The fruit of the Spirit, as detailed in 1 Corinthians 13 and Galatians 5, is the divine production of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance within a believer's life. These nine graces, exemplified by Christ, are not natural but spiritual, representing the transformation that occurs when one crucifies the flesh and lives, walks, and is led by the Spirit. The sermon emphasizes that love is the greatest of these virtues, encompassing all others, and that true Christian progress is measured by growth in love, leading to a life that reflects Christ's character.
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that one, the man that was greatly used with God in the first revival was Aaron Blossom. Not that he preached much at all, as I told you, but in great purpose there, in any country, or in any... He didn't preach much, but he was a great man of prayer. And he left the secret. Every time, that is the secret of a spiritual life. That is the secret of a life of people.
He was a great man of prayer. And so he was his beloved, as the home of David Lawrence. Now you know David Lawrence knows. David and I met him. We were together together before anybody came to see. played by David, quote from Levner's book. Well, this man, Emma Morrow, was actually heard over the deep year, the very town where he lived.
And you know that he was paid for food for the place. He lived in the village of the village where he was And he was singing. He was singing a Welsh chorus, Kosovo and Golug of Yestis, of singing. And they wanted to, I didn't hear a message from him, but he would have nothing at all to do with present. He would give them no message, none would. Another single word. He never believed in the advertisements of the press or the servant of God.
But he kept on singing. This is called, this is Cousin Transparency of India. The English translation, never in spite of Jesus. He kept on singing and singing while the press people went away. The next morning, New Year's Day, Trump pays new in the press. Evan Roberts' message to Wales. Evan Roberts' new year message to Wales, never lose sight of Jesus. Well, I want to mention that word. He never lose sight of Jesus. I'll read you verse first. He's definitely as Evan Roberts would sing it.
Thank you. Christ, he was a boy. to the word of God this evening, it will be the epistle to the Corinthians, first of all. The first epistle to the Corinthians and the first chapter. First Corinthians, thirteen. So I speak for the tongues of men and of angels, and have not carried me, I am the tongue of sounding brass or a tingling symbol. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not carried thee, I am nothing.
Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind. Charity envious much. Charity haunteth not itself, is not that stuff, does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not our own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, reprocesseth not iniquity, but rejoice it in the truth. Bear it all things. Believe it all things.
Hope it all things. Endure it all things. Charity never fails. All if you like, love, that's the word, love never fails. Whether there be cottages, they shall fail. whether they become, they shall speak, whether they be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, that when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I state as a child, I understood as a child, I fought as a child, that when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see to have lost softly, but then face to face. Now I know his part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known. And now abided faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest, of thee is love.
in the fifth chapter and verse seventeen the fifth chapter of the Galatians we'll read at verse sixty the sixteenth verse of the fifth chapter of the Galatians for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other. So that he cannot do the things that he would. But if he be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, altliness, lasciviousness. isolatory, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, perishing, perishing, envy, murderous, drunkenness, flagriness, such like, of the rich, I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temptions, again such, there
is no law. And they that our Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. There is not the desire of surveying glory, provoking one another, ending one another. The passage that I have just read to you now from the Galatian epistles is the passage that we want to look up this evening by the help of God.
And I trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit. O God, as we look at our work together, now we pray thee to elude in the sacred page. Prepare our hearts, we pray thee. may we hear thy voice, and thy voice alone. And we pray that the word may be mixed with faith, that it may profit those with us to hear. Thus with all the glory, and the praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Verse twenty-two again, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, love, peace, long-suffling, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. So we're going to look at this evening together what is meant here by the fruit of the Spirit. This has nothing to do at all with the flesh.
It's exclusively the fruit of the spirit. It's not the material life. It's not natural life. It's entirely to do with my spiritual life. Every believer, as we know, has two natures. And the fact that he has a new nature within him does not mean that the old is improved.
