Alright, if you will take your
Bibles and turn with me to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. And tonight
we'll be looking at verse 22 and 23. And the title of the
message is, What it is to walk in the Spirit. What it is to
walk in the Spirit. Last week we saw what it was
not to walk in the Spirit. We saw that Paul in verses 19
through 21, Paul gives us a list which is not exhaustive, but
a list of the works of the flesh. He says adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envies, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like. These
are what it is not to walk in the Spirit. These are the works
of the flesh. This is the work of our own.
If you want to know what it is we produce, here's a list. This is what we, by nature, produce. The works of the flesh. And Paul
goes on to say that they who walk in these things, they who
perform these deeds, these works, as a tenor of their life, shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Look at that in verse 21. He
says, I've told you now as I've told you before, they that do
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Let no man
be deceived about this. God is not mocked in this situation. A man may deceive us. A man may deceive me as to his
faith in Christ by making a profession and having many outward things
that he may show. But God is not deceived. No matter
a man's profession with his lips, if these are the works of his
life, then he does not know Christ. He is not being led by the Spirit,
and these are not the fruit of the Spirit, but these are the
works of our flesh. So, in verse 22 and 23, Paul
then gives us the opposite. He gives us the opposite of what
it is to work the works of the flesh. And He tells us what is
manifest in those that walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. Here's what it is. If you want to know if you walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, then these will be
manifest in you and in me. Love, joy, peace. longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, and temperance. These things are the fruit of
the Spirit. Now, tonight, I want us to see
two things concerning these verses. I want us, first of all, to see
the source of the fruit of the Spirit, and second of all, I
want us to see the fruit itself. I'm going to look at two things,
the source of the fruit and the fruit. Notice that Paul calls
the sins that are above, look at that, in verse 19, notice
very carefully, now the works of the flesh. Now that word is
plural, isn't it? Works. There are many works of
the flesh. In other words, there are many
sources of this works of the flesh. You produce these works,
and I produce these works, and every child of Adam is a source
of these works. Aren't we? We're a source of
these things. It comes from us. Our sin doesn't
come from God. Our sin comes from ourselves.
It's the only thing we can produce in ourselves. But Paul says this
in contrast to that, verse 22, but the fruit. Notice that that's
singular. Did you ever notice that? I was
reading that and that came out to me and it just jumped off
the page. It's singular. And yet he lists
a whole bunch of these things. What is Paul trying to say? What
Paul is saying is that there is one source of the fruits of
the Spirit. These characteristics, these
things that are here, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, all of
these things have one source, and that is the Holy Spirit of
God. All these good actions, and these
things are good. All of these things are good.
Paul says there's no law against these things. These things are
good. And they come from one source,
even the Spirit of God. And no man, No man can produce
any, not even one of these attributes of himself. There's not one of
these in this list that a man can do by himself. You and I
cannot do these things of ourselves. The source of these things is
the Spirit of God. Believer, before the Spirit of
God came to us and quickened our souls, the only thing we
loved was ourselves. We had no idea what true love
really was until God came and showed us. We didn't know what
true joy or peace was until God came and the Spirit indwells
us and comes into our heart. We weren't long-suffering. We
were always angry. We were always quick to judge. That was our nature. We weren't
meek and we weren't temperate. We didn't do things in moderation.
We did things according to our own will, which was evil. But now when the Spirit of God
comes into a sinner's heart, He plants this one seed, one
seed in our hearts. And this seed, this source, His
Spirit produces all of these works in us. Illustrate this,
if you take an apple tree, look at an apple tree, and imagine
an apple tree that's full of apples. Beautiful red apples
coming from an apple tree. When you look at that tree, you
know it had one seed. It all came from one source. Someone planted a seed, and the
seed grew, and out of that seed came all that fruit hanging off
of it. Produced all of those apples
on that tree. Even so, the Spirit of God. The
Spirit of God is the seed plot for all of these fruits of the
Spirit. All of these fruits that are
yielded in us. They have one source and it is
the Holy Spirit of God. Every believer has these by the
Spirit of God. These don't come by ourselves.
Don't come naturally. They're grafted in. The only
thing that we can do in our flesh is sin. But when the Spirit came,
He gave us a new nature, a new principle of life, a life that
now rules over our flesh. And it is a new principle of
grace. And this principle of grace,
the Holy Spirit produces the fruit unto God. You remember
the parable of the seed and the sower and how that seed fell
on good ground. And Lord Jesus Christ said in
Matthew 13, 23, He said, But he that receiveth the seed on
the good ground is he that heareth My word and understandeth it,
which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundred,
some sixty, and some thirty. You remember, believer, when
the Spirit of God plowed the ground of our hearts? It wasn't
pleasant. Our ground was hard. Or our ground
was stony. Or our ground was thorny. But
the Spirit of God came in with His Word and He plowed it through
and made good ground. He put it in good ground so that
when the Word of God came, He took the seed of the Word and
He planted it in our hearts. And God says, everyone that is
planted of My Father will bring forth fruit. Every one of them. Every one of us. who have been
given new life and the Spirit applied the words to our hearts.
