Dr Greg Bahnsen - The Fruit of the Spirit: Introduction (Part 1)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. All right, let's turn in our Bibles as we continue our study in the book of Galatians. We'll turn to chapter five tonight and begin a study of the fruit of the Spirit, which I'm going to give a little bit more attention than we have other sections of the book kind of stands by itself as a subject worthy of study. I'll begin our reading tonight at verse 13 and go to the end of the chapter. Hear God's word to you, for you brethren were called for freedom only. Use not your freedom for an occasion of the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. Even thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. But I say, walk by the Spirit. You shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the for these are contrary the one to the other, that you may not do the things that you would, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revelings, and such like, of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control. Against such there is no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof. If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit, let us also walk. Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another. And thus for our reading in our last Bible study, we looked at the catalog of vices that Paul lays out here. And I explained to you that this was a common teaching technique in the ancient world for the presentation of ethics. Often ethical instruction took the form of a list of character traits that you should not emulate or list the character creature and focus upon them. We saw some examples in the New Testament where Paul does that elsewhere, and we studied this particular set of character traits called the works of the flesh. Paul has begun to talk about the need for love in the congregation and how they're biting and devouring each other. And he talks then in verse 16 about living according to the flesh, which leads to that kind of destructive and. And unloving spirit and living by the Spirit. He tells us that living by the flesh and living by the Spirit are contrary to each other. They can't be reconciled with each other, explains that if we are led by the Spirit, then we are free from the condemnation and the impotence of the law, are now able to do what God wishes for us to do. And then verse 19, he begins, what is a long contrast, because it is so long, people sometimes lose sight of how Paul is tying all this together. He's just talked about flesh and spirit. Now he's going to illustrate. Here's a lot of fleshly things, here are the Spirit led things. And then he comes back at the end of the passage we're reading and talks about crucifying the flesh, which is contrary to the Spirit. We live by the Spirit, we should walk by the Spirit and not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another, which is where all this began. As you're biting and devouring each other, he goes through the law and the flesh and the flesh and spirit, the explanation of how they're contrary to each other, how they have different works associated with them. And then comes back to his point about how that applies to life within the congregation. And we'll continue that into chapter six. This is another example, by the way, where the chapter division is not really helpful. In fact, in many printings of the Bible, looks like it's right in the middle of a paragraph where Paul has begun a thought, breaks the chapter, and he continues to thought in the next one. So tonight we're going to look at the fruit of the Spirit or begin a discussion of the fruit of the Spirit, which will take us a few lessons, two or three, maybe four, verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit, the Word. But I've already explained, he's given the manifestation of the flesh. He goes, this is what your natural desire is. You want to have a partying lifestyle, you want to get involved in factions and wrath, and you don't have a lot of self control and so forth. But he says in contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is. Now, is there something of a grammatical problem in this sentence? The fruit of the Spirit is. And then he gives us a number of fruits, right? Love, joy, peace, etc. Etc. Etc. Shouldn't Paul have said the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience. Someone's going to have to help me here. We showed it as a big cluster of graves. Graves had a name on it. So then it would be a singular because it's a plus. Well, there may be some value to that metaphor of it being a cluster of grapes with one kind of fruit. Yeah, but I. I don't know. My picture when I see this is like a tree, like an apple tree, but there are apples and bananas and oranges and all sorts of things on it. And that's not the picture you have. Okay. They all go together. Very good. Glenn's got the point here and Harriet has illustrated it nicely. Paul thinks of all of these traits as being grouped together. It's likely singular. It's not as though when we look at this we can say, okay, well, do it. You work on patience and I think I'll work on self control and you work on being loving and so forth. It's not as though you can divide all these up. This is the life of the Spirit led person. And all of these facets of character should be seen in us who are led by the Spirit. And so there is a fruit of the Spirit, that is to say a manifestation or outworking of the Spirit. Every one of these runs together. It's not as though the Spirit. This is not like spiritual gifts is what I'm trying to get at. Okay? God gives to some people, speaking ability gives to other people. A ministry of compassion, other people administration, those who help out quietly behind the scenes, organizing things. People who drive cars on and on and on. There's all these different things people can do in the ministry of the