The Fruit of the Spirit
Part 2 – Love
Rev. Bruce A. Shields
First Baptist Church Tawas City Michigan
www.TawasBaptist.org
WELCOME
INTRODUCTION
We began our series last week on ‘The Fruit of the Spirit’.
We talked about how we receive the Spirit from Jesus when we receive Salvation, but that there is more to receiving the power of the Holy Spirit.
The promise of the Father, the power from on high.
We saw in the scriptures how Jesus breathed on the Disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit, thus making them a NEW creation because of their Salvation and the work of the Cross.
The same thing happened in Genesis when God breathed life into the first man, when we receive Christ we are made new.
Jesus then told the Disciples to go into Jerusalem and wait, He would then return to the Father in Heaven and send the promise of the Father, the power from on high, the Holy Spirit to clothe or cover them, which in turn, would enable them for the calling and great commission Jesus had just given to them.
This is where we receive our Spiritual Gifts, our Whole Armor of God, and when we are clothed in God’s Spirit, we spontaneously produce the fruits of God’s Spirit.
These fruits are not ours, or anything that we have done or can do, but the natural result of being in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
Remember, we are ambassadors for God and His kingdom.
So we put on our royal garb of the Holy Spirit, God’s Holy clothing.
The fruit bearing witness to the presence of God’s Holy Spirit within us.
We represent the coming age and our Lord and King, Jesus Christ.
We are the only Bible some people will ever experience in their lives.
So we need to be diligent in our daily witness.
We are heirs of a Kingdom where it is God’s will that ALL are received by Him who sent us.
The scriptures tell us plainly, that it is God’s will that ALL are saved and come to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus was loud and clear when He gave us, His body here on earth, the commission to go out into all the world making disciples, teaching them to obey everything He taught, and baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes I wonder if the Church is too preoccupied with programs, events, committees and the like, neglecting our Lords instruction.
These things can be good aids or tools, but not at the expense of our Lords instructions, to go and make disciples.
Our Holy garment, the covering given to us by God, His Holy Spirit, will naturally produce fruit in your life, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.
These things will be present in your life when you are covered with the Holy Spirit.
These are naturally occurring.
If they are not present in your life, there is one of two things happening because God’s Holy Spirit does not fail.
You either do not have the Holy Spirit, or you have quenched it’s fruit in your life by following your sinful flesh instead of, as the scriptures say, keeping in step with the Spirit.
We have to submit ourselves, surrendering our control daily to God.
In doing this, we crucify our flesh, and yield ourselves to God’s will in our lives.
When we do that, God’s will is done in our lives, we keep in step with the Holy Spirit, and fruit will be produced in abundance!
Today we will be looking at the first Fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-25, which is Love.
I would also like to remind you that the scriptures we read last week tell us that our flesh is in contradiction to our spirit, and our spirit in contradiction to our flesh.
So while we look at the differing fruits of the Spirit, we should also keep in mind its contrast, the fruit of our flesh, the contrast to Love being that of hate.
We all produce fruit in our lives, some from the Spirit, and some from the flesh.
SCRIPTURE READING
John 13:34 & 35 (Jesus Speaking to the Disciples)
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT & UNDERSTANDING
I. A new command I give you: Love one another.
The word ‘love’ used here is agapao in the literal translation which comes from the word ‘agan’ which means much or a lot. Agapao means to love someone in a social or moral sense.
In typical Jesus fashion, Jesus knowing the heart of mankind comes to clear some things up.
Love each other the way I love you, and everyone will know you are my disciples.
We, humans, tend to always look for the loopholes in instructions, teachings, rules, commands, what ever you want to call them.
When given instruction, we tend to look for a way around that instruction.
Like a child, we say in our hearts, “you’re not the boss of me”, even when sometimes they are.
Like the old saying, children like to break things, especially rules.
Always looking for a way around instruction.
We can see this demonstrated in children at a very young age.
Rebekah is almost 2 ½ now, and she knows she’s not allowed in Dad’s office while he is working.
Sometimes while I’m working, she will come to the door, which is open, and lay on the floor just outside the door.
She’ll peek her head around the corner, look at me and say “Hi Daddy.”
Then as I continue to work, she will slowly edge herself to the line, until she has some small part of her just over the threshold.
Then she looks up at me as if to say, “what?”
It’s in our nature, our flesh, the desire to do our will.
She knows her Father said she’s not allowed to cross that line, but the desire within her to do her will is sometimes stronger than the desire to do what she knows she’s supposed to.
And she’ll cross that line, in full understanding that it is wrong.
If she didn’t truly know better, she wouldn’t have lay down just before it, and called my name to see my response.
If she didn’t understand, she wouldn’t have slowly executed her scheme to cross the threshold into the office.
The will of our sinful flesh can sometimes exclaim so loudly within us, that we can easily ignore that still and quiet voice of the Holy Spirit.
But we know the truth.
We know right from wrong, it has been written upon our hearts.
2 Corinthians 3:3
“You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
You are a letter from Christ, to the lost world.
You are a love letter, written with the Spirit of the Living God upon your hearts.
A letter that should be telling the world, “My King requests your presence in His Kingdom.”
Are you proclaiming the Kingdom of Love to the lost?
Are you proclaiming the Love of our King for the lost?
You can only do this through loving others.
You can’t just talk about love, and not do it.
Love must be shown, not with words, but in action.
If you do not love others, no one will hear your words about a God who loves, or a coming Kingdom of Love.
All they will see is the way you live as you tell them they need God’s Love.