We have heard and understood the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we understand that He alone
is our salvation. that Jesus Christ and His person,
the God-man, came and suffered in this life to provide righteousness
we could not provide. And His death provided a substitute
for our sins. He stood in our place and He
died on the cross for our sins. His blood and righteousness saved
us, redeemed us. And by this we are justified
and forgiven. This seed of the Spirit can and
shall produce every one of these things in every believer. Every
one of these things you read, my friends, if you are a believer
in Christ, these things are yours. These things will be manifest
in every believer. Now, every one of these fruits
we know is not always as much as we would like. I know many
times my love wanes. I know many times my faith wanes,
becomes weak. But my friends, I'll never lose
my love and I'll never lose my faith. You see, because it's
not mine. It is the Spirit of God that
dwelleth in me. And He's the one that produces
these things. And some of us will produce a
hundred, some sixty, and some thirty. But everyone that believes
will produce fruit unto God. He has ordained it so. Believer,
this fruit is in all of us. And so, if it is in all of us,
let us therefore walk and exercise ourselves in these things. Let's
walk in these things. Verse 25, look at our text again,
verse 25. If we live in the Spirit. You
live in the Spirit. Spirit of God, is He the source
of our life? Paul says, if you live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us also walk in the
Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, walk
in the Spirit. Paul is exhorting us to follow after, to strive
for mastery over the flesh, and to yield ourselves as servants
of God. This is what we are to walk in.
We are to walk in the Spirit. This is what it is to walk in
the Spirit. This is what it is to walk in the Spirit. To walk
after these fruits. To be led by Him is to be led
in these things. This is where He'll lead us.
You want to know if you're led by the Spirit of God? Is it love,
joy, peace, meekness, temper? If it is, follow after that.
That's good. That's good. That's being led
by the Spirit. Let us exercise ourselves in these things. So
now we see that walking in the Spirit is to walk in the fruit
of the Spirit, which He is the source of. Now then, let's look
at the fruit itself. We're not going to have time
to look at all the fruits tonight, but I want to look at the ones
in verse up to goodness. We're going to look at love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, and goodness. And we'll try to handle
the others next Wednesday. I don't believe I'll have enough
time to finish that. First of all, let's look at love.
Love. This is the first fruit of the
Spirit. This is first because this is the principal fruit of
sweetness to all the others. I like the illustration of fruit.
Anybody ever had a sweet strawberry? I mean, a very ripe, sweet strawberry. You ever had a plum that's just
full of sweetness? Well, you see, love is the sweetness
of all the other fruits. You see, if you have faith without
love, it's bitter, isn't it? If your love is low and you have
faith, our faith is hard. Everything seems cold and indifferent
without love. Love is the sweetness behind
every one of the fruits of the Spirit. Before we came to Christ, we
could not love. Do you realize that? You ladies without children,
with children. You know, before you came to
Christ, you never actually loved your children. You had no idea
what love was. That's something, isn't it? You
say, no, I love my children. Did you? Did you really know
what love was? How could we in a lost condition
understand true love? We couldn't. No lost man can
understand true love. We didn't know what true love
was. But my friends, we do now. We
do know what true love is. We see what true love is because
we see the love of God. That's how we know what true
love really is. It's manifest in the love of
God. How can we know what love is
but to see the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Believer, God loves us and has
loved us from all eternity. The Father loved us before the
foundation of the world and chose us in election. And in time manifest
that love by sending His Son for us. That's love. Jesus said, for God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son. that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Has
any one of us ever given our sons? You see, God alone exhibits true
love in that He gave His Son For worthless people such as
we are, He gave His Son. That's where love is manifest.
It's manifest in God and God alone by giving His Son. It's
manifest in the Son in that He gave Himself freely. Jesus Christ,
being given of the Father, freely came to earth. He came to be
a ransom for our sins. He gave His life a ransom for
many. In John 13, verse 1, Jesus having
loved His own, He loved them unto the end. No man has ever loved like He
loved. No man has ever given love like
that. You see, the God of this age,
My friends, who says He loves everybody and saves no one, my
friend, that is not love at all. That's not love at all. I use
this illustration. Someone gave this illustration
before, but I'll use it. It's good. If my son were out
there playing in the yard, and his ball rolled out into a busy
street, and the cars were passing fast back and forth, and there
was no sign of it stopping, and my son was running toward the
cars, and I were called out his name, and I said, Andrew, stop!
