The New Creation

gal 6:15-18 the new creation

I hope you enjoyed your ice cream sundaes last week. This morning it is back to steak for breakfast.

If you are new here or simply visiting for the first time, I’d like you to be aware that we preach verse by verse through the scriptures here and you are catching the tail end of a series on the book of Galatians. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Galatians 6. We will be finishing out chapter 6 and finishing our study in Galatians this morning.

My hope is that after 20 messages on Galatians you will be able to articulate the basic argument set forth by the apostle, Paul. I hope this is true 3 months from now; I hope this is true 3 years from now. My hope is that you will walk away understanding:

Believers not under the Law of Moses; believers are in the NC not the OC.

I don’t expect you to be able to bullet point every single detail in Paul’s argument, but to at least know that when it comes to a discussion of the role of the Law in a believer’s life, Scripture deals with that most comprehensively is in this letter.

In this letter Paul writes to churches in Galatia that he personally founded. After Paul left Galatia, a group of men known as the Judaizers came behind him and called his apostleship and ministry into question. They taught that in order for the Gentile believers to be fully brought into God’s covenant community, they needed to circumcise the flesh and obey the Law of Moses. Paul writes to defend his ministry, showing that his message, ministry, his motives, his mission were all of God, not men.

Then he deals with the erroneous teachings, showing that believers are not bound by the Law of Moses. He shows that the Law or OC was a covenant of the flesh, while the NC, faith in Christ is of the Spirit and he shows the superiority of faith to the Law.

His argument:

• You are justified by faith, not the Law
• You received the Holy Spirit by faith, not the Law
• You are blessed by faith, cursed by the Law
• You are descendants of Abraham by faith, not by observing the Law
• You are sons of God by faith, not by observing the Law
• You receive the inheritance by faith, not by observing the Law

He anticipates the question: what then was the purpose of the Law? His answer:

• Because of transgressions until the seed came (increase sin, show need for savior)
• To foreshadow the NC through types and shadows
• To serve as a guardian
  • Pedagogue for Israel while Israel was a child
  • Guardian until mature to receive inheritance

I don’t expect you to remember all of those bullet points, but rather to at least be able to articulate what they all support, namely: believers are not bound by the Law. The entire book is essentially teaching that believers are in the NC and not bound by the OC. Now let’s see how Paul closes this letter.

Gal 6:15-18 ¹⁵ Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. ¹⁶ Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God. ¹⁷ From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. ¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

Let’s walk through this. Verse 15 says neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. The new creation. The Bible opens with the creation account. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Right off the bat, we see a connection between the creation and the heavens and the earth. The heavens and the earth is a comprehensive term that refers to creation. Another term that refers to creation is world. In Romans 1:20 Paul says For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities and divine powers have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. Paul equates the creation of the heavens and the earth to the creation of the world.

So Scripture seems to use these phrases interchangeably: creation aka heavens and the earth aka the world.

The Scriptures also speak of a time when the old creation would pass away and God would bring forth a new creation, a new world and new heavens and earth.

An example of this is in 1 Cor 7:31 For this world in its present form is passing away.

Matt 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.

2 Pet 3:13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

So, again we see the Scriptures speak of creation aka, the world, aka the heavens and the earth passing away and making way for a new heavens and earth, a new world, a new creation.

I believe it is this new creation that Paul is referring to.

ESCHATOLOGICAL BOOKENDS

Not sure if you picked up on what Paul is doing here. It’s been 20 weeks since we started studying Galatians, so I don’t expect you to remember the beginning of the letter, but Paul closes the letter the same way he opened it. Galatians opens and closes with eschatological bookends. Eschatology is the study of last things – or end times. Paul opens Galatians with a statement related to end times and now he closes the letter with a statement related to end times.

Paul opened in Gal 1:3-4 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. The discussion of the end of the present age and the ushering in of the age to come is directly related to end times.

Now Paul closes in Gal 6:15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. The discussion of the New Creation in light of the passing away of the old creation is related to the end times.

