Author: Dave

“The Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control”
Galatians 5:22-23
September 28, 2014
Rev. David Williams
Scripture: Galatians 5:22-23
Sermon:
Introduction
	Growing up, I went to a pretty small jr high school. [pic] I had friends there, but there were also bullies and jerks that I had to interact with on a daily basis.  At the time, I just took that for granted.  The high school I went to was much larger. [pic] One of the things I really enjoyed about it was that it was large enough that I had lots of friends and didn’t have to cross paths with the bullies or jerks from my old school.  There was enough space that I didn’t have to interact with them.  High school was so much better than jr high.
	Then I went to university! [pic]  University blew high school away!  Looking back, I realized that what was important in high school and the things that made people significant in high school were very different than what made people significant in university.  In fact, a lot of the jerks I knew from high school didn’t even go to university.  Their priorities in high school meant they didn’t get into university.
	I was blessed to have a family that prepared me to go to university.  My parents focused on academic achievement.  They encouraged me to study hard in preparation for university.  I was (and still am) a total nerd. In high school that didn’t make me popular or successful in the eyes of my peers.  In university, though, that nerdiness helped me thrive.  My parents encouraged my nerdiness because they knew what was in store for me.  I remember my older sister and some of her friends encouraging me in high school.  Being older, they had a different perspective and helped me understand that what was important to my peers in high school wasn’t going to be important in university or in life beyond school.  It was encouraging at the time, helped me bear with the trials and tribulations of being a teenager, and proved to be true when I got older.
	Finishing school and starting life “in the real world” also brought new perspectives.  It changed, yet again, what was important and valuable. It changed what it meant to be successful.  Life beyond school didn’t have semesters, it wasn’t measured in 1^st year, 2^nd year, etc.  You didn’t finish a course after a few months, write an exam and move on.  The transition from university to life beyond school was another significant change in things that matter, what makes a person important, popular or successful.
	We, too, have a very different future ahead of us.  For those of us who have saving faith, who put all of our trust in Jesus to make things right between us and God, and then go on to live a life of obedience to Jesus in light of his having fixed our relationship with God, we have heaven in store for us.  When we get to heaven, we’re going to see that a lot of things that make us successful in this life are not going to be important in Heaven.  A lot of the things that make people popular in this life are not going to count for anything in heaven.  Being there will be an even bigger jump than going from junior high to high school or from high school to university or university to real life!
	In the same way that we can be prepared in high school for university, or prepared in university for life beyond school, we can put energy into preparing ourselves now for what will be important in the next life.  We can begin the work now of being prepared for heaven. In fact, that is one way to think about sanctification.  Remember, sanctification means to be made holy.  Sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit beats back our sinful nature.
	As the Spirit renovates and restores our character to be what God intended, he is preparing us for Heaven!  Left as we are in our sinful state, we wouldn’t enjoy Heaven.  We wouldn’t be fit for Heaven and it wouldn’t fit us either!  [J R Ryle, in Packer, Faithfulness and Holiness, p. 127]  As we are made holy, we start to get a taste of what Heaven is like.  In contrast to the sinful world around us and in contrast to our sinful nature, we start to experience God’s holiness.  That lifts our gaze upward to our destiny in Heaven, which is an encouragement to us here and now.
Context
	So, with that idea of being prepared to enjoy Heaven in mind, that idea of graduating to a new stage in life and being prepared for it ahead of time, let’s consider now what Paul says in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit, about the product or result of the Holy Spirit working in us.
	As you may recall, Paul was writing to a church in trouble.  One faction in the church was resorting to extreme religious legalism- saying that Christians had to follow all of the Jewish religious laws, from food laws, to washing laws to circumcision! It is likely that this was a radical response to another faction in the church that was abusing their freedom in Christ.  It seems that there may have been a group in the church in Galatia that was living as if there were no rules for behaviour whatsoever if you were a Christian.
	Into this mess, Paul drops a bombshell.  Instead of siding with one faction or the other, he says they’re both wrong and that the answer to being holy is to walk with the Spirit, to live by the Spirit, to keep in step with the Spirit.  Both factions were falling into works of the sinful nature, either living it up getting drunk and sleeping around, or becoming self-righteous and puffed up by being hyper-religious.  Neither were being holy.
