in Galatians chapter 5 and we've been going to do a study on Sunday nights on the subjects
of the Holy Spirit. The series is called By My Spirit and it's really been a systematic
study of the Holy Spirit and we are now in the ninth week of this study and it's been
a very doctrinal study and you know something that we should be doing is learning very practical
things from the Bible, from the word of God, but we should also be learning some doctrinal
things and we should be not carried about with every wind of doctrine. We should know
what we believe and why we believe it and so we've been studying the Holy Spirit and
I hope you've been taking notes and learning. It really has been a systematic study of the
Holy Spirit. Some people pay good money to learn these things at Bible college and you're
learning it for free and you're not getting all the heresy so there's been no dispensationalism,
there's been no weird doctrinal heresy, but we've been talking about the Holy Spirit and
we learned about the person of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is God, the Holy Spirit in
the Trinity, the work of the Holy Spirit, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the gifts
of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament versus His role in the New Testament,
the filling of the Holy Spirit is what we talked about last week and this week we're
going to talk about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Now it's good that we are talking
about the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the ninth sermon in this series because there
are nine fruits of the Holy Spirit so I don't know what that means, but we talked about
the Trinity in the third sermon of the series so we're just making references to those numbers
I guess, but I want you to understand a few things about the fruit of the Spirit and the
fruit of the Spirit is something that you hear a lot about and people talk a lot about.
You'll often see it, people will hang it up on their walls at home, they'll see a lot
of decorations that will have the fruit of the Spirit, but I want to teach you about
the fruit of the Spirit and I want to teach you some things about the fruit of the Spirit
before we actually get into the actual fruit of the Spirit. So if you're taking notes and
I would encourage you to take notes, on the back of your bulletin you do have a spot to,
on the back of the course of the week, excuse me, you have a place to take some notes down
and I want to begin by talking about the producer of the fruit of the Spirit. Who is
it that produces the fruit of the Spirit? And this may seem silly, but I want to make
this point and there's a reason why I'm saying it. You're there in Galatians 5, look at verse
22 and I want you to notice what the Bible says. The Bible says this, but the fruit of
the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, against such, there is no law. I want you to notice and
understand that when we are talking about the fruit of the Spirit, we are talking about
just that. It is the fruit of the Spirit. The producer, the one who produces this fruit
in our lives, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
those things are produced by the Holy Spirit. You might be wondering, as opposed to what?
And here's what I want you to understand. Most Christians today have the idea of the
fruit of the Spirit, they have a misunderstanding in the sense that they read the fruit of the
Spirit and they interpret it as the fruit of Christians. Now keep your place during
Galatians 5, we're going to come back to it, but go to Matthew chapter 13, first book in
the New Testament, should be fairly easy to find. Today you will have people who will
talk about the fruit of Christians and what we produce, and they'll say, well, we'll know
you're a Christian, we'll know you by your fruits, right? Doesn't the Bible say, by their
fruits ye shall know them? And when they're talking about the fruits that they are hoping
to see as evidence for salvation in your life, they'll say, well, as a Christian you're supposed
to produce fruit, and then you ask them, what fruit? What is the fruit that you are expecting
to see in the life of a Christian? And they will reference back to Galatians 5, 22, love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. The problem is
that the Bible is clear that this is the fruit of the Spirit. This is not the fruit of a
Christian. Matthew 13, are you there? Notice verse number 8. Now in Matthew 13 we have
the famous parable of the sower, and when you get to verse 8, we have the good ground.
Now nobody disagrees in the parable that the good ground is a Christian, that he's
a safe person. I want you to notice what it says. Matthew 13 and verse 8, it says, but
other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit. And they'll say, see, Christians bring
forth fruit. But I want you to notice what it says. The fruit that was brought forth
by Christians was some in hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. So I want to ask
you, if the fruit of the Spirit is somehow really the fruit of the Christian, and what
they mean by that when they teach that is that we should be able to identify whether
somebody is saved or not by whether or not they have these characteristics in their lives,
and they'll say, well, this is the fruit of a Christian. Then let me ask you something.
When it says a hundredfold, what does that mean? Does it mean that the Christian is going
to produce a hundred love? When it says sixtyfold, does that mean that, well, some Christians
are going to produce sixty joy, some of them are going to produce thirty long-suffering,
and some are going to produce a hundredfold of gentleness? And I want you to understand
that throughout the Bible, and I'm not going to take the time to go through the references
because we have a lot to cover tonight anyway. You're there in Matthew 13. Go to Matthew
chapter 7. Throughout the Bible, it is very clear that everything produces after its own
kind, and the fruit of the Christian is not love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. That is the fruit of the Spirit, and we're going
to talk about that, and we're going to talk about how you can have what the Spirit produces
in your life, but I want you to understand that the fruit of the Christian is the same
as the fruit of anything else. Everything brings forth after its own kind. An apple
tree brings forth apples, and a Christian, a dog, dogs bring forth dogs, cats bring forth
cats, and I'm not preaching on evolution yet, that's next week, but the point is this, that
we as Christians, we produce Christians. We go out and we labor together with God. We
preach the Gospel. The Word of God brings about a birth, a new birth, a new life. Someone
is born again, and what do you produce a hundredfold of? What does God desire for you
to produce a hundredfold of in your life? He desires for you to produce a hundredfold
Christians, sixtyfold Christians, thirtyfold Christians, and I want you to notice that
when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit, we're not talking about an evidence of your
salvation, because the fruit of the Spirit is you reproducing yourself, just like physically
when a man and a woman have a child and they reproduce themselves, what do they reproduce?
