“WHATEVER A MAN SOWS…”
GALATIANS 6:7-8

I. Introduction
Have you heard the one about the farmer who planted a field of corn in the spring and harvested soybeans from the same field in the fall? Me neither. It doesn’t happen. Why not? It’s a universally understood and accepted law that such things do not happen. You harvest what you plant. Corn gives you corn. Soybeans give you soybeans. You get back what you put in. Doesn’t everyone – believer and unbeliever alike – know this principle and accept it? You’d think so. But the fact is that too many people – believer and unbeliever alike – live like they neither accept it or even know it. The Bible teaches this principle of planting and harvesting using the words “sowing” and “reaping.”
*Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corrup-tion, but the one who sows to the (Holy) Spirit shall from the (Holy) Spirit reap eternal life.

I asked Brock to read from Romans 1 this morning because it is the most frightening examples of what happens when men try to mock God. When they do, they reap what they sow. Go back to Romans 1 with me now.
*Romans 1:18
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

Man rejects God’s truth and God’s wrath is displayed. Why?
*Romans 1:19-20
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. How?
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

The reality of God is clearly seen in the world around us. But lost man claims that evo-lution explains the creation and everything that is in it. They claim to be intelligent, yet they believe, “Everything came from nothing by accident.”
*Romans 1:21
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or
give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Men consciously, willfully, and deliberately dishonor God.
Therefore, God allows their hearts to become darkened and they become spiritually blind. The result of their darkened hearts and spiritual blindness is…
*Romans 1:22-23
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling crea-tures.

Men think they are wise, but God says they are fools. And the first thing fools do is turn to idol worship.
*Romans 1:24-25
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them,
25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Because men worship false gods, the one true God judges them. He abandons them to their own lusts and allows them to do precisely what they want to do. And what they want to do is worship what has been made rather than the One who made it all. So God judges them further.
*Romans 1:26-27
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions, for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men com-mitting indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

Clearly, the “degrading passions” in vv. 26-27 are male and female homosexuality. In this we see the inevitable slide away from God and towards His abandonment of those who reject Him and His Word. As a result of God’s abandonment, they harvest precise-ly what they have planted. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8)

By the way, this truth is not limited to the NT. The Prophet Hosea warns Israel of the same fate because of their worship of idols, i.e., false gods.
Hosea 8:4-7a (God speaking through the prophet)
4 They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have appointed princes, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold they have made idols for them-selves, that they might be cut off.
5 He (God) has rejected your calf, O Samaria, saying,
“My anger burns against them!” How long will they be incapable of inno-
cence?
6 For from Israel is even this! A craftsman made it, so it is not God; surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.
7a For they (Israel) sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind.

The outcome of God’s abandonment of such sinners is that they no longer even acknow-ledge His existence. And as a result of all of that, He allows them to fall into total and complete depravity.
*Romans 1:28-31
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, (and) unmerciful;

If you ever wanted a biblical definition/description of human depravity, there it is. Do some of those things surprise you? I must admit that the way I would like to rank sins,
I’d never list gossiping and disobeying parents with things like evil, murder, and hatred
of God. But God puts them in the same list. That’s worth thinking about, isn’t it?

*Romans 1:32
32 and although they know the ordinance (the Law) of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Men know better but they do these things anyway. Even those who don’t do them often approve of them. There are even some professing Christians who go so far as to applaud these things. They say things like… “I’m okay, you’re okay.” “What’s right for me may not be right for you.” “Who am I to judge? Or, “Who are you (or we, or they) to judge?” (We’re going to take a closer look at this so-called “judging” next Sunday morning.)

In the meantime, here’s one you’ve all heard. “Personally, I’m against abortion, but I would never tell anyone else what they should or shouldn’t do.”

Yet we’re faced with the reality that no one – believer or unbeliever – can ever escape… “God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7b)

One more thing from Romans 1 – There are five verses that clearly illustrate the three basic components of the religion of secular humanism. In vv. 21-23 God (the Creator) is brought down and “humanized.” In v. 25 man (the creation) is lifted up and “deified.” And in v. 32 sin is “eliminated.”
These three lies – humanizing God, deifying man, and minimizing sin – are at the heart and core of virtually every man-made religion.

Some of them may actually name the name of Jesus, but they don’t believe what He has said or who He is. And it is in that, that they mock God. But the Scripture says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked…”
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II. Text
A farmer lives every day of his life perfectly secure in at least one biblical truth. He is secure in it whether he is a Christian and believes the Bible or not. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to be a Christian to know it is true.
*Galatians 6:7b
7b …for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

The people described by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:18-32 have sown for themselves a life that can lead only to destruction. They have sown abandonment of God and, as a result, they will reap exactly what they want – abandonment by God. Listen, those who do not want God will not have Him. He doesn’t force Himself into people’s lives. Three times in Romans 1 we saw God “give over” those who reject Him. He gives them over to lust, He gives the over to degradation, and He gives them over to depravity.

