Living in the household of faith

Good morning. As we begin this passage, I just want to kind of get some perspective here. We're going to be looking at this passage here today and then next week finishing up the book of Galatians. And following that, beginning in December, we will start in to our study of the book of Genesis. And one of the things that I announced last week, and nobody fainted, so I'll go ahead and sort of re-announce it this week and remind you, I'm going to be changing somewhatly the manner in which I teach, so I just remind you to bring your Bibles. we just brought out last week and I would say so again. I typically use the New American Standard translation which you're free to make use of. We recommend a word-for-word translation for more literal study like we typically do and there is a I think possibly still a few handouts available that may give some guidance if you're interested in looking at you know what are the different translations out there and What are the purposes and translation approaches to the different ones? Feel free to discuss that with me if you'd like. In this passage here, we want to kind of take an overview look at it before we step into it.

Paul's making his last critical points to the church here. He's got just the passage we're looking at today and next week's passage and then he's done. So he's trying to, finishing up, make sure he's getting the points in that are important for him to make.

And he's going to be telling these believers a couple of things in this passage here. First, he'll be telling them about how to relate to those in the church body and about how to relate to those outside the church body, both. So he's going to lay that out in front of them and give them some guidance there. In addition to that, he's also going to be giving to them what we'll call a key spiritual principle. He's going to tell them how a believer should be viewing things in light of eternity. What should we look at life like based on eternity? So he's going to lay that perspective out.

Now, Paul is going to, as he does that, he's going to use a pattern that he used elsewhere in numerous places, and the other apostles did as well, and it is this. Paul would often state what we would call a general principle. This is kind of the big truth. And then he would zero in on this is the way that big truth looks like in a particular situation. He would give them the specific applications of that big truth.

Here's an example we'll take a look at just outside just so we get the idea of what we mean by that. When Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica and the folks in the First Thessalonians elective, we'll be seeing this passage before long. Paul would give the general principle here in First Thessalonians 4.3, for this is the will of God. And by the way, have you ever thought about that? People think, ah, I'm just looking for God's will.

He's going to tell you right here. Isn't this great? He's going to tell. Here's the big picture. This is the will of God, your sanctification. That is, You already are made holy, sanctified, because you're a believer. Every believer here this morning is already in their eternal position in Christ, made holy. What is this? Your sanctification? That is, as time goes on and for each moment, that we walk in and continue to grow into that sanctification that we already have.

That's what he means. Imagine people are looking for the will of God. They're looking for like the yellow brick road. And what he spells out, here's the principle. Your sanctification. God wants you in daily life to be walking moment by moment and growing consistent with the sanctification you already have. Completely. Entirely. So that's the will of God, and then he gets specific.

He narrows it down to the issue that they have right in front of him, and that issue is He gave the specific application, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality. That is the part of that will of God general statement that he wanted to put his finger on and address among them. So that's what he's going to do in the passage we'll see here today. He's going to give the general principle with specific application.

He's going to follow that same pattern. Now, we're going to look at the sandwich. And I apologize for showing this to you before lunchtime. Here's the sandwich. The passage starts off with the bread, verse 6, on the top and on the bottom, verse 10. All the meat and cheese and lettuce and tomatoes and everything else is in the middle part. Here's the bread.

The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. And the other part of that is here's how that impacts your behavior and your life with the rest of the people and specifically with the church body. Here's the general principle, the middle of the sandwich. This is where he starts off with, do not be deceived. And then in the last part of that is an encouragement in living out the general principle. OK, so that's the big picture on what this passage looks like. Let's step into it now. Here's verse six, six.

And when I first looked at this, I thought, oh, no, I don't want to teach this because it sounds like be sure you pay your money in the back there because I want to be sure to get paid. Right. And so that's why you would understand my hesitancy. But then I thought about it. Well, no, it's OK. It's all right for me to teach on this. I'm not self-serving. And here's why. First of all, because it's in Scripture. That gives me a little bit of relief. OK. We're OK with that. But also, we're talking about grace giving here. And we'll get into that.

