So this class is A More Perfect You, The
Pursuit of Perfection in Christ. This is lesson number 9 in this series: Three
Sets of Spiritual Fruit and we're in Galatians chapter 5 if you're
following along in your Bibles. As I said this is the last lesson in our series
and because it is I'd like to review some of the concepts that we've studied
surrounding this passage in Galatians chapter 5 and then finished with a
brief description of the final words Paul uses to describe the life in the
Spirit or walking in the Spirit okay. So let's do a little bit of review, so Paul
in this letter is defending against false teachers who threaten the
spiritual stability of this church and he does so by promoting the
idea that in order to retain one's perfect and sanctified standing before
God, rather the false teachers were promoting the idea that in order to
retain one's perfect and sanctified standing before God a person had to
adhere to a mix of religious and philosophical ideas and practices and
here's the key dictated by these teachers, the chief teaching being
mandatory circumcision, that's what was going on. Paul writes this letter to
refute their claims and he explains to the Galatians that they're perfect and
sinless status before God is maintained not by adhering to manmade religious
practices, that standing is maintained by a sincere submission to the Holy Spirit
motivated by their faith in Christ and then he goes on to show that the best
protection against falling back into the world and its fleshly sins and works is to
aggressively walk with or walk in the Spirit. Now I've
explained that Christians submit and walk in the Spirit when they
do several things because that was a question okay I get it
what do I shoot for in my Christian walk to maintain my
salvation to grow in Christ, what do I do? And the answer is: walk in
the Spirit. How do I do that you know nuts and bolts how do I do
that? Well we walk in the Spirit when we submit to the Spirit and we submit to
Him when we submit to His word, in other words reading His word, obeying His
word, that's submission to the Spirit. Unfortunately in our society when
we talk about the Spirit or the Holy Spirit it always tends to become a very
emotional thing, a mysterious thing, apparitions and feelings and so on
and so forth but that's not what the Bible teaches concerning the Spirit,
walking in the Spirit means you're submitting to His word, what does that
mean? It means exactly what it says, we study the Word and we try our best to do
what the Word says, submitting to His power following the path that the Spirit
leads us in life by the choices that we make. Oh choices that we
make, based on what? Well based on His word based on what we
understand His word to say, how His word is applied in a particular situation. We
don't always get it right, we don't have perfect insight but the more we read the
more we study the more we learn the better our decisions with time. And of
course we submit to His ministry in other words we allow the Spirit to
work in us through trials, through the correction of other people, through the
influence of the church on our lives. I mean the hardest thing listen the
hardest thing is to be corrected nobody likes it no one likes to be corrected
but sometimes we have to be corrected when a brother or sister or an elder or
what a teacher whatever takes us aside and says brother sister this area in
your life is hurting you spiritually you need to kind of change this habit change
this thing, nobody likes to hear that because we don't want
to be told what to do we want to be in charge of ourselves,
nobody's going to tell me what to do. Well if you're a Christian you better
get used to people telling you what to do, especially the Spirit of God and many
times telling you to do something that you don't necessarily enjoy doing or giving up something you don't
necessarily want to give up or acting in a way that is difficult that goes
contrary to our nature but all of this is part of being in submission to the
Spirit of God. So we don't produce the fruit of the Spirit through self-will or
trying a practice or a positive thinking that's not how the fruit of the Spirit is perfected in us, is developed in us. It's the Holy
Spirit that creates these things in us as we submit to Him in the ways that
I've just described. The deeper and fuller our submission, the more
productive our spiritual fruit; the fruit is the goal, submission to the Holy
Spirit is the means. I mean isn't that what the life of Jesus teaches us? Maybe
when He goes into the garden in the end why would He have to say not
My will but Thy will be done. Whose will whose will was He talking
about? His human will, remember He was fully human do you think for a moment
that His human side wanted to go to the cross? I mean the prayer was surely
there's got to be a better way to do this surely there's got to be a plan B
to save mankind you know that I don't have to be whipped and scourge then and
tortured and then brutally murdered surely there's got to be a better way.
