Would you turn back to Galatians
chapter 5? I've entitled this message, Works
and Fruit. Works and Fruit. Look in verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are
manifest. which are these. Then look in
verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit. So here we read of the
works of the flesh and the fruit of God the Holy Spirit. Now,
what is meant by flesh and by Spirit? The works of the flesh
and the fruit of the Spirit. Flesh is fallen human nature. When Adam ate of the fruit, the
scripture says he died. He died spiritually, and that
was seen in his actions. He didn't die physically at this
time, but he died spiritually, and that's seen in his actions.
As soon as he ate the fruit, he went and hid from God's presence.
He no longer wanted to be in God's presence. He thought somehow
he could hide from God. He lost his understanding, thinking
he could hide from God. And he demonstrates no sorrow
for what he did when God confronts him. He's not sorry. He says,
the woman that you gave me, she gave me of the fruit and I did
eat. That's no confession of sin. That's blaming God. He became
spiritually dead. Now, here's what happened as
a result. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
six, verse five. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now I want to emphasize those
three words, every, only, and continually. Now that is the
result of Adam's fall, and that is the flesh. Every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. Look in verse 11 of the same
chapter. The earth also was corrupt before
God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked
upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh, there's
that word, all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. Now we're
born into this world with this sinful nature. David said, in
sin did my mother conceive me. He said, the wicked are restrained
from the womb. They go about as soon as they
be born speaking lies. Now that is the flesh, fallen
human nature. It's the nature we were born
with. We were born into this world dead in trespasses and
sins. And you have to be quickened
who are dead in trespasses and sins. Well, what is meant by
the spirit? The Spirit is the new nature
given in regeneration. And this is what happens when
someone's born again. They're given a new nature that
they didn't have before, a new man, a new creation in Christ
Jesus. You see, all those the Father
elected, all those the Son died for, they shall be born of the
Spirit. They're going to be given this
new nature. Our Lord said, that which is
born of the flesh flesh and it's never going to rise above that
but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit being born again
not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of
God which liveth and abideth forever now while the flesh is
nothing but sin the spirit has no sin it's a holy nature Now
in every believer, and I was thinking about this before I
got up, if somebody that doesn't know the Lord would hear this
language and they say, that guy's crazy. That guy's insane. Where
is he coming up? Every believer has two different
men dwelling in them. Now let me repeat that. Every
believer has two different men dwelling in them. One holy man. regenerate, born of the Spirit,
and one man who is nothing but sin." And someone would hear
you say something like that, and they'd go, you're crazy.
You're crazy. And I understand people feeling
that way if you don't know anything about it. The only way someone
can understand this is if they have these two separate natures. And Paul spoke of them in the
context of this passage of Scripture. In Galatians chapter 5, he said
in verse 17, the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit
lusts against the flesh, and these two are contrary one to
the other so that you can't do the things you would. You have
two men within you, two manner of men. One of God, the other
of the flesh. One of the spirit, one of fallen
human nature. And they're contrary one to the
other. And you can't do the things that you would. I would never
sin again. How do I do with that? I'm afraid to admit to you the
things that I would do. Thank God, the Spirit of God,
the new nature prevents it. Now, where you don't have this
struggle, this fight going on within, you only have one nature.
That's why an unbeliever cannot possibly understand this. They
hear something like this and they say, that's crazy. Two different
people in the same person? You need to go to a psychiatrist.
Well, maybe so, but it's what the scripture teaches. And we
have the flesh and we have the spirit. Now, he speaks of the
works of fallen human nature. He says the works of the flesh,
back to our text, The works of the flesh are manifest. They're obvious, which are these.
And I think it's interesting that the first things he mentions
have something to do with sexual sin. He said adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, and lasciviousness. He mentions these first, I believe,
because it's the first thing Adam experienced after the fall.
