Storms Creek Church 6-18-2023 (from 11-22-2020)

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Episode Transcript

(00:16):
Good morning, and welcome to StormsCreek Missionary Baptist Church, a Sunday morning
radio program. This morning, we'llbe joining Pastor Kenny Hurst because we once
again open the scriptures and study God'sway. Ernest Hemingway, the famous author,
was known for snubbing his nose atthe idea of God and the Bible.

(00:42):
In fact, Hemingway once claimed thathis life was proof that a person
can live however they want to,and they will not suffer the consequences for
doing so. He, like alot of people, well, he considered
the idea of the Bible and themoral teaching of the Bible to be outdated,

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to be useless, that it wasa hindrance to people enjoying the pleasures
of this life. Well, thatwas Hemingway's attitude at one time in his
life, but that didn't end upcoming true. In fact, his life
became so useless and so worthless thatErnest Hemingway took a gun and shot himself

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and died. Now that just proveswhat the apostle Paul says here in Galatians
chapter six and verse seven. Benot deceived. God is not mocked.
Whatsoever a man soweth that shall healso reap. So what I want to
do this morning is I want totalk to you on the subject of sowing

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and reaping. And we'll see herein the passage that I've just read to
you, there are well, there'stwo things that I want us to focus
on as we think about sowing andreaping. First of all, we're a
look at the principle of sowing andreaping that is declared. And then secondly,
we're going to see the practice ofsowing and reaping as it is demonstrated.

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So that's the two parts of themessage for this morning. So first
of all, notice with me theprinciple of sowing and reaping that is declared.
Again, I'll read verse seven andverse eight says, be not deceived.
God is not mocked. For whatsoeverman soeth, that shall y'all soo
reap. For he that soeth tohis flesh, shall the flesh reap corruption.

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But he that soweth the spirit shallof the spirit reap life everlasting.
You'll notice that there is a contrasthere in these two verses, a contrast
that I hope is familiar to youbecause it's the same contrast we focused on
back in chapter five. It's thecontrast between the flesh and the spirit.

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Here, it's sowing to the flesh. We're sowing to the spirit now.
Whenever Paul talks about the flesh,keep in mind he's talking about that nature,
that sinful nature that we inherited fromAdam. It's that unredeemed humanness.
It's that part of us that isyet to be redeemed. That's what he
talks about when he's talking about theflesh. When he talks about the spirit,

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he's talking about that new, regeneratednature that we have received that we
are now in Christ, and we'reput in Christ because of the new birth,
because we have been born again.So back in chapter five, the
focus was on the battle that goeson, this ongoing battle between the flesh

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and the spirit. Here in chaptersix he changes the image from fighting to
farming. He talks about sowing.He talks about reaping what you sow.
In Genesis, chapter eight and versetwenty two, after the flood, God
promises Noah, he says, whilethe earth remains, seed time and harvest,

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cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.
So when he says seed time andharvest, that's just another way of
saying sowing and reaping. Now,if a farmer, if a farmer wants
to have a harvest, he mustsow seed. If he sows no seed,

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he will reap no harvest. Andwhatever he wants the harvest, he
has to sow that particular seed.If he wants a wheat harvest, he
sows wheat seed. If he wantsthe corn harvest, he sows corn seed.
So whatever it is you want toreap, that is what you have

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to sow. And the more seedthat you sow, the more harvest you're
going to reap. This is allpart of nature, this on going process
that we see demonstrated each and everyyear. But as I've already mentioned,
there's more than just agriculture, becausethere's also the same principle that it applies

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in moral things and spiritual things.And that's how Paul's using it here in
the Book of Galatians, in Jobchapter four and in verse eight says they
that plow iniquity and soul wickedness reapthe same. John Stott says, this
principle is an immutable law of God. It's an unchanging law of God.

