Is It Well With Your Soul?
The Holy Spirit: The Fruit of the Spirit • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Horatio Spafford, a Chicago lawyer, and his wife Anna were active church members during the mid-1800’s. While this was a Christian home with 5 children that was always open to visitors, the Spafford’s were no strangers to tragedy.
The Spafford’s 4-yo son died suddenly of scarlet fever in 1870. The great Chicago fire of 1871 devastated the city and burned down many of the family-owned properties.
The Spafford family sought to demonstrate the love of Christ while at the same time facing substantial financial losses of their own at a time when more than 100-thousand people were left homeless in the city.
In 1873 Spafford took his family on vacation to England to hear his friend, the evangelist Dwight L. Moody, preach. Horatio sent his family ahead while he was handling some business concerns. While crossing the Atlantic the ship that his family was on was struck by another ship and Spafford’s four remaining daughters were killed and his wife survived and was found floating unconscious on a plank of wood.
When Anna Spafford was rescued, she was heard to testify, “God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand why.” She later recalled something a friend once told her, “It’s easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God.”
Spafford boarded the next available ship to rejoin his wife and on his journey was summoned to the bridge by the captain, who informed him that they were passing over the spot where his daughters had died.
When the Spaffords were reunited, they worked through their grief and went on have more children and served the needy and poor, taking in homeless children and showing others around them the love of Jesus Christ for the remainder of their days.
It was Spafford who penned the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul...
When peace like a river
Attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot
Thou hast taught me to say
It is well
It is well with my soul
We’re talking about peace today in our series on the Fruit of the Spirit. Of course the Fruit of the Spirit can be found in Paul’s letter to the Galatian church...
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
Our passage for study today comes from Paul’s letter to the Colossian church. Colossians 3...
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
[pray]
This passage that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian church provided them with instructions on living the Christian life—a life that should be holy and pleasing to God. We turn to this passage today looking for some hints on living a life that reflects the peace of Christ that we already have within us as believers in Jesus Christ.
Paul uses a series of statements that reflect the imagery of putting on and taking off garments. Imagine taking off the clothing of the sinful flesh and putting on the clothes of spiritual grace. Let’s back up a moment and look what Paul advises us to take off (or put away)...
5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, 7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.
This list is not unlike other lists that Paul compiled in his other letters. We won’t detail these sins of the flesh this morning, but I recommend you spend some time this week reflecting on these passages—both what Paul advises that we should take off and what he advises that we should put on in the Spirit. See what needs tweaking in your own life.
I do want to make note of Paul’s use of active and continuing language here in verses 9b and 10...
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.
He is saying here that the old self has already been taken off and the new self has already been put on. However, we have the ability every day to make a choice in our actions.
Am I going to act in my old self?
Am I going to act in my new self?
This means that we can choose to act in the flesh or in the Spirit and the action is left up to us alone. Certainly we have the help of the Spirit, who is in us encouraging us to this spiritual transformation. But as one author said, “the battlefield is in the mind” of each one of us.
Paul reminds us that we are constantly “being renewed in knowledge.” This process of renovation is what allows us to move from our old ways of the flesh to the news ways of Christ.
This choice of sinful or spiritual behaviors is very much like the destructive lifestyle of the addict. However, the addict can break his habit and the sinner can choose to take off that sinful lifestyle and embrace the spiritual life.
Science has shown that addictive and destructive behavior can be changed and new neural pathways can be written into the brain. This is simply science’s way of saying “the man makes the habit or the habit makes the man.” You make your own choices in life as to what you will become and who you will be.
THIS is what it means to be “renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.”
THIS is what it means to be a “new creation” in Christ.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
However, the choice to be made a new creation in Christ cannot be made through sheer willpower and grit to succeed. This is a spiritual battle that will be hard fought and won through much prayer, study of scripture, and accountability to brothers and sisters in the faith.
Let’s move onto our Bible study as we look at the third Fruit of the Spirit: Peace is an aspect of the character of Christ that is planted in us to develop as we grow spiritually.
I. God Teaches His People to Live in Peace
I. God Teaches His People to Live in Peace
Col 3:12a…
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
We who believe in Christ are “God’s chosen ones.” Because he chose us and we chose to follow him, we are made right with God. This is how we define holiness.
When we talk about God being holy, it is a way of saying that he is so pure and transcendent that he is wholly set apart from Creation. Even though God is separate, he desires to have a relationship with us and has provided for us a way to cross the divide.
When we talk about humans being holy, we refer to their ability to relate with God or enter into his presence. Christ made us—his believers—holy when he took our sin on the cross and brought us into a right standing before God.
This is what we call being saved—saved from death and separation from God.
As a balance to the graveclothes of the flesh that Paul previously urged the Colossians to take off, he gives us a list of characteristics to put on: Compassion, Kindness, Humility, Gentleness, Patience, Forbearance, Forgiveness, Love.
Can you see the connection that these characteristics have with peace? Peace is defined as a state of inner tranquility. We can definitely find peace by practicing these characteristics, but we can multiply that peace by allowing the peace of Christ to rule us...
II. Christ’s Peace In Us
II. Christ’s Peace In Us
15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.