He was naked before the fall. So was Eve. And it wasn't an
issue. It wasn't an issue. after the
fall they knew they were naked." Now what that's referenced to
is all the sinful thoughts and desires and imaginations that
came through that fall. Now he mentions adultery, being married to someone, and
then being unfaithful to them. What a horrible sin. Fornication,
any kind of sexual sin. Doesn't matter what kind it is. It covers it all. Any kind of
sexual sin. You know what's amazing? The
Lord has made sex and it's beautiful between a man and his wife. What
a glorious picture of the gospel. The two becoming one flesh and
yet through the sinfulness of man how this is debased and what
wickedness comes through this. And then he speaks of uncleanness, that's immoral and profligate
living, lasciviousness, unbridled lust, shamelessness. These are
the first things that are mentioned. The works of the flesh, they're
obvious, they're manifest. Nobody has any trouble with these.
I mean, you know, you know what I'm saying. So, you know what
the Bible is saying. So, and then he speaks in verse 20 of
idolatry. false ideas, false concepts of
God that aren't in the Bible. You know, every man is an idol
workshop. Every man makes idols, false
ideas, and false images of God, work of the flesh, witchcraft.
It's really where we get the word pharmacology from. It could
be the drugs are involved, but it's the occult. It's magic and
so on. Then hatred, hatred is a work
of the flesh, ill will towards anyone, wanting them to be exposed. Variance
is debate, contention, strife. Emulations are an envious rivalry,
big in competition. Wrath is temper tantrums and
outbursts of anger. Strife, I thought this was interesting.
I've always thought of strife as just, you know, people striving
with each other, but the definition was electioneering, electioneering,
trying to win people over to your cause, trying to get people
on your side. That's called the work of the
flesh, trying to justify yourself. Seditions or divisions, heresies,
I love the, you know, heresy means a choosing. That's all
it means, a choosing. You know, if you believe something
that's wrong, it's because you choose to. If you believe the
truth, it's because it's the truth. You know, I don't choose
to believe two and two is four. I believe it because it's four.
But I'd have to choose to believe it's three. I'd have to choose
to believe it's five. If you believe that which is
not true, it's a choosing. It comes from your own will.
It comes from what you want. He says in verse 21, envyings,
that feeling of displeasure at the prosperity of somebody else
and wishing you had it rather than them, that shows the baseness
of human nature. Envyings. Murders, either the
literal murder or murdering men's characters. I wonder how many
murders I've committed where I've murdered people's characters
by innuendo, by things I've said, even by my silence or failing
to protect them and defend them. That's murder. Anger without
a cause is murder. Drunkenness, intoxication, either
with alcohol or with pride or the world, revelings, a party
animal is all that means, and such like, of which I tell you
before, as I've told you in times past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now Paul says,
I'm telling you what I've told you in the past, they that do
such things. shall not inherit the kingdom
of God." Now, the word do in the original is the word that
indicates practice. Not a one-time act, but that
is their practice, and it's a participle. I'm giving, I hate doing that,
but it's helpful. It helped me to understand this
passage of scripture. It's a participle. A participle is a verb that's
used as an adjective. Now that, what's that mean? That
means a participle describes who you are and what you do as
a result. A man doesn't become a sinner
when he sins. He sins because he's already
a sinner. And that's what this thing he's
saying. Now, stay with me. Does this mean that if I commit
these sins, I will not inherit the kingdom of heaven? Well, if it does mean that, who
in here is going to be saved? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. I'd like to know. If it does mean that, you're
not saved and neither am I because we do commit those sins. We do. But look at verse 17 once
again. For the flesh lusts against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
one to the other, so that you cannot do the things you would."
Now, if you don't have this spirit, this spiritual nature, that means
all you have is what's at the end of verse 21, they which do
such things. This is what they are, and this
is what they do. That's the way you would describe
them. This is what they are and this is what they do and that's
all there is there. They commit adultery because
they're adulterers. They commit fornication because
they're fornicators. They murder because they're murderers. This is all that's there in the
flesh. There is nothing but sin and
that's all there is there. But if you're a believer, You
have another nature and that is the real you. Now let me repeat that. That
is the real you. That's who you've always been
way back before time began. You didn't know it. You didn't
experience it until God gave you a new nature. But we've had
personality. God's known us before time began.