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Whether you're talking about in nature orwhere you're talking about morally or spiritually,
it's the same thing, and thatis you reap what you sow. And
to emphasize that, what Paul doeshere in these verses is he gives us
both a command and he also givesus a statement. He makes a statement.
Now, let's focus first on thecommand that he gives, and that's

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found at the beginning of verse seven. It's three words, be not deceived.
This idea of being deceived is anidea that's already come up in Paul's
letter to the Galatians. Go backa couple of pages, if you would,
back to chapter three and verse one. Paul says, old foolish Galatians,

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who hath bewitched you, that youshould not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ have been evidently setforth crucified among you. Now he doesn't
use the word deceived. He usesthe word bewitched, but it carries the
same idea. I could read thisverse, old foolish Galatians, who has

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deceived you, and it carries thevery same idea. Now, the deception
that Paul was referring to there inchapter three is the idea that someone can
be saved simply by keeping the mosaiclaw. You obey the law and you're
saved. Well, that is tobe deceived, and that's what the Galatians.

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That's what the Galatians are being toldthat they need to believe. Well
here in chapter six and in verseseven, the great deception that Paul is
referring to is what has effect thata lot of people. And that's simply
this, I can do whatever Iwant and won't be held accountable for my

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actions. See that's what Earnest Hemingwaythought, and that's what a lot of
people think. I can do whateverI want to do and I will not
be held accountable for my actions.It's the attitude that says, I can
sin now and then I can becomespiritual later on. I can have my

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feel of sin now and then I'llbe concerned about my spiritual condition later in
life. You realize that there's alot a lot of people who think that
way. We encounter a lot ofpeople daily who think that way. We
might have people in our own familieswho think that way. You know,

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I can do I can have myfun now, and then I'll worry about
my soul later. On. Well, folks, that's dangerous. That's dangerous
to think that way. And letme give you there's a lot of reasons
I could tell you, but letme give you two very simple reasons why
that's a dangerous attitude to have.The first is is you're not guaranteed a

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later. You realize that you're notguaranteed the rest of this day. You're
not guaranteed tomorrow, next week,next month. We don't know when our
time in this world is going tocome to an end, so might not
be a later for you to getright with Lord. That's why the Bible
always says today is the day ofsalvation. That's why the Bible says,

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if you are in sin, theday is the day to deal with that
sin, to confess that sin,to repent of that sin. So it's
foolish to think that you can doit later, because you might not have
a lador. And if you dohave a leader, who's to say you're
going to have a desire to turnfrom your sin later? Because it's the
spirit of God that works in us, that convicts us of our sin.

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And when the spirit of God isconvicting us and we harden our hearts,
the longer we harden our hearts,the heart, it is for us one
day then to submit to the Lordand to deal with sin. So even
though we have a lador, whenlater comes, we might not have that
desire to end with our sin.So it's dangerous to think that way.
John Brown of Scotland, he said, it is a lie that a man

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may attain ultimate happiness without living aspiritual life. And how true that is.
It's a lie to think that youcan live in sin and still be
ultimately happy. Now that's the commandthat he gives, be not deceived.
And then the statement that he makes, and it's the next words, God

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is not mocked. The word mockedthere means to turn up the nose.
You can't turn up your nose toGod like so many people are doing today.
You cannot mock God. And theway that you mock God, the
way you turn your nose up toGod, is to think that I can
live in sin and still be rightwith God. Folks, that's to mock

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God. Because God is a Godwho is holy and without sin, and
when we live in sin, wecannot have that fellowship and communion with Him.
Things are not right with God.If we are living unholy and trying
to be right with a holy God. That's to mock God if you think
that is true. Now, alot of times we can fool ourselves,

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we can deceive our but keep inmind, you cannot deceive God. God
knows. There's two attributes that weand we should always look at all the
attributes of God. But there aretwo attributes of God that we ought to
continually be reminding ourselves of, andthat is the fact that God is on

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the present and God is omniscient.God is on the present. That just
simply means that God is present everywhere, and we are so foolish sometimes that
we forget that and we think thatwe can do certain things. Nobody else
is ever going to know that Godis right there, present with us in

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everything that we do. You shouldcontinually remind yourself every day. God,
I know you're omnipresent. You're presentwith me everywhere that I am. And
he's also omniscient. I mean,he knows everything there is to know about
us, things that we think we'vekept hidden from everybody in the world.
God knows because he's on the presentand he is omniscient. So you mock

