If you take your Bibles and turn
back with me to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. And last time we looked at this,
we saw that the beginning works, and I didn't get to finish the
message, so I'm going to try to finish some of it tonight.
I'm still not going to be able to get through it all. But we looked at what the inward
effects of everyone who is born again of God. If you are a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, there are effects. When the Spirit
comes and quickens you to life and faith in Christ, there will
be effects. And the first effect we see in
the text is this, the warfare. Every believer in Jesus Christ,
the moment they believe, the moment that Faith comes. There is a new creation of God
given to every believer. It is what Paul refers to in
Ephesians chapter 5 as the new man. It is what Peter describes
as the divine nature. It is what Paul says that this
new man is created after God in true holiness. We have a new
man, a new nature, a new heart, a new mind, a new will that was
not there before. John says of this new nature
that whatsoever is born of God sinneth not. Whatsoever is born
of God sinneth not. And yet we as believers understand
this, that we have still sin remaining in us. This is what
the apostle calls in Ephesians, the old man. The old man. He said put off the old man and
his deeds. Put on the new man, which is
created after God in true holiness. And so we have two distinct natures
then, and Paul says in 17 that these two are at war with each
other. This is the first effect of inward
grace, is a warfare. There is a turning to Jesus Christ. There is a submission to Jesus
Christ. And that is because we have now
a nature that is able to submit. Whereas before, Jesus said this,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. And the drawing is that of the
new man. The giving of the new nature.
And I explained that in the Song of Solomon. When God looks at
the Shulamite, He said, we see as it were a company of two armies.
You know, another illustration of that was Rebecca. Remember
how she had the twins, Jacob and Esau, in her womb? She didn't know they were twins.
She was in pain, in misery, because these two were fighting each
other in the womb. And she asked the question, she
says, if the promise is true, if this is the heir, then why
am I thus? Don't you ask yourself that question?
If I'm a son of God, why am I thus? That's what John Newton said,
why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly could they be worse that
never knew the Savior's name. Why? Because we know the nature
of the old man that is in us. But we know this, that everyone
that is born of God seeks to do righteous. We seek to do those
things that are pleasing to God. And yet, everything we do, we
know this, is mixed with sin. Everything we seek to do, that
is, we seek righteousness, but everything we do is tainted with
sin. Therefore, we can trust none
of it. We can lean on none of our good
works. Yes, believers do good works.
We are to be useful. We are to serve one another.
We are to love one another. But in the end of the day, do
we depend upon that at all? No. Our righteousness is His. My righteous and my total dependence
of acceptance with God is based on the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, not mine. Not mine. And so, this is the
result of inward grace, and yet here's the hope. Listen. Paul
said that in that next verse. Because there's a struggle, you're
going to feel like there's no hope. You're going to feel like
God's surely going to put me away. I want to do righteous
and I can't. I want to live as He says, but
I don't. Surely He's going to punish me.
No! If you are led of the Spirit,
you are not under the law. That's good news. What he's saying
is this. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. And listen to that again. There
is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. And
there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
He just keeps saying that every second of every day. Right now
there is no condemnation. Why? We're not under the law.
Free from the guilt of sin. Free from the power of sin, though
not yet free from its presence. And so all who believe in Christ,
though we have a new nature that cannot sin, we confess this,
that we are still prone to sin. That's why the apostle here mentions
these works of the flesh. Now look at that. He says, now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness. These are all sexual sins and
perverted sexual sins. Then he deals with religious
sins, idolatry and witchcraft. Then he deals with sins of the
heart, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies. Then he deals with the outward
effects of all of these inward sins, envy, murders, drunkenness,
reveling, and such like. Why is the apostle mentioning
these works of the flesh? What's the purpose? Why is he
doing this? Is he doing this so the believer
can look into the world and start pointing his finger at other
people? Is that what he was doing? He said, you should see these
sins. You need to condemn these sins when you see them. That's
not what he's saying. He's telling you of the sins
that are in your heart. He said, these are the works
of the flesh. What did he just tell you? That you have the flesh
and the spirit in you. Now he's speaking to you and
me individually. This is your flesh, not someone
else's. These things are in you. I remember, I told you this,
I think I told you this before, I got invited to a Thanksgiving
dinner to some people, and they were very nice people, very religious
people, but they had asked me, and they asked me questions,
I usually know I'm not going to get invited. I'm not trying
not to get invited back. I'd like to be invited back.