Well they're in love, so they reproduce love. No, they reproduce a child. They reproduce
a human being. Why? Because everything brings forth after its own kind. So human beings
reproduce human beings, and Christians spiritually reproduce Christians, and people say, well
doesn't the Bible say, by their fruits ye shall know them? But look, you always need
to be careful about pulling out statements out of the Bible, out of their context. So
let's look at, yes, the Bible does say by their fruits ye shall know them. Let's look
at the context in which God says that. Matthew 7, look at verse 15. Matthew chapter 7 and
verse 15 says this, beware of false prophets. I want you to notice the context. Okay, it's
not even Christians. It's false prophets. It's bad preachers. Beware of false prophets,
which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Verse 16,
here's the context. Ye shall know them by their fruits. So how do we judge, how do we
identify a false prophet? You identify them by what they produce. You identify them by
their converts. Didn't Jesus say that the Pharisees were making twofold more the child
of hell than themselves in those that they were proselyting and the converts that they
had? He says ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of
thistles? He's saying, look, thorns don't produce grapes, and thistles don't produce
figs. Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewed down and cast
into the fire. Verse 20, here's the context. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
So when someone says by their fruits ye shall know them, and they're talking about whether
or not somebody's a Christian or not, somebody's saved or not, they pull that statement out
of its context. Because the context is about false prophets. You don't know false prophets
by their fruit. And by the way, you don't know any prophet by their fruit. You know,
today I hold the position of a pastor, a preacher, a prophet. If you want to figure out whether
I'm a good guy or a bad guy, you say, how would I figure that out? Do you figure that
out by watching my life to see whether I'm loving and caring and kind? Because listen
to me, if you watch Joel Osteen, you'll think he's loving and caring and kind. But he's
a false prophet. If you watch Billy Graham, you'll think he's loving and caring and kind.
But he was a false prophet preaching a false gospel. So you say, well, what does it mean?
Here's what it means. If you want to know if I'm a good guy or a bad guy, a false preacher
or a right preacher, here's how you examine me. You just inspect the fruit. You inspect
what we produce. Look, walk around here on a Sunday morning. Go around and just randomly
ask our church people, hey, do you know for sure if you died today, are you on your way
to heaven? And look, obviously we have guests. Obviously we have visitors. Obviously we have
new converts that come, and they don't know all of the answers to all the questions. But
I promise you this. You talk to most people that call Verity Baptist Church their home,
and they're going to tell you, yeah, I know I'm saved. It's not of works. You can't lose
it. I didn't turn over a new leaf to get it. It's a free gift. Why? Because that's
what we preach, and that's what we produce. Look, we go out soul winning in the streets
of Sacramento, and I knock doors of people who, sometimes over the last eight years,
I may have knocked the doors of 100 members of one church, and every single one told me,
you can lose your salvation. Well, you know what? That tells me a lot about that preacher.
I inspected the fruit, and the fruit told me he's preaching a false gospel. That's the
context by the fruit ye shall know them. So don't get caught up in this idea that we can
identify Christians based on whether or not they are loving or joyful or long suffering
or any of those things, because here's what you need to understand. That is not the fruit
of a Christian. That is the fruit of the Spirit. And whether or not the Spirit is doing a work
in your life is totally up to you, but it does not determine whether you are saved or not.
Let's go back to Galatians 5. Let me explain this a little further. The producer of the
fruit is the Spirit, not you. If you have this fruit in your life, it is because the
Holy Spirit is doing a work in your life, not you. Let's talk about the production of the
fruit. The producer is the Holy Spirit. How does it get produced? What's the production?
Notice Galatians 5, verse 16. Then I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill
the lust of the flesh. Now, we're going to talk about the fruit of the Spirit, but this
chapter also talks about the fruit of the flesh. Notice verse 17. For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one
to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Notice verse 18. But if ye
be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. So look, he's saying the people that
he's going to talk about in Galatians 5, they don't just have the Holy Spirit. They are
walking in the Spirit. They are being led of the Spirit. They are allowing the Spirit
to guide them. And then he says, but there are other people who are being led, other
Christians who are being led of the flesh. They're not walking in the Spirit. They're
not allowing the Holy Spirit to move them. They are allowing their flesh and their own
desires to move them. Well, what is their life going to look like? Look at verse 19.
And I want you to understand this, because in verse 17, he talks about this internal
struggle for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Please understand this. If you are saved, there is, and there will be, and there will
be until the day you die, an internal struggle, an internal fight inside of you. It's called
the old man versus the new man. It's called the cardinal man versus the spiritual man.