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God if you think that you canlive in sin and there are no consequences
in God's not going to know aboutit. He's not going to be concerned.
And you can still be right withhim. Friends, there's a day
of reckoning. There's a day ofaccountability that's coming now. Thankfully, if
we're in Christ, if we're saved, we don't have to stand to give

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an account of our sins, butwe will stand before the judgment seed of
Christ, and we will give anaccount of how we have lived our Christian
lives. And so that's something thatwe always need to keep in mind.
And then he goes on in verseeight, he says, for he that
soweth to his flesh shall of theflesh reap corruption. But he that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the spiritreap life everlasting. Like John MacArthur says

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that the Christian has two fields,which the soul. Two fields. You
can sow in the field of theflesh, or you can sow in the
field of the spirit. Those two. Now, what's it mean to sow
in the the So the seed ofthe flesh in the field of the flesh.

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Well, for the unbeliever, justkeep this in mind. That's the
only field that you sow in isthe flesh. You are your life is
dominated by sin, by your flesh, and that's all you know is the
sow to the seed of the flesh. But I think that Paul primarily here
is speaking to those who are saved, and so for those who are saved,

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even though our lives are not tobe dominated by the flesh, we
already talked about that back in chapterfive, we still have to deal with
this flesh. We still have todeal with this unredeemed part of us.
And that's why Paul says, backin chapter five, when it comes to
this flesh, you know what youdo. You crucify it. You mortify

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it every day. It's not aone time act. It's a continual activity.
Every day we keep putting that fleshback up on the cross, nawling
it to the cross, putting itto death. And why is this so
important that we not sow seed inthe field of the flesh. What's important

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because of what you reap, hesays, for he that soweth to his
flesh, shall of the flesh reapcorruption the kay Now again, for the
unbeliever, that just means that you'regoing to reap eternal death, eternal separation
from God. But for the believer, it might mean physical death because we

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know a lot of time the sinthat we are involved in in this life
can and sometimes does lead to physicaldeath. That that's true, But I
think he also had he means thatit's going to lead to a life of
pain and suffering. It's going tolead lead to a life of moral decay,
that you're going to have to dealwith the physical, the painful consequences

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of sin. And how true thatis. So when we sow to the
flesh, even as believers, andremember we can do that, there is
going to be pain and suffering's goingto be a life of joy and peace.
There's consequences that you're going to haveto face because you're going to reap

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what you sew. Now, incontrast to that, what does he mean
then to sew in the field ofthe spirit, Well, it's completely different.
How does how do you sew tothe spirit by doing what he tells
us back in chapter five? Wewalk in the spirit, we're led by

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the spirit, or to keeping stepwith the spirit. We're to bear fruit
of the spirit. And how doesall this happen. It happens when we
read and study God's word. Youhave to read and study God's word.
If you're going to sew to thespirit, you have to spend time in
prayer. If you're going to sewto the spirit, you have to spend

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time in private and public worship likewe're doing today. You have to seek
to live in obedience to the Lordin every single area of your life.
And so when you do that,you're sowing to the spirit. You're sowing
in the field of the Spirit.And you say, well, why is
that so important, Well, lookat watch you reap if you sow to

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the spirit. Look at verse eight. At the end of the verse,
you reap life everlasting. You reapeternal life. So you see the stark
contrast between the two. Sowing inthe seed and the flesh leads to well,
it leads to the suffering and death. Sowing to the field of the

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spirit leads to blessing and life.Now, when I talk about life everlasting,
when you talk about eternal life,so often, when the Bible speaks
of eternal life, is not necessarilyspeaking of the duration of your life.
Because we do all understand that everybody'sgoing to live forever. Everybody has eternal

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life in a sense that everybody isgoing to continue to exist for the rest
of eternity. Whether you're saved orwhether you're not. Everybody has eternal life
in that sense. The difference issome people are going to experience life enjoy
and in the presence of the Lord, and others are going to spend life
in suffering and being absent from theLord. But we all have eternal life

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in that sense. So I thinkit's more than just that. I think
it carries the idea of the qualityof life that even now, when you
sow to the Spirit, you're goingto reap eternal life, life everlasting,
which means you're going to enjoy fellowshipand communion and closeness with God. Right