It's grace giving. It's not my twisting anybody's arm. The reality is, the way things are done around here, I'm the foggiest idea. Who gives what? And that's just fine. With that introduction and expressing my relief to you, then we can talk about this.

Paul was reluctant himself to burden the churches, and he expressed that in multiple times. He would carry out his trade of tent making in order to avoid putting a burden on the churches, and he frequently expressed that reluctance. I don't want to be a burden. I don't want anybody else to be a burden. So he was reluctant to burden the churches. Nonetheless, he multiple times over expressed this principle of supporting those who work hard at teaching among the believers in the church.

And you have the passages there in front of you, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Philippians, 2nd Thessalonians, and 1st Timothy, and this passage here today. The good things that he has here, you might say, well, what's good things? But it's a pattern, and I give some examples in the Gospel of Luke. Several times, good things refers to financial or worldly support. Now, one of the reasons you might ask, why would he have to write this kind of stuff to the church? Why would he have to even bring it up? The reason is this. Think about this.

Under the Mosaic Law, the Jews were certainly accustomed to paying a temple tax. They would pay a half shekel tax. It was the tax that they asked Peter about, that Jesus said, yeah, go ahead and pay them so we don't offend them. and had Peter go and catch a fish with the coin in the fish's mouth. The miracle was having the coin in that particular fish's mouth. That's one example.

The Jews also had a number of other things including their tithes and other offerings. And so the Jews were certainly accustomed to laying out money for teaching and other kinds of things and that they were used to. Now the Gentiles regularly paid for tutors and special teachers. We studied some weeks back how they had a tutor and it was actually a slave tutor who was appointed to a particular child to take him to school, to bring him home and to keep harping on him about whatever their lesson was. And so they were accustomed to paying for buying a slave or paying a teacher for hire or a tutor for hire under special subjects.

Now, so why did Paul have to bring this up? The giving to the Christian teachers out of grace was new to these believers. What's this grace-giving thing all about? That was something they didn't understand. They needed to have instruction on this new and kind grace-based giving. It was all new. This grace giving here is to be motivated, how? Out of one's relationship with the Lord and thankfulness to the Lord. Relationship with the Lord and thankfulness to the Lord.

Not out of guilt. Not out of compulsion. No arm twisting. That was very clear. This giving isn't to be done by external pressure. isn't to be done by some sort of force. I've heard of some circumstances where people have gotten a lot of pressure and that's just simply not the way scripture lays it out. This isn't any verbal arm twisting, either here or anywhere else among the body, not by peer pressure, not by looking at what everybody else gave. Not at all. The picture we have here is instead to be entirely by grace, entirely out of one's relationship with the Lord.

Some years back, over a decade back, Hal Malloy put together a six-page handout and taught on this subject and we have a number of copies of that available if you'd like to take advantage of that. I say six pages. Two of those are simply diagrams and feel free to look at that so we won't go into it in depth but that article sure does if you'd like to take a look at that. Really well done and I think it gives the detail on grace giving. We do not want to be pressuring people to give. We don't want to put them under some system of obligation. The giving is to come out of their own relationship with the Lord. Between them and the Lord.

And that's it. Now, one of the things that focuses on here is the one taught and the one teaching. And so that's a key thing here. Teaching done by pastors and teachers explicitly is interesting. If we look at as we did some, this was a few years ago now, look at Ephesians 4, 11 through 16, that verse 11 is a key point.

Pastors and teachers are gifts from Christ to the church body. Isn't that interesting? We talk about spiritual gifts and every believer here this morning has at least one spiritual gift. But the key point in this passage, and it's very interesting, a gift rather than just being given to you, these pastors and teachers are gifts from Christ to this church body.

And that's one of his points. It is for the building up of the body of Christ. The body of Christ here at Holly Hills is to be built up. It is also for personal spiritual growth. That's a key thing when we talk about spiritual growth. There are two aspects of spiritual growth. One is your own individual spiritual growth.

Colossians 1.28 says that every single believer is to be growing, and that that is God's intent. Every single believer, by God's intent, is to be headed for maturity.

Everyone. Individually. And the point in the Ephesians 4 passage, all of us together. Isn't that interesting? All of us together have a spiritual growth as well. So both of those are going on at once and God's Word is central to both of those aspects of spiritual growth. Your own individual growth as well as our growth as a body.