It's called the Spirit versus the flesh. Until the resurrection, until the rapture,
until God takes away this flesh and gives you a new glorified body, you will struggle
with the lust of the flesh, and they will be combating each other inside of you. So
if you ever feel that struggle inside of you, where you want to do right, but then your
flesh doesn't, your Spirit wants to read the Bible, but your flesh wants to sleep in. Look,
that's normal. And what you do with that struggle will determine a lot about whether
you will succeed or fail in the Christian life, but realize that there is an internal
struggle in the Christian life. You say, what if I give in to the flesh? Then here's what
your life will look like, verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings,
and such like. Look, he's saying Christians can live like this. You say, why? Because
a Christian has the ability to not walk in the Spirit but to walk in the flesh. But what
about a Christian who chooses to walk in the Spirit, like verse 16 says? What about a Christian
who chooses to be led of the Spirit, like verse 18? What about that Christian? What
will be produced in their life? Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such,
there is no law. Look at verse 25. If we live in the Spirit, and I want you to notice what
it says. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. And here's what the
Bible is teaching. You can live in the Spirit and not be walking in the Spirit. Because
when you got saved, and this is a point from another sermon, but when you got saved, you
got sealed with the Holy Spirit of God, every Christian lives in the Spirit, with the Spirit,
with the Holy Spirit, indwelling you. But like we talked about last week, not every
Christian is filled with the Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit, you have to walk in
the Spirit. You have to be led by the Spirit. We talked about that last week. I gave you
real practical things you can do to experience the filling of the Holy Spirit. But the point
is this, you can have the Holy Spirit and not be walking in the Holy Spirit. You can
have the Holy Spirit and not be being led by the Holy Spirit. Now you're there in Galatians,
go to Ephesians, just the next book over, Ephesians chapter 4, and look at verse 30.
While you go there, let me read to you from 1 Thessalonians 5.19. You know this verse,
you've heard it. The Bible says, quench not the Spirit. Now I want you to think about
this, okay? Because today we have people that will say, oh no, if you don't have love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, you're not saved. Because this is what
the Holy Spirit will produce in your life. And this is what they'll say. They'll say,
if you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will produce these things in your life. Here's
a problem with that. 1 Thessalonians 5.19 says, quench not the Spirit. You are commanded
not to quench the Spirit. Remember, one of the emblems or the pictures of the Holy Spirit
is that He is a fire of revival, a consuming fire in your life, but you and I have the
ability to quench the Holy Spirit. Now look, if we couldn't quench the Holy Spirit, why
would God command us not to do it? So don't think that, if I have the Holy Spirit, then
these things will be produced in my life. No, you can live in the Spirit, but that doesn't
mean you're walking in the Spirit. And the only way that the Spirit can produce the fruit
of the Spirit, then you must walk in the Spirit. You must be led of the Spirit. You must be
allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you in your life. Are you there in Ephesians 4, verse 30?
Ephesians 4.30 says this, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
unto the day of redemption. See, it's possible for you to have the Holy Spirit and to grieve
the Holy Spirit. Oh no, if you've got the Holy Spirit, He's going to produce these things.
Then why would God tell us not to grieve Him? Why would God tell us not to quench Him? There's
one reason He tells us that, because you can grieve Him and you can quench Him, and
just because you live in the Spirit doesn't mean you're walking in the Spirit. So please
understand this, the fruit of the Spirit, and this is what I really want you to understand,
and we're going to jump into the fruit of the Spirit here in a second, but the fruit
of the Spirit is not evidence of salvation. The Bible is clear that the evidence of salvation
is your testimony. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. That's what the Bible says. That's
why we ask people, do you know for sure if you died today, are you on your way to heaven?
And based on how they answer that question, we know whether they're saved, because out
of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And they tell us what they believe. And when
someone says, yeah, I think I'm on my way to heaven, and then we ask, oh great, what
gives you that confidence? What are you trusting in to get you to heaven? Well, you know, I
used to drink alcohol, and I used to be into drugs, and I used to do this, and now I don't
do that. Hey, you know what? That's great, but that's the wrong thing you're trusting,
because quitting alcohol and quitting drugs isn't going to get you into heaven. Well,
you know, I got baptized. Great, but you're trusting the wrong thing. Well, you know,
my grandma was a Baptist preacher. Okay. I don't even know where to start with that one,
but you know, again, that's not what saves you. What are you trusting in to get you to
heaven? Man, I asked Jesus to save me. I put my faith and trust in him, and there's
nothing I can do. I just accepted the free gift of salvation. Okay, well then you're
saved, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So you say, well,
what is the fruit of the Spirit? What does the fruit of the Spirit, what does it teach
us about ourselves, or what does it prove? Here's what it proves. The fruit of the Spirit
is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in your life. So it doesn't tell us whether
you're a Christian or not. Your testimony tells us whether you're a Christian or not,
but the fruit of the Spirit will tell us whether you are a Spirit-filled Christian, or whether
you are a carnal Christian. It doesn't tell us whether you're saved, it just tells us
whether you're right with God. It doesn't tell us whether you're saved, it just tells
us whether you are allowing the Holy Spirit to lead in your life, or whether you are allowing
the flesh to lead in your life. So let's look at the fruit of the Spirit. What is it?
Now you're there in Ephesians, I want you to stay there, go to Ephesians 5. And what
I'm going to do is as quickly as I can, we're not going to spend, honestly, we could spend
nine weeks going through the fruit of the Spirit, and maybe one day we will. Maybe one
day, you know, in a different series, we'll spend nine weeks really dissecting each one
of these. I'm not going to do that tonight, I'm going to try to give these to you quickly.
