James MacDonald - Laws of the Harvest
Summary:
In this hard-hitting sermon on Galatians 6:7, the preacher warns that no one can mock God or escape the law of sowing and reaping—whatever one sows, that will they reap, whether to the flesh (corruption) or to the Spirit (eternal life). He urgently calls for repentance, emphasizing that God’s warnings are loving protections, and illustrates the principle through everyday areas like Scripture intake, worship, parenting, marriage, work, materialism, speech, conflict, forgiveness, and salvation. The core takeaway is to distinguish trials (God-allowed refining) from consequences (self-inflicted harvests), urging listeners to repent of bad sowing before leaving church.
Reading of Galatians 6
Please stand to your feet, loved ones. Paul said that we should give attention to the public reading of God’s words, so let’s do that right now. I’m going to read from Galatians chapter 6. All right, can you find that? Galatians chapter 6. And here it is, brothers. He begins in verse 1, which includes both brothers and sisters. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness, keeping watch on yourselves, lest you too be tempted.
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work; then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. It’s like, what did he just say? In verse 2, bear one another’s burdens, and now it’s like carry your own weight. Which is it? Both! Well, and all God’s people said, right?
It’s both in that some things you carry for other people, and some things you’ve got to carry yourself. Verse 6: Let the one who is taught in the word share all good things with the one who teaches. So who’s the one who’s about to get taught in the word? Hold up your hand if you’re about to get taught in the word. Now point to the one who’s about to teach. I love this verse; they already gave me a burrito, so we’re good.
The Key Verse: Do Not Be Deceived
Verse 7: 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. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Now, before you’re seated, let me just say to you and to all those standing across here at five campuses right now, God can see wherever you are. This is a challenging message; I’m going to tell you that right now. I’m not about to phone it in. I’m as serious as a heart attack right now. I love to come and I love to joke and have fun, but the Lord has laid a very serious message on my heart.
And if I’m willing to do my part to give it, will you do your part and receive it? Will you listen? Listen, will you open your mouth widely and will you do as the Thessalonians did? Will you receive it as it is in truth, the Word of God? Now, if what I’ve just read to you is the Word of God, turn to your neighbor and say, «This is the word of the Lord, ” and then be seated. Now, you don’t say that „then be seated“ part. Oh my, that’s hyper-literal right there. This is the word of the Lord; please be seated.
Well, at least you’re tracking with me now. The key verses here that we want to focus on are in verse 7: Galatians 6:7. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
Breaking Down the Warning
Let’s just break that down a little bit. The word „deceived“ is from the Greek „planaō.“ What they used to do in ancient times was navigate themselves by the planets. The problem, however, is that when it was time to come home, the planets had moved. Correct? So, this word „planaō, ” from which we get „planet, ” suggests the idea of being led astray.
When it says, „do not be planaō, ” it means don’t be fooled, don’t be deceived, don’t lie to yourself or allow yourself to be tricked. God is not mocked; that’s a rare word. It’s the only time it’s used in the New Testament and it means to make a fool of someone. Paul’s point here is that no one will ever make God look like an idiot. Never!
God has said some things in His word, did you know? And every single day the sun comes up, and God is about the business of making sure that His word comes true. All that He allows, He allows for our blessing, for our benefit, and all that He forbids, He forbids for our protection. He is determined to make sure that you never do wrong and turn out right, and you never do right and don’t, in the end, get blessed just as God has promised.
Jeremiah said that He watches over His word to perform it, and no one does wrong and gets away with it and makes God look like an idiot. No one does right, faithfully, right, persevering in the right, and in the end, isn’t rewarded just as God has promised. And if you think you can beat the odds or cut the corner or get around it somehow, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Warnings Are Good
The younger you are, the more prone you are to thinking that somehow you’ll beat the odds. You’ll cut the corner; you’ll get there faster; you’ll make it work. And those of us who have some decades instead of some months or years can tell you you’re wrong. And so this message is a warning. It’s a warning, and warnings are good.
We live in a world, especially in the Western world, where people will hardly let the preacher give a warning anymore. Oh, preacher just inspire us; just give us a warm fuzzy talk. We don’t want life transformation; we just want a warm cup of milk and a Sunday afternoon snooze after maybe a little extra food at the brunch. That’s Church in North America, but I don’t preach at churches like that, and this isn’t a church like that.
I’m persuaded of better things concerning you, and you’re probably like me in the sense that you don’t love warnings. I don’t love warnings. I don’t like it when my car goes ding, ding, ding, ding, ding; put your seatbelt on! I’ll do it when I want to, and I confess to having sometimes secretly thought about how far would I have to dig into that dashboard to make that thing shut up. Don’t leave me up here—how many people have thought that about the seatbelt warning? Right? One honest guy in the front row.
