We'll be in the book of Galatians
again. If you'd like to turn, Galatians chapter five. Galatians five tells us that
Paul is giving a contrast, the works of the flesh and the fruit
of the spirit. And I love how the Lord words
that. He doesn't call it the works of the spirit. He calls
it the fruit of the spirit. And that's important as we move
forward. Because if you remember in the book of Genesis, when
the Lord created the trees, He said, and the tree shall bring
forth fruit of its own kind, its own kind. This is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. The Lord's people
bring forth the fruit of the Lord because they're connected
to the vine. He gets all the glory. I'm saying this too early
probably, because I've written down later on, but does the apple
boast that it grew itself? Can you put an apple on a seal
and it grows itself? No, certainly not. No, it's the
tree, it's the sunshine, it's the rain, it's the tree that
grows the fruit. And that's the focal point this
hour, is it's not my fruit, it's his fruit. It's not what I produce
in and of myself, it's what he produces in all of his elected
children. The contrast is the works of
the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. Now I want to start by
saying everything that you have ever heard from any false preacher
regarding the fruit of the Spirit is a lie. It doesn't matter what
you've heard because you were told that this is what you should
be producing and you should be seeing it in your life. That's
not true. We heard the first hour that
if you're in the Spirit, then you cannot see the things of
the flesh. And if you are in the flesh,
you cannot see the things of the spirit because they're contrary
one to another. That means if I'm looking for
evidences of spiritual work in my life, physically, I'm never
going to see it. If I see it, it's not spiritual.
It's physical. Do we see that? And yet religion
puts emphasis on what you can see with these eyes. What I can
see with these eyes, what I hear with these ears. And this is
what Paul's telling them. It's like you're going back to
the law hoping for righteousness and all you're doing is condemning
yourself and getting back under the law. You're not gonna find
righteousness there. It's not Christ plus something,
it's Christ period. If you can see it, it is indeed
the fruit of the flesh. Nothing by the flesh can accomplish
or can be accomplished for anything spiritual. Nothing spiritual
can be accomplished by what you attempt to do in the flesh. Meaning
I can't let God save me. I can't pray a prayer and obligate
God to save me. Somebody said, well, you have
to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Where does it come from?
We heard Steve just read from Ezekiel. It was perfect. Because
he said, I'll take the heart of stone out of you and give
you a heart of flesh. That's when you're going to believe.
You're going to come with me with a broken heart and it will be a stony
broken heart. It's going to be the heart of flesh that's broken.
Realizes I'm a sinner. I need a savior. And there's
Christ. The Lord gives you repentance
and faith. And there is Christ who we flee to all by grace. These two, the flesh and the
spirit, they're complete and entire opposites of each other.
They're like light and darkness. So I hope to answer this question
this morning, what is it to bear the fruit of the spirit? I've
titled this message, Bearing the Fruit of the Spirit. Let's
read Galatians 5 verse 19 through the end of the chapter. Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, immolations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. of
the which I tell you before as I have told you also told you
in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit
the kingdom of God but now here's the contrast but the fruit of
the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness
faith meekness temperance against such There is no law. And they
that are Christ's 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. This is
the work of the spirit. It's the fruit of the spirit. He is the source of this fruit. This is important because so
many people think that we can produce something if we try to. This isn't the fruit of the flesh.
Actually, we just found out what that was. It's called the works
of the flesh and it's right above it. That's the works. Now we're
talking about the fruit of the spirit that is bestowed and brought
forth in the Lord's people. You say, well, I can't see it.
Well, if you could see it in the flesh, it would be the fruit
of the spirit. See, everything that hinges on the eternal is
hinged upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by grace. It's not
based upon what we see with these eyes, but it's based upon faith
bestowed that causes us to see and believe by faith that everything
required, he provided. He provided. This fruit is the work of God's
spirit in every elect child of God produced by the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is his fruit. This is his
fruit. I love when he told the disciples,
he said, I am the vine, the true vine, and you are the branches.
