Okay, open your Bibles if you
would to Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five. Today
we're gonna be looking at faith in our study in the fruit of
the spirit. Again, the fruit of the spirit, it's called that
because it's number one, it's the spirit, the Holy Spirit of
God who produces this in us. And number two, it's like a cluster
of grapes, all the same fruit, just individual things. There's
nine fruits of the spirit. It's love, which is paramount. Without love, nothing else matters,
right? Paul said, without love, we're
just a sounding symbol. That's all. Love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
against such there's no loss. So turn, if you would, to Galatians
5, Galatians chapter 5. So nine altogether, fruit of
the Spirit. The last three of the fruit of
the spirit we're in now, which will be faith, meekness, and
temperance. And as I've mentioned before
in our studies, this fruit of the spirit that we have love
for our families, we have love for our friends in our unnatural
state, but this love that's spoken of here, this faith that's spoken
of here, all these fruits are not natural to us. These are
fruits given to us by God the Holy Spirit, worked in us by
God the Holy Spirit. And as we grow in grace, we grow
in faith, right? But it's Him working that in
us. He always gets the glory. It's nothing we do. Because,
you know, man, that's why scripture says we're gonna look at this
too, for by grace you're saved through faith, and that not of yourselves
is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Because
we like to boast. We humans like to boast, we do.
It's just natural for us. So I've mentioned before again
that this is produced in us by the Holy Spirit of God. This
joy is not like a joy that the natural man has. It's a joy that
flows out of our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. A joy for
God, a joy for the scriptures, a joy for the gospel, a joy for
Christ. Same with the love. Love for
God, love for the gospel, love for Christ, love for our brethren.
Things that we never had before. I can look back at my life sitting
with my mom and dad and my brothers making fun of born-again Christians
at the dinner table. I had no love for one who would
be called a born-again Christian. Now, you guys are the only ones
I want to be around now. Who's done that? God the Holy
Spirit. See? He's worked that in us. He's
worked that. It's all Him. He gets all the glory. And again,
This fruit can be found in various degrees according to our spiritual
growth, but it is in absolutely every born-again blood-washed
believer. God, the Holy Spirit's working this in us. And when
we look at ourselves, right? I look at myself and say, man,
I don't have a whole lot of love. See, we look at that, we don't
see it. But others see it being worked in us. Others see it in
us where we won't see it. Henry Mahan said that, and I
thought that was fantastic. He said, we won't see our own
growth and grace, but other people will. Because we keep thinking
I'm the chief of sinners. See, God keeps us low, doesn't
he? So we don't get puffed up. So we don't get puffed up. Oh
my. Okay. Let's read our text here. Starting in verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there's 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 vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another. So far in
our study, again, we've looked at love, joy, peace, long suffering,
gentleness, and goodness. And with reference to one another,
we are all given long-suffering, we are all given gentleness,
we're all given goodness. Remember last week we looked
at how God's ordained us unto good works, which we don't even
know what they are, but he's ordained us unto good works in
Ephesians 2. It's him that's done that, and
it's him that will work that in us too. Oh my, it's amazing. He gets all the glory. And all
God's born again people have created in us love, joy, and
peace. And all of God's people are also given faith, meekness,
and temperance. Now again, we look at ourselves
and go, my faith is so small. But you have faith, don't you?
You have God-given faith, don't you? Praise be to God. And the important thing about
that faith is who's it in? It's in Christ. In Christ alone. He's our all in all. Remember
last week I told you I was listening to Tom Harden and he said that
Christ, or God makes Christ irresistible to us? Where we can't have anyone
else but Him? He becomes literally our all
in all? That's all work of God, beloved. That's all Him working
that in us. My oh my. So we see today the
fruit of the spirit is faith. The underlying Greek word for
faith in this text is pistis. And the definition of this word
is conviction of the truth, belief of the New Testament, of a conviction
of belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things generally
with the included idea of trust and a holy fervor born of faith
joined with it. So we have a trust in Christ,
this faith has one object. This God-given faith has one
object, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. So God works in us, this
faith given to us as a gift, right, we can't work it, we can't
earn it, we don't merit it, and he gives it to us. And this faith
has one object, according to the, even the definition of it, Trust in holy fervor born of
faith. We distrust him. We trust Christ. When we're given God-given faith,
we trust Christ. We run to Christ. Where before,
we didn't have this faith. And the scripture says, without
faith, it's impossible to please God. That's talking about this
faith. People have faith in things, don't they? People have faith
in all kinds of things in the world, but this is the faith
here, that without this, it's impossible to please God, because
this faith has one object, and that's Christ, and it's given
to us by God. It's foreign to us, beloved.
