"What Shall the Harvest Be?"
(No. 2632)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 23, 1899.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
14, 1882.
"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it has
no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if it should produce, strangers
shall swallow it up." Hosea 8:7.
PRUDENT men look before them to see the result of their actions. Their
eyes look beyond the present to the future. They look before they leap.
It is only the foolish man who goes blindly on till, at last, he
stumbles and has a desperate and probably fatal fall. Brothers and
Sisters, I hope that I am addressing those who have enough wit and
wisdom to look at the consequences of what they are doing. This is how
I wish to live–not merely doing what may give me today's temporary
pleasure, but asking myself what will be the result of those actions,
by-and-by. How will they appear to me when I come to be old? What
aspect will they wear when my eyes are failing me in death? What will
be the result in that life after death–that endless future which is so
sure to come to me, let me live as I may? I say that I hope I am
speaking to those who look a little ahead, and are not, "like dumb
driven cattle," satisfied if there is grass enough within the reach of
their mouths, but who look before them to see the consequences on the
morrow and especially on that Last Great Day for which all other days
were made–"the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."
We are all sowing, Brothers–we cannot help it. You Sisters, too, are
sowing–perhaps but a little garden plot, or possibly a broader acreage
in public life–but you are all sowing. And every day there is a
sowing. No man goes forth in the morning without a seed-basket. What
may be in it is not so easily told. There may be nothing in it but the
wind. There may be chaff in it. There may be in it curses which shall
grow up to plague yourself and others, but it is certain that we do not
move an inch along the furrows of life without scattering some kind of
seed. He that does least is seeding his idleness and, like the thistle
that stands still, and offers its downy seed to be carried by every
wandering wind, so does the sluggard–he does mischiefby doing nothing.
As we are all sowing, the great question we have to consider is, "what
will the harvest be?" Every wise man will ask himself that question. I
may have sown very little in my small plot, or I may have walked far
and scattered the seed broadcast over the wider field committed to my
charge–but what have I sown and what shall I reap? What sheaves shall
I gather into the garner? Sheaves of fire that shall burn into my soul
forever, or sheaves of glory that I shall bring with rejoicing in the
Last Great Day? Brothers and Sisters, if it is rightly examined, this
matter of the harvest from our sowing will be found to be full of very
rich encouragement to those who are seeking to serve God. If you have
believed in Christ and received eternal life by faith in Him, and if
now you are trying to labor for Him, you are sowing blessed seed–and
if it comes not up today, or tomorrow, yet Divine Grace ensures a crop
and you shall have precious sheaves which you shall gather in one of
these days! Therefore, be encouraged to labor on! The farmer waits for
the precious fruits of the earth through the long and dreary winter,
through the checkered days of spring, through March winds and April
showers he waits, until, at last, the golden harvest rewards him for
all his toil. Labor on, then, Beloved, "steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your
labor is not in vain in the Lord." That which you sow, you shall also
reap! Your Lord has told you so. Therefore, be not dismayed by the long
waiting but–
"Sow and faint not,
Till the seed a harvest bears."
But, while this Truth of God is full of encouragement to God's people,
it ought to be a very strong and powerful check to those who are living
in sin. As you sow, you will have to reap! Those "wild oats" about
which you laugh are easily sown, but they will make hard and sorrowful
reaping! That act of iniquity, that indulgence in lust, that lie, that
blasphemy, that revolt against God in stifling your conscience and
refusing to yield to Christ–all these will produce a harvest in due
season! It is easy to toss these pigeons up into the air, but they will
all come home to roost. At nightfall you shall see every one of
them–and they will have grown greater than when you set them flying.
And they will be bearers of messages of misery to the rash hand that
sent them flying abroad. It is a dreadful thing to be so living that
you would not wish the result of your actions to come home to you! And
if any of you are so living, I pray God, the Holy Spirit, now to give
me something to say which shall, like a strong hand, lay hold of your
bridle and compel you to stand still and race no longer in the downward
course to Hell!
