JESUS REAPED WHAT YOU SOWED

Mike Blume
August 1, 2004 pm




Isaiah  53:1-12
(1)  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
(2)  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
(3)  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
(4)  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
(5)  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
(6)  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
(7)  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
(8)  He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
(9)  And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
(10)  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
(11)  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
(12)  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


Isaiah 54:1-5 KJV
(1)  Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
(2)  Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
(3)  For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
(4)  Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
(5)  For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.





Isaiah 53 begins speaking of unbelief.
  • And he informs the reason for the cross.
  • As though people doubted it's importance and it's need.
  • It speaks of the disbelief of he Jews who rejected Him since He was of no beauty.
  • We read of placid submission and weakness when he bore and suffered an unjust death.
  • This chapter contains a beautiful summary of the most peculiar and distinguishing doctrines of Christianity.
Vicarious death means that it was a death carried out AS US in OUR PLACES.
  • And that is why the New testament repeats the truth that (Rom 6:11) THROUGH CHRIST we can reckon our selves dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God.
Romans 7:4 KJV
(4)  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

BY THE BODY OF CHRIST.

Romans 7:24-25 KJV
(24)  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
(25)  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

There are two reactions about which I want to address this message.
  • There are more reactions, but the basic two will be reactions of faith or unbelief.
  • And I specifically want to deal with reaping and sowing to correct the wrong reaction many people experience when they face trials as Christians.
  • And one of the correct reactions I want to speak about is JOY and VICTORY.
2 Corinthians 5:14 KJV
(14)  For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

We must clearly understand that as far as God is concerned, when Jesus Christ died on that cross, WE ACTUALLY DIED.
  • God sees it like that, and expects us to see it that way as well.
  • Nothing physical is going to reveal that to you.
  • Just His Word.
Isaiah 53:6 KJV
(6)  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Matthew 20:28 KJV
(28)  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

John 11:50-52 KJV
(50)  Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
(51)  And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;
(52)  And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

Hebrews 2:9 KJV
(9)  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

And we die with Him to actually present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead afterwards.

Romans 6:13 KJV
(13)  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

He died as us.

Exodus 12:30 KJV
(30)  And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

After the Hebrews stood inside their houses where the blood of the lamb was placed around their doors, we read not one house did not have someone dead.
  • The lamb's death counted for the death of the Hebrew firstborn in that house.
After we are saved, troubles come our way.
  • The devil fights and things happen.
  • According to our faith we will react in one of two major ways.
  • We will either react in doubt or faith.
LET ME STATE THAT IT IS A MISTAKE TO THINK THAT TROUBLES AND TRIBULATIONS ARE ELEMENTS OF SOWING WHAT WE REAPED.
  • Due to the extreme sinful lifestyles of some believers before they were saved, they feel that their troubles as Christians is a reaping of what they sowed.
  • But our sinful lifestyles had to die.
  • Death was the payment for those sins.
  • The soul that sins must die, the Bible says.
  • And Christ experienced that death AS US.
  • He chose to come into union with the need for our deaths.
  • So when HE DIED, ALL OF US DIED.
  • THEREFORE, JESUS REAPED WHAT YOU SOWED.
If He died for all of your sins, then why on earth do you think you still have to pay for some of your sins today?
  • Jesus took ALL our sin and died for them.
  • We do not read God laid PART of the iniquity of us on Jesus.
  • It simply says He laid upon him the iniquity.
  • ALL OF IT.
Death is the ultimate punishment for sin.
  • Once dead, a criminal can do nothing more!
  • Justice is satisfied.
  • You cannot deal with it more than through a death penalty.
  • We were all on a death penalty, and JESUS TOOK IT AS US.
  • So we died and our crimes were totally and completely paid for.
Someone once told me that a believer who was very sick had stated that they were reaping what they sowed.
  • And when asked in what way, the person said MY CROSS IS SICKNESS.
  • THAT IS WRONG!
  • Our cross has nothing to do with reaping what we sowed as sinners.
  • When the bible speaks of carrying our crosses, it is speaking about denying ourselves.
  • It is speaking about persecutions we may endure as Christians, even to the point of martyrdom.
  • But Jesus took my sickness and by his stripes I am healed!
The cross was powerful enough to deal with all sins totally no matter how wicked they were.
  • Nothing gets past the cross!
(11)  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