Food was good. But I'm not trying to get disinvited. I'm not trying to pick a fight.
I don't do that. I just usually just try to maintain
silence. But when they ask me questions,
I surely need to answer. And somebody was asking me a
question about some evil thing somebody had done. And I said,
well, that's no worse than the things inside of us. And they
were highly offended. I said, those things that hit
their head, we are capable of. And they were, I never got invited
back, that's okay. But I'm just saying that this
is in us, friends, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, adultery,
fornication, idolatry, witchcraft. Hey, did you ever think of this,
witchcraft, that you're guilty of witchcraft? You ever want
to know the future? You ever look for a sign? What
is that? An evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign. And then what the Lord said,
you're looking at one. I look out there all the time
for signs of something. Witchcraft, we're trying to take
from, that's what witches and sorcerers do is they try to take
power that doesn't belong to them. That's what we do. Idolatry,
we worship our children, our families, our jobs. We set those
things. Anything we set above Christ
is idolatry, isn't it? Isn't that in you? Emulations. Look at this. Hatred. Well, that's an easy
one. Ever hated? Variance. We don't use that word.
It's an argumentative spirit. Anybody argue? Ever argue? emulations, that's a zeal of
someone else's ruin. Ever want someone else you've
despised so much to be ruined? Okay, just think of your politicians. See how this hits home? strife, fault finding, blaming, seditions, divisions or schisms,
civil or religious, heresies. The root word here is opinion.
Ever give your opinion that wasn't right? Ever try to give your opinion
to God? We do. It's taking the word of
God and adding our opinion to it as a heresy. That's what it
is. And then the outpouring of this
is envy, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like. Envy,
you envy? Murder. Well, I've never done
that. You hated someone? The Lord said that's the same.
Don't diminish that. Our Lord said that you look upon
a woman to lust after, you've committed adultery with her already
in your heart. Sin is what God sees it as. It doesn't matter what you and
I think about sin. God is a judge of sin and this
is what He said. This is sin. And so now we who
believe on Christ, what do we do? I confess this is sin. That's me. I confess, if God moved his hand
from me, these sins would be overflowing. We are prone and tempted constantly
to these things. and if left to ourselves. How many examples in scripture
has God given of godly men who have done horrible things? A lot. God, if God didn't say it in
the word of God, I wouldn't believe it. He was a just man. He was a saved man. And yet he,
in a drunken stupor, committed incest with his own children. Moses, in religious zeal, murdered
a man. Aaron, committed idolatry. You remember the high priest
of God made a molten calf and then allowed the people to have
an orgy. This was God's high priest. Samson committed adultery and
killed himself. Committed suicide. David committed murder in his
heart against Nabal. He wanted to kill Nabal. You
remember that? And Abigail stopped him. But later on, we know this,
that he committed adultery, and to cover it up, he murdered her
husband. So we have multiple instances
of this. To prove what? These are our
sins. And so what makes us to differ
from the rest of this world in this? God washed us from our
sins. God sanctified us by the power
of the Holy Spirit. God justified us in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. That's
the difference. If God hadn't made that difference,
there would be no difference. And so we confess, every true
believer having this work of grace done in our heart, we confess
this, I am the sinner. I am the sinner. We confess that in our flesh,
as Paul did in Romans 7, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But my hope is this, that the
blood of Christ, listen to this word as John said, cleanseth
us from all our sins. That word E-T-H is vitally important. It's a present perfect tense.
He has cleansed me. He is right now cleansing me
and He shall forever cleanse me. That's the power of the blood
of Christ. He cleanseth us from all our
sins. He cleanseth us. So now we have a new nature where we love,
we believe on Christ and we turn to Him but yet we still have
this old nature. Now look at this, the fruits
of the Spirit again. Here we go. This is the effects
of the new nature. This is the work of the Spirit. Now the works of the flesh, these
belong to you. This is yours. But this fruit
we're going to talk about is not something you produce. Now
religion believes that you can. But religion believes that the
fruit of the Spirit really is produced by your efforts. If
you do this and do this and do this, then the fruit of the Spirit
will come out. That's not how this works. I'm
not a gardener, but that's not how fruit works. I know what
work is. It's something you determine
to do. It's something you do. It's hard and it's sweaty. I know what work is. is something God does. You can
plant the seed, you can water it, you can tend to it, and it
can still die. Joanne, you had that happen with
y'all's garden? Joanne, I don't think anybody
works so hard to have a garden before, as Joanne, you can tell,
they can tell you that story later, but they worked super
hard for that garden, and that was just, it just came to nothing. So you can work as hard as you
want to, if God doesn't give the increase on fruit, it just
ain't coming. It's a work of God. So this work
of the Spirit that is in every believer, listen to this list
he gives here. He said, but the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace. Long-suffering. Gentleness. Goodness. Faith, meekness, and temperance, moderation. What's
wrong with those things? You can see what's wrong with
the other things. Naturally, you can see what's wrong with
the other thing. Naturally, you know all the works of the flesh
are evil. You know that. Everybody knows
that. When you hear these things, they're light. Who doesn't want
to be loved? Who doesn't want to have joy?
Or peace? So these things are light, and
I'm going to deal with the first three here. I've tried to, I've
dealt with this before, but I'm going back over, I'm going to
run and start at it again. Just like I've been doing this all
along, just trying to run and start to get through it. Love. First of all, the true nature
of everyone that is born of the Spirit loves Christ. That's just
so. We love Christ. We love Christ
more than our life. We love Christ more than the
things of this world. And we love Him because He first
loved us. Love was not generated in me. Love was implanted in me. I didn't have it. But in the
new nature, God gave me the ability to love. And we love him because
he first loved us. This is in 1 John, 1 John chapter 3. And he said,
behold. He says, stop a minute. Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. This is a very humble look concerning
the love of God. Behold this. Behold what kind
of love is this? What kind of love is this? That
we, he's astonished, that we, sinners of the greatest and basest
sort, should be called sons of God. Now you ask the religious
world if they should be called sons of God. They say, yeah,
yeah. It's no big thing that we should
be called the sons of God. But to us, it is a great thing.
It is a great thing because we know who we are. We're sinners.
Behold what manner of love the Father bestowed upon us that
we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth
us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And what? It does not yet appear
what we shall be. Go look in the mirror. It does
not yet appear. Look at the things we do. it
doth not yet appear what we shall be. But I know this, when he
shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as
he is. And he says in chapter five, in verse seven, he says
this, I'm sorry, I'm in the right place,
hold on a second. No, chapter four, chapter four.
And verse 10, he says, herein is love. Not that we love God,
but that he loved us. And how do we know he loved us?
Because I'll tell you, sometimes I just don't think he does. Sometimes
the way things are going and the circumstances that I find
myself in, I don't feel love. We have a big deal in this generation
about feeling loved. Herein is love. How do I know? sent his only begotten son into
the world that we might live through him. That's how I know
he loved me. Regardless of what happens to me in my circumstance,
this is how I know God loves me. He sent his only begotten
son. But I want you to see that all
those who are loved, we do love him, not like we want to, not
like we should. Often we're like the Shulamite
bride and we are lazy. Remember her reclining in her
bed, he comes to the door, knocks, and she does not open to him.
She said, how can I get up? I've already put off my robe
and my slippers and I can't get up. It's too much work. And what does he say? Open to
me, my love, my dove, my undefiled. You hear what he just called
you? Undefiled. And a lot of times we don't.
But you know the difference between a professing believer and a true
believer? When he leaves, when he leaves, you remember
what she did? She got up eventually, and she
started perfuming herself, making herself ready, and then she opened
the door, he's gone. How often do you do that? You
neglect him, and then what do you try to do? Try to perfume yourself. And then when he's gone, what
do you do? You search the streets until you find him. I cannot
live without him. I gotta have him. Why? Because he's put love in our
hearts. We cannot do without him. I know what the disciple
Peter, when the Lord asked him, will
you go away too? He said, Lord, where are we going to go? Have
you ever been there where you ain't got no place else to go?