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now, if you're sowing to theSpirit, you're going to have joy and
peace and contentment and an assurance ofsalvation, all things that all the money
in the world cannot purchase. Youcannot buy joy and peace and contentment and
assurance of salvation. But it comesby you sowing in the field of the

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Spirit. So that is the principleof sowing and reaping declared. Now.
Secondly, I want you to noticethe practice of sowing and reaping as it
is demonstrated. See here, Paulis going to encourage us, and especially
he's encouraging us to sew to thespirit. He's encouraging us to well,

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to do good, to to keepup the good work, to not quit,
to persevere, and to help usdo that. He gives us two
encouragements. The first one is foundin verse nine. And let us not
be weary and well doing, forin due season we shall reap if we

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faint. Not let us not growweary in well doing. Now why does
he give us this encouragement? Whydoes he say that? Because he knows
how easy it is for us toget discouraged as we seek to sew to
the spirit. You know, ifyou've ever done any farming, And I'm

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not a farmer, and so Idon't claim to be a farmer unless helping
with a guard in one time qualifiesme of being a farmer. But I'm
not a farmer. But I doknow that farming. I do know that
sowing seed, especially if you doit by hand, it is hard work.
It's time consumed, and it ishard work. But you know what,

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sewing to the spirit is also hardwork. It's time consuming, it
takes effort, it takes a lotof work, and it is so easy
to get discouraged and to simply wantto quit. I'm sure the farmers had
has acres and acres they're sewing,and if they're having to do it by
hand, which I doubt people dothat still today, But if you would,

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it takes a lot of times.It would be very easy to say,
you know what, I think I'vedone enough. I don't want I'm
tired, I'm done, I don'twant to do anymore. Well, it's
that same way when we sow tothe spirit. Sometimes it's easy to get
to the point where I don't wantto do anymore. I'm tired, I
just want to quit. Let somebodyelse do it now. Well, to
help us to motivate us so thatwe don't do that. Notice what he

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adds here in verse nine says,let us not grow. We're in well
doing, for in due season weshall reap if we faint not now.
One day there's going to be aharvest. One day there's going to be
a day of reward. And that'swhy we keep on faithfully living and serving

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the Lord, living for the Lordand serving him. Now, is this
harvest going to come in this life? It might. I do believe a
lot of times people are certainly blessedwhen they're faithfully serving the Lord and walking
with the Lord, when you're sowinto the spirit. I do think a
lot of times you do enjoy blessingsin this life. But I think primarily

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this is a promise for the lifeto come for eternity. As Sovereign Grace
Baptists, we believe in the eternalsecurity of the believer. We believe in
the doctrine of the perseverance and thepreservation of the saints. We say,
one saved, always saved, andwe hold to that. But you know,

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we can also say, and weshould say, one saved, always
served. That's another thing that's true. Once saved, always saved, once
saved, always served. Now,we don't serve in order to obtain eternal
life, because eternal life is agift, a free gift that God graciously
gives us. But we do servesimply out of gratitude and thankfulness to the

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one who has graciously given us eternallife. And you notice that the harvest
will come in due season at theproper time, the time predetermined by our
sovereign Lord. Now take farming,for example. A farmer who sows his

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seed in the springtime can with wellreasonable accuracy calculate when the harvest will come.
If you farm, when you plantyour seed, you almost know when
that seed is going to begin tosprout and you're going to be able to
go and harvest that crop. Now, you might miss it a few days

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or a week or so, butyou have a general idea when it's going
to be time for you to harvestthat crop. We know that in the
natural realm, but in the spiritualrealm, we don't know when the time
of harvest is going to be.We don't know when the reaping is going
to take place. We do havethe promise that there is going to be
a time of harvest. There isgoing to be a time of reaping.