It's foreign to us naturally. In relating to God, this word
faith means the conviction that God exists, that he's the creator
and ruler of all things. Has that not happened to us now? Oh my, now we believe that he's
the creator, Christ is the creator. My. And also that he's the provider
and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord.
So all this, that underlying Greek word means all that in
relation to God. My. So that's something that's
been wrought in us. It's not, Brother Travis, we
didn't believe that God was the provider of eternal life before
he saved us. We thought maybe we could do
it ourselves. But now, now that we're born again, my, now we
trust in him. And in relating to Christ, this
same Greek word is a strong and welcome conviction or belief
that Jesus is the Messiah. My oh my. Now we believe that
he's the Messiah. I didn't believe that before.
I just thought, wow, he's just God. But I'll tell you what, I really
didn't understand who he was before the Lord saved me. Was
it so for you, Brother Jonathan? We heard his name. We thought,
wow, Jesus, yeah. He's God who came down. But as
far as being the Messiah, see, and this is the other thing,
too. The Jews, they've rejected him as Messiah. They have a faith,
though, don't they? They do have a faith, just like
religions and other people with other religions have a faith
in what they supposedly believe. But now we see that it's the
wrong faith. It's not God-given. You know
what it is? It's worked up by man. I think it was Greg Almquist
that said that Martin Luther said that our Our hearts are
idol factories, pumping out gods of our imagination, who we think
God is. And he's not the God of the Bible.
And then when the God of the Bible reveals himself to us,
we just bow down and we believe these things. You know why? Because
the faith that's been given to us makes all that possible, works
all that in us. God gets all the glory, all the
honor, and all the praise, beloved. Also, in relating to the beliefs
of Christians, this same Greek word means a belief with a predominant
idea of trust or confidence, whether in God or in Christ,
springing forth at the same time. Isn't that amazing? Now we trust
Christ, Brother Brian. Now we rest in Christ. My, oh
my. That's absolutely amazing. We
didn't before we were regenerated. Again, what did we have? We had
a God of our imagination, didn't we? We even had a Christ of our
making in our heads too. My, oh my. And then he reveals
himself. Oh my. It also has to do with
loyalty and faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ, which again
is worked in us by the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not naturally faithful
to God. But this has worked into us.
Why do we stay under the preaching of the gospel? Amen. He works in us. Faithfulness,
sister. Yeah. He works in us. Faithfulness. Now, we love to come and hear
the gospel preached. We love to come and hear about
our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. We love to hear how he shed his
precious blood to redeem our eternal souls. Isn't that wonderful? That's all it has to do with
this word. And that's all worked in us, beloved. Again, by God
the Holy Spirit. And again, this faith has one
object. I'm gonna keep hammering that nail. One object, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the one object of true God-given
faith. My, oh my. And it also brings
forth, this same Greek word brings forth the character trait of
one who can be relied upon. One who can be relied upon. Which
again, this is wrought in us by the Holy Spirit of God. Why
are we loyal to Christ? Why do we come to church and
give of our finances and support the work and pray for the gospel
as it goes out? Because God's worked all that
in us, beloved. He gets all the glory and all the honor and all
the praise. And we say one of my favorite
words now, right? Hallelujah. Hallelujah! The Lord's so good!
Isn't he? He's so good. He's so good. Turn, if you would, to Ephesians
chapter 2. Now, in studying for this message, I was putting this
together and right away I thought of Ephesians 2.8.9. We've all
heard it many times, right? Ephesians 2.8.9, for by grace
ye are saved through faith and not of yourself. Do you know
the word faith there is the same word? Same Greek word. So again, no one can muster this
up, right? How do we know that? How do we
know no one can muster this God-given faith up? Well, look at this.
Ephesians 2, verse 8 to start. This is the same Greek word.
For by grace are you saved through faith. Same Greek word. And that
not of yourselves. Look at that. Not of yourselves. So I was thinking about this.
All those people say, come, you know, they play the music and
say, bow your head, repeat this prayer, now you're saved. There's
no, this faith is not given that. They're just repeating a confession
of somebody else. See, this faith comes by Holy
Spirit regeneration. Our Lord, our King said, you
must be born again. You must be. Jonathan Edwards
was booted out of his first congregation because he desired to have a
regenerate congregation. He knew that a lot of the folks
weren't saved. And all he desired was that they
would be born again, praying for them, and they kicked him
out of the Well, the Lord had him go to another church, obviously,
that loved the truth, and we're born again. He preached sinners
in the hands of an angry God, which we might have read at one
time. My, oh, my. We're redeemed, beloved, from
death and sin to a life of glory by the free grace of God. Look
at this. For by grace are you saved through faith and not of
yourselves. That means what it says. Not
of yourselves, not of anything we can do. It is what? The gift of God. Election, redemption, effectual
calling, repentance, faith, sanctification, eternal glory are all ours by
the free grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. all from God's
hand of grace and mercy. Faith in Christ is a means or
an instrument by which we receive and enjoy salvation. But the
object of our salvation is Christ. It's just a conduit. Oh my. And we see here, look at this,
in that not of yourselves. What does that mean? That means
it's not a product of man. That's exactly what that means.
