9-10 Doing Good

Galatians 6, 9 and 10 is where we're at this morning. And what we've been, we'll have to go back a couple weeks, refresh your memory on where we were. We're in chapter six, and chapter six is, we're right at the point where he's gonna close up the letter, right? Starting next week, he's gonna start closing this letter up. But this is, we go back to chapter five in verse 26.

Let us not become boastful, challenging. After he, Paul gives that, becoming boastful and challenging one another, envying one another, and then all the way through 610, so 526 through 610, there are There are a series of 15 commands and exhortations.

And Merriman calls it the constructive use of liberty, because that's our theme from back in 5.1. I like that term, a constructive use of liberty in among the fellowship. So we have some responsibility there. We just can't Grace isn't just kind of live and let be. It has some responsibilities tied to it.

So the corporate good of the assembly is in mind. These commands and exhortations Paul gives, did I say there are 15? Yeah, 15. So that's in mind. Mutual responsibility among believers is emphasized. We'll look at that today. And then liberty in the spirit in 5.1, and I mentioned this just a second ago, does not excuse a believer from his responsibility or her responsibility, both personally and corporately. But Merriman does say it frees us to exercise our liberty with balance and joy.

So that's what Paul is getting at here. Keeping in mind we have been exhorted by Paul to walk in the Spirit in chapter 5 and in doing so we cannot carry out the desires of the flesh, that was also one of the themes of chapter 5, which if we walk by faith If we walk by faith, we can avoid the dastardly deeds, I'd call it, that transpire from walking in the flesh. And he laid those out, those deeds of the flesh.

But by walking by means of the spirit, under his power and control, the influence of the Holy Spirit, we can exhibit Christ's character, his very fruit of him, which is love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, which are what? The fruit of the Spirit. Singular or? Singular fruit. Yeah, there you go. So two tests. So and yeah, I had to be reminded of that myself.

So chapter, I'm going to go through chapter six to eight to kind of re-go back to where we were, because it was all two weeks ago, a long time ago before, I used to call it Easter, but Miles. gave that exhortation in, in last week's, uh, not Easter message, uh, that's, uh, what is it? He, yeah, he said that that was a, a pagan kind of term. So, um, so let me read, uh, well, I'll start with chapter six, verse one.

Brethren, if anyone has been caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual are to restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. Here's another command. Bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. but one must examine his own work and then he he will have reason to for posting in regard to christ alone and not in regard to another for each one must bear his own load and so that too uh... first to bear one another's burdens we looked at that uh... those are excessive burdens that uh... that uh... fellow believer can carry and we are too come alongside them and help them bear those trials and tribulations, things like that. Very excessive burdens. But in verse four, is it four? Yeah. No, five. For each one will bear his own load.

That's a lot, that's a The Greek word for that is a pack load and the idea about that is a soldier, you know, packing a day pack and being able to survive and, you know, walk the 10 miles, 30 miles, whatever he has to and kind of take care of himself. So, bearing our own load is, you know, Things like family, bills, you know, I have a leak in my roof. So, but I did, Phil's helping with that, so I'm not. Yeah, that's, so I'm not really bearing my own load there. Phil is coming in. Well, it's here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so that's good.

So that is accessible, because I can't. bear that, so he's gonna help me there. So the one, verse six, the one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. And I've outlined or underlined these commands here. For whatever, and this is important, this verse seven is, verse seven and eight. God is not marked in seven.

For whatever a man sows, he will also reap. Verse eight, 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. And those, that verse is very important for us today because that Corresponds to verse nine of today's verses. Let us not then lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially those who are of the household of the faith.

And you can see how nine and 10 modify kind of the things he covered in six through eight there. So six, we're recapping. The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. The emphasis is on the one taught, the one who is continually the recipient of teaching in the present tense. To share all, he's to share all good things with the one who teaches.

As last, two weeks ago, Bob pointed out that he found that this, in context, is not financial support. As in 1 Corinthians 9, 11 through 9, where Paul says, if we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much to ask if we reap? That's right in parallel to these verses, isn't it? Is it too much to ask if we reap material things from you?