But I want you to notice, and I want you to think about this, and I want you in this sermon
to think to yourself, do I have these characteristics in my life? And if you do, then great. And
if you don't, that doesn't mean you're not saved, it just means you're not walking in
the Spirit. It just means you're not being led to the Spirit. It just means that you
are not filled with the Spirit. So here's what the Bible says the Holy Spirit will produce
in your life when you allow Him to lead, when you walk in the Spirit, not just live in the
Spirit, but walk in the Spirit. Number one, love. Love. Now you're there in Ephesians,
I want you to look at Ephesians 5, and I want you to just explain, and again, I'm going
to go through these quickly, so I'm not going to develop them a lot, and we can talk a lot
about love throughout the Bible. The Bible talks a lot about love. But I want you to
understand something, and if you're writing down notes, you can write the word love and
then write these words next to it. Sacrificial and selfless. Sacrificial and selfless. Throughout
the Bible, and I would encourage you to study this out on your own, throughout the Bible,
you will find that the way that the Bible describes love or defines love, it defines
it in this way. Sacrificial and selfless. Sacrificial and selfless. I'll give you one
example from Ephesians 5. This, of course, Ephesians 5 is a famous passage about husbands
and wives and how they should respond to each other. Ephesians 5, 25 says this, husbands
love your wives. And then God is going to explain to us how we do that. He says, even
as or in the same way that Christ also loved the church, so look, He says, I want you to
love your wives the way that Christ loved the church, so we're going to learn what
love is, notice, and gave Himself for it. What is it? Sacrificial. Love is always sacrificial.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. In the Bible, love is always
identified through sacrifice, but not just that, also through selflessness, which is
the opposite of selfishness. Look at verse 28, Ephesians 5, 28. So ought men to love
their wives, notice, as their own bodies. So the men are hard-headed, right? So God
has to give us two examples. He says, love your wife like Christ loved the church, which
is a sacrificial love, and guys go, uh, I don't get that. So then God says, okay, let
me give you something you do get. You know how you love yourself? And most men would
be like, yeah, I know that one. You know that selfish love you have? I want you to have
that same love, but in reverse. Not selfish, but selfless. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies, he that loveth his wife loveth himself. He says, look, love your wife
the way you'd love yourself. I'm sure you get that one. You don't understand the sacrifice
one, but you get the selfless one. And here's the point. Love is sacrificial and selfless.
So you ought to identify. You say, how can I know whether the fruit of love from the
Holy Spirit is apparent in my life? Here's how you know. Are you sacrificing and being
selfless to those that you love? Are you putting them first? Are you esteeming other better
than yourself? Are you being selfless or selfish? Are you sacrificing or are you expecting
them to sacrifice? Because the fruit of the Spirit will produce love, which is sacrificial
and selfless. You learn Ephesians, go to Colossians chapter one. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.
Just a couple of books over. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. The fruit of the Spirit. What
is it? Love. How do I identify that? Sacrifice, selflessness. Am I being sacrificial? Am I
being selfless? What's the second fruit of the Spirit? Joy. Joy. Now, the word joy means
happiness, but it's a different word than happiness. And here's the difference. Oftentimes,
happiness is connected to your circumstances. Even the Bible teaches this. The Bible talks
about blessed is the man that, and it will tell us something that they do, right? The
Bible will also say happy is the man that, and it uses those words interchangeably. Why?
Because you are happy when you are blessed. And now, we could take that too far and make
that a bad thing where your happiness is only connected to your circumstances, but joy is
different in the sense that joy is happiness that does not find its source in the outside
world or outside circumstances. Joy is something. If it's produced by the Holy Spirit, then
it's something that has its source inside of you. So that joy is not dependent on what's
going on on the outside because that joy comes from the Holy Spirit's work inside of
you. Colossians 1, verse 24. Notice what the Bible says. Who now rejoice? You see how the
word rejoice there? It's just a different way of saying the same thing. Joy, rejoice.
Notice what he says. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you? Say, why would you rejoice
in suffering? Well, you would only rejoice in suffering if your joy was not connected
to your outside circumstances but found its source from something that cannot be affected
by outside circumstances, the Holy Spirit of God. He says, who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for
his body's sake, which is the church. Let me give you another example. Go to Philippians.
They're in Colossians. Just go backwards one book into the book of Philippians, Philippians
chapter 4. Now, here's what's interesting about the book of Philippians. Philippians
is the joy book of the Bible. You find the word rejoice often throughout the book of
Philippians over and over and over again. You hear Paul telling people, commanding people
to rejoice, to be joyful, to be content. What's interesting is that Paul wrote the book of
Philippians from prison while incarcerated for his faith. And this is what he says in
Philippians 4, 4. He says, rejoice in the Lord always. Always meaning always, all of
the time, always meaning the entire way, the entire time, your entire life. Rejoice in
the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. You say, but sometimes bad things happen to good people.
And that's true. But true joy that is produced by the Holy Spirit will not be affected by
outside circumstances. True joy that finds its source from the Holy Spirit will not be
affected by things going on around your life, problems with your health, problems with the
health of those you love, problems with your relationships, problems with your finances,
problems with your career. I'm not minimizing any of those things. Those are real things.