And he also said that that which does not bring forth fruit, the
husband of the vineyard will cast it down and throw it into
the fire. It's like, okay, well that means I need to produce
fruit, because that's a metaphor or an allegory for they that
are not in Christ. He's going to throw them into
the furnace. So the Lord's people, what about us? Do we produce
fruit? The Lord says we do. The Lord says we do. Are you
looking for the fruit? No, I'm looking to Christ. That's
the answer. That's the whole key to this
entire message is that we don't look to self, examining self,
looking for these fruits to be manifest in our life. We look
to the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that he will order and provide.
And I guarantee the Lord causes these things to come to fruition
in our lives. We just can't see it. We just
can't see it. I saw a man one time, he was,
uh, made to believe the gospel. He was a rough, he was a rough
guy. And, uh, he said, well, I'll, I'll come to church, but
I'm not going to sell my business. His business was a bit of a frivolous
one. And, uh, I'll leave the details out. And anyways, the
man ended up coming to service anyways. He's like, okay, well,
I'll, I would like to be baptized, but I'm still not getting rid
of my business. Pastor said, okay, you don't have to get rid
of your business. It's fine. Do you. A few years later, he's
like, okay, I need to get rid of my business. And they said,
well, why, what changed? He's like, My heart, the Lord changed my
heart. It's not for righteousness. It's not to become righteous.
It's because I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that he is
righteous. And this particular business I have could be a distraction
for somebody hearing the gospel, see the change in the mind that
the Lord gives his people. And we don't look at that as
evidence of our salvation. We just know from experience,
we don't think the way we used to think. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. And this is all the work of the Lord's spirit. This is
not something we merited or we worked on or we earned. This
is not something that we keep working on. Should we work on our love
one for another? Absolutely. I don't see anything
wrong with that, but don't dare do it as any part of your salvation.
That's the issue is people will take this fruit of the Spirit
and say, well, you're not truly a believer because I don't see
all these fruits that's coming out of you that's here. It's
the fruit of the Spirit. It's not the fruit of Caleb.
It's not the fruit of you. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
He's the source. He's the sum and substance of
it all. And the only way I'm going to bear that fruit is if
he causes me to bear that fruit in Christ Jesus. This is the
difference between the gospel in all false religions. You know
why it's not produced by us? There's several reasons. Well,
number one, we can't. It's impossible because it's
spiritual. But we would brag about it, wouldn't we? We would
make it work. That's what men do. They make
it work. They brag about it. Have you seen Well, really, they do it
anyways, whether it's the fruit of the Spirit or not. They say,
well, I really cleaned up my life. I'm really living a lot better
than I used to be. I mean, I was talking to Karen in between service,
talking about how some people think that I see myself as getting
better. I see myself as getting better.
And it's like, Paul didn't. Paul said, oh, wretched man that
I am, not wretched man that I was. Paul said, I'm the chief sinner.
He got towards the very end of his life, he started out as being
the least of the brethren, not worthy to be counted as one of
the brethren, I'm the chief sinner. You say, well, was he digressing?
He saw himself as less and less, so he was growing in grace, that's
what that's called. The less you see of yourself,
the less I see of myself, that's growing in grace, realizing that
everything God requires, he's got to provide, because I can't
produce it, I can't earn it, I can't merit it, I can't do
anything to acquire or attain it, The Lord's gonna have to
give it to me. The Lord's gonna have to bestow it. And how does
he always bestow that? That which he requires, freely
by grace. Freely by grace. If it was of us, we would brag.
But it says, we were born not of the will of man or the will
of flesh, but of God. Of God, he's the one that willed
it. Matter of fact, it says, they that are in the flesh cannot
please God. But did you know what the next verse says? You're not in the
flesh, you're in the spirit. If so, you have the spirit of
God dwelling in you. I was looking at this fruit.
We have to go back to the apple. Apple doesn't brag about how
pretty red it is. And look at my fruit. Look at how good I've grown.
