Sowing and Reaping

We've been talking about how liberty in Christ does require responsibility on our part. And I've always liked the definition of responsibility for a Christian, which means the ability to respond. As a non-believer, you can't respond to grace. But as a believer, you can.

And so in Galatians chapter 6, verse 2 through 5, we saw that Paul deals with some of those responsibilities like burden bearing. We talked about that last week. But now he's going to focus on responsibilities of teachers of the Word and the inevitable consequences of sowing and reaping. Really good subjects.

You know, the Galatian believers had deserted grace. Some of the Galatian believers had deserted grace for law. And so He's going to talk about responsibility in that realm. So he's focusing what he's teaching on them to put themselves back under the ministry of the teachers who led them into grace to start with. And he's going to give them a warning that if they don't do that, they're going to reap what they sow. This reap what they sow is a really interesting principle in the Word of God. So we're going to start out in verse 6 today.

The one who is taught the Word is to share or communicate all good things with the one who teaches him. So the first thing we want to look at is that the subject of the sentence are the ones being taught. And so in this context we're talking about you. You're the ones being taught. you're the subject of the sentence. And then the word taught refers to the act of giving instruction to share things in common, that kind of thing.

And so it refers primarily to oral teaching because predominantly at this time in history, oral teaching was, we all didn't have New King James Bibles and handout sheets or anything like that. It was pretty much oral. That was the form of teaching. And the person referred to has received oral instruction in the Word of God, primarily from Paul, but also those that Paul was training up.

And this verb, the ones who are continuously the recipients of this information and this teaching, should share continuously with the one who is giving the teaching. So, when you look at the word to share or communicate, it means to share or be a partner in a thing with a person. It means to hold fellowship with another person. That in which a person holds fellowship with another is designated by the context of the verse. The one who is taught is to hold fellowship with the teacher. The teacher is not an isolated person. And what is he to hold fellowship about?

My version says, in all good things. So what is the thing that's being taught? The thing that's being taught is the Word of God. It's the Word of God that's being taught to these Galatians. The Word of God is being taught in the context of this church. And what are the good things as defined in the context? Well, if you look back in verses one through four, you'll see some of it.

Paul exhorts those believers who are spiritual in the Galatians church to take upon themselves the responsibility of restoring to the right method of living those Christians who had gone under law or who had fallen and taken over by a sin or a stumble.

He gave them the responsibility, those who were spiritual, and we talked last week and the week before, what does it mean to be spiritual, so I'm not going to visit that again. And these saints who had sin in their life because of their lapse of living under grace. In either case, I'm sorry, in either case, evil is namely, it's either the act of deserting grace for law, or it's some sort of sin. That's really what it all boils down to.

Could the Spirit-filled Galatian believer hold fellowship with those who had followed the law? Probably not, because they weren't sharing the same thing. They were teaching the Word, but those who were teaching law is not teaching the Word of God for the body of Christ. And they were ministering good things to them. But they weren't getting them in return.

That's the point. So, the good things. They're spiritual things because they are compared with the evil things that we spoke of back in chapter 5. The biblical idea here is to share equally in something. And the best example I thought of the other day was, well, we share the Lord's table together. We share equally in all the grace and blessings. Now here's the one thing it's not talking about. This verse does not talk about you providing financial assistance to the teacher. We're not talking about that. That's handled somewhere else. This is not what this is about.

But it's also a command to do something, to share all the good things that God has shown you. As we've talked about a week or so ago, spirituality really starts with an understanding of the identification truths. That I was co-crucified with Christ. That I was buried with him. I'm resurrected to newness of life. That's where it starts. And every believer is united in that death, that burial and resurrection. We're all in that together.

It's essential for a believer to see that his old nature has been completely rejected by God and set aside. It's important that believers see that. It's important that we see that we are new creations in Christ and fully and eternally accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Fully and eternally accepted.

Otherwise, guess what happens? Here comes self, good old self, seeking to get you to do something for God. If you know you're totally accepted by God, what do you need to do to gain any more acceptance than you already have? Nothing. Nothing. But if you don't know that, you're always going to be thinking, well, there's something more that I can do to be more acceptable to God and to please Him and to merit His favor. That's what the Judaizers were teaching these people. And they had triggered the situation in the Galatian churches, which those who followed their teaching actually broke fellowship with the true teachers.