There is on the fourth page of your handout this, what is the purpose of the local church? Because we made reference to it here. We won't go into that in detail, but a key point to keep in mind. What are we doing this for? Why are we gathering here this morning? Why have we been gathering here for years? The reason is for the building up of the body of Christ.

Now, as we look at this, who taught and who teaches, God's word is to have a spiritual impact on our personal lives, individual growth, and among us all. God's word is by God's intent. to be the food for each of us to grow by. Notice, the one who was taught the Word, the Word of God. That's what he's talking about here. The one who was taught the Word of God. God intends that His Word reach deeply.

Hebrews 4.12, and this is really interesting. There's a lot of books out there. If you ever go to a bookstore or library, lots and lots of books out there. This is special. It's unique in this regard.

Hebrews 4.12 says the depth of this doesn't just go in the eyes and into the head. It says it goes to the dividing point between soul and spirit. Nothing else does that. That's phenomenal stuff. This is deep and it's intended to go deep. Right? Okay. Verse 7. Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he also will reap. As we look at this verse here, this is the second time, and it was just last week we brought up the other time, that Paul brought up this issue of deception. Previously he talked about self-deception. He's giving them a warning. Do not be deceived.

This is an area in which the sin nature shows itself abundantly. The sin nature is very deceptive, and that's why he has to give this warning. And in this particular church body he was writing to, he had to give it twice, twice in a row. And why? This was written in such a way that this do not be deceived has the sense of stop being deceived.

It implies that at least some of the church body was being deceived. So he was wanting to make something clear that apparently was not clear to them. Some of them were actually getting the wrong picture. Some of them were actually not understanding what God intended. Now, God is not mocked.

Real interesting, this Greek word has the idea of turning up one's nose. So what does he mean? Paul is saying in this principle of sowing and reaping, and we'll certainly go into the details on that, the believers in Galatia, that he was addressing, should stop allowing themselves to be deceived, and secondarily, that they cannot simply turn up their noses to God in this matter. Isn't that something? Apparently some of them were turning up their noses to God. I don't need that. God, you have nothing to tell me. They were turning up their noses to the Lord in this matter. They were being arrogant to God, if you can imagine such a thing.

So here is the bottom line principle, and one that he brings up in other passages as well. Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. General principle. General principle. That's the bottom line. He lays out the general principle here. We could restate it simply as causes have results. Causes have results. If this is happening, there will be that consequence. Or conversely, if this is not happening, then there will be not that result coming out of it.

Now, it's important to clarify what is he not telling them. This passage is not intended to tell them that if you give money that you will get it all back and then some. That's not what he's intending. We'll talk about why that's not the case in a minute.

The Lord indeed will provide for us. We'll certainly stand by that. But it's not some sort of formula for making sure you get money back. Oh, I've got to give this money and then I'll get double it back this next week. No. But he's also not telling them that they have to go out and buy their salvation. That's not his point. Their salvation is by grace. They're not going to buy it. You can't buy it. And we can never pay the Lord back.

So, what's sown here? As we get into this passage, it's pretty clear, and we see it in other passages in 1 and 2 Corinthians. Paul connects up sowing and reaping in this principle with giving. So, if we look at it, if money is sown, and it is sown by grace, not under law, but if money is sown, then what's the reaping all about?

Since the teaching of God's Word, remember that's what he talked about in verse 6, since the teaching of God's Word is central to the maturity of the entire church body, all of us here, and essential for every single one of us to grow spiritually. So both growth of us together, spiritual growth, and growth of each believer here. And God's word is the food to grow on, that is what's at stake. It is a sowing for the reaping of the benefit from God's word. That's what he's talking about here. And now we're into verse 8. The one who sows to his own flesh will from that flesh reap corruption. The one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Now, I need to explain something. What are those crazy little critters at the bottom of the page here? The flesh? That's not a bunch of weird looking sheep. How do I put reap corruption? The flesh reaping corruption? I wasn't quite sure, so I thought, well, I'll just put in an army of dust mites. So that's what those are. That's an army of dust mites. So that's what the flesh reaps.

