Sowing and Reaping — Chuck Smith

Reading Galatians 6

For our Bible reading this morning, let's turn to Galatians chapter 6. We will read the first 10 verses. I'll read the first in the unnumbered verses. Pastor Brian will lead the congregation in the reading of the even-numbered verses as we stand to read the Word of God.

Galatians chapter 6. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.

For every man shall bear his own burden.

Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Let's pray.

Prayer and the Principle of Sowing

Father, we ask that today you will help us to realize that our lives are constantly sowing seed, having an influence upon those around us. But help us to realize, Lord, that we are constantly sowing seed into our minds.

And we ask, Father, that we might take care in how we sow and in what we sow, knowing that whatsoever we do sow, we will reap in kind that we will also reap. So, Lord, impress this truth upon our hearts today.

In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. You may be seated. Tonight, Pastor Skip will be leading us in our study of Hosea chapters 8 through 10. So we encourage you to read them over this afternoon and join with us this evening for this study.

Next week we will finish the book of Hosea, and moving along through the Bible we will move into the book of Joel. So tonight, Hosea 8 through 10. This morning, let's look at chapter 8, verse 7. Where the Lord is declaring concerning the nation of Israel, He said, For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

It has no stock, the bud shall yield no meal, and if so be it yield, the strangers will swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up. And now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel in which there is no pleasure.

Israel Reaps the Consequences of Forsaking God

The northern kingdom of Israel had turned away from God and they were serving other gods. God said they have sown the wind, but they're going to reap the whirlwind. They had transgressed, the prophet said, the covenant that God had established with their fathers.

They had forsaken the law of God. They had cast off that which was good. And they were worshiping the golden calf and declaring that it was the God that brought them out of Egypt. But the Lord is telling them that the enemy will soon be coming against them.

And they will cry then unto him and say, Oh God, we know you, but it will be too late. And God declares that they have sown the wind, and the time has come when they must reap the consequences of their folly.

Sowing to the Flesh and Sowing to the Spirit

God said he will not answer, he will not hear. We know from nature that there is a basic law of sowing and reaping. As Paul wrote to the Galatians, don't be deceived. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.

That is, we reap in kind. If you sow wheat, you're going to have a crop of wheat. If you sow oat seeds, it'll be a crop of oats. If you sow to the flesh, of the flesh, you're going to reap corruption.

If you sow to the spirit, then of the spirit, you will reap everlasting life. If you sow bitterness and discord, then you will reap bitterness and discord in your life. If you sow love and peace, you will reap love and peace.

But every day we are also sowing into our minds, planting seeds, planting thoughts. And so true, as we sow into our minds, even as we sow, so shall we reap. If we are sowing pornography in our minds, then we will be reaping filth and corruption in our lives.

If we are sowing, as we are this morning, to the spirit, we're here to worship the Lord. We're here to study the Word. And this is sowing to the spirit. And the result of our being here and sowing to the spirit will be life.

It will be peace. It will be joy. It's amazing how many people seem to be ignorant of this law of sowing and reaping. They think that they can sow wild oats, but then reap good experiences from it. They do not realize that the day will come, ultimately it will come, in which they will have to face the harvest of the seeds that they have sown.

Considering the Consequences of Sin

In Isaiah chapter 1, the Lord said concerning the nation, they just did not consider. And so many times that's our problem. As we are sowing, we don't stop to consider what will be the fruit of this. What will it produce when it comes to fruition?

This is especially true in youth. They do foolish things, but they don't stop to think of the consequences. How many older people today are suffering the consequences of the folly of their youth, and they look back with regrets upon that folly as they're beginning to reap the harvest.

As a youth, I spent so many hours out there in the surf waiting for the perfect wave. I didn't know anything about sunscreen and ultraviolet rays. All I was interested in is hoping that that good wave will shape up out there, and I'll be able to get a good ride off of it.

Now they've cut out a side of my head here, and cancerous cells, it's time to come, time has come, when I must pay for yesterday. And that is so true in so many of our lives. As we realize that there is a day of reaping, that which we have sown.

You know, it was 50 years ago that I sowed that time in the sun, but now reaping. Some people think that they can mock the warnings of God that he has given to us there in his word. And they sow their wild oats, and they think that they'll not have to pay the consequences.

But you can be sure that the day of harvest will come. Many years ago, I was helping my mother plant her garden in the spring. And she always did have a garden in the yard, different kinds of vegetables.

And so we had plowed the yard, and we had made the furrows and all. And so she sent me in the job, she gave me a bag full of corn seed. And she instructed me how to plant the corn seed about an inch deep, cover it with earth, and about six inches apart.