The fact that He goes back three times demonstrates He was fully human and His
humanity was saying no, but in the end He realized okay not My will Your will. Well
you know what that scenario plays itself out in our as well, I mean it's not going to the cross and being tortured and
murdered although some Christians have suffered that and suffer that even today
we read about it more and more don't we that Christians are being
tortured and killed and run out of countries even; but on a lesser scale
the Spirit is saying to us you know this the way you're
treating your wife or your husband or the way you're treating yourself or your
body that's got to change, and we say oh not that oh I can't do this, same thing.
Jesus gave us the example with the ultimate submission and that is
submitting to the Father and giving up His life for us okay. So today we're
going to finish with the last spiritual fruit mentioned by Paul in Galatians
chapter 5, so let's go to the passage itself Paul writes, "But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is
no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires." Notice the symmetry here, the way Paul puts the
words together, when he lists the fruit of the Spirit he mentions nine things
actually three groups of three virtues which fit well with each other within
their own particular group. So the first three are: love, joy, peace. They fit
together those, that triad. Love of course the willful desire to treat others as
God has treated us in Christ, the crowning virtue of the Christian
religion, doesn't Paul tell us that the goal of our instruction is love.
If we are not becoming more loving type people through our instruction of
the Bible then we're not getting the right instruction, the teachers not shooting for the right goal. The
willful desire, the Christian love agape love
remember based on a decision not a feeling, I love my wife was based on a
feeling I was attracted to my wife she was attracted to me that feeling I got
to be near her I got to have her right it's all feeling that's that's fine
that's good, but Christian love isn't based on a feeling. I love my
mom I love my dad my uncle he's a little crazy but you know we love
him anyways you know because he's family. Christian loves based on a
decision, I'm going to love you and it doesn't matter how you are tall
short big small faith female male nice to me not so nice to me I'm
going to love you because this is what God requires of me as a Christian
agape love is love based on a decision. Joy, the happiness we experience when we
recognize and accept the grace that is ours because of God's love for us in
Christ. Joy is a I'm just gonna say tricky and I don't like to use the
word tricky but it's it's difficult to to grasp but it's not the same thing as
happy it's not the same thing as happy is my birthday you know whoa
ex-boxer ZBOX whatever they're selling now you know whoa whoa a new
rifle you know that's happy and that's okay happy is good, but joy is completely
out of that league because it's not based on stuff it's not based on things
we have or don't have or feelings we have. Joy is not that transient
happiness that we experience as a result of the
blessings we have in life: family, health, success, I'm happy because we
have a large family and we have lots of grandkids you know I'm happy but you
know what that's gonna pass away, I mean what parent does not dread losing their
child before they pass away right. I've done funerals, Bud has done
funerals for young people who passed away sudden heart attack at
40 years of age somebody dies and that person's parent they always say the same
thing right what do they say it's not supposed to work that way I'm supposed
to go first I never planned on burying my child so that's every parent's
worst nightmare and that's what I'm saying, having a family that's
happiness but down at the back of your mind you know that that's transient,
that's just in passing because even family we lose even family after a
time. Joy is the natural experience that comes from contemplating our salvation
and the blessings that stem from it, that's joy that's where joy comes in. The
morning our confidence that we're going to heaven, the more we grow in our
confidence that God actually loves us, that His love surpasses any idea of the
kind of love that we could exhibit, that's joy. Joy comes to us
when we finally accept the fact that all of our sins are
forgiven every single one of them are forgiven gone forever. And of
course Satan one of Satan's tactics and it's not always a temptation
to commit adultery or a temptation to steal or to lie although those
temptations are there, no for Christians that are more mature
and like you couldn't tempt brother so-and-so to cheat on his wife or to
steal you know this brother this Christian is beyond that type of thing,
but you know what the devil can take away his joy he can just you know
chop off the high points just bring you down a point where you
can't fully appreciate everything that you have in Christ that's a tactic, he
can't destroy your soul but a lot of times he tries to sabotage your joy and
usually by making you feel guilty about stuff that you shouldn't feel guilty
about. And then peace, peace is the same as assurance, the quietness of the soul
CH Lenski in his commentary calls it. That is unmoved despite the trials
and tribulations here on earth. Ever had that experience? Your life is burning down around you and somehow you're just like
I'm good um you know I'm not liking what's happening and I'm
anxious for it to stop and I'm going to do everything I can to kind of manage it
but somehow the core inside of me is steady, steady as she goes.