My text naturally divides itself into two parts and, at first sight,
they do not seem to be very closely connected. But I think that I shall
be able to show that they are. From the first part of the text we may
learn that some sowings will have a horrible harvest "They have sown
the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." Then the rest of the text
will teach us that some sowing must end in failure. They are such poor,
windy things, that they shall never come to anything that is good. If a
blade shall come up, yet "it has no stalk." And, if it should seem to
come to a stalk, "the bud shall yield no meal." It shall be like the
devil's meal–all bran–there shall be no good flour in it. Or, if it
should yield meal, "if it should produce, strangers shall swallow it
up." The old proverb says, "There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the
lip," and these sowers find it to be so with their sowing! Strangers
come in and steal away the fruit out of the very mouth that hoped to be
fed by it so that no good result comes of the sowing as far as he is
concerned.
I. The first part of our text teaches us that some sowings will PRODUCE
A HORRIBLE HARVEST.
Some have a horrible harvest even in this world, as, for example, the
sowing of oppression which leads to revolt and revenge. I do not know a
better instance of this than France. Some two hundred years ago, or
even less than that, the owners of the land in that country treated the
peasantry worse than they treated their cattle. Poor and almost naked
men might have been seen dragging the plow over the soil, themselves,
because they were reduced to such poverty by excessive rents that they
could not afford to keep animals to do the hard work. Kings, princes
and the great ones of the land cared for nothing but their own
pleasures–and those pleasures were often of the most vicious kind.
Read the first chapters of Carlyle's French Revolutionand see in what a
state France was. Yet, for a time, everything seemed to go on favorably
for the oppressors. If the peasantry revolted, they were put down with
an iron hand.
The mighty rulers thought that their empire would never come to an end
and, as for the Grand Monarch, himself– was there ever such another
mortal as he thought himself to be, and as his courtiers spoke of him?
Might not his kingdom last forever–at least, in the hands of his
successors? Yet, one after another, those kings and nobles sowed the
wind and, at the end of the last century, they reaped the whirlwind!
Having, themselves, defied all law and justice, they had taught the
people to do the same–and when the masses once rose in rebellion and
got the upper hand–you know how they worked the terrible guillotine
and how the streets, not only of Paris, but of many another city and
town, were deluged with blood! And, at last, the oppressors were made
to realize that their cruelty and oppression had come home to them.
It is always so, sooner or later, according to the rule of God's
righteous government. Men may stretch the cord for a long while, but at
length it snaps and woe be to those that are holding it when it gives
way! The people may be, for a time, trodden down beneath the tyrant's
hoof, but, in the long run, the tyrant gets the worst of it. France has
more than once furnished an awful instance of the retribution that
comes upon those who do not regard the dignity of man and who treat him
as if he were merely a beast, or something worse! They have sown the
wind and they have reaped the whirlwind.
Now take another view of the picture presented by our text. We have
lately had, over in Ireland, a terrible proof that the justification of
outrage leads to murder. Certain persons say, "We never meant to urge
our countrymen to commit the crime of murder and we are shocked at the
Phoenix Park tragedy. We wash our hands in innocence, for we are clear
of guilt in this matter! We denounce it, we have no part in it, we
abhor it." So they say, but what led up to that awful deed of blood?
When men have used expressions in which they have not condemned, but
have almost justified outrage and murder in other cases, what could
come of it but that their disciples should go a little beyond what
their masters may have intended? You cannot scatter fire and then when,
at last, the city burns, say, "Oh, we never meant it to spread like
that! We only intended to burn down that cottage, or that wretched
shanty! We never thought of burning down the city! We are as innocent
of the crime as newborn babes–we never meant to do anything of the
kind." Yes, but you cannot say to fire, "Thus far shall you go and no
further." And in like manner, if you sow the wind, you will reap the
whirlwind.
There is a whole province of Holland protected from the sea by a dyke
and there is a man who wants to let in a little water to the other side
for a certain purpose. He says he is only going to let a little stream
run through, so he takes his pickaxe and he worlds away till he has
made a passage through the dyke. And then, of course, the whole dyke is
swept away and the province gets drowned! The foolish fellow says, "God
forbid that I should have the blame of this catastrophe! I never meant
to do anything of the sort." Of course he did not–he intended
something far less than that, but his action naturally produced the
result that followed and, therefore, he is rightly regarded as
responsible for it! Beware, I pray you, of trifling with the eternal
principles of justice and of right and wrong! Beware of ever
sanctioning what you consider to be only a little evil, for, if you do,
the greater evil is sure to follow at its heels! It is like the boy
that the burglar takes and pushes through a little window, that he may
open the door and let in those who commit robbery and murder. So, if
any of us begin to advocate principles which sap and undermine the
foundations of law and order, we cannot tell to what mischief our talk
will lead–it is well for us to always be careful not to sow the wind,
lest we should, by-and-by, reap the whirlwind!
