You Reap What You Sow

A.    Last week in the story of Zacchaeus we spoke about the principle of divine grace.
    B.    This morning, we’re going to talk about the other side of the coin: You reap what you sow.
    C.    Though this language of this title comes from Galatians and not Proverbs, the concept is very present, and repeated often, in Proverbs. Throughout the book of Proverbs we see this theme that a person reaps what he sows.
    1.    Proverbs 11:18–19 The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward. 19 Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die.
    2.    Prov. 26:27 "He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him."
    3.    Prov. 22:8     "He who sows wickedness reaps trouble."
    4.    Prov. 19:9 “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish. ”
    5.    Prov.1:29-31    "Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways, and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them."
    6.    The one who plants evil will reap evil. The one who sets out to do bad things will have bad things done to him. I.e. by doing evil a man actually harms himself most of all.
    2.    Explanation
    A.    This you-reap-what-you-sow principle is not just a natural characteristic of the universe. It is there because the universe is run by a just God.
    1.    God notices what happens on the earth. He keeps track of what's going on. An earthly master might neglect you and your service might go unnoticed, or an earthly authority might not notice some great failure on your part and fail to render justice, but not the heavenly Master. He will never fail to notice or to remember (Heb.6:10-12).
    2.    Man sows seed, but the One who brings forth the harvest is a just God.
    3.    Of course some get more earthly taste of the heavenly fruit than others. But all who are faithful will receive the true fruit in abundance. "The Lord rewards those who earnestly seek Him." Heb.11:6
    B.    But someone might say, "This isn't what I've observed in my life. The wicked seem to prosper and I, trying to be righteous, seem to sputter along." (See Psalm 37 and 73.)
    1.    Here’s what’s going on. Sin promises a reward but only deceives. For a time it may look like it is prospering, but its prosperity is deceptive.
    2.    On the other hand, righteousness delivers every time, though at times it looks like it's not working. At times it might even appear to be hurting and doing damage. But it can be counted on to work. It is a sure-fire thing because God is a sure-fire God. But often we will not see the fruit until later.
    3.    Ps.73:17 Then I remembered their end. Their wages were deceptive. They looked like they were solid and would last, but it was not so.
    4.    So, we can see that having a future orientation is an important part of this principle.
    a.    In nature, fruit is not immediate, it doesn't come as soon as the seed is planted, but follows long after the planting process.
    b.    The wise person is the one who recognizes that what he does today is going to affect his life in the future. He knows that if he sows good seed today he will reap a good harvest later on, but if he sows bad seed today he will reap a bad harvest later on.
    c.    We need to act today with tomorrow in mind, preparing for the future which is coming.
    d.    It’s so sad to see so many older people whose lives are now so empty, who have nothing left to reap but loneliness and despair and hopelessness, because when they were young they only sowed empty, shallow, temporal seeds. They may have sought and found financial success, for example, but are now facing the end of life in which money does them no good. Sadly, they set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, as it says in 1Tim.6:17.
    e.    Are we preparing for our own old age? If we are looking to the things of this world as our joys then the bottom will fall out of our lives the day we realize that the end is getting near. The day to prepare for the future is today.
    C.    Seeds are small, tiny in comparison to the fruit they produce.
    1.    There is a temptation to grow lax on the small things today, thinking that we will be able to make up for it with giant steps tomorrow. But this is the point of this principle! Life's mistakes cannot be overcome by gigantic one-time efforts. "He who is faithful in the little things will be faithful in the big things." (Luke 16:10)
    2.    The small everyday things establish the patterns that we follow even in the big things, because life is made up of little things. This is the nature of the universe God created. The battle will be won or lost by how we capitalize on the small everyday opportunities — the  little things we say, the little things we do, how we spend our five minutes here and there. Because these things set the habits and become the patterns of our lives.
    3.    "Sow a thought and you reap and action. Sow an action and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny."
    3.    Paul picks up this idea in Galatians 6:7–8 “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Does this principle contradict the principle of grace which we discussed last week? There is some tension between the two, but they do not contradict. Let us remember a few things:
    A.    Grace is not a constant. It breaks in at times, as God chooses. He has mercy on whom He has mercy, and compassion on whom He has compassion (Rom.9:15). God doesn’t display His grace all the time or to every person. He has grace on whomever he wills (Rom.9:18).