If you want to think of that, and is that helpful, that's great. If that disgusts you, well, put it out of your mind. Now, one thing is, this verse is not about earning your salvation. Neither did we find that previously. That's one key point. This is not what this principle is all about. We're not earning our salvation.

Back when we were studying in chapter 5, verses 16 through 18, the big question there is, where is your spiritual dependence? One of the ways we put that, upon what, or even better, whom are you depending? Are you resting in the Lord, or are you depending on something else? We're going to rest in the Lord, or it's the works of the flesh.

Second to that, what is your motivation? What's pushing you? What's driving you? We've given the warning. God's Word says it's not to be law driving you. It's not guilt driving you. I hope that you've not come here to assuage your guilt. It is not guilt driving you. It is instead, as we'll see, grace that is the motivation.

We could ask here, and it's important that I qualify this, if spiritual food is the essential for growth, and scripture repeatedly brings that point up, both for individuals and for us as a church body, then how's the growth going? Now, how thirsty for God's Word do you find yourself?

This is the message out of 1 Peter 2. which culminates in that second Peter 3.18 passage. Now, an important clarification I need to make.

This isn't a matter of my trying to stimulate you, well, get going. This isn't a matter of my bringing to the point, us redoubling our efforts. This is a question of our own response to the Holy Spirit. It's a matter of responsiveness to the Lord in our relationship with Him not of our own efforts, not of getting going out of us pushing the car.

It's a matter of what response are we having to the ministries of the Holy Spirit. It is the ministries of the Holy Spirit that will draw us and give us that thirst for God's work. So if anybody heard me saying, get going, work harder, I've got to just dig up some gumption, wrong point. This is a matter of responding to the Holy Spirit who will draw us. And it's a matter of that response in our relationship with the Lord.

That's what it's about. Walking by the works of the flesh is going to tend to reproduce of that kind. Our interest in spiritual feeding and growth gets put on the back burner. It's not that interesting if the flesh is calling the shots in our life. If the sin nature is determining what we do. We tend to continue along that path and God's Word just won't seem all that interesting.

Walking by means of the Spirit, by the multiple ministries of the Holy Spirit in our lives, will ultimately bring a believer to come to a place of recognizing the need for that essential spiritual food. It's interesting this last Thursday night we had a home group gathering. We're studying through the last 12 books of the Old Testament known as the Minor Prophets and we're kind of doing a one week on each book sort of study so we're hitting the high spots. We studied Amos just a few nights ago, and a real interesting thing comes out in the book of Amos.

Amos describes a famine of God's Word. Isn't that interesting? A famine of God's Word. I was amazed and impressed and stunned by that word picture. If we were to look at God's Word, and certainly Scripture repeatedly has God's Word as food, either in a drinking or eating analogy. If God's word is the food that we need, how's the food supply?

How's the food supply? And you could certainly even ask that question of our whole country, of the believers in our own country. When people walk out of church, are they well fed? when they get together at these home studies? Are they well-fit? So, good question to ask. Now, we've got this last item in verse 8.

Sowing and reaping isn't just about getting something in this life. As a matter of fact, that's a key point in this whole passage, this time frame. It's about having an eternal viewpoint about the sowing and reaping principle. It is easy for us to fall into a situation of always wanting something back for our sowing now. I'm going to put the money in the offering and I want to see something back real quick. I'm going to walk with the Lord and boy, I want to see that, you know, give me something back right now. And one of Paul's points in this whole passage, and this phrase here, eternal life, is critical.

It's not that we're earning eternal life. That's not the point. It's the time perspective. It's the time perspective. Do we get some payback on our spiritual investment here on planet Earth? Yeah, we do. We certainly do. But his point here, is the eternal perspective is essential. It's not optional. As a matter of fact, that's the main place to be looking for the reaping. What do we get back out of our spiritual investment? The eternal perspective is essential for us to take.

It's also about one other thing. Now, we've said for a few weeks back here that the flesh and the spirit are opposites but not at all equals. And so you may recall this little diagram here. The flesh and the spirit are opposites but not equal in any means. So we made that point and we had several other things that came off of that. What we want to point out here is the time frame.