Passing from those great instances which prove the rule, I want you,
next, to notice that there are many persons who fall into this same
fault. Take, for instance, the teacher of error. He is, perhaps, in
other respects, an excellent minister, but he is unsound on one
important point. Just so and, before long, his unsoundness on one point
will lead to unsoundness all round! It is like a single speck of decay
in fruit–it is very apt to cause the whole to go rotten. Have you ever
heard the story which was told by Augustine concerning a young man who
had been, at one time, a professed Believer in God, but who had given
up all trust in Him? It occurred to him, when he was very much tried by
the buzzing and biting of flies, that God could not have created such
troublesome little creatures. They were such a nuisance to him that he
concluded that the devil had made them and, having once gone the length
of believing that the devil made flies, he thought it highly probable
that Satan created some other nuisances. And he went on till, at last,
he actually came to believe that the devil made everything–and he did
not believe in God at all. "Ah!" remarks Augustine, as he relates the
story, "he that errs about a fly soon errs about all things."
Look at the progress of Romanism in our own country. When the most of
us were boys, we used to hear our fathers talking of a Mr. Pusey and of
baptismal regeneration–and it was thought, then, to be a strange thing
if a man wore a cross around his neck. All England was stirred about
the matter and everybody was horrified! But look at the so-called
"priests" now–they have gone all the length of Rome. "Where?" you ask.
Well, where are they not? They seem to be everywhere now, swarming over
the land, and they have brought back rank Popery into what used to be
called "the Protestant Church of England!" How has that come to pass?
Well, first of all, there was a little of it tolerated and then a
little more of it was needed and, gradually, more was sucked down until
now I believe that many of the Ritualists would be prepared to receive
the Pope and all his cardinals, red hats and all! I really cannot see
why they should not, for, if they did, they could scarcely be more
Popish than they are, already! Only go a little way in the course of
error and it is like sliding down an inclined plane–there is no
telling where you will stop. Go to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral and
throw a stone down from that height. You say that you only mean to
throw it a yard. Ah, but it will never rest until it gets to the
ground–and perhaps it will kill someone before it reaches the earth!
So, when once you start in the way of error, there is no possibility of
stopping unless Divine Grace shall interpose to save you from the
consequences of the first false step! You sow the wind and you reap the
whirlwind. A little error leads to more, and that to still more until
the very idea of God is given up! I, therefore, love to meet a man who
is stiff-backed in his orthodoxy and, in this age of laxness and
looseness, I am prepared to clap my hands even when I see a little
bigotry! I like a man to believe something–to stick to it, to know
that it is true and not to be ashamed to avow it in the teeth of his
fellow men–let them oppose as they will, for there must be
somethingtrue and, oh, that God's gracious Spirit may teach us what it
is! And when we once know it, may we hold it fast, come life or come
death–for if we do not, we shall sow the wind and reap the whirlwind!
Here is another instance of the same Truth of God–an ill example at
home. I will confine it to that one point, though it is of general
application. You probably know a man who is very lax in the management
of his family. He professes to be a Christian, perhaps, but his sons
and daughters are allowed to plunge into every frivolity and every
vanity. Yes, and they may even go into open sin and all that they will
hear will be some gentle word like that which fell from the lips of
soft-hearted Eli when he did but hint that his sons were not doing well
when they were doing much that was terribly evil! The man even hears
that such-and-such a vice has been committed by his son, yet he
scarcely upbraids him. He is so easy-tempered that he says nothing,
though he sorrows within his own heart. Perhaps his own example and the
example of his wife are not such as could be desired. Family prayer is
neglected and holy living is not known in the house. He gets
prematurely old–his son has died very early–he has drunk himself to
death, or destroyed himself by vice. His daughters, too, are unhappy in
their marriages. The whole family has virtually gone to ruin as to any
connection with the Christian Church.