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We do know God's word does notreturn into him void, But we simply
do not know the time. Thetime is in God's hands, not our
hands, and that can get discouragingand frustrating because we want to see the
harvest right away. We want tosee results now. We don't want to
wait till some time. But it'sin God's hands. And I'm gonna give

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you two examples of this, twoexamples that I think you've probably heard before,
but I think they fit with whatI'm trying to say here. The
first example is William Carrey. WilliamCarey is known as the father of modern
missions. He is from England,and in seventeen ninety three, William Carey

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arrived in India and for seven years, William Carey preached the gospel faithfully and
not one person was saved. Nowdo you think Willim Carey got discouraged?
He most certainly. Did you readhis life story. He often wrote to
his relatives back in England and talkedabout how he was growing weary and how

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he was discouraged. But he didn'tquit. He kept on sewing, and
eventually, on December twenty eighth,eighteen hundred, the first person was saved
in India under his ministry. Butit took seven years of sewing before there

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was a time of reaping. Becausewe cannot evaluate our lives or our ministry
by present results, because so oftenthe time of harvest comes later, and
we need to always keep that inmind. And that's what should encourage us
to keep on, don't quit,don't stop, because the Bible promises you

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will reap what you sew. Infact, it might not even be in
our lifetime. We might read,we might sew, and then the reaping
will come long after we're dead.But the promise is still there. You
reap what you're so. And thenthe second encouragement is found in verse ten.
It says, as we have thereforeopportunity, let us do good,

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and to all men, especially underthem who are of the household of faith.
We're encouraged to do good to allkinds of people, to do all
kinds of good. Now, whatare some of the things that we are
to do? What are some ofthe good things that we're to do?
Well? I think an example thatis found in Matthew chapter twenty five.
So if you want to turn overthere, Matthew chapter twenty five and verse

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thirty four gives us an example someof the good things that we are to
do if we're going to sew tothe spirit. He says, then shall
the King say into them on hisright hand, come you, blessed of
my father inherit the Kingdom prepared foryou from the foundation of the world.
For I was a hungred and yougave me meat. I was thirsty and

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you gave me drink. I wasa stranger and you took me in naked
and you clothed me. I wassick and you visited me. I was
in prison and you came unto me. So that's just the sampling of some
of the good things that we're encouragedwere to do, and that is part
of what it means to sew tothe spirit. We're told to do good

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to those here are outside the church, yes, but you'll notice that first
and foremost were to do good tothose who are of the household of faith.
We're to take care of our ownfamily or our own church family,
but then we're also to expand andhelp meet the needs of others, even
those who would qualify as our enemies. So we always need to keep this

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proper balance. The old saying charitybegins at home, and that's true.
We as a church family, eventhough this part of us are here now,
the other part have been here before, and part are not able to
come. Even that, we areresponsible to look out for one another,
to see if there's a need,and to sow that seed to the spirit

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by doing good to those who arethe household of faith, and then those
be on whenever we have the opportunity, and believe me, we will have
the opportunity. Every day you havean opportunity probably to do good. We
need to redeem the time. Andso why is it important that we do
that? Why should we be motivatedto do that? Because Paul tells us

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there's gonna be a harvest, There'sgonna be a reward. There's gonna be
a time of reaping. So aswe close, what kind of sowing are
you doing? I'm asking every oneof you here today, children, adults,
it doesn't matter what are you sowing, because you're all sowing. We're
all sowing. We're all sowing eitherto the flesh or we're sowing to the

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spirit, but we are sowing.If you're sowing to the flesh, well
remember, if you are unsaved,you're sowing to the flesh, and it's
going to lead to corruption, It'sgoing to lead to eternal death, eternal
separation from God. And that oughtto concern you. If you are a
believer and you're sowing to the flesh, just keep in mind it's going to

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lead to nothing good it's going tolead to sin and misery. But then
if you are sowing to the spirit, keep in mind that that means you're
going to reap eternal life, andnot just to have life that doesn't cease.
It also means you're going to havejoy and peace and contentment, and

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you're going to have an assurance ofsalvation. So which is it. Well,
any right thinking person and is goingto say, well, I should
be sowing to the spirit and notto the flesh. And remember what Paul
says here in verse seven. AndI'll close with this, be not deceived.

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God is not mocked whatsoever a mansoweth that shall he also reap.
We'd like to thank you for listeningto our program this morning. We pray
that God has used this message todraw you closer to Him.