Sowing into Flesh or Spirit

6 · The pastor defines 'corruption' through word study, emphasizing that it means rot, stink, and decay—not just death as terminus but death as ongoing process

So what does corruption mean? It says that if we sow into the flesh, we'll reap corruption. Well, what does corruption mean? Well, the word means death, but really with a specific eye toward rottenness, stinkiness. Decay. It's not so much the terminus, the end point is death, but the idea that when we sow into the flesh, we will reap rottenness, corruption. Now that's really interesting because the Bible says that our flesh is not being renewed, right? It is falling apart, it is destined to die. And so when we sow into the flesh, we get the same kind but a different quantity. We get much more corruption.

7 · The pastor introduces the temporal dimension of reaping: there is a firstfruits harvest (immediate earthly consequences) and a full harvest (eternal judgment)

So that's what corruption means. It means rot. It means stink. It means decay. Well, the next question is, it says that when you sow into the flesh, you reap corruption. Here's the question: when? When do you reap corruption? When does this harvest happen? That's the next question. When does this harvest happen? Well, if you look at this text again, look at verse 8, he says, 'For the one who sows into his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.' but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. What he's saying here is that there's sort of a first fruits and then there's the full harvest. And that's all throughout Scripture as well. It's the idea that when you plant something, a little bit comes up sooner than all of it. You know, a little bit comes up and then all of it comes up. Some of you are dealing with an overrun, an invasion of tomatoes or zucchinis in your house right now. You know, you had tomatoes a month ago, but you had a few. Today you have too many, right? You have the full harvest. And that's really what we're talking about when we talk about pursuing God, when we're talking about sanctification, when we're talking about eternal life, when we're talking about consequences to sin. What we're saying is that the final harvest, the big bumper crop, the big harvest consequence, that's in the next life. When you die, when you face judgment, that big harvest will come due. But we're also saying that as we seek God or as we seek the flesh in this life, we will begin to see firstfruits. Parts of the consequences start to show up, an initial crop of consequences. We'll begin reaping what we sow pretty quickly after we sow usually. We just won't be reaping the full harvest.

8 · The pastor transitions from general exposition to application by introducing three specific consequences of sowing into the flesh that appear in the firstfruits harvest

So the next question I had as I'm looking through this is, well, what is today's harvest? When we sow into the flesh, what do we get soon? Right? And I think there's 3 things to think about. We get a rotten view of God, a decayed version of self, and we get cross-contamination in all of life. Let me explain what I mean by that.

9 · The pastor explains the first immediate consequence of sowing into the flesh: a rotten view of God

A big part of sowing into the flesh is being deceived into believing that God is distant and passive and unconcerned with your personal holiness. A big part of getting away, of releasing your conscience to the point where you're free to sin, you can engage in sowing the flesh, is to convince yourself that God is distant, passive, and unconcerned with your personal holiness. In the Psalms, the psalmist described people who say in their hearts, 'There is no God.' so that they can continue in their sin, or they're sinning and seeing no consequences and saying, 'There must be no God. The Holy One does not see,' and so on and so forth. So in order to get to the point where you're consistently sowing into your flesh, you need to believe in a distant and passive God. Tragically, when you act on that idea, you enforce that idea, you reinforce that idea, and you develop a view of God that is exactly the opposite not only of what the Bible teaches, but a view of God that you need in order to repent. The more you sin, the more you sow into the flesh, the more you tell yourself that God is distant and passive and unconcerned with your personal holiness. And the stronger that image becomes painted into your mind of a passive distant God who is unconcerned with your personal holiness, the fewer incentives or power there is to repent in the long run. So one of the immediate consequences of sowing into the flesh is it actually creates a rotten view of God in your heart. You see God wrongly. And that's really difficult because we need to see God rightly in order to live rightly, of course.

10 · The pastor explains the second immediate consequence: a decayed version of self

But not only that, but you also get a decayed version of self. Unfortunately— fortunately or unfortunately— When you sow into your flesh and create this image of a God who is distant and passive and unconcerned with your personal holiness, guess what you become? You become distant, passive, and unconcerned with your personal holiness. Because we always carry the image of the God we carry in our hearts. So as you convince yourself that God is distant and passive and unconcerned with your personal holiness, you become distant and passive. You become a decayed version of yourself. Sin steals away the very identity God's given you as a son or daughter of God, as a king or queen to rule the earth with Jesus forever. Sin takes all that away and you wind up with this decayed version of self. And that's a consequence to sowing into the flesh that you will reap rather quickly.