Peace that transcends suffering or fear or the threat of death,
it's a spiritual balance that we attain as we walk in
submission to the Holy Spirit. If you want to cultivate
courage you don't go to martial arts class that has all of its good
points martial arts, but if you really want to develop courage you have
to have peace first because courage is an outgrowth of peace, if
you're at peace with God and at peace with yourself what exactly are you going
to be afraid of. Note that these three: love, joy, peace refer to the inner and
singular experience that those who follow the Spirit enjoy. Love joy peace
that goes on inside of me. Now one could enjoy and perceive these
based on the meditation of his
soul on the greatness and mercy of God. The more I know God the more I actually
know God the more love I am capable of expressing, the more joy that comes
into my soul, the greater peace I have. The Spirit fashions these virtues
mainly through the knowledge of God and the revelation of the gospel to us.
Knowing of God's mercy and salvation in Christ, having this truth pressed into
our minds and hearts engenders our own godlike love, provokes joy in our spirit
and establishes a peace that goes beyond human understanding. I don't know about
you but I never get tired of hearing the gospel I never get tired of hearing
messages on the gospel because I mean you could hear a hundred sermons in a row
about the gospel to all be different but somehow they're all the same and yet
you know I never get tired of apple pie and ice cream my wife's apple pie and ice cream, I never get tired of it I mean I know I don't eat it three times a day but
you know when she makes it I'm happy. Imagine the gospel the food of life I
never get tired of it. Love, joy, peace the initial fruit produced in the spirit
of one saved by Christ and led by the Spirit. We make all kinds of litmus tests
for finding out who are the legitimate disciples and who are the true biblical
Christians but sometimes we resolve tricky issues by saying well only God can
see a person's heart and that's true but I'll tell you when God looks into
the person's heart if there's no love joy peace created by faith in Christ it
doesn't matter what other credential that person has he doesn't pass the test.
You can be sitting in the pew all you want but if there's no love joy peace
growing there, what do they say just because you're sitting in the
chicken coop don't make you a chicken, something like that. So we're not in the
spirit if the fruit of the Spirit isn't in us to a certain degree, there are
degrees obviously that come with maturity and experience. The second group
that Paul mentions are patience, kindness, goodness. So the first of these: patience,
some of your Bibles say long-suffering, that quality of being where the mind
holds out long before giving way to action, I repeat it: that quality of being
were the mind holds out before giving away to action. Patience is the
willingness to bear under trial and inconvenience, unkindness and other forms
of personal provocation without losing one's composure in Christ. Why do
you think patience is the greatest requirement to raise small children,
right because small children wear you out physically and provoke you to
action before you think things through sometimes. In one who is patient there
can be all kinds of provocation but the spirit of that person holds out quietly,
we see that in Jesus don't we, all the provocation and yet He held out.