No, it's the apple tree that gets the glory for the fruit
that it produces. Some of you have trees, and I
have plants. And I don't get frustrated at
the tomato on the vine. I get frustrated at the vine
whenever I don't produce the tomatoes. You understand what
I'm saying? The vine's the problem. Well,
in this case, the vine's not the problem. You and I are the
problem. So if we're gonna produce anything, it's gotta come from
the true vine. Do you see this? And that's exactly what he promised
to do. If you consider it a source, brethren, you'll soon find the
origin, the tree bringing forth fruit of its own kind, and therefore
the tree, our true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ, gets all the
glory, all the glory. Let's first notice the works
of the flesh here, verse 19 through 21. Now the works of the flesh
are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, immolations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like, of the which I tell you before,
as I also have told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. First question
would be, should we strive to do these things? Certainly not.
Certainly not. This is the works of the flesh. Pursuing this brings nothing
but death. But God's people have been ordained
unto good works. Did you know that? That's what
the scripture tells us. That you would walk therein. That's
what the Lord said. God hath ordained his people to good works
that we will walk therein. Now, do you see yourself as doing
good works? Well, you better say no, because you know it's
true. We shouldn't, we can't. Why? Because the good works the
Lord's looking for, he must bestow upon his people, and it's only
found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're in him,
you have lived perfectly righteous your entire life. If you're in
him, you have never sinned one time. If you're in him, you're
producing his fruit given to you freely by his grace. Everything
else, and this is the contrast here, everything else we try
to do in the flesh, or anything we try to do in the flesh for
that matter's part, or evidence of our salvation, it'll fall
under one of these categories right here. It'll fall under
idolatry. There's a lot of self-worship. It'll fall under spiritual adultery. It'll fall under all these categories
that's present here, and that's all the flesh can produce. That's it right here, all these.
This is the message that Paul's telling them. Don't go to the
law because all you're going to do is be put under the law
because you're guilty of all of these. That's what he's saying. Now these good works I said we're
ordained to, we're not ordained to glory in ourself and see ourself
getting better. But by Christ in us, scripture
says he works that which is pleasing to God. Isn't that good news
to you? That God works that which is pleasing to himself in you? That's glorious news for me.
Because if he doesn't do the work in me, I have no hope of
anything. I have no hope of anything. These works of the flesh are
without faith and without love. And the scripture says, without
faith, it is impossible to please God. And faith works by love. Faith works, worketh by love.
So without faith, it's impossible to please God. And if you're
doing these works of the flesh, it's not by faith. So it's not
going to please God. And furthermore, there is no
love there in them. It's all about self. If you look at adultery,
that's selfish. If you look at murder, that's
selfish. If you look at all the things that are here, it's all
about what points to me, what points to me, not what points
to him, what points to me. And that's the whole point of
Paul's message here. Now, am I saying to examine yourself
and see if you have faith and love, or if you have these other
things in you? Absolutely not. And I'll tell you why. Number
one, the scripture says, if a man looketh upon a woman to lust
after her, he's already committed adultery in his heart. It also
says that if you hate your brother without a cause, you're a murderer.
The Lord does not have the same standard that we have, okay?
We are guilty of the entire law. Everything that is in the law,
we are guilty of. Even if we just broke one law,
we're guilty of the entire law. The point is, do not examine
yourself to see if you're getting better. Do not examine yourself
for fruit. Look to Christ who is our life. Look to Christ who
is our hope. of producing that which God is
pleased with. Otherwise, we're not gonna produce
anything but certain death and all these works of the flesh.
How do we produce that? Because he's given us faith bestowed,
faith bestowed. We'll never see it ourself what
we do, but that which the Lord requires, he must provide and
did provide in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's message hasn't changed
here. The message is still this. Those that attempt to produce
the things of the Spirit in the flesh are actually producing
the works of the flesh. They're actually committing iniquity.
They're actually committing these other sinful acts. And you know what combats all
that? The fruit of the Spirit. We'll get to that in a minute.
And we'll look at all, I think there's seven or eight of them.
And we'll go one by one, take our time on that. If we could do something in our
flesh brethren that would cause us to see that we are becoming
better, cause us to know that we are truly born again because
of a feeling or because of a prayer we prayed or a donation we made
and I'm just I mean, people really believe that kind of stuff. I
know that Catholics, that's what they hinge upon is they donate
their money. And I mentioned this, I think, Wednesday night,
but I was talking to a man that told me, literally, He said, well, I used
to come to service because I wanted to be more like Jesus and I was
trying to build a relationship with him and trying to get better
in that regard. And he's like, I got burnt out on that. It's really
hard to do. He says, I couldn't do it. And I said, I could have
told you that. But then he said, so I decided now I'm going to
service because I don't want to go to hell. And I said, well,
what are you hoping will be your escape from hell? He's like,
well, I keep giving money to the church and the priest tells me that
everything's going to be okay. This is verbatim out of a man in Boyertown.
I was like, I preached the gospel to him. I told him, I was like,
that's not it, man. That is not it. The Lord doesn't need your
money. The Lord owns everything. Why would he need your money?
And he received it very well. He received it very well. I pray
the Lord do a work there. But the point is, is it was something
outward that he saw. And that's what men get caught
up in so much as something I can see on the outside. And we're
so prone to that in our flesh. Don't misunderstand that where
flesh doesn't change, it still desires attention, desires praise,
praise of man more than the praise of God is what the Lord Jesus
Christ said, but our flesh desires to be recognized. We could even
say our flesh wants to be recognized for the wonder we think we are
until the Lord comes into our life by his own choice because
we were chosen in the covenant of grace alone. And he says,
live. And we realize that we're less
than nothing. We realize that we're the chief
of sinners, that I can't produce life. I can't go to the law to
produce life. I can't do anything to merit
salvation, to earn salvation, to obligate God. I can't do anything. And then that's when he shows
you the Lord Jesus Christ. And we flee to him because he
gives us faith to believe. See, salvation is all about God
and his finished work. It's all of the Lord. He is the
substance of it. He is the source of it. He is
the reason for it. He accomplished it by himself.
And if I don't have him, I don't have anything. But if I have
him, oh, we have everything, don't we? Everything. We realize everything God requires,
he provided in his son. This is why we cleave to the
substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. We cleave to
his blood. We cleave to his righteousness.
We cleave to his offering. We don't try to offer ourself
up, and that's the whole point. The works of the flesh are literally
us offering ourself up unto God when we do them. We don't realize
that's what we're doing, do we? A lot of people don't realize
that's what they're doing. They're saying, okay, Christ is not enough. I
gotta offer myself up, and God will be pleased with me because
of this and this and this. Men and women don't understand that
they're doing that. What a sad condition to remain
in, and you and I were the same at one point in our life, no
doubt. God said, I'll disannul your covenant. There's only one
covenant that you can be saved and it's the covenant of grace.
It's covenant of grace whereby the Lord saved his people from
their sin. Because of his finished work,
because he's the true vine, his elect are the branches, we bear
his spiritual fruit. This is not our aim and goal.
We don't look at our aim and goal and say, okay, I know I'm
producing spiritual fruit now, but the Lord says we really produce
it in Christ. It's amazing to me. We'll never
see it. You'll never see yourself as getting better, only worse.
Greg Elmquist preached a message one time, the way up is down.
And that's right, the way up is down. The farther down the
Lord takes you, makes you go, you're growing, growing in grace.
The less you see yourself, the more you see of Him. This fruit is the glorious result
of the natural outflow of the new life in Christ Jesus, the
new life in Christ Jesus. Now, let's go through these fruits
of the Spirit One by one, verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit
is love. Love. Love towards God and love
towards his people. It's the fruit of the spirit.
Paul said this, if I have not charity, which is love, then
I become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Meaning if
a man even gets up and preaches the gospel without having love
to preach it, It's not honoring unto the Lord because it's not
in love. We have to preach in love. You can't preach condescendingly
and brash and harsh. You preach the gospel in love.
We love one another. Why? Because he first loved us
and gave us that love one towards another. This is the fruit of
the spirit that he gives to his people. He bestows to his people
all by his work, all by his doing. Love is freely bestowed by grace. Why do we did? Why do we love God, the sovereign
God of this universe that elected some and passed by others? Why
do we love God, knowing that he doesn't love everybody? Why
would we love him? Because he first loved us. See,
it's gonna be offensive to the flesh every time we hear that
because the flesh says, well, that's not fair. But to the Lord's
people, we think it's amazing that he would even pick one to
choose to show mercy and grace on. That's the God we serve.
It's amazing. Other than we are, we can't fathom that. He chose
to love us and gave us love towards him and toward the brethren.
That is the first fruit of the spirit. The second one is called
joy. Paul called this joy unspeakable and full of glory. Joy unspeakable
and full of glory. Now somebody says, well, I don't
feel very joyous. Well, if you're confessing the Lord Jesus Christ
as all your righteousness, knowing that he put away the sin of his
people, knowing that salvation has been accomplished, and knowing
there is nothing you can do to be saved in and of yourself,
that he saved his people from their sin, does that make you
feel joyous, knowing that you can't mess it up? See, there
is no joy in the world outside of this. Joy doesn't fleet and
come and go. That's happiness. Happiness is
something that everybody is striving for right now with instant gratification
and all the things that's going on in the world. Everybody wants
to have what they want when they want it immediately. And it's
to bring that moment of happiness. It's to bring that moment of
comfort to them. So now I've got this new handkerchief
and I feel really happy. I feel really happy. Oh, I just
spilled something on it. Well, I'm not as happy with it
now. It's ruined. Happiness comes, happiness goes.
But the joy of the Lord, David said, is our strength. The joy of the Lord. This is
bestowed. This is not something that we
earned. It's like all the fruits of the Spirit. We rejoice evermore
in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work. No matter
what time of day it is, no matter what you're experiencing, no
matter what's happened in your life, no matter how bad the outcome
seems to be, if I were to ask you, Do you believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God and successfully redeemed his people?
If you're his, born of his spirit, you're going to have joy in your
heart at that moment knowing that truth because that is your
anchor, that is your foundation, it's his finished work. You have
nothing else to hang your hope on other than Christ and his
finished work. That's joy, that's joy. This is what he gives to
his people. Joy is eternal, it never changes. God's people are
joyous. their sin has been put away by
Christ, that they are one, we've been made one with him, that's
what we rejoice. Which goes hand in hand with
the next one, the next fruit of the spirit, which is peace,
peace. Christ said this when he was
leaving, he said, my peace I leave with you. Not the peace that
the world giveth, no, that's not the peace that he is, he
said, my peace, my peace I leave with you, his peace. This is
something else that's bestowed of the Lord. Do you know when
you lay your head on your pillow at night, if God has called you
to believe his gospel, you can have full assurance that if you
die in your sleep, if you die in your sleep, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, this is what he promised. If you die
in your sleep, you're going to wake up and have peace with God
because you have peace with God right now. If all your hope for
salvation is in the righteousness and finished work of Christ alone,
if all your hope is in the blood of Christ alone, all your justification,
all your sanctification, all your righteousness, everything
is in Christ alone, you have peace with God. God does not
look down upon you and look at you in anger. He sees you in
love. He doesn't get angry at you. He doesn't hate you. He
loves you with an everlasting love. God, the creator of the
universe, you have peace with God. And because of that, we
have peace one with another. How can you get 40, 50 people
together from all different trades and walks of life and calibers
health conditions and everything else and they just get along
so great. How can you do that? Because
they have peace with God. They have peace with God. They
have peace and they love peace because there was a time in their
life whenever they had turmoil and chaos and confusion and do
this and do this and have I done enough? Is God going to accept
me into his heaven? Is God going to send me to hell?
