Well may it please God to bless
us together this evening as we continue our meditation in the
epistle of Paul to the Galatians in chapter 5 and this evening
we'll read verses 22 and 23. The epistle of Paul to the Galatians
chapter 5 and reading verses 22 and 23. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law." It is surely quite refreshing
to be able to come to these verses having previously read in the
verses from 19 to 21, those points which we considered last week
which are spoken of as the works of the flesh. And what a sad
list it is, and of course how guilty we are under all those
points which are refers to. But then we come to a very different
statement. Not any works. The works have
disappeared and now we have the fruit of the Spirit. What a great
blessing it is if we are fruitful in the things of God. This is
surely that which demonstrates the life of God in the soul,
because we are told it is by our fruit we shall be known as
either a believer or a non-believer. And it is a great blessing and
it's very important for each one of us that we do possess
the fruit of the Spirit. Now the fruit of the Spirit is
what it says. It's given to us by the Spirit
of God, by the Holy Spirit of God, to enable us to bring forth
fruit. And so the Apostle goes through
this comprehensive list, there are nine items, there were seventeen
items as you may remember of the works of the flesh, but there's
nine items here which direct us to again examine ourselves
to see whether we measure up to these things which are mentioned
and if not to be concerned that we may do. We read that chapter
in the Romans, the twelfth chapter in the Romans, Because although
it doesn't go through this list at all, nonetheless it really
has a very similar emphasis on those things which are good and
right and in accordance with the work of the Holy Spirit in
our lives. So it's good to just, I won't
go through it again this evening, but you can read it again with
this consideration to think how it is affected in our lives. Well, the fruit of the Spirit
then, what is the first item that the Apostle directs us to? Well, it's love. And if we think
of that, firstly, the love of God toward us. And if we do know
the love of God toward us, what will be the result? There will be a response of our
love towards him. And if there is a response of
our love towards him, there will not only be that, but there will
also be a love to the brethren, to the Church of God. And then
going further than that, the Lord Jesus also tells us that
we should love our neighbour as ourself. And of course, he
gave that wonderful illustration of the Good Samaritan as an example
of that love. And so, as we consider that,
it's important. Love is a great, wonderful blessing. We rejoice in it. If we know
God's love to us, it is essential that we do know God's love. And
in the same way, It is essential that we, in return, love God. It may be a great question. It's important to question ourselves. Do we love the Lord or no? We either do or we don't. And if we do, it's because He
loved us, as we read. Not that we loved God, but that
He loved us. And what a mercy that is. know
something of his love toward us. And as we think of that,
realizing how unworthy we are of any notice, let alone the
love of God, it's really beyond our comprehension, isn't it,
to think that that one who created all things and has those billions
of people on the earth now, and the billions that have passed
through the earth, and that God is fully aware of every single
one and the detail in every single person's life. And to think today,
this great almighty God has set his love upon an elect people,
those whom he will call out of the darkness of nature into the
glorious light of the gospel. And if you and I felt and realised
and known his love, surely the result must be our love in return
to Him. So, the first point is love. And then joy. Well, this is not
really a joy which is full of the things of time. This is a
joy which relates to the goodness of God. And there is a joy in
our hearts when we have the evidence of God's work within. It must
produce joy. It's a wonderful blessing to
know the favor of God toward us. And so surely there is this
fruit coming forth of joy. And really then this further
point comes to us, peace, the peace of God. which passeth all
understanding. It's not the peace which men
on the earth are striving for all the time. We hear about it,
don't we, on every hand. Men want peace. But you see,
peace, true peace, is very elusive. Because true peace emanates from
God, and true peace only emanates from God when we have peace with
God. And we only have peace with God
when we have the evidence that we are born of God. Otherwise,
there's no peace. Bless God then today if we know
that peace of God. And realizing, as the hymn writer
tells us, peace by his cross has Jesus made. That's a good
point, isn't it? It's a good place to be, at the
cross, viewing the Saviour, and having that faith to believe
that He died there to take away all our sins. And then, long-suffering. Well, surely God has been long-suffering
to us, hasn't He? As we look in our lives, as we
meditate on what we've been, how long-suffering God has been
toward us. What does that mean? That means
that you and I should be long-suffering to other people. If they offend
us, we should be long-suffering towards them. If they speak against
us, we should be long-suffering towards them. It doesn't say
that we should just endure suffering. It says we should be long-suffering. That means really we should always
be suffering. prepare to suffer those difficult
things which come into our life, realising that they are ordained
by God. Nothing comes by chance. And
so to be blessed with this spirit of long-suffering. And then gentleness. Well, we need to have a gentle
spirit. That means as we deal with one
another, as we deal with the world, we ought to deal with
them Gently. Gentleness. You know that's often
the opposite to what we are by nature. We're often very hasty
and often we're not very gentle. But what a blessing if we are
found to be following this gentleness. Remember it is the fruit of the
Spirit. It's not something which is unknown,
it's not something which is not realised. It is the blessing
of God. to be favoured with this gentleness. And then, goodness. You see the
list is not as long as the works of the flesh but it's nonetheless
very comprehensive. And if we think therefore we
should do good unto all men, especially unto the household
of faith. Goodness. To remember that. Day by day. To speak well. To do good. Not to speak badly. And not to do wrong things against
people, but to do that which is good. People appreciate good
turns, as we term it, don't they? If you do something which is
good, they respect it. I told you before, an account
I heard from a godly man who, when he was a little lad, he was staying, I think, with his
aunt or something, and a man arrived at the door and knocked
on the door. And he was a pretty disgusting man. He was dirty.
And the aunt opened the door and said, what do you want? And
he said, well, I need some money. Go away. I'm not going to give
you any money. The little boy heard her, and he said, what
did she say? What did the man want? And she
said, well, he wanted some, she said, he wanted some money. So
he went back into the house and got his little purse with his
money and ran out and found the man. And the man said, yes, what
do you want? He said, hold your hand out. The man held his hand
out and he took his purse and he emptied all his little money
into the man's hand. Well, what did the man say? The
man said, oh bless you my boy. Goodness. The result was the
Lord did bless him. Goodness, what a mercy it is
if we do good to all men. And then faith, well we know
of course that faith is the gift of God. What a blessing to be
favoured with true living faith and to believe the truth of God
and to believe that the way the Lord is leading us and directing
us is the right way. faith to believe that God does
not make any mistakes, faith to understand the Lord is dealing
with us in love to our soul and therefore not to reject it and
not to turn away from it but to have faith to believe the
way the Lord is directing and leading us is the right way.
Remember the word of God tells us he led them forth by the right
way that they might go to a city habitation what a mercy then
if God gives us faith to believe that and then meekness well I
suppose meekness is very similar to gentleness we're told that
Moses was a most meek man well he was eminent for the job he
had to do God gave him that meekness so he had to endure much opposition
in leading the Israelites all those 40 years. Meekness, something
to covet. And then lastly, this word temperance. It means to be temperate really
in all things. And that means in the way we,
the things we do, the things we eat, the things we drink,
we should be temperate in all those things. We should not be
excessive. We should be very reasonable
and very sensible. And so we have this word here
then, temperance. Against such there is no law. That means that such who walk
in this way are blessed with a right spirit, are blessed with
a godly spirit, and may we therefore covet such blessings and desire
that we may know by the favour of God the fruit of the Spirit
in all our lives. Amen.