And I’ve never been in a building when it was burning down, and I didn’t love fire drills when I was a kid. But as we sit here in this building that’s full, and many of the campuses I’m sure are very full, and full with overflow, I’m thankful to know that if something starts on fire here, we’re going to hear something ringing, and we’re going to exit the building calmly and peacefully, correct? Warnings are awesome.
God forgive us for not preferring them more than we do, and the Word of God is filled with warnings, and this is a warning.
The Call to Repentance
I want to tell you now where it’s going: it’s going to repentance. I’m going to challenge you, before you leave church today, to repent. It shouldn’t be that it seems like such a heavy thing. I mean, if you read the Old Testament it was this all the time—Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos—they were all preaching the same message: plagiarism to the max! They were like, „Repent!“ They had a simple message.
I’m not going to pray now; no, I was just telling you what they did. They were like, „Good morning—let’s pray!“ That was their whole message. And yet you can hardly hear that message anymore. You say, „Well, that’s those Old Testament prophets; you know, they were all worked up about the wrath of God and everything.“ Really? Because the New Testament says that Jesus sent the disciples out preaching that all men everywhere should repent.
And the first book in the first sermon in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2, was a sermon about repentance. Time for some variety in chapter 3? Nope! They preached again—Peter preached again that men should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance. And Paul preached that if perhaps God would grant repentance and that we shouldn’t be guilty of a worldly repentance.
You say, „Well, that’s not the tender heart of my Jesus!“ Really? Well, you should read more if you think that, because the last words we have from Jesus are all about repentance. Have you read the letters to the seven churches in Revelation? „Repent, or I will come to you quickly and take your lamp from its stand unless you repent.“ It says it again, Revelation chapter 3—same exact thing Jesus says: „Repent!“
He says, „I will…“ Let me read it; I don’t want to misquote it. Forgive me; it’s always good when I can actually turn to the passage. He says this in Revelation chapter 3: „Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, ” right? But that’s not how most of us would fill in the sentence. We would say, „Those whom I love, I…“ What? One translation says Jesus says, „Those whom I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent, ” leading to the famous verse, „Behold, I stand at the door and knock! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him.“
So I want to tell you now, before I start to go into these laws of the harvest, that I’m going to challenge you this morning to repent. Some of you need to come here to the front of the church. I am for the front of the church for years. You need to put your tears on this carpet, and you need to allow God to listen. When was the last time God took you to the mat with the full weight of who He is? And this isn’t something to be resisted; this is something to be rejoiced in.
Do you know that Luke chapter 15 says in regard to all of us at church today that there is more joy in heaven over one person who repents than over ninety-nine people who are like, „I wonder what that was for?“
Law One: We Harvest Only What Has Been Planted
So let’s go into these laws of the harvest. I have seven of them. Number one: We harvest only what has been planted. We harvest only what has been planted. That’s very apparent from the text. I think you can see it there; this is most obvious, of course, to the lazy farmer.
You understand about farming, right? The four seasons? You understand the four seasons? Say, „No, we do not!“ How could you possibly…? I said to Pastor Greg this week, „But you have your reward!“ Like, how on earth could Pastor Greg get a reward in heaven for the reward that he’s already received living here in California? But in other places in the world, they have this thing called winter. Winter!
Turn to your neighbor and say, „I know not of what he speaks!“ Winter is where everything is dead, and the ground is fallow. But then comes—do you know where? Life springs forth, and everything is fresh and new. And the farmer goes out with his seed. Over and over, the Bible talks about the farmer who goes out with his seed and he plants his seed.
But that’s not the end of it; then he works and tills and fertilizes and waters and waits and works some more. Finally, after a long summer of growing comes fall, which is harvest time, and then he harvests what he’s planted. Now, this can be good news; this can be bad news. It really depends on what you are planting. And we harvest only what has been planted.
Areas of Sowing and Reaping
Now, if you want to have an idea of how this applies, let me just really quickly run through ten scriptures which, if obeyed, bring a harvest of blessing and which, if ignored, bring a harvest of judgment. Ready? Can you handle the truth right here? Can you handle it?
Number ten: The law about scripture. 1 Peter 2:2: „As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow by it.“ If I desire the pure milk of the word, if I feed myself on God’s Word, the more I’m in God’s Word, the more my faith grows. The more I neglect God’s Word, the more my faith struggles. Your spiritual connection today is directly related to how much you’ve been feeding yourself on the Word of God.
The end game of preaching is that you would go from here today more determined than ever before to get into this book for yourself. And when you can’t remember that I was here, you can’t remember what my sermon was about, you remember what I believed about this book and whether you decided to give it more or less of your time. The decision that you’re making there is a sowing decision, and you will reap what you’ve sown.
