GALATIANS 5: /18/2017

Transcription

1 THE UNDEFILED GOSPEL FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT PEACE GALATIANS 5: /18/2017 Today we continue our study on the Fruit of the Spirit. For the last two weeks Scott and Ron have done a great job in sharing God s Word about Love and Joy. Scott shared that Biblical love is not a feeling but a choice; it is a conscious decision that we make. Love is seen in what we do, and he said as we grow in our faith with Jesus we should show greater love in how we live. Last week Ron shared with us this biblical understanding that for believers Biblical joy is a state of mind and the orientation of the heart. Joy is contentment, confidence and hope that come from living in a right relationship with Jesus.

2 Both of them said that the only way to experience this wonderful gift is by the indwelling of God, the Holy Spirit, who will produce this fruit in us. They also said that to be able to live with this fruit is not dependent on our external circumstances; you see we can express love and joy even during the most difficult and trying of times, if you are truly submitting to and living by the Holy Spirit in your life. So today it is my honor and privilege to get to share from God s Word about peace. Before I get to peace let s talk briefly about what it means to bear fruit. In context of chapter 5 Paul is expressing we are no longer called to be under bondage by trying to perform under the law; we are free and called to liberty by the grace of God. Paul goes on and says that we are not to use this liberty, this freedom, as an opportunity to continue to walk in the works of the flesh. In verse 16 he begins with this. 16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. Galatians 5:16-17 (NLT) In the lives of believers there is this battle that rages in us. Even though we have been saved by the blood of Jesus and we are new creations in Christ we continue to have the same physical body, in the Greek the word is Sarx This is a word that carries with it this idea of flesh or body, but also our human desires, carnality, passions; whether physical or emotional.

3 And Paul here in Galatians warns believers ok you are saved remember what that means you are called to live a different life, a holy life, but IT WILL BE HARD. He writes in this manner that reminds me of the teaching he gave in Romans 7 15 I don t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don t. I don t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:15-20 (NLT) You see for all too many believers they have taken their salvation and think of it in this almost magical way. They live in a way that conveys well I am saved so my work is done I can just sit back and live the way I want, or following God through His Spirit means I will only make good decisions from now on so I don t have to really worry about it.

4 The truth is that in the church there are too many people that don t think about the lives they live in light of their salvation in Jesus Christ. Paul warns us that even for the believer we must stand guard over our hearts, our minds, and our hands. That unless we are cautious and deliberate in our study of God s Word, our submission to God s will, and by being sensitive to God s presence in our lives, we will not live the way we should. In Galatians 5 Paul warns us of the consequences for believers to continue to live according to the passions of our flesh 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT) This is not a comprehensive list, but it does clearly show what happens to those who choose to follow after the works of the flesh; our sinful passions and desires; By the way just to be clear Paul is talking to believers here not unbelievers, and there are too many proclaiming believers who live by the works of the flesh. Paul then goes into another list. 22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

5 faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) Paul is showing here the results in the lives of believers when we are truly following The Holy Spirit and allowing Him to direct our hearts and desires. I find it interesting that Paul uses 2 such different terms to effectively describe a choice that all believers must make. The first is Works and the second Fruit. There is a genius here in how Paul is communicating, you see Works come from our trying, our effort; Fruit though comes from our being, our receiving. So as Christians we have a choice. We can either follow our fleshly nature and then operating in our own strength we can pursue our passions resulting in sin; or we can allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, guiding us to produce fruit that will become part of who we are. I want you to see that the context of Galatians 5:15-23 is all about how What we BELIEVE effects how we LIVE So with all that in mind, today we get to talk about living in Peace.

6 In our culture and times we tend to see peace in a limited way. For us Peace is a period of no conflict between people, groups, or nations; it is freedom from war, calm, quiet, or tranquility. - Peace for the tyrant or dictator is killing your enemies and having total control over the lives of your people. - Peace for eastern religions is the destruction of your individual personality and a oneness with the universe. - Peace for the parent is for their child to stop crying, whining, or constantly asking why; or for their teenager to just stop arguing. - Peace for the person sitting in front of their bills is having enough money to pay them all - Peace for the person in the doctor s office is that the test results come back negative. - Peace for the husband is well I am not going there because I want peace in my home. For most people peace seems to be found in our circumstances, but biblical peace is different. To really understand biblical peace you have to know how Paul would have understood peace. For the Jewish people peace would have been Shalom. Shalom was used as a greeting and a farewell, it was a blessing, it was a part of their prayers, and it meant more than a simple lack of conflict or an increase in tranquility or calmness.

7 You see for the Jewish people Shalom meant Completeness, Wholeness, Welfare, Soundness To the Jewish mind peace is not only external peace between people and circumstances but more importantly it is this internal sense of peace within an individual that allows them to maintain their sense of peace regardless of their external circumstance. To a Jewish person true shalom, true peace that transcends what happens to us can only come from God. That is how we must understand peace to understand Paul s writings on peace. Here is what Paul says in Romans. Therefore, since we have been made right in God s sight by faith, we have PEACE with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God s glory. 3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance Romans 5:1-3 (NLT) So we have been given peace with God, wholeness, completeness, success and end to conflict with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us, This is a peace that allows us to not only endure problems and trials but to do so and rejoice. So what is it that Jesus has done, Paul tells us just a couple of verses later.