He exercised the liberty he had not to take from them financial things. He did it for free. He tells them that. But he's dealing with monetary things there. But in this verse, we're not dealing with monetary things. That's what Bob W. found. But Chet McCauley, Chester McCauley, did. Yeah, he said, he included the financial, which I think was different. So, read Macaulay if you want to see his point of view on it. So the good things are spiritual things, things of God, or things of Christ. Various, you know, what are things? I don't even know how to define. Well, couldn't that be just like, you know, you're teaching something and then Jim says, oh, by the way, Andrew, how about this?

And you say, hey, well, I didn't think of that. Yeah, yeah. And that's what I kind of think, that sharing good things. Yeah. Another brother or sister kind of speaks up and says, well, this seems like it fits. Exactly. And those are encouragements, right? And especially, I think of, I was thinking too, if something that you taught made us think of other things like or helped us like during the week or something, you know, and helped us to learn something and come back and tell people. And that's encouraging. Yeah, oh yeah. Oh, and it happens all the time is when you guys shout out something that I hadn't thought or an angle that I haven't thought about. It's very helpful. And those are the good things. And notice how the context of the good things are all in the word.

The Weymouth translation says, but let those who receive instruction in Christian truth share with their instructors all temporal blessings. So I guess you could translate it both ways. Yeah, temporal blessing, that's interesting. Temporal blessing is material blessing.

Yeah, well, oh, right, yeah. It may or may not be financial. Exactly, yeah. No, you could, you're not wrong if you say, if you say, if you say that it's a financial or material. That's a, that's a perfectly good interpretation. It's just how you interpret it. Yeah.

But I think in the context, he, well, we'll look at it, because we kind of flush it out here in these two verses, six through eight. I feel bad too, because last week was the lunch, and I said, so does this mean you don't want us to eat all the dessert you wanted on the show? Right, yeah, exactly. Trying to get a word in ahead of time. That would count too. Those are good things.

Depends on the situation. But one thing that kind of limits it from material things is the sharing is koinoneo, which is fellowship, which is mutual share, mutual beneficial sharing or fellowship. So if you think about it, if Roger, you give me $100,000, I kind of have to mutually give you. doesn't really fit. I think it's spiritual things here. Like the Lord's Table is a good example of this type of sharing.

Point E here is, and you guys brought this out really nicely, it's the sharing good spiritual things, observations, and encouragements back to the one teaching. And as long as we're in fellowship, we've reckoned ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, the Holy Spirit's job is to disclose spiritual things to you guys and then while being taught and then I'm waiting for that to happen. You shoot something back at me, that's a good thing. And that's a dynamic thing, is kind of what it is. And then I referenced John 16, where Christ gives the ministry of teaching that the Holy Spirit gives.

So on to verse seven is a recap. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, he will also reap. and this is that's a isn't that it you know everyone knows that even the world the world knows that yeah they quote that all the time you sow what you reap so bob in the last two weeks ago was that he says he brought out that this sowing and reaping was an unchangeable principle both true in the old testament and new testament and that's obvious Merriman has, verse 7, in context in this way, stop being presently deceived, he says, quit kidding yourselves.

And he likens it to the disastrous effects of the teachers of legalism, who are teaching legalistic things, or bad things. Merriman has the thought that they're teaching the wrong things, not grace. sewing that will reap and we see that in verse 26 you know the what does it say the 526 you know your Boastful and challenging. Yes, right.

Isn't that a kind of reaping the bad things instead of the good things? And that's all because we're not in liberty there or in grace. So he says, in bucking spiritual truths or grace teachings of God, men only will ridicule or make fools of themselves. The ways of God are fixed by design. To reverse engineer this principle of sowing and reaping, you do so at your own detriment. So it's a divine principle. It can never be changed.

Bob, two weeks ago, and Merriman, give examples of sowing seeds, like crops. So corn seed, you get corn. So wheat? Seed, you get wheat. So like for like. And I like what Bob said two weeks ago. He said, it's the inescapable accountability to God. That's a good phrase for the sowing and reaping thing.

So if we go back to the Old Testament, think of that example of Jacob tricking Isaac into getting Esau's blessing, right? He went through a lot. Jacob he put on some goat fur onto his hand and he made some stew which Esau usually did and he brought it in and Isaac was blind and so this is my hairy son so you you get the you get the blessing so he got the blessing and and God does it in scripture it yeah he God doesn't He's not criticized right then for doing that, and it seems like, oh, he should have done that because Isaac or Jacob is sort of the better brother, the younger brother.

