“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (23.) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22 – 23
I love these scriptures, I love them so much I have used them almost certainly hundreds of times in my sermons over the last eleven years I have been pastor of this church. These are the fruits of the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit of God. When we think of fruit we think of a tree or a vine that produces fruit and we pluck the fruits and eat them. An apple tree produces apples and almost all of us love apples. A grapevine will produce grapes and there are so many wonderful things we can do with good grapes. We will not find either one of these (the apple tree or the grapevine) producing oranges or strawberries because that would be against their nature. God had just listed several things (evil things) that the lost person produces, idolatry, hatred, variance, envyings, murders, drunkenness, etc. etc. and etc. God said in verse 19 “Now the works of the flesh are manifest…” this is the lost persons works because it is all they know. It would be as rare for them to do different and produce good works as it would be for an apple tree to produce oranges. The lost person has no good in them, because the Lord said of them "...There is none righteous, no, not one:” Romans 3:10 this is why God will not accept any of their works no matter what. However, with this being said the saved person is different and they can produce good fruits acceptable to God. Now what is the difference between the lost person and the saved person? It is the Holy Spirit; one is not saved until that person has the Holy Spirit in their heart. No matter what a person does they are not saved until the Holy Spirit has brought a change to them. What changes, first He quickens the spirit of the person who is lost. Ephesians 2:1 Second, He delivers faith, not just any faith but saving faith enabling the person to believe on Christ, third He opens the spiritual ears and eyes of the person so that for the first time they can see and hear the gospel, and fourth He leads them to salvation in Christ Jesus. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Romans 8:14 The fleshly man, the natural man, the man that the Holy Spirit has not led and caused to hear and see will never turn from their natural lost state, no matter what. Here is a very blessed fact, as many as He (the Holy Spirit) leads, He looses none, and all are saved. While the Holy Spirit is making all these changes in the person being saved, He is also producing more fruits in that person like love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance and etc. etc. etc. These are not fruits the person produced before salvation because they are fruits of God. That’s right God has a seed in you (the Holy Spirit) that produces good and acceptable fruits because He cannot produce bad fruits no more than a grapevine can produce strawberries. After a person is saved then any bad fruits produced are done so by the old natural man, which we still have. This is why the lost person cannot have good fruit and the saved person will never produce bad fruits if they lean on their godly side. Let us all work hard to lean on the fruits of the Spirit and not our own natural fruits. If you are saved then you have them, their there, just search for them. Remember Paul told young preacher Timothy "But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (12.) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." 1 Timothy 6:11 - 12