11 · The pastor explains the third immediate consequence: cross-contamination

Well, additionally, there's this third consequence that I see consistently in counseling and my own life and so on, and that is cross-contamination. There's the deception of sin says that somehow this sin can remain compartmentalized and not affect the rest of your life. Right? But that is not how sin works. You know, the deception of sin will say, 'I can deal flippantly online with women, right? But that won't affect the way I deal with the women in my life.' Or, 'I can cheapen the covenant of my marriage, but that won't affect my covenant with the church.' Or, 'I can hoard my tithe, but it won't have any effect on how I view the church or mission.' or so on and so forth. We feel as though we can put our little sin choices in boxes and keep them from spreading into the rest of our lives. And to that, I would simply say, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows into the flesh, that he will also reap from the flesh. He will reap corruption by sowing into the flesh. Don't be deceived. Your sin has earthly consequences. Your sin has immediate harvest. Your sin sprouts weeds today, and those weeds today are enough to mess up a lifetime.

12 · The pastor moves from immediate consequences to eternal consequences

And of course, the Bible says that we're not even getting to the half of the harvest. That the real harvest comes due when we pass from this life into the next and we see God face to face and we answer for who we are and what we've done. And then the harvest of corruption is a whole other level. I read somewhere this week someone describing living a life apart from God, living a life mocking God, living a life believing in this God that is distant and passive and unconcerned with personal holiness. Getting to the point where you see God face to face. And we always have this image of the Grim Reaper with a sickle, right? What if it's the other way around? What if you're handed the sickle and told that for eternity you will reap what you've sown? For eternity you will reap the consequences of a God-independent life. You will reap the consequences of sowing into the flesh. You will reap the consequences of doing what you wanted to do? That's what the Bible describes as hell, an eternity harvesting death. So when we sow into the flesh, we have consequences immediately. It affects our view of God, it affects our capacity to be who God called us to be, it really affects all of our life. But there's also a much bigger consequence coming, and that is the consequence of spending eternity harvesting death. The seed, the crop that we'd spent our lifetime planting. Friends, if you think about it, a single sin set all this into motion. That's what we're talking about when we're talking about the same kind but a multiplied quantity. And if you spend your life sowing into the flesh, it will take forever to reap that harvest. That's what you'll be doing with your forever. Is reaping the harvest of the flesh.

13 · The pastor transitions from exposition to direct pastoral address, identifying two groups in the congregation he will address in turn

Now, let's talk about applying this text pastorally to where you are today. I want to speak specifically to two groups of people today. The first group of people I want to speak to are the sin bingers.

14 · The pastor defines sin binging as flipping a switch to pursue sin by believing God is distant and passive

Sin binging is what I refer to as this choice that you make, this switch that you flip in your head that says, I'm going to do what I want to do because God is distant, passive, and unconcerned with my personal holiness. I am deceived into believing that God is mocked. And you flip a switch and you binge. I'm going to use sexual sin as an example, partly because the list in chapter 5 that I read earlier, 26% of that list pertains to sexual sin. Here's how sexual sin works in this sin binge. And I trust that while not everyone here struggles with sexual sin, they'll be able to apply what I'm saying to other areas where they willingly go forth and sow into the flesh. You will be tempted before you sow into the flesh. You may have made a choice, you may have fallen, and there will be a moment when you can identify an opportunity to choose. Will I repent and seek the Lord? Or will I continue to wallow in the mud? Then that moment, you need to understand that you will be tempted to believe that you can quarantine the consequences of this choice. And I want you to understand you can't. It doesn't work that way. You don't even have power over your appetites. What makes you think you have power over your consequences of your appetites? You can't quarantine your sin. You can't quarantine the consequences of your sin. So in that moment, I want you to remember that verse: do not be deceived, God is not mocked. God is not mocked. The word mock refers to this idea of turning your nose up to someone, of essentially looking down at someone. And in those moments when we willingly choose to sow into the flesh, we are doing that to God. Let me be a little more specific. We're doing that to Jesus. We're doing that to the one who died for us. We're turning our nose at the one who calls us to personal holiness, and we're saying, 'You don't really care.' Friends, some of you here today have been engaged in ongoing habitual sin, and a lie is creeping in or may exist already in your heart that says, If God really cared about this, then He would have done something about it. I wouldn't be getting away with it. My secret wouldn't still be hidden. The consequences wouldn't still exist. And I just want to tell you this morning, don't be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever you sow, that you will also reap.