    B.    The principle of you-reap-what-you-sow has two levels of application.
    1.    To those who are perishing, it has an absolute application. They sow sins and reap judgment.
    2.    But to those who are being saved, it still has application.
    a.    First of all, the principle still does have an absolute application in the sense that the sins they have sown (and continue to sow) produce the fruit of judgment UPON CHRIST.
    b.    But the principle also has a more experiential application in this sense: the Father knows that sinning without feeling the consequences is not good for us. So, in His Fatherly love, He sends discipline, so that when we sow sinful seeds we reap some painful consequences. So, in a sense, we still reap what we sow.
    C.    Now in Galatians 6:7-8 Paul is addressing people who are wavering between Christ and the teaching of the Judaizers. They had professed faith in Christ, but now they seem to be buying the legalism of this Christian pharisaism taught by the Judaizers. So Paul really doesn’t know whether or not they are perishing or being saved.
    1.    And so he warns them to sow seeds of salvation and not seeds of destruction, to sow seeds of the Spirit and not seeds of the flesh.
    2.    What are the seeds of the Spirit? Repentance, trust in God, listening to His word, putting your hope in His promises
    3.    What are the seeds of the flesh? Well, in their case it is putting hope in the things of the flesh (like circumcision and food laws). It is focusing on physical, visible religion like ceremonies and holy objects and holy words and holy places and rules about what you can touch and what you can eat and what you can handle. It is thinking that you get God’s approval by visible, religious activities. It is believing the in religion instead of believing in Christ. It is believing in ceremonies instead of believing in the gospel. It is putting faith in what I do instead of in what Jesus did.  
    D.    It is important to uphold and value both the principle of grace and the principle of you-reap-what-you-sow. It is obvious that both are true and that God wants both principles to be an important part of our thinking.
    1.    It is very easy to embrace one and ignore the other. In particular, it is very easy to embrace the one we’re more comfortable with and ignore the one we’re not. Think about the personalities of the prodigal son and his older brother. The prodigal son’s personality was more inclined to the grace principle, whereas the older brother’s personality was more inclined to the reap-what-you-sow principle. And it’s the same with us.
    2.    But God wants us to remember and uphold both.
    4.    Sowing seeds
    A.    Unbelief: Sowing seeds of unbelief, bitterness, disobedience, or rebellion will bring a harvest of trouble — both now and in the age to come. There is a day coming, a day of accountability. And there will be no second chance. Wake-up and get ready for that day - for it will come! Today is the day of salvation. That day will be a day of judgment.
    B.    Time: Doing the important things, not frittering away opportunities to be sowing seeds that will bring a big harvest in the future, will reap a good harvest in the end.
    C.    Words: Prov.18:20 says, "From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied." This proverb tells us that words are seeds, that we need to evaluate the fruits of our words, whether they bring life or death. Do you remember things that were said to you when you were a child? Those little words are still bearing fruit.
    1.    The things you say to each other on the way home from church this morning are going to make a difference. Every word, every occasion is a little seed. And the harvest of our lives will be the product of the seeds we have sown.
    D.    Mind - What do we feed our minds with? What kinds of seeds do we plant in our minds? Are they seeds that are likely to grow righteousnesss in us? Or is it mostly just weeds? You will become what you eat. Your mind will be a product of what you feed it. The state of your mind right now is a result of the seeds that have been sown in it up to this time. What you feed your mind can make you or break you! Don't plant junk in your mind! “Garbage in - garbage out!” Choose with care the seeds that are to be planted in your mind. Plant seeds that will produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
    E.    Money
    1.    Spending money like there is no tomorrow. Credit Cards as a trap
    2.    Prov.3:9-10     "Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine."
    3.    Use mammon to make friends in heaven (Luke 16:9).
    F.    Every word, every touch, every smile, every hug, every kiss, every little seed of love sown is going to bear fruit. Every dollar, every minute, every act, every thought will produce some form of fruit in our lives and in the world.