Now I want to see if I can be
brief tonight and get to the point, and the point of the message
and the topic is the fruit of the Spirit. But a few Sundays ago, our Bible
class lesson was taken from John chapter 15, verse 1 through in
which our Lord declared in verse 1 and again in verse 5, I am
the vine. I am the true vine. I am the
vine. Now this is one of several I
am's of the book of John. Our Lord said I am the door.
He didn't say I'm a door. He said I am the door. By me,
if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Christ is the only
Savior. He's the only door to God. There's
no other door. There's no other way. Christ
is the door. God has made no other way. We're
shut up to Christ. The law shuts us up to Christ.
The sacrifices, which Israel did not realize, shut them up
to Christ. Our sin shut us up to Christ.
Our inability shuts us up to Christ. The Father's justice
and righteousness shuts us up to Christ. He's the door. And
then he said, I'm the bread of life. He says, Moses gave you
not that bread. You eat of that bread, you hunger
again, but I am the bread. My Father gave you that bread
from heaven, that bread of which you eat, you'll never, never
hunger, never die. He said, I am the water, the
living water, the water of life. Again, he said, I am the way.
I am the way. The way. I am the truth. Pilate said, what is truth? Christ
is truth. Christ is wisdom. If you read
the book of Proverbs, you'll find Christ is wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. There's
no wisdom apart from Christ. There's no truth apart from Christ.
Even what we call truth about God is not truth at all if it's
not realized in in Christ, if it's not interpreted in the person
and in the light of Christ. It's not true. People all over
this world have the idea they can worship God and not know
Christ. That's not so. It's just not so. You cannot
know the Father except through the Son. What you know about
God, if you do not know Christ, is wrong information. That's
a lie. It's the wrong information. He
is the truth. He's the truth of God. And he's
the life. There's no life apart from Christ.
Christ is life. Unless we have Christ, we don't
live. He is life. Religion's not life. Doctrine's
not life. Law and theology's not life.
Christ is life. And he that hath the Son of God
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God, he's dead. He's dead spiritually. He's dead
in trespasses and sin. He has no life. Christ is the
life. And the woman at the well said,
well, when the Messiah comes, he'll tell us all things. He
said, I am he. I'm the door. I'm the bread.
I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life.
I'm the water of life. If you believe not that I am
He, you're dying your sins. There's no way around it. We can have great compassion
for the Jews, and for the Arabs, and
for the Muslims, and for the whoever, but compassion and truth,
sometimes two different things. If a man knows not Christ, he'll
perish. If you believe not that I am
He, you're dying your sins, no matter if you're in the pulpit
or the pew of the world. I'm He. He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. Those who are raised will be
raised in Christ. And those who are not in Christ
will be raised in death and condemnation. That's just the way it is. Not to know Christ is not to
know anything. I trust He's everything. And
I believe this. He said, I am the true vine. I am the vine. I believe that
Jesus Christ is all this and more, and that's the reason I
long to win Christ and be found in Him. And he goes on, he says
in verse one, I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser. My father is the husbandman.
What does that mean? That means he planted the vine. I try it. My father's the husbandman,
my father's the vinedresser. It's his vineyard. That vine's
there by his will and his purpose. My father is the vinekeeper,
my father's the vinedresser, my father's the husbandman, and
that vine is there because my father willed it to be that. And he says in the next verse,
and he says in verse five, and you're the branches. And I say that the branches,
whether they're grafted in, Paul talks about in Romans, whether
they're born in the vine or whether they're chosen in the vine, they're
there because the Father put them there. That's what you're
doing in Christ. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus. It's of God that you're in Christ
Jesus. He said, I'm the true vine. The
vine stands by the will and purpose of the vinedressing. And the
branches that grow out of that vine are there by the will and
purpose of the fine dresser. You're the branches, and of Him
are you in Christ Jesus. That's how you got in Christ,
by the will of the Father. That's how you got in Christ.
There's only one vine. There are many branches, but
there's only one vine. One true vine, and there are
many branches. Back in verse 2, He said, Every branch in Me.