But I've done this and I've done this and I've done this. Is that
enough? Turmoil and chaos, confusion all the time. You know what we
have now? Rest on the Sabbath, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have
peace with God. This is a fruit that God has
given his people. Isn't that glorious? This peace is also described
as surpassing all understanding. Whenever you are battling something
in your life, there's a trial or tribulation you're facing,
you feel overwhelmed, discouraged, The peace of God surpasses understanding. What does that mean? It means
that you don't have to know the answer if you see his face. If
you have peace with God and you see the Lord Jesus Christ who
gives you peace, then I don't need to ask questions anymore.
It just shuts me up. You ever experienced that before?
I'm worried, I'm worried, I'm worried, and the Lord, I don't
know if this is the proper way to say this, but sometimes I
feel like the Lord gives us a hug. He shows us, He reveals Christ,
and it's just like, oh, He just, it's almost like an embrace from
Him. It'll come through a message,
or it'll come through an article or something. We'll see Him,
we'll have peace. And then we think, well, you know, that problem,
it'll be okay. It's gonna work itself out. The
Lord's gonna take care of that. That's the peace that the Lord gives
his people. Fourth one is long suffering.
Paul called our afflictions light afflictions. He said the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the
glory that shall be revealed in us. He called them light afflictions.
Now Paul entreated of the Lord three times because he had a
thorn in the flesh. Scripture's not clear on what that is. There's
men that speculate. But he came to the Lord and said, Lord, remove
this thorn in my flesh. Nevertheless, not my will thine
be done. Three times he did that. The Lord came to him after the
third time and he said, Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And did Paul continue
to pray about that thorn in the flesh, or did he accept that
that was the purpose of the Lord right then? Well, we don't read
about him praying about it anymore, do we? He would probably, from
then on, cry out, Lord, give me grace to endure this, if this
is what you have purposed, please. Is it not true for the Lord's
people that we do go through trials, we do have things in
our lives that causes us problems, we can become angry, we can become
frustrated, because we're in the flesh? But is it not, too,
the Lord gives us long-suffering. We're made to endure with joy
and peace, looking to Christ, knowing he's on the throne. How
many times have you been upset, frustrated, And I'm not asking
you to examine yourself this morning. I'm simply just trying
to prove that this is the fruit that God has already bestowed
to his people. This is all I'm trying to say. This is his work.
The reason we're long-suffering, we're able to say, not my will,
but thy will be done in the moments of those is because the Lord
has made us long-suffering by the finished work of the cross,
by the fruit that he bestows freely by his grace. How many
times have you ever said, I bow to this. I don't know what the
Lord's doing and I don't need to know. I bow to this because
I know it's him. I know it's him because he's
seated on the throne. I know it's him because he's
sovereign and holy and he saved his people. I know it's him because
he's the one that ordered all things ensured by the determinate
counsel of God. and he causes us to be long suffering. We're made to endure, patiently
bowing to him. How many times you do that in
your life? Well, we do it over and over. It's like repentance.
It's every day. It's like salvation. You ask the Lord, save me, save
me, save me every day. And he's already saved us from
eternity past and on the cross of Calvary, but we still beg,
don't we? Lord, teach me your patience. Give me the patience
to endure this. That's long suffering. We know
for certain. And this is the only way that
we could have longsuffering is if we know for certain He doeth
all things well for our good and His glory. We believe that.
We believe that. Fifth one is gentleness. Is it
not true of God's people that when we look to Christ, we're
made to see him, that it shuts us up? Is that not true? I don't know how you all are.
I do too. We're made from the same, we have the same blood,
same father. We can become so bent out of
shape over things and frustrated and angry and yet when the Lord
comes to us and says, Caleb, you're the man. You're the problem. It's just like, hmm. It just hits. Anybody else relate
to that? I mean, you just, I'm like, hmm.
I'm not kicking against those words. I'm not raising my fist
up to God at that time. Oh, he makes me bow before him. That's what the goodness, no,
the world doesn't bow before God. The world doesn't bow before
God. They're not gentle towards God.
We're no longer hostile towards God. That's what this is all
about. We're not hostile towards Him. Why? He's given us faith
to believe Him. You remember before I told us that the flesh
is enmity against God? That word enmity means hostile.
The flesh is still hostile, but the Lord's given us faith to
believe Him, and therefore we're no longer hostile. We believe
Him, we cleave to Him, we hold to Him as all of our hope of
salvation. This is the gentleness He's describing. Number six,
I struggle with this one because it was called goodness. Now,
how can we bear the fruit of goodness? I can't see that one.
And I realized, well, we can't see any of these actually. Someone
says, I don't see any goodness in me. Well, you're not meant
to see it. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. There's your
goodness. Christ in you is the goodness. And it comes forth
at His appointed time and you can't see it. You can't see it.
You'll never be able to see that He causes you to, that He produces this in you.
It's the fruit of the Spirit. Whether we believe it or not,
it's the fruit of the Spirit in the Lord's people. Number seven
is faith. Where does faith come from? Who
gets all the glory? It's the Lord Jesus Christ, and
who does it always look to? Where does faith come from, who
gets all the glory, and who does it always look to? The Lord Jesus
Christ. That which is not of faith is
of the flesh. Don't forget this, so important.
So if I'm not looking to Christ through the eyes of faith, and
I'm trying to see evidences, I'm not looking in faith. I'm
looking at my circumstances, my own evidences, and that goes
back to the works of the flesh we just talked about. Have you always believed that
Christ was the successful redeemer of his people from birth? Certainly not. Certainly not. Not until he introduced himself
to us. He said unto us, live and we
lived and gave us faith to believe. This is the fruit that God gives
to his people that he bestows freely by his grace. Faith looks to Christ in all
things, never to self. Well, lastly, I've got these
tied together because I determined, well, I'll just tell you, lastly
is meekness and temperance. And the reason they're tied together
is this. Meekness is the opposite of the envying and murder. Although
we do and may get upset about someone, doing something. God's Spirit keeps His people. God's Spirit keeps His people.
Now we don't get any glory in this. So if you think for a second
I'm buffing us up, I'm not. I'm saying everything that God
required He provided in the person of Christ and He gives us this.
So this meekness that he's given us. It's meekness towards God
and it's meekness towards men. You say, well, I don't see that.
The Lord keeps his people. The Lord keeps his people. The
Lord causes us to be meek at the time of appointment. The
Lord causes us to look to Christ when he says, seek ye my face.
The Lord causes us to not be hostile towards God anymore.
This is all the work of the Holy Spirit. This is all the Lord's
work. And temperance is opposed to
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, drunkenness,
and reveling. Brethren, these are the fruit of the Spirit.
These are the fruit of the Spirit in God's chosen people. They
cannot be seen with our eyes. They cannot be seen. They cannot
be performed where we can see them. They can't be done so that
we can brag about them. This is the Lord's work. This
is the Lord's work. We would boast. We would boast,
but if we have this, what does he say? He just told us, but
if ye be led of the spirit, verse 18, you're not under the law,
not under the law, under grace. If you'd be led of the spirit,
those who Christ chose in the covenant of grace before time
that he saved by his own sacrifice, justified freely by his grace,
they have his spirit dwelling within them. They are born of
his spirit and therefore, He causes them to produce the fruit
unto God, which God is pleased with. The fruit unto God, which
God is pleased with. It can never be produced by our
flesh. We can't produce it in ourself. Do we see what I'm saying? You
can't just produce meekness that's pleasing unto God. Only Christ
could do that. You can't produce temperance unto God and He be
pleased with it. Only Christ can do that. But
it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And so everything required
that Lord, provided. Everything God required of you,
he provided and freely bestows by grace. Rest. Rest in that, if you can. Rest that he provided everything. Even the fruit that he required,
he provided it. It's called the fruit of the spirit. He provided everything for his
chosen people. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful
that the fruit that you require, you provide. That the blood you
required, you provide. That the death you required,
you provided. Everything, Lord, you provided.
Cause us to believe, in Christ's name, amen.