What are the results of God giving people over to such things? They become fools who completely immerse themselves in the world and the world’s systems. And the great irony is this: In almost every case they think they are wise and you an I are fools. Can you turn on the news without being subjected to the pontificating of left-wing intellectu-als? “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:22)

King Solomon, in his great God-given wisdom, speaks of these people’s rejection of the wisdom God offers and the fate that awaits those who reject it.
*Proverbs 1:20-32
20 Wisdom shouts in the street, she lifts her voice in the square;
21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the gates in the city, she utters her sayings:
22 “How long, O naïve ones, will you love simplicity? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?
23 “Turn to my (wisdom’s) reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.
24 “Because I called, and you refused; I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;
25 and you neglected all my counsel, and did not want my reproof;
26 I will even laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes,
27 when your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you.
28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me dili-gently, but they shall not find me,
29 because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD.
30 “They would not accept my counsel, they spurned all my reproof.
31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be satiated with their own devices.
32 “For the waywardness of the naïve shall kill them, and the complacency of fools shall destroy them.”

They have harvested what they have planted. “…for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7b)

But someone may say, “C’mon Pastor, that’s the godless, the haters of truth, the lost. This all applies to them.” Well, you’re right. Proverbs 1:20-32, the passage we just read, is about them. So is Romans 1:18-32. We know that because Romans 1 has been talking about “them.” In fact, “them” or “they” or “their” is used no less than twenty-one times. Clearly, God is speaking of the lost. And we have a tendency to say, “Well, I’m sure glad none of that applies to us.”

But if we were to move forward in Romans we will see something very interesting.
*Romans 2:1
1 Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

So the focus has changed. And that’s why we need to look at Galatians this morning. Galatians 6:7-8 is all about them. And it’s all about us too. Here is the basic biblical principle of sowing and reaping and it applies to us all!

In Genesis 27-29 we read the story of Jacob. In order to receive the paternal blessing normally given to the oldest son, Jacob deceived his father Isaac by pretending to be Jacob’s older brother Esau.
Genesis 27:12a (Jacob speaking)
12a “…I shall be as a deceiver in (my father’s) sight…”

And he was and he thought he got away with it. But he didn’t. Years later Jacob’s uncle Laban did to him exactly what he had done to Isaac. Jacob thought he was getting Laban’s younger daughter Rachel, but Laban gave Jacob his older daughter Leah.
Genesis 29:21, 23, 25
21 Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is completed…”
23 Now it came about in the evening that (Laban) took his daughter Leah, and brought her to (Jacob); and (Jacob) went into her.
25 So it came about in the morning, that, behold, it was Leah! (And Jacob said to Laban,) “Why then have you deceived me?”
Had he been there, the Apostle Paul could have answered Jacob’s question. “Do not be deceived (Jacob), God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”
Think about it. You’ve seen this principle at work in your own life, haven’t you? Has an untruth ever come back to bite you? If it hasn’t, it will. I believe it will be dealt with in your lifetime. Jacob learned that.

Now I suppose there’s a possibility God may not deal with it until eternity. But in either case He will deal with it. He must deal with it because He is absolutely holy, and He is absolutely righteous, and He is not mocked.

In 1 Kings 21-22 we find the story of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. They wanted a man’s vineyard, and since they were king and queen, they usually got what they wanted. But the man, Naboth, didn’t want to sell. So Jezebel had him murdered and Ahab took the vineyard. Then God sent the Prophet Elijah to the king and told him…
1 Kings 21:19
19 “Thus says the LORD, ‘Have you murdered, and also taken possession?’” “Thus says the LORD, ‘In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth the dogs shall lick up your blood…’”

But three years went by and nothing happened. Then in the midst of a battle Ahab was wounded.
1 Kings 22:35, 38a
35 And the battle raged…and the king was propped up in his chariot…and died at evening, and the blood from the wound ran into the bottom of the chariot.
38a …they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up (Ahab’s) blood …according to the word of the LORD…

Paul could have told him, “Do not be deceived (Ahab), God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” And lest anyone think Jezebel got away with mocking God’s law…well, she didn’t either.
1 Kings 21:23 (Elijah speaking)
23 “And of Jezebel also has the LORD spoken, saying, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel.’”

She died when she was thrown from a window. Being the daughter of the king of Sido-nia, she was entitled to an honorable burial. But that didn’t happen.
2 Kings 9:35-36a
35 And they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
36a Therefore they returned and told (Jehu). And he said, “This is the word of the LORD, which He spoke by His servant Elijah…”

“Do not be deceived (Jezebel)…”
These are examples from the Old Testament. The first applied to one of God’s own, even one of the Patriarchs. The second applied to two people who hated God; but it was the same principle and it had the same result.

But what about the NT? Consider a Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus. Saul became the Apostle Paul and God would ultimately use him to write no less than thirteen books of the NT. (14 if he wrote Hebrews, as many believe he did) As a Pharisee, before his conversion, Saul had sown some seed for which he would later be bitterly sorrowful.

