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­­­­LSB  Galatians 5:16 - 26 pt 4

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you do not do the things that you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become those with vain glory, challenging one another, envying one another.

We've had an exceptional fruit year at the Galli abode in the summer of 2023.  The combination of extra rain and warmth and a gentle enough spring that the blossoms were neither extinguished by wind or frost gave us an abundance of apricots that we've never experienced before.  

Indeed my apple tree is so loaded that the apples aren't very big.  Too many for the tree.  We could have been selective like Jesus describes in John 15 and removed some of the little apples so that the remaining ones would have achieved more size.

John 15 1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-grower. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He cleans it so that it may bear more fruit.

Fruit husbandry 101.  Trim the excess so the fruit will be maximum in size.  I didn't do that.  So I have a ton of small apples.  And Hilary took care of one large branch in the peach tree.  The weight of so many peaches plus the water and the wind broke a large branch out of the aged tree.  We still have hopes for some peaches though.

Fruit is an apt analogy.  It doesn't just float in mid air, does it.  Fruit requires a network.  You have to have a tree of a certain age and all of the other ingredients to get fruit.  Branches.  Leaves.  Roots.  Water.  Nutrients in the soil.  All of these things are necessary for the end product, the fruit.

Likewise in our analogy of spiritual fruit in our passage this morning, these fruits require a network.  They don't just happen.  In fact the fruit that just naturally happens to sons of Adam is listed first.  Deeds of the flesh.  Evil fruit is what we produce on our own.

But the fruits listed in vss 22 and 23 require a network beyond our fallen Adamic flesh.  Pretty simple.  See it there?  

22 But the fruit of the Spirit

The word But, is there to differentiate.  The deeds of the flesh are what we produce without the Spirit.  BUT . . . . 22 But the fruit of the Spirit . . . . as opposed to the flesh.

And the network, the tree and the roots, the mechanism if you think like me, a natural gearhead, the vehicle beyond my natural fallen flesh that supplies fruit, just like a fruit tree with all that's required for the end product you want, those luscious apricots, the supply for the fruit of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit of Jesus who lives inside my heart.

I've been going through the book of John with my grandson, day by day, week by week, we both listen to one of John MacArthur's sermons every day.  Consecutively we'll both read or listen to the same sermon and then we text each other about what we learned or thought.

And Jesus in John's gospel is about metaphor after metaphor that completes this idea of fruit in a christians life.  And every metaphor is the same.  You have to imbibe Jesus.  You have to get Him inside of you.  I am the water of life.  He who drinks of me will never thirst.  I am the bread that came down from heaven,  he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood.  I am the vine. You are the branches.  

You must be born again.  Born of the Spirit.  The Spirit of Jesus must be in you and you in Him.  That's actually the definition of a christian.  We are regenerated by the indwelling Holy Spirit of Jesus.  

The Spirit of God living inside our hearts is the tree that bears the fruits.  Thus these fruits are only possible for actual regenerated born again Spirit indwelt believers.  These good fruits are caused by Christ in me.  Without Him, the only fruits I can produce are weeds and thorns and bitter sour grapes.  Good fruit comes from a single source combined with my spirit.  Jesus.

Two weeks ago, and thank you for the grace of a trip away with my wife to camp, but two weeks ago we began to look at these fruits that the Holy Spirit causes to flow forth out of us.

We looked at a new kind of love, agape love that puts everyone before us first, and we looked at joy which isn't necessarily happiness, it's the deepseated wellness that transcends situational happiness, and we began to look at peace.

And in a way, peace is the driver in all of these.  Because this peace is a peace that transcends this world.  Let me try to explain.

This world and everything in it is at war with the Creator.  We were born into a world that is in rebellion with God.  The whole earth, and every human born in Adam's race is born into a rebellion.  Born condemned.

Let me show you something Jesus said that is shocking.  John 3:18

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Condemned already.  The entire population of this planet is in a class action and the judgement has already been rendered, it's only waiting to be implemented.  Condemned.  Condemned already is what Jesus said.  The judgement has already been passed.

The popular notion of every false religion put forward by Satanic lie is that if you're good, you'll be OK and if you're worse than average on the good bad scale, well, you'll probably still be OK because no one's too sure about the rules and they're in a constant state of flux anyways.  

If there is a god he sort of grades on a curve and you've got to be way down in the fail category to actually achieve hell.  But now we don't even believe there is a god so we're not concerned about any definitions of good or bad at all.  We simply eliminated the judge.