8 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. Romans 5:8-10 (NLT) To truly experience peace you must first have Peace with God. We must accept that we are or were at one time an enemy of God. We rejected Him in our sinfulness; we spit in His face, and challenged His goodness, mercy, grace, might, and justice, by our selfishness, disobedience, and evil hearts. If you cannot accept the truth of your disobedience you can never experience true peace. In a war there are only a few possible outcomes. One is that I can be victorious, I can conquer my enemy; second I can be utterly defeated and destroyed; last I can wave the white flag of surrender and submit and make peace with my enemy. Well I hope you can see that there is no way that any of us is strong enough to overcome God and win that fight, I can never earn my own righteousness through my actions; so that really leaves two options, in my pride and stubbornness I can continue to fight God to my utter destruction or I can choose the other option I can surrender.

9 But here there is another problem, in my sin I have no way of surrendering. I cannot even approach God s presence to wave my flag and God knew this. He knew we were utterly helpless to fix the problem of our sin, but because He loves us so much He sent His one and only Son to come to the battlefield, to fight the fight we could not, to pay the price for us, you see Jesus surrendered His life as punishment for our sins, all so that we could surrender our lives to God and gain eternal life with Him. Understand true peace with God is an act of God, by God, for our good. Have you really accepted that in your flesh you are an enemy of God? Are you ready to wave the flag of surrender? If you see that you are a sinner who has rejected God and His goodness are you ready to truly fix that and be at peace with God? And if you have surrendered your life to God will I see that in the life you are living? And once you have experience peace with God you can finally experience peace with yourself Peace with Self For so many people they fight with feelings of being worthless, unlovable, and not good enough. We feel that we don t measure up, or that we deserve more in life than what we have. We are uncomfortable in our own skin always trying to change or gain something to help us feel better.

10 A wonderful benefit of being at peace with God is that I can truly be comfortable and at peace with who I am in Christ. I can sit back and know that I am loved for who I am and I can stop working to earn approval, stop working to change myself, or to work hard to get the things I think I deserve and instead I can rest in God and know that if I let Him He will do a great work in me to transform me into who He knows I need to be. I can be content with what He has given me whether it is a treasure, a blessing, a trial, or even pain. And once you have experience peace with God and peace within yourself what flows so naturally is that you are at Peace with Others. Knowing you are loved, cherished, accepted by God; knowing that you no longer have to fight to earn love, that you can experience completeness in your relationship with God that no circumstance can destroy you start to see others differently. You no longer compete with others for resources; for love, attention, respect, acceptance. Your desires change to the desires of God so you don t have conflict because someone has a bigger house, or better car. You don t get angry when someone else s life seems better and you don t get prideful when someone else s life seems worse. You can go through life as a peacemaker, standing for your convictions, being calm, tranquil, composed in the face of

11 adversity, and complete in your relationship with God even if everything else in life is falling apart. So if you truly believe that you are a sinner saved by Grace, that you have surrender your life to Jesus Christ and been given the great gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God living in you. You now have the power through Him to live out grace and peace in your life. You might ask how, how do I do that? Well the believer must allow the Holy Spirit to cultivate His fruit in us. An orchard that is left uncultivated goes wild and overgrown, eventually becoming good for nothing. But an orchard that is cared for, pruned, is healthy, and bears much fruit.

12 The Holy Spirit plants His Fruit in our lives by His very Presence, but that fruit is cultivated by our decision to live by faith, by our choosing to live according to God s will; this is accomplished by our deliberate practice of spiritual disciplines, such as 1) The reading and Study of God s Word 2) The regular gathering of Saints to hear God s Word preached and taught 3) Through consistent and constant prayer 4) Through Obedience 5) By regular serving of others. There are other spiritual disciplines that will help us to cultivate The Fruit of the Spirit in our lives, but this is a good place to start. Remember though that ultimately how well we bear fruit is dependent upon God, we must be willing to reject the work of the flesh and then live by the Spirit through our faith in Jesus. This is how Paul finishes Galatians 5 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit s

13 leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. Galatians 5:24-26 (NLT) Bearing fruit is God s work in me, but I must be willing to do that work with Him. Let me leave you with this illustration of where peace truly comes from. It is said that Robert Louis Stevenson told this story A storm caught a ship off a rocky coast and threatened to drive it and all its passengers upon the rocks to their destruction. In the midst of the noise, chaos, and terror, one daring man, against all orders, went up on the deck. He made the dangerous trip to the pilot house and there saw the steersman, lashed fast to the wheel with ropes, holding on unwaveringly, and inch by slow inch, turning the ship away from the rocks and back out to see once more. The pilot saw the man watching and smiled. The daring man again makes the perilous trip across the deck and went below. He gave out a note of cheer: I have seen the face of the pilot, and he smiled. All is well. This is peace for the Christian that in the midst of the noise, chaos, pain, and terror of this life we can say I have seen the face of the Pilot and He smiled ALL IS WELL. Can I ask who your Pilot is?