Use my children again to make a point here, I can even include my
son-in-law now we're really getting to it he's been in the family many years so
he's due to get one now so Paul and Julia and Mauricio of course
they used to tell me stories about their training in the Marines when they were
at boot camp and how the worst failure was to lose what they were referring to
as their bearing, to maintain their bearing, and so they would tell me they
were provoked mercilessly by their drill instructors for months in an effort to
teach them how to endure all kinds of psychological and physical attacks
without losing their bearing, their composure, their calmness. Sometimes the
DI would humiliate a certain Marine in order to get the others in the group
to laugh at that guy but even their laughter was considered a loss of
bearing and thus a failure on their part. Of course this training would become
crucial in actual combat where each soldier would have to maintain their
composure their bearing when surrounded by casualties and chaos, keeping one's
bearing would mean the difference between life or death or victory or
defeat. Well it's the same thing in spiritual warfare, keeping one
spirit in check is often the difference between spiritual life or a
fall into deadly sinfulness and the pain and sorrow that comes with it,
maintaining our bearings keeping a check on our spirit. Patience, kindness. Kindness:
well-disposed, sweet, gracious, a synonym for this word is the word benign,
something that harbors no danger no disease. In other words kindness is a
disposition of character that is best seen in generosity, kind people are
generous not just with money they're generous with all things with their
time, with their praise, with their encouragement. It's the opposite of
mean-spirited, cheap, legalistic, narrow. The kind person is aware very much aware
of what God has done for him and is moved to largesse. That's why
the first fruit of the Spirit love joy peace comes from our contemplation of
God's work in our life the more we think about read about pray about give
thanks for those things the greater our knowledge and our awareness of the
Spirit God's Spirit in our life and in the life around us and that awareness
then begins to generate these other things: patience. If God is with me
who can be against me, if I'm going to be with God well they can go ahead and
kill the body but they can't kill my spirit, you know that kind of courage
breeds patience and kindness. I can't help being generous
when I understand how generous God has been with me. When we begin to understand
that we don't deserve a thing that we have I mean we don't
especially us in this country I mean that we were born here with all the
advantages that this just being born here gives us the education medical
a system that we have and the freedom to move about I remember a time
when I was teaching three women on Skype I was teaching them the Bible
actually teaching them English to speak English and then we'd be an hour
they were all in China they lived in different cities in China and we would
kind of get together and we would study together and it was fascinating the
first half hour so we talked about grammatical things and I'd get them to
talk about their life as a way of you know practicing their English and then
the second half hour we'd read the Bible and they'd ask questions about the Bible
and I found it fascinating I mean one one lady was saying well she was waiting
for her permit so she could move to another city you didn't have freedom of
movement all the type of things the permit the party the and
they were very guarded on top of that about what they said they're very
you know oh it's wonderful here you know but you could read between the lines the
control that the government had on them I mean just something as simple as you
know picking up and getting rid of that apartment and move into this other
city oh no you had to go get it permission to do that, one lady had a
small child a baby she had just had a baby and the idea well we'd like to have
another and then there was silence well of course this was several years back
we'd like to have another however it's against the law to have another baby
we'll have to go get permission we have to get a permission and pay so that my
husband I can have another child, so I'm telling you we don't know how good
we have it we marry who we want live where we want do what we
want work what not work governmental support us. So my point
when we realize all the spiritual and physical blessings that we have it can't
help but make us generous towards others. And then goodness, this third virtue
listed in the second group is very similar to kindness, goodness the main
difference is that this word refers to what a person actually does rather
than any level of moral excellence. So goodness wants good for others, is
interested in the plight of others, does good things for the good of
others; kindness is about attitude goodness is more about acts, kindness is
about how you think and how you are goodness is more about what you do. Now
these three: patience, kindness, goodness are less contemplative virtues and have
more to do with a person's relationship with other people; so the first
three love joy peace that's me that's inside me that's how I am,
patience kindness goodness is how I act words are the people. Of course one who
experiences love joy peace will soon cultivate patience kindness goodness
because one stems from the other. Love joy peace are manifestations of God's
love in our soul; patience kindness goodness are manifestations of God's
love in our dealings with other people. The Holy Spirit provides the gospel
revelation to produce the first group and He provides opportunities and
teaching and discipline to produce the second group. All right the third group
that Paul mentions are: faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Faithfulness
now there are many forms for the words faith and faithfulness that
refer to various things as we know, faith for example in the
Greek can refer to doctrine the faith what faith are you are you of the Hindu
faith are you of the Christian faith you know what doctrine what teaching the
faith, or it can mean trust or belief I have faith in you meaning I trust you
okay could mean that same word, or it could be someone who is faithful
trustworthy loyalty it can mean loyalty. In this case faithfulness here it means
that one is faithful or true to God and His word and His will as well as two
human obligations and relationship, in other words a faithful friend, a faithful
Christian, a faithful spouse. I love what Marty says he said it several times you
know he says I'm not a perfect spouse I'm not a perfect husband but I am a
faithful husband a wonderful insight a wonderful idea to hold on to I'm not a perfect Christian but I'm a
faithful one, see the difference, and God is not asking us to be perfect
because He knows we can't be not in this human form that's why He's prepared a
glorified body for us but we are able to be faithful that we can do we can do
that being faithful okay. In this world of lies and broken promises a person who
is faithful stands out and is especially effective if his faithfulness is to
Christ in His love. Gentleness the next one refers to one who is not preoccupied
with self, one who is not bent on having his will her will done at all costs.