What shall I say of the old gentleman? He will not say it, himself, but
I must say it for him–he sowed the wind and he has reaped the
whirlwind! The father's character is usually seen in his sons. It has
been said that ministers' sons often turn out badly–if it is so and I
am not sure that it is–it must be because the ministers have not kept
their own vineyards, for the rule still holds good, "Train up a child
in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from
it." Generally, though not always, if he does depart from it, it is
because there has been some fatal neglect in his training–and there
are some Christian parents who are acting thus. They are so indulgent,
not only to their children, but to themselves, that they do not like to
give themselves the trouble that ought to be taken in all such cases.
They are sowing the wind and they will reap the whirlwind!
Let me give another illustration of the truth of the text with
reference to persons who fall into evil habits. At first those evil
habits are under restraint. They admit that they drink, but they say
that they cannot be called "drunks." They may, now and then, take more
than is good for them but, still, it is not very often. That is the
beginning of the evil! And, by-and-by, where are they? They have sown
the wind and they reap the whirlwind! Did you ever hear the story of
the Persian prince who dreamed that he was drinking from a cup and a
fly came and tried to sip from it? He drove it away, but, as he kept on
drinking from his cup, it came back–and it had grown as large as a
bird! He drove the creature away, but it returned as large as an
eagle–the largest kind of bird! He tried to chase that away, but it
soon came back in the form of a man who grinned at him most horribly.
He strove to get that man away, but soon he was back in the form of a
giant who trod on him and crushed him to death! That is just the
picture of the growth of an evil habit! At first you say, "Is it not a
little one?" But it grows and increases till it becomes unconquerable.
That parable illustrates our text–if you sow the wind you will reap
the whirlwind! You cannot live in sin, you cannot do wrong of any kind,
or in any form, but it will come back to you, not merely as wind, as
you sowed it, but as a whirlwind, as a horrible tempest, as a rushing
tornado, carrying everything before it!
I will not tarry to give more illustrations of this solemn Truth of God
because I want to leave a few minutes for the consideration of the
second part of the subject. Only I pray that God may write on the
memory and heart of any of you who are living as you should not live,
the great fact that as surely as you so live, "That which a man sows,
that shall he also reap." And he will reap even worse than he sows, for
if he sows the wind he will reap the whirlwind.
II. Now let us turn to the second part of the subject which is that
SOME SOWINGS MUST END IN FAILURE.
There are some people who do not think that they are doing any hurt,
yet they are living an aimless life. Go to them and ask what they are
sowing? "Nothing," they answer. They say that they are doing no hurt to
anybody, for they are not doing anything at all–but is not that kind
of life an injury to themselves and to others? If you have no aim in
life, no high ambition, no objective, no noble purpose–does anything
ever come of it? People talk of what they call, "chance," but I never
found any chance of a man's getting to be holy without intending to be
so! I never yet heard of a man doing any great good in the world if he
did not mean to do it! I never heard of a man glorifying God by
accident, nor of anyone getting to Heaven, as it were, by the throw of
the dice, somehow finding himself there, but not knowing how it all
happened. No, if you lead an aimless life, what will come of it will be
just what the text says–"It has no stalk" There will be no plant from
it and even if there should be some kind of stalk to the seed that you
have sown, yet when it springs up, "there shall be no meal." It cannot
be any comfort to you, even if things should go pretty well without
your intending that they should, for the comfort, after all, lies in
the motive and in the intention. And even if your life should somehow
turn out to be better than that of other aimless persons, though you
never intended it to be so, "if it should produce, the strangers shall
swallow it up." If you meant it to be nothing, it will be nothing.
I daresay that I am speaking to a large number of people who do not
know what they are living for. You have come into the world and here
you are and, in due time, you will go out of it–but that is all that
can be said of you. You are doing nothing. You have no noble end in
view, no glorious purpose to accomplish, no sublime aspiration to
realize. Then take it for granted that if all you sow is the wind, you
will reap nothing but wind–only it will come to you in a fiercer
form–as a whirlwind, for God will say to you, "I made you for My
Glory. I sent you into the world with a purpose. I entrusted you with
talents. I made you a steward of My goods and now you are accused of
having wasted My goods. Give an account of your stewardship." What will
you say? Alas, in that day the trifler, the idler, the mere butterfly
in the garden of the world will find things going hard, indeed, with
him! God save you all from leading an aimless life!
