Okay, open up your Bibles, if
you would, to Galatians chapter 5. The name of the message is
gentleness, the fruit of the Spirit. So we've went through
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, and now we're on gentleness. And in Galatians chapter 5, as I've said in our past study,
the fruit of the Spirit is like a cluster of grapes. They're
all attached to the same vine. and they're being produced in
us because we are connected to the vine. the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it's the Holy Spirit who's producing this fruit in us. It's not natural to us. It's
not natural to us. It has to be worked in us. Christ
said this, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. I am the vine, and ye are the
branches. He that abideth in me, in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit. Singular again, see? Bring
forth much fruit, singular. That's the fruit of the Spirit.
For without me, you can do nothing. So this fruit we cannot produce.
That's what he's telling us. He says, those who are in the
vine will bring forth much fruit because we're in Christ, but
it's without him we can't do nothing. Oh, what a constant
reminder, isn't it? That without Christ, we can do
absolutely nothing. Again, one cluster of the grapes
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and temperance. Those are the fruit of the Spirit.
And knowing it's called the fruit of the Spirit, again, as I said
earlier, it's not natural to us. It's not something we can
produce. As we found out there, without Christ, we can do nothing.
So we can't produce this fruit within ourselves. The Holy Spirit
has to produce it in us. The reason we can't produce this
fruit is because if you're not born again, then we're corrupted
by sin. We're corrupted by sin, and no
good fruit springs from a bad tree, does it? But we have to
be grafted into that divine, don't we? The Lord Jesus Christ.
And then the Holy Spirit produces in us that which is called the
fruit of the Spirit. Now it works. Remember the opposite? is the works of the flesh. That's
what we produce naturally. But the fruit, that which we
do not produce naturally, is produced in us by the Holy Spirit
of God. And remember, that's all by divine
power. He produces that fruit within us, but with the same
power that he used to raise Christ from the grave, the Holy Spirit
does. And it's the same power that raised us from our dead
state, right? Remember the dead state we were
in? We couldn't do anything spiritually. We were dead. And we've been
raised from that deadness. And we're now alive in Christ.
And now the Holy Spirit's producing this fruit within us. This is
which is not natural. And also think of this. These
things are natural to our God. He's the epitome of love. Everlasting
love. Oh my. Everything. Joy. Joy comes from Him. Peace. We now have peace with
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent the great peacemaker
to reconcile us to God. Long-suffering. We looked a couple
weeks ago how long-suffering God was with us. Right? Gentleness. goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such as there is no law. So these
things are natural to God but unnatural to us. So let's read
verses 22 to 26 of Galatians chapter 5 to see the context
here. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such as there is no law. And
they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let
us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vainglory,
provoking one another, envying one another. Now last week we
looked at long-suffering. The long-suffering of our great
God in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. And we
clearly saw in our text that our great sovereign God is long-suffering
with his people. And he's long-suffering with
this world too because the only reason is because there's still
more sheep to be saved. There's still more sheep to be
saved, beloved. That's why our Lord didn't come back yet. He's
still gathering in sheep. That's why it's so important
for the gospel message to go out from here and go into the
world. Because we don't know. He might be using that to gather
sheep in other countries. Or he might be using that to
build up sheep. We have no idea. But we know
his word won't return void, right? So out it goes from this place.
Let me finish up with some long-suffering, some thoughts on long-suffering,
which is wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. We looked last week
at the long-suffering of God. Now let's just look for a quick
moment at how God works that in us. Long-suffering, being
worked in us, gives us the ability to endure trials. Gives us the ability to endure
suffering. gives us the ability to endure
temptation. And remember, these trials come
from our heavenly father. And isn't it amazing that he
gives us the strength and the grace to overcome them? Our heart can be so heavy and
so just down. And He can give us joy and peace
at a time when we just feel so low. And that joy and that peace
is stirred up in us. And we end up rejoicing in the
Lord. Grace experienced in the soul
makes saved sinners slow to anger. And that's what longsuffering
does. It makes us slow to anger. We don't lash out like we used
to, right? Never react to a situation if
you can. Always try, if someone trying
to get you fired up, and people try to do that just for fun,
and if they do that, don't react. Try not to react to that situation. Pray, say, Lord, please make
me patient during this time. Help me not to lash out and say
something I'm going to regret later. I've done that many times,
and then regretted it so bad later. Oh, my. Done it with my family. Done
it with my friends. Thankfully, people forgive us. And, you know, we are to be quick
to admit we're wrong, right? That's something hard for humans
to do, isn't it? I was wrong, right? There was a TV show a long time
ago and Arthur Fonzarelli, right? He could never admit I was wrong. Well, that's natural to us, isn't
it? I was wrong, right? That's all we have to say. Please
forgive me. Oh my, my, oh my. And our Lord gave us an example
to follow. in himself. He was spit upon. He was cruelly treated. Think
of his long suffering with those around him. I know he's God.
