Teachers of the Word: Part 1

Today we have a two-part lesson. You know, Margaret and I were talking on the way down. You know, we were talking about the way we divided Galatians in terms of two-part and three-part series. That seems to work, doesn't it? Rather than kind of one person teaching one week and one the next. If we can do that in 1 John, that would be great too. I'll just, as Roger develops a schedule, we'll see how that works out for all of us. I'm thinking, I like this. I may kind of adapt it to 1 John as well when it makes sense.

So the title today is Teachers of the Word, Galatians 6.6-10, and this is kind of a title that may not be the best, but anyway, that's the one I chose at the time that we ultimately came up with this section. And the first verse, in fact, let's go ahead and read the section first and put it into context.

So I'd like someone to read Galatians 6.2-10, which will be the conclusion of our lesson next week. Volunteer, please.

Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load. 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, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 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. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. Alright, important, important section, particularly in terms of the theme of Galatians that we've been about. So let's put this in the context and go forward. Doesn't this seem, the first verse, let him who is taught, meaning all of you out here, let those who are taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

Doesn't that seem kind of opposite of what we might think? Don't all respond at once. Maybe not. The thing that I think is so fundamental with this is that if you're teaching someone something, and I think of work situations, but if you're teaching somebody something and they think they've learned something and they come to you and it's wrong, then you have an opportunity to correct it. But if you're teaching something and they come to you with something and it's right, then you can see that they're growing and you know as a teacher it's time to progress to something else. So it's inherently valuable for that relationship. I think that's really true.

As a teacher of the world system, which I am at the university, you rarely get good feedback. You hear the complaints, right? Occasionally someone would come in and say, that was a really good lecture, I really learned a lot, but it's rare. You've got a class of 160 people, they leave, and you might get one comment or something, but generally you hear the negative. If there's something you've taught that's unclear, or whatever, you hear it back. Roy, what do you think?

I was just thinking, to me, the first time I read through this, it was like, gosh, I don't do this at school. But by the same token, we do in the church environment, you know, by the tithes and offerings, which is the terms that we grew up with, share with those who teach us. Okay, that's going to come back, that theme that you just mentioned in a few minutes. So, isn't it the student's job to kind of... Donna? I just had a suggestion there about that edifying.

If I'm edified by something that you're teaching, if I explain that back to you, then you would be edified as a teacher. I think as teachers a lot of times you guys are just like you're doing now, you're talking and trying to get feedback to see if it's making sense, you know, if you're making an effect. I think the important thing that you've just said is this, is that this is not an ego trip here, right?

I mean, Randy and Roger and I are up here to get your praises because we're doing such a great job, but may the Lord Jesus Christ be edified and lifted up by our teaching, right? And how he's impacting your day-to-day lives. And that feedback is ultimately to his glory, is it not? It's not to our own glory, right?

Well, Mike, I think, is a good example. He sort of has spearheaded in our fellowship, asking questions. I mean, he teaches but interactively by bringing up questions throughout his sessions. I don't know if you guys, through the years I've just noticed that Mike sort of spearheaded it and other people are doing it more and more. And that's the way we give him feedback, but it's also the way that he learns. And he's mentioned that several times. He says, I learn more from you guys. It is true. All right, let's go ahead then. How does this relate to the section we just read that Roger taught last week? Randy, read two through five again. All right.

Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load.

Does that relate at all to what we're looking at today? In what way, Margaret? Well, I think it makes everyone accountable for what they're learning and that they need to be accountable. And what's the law of Christ? I thought we were out from underneath all this legal stuff. Roger dealt with it. It's actually great. It really is.

There's two aspects to his law. Love one another is the second aspect, right? But, you know, believe on him whom he has sent is the first one. How are you doing with that loving one another? Is that not the law? Is that not the law of Christ, this great principle of grace extended through each and every one of us? It takes the pressure off, doesn't it? Because in Him, that love is automatic by faith. We're going to come back to this, but we have to act by faith. That love of Christ doesn't come through us unless we respond to His great grace by our faith in that truth.

Right, Donna? I was thinking too, when you talk in a work environment, there is a knowledge that's being conveyed. in a spiritual context, if Christ isn't glorified through your teaching, then you haven't accomplished anything. So the focus is totally different in the work environment. It is. Good points. Thank you very much. So, what I brought up a little earlier, we'll bring back just to your attention right now, is this simply applauding the teacher? or acknowledging the value of all good things being taught?