But there are some who are sowing the wind in another form. They are
leading a selfish life. Self is the beginning and the end of their
life. They open a shop simply to make money. They live at home to be
comfortable. Perhaps they enlarge themselves a little by taking the
wife and the children into the circle of self, but still, that is
all–they have no care for God, no love for Christ, no wish to help the
poor, no thought about eternity. That is a life of sowing the wind and
it will end, sooner or later, in reaping the whirlwind, for no man
lives unto himself without earning for himself a fearful reward!
Selfishness is often like the serpent that stings itself to death. It
is not possible, within the compass of a man's own soul, that he should
satisfy the cravings and desires of that soul. When he loves God and
loves his neighbor–he is really most of all blessing himself–for then
is he living to true purpose.
But when self is everything to a man, he confines his soul within the
morgue of his own ribs–his spirit dies within him and becomes like a
stone. In the case of the man who lives only for self, it may be said
of his life, in the words of the text, "It has no stalk: the bud shall
yield no meal." He gathers riches, but has no happiness or contentment
in them. He is like Solomon, who, with all his possessions, had to cry,
"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" Or if he gets to be rich and seems
to enjoy himself a little, he suddenly dies and strangers swallow up
his estate! All that is left of him is a massive tomb and the notice in
the newspapers that he died worth so many thousands of pounds–which is
not true, for he never was really worth a farthing all his life! He was
a worthless man whose only value consisted in the money he possessed.
O my dear Hearers, I implore you, with all my soul, not to live unto
yourselves! If you desire the highest, grandest selfishness that can
ever be attained, I charge you, throw selfishness away, remembering our
Savior's Words, "He that loses his life for My sake, shall find it." He
who casts his life away for the sake of Christ and for love of the
Truth of God, shall be the man who shall really save his life and find
true joy and blessedness! But for anyone to live for self is to sow the
wind and to reap the whirlwind.
So, once again, will it be if a man lives a self-righteous life. A
self-righteous man is generally very great at sowing– so many
prayers–so many almsgivings–so many sermons–so many ceremonies. Yes,
wind, wind, wind! He is sowing wind, but what will come of it all? This
very good religious man–I forget whether his name is Good Enough, or
Too-Good, but I believe the families are cousins–is, in his own
opinion, so very excellent that he does all he ought to do and perhaps
a little more. Yet he is only sowing the wind! And what will he reap
from it? Well, if God is very gracious to him, he will soon reap the
whirlwind, for he will find, to his confusion, that all his
righteousnesses are as filthy rags and they shall be like the sere
leaves of the forest borne away by the wind! I pray that he may, in
this sense, reap the whirlwind very soon, for, if not, he will do so in
the next world when all his pretended good works and all his formal
observances of external religion will be nothing but so much whirlwind
to blow in his face, and to fan the flames of Hell forever! O dear
Friends, shun self-righteousness and trust, alone, to the righteousness
of Christ! May the Spirit of God lead you to wash in the atoning blood
and then cover you with the spotless righteousness of Jesus Christ!
Then it will be well with your soul–but all self-righteousness shall
end in delusion and confusion forever and ever. May God grant that none
of us may, in this sense, sow the wind!
The text is pre-eminently true of every man who leads a deceitful life.
Oh, have I the misery of speaking to one who makes a profession of
religion and who wishes to be thought to be a Christian, but yet is not
really so? It is hard for a true Believer to maintain a Christian
character, but it is very much harder to keep up that character when
there is nothing at the back of it! Oh, how desperately does the man
who is a hypocrite have to labor! He has to patch up here, and patch up
there–daub with untempered mortar here, and whitewash there, and he
never has any peace. And all the while he is only sowing the wind!
There is nothing real in his religion–what will come of it when that
hypocrisy is discovered, when he stands revealed before the bar of God?
Will his hypocritical religion do him any good? No, "it has no stalk"
even now! It cannot yield him even present comfort! If there is a "bud"
that looks a little like self-respect, it "shall yield no meal." I have
already quoted the old proverb, "The devil's meal is all bran," and I
may add that the hypocrite's meal is all bran. There is nothing
substantial in it. And even if he should seem to die in the odor of
sanctity, yet the stranger shall come in and devour his supposed
religiousness, for somebody shall tell the truth about him and so his
fine reputation shall be utterly blasted.