It's not a product of man. And then we see the Holy Spirit
doesn't just leave us there. He says it's a gift of God. So
now we know where it really comes from. Now we know who really
produces this faith. And now in our text, right, one
of the fruits of the Spirit is faith. Same word. Same Greek word. Salvation is
a gift of God. It does not find its source in
man. It does not find its source in man. Also, its source is not
out of our works either, because it says here, in that not of
yourself. So it's not of our works. Salvation is a free gift
of God. If it was of works, it would
no longer be grace. All right? So it's not produced
by man, it's not earned by man, it's not merited by man, it's
a gift of God, and you know what? With no strings attached. Do
you like gifts with no strings attached? I always give my, if
I send money to my kids for their birthdays, if I do that, I say,
no strings attached. Do whatever you want with it.
Right? It's not mine anymore, is it?
I gave it to them. Right? No strings. We receive
this gift with no strings attached. There's nothing we have to do.
We're just receivers of this mercy and grace. That's why the
Lord said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavily,
I'll give you rest. I'll give it to you. We won't find it in
ourselves, will we? We'll just find turmoil in ourselves.
Or, oh man, I keep trying, Lord, but I keep failing. Yeah, that's
right. Turn to Christ. Cease from your
labors. And then look at verse 9. Not of works. He repeats it
again. He repeats it. And remember,
the author of this is, Paul's writing this, but the true author
is God the Holy Spirit. And he says this. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. So in absolutely no way does
this come by man. In absolutely no way. It's emphatic
here, isn't it? It doesn't come by man's works.
It doesn't come by man's merit. Beloved, it's a fruit of the
Spirit, just like we've seen over in Galatians chapter 5,
verse 22. And one reason why salvation is a free gift of God
and not earned by works, because it's given us in these words,
lest any man should boast. Do you know grace glorifies God
and works glorify man? It does. Grace glorifies God,
gives Him all the glory, gives Him all the honor, gives Him
all the praise, and somebody's just going off about what they
do, they're glorifying themselves. We no longer want to boast except
in Christ, right? What do I have to boast about?
I'm a mercy-begging sinner, saved by the grace and mercy of God.
Are you? We got nothing to boast in. We don't want to boast in
our sins. Surely, no, we're ashamed of our sin. We can boast in the
Savior. We can boast in the crucified
one, can't we? The Lord Jesus Christ, the one
who shed his blood to redeem our eternal souls. My. And the only reason we're given
this faith, remember this is given to us, it says in this
text, and we know it's a work of the Spirit in us. It's a fruit
of the Spirit. The only reason we're given this
is because of Christ's sake. That's all. That's the only reason. Because God chose us in Christ
and before the foundation of the world. That Christ redeemed
us on Calvary's cross and rose again from the grave, shed his
blood for us. And the Holy Spirit comes and
regenerates us. It's all for Christ's sake, beloved.
You remember what I said a couple weeks ago? You were born, we
were born as God's elect for the glory of Christ. Now, that's stunning, isn't it?
But it's true. Remember that lame man? Why was
this man born this way? Well, for the glorified God,
that's why. Why are we vessels of honor as
opposed to vessels of dishonor? To glorify God, that's why. He
gets all the glory, beloved. He gets all the praise. Remember,
we're his workmanship. Now, look at this. Look at verse
10. Look at verse 10. For we are his workmanship. created
in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Remember James said, faith without
works is dead? That's these works, these good works that God works
in us. There's nothing we do, and in no way does it justify
us. We've already been justified in Christ. Think of this, if we're God's
workmanship, then our salvation cannot be of ourselves, can it? That verse tells us that we're
God's workmanship. If we're God's workmanship, it can't be anything
of us. When you're working on a piece
of wood, Brother Travis, or you're working on something, you are
doing what you want to that piece of wood, right? When you made
that thing for the pillar. You didn't make it straight up,
you made it round for it to fit right where it was supposed to.
