Galatians 6:7-10 - Peace Cottonwood



Galatians 6:7-10

Do Not Mock God, But Instead Sow Wisely

July 15, 2007

Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong the family of believers. (NIV)

Have you heard of the name Richard Dawkins? Sam Harris? Christopher Hitchens? No? How about Homer Simpson? Ah, now we’re getting somewhere...

If you haven’t heard of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christoper Hitchens, you’re not missing much. They’re all prominent, published (and some would say, with some justification, “militant”) atheists. The three of them have written, respectively, “The God Delusion”, “Letter to a Christian Nation”, and “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

As for Homer Simpson, in the soon-to-be-released “The Simpsons Movie”, Homer and his family arrive at church a little late. While there, Homer’s father has a seizure and warns of trouble to come. When asked to explain this behavior, Homer grabs a Bible, flips through it, and mutters: “This book doesn’t have any answers.” () Not particularly clever screenwriting, but it will undoubtedly get some laughs in the theater from those who believe that mocking God is fun and funny.

Whether Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, Homer, or those who will respond to Homer’s words by spitting out their popcorn in laughter, there are plenty of people out there who are all too happy to mock God, and plenty of others who are all too willing to encourage them.

We sometimes find it somewhat jarring to see someone mock God quite so boldly, quite so openly, to see someone view the almighty God as nothing more than the setup for a punchline or as the object of an obscene, blasphemous rant. On the one hand, we don’t really expect a lightning bolt to come down from heaven and strike them dead, but on the other hand, we edge away from them a bit just to be on the safe side.

It’s a bit unnerving, isn’t it, to see people who openly mock God? The word itself has an ugly, harsh sound to it–“mock.” But it’s especially jarring to see the ugly, harsh, defiant action that it describes. Because a mocker is generally not content to ignore someone or something. No, they have to actively, violently attack it through their mockery. Therefore it’s shocking to see someone attack, to see someone mock God.

And it’s especially shocking because deep down we know the truth of what Paul wrote in this morning’s text: “Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” Consider what has happened in the past to those who mocked God.

In the Old Testament King Sennacherib of Assyria sent his field commander to Jerusalem to deliver a message to King Hezekiah and the Israelites. He said, “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” (Isaiah 36:18-20)

Oh boy. Big mistake, Sennacherib. Ha-yooge.

Here was God’s spoken reply: “Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord...I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me. Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came” (Isaiah 37:23-24, 28-29)

Here’s the rest of God’s reply to Sennacherib’s mocking: “Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up in the morning–there were all the dead bodies!” (Isaiah 37:36)

“Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

One day in the Old Testament a big group of what the Bible describes as “youths” was hanging out in the town of Bethel when they saw a man walking their way. Whether they recognized him as the prophet Elisha or not, I don’t know. Either way, what he was to them was an old, bald man. Perhaps fortified by the courage that being in the safety of a group can bring, they decided to have some fun with this old man. At least, that’s what they might have tried to call it–“having some fun with” him. So they shouted at him, “Go on up, you baldhead! Go on up, you baldhead!” (2 Kings 2:23). Not a particularly witty insult, but exhilarating in its power.

The only problem is that God didn’t view it as “having fun with” Elisha. He viewed it as mocking Elisha. And by mocking the prophet of God, they were showing a lack of respect for–yes, mocking–God.

Here’s God’s reply: “Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.” (2 Kings 2:24)

“Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

Not only does God get pretty angry when people mock those he has called as his representatives in the public ministry, but God also gets pretty angry when people mock those he has called as his representatives in the home. In Proverbs we read, “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.” (Proverbs 30:17)

And now perhaps it’s starting to hit a little too close to home for us. Because while none of us have had the temerity to, say, make the doctrine of the Real Presence of Jesus’ body and blood in the Lord’s Supper the subject of a 3-minute bit in our comedy club act, just about all of us have mocked God’s representatives at one time or another–if not to their face, then–and perhaps this is even worse–behind their back.

And if God responds with mauling bears and eye-stealing vultures when his representatives are mocked, we can only imagine how God feels and responds when we mock him. (Just ask Sennacherib and his army.)

Oh, yes, I said “when we mock him.” No, perhaps we haven’t chosen to make God a direct object of ridicule. But there is another form of mockery. Another meaning of “mock” or “mocker” is “an imitation or counterfeit.” (Think of a mockingbird. What does it do? It imitates the call of other birds.)

And what is mocked by an imitation or a counterfeit? The real thing. The name of the real thing is diminished, devalued by such cheap imitation. You can bet that Gucci does not find imitation to be the sincerest form of flattery when someone on a street corner in Singapore is selling a cheap imitation of a Gucci handbag–with the Gucci name on it.

Why not? Because every time someone buys a fake Gucci, that’s one less potential customer for the real Gucci to make a profit from? In part. But also because when that handbag’s colors begin to bleed in a light rain and when one of the handles rips when more than 5 pounds of things are put in the handbag, the Gucci name suffers. Gucci becomes synonymous with “cheap junk.”

Gucci will not stand for their name being messed up, being devalued. They will not settle for their reputation being destroyed by these mock Gucci products, and they will take you to court in an effort to force you to stop. Gucci will defend its name.

