Title: God’s Orchard

Text: Gal 5:22-26

Paul has spent a lot of time in Galatians making it clear we are justified by faith alone and not works. As a matter of fact Paul’s argument has been so strong that many people have felt the letter of James was in complete disagreement with him. As a matter of fact Martin Luther even questioned the validity of James and called it an Epistle of straw because of James insistence on works.

James wrote in 2:17-18 “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, {being} by itself. But someone may {well} say, "You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

He concluded in verses 20-23 “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. . ."(NAS)

Is there a contradiction with Paul, whose argument in Gal 3 was that

Abraham was justified by faith and we are justified in the same way? At first glance there sure seems to be a contradiction. Those of you who studied hermeneutics with Dr Larry Allen a while back may have heard this. Hermeneutics is the study of biblical interpretation and the three fundamentals of sound biblical interpretation are: “Context, context and context.”

If you read both letters in context I think you’ll find there is no contradiction between James and Paul and the two are easily reconciled. Paul has been talking about works of the law. In other words works based righteousness, and he says that is absolutely wrong. On the other hand James is not talking about works based righteousness but works produced by faith. James says that genuine faith produces good works. Paul is saying the same thing in a different way.

In Eph 2:10 Paul wrote: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (NAS) In Phil 1:27 he wrote, “. . . conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ;” In Col 1:10 he wrote about walking or living in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please {Him} in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work . . .” (NAS)

You remember our conclusion last week, the lives of redeemed, regenerate, justified believers should not be characterized by the deeds of the flesh. Paul and James are saying the same thing: There are ethical and moral implications associated with the Christian life. A person can’t earn God’s favor through works, but neither can a believer ignore the clear ethical and moral demands made by Scripture.

We saw in the previous passage Paul listed things referred to as the works of the flesh, the negative aspect of the moral implications of scripture. in contrast to these evil works, there he also gives us a positive list he calls the fruit of the spirit. Like the previous list this one is also not comprehensive but representative.

Paul’s warning in verse 21 against practicing the works of the flesh imply the fruit of the spirit is something active and demonstrable. You might say faith is demonstrated when the fruit of the spirit is demonstrated. The fruit of the Spirit is the result of the Holy Spirit's presence and working in the lives of maturing believers.

Paul grouped together nine virtues of the Christian life in this passage that as one person wrote gives a sense of beautiful harmony and completion:
"Love, joy, peace;
"Patience, kindness, goodness;
"Faithfulness, gentleness, ... self-control."(13)
These virtues cover the entire range of Christian existence. Together they are described as the "fruit of the Spirit." The word fruit in verse 22 is singular in contrast to the word works in the previous passage. Some suggest that the singular stresses the truth that the fruit is one with many individual parts, like a single diamond has many facets. Another way of looking at it is the fruit of the Spirit is actually a single fruit – love, the other virtues listed are different aspects or manifestations of active love. I think what Paul wrote here is very similar to what he wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, where he describes love. In that passage several of the virtues itemized as fruit in here are included as aspects of agape love in that passage.

Dr. Warren Wiersbe makes an interesting observation about the contrast between works and fruit. He says, “ A machine in a factory works, and turns out a product, but it could never manufacture fruit. Fruit must grow out of life, and in the case of the believer, it is the life of the Spirit. When you think of works, he writes you think of effort, labor, strain and toil; when you think of fruit you think of beauty, quietness, the unfolding of life. The flesh produces dead works (Heb 9:14), but the Spirit produces living fruit (Gen 1:11).

The Bible talks about a number of different kinds of fruit. It refers to bringing people to God (Rom 1:13); it refers to holy living (Rom 6:22); gifts brought to God (15:26-28); good works (Col 1:10) and praise (Heb 13:15). However, Paul’s fruit of the Spirit in Galatians has to do with character. The “fruit of the Spirit is distinct from the gift of the Spirit which is salvation (Acts 2:38; 11:17) and the gifts of the Spirit which are gifts of service (1 Cor 12). The “fruit of the Spirit” describes the characteristics or character traits God wants to develop in our lives.

Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary says the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in the life of the individual Christian depicted in verse 22, can be described as an active love for God and one's fellowman; a rejoicing in all kinds of circumstances; peacefulness and serenity of character and peacemaking among people; patience and longsuffering with persons, some of whom may not be easy to get along with; kindness toward others; goodness that seeks to aid others; faithfulness and dependability in one's relationships with God and other people; gentleness and meekness in accepting God's will and in dealing with others; and the ability to keep oneself in check and under control in all kinds of circumstances.