That beareth not fruit, he taketh away." That means some people
are saved and then lost? Not at all. It's saying this,
every branch that appears to be in me, that professes to be
in me, that claims to be in me, is not in me. There are a lot
of branches that appear to be in Christ. Judas appeared to
be in Christ. He appeared to be, he professed
to be, he claimed to be. Everybody thought he was. In
fact, when our Lord said to the disciples, one of you will betray
me, they said, is it I? Nobody said, is it him? Even
when he handed the sock to Judas and told him to go out and do
what he would, he went out. The disciples didn't know he
was the betrayer. They said, is he going to get
something, going to buy something to eat? Is he going to buy provisions? Simon Magus, Demas, appeared
to be in Christ. Paul thought he was in Christ
until he left. After he left, Paul said, well, he loved this
work. I thought he loved Christ. But what he's saying here, the
evidence that a person's in him is fruit. Every branch in me
that beareth not fruit, it'll be exposed. Someday it'll be
exposed. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow,
maybe not next year, but eventually God'll expose it. God'll expose
that branch and God'll get rid of it. That's what he's saying
here. I am the vine, I am the life-giver,
I am the fountain, I am the source. There's only one vine, the Father
planted it, that's me. Your branches. All over this
world, people claim to be in Christ, people appear to be in
Christ, they profess to be in Christ. But he said, here's the
evidence, those that claim to be in me, appear to be in me,
profess to be in me, that do not bear fruit, my Father one
day, take it away. Didn't say he'd prune it, said
take it away. He didn't say purge it, just take it away. Not the
tares and the wheat. The farmer complained. He said
the farmer went out and sowed seed and his servants came to
him and said, well, somebody slipped out in the field and
sowed tares. Do you want us to go out there and uproot the tares? He said, oh no. He said, let
them grow together. You might pull up some wheat because you
don't know the difference. Just let them grow together,
and said, my father in the day of judgment, he'll separate,
he'll bind the tares and bundles and burn them, and he'll take
the wheat into his barn, he'll take it away. But he'll let them
grow together. They appear to be in Christ,
they claim to be in Christ, they profess to be in Christ, and
my father knows they're not in Christ, and someday these non-fruit
bearing branches will be taken away, not purged, but taken away. Every branch in me that beareth
fruit. There are branches in Christ
that beareth fruit, and what does the Father do with them?
He purges them. He prunes them, that they may
bring forth more fruit. That's why He prunes. What is
pruning? Why do you take a sharp knife? I don't know a great deal
about vines, grapevines, but I know they're pruned pretty
heavy sometimes. They cut back pretty far. You do some real butchering on
a grapevine. Real butchering. Why? Somebody
told me one time, prune a grapevine, prune it till you think you've
pruned too much, and then prune her some more. That's what they
told me. Why? To bring forth more fruit.
And that's what he's saying. He said, those branches in me
that bear fruit, my Father's will is that they bear more fruit.
And so he sends these trials, and he sends these afflictions,
and he sends all of these things. even blessings into the lives
of his people, and it's the knife of the Father, and it's for purpose. God never does anything except
on purpose. And when God cuts, and when He
prunes, and when He afflicts us, and when He does these things,
He's doing it that we might bring forth more of this fruit that
He's talking about, this fruit that a professor can't bring
forth. And then He says in verse four, He said, Abide in me and
I in you. The branch can't bear fruit of
itself. The branch doesn't have any life
in itself. It can't bring forth fruit except
it abide in the vine. No branch lying on the ground
you expect to pick any grapes off of it. Only that healthy
branch that's been pruned that abides in the vine. It abides
in the vine all year, all the time. And it doesn't bear fruit
of itself. It has no power to bear fruit.