Whatever is sown to the spirit may have some payback now, but the big picture is there is eternal payback. Whatever is sown in the Spirit lasts forever. Forever. 10,000 years from now, if years have any meaning at all, there will be payback for our time walking by means of the Spirit now.

Yeah. Here's an interesting way to put it or think about it. What we do now, and this is a matter of dependence, not our personal accomplishment in the flesh, our depending upon the Lord and His resources impacts the quality of eternity. How about that? Amazing to ponder. That's what he's talking about.

Whatever is sown to the flesh doesn't get past heaven's gates. That's the time frame of anything in the flesh. If there's any payback for the flesh, it stops right here. That's why we can put the army of dust mites. Because whatever is sown to the flesh ends when this life ends, and may end a whole lot sooner. So it's the time frame that he's talking about here that's critical.

Believers need to keep an eternal time frame in mind. Look for that as the time for the reaping, for the payback, and the time spent with the Lord. Here's verse 9. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

I noticed when I was studying this out, every place in the New Testament where this word that's translated weary or faint is used, every place it's an encouragement not to come to the place of being weary or faint. Isn't that something? Don't get there. Know this weary and faint thing? Don't do it. Don't do it. It's an encouragement not to get there. Don't let things come to that place. Ever feel spiritually weary? Like, this isn't paying back. Or you feel like, I keep putting into this and I'm not seeing it. Where is it, Lord? Come on! Do something. Right? The encouragement here is don't get to that place of being spiritually weary. And a critical point he just made is time frame. What are we looking for in terms of response and reaction and payback.

It's one thing that's been interesting because many of you are aware I was an engineer and a few other occupations before becoming a pastor about six years ago. And it's been an interesting transition. Because in engineering, of course, a lot of it is project-oriented. And so you get there, and you get this project done, and that project done. And hopefully, there was some reward at the end. But each one of them, certainly, you can mark and say, OK, I got that done, got that done. But it's interesting, stepping into this mode, working with the body of Christ, OK, where's the project done? This is real interesting. All of a sudden, this whole project time frame mindset that I had that was just sort of, you know, this thing's done six months or two years or whatever the time was.

That's all changed because people aren't projects. And in reality, where's the payback? It's the other side of heaven's gates. The other side of heaven's gates. Yeah. In truth, that little lesson that I've had so far really applies to all of us when we look at these things in the spiritual realm. That payback spiritually, yeah, there may be some payback here, but we really shouldn't look for it here. That's kind of a bonus. The real payback is an eternity.

Don't grow weary. How? Keep looking ahead. It's face-to-face with the Lord time. That's when it's going to be reaping. That's when the payback comes. Paul's got a couple of key points here in verse 9. So we'll get the keys out, right? Alright, first one. Not losing heart or growing weary. Certainly, that's the thing to avoid. But the other one is the due time we will reap. In due time, We will reap. There may be some times here on planet Earth. There may be some times while we're still here.

But for the most part, we should keep our time frame beyond heaven's gates when we see the Lord face to face. That's the time frame we should be looking at. One of the things I've done previously here is to show like a guy with a wind-up key in the back and he's kind of worn out looking down. The part of it is don't be looking to the things here on planet Earth.

If we're looking to that, then yeah, there's a lot to lose heart about and a lot to get weary over. But if instead we're looking to the Lord for payback, if we're looking to the Lord for that reaping time, our time frame will be what keeps us from getting weary, keeps us from losing heart because we're looking to the Lord's coming. One of the things that Paul makes a big point of with Titus, he says, looking for that blessed appearing. Why? I will see my Lord face to face. And then will be the beginning of the very evident eternal payback. The reaping.

1 Peter 2.20 makes this point. And it's something even to be aware of. We may even suffer now for the spirit doing good through us, for walking by means of the spirit. So looking for short-term payback, look farther than that. But not only that, expect that there may even be negative earthly consequences for doing good here. Don't look to the earthly time frame and don't look to this world to support the payback, the reaping.