This is very interesting. Galatians is all about the Law and how believers are not under the Law. That’s the whole book. The whole book is teaching this first century audience that the OC is fading away and that the NC has come and that they belong not to the Old but the New. For a book that deals primarily with the Law, a book that is essentially about the superiority of this NC over the OC, it strangely opens and closes with eschatological statements.

The book opens with eschatology and closes with eschatology, but in between those bookends, there isn’t exactly what people would consider eschatology. In other books we have a lot of end times issues:

• 1 Cor 15 – resurrection
• 1 Thess 4 – caught up with the Lord to meet him in the clouds
• Gospels – olivet discourse about second coming
• 1 John 2 – antichrists
• Revelation – entire book is eschatology

But Galatians, not so much. Why would a book that is so concerned with circumcision and the Law versus faith in Christ open and close with these eschatological book ends?

That is a great question. I believe the answer is this: the entire book of Galatians is eschatological. Biblical eschatology is not concerned with the end of the physical planet and the creation of a new physical planet. Biblical eschatology is concerned with the end of one covenant age and the ushering in of a new covenant age. Biblical eschatology is covenantal, not planetary.

When the Bible deals with end times, it is not referring to the end of human history, it is referring to the end of Old Covenant Israel as God’s covenant people.

Likewise, the last days spoken of in Scripture are not the last days of the physical world, but the last days of the Old Covenantal world.

That may sound foreign to you, but we must be careful not to impose our preconceived notions onto a text to the degree that they override the author’s intent. This is true whether we are reading the Biblical or anything for that matter. We come to texts with certain ideas, but those ideas need to be submitted to the author and willing to change when the context demands a different meaning. We must let the text and its context define terms.

TWILIGHT

Let me give you an example. I owe this example to Alan Bondar. What happens to vampires when they are exposed to sunlight? They’re destroyed, right? Everybody knows that when a vampire is exposed to the sun, they’re destroyed, that’s why they’re always hanging out at night. Anybody here ever read or seen Twilight? Anybody a Twilight fan? Well, in Twilight, vampires don’t blow up in the sun, they sparkle and stuff. The author of Twilight defines that. We can’t impose our own ideas about vampires on Twilight; if we are going to watch and read Twilight in order to understand it we must let Twilight teach us what happens to vampires in the sun. We must submit to the author’s definitions.

Now on a much more serious level: are you team Edward or team Jacob?

COLONIAL LANGUAGE

Let me give another example that deals directly with our terms at hand.

I’d like to read you a portion of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Before I do, let me read you the blurb about this work from www.ushistory.org:

Published in 1776, Common Sense challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain.

So this is from the 18^th century written in plain language.

Now for the quote:

O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom has been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her--Europe regards her like a stranger, and England has given her warning to depart. Receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind…

Let me skip down and continue reading. Paine continues: Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world has been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from EVERY PART of Europe. Here have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home pursues their descendants still.

So Thomas Paine speaks of leaving an old world in pursuit of freedom in a new world. And according to authorities, this is plain language. Well if I impose my own ideas of what old world and new world means on this plain language then I will come to this text and say, so the colonists were astronauts? They left this world and found another world? They went to another planet? I would be imposing my own ideas on the text. I have to let Paine define world for me and he does. What Paine means by old world and new world is not old planet and new planet. Paine is speaking of governments and territories. The colonists left the old England in the old world and came to establish a New England in the new world.

I can’t impose my ideas on new world and old world on Paine’s work. I can’t impose my ideas on new world and old world on the Scriptures. Paine, in referring to new world and old world doesn’t speak in terms of cosmology, he is dealing with territories and governments.

Similarly, when the Bible speaks of a new creation, a new world, a new heavens and earth, it doesn’t do so in terms of planet, but in terms of covenant. The Bible is not a science book. The Bible is about God’s dealings with mankind and God deals with man in terms of Covenant.

So Paul’s entire argument here in Gal 6:15 is not circumcision doesn’t matter, what matters is the new planet that God is going to bring in over 2000 years. His argument is circumcision doesn’t matter because circumcision belongs to the old creation – the old covenant order. What matters is the new creation – the new covenant order; in the new creation circumcision of the flesh makes no difference. The old creation was about to pass away in the destruction of the Old Jerusalem by Rome in the next 20 years.