Now, Brothers and Sisters, I have come to the end of this discourse.
And what should be the practical result of it but that if we have been
sowing anything that we ought not to sow, we should pray God to come
and plow it all up! Lord, drive the plow straight through every life
that is not according to Your Word! Oh, to have all the evil
obliterated– every seed of sin crushed and destroyed! Would God that
it might be so with all of us!
What next? Well, let us then go–oh, may the Divine Spirit lead us!–to
Jesus Christ and ask Him to give us the good seed! Let us have our
hands washed from the evil in which we formerly delighted and He,
alone, can cleanse us. Then let us take the clean good wheat which He
will give us out of His own granary and let us go and sow it. God help
us to sow it right and left, from morn to eve, without weariness, that,
at the last, we may gather in a glorious harvest, not to our own glory,
but to the praise of Him by whose rich, Free and Sovereign Grace we
were enabled to sow to the Spirit, and of the Spirit to reap life
everlasting! Amen.
Before we go, we will sing that very solemn hymn in Mr. Sankey's book,
"What Shall the Harvest Be?" It will help to impress the subject upon
our memories and hearts–
"Sowing the seed by the dawn-light fair,
Sowing the seed by the noon-day glare.
Sowing the seed by the fading light,
Sowing the seed in the solemn night–
Oh, what shall the harvest be?
Sowing the seed with an aching heart,
Sowing the seed while the teardrops start,
Sowing in hope till the reapers come,
Gladly to gather the harvest home–
Oh, what shall the harvest be?
Sown in the darkness, or sown in the light,
Sown in our weakness, or sown in our might,
Gathered in time, or eternity,
Sure, ah, sure, will the harvest be!"
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GALATIANS 5:13-26; GALATIANS 6:1-10.
Remember, beloved Brothers and Sisters, that the Epistle to the
Galatians is one in which Paul, with especial clearness, proves the
Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone. So much is this the case that
the famous Commentary of Martin Luther upon this Epistle is, perhaps,
the strongest work extant upon the Doctrine of salvation by Grace
through faith. But that doctrine was never intended to be separated
from the Scriptural teaching concerning the fruit of faith, namely,
good works and, therefore, we find, in the close of this very Epistle,
the strongest possible declaration that if men live in sin, they will
reap the result of sin–and that only if, by Grace, they are brought to
walk in holiness, will they win the rewards of Grace.
Galatians 5:13. For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only
use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. "Do not make license out
of your liberty. Remember that liberty fromsin is not liberty tosin."
13, 14. But by love serve one another For all the Law is fulfilled in
one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself The
condensation of the whole Law of God is contained in that one word,
"love." In the First Table we are taught to love God. And the
Commandments of the Second Table teach us to love our neighbor.
15. But if you bite and devour one another. Finding fault, slandering,
injuring, bearing malice and so on–"If you bite and devour one
another."
15. Take heed that you are not consumed, one of another. ' 'You will
eat one another up. You will, each one, condemn his neighbor." Paul
represents the great Judge coming and waiting outside the door. And
when He hears two men condemning one another, He says to Himself, "I
will confirm their verdict. They have mutually condemned each other, I
will say 'Amen' to it." What a sad thing it is if professed Christians
are found thus condemning one another!
16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the
lusts of the flesh. Walk under the Spirit's power, following His
guidance. The Spirit never leads a man into sin. He never conducts him
into self-indulgence and excess.
17. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh: and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot
do the things that you would. How often that is the case! You would be
perfect, but, "you cannot do the things that you would." We would, if
possible, escape from every evil thought–we would not even hear of
anything sinful if we could help it.
18. 19. But ifyou are led ofthe Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now
the works ofthe flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. Any kind of sensual
indulgence–whatever it may be–a lustful glance, the cherishing of an
unclean desire–the utterance of a foul expression–all this is
condemned, as well as the overt acts of adultery and fornication.
20. 21. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness. Is
drunkenness actually put by the Apostle afermurder, as though it were
something worse than that terrible crime? Or is it not, oftentimes, the
case that drunkenness lies at the bottom of the murder?