	Paul comes, then, to the fruit of the Spirit- these are the long term results of the Spirit working in us with our cooperation.  We looked at the first six over the past two weeks. Love is agape love- a diving self-giving love primarily concerned with the well-being of others. The rest of the list can actually be seen as how agape love plays out in practice.  Joy comes from knowing God and finally fulfilling your God-given purpose. Peace comes from having been reconciled to God through Christ.  No longer God’s enemy because of sin, we are filled with peace that then shapes our interactions with others. Patience means bearing with the faults and sins of others. Kindness is actively seeking the good of others. Goodness means being virtuous in every facet of your life.
	The first set of three have to do with our relationship with God, and therefore can be seen as vertical. The second grouping is more horizontal, having to do with our inter-personal relationships. The last three have to do with our inward character.  This is a loose categorization, not a hard and fast rule, though. Our vertical relationship with God shapes our horizontal relationships with others. Being faithful affects our interpersonal relationships too, as does gentleness.  But it can be helpful to remember the fruit and what they mean if we think of them as vertical, horizontal and inward.
Observations
	So what can we learn about the last three fruit of the Spirit? Let’s make some observations about faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
	First is faithfulness.  This word has a rich usage in the NT.  The word for faithfulness means loyalty, justice and honesty in what we say and what we promise to others. [Matthew Henry, Acts to Revelation, p. 677]  The root of the word is faith, which means trust, “a firm persuasion, a conviction based upon hearing.” [Vine’s Expository Dictionary]  Faith, in the New Testament, always refers to a firm conviction of God’s revealed truth, or a personal surrender to God based on that truth, or conduct inspired by such surrender to God.  So, to expand from faith to faithfulness means to be trustworthy and reliable just as God’s truth is trustworthy and reliable.  Because of our firm convictions about God’s truth, because we are persuaded, we surrender to God and live accordingly.  Part of that lifestyle of surrender is being trustworthy and reliable.  Faithfulness is “produced in the believer’s life by the faithful God through his Spirit.” [Longenecker, Galatians, p. 262]  Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Follow through on what you say. Be there for people when they need you.  Be trustworthy and reliable.  God is faithful [Rom 3:3], his word is faithful and so his people are to be faithful.
	Second is gentleness.  Another way to translate gentleness is meekness.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “blessed are the meek” or “blessed are the gentle.” [Matt 5:5]  When Peter says in his first letter that we should always be ready to give a reason or an account for the hope we have in Christ, he says we are to do so with gentleness. [1 Pe 3:15]  But what is meekness? What does gentleness look like?  The idea of gentleness is closely linked to humility. [Vine’s] Gentleness is the opposite of arrogance and self-interest. [Longenecker, p. 263; Vine’s] It is an attitude of heart, a mindset. [Vine’s] Gentleness, or meekness, implies being teachable, willing to learn and sit under instruction.
	Gentleness, however, does not carry with it the idea of weakness. When we hear the word “meek” we tend to connect it with “weak.”  We think the meek person cannot do anything to stop others. But that’s not the case here at all. Gentleness means power or strength under control.  When Jesus was arrested, he could have chosen to call down legions of angels to defend him. [Matt 26:53] That is power! But he chose to be gentle and meek, he kept his power in check for the sake of us.  When we are meek or gentle, we stop fighting and struggling with God. We accept his will, even if it is uncomfortable or unpleasant. Similarly, we stop struggling with other people, even evil people, “out of a sense that even evil men, their insults, and injuries, are used by God or permitted by God to [discipline] and purify His elect.” [Vine’s] In meekness, we contain our strength even in the face of trial and difficulty in recognition that God is in charge and even negative experiences can be useful to Him for our growth and sanctification.
	The final fruit of the Spirit is self-control.  Remember, in context, Paul is talking to some who have given themselves over to every lust, passion and desire they have, thinking that in Christ there is no law or regulation of behaviour. In his list of works of the flesh, Paul includes such things as drunkenness and sexual immorality.  Self-control means discipline.  It means keeping our desires in check.  This is the word Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 9:25 when he speaks of athletes going into “strict training.”  Two weeks ago we talked about the fact that in our culture we satisfy every desire we have. We never stop to question whether or not the desire is something good or not.  If it feels good do it!  Don’t tell me what I want is wrong!  Self-control means ruling over our desires instead of being ruled by them. 