And that is the real you. That man is not an adulterer. That woman is not a fornicator.
That man is not a thief, is not a murderer, is not envious. This
is the new man in Christ Jesus. Now, if all you've got is an
old nature, all you have is the last of verse 21, they that do
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. But if you have a new nature,
you know what Paul said about this in Romans chapter seven?
He said, it wasn't me, it was the sin that dwelt in me. Now,
people would say, well, you're making an excuse for your sin.
Well, whatever I'm doing, that's what the Bible says. It wasn't
me. It was the sin that dwelleth in me. Do you know every time
a believer sins, they sin against their will with full consent? With full consent. Yet every
believer desires perfect obedience and perfect holiness, and they
find that they can't attain to it. the flesh lusting against
the spirit, and the spirit lusting against the flesh. Now, that's my experience. Thank God it's what the scripture
teaches too. You gotta look at this in light of all the scriptures.
You gotta throw the whole book at it. Thank God it's what the
scripture teaches. But a believer does not only
have this flesh he's dealing with, But look at verse 22, this
is one of the most beautiful. Well, first look at this really
as a description of Christ, but the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Can't you see all that embodied
in the Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, how beautiful it is in his
person. And I love Paul's slam here at
the end of the statement. You know, they were really into
the law. These Galatians, he said, against such there is no
law. You have the fruit of the spirit.
You don't need a law. This is far superior to and above
law. If you need law, all you prove
is you don't have the spirit of God. That's it. The law was
not made for a righteous man. but for sinners and the disobedient,
the lawless, murders of fathers, murders of mothers, and that
big catalog of sins he gives in 1 Timothy 1. Now, let's consider
this beautiful fruit of the Spirit. Fruit. Fruit. Now, fruit is the visible representation
of what's on the inside. Now, you can't see if I have
this new holy nature. You can't look at me and say,
well, I see it in there. No. But fruit is the visible manifestation
of what's on the inside. Now, if you see apples hanging
off a tree, what's that a dead giveaway about? It's an apple
tree. It's an apple tree. Fruit is
the visible manifestation of what is on the inside. Now this
is the fruit of God the Holy Spirit. This is so important. This is not the fruit of the
flesh. Do you know no natural man has love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. No natural
man has this because this is the fruit of the Spirit. It's
not the fruit of the flesh. This is not in any unsaved man.
Now, there are counterfeits of it abounding because wherever
you have the real, you're going to have the counterfeit right
behind. But this is something that every elect, redeemed, regenerated
soul possesses, the fruit of God the Holy Spirit. God said
in Hosea 14 verse nine, for me is thy fruit found. You know
this fruit wouldn't come from you, don't you? I mean, you're
just as sure of that as you're alive. The only way you can have this
fruit is if it's the fruit of God the Holy Spirit, his work
in you. Turn with me for a second to
Matthew chapter seven. Our Lord said, herein is my father
glorified that you bear much fruit. I want to bear much fruit,
don't you? Beginning in verse 15. Beware of false prophets which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening
wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns? No. Or figs of thistles? No. Even so, look at this verse. This is so important. Even so,
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. But a corrupt tree
bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. It is impossible. Every tree
that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into
the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits you
shall know them. Now, as soon as a man is born
of the Spirit, he has the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It can't
be otherwise. As soon as he's born of God,
He has the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Now, by growing in grace,
he grows in this fruit and it becomes more evident, but never
forget, this is the fruit of the Spirit. It's not the product
of your flesh. It's not something you can work
up. It's something God has given every believer in the new birth,
the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Now, let's consider these nine
words are mentioned, I think the fruit of the Spirit is love
and it's manifest in all these nine ways. But the first three
have to do with my attitude toward God. The second three have to
do with my attitude toward men. And the third cluster has something
to do with me. The fruit of God the Holy Spirit. Now, I love this first fruit
that is mentioned. Actually, I believe it's the
only fruit, and all these others are manifestations of this. The
fruit of the Spirit is love. Now, that's speaking of love
to God. Yes, there will be love to my
brothers and sisters when that's there. There'll be love to men,
but that's speaking of love to God. Every believer loves God as He
is. We love His holiness. We love
His justice. We love His power, His omnipotence. We love His sovereignty. We love
the fact that everybody and everything is in His hand and He can do
whatever He wants to do. We love His power. that he can
do whatever he wants to do. We love his independence, how
he is dependent upon none, but he's absolutely independent.