And he paid me no attention. He kept running. And I said,
Andrew, stop! Don't run out there, you'll get
hurt! And he ignored me and kept running.
And Cheryl come up on the back and hit me on the back of the
head and she said, you need to go after him. If I turned around and said
to her, well, I really love him, so I'm just going to let him
make his choice. My friends, that's not love at
all. If I love Him, I'll go after Him. And that's exactly what
God did for us. God's love is effectual. He came and He sent His Son to
die for us. And in time, He came and He sent
His Spirit after us. One preacher said, the Spirit
is like the hound of heaven. He gets whomever He comes after. And my friend, He tracked us
down and He got us. He saved us when we could not
save ourselves. Is that not love? That's true
love. How did we know what that was
until Christ came and manifest that to us? We didn't know what
love was. When the Spirit of God came,
he manifest the love of God to us because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts. How? By the Holy Spirit, by the
Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. You see, everybody God loves,
he sets his love on. It's not a general love, it's
a specific love. It's specific to you, my friends. God loved us. And everyone He
loved, Christ died for. And everyone that Christ died
for, the Spirit of God will come in power and save their souls. Believer, let us therefore glory
in the love of God, which He has proposed and it purposed
in eternity and has brought past to us in time and has shed abroad
in our hearts. My friends, I recognize that
if I never, if he never had said his love on me, I never would
have loved him. And my friends, it is true. If
he had never said his love on me and showed me his love, I
could never love you. I'll show you this in 1 John
chapter 4. Flip over to 1 John chapter 4
and let me show you this. 1 John chapter 4 and verse
8. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. In this was manifest the love
of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son
into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another. You see, I had no love
for God. I had no love for anybody else.
I only had love for me. I'll give you an illustration
of this. I know a woman who's a very giving
woman. And she loved to give to her
children. Oh, she loved it. If she could cut off her right
arm and give it to her children, she would have. And yet, she gave to their destruction
rather than to their good. And here she is now, an elderly
woman, and sees her children in utter destruction, having
no love for God or no love for the things of Christ. And she
was pondered about this and she says, I don't understand. I love
them. I gave them everything that they wanted. And I thought about that and
I said, are you sure that you gave because you love them? Because
it sounds an awful lot like you gave because it made you feel
good. Sometimes our before we came
to Christ, everything, every bit of our love was for ourself.
We had no idea what love was until Christ came. But when Christ
came, we knew exactly what love was, because that's a fruit of
the spirit of God and not of ourselves. And therefore, because
of the love of Christ that's shed abroad in our hearts, we
love Him and we are to love each other. Therefore, let us understand
this and love Christ, see the love of Christ, and therefore
love one another in Christ. If we see truly how much the
Father has loved us, will we not easily be able to love each
other? Yes. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13,
1-3, If we had all the gifts of tongues
and prophecies and faith, and even if we were to sell everything
we had and feed the hungry, if we were to give our bodies to
be burned, and Paul says, if I have not love, these things
profit me nothing. Love is a principle grace. It's
a principle grace. We must have love. And friends, love is not selfish. If we want to know if we're loving,
if it's a fruit of the Spirit, ask ourselves, is our love that
we're giving selfish? Is what we're doing really out
of love or just what we want? Paul says love's not selfish.
It's not easily provoked. Do people easily provoke us?
Yeah. Then it's not love. Love's not
easily provoked. It never fails. Can we not see the purity of
this love? This is pure love. This is pure
love. This is the love that we see
in Christ. This is the fruit of the Spirit
that He has given to work through us. Therefore, let us walk in
the love of the Spirit. Number two, joy and peace. When
we were lost, we sought joy of our flesh. We sought peace within
our own conscience. I spoke with a man who's lost.
A couple of evenings ago, he called me and he says, I can't
find any peace. He said, I'm struggling, I'm
trying to find peace, and I can't find it. I read the Scriptures
and it says, my grace is sufficient for me, but it's not sufficient
for me, is what he said. I said, if you've found that
the grace of Christ is not sufficient, you don't know anything about
the grace of Christ. You have not peace because you seek it
from within your own self. You seek to pass the law, seem
to want to pacify their flesh and to be joyous around the things
that they want rather than surrendering to Christ. There's no joy in
this flesh and this in this sinful life, and people strive for it,
and the more they strive for it, the more they don't find
it. God said in Isaiah 52, 55 verse
2, wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread and
your labor for that which satisfies not? Can you not see the lost
and they're out there? It's like the blind groping in
the dark and you have a big spotlight and you shine it right in their
face and they can't see. They just grope around in the
dark. The more they strive, it's like
I see a man in an oasis of water. He sees it and he runs to it
and he starts pouring it in his mouth and really it's just a
bunch of sand. And the more they put in, the
drier it gets. Lost men strive for joy and peace,
but Jesus, but God says, hearken unto me. and eat that which is
good. Come and let your soul delight
itself in fatness." In other words, come to Christ, God says.