Paul’s ending is consistent with his beginning. In his introduction, he stated: Christ died to rescue us from the present evil age, the old covenant age of the Law. That age was still present as long as the temple stood in Jerusalem. In 70 AD it was leveled by the Romans – that was the decisive event that brought that age to a close and fully ushered in the new age, the age of the NC, the age of the kingdom, the new order, the new heavens and earth, the new creation.

Circumcision belongs to the old creation – the Old Covenant world. The old creation doesn’t matter it was about to pass away. What counts is the new creation – what counts is the New Covenant world. The present evil age was passing to make way for the age of everlasting righteousness in which men stand blameless before God because Christ atoned for sin.

To drive this point home even further, let’s look at the verse again, verse 15.  Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. This should ring a bell for those who have been here. Compare Paul’s words here with his words in 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. These verses are virtually identical. In one, Paul says circumcision means nothing, what counts is faith expressing itself through love. In the other Paul says circumcision means nothing, what counts is the new creation. He is connecting the new creation with faith expressing itself through love.

The old creation was governed by the old covenant that required circumcision, dietary restrictions, animal sacrifice, among other things. The new creation is governed by faith expressing itself through love – the NC order. The old creation is directly related to the old covenant. The new creation is directly related to the new covenant.

The new creation has to do with a new covenant community, not a new planet.

The NICNT on Galatians puts this quite eloquently:

“Paul is saying in these 2 verses (14 & 15) that Christ, by virtue of his coming and his atoning death on the cross, has inaugurated and brought about a new creation: his cross marks an absolute break between the new and the old world. Therefore, what matters now is no longer circumcision or uncircumcision, since that distinction belongs to the old world, but participation in the new order of existence. This new order is characterized by a new relation to God which is bound to Christ and accepted by faith.” (Fung, 308-309).

So again, the new creation, the new world, the new order pertains to God’s New Covenant Community in Christ.

Paul continues in the text Gal 6:16  Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.

Paul is saying peace and mercy to all who follow this rule. What rule? The rule that circumcision means nothing, what matters is the NC. Peace and mercy – to the Israel of God. The Israel of God are those who follow this rule: circumcision means nothing – what counts is the new creation.

Who is Israel? God’s chosen people, God’s covenant community. God’s covenant community, Paul says, is no longer defined by circumcision, but by faith, by being in Christ, in the NC. The new creation, aka, the New Jerusalem, aka the new Israel is God’s covenant community that is not identified by ethnicity or circumcision, but being in Christ. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.

There are some who say that ethnic Israel is still God’s true people and that the church is kind of a plan B until God re-establishes ethnic Israel. Paul says just the opposite, as does John and Jesus – all the NT writers. According to the Scriptures, due to unbelief, apostate Israel is cut off from God’s covenant community and His true covenant community is made up of believers.

Jeremiah writes in 31 of a NC.

Jer 31:31-33 ³¹ “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, 
   “when I will make a new covenant 
with the people of Israel 
   and with the people of Judah. 
³² It will not be like the covenant 
   I made with their ancestors 
when I took them by the hand 
   to lead them out of Egypt, 
because they broke my covenant, 
   though I was a husband to them,” 
            declares the LORD. 
³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel 
   after that time,” declares the LORD. 
“I will put my law in their minds 
   and write it on their hearts. 
I will be their God, 
   and they will be my people. 

Who is the NC for? Israel.

So if believers aren’t Israel, then we aren’t really in the New Covenant.

The NC is for Israel. Israel is redefined in Christ. If you’re in the NC, you have been grafted into Israel. Circumcision doesn’t matter, what matters is the New Creation, those who belong to the New Covenant, being in Christ. Peace and mercy to the true Israel of God, those of the New Creation, those in Christ.

Paul continues in v 17 ¹⁷ From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

It seems here, Paul is referring to marks left on his body due to being persecuted, stoned and beaten for the cross of Christ. Temple slaves and domestic slaves in that day used to be branded to denote ownership. Paul sees his marks as being marks of ownership – I belong to Jesus.