I think that's an obvious question, is it not? It's interesting, if you look at Strong's definition of all, you're overwhelmed. including all the forms of declension, apparently a primary word, all, any, every, the whole, all manner of, means, always, anyone, daily, ever, everyone, as many as, thoroughly, whatsoever, whole, whosoever, how's that? I mean all things? I seem to remember this is the one, I think this is the one that says It doesn't exclude anything. It's all-inclusive. All means all.

Yeah, think about it in non-spiritual sense, all. I mean, all would kind of use that term loosely, right? The Greek doesn't use that term very loosely, right? So, anyway, I'm expecting each one of you to come up after class. So, good things is an interesting word. It's one word. It's a primary word. Agathos. One word, good things. And there's also bad things. We're going to come to that here in a second.

1 Thessalonians 5, 12. We urge you, brethren, to recognize or get to know those who are among you, who live among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you." Okay, over you, we think of elders and pastors and things like that, but I think it appeals, this appeals to the teachers that you have in your environment too. But in context, this is more, I think, than simply recognition, but sharing or communicating with fellowship in an atmosphere of grace.

Again, back to the law of Christ. Again, this is not an ego trip for Vern or for Roger, for Mike, for anybody else. It's ultimately glorifying God through it. Remember, it's the word Logos that's being taught. We're not talking about geology here. We're not talking about atmospheric science. We're not talking about vehicular trafficking on the streets of Denver here. We're talking about the word.

And what is the word this? Locals Well, it is this. This is the written word, right? You can see how that word is used for both the Lord Jesus and for the written word as well. So that's what's being taught. This is not intellectual stuff. Although there is, no question, there's some intellectual aspect to learning scripture. But we're not talking, the law of Christ is not the intellect. It's the principle of grace enacted in the life by the power of the Spirit that Randy so capably taught a few weeks ago.

And often this verb is to share. In fact, Roy, this is what you mentioned earlier. This acknowledging or recognizing often means to share of a material nature. So I'll be passing the offering plate here in a few minutes. I don't know whether time permits, but in context, we don't need to look at these right now, but in Romans and 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, in context this word is used more in terms of recognizing those who are over you.

What's the bottom line of spiritual giving? I love this concept. What is the bottom line of giving financially? There's an adverb. Giving cheerfully. There's no burden here. I think one of the neatest things about Holly Hills is the lack of an offering plate, and that makes me perfectly willing to give cheerfully.

I mean, it's a whole different ballgame. Well, I went to church before I came here. Boy, you were made to feel guilty. I mean, every Sunday almost that you walked out of that place. And think about all this tokenism people. When you go to a mainline church or even the evangelical church and everybody's kind of reaching down, making sure they get recognized for putting something in the offering plate. Anyway, this is a whole different atmosphere.

It's called grace. And giving cheerfully is the only thing that makes any difference to God. We give grudgingly. I mean, somebody uses that for salary or missions or something else, but there's no uplifting by the Spirit in that kind of giving, is there?

So I don't know whether we need to pin this down in this particular section as related to financial support, but actually one of the commentators I read on today's passage suggested that this is in part what this meant. I'll let you make your own conclusions. I don't necessarily think we need to be that specific in what this indicates.

All right, now why not the bad things? In other words, we're encouraged as believers who are being taught by Vern, by Mike, by Roger, etc. that we should acknowledge them and recognize them for the good things about teaching the word Logos. Why not the bad things? Why doesn't it say let them know about the bad things too? Isn't that the power of the Spirit in our lives to discern good from evil?

What if I teach error up here? Well, isn't it a good thing to come alongside and explain it in a more perfect way? Wouldn't that be a good thing? That would be a good thing. And so you don't point out error, you point out the truth. That's why he's exhorting us to do good things. That's why the experts in jewelry study the true gem, right? Not the falsifications, right? Okay, that's good comment, Roy. Other thoughts about this?

Why not the bad things? Why aren't you encouraged to come to me about teaching error? Maybe you should, just don't say that. Maybe we're assuming the absence when it's not to be assumed. Well, I think Roy pointed out what 6.1 says, and that is that you would come along the side. I think the other side is that you would have, hopefully the teacher is not the one teaching error. It has Paul's constantly, okay, let's not have error taught. No, I think that may be an assumption of Paul's when he's writing to believers that error is not being taught. But remember what the theme of the beginning of Galatians was, what? The other gospel, right? What's the other gospel? It's law, isn't it? Legal principles appealing to the old man to do right. That's anything but what we're talking about here. And as we look at the verses going forward, this is going to come back. We have to carefully examine the word of truth.