We love his immutability, how he can never change. We love
every attribute of God. Now, a lot of folks don't know
they don't love God until they hear who God is. And then they
find out they don't love that God. They might have loved their
idea of God, but they don't love that God. But every believer
loves God exactly as He is in His Word. And I really do. I
really do. I love the way he is. If it were
in my power to change anything about him, I wouldn't do it.
Oh, I wouldn't do it. You can't say that about anybody
else. As great as Lynn is as a wife,
there's things I'd change, and I guarantee you there's things
she'd change about me. Ain't no doubt about it. And you're
that way with your spouses, too, and the people you love the most.
But with regard to God, oh my. He's so altogether perfect. Love to God, and we love everybody
that loves Him, don't we? And you know, we love men. We
want them to know the Lord. We want them to know our God,
don't we? We want them to know the Lord. We love men. The fruit
of the Spirit is love. And then next he says the fruit
of the Spirit is joy. Joy. Now understand this. Joy
is not a feeling of giddy happiness. You can be very unhappy, and
your circumstances can be very, very difficult, and you can still
have the joy of the Lord in your heart. See, joy is not from circumstances. You know, I love it when circumstances
are great and seems like everything's going my way and not having any
troubles. I like that, but I don't do well that way. I really don't. It's not good for me. But joy,
the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Does it give you joy that
your righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ? Does that give
you joy? I'll tell you what it gives me
joy. I'm glad His righteousness is my righteousness. It gives
me joy that I'm complete in Christ and that everything God requires
of me, I have. It gives me joy. The gospel gives
me joy. And if everything's bad, it's
still great news that salvation's by grace, that everything God
requires of me, I have, that I'm justified before God. The
kingdom of God is joy. joy. We rejoice in the gospel. I was reading ahead in Sunday
school of David dancing mightily and playing before the Lord and
so on, and that's the way we are with regard to the gospel.
It's interesting. I listened to a guy preach on
that, and he spent the whole time explaining how it was wrong
to dance. I thought, well, that's a hard scripture to teach something
like that. I love thinking of David dancing
and rejoicing before the Lord. Michael got mad at him. She said,
Oh, did not the king make a fool of himself? He said, I'll be
even more base than this. I can't wait to get to that.
I'll get to it in a few weeks. But at any rate, joy, joy, love, joy,
peace. The peace of having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God. The peace of knowing that
I'm complete in Christ and that I lack nothing. Now, if there's
something left out, I wouldn't have any peace, but here's what
gives me peace. It is finished. Peace. Oh, the joy and the peace
of believing. Believing it's finished. Now,
this is our attitude toward God. Love, joy, and peace. God's at peace with me. I'm at
peace with Him. His peace with me is because
of Christ, and I know that, and that's what gives me peace. I
get peace from the same thing that God gets peace from, that
Christ is all in my salvation. Now the next three have to do
with our attitude toward each other or toward men. The fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering,
gentleness, and goodness. Now these have something to do
with our attitude toward men, and they're all part of love.