Body of Christ. Not everyone does the same. Not everyone has the same gift. But everyone is supposed to have the fruit singular of the Spirit. The Spirit's working in us. This is the kind of individual you're going to find. You're going to find a person who's characterized by love and joy and peacemaking and patience and self control. Okay? But the fruit singular of the Spirit is. What do we learn from the fact that Paul calls it the fruit of the Spirit? It's of the Spirit because it's not something that we can produce ourselves. These are virtues which are beyond our ability to lump up inside us. It's not as though you can go home and look in the mirror and say, you're going to be more patient today. You're going to be more patient today. As long as you're living in the flesh, living according to your own lights and your own ability and strength and spiritual guidance. You're not going to prove to be a patient person no matter how many times you try to talk yourself into it. Nor will you gain self control. Only those who are given over to the power of God, who are given life by the Spirit and are strengthened and guided by the Spirit, only those who live by God's grace, the power of His Spirit, are going to be able to bring forth these kinds of of virtues. It would be worth pointing out as well that this is not the only list of virtues that we find in the New Testament. Just like there are other lists of vices we saw in our last Bible study, there are other lists of virtues. Why don't you stop for a minute and see if you can think of any. I'll give you a few examples in a second. But before I do, think back. Where in the New Testament have I seen the New Testament just kind of, as it were, rattle off one after another? The this, this, this, this, this should characterize the Christian man. What's that? That's right. You have the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13. How about the Christian soldier in Ephesians 6? Okay. We often do that in Bible school. We show all these different virtues. Right. Of Christian. In Colossians 3, Paul describes the new man in Christ. And if you read it, you'll see he gives a list of virtues that characterize the new man in Christ. I don't want to steal anyone's thunder. What else? Okay, there's a list of things that should characterize our thinking and our attitudes. First Corinthians 3, the temple of the Holy Spirit is described. There's a model of sanctification. In Ephesians 5, the children of light are described. In Ephesians Philippians 3, the citizens of heaven and Hebrews 11, the men of faith are described. James 1, two doers of the word. First Timothy 3, qualifications for office in the church. James 3:4, the virtues of wisdom. Christian ethics requires us to look at all of these portraits in the New Testament. Keep them in mind. It's kind of overwhelming if you think about it all these things. I'd be a Christian soldier, temple of the Holy Spirit and a new man in Christ and a doer of the Word and grateful it's a fruit of the Spirit. But by setting those pictures out in front of us, that's one of the ways in which God draws out of us what he wants. We need to have in front of our eyes, forefront of our mind, the kind of person God wants us to be. I know that some dieting plans, not all, but some, use this as something of a technique. You put a picture on the refrigerator. Well, it works both ways. Sometimes a picture of you at your worst, so that before you open that refrigerator door, you go, oh, I don't want to be that anymore. Or a picture of someone who's real trim and so forth. And you say, boy, if I'm ever going to get there, I better not open this door. Okay? We set before our mind a portrait of what we want to be. And that's what the Bible does in giving us these pictures. We should read them and meditate on them and compare ourselves to them. The fruit of the Spirit's a real tough one for me. I read the Fruit of the Spirit and I go, man, oh man. But again, I can't produce that, can I? I need to be concerned, to submit to God and to see myself change, to work with the new life that God has given me and the work of his Spirit in my life, I wouldn't be able to repent of my sins and turn away from those ugly traits that are those bad habits that stay with us even after we become Christians. Now, the one I see here in my notes, Abraham is set forth as an example. Paul puts himself forth as an example sometimes in the Bible. Hebrews 13, verse 17. Remember those who led you, who spoke the word unto you, and considering the outcome of their way of life, imitates their faith. So we have a lot of examples in the New Testament. The fruit of the Spirit is only one of them, but it's perhaps the best known for all of that. If you were to have to come up with one list of virtues, if you knew the New Testament, my guess is you would think of the fruit of the Spirit. I want to say something about traits of character and traits of personality. At this point, Christian ethics is interested in traits of character. It really doesn't have much to say about traits of personality. What is the difference between a trait of personality and a trait of character? Well, character is seen in attributes or virtues like kindness and honesty and patience and self sacrifice and so forth. Dispositions such as those are not innate. They are not something you're born with. No one is born self sacrificial. No one is born a peacemaker. No one is born joyful through adversity. You know where those traits come from? Hard work. Now, I've already indicated that's the work of the Spirit through us. But these don't, as it were, come with a package. However, there Are other traits that are innate to individuals and set us apart from one another. Traits of personality. Some of us are shy, some of us are charming. Not many of us, but some of us, okay? And it just seems like, you know, people that. It just seems to come