	It’s funny, in Acts we are told that when Paul was in prison he would speak with the governor Felix from time to time. Felix was known for cruelty, corruption and sexual immorality.  His wife, Drusilla, was Jewish.  He seduced her when she was married to another man whom she then divorced in order to be with Felix.  When Felix called for Paul, he brought his wife with him.  Paul spoke to Felix about “righteousness, self-control and the judgement to come.” [Acts 24:25]  Felix’s response was “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient I will send for you.” Felix was a man who never exercised self-control and he certainly didn’t want to hear about it in the context of righteousness and judgement!  Righteousness and judgement make those with no self-control very uncomfortable! That is still true today, whenever we speak of self-control we are called “prudes” and “kill joys” or religious fanatics.  We are told we are infringing on people’s rights by saying what they are doing is wrong or immoral.
Interpretation
	At the beginning, I said that sanctification is preparation for life in heaven.  How, then, do the fruit of the Spirit connect with sanctification?  We’ve come to our time to interpretation of the text.
	The characteristics that Paul is describing, these fruit of the Spirit, are godly characteristics.  God is faithful. That is, he is reliable and trustworthy.  God is gentle or meek.  We see this in Jesus’ earthly ministry, continually choosing to hold back his power when he has opportunity to use it for personal gain. His power is only used to serve others.  Think about having the power to create food out of practically nothing- he could have been rich beyond imagination.  He could have fed armies and lead conquests.  He never charged money for his healings.  He never profited from his power.  It was all driven by meeting the needs of others.  Jesus never gave in to sinful passions either. He is the model of self-control.  Some people find that hard to believe, given the number of women he travelled with.  They make up stories about his having illicit affairs and fathering illegitimate children.  Why? Because we cannot fathom such self-control in our culture.  
	What we see, here, then is a description of the operation of the Holy Spirit working in us to make us like God in character.  The Spirit is shaping us to be “chips off the ol’ block” so to speak.  He is reshaping us, restoring us, so that our character is like God’s character. That is what it means to be holy. That is what it means to be sanctified.  That is the goal of living for Christ.
	Sanctification, being made holy in this way, is preparatory work for Heaven. [Ryle, p. 127]  That doesn’t mean it has no purpose or effect in this life.  Our holiness, the fruit of the Spirit in us, serves as a witness to the power of God and the truth of the gospel.  That is very important.  As God’s people are made to look like him, the world they influence becomes his kingdom.  That is, as we live and act more and more like God in terms of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, the world we influence becomes a place where God’s authority is recognized and honoured.  That is, his Kingdom comes on earth as it is in Heaven.  Recall, the Kingdom of God means the rule of God, the authority of God. So as we live out godliness, as we live out the fruit of the Spirit, we live out God’s rule and that radically changed our world.
	But the work we do here on earth is a drop in the bucket compared to eternity with God!  In that sense, the work of the Spirit in us to reform our natures, has a longer lasting impact in terms of preparing us for life with God in eternity.
	Let me spell it out from the other direction. We’ve talked before about the nature of sin. Sin is our rebellion against God, our attitude of heart that rejects God and his authority.  If you were to take a person who was in complete rebellion against God and put that person in God’s house for eternity, do you think they would enjoy it?  Of course not! They’re in rebellion against God, they don’t want to be trapped with him forever!
	In order to enjoy being in God’s presence, the Spirit has to work on our rebellious nature, ie. Sanctify us.  In 1 Thess 5:3, a verse I often use as a closing blessing, Paul prays that God himself, the God of peace, would sanctify them through and through.  It is not coincidental that he speaks of God as a the God of peace in relation to sanctification.  As sinners, we are enemies of God. There is conflict between us and God.  When we repent, when we turn back to God and submit ourselves to him through Christ, we find peace with God.  This is one of the fruit of the Spirit, in fact- peace.  
But, as we’ve been talking about over the past few weeks, our sinful natures are not immediately completely changed when we first repent.  That is a process. In the meantime, our sinful nature battles with the Spirit. We experience inner turmoil. Our hearts are at war within themselves. The Spirit battles our sinful nature for control of our minds, wills, desires, emotions, imaginations and inclinations.  