But Jesus says the whole world is already in a condemned state.  Everyone.  Born into a class that is condemned.  Born condemned.  You chose your family poorly.  Born into Adam's rebellion.  Judgement is pronounced long before you ever got here.  Condemned.  Born into a war against God.  You ARE condemned.  Jesus is the only path out.  I AM the way . . .

That truth gives a whole new meaning to this word peace.  Those of us who have believed in the blood atonement, the sufficiency of Jesus death, in our place to pay our debt, and who have received Jesus as our Lord and Saviour have passed from the blanket condemnation of death, into life.  Eternal life.  With God who dwells inside of us.  

The war is over.  Peace has come.  Inner peace.  No wonder that joy is the obvious and very real by-product of peace we have with God.  We are set apart from this condemned world.  We are called out of the condemned and placed into Christ.  No longer at war, at odds, with God.  The rebellion is over.  Peace has come.

Familiar words that you will all recognize;  Luke 15:

18 I will rise up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ 20 So he rose up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, 23 and bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, and let us eat and celebrate, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Only God in human form could have come up with this perfect metaphor of rebellion and separation and alienation that so perfectly describes lost people.  The Father never stopped loving the prodigal son, but the rebellious son separated himself from the Father.  And destitution set in.  

Living with pigs.  Wishing he could thrive at least as well as the pigs he was caring for.  He was living in a state of alienation and condemnation that was self caused.  

But he returned to his Father and asked for forgiveness and the self caused war was instantly forgiven.  Peace and wellness beyond anything he ever thought might be possible was showered on him.  Peace with God is a celebration.

The deep seated fruit of the Spirit that is the direct link to all of the others is peace.  We are at peace with God.  I can't think of a better word than transcendent.  We possess a peace that goes beyond this world.  We were alienated from God, at war with God, and in Jesus, peace has come.

This world can't make up it's mind about which looming disaster to get panicked over.  The doomsday clock 3 seconds to midnight with Russia breathing threats of nuclear destruction, or is it climate change that's going to kill me with apricots.  Hurricane Hilary wreaking havoc with all the sister and brother hurricanes getting in line and waiting their turn.

I'm not sure it's a good time to go into the insurance business.  Doomsday for this world looms.  Actually they have no idea of the tidal wave that's about to hit land.  The dooms spelled out in this book make climate change and mushroom clouds seem weak by comparison.  This world is condemned.

We have a peace that transcends this world.  And it not only transcends, the Spirit pours out that peace inside our hearts.  My peace is local.  It's inside my heart.  Sure we worry about this place.  We can't help it.  After all, the same Spirit that gives me transcendent peace, also pours out the Fathers love in my heart for all the hurting people around me.

Peace is bitter sweet.  I'm OK.  The war is over for me and the celebration has already begun.  I have the downpayment, the promise ring of the future wedding.  But I also have the Father's love for those around me who aren't OK.  Peace is bitter sweet.  

Wellness runs deep, but love is concerned for the lost who are deaf and blind.  Not just deaf and blind but dead.  I've got this love for the hopelessly lost inhabitants of this world that really is in a lot more trouble than the panicked people even know about.  

The words of this book can open deaf ears, give sight to blind eyes, and even bring resurrected life to dead people.  These words have power beyond this world.  Meanwhile, we have peace with our Sovereign King who is in ultimate control of events.  And not only peace, we have a direct connection with the King.  He listens to our prayers.  He hears our distress for those we love.  

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,

patience.  It would have to be sourced by a person, not me.  I have this old unredeemed flesh still present, and patience is foreign to the old me.  I'm reminded of this lack daily.

When I enjoy the presence of the filling of the Holy Spirit, patience is supplied by the Spirit, apart from me.  It is a gift poured into me from outside.  God's patience, in me, supplied to me.

makrothumia  From makro which means long, distance, far reaching, and thumos which is passion, outburst of anger.  Longsuffering.  It's the opposite of short tempered.  Patience that endures long.

It's especially necessary for the pastor.  Paul instructs Timothy in 2 Tim. 4 with these words;

1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching.  great patience.  same word

I, along with Timothy, am charged to continue teaching you with long suffering makrothumia.  Don't wear out.  Don't give up.  Don't give up.  How often did Jesus want to just wring the disciples necks and walk away?  I'm sure those thoughts occured to Him as He patiently endured a bunch of knuckleheads.  Sons of Thunder who want to have the powers to call down fire from heaven to burn up a village that snubbed them.

We're the same knuckleheads.  How patient God is with our failures.  Time and again.  And we are called to be patient with each other.  Longsuffering.  And it isn't natural to our fallen selves.  God supplies longsuffering endurance to us, by His Spirit.  You folks have been long suffering with me.  