All right, so I remind you, or actually inquire of you, is this type of communication, meaning pointing out the bad things of teachers, is this simply, in parenthesis, and only the way of the world? It seems like it might be redundant, but I think Roy carefully articulated the fact that if there is error, that the truth identified the error for what it is. So you're, in a sense, sharing the good things of the truth with the teacher who may be an error. And remember, the next verse will say, be not deceived. Because this deception is commonplace, I think, in churches around the world, or just gatherings of the body around the world. I don't know if it applies, but the teacher of course has a responsibility to listen to the truth in those circumstances and respond with, yeah, I didn't see it that way, but that is the truth.

I'm sorry, I was just going to say too that I think if we focus on the error, it's the same thing as focusing on sin, when in fact we need to focus on the Lord and the truth. Because it's so great and easy to get the old man so focused on the wrong things and the sin. I mean, I just think that's one of the reasons I think we focus on the truth.

Another thing that I've shared previously and I think you've acknowledged is the fact that as the light gets brighter, the darkness gets more revealed for what it really is, but we don't study the darkness. Let's allow the light to continue to be brighter as the Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Spirit, shines on the darkness that each and every one of us are in the old man, the sinful nature. Good things make bad things revealed for what they really are. Any other thoughts here before we move to verse 7?

There's two of the verse that says, the teachers will incur a stricter judgment. So I think people, like all of us, should be listening to whoever we're learning from to see if it is truth. And then also be like the Bereans in searching things out ourselves. It is our responsibility to know the word well enough so the teaching either is Yes, that's true, or it's not, and we should be the ones searching it out.

But interesting you say that, Ingrid, because I can think of, let's say someone walks in from Longwood, I'll just make up a term, Longwood Evangelical Free Church. They come here and join our Sunday School class. It could be Randy teaching, or Roger teaching, or me teaching. this may be kind of, they think we're an error because we're teaching grace, right? I mean, even though they would not have argued that grace is not a principle of God, it's just the issue we've got to get our act together, right, and get to work for God.

So, I mean, we could discuss this for another hour about, we continue to have to be reminded we are privileged by whatever to see grace for all it is. We are all just learning. It's a waterfall where we're trying to get a little bit in the cup, right? Just for our thirst.

But I mean, you know, again, it's not elitism. There's nothing elite about understanding grace for what it means for the life of a believer. It's truth. And actually, if you think about it, there's nothing more humbling than understanding our co-resurrection burial being risen with him in newness of life and having the grace to live the life by faith through the power of the Spirit. We don't take credit for that, right?

So I think this is often something that comes to my mind in terms of why we meet here and how we're lifted up by one another in these truths. How we respond when living under grace is totally different than how we respond living under the law. I don't think there's that aggressive anger at someone that differs with us when we're living under grace. There's a love relationship toward the one that is angered toward us that comes through loud and clear. It probably brings conviction faster than any other kind of response. I think an argumentative spirit is not of the Lord here. The new man led by the principle of grace and the power of the spirit is one who has some understanding and is not defensive, but yet comforting to those who may have a different view. It may make him a lot more angry even than if we did come back with anger. God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows that he will also reap.

Seen this before? How many times have you heard this deal? And there's a reason for that. Scripture seems to be a bit redundant here, and God has it all there for a reason, right? This is such a sweet passage in a way, because the tendency to fall into error is to interpret this under a legal kind of setting. We really want to avoid that mistake. Be not deceived. By whom?

Are we talking about by the teacher, Randy? In this context, it would have to be not only the Judaizers, but any teacher. But in a broad application, it's everyone who would teach you or try to influence you. And here's the question to the class, and we kind of alluded to this already. Is this the legal expository? In other words, I think it could be. A teacher who puts you under law could be deceiving to you in terms of the law of Christ that Roger's covered and that is the principle of grace enacted in our lives.

We have to be so careful here. You know, I'll just reflect personally. I used to listen to Christian radio day in and day out, on the way to work, on the way home from work, after I got saved when I first moved to Denver. It was comforting for a while, but then after you start understanding the principle of grace, every time I listen, I feel guilty. It was so defeating to feel like I'm not getting the job done for God. I just don't listen to Christian radio because it's not uplifting.