But then later, he goes to Laban and to get Rachel Is it Rachel? Yeah. As his wife, but he gets tricked and he has Leah. He wakes up to find Leah as his wife. Then he has to work seven more years. So that is reaping what you're sowing, yeah. And God was not mocked there. He just waited. And then he got what was coming to him. Yeah. And you think about all these things. I thought of a lot. Can you think of any other Old Testament examples. Oh, Lot, Lot's daughters, right?

They, they, oh, and then, who was the, Judah, who, yeah, Tamar, yeah, and she, but that was kind of a righteous kind of thing, because she was owed it, because he, he kind of, didn't give the next well as I'm trying to well read that yeah he he didn't he he left tamar out he didn't give her one of his sons or something right so anyway yeah that was it so that's another example of all this trickery here and the best example is from which i couldn't stop thinking about all week is uh... a mother nature So if you give Mother Nature some toast, and it's parquet on toast, and not butter, you remember what happened? She caused the lightning. So she cannot be fooled by, oh, is it margarine or something? Yeah, so you're trying to trick Mother Nature you're reaping and sowing there.

And that's a good example of this concept, is that old commercial. What was that? Fleshman's Margarine or something. So, and you guys are, we're all of the same age where we remember that. If Miles and his family weren't here, they wouldn't know. Yeah, so, and they would be thinking we were really weird. Yeah, yeah. So, verse eight.

The one who sows to his own flesh will reap from the flesh corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And this one, this verse I'm just going to recap in a picture form. So there you have the man sowing, sowing to the field. obviously there's the field and the field, there's two fields the flesh and then time passes and we learn that in the next verse it's in due time or due season or it means the proper time in verse 9 so however long that takes I think sowing to the flesh is kind of a quick turnaround but you reap and those are supposed to be dead flowers, but the harvest, you reap the harvest, and that's corruption, and that can also mean decay or ruin, ruinous destruction. So that's the harvest that you reap by sowing to the flesh.

I think my dad, defined corruption is he's somehow I don't know where he got this but corruption is a lesser state than a good thing it's a lesser state so you're you could mean it light in that way it's not a it's not a good thing it's it knocks things yeah yeah ruined yeah cuz I you see it's underground I don't know I've been watching this Netflix show, Stranger Things, and they have the, what's it called, the upside down. world. I thought it looked more death-like, right? So that's what that means. There's no spiritual meaning to that at all.

So on the other field is this gentleman over here. He's sowing to the field which is the spirit. And time passes and And this can take a long time. This is a slow process, you know, a lot of times. And what he reaps is the harvest is eternal life, is what the word says. So it's eternal, that word for eternal is endless, durative, without beginning or ending, is what that means. So life is Zoe. And that's Christ's very life, isn't it?

And notice, ah, it's cool, I kind of found this out, I noticed this late because sometimes I don't notice things like this, but that's out from the spirit, ek. Ek, out from the spirit. Out from the spirit, yeah. So, and it says that. The one who sows to the spirit will reap from the spirit, and that's out from the spirit, eternal life. So it's the spirit doing that.

And let me see if, okay. And you know what else I noticed very late, like yesterday, because I was sowing to the flesh, and then I had it sowing to the spirit, or my spirit, sowing to my spirit, or sowing to my flesh, and I kept it my. My, my, my. Yeah, notice what mistake I was making there. Does everyone see it? A sewing tube. And it's the definite article.

It's the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And from the same Holy Spirit, He will reap this eternal life in us. So, and then I thought, this is a good question for the women's study, when you're studying the ministries of the Holy Spirit, right? To look at this and say, what are you sowing to the Holy Spirit? What is that process? What kind of things? So I've been, I think I have some of them, but it's a worth more study there. Really fascinating, and I would have missed that We're not up for the spirit sort of knocking me in the head and saying, hell, look at this.

Andrew, maybe you're going there, but also it's kind of good to remember what Christ said in John 17, that knowing Him is eternal life. Yeah, knowing Him. So you kind of think, well, that's eternal life in the by and by. Yeah. Well, wait a minute. There's an immediate reaping. There's not just by and by. This is reaping now. And it's the sweet by and by, isn't it? I like to kind of bring it forward to the present. Yeah. And we have possession of that eternal life for right now, don't we? Yeah. And it doesn't look like we do, because we, you know, it looks like we are not eternal, but we are. It's really amazing.

