Sin's Harvest

There is a saying, what goes around comes around, that if somebody does you wrong, like throwing a boomerang, it will come back to them. A lot of people believe that to be true, friends. But there have been many instances in my life where I've been wronged by someone, and they got clean away with it.

I've never seen a payback come to them. But there is a law of nature that holds true every single time, and that's the law of the harvest. It cannot be altered.

If you have some farmland and you plant soybeans, then you will reap a harvest of soybeans, because the law of the harvest states, you reap what you sow. You can't plant soybeans and reap a crop of corn. This is the law of the harvest, and the natural world has seen in nature.

I have a lemon tree outside my window. I can't plant an apple tree there and grow lemons. What you sow, you reap.

This is the law of the harvest in nature, in the natural world. There's also a harvest in the spiritual world as well, friends, in the law of God, and it works the same way. In Galatians 6, 7, we read, Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

And it's true, friends, as sure as I'm speaking to you now, that truth is a living reality in scripture, for God's word is true, and God is true to his word. You will reap what you sow in the spiritual realm. I can take a walk through my Bible and see instance after instance of the proof of this text.

Galatians 6, 8 says, For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Now that's my introduction to my message today, friends, and it's entitled Sin's Harvest, and my text can be found in the book of Hosea. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter 8 and verse 7. And may God's spirit attend the reading of his holy word. The backdrop to this verse in Hosea is a sad one. Destruction is threatened to Israel and Judah because of their multiplied sins.

They have sinned grievously against God. We see in verse 1 of chapter 8, Set the trumpet to the mouth, he shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant and trespassed against my law. God says the temple will be destroyed because his people are misusing it because their worship to God has become a sham, as has their religion.

And then we see this striking verse of scripture in verse 7 of chapter 8, which is our text today, friends, and its truth rings out all throughout my Bible. For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. In this case, the law of the harvest is turned upon their heads in a more dreadful outcome as they will reap far worse than they have sowed.

They sowed the wind, but they will reap the whirlwind. There are few things in life more terrifying than being in a tornado. I used to live in what is known as Tornado Alley, that section of mid-America where it draws tornadoes like magnets because of its geography.

I lived in the mid-south, in Tennessee, and every spring we had tornadoes roar over our heads or pass around us or come down upon us. When my daughter was a newborn, a savage tornado came barreling into our neighborhood one evening, and it seems that's the time most tornadoes seem to hit, at night, when you can't see them coming. Anyhow, that year was a bad outbreak for tornadoes, and one came through our neighborhood.

It sounded like a freight train coming fast down the track. My wife and I huddled in the hallway with our little baby in our arms, and we were praying out loud for God's protection over us. Things were so bad.

My next-door neighbor, who was a pilot in the Vietnam War, said the next day he'd never been so scared in his entire life. He felt he was going to die worse than in combat. Well, we all survived, but our homes and neighborhood was pretty tore up.

But that's the destructive fury of what a whirlwind is like. So when God says in his word, they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. That's a vivid picture of the sinner in hell, with the outpoured wrath of God upon them, like a roaring, smoking furnace.

There are three realities of our text today, which I will bring before you now, friends. Number one, sin has a harvest. Number two, sin is known to God.

Number three, sin reaps more than it sows. Let's look at these one by one. Sin has a harvest.

God's word says so. In Galatians, it states this clearly. Be not deceived.

God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. You live without God in the world, and you will live without God in eternity.

That is why there exists a heaven and a hell. Shew not the judge of all the earth do right. If you live a godless life here, you will exist in a godless eternity.

A Christless life ends up in a Christless death that leads to a Christless grave and a Christless eternity. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of his flesh reap corruption. So says God in his word.

Sin has a harvest. It is a law of God that cannot be altered. Number two, sin is known to God.

Look at verse two in chapter seven of Hosea. And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings have beset them about.

They are before my face. Sin is known to God. We can hide it from our friends, and we can even sometimes hide it from our family.

But we cannot hide it from a holy God. God keeps a record book on every single sin we do, either sins of commission or sins of omission. They're written down in a book on us, which will be read out loud before humankind at a future judgment.

If you die outside of Christ, Revelation 20 12 declares a solemn scene of the grand size. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. Believe me, friend, when I say sin is known to God. Lastly, sin reaps more than it sows.

For they've sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. I don't believe King David knew the whirlwind of trouble that was to befall his family when he stood on his balcony, sowing the wind of lust and murder as he beheld the lovely naked Bathsheba in her bath. I've seen it time and time again in the lives of friends who have committed adultery, and their homes and family are wrecked and ruined to such a degree.

The aftermath of their sinful choices is like a whirlwind, destroyed everything once dear to them. The law of the harvest is the sad reality in the spiritual realm that sin reaps more than it sows. We've looked at sin's harvest today, friends, and I don't know about you, but it looks pretty ugly to me.

It makes you want to stay as close to Christ as white on rice. Let us pray.