If you do not love, yet claim to be a Christian, all you are to the lost is a walking contradiction.
People believe action, words are just words.
You can talk all day about your intensions of doing something, but until you actually do it, it hasn’t been done.
Anybody who brags about what he’s going to do tomorrow probably did the same thing yesterday.
Think about that one for a minute.
No farmer ever plowed a field by turning it over in his mind.
The Lord wants you to begin where you are. But don’t stay where you are.
There’s a scripture about those who talk the talk, but do not walk the walk;
Mark 7:6
“He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " ’These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Where is your heart today?
Is it full of God’s love for people?
This includes the lost sinners.
They are the ones we are instructed to reach and save.
Where is your heart today?
Is it for moving forward and proclaiming God’s Kingdom in Love?
Are you living God’s love?
II. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
This kind of love is supernatural.
This Spiritual fruit of love is for God and fellowman, believer and lost.
A supernatural love for God which causes a man to be more interested in the Kingdom of God than in the material kingdom in which he lives.
We know it’s supernatural because we know that man by nature is a greedy creature, and lusts after the material kingdom at hand.
And it would take the power of God to have his mind on Spiritual things rather than the things of this world.
Love for your fellowman (whether saved or lost) has always been a hallmark of the devout Christian.
God’s Spiritual fruit of love creates in us compassion for others, tenderheartedness for others, and makes us a loving individual.
The kind of compassion that makes you stop on a weary road to help a man who had been robbed, beaten and left for dead.
This was the story of the Good Samaritan.
The kind of compassion that made Christ cry when he heard his friend Lazarus had died, and He knew the sadness the family was feeling, or when He cried over Jerusalem falling away from God.
Do you have this Spiritual Fruit of love?
Are you compassionate about people, or cold towards them?
Do you have a tender heart for others, or are you hateful and full of spite?
Do you love, or are you full of anger?
Are you loving towards others?
Jesus says, ‘Love one another, as I have loved you,”
How does Jesus love us?
This is important, because Jesus says “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Right now, think of someone in this church that you don’t like.
I know some of you won’t have any trouble at all, while it may take others a moment or two.
Now ask yourself some questions;
Remembering Jesus’ words, ask your self;
If that person were hungry, would I feed them?
If that person were thirsty, would I give them something to drink?
If that person were sick, would I visit them?
Would I give my life for them?
Jesus did.
That person you are holding a grudge against, Jesus died for them because He loved them so much.
Love is a serious matter to God.
For God is love.
1 John 4:7, 8
“7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Are you born again?
Has Christ breathed the Spirit into you?
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
You see, you cannot hate your brother and claim to be a Christian.
You are in contradiction.
Are you a Christian or not?
If you are, then stop hating, backbiting, gossiping, working against, and attacking with your words…
Especially against your brother in the Body of Christ.
Did you know, God warns you about hating your brother?
1 John 7:20, 21
“20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
God also warns us against harming your brother with your slander, gossip and attacking words.
Listen, because God is not a liar, and He promises in Isaiah 55:11 – “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Proverbs 26:20
“Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.”
It’s time for some of these fires to die.
Stop giving them wood with the words from your mouth.
In Matthew, Jesus tells the story of Judgment day, where the Lord thanks the righteous for taking care of Him when he was hungry and thirsty, naked and sick, imprisoned.
The righteous were amazed and confused;
Matthew 25:37 – 46
37 "Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 "The King will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Jesus also addresses the unrighteous on Judgment day;
41 "Then he will say to those on his left, ’Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 "They also will answer, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 "He will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Whatever we do in life, there are consequences.
Good and bad.
How do you show love to a God you cannot touch or see?
Jesus says by obeying His commands.
The scriptures also say when you love one another the way God loves you, you show your love to God.
We are commanded to love one another as He loves us.
When we love others, we love Christ.
When we hate others, we hate Christ.
III. By this (love) all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Jesus goes beyond the Old Testament teaching in Leviticus 19:18 which says “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”, and tells us to love our neighbors as Christ loves us.
Jesus has shown His love, not in words, but action.
He has loved each one of us unto death.
When you hate someone, you hate someone Christ loved so much He died for.
Jesus’ own words, “What you do to the least of these, you do unto me.”
But when you love, you proclaim Christ’s love letter to the lost.
By your love for others, you love Christ.
Not only do you proclaim the love of our Lord, but you proclaim His Kingdom and the foundation of the New Covenant.
This type of love is the God-kind of love, and is impossible for anyone to have without accepting Christ as your savior.
When you have accepted Christ, you have access to the power from on high.
If you do not love the way Christ is telling you to, then you need to ask yourself why.
Is it you have not asked Jesus to be your Lord?
If not, you need to do so.
Is it because you are living by your flesh?
If so, you need to crucify your flesh and follow the Spirit which has been given to you by the Lord.
Perhaps it’s just because of an oversight?
Pray, and the Holy Spirit will change your heart.
CONCLUSION
We have to choose to, as the scripture last week said “keep in step with the spirit.”
We have to choose God’s way, over our way.
We have to not just hear the word, but be doers of the word.
Jesus has placed the proverbial threshold before you today, saying “Love each other, as I love you.”
Are you going to walk in your spirit, and Love, or are you going to walk in your sinful flesh and test the boundaries of God, knowing the will of your Father in Heaven, and disobeying with hate and anger towards your fellow man?
We cannot substitute for the Spiritual Fruit of love, but we can stop it from being produced in our lives.
When dealing with situations, remember, the way you treat that other person is exactly what you are doing to Christ.
Love one another.
CLOSING PRAYER AND INVITATION