naturally, you know, in social situations. They just always have the right word and they roll with the punches and they know the right things to do and all that. That's not a matter of moral attainment and shyness is not a matter of moral perversity. Although I always feel badly for shy people because I think the American model is always the outgoing, aggressive, kind of well spoken person. And so you think, well, I'm less than what I should be. But those are personality traits that if they are acquired at all or acquired very subtly, they are not acquired in the way that we teach and practice the virtues of character. The traits of character like kindness and courage and self control. Now, morality must put a premium upon moral virtues. Those traits of character that come through training and teaching and practice must put a premium on things like honesty and conscientiousness and so forth. If the sources of our ethical motivation are not simply to be external, then traits of character are crucial to being a moral person. What do I mean by the sources of motivation being external? When children are small, they don't ordinarily keep their hands off the cookies because they know that honesty and respect and submission is what's required of them. They usually keep their hands off the cookies because they know if they don't, they'll get whacked. Okay? Or something like that. Sometimes people grow up and they start doing things. I mean, how many people that I know in school who did a good job in school, always respectful for the teacher and never cut up and it was really boring. And people like that, you know, they're just so always in place. And why? Because they love the praise that they got for being the fair haired child and so forth, okay? And so reward and punishment, blame and praise, Things like that often lead people to do the right things or to stay in line. But now, what if you had an adult? What do you mean? What? Yeah, since we have so many adults that are like this, there are people who are adults who still won't do the right thing unless they think, well, I'll get caught otherwise, isn't that right? You know, people like that and for most of their lives, they don't make decisions on the basis of what is right or wrong. It's kind of like I would do this even if no one else in the world ever saw me or I wouldn't do whatever. It's like, well, what can I get away with? What do I want to do? If we're going to be truly moral people, we must develop traits of character. Not personality, which is innate and has nothing to do with moral attainment, but traits of character that reflect maturity and growth. That is to say, we have to develop internal rather than external sanctions for doing what is right. You have to ask yourself what you would do and how you would feel about it if you could get away with doing something, or if no one ever knew. If you could even forget about God seeing everything. What would you do if there weren't just external motivations? What kind of person are you? Do you refrain from taking something from a store just because you're afraid you might get caught? That would be a horrible thing for a morally mature person, an adult, to do. But it's pretty common, I'm afraid. Now, something else about traits of character. It's not just that traits of character have internal sanctions. We do it because it's right. It's part of our character. But it's got to be something we do fairly consistently. One act of patience doesn't make you a patient person. There may be a time where you just don't have enough vinegar in you that day to be feisty with people. And so you kind of put up with things and you're patient someone. If that's the only little snapshot of your life someone had, you might say, boy, what a patient person. But you know better. Patience is not the individual act. Patience is on the long haul, the evaluation over a period of time where a fairly consistent pattern of behavior can be found. When we speak of somebody being a patient person or being a joyful person, what we mean is this is pretty much what you'll expect. They may have some failures in their lives, and there may be some exceptions to the rule. But character traits are the ones that most people would if they knew. You expect to see you demonstrate under relevant circumstances. Morality cannot be satisfied with external conformity to rules, cannot be satisfied with external sanctions on our behavior, cannot be satisfied with momentary and singular acts of virtue. If we would truly be moral people to please God, then we need to change or have our characters changed so that we're more like God. You think God is righteous because of external considerations? That wouldn't make any sense. What kind of praise or blame punishment could there be outside of God? God is righteous because of who he is. And God isn't righteous just Occasionally or every once in a while, like the gods of the Greeks, you know, Zeus does the right thing, but other times he's really venial and selfish and so forth. God is permanently, always righteous. So when we gain the fruit of the spirit in our lives, when we have a character, character change, and we start attaining moral virtue, it becomes habitual with us. It should become habitual, just like in the case of God. It's constant throughout true Christian ethics. True Christian character will then be a matter of having proper dispositions and the manifestation of certain virtuous qualities. Qualities. And in the fruit of the Spirit we get the best known list of those virtuous qualities for which we should be known, which should be habitual with us. The fruit. The fruit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control. And Paul adds this. And against those sorts of things, there is no law. If you are really doing the gentle, faithful, joyful, loving thing, Adam, all up. If you're really manifesting those character traits, you'll