,”}}
{{Philippians 1:10-11 “so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be SINCERE AND BLAMELESS UNTIL THE DAY OF CHRIST, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”}}. There is no such thing as a part time Christian. A part time Christian is no Christian at all. Sowing to the Spirit is growing in the bible and in commitment and relationship with the Lord. He is your constant companion, not having a one day on, one day off relationship.
Now, just bringing all this together – there are only two positions before God, “in Christ” or “not in Christ”. The outside world rejects the Lord and is dead to God; in darkness. The Christian is alive in God having been born again to a living hope. The Christian can be following his flesh which means he is producing corruption OR he can follow the Holy Spirit to produce fruit to eternal life.
I think the depth of commitment any professed Christian has depends on his appreciation of his salvation. The deeper the understanding and love for God because He saved you, then the deeper is the sowing to the Spirit, and the production of spititual standing leading to eternal life.
[5]. HARKENING BACK TO CONSEQUENCES
(A). GREAT WHITE THRONE. We began this message examining consequences for behaviour. There will always be consequences for actions. These are all on account both for the unsaved and the Christian. All outcomes are serious.
I think we all know about the judgement of the great white throne that happens after the Millennial reign of Christ and just before the creation of the new heavens and the earth. It will be a terrible time for those before the throne. The Church will also be there with Christ because after the Rapture of the Church in Revelation 4:1, the Church is NEVER separated from her Saviour and Bridegroom.
The dead are judged for the things written in the books. Here is that account – {{Revelation 20:11-14 “I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them, and I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, AND BOOKS WERE OPENED, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and THE DEAD WERE JUDGED FROM THE THINGS WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN THE BOOKS, ACCORDING TO THEIR DEEDS. The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds, and death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”}}
Even in judgement God is fair and impartial. What a miscarriage of justice would it be if some old woman who is not a Christian but has lived a life with kindness helping others; and the satanic monster Hitler who killed 6 million of God’s earthly people, both got the same penalty? God is just and His penalty and judgement are commensurate with the offence.
To end up in the lake of fire is not a myth or symbolic as Augustine would have us believe. Please make sure your salvation is made sure by faith. Turn from sin to the Saviour.
(B). JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST. Having just considered the fate of the unsaved, we now turn to the fate of believers. It is called the Judgement Seat of Christ, sometimes called The Bema. That is where all who are saved will be judged, but let’s pause there!
This judgement is NOT for penalties but for rewards. The Lord Jesus is not on the throne to belt you with a big stick. He is there to reward His saints with His commendation. “Well done, good and faithful servant”.
In other words, thinking of our Galatians passage, this is the place where Christians are going to reap what they have sown. I sometimes get a bit fearful about this judgement as I know in my life I have let the Lord done, even seriously sometimes, but He forgives us when we confess our sins.
This time is not for sins to penalize you for Jesus took all those on the cross. It is a time for rewards. Here is the passage – {{1 Corinthians 3:10-15 “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it, but let each man be careful how he builds upon it, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident, for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, HE SHALL RECEIVE A REWARD. If any man’s work is BURNED UP, HE SHALL SUFFER LOSS, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.”}}
Paul began that passage by asking us to be careful about how we build on the foundation. This all hinges on “what we sow that shall we reap”. It all hinges on sowing to the Spirit. Being surrendered to the will of God to do what he wants and following Him in doing what He leads us to, is to sow to the Spirit.
I think it will be a terrible thing for anyone to stand there and watch all the activity done since becoming a Christian, getting burned up so only ashes remain. O please, be a surrendered and committed Christian and get out and do God’s work.
AND REMEMBER, from a few messages back, do not become pompous in what you are doing for God, else He immediately can’t use you in His service.