Seems probable here that he is contrasting these markings of the flesh with the circumcision of the flesh. Those Judaizers want to mutilate your flesh so that you have a seal of ownership – to show that you belong to God. Look at my flesh. I have been mutilated by men as a result of suffering for Christ. These marks show that I belong to Christ. It seems that perhaps this is one last appeal to Christ over and against circumcision.

He says from now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. Remember Paul had said earlier, I am perplexed about you. Poor Paul was hearing about these guys being swayed by the false teachings of the Judaizers and he loves them. As one who loves the people of God, Paul is troubled by this. It’s as if Paul is saying you have caused me enough trouble over this, please, from now on don’t cause me anymore trouble.

Paul’s concluding statement is in v18:  ¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brothers and sisters. I want to draw out 2 things from this verse.

1. Grace
2. Family

The NC community is defined by grace. The new covenant is a covenant of grace. I exhort you: in the same way that God’s grace has been poured out on us abundantly in Christ, let us operate in grace. Your brother or sister wrongs you, grace.

How many times have we wronged our precious God? Uncalculable! How many times should you forgive your brother? 70 times 70 times 70 times 70! Grace. Consider the grace of God and lets extend that to one another. Let’s do to others what we would want them to do to us. We don’t want people holding up some bar that we can never reach and then pointing out our flaws over and over and over, resulting in condemnation. We want people to extend grace to us when we make mistakes. Lets extend that same kind of grace to one another. The NC community is defined by grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Look what he calls them: brothers and sisters.

This leads to the second thing I want to draw out: the NC community is defined in terms of family. We are all brothers and sisters, who all call on one Father, God. We are brothers and sisters, by faith. We are family. Let’s operate as a family.

Hopefully you walk away from this study in Galatians as edified as I have. When we opened, I mentioned that I hope in 3 years you can articulate the essence of this book that believers are not under the OC, but the NC. That is the doctrinal conviction that I hope we all walk away with. But it doesn’t end there. Doctrine drives your actions. What you believe affects how you behave. We will live our lives and make choices based on our understanding the role of the Law of Moses, in understanding our freedom from the Law.

This is something that will work itself out without you even realizing it. What we understand doctrinally from the Scriptures will crystallize in our minds and formulate a worldview that directs the affairs of our daily lives.

Reformed Church in Georgetown Texas. Preterist church in Georgetown Texas. New Covenant Fellowship Church in Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone.

Let me give you a couple examples.

• Puritans
  • Hanging adulterers
  • Salem witch trials
  • doctrine drives your actions.
• Chris texts about me not acting better as pastor (doctrine drives your actions)
• As we learn grace and freedom from the Law, we will shed legalistic tendencies
  • Won’t hear from us that you need to be giving 10% of your income to NCF – we don’t care if you don’t give a dime
  • Won’t hear from us, we don’t like what the pastor so and so at such and such church teaches so you aren’t allowed to have fellowship with anyone from their church. That’s Old Covenant – that’s legalism
  • doctrine drives your actions and as we begin to understand that we are not under Law, our legalistic tendencies will begin to melt away.
• No condemnation for those who are in Christ
  • We won’t walk in the ways of woe is me.
  • We won’t be Eeyore Christians, we will be Tigger Christians, especially as we begin to understand more and more what was accomplished for us on Calvary
  • No fear for us – fear has to do with punishment. That punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.
• As we begin to understand freedom that will change our lives.

We are free. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Let us enjoy our freedom in Christ. Let us not use our freedom as an occasion to indulge the flesh, but rather to serve one another in love. Let us, God’s new creation, his covenant people live a life of faith expressing itself through love.

Reformed Church in Georgetown Texas. Preterist church in Georgetown Texas. New Covenant Fellowship Church in Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone.

You Reap What You Sow

gal 6:6-14 you reap what you sow

Last week we camped out in Galatians chapter 6, looking at Paul’s words in regards to the harvest. We considered Paul’s words: a man reaps what he sows and how it had direct meaning and application for Paul’s original audience in the first century.