15 · The pastor exposits Proverbs 7 to show the pattern of temptation: promises of consequence-free sin both spiritually (grace covers it) and physically (no one will find out)

Proverbs 7 contains a story of a father. A father is telling a young man a story, his son a story about a woman that seduces unto death. And amongst this amazingly, as someone who studies how to think and how to learn and how to teach, Proverbs 7 is beautiful. It's a story that teaches so much. But one of the things this father is trying to teach his son is that the seduction to sexual sin will always contain a promise to a consequence-free experience. And there are two verses I just want to draw your attention to in Proverbs 7. Verse 13: She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him, 'I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows.' What she's saying to him there is that there will be no spiritual consequences to this sin because I have paid up on my covenant obligations and I've got grace, baby. I've got the get-out-of-jail-free pass. I've checked the box. I've said the prayer. I've believed what I was supposed to believe. And so now you can fall into this seduction and not worry. About there being any lasting spiritual consequences. And I would just say, if I were standing next to you, it would be very awkward in that moment. I would say, uh, don't listen to the whore. God is not mocked. Don't be deceived. There's no such thing as a consequence free act of sowing into the flesh. In verse 19, she says to him, 'For my husband is not at home. He has gone on a long journey. He took a bag of money with him. At full moon he will come home.' Now here the tactic is to say there will be no physical consequence, that the sin will remain hidden, that no one need find out. You see, within this story that this father's telling his son, he's giving him the pattern of how all temptation to sow into the flesh exists. You'll get away with it with God, and you'll get away with it with other people. To which I would say, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. The Father intervenes and He says this to His Son, 'Let not your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths. For many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.' There'll be a harvest today and there'll be a harvest on that day.

16 · The pastor reinforces the warning with Hebrews 12:14-17, emphasizing that holiness is essential to seeing the Lord and that there is a point of no return where repentance becomes impossible despite tears—the example of Esau

I'm reminded of Hebrews chapter 12. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

17 · The pastor issues a direct charge to the sin bingers: stop believing the lies that enable sin

So I want to say to the sin bingers, we need to be done. We need to be done with the lies because they're killing you. They're killing your view of God. They're killing your capacity to be who God's called you to be. They're affecting every part of your life. This isn't consequence-free. You can't successfully quarantine the consequences of sowing to the flesh. It will affect everything. So I'm calling you today to be done with those lies. I know I can't call you today to be done with sin, but I can call you today to be done with the lies you tell yourself. That lead to long seasons of sin. Right?

18 · The pastor transitions from addressing sin bingers to addressing the second group: those who have repented and are now enduring the earthly consequences of past sin

So I also want to speak to another group of people because, thank God, there is another group of people in our midst today. And that is, I want to speak to those who have repented of sowing into the flesh.

19 · The pastor assures the repentant that they are fully forgiven and right with God, but warns them that earthly consequences remain—they will have to pull weeds

I want you to understand the gospel says that unequivocally you've been forgiven and that God looks at you as if you did not sin. If you've repented and turned to God with a broken and contrite spirit, He will by no means cast that out. He loves you. You are fully accepted and welcome into His presence. I also want you to understand, because maybe people haven't told you this and you may be confused right now, that there will almost certainly be a season where you will be forced to pull weeds. That's how that's how sin works. The eternal consequences have been joyfully, thankfully, gloriously been reversed. You, my friend, are right with God. You repented and you have a Father who will by no means cast you out. But as you sown into the flesh, Habits have been formed, addictions have been created, trusts have been violated. God will not be mocked. You wouldn't want a God, you wouldn't, trust me, who took every consequence away. Read Hebrews 12 about discipline if you doubt that. I want to speak to those of you who've repented, who've trusted God's Word and said, I'm going to obey, I'm going to bring my sin into the light, I'm going to seek transformation, I'm going to seek accountability, I'm going to seek help. And almost there's a temptation to believe what this text is actually talking about most solely, most squarely, there's a temptation to think in that moment, after you do that, 'What have I done? Nothing good is coming of this. I've sown into the spirit and I'm just getting more rot.' I'm just getting more trouble, I'm just getting more difficulty. If I'd kept my sin a secret or if I hadn't sought accountability, I'd probably be happier right now. Or even, there is no discernible difference in the quality of life between someone who is dealing with this sin and someone who is not. All of those sentiments can be found in the Psalms, by the way.