Imagine if the Spirit did no such work. If not, then when we got to Heaven, our hearts would still be under the dominion of our sinful nature. Our sinful nature would still be at work, controlling most of our thoughts, feelings, wills, desires and imaginations.  That sinful nature would not enjoy Heaven one bit!  Our sinful nature has no place in Heaven. It would hate Heaven.
Thankfully, though, the God of peace, who authors our reconciliation with him through Christ, is also the author of sanctification.  From his own grace, power and in concert with his own nature, he works sanctification in us to make us better prepared to share eternity with him.  Sanctification preserves our peace and friendship with God. [John Owen, The Holy Spirit, p. 220]
Sanctification has an effect on how we behave, on how we act, but it is not primarily about our behaviour. Rather, sanctification is primarily about our nature.  A sinful person can be turned off by sinful behaviour in others and can seek to be morally virtuous in and of themselves. Just think of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day.  They were very moral people. They were good people. But they were not, as a group, sanctified people.  Their attitude of heart was not godly.  They were not loving, filled with joy and peace, nor were they patient, kind or good. They were not faithful or gentle. At best they were self-controlled.  Sanctification is a work of God in us to change our desires (along with the rest of our hearts) so that we do not desire sinful things.  That is why the fruit of the Spirit doesn’t describe behaviours or activities, like sharing the gospel or feeding the poor. Those are activities. The fruit of the Spirit are not about activities but about characteristics. They are character issues. When our inner nature, our character, is filled with the fruit of the Spirit the behaviours follow.  When we are primarily concerned with the well-being of others, over and above all other concerns, then we feed the poor and share the gospel.
Similarly, sanctification is not about retreating from the world.  It’s not about becoming a monk or a nun or a hermit.  It’s not about escaping the challenges of the world. It’s about facing the challenges of the world and overcoming them through the radical power of the Holy Spirit at work within us. [Ryle, p. 129-130]
Also, sanctification is not about religious formalism.  It’s not about external devoutness.  It’s not about how often you go to church, how often you read your Bible or pray, or if you speak in tongues, or fall down, or spin around, or pray in Latin.  Why? Because those are behaviours and sanctification is not about behaviour, it’s about character. The sanctified person will probably read his or her Bible a lot, but not out of duty, but out of love of the God whose story is told in the Bible.  The sanctified person will probably spend a lot of time at church and in fellowship with other Christians, but not out of obligation, but out of joy and having a common interest with other Christians to talk about the work God in doing in them, around them and through them.
Now Apply It
	The idea of being prepared to go to Heaven might be surprising for you.  It’s probably surprising for most of us, because we don’t really hear much about it or talk about it in Christian circles. Partly this is because we’ve reduced Christian conversion to making a decision. We’ve let our theology of conversion become so watered down that we don’t have room for sanctification. We don’t want to talk about needing to be changed to enjoy Heaven because we don’t want to talk about needing to be changed! If being a Christian means making a decision then what need is there for change?  
	At the risk of being scandalous, I was horrified by an article I saw on Facebook this week. It was about “Christian swingers.”  Swingers are married couples that practice extra-marital sex. [pic] They intentionally invite other couples over in order to swap partners for sex.  That’s scandalous enough.  But this article was about a husband and wife couple who claimed to be Christians who were also swingers. Not only were they having sex with other husbands and wives, but they said they used it as an evangelistic opportunity!  They claimed to share the gospel with the other couples whom they were having sex with.  They claimed that God put them in this sub-culture of swingers in order to reach these people. They figured the more people they had sex with and shared the gospel with the better, because they would be able to reach more people for Jesus!
	How far has our theology fallen if people who claim to be Christian are openly practicing sexual immorality as an evangelistic tool?  What has happened to our understanding of sanctification? Who would have thought that the same issue Paul had to address in Galatia and Corinth were happening again in the church today?
Similarly, we don’t really talk about Heaven.  We let ourselves imagine Heaven as we would want it to be.  But that is in our sinful nature.  We imagine Heaven as a place of physical pleasures and ease. [pic] Maybe we think of Heaven as a bunch of clouds we’ll sit on playing harps and eating Philadelphia cream cheese.  
	Actually, that’s what shapes the Muslim idea of Heaven. Why do you think all these young men are willing to martyr themselves? They’re promised 40 virgins, or 40 young women in Heaven.  What do you think they’re going to be doing with those 40 women?!?  Their concept of Heaven is basically a giant personal orgy.