Stephen had told the Pharisees the truth about themselves. And for that he would die.
Acts 7:58-8:1a
58 And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 and they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
60 And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And having said this, he fell asleep.
1a And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting (Stephen) to death.

While watching Stephen die, Saul would not have imagined that less than twenty years later, while on his first missionary journey, in the Galatian city of Lystra, he himself would be stoned for the name of Christ. The Pharisee Saul would become the Apostle Paul, and would suffer the same fate Stephen had suffered.
Acts 14:19
19 Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the multi-tudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.

God says, “Do not be deceived (Paul), I am not mocked; for whatever you sow, this you will also reap.” Now think about this for just a moment. It was about the time of Paul’s stoning that he wrote his letter to the Galatian churches. (ca. 49-50 AD) Can you imagine how Paul must have felt when the Holy Spirit directed him to write these words: “For whatever you sow, this you will also reap,”? Do you think Paul remembered Stephen?

But there’s more. It’s even worse. Do you remember the last verse of Romans 1? Even if you don’t do the sin, approving of it makes you guilty of it. Why? It’s because you already know what is right and what is wrong. Ask yourself, “How can you approve of what you know God hates?”
Romans 1:32
32 and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
“Giving hearty approval to sin…” I suspect Paul’s mind went back to that moment in Jerusalem as he stood by and watched Stephen being murdered. Paul wrote those words in Romans 1 eight to ten years after he wrote the Galatian letter where the principle of “Whatever you sow, you will reap,” comes from.

Luke, the writer of the gospel that bears his name and The Book of Acts, uses very simi-lar words in describing Paul’s actions at Stephen’s stoning. Let’s be clear here. Paul didn’t do the sin, but Paul agreed with the sin. In fact, he gave it “hearty approval.” Later he confessed it himself.
Acts 22:19-20
19 “Lord…I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You.
20 “And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the cloaks of those who were slaying him.”

Do you see it? Jacob, one of the Patriarchs, Ahab and Jezebel, haters of God who lived in open rebellion against Him, and even the Apostle Paul – God dealt with them all. Sowing and reaping is a principle that applies to each and every one of us.

So take a moment and ask yourself, “Am I giving hearty approval to something I know God hates?” You may not be directly involved in open rebellion against God. But are there things you won’t actively do yet passively approve of them in others? Might this be an issue that needs your attention?

Do you see the connection between doing what God hates and not doing what God hates, but approving it in others? Either way, we are mocking God and we will reap what we sow. Today there is overwhelming pressure on all of us (and our children and grandchildren) to be tolerant of every evil and perversion that comes down the pike.

Isn’t it interesting that we’re to be tolerant of (and even embrace) homosexuality and homo-sexual unions, but we see Christian marriage being disdained by more and more young people all the time.

Do you find it ironic that because of misguided tolerance today, we are to respect Islam, but those who practice biblical Christianity are often called agents of hate?

Standing for truth and that which is right has never been easy, but it is getting harder all the time. Yet regardless of how hard it is and what it may cost us, there is a positive side to all of this…
*Galatians 6:8
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.

The good news for us today is found in the second part of the verse. We are enabled to sow to the Spirit because, as Christians, we have the Holy Spirit of God living in us.
We are capable of responding to the promptings of God. And when we do so, we are sowing to the Spirit.

But the main point this morning is this. You and I, just like Jacob, just like Ahab and Jezebel, just like Paul, and just like anyone else whom we see suffering the consequences of their sin, are simply confirming God’s unalterable truth that everyone – without excep-tion – will one day reap what they sow.

But again someone says, “I’m saved, and Galatians 6:8 says I will reap eternal life.” That is absolutely true. Eternal salvation awaits every true Christian. Nothing can ever change that. But Christians can lose rewards. If we focus on the flesh, that is to say, if we center our lives on the temporal instead of the eternal, we are not sowing to the Spirit.

At the judgment seat of Christ each Christian will give the Lord Jesus an account of his or her life on this earth. Heaven or hell will not be the issue in question. For the Chris-tian, that was settled on the cross of Calvary. What will be at issue is how we lived our lives since our conversion. Did we sow to our flesh or did we sow to the Spirit? It’s a serious question and we need to think about it. But for the believer there is one great pro-mise. Please, whatever you do, remember it.
*1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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III. Conclusion
We already know that we reap what we sow physically. Heavy smokers eventually ruin their lungs. Heavy drinkers eventually ruin the stomachs or their livers. Illicit and indis-criminate sexual activity will ultimately lead to sexually transmitted diseases. Those who are careless fall through thin ice and break bones and on and on it goes.

And we reap what we sow spiritually as well. May God convict every one of us here this morning to live our lives focused on eternity. He has given us good seed. May we sow it in Christian wisdom.

Finally, listen once again to John…
*1 John 2:28
28 And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

In that day I want to be able to run to Jesus and hear Him say to me, “Well done, My good and faithful servant…” May that be the desire of your heart as well.

~ Pray ~