We're God's workmanship. He works on us. Remember the
potter and the clay? He makes us into whatever he
pleases. We're his workmanship, beloved. See the word workmanship
there? In the Greek, it's poima, poima,
which is from a word which is poio, which is to do, to make. To do and to make. What has he
made us? New creatures in Christ, the
scripture says, right? We're not what we were before.
Still have the same outside body, don't we? But inside now, we
have Christ in us, the hope of glory. We're new creatures. New creatures in Christ. Regenerated
by the power of God the Holy Spirit. All according to the
will and purpose of God the Father. And see the word created in Christ
Jesus there? This brings forth, when it says
created in Christ Jesus, it brings forth a further definition of
God's workmanship. were created in Christ Jesus under good works. Who put us
into Christ? The Father did. How long, do you ever think of
this? Before we were in Adam, we were in Christ. Wrap your
mind around that. It's true. Chosen in Christ before the foundational
world. Before we were in Adam, we were
in Christ. My. Oh my. I just believe it. That's all we can do, right?
If we think about it, it just makes us fizz. My oh my. But it's true. We are God's, think of this too.
We don't think of this about ourselves. We are God's spiritual
handiwork. We're his spiritual handiwork.
He makes us into who we are, all by his almighty power. Makes
us something new, right? Same outside features, but inside
we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We're made anew
by the Father. We're made anew by the Holy Spirit.
My, oh my, we're his handiwork. God's spiritual handiwork were
created by Him. New creatures, born again by
God's almighty power. And this new creation is in Christ. It's nowhere else. It's in Christ. Except that we have a union with
Christ, this could not have taken place. You ever think that? Even our
election, our sanctification, our redemption, except for a
union with Christ, it would never have taken place for us. It all
goes back to him, doesn't it? He gets all the glory and all
the honor and all the praise. My oh my. So we see again that
salvation must be all of grace because there's no room for boasting.
We're created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God had
before ordained. that we should walk in. See the
word ordain there? The word ordain, which God hath
ordained that we should walk in them. You know in the Greek
it means to prepare before, to make ready beforehand. When did he do that? When did
he do that, Brother Charlie? Amen, before the foundation of
the world, Brother. It was already planned and purposed,
right? He knows the end from the beginning.
Or else he's not God, right? Remember, I gave us a view of
how, I got this from somebody I thought was a great idea, when
we're at a parade, and if a parade's going by and we're on the street,
we just see that little section going by us, right? But for God
to know the end from the beginning, he's up and over it all, and
he can see the beginning of that? If we were up in a plane or something,
we could see the beginning of that parade and the end of that
parade, right? That's how he is with time and space. He sees
it all, it's all just set before him. And it's all just unfolding
according to his will and purpose. Gives us a whole different perspective
of it, doesn't it? It's absolutely amazing. My,
and this word here actually, let's go back to our text there.
We've been made anew by God in Christ. And this is all a work of God.
It all originated with him. We saw that in Ephesians chapter
two, verses eight and nine. And we also know that he's the
lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. But let's look
at this. It says here, but the fruit of
the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, against such there's no law.
Now the word faith here doesn't just mean the faith that we have in Christ.
As I was reading several Greek guides that I like to look at,
they were saying this also brings forth faithfulness in the believer. That which is not natural to
us, faithfulness to Christ, is wrought in us with this faith
that's given to us. In other words, Paul is saying
the spirit of, the fruit of the spirit is faithfulness. One Greek
fellow said, the spirit of the fruit is faithfulness. The faith
produces faithfulness. God-given faith produces faithfulness. A desire to hear the gospel,
a desire to be with God's people, a love for the scriptures, a
love for God, a love for Christ, a love for God's people that
was not there before. It's absolutely amazing. And the one thing God requires
of all who serve Him is stewards in the house and kingdom is faithfulness.
When God the Holy Spirit makes sinners willing, He makes us
willing servants of His. Alright? We testify that, Brother
Dave. He makes us willing servants.
Hey, Brother Charlie. Willing servants. My oh my. And the one thing that's more,
there's nothing more admirable in our God and our Savior than
the fact that he abided faithful. Don't you love the fact of God's
faithfulness? He's faithful to keep us. He
was faithful to save us. He sent his son to die in our
room and place. He made a covenant. He was faithful
to that covenant, wasn't he? And sent his son to this world
to die for us. And there's nothing more admirable
in his children than faithfulness as well. Faithfulness to the
gospel. We're born-again, blood-washed
believers are people who are faithful. Faithful to God, faithful
to his word, faithful to his glory. We give him all the glory
and honor and praise, don't we? Faithful to one another, faithful
in our lives. And this faithfulness certainly
includes dependability. we are dependent upon Christ
and Him alone. I'll tell you what, without Him
we can do nothing. Oh my. Many are dependable on
their responsibility who have no knowledge of our eternal God
at all, but this faithfulness here is an inward principle of
grace. It's an inward loyalty to Christ. by which, as Brother Henry says,
the lives of God's saints are regulated in the world. Now we're
regulated. We can't just go and do whatever
we want. We don't want to do that. We
want to be faithful to Christ. Marvel then that God's children
are faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, who were at one time
unfaithful. And now they're faithful. How?