And we go through real heartaches. But here's what I'm telling you. You can go through heartaches
and still experience joy in your life when it is the Holy Spirit that is producing it
inside of you. So you say, Pastor Jimenez, how do I know if I'm filled with the Holy
Spirit? Well, let me ask you something. Are you joyful? Or are you always sad and discouraged
and upset and down in the dumps? And we all have those people in our lives. You avoid
them, and you don't ask them how they're doing because you don't want to get into that conversation
because they're never doing well, because things are never going right, because they're
always throwing a pity party, because things are always tough. And look, I get it. Pity
parties are fun. They are fun parties to throw, and you don't have to invite anybody else.
I get it. But it is not the life of a spirit-filled Christian, because a spirit-filled Christian
will experience love and joy that is not connected to the outside circumstances. Here's another
one. Well, actually, you know what? Yeah, you're there in Philippians 4. Stay there.
Here's the third fruit of the Spirit. It's peace. What's peace? Peace is a calm that
is not connected to circumstances. So joy is happiness that is not connected to circumstances.
Peace is a calm that is not connected to circumstances. You're there in Philippians 4. We just read
verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord all the way, and again I say rejoice. But look at verse
5. Let your moderation, you see that word moderation there? The word moderation means
the avoidance of excess extremes. It means you're not doing real well. You're not doing
real bad. You're just kind of living life. Let your moderation be known unto all men,
the Lord is at hand. Verse 6, be careful for nothing. See that word careful there? The
word careful is not careful like I'm trying to be careful not to spill the soup while
I'm taking it to the table. The idea is not that. The idea of the word careful there is
to be full of care, anxiety, worry. He says be careful for nothing. It's the same idea
when Peter would say to casting all your cares upon him, for he careth for you. It's the
idea of worry, anxiety. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God. Don't
miss this. Which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus. Here's what the Bible says. The Holy Spirit will produce in your life love, joy,
peace. That doesn't mean you don't go through heartaches. That doesn't mean you don't go
through trials. That doesn't mean you don't go through difficult times in your life that
are stressful, that are hard. That doesn't mean that. But what it means is that you can
go through those trials and have joy in your heart. And you can go through those trials
and have peace of mind. It's interesting because he says, look at verse 7, and the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus. The definition of the word peace is freedom from disturbance, a mental calm. And
here's all I'm telling you. If you do not have peace in your life, then you do not have
the fruit of the Spirit. And I'm not trying to beat you up. I'm trying to give you nine
reasons to get filled with the Spirit. Why would I want to be led of the Spirit and walk
in the Spirit and have the Holy Spirit come upon me and be filled with the Spirit? Well,
there are nine real good reasons you might want to be filled with the Spirit. One is
so you can experience love. One is so you can experience joy that's not connected to
the outside, that's not connected to circumstances, that's not connected to what's going on in
life. One is so you can experience peace that people would look at and say, your life's
falling apart. Why are you so calm? And here's what you'll say, well, the peace of God which
passeth all understanding. You say it doesn't make sense to the world because the world
only gets peace when all the ducks are in a row. The world only experiences peace when
everything's fine, when everything's good, when everything's right. But see, we as Christians
we can go through tribulation and experience peace because our peace finds its source in
the Holy Spirit. Here's number four, longsuffering. Go to Colossians. You're there in Philippians.
Just go back one book over, Colossians chapter one. Longsuffering. What does the word longsuffering
mean? It means patience. Let's look at that. Colossians 1.10. It's a little more than that
but let's look at it and I'll explain. Colossians 1.10 says this, that he might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful. You see that word fruitful there? In every
good word and increasing in the knowledge of God. Verse 11. Strengthened with all might
according to his glorious power. Notice, unto all patience and longsuffering with, don't
miss this, joyfulness. The Holy Spirit will produce these things in your life, patience
and longsuffering. Here's a question. Are you patient? Longsuffering is patience but
there's more to it. There are actually two different words with two different definitions
though they are used synonymously. Patience is to wait when you don't want to. You want
things to go faster than they're going. We have this drive-through microwave culture
where we don't want to wait. I want it and I want it now. Patience is the ability to
wait when you don't want to. Longsuffering is the ability to be patient when you're suffering,
hence the word longsuffering. Here's the definition. Having or showing patience in
spite of troubles, especially those caused by other people. See, longsuffering is when
I can be patient with those that are hurting me, when I can be patient with those that
are attacking me, when I can be patient with those that are reviling me, when I can be
patient with those. See, here's the thing. You can't live the Christian life and you
cannot successfully live the Christian life without the filling of the Holy Spirit because
you cannot live the Christian life without the fruit of the Spirit. You can be a Christian
without the fruit of the Spirit but you can't live the Christian life without the fruit
of the Spirit. Look at the famous chapters of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6,
and 7, where Jesus was teaching very practical, you know, rubber meets the road Christianity.
What did he say? Love your neighbor. What did he say? Love your enemy. What did he say?