And so I started out planting the seeds like I was instructed, but that row looked so long. And it went so slow, one seed at a time, that I began to sort of pour the seeds into the ground, covering them quickly with earth, and then assuring my mother, when she was surprised that I had planted them so quickly, assuring her that, oh yes, I had followed the instructions.

All went well for a couple of weeks. But then as they began to sprout, as the Bible says, you can be sure your sins will find you out. And so my mother sprouted on me. The prophet declares here that Israel had sown the wind.

Israel’s Idolatry and the Whirlwind of Judgment

You know, when the east wind is blowing, it's not the time to scatter the seed. Say you're planting a lawn, you're planting grass seed. If you plant it in the east wind, your neighbors are apt to have a rye lawn instead of you.

But they have sown the wind. The Lord said they're going to reap the whirlwind. They had turned their backs upon God, the God who had given birth to their nation. In verse three, the prophet said they had cast off that which was good.

Verse four, he said they had chosen ungodly rulers to rule over them. Worse, they had created man-made gods, and they had begun to worship their man-made gods, rather than the God that made them. They began to develop a sex-praised society as they worshipped Ashtoreth.

They became a pleasure-mad society as they worshipped Molech. They became a society that was interested mainly in materialism as they worshipped the god Mammon. Their folly is that they began to worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forevermore.

They became more interested in trees and kangaroo rats than unborn children. The time, however, has come when they must reap the folly of their sowing. A time when their enemies are going to come against them, and they're going to need God's help.

And they will cry and say, Oh God, we know you. But they had sown forsaking God, and now they're going to reap God is going to forsake them. They would not listen to God, and now God will not listen to them in their day of calamity.

As Job's friend Eliphaz said to him, if you trust in vanity or emptiness, then emptiness will be the consequence. The historian in 2 Kings 17, in talking about the nation of Israel, said they followed emptiness and they became empty.

The Emptiness of Idolatry and Worldly Pursuits

You reap what you sow. It is interesting to me today how many people are following the pattern of Israel. They are looking today for empty things to fill the emptiness in their lives. They pursue one empty pleasure after another.

They fill their minds with the fantasies of the Hollywood movies and of television, and they lose touch with reality as they begin to live in a fantasy world. They go from one relationship to another, looking to find fulfillment in some new love affair.

They pursue success, hoping that they might find security. Hollywood has to be one of the emptiest places in the world. Each of these pampered stars living in their own fantasy world, advocating their own skewed ideas on religion, politics, or other subjects, as though they were truly in touch with reality.

Because they are stars, empty-headed people listen to them and take their word as true wisdom because they speak with such conviction. But don't you know they are actors and they are taught to speak with conviction?

If you will listen to what they say, it's emptiness. And if you sow to emptiness, then you're going to reap emptiness. They are sowing the wind, and the results will be the reaping of the whirlwind. A nation that sows to the wind will one day have to face the whirlwind, as did Israel.

Speaking of the reaping of what they had sown, he said, It's like a stalk of corn that has been blasted by the whirlwind. It is bent over. It is broken. Nothing substantial can come from that which has been sown.

The Emptiness of New Age Philosophy

If you analyze the speeches of the New Age movement gurus, there's really no substance to it. It's ethereal talk. It's all talk and no stalk. They talk about the great human potential, tapping into those latent powers within you, that you are God, and you can find your spirit guide and be led to a higher elevation and understanding.

The Prophet said, The bud will yield no meal. No real fruit can come from it. Embracing the empty philosophies can only bring emptiness into your own life. If you worship an insensate false god, you will become insensate.

Like the little idol that has ears but can't hear, eyes but can't see. So you will soon lose your ability to see God in the beauty of His creation and His handiwork in nature. You will no longer hear God as He speaks to man through nature.

You become deaf because the God that you have been worshiping is blind and deaf, and you become like your God. You will no longer hear the voice of God calling you to repent and turn to Him. The third thing the Prophet said is that it shall yield no meal.

And if it does, strangers will eat it up or devour it. The only ones who really profit from the New Age movement are those who propagate it because they sell their ideas to the gullible public. They have you buying crystals.

They have you buying pyramids. They have you buying their tapes of the wisdom of the ancient men who are channeling through these modern instruments. They invite you at certain times of the year to come to these special places, the vortexes, where the energy and the power comes into the earth, and they have all of their tables set up there to sell you more crystals and more pyramids.

You may find some satisfaction in the hope that they promise to you as you pursue the goal of discovering the powers within. But when you get there, to that goal, you will find that there is no there there, and your despair is then only increased as you reap the whirlwind.

The Gospel’s Freedom from Fear-Based Religion

It's true of every false religious system. They seek to enslave your mind. They hold you with fear. They have you believe that to leave them is tantamount to leaving God. Your only hope is to continue to be faithful and loyal to the group, though you may not agree with the leadership, you are bound to follow it, even against your own conscience, because you are held in fear.

Jesus never sought to hold anybody with fear. He held them with the cords of love. Paul the Apostle said, The love of Christ constrains me. I will tell you straight across that your salvation does not depend on your continued attendance at Calvary Chapel.

There are many wonderful churches here in Orange County where you can be blessed and you can grow in your walk with the Lord. We are not the only way, but we seek to point people to the only way, which is Jesus Christ.

We don't prescribe that you wear any special garments or undergarments. You can dress as you please. You can have long hair, short hair, or no hair. We're not concerned about your outward appearance, but your heart.

For God, it says, looks at the heart. And the issue is, is your heart right with God? We don't say that you have to read our books to understand the truth or to understand the Bible. We just say, read the Bible.

You see, we're not worried or concerned about what you might come to believe by just reading the Bible. We are concerned with what people come to believe by reading books about the Bible that somebody has written because they've had some special revelation that the Bible doesn't really mean what it says.

And so we will tell you what God meant when he said these things. If God didn't mean what he said, why didn't he say what he meant? And so we believe that God did. And you can just read the Bible, put your faith and confidence in the Word of God, and we don't have any worry about what you will come to believe by just sticking with the Bible itself.

Guarding the Heart and Reaping What We Sow

We're not seeking some new thought or some new truth. What we are seeking is new experiences in the old truths that are found in the Word of God. It's an inescapable fact of nature. What you sow, you're going to reap.

Sow to the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. Sow to your flesh, you will reap of your flesh corruption. Sow to the Spirit, you will reap of the Spirit life everlasting. I trust that you realize that each of us are sowing every day.

Sowing into our own minds thoughts that will make us a better person or thoughts that can make us a bitter person. Thoughts that can lead us higher or thoughts that can take us lower. What I plant into my mind is of utmost importance.

The Bible said, guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it comes the issues of life. You say, well, wow, this message is a little late. I've sown so many wild oats. In my folly of youth, I did so many foolish things.

New Life in Christ Erases the Past

Does that mean that I have to face the consequences of the folly of youth? There's one exception to this law of sowing and reaping. And that is that God has promised that if we would just come and receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, allow Him to become the Lord of our life, that God will wipe out the past.

That I don't necessarily have to reap what I have sown. Though I may have sown the seeds of corruption, Jesus can neutralize those seeds. I don't have to reap the consequences of the folly of the past, but I can be forgiven and cleansed, and I can walk now after the Spirit and begin to reap the things of the Spirit.

That's what the gospel is all about. The transformation that can take place in your heart and in your life when you come to Jesus Christ. The obliterating of the foolish things that we have done in our past and experience that new life in Christ.

For if any man is in Christ Jesus, old things are passed away and all things become new. The wonderful gospel that we have the privilege of proclaiming to people who don't want to reap what they have sown in the past of corruptible seed, but can reap the blessings and the benefits of God.

Father, we thank you for the gospel that we have the privilege of proclaiming. How that if a man will just come to Jesus Christ, he becomes a new creature. The past is erased. All things become new. And Lord, we thank you for that.

That we can start off fresh today. We can start off today beginning to sow to the Spirit and then to reap of the Spirit life everlasting. Help, we pray, Father, those who have been guilty of sinful past to realize that you can erase it and you can make them wholly new through the power of Jesus Christ.

In his name we pray. Amen. Shall we stand? The pastors are down here at the front to pray for you who today would like to have a new start. Looking at the past and realizing that you know, you've done some things that you're not proud of.

Things that could bring evil consequences. You don't have to face that. But Jesus will wash away all of the past, all of the guilt, all of the sins, all of the folly. And so we would encourage you when we're dismissed, come on down to the front.

These men are here to minister and to pray for you that you might go from here today a new creature in Christ. The old slate erased. Having a whole brand new start with the help and the power of Jesus Christ sowing now to the Spirit.

Benediction and Walking in the Spirit

May the Lord be with you, watch over and keep you in his love. Fill you with his Spirit. Cause you to just be blessed in every aspect of your life as you seek the Lord and put him first above all other things.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee.