Good morning. Let's go to Galatians. Galatians chapter 5. We come now to the fruit of the
Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. And
this fruit is described with Many different words here in
this passage, but it's called fruit. Fruit, because it's born
of one spirit. It has one source, the Holy Ghost. And this fruit stems from the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. All blessings of God
are because of him. It's in and through Christ. who
gave himself, who laid down his life for his bride, which are
you that believe. He works that faith in you, which
looks outside of you, which looks away from you and looks to Christ,
who is our life and gives us all things. And he gives us the
spirit and the spirit bears fruit. the fruit of Christ in his people. Now, here it's singular, fruit,
but don't get too caught up in that. Sometimes in the scripture
it's called the fruit of righteousness, and other times it's the fruits
of righteousness. But it's born of the spirit of
Christ dwelling in us, which he obtained for us. in the blessings of God when
He rose from the dead, victoriously, triumphantly, having done and
accomplished your redemption, which He came to do according
to the will of His Father. And so we praise and we glory
in our Savior. These works are not of us. They're not of this flesh. Our Lord said in John 3, 6, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of
the Spirit is spirit. And so this is spiritual fruit. It is not fleshly fruit. We don't
cultivate it, fertilize it, produce it, get it to come by the works
of the flesh. The flesh, the works of the flesh,
is always contrary to the Spirit, the Spirit of God in you. Look at Galatians 5.17, For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary
the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that
ye would. If you try to replicate, because
People do, we do. I've tried to replicate the fruit
of the Spirit, and it's nothing more than rotten, stinky fruit. It doesn't go anywhere. And if we labor in the flesh,
if we see in our brethren them bearing fruit, the fruit of the
Spirit, When it's looked at in the flesh, we look at it in a
cynical way. And if we try to produce it,
we produce it in a very guarded way, holding back. I don't want
to be just too free with this. Someone's going to take advantage
of me. I don't want to be taken advantage of. That's the flesh
talking. That's how the flesh is. The
flesh is always worried, wait a minute, somebody else might
calculate and counter against me and that's just the flesh. It's just the flesh. Rather than
just being thankful that the Lord has given you a heart of
thankfulness and you're just bearing fruit because it's not
anything we do and just letting the Lord take it where he will
take it, where the Spirit will take it and bless whom he will
bless. So where the works of the flesh
are involved, there's gonna be cynicism about it, there's gonna
be doubts, there's gonna be excuses, there's gonna be a holding back
Like if you look at love and faith, for example, you'll do
it in a very calculated, careful manner. You'll be very calculated
in who you love and how much you love them and how trusting
you are of the Lord in it. You'll hold back, and it'll be
shallow, and it'll be nothing more than a cloak for your own
sin. All right, what is that fairy
tale from when we were Little, when the old lady came to Snow
White with the apple, there was nothing benevolent in the giving
of that apple. It was deceitful. It was to do
her harm. That's the flesh, even if it's
masked with goodness or kindness. That's just the flesh does that. But where the spirit bears these
fruits, and our flesh is kept down and mortified by the grace
of God working in us, it's going to benefit and it will edify
the children of God or to whomever it is shown and they'll be edified
and blessed in it. So the fruit of the Spirit. Now,
notice in this passage, we're looking at verses 22 and 23,
but where it talks of the works of the flesh, it's called the
works of the flesh. Paul uses that word, the works
of the flesh. And then for the spirit, he says
it's the fruit of the spirit. And he meant that, the spirit
meant that, because what does work do? Work is a labor. Work
is something that we do for wages. Some of you have jobs that you
do enjoy very much. But if you were independently
wealthy, you might not do that job. You might do something else.
But you do the job that you do. You do that labor because you
expect a result. you're looking for a wage because
you have a living to make and you have mouths to feed and so
you look for wages and the works of the flesh ultimately are negative
and they have a selfish outcome and they look at things with
cynicism and doubt and just assume it's of evil intent. And so the works of the flesh,
even when you think you've done a good job, the works of the
flesh do nothing more than secure a slavish fear or works done
by someone in bitterness. And it's just rotten. It's rotten. The flesh is no
good. But in Christ, He teaches this
child, I don't want that. I'm not looking for any harm
for my brethren. I don't want them to be harmed,
or weighted down, or burdened, or hurt by something I've done. I don't want that. Looking to
Christ, that's not what our intention or desire is. The fruit of the
Spirit in us is contrary to that. That describes the flesh, and
the Spirit is 100%. contrary to the flesh. Now, when
we consider the fruit of the Spirit, it's with our eyes toward
Christ. We're just looking to Him. We're
not trying to bear the fruits. I mean, sometimes the Lord gives
us a heart. We realize that we're nasty or
rude or mean or something, and we realize, I don't want to be
like this. Lord, help me. Sometimes He draws out of us
that prayer. He gives the prayer in the heart
so that we see what we are and we realize, I don't, that's just
flesh. I don't want to be like that.
Lord help me. So he, there are times when he
draws us in that way, but with regards to this fruit, it's not
a labor. There's not a wage to earn. Fruit is the result. We're not looking for a further
result. The fruit itself is the very
result of that which is born in us. It's just what's produced
by the Spirit and it's full of grace. You know, in my yard,
on my property, I have a couple of fruit trees. One is an apple
tree. One's a fruit cocktail tree is what it's called. It's
supposed to be a fruit cocktail tree. They do whatever they do
in putting six different fruit trees in one. And there's a little
ball. And if you bury it in the yard
properly and it was done properly, when they put it together, it
should bear six different fruits. And it's got a couple of peaches,
maybe a couple of plums, there's a nectarine, and an apricot. Mine doesn't do that. I don't
think I read it correctly. I might have buried it a little
too deep, so that doesn't work. But one of them has a couple
of peaches and a plum there. What it produces is what it produces. It's what the tree does. That's
what it does. When the apples appear on the
apple tree, it's because that's what the apple bears. It's the
result of it. I don't see the tree laboring
or struggling to do it. It just sets the flower and the
flower falls and the fruit appears and grows. It just does what
what it does. When the fruits in you are of
the Spirit, you're not looking for anything more. It doesn't
matter whether they ask for it or want it. You're just bearing
that fruit of the Spirit. And there's no how-to. I can't
tell you what to do because We don't justify ourselves. We're not working for our own
righteousness. And the scriptures tell us Christ
is our sanctification. He bears everything, everything
in his people, their wisdom, their peace, their joy in him,
the love that they have. It's all of Christ. And when you walk in the spirit
as opposed to the flesh, It's of Him. There's never an excuse
when I bear the fruits, when I bear the works of the flesh,
when I'm walking in the flesh, there's no excuse. Even if you
can look back and say, I see that the Lord, His will was done. Yes it was, but I'm still responsible
for my sin and my works, what I've done. I'm still responsible,
not the Lord. It was my fault, my fault, I've
done it. When we bear the fruit of the
Spirit, I have nothing to glory in, because it wasn't of me,
it was of Him. It's of the Spirit, and we rejoice
in Him and praise Him, because it really is all of Him. And
you, when we know what we are, we know, yep, it's all of the
Lord. can't even begin to try and say
anything else. It's all of him. So we don't
do anything to produce them. The flesh works contrary to these
things. Just like last year when the
fruit was setting, a cold wind came and temperatures dropped
and flowers fell off and no fruit came where those things were,
but a few flowers remained. It's what the Lord did. It's
how the Lord brought it. And the flesh might try and knock
down things, and insofar as the Lord allows it, it'll be knocked
down. But our prayer, our desire is that
the Lord bring forth his fruit, and that it comes to full ripeness
and is edifying and comforting and to help to our brethren. But the flesh is always contrary
so that you cannot do the things that you would. But the Spirit
does bear fruits of righteousness in the children because we are
trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. The planting of
the Lord. The Lord plants and brings forth
His people, the fruit in His people, Isaiah 61.3. Now, the
first fruit that's listed here is love. It's love. Now, as I was thinking about
love, I remembered, I went to that verse in Romans six, it's
in verse 14 and 15, where we're told that believers are not under
the law, but under grace. We're not under law, but under
grace. And Even though we are not under
the law, do you know that the scriptures teach that love is
the fulfillment of the law? You're not under the law. but
that love which the Spirit produces in you is the fulfillment of
the whole law, the whole law. Believers fulfill the whole law
under grace, not under the law. Believers fulfill the whole law
looking to Christ, not looking to the law. Looking to Christ,
the whole law is fulfilled and the Spirit bears the fruit of
love in his child, and love fulfills the whole law. In Romans 13 10,
love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Love works no ill to his neighbor.
You don't You don't covet the things of your neighbor. When
you love them, you're happy for them. You're not bearing those
works of the flesh that envies and lusts after what they have. And you don't take a shovel or
a tool left on their property that they forgot. And you just,
you love them. You do what is good and right
toward them because you love them. Therefore, Paul says, love
is the fulfilling of the law. The law has nothing to say to
you that love another, to you that are loving, to your brother,
to your neighbor, to anyone. What is needed from the law?
You fulfilled the whole thing. You've done that which you haven't
harmed them in any way. Therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law. Romans 13 10. Then we read that
God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us. And so we look at that how God
loves you his child while you were yet sinful. and evil and despised him. God was your enemy and you lived
in rebellion, walking according to the course of this world under
the power of the prince of the air and were a child of wrath
and disobedience. That's what we are and yet God
commends his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. So then the love that the spirit
bears In me, that fruit of the spirit is not dependent in any
way how others treat me. It's not a response. It has nothing
to do with whether that person loves me or cares for me or mistreats
me at all. It has nothing to do with that.
That's not how God's love works because we were sinners, rebellious,
hard-hearted, cold, indifferent. enmity against God when he saved
us, when his love was shown to us in Christ. And so if it's
God's love, if it's God's love wrought in me, it doesn't depend
on whether they love me or care for me in any way. So regardless
of how deserving we are, and really I should say in spite
of how undeserving we are, God is love toward his people. He maketh the sun to rise and
the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust, even though
the unjust despise him and have no care for him and think nothing
of him. In 1 Corinthians 13, that's the
chapter of love, and we see how that word charity is used. I said this recently, but I'll
say it again, that word charity is great because it implies generosity. Be generous with your love. Don't hold back. Don't be cheap. Let it be generously flowing,
regardless of whether they care or not, whether they notice or
not. Be very, very generous with your
love. When it comes to your brethren,
love generously, even if it's to a fault. Even if it's to a
fault. And someone says, you're just
being taken advantage of. You're a fool. OK. I like what
Jane Austen said. We're all fools in love. And
what a great way to love your brethren. I'm a fool. Let me be a fool, because I love
them. That's just how it is. And I
love this verse in 1 Corinthians 13, 7. When evil would enter
my mind toward my brethren, I'm reminded of this. verse which
says, love beareth all things, love believeth all things, hopeth
all things, endureth all things, love never fails. And that's the love of our God
toward us. It never fails toward us. Even when we are undeserving
sinners, even when we deserve wrath and punishment and to be
cast out, God loves you for Christ's sake. Because you're precious
to him. And he delights in his son. And you come in his son. Not
in your own righteousness, not in anything you've done, But
looking to Christ, knowing He's my righteousness, He's the salvation
my Father has provided and put away my sin forever and receives
me in Him, has drawn me to the Son and put me in Him for safekeeping
and He did everything He loves me like that. And that's the
love that the Spirit bears in us. Love, charity, never faileth. 1 Corinthians 13, 7 and the beginning
of 8. So the thought of being loved
then, when you think of being loved, how were you when you
were in love? You were full of joy. You are. You're full of joy. You that
love and are loved, you're joyful. You're happy, even in a contrary
day, right? What's that song that says? How
does that go? I got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it's cold outside, I got
the month of May. Because I got my girl. I love
my girl. It's love. Well, it's more than
the sentimental love, but God loves me, a sinner, and he's
born in me love for my God and Savior. That gives us joy. That's joyful. That's joyful. Joy comes as a result of love
and Peter makes this connection in 1 Peter 1. He says, Whom having
not seen, we have not seen Christ with these eyes, by faith we
have, but whom having not seen, ye love. And whom, though now
ye see him not, though the clouds of the dust of my flesh kick
up and cloud him from my view, yet believing, ye rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory. Joy unspeakable. That's what
the Lord produces in you. Who know his love and feel his
love and have the fruit of love born in you, there is joy. Joy. even when it's a dark, contrary
day. Doesn't matter, it has no bearing.
In fact, that fruit shines more brightly in the gray, dark, cloudy
skies. Because regardless, in spite
of the nasty weather, I'm happy, I'm joyful in the Lord. I'm thankful
for the grace of my God. Now just like joy, we see that
how joy is born in contrary seasons, so also is the fruit of peace. Peace, what a still and calming
peace our God has wrought in our souls. That though in my
sin and in my works of the flesh, I was tormented. and my flesh
and the guilt of my conscience was aflame in fire of guilt and
misery and woe because of my sin. But when God came and applied
that soothing, cooling blood of Christ and washed away my
sins, everything became peaceful, peaceful. John, the apostle,
tells us that And when he looked, and behold, there was a door
opened in heaven. In Revelation 4, there was a
door opened in heaven. That door opened by the blood
and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and redeemed
his people by the death of himself. That door was opened in heaven. And John looked, and he saw before
the throne of God a sea of glass. A sea of glass. And a little
later in Revelation 15, he says that he sees the saints standing
on that sea of glass. And if you've ever seen a body
of water that is like glass, it's because it is peace. It is still. There's nothing
moving in that water to disturb it. There's no boat rocking on
top of it. There's no rocking the boat and
ripples going out. There's no blast of wind coming
down upon it to send ripples to the shore. It's glass. As soon as anything disturbs
it, it's no longer glass. It's messed up. It's up and down. There's waves. I mean, you look
at the ocean. It's just waves constantly crashing on the shore.
It's not at peace. It's just muck and mire. But
that sea of glass speaks to the peace which we have in the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is peace. because of the
blood of Christ. And so you're at peace. You that
are washed in the blood of Christ, you're put at peace. When the
spirit bears that fruit in you, there is peace. Now, that peace that we have
with God, it affords us long suffering, long suffering, which
is patient endurance through the trials, through the tribulations,
through the troubles that we go, We're patient in those, we
endure those things. Why? Because we know that my
God, who's done all this for me, is working all things for
good. All things together for my good
and the good of my brethren. Though this trouble is here,
it's okay. The Lord has sent it. The Lord
has sent it. I know he sent it. He's the Lord. He does as he pleases. and he
teaches me and corrects me and keeps me and holds me and brings
me to himself. So there's long suffering born
in the people of God in spite of the trials and tribulations.
The next fruit we read of is gentleness, gentleness. Sometimes
in the scripture that word is interpreted kindness. I think
it's a little more interpreted kindness in that sense. Think of Titus 3, 4, but after
that, the kindness, after the gentleness. Think of how patient you were
with your children when they were young, how gentle you were. how understanding and kind you
were when they needed help, when they didn't do something right,
when they didn't wash the dishes clean the way you would clean
them or sweep as well as you would sweep, you're gentle. You're
gentle and kind to them. And it says, but after that,
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Well, that tells me that this
gentleness is rooted in Christ, for Christ's sake. How is God
toward us? He's gentle. He doesn't backhand
us and smack us. When we step out of line, he's
not harsh with us. He's gentle to us in how he instructs
us and keeps us and turns us back into the way. He's gentle,
he's kind, and so that kindness is rooted in Christ. It's rooted in Christ. And so
what does that mean? That helps us when we come to
a passage like Ephesians 4.3, where that same word is used,
it's the same root word, where Paul writes by the Spirit, and
be ye kind, one to another. Be ye gentle, one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another for Christ's sake. Forgiving one another even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. That forgiveness is rooted
in Christ and you're forgiven by your God in Christ. And so
in that same root connected to Christ, you may be gentle and
kind toward others. And we are, it's born in the
spirit. It's born in us by the spirit.
