What does it mean that God is not mocked?

The word means to turn up our noses at God. The Apostle writes to the Galatians to share with their teachers, but as they listen to this command, Paul knows there are those who will turn up their noses and say, "Why should we listen to this man Paul? We have our new teachers from Jerusalem. Let us hear them." It is not Paul you are turning up your noses at. Far from it. Paul is only God's messenger, bringing you God's message. It is at God you are turning up your noses, when you refuse to heed His Word.

It is, above all, important to remember that unreal piety is a thing even more offensive to God than spiritual slothfulness. His eye is on every heart, and He observes and notes the difference between a sleeping and a waking saint. But that He is not mocked is the emphatic declaration here, an expression which applies with equal propriety to a positive contempt of His commandment, or to an insincere though apparent observance of His will.

He treats profession seriously, encouraging truth, but setting all who make a profession in the full light of the unveiled presence of God, where what men say, whether in creed, in formularies of devotion, in hymns, or in religious services, is put to the test. "The very basis of communion with God is reality."

It is, be assured, universally true, whether of the unbeliever or of the believer — "whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap." The unbeliever sows to self and nothing but self, and reaps the judgment of God on self... But what about the believer? There is where the difficulty comes in. The believer has the mingled crop of good and evil... It may not be always a question of gross sin; but it is the lawless evil of our nature, that prefers a little present gratification of self to the service, the uniform obedience and glory, of Christ. But what do we gain by it? Can you tell me of a soul that ever departed from the will of God that did not suffer in that very thing in which he pleased himself?

The sin of sowing weeds may be forgiven, but the reaping must be according to the sowing. The former is grace, the latter is government. Each acts in its own sphere, and neither interferes with the other... David was permitted to tread the courts of the sanctuary as a subject of grace (2 Sam. 12:20) before he was called to climb the rugged sides of mount Olivet as a subject of government (2 Sam. 15:30); and we may safely say that David's heart never had a deeper sense of divine grace than at the very time in which he was experiencing the righteous action of divine government.

I shall never reap the reward of my sins in eternal blessedness, for it is infinite grace; but in the way of righteous government I shall reap the reward of my iniquity down here.

The government of God for us is expressly a Father's government, while it is, none the less, that of One who, without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work... there is a government which is, none the less, the government of grace, because it is one absolutely intolerant of evil. We may repeat again that the toleration of evil is never grace.

Our thoughts, our words, and our actions are viewed as so many acts of seed sowing. All depends on whether we sow to the flesh or to the Spirit... This it is which determines the character of our sowing, and consequently the character of the reaping.