Three Steps forward And Two Steps back: Furit of the Spirit
Gal 5; 22-23
I want to follow on with what I started Wednesday night; simply to keep it fresh on our minds. I usually disliked having to wait until next Wednesday night to catch the next part of something interesting. We have waded through the good, bad and the ugly of the flesh and now we come to the fruit of the spirit, vv 22-23.
Remember last time we talked about the frustration that a lot of believers experience, that of v17. It was like they we caught between two worlds; God and the devil and they were being pulled apart at the seams! Which brought about a whole lot of frustration and a whole lot of nothing being accomplished in their lives for God! They had too much of God in them to enjoy the world and they had too much of the world in them to really enjoy church! What a pickle to be in! That’s where most Christians live their everyday lives and the sad thing about it is; that it doesn’t have to be like that! That’s not the normal Christian life; that’s the abnormal Christian life! For someone to think that they have to live in the power of sin and live down in the dumps just proves that they don’t have the foggiest idea about what the HS does in relation to the believer. They understand what Christ did; at least in their head, Jesus died for me they say. Yet they have no more knowledge than that! To them the HS is some force like electricity or like steam! Some strange impersonal force they think! The present day charismatic movement does help either. They magnify the HS and what He does to the point that it over shadows Jesus Christ!
So with all this working against the truth, no wonder so many stay in the flesh and never venture off into the things of the Spirit. With all this on the side; let me show you some frustrated believers that could possibly parallel the majority of Christian today and then we will follow up with what happens when a person walks in the spirit on a constant basis.
I. The Relationship between you and the HS.
Turn to Acts 19; 1-7 Paul comes to Ephesus and he finds some believers here that apparently were missing something in their lives. They were lacking something so much Paul asked them; “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” There are whole denominations that say right here; “You see that, Paul was telling them that they had to receive the HS as a second, separated act apart from asking Jesus into your heart!” “They follow on to say, after they received the Holy Ghost they spake in tongues as proof that they were right with God.”
First of all that thinking goes against other scripture. Now if all we preached from was the book of acts chapter 2 like them; would think that also; but we believe that all scripture is given by the inspiration of God!
That thinking goes against, Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Did you hear that? If you don’t have the spirit of God in you; you are not apart of God’s family. To teach that you receive Jesus first then after a week or a month or after you have been to a class or two then you are good enough too you receive the HS! That goes contrary to what we have just read. But groups do it all day long!
What the bible teaches is that once a person asks Jesus to forgive them of their sins; the HS comes and indwells that person at that exact moment! No waiting involved as far as God is concerned. All of the HS comes to indwell, not just some of Him!
These 12 men came to have some knowledge of what was going to happen. Paul told them that Christ has came already and they their was no more waiting! I personally believe that these men were saved; they knew that the messiah was coming just like John preached. If they were obedient to that light; then that was enough to save them. That’s a good place to start but not a good place to stay!
Here were these men; Paul asked them the question and their answer was that they have not even heard of the HS.
The false beliefs happen when you don’t study, especially the word received here in the question. It has a literal meaning, like “take this in your hand and walk over there and put it down”. But it has a figurative meaning of taking to oneself, acceptation. That meaing is seen in Luk 20:21 And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly:
That word acceptest is the same word in Acts 19; 2 but here it has its different meaning coming out. They were saying that Jesus didn’t take a person’s ego into account.
Paul isn’t saying to these guys in Acts 19; that they must have the HS as a second work of Grace; but he was saying the HS that you have already, have you accepted him in your life yet? Have you accepted his person in your life?
Paul wasn’t asking them to get saved again. He was asking them have you realized and accepted the fact that the HS in you already!
That’s where a lot of Christians are tonight! They have not accepted the HS as being in there lives as God! They are proverbially waiting for Him to come upon them; but the truth is that he’s already come and he’s the one doing the real waiting!
Think about this; a 12 year old little girl tragically loses her real mother. She is old enough to understand that her real mother is gone and never coming back. So her dad remarries and now she has a step mom. At first the girl is rude and standoffish and says hurtful things to this step mom, like you will never be my real mom, stuff like that.
So this little girl doesn’t want to receive or accept that this step mom is now the only mom she has. Though they live in the same house, eat at the same table ride in the same car; there is this unwillingness of the little girl to accept this new person in her life like she should.