The problem God has is that there are a lot of people out there carrying his name. Their label says “Christian.” But if they’re watched for a while, it quickly becomes apparent that they’re nothing but an imitation, for they don’t speak as Christ spoke, they don’t live the way Christ lived, and they don’t love as Christ loved.

Maybe it’s in many areas of their lives–or maybe it’s in “just one” area of their lives. But just one “C” has to be missing to mark a handbag as an imitation Gucci, and just one area of one’s life has to be unchristian to mark one as an imitation Christian.

King David lived like that for almost a year. He wore the name of “Christian” or “Believer in the Coming Messiah” for all to see, but inside he was a murderer and an adulterer. But not only was he not fooling God, he wasn’t even fooling those around him. The whispers had started softly, but they were growing louder. “I heard that one of David’s men said he was sent to Bathsheba’s house in the middle of the night and told to bring her to the palace. That’s ‘God’s leader’ for you.” “I was in the army when Joab made a special point of moving Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to the front of the fighting, and he ended up dying. And then David pretended to have compassion on this poor widow, taking her as his wife. What a hypocrite. But you know that’s sort of the way God’s people are–no better than anyone else, just more hypocritical.”

And so God’s Gucci name had been dropped to the level of K-Mart. Therefore God took David into his courtroom and assured David that he was going to act on the trademark infringement, that he was going to defend his name. He told David, “Because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” (2 Samuel 12:14)

Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. God will defend and protect his good name. A man reaps what he sows.

Oh, the Devil tempts us to think otherwise. He tempts us to think we can reap something other than what we sow. It’s kind of like an employee who fudges on his expense reports. He’s sowing dishonestly, but he doesn’t expect to reap the consequences. In a company that big, he’ll probably be able to fly under the radar and escape detection. The company simply doesn’t have time to watch his expense reports that closely. They keep an eye out for huge discrepancies, for “red flags”, but his minor frauds won’t be detected. Or even if he is caught, his transgression will be so comparatively minor that the company won’t have the will or the energy to take serious action against him.

The Devil tempts us to think that’s the way it is with God--how’s he going to notice when he’s got literally billions of people to keep an eye on? Like tax fraud, I can more than likely get away with it as long as I don’t push the boundaries too far, as long as I don’t do any of the “red flags” that will get God’s attention and lead him to do a spiritual audit on me. And as long as I make nice with him at the company meetings on Sunday mornings at 9 AM, he’ll consider me one of his trusted employees.

Do not, do not, do not be deceived by the Devil’s lies. God cannot, will not be mocked. You will reap what you sow.

And the problem with our mocking of God’s name, the problem with our sowing hypocrisy and false living in even one area of our lives, the problem with sowing such behavior is that we can’t handle what we will reap.

That’s what often happens to mockers. They mock things that they think can’t (or at least won’t) hurt them. And then they do. Ralphie in A Christmas Story springs to life and beats the daylights out of Scott Farkas. The milquetoast pushover Dr. David Banner turns into the Incredible Hulk. The blind Samson gains enough strength to knock down a temple. And then there’s a big “uh-oh” for the mockers as they realize they’ve ended up in a card game with the big boys, that they’ve messed with the bull and now they’re suddenly facing the business end of that bull’s horns.

God used a slightly different picture in Hosea when he said, “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7). The “no big deal” decision to sow some wild oats sexually will result in the harvesting of a tornado of judgment. The “innocent” commotion that’s caused by choosing to sin in one area of my life will result in a whirlwind that will engulf my entire being. The playing with the fire of unchecked gossip will lead to the raging inferno of Hell.

Clearly our sins of the past–and perhaps especially the times in the past when we have willfully refused to put away those sins, when we have mocked God by living in a particular sin–clearly those sins are big trouble for us.

If a man reaps what he sows, we are in for one fearful harvest, for God cannot be mocked.

Except for the time when he was–and did nothing about it. Even though there was a part of us that was practically pleading with him to do so.

For Jesus, Good Friday consisted of practically constant mockery. And it was mockery of the vilest sort–mocking a condemned, helpless, bruised, bleeding man.

“They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ they said...” (Matthew 27:29)

“Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him.” (Luke 23:11)

“Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (Matthew 27:39-43)

“The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’” (Luke 23:26-37)

Oh man, if ever there were a time for God to refuse to be mocked, if there were ever a time for God to allow people to reap what they had sown, the time was now. But Jesus allowed himself to be mocked because he was busy with more important things. He was busy reaping what they were sowing, and busy reaping what we have sown. He was busy reaping the whirlwind of God’s wrath over sin.

So what’s left now? The calm after the whirlwind, the rainbow after the storm. The certainty of heaven.

And a whole lot of seeds. Seeds called Time, seeds called Treasures, seeds called Talents. How will you sow those seeds? Will you sow them to reap a selfish harvest, one that will please your sinful nature? Of course not!

Instead you’ll sow them to “please the Spirit.” You’ll heed Paul’s encouragement: “Let us not become weary in doing good...As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Why does doing good not weary us? Because we know that “we will reap a harvest.” What harvest? The joy of having pleased the Spirit. The joy of reaping the commendation from God, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Therefore, brothers and sisters, sow wisely. Sow joyfully. Amen.

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