So what does Paul mean when he says, the one who has taught the word is to share or communicate all good things with the one who teaches them? And as I go on, I'm going to give you some examples that actually happened this week to me. He's exhorting the ones that are under law to resume fellowship with their former teachers. He's telling them, share with them the blessings of grace which those teachers were enjoying. That those that are taught should have a common cause and a common agreement, let's say, that with everything that's morally good, which promotes salvation and grace in the body of believers.

The breaches had intruded on this because some of the Galatians had gone and started listening to legal believers and so they have lost fellowship. There isn't this cohesion between those that are teaching and those that are being taught. The churches in Galatia were being hindered because of these legal teachers. The ones being taught are not to leave the sphere of grace.

They're to stay under there. He is to work in common with the teachers. Now, in the interpretation here that makes the one taught assume the responsibility, as I said, the financial welfare of the teacher is not what's being taught here. And Philippians 4.15 is where that is taught. You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the manner of giving and receiving but you alone. There is that responsibility, but that's not the subject we're talking about here. There's an obligation of the one in that sense to share financially with the one who are the teachers. their earthly goods, but Paul isn't using that here.

Now let me give you some examples of how this works. After last Sunday's sermon, one of you called me on the phone and said, well, I was with you until the last few minutes. Let's talk about it. So we talked about it. And hopefully we shared, you know, back and forth. Then this morning, someone came up to me and said, hey, you know what you were teaching on Wednesday? and you're talking about Laban, and let me show you, because here's what happens.

The context of what is taught, the Spirit of God will show the teacher something, but he may show you something that he didn't show me. Do you understand that? I can be up here teaching, Roger can be up here teaching, Bob in his class, or Courtney in the class, and we're sitting there and we're listening, And the Spirit of God shows you something that he didn't show the teacher. What do you do with that information?

You share it with the teacher. That's what he's talking about here. That's a really, really important principle. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. When someone comes up to me and says, oh, you know, let's talk about what you were saying. Either I don't understand or I saw something that you didn't mention. You don't get arrogant about that.

You say, oh, well, show me. Tell me. I want to know. There's a fellowship there. There's a cohesion there that you don't get anyplace else. It's a really important principle. So I would say to you, if you ever have any questions about anything that we're talking about, call us up. Buttonhole us after the meeting. Get us downstairs, whatever, and talk to us. Because, I mean, there is nothing cooler. than sharing Christ once among another. It's just the neatest thing ever. And if he's shown you something, it's not a secret, you can tell me. It's okay.

Anyway, to make the case here for the fact that he's not talking about financial support, the first thing I would say is that the context here is not talking about financial support, it's talking about the morally good. It's against the interpretation to even talk about financial support here because that's not what the context is. Secondly, the context of the good things is defined as being spiritual and not material. We're talking about spiritual things we're to share, not material.

The third thing is that Paul wouldn't be very savvy If he injected into the debate with the legal Galatians the financial support of the saints, it wouldn't be a good move on Paul's part. And it can be really delicate in some circles. Already there's a dissenting problem in Galatians because of this legal teaching. The Galatian churches, especially Especially when the whole trouble resolved around heretical teaching and not around financial situation. Paul doesn't want to inject that now. That's not part of what the issue is.

And the last thing is, if Paul were exhorting the saints to contribute financially to his support of the former teachers, the Judaizers would be on this in a second. They would say the apostles are attempting to win these people back under the grace provision so that they can support them, they can up their income. Gee, I'm surprised that they would think of that. So, it's a favorite method anyway in a body of believers a lot of times that they try to go after Paul and they do go after expository teachers that, well, really what they're doing is just they try to commercialize the ministry. commercialize the ministry.

One of the great things about this body of believers is that people like Roger and I have nothing to do with the money, and we don't want to have anything to do with the money. Not at all. Because that isn't our focus. That's somebody else's job. So Paul doesn't want to lay himself open to the charge that what he's really doing, what he's really trying to do, is to get these people to contribute more of whatever for his physical needs and not his spiritual ones.