Slow to anger is a defining attribute of God.  All of these traits in this bouquet of fruits or flowers are characteristic traits of God.  Exodus 34, where Moses met with God on the mountain to receive the 10 commandments on the tablet of stone.  Yahweh descended to the mountain in a cloud and said;

6 Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and called out, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;

Slow to anger is a godly attribute.  We haven't thought about this very much.  We lived in a nation where christian virtues and morals were the standard and no one challenged christians.

Quickly that is changing.  The world around us is becoming combative to christians.  Longsuffering, patience that is slow to anger is going to become more and more important to us.

I was listening to a podcast last week talking about mandatory corporate retraining agendas.  Incrementally the pan is getting hotter for us frogs.  When I had to take those classes it was listen only and check off the training box completed.  Now it's listen and write out your implementation objectives and sign a statement.  That christians cannot sign with a good conscience.  Or lose your job.

This stuff is coming at us incrementally.  Glad I'm retired.  We are to be slow to anger in all of these challenges.  Slow to anger in a culture that is increasingly angry with us.  Anger with God, directed at us.  Longsuffering slow to anger patience in those situations is foreign to our flesh.  Only God in us can accomplish these attributes.  

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.

Kindness.  The connection is obvious.  Romans 2:4 says;  Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

Kindness and forbearance and patience, all sisters in the same family.  God leads people to repentence with these attributes.

It may not seem so in the moment.  Someone is mistreating you.  Someone is doing you a dirty.  Our natural reaction is retaliation.  But God uses kindness, sometimes over a very long haul, to win sinners.  

Jesus says;  26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers treated the false prophets in the same way. 27 But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.…Lk. 6

The world says you're a wimp if you tolerate mistreatment.  But Jesus says, you're in good company if the world mistreats you and you endure it for the sake of God's glory.  God uses kindness to win some.

Paul has an approach that appeals to our natural falleness a bit more;

19 Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.…Romans 12

Our kindness in the face of unjust mistreatment has a twofold effect.  For some God's grace will bring repentence.  But for others, our kindness, poured through us by God's indwelling Holy Spirit, is building up a greater judgement when God does finally repay.

Win win.  Repentence is fantastic.  But for the stubborn hard hearted abusers our longsuffering kindness is adding to the fire in the day of retribution.  They aren't being mean to me.  They're being mean to God, who they can't get to, so they take it out on His people.  Vengeance is coming.  Your kindness either wins the person or adds fuel to the fires of retribution.  Win win.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.

Goodness.  Is it a fuzzy word?  A little nebulous.  What is goodness.  

(ag-ath-o-soo'-nay)  It's another word not used in other greek literature of the same era.  Goodness is what we once upon a time heard in our nation as "the christian thing to do".  

The greek word for good was agatho.  People named their daughters agatha.  Good.  It's always a feminine word.  Positive.  Decent.  Sympathetic.  Lovely.

But the christians formed this new word to be used among each other.  Good-ness.  agathosune  (ag-ath-o-soo'-nay)  Because real christians who are tempered and controlled by a new nature, transformed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, our demeanor in the world is good.  Goodness.

If you study the word though, this isn't pushover good.  It's a true goodness that seeks the best interest of others.  At all times.  It has a stern quality when necessary.

When Jesus drove the sellers and money changers out of the temple, He was exhibiting (ag-ath-o-soo'-nay).  Goodness.  It looks harsh, it can look stern, but the real actual best interest of those involved is at the heart.

An old illustration I love.  A guy's car breaks down in the wrong section of Chicago.  He's definitely a different shade of melonin than everyone else where the car decided to quit.  It's late dusk, gonna be dark soon.  He's in an alley.  Dark, no one around.  

Three big guys turn a corner around a building and are walking in his direction.  Big guys.  More or less melonin than him by a large margin.  Doesn't matter which is which.  He's different.  Very different!

Terror grips him.  Should he run?  Then he notices something.  They each have a bible in their hands.  Terror evaporates.  Why is that?  Think about it.  This book, and the God who spoke it, who lives inside the 3 big men, it changes everything.  Everything.  God in you, brings goodness.

Even if the guy who broke down is an atheist, fear is gone.  Right.  Guys with Bibles don't harm.  They help.  

Larisa was late getting to VBS from Gabbs last month.  I teased her about driving on the pole line road.  She gets a flat every time.  But she said, no if I'd driven the pole line road I'd have been here a long time ago.  We had to stop and help a couple who were stranded.  

They had been stranded for a few hours.  No one would stop.  Larisa and company stopped and helped them.  The couple asked her if they were a Bible group of some sort.  A christian group.  Where did that come from??