I mean, it should be uplifting, shouldn't it? But when you're made to feel like a lesser citizen, it's not that we couldn't be doing more for God, but my old man can only do so much, and according to what we're going to get to today, that's wood, hay, and stubble, is it not? Anyway, so, be not deceived, because the legal expositor is overseeing you in terms of your ways. be deceived by yourself? You could be. You wouldn't have to be the teacher, would you? It could be your own teaching yourself in error.

It seems like we bring so much to the table, you know, from our upbringing in Christianity. I find that I still get nailed, even today, with old traditions, I would say, and And keep in mind that theology here is not let go, let God. We still have to respond by faith in what God has revealed. This isn't kind of just throw yourself back, I'm going to do what I want, there's a lot of grace here, falsehood, God forbid. No, this isn't the life we live. We live it by an act of faith that we're created in new Christ Jesus. This concept of being not deceived is really our responsibility to the truth of the Word of God, to accept it as it is, and make sure the teachers are teaching it the way it is. And that's why we're all at Holly Hills. Hopefully there are lots of other churches around the world like this. And it's not, again, an elitist view. It's the truth of the Word of God portrayed. And Paul is the author of much of this truth.

And that's why we're going to do... 1 John is so much fun once you're ingrained in Pauline epistles. And I'm going to have fun teaching that. I know Randy and Roger share that too. It's just, 1 John, it's so critically important that you be ingrained in Paul. And then it becomes a lovely epistle. It's really great. All right, so moth.

Let's look at the definition. From a derivative on the basis of mucamiae, or whatever it is, meaning snout, as that the cows are lowing, moo, okay? And so, you know, in reality, or virtually, it means to sneer with the nostrils drawn up in contempt. to make mouths at, for instance, to ridicule, right?

Who's not mocked? Is it us? Anthropos, sows and reaps. And just to say that this seed and harvest scenario, right? But as stated, it's God who's not mocked, right? It's not us being mocked. It's God. Can God be mocked? Moo. I don't think so. Anyway, it's Christmas time.

We're going to come back to this. So, this sowing what you reap is what I call the seed and harvest scenario, right? I mean, let's take a look at that in a little bit more detail. Why would we expect anything else from such a relationship of sowing and reaping, right?

I mean, is there, you know, plant, you know, tares? Are we going to get wheat? Well, let's think about all the applications. We can sow barley. That's scriptural. We can sow wheat. We can sow tares. We can sow sparingly. We can sow bountifully. We can sow nothing. And the crop is as expected, right? Any disagreement with this as a principle? A couple of nice verses, and there are many in scripture.

Job 4.8, even as I have seen those who plow iniquity and so trouble reap the same.

Proverbs 11.18 The wicked man does deceptive work, but he who sows righteousness will have a sure reward. Hosea They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud. It shall never produce meal. If it should produce, aliens would swallow it up. Hosea. There's a lot in Hosea we've ignored here.

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your foul ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and rains righteousness on you. Anyway, and there are many, many more. I just kind of threw those out there for the heck of it. Yeah, Rabbi.

I would say that, and you referenced the wood, hay, and stubble, I would say that right before that in 1 Corinthians 3, he says, verse 10 according to the grace of God which was given to me like a wise master builder I laid a foundation and another is building on it but each man must be careful how he builds on it and that goes for the teachers but also as a student if you're taking something on make sure that the alignment of the material if you will is true you'll be like the Berean you'll be able to check and say hey you know I've got this foundation that's in Christ And then I've been taught these other doctrines, and this brick you're trying to give me just isn't the right brick. Let's figure out what's wrong, and then come back to it. I think the direct parallel between this passage here in Galatians 6 is not only important, but it is one of those doctrines that I think...

When I went to seminary, I got taught a lot of things that were contrary to what I'd been taught before. And so I had two bricks to look at, if you will. And I was like, OK, what are the qualities of this brick? And it turns out that I had some old bricks that I needed to dispose of. But I also didn't just blindly take all the bricks that they handed me at seminary and say, yeah, this is good. So you had trouble relating this to the story of the three little pigs. Oh, yeah. I had plenty of sticks and stones. Bricks. Maybe it was really hay, right? Yeah.

So let's do look at Romans 2, 6 through 10. And Roger, if you could read Romans 2, 6 through 10. This puts it in New Testament context a bit more, but the consequences we're going to look at in a little bit more detail. There's all kind of Old Testament reaping and sowing, but the New Testament's laced with it also.