Pray for them that persecute you. He said, I say therefore, love your enemies. Bless
them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. Pray for them which despitefully
use you, you can't do that without long suffering and you can't have long suffering without
the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. So you say, how do I know
if I'm filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, do you experience love or let's put it this
way. Would the people around you say that you are loving, selfless, and sacrificial?
Do you experience joy that is not connected to your outside circumstances? Do you experience
peace of mind that others would say, I don't understand? Are you long suffering? Are you
patient in suffering? Are you patient while being hurt, while being attacked, while being
lied about, while being criticized, while being attacked by your enemies? Here's number
five. You're there in Colossians. Go back to Ephesians. You're going to go past Philippians
into the book of Ephesians. Ephesians four. We're talking about the fruits of the Spirit.
Here's number five, gentleness. Gentleness. Now the word gentleness in your King James
Bible, and you can study this out later if you'd like, the word gentleness simply means,
it just means this, to be kind. To be kind. And the idea with gentleness is to be soft
or tender. Let me show it to you. Ephesians 4 32. And be ye kind one to another. And then
he uses this word, tenderhearted. What does it mean to be tender? It means showing gentleness.
It means being soft. It's the opposite of harsh. It's the opposite of mean. It's the
opposite of rude. Be ye kind one to another. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another. Even
as God in Christ's sake, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Doesn't the Bible say this
in Proverbs 15 one? A soft answer turneth away wrath. You can only do that in the power
of the Holy Spirit. You can only be gentle and kind and have a soft answer and be tenderhearted
in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I'm not trying to beat you up, and I'm really just
trying to help you, but please understand this. If we talk to your kids, and we won't,
okay? We're not CPS. But if we talk to your kids and we said, is that harsh? What word
describes that? Harsh or gentle? Here's all I'm telling you. Here's all I'm telling you.
It doesn't mean you're not saved. It just means you're not walking in the Spirit. It
just means you don't have the fullness of the Spirit. And I'm not trying to beat up
you dads. I'm right there with you. This is why God tells us, provoke not your children
to wrath. You say, how do I do that? Walk in the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Produce
the fruit of the Spirit by allowing the Spirit to have a work in your life. Why? Because
when you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you, to guide you, to fill you, to produce in you,
it will reduce love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness. What's number six? Goodness. Goodness.
Go to Matthew chapter 19. Let me take a few minutes to explain this one. Matthew 19, first
book of the New Testament. It should be fairly easy to find. Matthew 19. Goodness. In Matthew
19, we have this story known as the story of the rich young ruler. And yet the rich
young ruler approached Jesus, and I want to show you this story because it defines this
word good or goodness for us. Matthew 19, 16 says this, and behold, one came and said
unto him. Okay, so we have the rich young ruler going to Jesus, and here's what he says.
He says, good master. What, notice the words, good thing shall I do that I may have eternal
life. Good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life. It's interesting, and I want
you to understand the conversation that Jesus was having with this young man because there's
a lot of confusion when it comes to this story because of the way that Jesus was dealing
with this young man. But I want you to notice that Jesus dealt with this young man with
the attitude that the young man brought to Jesus. Okay? Now, here's the problem with
having a conversation with Jesus or having Jesus be the sole one who's trying to get
you saved, all right? The problem is this, that Jesus knows your heart, knows your thoughts,
knows everything about you, all right? So if you're going to try to engage into a conversation
of wit with Jesus, you're going to lose because he's God, all right? We're actually going
to have a series here soon. After Father's Day, I'm going to do a series called Encounters
with Christ, and we're going to look at all the one-on-one conversations that Jesus had
with individuals, and we'll learn a lot, but this is one of them. Notice what it says.
He says, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? Now, there's
a problem with this young man. Problem number one, he did not believe that Jesus was God.
Problem number two, he thought he could work his way to heaven because, notice, he doesn't
say, What do I have to believe to go to heaven? What do I have to believe to have eternal
life? He said, What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? So Jesus, having
a little fun with this kid, verse 17, and he said to him, because Jesus knows his heart,
Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one. And look, everything Jesus is saying
here is true because there is none that doeth good, nor not one. For all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. If Jesus was a man, which is what this kid thought,
then Jesus was not good because no one's good. Now, Jesus wasn't just a man, but this is
what this boy is telling him. He says, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
one, and that is God. So here's what Jesus is trying to tell him. If I'm good, then I'm
God. And if I'm not God, then I'm not good. But if thou will enter into life, let me answer
your question. You want to ask me what you have to do to go to heaven? Well, here's what
you have to do to keep the commandments. Here's the problem with that. You can't keep the
commandments because you're not good. And this is the conversation that he's having,
and I won't develop it. We'll talk about it in a few weeks or a few months, I'm sure.
But he's pointing out to him that he's not as good as he thinks he is. But what I want
you to notice from this passage is that the word good means godly because God is good.
It's the good things we do are the things we do that are like God or godly. Go to Matthew
chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. You're there in Matthew 19. Just flip back a few pages.
Matthew 5. Look at verse 16. Matthew 5 and verse 16 says this. Let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works, your godly works, and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. See, goodness is godliness. So how do I know if I'm filled with the Spirit?