It only bears fruit because it is in the vine. It's the fruit
of the vine, not the fruit of the branch. It's the fruit of
the vine. It's the vine's fruit. The branch
is only bearing it. And then he says this. He says
in verse five, I am the vine, you're the branches. He that
abideth in me and I in him, the same will bring forth much fruit
as he abides in me. as he abides in my word, as he
abides in my love, as I read to you a moment ago. Oh, and
is that settled? That ought to be settled in our
minds. That's what the Lord's teaching
here. I am the true vine. It's all in Christ. Everything
comes to Christ. Everything from glory. The father's
the husbandman, the vinedresser, the master of the vineyard, he
planted the vine. His will and intent and purpose,
that divine should be glorified. And this branch is growing out
of that vine, and there's some that profess to be in Christ
that aren't, and they don't bear fruit, and so the Father will
take them away. But there's some who bear fruit. There's some
branches in that vine that are cherished branches. They're valuable
branches. The Father watches over those
branches, and He prunes them and purges them and cuts them
so that they'll be more productive, they'll bear more fruit. And
they don't take any glory. It's the vine that gets the glory.
The fruit that the branch bears is because it abides in the vine.
And as it abides in the vine, the longer it abides in the vine,
and in the Word and in His love, it'll bring forth more fruit.
What is the fruit? Well, I've thought a great deal
about this matter and looked it over carefully, and there's
just one place I can go, and that's to Galatians chapter 5.
The more I think about this fruit, This fruit is born by the branches
because they abide in the vine. The more carefully I look at
it, to find a full description of this fruit, which is born
by these branches, I find a full description in Galatians 5.22. Look at it. But the fruit of
the Spirit. Now, the Spirit is the Spirit
of Christ. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, there's none of His. Our Lord, when He was going back
to glory, He said to His disciples, I'll pray the Father, and He'll
send you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth. And He said, don't pray it or
be sorrowful. I'll leave you, but I'll come to you. I'll come
to you in the person of the Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit of Christ.
Our God, those three persons, is one God. When we have Christ,
we have the Holy Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit,
we have Christ. If we have Christ, we have the Father. My Father
and I will take up our abode. So this is the Spirit of Christ,
and the fruit of the Spirit of Christ, it says here, is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. That's this fruit he's talking
about. And you know what it's called?
It's called the fruit of the Spirit. It's not a fruit of our
nature. The branch cannot bear fruit
of itself. It's not the fruit of man, it's
not the fruit of the flesh, it's not the fruit of our nature,
it's the fruit of the Spirit. It's the fruit of God, that's
what we're taught, that's what our Lord said in John 15, I'm
the vine, you're the branches, the will of my Father is that
you bear much fruit, and this fruit you bear is not yours,
it's my fruit, it's the fruit of the Spirit. That's right. Alright, notice it's called fruit,
it's not called works. Now, if you go back a few verses,
in verse 19, he talks about works. The works of the flesh. Somebody
said it took him sixteen words to describe the works of the
flesh, and only nine to describe fruit of the Spirit. It takes
sixteen thousand to describe the works of the flesh. These
are the works of the flesh. Why are these called works? Because
man produces them. The flesh produces them. They're
not fruit, they're works. And man's work, they're the results
of his actions. What are they? They're adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
various emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, endings,
murders, drunkenness, revelings. These are the works of the flesh.
These works are actions of the flesh. are the works of men,
what men produce. This is what we produce. This
is what the flesh produces. The flesh produces these works
that I just named. That's the works of the flesh.
But this fruit in verse 22 is called the fruit of the Spirit.
Now watch this carefully. It's called the fruit of the
Spirit like the fruits of a tree, or the fruits of a vine. are
not owing to man at all, but to divine influence, divine power,
and divine will. Who can produce fruit? Only God. Who can produce works? Man. Now
think about that a minute. I have two apple trees and a
pear tree in my backyard. When I go out and pick something
off of it, I don't say I'm going to pick these works. I'm going
to pick this fruit. And that fruit is directly, God's
directly responsible for that fruit, Charlie. Man didn't have
nothing to do with it. That's right. The fruit is God's
fruit. Old man can plant the tree and
do it, but he can't make that fruit grow. My fire tree has
nothing on it this year. Nothing I can do about it. It's
froze. Who had something to do with
that? God did. See, works. I have everything to do with
my works. Adultery, fornication, lies, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry. Man produces every one of these.