Jesus' meekness was evident when He accepted God's will over His own in
going to the cross. Meekness is not weakness it rhymes but
it's not the same thing, meekness is rooted in strength and the
knowledge that one has access to power and here's my positive example as
far as martial-arts, many martial arts masters rarely use their strength
knowing that their superior fighting technique is what gives them the
strength to walk away from a confrontation. I've never taken courses
but from those who have they tell me one of the things that we're taught is to
walk away we have the strength and the ability to take to defend ourselves and
to hurt the other guy if we really want to and it's the
knowledge of that strength and ability that enables us to say hey I don't want
any trouble I'll walk away I don't have to prove anything. And so a meek person
will not seek his own will for its own sake rather he will submit his own will
for God's will in the pursuit of what is best for the other person or for the
entire group. The soldier that that says I'll stay and I'll hold this
position while you people fall back knowing that he or she is risking being
killed, in that moment so now you guys get back you know I'll
cover you knowing he may be overwhelmed not be able to make it
better, well what is he showing there? Well courage but that courage comes from
what? Comes from meekness, it comes from meekness the willingness to
desire someone else's goodness better than our own, sacrificing
our own. So gentle people are not about winning the war or the debate or the
argument or the point or the issue they are about winning the peace winning the
favor of God, enabling others to win to live. And then self-control of course
the key ingredient in a person's relationship with himself. The virtue of
self-control determines the rate of a person's growth in Christ and the
quality of his or her self-image. Self-control is the virtue around which
the struggle between the spirit and the flesh that Paul talks about in Romans
7 revolves, you know when he says the things I want to do I don't do the
things I do I don't want to do, and it's every human being's that's every
Christian's struggle; what's at the center of that? The struggle for self-control.
It is the ability to maintain the boundaries set for us by God in our
thoughts, words and deeds. God has set a boundary for us, He's given us I
mean the most logical one a logical most obvious one, He's given all human beings
you know a sex drive the ability to enjoy human sexual intimacy, He's given
that, God invented that, He didn't have to you know we could have just
shaken hands and had a baby, but no He designed an intimacy and He
designed pleasure right however He put boundaries
around that, He said yes I give you this but this here is to be enjoyed within
this boundary here the boundary of marriage. So the very same action the
very same physical action outside of marriage it's the same action produces
all kinds of negative things guilt and shame and unwanted children you
know what I'm saying it all kind. So it's the same thing for you know He created
food He created ice cream, I'm very thankful for it, but there's a boundary
isn't there? Too much of it and too much sugar too much fat there are
boundaries for things. Self-control is understanding where the boundaries are
and staying within those boundaries. He created work I mean isn't it
enjoyable to get a job done, whatever it is whether it's a paper report or mowing
your lawn or building a building or He created work for us that gives us
pleasure but there's boundaries right. He also created
the Sabbath there are boundaries there are boundaries. Self-control is the ability to
maintain the boundaries set for us by God in our thoughts and words and deeds,
it's the inner strength created by the repeated exercise of obedience to God's
will that enables us to maintain our spirit in the submission to God's will,
without self-control we can't love ourselves we can't love other people
because love requires that we keep our selfish and sinful impulses in check.