If you got someplace else to go, you'll go. But the believer
ain't got no place to go but Christ. Lord, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of eternal
life. And secondly, this love is that is manifest toward the
brethren. It's easy to say, I love God,
isn't it? Is that the easiest thing to say? Why? Because you
don't have to prove it. You just say it. Well, they really
don't know. I can't see in your hearts. I
just got to take you at your word. But I tell you what, there
is a manifestation as to how we know we love God, if we love
the brethren. John makes that very clear. He
said, if a man say, 1 John chapter 4 verse 20, if a man say I love
God and hateth his brother, listen, he's a liar. I like John. He's a pretty plain spoken fella,
isn't he? He doesn't mince words. Don't tell me how much you love
God if you don't love the brethren. Why? These two are tied. You
see, because Christ has put his nature in us And I love him,
and if his nature's in you, I'm gonna love you. We're in union
together. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he's not seen? I tell you what, we love the
brethren. And I do ask this, God give me
more love for Christ and the brethren. Can we not grow in
this grace? Is there not room to grow? Have
you reached the pinnacle of love yet? Are you finished where you
can't love more? That only happens when you put
off this flesh. But until then we can grow. Who
does the growing here? Can you make yourself love him
more? Or do you need him? I'm going to ruin the surprise.
If you want to love him more, guess what's coming? Trials. Difficulties. Why? Because it shows us our need
of him. It moves our hearts away from
the affections of the things of the world and sets our affection
on him. Now look at this second one,
joy. Joy. Who doesn't want joy? Joy. The joy of the believer, listen
to me, is not found in his situation. The joy of the fruit of the Spirit
is not found in our circumstance. Listen to me. The joy of the
Spirit is not found in anything in this world. You're not going
to find this joy in the things of the world. Now, there are
things in the world that we do joy over. But those things, listen,
how do you know it's not spiritual? Because it doesn't last. That's
how you know. It comes and it goes. I bet when you got that turkey,
you was happy. You did. I heard it in your voice
when you was talking on the phone. You got one. I was happy for
you. And about a week after you eat
it, what are you going to do? There's not going to be so much
joy. It's going to diminish. That's everything in this life.
It's fleeting. That's not the joy we're talking
about. That joy is gone in a moment.
But the joy of the spirit is one that continues because it
is founded on spiritual and eternal things. Go to 1 Peter chapter 1. Go to 1 Peter chapter 1 verse
8. He's talking about us going through
trials, troubles, tribulations. And yet he's going to talk about
rejoicing in the very teeth of your trouble. That you can, you will have joy
in the very flames of your affliction. Look at that in verse seven,
that the trial of your faith, much more precious than gold
would perish. though it be tried with fire, might be found in
the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
whom having not seen you, what? You love. You love, isn't that
right? We haven't seen him. I haven't
seen him. I love him. In whom though you see him and
though, in whom, though you see him not, Yet believing what? You rejoice, with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your soul. Notice that our joy is never gone, because our joy
rests in whom? Not what? In whom? whom I've not seen. The one I've
not seen, the one I love, the one I believe in, there rests
my joy. My joy is in Him. Now believers, it is true we
may lose sight of our joy. We may be overwhelmed with grief
and sorrow, Our circumstances may be so painful, yet our joy
may not even at the time be felt, but it is not gone. It is not
gone. David said this, restore unto
me what? The joy of my salvation. At times,
you know, there are times where The clouds could be so thick
and black. But yet, did that stop the sun
from shining? Is the sun ceased to shine because
the clouds cover it? No. No, it doesn't. Matter of fact, we still feel
some effects of the sun even in the darkest and the coldest
of times. If we didn't have the sun, we'd all just freeze to
death immediately. But the sun has its effects still,
though they might be slight, yet there is some joy. So, listen,
our joy then is in the person of Christ that we see by faith. And so our joy is based on our
love and faith then, isn't it? As we look to Him and as we behold
Him, as we love Him, what is that insight? it incites joy. I'm gonna give
you a couple of passages. First, go to Psalm 21. Psalm
21. I think that's right. I think I got the wrong text. I did. This one says, The King
shall joy in thy strength, O Lord. In thy salvation how greatly
shall he rejoice. But the text that I was thinking
about is the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the
Lord is my strength. Now notice this, it's not my
joy is my strength. Why is that? Because what happens
to your joy? Is there any strength to be found
in your joy? No, it's fleeting. Listen to what my strength is.