He's born of the flesh. He didn't come from God. These
things don't come from God. We're the original. You don't
necessarily talk about original sin. That's why it's original.
It's ours. We invented it. The only thing
original about us is sin. But fruits from God. And there's
a difference now. The works of the flesh are these.
There you are. You produced it. It's your work.
But the fruit of the Spirit you didn't produce. God did. He used
you to produce it. But He produced it. That's right. Love, joy, peace. Are you a person
of love? That's a fruit. Are you a person
of peace? That's a fruit. That doesn't
grow in a human garden. That grows by the will of God.
Tell you something else, fruit of the earth arises from a seed. All the fruit that we eat comes
from a seed. And the fruit of the Spirit comes
from the seed of the Word of God. The seed is the Word of
God. And the Holy Spirit takes the
Word of God and produces fruit, produces life. The Word of God
is the seed. And then it's called, now watch
this, it's called the fruit of the Spirit, not fruits. It's
the fruit of the vine, not fruits of the vine, it's the fruit of
the vine. You don't say the fruits of the vine, as if there were
several different kinds of fruit on one vine. There's only one
kind. There's much fruit, but it's just one kind. And whether
it be love, or joy, or peace, or longsuffering, it's all spiritual
fruit. And where you find love, you'll
find patience. Where you find patience, you'll
find meekness. And where you find meekness,
you'll find gentleness. Where you find gentleness, you'll
find goodness. Where you find goodness, you'll
find faith. It's fruit. It's the fruit of
the Spirit. Well, let's look at this fruit
defined in nine words here. Now, it's no question to me That
first of all, this is settled. It's a matter settled without
debate or argument. Christ is divine. If this branch here is in Christ,
realistically, experimentally, spiritually, God put me there.
And if this branch is in Christ, God will prune it. God will deal
with him as one that's owned. You don't burn up what you cherish. You don't take it away and bind
it in bundles and burn it if you cherish it, if you love it.
So if God loves me and put me in Christ, he'll prune me, he'll
purge me, he'll deal with me that I might bring forth more
fruit. And the fruit I'm bringing forth is not my fruit, it's the
fruit of the Spirit. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
It's the fruit that's produced from the seed of the Word of
God that the Spirit of God bears, and it's a fruit. And where there's
one, there's the rest of them. All right, let's look here. He
said, now the fruit of the Spirit is love. And notice it's singular,
it's not plural. The fruit of the Spirit is love. The Word plainly says a man cannot
know God who does not love. He that loveth not knoweth not
God." I don't care who he is. I don't care how good a preacher
he is, how good a theologian he is, how long he's been a church
member. Love is of God. God is love. He that loveth not
knoweth not God. That's just a foregone conclusion. You can't hate your brother whom
you have seen and love God whom you haven't seen. It's an impossibility. John said, a man says, I love
God and hates a person. Well, he's a liar and the truth's
not in him. That's just so. No use arguing. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts for the Holy Spirit. And love is a principle. Love's
not a profession. It's not a claim. It's a principle. It's implanted in the heart.
It lives there and it grows there. And it thrives there. And it's
a genuine love for Christ. It's a genuine love for His Word
and a love for His worship. A love for his house, a love
for his people, a love for his law, a love for his way. There's
a love and a compassion for all men, not only especially the
household of faith, but there's a pity and a compassion and a
concern and a care for all men. This troubles me greatly about
some of my friends down in the Deep South who talk about how
much they hate black people. I can't make that coincide. How
can you love God and hate somebody else? That troubles me, doesn't
it, you? It ought to trouble us about
our own selves, you know, if that enmity and malice and hatred
is in our hearts. Turn to 1 Corinthians 13. This thing of love is called
the fruit of God's Spirit. It's fruit. And he said, if you
don't bear the fruit of the Spirit, I'll take you away. I'll take
you away. 1 Corinthians 13, listen to verse
4. Love. Suffereth long and is kind. 1 Corinthians 13, 4. Love doesn't
envy. Love is not rash and puffed up. Love doesn't behave unseemly,
uncharacteristically. Love doesn't seek her own things. Love has not always got a chip
on its shoulder. Love doesn't think evil of everybody. Love doesn't rejoice in somebody's
fall. Love rejoices in the truth. Love
will bear all things. It'll believe all things. It'll
believe the best. It'll hope all things. It'll
endure every trial, and it'll never fail. That's just love.