Paul exhorted the Galatians: do not be deceived by the Judaizers and the seeds that they were sowing, which were seeds of the flesh, seeds of the Law, namely circumcision. They were sowing to please the flesh. They were teaching Law in pursuing their own interests. What were those interests? To avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. As Jesus warned in the SOM, there would be persecution for believers and there was, especially from ethnic Jews, since the message of the cross was an offense to the Jews as it stripped them of identity in circumcision. It said, “Everything you put stock in is about to go down. Your stock market is about to crash.” The OC was a bad investment in the first century. The Judaizers were sowing to please the flesh and from the flesh they would reap destruction because those who belong to the OC were about to be destroyed in the coming judgment at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD.

There was a lot to digest; in fact we took an entire message to unpack the original context and what it meant to Paul’s audience. We didn’t take time to draw out any of the timeless truths in the text and make any personal application. Rather than cramming that into a few minutes at the end of last week’s message, I thought it would be more beneficial to take another message to draw that out; that is what we will be doing this morning.

We are going to focus on one precept in particular. In Galatians 6:7 Paul says a man reaps what he sows.

This is a precept that is true period. In other words, you don’t even have to be a Christian for this principle to ring true in your life. Whether you are a believer or not, you reap what you sow.

While I believe Paul’s usage of that precept had a specific application to the eschatological harvest, it is a precept with a much broader scope of application. We constantly reap. What do we reap? We reap what we sow! Obviously this is metaphorical; we aren’t literally putting literal seeds in literal dirt. But we are constantly putting things in the soil of our mind…and our hearts and our lives…and we are constantly reaping what we sow.

This precept is very dear to my heart. About 3 years into our marriage, Bre and I were having a rough time. So I went to my mentor, Mark Roberts. Some of you know Mark from Teen CBS or Hill Country. Mark is the man who did mine and Bre’s premarital counseling and then performed our wedding. I went to Mark to seek wise counsel, since he is a man whose wisdom and walk I highly respect.

Mark gave me some great words of wisdom and encouragement.

This was what Mark shared with me:

• You reap what you sow.
• You reap more than you sow.
• You reap later than you sow.

You reap WHAT you sow. If farmer Joe sows only seeds of wheat in his field, he cannot expect to reap watermelons or strawberries. Since he only sowed wheat seeds, he will only reap wheat. You reap WHAT you sow.

You reap MORE THAN you sow. For example if farmer Joe plants wheat seeds, heads of wheat will sprout with more wheat seeds on it, some of which will fall to the ground and grow even more wheat than was originally sown.

You reap LATER THAN you sow. If farmer Joe plants wheat seeds this morning, he cannot expect to grind the wheat produced by those seeds this afternoon. It takes time for those seeds to grow. It may take weeks. It may take months. Patience is necessary, because you reap later than you sow, it takes time.

So you reap what you sow, you reap more than you sow and you reap later than you sow.

Mark encouraged me with these fundamental truths, saying sow seeds of love towards Breann. Whether she reciprocates that love or not, love her. Sow seeds of self sacrificial service into the soil of Breann’s heart. Sow seeds of loving words, words of affirmation and appreciation. Sow seeds of quality time and physical touch. Sow seeds of love into Breann’s life. Because you reap what you sow. Sow love and you will reap love.

And be encouraged because you reap more than you sow. Sow seeds of love into Breann’s heart and stalks of love will grow up with more seeds of love that will fall into the soil of her heart and even more stalks of love will grow up. Sow love and you will reap even more love than you have sown.

Finally, be patient. You reap later than you sow. This process takes time. Sow seeds of love into Breann’s heart today, but don’t expect to reap the harvest tonight. You reap later than you sow.

Mark was right. I sowed seeds of love and I reaped more than I sowed and I reaped later than I sowed. Only a handful of people here have known us since then, but they can testify that since 2005 our marriage has grown healthier and healthier and the amount of love that Breann shows me today is exponentially higher than it was then. It is love, it is more love, and it is later. Today, I am reaping love.

So this precept of reaping what you sow is very near and dear to me because I have personal experience that attests to its truth.