This is a good section, I think. Okay, starting in verse 6, it says, Among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That wasn't really ringing the right bell, but I'm not going to try to. Okay, let's try this.

2.6 Who were rendered to every man according to his deeds? To those who by perseverance and doing good seek to glory and honor and immorality. eternal life. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation, there will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jews first and also the Greeks. But glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also the Greek.

Okay, all right, just the principle played out in Romans 2. Of course, Romans 2 is kind of getting us into Romans 3 through 8, right, which is really the meat of Romans. But this kind of just reflects on the same principle, doing good versus not doing good. Now, again, the source of that doing good is really what we're going to talk about in more detail.

How many of you think that this relates to our giving in support of our spiritual leaders? I mean, again, back to this principle of sharing or acknowledging those who are in a leadership role. I think that is a bit out of context, but potentially could be an application. Either way, doesn't this whole principle of reaping what we sow really stem from a legal base? I mean, if you think about it, How are you doing with your agathos today versus your cacos or bad things? It really does have this tent of legalism over covering this work that we have in terms of living by faith.

Who's doing the sowing here anyway is the question I might ask. I think it's relevant, don't you? Who's doing the sowing? Verse 8 helps us pin this down a bit more. It says, For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Okay, so we're not talking about us making kind of decisions in the earthly man or the flesh or fleshly soul. We're talking about making those decisions in our own nature, and then ultimately being led by the Spirit to make decisions that reap everlasting life. A very important and clarifying statement to follow that's stated in verse 7 is, he who sows.

Present active participle. We're in the business of sowing constantly. We are sowing actively and repeatedly, but yet Ultimately, shall reap is a future active indicative. What's that mean? It means a yet to be experienced consequence that's a fact. So, the process of us sowing on an ongoing basis is going to have a consequence that reflects the process of sowing.

So, there's no equivocation here, right? our sowing will reap something in result, and everything we think about, we do, and how that impacts not only ourselves but those around us. So here's the contrast between corruption, which is sowing of the flesh, versus life everlasting.

Is this eternal salvation? Does that mean if I got enough or bad things that ultimately I'm not going to make it into my eternal security with the Lord? It seems to say that, doesn't it? It says, those who sow to your flesh will reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will reap everlasting life.

First off, who's the reaper? It is of the spirit that the reaping occurs. It's the spirit who is the reaper. And if that's the case, we already know what he has reaped in our lives, and that's the eternal life of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is when you sow something produced in another environment that that production comes out with life. But who does the reaping of that life? It's the Holy Spirit that's going to do it. And so the seed that is planted dies and God raises it in new life in that other environment.

Now keep in mind now, I was saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. The fruit of the Spirit that ultimately is glorifying to God is everlasting fruit and life and does relate to kind of the rewards principles. We don't understand rewards very well, and the verses I think that I'm going to follow with here ultimately deal with this, but we're talking about now wood, hay, and stubble versus gold and precious stones is what we're talking about. Much more consistent with the result of the works in the presence or absence of the Holy Spirit is the leading in our lives. So the Spirit is ultimately the one that reaps. You're right, Roy. And the Spirit really weighs before the Heavenly Father, ultimately, these good things and bad things in terms of their eternal merit or Zoe eternal life giving principles and rewards versus those things get burned.

But aren't we secondary beneficiaries of that? We are. We're not the primary beneficiaries, so we're not sowing for ourselves. God's not mocked, right? To God be the glory. Those things are of His nature and Spirit-led, are to His glory and to our everlasting reward or life, I think. Yeah, absolutely. But we are secondarily. How are we secondarily benefited by the things that we reap according to the Spirit? Joy. Joy, okay. What else? Peace? Fruits of the Spirit. Fruits of the Spirit. Rest? Yeah, all the fruits of the Spirit. How about fellowship, one with the other? I mean, there's just a language and a life there that exists that's Spirit-led that is difficult to explain to the unbeliever, isn't it? I like the word harmony. Harmony is good. Okay, good.

Let's go ahead and look at these verses because I think it deals with this concept that works in this earthly body of ours, and how they're ultimately dealt with in heavenly places. So Margaret, if you could read 1 Corinthians 3, 12-15, and Donna, if you could do 2 Corinthians 5, 9, and 10, that would be great. Okay, 12-15.