So, as I said, it's important to realize that sometimes the Holy Spirit will show you something that He didn't show me or whoever your teachers are, just because He didn't reveal them. I mean, we have the privilege, all of those who teach in this church, understand what it's like to have the privilege to spend time alone with the Lord to prepare a lesson.

It's one of the greatest gifts that God can give you, because you are alone with the Lord, probably in front of your computer, just you and Him, and you're putting spiritual information together that you're going to feed to somebody else. And you're trusting the Spirit of God to make sure that it's right, that it's clear, that it's simple, and that it is the truth. And so you can feed. Well, you feed, but you want feedback. Because I'm telling you, so far in what I've said up here, the Spirit of God has shown some of you something He didn't show me.

I'm waiting for you to call me or to see me afterwards and we'll talk about it. It's just, it's great. You know, one of the great things about home Bible studies and the Tuesday Men's Bible Study, we talk. Everybody talks. And some of the guys see stuff that some of the other guys don't see. And you'll hear these little things quietly that someone will say, Oh, that's cool. I didn't know that. Or I didn't know that before. And that's really, thank you. That's what it's all about.

The benefits of sharing the things of Christ is actually the basis of Christian fellowship. It's at the very core of it. I think there's little danger of ourselves forgetting this kind of relationship to all those whom the Lord has raised up for the good of the church. There are landmarks in a body of believers like here, and one of them is the privilege and the obligation of the taught to remember the teachers in love. And that's how you remember them. And oh, by the way, that includes criticism. That includes disagreement. Let's talk.

You have an obligation to the teachers to share what the Holy Spirit has shown you and what you receive from the teacher. That's your obligation under grace. So you go back and you translate this in verse six. Moreover, let the one who being taught the word constantly beholding fellowship, sharing with the one who is teaching in all It's really cool that Paul would talk about that. Now, verse 7. But don't be deceived. God isn't mocked. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

So he's exhorting these Galatians to continue to hold fellowship with their teachers who taught them the grace. The implication being that they were availing themselves of teachers of the teachers ministry because they were going over to the Judaizers side and abandoning their teachers. Maybe one of the things that would have helped them not go there would have been this fellowship. In verse 7 Paul tells the Galatians you must not think that it is not a matter of importance whether your fellowship being with the former teachers who taught them the truth or with the Judaizers.

In other words, you know, in our contemporary society, Christians will tell you, well, it doesn't really matter where I go to church or how often I go. They're all pretty much saying the same thing. Oh, really? You know, I would say today, just off the top of my head, that 60% of the churches you attend in Denver today didn't teach the Word. They taught some social principle or something else. I had a call yesterday from a guy in California who is in a church, and they had a fellowship meal last week, and the sermon was all about the fact that the church says, well, if you're going to be a member of this church and take the Lord's table with us, you have to be baptized into the church. He said, what do you think about that? I said, not much, because I can't find it. I said, go back to the guy and say, where does that say that in the Word? You know, what's the authority here? Your denomination or what the Word of God says? And so we had a 20-minute discussion about baptism. What were we doing? I mean, I wasn't a contributor or a hearer of the information that he received, but we were sharing. We were learning together as we had this conversation. So, and notice what Paul says. Stop deceiving yourself. In other words, you were. Stop it. God isn't mocked. This is an imperative, which is, as Vern taught us, a logical spiritual imperative. This is a command. It forbids a continuance of an action that was already going on.

The Galatians were saying to themselves, it's not important what teachers we listen to. or who we associate with, whether it's Paul or the teachers of law. Why is that a problem? Because they were deceiving themselves and leading themselves astray. Now notice where Paul puts the onus. Does he put it on the teacher or does he put it on the hearer? He puts it on the hearer. Don't deceive yourself. Stop being deceived. For the believer to walk in the flesh and not in the Spirit is to deny God. That's really what you're doing. You're denying God's grace.

As we talked about, the word that they receive is usually orally. But this refers to a concealed ill will or contempt by cynical jesters in spite of the fair-minded words that they receive. I've been guilty of that myself. I'm listening to somebody and I'm not buying a thing he's saying. And I'm harboring this ill will towards them. That's what legalism will do to you.