Dr. John Stott groups these nine traits into three categories that describe the believers’ attitude towards God, towards others and towards self. You might think of them as growth of character upward, outward and inward. Of course these are artificial categories used to help our understanding of the “fruit of the Spirit,” In fact each of these traits flow into and out of one another as the Spirit develops our character and matures it in all three of those directions.

Of course it is possible for the old nature to counterfeit some of the fruit of the Spirit, so that even a lost person might exhibit some of these character traits, but the old nature can never produce the fruit of the Spirit. Perhaps the main difference is that when the Spirit produces fruit God receives the glory, when the flesh is at work the fruit produces a sense of pride and the individual receives the credit. The work of the Spirit in producing fruit in our lives is to make us more Christ like not more popular or more highly thought of.

It is also possible to inhibit the growth of fruit. Just as fruit doesn’t grow in every climate, the fruit of the Spirit doesn’t grow in every climate. It can be held back and kept from growing in individual lives and even in churches.

Remember, when we talk about spiritual life we are talking about supernatural life – Life that is not the norm. It is life produced by the indwelling Spirit of God. But, it does involve the will. James said, “faith without works is dead.” (Ja 2:26 )Paul said “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (NAS) Both are saying the same thing. “If we live by the Spirit,” is indicative, it expresses a statement of fact. “Let us also walk by the Spirit,” is imperative or essential and in the form of a command. We are to be yielded to the Spirit’s leadership to His direction. In other words because we, as believers, have been justified by faith and given life by the Spirit, we are to make sure that our lives are in step with the Spirit in our attitudes, conduct and lifestyle. We must willfully cultivate the soil of our spirit and mind to allow the fruit to grow to produce and to reproduce.

How do we do that? How do we cultivate our minds and spirits? The answers are obvious: Like all cultivation it means preparing the soil through reading and studying God’s Word, if my attitudes, conduct and lifestyle should be in step with God I need to know what God has said; by prayer, through worship, praise and fellowship with God’s people. It means pulling out the weeds Paul was talking about in verse 19-21, because weeds will choke and inhibit the growth of the fruit.

In verse 26 Paul explains that inner fruit produced by the Spirit in not there to be admired or put on display. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. The fruit isn’t grown to make us proud, or arrogant. It isn’t grown so others will envy us and for us to envy others. It’s not produced just for our own consumption. The fruit is to make us more like Jesus, but being more like Jesus means that we use the fruit by the service of others.

The freedom Paul has been talking about is freedom from sin and from the law but also from self. It is freedom to live a life controlled by the Holy Spirit and characterized by the fruit of the Spirit.

As individual believers and as a corporate body of believers, a church, we have to ask ourselves are our lives and our church characterized by this fruit. Being more like Jesus doesn’t mean we can be happy resting within the walls of our church. I remind you of our vision statement, a statement we adopted as a church, it reads – “Our vision is to be a dynamic fellowship of believers modeling the life-changing power of Jesus Christ, impacting our community by sharing His love with individuals and families through expository biblical preaching, Bible-centered education, and effective outreach evangelism.” It sounds good, but are we living it?

Vision is a mental image of what we said we wanted to be. Is our vision more than words on a page, is it a real image of what we want? Dynamic means full of energy and new ideas, does that really describe us? Are we modeling the life changing power of Jesus? Are we impacting or making a difference in our community or are we just meeting here? Are we sharing His love with others or are we hoarding His love? We all like a small church, it’s like a family. But, are we small because God wants us to be small church or are we small because we don’t want change, because we’re comfortable and we just don’t want to move out of our comfort zone. Are we serving God or are we serving ourselves?

What does that have to do with the fruit of the Spirit? People all around us are starving for love, joy, peace and the other traits the Spirit produces. We bear fruit that others might fed, that others might know Christ that God would be glorified. That’s what our vision is and it’s time we start living that vision and living in the power of the Spirit. I think we set out following Jesus and we came to an oasis and we stopped to rest, but it’s time for that rest to be over. It’s time for us to again actively begin following the footsteps of Jesus wherever they go, wherever they lead. Because we can be sure no matter where they lead us it will be the right place to be. It’s time to start exercising our faith, living our vision, cultivating our fruit and glorifying our Lord.