So, continuing this, for the one who sows to his own flesh will reap from the flesh corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will, from the Spirit, reap eternal life, verse 8. So, if you sow selfishness, you'll find you reap selfishness. Bitterness, you'll reap bitterness. Impatience, you sow that, you'll reap impatience. Immorality, you'll reap immorality. And you think of Jacob and just that exact same principle there.

But on this side, where one sows if you sow to the spirit by walking by faith second corinthians five seven or you sow to the spirit by walking or leading by the spirit galatians five verse sixteen and eighteen is that walking and leading uh... by the spirit or abiding in christ john fifteen four if you sow to the spirit by abiding in christ How about this, if you sow to the spirit by beholding Christ through his word, 2nd Corinthians 3.18, that is sowing to the spirit. Oh, and it's interesting, and this jumped out at me too.

I always quote 2nd Corinthians 3.18.

Beholding is a mirror. Beholding is a mirror. Boy, and I can't. Do it here. The glory of the Lord. Yeah, do you have it? Yeah. Beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. We are changed from glory to glory. Yeah, we are changed into His very image.

But then there's this little tag at the end. I stopped there. Does somebody want to read it so we have a... Yeah, so we get a... It says, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Yeah. See, and I kind of stop in my mind, we're being changed from glory to glory, and the last phrase I kind of cast off, but that says that the Spirit is doing that.

He's the one doing it. It works into this verse 8 really well here, that the Spirit is the one doing that, and it's Him doing that. Or we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's another way to sow to the Spirit. Ephesians 5, 18. What we reap are the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, self-control, gentleness by sowing to the Spirit.

And this is in due season. That dashed line is time. So who knows how much time it can take a lifetime, probably. And it feels like I'm just getting the hang of things, right? And I don't have much time left. And so the spirit is working those things.

Merriman described it as, oh, if you sow Doctrine is like a protein. So if you learn doctrine, you take in these proteins, and the Holy Spirit then can take those proteins and put together stuff to make you grow. And it's kind of a cool analogy. Yeah. Doctrine is the protein of the new man, he calls it. the protein, and it builds muscle. And with muscle, then you can flex. Flex is doing good works.

And Bob, two weeks ago, kind of went in the future to the, when we do all this, we'll find that the works happen, and we didn't know that we did, but we'll find it at the beam of judgment. And that's what his focus was at the end, two weeks ago. So here's the new material.

Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So he's ending with two exhortations, not commands. And these two things in 9 and 10 are not imperatives, but subjunctives. So the two are, let us not lose heart and let us not grow weary in well-doing. And in verse 10, we should do good to all men. Those are the two exhortations.

So there's potentiality in losing heart. That's with the subjunctive tense. Subjunctive tense? Yeah. Is it voice or tense? Tense, voice, mood. Tense, mood, voice. Subjunctive, tense. Mood. Mood. Right, right. Yeah, there it is. So yeah, there we go. I'm figuring this out as I go along. So there's potentiality of losing heart. So losing heart is ek kakos, kakos, which is out of ek, the bad, the worthless. It sort of means being cowardly, like a soldier who retreats in the time of battle.

And not growing weary, the last part of nine, is not fainting away or fading away or quitting in our mentality, as Merriman says. When it comes to trials and hardships, do not be shrinking back from the doing the good, and do not be shrinking back in working the good towards others.

So what's the good here? And I think we've kind of covered this a lot, but the good in verse 6 is the sharing of all good things with the teacher, as we established, the good things are the things of God, the things of Christ, all the true facts of Scripture. There's God's things, there's Christ's things, there's the Holy Spirit's things, all the things are packed into what you read in the Word. So, I ask you a question, is there any reason to change the good things to like some sort of good works here, which I would say that a lot of denominations would do. Let's not lose heart in doing good. And they're going to think about doing good is raising money, giving your coat to goodwill, building a house in Mexico for a poor family, raising money for a new church building. Those are good works.