never run afoul of the law of God. You'll never end up doing anything contrary to the law of God. Paul here is not dismissing the law as though it's irrelevant because of course, we all need help. I need to know in this situation, what would God have me to do? But now, when you see what the law tells you to do, you mustn't look at it and say, I don't know if that's very loving, I don't know if that's very patient, and so forth. Whatever God's law tells us to do will prove to be consistent with the fruit of the Spirit. Far from dismissing the law by looking at the fruit of the spirit, Paul endorses the fruit of the spirit by reference to the law. He uses it to back up the fruit of the spirit. Because here's how you know you can count on the fruit of the Spirit to guide you. God's law never stands contrary to the fruit of the Spirit, the manifestation of these character traits. What's the first fruit of the spirit? Love. That deserves special attention. And that's what we're going to give in our next lesson. Because as it turns out, somebody mentioned First Corinthians 13 is one of those passages in the Bible that lays out traits of character for us. Love is, in a sense the whole of Christian morality, isn't it? There was once a lawyer who approached Jesus, tempting him, the Bible says, and ask him, what's the greatest commandment of all what did Jesus say? Love. Love God with all that's in you and your neighbor as yourself. But love, you see, is the summary of everything. If we would truly love, we would never fall short of the glory of God. If we would truly love, we would always be putting the kingdom of God first. If we would truly love, we would put others before ourselves. So why then didn't Paul just say, the fruit of the Spirit is love? And then say, okay, next subject? In fact, he could say, go to First Corinthians 13. See what I've said about that? Now he thinks there's some reason to go on and to amplify. Not everyone sees it this way. I don't think it's crucial that you do so. But I find it helpful myself to look at it this way. Paul says, the fruit of the Spirit is love. Now, I could leave it at that, but let me amplify a bit. And love works its way out in being patient and being kind and showing self control and faithfulness and all the rest. So where in the Bible can we go for a couple of chapters on love? We've already said in the New Testament, First Corinthians 13. Where would you say in the Old Testament you should look if you wanted to find a chapter that describes love, what it means to love. And I want you to look at these before we get together again and study some more. Leviticus 19. When Jesus was asked, what's the first and great commandment? And he gives his answer about loving God, he's quoting Deuteronomy 6. He says, and the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. There he is quoting Leviticus 19. And if you look at the chapter, it appears to me that the command about loving your neighbor as yourself has been illustrated throughout the chapter in various ways. This is what love means. It's very concrete. So when we get together for Bible study next time, please, if you can remember and have time, read Leviticus 19 of 1 Corinthians 13 and we'll look at the first fruit of the Spirit, which in a sense summarizes everything in Christian morality. And then we'll start taking two or three at a time until we've gone through the rest of the list. Any questions tonight about the concept of the fruit of the spirit and moral virtue? You pray that God will give you good habits, that God will give you such a disposition that when things come up in your life, that's what you can expect from you. It's pretty easy for us to pray for individual situations. God Help me to be loving today when I have to go into this situation. Give me patience today when I have to deal with my boss or with this worker or whatever it may be. And that's good. We should pray for specific things like that. But I think we need to pray also that God will give us the fruit of the spirit so that the Spirit so controls us that whatever comes up, you can count on yourself to be patient and loving and kind and self control. No comments in some word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight and confess that we are all of us too full of ourselves and we really do need to be filled by your spirit and controlled by your spirit, so that we would demonstrate those character traits which reflect your unholiness. We praise you because you are permanently, unalterably, consistently righteous and just in all that you do. Will you ask that you would bring that about in our lives as well? That you would give us a heart that seeks not just to do the right thing moment by moment, in individual case by individual case, but you would give us hearts that have been so changed that we consistently show the fruit of the spirit. We show your character and respond to the various challenges and circumstances in our lives in a way that pleases you. We do pray that you would put to death those old bad habits, those works in the flesh that so often crop up in our lives. Would you pray that you would help us to get them weeded out so that the fruit of your spirit would show forth with greater glory and power and consistency? We ask that you would be honored in our lives. We ask as well that you would help us to set before ourselves the kinds of pictures that you've given us of what true righteousness and virtue is, what true godliness is. We ask that we would pay attention to the fruit of the Spirit, all those fruits that are set before us, as well as other descriptions of Christian character that are found in the Word, and that we would more and more live up to those models in our own lives. We ask that these things would be done, not that we might. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonsen Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.