It implies an outward declaration of respect that's neutralized by an inward expression of contempt. For the believer to continue in this sin, he or she is thinking His thinking is somehow immune from God's standard of holiness. And by doing that, you're mocking God. Mocking is a great word. It means to turn up your nose. It means to ridicule, ignore, or to sneer, to treat with contempt. So what does Paul say? God isn't mocked by this. Why can't you mock God? Why can't you do that?

Because there are divine principles in play. The first one is, the principles that God says, what you sow you reap, can't be changed. Remember the definition of a principle? A principle is a way a thing operates or functions, and it does it the same way every single time. And the best example is gravity. If I drop this, where is it going to go? This way? That way? Or straight down? It's going to go straight down.

Why? A principle of gravity operates the same way every time. Spiritual principles operate the same way every time. You can't violate a spiritual principle without there being consequences. The principle is always true. The sowing and reaping principle is always true.

So, the thought which Paul wants to express and get home to these Galatians is that it's vain to think that one can outwit God by reaping a harvest different from what the person has been sowing. You can't do that. What you sow, you're going to reap. When a man plants, he expects to harvest a crop. If you plant wheat, you expect to get wheat.

And you know where that principle comes from all the way back in Genesis? When God said, like begets like. When the seed is planted, it will come up what's planted, and it won't come up something different. Now, I know the evolutionists want to tell you that, well, you can do this and it'll be different on this end. No. It's all based on this principle of sowing and reaping. It's used spiritually in the conduct and its results in the principle that's always used in Scripture.

Literature used it. This is what they said. He that furnishes the seed is responsible for what grows. I don't know if you've ever studied the Greek classics, but that phrase is in there. So the principle operates in every sphere of life. Every sphere of life. If it's agricultural, it can be wheat, it can be beans, it can be squash, it can be anything. If you sow it, that's what you're going to reap. In the moral sphere of things, same principle.

If I sow adultery, guess what I get back? Adultery. If I sow fornication, what do I get back? Fornication. If I sow deceit, what do I get back? Deceit. Those of you who have studied Jacob know exactly what I'm talking about. He sowed deceit with his dad, and guess what? Thank God to this Laban character, He got deceived a lot and it cost him plenty. Why? Because he sowed it to start with. If you sow sparingly, you receive sparingly. If you sow self-embellishment, it's all about me, what do you get back? Self-embellishment. If you sow disinterest, what do you get back? Disinterest.

That principle never changes. So he's warning the Galatians against being led astray by the Judaizers and reminds them that they can't outwit God in doing it, for it will lead to disaster in their lives and chastening from the hand of God. It's a scary principle when you put it in play in that context. If you're going to go listen to the legalism of the Judaizers, then you're going to reap what they're sowing and what they're selling. So don't be deceived into thinking that because we are Christians, by the grace of God, we'll escape the results of our folly.

You won't. God is very gracious, but he's not mocked. And whatever a man sows, he does reap. Now, if we act in the flesh, we're going to suffer, however much mercy God shows to us. And however much grace He shows to us to mitigate the suffering, we're still going to suffer. Because the failure is going to be judged by God, and that's always painful to the flesh. On the other hand, to act in the Spirit will carry us to a bright reward, not only down here, but also in everlasting life.

It doesn't mean that you're not going to have suffering in this concept. You will. Because you may not be the one who's sowing, but people are sowing the flesh around you, and you may be involved in the consequences. And it's painful. It just is. So, paraphrasing or expanding on this translation, Paul says, stop leading yourselves astray. You stop doing that. Stop being led astray. God is not being outwitted or evaded by what you're doing.

For whatever a man is in the habit of sowing, that's what he's also going to reap. Verse 8, For the one who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Now this word to is an important word here. It means to the flesh or to the Spirit. It's not used here in a local sense, for instance, where the seed is dropped to the ground, but it's used in the sense with a view to. If you're sowing with a view to, with a view to the evil nature, to the old man, refers to the act of a person choosing those courses of conduct that will gratify the cravings of a totally depraved nature. Sound familiar? Should. We've all done that. We still do it. In this context, these words refer to the Galatians who were following these legal teachers.

They catered to the desires of the earthly Adamic man. They were trying to get the earthly Adamic man to function and act like a Christian by obeying laws. All false systems of religion are based on this principle and they adjust their appeal to the fallen earthly man. They schmooze it. satisfying his religious instincts for worship, while at the same time allowing him to go on in his sin.