There's only joy and peace in Christ. And by God's grace, we
have heard and came to Him. And what did we find? What did
you find when you came to Christ? Did you not find joy and peace? Joy and peace are what we found
rejoicing for our souls in that the curse of God had taken away
by Jesus Christ and nailed to His cross. That's joy for me,
to know that my sins are gone. It's joy for me to know that
I will one day stand before God righteous and justified. Is there
any other joy that we seek? Isaiah 54 verse 1 says, Sing,
O barren, that didst not bear. Have you ever heard that? What
does that mean? That's speaking to sinners. We
who are barren and cannot produce any good works. The Scripture
says to us who are sinners, sing and rejoice. Praise God that
you did not produce any good works, for the barren have produced
more children than the married wife." What does that mean? Anyone
that has self-righteousness, anyone who has fruit of their
own self, we who are barren of any good fruit, we produce fruit
because our fruit is of the righteousness of Christ. Our righteousness
comes from Christ and not from ourselves. And so therefore we
can rejoice. Praise God, you and I don't have
to stand before God and ourselves. There's joy. There's joy in that. And rejoice in that. Do you lack
joy? Do you lack rejoicing in the
things of Christ? Where can we find this joy? Christ has left us His Word. This is where we find the joy
of the Spirit, is in the Word of God. Read it. Study it. In here you'll find joy and peace. Does anyone desire peace? We know that our peace is made
by the blood of Christ. Jesus Christ, our Mediator, has
taken His blood into the veil for us to stand before God. And therefore, by His cross,
He has made peace with God. There is no enmity between you
and God. There is no enmity between you. Christ has made peace. Our Mediator has made peace.
Therefore, in Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7, Paul says, be
careful for nothing. Don't be anxious for nothing.
But in everything, with prayer and thanksgiving, make your requests
known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus
Christ. Does your peace wane sometimes? Does circumstance and trouble
come in and sin abound and it moves our peace from us? Friends, it happens to us too
often. Don't be anxious. Be anxious for nothing. Nothing! Don't be careful for anything,
Paul says. Let your request be made known
unto God and realize that our peace has already been made.
He is our peace. If any of you lack peace, then
my friends, look to Jesus Christ who has made your peace already.
Don't strive to make peace with God. God's already made it. God's
already made it. He made it in His Son. Let not
your heart be troubled. Don't be anxious. Don't be anxious,
but have joy and peace. And the last three quickly. Long-suffering,
gentleness and goodness. Long-suffering. Let me ask you
this. Has the Lord not been long-suffering
with us? Does He not suffer long with
us? How many times have we said in
our own hearts, surely He had left me now. Surely He is gone
from me now." Many times we find ourselves in sin and, how is
it possible for God to stay with me? Surely He had cast me off. But God says this in 2 Peter
3.9, He says, He is longsuffering to us, we're not willing that
any should perish. Praise God that not any of us
should perish in whom the fruit of the Spirit is wrought. Not
any of us should perish. Why? Because God is longsuffering
with us. Therefore, let us be longsuffering
with each other. How many times have we been the
one to go to God and ask for forgiveness of our sins and turn
around on our brother immediately and demand of them? Guilty. I'm guilty. I understand. I've not been long-suffering
as I should be. This is the fruit of the Spirit.
Let us walk in long-suffering with our brethren. My friends, somebody somewhere
along the line is going to offend you. It's going to happen. And when it happens, let us take
in mind the fruit of the Spirit and walk in longsuffering." Just
be longsuffering with people. For God has been longsuffering
with us. And gentleness, gentleness. Has not God been gentle with
us? How did He draw us? Was it by
the whip of the law or was it by the goodness of His grace? He says, I've drawn you with
cords of a man. I've drawn you with great compassion
and mercy. Great gentleness. Friends, therefore, let us walk
in a gentle spirit. A gentle spirit. And goodness. Remember, it is the goodness
of God that leadeth thee to repentance. Paul says, whatsoever is good,
whatsoever is right, do those things. Find whatever it is that
you are doing, and if it is right, do it with all your heart as
unto the Lord. My friends, nobody is as good
as our God. And God has and will produce
in us goodness. Let us therefore walk in goodness. Love. Let us walk in love. Love for God and love for each
other. Let us walk in gentleness, long-suffering. Let us walk in
these things. These are good. These are the
fruits of the Spirit. He's the source of them. And
my friends, we are to yield to them. Yield to them in every
possible area of our life. This is what it is to walk in
the Spirit. If you live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. And Lord willing, next week we'll
look at the rest of these. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed
in prayer.