Number nine: The law about worship. Exodus 23 says, „You shall have no other gods before me.“ If everything in my life is more important to me than God, it puts me at risk. If everything in my life is more important to me than God, it puts my loved ones at risk. God will have no rivals, and no rival throne will survive, and we are reaping what we have sown.
Then the law about parenting—Proverbs 19:18: „Chasten your son while there is still hope, and let not your soul spare for his crying.“ As parents, we are making or have made decisions along those lines, and we are reaping the results of what we have sown. Now, I’m often saying that there’s nothing you can do to guarantee that your kids will follow the Lord; there’s nothing you can do to guarantee that they will. But there are some things you could do to guarantee they won’t.
And then number seven: The law about marriage. Ephesians 5:33: „Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife as himself; and the wife see that she respects her husband.“ How’s that going? Either you’re sowing good things in love and care and unselfishness into your marriage, and it’s heating up like it did originally, or you’ve stopped with that to some degree.
You’re sowing instead into your marriage selfishness and „me first“ and holding on to hurts. Why isn’t it like it used to be? Because you’re reaping what you’ve sown. And if you want to feel what love once felt, you need only to do what loved ones did. All of that is sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping—the laws are irreversible. They’re as strong as the laws of gravity.
Stronger still than the laws of mathematics or science is this law—the law of sowing and reaping. Or how about the law about work? 1 Thessalonians 3:10: „If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat!“ Not „can’t work, ” but „won’t work.“ That’s what it’s supposed to be in this country: won’t work, won’t eat. How’s that going? Not great!
And then the law about materialism: 1 Timothy 6:10: „For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, from which some have strayed from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.“ When stuff is more important to me than God, and I’m more upset about a scratch on my car than missing church for three weeks, and I’m more upset about, „I can’t have what I want, ” and „I’ll be happy when I get that, ” and „Look at my new this or that, and don’t I look great today!”—and I arrive at church again perfectly quaffed and ready to appear in public, but my soul is in disarray, I’m reaping the consequences of what I’ve sown.
And the law about speech: Ephesians 4:29: „Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is useful for edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.“ What are my words this week? Sometimes we say the most awful things. We wouldn’t say to a stranger; we say them to people we love. And then sadly, sometimes we don’t even make it right; we don’t even go back.
When we say we’re sorry, we think there’s some kind of expiry date on awful words, and we don’t make it right. But we reap into our home the consequences of the choices that we’ve made. And the law about conflict: „If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault. If he hears you, you’ve gained your brother.“ Proverbs 26:28: „A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends.“
The Bible is very clear about our mandate: the Bible calls for total, immediate, unilateral forgiveness. All right? Total means you have to forgive a person completely; you can’t hold on to one little grudge. And unilateral means you have to forgive them for everything: total, unilateral, and immediate. All right? That means not next week, not next month, not next year. I’ve got to start working on forgiveness right now!
If you’re here at church today and there’s not a person who could walk in here—an old business associate, a college friend, your sister—they haven’t talked for five years, and if they could sit down beside you at church today and you couldn’t hug them, you couldn’t embrace them, you wouldn’t want to be near them, you have unforgiveness in your heart toward them. That’s bitterness.
And bitterness is its own whip. There’s nothing as bitter as feeling bitter. It’s like gripping a coal—the tighter you grip it, the more you’re the one who’s being hurt. That’s spilling over into everything, and you’re planting bitterness and reaping strife. So, the law about forgiveness: „Bear with one another and forgive one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must forgive.“
And the law about salvation—so faithfully preached in this church—1 John 5:11 and 12: „This is the testimony that God has given to us eternal life, and eternal life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.“
Trials vs. Consequences
So let me draw a really clear distinction for you, and then I’m going to run through these laws of the harvest. It’s really important that we learn to distinguish between trials and consequences. Those aren’t the same! I preached here back in 2009 when I was going through cancer treatment, and thank God I’m seven years cancer-free. But it was a really tough time in my life, and it was—thank you for that, and praise the Lord for that!
That was a trial! That was a trial—a circumstance allowed by God to transform our conduct and our character. It yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness if we’re trained by it. Job said, „He knows the way that I take, and when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.“ That’s a trial. That’s a circumstance.
Let me give you a definition of a circumstance: a circumstance is an event beyond your control resulting from forces or influences you did not cause and cannot change. But that’s a lot different than a consequence. A consequence is resulting wholly or in part from me: things I’ve done, things I’ve said, places I’ve gone, priorities I pursued, choices I’ve made—that’s a consequence!
In Galatians chapter 6, verse 7 is about consequences for my choices, not about consecration through my trials. Do you see the difference?