That's just the Spirit of the Spirit. And then this next one in Galatians
5, he says, The fruit of the Spirit is love, love for God,
love for His people, love for His Word, love for His worshipper,
a love that motivates a principle of joy. The first object of joy
is Christ. Christ is our joy. Let me show
you that in Romans 5.11. Romans 5.11, listen to this.
It says over here in Romans 5.11, this is the reason that Paul
could rejoice in prison. He could rejoice in shipwreck
or suffering because his joy was in Christ. Romans 5, 11,
he says, and not only so, but we also joy in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. He's our joy, by whom we have
now received the atonement. Here is our great cause for joy. Our Lord Jesus Christ hath redeemed
us. He hath bought us back. He has
saved our soul. He has reconciled us to God,
and we can barely rejoice under any circumstances. We joy in
the fellowship of believers. Paul said, You're my joy and
my crown. We joy in the providence and care of our Lord, who said,
All things work together for your good. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Cast
all your cares on me. I care for you. That's something
to rejoice in. That dear lady up yonder in the
Ohio's found something to rejoice in. Her Lord. Her Lord. Martha called me over to the
study the other day. Said there was a man over here
wanting to talk to me. And I came over and this man
was standing in the study. Big, tall, handsome fellow. He's
taller than I was. About sixty-one, sixty-two years
of age. He introduced himself to me.
He said, I watch your television program. I live up in Charleston,
about three miles out on the Elk River. He said, I just want to talk to
you. I said, oh, come on in and study. I was a little edgy that
day. I was so busy working over at
the house, and you could tell I was a little edgy when you
talked to me. But I interrupted. He said, let's all teach us something.
I need to learn to something about this, but I came
over anyway, and I just thought, well, here's a man who's going
to waste my time. He's just going to talk, and I've got so much
to do. And he stood there, and I said,
well, are you retired or are you working? He said, I'm retired
from Graham Bus Company. 30 years, 28 years, something
like that. And then he said, my wife died
last week, preacher. And he just started boo-hooing,
just crying. And I, oh, I just felt so bad. I just, because I was edgy for
coming over. He just stood there and wept.
I said, she's just 59 years old. He said, you think I'm a sissy,
don't you? I said, no, sir, I don't think you're a sissy. I don't,
really. I said, this is the hardest thing you'll ever have to face
in all your life. He said, preacher, she suffered
so long. I said, why do old mastermakers
suffer like that? He said, why don't you take me
with her? He said, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm going to
do. He said, we did everything together. He said, I've never
been alone in my life. He said, we built our house together
and worked our farm together and just did everything. He said,
I got one daughter. If it wasn't for her, I'd take
my life. I don't have anything. Where's my wife? He said, I don't
know anything. When do you come out of the ground? When you're resurrected? Where
are the dead? He said, I don't know anything.
I don't know anything. He said, my wife was a good woman.
She never done any harm. He said, I've known her all my
life. He said, she never did a wrong
thing in her life. Isn't that sad? You tell her
something breaks your heart, that man has no joy. His joy
is in the ground. I felt so sorry for him, didn't
know what to do. I didn't even have a place to
start talking. I didn't even have anything to
build anything on. He didn't know anything. I never
go to church. I said, well, do you read? No,
I don't read. I listen to some of your tapes. So Ron and Trish
sent him a bunch of tapes. But my friends, our joy is in
God. through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's where it is. It's in joy. We joy in the providence
of God. We joy in the fellowship of believers. We joy in the Atonement. We joy
in our Redeemer. We joy even in the deepest water,
in the darkest valley. We joy in God. When everything
here is closing in on you, it's always open that way. Isn't it,
John? It's always light. Always light. All right, third word here is
peace. Peace. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace. The Bible has so much to say
about peace. And I'll tell you this, I know
this is not talking about that phony peace of the religious
world. It's not talking about that peace,
peace where there's no peace. It's not talking about something
drummed up. It's not talking about running
around quoting religious clichés and trying to make yourself believe
something or make yourself happy. This is, I'm talking about a
genuine peace with God through Christ. I have, the war is over
because Christ won the battle. There is therefore now no condemnation
because Christ paid the price. There is no more wrath and judgment
and curse of the law because Christ reconciled me to God.