That was an example of sowing good seeds and reaping good. Now I’d like to take some time to show how this precept works with regards to sin. You reap what you sow. There is a cause and effect relationship between what you say or think or do and the results of those thoughts, words, and actions.

GANG LIFE

For example, let’s say I decide that my family life is rough and my parents don’t give me love and attention, so I’ll join a gang. They will be my family and give me attention and they will have my back. So I get jumped in and I have their approval. The gang leader orders that I rob the local corner store. Then I graduate to sending a message to a rival gang. Eventually I participate in drive by shootings. If I live the gang life, I will reap destruction from the gang life. I am constantly looking over my shoulder, anxious, sleeping with one eye open, living in fear for my life. In other words, if I live by the gun, chances are, I’ll die by the gun. There is a cause and effect relationship, a man reaps what he sows. If he is sowing gunfire, he will reap gunfire.

I know this is something you all struggle with on the mean streets of Georgetown. It’s a real temptation to live the thug life here in the ghetto of Georgetown.

LET’S TAKE THIS A LITTLE CLOSER TO HOME…

Remember, if we sow to the flesh, and walk in sin, we will reap the consequences of that. Let’s consider the consequences of some of those “little sins” we are all prone to. For example: gossip or slander.

If you gossip about a co-worker or slander them, consider the consequences.

• Hard to look them in the eye. Weird around them. Guilty conscience.
• Anxiety & worry about that person finding out.
• They could find out. That’s a consequence.

But the consequences go beyond that. I work with a guy who goes to lunch with a particular individual regularly. He then comes back from lunch and slanders the guy. This happens regularly. How do you think that makes me feel about spending time with this guy and opening up to him? My thoughts: I will share as little as possible because I don’t want him turning around and saying those kinds of things about me. If we tend to slander we actually hurt our credibility with people and make it difficult for people to want to share their lives with us. They will constantly be wondering what we are saying about them behind their back.

So, while that is kind of a personal, almost selfish reason to avoid slander, there is another more important consequence to consider: It hurts people. The fruit of what you sow, the harvest of that is harm to their character. Is that what we want to reap at harvest time? Harm to our neighbors and broken relationships?

We reap what we sow. Remember, if we sow to the flesh, and walk in sin, we will reap the consequences of that.

Reformed Church in Georgetown Texas. Preterist church in Georgetown Texas. New Covenant Fellowship Church in Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone.

Let’s consider another one. FORNICATION. There is a cause and effect relationship there. Consequences include:

• necessity to purchase EPT test and hope to God the result is negative.
• Possible contraction of STD.
• Taints that act reserved for marriage so that when we do get married so that act isn’t as special as it should be.

• The ultimate consequences of fornication include pain & broken relationships.

Let’s consider another: HARBORING BITTERNESS OR UNFORGIVENESS. A wise person once said that harboring bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die from it.

• While that person that hurt you has moved on with life, if you are harboring unforgiveness, you are carrying a heavy load around with you.
• You are holding on to the pain and not letting it go.
• The ultimate consequences include pain and broken relationships.

LACK OF INTEGRITY.

Consider the following scenario. You go to work and collect a paycheck for working 40 hours a week, but in reality you aren’t always doing your job, but are surfing the web all day, or you are stealing from your employer. Imagine how you would feel every time your boss calls you into his office.

• Oh, no. You get that sick feeling in your gut, like, I’m caught. If you are stealing or if you are working with a lack of integrity, there is a consequence of anxiety and fear.

• However, if you are doing what you are supposed to be doing at work, if you are doing right, there are benefits, good ones. You are free from that fear and anxiety. Your conscience is clear. You are free.
• You reap what you sow. If you sow bad, you will reap what is bad. If you steal from your employer, you will be walking around with guilt, fear and anxiety. If you get caught you could receive disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment. You reap what you sow. The way you live will determine the kind of things that flow out of your life: good things for those who do good. Bad things for those who do bad.