It's His joy. What is the joy of the Lord?
God is always happy. Everything God does, He's always
content. He's always happy. He's perfect.
Listen to this. What is the joy of God? What
is His joy? And you're not going to believe
this. You. He rejoices over you. It is his joy to save you. That takes faith, doesn't it?
Because I can't see it. I can't see why he would ever
choose me. I can't see why he would ever redeem me, much less
call me and keep me. But is the joy of the Lord to
save me? Go to Zephaniah. Look at this
one. Zephaniah chapter three. Look
at verse 17. Now this is, God tells Jerusalem
to sing, to rejoice. Look at verse 14, we'll start
there. Sing, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Why? The Lord hath
taken away thy judgments. Isn't that something to be glad
about? You got something to be glad about? Listen to this. God
took away all your judgments. Not one judgment ever fall on
you. Not one. He hath cast out thine enemy.
Boy, that's good. No enemy shall ever take me away
from him. The king of Israel, even the
Lord is in the midst of thee. Listen to that. God himself dwells
in you. Isn't that something to rejoice
over? Thou shalt not see evil anymore. Is that true? This thing that happened, is
that evil? This thing we talked about before, this horrible thing,
is that evil? Did our brother, Joe, did evil
before him? God said it didn't. God said,
there shall no evil, not see evil anymore. In that day, it
shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not, and to Zion, let not thine
hands be slack. Listen, the Lord thy God is in
the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He
will joy over thee with singing. You realize God sings over you?
Isn't that astounding? You see the peanut character
with the Instead, by faith I should see
this, that God is singing over me. That obviously the cloud
is necessary for me. It's good for me. And therefore
in the midst of all that we face, listen to this, It is your father's
good pleasure, his joy, to give you the kingdom. How much higher is he than I?
How much higher is his love than mine? How many times do we give
begrudgingly? to people that we love, or even
people that deserve what we're giving them. And yet we don't
deserve any of it. And he said this, it is your
father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Is this not
something we can always joy in? We can. And this last thing, peace, peace. If we are truly believers in
Christ, listen to this, we are at peace with God. We are at
peace. We're not at peace in here. I
just told you that. You're not at peace. You won't
ever be at peace in here. But what gives me more peace
in here is the fact that I am at peace with God, or rather
God is at peace with me. Here some fool come up and said,
I made my peace with God. I didn't make my peace with God.
God made peace through the blood of his cross. That's what it
says in Colossians chapter one. He hath made peace. You that
are believers in Christ, this is the fruit of the Spirit, it
is peace with God. Peace with God. There is no animosity
between God and you. There is no warfare between God
and you. Christ, God nailed our offenses
to the cross and removed them. He nailed it to the tree, blotted
it out with his blood. We are at peace with God. Go to Philippians chapter 4.
I'm going to hurry up here. Philippians chapter 4. And I
may grab this and preach this again because this is so full
here in Philippians 4 concerning peace. And this thing that's
going on among the churches, and I hope that God be gracious
to give us peace. Give us peace in our hearts regardless
of the circumstances there. Peace. Look at this in Philippians
chapter 4 and verse, I don't know if I get there. Verse 4. Look at this. Rejoice in the
Lord always. Hey, when are you supposed to
rejoice in the Lord? When? Always. Rejoice in the Lord always. In every circumstance. In every
difficulty. In every affliction. In every
sorrow. In every pain. Listen. Rejoice
in the Lord. Always. And again, just in case
you missed it, I say rejoice. Rejoice. He said, let your moderation
be known to all men. The word moderation here, it's
the only place this word is used, but it means patient forbearing.
Let your forbearing be known to all men. To forbear, this
means to stand fast. Let your steadfastness be known
to all men. Steadfastness in what? Rejoicing. Let your steadfast rejoicing
be known to all men. Stand fast in this, that the
Lord rules over all things. And this will bring peace in
your mind, In your heart, if you really trust this, the Lord
rules over all things. The Lord rules over all things. Be steadfast in this, that God
is always present with you. Rejoice in this, God is always
present with you. He said this, I will never, no
never, No, never leave thee. When has He ever left you? Name one time that God has ever
left you. Now, I didn't say about how you feel. You feel like He's
left you. The circumstance may point to
the fact that it seems like He's left you. But God himself, who
cannot lie, said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Stand fast in this. Let all men know around you that
you believe this. I've got this. I had this over
my desk for many years. I can't find it. I'll have to
print another one and put it over there again. Listen to this.
