and to know that we're going to share heaven
together one day. And right now we're serving
with them on behalf of the same kingdom, the
same church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's open
our Bibles together today to Galatians chapter
6. Paul begins chapter 6 by addressing you who
are spiritual. We talked about that last week.
I want to ask you a question. Are you spiritual?
Most of us shy away from answering that question
directly because the word spiritual has a certain
connotation to it. We seem to think it means
a person who has his Christian life all put together,
or someone who seldom sins, or perhaps another
person who thinks about God in the Bible all
the time. What does it mean to be spiritual?
In the context of Galatians chapter 6, the word
spiritual refers to one who in the first place
lives by the Spirit, that is one who is born
again, and then that person also walking by the
Spirit, that is living in dependence upon the
Holy Spirit. We're walking in the line that the
Holy Spirit lays down for their lives. A walk
in submission to the Holy Spirit produces a love
-dominated life. A love -dominated life is a
way of relating to other people as Jesus would
relate to them. It's the opposite of the fleshly
life, which is self -centered. self -dominated,
self -directed, self -serving, self -indulgent.
The love -dominated life has the arrows pointing
outward. He is loving one's neighbor as he loves
himself. Today, in the text that we look at as
we close the study of Galatians, we're going
to see a text that was written by the Apostle
Paul. Which is in response to false teachers
and their doctrines which had undermined the
faith of these Christians They had been robbed
of their spiritual freedom because of their belief
in this false doctrine of legalism and Whether
they're leading them toward godliness This legalism
had led them into a an outbreak of fleshly living
Legalism always does that Legalism does not lead
to spiritual living. Legalism does not lead to
godliness. It leads rather to fleshliness. Paul
was shocked that the Galatians had deserted the
message of grace so quickly and so easily. He
rebuked them for it, even as he sought to appeal
to them to return to the message that he had
delivered to them. In conclusion, as he brings
this letter to its culmination, he prescribes
some principles for living in the Spirit. You
see, the grace of God frees us from the burden
of our own fleshly works to live under Christ's
Lordship. And that's really the essence of what
spiritual living is. It is experiencing a personal
and growing relationship with Jesus as the Lord
of one's life. One who is spiritual hasn't arrived.
One who is spiritual isn't one who is without
sin. The one who is spiritual is growing and
experiencing an ever deeper relationship with
Jesus. as the Lord of His life. Now Paul lays
out for us in the text we're going to look at
at least three principles that I see that help
us understand what it means to live spiritually
with Jesus as Lord. I'm going to begin reading
in verse 6 of Galatians 6 where it says, and
let the one who is taught the Word share all
good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived.
God is not mocked. For whatever 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. And let us not
lose heart in doing good. For in due time we
shall reap if we do not grow weary. So then,
while we have opportunity, let us do good to
all men, especially to those who are of the household
of the faith." The first principle that I see
Paul pointing to in verse 6 is the principle
of teaching and sharing. Paul taught in the churches
that he established that the ministry should
be undergirded by the voluntary giving of God's
people. It may be difficult to understand, for
us at least, how revolutionary that idea was
in that first century. Because you see the Jews
paid a tax to support the ministry at the temple.
And the pagans were accustomed to paying certain
fees at their pagan temples and rites. The idea
of giving voluntarily was brand new. And apparently
there were some of the people in Galatia who
developed a fleshly attitude about this. They
became what we might call consumers in the language
of the late 20th century. Consumer Christians
who wanted to take and who wanted to receive
and expected ministry for themselves, but they
did not want to give anything in return for that.
And so Paul speaks to that issue in verse 6.
It's rather an abrupt change, isn't it? He just
seems to immediately jump into this subject.
But the principle is very clear, and it's found
not only here in Galatians, but a number of times
in the New Testament, that those who serve the
body of Jesus Christ, Realizing the calling to
pastor and teacher are to make their living from
that work. Paul is saying it's a voluntary matter
of giving, but there is in that voluntarism a
certain responsibility as well. Else there is
an abuse of grace. In 1st Corinthians chapter
9 the apostle says, who at any time serves as
a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard
and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends
a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?
If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too
much if we should reap material things from you?
Do you not know that those who perform sacred
services eat the food of the temple and those
who attend regularly to the altar have their
share with the altar? So also, the Lord directed
that those who proclaim the gospel to get their
living from the gospel. Another way of saying
this is that Paul tells us as the people of God
that we are to bless those who bless us spiritually.