But is that the kind of work, doing good, mind here and I I think not Merriman says that I think he has it right here throughout the letter he's Paul has been encouraging the Galatian believers all along to correct them in the doctrine of their justification to mature spiritually by the ministries of the Spirit of God to be firm without perverting their liberty. And he's instructing them in the proper use of liberty and to use that in mutual fellowship among the members of the body. So not so much doing good things.

Two weeks ago, Three weeks ago I went to a concert on a Saturday down in Durango. And it was at a church, and I passed this other church, this sort of life church, you know, so a evangelical church. And there's this fire truck outside, and all these people. And they had the, not a ladder, but they had the little bucket up to the roof, and something was going on. I was like, oh, boy, I hope everyone's OK there as I pass this church. But people were down at the bottom, relaxed, right? So then I, after the concert, I looked, what was going on over there?

I looked up their website, and they were dropping eggs from the bucket onto the lawn for the kids, right? And having an, not an egg hunt, but an egg drop. And I thought, wow, what does that do? If all the eggs go That's not hard to find the eggs. So they're doing this for the kids. And then I noticed a jumpy castle, right? Inflatable thing.

So all these good works, right? Good things, good works, but is that doing... Are they getting, is that doing any good? Exactly. So, and Merriman points this out, it's kind of gimmicks and you can lose heart. A pastor or teacher or the eldership, especially a pastor, can lose heart in doing these things and then it's not successful. But, and it's not sowing to the spirit and working those things into your your spirit, and letting that, giving it time, and then growing spiritually.

I don't think finding eggs is going to help those kids, but they're kids, so, yeah, that's fine. Yeah, it's marketing, and they're trying to get kids, so I kid, but if we did that here, as adults, it would not be, yeah. I would go find an egg. How about gold coins? We put quarters in our eggs for our grandkids. You should put pennies in. Then they can collect the pennies and sell them for a whole bunch of money. They traded the quarters in for dollars. That was the idea. Because the pennies are getting rare. That's true. Oh yeah. They're going to be discontinued, aren't they?

So this in due time brings out the certainty of the harvest. And as I said before, it takes time for the spirit. You're sowing to the spirit. It takes time for him to germinate what you have, those facts of scripture, that doctrine, take root, and then break out of the ground. These are spiritual things that will break out and grow. And what will grow is the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

We looked at that, Galatians 5, 22 and 23. And eventually, they'll become manifest to all, and you'll be able to share with them. And that's from the other verse, sharing with the koinonia. That's if you can share these things, the good, and this fruit of the Spirit with others, this benefits the whole body.

So not only will our exhibited fruit of the Spirit benefit the fellowship with other believers, but by sowing to Him and waiting for the harvest, the Holy Spirit and a kind of pointed this out previously, can flex in us a good faroed heart and the Holy Spirit will be able to then work and exercise his will in implementing his ministries, which the women are studying and he can start doing, and the gifts that he gives believers. Gifts of teaching evangelism, shepherding as far as a pastorship goes. The gifts in Ephesians 4, 7 through 16. Gifts in giving and helps, an encouragement gift.

So this sowing to the field of the spirit and not sowing to the field of the flesh, two fields, will carry out its divine intent, which is to make us His workmanship, created in Jesus Christ under good works. And there's where the works will eventually show up. after we've done all this sewing to the spirit. But God has beforehand ordained these works that we should walk in them. So you don't have to worry about the works. take a step before that and just worry about sowing to the spirit, right? Sowing good things, good doctrinal things to the spirit.

And that's Ephesians 2.10. So yeah, that's where we'll leave it for this morning. Any questions, comments? So. Thanks, Andrew. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Hey, that's a good thing, right?

So are you staying until next week, or are you going to go home? No, I guess I'll stay and do... Oh, yeah, because of the roof, right? Yeah, the roof. But I thought I'd stay anyway. No, that's good. Nice to have you. Yeah, yeah. So that'll be great. So I can do that and then I'll go back. So you get the large letters. That's a cool verse. The large letters. So yeah, I'll have to think about that. Why he's writing in large letters. So be thinking that's the assignment for this week. Why is Paul writing in large letters? Why is he writing in large letters?

Okay, let's close up here. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit, who gives us all the power and all the, not our ability, but His ability to work these things into our lives, this doctrine, and to produce the very nature, the very life of Christ in our lives. And we thank you for that. In your Son's name, Amen.