The only way to victory is recorded here in the twenty-fourth verse. they that our Christ has crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. That's the way to victory. You couple that with what we read in the Roman Episcopal, chapter six and verse eleven. Likewise, reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This then, in this chapter that we are going to look at this evening, is what God can produce in the lifetime of every believer. There are nine questions, or nine manifestations of Christian character, as produced by the Spirit of God, as revealed here in these words that we will be reading together. The first tree would characterize as an inward state of the believer.
Love, joy and peace. The second tree would characterize in expression towards man, outside. Long stuff there. gentleness and goodness. And the third tricklet, the character in expression towards God. First, the character in myself, when I know and enjoy myself.
And the second tricklet, to those who are outside, and the third triplet, character in expression towards God. Faith, weakness, temperance. So here we read of the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is life. You can stop then, pause if you like, and say it over to yourself, the fruit of the Spirit is love, that what God can produce in the life and character of the believer.
And there are eight other graces. All the eight other graces are characteristics of manifestation or attributes of the one thing, love. Joy is the ecstasy of love. Peace is the tranquility of love. Long suffering is the patience of love. Gentleness is the kindness of love.
is the essence of love. Faith is the fidelity of love. Neatness is the humility of love. Temperance is the discipline of love. And all these are exemplified in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. All is a portrait of himself. Now let us look at the first one. The fruit of the Spirit is love.
God is love. Divine love. And the amazing part is this, that God has shed abroad his love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Isn't that amazing? The love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. We read together just now faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love. Let me read to you these words and recorded in the twelfth chapter of Mark and verse thirty. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. This we read is the first commandment, and the second is likened to it, namely this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none of the commandment greater than this.
Love, then, is actually an activity of the whole personality. of the heart, of the emotions, of the mind, of the will, of the intellect, and of the soul. The greatest thing in the world is love. And this love can be produced in my life by the Holy Spirit. love of the head to its garments that reaches the very dust.
It can reach to the stains in the streets and the lanes. And because it can, it must. It's the greatest thing. in the world, love. Now, are we progressing in love? And I read to you just now, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not loved, I am become a sounding brass, untingling love is a language that death can hear the dumb can understand and the blind can see for the love of Christ constrain In
fact, the only real progress is progress in love. The fruit of the spirit is love. And if we haven't got love, we haven't got anything. The fruit of the spirit is love. And I'll look at the second one. Joy. Joy is the ecstasy of love.
We read that we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now joy is something more than happiness that we know. Happiness depends largely on what happens. That's really the meaning of the word, happiness. Happiness, I repeat it again, depends on circumstances. If circumstances go well, you're happy. If they go against you, you're not happy.
But joy is a different thing than that. Joy is the fruit of the spirit. It doesn't depend on output circumstances. The joy of the Lord, as you read right back in the eighth chapter of the book of Nehemiah and verse ten, the joy of the Lord is your strength. And in his presence, you read, this Foolness of joy.
Don't mistake, don't take yourself up to heaven for that praise. You can have that presence here or now. What is this very minute? In peace, presence, right here, is fullness of joy. The joy of prayer, the joy of communion, the joy of worship, the joy of fellowship, is that any joy in the world comparable to it, the joy of soul saving, the joy of ministry, the joy of teaching the gospel, Is there any joy comparable with it?
The joy of no but your sins are all forgiven. That the Lord Jesus Christ is your slave. The Holy Ghost your comforter. And God your Father. There is no joy comparable with it. And yet the psalmist in Psalm fifty one prayed this prayer. restore he said unto me the joy of thy salvation have you lost the joy not the salvation this is the joy of your salvation have you lost the joy of your salvation is there anything in the life that is robbing you of this joy, anything, anything unconfessed, any unholy aligned, any departure from God, any
unfaithfulness, any neglect of your prayer life, any neglect of reading the Bible. All this can rob you of the joy of your salvation. But you can pray like David, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. But before he pray that prayer, he pray this prayer. Wash me. through me from my liquid and cleanse me from my sins he prayed that prayer for us and when you come to the language of the New Testament if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, we
can have the joy restored. And in I Peter one eight, you read these lovely words, we rejoice, Peter, with joy unspeakable and full of joy. The world knows nothing about joy like this. The Christian religion is not a joy killer, it's a joy giver. Now let us look at the third thing. Peace, the tranquility of love.