Are you godly? Do you have good works? You don't need good works to be saved. We're talking
to people that are already saved. If you've got the Holy Spirit, you're saved. But you
know what? God saved you, and then he says you're saved by grace through faith, not of
works. And then in that same passage, he says, but ye are my workmanship. I'm working on
you. And God wants you to have good works. And the opposite of good works, I mean, read
it there in Galatians 5. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. That whole list
of the works of the flesh, that's the opposite of good. Number 7. You're there in Matthew.
Go back to Ephesians if you kept your place there. Ephesians chapter 4. The seventh fruit
of the Spirit is faith. Now the word faith means trust or confidence. When the Bible
says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the way, the word believe and faith are
used synonymously, it's the same thing. When the Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, it doesn't mean to believe like I believe he existed. It means to put my trust
or my confidence in him. Hebrews 11.1, you don't have to turn there, I'll just read it
for you, says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. Now I've been talking a lot about faith on Sunday mornings, and I'm not going
to re-preach those sermons, but I do want you to understand that faith is the confidence
or trust in the things that we do not see, but it is not a blind faith because we can
reason our faith, our faith will stand up to logic, and I'm not going to re-preach that.
Here's the point. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. The Bible says that the just shall live by faith. So you say, well, how do I know
if I'm living by faith or walking by faith? The just shall live by faith, we're going
to walk by faith, faith is the substance of things hoped for, and here's what you need
to do. Faith is walking as if it's already happened. That's faith. It's a confidence,
it is a trust in God. That's what faith is. An example of that in the Bible, we won't
have you turn there, but if you remember when the centurion came to Jesus asking him to
heal his son, and he wanted Jesus to come back with him, and Jesus said, I'm not going
to go with you, but just go back home. I've already healed him. Remember the centurion
walks back, and then a servant meets him and says, hey, your son's recovered, and he asked
for the time. When did it happen? And he knew that it was at the same time, he recovered
at the same time that Jesus had told him. What that centurion did was he was walking
by faith. He was walking back home as if with the confidence and trust that what Jesus said
had already happened or what happened, as he said. That's what faith is. So you say,
well, how do I know if I'm exercising faith in my life? Do you ever walk with an unseen
confidence that God will do what he said he will do? Look, every time you tithe, you're
exercising faith. I'm going to give God his 10% first, trusting and believing that he
will take care of the rest like he said he would. That's faith. Say, I don't tithe because
I'm too afraid. I'm not mad at you. All I'm telling you is you're not filled with the
Spirit. You're not walking in the Spirit because a Spirit-filled life will be a life of faith.
You will walk as if it's already happened. You will walk in confidence. You will walk
in trust. See, we live our lives a certain way. We raise our children a certain way.
We have our marriages a certain way. We follow the biblical principles in certain ways. You
know what the world is constantly telling us? You're wrong. You can't raise your kids
like that. You're going to ruin them. You can't have a marriage like that. You're going
to ruin them. You're going to ruin your marriage. You know, the people that have 60% divorce
rate are telling us we're going to ruin our marriages. Say, well, what do you do? What
do you do when you've got the in-laws telling you not to homeschool? They're not going to
be socialized. And I'm thinking to myself, have you seen the kids at the public school?
I'm not mad at you if you're in public school, but don't tell me that a kid with black nail
polish and a hood around his head and makeup is socialized properly. That's socialization.
I don't want it. I'd rather just come to church three times a week and let my kids run around
with the 30 kids around here. I think they get socialized enough. The point is this,
that we have to exercise faith in what the Bible says. When God says, do it this way,
then we just, with confidence and trust, say, you know what? Forget what Oprah says. Forget
what Dr. Phil says. Forget what the world says. And I'm just going to follow, and I'm
going to walk as if with confidence and trust. But look, you will not do that. You cannot
do that. You will struggle with that if you're not filled with the Spirit. The opposite of
faith is fear. Remember, Jesus kept telling his disciples? He would tell them, fear not.
One of the main things that Jesus told his disciples over and over in the Gospels is,
fear not, fear not, fear not. And he would tell them, fear not, O ye of little faith.
He says, be not doubting but believing. Why? Because they were constantly afraid. Jesus
said, we're going to go to the other side of the sea. And then a storm would happen,
and they're like, oh, we're not going to make it. And Jesus would say, why don't you just
trust me? I told you we're going to make it. The opposite of faith is fear. So here's what
I'm saying. You say, well, do I have faith? Let me ask you this. Do you have fear? Are
you afraid to trust, to have confidence? Because faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen, and it will be produced in a life that is walking in the
Holy Spirit. Are there any Ephesians 4? Let me give you number eight. Number eight is
meekness. Meekness is humility that puts others first. Ephesians 4, 1 says this, I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
ye are called. Verse 2, with all lowliness. You see that word lowliness? It's talking
about humility, lowering yourself, not exalting, but lowering yourself with all lowliness and
meekness. And don't mess this with long suffering, forbearing one another in love. Isn't it interesting
how these words are all connected throughout the Bible? Lowliness, meekness, long suffering,
forbearing, love. What's meekness? It's humility that puts others first. It's esteeming others
better than yourself. It's putting other people first. And if you don't have that, you don't
have that, not because you're not saved. You may very well be saved, but you're not walking
in the Spirit. You're not allowing the Holy Spirit to have control in your life. Go to
1 Corinthians 9. Are there any Ephesians? Just go backwards. Galatians, 2 Corinthians, 1
Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 9. Let me give you the last one. I'm talking about the fruit
of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness. Here's
number nine, temperance. Temperance. Now the word temperance, it's an old word. It means
self-control. If you are lacking self-control, you are not filled with the Spirit. It doesn't
make you a bad person. I'm just telling you, you may want to get last week's sermon and
look at those four steps to get filled with the Spirit, because when you get filled with
the Spirit and you walk in the Spirit and you're led of the Spirit, these are the things
that will be produced in your life. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. 1 Corinthians 9.27. Notice what it says. This is what Paul
said. He said, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. He says, I bring
my body into subjection. I put it under my authority, under my control, lest that by
any means, when I preach to others, I myself should be cast away. He says, I keep under
my body and bring it into subjection. That's called self-control. And when you are filled
with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will produce self-control, temperance in your life.