There is this tendency, especially in the culture
we have today, to imagine that somehow spiritual
service to us ought to be free. that there ought
not to be any cost related to it. After all,
grace is free. Salvation is free. The gospel
is free. But Paul reminds us that while all of
that is true, it's free to us. It was very costly
to Christ and to God. And he tells us that part
of our spiritual duty under grace is to care
for those who teach and preach and lead. He calls
it here a fellowship. The word share in verse
6 is the word koinonia. That's the noun form
of it. And so Paul looks upon this matter of
giving as really a fellowship. He says that the
one who walks by the Spirit, who is spiritual,
is one who will demonstrate this aspect of love
also. He does not want us to see giving to the
ministry as a legalistic burden or obligation,
but rather as an opportunity to demonstrate our
fellowship, our partnership in the things of
God. I think that's a wonderful way and an appropriate
way really of looking at the way that we give
to God in our local church. That this is fellowship.
We usually think of fellowship in terms of food
or of conversation. But Paul says here, fellowship
is also giving as we receive. Warren Wiersbe
said, we must remember that what we do with material
things is an evidence of how we value spiritual
things. I need to move ahead to the second principle.
verses seven through ten, and that is the principle
of sowing and reaping. Paul gives us here an
agronomic illustration of a spiritual principle.
Just as there are inviolable laws in the physics
of our material universe, so there are inviolable
laws in the moral and spiritual universe that
God has created. We cannot escape those laws.
And one of them is found in this very simple
phrase, that we reap what we sow. Is that not
true in agriculture? A farmer goes out to his
field and he sows wheat. He doesn't expect to
reap soybeans or corn. He reaps wheat. And the
same is true morally and spiritually. That what
we sow in our lives is what we reap. In science,
it's called the cause and effect law. Someone
has written, sow a thought, reap an act. Sow
an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, and reap a
character. Sow a character, reap a destiny. What
we sow, we reap. Paul points to two fields and
to two harvests in these words. The one field
is the flesh. It's possible for us as Christians
to sow to the flesh. The flesh, of course, is
that dimension in us where sin operates. It's
that point of contact in us where sin expresses
its desires and its lusts. As we saw in our study
in chapter 5, the flesh and the spirit are at
war within the believer, each seeking to dominate.
You and I can sow to the flesh. That is, we can
Play with the desires of the flesh. We can feed
them. We can coddle them rather than crucify
them. And when we do, we will leap from the flesh.
John Stott writes these poignant words. Every
time we allow our mind to harbor a grudge, nurse
a grievance, entertain an impure fantasy, or
wallow in self -pity, we are sowing to the flesh.
Every time we linger in bad company whose insidious
influence we know we cannot resist, every time
we lie in bed when we ought to be up and praying,
every time we read pornographic literature, every
time we take a risk which strains our self -control,
we are sowing, sowing, sowing. to the flesh.
And when we sow to the flesh, Paul says we reap
corruption, or decay, or deterioration. In other
words, when we sow to the flesh, when we play
with its desires and give in to its lusts, the
result is that our lives begin to experience
decay. our character begins to deteriorate. There
is a destruction that begins to be carried out
in our spiritual life when we sow to the flesh.
On the other hand, he says, we have the choice
of sowing to the spirit, the second field. The
spirit here refers to the Holy Spirit who indwells
our spirit, our new nature. He says that we may
sow to the Spirit. What does that mean? It means
to cooperate with the Spirit. It means to be
generous in giving in the context of what this
paragraph is about. That's its primary application.
But beyond that, it also means to employ prayer
and the Word as a means of grace. To meditate
on wholesome and God honoring things. And as
he will go on to say, to do good to all men,
especially to those who are the household of
faith. You see, all of those ideas are part of
what it means to sow to the Spirit, what the
Spirit wants to do in our lives. And as we do
that, we reap another harvest. He calls it the
harvest of eternal life. He doesn't mean here
salvation, that by sowing we earn salvation or
we reap salvation. Eternal life is a word that
is used in a number of ways, not only of the
quantity of years that God gives us in our salvation,
but of the quality of our lives. And so Paul
is emphasizing that here. He says that when we
sow to the Spirit, when we cooperate with what
the Spirit of God wants to do in our lives, the
result is that we experience the Spirit's fruit
of joy and peace and long -suffering and so on.
The Spirit begins a process of spiritual growth
and moral growth and development in our lives.
That's what he means here by eternal life. have
a choice every day as to how you're going to
employ this principle of sowing and reaping.
You decide where you're going to sow and then
you also must be the one who will do the reaping
because the two inextricably are linked together.
The principle of sowing and reaping. And then
there is a final principle I want us to look
at. verses 11 through 18. I'm going to pick up
the reading in the text here. See with what large
letters I'm writing to you with my own hand.
Paul normally apparently dictated to an amanuensis
or to a secretary. But at this point he picks
up the pen as it were and he begins to write
himself with large letters. Some say because
of poor eyesight. But more likely Paul is saying
here I want you to see that I'm writing the way
that I am in large letters to emphasize by my
own handwriting what I have said to you and the
urgency of this message that you return to grace
and forsake legalism. He says those who desire
to make a good showing in the flesh, the legalists,
try to compel you to be circumcised simply that
they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
For those who are circumcised do not even keep
the law themselves, but they desire to have you
circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
But may it ever be that I should boast, except
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through
which the world has been crucified to me and
I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything
nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those
who will walk by this rule, by this standard,
by that he means grace, peace and mercy be upon
them and upon the Israel of God. From now on,
let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear in
my body the brand marks of Jesus. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren.