Now this is just fact. The war is over, God is reconciled,
the blood is shed, and He purchased peace for me through the blood
of His cross. I have peace with God. That's
fact. And secondly, I'm talking about
peace of conscience. resting in Christ. I'm not talking about saying
Christ paid it all. Now, I got to sit and worry about
whether God's going to forgive my sin or not. If Christ paid
it, it's paid. I can rest. I can rest in Him. I can trust in Him. I can cease
from my labors and just lie back in the bosom of Christ, knowing
that everything's all right. And I'm talking about a peace
with others. A man who is at peace with God,
a man who is at peace in his heart, will be a peacemaker. I guarantee that. The reason
so many people are troublemakers and agitators is they're not
at peace with God, nor with themselves. If they were, they'd be peacemakers.
Blessed are the peacemakers, they're children of God. They're
peacemakers. Their object is, they have a
unity with God, they have a unity of heart, and that's their goal. Unity among believers. Troublemakers
are lost people. They have no peace. And because
they have no peace, then they can't stand anybody else to have
any peace. Peace. And then longsuffering, that's
just another word for patience. And I know, you say, well, you
or nobody else has any right to talk much about patience.
I know that, but let's look at it anyhow. This patience first
is with respect to God and learning to wait on the Lord. That's the
first. As I sit down and talk, talk about patience. Now here,
patience is learning to wait on the Lord. David said in the
Psalm, Wait I say, and again I say, Wait on the Lord. That's
wait. They still don't know that I'm
God. That's patience, isn't it, Charlie? They still wait on God. Secondly, patience with respect
to trials. Now look, turn to James 1. James
chapter 1. James chapter 1. And all of us
are prone to... We live in an instant society. We live in a fast society. We
live in a do it now, get it done now. And we need to learn this
thing that God doesn't, the Lord God, His day is a thousand years
and a thousand years a day. He just, He set Moses on the
backside of a desert for 40 years before He ever moved him into
Egypt to deliver Israel. We need to wait on God. Just,
don't move till the cloud moves. Used to, during the, at night,
they'd move with a pillar of fire. During the day, there'd
be a cloud. And I know they stood there a
lot of days and looked at that cloud and never moved a budge.
They went on about three, came back in the evening and the morning,
and all the clouds still there. If I could learn that. And don't
get mad because the cloud's not moving. Just wait till it moves
and then move with it, and you'll be going God's way. Wait till the cloud moves. And
here in James 1, it says this, verse 3, verse 2, My brethren,
count it all joy when you fall into different clouds, Knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Tribulation
worketh patience. Trials work patience. But let
patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing. Sometimes we get in trouble,
and everybody comes to help us out of trouble. It'd be better
if we stayed in trouble till we found out why we were in trouble.
Till patience had her perfect work. We can't stand anything
but the weak. We can't stand anybody to pray it. We can't
stand anybody to have trial. We're going to get them out of
it. He said, let this trial come to its completion. Let whatever
this is serve its day. Let patience have her perfect
work. Leave God to do what He's doing.
I don't know whether I made that clear or not, but I think you
know what I'm talking about. We want to stop it right here.
And he said, let patience have her perfect work, because tribulation
works with patience. Let God finish the job, don't
stop it. And then trial with, or third,
peace and patience with respect to others. John Gill said this. What's that mean, patience with
respect to others? Be a little slower to judge.
We need that, don't we? Be a little slower to judge. I heard a story one time. It's
a crude old story, but a common old story. Everybody's probably
heard it, and I'm going to tell it again. All the preachers used
to use it, but it's a good story. There was a man sitting on a
train, holding a little baby, about 13, 14 months old, a little
baby girl. She kept crying. She was hot,
and she kept taking her little bonnet off and throwing things
on the floor and just screaming and crying. The man couldn't
do anything with her. And a woman crossed the aisle,
was very impatient and very tired of it, heart tired of hearing
the baby cry, and she finally turned to the daddy and said,
looks like you'd leave that baby with her mother. And he said,
lady, I'd love to, but she's in a casket back in the baggage
compartment and we're taking her home to bury her. We need to be a little slow to
judge, don't we? A little slow to judge. And then we need to be slow to
anger. I need this. The wrath of man has never worked
the righteousness of God. Never, never, never. That's what
it says. The wrath of man will not work
the righteousness of God. You're not going to make your
children believe this message. You're not going to make them
love the house of God. You're not going to make them
believe the gospel. And you're not going to make
your brother or sister bleed. And you can stand and beat that
blind dog with a stick all day long and he ain't going to see. So ain't no use getting mad at
him, is there? No use. No use being angry. He's just
doing what comes naturally. Be ready quick to forgive. Patience. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Love,
joy, peace, patience. Listen to this one, gentleness.
What is gentleness? It's just plain courtesy, kindness,
just plain old consideration. That's what it is. You know how
the Lord was called gentle? Turn to 2 Corinthians 10. I was looking up the word gentle
and gentleness and gently and things like this in the scripture
in studying for this message, and it says in 2 Corinthians
10, verse 1, Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and
gentleness of Christ." The gentleness of Christ. What does that mean?
Kindness, courtesy, and consideration. My Lord, the master of the house,
was gentle. Oh, I could read this gentleness.
I could read so many scriptures. Let me just turn and read you
several. I can take less time. 1 Thessalonians
2, 7, listen, I was gentle among you as a nurse cherished her
children. You know how that is? You ever
see a mother nursing a baby, how gentle she is with that little
one? That's what he's talking about, a nurse nursing the young. Paul said that's how gentle I
was. Listen to this one in 2 Timothy 2, 24. He says here, The servant of the Lord must
not strive, but be gentle, gentle unto all men, apt to teach, and
patient, patient. And then in James 3.17, listen
to this one, James 3.17, it says, But the wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable,
and then gentle, and what's this, easy to be entreated. Well, what's the next part of
this fruit that he talks about in Galatians, the fruit of the
Spirit? The next one he gives is goodness.
Goodness. Just tell me what else can come
from the good Spirit of God but goodness. Generosity, liberality, goodness. Let's turn to some scripture.
First of all, in James 2. James chapter 2. Listen to this. James 2.14. James 2.14. What is it, Prophet,
my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and hath not works?
Goodness. Can that faith save him? If a
brother or sister be naked and destitute of food and have a
need, and one of you said, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled,
notwithstanding you give them not those things that are needful
to the body, what is the profit? He can't wear words, he can't
eat words, even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead. That's
goodness. Turn to 1 John 3. Listen to this,
1 John chapter 3. I don't want to wear you, but
give me a few more moments. 1 John 3, verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. He laid down His life for us,
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso
hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need,
and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how does
the love of God dwell in him? My little children, let's not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth. Goodness! I see a lot of that here. I see
a lot of these things that I've been mixing. And then the next
word is, in Galatians 5, turn over there. Galatians 5 is the
word faith. Now let me just dwell here for
just a moment. And I'm not talking about an
emotional, occasional experience. What I'm talking about is faith
here. The faith that I believe he's talking about here is that
firm, continuous confidence in God through Christ Jesus. That faith that says, I believe
God, therefore have I spoken. That faith that I say, I believe
God, I trust Christ. Day by day, I trust Him. That
faith which has the Word as its foundation and Christ as its
object, that faith by which the soul rests in Christ. I'm talking
about not something that's high and low and here and gone and
has to be drummed up and excited and built up. I'm talking about
that continuous trust in the living God through Christ Jesus.
That's the faith. That's the faith. Small faith
or great faith, it's still faith in Him. It has as its object
Christ, resting in Him. I believe. Like the centurion,
I believe. Lord, help my unbelief. Like
the disciples who said, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life. We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. All right,
two more. Look at these. He talks about meekness. The fruit of the Spirit is meekness. This is the opposite of pride.
You know, pride and grace are opposites. He said, Who maketh
thee to differ? What is thou that thou didst
not receive? What do you have that you did not receive? Let
this mind be in you which was in Christ. Let no man think of
himself more highly than he ought to think. Grace and pride are
opposites. They cannot exist in the same
heart. Meekness. All right, the last
one. is the word temperance. And I looked at this word just
a little bit. The word temperance. What does
the word temperance teach here? Well, the first thing that one
thinks of in temperance, which is moderation. Temperance is
moderation. The first thing one thinks about
is moderation in eating and drinking. Usually when we talk about temperance,
we're talking about being temperant. in all things as far as eating
and drinking are concerned, and we accept that. That's true.
And the fruit of the Spirit is temperance in this area. But
secondly, it's also moderation in materialism. Moderation. Temperance. I said this on television
one time, and I had a dear lady write to me. and say that she
and her husband were almost to the place of getting a divorce
over this one issue. And I said this over television.
I said, people are to live in their means, especially people
who know God. They're to live within their
means. I said, there's some of you women out there that ought
to nickname you Miss Charging. You've got a whole pocketbook
full of charge cards, and you keep that poor man's nose to
the grindstone all the time, overcharging and living out of
your means. And you ought to do something
about it. She wrote me and said, we sat down after your program
and discussed it, and tore up everyone of our charge cards,
and we're going to do something about it. You saved our marriage. That's temperance. That's temperance. That's what temperance is talking
about. It's talking about, in all things, where there's temperance. Living within your means. It's
talking about moderation in eating and drinking. Moderation. Drunkenness
is evil. Gluttony is evil. No moderation and intemperance
in spending is evil. Burying yourself in debt is evil.
It really is. And then this is a moderation
also in temperament. Let's set a watch on our mouths.
Set a watch on our mouths. You know the mouth, the tongue,
is a little member. But it can, it's set on fire
with hell. And we need to moderate our conversation. Moderate it. Our temperament,
our conversation, our fretting, our complaining. Moderation. You know, there's a verse in
Philippians that says, let your moderation be known unto all
men. The Lord is at hand. Even, even. And then there's a moderation,
and I've gone too long, but there's a moderation in running quickly
after new things. There's just, there's some folks
in the churches that are just like you. Paul Williams does
a lot of fishing, and so does Joe Turner. But out there, there's that big-mouth
bass. You just throw something out
there, and he grabs it, you know. It's the first new thing he sees.
He just grabs it. And it winds up his downfall.
And what I'm trying to say is the old paths are better, and
the proven things are better. Let a man first be proved. Get
a new fella in the church, don't put him in the pulpit, don't
put him in the classroom, don't put him up to teeth, don't follow
him, don't listen to him. That's right, till he's proven.
Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Don't be guilty. Don't you turn
on the television and say, oh, that's good, I'm going to send
for that. Just hold the phone. Now just hold the phone. You
heard that new fellow on TV? No? I'd like to hear him a year
or two, and then I'll decide something. See where he's going
to wind up. See where he's going to lie.
You see what I'm talking about? Moderation. Temperance. Well, there's a whole lot there.
All that fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness,
goodness. Faith. Humility. Difference. That's the fruit
of the Spirit. That's fruit. And here's the
thing. Let's not despair. There's a
whole lot of places there that I felt under conviction while
I was trying to preach on it. But don't despair. He said he
purges it that it may bring forth more fruit. See what I'm talking
about? A man doesn't have to be a master
in all this to teach it. And to believe it and to desire
it. In fact, you'll never be a master on this earth. But someday
we will. But that's what I, this is my
goal. Is this your goal? Because this is the fruit of
God's Spirit. It's that fruit that we bear in Christ divine.