Sermon Tone Analysis

Galatians 5:22-26

 

Last week we spoke of the Christian life as a war.

We saw how every believer is a soldier in a life-long spiritual battle.

Every Christian has two contrary combatants vying for dominance in their life.

If you’re a Christian, you have the flesh and you have the Spirit.

The mind controlled by the Holy Spirit is life and peace; while the mind set on the flesh is death (Rom.

8:6).

In Galatians 5:19-21, we looked at the “works” produced by the natural flesh: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

This is what a life without the Holy Spirit looks like.

Like a garden without a gardener, the flesh naturally produces weeds.

But a life filled with the Holy Spirit produces fruit consistent with God’s Spirit.

This morning, we’re going to consider the fruit of the Spirit.

These are godly virtues which the Spirit of God produces with those in whom He dwells.

We’re going to talk about these virtues in light of the Spirit-filled life.

But instead of doing a little study on love and a little study on joy and so on, let’s consider the whole cluster in light of the problem in the church at Galatia.

This will give us a context to see how all of these virtues are produced in our own lives here in this church.

They stand together and united.

So let’s begin with our reading of Galatians 5:22-26.

In honor of God and His Word, let’s stand for the reading of these verses.

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

Against such things there is no law.

24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

[NIV]

 

[Prayer] In these verses we have a picture of what a believer in Jesus Christ really looks like.

The fruit of the Spirit is simply the life of Christ lived out in the believer.

You and I can’t produce this fruit; only the Holy Spirit can produce this fruit within us.

If we have the Spirit, we should expect to see these evidences of His work in our life.

Before we get to the exposition, consider the nature of fruit and what this term implies.

As in nature, the production of fruit is a /natural/ result of life and health.

When an apple tree is living and healthy, it naturally produces apples.

When it doesn’t produce apples, we may assume one of two things: either this isn’t really an apple tree and we shouldn’t expect to find apples, or this is a sick tree and it needs serious help.

But a healthy tree doesn’t have to /work/ to produce its fruit… it happens naturally.

So it is in the life of a man or woman who is filled with God’s Spirit.

When God’s Spirit fills a person, this cluster of fruit becomes evident.

Some of the people in the church at Galatia weren’t fruitful because they weren’t filled with God’s Spirit (they were religious, but not converted); others were genuine believers, but were spiritually sick; they had been bewitched by false teaching and needed serious help.

Legalism and flesh-driven religiosity will blight the fruit of the Spirit.

That’s what was happening.

So let’s look at these verses in light of the church at Galatia.

In verses 22-24 we find the first principle of the Spirit-filled life… namely,

 

*I.

God’s Spirit produces fruit in those who have crucified the sinful nature* (22-24).

Notice that verse 22 begins with a sharp contrast.

These nine fruit of the Spirit are presented in stark contrast to the works of the flesh.

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

Against such things there is no law.

24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

(inordinate affections and lusts)

 

The word “fruit” is singular.

This indicates that these qualities constitute a unity, all of which should be found in a believer who lives under the control of the Spirit.

In an ultimate sense, this “fruit” is really the life of Christ lived out in a Christian.

The fruit of the Spirit is a picture of the character of Jesus Christ.

Though artists have tried for centuries to render their conception of what Jesus might have looked like, the Bible does give us a clear picture of His personality.

If you were to ask those who knew Him best, someone like Peter or John, /what is Jesus like…?/

They would tell you, “Jesus is love, He is joy, He is peace, patience, kindness, goodness; He is faithfulness, He is gentleness, and self-control.

That’s what Jesus is like.”

This is the Jesus we see in the Gospels.

This is the One who walked up and down the dusty miles of Judea.

This is the One who /loved/ His own to the end.

He is the One who was so filled with /goodness/ and /faithfulness/ for the Father’s will, that He braided a whip to drive out the money-changers from the Temple; and He’s the same One who was so full of /joy/ and /kindness/, that little children were drawn to His presence and found in Him more security and confidence than even their own loving parents could provide.

The outcasts and untouchables were not afraid to call His name for help, nor were they ashamed to let Him touch their broken bodies.

The fruit of the Spirit is a description of the character of Jesus… a character that He desires to impart to all who are called by His name.

In theology, we talk about the differences between God’s /communicable/ attributes and His /non-communicable/ attributes.

The non-communicable attributes are those attributes which only God can possess; like omniscience, omnipotence, omni-presence, or sovereignty.

Those cannot be shared or imparted.

But the fruit of the Spirit are divine traits which are communicable to those who are filled with the Spirit.

If someone asks, what does a person filled with the Spirit look like, we can say: “They look like, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

They look like someone who has the character of Jesus living within them.

The end of verse 23 reminds us that this is what all the laws would desire to produce in humanity, if it were possible.

There is no law against this kind of behavior.

The Laws we know are designed to protect us from people who are driven by the works of the flesh.

Since every true believer manifests the fruit of the Spirit in some degree; and since the fruit of the Spirit stands as a cluster, there must be varying degrees by which they are manifested in our lives.

If you are a Christian, you have been filled with the Holy Spirit.

And if you have the Holy Spirit, then you will manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit may be hard to see sometimes; it may be dormant, but it’s still there.

Remember, these virtues are not something you produce—they are something you possess.

They are produced by the Holy Spirit within you.

How is it then that we may see some of these virtues, but not others?

Why is it so hard to display this inner work of God in our lives?

From what the Bible says here, perhaps a good utilitarian analogy would be a dimmer switch on your lights at home.

A dimmer switch or rheostat, controls the brightness of the lights.

As the switch is turned clockwise, the lights get brighter, and counterclockwise makes the lights dimmer.

If we gave it a numerical value, we might say the lowest setting is a 1, while the highest setting is a 10.

Now let’s apply the analogy.

Let’s say you’re a Christian, but the fruit of the Spirit is only being displayed in your life at level 3 or 4. Or perhaps, you’re more mature through dying to self, crucifying the flesh, and yielding to the Word and your life displays the fruit at level 7 or 8.

 

The preaching of the Word received by faith is designed to work with the Holy Spirit within you to make you display His fruit at ever increasing levels… all the way up to level 10.

We don’t often live there, but that’s the goal.

That’s where Jesus always lived… at level 10.

This is one of those places where God’s Spirit enables us to emulate the character of Jesus.

We can’t be perfect; but we can and must manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

His love, joy, and peace were always as high as they could go.

To those who have the Spirit of the living God within you, I want to say: Crank it up!

Crank up the love!

Crank up the joy!

Crank up the kindness!

How different would our community be if Christians like us desired to manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit at level 10 for the rest of our lives?

How would that impact our neighborhoods?

How would that bless our families and our children?

How would that change the way we gather as believers with all the fruit at level 10?

Is there any place you would rather be than in a room full of people who had the radiant character of Jesus?