20 · The pastor encourages the repentant with the promise that God walks with them through the consequences, transforming weed-pulling into sanctification

And I want to talk to you This morning I want to tell you something. I want you to listen to me. God is with you. He empowered your first step of obedience. I want you to hear me. He will empower every single step it takes to finish this journey. You made the mess. And there is a mess. But the God of the universe will condescend and walk with you pulling weeds until they're all gone. More than that, Jesus Christ has transformed that rot into character, those weeds into sanctification. What was a shameful waste of time cleaning up a mess is no longer a waste of time. Yes, there's a mess, but every shovel, every weed pulled is another act that God will use to make you more like Jesus, because he promises to turn everything, even the earthly consequences of your sin, for your good. I want you to hear me this morning, those of you who are seeking Him and wondering if it's worth it. Jesus calls out to everyone who screwed up their brains with pornography, to everyone who screwed up their budgets with lack of self-control, to everyone who screwed up their marriages because of selfishness, to people even who've screwed up relationships here. Jesus is calling you today saying this: 'Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.' I want to be clear here. Jesus isn't saying Voilà! No more weeds. Weeds be gone. Jesus is saying you're called to work. You're called to a yoke. You know what yokes were used for? I mean, you know what a yoke is. But what did you do with a yoke? You broke up hard ground. You put that yoke on a big old beast of burden. And you hooked up a big old plow behind it and you plowed that ground again. And I want you to hear what Jesus is saying to you this morning. Yeah, there's work to be done. Yeah, there's a yoke to wear, but his yoke is easy and his burden is light, and he is gentle and lowly in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls. You will find rest. It will feel like work. It will be rest. Let me tell you about the transforming power of the gospel. Transforming power of the gospel is going to change harvesting consequences into harvesting character. It's going to change you. It's going to turn something that was worthless and agonizing and just a square reminder of your sin into an opportunity to become more like Jesus. Therefore, do not grow weary in doing good. Keep showing up. Keep cleaning up. He is with you, and if you do not give up You'll reap a harvest.

21 · The pastor establishes the gospel paradox at the center of the sermon: God is not mocked, except once—when Jesus was mocked for our sin

God is not mocked, except for one time. So use your imagination right now to picture your Savior beaten beyond recognition being mocked by Roman soldiers, by the crowd, by the leaders of the country, by the leaders of the religion. God is not mocked, except one time he was mocked. He was mocked without mercy. He was mocked for the ugliness of your sin and my sin that was just all over Him physically and spiritually. God is not mocked, but Jesus was told, 'You saved others, but you can't save yourself.' God is not mocked, but Jesus saw all of His friends run away from Him. God was mocked one time. And He did that so that for those of you who are binging, you would hear with the power of the Holy Spirit this morning, 'We need to be done.' Stop being deceived. Your sin doesn't fit in any box you own. He was mocked. So that those of you who've repented and are seeking Him can hear this simple message: He will not leave you or forsake you. He who began a good work in you will carry it out to the day of completion. He gave you the faith to take the first step, and if there's a million more, there'll be faith for every one of those too. He was mocked to give every person in this room hope. Not just hope, confidence. There's a Psalm that says, I was reading this this week, 'The plowers have plowed my back with their plowshares.' It's a Messianic Psalm and it's the idea that things have gotten so hard that the people are literally plowing over the back of of the righteous one. And I want you to use your imaginations again, and I want you to think about the fact that there Jesus was with his back that looked like it had been plowed with a scourge.

22 · The pastor establishes the substitutionary atonement as the reversal of the sowing-and-reaping principle: Jesus reaped what we had sown (the eternity of death) so that we could reap what He had sown (righteousness and eternal life)

A man will reap what he will sow, except for one time When Jesus reaped the consequences of your sin and my sin. A man will reap what he will sow. Except on the cross when Jesus reaped the harvest of your sin. You know what's amazing about the God-Man Jesus Christ dying for you is that because He is an eternal being, He was able to consume, able to harvest the eternity of death. That you had to harvest through His death. The eternity of death harvest that all of us had, He was able to harvest in that finite period of time in which He suffered. So do not be deceived, God is not mocked. No, one time He was mocked. A man will reap what he will sow. Unless that man is Jesus, who at the first part of the story reaped what we had sown, so that the second part of the story, we can reap what He had sown.