One of my favorite pastors and authors is Warren Weirsbe. He had this to say about the peace of Christ...
The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Nine: All Dressed up and Someplace to Go (Colossians 3:12–17))
How can a Christian know when he is doing God’s will? One answer is: the peace of Christ in the heart and in the church. When the believer loses his inner peace, he knows that he has in some way disobeyed God.
Now this is absolutely true of the Christian who is connected through the Spirit to Christ. However, the Christian who is leaning on his own understanding of life will always be confused and out of peace. This is why the wise man gave us this advice in the Proverbs...
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.
We must learn to avoid leaning on our own understanding and make the shift to leaning on the Spirit to transform us.
Paul told the Colossians to “let the peace of Christ” to rule their hearts. That word “rule” is...
New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition 1018 βραβεύω (brabeuō)
βραβεύω brabeuō
...and it is a word that is connected with sporting events. It is the referee that provides the ruling at a football or basketball game. In other words, his word determines the outcome. Peace has the same effect on us. Peace determines how we respond to outside events.
When we disagree with a clerk or a manager in a store, we might choose to argue in order to get our way. Or we might allow the peace of Christ to determine how we respond to such an event. Instead of arguing or getting angry, we might gently work to resolve the matter.
Arguing and fighting to get our way is not only not good for us physically, but it is not good for our spiritual life either.
We should allow peace to be our referee in both personal matters and in church matters. When we work together to obey God’s will, we can find his peace within. But we can also lose peace when we step out of God’s will or get to fighting about things.
It is for this reason that I have said many times that, when it comes to church matters, we do not “agree to disagree.” We should work together to “agree to agree.” Too often in church when something doesn’t go our way, we get upset and decide to give up and leave the church. Either that, or we argue and argue until everyone is sick of hearing about it. These aren’t healthy and mature ways to deal with matters. The healthy way is to respect each other, listen to each other, and work toward a mutual agreement.
If a disagreement does surface in the church, we should be willing to set aside our own opinion when possible so that the entire church can benefit from mutual agreement.
In Baptist life we practice a congregational way of making decisions. That means that we bring forward matters for discussion, we discuss the different possibilities and then we take a vote to decide how a matter will be decided. When we have taken care of our business properly and the vote is a valid decision, the entire body should accept it and get on board with making things happen.
We are called together as one body of believers. That means we should always make a high priority of working together in harmony and peace. When the body of Christ hass disharmony among the believers, it can be in indication that we are out of the will of God.
In the individual Christian’s life it is possible to lose the peace of Christ. When we see this happen we can sometimes observe as the believer turns to the things of the world and begins to act in the flesh. The corrective action for this is confession of sin and changed behavior. When the church is involved in this process it is called church discipline, as we studied together this past Wednesday night in our discipleship classes.
III. God’s Word In Us
III. God’s Word In Us
16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
The word of Christ can also fortify and strengthen the peace of Christ. When we study scripture, we are actually feeding our spirit. This is what we do when we gather together in Sunday School, in our discipleship classes, and here on Sunday mornings when we gather to worship. We are letting “the word of Christ dwell richly among” us.
The Colossian church—indeed all the early churches—were the targets of false teachers, who sought to dilute the gospel message with other ideas that did not line up with scripture. The word of Christ is what brought them salvation and it was considered the Word of the truth. Peter wrote that this very same Word gives us life and sustains us and strengthens us...
22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly, 23 because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you. 1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, 3 if you have tasted that the Lord is good.
I will say this for the believer today… Knowing God’s word can plant the peace of Christ within you and it can fortify that same peace within you.
What Paul and Peter are saying here is that this “word of Christ” is transformative. However, we have to allow this word to dwell in us. It has to live there and get comfortable there within us.
This same advice is directed at the church. Just as we as individuals allow the word of Christ to dwell in us, in the church, we must allow the word of Christ to dwell among us. That means that we speak the word to each other and we use it to encourage each other and we depend on the word to guide us and bind us together as it dwells among us.
Let FBC Pharr never be a church that takes God’s Word for granted. Let us never be a body of believers that minimizes God’s Word.
I know of churches that gather on Sunday simply for the purpose of hearing a motivational talk. People want something that will pump them up and give them a boost so that they can get through Monday morning. I want for us to hear a word from the Lord that will transform our Monday morning.
This not only happens when we study God’s word together, but it also happens when we sing God’s word together. We don’t get up here and sing a few songs and do a little dance just to entertain you. I have said this multiple times, the purpose of worship is to bring us all into the throne room of grace.
Conclusion: Do Everything In Jesus’ Name
Conclusion: Do Everything In Jesus’ Name
17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I told someone recently, I have two goals with every sermon I preach. 1) I want to proclaim the name of Christ to those who need an opportunity for salvation and 2) I want to encourage the disciple of Christ to live with the spirit of Christ and the word of Christ filling them and spilling out onto everything that they do in every other area of their lives.
If you are a business person, I want for you to work in your business with the spirit of Christ. If you work in a factory, I want you to work like you have Christ in you. If you are a student, I want for you to walk through the school and apply yourself to your studies like one who has Christ within.