Read the history of our hospital system.  Christians did that.  Orphanages, shelters, food kitchens for the destitute.  Christians did that.  Goodness.  It's like electricity.  It's hard to describe, but you can see the work it does.  

Once upon a time, we were a good nation.  That has vanished in the course of one lifetime.  Mine.  Why do you think that during Covid it was OK to riot and destroy life, but the government wanted the churches shut down.  It doesn't take a genius to see that there's definitely something bigger than us behind good and evil.  God pours His goodness into this fallen lost world through His people.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.

Faithfulness.  Have you ever had a great christian friend and you run together and fellowship together and it's great . . . and then one day they turn their back on God and it's like it never happened.  Poof.  They gone.

We all have experienced that if we've been around the church for a time.  Right?  We've seen many come and go at this place.  A lot of normal attrition.  People move.  People die.  

But not a few have come for a time and then vanished.  They didn't move.  They didn't die.  We see them at the grocery store.  We wave sometimes.  But the fellowship we thought was real is gone.

You say, well maybe it's because they're not getting fed the Word of God.  Or . . . maybe it's because they are, and they don't really like it.

Goodness is what we are because the Holy Spirit dwells with us and in us.  Faithfulness is that truth spread over a long time frame.  I'm not impressed with flash in the pan christians.  I'm impressed with faithful saints that have been slugging it out with no fanfare, for a life time.  

Quiet christians that are always there, always working for the glory of God in the background, unnoticed.  And have been for years.  And will be until the Lord comes or calls them home.  Those guys. That's what impresses me.

You could listen to MacArthur speak one time and think this guy's fantastic.  But what's fantastic is he's been consistent for 54 years I've known him.  That's faithfulness.  

There's another component of faithfulness we know little about.  Yet.  Faithfulness under duress.  American evangelicalism has very little real faithfulness.  3000 miles wide and an inch deep.  No pressure and no faithfulness.  What happens when it actually costs something to be a christian.  A real one.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2 speaks of a great separation.  A great apostasy.  I think maybe I see it on the horizon.  When being a real christian actually has a cost.  American evangelicalism will keep right on going.  The mega churches won't skip a beat.  But the compromise will separate the real believers from the inch deep ones.  

Will you be faithful when it means breaking the laws this nation passes, if they go against scriptural moral authority?  When it means first just trying to hang on at work, forget any promotions, just hang on a while, quietly, in a hostile environment.  And then you get fired . . . if you insist on the authority of the words of this book.  When it means losing the retirement you counted on.  Or maybe your home.

Read Hebrews 10.  Nothing new for christians.  But certainly new for us.  Faithfulness.  Rare with no pressure, in the present.  Maybe costly before Jesus comes.  We don't know.  But when Paul wrote these words, it cost these folks everything to be a christian.  And the indwelling Holy Spirit put faithfulness in the bouquet of flowers called the fruit of the Spirit.

We don't have time this morning to finish chapter 5 and there are important things to consider still in these final verses of chapter 5.  We'll take time to consider the final two attributes of God in the list of spiritual fruits next week if God permits.  But this morning I'll leave you with this thought . . .

The church is not a stone building.  It isn't brick and mortar.  Peter used the metaphor of living stones.  Together we are a building.  But Paul used the metaphor of a body with individual digits.  We are each part of the body.  Every part is needed to be a whole.  Nobody needs a talking head without a body.  We need all the bits and pieces to be a complete full functioning body.

That's a good metaphor.  But there's more to it than that.  We are not just a body, we are the body of Christ.  

Jesus ascended into heaven.  How is the world going to see Him.  Here is God's plan for this world to see Jesus.  God pours His Spirit into His people.  All of these fruits are ours when we are submitted to Jesus as Lord and His Spirit is living in and through us.

The world can only see Jesus when we are walking in the Spirit and these fruits are the continuous steady pattern of our lives.  We are the body of Christ.  The world only sees Him when they see us displaying these fruits of the Spirit.  

Individually and corporately the world needs to see Jesus, in us.  They need to hear Jesus through us.  They need to understand that they stand condemned but that the Father is waiting to see them coming to Him from afar so that He will run to meet them and throw His arms around them and celebrate every person who leaves the condemnation of this world behind and embraces the safety and wellness, indeed, the peace of knowing God.

Jesus alone is the Way out of condemnation and into peace.  Jesus alone took the penalty for your sins, the death you deserved upon Himself.  He removed the enmity and purchased a reconciliation with the Father.  

This world needs that message and they need to see and hear Jesus in us.  These fruits of the Spirit are the Jesus that the world around us can see.