and your copy of the Holy Scriptures to the New Testament book of Galatians, Galatians chapter number 6. We are nearing the conclusion of our study of this epistle where we have learned that the Christian is no longer bound to the law but now lives by grace. The Christian is not obligated to keep the Mosaic Law for our salvation or for our sanctification, for Christ has made us free. However, there is one law that we cannot escape, and that is the natural law of cause and effect. It is Newton's third law. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For example, science teaches us that what goes up must come down. A modern tenant of computer technology is garbage in, garbage out. The Proverbs say that the ringing of the nose brings forth blood. You see there's a cause and effect for every action there is a reaction. And here in Galatians chapter six verse number seven reminds us that we will reap what we sow. And Paul now uses the universal law of sowing and reaping to illustrate a very important spiritual lesson. It's not only the Apostle Paul here in Galatians 6 that uses this illustration. It was Job in Job chapter 4 verse 8. Those who plow iniquity and sow trouble will reap the same. Speaking of those who will experience God's judgment, Hosea 8 verse number seven says, they sow the wind and they will reap the whirlwind. And now in Galatians 6 verse number seven, do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. I prepared a message this morning from Galatians 6, verses 6 through 10, titled, The Harvest is Coming. Let's go to the Lord one more time in prayer before we look at his word. God in heaven, we ask now for the aid of your Holy Spirit to illumine the scripture text to us, to teach us, to convict us, and to change us. Lord, may your holy word remind us of the immutable law of sowing and reaping. And Lord, may we be those who sow to the spirit and not to the flesh. We commit our study to you in Jesus' name I pray, amen. This morning I want to first establish the principle of our text. And then I wanna give application of our text. The principle is found in verse number seven. This is simply the principle as I just read it, the idea and the illustration of sowing and reaping. If you plant a seed of corn, you will reap a harvest of corn. If you plant a seed of wheats or of beans or pumpkins or tomatoes, whatever the case may be, you will reap in like manner. The principle is that we reap what we sow. It's an immutable law of God. In fact, Paul says, don't be deceived in Galatians 6 verse 7. That is, don't think for a moment that the law of sowing and reaping doesn't apply to you. It does. It's universal. But unfortunately, the Galatians were a bit gullible. In fact, the Galatians were so gullible that they would believe anything they were told. They were so gullible that they had even turned away after another gospel. Remember back in chapter one, verse six. By the way, did you know that the word gullible is not found in the dictionary? Did you know that? Okay, don't be so gullible. It's there, but in Galatians 3 verse 1, Paul says, O foolish Galatians, if you were writing to us, O foolish fourth Baptist members, who has bewitched you? Chapter 3 verse 1. And of course, we know it was the Judaizers who taught that salvation and sanctification were by works of the law. It's the Judaizers' fault. They have bewitched us, perhaps, but then in chapter six, verse three, if you're looking there, chapter six, verse three, Paul spoke of those who deceived themselves. They bewitched themselves. In that case, thinking that they were better than they were, because the Galatians were so gullible, they were at risk of deceiving themselves. Never mind the Judaizers who peddled a false gospel. The Galatians were so gullible that they deceived themselves into believing they could escape the consequences of reaping what they have sown. But to sow one kind of seed and expect to reap a different kind of harvest is foolishness. or to sow a seed and not expect any harvest is craziness. Worse than self-deception, it's to mock God. And verse number seven tells us that God will not be mocked. We may fool ourselves. We may bewitch ourselves. We may deceive ourselves, but we cannot fool God. No one can avoid the immutable law of the seed and the harvest, for after all, it's not just a natural law, it is a supernatural law of God. And so from this principle, we reap what we sow. There are three specific points of application that I would offer you this morning, and this is now then the application. Paul gives us three spheres of sowing and reaping, three spheres in which this principle operates in the lives of believers. The first place where the law of sowing and reaping operates is in the sphere of Christian ministry. Christian ministry. Look at verse number six. I'm sorry, Galatians chapter six, verse number six. Let him who has taught the word Share in all good things with him who teaches." The Greek word there for him who is taught, the word, it's katakomenos, it's the katakumen, it's