Self-control is a spiritual leash with which we can train our impulses to stay
within our command. So when looked at in total these three sets of virtues
address different needs and realities in effective spiritual living; love joy
peace describe the experience one has as the Holy Spirit leads us to deeper
levels of truth contained in the gospel of Christ; patience kindness goodness
describe the outward manifestation of the life of one motivated by the grace of
Christ shed in our hearts by the work of the Spirit; and faithfulness
gentleness and self-control are those virtues cultivated by the discipline
of the Spirit that enable us to both maintain our salvation and also bear a
powerful witness to the grace of God in the gospel of Christ. What's the
powerful witness? I'm in control of me that's the powerful witness. And all
these produce a dramatic witness that the perfection one has before God
through faith in Christ is actually being felt and seen and acted out in
one's daily experience as a Christian. In other words the actual perfection
being created in us by the Holy Spirit in the form of these fruit
that Paul speaks of is a concrete witness that the conditional perfection
we have already received in Christ is really there. So the actual
perfection seen in the fruit that we produce is a witness that
the conditional perfection is actually there within us. So the false teachers
were trying to convince them that there are human methods of ritual and
law would guarantee their perfection Paul shows that these false doctrines and
ideas pale in comparison to what the Spirit actually accomplishes and those
who submit to Him, in other words a peaceful heart, a quiet spirit, a faithful
life were a much greater witness of one's salvation than a mark in one's flesh
like circumcision or restrictive food laws. So what you don't eat pork so
what what is that proof what does that make you that you don't eat
pork I just I just picked that you know so what you've been circumcised okay. So
what that doesn't prove anything I don't see anything in that. As a matter of fact
he says that these things produced by the Holy Spirit show their genuineness
and the fact that they're in perfect harmony with God's law and they don't
diminish or violate or misrepresent it in any way unlike the
false teachers who had twisted the law and the word to
make their teachings actually work. So to summarize in verse 24-25
and the chapter 6 Paul will go on in his description of a life lived by
the Spirit showing that the few things mentioned here are not the complete list
of spiritual fruit that can and need to be developed in the Christian, again a
sampling. But for our intent and purpose we'll stop here and we end the series
with these final thoughts thought number one: we are perfect in Christ. Oh boy I
wish we would learn that. If this series has taught us anything, has
comforted us in any way it been in the knowledge that Christ is our
perfection and we are perfect because we have a relationship with Him based on
faith and that faith has been expressed in repentance and baptism. Rich, poor,
sick, well, young, old, whatever, mature struggling, knocked back, feeling down,
feeling great, the only thing that has any bearing on your perfect standing
before God is your relationship with Christ in faith. So long as you continue
to believe that Jesus is the Son of God you continue to maintain conditional
perfection, in other words God sees you as perfect and acceptable based on that.
Number two almost done: Satan's greatest weapon is doubt. The false teachers in
the first century tried to make the saints doubt the gospel and maybe try
another way to be saved. Today we have religious teachers trying to convince us
that maybe knowing and using God's name properly that'll save us or following
their own personal profit or secret teaching that's the way to go closer
to home practicing our religion and rituals perfectly will equal
perfection before God. Nothing has changed, never doubt that
being and remaining in Christ through faith is the true and
only way to be perfect and thus permitted entry into the internal
heavens. And then finally: true faith is expressed by baptism in Jesus, true
repentance is expressed by walking in the Spirit. I can't squeeze
it down and compress it any tighter than that. Don't ever think
that God's grace is upon you because you were merely dunked in the water,
God's grace is upon those who express their faith in baptism and they express
their repentance by turning away from the deeds of the flesh to a life of
submission to the Spirit. The sincerity of your faith will be seen in the
sincerity of your repentance and your repentance will be evident in
the fruit that you will bear through the Spirit. All right there it is,
A More Perfect You, an imperfect series on spiritual perfection,
thank you for your presence.