Now if every man, if any man, build upon his foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide when he hath built their pun, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Okay, so corruption is burnt, everlasting life has eternal merit connected to it. We don't understand what these rewards are all about. Don, I like what your husband said always about rewards.

Everybody will be at peace in heavenly places eternally, but how well you know them here relates to how close you are to them there, but everybody's satisfied. I mean, that's a paraphrase, but that concept is really a pretty good one because this isn't red, white, and blue ribbons, right? I mean, you go to the head of the class and you sit in the back of the class. I mean, the point is, is whatever this eternal relationship is, everybody is content. But, I mean, we don't really understand this very well, but we do understand being burnt versus everlasting, don't we?

Donna, 2 Corinthians 5. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Very simple principle, and that section of scripture is so misinterpreted by so many.

When we stand before the throne of grace, this is all good. There's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. The things we've done that have, you know, our gold and precious stones that we read about in 1 Corinthians 3 are in fact those that live forever and were accepted fully in grace, no condemnation. And those things that we're paying stubble, we're not going to have to pay any price for those again. Those have already been determined to be of no value and they've been cast out.

What a rest, huh? This idea of believers thinking that when they see God they should be in fear of the things they've not done or the things that they've done that have not been sourced in Him. God's already done with that. Isn't that really comfortable? Doesn't that give you a really wonderful feeling of rest and peace?

I could interpret this section in any other way than this is being saved. Remember, I was saved, I'm being saved, I will be saved. But being saved has fruit to bear eternally in terms of what rewards are forthcoming in the kingdom of heaven. But right now, this is not our concern. Our concern is living by faith. John Gill. I normally don't go to him for much, but I thought this was kind of interesting, and bear with me here.

Shall the Spirit reap life everlasting in the use of such spiritual means, though not as meritorious or as causes, he shall attain to and enjoy eternal happiness in the other world, or of and by the Spirit of God, by whose grace and strength he sows, and does all the good things he does by and of him, sanctifying him, and making him meat for it, and not of himself, or any other works of righteousness done by him. shall he inherit eternal life, which is the pure gift of God through Jesus Christ, and bestowed as a reward of his own grace." Terrible English language. I mean, how can you read this and make any sense out of it? There are lots of he's and you're not sure which he we're talking about, but the bottom line here is that the work is of God to his glory, not of the flesh. And John Gill got this one right. He sometimes, in my opinion, doesn't get stuff right. But I kind of like that.

If you can dissect that and look at the residue, praise the Lord for his working in our lives, right? All right. Romans 8-11. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. This is nothing we are working on here. I mean this ability to do good things by the power of the Spirit is something we are all graced to accomplish in our lives. It's a response by faith. Romans 13, 14, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.

John 6.27, Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him.

Boy, isn't that beautiful? I mean, again, the food that endures to everlasting life, that's what we're talking about here. What are we chewing on here, right? So you reap. And that principle is so nicely played out here. And this is an act of faith, nothing more or less. God provides the truth. Are we going to believe him for what he reveals? If we put on the spirit by faith, ultimately the everlasting life, that basket becomes fuller as time goes on. Do we believe God and what he's revealed or not? So often when I'm teaching, the morning that I'm teaching, there's something in the hungry heart. Bear with me here.

I'm not going to read the whole thing, just the fourth paragraph this morning. The title today is Association Slice Transformation. Multitudes of believers are sick and tired of trying to be good. That gets your attention, doesn't it? Paul rests our feet on the right path, the goodness. He had learned from experience that goodness is not caught by pursuit, but by association, not by struggling to obey laws and rules, but by living in the Lord Jesus's presence, by steadily looking at him where it changed into his likeness. Quit trying to be good, everybody.

It just doesn't make it. How can any believer not see and understand the two natures that all of us carry with us? I mean, if there's not a section of Scripture that deals with it more succinctly and obviously, it's this one. Isn't it, sowing what we reap is not a legal doctrine. It's a doctrine of grace in terms of living by faith.

Yeah, Donna. I was thinking about like against like that we teach here. What an extension it is of that. That's really true, isn't it? Boy, as it's said here, hanging out with him ultimately, that life of his may be transforming each and every one of us to his image.

Any other thoughts about today's lesson? What was the first verse today? I didn't need that, but the Lord did, right? Margaret, would you get your purse out please and drop some coins in there? Father, thank you for this time that we have had to look at your word. And we'll thank you that we're winding up Galatians and it's been such a rich book. We ask that you would continue to draw our hearts and minds to things above.