the one who is catechized or instructed in the truth and in the faith. And whether that instruction is given publicly or privately, that catechizing, formally or informally, those who are taught the Word of God are to help support the teacher of the Word. We might put it this way, he who sows the good seed of God's Word in the lives of others can expect to reap the harvest of a livelihood. Now, it's always awkward for a pastor to address the matter of his own compensation. But fortunately for me, that is not awkward. That is not a sore subject at all for you take very good care of your pastor and your pastors. Our needs are met and for that we are grateful. But because it's a biblical principle that's repeated so many times, it's worthy of our review. Jesus told the 70 whom he sent out in Luke chapter 10, the laborer is worthy of his wages. To the Corinthians, Paul asked, if we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things from you? for those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. In 1 Timothy 5-7, Paul said that the elders who rule well should be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. And so the sowing and the reaping principle applies to Christian ministry. Martin Luther explained the reason why. He says this, Martin Luther says, it is impossible for one man both to labor day and night to get a living, and at the same time give himself to the study of sacred learning as the preaching office requires. It's difficult to be bivocational, to work for a living and to work to be a preacher or a teacher of the gospel. Therefore, God established a pattern whereby those who serve in the Christian ministry might be supported by those to whom they minister. However, the flesh gets in the way. And naturally, the flesh, which is a theme in this context, remember the struggle between the flesh and the spirit, the flesh is always a problem. And because of the flesh, abuses occur in Christian ministry. And you ask, what abuse occurs? Well, consider this, someone has once said this, Christianity began as a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When it went to Athens, it became a philosophy. When it went to Rome, it became an organization. When it went to Europe, it became a culture. When it came to America, it became a business. And it's big business, not only in America, in the West, but even around the world. First, there is abuse by preachers. There's abuse of this by preachers. I went online to do a little bit of research. I wanted to read about the abuses of those who make millions in the name of Christianity. And after all, we love to hear of the multi-million dollar contracts that professional athletes have, and we love to know what celebrities earn and what bonuses CEOs take home. And certainly that is true for many preachers or peddlers of the gospel, infamous preachers, TV evangelists and such. And I don't need to name any names. All the data is online. But let me just say this. Millions and millions, tens of millions of dollars are lining the pockets of some in Christian ministry. And I'm not speaking of just a big parsonage. but rather multiple, multi-million dollar houses around the world. It's not about a pastor driving a shiny car, but a preacher having their own private jets. There's no doubt that there have been and there will be financial abuses by those who minister the gospel, sow the seeds of the gospel in the name of Christianity. And for that reason, Paul himself was careful to avoid anything like that when he preached the gospel to the Corinthians. He did so without charge, writing that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel. On the other hand, there might be abuse by the people. There's abuse by the preachers in Christian ministry. There's also abuse by the people. There was a circuit riding preacher back in the day whose attire revealed that he had little of this world's riches. He himself was thin and in less than perfect health. His horse, on the other hand, was sleek and well kept. When a parishioner asked the preacher why the horse looked so good, the preacher's response was, well, I take care of my horse, you take care of me, you see. And the abuse of people, the church, to keep their pastor poor. And there have been churches, I suppose there are still some churches that feel they must keep their pastor poor to keep him humble. There are churches that use the purse strings as reins to control the pastor. If we're paying for the piper, they reason, we can pick the tune, right? And pastors ought to be poor. And the care and the compensation of a pastor then can become directly linked to his performance. The interpretive key for me in verse number 6 is the word share. In our modern English translations you see the word share there. In the old King James it was the word communicate. It's the familiar Greek word koinonia. and it means partnership. So sharing or communicating in verse six is a give and take exchange, it's a joint effort. We might translate verse six like this. Look at verse six. Let