Sermons
The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
John 15:4 and Galatians 5:22-26
If you will find them in your Bible, we’ll look at them in a moment.
We ended last week’s message on “Jesus’ Words concerning Salvation” with “You shall know them by their fruit,” there are things that the Holy Spirit does in a person’s life; one of the main is that you bear fruit.
As we look into the fruit of the Holy Spirit Jesus addresses this in John 15. Jesus gives us two things that we can identify in a person’s life.
In your own life…I want you to be examining your own heart and life today. Don’t think that this is a great message for your neighbor to hear. Think about it for yourself. Jesus lists two different things. Look at John 15 verse 4:
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. And then jump down to verse 8: By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Jesus says essentially two things: Abide in Him. The person that abides in Jesus, abiding faith, believing in Him and staying in the vine – that’s a mark of a Christian.
The second one is bearing fruit. Bearing fruit in keeping with a said belief system or one’s faith.
Two markers that you can recognize a Christian. Abiding faith and bearing fruit. Now we don’t bear fruit perfectly, but on an ever-increasing basis as our life unfolds, we are bearing more and more fruit as we grow up into Jesus Christ. We become mature in Jesus.
So, you ask, “What is that fruit?” Good question, that’s why we’re here today. So, now we’ll go to Galatians 5, verse 22. Let me give you some background information about the letter that Paul wrote to this church to catch us up to chapter 5.
Paul started this church by teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel that God loves sinners of who you are one. Paul taught, God loves sinners, but He longs to restore you into a relationship with Himself and so He sent Jesus, God’s Son, to die on the cross for sin.
Jesus’ death on the cross was not only a victory over the spiritual forces of the enemy, a victory over sin, but it was also a substitutionary atonement for people’s sin.
Four words that describe the gospel is “Jesus in my place.” Jesus died on the cross in my place paying for my sins. We just sang that, “Jesus Paid It All” – paid for our sins. So, if you believe in Him, you trust in Him, you become a new creation.
The church in Galatia received this, but then something started happening. False teachers, they said you would have to believe in Jesus, but then also become a Jew, a practicing Jew, and hold all the rules and regulations and the laws of the Jews.
Paul writes this letter because he sees that this is starting to happen and the people are being led astray by it.
He goes on to talk about faith. It is by faith that one enters into this relationship with God – faith in Jesus Christ. That’s what we proclaim here. It’s not by observance of laws; that’s detracting from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Salvation comes when we are associated with the Messiah, with Jesus.
Paul lays out then, as we’ll see in chapter 5, is to walk, to live by the Spirit of God inside of us. God has given His Spirit now, today. He works in our lives. He draws us to Himself. He indwells within us, and we live by His power, not by a list of rules and regulations.
This doesn’t just happen in the Galatian church – this happens in churches today. It’s an easy thing for people to do because it’s easier to have a list of dos and don’ts than to listen to the Spirit of God.
It’s an easier thing because the Spirit of God moves in powerful and quiet ways. It’s hard to listen to Him and what He’s doing and to be studying His
Word and letting Him conform us into Jesus’ image. So, let’s just boil it down to a list of dos and don’ts.
So, what is the alternative? How do we bear fruit? The alternative is to live bearing the fruits of the Holy Spirit – being led by God Himself and certain things will start to happen in our life. And that’s what we’re going to look at because we want to be a gospel community.
We want to be a people who love God, who love one another, and who are bearing fruit and being sanctified and becoming more like Jesus all the while telling others and sharing this great, good news that we have.
Galatians 5:19-21 tell us the works of the flesh, and they that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. But we know from experience we can’t do it on our own power. Now here’s the positive thing. Verse 22:
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Let’s go through this list because this fruit should be in every Christian’s life. Did you hear that? This fruit is to be in every Christian’s life. In varying degrees, yes, but it should be there. We want it to be there as we grow up in our faith.
You will notice there are nine listed but scripture calls them singular, one fruit, and that every Christian has this fruit.