So we have considered the cause and effect relationship that sin has on our lives and how we reap what we sow. Since the fruit of sin is pain, fear, anxiety and broken relationships, and since those aren’t the things we hope to attain in life, we have good reason to avoid sin – the very practical consequences that follow, not to mention the most important which is a break in our fellowship with God.

Thus, the logical exhortation is sow good seeds. Do GOOD!!! Paul, in this very passage tells his original audience, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the household of believers. I have no exegetical reason to think that such an exhortation should be limited to Paul’s first century audience. I think this exhortation reaches to all believers in all of history. Believers should do good to all, especially to our brothers and sisters. We should sow good seed that we might reap that which is good. You reap what you sow.

Sow sin, reap the consequences, sow good, reap the benefits.

THIS PRECEPT GOES BEYOND SIN REACHING INTO THE PRACTICAL WALK OF DAILY LIFE

There are some things in life that aren’t necessarily sin, but they aren’t necessarily good or beneficial in a practical sense for us.

This is one of those balances we tend to struggle with as Christians. As a youth pastor I used to get all kinds of questions about what was permissible: can Christians drink alcohol? Can Christians date? Hold hands? Smoke hookah? Go to a club? Listen to secular music? Get tattoos? Watch rated R movies? These aren’t bad questions to wrestle with as Christians learn to live in liberty.

After all, we are free from the law, right? So we are not bound by all of those do’s and don’ts. We are free. Everything is permissible, right? Yes, but not everything is beneficial. We reap what we sow. The way we live will have consequences or benefits. The result of our choices may not be beneficial to others, to the church or even to us as individuals. It is worth considering the consequences of our actions. Will this have good consequences? Will this be beneficial? Because we do reap what we sow.

LET’S CONSIDER THIS PRECEPT IN LIGHT OF PRACTICAL DAILY LIFE: HOW WE SPEND OUR TIME, ENERGY, MONEY, AND WHAT WE FEED OURSELVES.

• How we spend our time
  • There is no command in the Bible on how to allocate our time
  • There is a reality that if I put time into something, that something will flourish; I will reap what I sow. Put a little into it, get a little out of it, put a lot into it, get a lot out of it.
    • If I spend quality time with family my family will have higher quality
    • (Ken’s story about hard work).
    • If I spend time in the word (Chris, 28 days).
• How we spend our energies.
  • If we practice guitar, piano, sports (practice makes perfect)
  • If we study, do well on test, get good grades, more importantly, LEARN
  • not if I forsake study to watch tv and play video games (beat high score)
• How we spend our money
  • No command in the bible on how to allocate our money
  • If we spend money we don’t have we will go into debt
    • Reap what you sow
    • If you sow more than you have…
    • Harvest comes and you won’t reap, but will still be sowing
  • If we spend money on energy-efficient appliances we will reap the benefits
• What we feed ourselves. What we put in our minds.
  • MUSIC (no command in bible not to listen to secular music) but if you listen to something, it’s probably catchy – music has that effect – it runs through mind and you assimilate. If you are listening to
    • Worship music
    • Eminem
    • Later, in a conversation with wife, what is ringing in my head? How great thou art or shoving my dead wife in the trunk of a car?
  • MOVIES
    • Free to watch, may even learn lesson as we see the reap what you sow principle play out. Sin leads to pain and broken relationships.
    • However, language, violence, images can desensitize us
    • Some of the poor attitudes and irreverence may rub off on us
  • Literature
    • Time in the word prepares us to have God-centered responses
    • Not me saying you need to be reading your bible more
    • Not me saying you shouldn’t read novels or magazines
    • It IS me saying, you reap what you sow and what you put into the soil of your mind will take root and produce fruit. Consider the kind of fruit you wish to reap at harvest time.
• Health (no biblical commands on what to eat or how much to exercise)
  • Eat unhealthy (you are what you eat)
    • Clogged arteries – heart disease
    • Lack of energy
  • Exercise and eat healthy
    • Healthy circulatory & cardiovascular system
    • Feel good
    • Energy
  • No command in the bible to not smoke. But, if we smoke, end up with black lungs, probably cancer, die.

Again, these things aren’t defined as sin in the Scriptures, but fall into the practical category, and are worthy of consideration…Is this particular action good for the body of Christ? Is it good for my family? For me? Does it bring glory to God?