him who is taught the word partner in all good things with him who teaches, or let him who is taught the word exchange all good things for him who teaches. So it's not about payment for services, but rather it's a partnership in the ministry of the Word, and the principle of sowing and reaping certainly applies to Christian ministry. I might just comment here, Fourth Baptist Church does this really well. And on behalf of all of your pastors, I would thank you for how well you do in the partnership of Christian ministry here in this place and in the caring for your pastors. But there are other churches that are unable to afford to do as well as you do. And perhaps as well as they would want to do. Perhaps because of economies of scale. Perhaps it's a small congregation or an underemployed congregation or perhaps an assembly of immature believers who are not principled in their giving or in their care of their pastors. And so for that reason, over the last few years, we have designated part of our praise and Thanksgiving offering to give a gift to bivocational, rural, small church pastors across the state of Minnesota. And through your giving to our Thanksgiving offering last month, we are planning to send a $500 gift card gifts to 10 different small church rural bivocational pastors across our state to simply bless them and thank them for their ministry of the word and their preaching of the gospel and you're a part of that. And in some small way we're partnering with pastors and churches that you wouldn't even perhaps know and that's a blessing. And so this principle of sowing and reaping is first could be applied to Christian ministry. There's a second sphere in which sowing and reaping, that principle applies. Look at verse number eight. Verse number eight, 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. And I'll call this number two, Christian morality. There's Christian ministry, verse number seven. Now Christian morality in verse number eight. Verse number eight borrows from the greater discussion of the flesh and the spirit here in the book of Galatians. So think with me of your Christian walk as a walk through a plowed field. And you are sowing seed in that plowed field. On the left side, you're sowing to the flesh. On the right side, you're sowing to the spirits. You can expect to reap and like kind as you have sown. That field will someday produce a harvest of flesh and spirit. And sure enough, the old proverb is true, sow a thought, reap an act. Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny. And so in the area of Christian morality, we are sowing seed regularly. But how is it then that some Christians, even prominent Christians, suffer moral defeats? I submit it's because we sow, sow, sow, sow to the flesh. That's letter A, sowing to the flesh. Our flesh is the natural passions and desires of our old man and to sow to our flesh is to feed the mind and feed the heart with that which indulges the passions and the desires of our natural man. So if you'll allow me to stop preaching and start meddling for a moment, may I do that? Every time you allow yourself to hold a grudge against another, you're sowing to the flesh. Every time you allow yourself to watch that sensual scene on the screen, you're sowing to the flesh. Every time you sit down in idleness when you ought to be up working, you sow to the flesh. Every time you dismiss the Spirit's promptings in exchange for your body's cravings, you sow to the flesh. Every time you read that filthy magazine or book rather than God's pure and holy word, you sow to the flesh. Every time you set your mind on earthly things rather than on heavenly things, you sow to the flesh. Every time you steal, lie, cheat for your gain, you are sowing to the flesh. Folks, why would we ever expect to reap holiness when we live our lives sowing and sowing to the flesh? For that reason, we are called to mortify or to put to death or to crucify the flesh. And I've given you the Scripture references there in your notes and before you on the screen. It's what has been called radical amputation. It's what Jesus taught in the Gospels. If your eye offends you, violates you, causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. For if you sow to the flesh, you will reap a harvest called the fruit of the flesh. It's what's before us here in Galatians chapter five, verses 19 through 21. Folks, is it too much to say, that today American Christianity is reaping a harvest of corruption because we have sown a field of the flesh, individually and corporately. And so this principle of sowing and reaping, it doesn't just apply to Christian ministry and the care for preachers. It applies to Christian morality and how we sow to the flesh or, as we ought, let her be, sowing to the spirit. sowing to the Spirit. Let me read verse number 8 again. For he who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And to sow to the Spirit is perhaps synonymous with setting our minds on the Spirit, Romans 8, verse 6, or walking in the Spirit, Galatians 5, 16, or being filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5, verse 18, sowing to the Spirit is to seed our minds and our hearts with that which is from the Spirit of God. Okay, what is that which is from the Spirit of God? What are the Holy Spirit seeds that we ought to sow into our life? It's a good question. Let me answer by asking you another question. What person of the Godhead gave us the scripture? You know the answer to this. It is the Holy Spirit of God who gave us the Holy Scripture and they are likened, can you believe it? They are likened to seed, Luke 8 verse number 11. And we ought to seed the soil of our minds and hearts with the words of the Holy Spirit so that we can reap the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Philippians 4 commands us to think on things which are true. God's word is true, John 17. As we take the word of the Spirit, the seed of the Spirit, as we seed our mind and our heart and our life with that, we can then walk in the Spirit. So the sphere of sowing and reaping applies to Christian morality. You say, Pastor, I just feel like I struggle in this area, and I'm always indulging the flesh. Well, what you're doing is you're seeding the soil of your flesh on a regular basis, unwittingly, not even knowing it. Now, sure, you come Sunday morning, and you get about 29 minutes of Bible teaching. That's 29 minutes of seed from the Spirit, and then a full week of sowing seed to the flesh. It's no wonder that we struggle in the area of Christian morality. There's one more sphere in which the seed and the harvest principle operates. Look at verse 9, While doing good in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. I'm gonna call this number three, Christian Magnanimity. And if you can't spell it, it's before you there on the screen. Magnanimity, Christian Magnanimity. What is magnanimity? It is largeness in doing good. The problem is that many times we become weary or tired in doing good, well doing, just like the farmer. He spends hours and hours plowing and planting and finds himself exhausted. We find ourselves exhausted, but here's the immutable law. We will in due season, verse number nine, we will reap. And so we continue in the sowing. How so? Our Christian magnanimity ought to be toward the community, letter A, toward the community. What might the harvest of doing good toward the community, those in the community, look like? I'll give you a scripture reference. I'll read it. It's not before you there on the screen. Matthew 9, verses 35 to 38. Matthew 9, 35 to 38. Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, that is the community, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness, every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest. This is not a social gospel, it's a gospel. It's a gospel of going. It's a gospel of going with the seeds of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection and going to reap a harvest of souls that are lost and dying apart from Christ. So Christian magnanimity is not circling the wagons and huddling up within the walls of the church, us four and no more, but it's going to the community and living large in the community with the largeness of our care and our compassion and our giving and our doing good. We need to be sowing those seeds in our community so that we can reap a harvest of souls. Our Christian magnanimity ought to be to our community, but then what does the end of verse number 10 teach us? Especially to those who are of the household of faith. That is our Christian magnanimity ought to be toward the church. Toward the church. Jesus taught that we are to love and serve our enemies. Jesus taught we are to love and care for our neighbor. However, for those that share like precious faith, those who are of the household of faith, They ought to have claim to our first love and loyalty and our care for one another. As you care for one another in this church family, as we care for each other, we will reap a harvest in return. The principle, folks, is this. You reap what you sow. It's an irrefutable, immutable law of God. I've given you three categories, spheres in which this principle operates from these verses specifically, but there are many, many other spheres or places in which this principle applies. I hope that you can make that application. Let's take care in what we sow. Let's pray. God in heaven, Thank you for instructing us this morning regarding this principle, that we reap what we sow. Lord, as we seek to make application of this principle, Lord, beyond just the areas of Christian ministry, or Christian morality, or Christian magnanimity, Lord, I pray that you would help us to be wise. May we be careful each day to sow, not to temporal material things, but to eternal things, so that we might reap and enjoy the eternal harvest. Lord, I pray that you would take each of our lives, our eyes, our hands, our feet, our resources, Lord, take our lives and let them be useful instruments to sow seed, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.