Fruit of the Spirit Explained — Galatians Chapter 5 Verse 22

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, once again, we're just glad to have everybody in our taping session, and we're in our number four, I guess. For those of you out in television, maybe I should explain it again. This is our code now. We are in book or tape number 34, and we're in the third section of it, and we're in the fourth part of number three. So that helps you kind of find where we are when you see it on the screen. All the past programs, of course, are available in print, video, and audio. I have to keep repeating it as much as I detest repetition, but we've got new listeners every day and every week. So for those of you who have missed all this from Genesis and up to where we are now, you can get them in past videos. All right, this is a Bible study, and we'd like to get into it as quickly as we can. And so now we're ready for the other side of the coin, the flip side. We've been looking at all the wicked ramifications of the old Adam, the flesh, and that of course which was part and parcel of our past, but it's still the mundane living style of the unbeliever. But now verse 22, but a total flip side. Boy now if you talk about something that's a flip side, this is. This is just a total inversion of all of the activity of those previous verses, and now the fruit or the result of the work of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no knowing. Now there are nine fruits listed here, and we're going to divide them into three segments of three each. All right, so the first part of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, and peace, is I think it's been well put, is the inner results of salvation in the life of the believer. This is what we can experience just simply as a result of having believed the Gospel. See I've always made the statement, we aren't saved just as a fire escape. We're not saved just to escape hell fire, not at all. But we are also saved to do as Jesus said, to have life and have it more what? Abundantly. Now we're going to see that in these nine fruits of the Spirit, this is the abundant life, and that's why Paul says against these things there is nothing that can oppose them. There is no law that says, well now there's nothing good about love, there's nothing good about joy, or anything like that. No way! These are all attributes of a life that enhance. Now I always have to look at it this way. Wouldn't it be great to live in a community where everybody lived this kind of a life, as over living in a community where everybody practiced what we saw in the last program? Well we see it too often, and it's pandemonium. The police blotters are full of people who practice those things. You don't see people in the police blotter of verse 22. Not very often, it probably can happen, but it's just not a routine. But all these things listed above, I feel sorry for policemen. Have you ever stopped to think what it would be like to be a policeman, and be confronted with this stuff? I never thought much about it, but a friend of mine rode with a police officer, I think it was out in Phoenix, oh this is years ago, so there's no connotation for the city now. But he said he rode with that police officer during his eight hours of night duty, and he said, Les I never knew what those poor men have to put up with. And I can about imagine, I mean they're putting up with all of these things that we looked at in the last half hour. They never have to put up with people who are in trouble because of the fruit of the Spirit. Okay now here we go. Love, joy, and peace. The things that just simply come from within when we're a believer. We talked about the agape love in our first half hour this afternoon, and the definition of it, seeking that other person's highest good. Can you imagine living in a family? Now we know it's impossible for a whole community, but wouldn't it be great to live in a family where all the members of that family, all the way down to the grandchildren and maybe even great grandchildren, would all do everything with the idea that they wanted to bring about the highest good for their fellow family members. Wouldn't that be something? You wouldn't find teenagers in the drug culture, because that doesn't bring about the family's highest good. You wouldn't find teenagers dropping out of school. You wouldn't find teenagers getting into other kinds of trouble, or any segment of life for that matter. Because love you see, when it seeks that other person's highest good, does nothing but enhance the things that are good. So love is that agape love that comes as a result of the indwelling and the outworking of the Holy Spirit, and it's going to have an effect on our lifestyle. We're going to be fulfillers of the whole Law just by virtue of our operating love. Joy is that which comes from within as a result of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, as a result of what God has done on our behalf. We have joy unspeakable, because regardless of what may happen to us in this life, we have life eternal. We have the promises of all the things that God has prepared for us. Now that is what precipitates real joy. Happiness on the other hand is the result of our circumstances. In other words, if everything is going well, and you're healthy, and the bills are all paid, and you've got a little money in the bank, and you're driving a decent car, and you've got a nice home, and all these things that contribute to what? Happiness. But see they are just simply circumstantial. They have nothing to do with that which is in the inner life. So always remember that joy is that which is within. Whether you've got money in the bank, or whether you're in trial and tribulations, you can still have joy, but you won't be happy. I mean that stands to reason. When things are all going wrong, it's pretty hard to be happy, but you can still have joy. Now of course there's one of Paul's letters that is just packed with this concept of joy and rejoice. Who knows what it is? Philippians. Okay let's go look at it. Turn ahead a few pages to Philippians, and we'll just skim through the letter, because someday down the road if the Lord tarries, we'll be teaching it just like we are here, verse by verse. But come into Philippians and right off the bat in chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1, verse 25. Now I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to find all of them, but I know I see another one already. Philippians 1, verse 18. Philippians 1, verse 18. Now remember the things that he's talking about just ahead of this, is that his adversaries were giving him a bad time constantly. This was not a place of happiness for Paul, but he had joy. And so he could rejoice even though he had all that opposition. All right, now come down to verse 25. Philippians 1, verse 25. Philippians 1, verse 25. "...having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance, and joy of faith." Now listen, were these Philippian believers living in a happy environment? No, they were under constant pressure. They were under constant persecution, and yet Paul could say that they had joy because of their faith. It was an inner thing. All right, move on to chapter 2, verse 2. Philippians 2, verse 2. "...fulfill ye my joy, that ye may be like-minded, having the same love." See how all these things fit together? Fulfill his joy by having the same love, being of one accord, and one mind, and so forth. All right, let's skip across the page, at least in my Bible to verse 16 of chapter 2. Now verse 16. Philippians 2, verse 16. "...holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." Isn't that something? And the man himself was under constant pressure. Now we covered that in 1 and 2 Corinthians, how he suffered for the sake of the gospel, under trials and tribulation constantly, and yet the man was full of joy and was able to rejoice. Now you see, we're spoiled. In fact, I have to tell the Lord that every once in a while. I'm so spoiled, and I think you are too. We've all got it so good. What if all of a sudden the tables would turn, and there would be a knock on our door at 2 or 3 o 'clock in the morning, and someone comes along and says, you're under arrest. For what? For being a Christian. Hey, what would happen? I think we would all just almost panic that our world is coming apart. But listen, this was routine for these people. They were under constant persecution, and yet the man could be full of joy. Now remind yourself that if all of a sudden my little world should start falling apart, can I still be joyful? Now I don't expect you to be happy, but we're supposed to be joyful. Now verse 18 again of chapter 2, for the same cause also do you joy and rejoice with me. Now come on over to verse 28 in chapter 2, and he's speaking of Timothy, and he says, I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when you see him again you may rejoice. See, in spite of their circumstances that they could still have joy, and that I may be the less sorrowful. Well then you come down into chapter 3. Oh goodness, finally my brethren, what's the word? Rejoice! To write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, in other words those that would attack them. Beware of evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, and in spite of the circumstances we what? Rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the flesh. Well you can come all the way over to chapter 4, and I see them again. My, they just pop off the page, you can't miss them. Chapter 4, "...therefore my brethren, and dearly beloved, and longed for my joy." Now I've always maintained that Paul had a special feeling for the Philippian believers, because you remember it was in Philippi that he was sick in bed, almost under death, and the Philippian believers nurtured him and brought him through. And so he always I think had a real tender spot in his heart for the Philippian believers. And so he says, "...my joy and crown, stand fast my dearly beloved." Come down to verse 4, "...rejoice in the Lord always." And again he repeats it. Now what have I always said about repetition in Scripture? Emphasis! Emphasis! The whole emphasis throughout this book of Philippians that in spite of their trials and their sufferings, they could still have joy. Well, then verse 4, I think, no there's another one in verse 10. But he says, "...I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again." And so there may be even others in here, I'm just looking at them as they kind of jump off the page. But this is one of the fruits. Now come back to Galatians chapter 5. This is one of the fruits of the Spirit. First we have love. Love for all concerned with whom we come in contact, that which seeks the other person's highest good. And then we can have joy in spite of adversity, in spite of persecution. We can have joy. And then the third one is what? Peace. Now in order to understand that word peace, we've got to come back, I think, to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Because here again, this is why peace isn't listed up in the activities of the unbeliever. He has never experienced this, and he can have no peace. And the Scripture, I think, speaks of them as like the waves roaring, their lives are filled with turmoil. But oh look at Romans 5 verse 1. Romans 5 verse 1. "...therefore being justified by faith." Now remember what we said a couple programs ago, that puts us back like Adam was before the fall. God has reckoned the old sin nature dead and gone, and we are now declared just as if we had never sinned. Oh and now since we've been declared just as if we've never sinned, and the slate has been wiped clean, now what do we have? We have peace with God. So being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the unbeliever can never experience that, but see we don't have to be in a constant turmoil. Oh is God going to zap me? Is God all of a sudden going to disown me? Is He going to cast me out? No, because we have that abiding peace of God, or with God here, and then Philippians chapter 4, and then we have the peace of God. Now justification brings about the peace with God, then we're no longer an enemy. We are now His, and we can enjoy His fellowship moment by moment, regardless of how well we've been able to behave. We still have that constant fellowship because of our justification which gave us the peace with God. Now in Philippians chapter 4 we have the other peace that's spoken of, and that is in verse 6 and 7. Whenever someone calls with an urge and prayer request, these are the two verses I give them, and you might be ready to do the same. If some loved one or friend calls and says, Oh I need prayer, I need help. Well give them these two verses, the best two verses I think in all of Scripture for someone in need. And look what it says, Be careful, or worry about nothing, but in everything, whatever your particular circumstance, whatever your need, everything by prayer and supplication, and here's the secret, with thanksgiving. Never ask the Lord for something without thanking Him in advance. That's one of the criteria's of prayer. Always thank Him for what He's going to do with your request. Now then you can let your request be made known unto God. The door is open. You've thanked Him for what He's going to do, whether it's yes, now or maybe, and now you can make your request. And then verse 7, I always put it this way, whether He answers no, or whether He immediately answers your request, or whether He says maybe later, whatever, you have an immediate answer in verse 7. The minute you get up from your prayer place, you've got your prayers answered, because the peace of God. Now we've got the peace with God at salvation, but now as a believer, and we enter into this Spirit filled walk, now we have the peace of God, that under whatever the circumstances, God is there calming our situation, saying I'm in control. Now of course we all know that I'm right down in the middle of this heat and drought, and I'm getting concerned about grass for my cattle, and the only hope I have are these promises that I can have the peace with God, and I can take it to Him in prayer. In fact one of my neighbors, I told him I was sure it rained for too long, and he said, are you praying? And I said, you bet I'm praying, absolutely, and I'm quite sure that God in His own time is going to answer. But whatever the circumstance, we have that peace with God, all right reading on now, or the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. In other words some of these things we can't comprehend how He answers, because sometimes He doesn't grant. It may not rain, but whether it does or not, what do I have? I have the peace of God that passeth all understanding, and what will that peace of God do? It will keep our hearts and minds as we go through these trying times. And so the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. He is the constant, He never fails, He's always there. Now let's come back to Galatians chapter 5 a moment again, and so now we have the love, joy, and peace because of those two categories. The peace with God which we got at salvation, and the peace of God that carries us through our trying times as believers. Now the next three are more or less an attitude toward our neighbor, or maybe our families, the people around us. And that is long suffering, patience, gentleness, and goodness. Now what does that lead to? Well that leads to a pretty good happy family environment doesn't it? If all family members can exude these three particles of the fruit of the Spirit, patience with one another, gentleness with one another, and goodness with one another. Now you talk about family, isn't that perfect? Oh listen, what a beautiful family relationship we could enjoy if all members of the family would just practice those three fruits of the Spirit. Now then, the last three are pretty much tied to our association with God Himself. And of course the first thing God looks for is what? Faith. Oh let's look at it again, we haven't looked at it in a long time. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, and I think that's why it's listed first. And in 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, how does He end it? And now abideth these three, what are they? Faith, hope, and love. Faith has to be the first one. Hebrews 11, verse 6, haven't looked at it in a long time have we? But without faith. Now let's give my definition of faith again, what is it? Taking God at His Word. Believe it, from cover to cover. Now granted, not all of this is written to us. In other words, like I pointed to someone the other day, when Leviticus 5 says that anyone who has touched something unclean has to be through the rites of purification, has to bring a particular offering. Hey, we don't do that. Well why not? It's in the Bible. See that's what people like to say a lot of times. Well it's in the Bible. Well then you better go back and practice Leviticus. Well then they don't know what to do with it. But you have to realize that the Bible is all for us, but it's not all to us, and that makes a big difference. But now Hebrews, without faith it is, what's the next word? Impossible. In other words, there is no way you can get to first base with God unless He sees faith first. Now you say, well what about a sinner seeking salvation? Well what have I said just a program or two ago? The first article of faith for a lost person seeking salvation is Romans 3. We have to believe what the Bible says, and that is, all have sinned and come short. That's the first step of faith. Yes Lord, I'm a sinner. I have fallen short. And then of course the next step of faith is to believe that He died, was buried, and rose from the dead. But that's all taken by faith, and that is the key. And without it, it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe, and that's faith, that He is, and that He's the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him. All right, so now back to Galatians. We've only got a couple minutes left, and so I'd like to finish this chapter, so we'll be ready for chapter 6 at our next taping. All right, so now then faith, without which it's impossible to please God. Meekness. Now I'm afraid a lot of people think to be meek is to be a milk toast. Now I'm probably dating myself. You remember when, at least I do, when I was a little kid we had a cartoon on the funny page as we called them, and that was the name of it, Milk Toast. And the old fellow was always being walked on. You remember him? Yeah, some heads or none. He was always being walked on, either by his wife, or the neighbor, or somebody, and he never had enough gumption to ever respond. That's not what the word meekness means. The word meekness in Scripture means, and I guess the best way I can explain it, is to look at Moses. Now was Moses a milk toast who everybody walked on? No. Moses was a leader. Moses was a man who was highly educated in all the schools of Egypt. He was a military leader. I think he was a contractor. I think he was a civil engineer. Moses did everything, but what does the Bible call him? The meekest man that ever lived. Well not that it wasn't that they could walk on him, but Moses' attitude was such that God could use him, he was pliable, he was something that God could mold, and Moses became a great man. That's what it means to be meek, to just simply be pliable, and to be usable. Now let's go on to the next one. Temperance. You know what real temperance is? You know all we think of in America at least is the fight against alcohol, and whiskey, and so forth. That's being temperate. No, temperance goes across the whole spectrum of human activity, and it merely means maintaining a balance. That's all that temperance means. Maintain a balance in whatever you do, and this is something that again is well pleasing in God's sight. We don't just flip over to the right, or you flip over to the left, but you just simply by the basis of the Word of God, you maintain a balance. Okay, getting down to the end, and all of these as they're listed, all nine of these fruits of the Spirit, Paul says, "...against such there is no law." Who can fault someone who is the epitome of these nine graces? Well, no one can. And as I said at the beginning, you show me a man who has these nine graces, and I'll show you a man who is to be envied.