So, in summary, before we close, we have discussed the precept: you reap what you sow.

I shared with you that not only do

• you reap WHAT you sow
• you reap MORE than you sow and
• you reap LATER than you sow.

I gave an example of how sowing good seeds leads to reaping good fruit at harvest time as I shared my experience of sowing seeds of love in my wife’s life.

We also looked at how sowing seeds of sin leads to reaping of pain, harm and broken relationships, break in fellowship with God.

Finally, we looked at this precept in terms of very practical daily affairs such as how we spend our time, money, energy, what we feed ourselves.

In light of this precept, my exhortation to you is sow that which is good. As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to the household of believers. Do good. Sow seeds of goodness, that at harvest time you might reap peace, joy and healthy relationships. If you sow good, you will be free of shame, free of guilt. You will have a free conscience.

Why do I encourage you in this way? I LOVE YOU want good for you.

In closing, I want to deal with prioritization in light of this precept.

You have a field. That field is limited in size. You may want cantaloupe and watermelons and pumpkins. If you sow half of your field with pumpkin seeds, you are left with half of your field for both cantaloupe and watermelons. If you wanted more watermelons than pumpkins, you’re in trouble because if you are going to sow any cantaloupe at all, you are left with less than half of your field for watermelon. At harvest time, you will reap the most of pumpkins. That shouldn’t surprise you. Since the size of our field is limited, we should carefully plan out how we will sow our seed so that at harvest time we can reap exactly what we want.

Now let’s get practical with this. Just as the size of our field is limited our time and energy and effort is limited. We have to prioritize accordingly. We need to determine what is the most important thing to us and sow the most time, energy and effort into that. For example, in my life, this is a constant struggle. We all have to work and sleep, so that is a given; here I am considering “free time” such as weekends or nights. With a given amount of “free time”, I can either study or do homework, I can do sermon prep, I can spend quality time with my family, I can do ministry related things like counsel, meet with people, reply to emails, answer their texts, working out or playing softball, or leisure like watch a movie/tv.

I have to be very intentional with my time. My field is limited in size and I reap what I sow. If I choose to spend all of my free time doing sermon prep, homework and ministry, what am I not spending any time doing? Spending time with my family, exercising, and leisure. If I only sow into sermon prep and academics, I will preach great sermons and you guys will grow and that’s great, but my family will deteriorate because I am not sowing into them. The last thing I want is at harvest time my fellow farmers to say, man, David has been preaching great sermons. Too bad his family is falling apart.

So I have to prioritize. And I hate that. I just want 30 hours in a day. I want everybody else to get 24, but I want 30. Since God won’t do that for me, I’m stuck with 24. So I have to make hard decisions like: fellas, I won’t be at the men’s ministry meeting on Saturday because I need to spend some quality time with my family and that extra 2 hours on Sat morning will make all of the difference in the world. It means that I may not be as prepared for a test or assignment for school because I have a lot of sermon prep left. It means that I may not be able to work out because I have to study. It means that I can’t be on a softball team right now. It means that I can’t commit to doing concerts with kenosis. It means that if I’m not liking what I’m reaping, I may have to take a semester or 2 off of school.

At harvest time, I don’t want to be frustrated that I sowed too little of the crop I wanted to reap the most of.

I want my reaping to reflect that I sowed the most seeds of family and ministry in that order.

We have to prioritize our lives. We all have our own fields and while we all sow similar seeds: work, family, church, but some of our seeds differ. Some of us sow WOW seeds, some PS3 or Nintendo Wii, some American Idol, racquetball, fantasy football, art, baking, dance, overtime…etc.

We have to sow the field of our life according to our priorities. We need to sow the appropriate seeds based on what we intend to reap. What do you want to reap? Sow the seeds that produce that kind of crop.

Since we desire peace, joy, and healthy relationships with God and man, let us sow accordingly. You reap what you sow.

Reformed Church in Georgetown Texas. Preterist church in Georgetown Texas. New Covenant Fellowship Church in Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone.