Day 2

What you Sow Is Exactly

What You Reap

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

Today we are going to look at sowing and reaping a little closer. Yesterday we saw how it is the seed that produces good roots, and then good fruit. We saw how this is the work of the gospel, as Paul says in Colossians 1:5-6: good gospel seed produces good fruit.

There is a type of sowing and reaping that Instructors in Christ preach about a lot of the time. They actually use the verse in Galatians 6:7: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” They apply this to us, and what we DO. Their message is if WE do good things — we reap good things from others, but if we sow bad things, then we’ll reap bad things from others.

This is actually sound teaching, but they put the cart before the horse, and focus on US, not on GOD in us. They teach God’s word ‘basackwards.’ They teach the end without teaching the means to the end. First, let’s look at what is most commonly preached by 10,000 instructors in Christ. Afterwards, we’ll look at what actually empowers us to live as we should in the gospel.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #3

Jesus says, “Give and it will be given to you…” (Luke 6:38). Also, we are told, “Do not return evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing” (I Pet 3:9). What instructors preach is true. But by teaching PRINCIPLES, they get us to begin in the flesh, not in the Spirit. They teach a good, sound way to live. We should do good to everyone, — Paul says not only to those in the Kingdom of God. But the gospel is about entering into the process of God that empowers us!

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We’ll be talking about the western mindset we have, and how part of the mindset is that we seek recognition and reward, as seen in these verses. We want to be given back… we want to inherit a blessing. This is what this type of thinking produces: do good and you will receive good. We should not look down on doing good to others, but we should watch our motivation for what we do. Do we only DO good in order to GET good? This is trading, not giving.

Especially in marriage and close relationships, what you give is what you will normally get back. If we give love, we get love. If we give a harsh word, we get a harsh word back. But keep in mind, this is not a law. This is not a PROMISE of God, but a good PREMISE to follow.

God does not force others to respond to us in like manner.

This is what most commonly happens, but it is not an absolute. I am in favor of doing good — smiling — loving — sending out blessings — and doing everything else good we can do. But this should not be done for the PURPOSE of getting good things back. We should just do them because of who we are in Christ — because of Christ who is in us.

We should have good behavior, and do good. But don’t miss this: the issue in the gospel is what PRODUCES good behavior!

Now let’s look at this from the GOSPEL perspective.
the side that produces God’s power in us.
This is tied to the seed, the root and the fruit that we just saw.

The gospel enables us to live life in the power of God.

Principles keep you doing good, but not living in God’s power.

Living by this concept of sowing and reaping is living a good, principle-focused life. It is doing good as generated from SELF. This is not bad, it is good. It is not living in the power of God but in human power. It’s flesh not Spirit. It’s originated and generated from man, not from God. It originates in man, not in God.

Principles keep our focus off GOD and on GOOD. Instructors say, ‘Here are three steps to follow — to be more like God.’ Then they add, ‘If these don’t work, come back next week and I’ll give you three more.’

This is the age-old Tree of Knowledge temptation. Satan’s message has not changed in 6,000 years, when the snake said to Eve: ‘Here is how to be like God.’ But today the devil uses church pulpits, not snakes. The issues is still the same: The Tree of Life vs. The Tree of Knowledge.

Living by principles usually results in doing things for the wrong purposes, and in the wrong agenda. It is give to get. This is conditional love, at best. It is born in flesh, not in Spirit. It’s worshipping the creature and not the Creator (Rom 1:25). It is modern idolatry: ‘I shall be as God.’ This thinking got Lucifer kicked out of heaven. The question is this: “Should we COPY it or should we LEARN from it?”

In our human way of thinking, we relate to principles. We are very cause and effect oriented: if I plant, I will reap. We see the originating power as being SELF. This is Satan’s lie in the Garden that so many buy into — including pastors who are instructors in Christ!

The whole Tree of Knowledge was forbidden: the good part AND the bad part. It was ALL condemned. Christians forget this. We think the GOOD part is O.K. This is another lie of Satan, because he knows how much we love choices. But the entire tree had a ‘Do Not Touch’ sign in front of it! We have the same decision today that Adam and Eve had: to not even eat GOOD fruit from this tree!

It is not a matter of what WE sow, as what GOD sows into us. If we live by means of what WE sow, then we are living by principle, and everything seems like principles to us. We can’t see God’s beautiful forest because of all the religious trees. If we see things as trees, we see it all as US. If we see things as the forest, we see things as GOD.

Living by principles makes us see everything in light of principles — including the Bible truth of sowing and reaping: if I sow, then I reap. This is true, but it is not total Bible truth. Religion begins in self; the gospel begins in God: the FINISHED work of Christ. Seeing though gospel eyes we see something very different. We see that God’s truth about sowing and reaping has to do with what is sown INTO us, not what we sow OUT from us. One is seen in the light of fruit sown out from us, — fruit produced in vain. The other is seen in light of the seed sown into us.

What we should sow out from us is the gospel seed sown into us! Let’s read these verses in Galatians 6:7-8 in their full context and see what it says:

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.

For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.

For he who sows to his FLESH shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to his SPIRIT shall of the Spirit reap life.

What direction is the sowing taking place here? Is the seed being sown OUT from us, — or is the seed being sown INTO us? This is crucial to see both sowing to the flesh, and sowing to the Spirit, is sowing INTO us. This process is inward, not outward.

It is not talking about what we sow OUT from us, but what we allow to be sown INTO us. We have a choice of sowing: (1) to the flesh, or (2) to the Spirit. If we sow to our flesh, our fruit is bad. If we sow to our Spirit, our fruit is good. Both are sowing inward — into us.

If we sow to our flesh we are disempowered. If we sow to our Spirit, we are empowered. Like was said yesterday, the seed sown out from us is important, but the seed sown into us is even more important. The focus should be on the SEED, not on the FRUIT. Here, the focus is further seen as the seed sown INTO us.

Jesus says we are in error because we don’t know (1) the scripture, nor (2) the power of God (Matt 22:29). By scripture he doesn’t just mean the entire Bible from Genesis to maps. He means truth — gospel truth. The power of God is the gospel that is sown into us. The gospel is not about what we give, but about what we receive. This is what Romans 5:17 says: we reign in life by RECEIVING. The New Testament gospel emphasizes what we RECEIVE.

Yet, if we listen to 10,000 instructors, we think it’s all about what we give: money, obedience to what they say, or anything else.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #4

In the gospel we are constrained by God’s love (II Cor 5:14). We are in the flow of the process of God, much like resting in the flow of a river. Gospel life builds on the sowing and reaping principle of God that was first seen in Genesis 1: we grow in like manner as the seed sown INTO us. The gospel is about what comes into us, compared to what comes out of us. What comes out of us is important too, but it is based on what comes into us. Then what comes out of us is automatic.

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If we often listen to instructors in Christ, we believe it is all about US. The gospel says it is all about GOD, and it shows us this time and time again. If all we hear are instructors telling us what to DO, we can’t see gospel truth. A 40 Day Gospel Fast is designed to help correct this. This is the time to truly tune into God, and the finished work of his Son. Christ’s work is obscured by all the ‘do-do exhortation we hear. Gospel truth is ‘done by the Son declaration,’ not ‘do-do exhortation.’

Combined, today and the previous day show that: (1) what we sow out from us is important, but (2) what is sown into us is even more important — because it controls what we sow out from us. This is the whole concept of the seed, the root and the fruit (day one), that is best seen in the light of the TWO aspects of sowing and reaping.

Jesus says, “As you have received, so freely give.” You must receive before you can give in a Godly, spiritual sense. You’ll be surprised to see, in upcoming days, how much in the New Testament gospel is about receiving from God, — not giving from ourselves. It’s profound! This is because God knows how the power of these truths work in us!

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A special note about these first two days:

The gospel puts a whole new spotlight on things than what is most often preached. Focus is mostly on what WE do, not what CHRIST did. What we do is important, but if it is not empowered by ’the gospel process of God,’ Paul calls it ’dead works.’

These two days are very important in grasping the gospel. Again, Jesus says it’s our JOB to understand the gospel of the Kingdom (Matt 13:19). It is required: “Repent and believe the gospel.” Second, he says if we don’t understand The Parable of the Sower (gospel seed producing fruit through sowing and reaping), then we will not understand much of anything else (Mark 4:13). Paul says, we will be “Ever learning, but never able to come into a knowledge of the truth” (II Tim 3:7).

In the gospel, the Old and New Testaments are both important, but we must see how totally different they are. Thus, Jesus says don’t pour new wine into Old wineskins. Thus, Paul says to rightly divide the word of truth. He says the New is the ‘reformation’ of the Old.

Truly see the very striking difference:

The Old Testament demands what it could not produce.

The New Testament produces what it does not demand.