I need constantly to remind myself that all things are of God. Don't
you? Talk about peace, if you want
real peace. I need to constantly remind myself
all things are of God. Let me not preach sovereignty
and then complain of my lot in life. Let me not talk of divine purpose
and spend my days murmuring about my trials and troubles. It is totally inconsistent with
faith in a sovereign Christ for me to question his providence.
Is that not right? Is that not totally inconsistent
to believe in a sovereign Christ and then question him when he
does something? Paul called covetous idolatry
and said, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I pray for submission, for with
it comes peace. Want to pee? Absolute submission
to the sovereign will God, comes peace. Let this steadfastness,
Paul said, you rejoicing in his sovereignty, you rejoicing in
his election, in his redemption, let that moderation be known
to all men. Verse 6, be careful for nothing. If you have peace, what will
be gone? Anxiety. Is it that true that
you can't have both? And anxious? So what do you say? Be careful for
nothing. Isn't that what the Lord told
you? He said take no thought for what you should eat or what
you should drink or what you should put on. Don't eclode the
beast. Don't the birds eat well? I got some big fat birds in my
yard and I never fed them once. And they're just fat. Blossoming. I saw the tulips
the other day and they were just, I didn't do it. Those people
planting those things didn't do a thing to get those plants to come up.
God clothed them. You anxious about something? Be anxious for nothing. anxious for nothing. But instead,
here's what you can do. Instead of that, in prayer, in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. If we want peace, Instead of
being anxious, take your cares and lay them at the feet of Christ. And if you pick them up again,
which I know you do, go back and lay them down again, trusting His providence to care
for you. And look what he said in verse
7, and the peace of God with passive understanding shall keep
your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. Now, what this
means is this. I got this the other day and
it was really just, it was excellent. An excellent illustration of
this. When you have little children, They're not anxious as to where
the food's gonna come from. They don't know what it actually
takes for their mom and dad to earn the money, to provide the
food. They don't know the complexities
of all the struggles their parents face. All they know is those
people love me and I'm gonna get fed. So what he's saying is this peace.
We don't know the intricacies of what God is doing. It's a
peace that passes our understanding. I can't understand how this is
all going to work together for my good. I don't know how. It's
above my pay grade. I don't get it. But you can have
peace without understanding. That's what he's saying. We can
have peace without understanding. I don't need to know what God
is doing. I don't need to know how he's going to work it out.
I don't need to know the intricacies of it. I know this. He loves
me, and he's going to feed me. He's going to take care of me.
He's going to clothe me, and he's going to give me what I
need. That's enough for a little child,
isn't it? Shouldn't that be enough for us? And the problem is, you're
trying to dig into something that don't belong to you. I know this thing, this murder
of our brother is very difficult for us to understand. Never seen anything like it in
my life. Never heard of anything in the church like this, ever. One pastor said, we are on new
ground here, we don't have any clue. But I want to tell you
this, the fruit of the Spirit is peace. And it's peace that
we don't have to understand how. We don't have to understand why
God is doing it this way to have peace. We can have peace that passes
understanding. This is through the Spirit. Love. Love for Christ and love for
his brethren. You love Christ? You love his brethren? You're born again, I know you
do. Because that's the fruit of the Spirit. Joy. Where's your joy? Is it in things
of the world? No, it's in Christ. He's my joy. And listen, Christ is my peace. The sovereignty of God causes
anxious fears to depart and gives me peace. even when I don't understand
what he's doing. May God help us cause these fruits
to grow in us by his own grace and power. And there's more. I hope the Lord blesses this
and helps you, strengthens you. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Follow this message with your
mercies and blessings. I pray that you cause these words
to grow in every believer. Strengthen us in the inner man. Give us grace and power. Mortify
the deeds of this old man. Put on by faith that which is
new and created after God in true holiness. Cause us to see the love of Christ
that should constrain us from sin. Bless your churches. Heal their pain. Cause us all
to look to Christ and long for His return. Save those that are outside of
Christ as you please, in Jesus' name.