But first, longsuffering. Long-suffering. Now, when I talk
about long-suffering, I always feel guilty when I talk about
it because I'm not very long-suffering. I mean, watch me in a car in
the traffic, you know, and I just, I'm ashamed of myself the way
I am. But this has to do with an attitude toward seeing God's
long-suffering and patience with me. I can be patient with you.
That's what that means. I can be patient with you. I
can wait on the Lord. And I know that, oh, the Lord's
so patient with me. He's so long-suffering with me.
That way, I can be long-suffering with you. I can be patient with
you. I can just wait on the Lord.
I know enough about myself to know that only the Lord can do
something for anybody. And I wait on that. Long-suffering. And the next word he uses is
gentleness. Gentleness. That's kindness and graciousness,
not holding people's feet to the fire, not holding them to
a harsher or higher standard than I hold for myself. You know,
I read this this week and it really hit me. We judge ourselves by our intentions.
We judge others by their actions. That's wrong, isn't it? Oh, may
the Lord make us truly gracious, nonjudgmental, kind, caring,
loving people. The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness,
and that means kindness and graciousness, not holding people's feet to
the fire, not having a different standard for them than I do for
myself. The fruit of the Spirit is goodness. Goodness. Now, what's that got to do with
my attitude toward you? Well, when Moses said to God,
show me your glory, how did God answer him? He said, I'll make
all my goodness to pass before you. Now this was after that
bunch had committed idolatry, had some kind of wicked stuff
going on around that golden calf and Moses is praying for him
and God says, I'll make all my goodness pass before you. His
goodness is his capacity to show mercy to somebody like me or
you. The fruit of the Spirit is goodness. Don't you want to
be a merciful person? Oh, that's the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit of the Spirit is goodness.
Now, the next three have to do with ourselves. He says the fruit
of the Spirit is faith. Faith. Now, if you have faith,
you know God gave it to you, don't you? You know that God
the Holy Spirit worked it in you. But you know what? You really
do have faith. You know, I really am, right now while I'm talking
to you, I really do believe and rely upon Christ as my only righteousness
before God. I really, in the depths of my
heart, I believe that. I really am relying on salvation
being all together by grace. That's no fake with me. That's
not just something I've been indoctrinated in. It's something
I really rely on. I really look to Christ as my
only way to the Father. Not what I do or what I don't
do, but only who He is and what He's done. I really depend upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. When I stand in judgment, my
only hope is He's going to answer for me. That's it. He'll say, he's one of mine.
And that's all I need. All I need. I really do believe
the gospel. Now that's the fruit of the God,
the Holy Spirit. That's the fruit of faith. The fruit of the Spirit
is faith. And next he says, the fruit of
the Spirit is meekness. Meekness. Now meekness is very
close to humility. It comes from humility. But meekness
has this attitude that whatever God sends my way is right. And he doesn't do it because
it's right. It's right because he does it. Whatever God sends my way, I
bow to it. Whatever God sends my way, he
did it. He did it. And whatever God sends
my way is right because he's the one who sent it. Now that's
meekness before God. It's associated with humility
before God. meekness. Whatever God does is
right. So I don't have any reason to complain. I don't have any
reason to murmur. I don't have any, I do, I do,
but I don't have any reason to. Because if the Lord gives me
grace to see that everything he's in control of, I think of
what Eli said when Samuel came to him with the news of his sons.
Eli said, it's the Lord. God's going to kill your two
sons. It's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Whatever he does is right. That's meekness. And then the
third thing he mentions is temperance. temperance. That means control
from within. Now remember this is the fruit
of the Spirit. You've known people who are real disciplined and
so on that don't know anything about the gospel. That's not
real temperance. I'm talking about the control
from in that comes from God the Holy Spirit where you have this
temperance It doesn't allow the flesh to
break out as it would. Temperance and eating and drinking,
temperate views of ourselves, not becoming intoxicated with
pride, temperate views of others. But temperance, the fruit of
God the Holy Spirit that keeps you from breaking out as you
would without God the Holy Spirit. The fruit of God the Holy Spirit. And like I said, how this is
seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, to think of His love, His joy
before the Father, His peace. You know, He has the peace of
never having sinned. You know, the only thing that
causes us angst and anxiety is sin, but having His peace, that
peace that passes all understanding, I know before the Father, I have
no sin. You think of His longsuffering,
and His gentle graciousness, and His goodness, and His faith. We're saved by the faith of Christ.