That's the great thing about a legal system. It will satisfy, well, I'm doing pretty well. Which means what? I can still sin. I can still sin. We're under a grace provision, and as teaching of grace you realize, well, there is no reason for me to keep on doing this, because I'm under grace, because I'm positioned in Christ. So therefore, what are we looking at?

We're looking at two people who are sowing, and two people are reaping what they sowed. We're looking at two fields to sow in. One of them is the flesh, in the interest of the flesh. This one is also reaping the very same field he sowed in, which is just the flesh. Now it's harvest time, and we're going to have a crop. And I wish Laura was here. She would really... Laura Epps would understand this. What did she sow?

I sowed to my flesh. What did I get? If I sowed anger, I'd get anger back. If I sowed selfishness, I'd get selfishness back. If I sowed bitterness, guess what? I'd get bitterness. If I sold neglect towards the Lord or His Word, what do I get back? Neglect. I reaped neglect. If I was impatient, I sold to my impatience. I get impatience back. If I sold to immorality, I get immorality back. Where he sowed anything that was not of Christ, he repletedly received back anything that was not of Christ.

All of this reaping is summed up in one word in this verse. You know what the word is? Corruption. It's all in that word. Corruption. It means being brought into the worst condition possible. That's what corruption means. So, if you take a look at self-gratification or the sowing to one's own flesh, it's always a downward spiral. Always. Sowing in the wrong field always reaps a corrupt crop. Every time. Principle can't be violated.

Translate that over to what the Judaizers were doing. They were catering to the fallen natures of the Galatians in that they made no demand for the necessity of regeneration, nor a faith in the atoning sacrifice that paid for their sin. They weren't taught to do that.

What happens? Their teachers also stressed salvation by works, by religion, which glorifies man and not God. which allows him to go on sinning while he's trying to buy the favor of God by his good works. But he still gets to sin. Paul says this only leads to one thing, corruption in your life.

Period. Now it's harvest time again. Only this time, you've been sowing to the Spirit. You check your crop. What do you have? You've been walking by faith. Now Christ is the object of your life. You have been abiding in Christ. You have been beholding Him through His Word. You have sown in His Word. You're being led by the Spirit of God. You're being filled with the Spirit of God. And you're walking in the Spirit. That one has reaped out from the Spirit. What is his demeanor? It's summed up in love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control.

All this reaping is summed up in two words, eternal life. I reaped eternal life. Well, what is eternal life? Is it in a jar that says eternal life in your kitchen? Is it in different sizes? How does it show up, eternal life? If you look at John 17, 2 and 3, the Lord Jesus tells us what eternal life is.

He says, Even as you gave him authority over all flesh, the Lord Jesus, and to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life. And here's what it is. And this is eternal life, that you may know, that He may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one who you've sent. So what is eternal life? Eternal life is to know Christ. That's what you get.

You don't get earthly blessings, although He does bless us. We get the privilege and the opportunity to have an ongoing, intimate, personal fellowship with the God of the universe, who loves us and gave himself for us. That's what we get. Rather than all this other wonderful stuff is sown to the flesh. It isn't that you become a scholar.

It is that you become intimate and acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And trust me, he wants this more than we do. And He goes through every possible thing He can do to propagate this environment, that we would know Him. So what is your desire? What's my desire today? It's either corruption or eternal life. I don't have a lot of choice. I've only got two. It's either knowing Christ or corruption.

It all depends on what field we sow in. The one who sows with a view to the Spirit, that is, the one who chooses to know Christ with a view to fulfilling the wishes of the Holy Spirit, is the Christian who reaps the blessings of eternal life which God has given. Expanded translation of the verse, because the one who sows with a view to his own flesh, from his flesh as a source shall reap corruption. But the one who sows with a view to the Spirit, from the Spirit as the source, shall reap eternal life.

Let's close. Our dear Father, how we thank you. You've just even given us the opportunity to sow in the field of the Spirit. The fact that we can even do that. And because we can do that, what do we reap? What do we get? we get eternal life. And what is eternal life? To know you. To have a personal, intimate fellowship with you on an ongoing basis, just beginning now and lasting for all eternity. And we thank you, Father. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.