I know he's God, like, do we not? But what an example for
us. to not react in situations, to
just calmly let the Lord deal with it. Vengeance is mine, saith
the Lord. I always remember that when someone
comes against me or someone says something. I always just remember
vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. You know what it is, too? Remember this, too, when people
start at you about what you believe and all that? The reason they're
doing that to you is because they can't get to Christ. If humans could get to Christ,
they'd rip him off the throne. But they can't. They can't do
that, number one. How do we know that? Well, they
yelled, crucify him, crucify him. Didn't they? They killed the Prince of Glory.
Now, he willingly gave his life, but we're going to see this morning
in the main service that they're accountable for what they did. Both truths, God foreordained
that Christ was going to going to die on the cross. He allowed
it to happen. But the other truth is that they
by wicked hands took our Lord and slayed him. And in our natural
state, I know I'd have been right there with him before the Lord saved me. I'd
have been right there with him, guys. And I think it's true of
all of us in our natural state. Can't get at Christ till they
get at his people. And all these things are happening
according to God's providence. Think of this, too. He was in perfect obedience to
the Father. No matter where his footsteps
walked, he was in perfect obedience. You know this, too? I was thinking
of that. Everything he endured in life and in death, everything,
everything he endured, he endured as our substitute. to satisfy
the law and justice of God for us. Everything he went through,
he did that for us, beloved, that we might be saved. Isn't
that amazing? So let us be long-suffering when
we're going through things and, oh my. Think of this too, even
when his disciples displayed another ignorance of the things
that he taught, he was patient with them. He didn't get mad. He was so patient with them,
so long-suffering with them. When they were filled with unbelief
and fear, He showed them their folly, not by belittling them
and saying, oh, come on. No. No, but by being gentle with
them, being long-suffering with them. He's amazing. Our Savior is absolutely incredible.
And what did he do? He patiently just taught them
the same thing over and over and over again, didn't he? What's he do for us? He just
patiently teaches us the same thing over and over and over
again, doesn't he? And we like Peter say, Lord, help my unbelief.
I don't care if the strongest saint, look at Elijah. He was, like, incredible. And
there he is, right? And, you know, I'm the only one,
Lord. My, oh, my. My, oh, my. The Lord says, no, you're not. No, you're not. I got a remnant. I got 5,000 who haven't bowed
their knee to Baal. And remember that. The Lord's
always got a remnant. Even when they forsook him, remember
they all left him? He didn't leave them. He didn't leave them. As a matter
of fact, he promises in Hebrews, I'll never leave them nor forsake
them. Never. My. Oh, he's such a, see how good
of a shepherd he is? So let us be long-suffering with
others too, beloved. My. When they were filled with
unbelief and fear, He showed them they're falling, again,
not by belittling, but by removing the cause of their fear. Remember
the ship, and the ship is just rocking and everything, and he's
sleeping in down below, and they're terrified. And he comes up, and,
oh, ye of little faith, peace be still. Whoosh, it was like
glass. But again, he didn't belittle
them, did he? He just said, oh, ye of little faith. Oh, our Lord
so good, beloved. My, oh my. When Peter was ashamed
to come to him, he sent messengers to Peter to tell him he'd meet
him in Galilee, and he did, didn't he? He met him there. Oh, how
great our Lord is. How long-suffering he is. Let
us be long-suffering. Let us be long-suffering with
others around us. And think of how long-suffering
he was to us when we scoffed and blasphemed him. We despised
Christ's blood and righteousness in the days of our life, and
then he snatched us as brands from the fire. Oh, my. Oh, the very jaws of hell by
his omnipotent mercy. and how we sinned against him,
and how we continue to sin against him, and yet he's so merciful
to us. As we were talking about, sister,
God sees us in Christ now. He doesn't see us, he sees Christ. Oh, how comforting that is to
our souls. You know what else too? He remembers
our frame. He remembers we're but dust,
Brother Brian. We're just dust, and he remembers
that. He remembers, he's so merciful to us. Oh, and think about this. Brother Zane, he refuses to deal
with us according to our sins anymore. He deals with us in
Christ. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's
wonderful, my dear brothers and sisters. It's absolutely wonderful.
You know, we're bathed in the blood of Christ. There's a fountain, right? Under
we go. We're bathed in the blood of
Christ, beloved. My oh my. Clothed in his perfect
righteousness. Robed in the righteousness of
Christ and forgiven all our sins. So let us be patient in long-suffering
with others. Now let's look at today's topic.
The Holy Spirit rots in us, gentleness. Look at this. Again, this is
not natural to us. Verse 22 and 23. But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, or
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against
such there is no law. Look at that. Goodness. Do you know that any good we
do comes from God? And do you know we don't even
know when we do good? Isn't that amazing? Remember
those when the Lord says, He said, when you did this to my
brother, you did it unto me. You gave him a cup of water.
You came visit me when he was sick. He said, you did it unto
one of mine. You did it unto me. We had no idea. We just go there
because we love them, right? We want to encourage them. You
guys went to see Betty because you wanted to encourage her and
let her know you love her. Well, that's goodness. That's the goodness
of God working in you. Isn't that amazing? My, oh, my. And we give Him all the glory,
don't we? We give Him all the praise. My. It's all Him. When I get together with you
men, we do breakfast and stuff, I get so excited. I think I get more out of the
conversations than you all do. You'd probably say the same,
but I come away just so thankful. And when the ladies and Vicki
and I go out sometime, it's just so wonderful. Or we come over
and visit you at your house, and it's wonderful. It's just
a wonderful time. Right? Just a sweet fellowship. Well,
that's the Lord working that love and joy and peace and goodness
all in us, gentleness all in us. You know, the Greek word for
gentleness is defined as useful. I found that interesting. Useful.
First meeting, useful. Then I thought, well, we're just
instruments in God's hands. And when you tie it to what he
said about, well, you gave him a cup of water in my name, or
you went and visited him. Just instruments in God's hands. It's amazing. Useful. Then profitable. Well, the Lord said that we're
all unprofitable servants, but then he makes, now we see he
makes us profitable. Isn't that amazing? In our natural
state, we're unprofitable. But in Christ, we're profitable
for God, because somehow he uses us in our sinfulness, too, to
bring glory to him. Well, just in saving us brings
glory to him, doesn't it? We're wretched sinners. We don't
deserve to be saved. He saves us and we spend the
rest of our lives praising his mighty name for what he did.
Isn't that amazing? Oh my. And then it means kindness
and goodness and gentleness. You ever notice how the Lord
changes you? We're not the same people we were 10 years ago.
If we'd been saved that long, we're not the same people. However
long we've been saved, from the point the Lord saved us till
now, we're not the same people. We're new creatures in Christ. Why do we have a burden for souls?
Why do we have a burden for loved ones and friends and family that
aren't saved? We never had that before we were
saved, did we? We cared about them when they died, of course
we were. But why now do we have a burden that the Lord would
reveal himself to them? Well, that comes from God, beloved.
That comes from the Holy Spirit working that in us. It's not
natural for us. What's natural for us is look
out for number one. Now we're concerned about others,
more so than ever. Isn't that amazing? That's why
I rejoice when the gospel goes out and I'm like, oh my gosh,
look at this, look what the Lord's doing. Isn't it amazing? It's absolutely incredible, beloved. So God's working in us a kind,
gentle spirit. That's what this goodness is.
It's a kind, gentle spirit with one another and with others that
we meet. We now express ourselves with
words that are easy to be asked and with deeds that manifest
our Christian love. Just even by coming. Coming to church, being with
one another, supporting the gospel. All that's included in that.
Isn't that wonderful? My. And these deeds manifest true
Christian love that we did not have before. And the Holy Spirit's
working on us now. I think I've told you now, I
told Vicki not long ago, I just want to pour my life out for
Christ now. The whole reason I'm here is
to glorify God. Whole reason you're here is to
glorify God. Isn't that amazing? And we love
our families and our friends, but the real reason we're here,
the Lord saved us. And we are, even though we don't
feel like this, we are monuments to the grace of God. Monuments to the grace of God.
Remember last week? Created to glorify Christ. created
for Christ's glory, that we might be saved. But that lame man,
he was lame from his mother's womb. And he was created that
the works of Christ would be worked in him and that the healing
and the miracle that was done would bring glory to God, could
bring glory to Christ. And then we're gonna see today,
opened up a door then for Peter just to proclaim Christ. It's amazing. And we're not to render evil
for evil, are we? We're not. Think about what a
good master the Lord Jesus Christ was. Think of what a good master
he was and how long-suffering again he was and how gentle he
is with us. Here's a story from the 1800s. I found this and I
thought I'd repeat this. Preacher of old said this. He
said, not long ago I saw a man mounted on a horse. It was very
heavy loaded. The man was beaten, his poor
half-starved horse, cruelly. So he was on there just beating
that horse. Because the wheels had got stuck in the mud. So
he's obviously pulling a wagon and the wheels got stuck in the
mud. So instead of helping the horse and pulling him out, he's
beating the horse. And obviously this is from the
1800s. The more the man whipped and swore and wished the horse
might die, the more frightened the animal became. So it's having
the opposite effect by him being angry with him. And by whipping
him, it's having the exact opposite effect that the man wanted. And
it made him even more mad. And then he went on to say, the
more he did that, the less able the horse was to perform what
the man so unreasonably demanded. He says, as I witnessed the painful
sight, I could not but hope that the local horse tamer might come
along and teach the cruel driver that kind and cheering words
would prove much more effectual in making the horse do as he
desired. One may ask whether one who is
born cross and crabbed and cruel can ever hope to become gentle. Let them listen to the text.
The fruit of the spirit is gentleness. Oh my, isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? That's
what he's done in us, isn't it? Oh, now turn to John. Now I set
that up to turn to John chapter 21, look at this. Now here is
such a clear example of how good a master our Lord is, how gentle
he is. How gentle he is. Remember that
guy, he's beating on that horse, right? He's beating on that horse.
The horse not doing what he wants. Now look at this in John chapter
21. Starting in verse 15. Now remember
the setup for this. Peter had denied the Lord three
times. He said, I'll never deny you, Lord. I'll never deny you.
And the Lord said, before the cock crows three times, you're
going to deny me. And now Peter was ashamed, right?
He actually kept himself away. He went back to fishing. Look
how gentle our Lord is. Look at this. This is just, this
is such an incredible portion of scripture. I know we all know
it, but when we look at it in light of that, that story I read,
look at this. So when they had dined, Jesus
sayeth to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? He sayeth unto him, yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He sayeth unto him, feed my lambs.
Do you notice he's not even mentioned what Peter's done? Do you notice
that? Amen, brother. It's washed under the blood.
It's gone. It's gone. Amen, brother Travis. That's awesome. Yeah. And then
he said it to him the second time. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou me? He saith, yea, Lord, thou knowest
that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my sheep.
Look at this. Look how gentle. Look how gentle
he is with them. He saith unto him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because
he said unto him the third time. Now, how many times did Peter
deny him? Three times, right? Three times, three questions.
Look at this, this is amazing. You talk about take all that
burden away from Peter. saith unto him the third time,
Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because
he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said,
Lord, thou knowest all things. What a statement. Thou knowest
all things. He knows our heart, he knows our thoughts. Thou knowest
that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my
sheep. Look at that. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself,
and walked whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou
shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee,
and carry thee, whither thou wouldest not. This spake he,
signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had
spoken this, he said unto him, Follow me. My goodness, beloved! Isn't that
wonderful? He didn't chide him. Now modern
day religion, I'll tell you what, you do something wrong, they're
gonna tear you apart, man. They're gonna exclude you. They're
gonna, oh man, it beats you to the ground. But look at that, Peter denied
the Lord three times, three times. And what love we see, what gentleness
we see with him with his sheep, right? What gentleness. Oh, see,
what an example for us to be gentle with one another. And
we have that here, beloved. Thankfully, we have that here. The spirit of unity, the Holy
Spirit of God working in us, producing these things in us.
It's wonderful, beloved. Absolutely wonderful. So Marvot,
the gentleness of our great God with his people, And you know
what this shows us? You know what this shows us?
This shows us what the scripture says. He does not deal with us
according to our iniquities. Hey? Amen. Praise the Lord, sister. Amen. He does not deal with us
according to our iniquities. Oh my! Does that make your soul
filled with joy, beloved? Oh my. Let's read verse 22 again
and 23 together. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love. Joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. My, oh my. We see here the fruit
of the spirit is gentleness. Do you know longsuffering is
always accompanied with gentleness? They go hand in hand. They're
in unity. If someone's long-suffering with
someone, they're going to be gentle with them. They're going
to be patient. They're going to be kind. And gentleness is seen in the
born-again believers, the blood-washed believer, in our attitude towards
others. Because we see our Savior, we
just saw in John 21, how gentle He is with Peter. He didn't reward
him according to his iniquities, did He? His brother Travis said,
they're gone. His sins are gone. Washed in
Christ's precious blood, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? My. So this gentleness that the
Holy Spirit's working in us is seen in our attitude towards
others, our speech to and about others, and our treatment of
others. Now I get convicted of that. You know, I get, do you get convicted
of that? My, my speech isn't always the
best. My attitude towards others are
not always the best, especially when I'm in the car. Right? My, my. Zane and I had it happen to me
this week. I was throwing my hands up at somebody. Just. You know what that constantly
tells me when that stuff happens? Wayne, you need Christ. Wayne,
you need Christ. Wayne, you need Christ. Every
second of every minute of every day. It's just a constant reminder.
Oh, my. And our attitudes towards others
and our treatments of others is exemplified in the gentleness
of Christ. Again, as we saw the Lord with
Peter, so mild, so mild with him, so peaceful, a moderate
spirit bestowed upon, and that's what is bestowed upon us, a mild,
peaceful, moderate spirit. Because now we've been made partakers
of the divine nature. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, washed in the precious blood of Christ. And
I like what Henry said a long time ago. He said, those who
are forgiven, forgive much. It's easy for us to forgive now,
isn't it? Because we've been forgiven so much, so much, so
much. All our sins forgiven, washed
in that fountain filled with blood, gone. Gone. Never to be remembered by God
anymore. Not like what Brother Travis
said, right there in the text. Never to be remembered. Gone. I'm not gonna read John 21 the
same way since you said that, Brother. That was awesome. Oh, and Scripture says this,
the wisdom that is from above is gentle, in James chapter 3
verse 17. And this gentleness, again, is
wrought in us by the Holy Spirit of God. It's not natural for
us. And we know it's not natural
for us. We know. But it's the comfort of the Holy
Spirit, the promised one, the sent one, that's working all
this in us. All this in us. all according
to his grace, mercy, and will. And this gentleness is not a
passive spirit of compromise. It's not that. We don't compromise. We stand firm on what we believe.
It's not a spirit of cowardice. It's not a display of depravity.
No, we become different than we were. because the Holy Spirit's working
in us. And remember this too, our Lord Jesus Christ was the
most gentle man who ever lived. He was the most loving man who
ever lived. He was the most peaceful man who ever lived. He was the
most long-suffering man who ever lived. He went about doing good. My oh my. And gentleness is the
very opposite of harshness. Severity And pride and arrogance
and violence are the exact opposite of gentleness. It is a charitable spirit of
brotherly love and kindness that causes God's saints in this world
to take great care neither to offend nor hurt one another.
That's why we don't desire to hurt each other. Because the
Holy Spirit's working in us gentleness. Along with love. Remember what
one of the distinctive marks of the believer is in Satan can't
counterfeit? Satan can't counterfeit these
things. He can't counterfeit these. These
are the fruit of the spirit. Now people can act gentle for
a while but then it's going to come out. It's going to come
out. They can seem to love the brethren
and then it's going to come out. Oh my. And this causes the believer
to relieve the needs and burdens of others and be patient and
forbearing with one another and with the offenses of others toward
us. And it also prevents severe judgment and retaliation. I'm
not going to look at you and say look what you're doing because
I know what I'm doing. I know how sinful I am, even
though I'm saved. See, when I was in religion,
I was always looking at other people and saying, look what
they're doing. But my eyes weren't on Christ. And when I look to
Christ, I see I'm such a worm. I'm such a sinner. And I can't look at no one else,
because I'm the chief of sinners. But praise God, there's forgiveness
in Christ, right? Paul's going to write, we're
going to see this in the next chapter. He says this in verse
3, for if a man think himself to be something when he's nothing,
he deceiveth himself. What did Scott used to say? We're
a bunch of zeros until you put the one in front of us. And that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's so true. We're nothing. We're nothing. So gentleness
causes the believer to weep with those who weep and rejoice with
those who rejoice. And believers are not bitter,
but we're benevolent. We're not harsh, but we're helpful.
We're not mean, but we're merciful to people. And this is all being
worked in us. It's not natural, like I said,
but isn't it amazing? We might not see it in ourselves,
and chances are we don't see it in ourselves, but others will
see it. And praise be to God that he
works this in us. and all the other fruits of the Spirit, again,
because they're not natural to us, and He's working in us. He's
working these things in us, beloved. We're being conformed to the
image of Christ. We're new creatures in Christ,
again, born again by the Holy Spirit of God, and we're bought
with a price. We've been bought with a price,
and that's the blood of Christ, beloved. We're bought with a
price. And again, we're being conformed
to the image of Christ. And all we can say is, praise
the mighty name of Jesus. Praise his mighty name for what
he's doing, for what he's done for us and what he's doing in
us. Glory be to him. My brother Brian, would you close
us in prayer?