God saw the suffering on the cross and was satisfied.
  • But are you satisfied?
  • If not, then you just might think of reaping as a Christian what you sowed as a sinner.
Some religions even whip and lacerate themselves, as "penance" for their sins.
  • No.
  • Jesus took all of that as well!
  • Even after you are saved, you can go back to the cross and claim the blood by prayer to God IN JESUS' NAME for forgiveness
1 John 2:1-2 KJV
(1)  My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
(2)  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The devil is getting a lot of people over the barrel without any real need for it.
  • They doubt the work of the cross.
  • They do not fully understand it.
  • And he sends trouble their way attached to a lie that says we must reap what we've sown.
  • And so the believer DOES NOT EVEN RESIST IT AND REBUKE IT AND TELL THE DEVIL TO STOP AND LEAVE.
  • You will not fight something that you think you deserve, because you want to be honest as a Christian.
  • If you deserve something, you feel it is Christian to take it.
  • Admit your crime, or confess you lied, or REAP AS A BELIEVER WHAT YOU SOWED AS A SINNER.
  • WRONG!
We deserve NOTHING during our Christian lives due to a sin in our sinful lives, because JESUS TOOK IT ALL AND PAID FOR IT ALL.

But we need to rebuke the devil by telling him he has no right doing this.

God's PEOPLE MUST ENFORCE WHAT JESUS DID FOR US ON THE CROSS!
  • God allows the devil to do these things.
  • Many might think the devil could not do them if the cross paid for it all.
  • But God let the devil run loose in this world, to the extent of being able to attack you.
  • God wants you to stand on your own two feet and deal with things according to truth.
  • And you have to study the truth to know about truth.
  • And rise up to the devil and actually speak to him and command him to let go of whatever situation he caused to go wrong!
The enemy has the predominance when he sends trouble our way and we think we must reap what we have sown.

Leviticus 1:4 KJV
(4)  And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

THE SACRIFICE IS ACCEPTED FOR THE OFFERER.
  • That means AS THE OFFERER.
  • And it makes atonement or reconciliation.
When that death of the sacrifice occurs, it counts as our death.
  • When we learn these things we will be satisfied with the cross.
  • We did have to reap what we sowed.
  • But since Jesus died AS US, then we DID reap what we sowed THROUGH CHRIST.
  • When CHrist reaped what we sowed, we can say WE reaped it, because He did it as us.
When it comes to something to deal with our old sins and sinful lives, we need to be satisfied by the work of the cross.
  • God is!
Matthew 27:57-60 KJV
(57)  When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:
(58)  He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
(59)  And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
(60)  And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

John 19:38 says Joseph was always a secret disciple before this as a member of the sanhedrin council.
  • JOSEPH MEANS "ADDING".
  • There is a picture of ADDING in this story.
  • Joseph buried Jesus in HIS OWN TOMB.
When we realize that the death of Jesus is considered by God and should be by us, to be our deaths, then the grave that has a stone with our name on it should be occupied by Jesus.
  • It's a picture of what we must do in our minds.
  • When Jesus died, it was YOUR DEATH that you owed.
  • So mentally put Him in YOUR GRAVE.
  • Therefore you can reckon yourself DEAD TO SIN, because you had to die due to your sins, and you did THROUGH JESUS.
You need to ADD YOURSELF to who died on that cross.
  • Joseph means ADDING or INCREASE.
  • Arimathea means A LION DEAD TO THE LORD.
  • Notice that Joseph was formerly a secret disciples for fear of the jews, but when Jesus died something happened to him.
  • He BOLDLY went to Pilate.
Mark 15:43 KJV
(43)  Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.

He was like a LION!
  • A lion was bold because he knew his old life was DEAD BEFORE THE LORD!
  • When you know you were crucified with Christ, and you died before the Lord through Christ, YOU WILL BE BOLD LIKE A LION TO THE ENEMY!
And Nicodemus who went to Jesus by night for fear, also came.

John 19:39 KJV
(39)  And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.