23 · The pastor explains the work of Christ in terms of the sermon's metaphor: apart from Christ, we only have one field (the flesh) and can only reap eternities of condemnation

You see, the math in this text is interesting. Apart from Jesus transforming us, we don't have the Spirit to sow into. We have one choice and one choice alone. Ephesians says we are by nature children of wrath, right? We can only follow the passions of our flesh. We've got one field and it's called the flesh. And all we can do apart from Jesus' powerful work is keep sowing more condemnation to reap eternities of condemnation. But Jesus comes in and he transforms all of it by giving us a second field called the Spirit. And today, friends, if you placed your faith in Jesus, if you understand that he was mocked for you, if you understand that he was scourged for you, if you understand that he reap the consequences that you deserved. Friends, you need to hear clearly, your personal holiness matters a great deal to your vision of God, to yourself, to your whole life. And Jesus is not going to give up on you until you continue to walk in that holiness. His desire for you today is not only to stand before God with a perfect righteousness, a record of holiness, but also desires for you to stand before God with real holiness, personal holiness, actual walking in holiness.

24 · The pastor defends the coherence of Galatians by arguing that Paul's anti-legalism teaching in chapters 1-4 does not contradict his moral imperatives in chapters 5-6

You know, the book of Galatians was written to a group of people who were— most commentators agree— struggling with the idea of perhaps returning to a system of salvation led by their own works. We would call that legalism. Though it's important to note that word doesn't appear, I don't think, in the Bible. We would say that this was a church that was struggling with a temptation back to legalism. And whatever your definition of that word is, I find it really interesting that Paul spends 4 chapters, 4.5 chapters, yeah, 4.5 chapters or more talking about that problem, trying to convince these people to trust in Jesus, trust in Jesus, trust in Jesus. Do not be justified by the works of the law. Do not be justified by the works of the law. What's really interesting is he spends all that time doing that, and then he pivots and he tells them what to do. He gives them a list of dos and don'ts, and he says, 'Whatever you reap, you will sow.' So if your version of holiness precludes those things, or if your version of legalism precludes those things, then Paul just contradicted himself. Right? Paul didn't contradict himself. Trusting in Christ leads to personal holiness. It leads to lists of dos and don'ts. It leads to the consequences and a concern about consequences. Trusting in Christ leads to personal holiness.

25 · The pastor concludes by reiterating the sermon's main thesis to both groups: God cares deeply, He is not distant, and He is present in the consequences—transforming them into sanctification

So to my two friends, my two groups of friends, and to anyone else listening today, God cares. He's not distant. He's not passive. He cares a great deal. Not only does He care that you'd stop sowing into the flesh, but He cares so much for your personal holiness that He is willing to let the one He loves, you, endure some of the consequences. So that through those consequences you may attain character, Christ-like character, and become more and more and more like Him. Here's the beautiful thing: you convinced yourself in sowing into the flesh that God was distant, and He's present right now in your pain. He's present right now in those consequences. He's present right now pulling weeds with you. Jesus is amazing.

26 · The pastor closes with a pastoral prayer that rehearses the sermon's two main applications: calling sin bingers to stop deceiving themselves and encouraging the repentant to see that God is with them, transforming their weed-pulling into sowing into the Spirit

Let's pray. Really, Lord, you are amazing. We don't have words to describe your glory. We praise your name for being so faithful and kind to us. Kind to us in our sin. Honestly, Lord, kind to us in our complaints about the consequences. We do that. I've done that. I do that. Thank you, Lord Jesus, not only for being mocked and for and for reaping what you did not sow. Thank you that not only did you save me and make me right with you, but in addition to that, you're gonna come into my life and help me pull the weeds. I praise your name that you are, you are so much better than I can even understand, so much kinder So much more patient and faithful and steadfast. Praise you, Jesus. Praise you. Thank you for what you've given. We wouldn't have anything otherwise. God, I lift up those people here today who needed a firm, clear, stop it, stop it. Help them to see that they can't quarantine the consequences of of their sin. That willful choice of sowing into the flesh leads to really bad things. Lord, I pray for those who are here who are trying to walk with you, trying to be faithful. I ask, God, that you would give them strength to see that you're walking with them, and that now, Lord, it's not really even about pulling weeds. It's actually sowing into the spirit now. You've transformed the very work of this, this dealing with the consequences is now sowing into the Spirit. Praise You, Lord. Give them grace. Give them faith, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.