21. Reveling and such like: ofthe which I told you before, as I have
also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the Kingdom of God. Paul never said, nor ever thought of
saying, that a man might live in sin that Grace might abound. No,
no–these evil things must be given up! Christ has come to save us from
every evil work. And this is the salvation that we preach–not simply
salvation from Hell, but salvation from sin–which is the very fire
that has kindled the infernal flame. But how different from all this
evil is the fruit of the Spirit!
22. But the fruit ofthe Spirit is love. Universal love, first, to God.
Next, to His people and, then, to all mankind. Have we that fruit of
the Spirit? If so, it will make us of a very amiable disposition. It
will dethrone selfishness and set up holy affections within our heart.
22. 23. Joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Joy and peace seem to blossom and ripen out of
love. Long-suffering, too, is part of the fruit of the Spirit. You will
be hourly tried, but the Spirit of God will give you patience to suffer
long and to endure much. You will also have gentleness. Some people are
very hard, stern, severe, quick-tempered, passionate–but the true
follower of Christ will be gentle and tender, even as He was.
23. Against such there is no law. Neither God nor man has ever made a
law against these things–the more there is of them, the better will it
be for everybody. Oh, that they prevailed all over the world!
24. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts. A crucified Christ is the leader of a crucified
people! Oh, to have all the affections and lusts of the flesh nailed
up! They may not be actually dead, for those who are crucified may
still live on for some hours, but they are doomed to die. Their life is
a very painful one and it is hastening to a close. A man who is
crucified cannot get down from the cross to do what he wills and, oh,
it is a great blessing to have our sinful self thus nailed up! Ah, Sir,
you may struggle, but you cannot get down! You may strive and cry, but
your hands and feet are nailed–you cannot go into active, actual sin.
The Lord grant that the nails may hold very fast, that none of the
struggling of our old nature may be able to pull out those nails that
have fastened it up to the cross!
25. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit If that is
our real life, let it also be our course of action.
26. Let us not be desirous of vain-glory. Do not let us want to be
accounted as somebody, for, if we do, we prove that we are really
nobody! Nobody is anybody till he is willing to be nobody–as long as
he wants to be somebody, he is nobody and nothing!
26. Provoking one another, envying one another God save us from that
and every other form of evil!
Galatians 6:1. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in a fault. He is a slow
traveler. He is not speeding swiftly on the way to Heaven, so the fault
overtakes him. Had he been quicker of pace, he might have outstripped
it, but he is "overtaken in a fault." What then? Throw him out of the
Church? Have done with him? No. "If a man is overtaken in a fault"–
1. You which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of
meekness. Pick him up, help him to run better than he did before.
1. Considering yourself, lest you, also, are tempted. Paul does not
say, "Lest you also fall," but, "Lest you, also, are tempted"–as much
as to say, "You will be sure to fall if you are tempted," and that man
who thinks that other people ought to be cast off because they have
committed a fault is so proud in his own heart that he only needs to be
tempted and he would fall, too! This is a very expressive way of
putting the matter! "Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted."
2. Bear you one another's burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ Help
your Brothers and Sisters. If you see that they have more to do than
they can accomplish, take a share of their labor. If they have a
heavier burden than they can bear, try to put your shoulder beneath
their load and so lighten it for them.
3. For if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he
deceives himself Paul does not say, "He deceives other people." No, "he
deceives himself" As a general rule, other people find him out, they
learn what he really is, but, "he deceives himself."
4. 5. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have
rejoicing in himself, alone, and not in another For every man shall
bear his own burden. There is, after all, a burden which we cannot
carry for others and which we cannot shift upon others. There are
burdens of care, sorrow and trouble which we can take from other men's
shoulders, but the great burden of responsibility before God, each man
must carry for himself.
6. Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teaches
in all good things. Those who are taught and so receive spiritual
things, should maintain those who are their teachers as far as they are
able to do so.
7. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that
shall he also reap. That is true under the Gospel as well as under the
Law.
8. For he that sows to his flesh shall ofthe flesh reap corruption.
That is what always comes to the flesh–it decays and corrupts.
8. But he that sows to the Spirit shall ofthe Spirit reap life
everlasting. No corruption shall come to that which belongs to the
Spirit! "He that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting."
9, 10. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we
shall reap if we faint not As we have therefore opportunity, let us do
good unto all men, especially unto them who are ofthe household of
faith.