His perfect faithfulness. Somebody had to believe God perfectly.
He did. He did. I think of Him being meek and
lowly in heart. I mean, that's how He describes
Himself. Meek. and lowly in heart." And
you think of his temperance, his control. Oh, the glorious
Son of God. And I love Paul's slam at the
end of this. He says, against such, there
is no law. Folks who have, you guys are
wanting laws so much. He said, folks who have the fruit
of the Spirit, no laws needed. There's no law against any of
these things. Verse 24, and they that are Christ's have crucified
the flesh with the affections and lusts." Now, you see where
it says, have crucified, that is in the active tense in the
original. What that means is it's going
on right now. It doesn't mean it's already done. It does not mean it's already
done. It's what's going on in verse
17. The flesh lusting against the
spirit, the spirit lusting against the flesh. You see, the spirit
is putting to death the flesh. It's crucifying the flesh. And
it's going to be going on until you quit breathing. It doesn't
mean It's a completed act, and you're already done. If it meant
that, well, I'd be so discouraged. I'd think, that hasn't happened
to me. But the language doesn't really admit that. It is going
on right now. And they, their Christ, have
crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts, the
passions. Now, he says, if we live in the Spirit, and don't
you know, don't you know that if you have life, it's in the
Spirit? It didn't come from you in any way. It's the Spirit of
God in you. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Now, we live in the Spirit. We
know that. We don't have any spiritual life that comes from
us. We live in the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, and
we do if we're believers, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let's look like people who live
in the Spirit. Well, what's that look like?
I know what religious people would say. They'd give us some
kind of holier-than-thou picture of some ethereal person, but
here's what it looks like, verse 26. Here's what walking in the
Spirit looks like. Let us not be desirous of vainglory. Self-promotion. Take the lowest
seat in the house. Don't be desirous of vainglory.
Provoking one another. and envying one another. That's
what it looks like to walk in the Spirit, not being desirous
of vainglory, provoking one another with our self-promotion and envying
one another. That's the opposite of love.
This is what walking in the Spirit looks like. Now, look up at verse
18. If you be led of the Spirit,
if you live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, if you be led
of the Spirit, this is radical. This is radical. You're not under
law. That doesn't make sense to the
natural man. But if you're led of the Spirit, you are not under
law. And if you are under law, you
know what that means? You don't have the Spirit of
God. If you be led of the Spirit, you are not under law. That's
just a completely different principle from what the natural man would
think, isn't it? But it's what the Bible teaches. And I'm thankful
the Bible teaches this. May God enable us to have, to
manifest, to walk and be led of the Spirit of God. Let's pray. Lord, we confess our sinfulness Lord, these works of the flesh
are manifest, they're obvious, and we ask for forgiveness for
committing the works of the flesh. Lord, how we thank you for the
fruit of God the Holy Spirit. Lord, we ask that we might be
filled with the Spirit of God. and cause it, that feeling, to
cause us to look to, rejoice in, and glory in the Lord Jesus
Christ only. And Lord, deliver us from being
desirous of vain glory, provoking one another and ending one another,
for surely that's what that produces. Lord, cause us to manifest the
fruit of God the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Oh
Lord, let us grow in the fruit of the Spirit. And Lord, how
we thank you that it is the fruit of thy Spirit. It's not the fruit
of our flesh, we know that. We can't produce the fruit of
the Spirit. We ask that by your grace you
would produce the fruit of the Spirit in us for the sake of
the Lord Jesus Christ. In his blessed name we pray.
Amen.