These two fearful men suddenly became BOLD AS LIONS when Jesus died.
  • The message is that all your fear and worry will fly away when you realize JESUS IS BURIED IN YOUR GRAVE.
  • That tomb in which He was buried 2000 years ago was not his own.
  • It was the tomb of a man who represents believers who realize JESUS DIED THE DEATH THEY DESERVED.
  • JESUS REAPED WHAT THEY SOWED.
  • Since He died MY death, then bury Him in MY TOMB!
  • And when the devil comes to me and says I must reap what I have sown, I can point him to my grave and say I already died and was buried in full payment for all those sins, because JESUS DIED AS ME!
You will become bold!
  • Let the devil try throwing something on you that Jesus paid for!
  • You'll go after that roaring lion like a greater and more powerful lion who does more than just ROAR!
  • You have God's POWER on you to speak to the devil and have all Heaven back it up!
  • And the devil will run!
  • You are a LION now because you are DEAD TO THE LORD through Christ's death AND YOU KNOW IT.
Add you self to His death, because God did!
  • When you got saved and baptized into His death, you made His death the required death you deserved for your sins.
  • And so your sins are all paid for.
Stress is put upon the tomb that nobody was ever laid in it before.
  • You know, this is important.
  • If you physically have been laid to rest in your grave after having died, the salvation of Christ can do nothing for you.
  • You must be baptized into His death BEFORE you yourself die in the flesh.
  • He is laid in your grave that has not yet been occupied by you.
  • His death can only count as your death while you live and choose to be baptized into it, to pay for your sins.
  • Your own death is not enough to pay for your sins and bring you back to life again.
  • Only through HIS DEATH can you resurrect again into newness of life now, and later in your body when the trumpet sounds!
You cannot use your tomb first before He goes into it, and be saved.
  • Some believers have lived so long and never really enjoyed the fact that Christ went into their graves before they physically died.
  • They accepted attacks as reaping what they sowed.
We need to enjoy freedom from sin and our old lives of sin through Christ's death having ended them and paid for their crimes, before we fill those graves ourselves, because His death is considered by God to actually be my death as far as the need to pay for sin is concerned.

Now, this does not mean you can go to a judge in court for a crime you committed before your salvation, and say Jesus paid for the crime, so you should be set free.
  • The world does not recognize Jesus' death as our own deaths.
  • But God does, and so far as everything spiritual is concerned, the Lord, the devil and our sins, JESUS REAPED WHAT WE SOWED.
We sinned.
  • And souls that sin must die.
  • Jesus died for your sins.
After we read Isaiah 53, we enter into the very next chapter 54 as follows:

Isaiah 54:1-5 KJV
(1)  Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
(2)  Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
(3)  For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
(4)  Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
(5)  For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

Once you know this, you will no longer accept defeat from the devil through accepting his lies that you must reap what you sowed as a sinner, BUT YOU WILL SING VICTORY!!!

JOY will be in your heart!

It's no coincidence that SINGING is there immediately following the note of Isaiah 53.

Verse 4 says FEAR NOT!
  • Do not be ashamed!
  • You need not be ashamed of your past as though it still looms over your head!
  • IT IS GONE!
  • Jesus reaped it all!
  • Do not be confounded!
  • Do not worry over the devil attacking you with something catching up to you from before salvation!
  • KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON!
  • People become confounded when they do not know why in the world trials still come to them after they are saved.
  • Such people receive a lie that these things are there because they must reap what they sowed.
  • No.
  • YOU KNOW THE ENEMY WILL TRY TO LIE.
  • BUT YOU KNOW THE TRUTH.
  • DO not fear, do not be ashamed and do not be confounded!
  • YOU FORGET THE SHAME OF YOUR YOUTH.
  • YOUR YOUTH represents your earlier years before the cross!
  • Your widowhood speaks of before you became part of the church, the bride of Christ, when you sinned.
  • The reproach from those days is gone!
  • Jesus paid for it!
  • God was satisfied!
SING!

Exodus 14:13 KJV
(13)  And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

Exodus 14:16 KJV
(16)  But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

Exodus 14:23-28 KJV
(23)  And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
(24)  And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,
(25)  And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.
(26)  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.
(27)  And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
(28)  And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

Exodus 14:31 KJV
(31)  And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.