Now go back to Galatians 5 where we started. You there in 1 Corinthians? No, past 2 Corinthians,
into Galatians, Galatians 5, and we're going to finish up. Let me just say this. We talked
about the producer of the fruit of the Spirit. Who is it? It's the Spirit, not the Christian.
The Christian does not produce these things. The Spirit produces these things. Simply living
in the Spirit or being indwelt by the Spirit will not produce these things. You must be
led of the Spirit or walking in the Spirit or filled with the Spirit or have the Holy
Spirit of God come upon you or all those things, have the Holy Spirit poured upon you, all
those things we talked about last week, in order to produce these in your life. The production
comes from a life that is controlled by the Spirit, not a life that simply isn't dwelled
by the Spirit. Then we talked about the product. What's the product? In this chapter, there
are nine characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit. We talked about them, love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there
is no law, the Bible says. But I want you to notice, and what's interesting is that
at the end of this chapter, God gives us two antonyms to the fruit of the Spirit. There's
different ways to define things. One way is to use synonyms, but sometimes it's just
as powerful to use an antonym, right? The opposite. So He just got done telling us,
look, this is what being filled with the Spirit is going to look like, love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. But then He says, just in case that was too
much, let me give you two antonyms that if you've got these in your life, you know,
you are not producing the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Look what He says, Galatians
5, 24. And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Because
remember, it's not just they that are Christ that produce the fruit of the Spirit, it's
they that are Christ and have crucified the flesh, and have denied the flesh, and have
put away the flesh, that are being led to the Spirit with the affections and lusts.
Verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Verse 26, let us
not be desirous of, here's the first antonym, vainglory. He says, if you are led of the
Spirit, if you are producing the fruit of the Spirit, here's what you will not have
in your life, vainglory. What is vainglory? Vainglory is boastful conceitedness. That's
what vainglory is. And God says, those who are producing the fruit of the Spirit, they're
not exalting themselves. They're not promoting themselves. They're not seeking vainglory.
They don't care who gets the credit. They, because why? Because they've got meekness
and temperance and love and joy. So He says, look, if you've got vainglory, if you're
the type of person that's just constantly, I need the credit, I need people to know what
I did and when I did it and when I got there, it's not the fruit of the Spirit. He says,
let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, here's the second antonym, envy
one another. You know that there's some Christians that envy? They envy other people. They envy
the positions of others. They envy, they want their position. They want what they have.
They can't be happy for someone being blessed. They can't be happy for someone. God blesses
you with a new job. They're not happy about it. God blesses you with a child. They're
not happy about it. God blesses you with a promotion. They're not happy about it. Here's
all I'm telling you. Does that mean they're not saved? No, it just means they might be
saved. It just means they're carnal. Here's what we know it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean
that they are filled with the Spirit and it doesn't mean that they are producing the fruit
of the Spirit. Because the fruit of the Spirit will be the opposite of vainglory and it will
be the opposite of envy in your life. He said, let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking
one another, envying one another. So here's a question I have for you. And I'm not trying
to pick on you and I'm not asking you to answer this out loud and I'm not asking you to talk
to your spouse about it. I just want you to really determine in your life how are you
doing with the filling of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. How is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance in your life? Is it there?
Is it real? Because if it's not, it doesn't mean you're not saved. It just means that
the Holy Spirit is not in control. The Holy Spirit is not producing. The Holy Spirit is
not producing fruit in your life. And could you imagine, and I'm done right here, could
you imagine what would happen? And think about it. What would happen in your home if your
teenager started producing love, joy, peace, longsuffering? If your wife, your husband,
your neighbor, your coworker, your church member, what would happen in your life if
other people produced that? Then think about this. What would happen in your life if you
produced that? How would you bless others? This is where people would see your good works
and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. That's why I had the number one prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the Bible. Thank you for
these studies, as we can study the Bible. And Lord, I realize that the filling of the
Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit, it can come and it can go and it can happen quickly
in our lives. But Lord, I pray that you would help us to seek to allow the Holy Spirit to
work in our lives, to seek to allow the Holy Spirit to lead, to not simply live in the
Spirit, but to walk in the Spirit, that we might be able to see the production of the
fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We love you. We thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit.
Lord, help us not to quench the Spirit. Help us not to grieve the Spirit, but help us to
be led of the Spirit. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen.