“Christian Resolutions, Part IV” by Romans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcC1Bp13n_4
We have been in a Series, as our first Discussions in 2020, on what I have called, “Christian Resolutions.” I based them on the Apostle Peter's list of the items that he said we should apply all diligence to add to our Faith: Virtue, Knowledge, Temperance, Patience, Godliness, Brotherly Kindness; and Charity.
I ask now, “As these items are so vitally important, where and how are we supposed to obtain the items on the list?” There is an another interesting list of spiritual qualities found in the Book of Galatians, beginning in “Galatians 5:22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance.” Peter said to our Faith we add these things on his list. But we learn here that Faith, itself, is a Fruit of the Spirit.
Peter said to add Virtue, {Goodness}, which is another Fruit of the Spirit. Peter said we are to add Knowledge. We read in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Peter said to add Temperance which is another Fruit of the Spirit. Peter said to add Patience. Longsuffering is a Fruit of the Spirit. Peter said to add Godliness and Charity (agape`).
Love, translated from the same Greek word “agape`,” is a Fruit of the Spirit. Peter said to add Brotherly Kindness. Paul tell us in the love chapter that “charity is kind.” Besides that, we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:9: “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.” The items included in Peter's list of spiritual qualities that we should add to our lives, are all Gifts from God to us. God would have us receive AND apply them.
Knowing, now, that these resolutions, and necessary additions to Faith are based on and provided by the Fruit of the Spirit, I thought it would be a good idea to do a Series on that very subject. SO we are going to be studying the Fruit of the Spirit in an overview introduction, tonight, and then, week-by-week, we will review and examine each Fruit individually.
The topic that we will be going over, as a series, is the Fruit of the Spirit. This evening's discussion is an introduction of the topic. We will review what the Bible has to say, in general, on the topic of being both fruitful and unfruitful, and the results of both.
As Christians, God expects us to grow in grace and knowledge. We know that we cannot earn Salvation. It is one of many Gifts that God showers on us. There are no works that we can perform in 10,000 lifetimes that would earn salvation.
How, then are we saved? Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”
But, we are also told “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” ( James 2:17).
So while our “works” cannot and will not save us, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” ( Ephesians 2:10).
So... why, you may be wondering, all this talk about works, in a discussion on the Fruit of the Spirit? The Apostle Paul ties it all together for us: Notice: Colossians 1:10 “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;” We also read Jesus' words in Matthew 7:17 “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit...”
In the parable of the Sower, what happened to the seed that fell on good ground?
Matthew 13:8 “But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.” And, what was Jesus explanation of what the seed was that fell on good ground? But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Consider this declaration from John the Baptist to the Pharisees, found in Matthew 3:10 “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
Jesus also spoke a parable regarding an unfruitful tree. Notice: Luke 13:7 “Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”
Does it, or can it have any application to Christians? Once again, I appeal to Matthew Henry's Commentary for insight: “This parable in the first place refers to the nation and people of the Jews. Yet it is, without doubt, for awakening all that enjoy the means of grace, and the privileges of the visible church. When God has borne long, we may hope that he will bear with us yet a little longer, but we cannot expect that he will bear always.”
Jesus reiterates this same theme with these words in another of the Four Gospels, but there He did not present His thoughts within the frame of a parable. In Matthew 7:19-21: “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
But notice! In the very next breath, in the very next verse, Jesus makes the following statement: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Since the above verse immediately follows a verse about bearing fruit, can or should we assume that to do the Will of God is to bear fruit? Yes, we can! Notice what Jesus said in John 15:8 “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” But what kind of relationship with Jesus must we have for us to bear fruit? Hint: John 15:1-5 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” But notice what Jesus also says in verse 2: “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”
Regarding the above, The Geneva Bible Notes Commentary of the Bible says, “We are by nature dry and fit for nothing but the fire. Therefore, in order that we may live and be fruitful, we must first be grafted into Christ, as it were into a vine, by the Father's hand: and then be daily moulded with a continual meditation of the word, and the cross: otherwise it will not avail any man at all to have been grafted unless he cleaves fast to the vine, and so draws juice out of it.”
The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary on the Bible adds: “...so the disciples of Christ may be spiritually fruitful or the reverse, according as they are vitally and spiritually connected with Christ, or but externally and mechanically attached to Him. The fruitless He "taketh away." Like John the Baptist, Jesus also had many confrontations with the Pharisees. In one of His many rebukes of the Pharisees, notice what Jesus said:
We read in Matthew 21:42 “... Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes; Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”
It is very obvious from all that we have seen just this far that, as believers in God, and followers of Jesus, Christians are expected to bear fruit. But Jesus said, “...The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” What nation would be the new recipient of the Kingdom of God, and bring forth fruits to the glory of God? Are we, as Christians, scattered all over the world, that “nation”? 1 Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light...” There it is: “... an holy nation” which Jesus said would be “bringing forth fruits.”
There is another verse that identifies Christians as that replacement nation that I would also like to include in this discussion: Notice in Romans 10:19 “But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.” Hmmmm... “a foolish nation”? Would someone like to try to explain that to the rest of us?
Consider: 1 Corinthians 3:19 “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” We were not born in ancient Israel, where there already existed a Covenant with God. Many who became Christians were born and raised and lived their lives in the foolish wisdom of “the world,” and outside of a relationship with God. In 1 Corinthians 3:18 “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.”
Notice also in 1 Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty...” So that foolish replacement nation, the Church, is overwhelmingly made up of Gentiles. It is they of whom Jesus spoke when He said to the Pharisees, “...The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”
Put another way, Jesus said that this nation would be bringing forth the fruits of the Kingdom of God.
We have been grafted into a relationship with the God of Israel. Notice what we find in the Psalms that paints that very same picture: Psalms 92:13-14 “Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.”
In his epistle to the Philippians, Paul wrote the following words in Philippians 1:9 “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”
We are saved by Grace and not works. We cannot earn Salvation! But if we have received the Grace of God, we have to do more than merely believe. Consider these words penned by James: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19:). So, then, we must do more than believe. The very next verse says, “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” (James 2:20).
As I previously quoted the Apostle Paul, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them,” (Ephesians 2:10). And the fruits that we bear that glorify our Father, in obedience to the Will of God, goes to our account in the record books of Heaven. Paul expressed gratitude and praise towards the members of the Church at Philippi for the godly comfort and assistance they repeatedly provided him:
Notice in Philippians 4:16 'For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” Do you remember in the Parable of the Talents? In Matthew 25:20-21, we read of the servant who was given five talents, “And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” His lord said, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” The servant understood that, having been given, he was expected to be industrious and do something with it. And he did do something: he bore much fruit, which brought honor to his lord.
In verse 22, we read, “He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
Again, we read: “Well done!” Again, the servant both understood the expectation and bore fruit. Yes, we must believe in God, and in His Son... but belief is just the beginning... We must bear fruit! In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus talked about the seed that fell on good ground bringing forth much fruit. But the sower was broadcasting seeds over various kinds of soils and surfaces. What happened to the person pictured by the seed that fell among thorns? Let's see...
“He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). He became unfruitful. It is a sobering thing to consider unfruitfulness in the light of Jesus' words: “...every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
This reinforces Jesus' reference in John 15 to the branches that do not abide in Him. They cannot bear fruit. And because they cannot and do not bear fruit, they are broken off from the Vine, gathered, and thrown into the fire. What is our response when we encounter one who has left his first love? Ephesians 5:11 “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” Do not emulate their bad example, but we are, rather, to reprove them in love.
Let us return to the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, and see the consequences that befell the servant who was also given a talent and did nothing with it, bearing nothing. Verses 24-30: “Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury...
Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
We should all diligently strive to live our lives in accordance with the Will of God, and to do those things that bear much fruit that would Glorify the Father. In Galatians 5:22-23, the Apostle Paul recorded a list of what he called the Fruit of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
In closing, I would like to share with you a wonderful and insightful overview of the Fruit of the Spirit, from the 19th Century, candle light and quill pen writings of Alexander MacLaren. He writes, “The fruit of the Spirit,’ says Paul, not the fruits, as we might more naturally have expected, and as the phrase is most often quoted; all this rich variety of graces, of conduct and character, is thought of as one.
The individual members are not isolated graces, but all connected, springing from one root and constituting an organic whole. There is further to be noted that the Apostle designates the results of the Spirit as fruit, in strong and intentional contrast with the results of the flesh, the grim catalogue of which precedes the radiant list in our text. The works of the flesh have no such unity, and are not worthy of being called fruit.
They are not what a man ought to bring forth, and when the great Husbandman comes, He finds no fruit there, however full of activity the life has been. We have then here an ideal of the noblest Christian character, and a distinct and profound teaching as to how to attain it. I venture to take the whole of this list for my text, because the very beauty of each element in it depends on its being but part of a whole, and because there are important lessons to be gathered from the grouping.
I. The threefold elements of character here. It is perhaps not too artificial to point out that we have here three triads of which the first describes the life of the Spirit in its deepest secret; the second, the same life in its manifestations to men; and the third, that life in relation to the difficulties of the world, and of ourselves.
The first of these three triads includes love, joy, and peace, and it is not putting too great a strain on the words to point out that the source of all three lies in the Christian relation to God. They regard nothing but God and our relation to Him; they would be all the same if there were no other men in the world, or if there were no world. We cannot call them duties or virtues; they are simply the results of communion with God--the certain manifestations of the better life of the Spirit.
Love, of course, heads the list, as the foundation and moving principle of all the rest. It is the instinctive act of the higher life and is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit. It is the life sap which rises through the tree and given form to all the clusters. The remaining two members of this triad are plainly consequences of the first.
Joy is not so much an act or a grace of character as an emotion poured into men’s lives, because in their hearts abides love to God. Jesus Christ pledged Himself to impart His joy to remain in us, with the issue that our joy should be full. There is only one source of permanent joy which takes possession of and fills all the corners and crannies of the heart, and that is an all-pervasive love towards God.
If God is ‘the gladness of our joy,’ and all our delights come from communion with Him, our joy will never pass and will fill the whole round of our spirits as the sea washes up on every shore. Peace will be built upon love and joy, if our hearts are ever turning to God and ever blessed with the inter-communion of love between Him and us. What can be strong enough to disturb the tranquillity that fills the soul independent of all externals?
However long and close may be the siege, the well in the castle courtyard will be full. True peace comes not from the absence of trouble but from the presence of God, and will be deep and passing all understanding in the exact measure in which we live in, and partake of, the love of God.
The second triad is long-suffering, kindness, goodness. All these three obviously refer to the spiritual life in its manifestations to men. The first of them--long-suffering--describes the attitude of patient endurance towards inflictors of injury or enemies, if we come forth from the blessed fellowship with God, where love, joy, and peace reign unbroken, and are met with a cold gust of indifference or with an icy wind of hate.
The reality of our happy communion and the depth of our love will be tested by the patience of our long-suffering. Love suffereth long, is not easily provoked, is not soon angry. He has little reason to suppose that the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, or that the Spirit of God is bringing forth fruit in him, who has not got beyond the stage of repaying hate with hate, and scorn with scorn.
Any fool can answer a fool according to his folly, but it takes a wise and a good man to overcome evil with good, and to love them that hate; and yet how certainly the fires of mutual antagonism would go out if there were only one to pile on the fuel! It takes two to make a quarrel, and no man living under the influence of the Spirit of God can be one of such a pair.
The second and third members of this triad--kindness, goodness, slide very naturally into one another. They do not only require the negative virtue of not retaliating, but express the Christian attitude towards all of meeting them, whatever their attitude, with good. These three graces include all that Paul presents as Christian duty to our fellows. The results of the life of the Spirit are to pass beyond ourselves and to influence our whole conduct.
We are not to live only as mainly for the spiritual enjoyments of fellowship with God. The true field of religion is in moving amongst men, and the true basis of all service of men is love and fellowship with God.
The third triad--faithfulness, meekness, temperance--seems to point to the world in which the Christian life is to be lived as a scene of difficulties and oppositions. The rendering of the Revised Version is to be preferred to that of the Authorised in the first of the three, for it is not faith in its theological sense to which the Apostle is here referring. Possibly, however, the meaning may be trustfulness just as in 1 Corinthians xiii. it is given as a characteristic of love that it ‘believeth all things.’
More probably, however, the meaning is faithfulness, and Paul’s thought is that the Christian life is to manifest itself in the faithful discharge of all duties and the honest handling of all things committed to it. Meekness even more distinctly contemplates a condition of things which is contrary to the Christian life, and points to a submissiveness of spirit which does not lift itself up against oppositions, but bends like a reed before the storm.
Paul preached meekness and practised it, but Paul could flash into strong opposition and with a resonant ring in his voice could say ‘To whom we gave place by subjection, No! not for an hour.’ The last member of the triad--temperance--points to the difficulties which the spiritual life is apt to meet with in the natural passions and desires, and insists upon the fact that conflict and rigid and habitual self-control are sure to be marks of that life.
II. The unity of the fruit. We have already pointed out the Apostles remarkable use of the word ‘fruit’ here, by which he indicates that all the results of the life of the Spirit in the human spirit are to be regarded as a whole that has a natural growth. The foundation of all is of course that love which is the fulfilling of the law. It scarcely needs to be pointed out how love brings forth both the other elements of the first triad, but it is no less important to note that it and its two companions naturally lead on to the relations to men which make up the second triad.
It is, however, worth while to dwell on that fact because there are many temptations for Christian people to separate between them. On the other hand many loud voices, some of them with great force of words and influence on the popular mind, are never wearied of preaching that Christianity is worn out as a social impulse, and that the service of man has nothing to do with the love of God.
As plainly Paul’s first triad naturally leads to his third. When the spiritual life has realised its deepest secret it will be strong to manifest itself as vigorous in reference to the difficulties of life. When that heart is blessed in its own settled love, abounding joy and untroubled peace, faithfulness and submission will both be possible and self-control will not be hard.
III. The culture of the tree which secures the fruit. Can we suppose that the Apostle here is going back in thought to our Lord’s profound teaching that every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit? Whether Paul was here alluding to a known saying of Jesus or no, he was insisting upon the very centre of Christian ethics, that a man must first be good in order to do good.
Our Lord’s words seemed to make an impossible demand--’Make the tree good’--as the only way of securing good fruit, and it was in accordance with the whole cast of the Sermon on the Mount that the means of realising that demand was left unexpressed. ‘The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity.’ There is but one way by which a corrupt tree can be made good, and that is by grafting into the wild briar stock a ‘layer’ from the rose.
The Apostle had a double message to proclaim, and the one part was built upon the other. He had first to preach--and this day has first to believe that God has sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin--and then he had to proclaim that, through that mission, it became possible that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who ‘walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.’
Christian graces are the products of the indwelling divine life, and nothing else will succeed in producing them. All the preachings of moralists are reduced to the stern, curt sentence--’a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit.’ Surely it should come to us all as a true gospel when we feel ourselves foiled by our own evil nature in our attempts to be better, that the first thing we have to do is not to labour at either of the two impossible tasks of the making our bad selves good, or of the getting good fruits from bad selves, but to open our spirits through faith in Jesus for the entrance into us of His Spirit which will change our corruption into incorruption, and cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.
Shall we not seek to become recipient of that new life, and having received it, should we not give diligence that it may in us produce all its natural effects? These fruits are the direct results of the indwelling Spirit and will never be produced without its presence, are none the less truly dependent upon our manner of receiving that Spirit and on our faithfulness and diligence in the use of its gifts.”
For the next several weeks, we will begin to review and thoroughly examine the various Fruit of the Spirit, point by point, individually, and in groups, as our Series continues. I am very much looking forward to this examination, and I hope that as many of you as are here tonight, will be able to join me, as we are all refreshed with the Foundational knowledge of the importance to our Salvation, abiding in the Vine, and glorifying God by bearing the Fruit of the Spirit.
This concludes this Evening's Discussion, “Christian Resolutions, 2020, Part IV.”
This Discussion was originally delivered “live” by Romans, January 29th, 2020
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