Exodus 15:1 KJV
(1)  Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

Notice that AFTER ISRAEL SAW what God did to the Egyptians, THEY SANG!!!
  • Why do people drag themselves through the world, drag themselves to church, and sit there, and drag themselves home and suffer so much that way?
  • THEY HAVE NOT SEEN WHAT GOD DID!
  • When you see what God did -- when you UNDERSTAND IT WITH THE EYES OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING -- YOU WILL SING!
  • People without joy either never did see this yet, and need to get a revelation of it, OR THEY ONCE SAW IT BUT LOST THE REVELATION.
Exodus 15:2 KJV
(2)  The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him.

GOD is my strength and MY SONG!
  • When you SEE what God did through Christ, in having you DIE WITH CHRIST, then YOU WILL HAVE GOD AS YOUR SONG.
  • Some people have good times as their song.
  • When good times are not around, they have no joy.
  • But when GOD IS OUR SONG, that joy never fades when good times fade.
  • GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US!
v. 1 -- I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously

I will sing because GOD triumphed gloriously!
  • He fought the battle and I WON!
  • It was HIS DEATH but MY FREEDOM!
  • He died as me!
HE is become my salvation!
  • Did you know that JESUS MEANS "GOD IS BECOME MY SALVATION"?
  • If we read that statement in Hebrew, we would be reading "JESUS" or "Yehoshua".
  • THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH, AND MY SONG, AND JESUS!
Jesus' actual NAME  is associated with God triumphing so WE could SING, because it was OUR TRIUMPH when GOD TRIUMPHED.
  • It is associated with DEATH that brought VICTORY.
  • It was OUR DEATHS when Jesus died.
  • It was our burial when Jesus was buried!
Judges 4:23 KJV
(23)  So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.

Judges 5:1-3 KJV
(1)  Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,
(2)  Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.
(3)  Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

SAME THING HERE ALSO!

When king Jabin died, Deborah sang!

We YOU SEE GOD'S WORK IN DEFEATING THE DEVIL THROUGH DEATH, YOU WILL SING!

So there are those who fret and despair and are confounded because they live defeated lives through thinking these attacks are reaping what they sowed as sinners.

But those of FAITH who know what the cross is all about, HAVE JOY!
  • THEY SIGN a NEW SONG!
And they rebuke the devil for his attacks against them.
  • A rebuke is a scolding against an action committed.
  • To reprehend for a fault.
  • You will not think the attack is a fault, but is deserving to you, if you think you must reap what you sowed as a sinner.
  • If you sin as a believer, there are consequences if you do not hurry up and repent.
  • But if your sins from the time before your salvation look as though they're coming back to make you reap a whirlwind, then REBUKE IT, because IT IS A FAULT and it is NOT RIGHTFULLY OWING TO YOU ANY MORE.
Stop thinking you must reap what you sowed before salvation.




Don Francisco wrote a humorous song that deals with this:
(The Traveler (The Lord and I Together) - © Don Francisco [1981]   NP-33106 - Newpax records)

THE PACKAGE

I was wakened in the morning' by a knockin' on the door
So I got up and went to see what all the knockin' was for
There stood the Devil with a box addressed to me
He said "Boy, I've got something here I think you oughta see

I said, I know that I don't want it if it's anything from you
'Cause I hate everything you say and don't like anything you do
But then he pointed with his finger and he smiled kinda sly
'Cause the package said "from God" there in the corner, way up high

So I said, "if it's from God, then why'd He send it here by you"
He said, "He always sends me when there's dirty work to do"
And this box is full of misery, poverty and shame
To perfect you thru your suffering 'till you're worthy of His name

Well, I'd been pretty patient, but that last line took the cake
I just couldn't take no more, I'd taken all that I could take
So I told him what I thought of him and all his filthy lies
Then I fired a shot that got him right between the eyes

I told him "Jesus took my sickness and my poverty away
You nailed it to the cross yourself when you murdered Him that day
The suf'ring that I do will be for love and not for shame
I'm already worthy by His blood, to wear His name

And I know my Father loves me and has only good in store
So you just take that jive and get away from my front door
You can write my name on pacages until I'm ninety two
But every single one I'm sending back to Hell with you"

Go on get out of here
Sic 'em, Fide.