Love. Love is the greatest quality, and it appears first. It reflects the very nature of God. I John 4 says that God is love. In Corinthians 13, Paul explains really what love is and how important it is.
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. It’s worthless without love.
2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. Wow! You mean you have faith in God that can move mountains and it’s worthless without love? Yeah.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Give away everything including my own life, but if there’s no love, it’s worthless.
So, what is love? Verse 4: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never ends.
Wow! That’s a characteristic that should be blossoming in our life and growing – the love of God.
Next is joy. Joy is not happiness and it’s not based on circumstances. Joy is deeper than that. It’s rejoicing. Joy is the noun; rejoicing is the verb. Rejoicing is what you do when you remember God’s salvation. That’s true joy.
Joy comes from knowing that you’re forgiven and loved by the King of kings and Lord of lords. He’s got your future in hand. He’s got your best interests at heart, and you can live life joyfully regardless of the circumstances; regardless of what happens.
Jesus says in John 15:9-11. That I’ve come that you might have my joy. That my joy would be in you and that your joy would be full – would be made full. Jesus comes and gives a deep joy that the world can’t remove. Although sometimes our eyes can get off of it.
Peace. Peace is the product of salvation. Salvation brings peace. Every person has a certain level of not having peace if they don’t know their Creator. God made us that way. Its manufacturer’s specifications that until you know God you will never find true happiness (joy); you will never find complete fulfillment.
So, people look for that in a lot of different places. They look for that in trying to gain power, prestige, popularity, a person.
If I can find my worth in somebody else… Husbands and wives, you don’t find your worth in your husband or wife. You’re to find it in Jesus and then when we find it that brings the ultimate peace.
Romans 5:1 says 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel brings peace. Hebrews 4:16 says that now we can come boldly, confidently to the throne of grace. Isn’t there a peace in that, knowing that you can come before the God who spoke the universe into existence? You can come to Him with all your petty problems, and with all your big issues. You can come to Him because He cares for you.
Jesus said cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you. That’s an amazing thing that brings us peace. No matter what happens, no matter what happens to the economy; no matter what happens with our job, it just doesn’t matter.
Patience. Patience is trusting in God’s plan and timing – not on our own. Trusting in Him. Proverbs 3:5, 6 says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.
It takes patience to trust in God. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.
Kindness. Kindness is showing goodness and generosity and sympathy toward others. That leads to goodness.
Goodness is literally to work for the benefit of others. In chapter 6, verse 10 it says do not grow weary in doing good. Do good especially to those that are in the household of faith. So, we do good to others. We work for the benefit of others, and we don’t work for the benefit of others expecting to get something in return.
You do good to others because you love others and you give of yourself like Jesus gave of Himself.
Faithfulness. Faithfulness…when I hear faithfulness, I think faithfulness like to God, I’m not going to stray away from the Lord. What about consistently doing what you say you’re going to do. This is faithfulness. This is the fruit of the Spirit.
Gentleness. Gentleness is a quality that Jesus attributes to Himself in Matthew 11:29 and 30. Jesus calls Himself gentle and He says to take my yoke upon you; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. A yoke was a rabbi’s set of teachings so everything that they believed about different things in the Old Testament was called their yoke.
Their disciples were to learn this rabbi’s yoke; to learn his teaching. Then hopefully they would take it upon themselves and then they would get their own disciples and teach this rabbi’s yoke. His understanding of what it meant to live and serve God would be passed on in that way.
And Jesus says His yoke is easy and His burden is light. What in the world did He mean by that because Jesus said to deny yourself, take up your cross. That means die to yourself. How is that easy?
Well, it’s easy in the sense that it’s freedom from religion. It was freedom from the Pharisees and all of their laws and their rules and regulations that are heaped upon a person.
The gospel is so freeing because it’s about trusting in Jesus. It’s about being found in Him. See how His yoke is easy and His burden is light?
What do you have to do to get eternal life? Trust in Him and that’s easy. Now the living part – that’s where it gets difficult. But Jesus’ yoke compared to the crushing demands of the Laws of the Pharisees was easy.