This is the ability to keep calm. from being over anxious, from agitation, from worry, even when the unexpected crisis comes. You don't panic. Even when satellites have launched into orbit, you don't panic. You know something about the tranquility of life.
Thou will keep him the perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. And this is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit. Perfect love, cast it out. all fear. Oh, what peace we often offer. And we say it sometimes. Oh, what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry everything to God. Amen. our brothers playing on the organ just now. And the words that we sing to that lovely refrain, at home are these words. Drop thy still dues of quietness till all our striving cease. Take from our soul the strain and stress and that our ordinary lives confess the beauty of thy peace the tranquility of love then long-suffering long-suffering the patience of love the patience of love Long suffering.
I read to you from first Corinthians thirteen. Love, suffering long. It's not easily provoked. It's not touchy. How touchy some people are. You can stretch the open your mouth. that love is not life. Long-suffering, the patience of love, is not easily provoked. Bear it all things.
Endure it all things. The patience of love to wait and these will endure suffering. When hemmed in with perplexities and beaten down with a devastating blow, the patience of love will give you power to hope and rise again.
God believe is long-suffering, not really, but any should change. And that is reproduced in the believer long-suffering is the work of the Holy Spirit. And then Gentleness. Gentleness, the kindness of love. What does it mean to be gentle, not aggressive, not cruel, not riding roughshod over other people?
Why gentleness we read in the Psalms? may be great. These are God's gentlemen. How gentle God is. Listen to these words. Like of the Father. Pity is this too. That's how gentle he is. Like of the Mother comfort. the nurse's gentleness. Gentleness, the kindness of love.
Some of you have heard the name of Gypsy Smith. He was a great evangelist. We know it from the States many, many, many times for evangelistic campaigns. He was a great singer and a great preacher. thousands have been brought to Christ through his ministry. I was reading sometime ago that just before he died, he sang. And the last song that Gypsy Smith ever sang, he'd been singing for years.
He had sang thousands of songs, but the last song he ever sang was this. You had me, a kindly show. Well, pass it on. T'was not given for you alone. Pass it on. Let it travel down the ear. Let it white another's cheers. Till in heaven the thee appear. Pass it on. the gentleness of the character of Christian believers is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Next week, goodness is the essence of life. he will be, our Lord himself went about doing good. Goodness in action. Goodness expressed in itself in words and in deeds, in grace, in tenderness, in compassion, That was the very light of our law.
He went about doing good. Barnabas, we are told, was a good man. Be not weary in wealth. Or if you like, be not weary in doing good. There was a delightful little story of a missionary and his wife who were laboring in the distant part of the earth in a very difficult field, and they were getting very discouraged. There was very little truth for their labor, very little to be seen for many years of labor.
And the missionary himself was in the garden one day sitting down, under the shade of one of the trees. And there were some birds in the branches. And as he sat there with the choir, the birds seemed to speak to him, the chirping of the birds seemed to say to him, give it up, give it up. Give it up. And he got off his seat and he went indoors to be there.
He said, well, he said, it's no good. We should have to give it up and go back. The very words on the tree tell us then, give it up. She says, where? She says, just there underneath that tree where I was sitting. Well, she said, let's go again. Let's go and hear it again. She went with it. And they sat together under the tree and the bird would chuck. And she listened. Oh, you've got it all wrong.
You've got it all wrong. You've been difficult, difficult, difficult, difficult. Kindler! Kindler! She had it, she had it all. And you know, in this world that so badly needs your service and mine, let us hear. Be not weary in doing good. Goodness is the very essence. of love. And the next thing.
Hate is the fidelity of love. Love will always be the same. Love never does. Love will trust even when it cannot be. Love is always loyal. That's exactly the theme of this word. Faith, the fidelity of love. Someone has written these lovely words, so on I go not knowing.
I would not define myself. I'd rather walk in the dark with God. than walk alone in the light. I'd rather walk by faith with him than walk alone by sight. That's right. Faith, the fidelity of love. And then meekness. Meekness. is the humility of love.
And this is most important. This is one of the three virtues of the Christian faith. Meekness, the humility of love. Notice its meekness and not meekness. Really the man Moses was very meek. The man Moses was very meek. The man is going even to suggest that there was any tricks of meekness in the character of Moses.
is not least, it should be needed. The very opposite to the proud, to pride. The proud we lead, we know it, are far off. And we can have proud. You can have pride if placed. You can have pride of grace. You can have pride even of grace. And you can have pride of faith.
Our Lord himself said these lovely words, Come unto me, all ye that labour and that heavy labour. and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. Listen to these words. The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite. a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Abraham said his words, I have taken upon myself to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes. That's humility for the great man. You scarcely find the greater man in the Old Testament than Abraham. I have taken upon myself, he says, to speak unto the Lord, but I am but dust and ashes of the boy. That's humility. If we are proud and arrogant, It is because we have never been broken.
The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite. We take a lot of smashing, some of us. We do. But you know when God takes you to heaven, and breaks you up and pulls you down, brings us right down to the feet. And we learn something of the meaning of these words. The sacrifices of God are a broken and a convict on us.
What does the law really require of thee? Three things. To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy cross. That is to hear again one of the key virtues of Christian character in and it can be produced by the Spirit of God. Now we come to the last. Temperance or self-control, the discipline of love.
Temperance, self-control or the discipline of love. This is salvation from self-indulgence. This is deliverance from ecstasy. This is self-control in an age of luxury. This is the ability to exercise this state. And what an age of luxury we are living.
You've never thought about sitting down and making a total of what we spend on ourselves or on our homes. The age of luxury. But this where the temperance or self-control or the discipline of love will teach us where to draw the line.
God only knows some of us need this lesson today. for on ourselves we stand. We have a pleasure without him, with ever Lord, to be the living who give us all. Listen to these words. If any man who called me, said the Savior, Let him say no to self.
Let him say exactly what he means. If any man follow me, let him deny himself. Or I repeat it again. Let him say no to self. And that's the hardest thing that the master ever asked of anyone. It is easy enough to say no to other people. That it's hard to say no to self. But it can be done, not in the energy of the flesh, but by the Spirit and by the power of God.
And every virtue we possess, if we have the whole nine of them, every virtue we possess, and every victory one, and every thought of holiness are his alone. Not mine, but his. His alone. And the last word is this. There are three keys. in this chapter that will open the door into this new life.
And it can be a new life. This experience, as revealed in this book of the Galatians, can be a new experience for some Christian people here tonight. And this is a free tea that will open the door into this new experience. Live, do you read? in the Spirit of God. Walk in the Spirit and be led of the Spirit. Those are the free Jesus.
If we live in the Spirit, if we work in the Spirit, if we are led by the Spirit, then the Spirit of God will reproduce These graces in our very lives. And this is the purpose of God. This is the Christian life as we live in the New Testament. And as they testify in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus.
Very close. O God, our Father in heaven, we have been reading and meditating together. In thy truth, thou hast revealed to us what thou canst do, dinnest, and purest. O God, we pray, make us willing. make us willing in the day of thy power send us out into this world we pray men and women alive unto God on fire forgive us Christ men and women will the character of Christ stand upon us so that people shall not fail to recognize these men and women have been with Jesus.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God with our heavenly power and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit of God be with us tonight and always