This little story is exactly what we do to the HS. He’s apart of your life now; he goes where you go. And did I mention that he’s God too! Yet there is this unwillingness to accept the HS; whose already in ourlives from salvation.
What a day it is when the little girl accepts her step mom as indeed here mom. They were always together, yet there is a receiving, a accepting the person of the HS in one’s life that is a turning point for all the world to see!
The HS is inside of you if you have trusted Christ! You don’t have to wait for him to come; he’s already there! In fact he’s waiting on you to wise up and start to accept him as God in your life.
II. The outcome of a constant walk after the Spirit.
First of all, you have heard of being filled with the Spirit.
Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
I just want to touch upon this here. Being filled and walking after the spirit is one in the same thing. I do want you to understand this though. When you are being filled by the HS; you’re not getting more of him; he’s getting more of you! Some think that they get bits and pieces of the HS. No! You got all of the HS at salvation; the problem is that he didn’t get all of you and me!
Any area in our lives that we allow the HS to fill he will.
But any area that we don’t want him to fill, he will stay out and not fill it! That’s like someone buying a house and the pervious owner still having a room down in the basement for their own! That sounds foolish yet that is exactly what we do to God! He has bought all of us! Yet there are rooms in our heart that we don’t want him to entering in.
What is a Christian to do? Yield our bodies to God and not to sin!
What will happen is that the HS stops becoming just a guest on Wednesdays and Sundays and starts to become what he should have been from the very start; the host!
You can live the way you should; but once you are yielding to the HS; he will empower you to live for God.
So all that you have to do is know that you need to yield yourself to him and then do just that; yield to him on the same grounds that he saved you, by faith! That means for the sake of time; obedient in all things! Instead of thinking; man I can’t do that; you go to thinking the HS will empower me to do that!
What we have in Galatians is the fruit of the Spirit. That’s produced in us personally as we walk after the spirit on a consistent basis. I.e. if you are filled with the spirit the HS will start to change your life! New holy habits will form and the old habits will fall away like the dead leaves of a tree! New life! New habits! New everything!
Notice first of all that there is just one fruit, but nine different varieties. Love is the unifying portion! Love has a lot to do with your obedience to God. Jesus said if ye love me, keep my commandments, Jn 14;15.
I also want you to know that all these quiaties are the work of the HS inside of our heart! So if I let the flesh have its way with me, I will show the works of the flesh but if I yield to the HS indwelling me he will produce this fruit in my life!
Can a person tell if they are filled with the HS?
Ø God-ward qualities (v. 22)
Love (agape, self-sacrificing affection for others)
Joy (deep-seated gladness regardless of circumstances)
Peace (inner quietness and repose regardless of circumstances)
Ø Outward (others) qualities (v. 22)
Patience (forbearance even under provocation)
Longsuffering (benevolence and graciousness)
Goodness (constructive action reaching out to others)
Ø Self-ward qualities (vv. 22–23)
Faithfulness (reliability, trustworthiness)
Meekness (compliance to authority and consideration of others)
Temperance i.e. Self-control (ability to master oneself)
When you are filled with the spirit it will show to all those around you!
Someone has said that all these virtues resemble Christ! Isn’t that the goal of us tonight? To be more like him and less like ourselves? There isn’t anything fun or interesting about being Greg! Oh, but when I am like Christ through the work and operation of the HS, stand back! God is going to do something!
Closing:
Where are you tonight when it comes to your relation to the HS? Have you ever prayed that the HS would come to you? Well, He’s already there inside of you if you are saved. You don’t feel him there but he’s there if you have trusted Christ! He will continue to be there in silence until you like the little girl come to the end of yourself and are ready to accept that there is a new someone in the your life!
All that you have to do tonight is yield yourself to his control. Say tonight in prayer, HS I’m sorry for ignoring you and taking your place. I yield myself to your control in my life. I accept you for who you are; that’s God!
Yielding means more than just moving your lips, it means brining your life under the authority of the Word of God for every area! And whatever area that you are not yielding in; that’s where you are losing the spirit’s fullness in your life!
Take the new life that God wants you to have tonight and leave your old life behind, leave the flesh behind!
Take three steps forward and keep on walking after the spirit!