Good morning. Galatians, Chapter five. Verse 22 and verse 23. But the fruit. Of the spirit. is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law.

Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for who you are. How we thank you for the cross of the blessed son. That by what he did. Were perfect in your sight. How we thank you for the gift of your spirit. How we thank you for your good providence. Lord, we ask that your gospel would be preached in the power of your spirit. And that you give us hearing ears and receptive hearts. Lord, we. Pray for our friends that are sick, ill. We pray for your healing hand to be upon them according to your will. Be with all your people wherever they meet and forgive us of our sins for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, Amen.

Turn to Matthew 13. Verse 18. Here you, therefore, the parable of the sower. When anyone here at the word of the kingdom and understand it not. Then come with the wicked one and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. But he that receiveth the seed in stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he no root in himself, but doeth for a while. For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that receiveth seed among the thorns, Is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful, but he that receives seed into the good ground, is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also bringeth, or which also beareth fruit. and bring it forth, some in hundredfold, some 60, and some 30.

Now, what was the difference between the good ground here and the other three hearers? Fruit. Fruit. The fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. And did you notice the way The Lord pointed out that some brought forth 30 fold, some 60, some 100, different degrees of bearing, but they all brought forth fruit, the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit.

Now, did you notice when I read in Galatians 5, it's the fruit of the spirit, not the fruit of your works. The fruit of the spirit, not the fruit of your flesh, but the fruit of the spirit. Now listen real carefully. Everyone who is born of the spirit has this fruit immediately. As soon as you're born again, you bear the fruit of God the Holy Spirit, no natural man, no unsaved man has the fruit of the Spirit. What we just read about in Galatians chapter 5. It's not found in the natural man. You have to have spiritual life to have the fruit of the Spirit.

Now the natural man has things that may look like this fruit. A natural man loves. A man loves his wife, loves his parents, loves his children. But it's not this kind of love, not the love that comes from God the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, and this is a very sobering thought, the natural man, the way you and I were born into this world, has no love for God. The carnal mind is enmity against God. When you go to work tomorrow, the people you're working with have no love to God. It may be someone in your home that you live with has no love to God, a natural man. Only the believer has this fruit of God, the Holy Spirit, and it's because they've been begotten of the Spirit of God.

Now, let me say this about fruit. I bet every one of us is thinking, how much fruit do I have? What kind of evidence am I showing of having this fruit? That works. That's all that is. And I bet everyone listening thought, how's my fruit? It's the fruit of the spirit. It's not a ground of assurance. You can't look at yourself and say, well, how am I doing in fruit? I must be saved. You've missed the gospel when you do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. This is the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit.

Now, the way I like to think of this first is the fruit of Christ. I want you to think about how Christ embodies the fruit of the Spirit. And look how beautiful this is. Think of this in terms of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Think of His love. His love to His Father. His love to us. His love to men. Think of His joy. Think of His peace. Think of His longsuffering. Think of his gentleness. Think of his goodness. Think of his meekness, his temperance. These are so beautiful as he embodies them.

Now I remember I read somewhere, and this made sense to me, it said the fruit of the Spirit is love. And it's demonstrated by joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. I can see that. And I've also read where there are three clusters in the fruit of the Spirit. The first three have to do with God. Love, joy, and peace. The second have to do with our attitude toward men, long suffering, goodness, gentleness. And the third cluster has to do with self, meekness, temperance, faith. And that makes some sense to me, but let's consider The fruit of God, the Holy Spirit.

Let me remind you of a scripture that is always an encouragement to me with regard to fruit. Hosea chapter 14, verse eight says, from me is that fruit found. That takes all the pressure off, doesn't it? From me is that fruit found.

Now the fruit of the spirit is love. This is the first thing he mentions. The fruit of the spirit. This is the work of God, the Holy Spirit. It comes from him. It's love. Now, like I've said, the natural man does not have this love. The natural man has no love for God. None at all, which is his crime, which is evil, but it's true nonetheless. The fruit of the spirit is love.

Now, every believer loves God for who he is. Now, if I love God, that means I love the sovereign God. I love the just God. I love the independent God. I love the immutable God. I love the all-powerful God. I love the all-wise God. I love the omnipresent God. You can't go anywhere where he's not. I love God in all of his glorious attributes. I love his self-existence. You know, I love to think of the fact that he has no needs. There's nobody like him. People have a tendency to think that God is just a bigger version of us. No, he's not. He's not like us at all. He's the God of glory. And every believer loves God. We love God the Father. We love God the Son. We love God the Spirit. We love God in all of His glorious attributes.

We love His people. You see, His people are His people. That's why we love them. And we love them because they love Him. We love men. We even love men that we don't like. Now, let me, there are people that you feel uncomfortable around and don't necessarily like the personality. You want them to be saved though, don't you? You want them to know the Lord. You want them to know his grace. We love men. And as far as that goes in preaching the gospel, we're in the people business. We want men and women to hear and believe the gospel. We love in that sense. You love everybody if you're a believer. That doesn't mean you like everybody, I realize that, but the people you don't like, you want them to know the Lord. You want him to save them by his grace. In that sense, the fruit of the Spirit is love. Love is so beautiful.

The fruit of the Spirit is joy. Joy is not happiness. Understand that. Happiness is based on circumstances. Everything's going my way, I'm happy. I'm a happy person. You know, I'm probably, I don't know how to say this, But I never think, am I happy or am I unhappy? Now, maybe that's odd on my part. I don't know. But I love what somebody said to Walter Groover when he was in Mexico. They said, Walter, are you happy? He said, what's that got to do with anything? And that's a good attitude about that. What's it got to do with anything? Happiness. I'm not saying I want to be unhappy, but happiness is based upon circumstances. Everything's going good. I'm happy. Take those circumstances away. I'm unhappy.

But joy is internal. Joy comes from being in Christ. Joy comes from knowing the Lord. Joy comes from believing that everything is working together for my good and his glory. There's a joy. I love that scripture in Romans 14, 17, when we read the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not do's and don'ts. It's righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. You know what gives me joy? that I've got the righteousness of Christ and that I stand before God without guilt, that I stand before God as one who has never sinned right now because of what Christ has done for me. God doesn't look at me and say, well, I know he's a sinner, but I forgive him. No, he sees me as one perfectly conformed to the image of his son. That gives me joy. It gives me joy that all of my circumstances are working together. for my good and his glory. It gives me joy. Joy. Now, this is internal. It's not based upon circumstances. My circumstances can be awful. And yet, whatever those circumstances are, I know who the first cause of them is. And I know he's working it together for my good and his glory. Joy. The kingdom of God is, I mean, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace.

Now, like I said, this first cluster is towards God. We love God. We joy in who he is. We joy in what he's done. And the peace that comes from Christ being my peace. He is our peace. You know what that gives me? Peace. To think of the peace of justification. I mentioned this, I talked about joy, but there's also peace from this. Christ made it to where I'm somebody who has never sinned. God doesn't view me as, I know what he's done. He views me as perfect in his son. That's what justification is. Oh, what peace I get from that. Oh, God requires of me. He looks to his son for all of it. What peace I get from that. We read of the joy and peace of believing, believing that Christ is all. Oh, this first cluster toward God, love to God, joy in God, peace from God. The Lord said, my peace I give you, not as the world give I to you. The peace of the gospel, the peace that passes all understanding. Now this is that fruit toward God. Love, joy, and peace.

Now, the second cluster is our attitude toward men. Long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness. Long-suffering is patience. I bet everybody's thinking, boy, I don't know how well I do there. Well, I assure you, you don't do very well, nor do I, but still the fruit of the spirit is patience. Every believer has this. And here's the word that best describes this thing of being patient. Forbearance. That's the word, forbearance. Forbearing one another in love. Forbearing and forgiving one another. That's what this patience is. That when you realize that that person you're being patient with is just like you. Sinful, needy, needing God's grace, needing God's mercy, needing God's acceptance. Forbearing. They're just like me. I shouldn't get so upset with them. I shouldn't get so frustrated with them because I'm just like them. They're just like me. Forbearing one another. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. That's forbearance.

If you love somebody, you forbear them, don't you? There's going to be things that will be uncomfortable for you that come from them. What do you do? Forbear it. Forbear it. They're just like you are. You're not a bit better. Don't look down your nose at them. Forbear them because they're just like you are. You know, there's a common bond, isn't there? Sinners saved by grace. We never graduate from that. Sinners saved by grace.

So here's the attitude. Long suffering. Patience. Forbearance. And the next word he uses is gentleness. Kindness. I love that word, don't you? Kindness. I want to be a kind man, a kind woman. Gentleness, graciousness. Tolerant. Nonjudgmental is what the word means. Not holding people's feet to the fire and insisting on them standards that you don't hold yourself to. Gentleness. Isn't gentleness beautiful? gentleness. This is my attitude toward my brothers and sisters in Christ.

And remember, this is the fruit of the spirit. It doesn't. I need to get this fruit, but look to Christ and you bear the fruit. You don't try to bear fruit. If you're an apple tree, you don't try to bear apples. You just bear them because that's what you are. You're an apple tree. And that is every believer. The fruit of God, the Holy Spirit.

The fruit of the spirit is goodness. Now, what is this goodness all about? Because the scripture says there are none that do with good, no, not one. And you remember when the rich young ruler came up to the Lord and said, good master, what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord correct him, said, why are you calling me good? There's none good, but one that is God. And he knew the Lord knew that the rich young ruler was coming to him as a good man, not as God, but as a good man, good master. What good thing that I can I do to inherit your goodness and become like you? Why are you calling me good?

So what is meant by the fruit of the spirit is goodness. Moses said in Exodus 33, show me your glory. And how did the Lord reply? I'll make all my goodness to pass before you. Now, that is said in the context of the children of Israel making a golden calf and saying, these be thy gods, O Israel. God's goodness is his capacity to show mercy to a bunch like that. I will be gracious. I will show mercy. There's goodness. a capacity for mercy. And don't you desire this, a capacity to be merciful, to be good, to show mercy.

Oh, the fruit of the spirit is toward men, patience, long suffering, gentleness, and goodness. And the third cluster, I'll wait, I'm sorry, I'll get this out and it won't be in the service next week, hopefully, or next, in the morning. The fruit of the spirit with regard to ourself is what? Faith, meekness, and temperance. The fruit of the spirit is faith. You know, faith isn't something you come up with. It's not something you decide, I'm going to believe. It's the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. It's as natural for a believer to believe as it is for them to breathe. It's the fruit of the spirit. Faith, it's faithfulness. You believe and you can be believed. You trust and you can be trusted. Faithful. Oh, don't you love faithfulness? It's required in a steward that a man be found faithful. I want to be faithful. Well, if I'm a believer, I am. And I know that there's 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold. I want to be 100-fold, don't you? In all of these things. Faithful. Faithful to God. Faithful to his people. Faithful to his worship. It's such a beautiful thing. Faithfulness. The fruit of the Spirit is faith, faithfulness.

The fruit of the Spirit is meekness. Now, this is to be my attitude toward God. Meek. Now, meekness is not weakness. I heard somebody say it's humility with spine, and I think that's a pretty good definition of it. But it's believing that whatever God does is right. Whatever he brings my way is right. I might not quote like it, but I know it's best because he sent it. Meek before God. What did Eli say when Samuel said the Lord's going to kill your two sons? It's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Meekness really believes that God's on the throne, that he's the first cause behind everything, and whatever he does is right. Meekness. Here's an example of meekness. In everything give thanks. Everything? Everything. Give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Give thanks. No matter how painful it is, no matter how much you might even dislike it, give thanks because you know it comes from God and it's for your good and you give thanks. Meekness. Isn't meekness a beautiful act? You know, Moses, Scripture says he was the meekest man in all the earth. Meekness is a beautiful act. We read of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Meekness. The fruit of the spirit is meekness.

And the fruit of the spirit, remember this has with regard to ourselves, is temperance. That word means control from within. Now, wait a minute, it's the fruit of the Spirit. It's not being iron-willed. Somebody says, I have power over my will. Well, good for you, but that's not what this is talking about. This is talking about the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. It's temperance, it's control from within. Now, that certainly includes eating and drinking. moderation in all things, that's certainly included, but there's a temperate view of yourself. You're not intoxicated with self. And you know, when you're not intoxicated with self, when you see you're intoxicated with self, and then you ask the Lord for deliverance from that, intoxicated with pride and self-righteousness, or intoxicated with feelings of insecurity, or all the things we can become drunk with. The fruit of the Spirit is temperance, temperate views of yourself. Let me give you a temperate view of myself. I'm a sinner, saved by grace. That is temperance, this strength from within.

Now, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering. gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. And I love the way he concludes this. Against such, there is no law. Now, law is salvation in some way being dependent upon me. If my salvation is in any way dependent upon me, There will not be love, there will be resentment toward God. There will not be joy, there will be unhappiness and anger. There certainly will not be peace, but a complete lack of peace. There's no long-suffering. I'm agitated, edgy. If salvation is by law, this is what all that brings. All the fruit of the Spirit, it does the opposite. You see, the law was not made for a righteous man. 1 Timothy 1, 9.

Why do you have laws? Because of bad people. It's for the bad guys. Are you not one of those? Yeah, I am. By nature, I'm not saying I'm not. But what's the law for? It's for bad guys. It's for the evil. It's for the ungodly. A righteous man doesn't need laws. The fruit of the Spirit, the work of God in a man's heart needs no law.

Against such, against love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, against such there is no law. Thank God for the fruit of God the Holy Spirit, and please don't use this as I need to examine my fruit or I want to inspect your fruit. I've heard people say I'm fruited. I'm a fruit inspector. Well, you're a blind one if you think you are.

May the Lord make us hundredfold. There's 30, there's 60, and there's a hundred. And don't look down at the 30-fold and think you're that, but desire to be 100-fold in this thing of fruit bearing. Amen.