2 Thessalonians 3.13 has a very similar message to this entire verse here. To lose heart is to become dismotivated by looking too near term, overly focused on the here and now. Motivation gets lost because I'm only looking down right in front of me. I lose track of the Lord's time frame. Then we have verse 10.

Remember, this is the last part of the sandwich, the bottom piece of bread. Here's the application here. So then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who are of the household of the faith. We have in this verse the door of opportunity laid out in front of us. And notice here, especially to those who are of the household of the faith. There is the general principle to do good to all. Now notice it doesn't just say, do good to those people in the church, outside of that, do whatever you want. No. It says, do good to all, and especially those of the household of the faith.

Let me ask a rather possibly, maybe even uncomfortable question. Ever been in a church situation where you've either seen, maybe even experienced people in the household of the faith have not had good things done to them? Ever left a church situation feeling like, boy, they shoot their wounded?

This is key for us to look at, especially to those who are in the household of the faith. Here we are, a gathering of believers here this morning. One of the things he's making real clear here, certainly, While we have the opportunity, do good to all. Especially those of the household of the faith. There's this priority between the believers and the unbelievers. Do good to all. But the priority is right here. We don't want to shoot our wounded. We don't want people to walk away feeling like they've either been forgotten or worse yet, abused. Unfortunately, it happens.

And as I say that, I'm sure you can look at it and say, oh boy, I experienced that. He's making real clear, because it's probably happened at the churches of Galatia. He says, that's not what ought to be happening. He says, you have a tremendous opportunity in front of you. And that's why as I look at this, I started thinking about, think of what's ahead of us. This sowing and reaping. The reaping is phenomenal. We sow now for a little time, right? We have just a window of opportunity here. How long is the reaping?

Forever. Forever. When we look and think of the things, we'll be face to face with the Lord. We will be drawn by His awesome glory. And it won't be, hey that was cool, but when's the coffee break? It will be a marvelous, mind-boggling to consider kind of time. But it will be a time where the reaping goes on forever. When a million years, if those years mean anything, have gone by. Do you think there'll be some disappointment? No. It will be a growing crescendo for eternity.

We talked about Ephesians 2.7. He will show us, and by the way, that word means demonstrate. That doesn't mean just kind of talk to us about it. He will demonstrate His grace forever and ever and ever.

The reaping goes on and on and on. That's the time frame that He's calling us for. While we have opportunity, we now sow. The reaping goes on and never ends. Isn't that cool? That is major cool. Paul calls us here as believers to take advantage of this opportune span of time. We have this door of opportunity open for a while for the time that we're here to reap. No, to sow. The reaping goes on forever. To sow. A little span of time goes by. The time that we're here. But that's just the start.

Our time with the Lord will be for eternity. We'll be with him forever. While we have this opportunity, while we're here, we have this opportunity, this chance, the doors open for us to be God's instrument, to be used of the creator of the universe right now. And he has given all the resources. It's a phenomenal opportunity. It's astounding. The One who created this entire universe has in mind that you, if you're a believer here this morning, that you personally be used of Him. That's just an amazing, astounding opportunity.

The door's open now for us to walk with Him and to be His instrument. We're to be motivated in this by grace, never by law, never by obligation, guilt, Forget it. Motivated by grace. And you can put a generous dose of mercy on that. After all, the riches of his mercy is what that Ephesians 2 passage starts off with. We're given the means. God does not call us to do anything for which he has not provided every possible resource at infinite quantity to carry out. The enabling, the empowering, the energizing is all through the Holy Spirit. It's not up to us to pull it off.

This is an unparalleled opportunity. That's the opportunity. While we have opportunity, it's a phenomenal opportunity. And the reaping goes on forever. And it's great. And the Lord's the source of it all. And that's gracious. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the riches of your grace, the riches of your mercy, the riches of your glory. And as we look at this principle, we pray that we understand the eternality of it. We have a window of opportunity for sowing, but the reaping goes on forever.

The reaping out of the riches of your mercy, out of the riches of your grace, out of the riches of your glory, continues on and on. Never Never to cause us to be wearied. Never will we get tired of it. Never will we be disappointed or wishing that there was a break or something else. This is amazing stuff. We thank you for your amazing grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.