	So this means we need to spend some time on application.  Now we have to apply these observations and interpretations.  Sanctification is not about changing our behaviour, it’s about changing our character: our minds, emotions, desires, preferences and imaginations.
	We cannot change our character under our own power. We can change our behaviour, but not our character. So we have to come to grips with the fact that sanctification is a work of the Spirit in us, not a work we do on our own.  This means that if you desire sanctification, if you want your heart to be changed, if you want a renewed character, you can’t try to change by yourself, you have to go to God in humility and ask him to change you.  Then you have to cooperate with him as he works in you, practising the fruit of the Spirit, making use of Scripture, worship, prayer and fellowship.
	If you want to enjoy Heaven, then you want God to work these changes in you. If you want to know what Heaven is like, then consider that these are the characteristics God wants to work in you so that you’ll be a good fit in Heaven!  Heaven will be a place of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  No place for swingers!
	Why is this helpful?  Because doing the work of cooperating with the Holy Spirit in his sanctifying work within us can be hard. It is a war.  Our sinful nature is at war with the Spirit and our culture isn’t doing anything to help. So it can be hard to cooperate with the Spirit when it comes to sanctification.  So fix your mind in your goal- enjoying Heaven.  Ask God for a Heavenly perspective on life.
	Let’s connect some dots.  Faithfulness means being trustworthy and reliable.  Why is it that sometimes we lie? Why do we exaggerate? Why do we boast?  Why do we give up and not do what we promised?  Because we’re thinking about personal gain. We’re thinking about looking good to others. We’re thinking about avoiding difficulty or hardship.  Why do we tell people we will do something when we don’t want to do it, or can’t do it, or it will stretch us beyond our means? Because we want them to think highly of us.  These are things we do that make us unreliable, untrustworthy.  They’re also steeped in a perspective totally focussed on this world, the here and now.  When, however, we have a Heavenly perspective, we are less concerned with making other people think highly of us. So we don’t boast, we don’t over commit.  When we have our heavenly future in mind, we don’t lie to get out of things, or to gain an advantage over others, or even to avoid difficulty or discomfort.
	Why is meekness or gentleness hard?  Because we want to stand up for ourselves, to push for our “rights.”  We want to exercise our power for our own gain.  That’s why it’s hard to keep our strength under control. We want to use it for ourselves. But when we compare our strength and what it can get us to our future glory in Heaven, we realize that we can’t do anything for ourselves of any lasting significance.  When we keep our minds on spending eternity in God’s presence, our present circumstances fade in comparison and we can resist the urge to fight for ourselves, just as Jesus resisted the urge to call down angels to defend him when he was arrested.
	It can be hard to live for God. It can be hard to live a holy life. It can be hard to subdue our sinful nature.  If it was easy, we wouldn’t need God to do it in us!  But our works of holiness, our cooperation with the Spirit, our acts of love, our struggles against sin, our resistance of temptation, our self-denial will all last in eternity!  Our holiness won’t fade when we go to Heaven, it will be highlighted! Our renewed character won’t fall away, it will be amplified. The degrees of holiness and sanctification we achieve here through the Holy Spirit, those changes in our desires, inclinations, mindsets, those abilities we learn develop in obedience and the power we develop to follow God’s will which now seen so weak and struggle so hard against our sinful nature, will be gloriously perfected into permanent habits and character traits in Heaven! [Owen, p. 226]  The work we do on earth to become godly and holy will last into eternity!
	It’s really hard to get some kids to do their homework.  Even though we know it’s good for them to do it and it helps them learn, they often don’t see the value.  That’s why it’s important to motivate young people.  When they have a future goal, it changes how they prepare themselves now.  Knowing that high school is coming can help a kid in junior high. Knowing university is coming can help a kid in high school.  Being prepared in university can help in life after school.  Knowing we have an eternity in Heaven in our future, can help us do our spiritual homework now.  Knowing we have Heaven in store for us can help us do the hard work of cooperating with the Spirit in sanctification. Knowing we have Heaven in our future can help us love others, be joyful, find peace, be patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled.  
To Do:  This week, for application, pray for a sense of our heavenly destiny.  Pray for the Spirit to give you a desire to be made holy.  Pray for a desire to be made ready for heaven by a change of your character.  Then ask the Spirit to show you what you need to do to cooperate with His work in you.