Next is goodness. Goodness, this speaks to that kindness, that love, that
patience, that long-suffering that we show in the face of adversity
or with others. Goodness means that what we do
has the intent or desire to be beneficial. just for it to be
good. It's pure, and I just intend
it for your good, not for any harm, not looking for anything. It's just, I pray the Lord bless
you. That's it, the Lord bless you.
And it's just good, and it's born out of the intent to do
another good and not harm, not harm. And then Paul lists faith,
faith, faith is, I was reading Tim James on this and he called
it the linchpin. It's a linchpin, right? Because
faith is that faith in our God so that I'm not worried about
how others might perceive it or take it or understand it or
reject it. It doesn't matter. I trust the
Lord. I trust the Lord, a walk in faith.
And sometimes that might blow up in your face, but that's okay
if that's the will and purpose of God. That's his purpose. When I was a young boy, we had
a crab apple tree that was growing in the yard. And I used to like
to pick up those apples that had fallen down. And I mean,
I was a boy, I just liked throwing things. And I would throw them
at that tree and watch them explode off the tree and just blow up
and go into different pieces all over the place. Sometimes
people are going to do that. They're just going to take that
fruit and throw it right back at you to do you harm. And what
can we do? We trust the Lord. We trust the
Lord. We walk in faith. And this faith also acts as the
umbrella over the next two fruits that we read of, of meekness,
and temperance because faith is how we walk. We walk by faith,
not by sight, not seeing things as we would see them or how we
expect to see them. It's a walk of faith in the spirit,
looking to your God, not to yourself, not to what it produces or does.
What am I getting out of this? That's not the fruit of the spirit.
The fruit of the spirit sets according to the spirit and love
and peace and joy and long suffering. in gentleness, in goodness, in
faith, in faith. And meekness means that, again, we're made humble, walking
humbly, gently. It's okay. I don't need, I'm
not looking to get ahead. That's gone. And so there's a
meekness which depends upon the grace of God toward us. And then finally, temperance.
Because again, you're walking in faith by the Spirit. Faith,
temperance has to do with self-control or moderation over all fleshly
appetites, right? eating, drinking, sleeping, relaxation,
work, whatever it is, this flesh is full of lusts and passions,
and temperance is just that moderating thing that says, I know there's
certain things I gotta do, but let me do them in faith, in faith. And that's how we walk in faith. And so Paul tells us that while
we see that these fruits are opposed to the flesh, and the
flesh is opposed to these fruits, to the spirit, and Paul concludes
that against such there is no law. There's no law because what
law could be written to control this or to have any say over
these fruits? Don't be too generous, don't
be too giving, don't be too kind, don't be too patient. No, there's
no law like that at all. The law wasn't written for a
righteous man, but for the unjust, for the sinner. And so these
fruits, there's no law. Maybe you could say the law of
love, the law of liberty, the law of faith, the law of Christ,
but there's no law of this flesh that rules over that. There's
no law. Walk in the Spirit, looking to Christ. Look into Christ,
and the Spirit bears these fruits of righteousness in you, in you
that are the Lord's, who love Him and know Him, and He does
it. He brings it forth in His time
and in His manner. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you for your grace and mercy. Lord, we thank you
for your spirit. We thank you for these fruits,
Lord, that it's not us. Lord, it's not by our works and
cultivation. It's not by what we do. And Lord, when we get involved
in our flesh, we mess it up. We come at it with cynicism and
pride. and arrogance and looking for
a cloak of sin and to do something. And Lord, that's not the fruit
of the Spirit. And only you can bear this in
us, Lord. We're guilty of all the works
of the flesh, and you are the one who is praised and honored
and glorified for all the fruit of the Spirit. And we pray that
you would turn our eyes toward Christ, keep us looking to Him,
and that you would bear these fruit, this fruit in us as it
pleases you. And we pray this to the, we pray
that you would help us and bless our brethren and feed our brethren
with these fruits. And it's in Christ's name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's dismiss for, let's
go to about 10 after and we'll pick up again.