They didn't do it by themselves. We surely didn't change ourselves.
We can't, right? We saw that in Ephesians 2, 8, 9. Who did
it, beloved? God did it, didn't he? God made
us to differ, right? God the Holy Spirit regenerated
us. Now we're born again. Now we praise Christ. Oh, and
born-again blood-washed believers are faithful to God, faithful
to the word, faithful to give God all the glory, faithful to
one another, and faithful in our lives. Now, we don't see
that in ourselves. We think, oh, I'm not very faithful. But God's working that in us.
He knows. He knows we don't have faithfulness
without him. You know where we'd be without the Holy Spirit rotting
us in us? We'd be out doing whatever we
wanted to do. But praise God for restraint
and grace. Praise God for cords of love
which draw us to Christ. Just draw us right to him, beloved. And keeps us, keeps us. Faith in any sense of the meaning
of God's Word is the fruit of the Spirit. Revelation says this,
it tells us that all who are the Christ of God, who is Lord
of Lords and King of Kings, are called, chosen, and faithful. Revelation 17, 14. He rots that in us, beloved.
And our faith, we saw, is a gift of God. By the operation and
power of God, the Holy Spirit, we see in our text, right? Because
this fruit is not natural to us, it has to be worked in us,
right? By God, the Holy Spirit. It comes from outside of us. Who do we, we look outside ourselves
and up to Christ, right? Christ sends the Spirit who rots
in us this fruit. Gives us faith and repentance
before God. Gives us a love, joy, peace that
is not natural to us. My oh my. And so we give him
all the glory. And we can't muster up this faith
that's spoken of here. People have faith in all kinds
of things, misgiven faith. But this faith here is a gift
of God. And this God-given faith shows
itself in believing in Christ for salvation. Are you trusting
in Christ? Are you resting in Him alone?
That's God-given faith. God-given faith has one object,
as I said. That's Christ. Dave, you and
I were talking about how He becomes our all in all. That's God-given
faith. Because naturally, we don't have
that at all. But praise be to God, He gives
us that. And now we make a profession of him, which is called what? The profession of faith. He gets all the glory, beloved.
He gets all the glory. I'm going to read you some scriptures.
If you want to pin them down, you can. I'm just going to read
some. If you want to turn there, it'll be really quick. But I
wanted to close this message with God's faithfulness. God's faithfulness to us. In
Psalm 36.5, it says, thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and
thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds, immeasurable. You
can't even plumb the depths of it. Psalm 89, verses one and
two. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness
to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall
be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shall thou establish
in the very heavens. Our God is faithful, beloved.
All the time. Even when we look and say, what's
going on? He's still faithful. Lamentations. Listen to this. It is of the
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions
fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. Great
is his faithfulness. Great. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. verses 4 to 8. I thank my God
always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you
by Jesus Christ that in everything ye are enriched by him in all
utterance and in all knowledge even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you so that you came behind in no gift waiting
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall also confirm
unto you the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. By whom you were called unto
the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And the last
section, turn there if you would, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1
Thessalonians chapter 5. My oh my, our God is so faithful.
Great is his faithfulness. God is faithful. Do you know
God's faithful even when we're not? Isn't that wonderful? Let's close with this here. 1
Thessalonians 5, verses 14 to 24. Now we exhort you, brethren.
Verse 14. Warn them that are unruly, comfort
the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for
evil. unto any man, but ever for all
that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice
evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench
not the spirit, despise not prophesying, prove all things, hold fast that
which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very
God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved. Blame us under the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful, faithful, faithful
as he that called you who also will do it. Look at that. Our God is so good, isn't he?
He lists all those things and he says at the end, faithful
is he that called you who also will do it. We will be preserved. We will be presented blameless
before the Father's throne with exceeding joy. And the one who
will present us that way is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to his name. Brother Travis,
can you close us in prayer? We are so undeserving of that
faith, and thank you for the faith that we do have, that you
have given to us, not of ourselves, but that is truly a gift of you. Be with those that are unable
to be here. Be with Wayne as he gives the Sunday morning service
a message. We ask these things in Jesus'
name, amen. Amen.