Amen. And so the letter closes with the final
principle, which I've called the principle of
boasting and suffering. The Judaizers, these
false teachers, the ones who try to impose upon
the Galatians the concept of law keeping and
ritual in order to please God, they boasted.
They boasted about how they were able to dominate
the Galatians and how the Galatians seemed to
fall into line after them. Paul says, I'm not
going to boast in the fact that you're following
me. He says, in fact, I boast in one thing. He
says, I boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, it is the means by which I have
died to the world. and the world has died to
me. I am no longer alive to that stuff. I am
alive to Christ and his kingdom. He says, I'm
a part of the new creation, the kingdom of the
Lord Jesus Christ, because of the new birth that
I've experienced. I'm a part of what God's new
order is all about. And my boasting is in the
cross of Jesus alone. And I believe that one
who walks by the Spirit, one who is a spiritual
person, is also one who will boast not in his
attainments, not of the number of converts that
he has, not of what he's been able to accomplish
in his life, but his boasting will be solely
in the Lord Jesus Christ and his cross and what
he has done on behalf of us all. But Paul wants
us to know that this principle is a principle
of boasting and suffering. Because when you boast
in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
in for suffering. Because the cross is an offense
to the world. It is an offense to our flesh.
It is an offense to our pride. He says, I bear
in my body the brand marks of Jesus. Back in
those days, slaves would often be tattooed, or
a scar or a brand would be put upon their body
to show who their owner was. Paul had been persecuted
for the cross of Christ, and even now was suffering
at the hands of the very people he had led to
Christ. And he said, my sufferings, my persecution,
even the very marks in my body, these are the
brand marks that I am the servant of Jesus. It
is one thing to wear a cross around your neck
as a piece of jewelry, but it is another thing
to boast in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and to declare a message to the world that it
does not want to hear. And that is that human
works are insufficient to make us right with
God, and that the only way to be right with God
is through His work on the cross on our behalf.
That we are hopeless and helpless in our sin,
and that we need a Savior. When we boast in that
message, and in that cross, and in that Savior,
then we are in contradiction to the world that
we live in. And as Paul says to Timothy, all
who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
In what do you glory? And for what or for whom
will you suffer? What a great principle Paul
gives to us here as men and women who want to
be spiritual. We must apply this principle to
our lives and boast in Jesus and be willing to
suffer with Him and for Him. Sometimes I've been
asked the question, Pastor, how can I experience
the blessing of God in my Christian life? The
answer is very simple. It is this. The blessing
comes when we choose to follow the principles
of God's Word. Because that's how we know we're
living under the Lordship of Christ. when we're
following the principles of the Word of the Lord.
Not following them as some rigid, legalistic,
have -to system, but following it with joy, applying
those principles with delight in our lives. Max
Lucado writes about this in his book, A Gentle
Thunder. He talks about the guy who wants to
learn to dance in the role of the Holy Spirit.
He says this fellow who wants to learn to dance
is a rational intelligence sort, so he goes to
the bookstore and he buys a how -to book. He
takes it home and he starts reading. He carefully
does everything it says. When the instructions
say sway, he sways. And when the instructions
say lean, he leans. And when the instructions
say spin, he spins. He even cuts out paper footprints
and arranges them on the family room floor so
he will know exactly where to step. At last he
thinks he's got it down pat so he calls his wife
and he says, honey watch me, with the book in
his hand and reading aloud so she'll know that
he's done his homework. He follows the instructions
step by step. It says take one step with your
right foot and he does that. It says turn slowly
to the left. He turns slowly to the left. He
keeps it up reading and then dancing reading
and dancing through the whole thing and then
collapses exhausted on the sofa and Says to his
wife. Well, what do you think? I've executed
it perfectly To which she replies you executed
it. All right, you killed it Her husband was
puzzled He said but I followed the rules. I laid
out the pattern. I did everything the book said
to do but she sighs You forgot the most important
part, the music. And you know, some of us are
that same way as we approach the Christian life
and the Lordship of Christ. And we begin to follow
the principles of the Bible, and they become
burdensome and heavy, and we're doing all of
the right things, but we've forgotten the music.
And Michaela goes on to say that the music is
the life of the Spirit. If you don't get anything
else out of this message this morning or out
of the whole series that we've done in Galatians,
I hope you'll hear me in this. That it's not
the rules that we keep that bring joy and fulfillment
and glory to God in our Christian life. It is
living by the Spirit and walking by the Spirit.
And applying the principles with the music of
the Spirit playing in our lives, then and only
then we'll dance. Let's pray together.