Self-control. Self-control is a discipline given by the Holy Spirit that allows Christians to resist giving into their sinful flesh and their sinful desires.
Think back over the past month. What things came up in your life that you knew were wrong, but you chose to do it anyway? That’s a lack of self-control. The Holy Spirit gives self-control.
So, there’s the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And then you get this odd statement, “against such there is no law.” What in the world is Paul talking about here?
Paul means that the fruit of the Spirit surpassed all legal prescriptions and are therefore, beyond any legal accounting. This is Paul’s way of saying that this is separate from the Law. This isn’t a list that you have to do in your life. This is separate and greater than the Law.
This is the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit that is born in a Christian’s life and in their heart in an ever-increasing basis bearing this fruit in their life. It’s above the Law. It can’t be held by the Law.
Then verse 25: If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. It means to fall in line with the leader.
Paul is essentially saying in verse 25 if we live by the Spirit of God, if we say we live by Him, then we are to follow Him; to follow His leading; to follow His guidance; to follow His conviction in our heart as we live.
And then verse 26: “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
This happens if we’re not careful. The first one is not to become conceited. See those people who are bearing much fruit in their life, it’s easy for them to become conceited and say, “Wow, look at me. Look at the things that God is doing in my life. Look at how I’m increasing in my self-control. I haven’t sinned all day.” So don’t become conceited.
Then don’t provoke. These are people who are tempted (the fruit of the Spirit is growing in their life) to use that to shame another person. That can happen in many different levels in our Christian life.
Maybe someone is having a hard time loving someone. You love everybody. You can forgive anybody. You don’t hold a grudge, but somebody else really struggles with that and they hold grudges. You come to them and say, “Well, why can’t you just love. I mean I’ve had this happen to me and I’ve had this person do it that to me. I love those people. I don’t know why you can’t just do that.” That provokes the other person. That doesn’t build them up and members in the body of Christ – we are to build one another up.
The last one says “envying one another.” When you see God doing something in someone’s life, they’re bearing fruit, it can be easy because of our nature to be jealous of that. Wow! Why isn’t God using me to do that? I’ve been asking and praying for Him to use me and it doesn’t seem like He’s really using me. I wish I was like that person.”
Turn away from that Paul says. That’s actually the enemy coming in and using even the bearing of fruit to hurt the body of Christ – to hurt you, to hurt others. So, we live bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
One of the main purposes of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is for fruit bearing. If you are a believer, God expects for you to be fruitful sometimes. No No, God expects Spirit filled men and women to be fruitful all of the time!
Let me just mention that to be fruitful doesn’t mean that you feel fruitful or gifted, but being fruitful and gifted means that you are a faith walker and a faith talker; therefore, you are always ready to help others!
All of the fruit that grows from our relationship with Christ is basically for others to partake of. Yes, it will bring edification to you, but that fruit really belongs to others! (God gave it to you to be His minister!)
According to Galatians 5:22 joy is a fruit of the born-again, recreated human Spirit.
As you yield to God and obey His word, the life of the Holy Spirit within you causes you to grow continually in love, joy and peace as well as the other fruit.
It’s no big secret, those who really walk in their salvation will grow fruitful very fast!
If you are born again you don’t need to find a shoulder to cry on. No, you have a Helper, Comforter, Counselor, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby. He’s the Holy Spirit.
John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
The Holy Spirit wants to guide us through the affairs of life. In-fact, Romans 8:31 tells us God is for us, Matthew 28: 20 tells us God is with us, and I Corinthians 6:19 tells us that God is in us!
Say that; God for us, God with us, and God in us!
In closing, all the Holy Spirit requires from every believer is for us to become ever conscious of His presence! He desires to help us when we rest, play, eat, pray, prepare and even work!
We have to acknowledge that we are a carrier of the glory of God everywhere you go. The resurrected Power Plant, the Holy Spirit is living on the inside of us, and He wants to demonstrate His power and love through us! In Jesus’ Name, Amen!