Freedom: Fruitful Grace
Freedom: Justification by Faith • Sermon • Submitted
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Works vs. Fruit
Works vs. Fruit
Overcoming the flesh is something that happens when we are in Christ. Though we may struggle at times it should be our aim to do good.
The Judizier and the legalist may boast of what they are not (murders, adulterers and the like, but that is not enough. Our life of faith, will produce fruit. Today we will look at some of positive fruit that the Spirit produces in the life of the Christian.
Works vs. fruit. Factories produce products, but it cannot produce fruit. fruit is something that grows, it is cultivated in the life of the believer.
The flesh produces dead works
Heb9:14
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
The Spirit, or in this passage, eternal Spirit cleanses us of dead works and the Spirit produces fruit that serves the living God. An example of God’s order to bear fruit started back in the Garden.
11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.
And Paul tells us about the fruit in our passage today in the life of the Christian who is to walk by the Spirit.
Works take effort, labor, strain, toil but the fruit of the Spirit is love and produces more love, joy, and helps to produce more fruit.
2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
Sometimes we are pruned just so we can bear more fruit. The pruning at the time, or another word may be discipline may not be pleasant but the results are pleasing to God.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Our old nature, our flesh, cannot produce fruit, only our new nature that is filled with the Spirit, that has crucified the flesh can produce fruit.
Like I mentioned our section today the Fruit of the Spirit is only partial and there are other kinds of fruit listed in the N.T.
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
Fruit, new people who are lead to Christ because of your love and leading them to the truth; and the truth leading them to repentance of their sins, confession of the Christ; baptism and living in joyful obedience. See love, the love of GOd that is poured out will produce love and love produces joy and we will go further in a few minutes.
Another fruit is holy living
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
Justification by faith brought the forgiveness of sins, that was only the start. Now the benefits of that will be the sanctification, the growing holiness in the life of the believer. Peter says “be holy for I am holy” (1Pt1:16)
There is fruit of good works
10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Fruit of praise
15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
So now that brings us to do with fruit of the Spirit in our passage today that shows the new character in the new creation in Christ Jesus as produced by the Spirit.
This is different that the gift of the Spirit (Act2:38) at salvation; or the “gifts” of the Spirit (1Cor12:1ff) that have to do with service, but this is the graces of the Spirit that has to do with character.
Finally we are to our passage today.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
The characteristics that God wants to manifest through the Spirit in the life of the Christ starts with love as the first of the 9 proofs, graces of the Spirit.
First three, Godward
second three, manward
Final three, selfward
Godward graces in the Spirit
Godward graces in the Spirit
According to Rom5:5 the gift of love from God to man was poured out on us.
5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
LOVE (agape) - divine love
This divine love is the love mentioned in Rom5:5 and expanded on in 1Cor13. This divine love is what Paul prays asking for it to increase
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
The next godward part of the fruit is joy
Joy - inward peace
when the forgiving, Spirit filled Christian lives within the circle of love he will experience joy, that inward peace regardless of the circumstances of this world.
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
Joy is more than a feeling it is a knowing that no matter what God is with you in the good times and the trying times and in the trying times he is producing perfect results!
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Paul spoke of this joy, in the form of being content in Php4:11-13; and went on to say with confidence
19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Love and joy work hand in hand to produce peace
Peace beyond all comprehension
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
This peace guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Peace that comes from God when He poured out His Spirit and the love that produces joy and joy that results in peace.
So God does all of these in the heart, in the mind of the spirit filled, spirit walking Christian. This brings us to our next three.
Manward Graces in the Spirit
Manward Graces in the Spirit
LONGSUFFERING
Do you ever enjoy suffering? With the Spirit not only can we endure suffering, we can learn to be longsuffering (which is to endure without quitting)
Other scripture examples of how we are to longsuffering
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
It is a part of our Christian responsibility and walk
1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
Walking worthy!
10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
There is longsuffering with joy! and how
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
But God is longsuffering too and Peter speaks of that.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
and then one more
2Pt3:
15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,
some versions replace the word longsuffering with patience. We don’t produce the longsuffering, love does through the Spirit.
The Christian who is longsuffering will not seek vengeance, will not wish difficulties or anything on anyone, but will want the greater good, the best for someone. That shows in
GENTLENESS AND GOODNESS
Gentleness is kindness and goodness is love in action. This is sowing seeds of peace even when you are being persecuted. Sowing seeds of kindness in lieu of sees of evil sowed by others. Our human nature, our flesh cannot do that, only by the power of the Spirit can this fruit be manifested.
This now leads us to our last three
Selfward Graces of the Spirit
Selfward Graces of the Spirit
FAITH
This is not “THE FAITH” the saving faith, it is the life of faithfulness, dependency, and a walk of dependability on Christ and the work of His Spirit in you. We are to be people of faith who walk by what we believe in spite of circumstances.
Faith is best displayed when it is not easy to have faith!
Next comes part of the fruit that is so misunderstood.
MEEKNESS
This is not weakness, but this is power under control. Christ had all the power of God but did not exercise it. Moses was called meek.
3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
Meekness is using the right amount of power and authority; so it is power under control. Speaking of control that brings us to
SELF CONTROL
Self-control, works hand in hand with meekness. This is using the wisdom, knowledge, understanding that you obtain from God’s Word and confirmed by God’s Spirit so we can walk in a manner worthy, to walk in the Spirit.
The spirit filled christian does not have to assert, throw around authority, he uses the right amount at the right time (i.e. Jesus turning over tables).
The meek, self controlled christian does not have to throw his authority around , it is using the wisdom, knowledge and understanding that the Lord has given through His Word and confirmed by His Spirit to act, walk accordingly.
It is possible for the old nature, the flesh, to counterfeit some of the fruit of the Spirit, but it cannot produce it. When the Spirit produces the fruit God gets the glory and not man.
The flesh, the old nature can counterfeit some of the characteristics
The work of the Spirit is to help transform us to be more like Christ for His purpose and His glory and not for the praise of men
43 for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.
Fruit has to be cultivated, it does not grow in just any environment
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
The Spirit lives in us, so we need to remember to walk in it. Under the Spirits power so we are not boastful, we are not envying of one another.
How to cultivate the fruit
Study the Word
Prayer
Worship
Praise and with fellowship
Sometimes it means checking the roots, checking and rooting out any weeds, those things that can choke out our walk with Christ. Why? So we can bear more fruit. This fruit is to be eaten, not just to be admired and put on display.
We live in a fallen world where people are starving for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and you can help them by showing your faithfulness and will be displayed in your kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control that needs no law for the Spirit filled Chritian.
We live in a fallen world where people are starving for love, joy, peace,
We do not bear fruit for our own consumption, but for others so Christ maybe glorified.
So walk in the Light, walk in the Spirit. You have been set free from the law of sin and death, from the penalty of sin, now from the flesh so we can fulfill the law of love.
Invitation: IF you have not yielded to Him and received forgiveness of sins, do it today. (insert invitation slide)