And people of God, let us turn now to the reading of God's word, Galatians chapter five. And we will slow down a little bit for the fruits of the spirit. I think we'll spend either two or three weeks on the fruits. And so we take the first three fruits. This morning, Galatians chapter five, verse 22a. We might say, although we'll read Galatians 5, 22 through 26. Page 1,239 in most of the pew Bibles. Let us hear now the reading of the word of God. Galatians chapter 5 beginning at verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. So far the reading. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there are some words in the course of our life and in our living with other people in different places that we can use in different ways or that we can even use in different ways in different places. One of those words for me in my life Growing up it had a very narrow usage and that was in my immediate family as I grew up We had a word the word Hummer that we used in a little bit different way than most people use that word we use it in kind of a funny way and so in my house growing up I we would call little cookies a hummer. And it was kind of a way to, I think maybe part of it was, you know, you could say, well, I'm just taking a little cookie. And you didn't even have to say the word cookie. You just said, well, it's a little hummer. I'm taking a little hummer. And then, you know, I got married, and a new immediate family was formed. And my wife thought that was quite strange, that we should probably not use that word in that way. Too goofy. Now that's a very small circle, right? That's a circle of six people. Sometimes we might use a word in a little bit different way, in a little bit of a funny word, and not just six people, but a whole state. We might do that as a whole state. And so you might come into the state of Wisconsin, and you might find not the word hummer used in a different way, but you might find the word bubbler used in a different way. And so now there's this whole state that uses a word differently than most people use that word and refers to something differently than most people refer to drinking fountains. And so we have words like this. We have words like hummer. We have words like bubbler. Now, there's nothing wrong with a small circle using certain words in funny ways. and bigger circles using certain words in funny ways. But are there some words that we even treat differently? Are there some words which even just using them in a funny way is not the same? There are some words which are different by their very nature in how they should even be treated, how they should even be used. and that they don't have localized meanings or a different meaning from one place to one time, but they have a meaning which is set in stone, we might say. Well, certainly, people of God, this is true about the name of God and words that relate to the nature of God, isn't it? What is blasphemy? Blasphemy is to misuse the name of God, or to speak wrongly about who God is. It is not a funny word. It's not a word that we can use in different ways within the context of a family, or in the context of a state, or in the context of a different century. Now, to a lesser degree than the very name of God, but still in a similar way in that these words do not have the same flexibility as other words, that there are words that we must be careful with, we can look at the list of the fruits of the spirit. These are words that require some caution. They are nine words for the nine fruits of the spirit and they are not just concepts floating out there in space that we can use in a different way in one home or one state or one century of time. These are words which scripture has defined. They appear here in list form but these are words that scripture uses again and again. These are words that have specific and clearly defined meanings. The nine fruits of the Spirit are not just nine vague ideas. They are those things which we are called to put on and there is a certain seriousness and a level of certainty that comes with these words. Indeed, we can say this, that our Christian service is clearly defined for us. These words are defined for us. And so we'll be looking at a few more support texts than we usually do. And we'll look at these first three fruits this morning and we'll look, people of God, at our Christian love, our Christian joy, and our Christian peace. So first our Christian love, and let us note as we begin this point that there are some words that are used in scripture that are not necessarily defined, certainly not in the same way as these words are. And so right here we have a list of the fruits of the spirit. In other places, especially in the Old Testament, we have a list of places or names. And sometimes we know very little about the name of a person or the name of a place that appears in a list. We don't really know where that place is or who that person is. It's serving a different function. Now for this list, it's not like those lists. Especially this is true of the word love, even as it's true as we work through all the fruits of the spirit. The word love is used hundreds of times in our English translations and there's a few different Greek and Hebrew words before that from the Old and New Testament but between all of those hundreds of times we see the word love in our Bibles, and there are even places where it's not just in list form, but there's even, even in an explicit way, the Scripture's giving a definition of this. We are not left to define it by ourselves. Scripture has even defined the word love in its own infallible and unchangeable way. And so, we're going to look at two passages. There are many passages which speak about love, but we're gonna look at two especially this morning. The first one is 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Maybe you guessed we were going there. Let's begin with 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We're gonna read verses three through the first part of verse eight. Now if I give away all that I have and I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is. You see, here comes the definition of love. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Now, we can't work through this in every detail, but let us observe at least a few things here. First, people of God, we see that there is an overlap. between a full definition of love and a list of the fruits of the Spirit. There's some overlap here, isn't there? The fruits of the Spirit are not to be pitted against each other. They're closely related to each other. Lord willing, we'll look at that more next week. And here in 1 Corinthians 13, we see indeed that patience and kindness are part of the very definition of love, even as those are separately listed Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Second, we see this, that love properly exercised impacts our day-to-day actions and interactions with others. We must look for opportunities to be kind. We must speak without being arrogant or rude. In other words, our day-to-day speech, our day-to-day activity includes intentionally putting on love-filled actions and intentionally putting away speech which is not loving. Christian love is an everyday pattern of doing and speaking. Third, love properly exercised impacts our day-to-day thoughts and attitudes about others. We must bear with the weaknesses of others and hope the best about the thoughts and intentions of others. Willing to overlook and to endure certain things even as we only ever rejoice in the truth. We are not called to simply love those that we always agree with or easily get along with. Our very thoughts about others are to be gracious and loving. Christian love is an everyday pattern of thinking. Now again, scripture speaks about love in hundreds of places, but we're turning to two places this morning. So we go from 1 Corinthians 13 to Romans chapter 13. From 1 Corinthians chapter 13 to Romans chapter 13. Here we're gonna read Romans 13 verses eight through 10. Oh, no one anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Here we see that love, far from being removed from the commandments of God, essentially includes obedience to what God has commanded. And so even as we read the law and said there's a close relationship between law and love, yes, we can even say that reading the Ten Commandments, whenever we read it, helps us to define what real love is. In other words, love for others does not demand its own way, but true love does finally demand God's way, God's law, and the fulfillment of God's law is love. Now some might object to both of these things, both the 1 Corinthians 13 focus of love and the Romans 13. focus of love and completely try to redefine love in their own terms, in their own decade, in their own place, in their own hearts. I think we can also be tempted to just take one but not both of these things. So someone might say something like this, as long as I treat people nicely, I can follow whatever other commandments I want. Or someone might say, as long as I know and defend the law of God, I can treat others in any way I want. But you see, the one person is taking just the focus of 1 Corinthians 13 and throwing out Romans 13. The other person is taking just the focus of Romans 13 and throwing out 1 Corinthians 13. But real love is both. Christian love, the fruit of the Spirit, is both of these things. how we treat others, how we act from day to day and even moment to moment, even how we think about others, it's also that which is in accord with the perfect law of God. Let us come now to our second point, our Christian joy, our Christian joy. And we're gonna look here at a few things that hinder us from having Christian joy and a few things that help us to grow in Christian joy. And if anyone wants some further reading, a handful of these are taken from Jerry Bridges' The Practice of Godliness. The first hindrance that we'll look at this morning, the first hindrance to Christian joy is sin. Sin is a hindrance to joy. The first help that we might say is the opposite of that, the first help to growing in Christian joy is to confess our sins. We can say it simply this way, sin itself hinders the joy that we should and can have in Christ, while confession of our sins will help us to grow in joy. This is the pattern that we see in Psalm 32. to read a few verses from that great psalm and its confession of sin. In the beginning, the psalmist David says, when I kept silent, my bones wasted away. There is no confession of sin. There is no joy. But then, as we move on to verse 5 and then verse 11, we see, I acknowledge my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. And that is the turning point that leads to the final words of the psalm. Verse 11, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. Keeping our sins hidden will hinder our joy, but confessing our sins will help us to grow in joy and gladness." Another hindrance, people of God, to true joy is misplaced confidence. If we trust in people instead of trusting in God, we will be hindered from growing in joy. But if we trust in God Himself, there we can find a real fountain of joy. other people, even mature fruit-bearing Christians are not the source of our trust. No Christian is going to bear fruit perfectly as he ought. And even when Christians are bearing fruit, who's making them to bear that fruit? The Holy Spirit is the one who's doing that. No, we cannot put our trust in any person. That's going to hinder us from having real joy. We must root our trust in God. that can help us to grow in real joy. And closely related to that, a hindrance to joy is listening to worldly wisdom while it's the word of God which helps us to grow in Christian joy. The word hope, not the word joy is used in Romans 15 verse 4, but hope and eager expectation and encouragement that's closely related to joy. And we have a number of purpose statements about why God's word is written. Often we might think of the purpose statement of John or Acts, that it's to bring us to confession of sin, to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. We have an interesting purpose statement. Romans chapter 15 verse 4, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. One of the very reasons why God's Word was written. was to help us grow in hope and encouragement, to help us grow in joy. If we want to increase in joy, a good place to start is having a well-rounded diet of the Word of God. Another hindrance to Christian joy is a lack of gratitude, whereas that which helps us grow in Christian joy is a prayer and constant thanksgiving. Now there are three verses in scripture which perhaps you're like me and you remember verses from your youth, verses that you've memorized at different times and you have a hard time remembering where they are. You don't always remember where they're found. You just remember the words. And so maybe you're like me and you remember rejoice always and you know that's in scripture. You know the phrase, pray without ceasing, and you know that's in Scripture. You know the phrase, give thanks in all circumstances, and you know that's in Scripture. But do we remember that those three things are found right next to each other, three verses in a row, three verses in a row. First Thessalonians chapter 5 is where we find those words. Philippians also says, Rejoice always, so it's there also. But Philippians 5, verses 16-18 says this, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. See, they are all put together. To grow in Christian joy is closely related to being persons in prayer, persons who are thankful to God even when the circumstances are not what we would want them to be. And at this point it's appropriate to note that many have pointed out that there's a difference between worldly happiness which tends to be circumstantial which tends to depend upon the circumstances we find ourselves in. Am I in a happy place right now? Are happy things happening in my life right now? Which is contrasted to Christian joy, which is a learning, whether I'm in prison or whether I'm free, whether I'm being whipped or whether I'm in a place of religious freedom, to summarize the words of the apostle. that Christian joy is not circumstantial. We'll have circumstances in our life that are not happy, which, to think of the psalmist, bring real tears to us. And yet, even when the circumstance is not happy, we can yet learn to give thanks looking at the will of God, knowing that the just shall live by faith, to take that phrase which first appears in Habakkuk in the midst of the prophet learning that the land is going to be destroyed and they're going to be brought into slavery. That's the context where we first see the just shall live by faith. But rather that through even unhappy circumstances, trusting in the will of God, having faith in God, which leads to life, we can yet have joy. We can yet have joy. Now let's come to our Christian peace, our third point this morning. And at this time, it's good for us to remember how we got to Galatians 5. These are the fruits which the Apostle now details after he's labored so carefully to show us the root, the foundation of our salvation, as we saw again and again in different ways and in different details from Galatians 1 through 4, that we are saved by Christ alone and having faith in Christ alone. And so in thinking about salvation, that's where our Christian peace begins. We could think of the language of the psalmist who ties salvation and the love of God and righteousness and peace all together. We see that language in Psalm 85, verses seven through 10. Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people, to the saints. But let them not turn back to folly. Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land, steadfast love and faithfulness meet, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Such is the relationship and the image of the psalmist for the love of God and the salvation which God gives and the very foundation of our peace, what our peace is based upon, where our peace starts. And now since God has saved us, since that is the root that we have, the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross for our sins, we then confess those sins, giving thanks for the love of God which has done that, and that can bring us joy and brings us into peace. It's fitting that peace is the third fruit listed. Our peace not based upon what we do, but upon what God has done. And so peace begins with our being at peace with God, but it does also include, scripture makes abundantly clear, peace also being a word that appears many, many times in the scriptures, that we are also to be at peace with each other. And so we're going to take two verses, two passages, three total verses, Romans 5 verse 1. And then Romans 12, 17 and 18. And we're going to talk about the difference between Romans 5 piece and Romans 12 piece. So Romans 5 verse 1, that piece that we've been talking about, the peace with God. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first piece, peace with God. The Romans 5 piece and spoken of many other places. A piece of Romans 12, verse 17 to 18, is what we look at next. There are many passages about this piece as well, not as many, but we're just focusing in on Romans 5 and Romans 12. Romans 12, verses 17 and 18. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably. with all. We are to be at peace with God, we are to be at peace with others, but scripture speaks very differently about these two kinds of peace, doesn't it? There's no condition, there's no if in our need for peace with God. There's no if. Scripture never says, be at peace with God, This is something you must do if you need it. No, on the contrary, scripture says again and again, you all need it. You all stand in rebellion against God. You must come to God, depend upon God, and then be at peace with God. There's no condition. But when it comes to our fellow men, We are called to be at peace, but there is a condition. First, that we do everything that we can do to make there be peace. And second, if that doesn't work, then that's okay. This is not how we always think. We We like to be at peace with others. Many of us do. Sometimes too much, right? We don't like this condition. We want to be liked. We want to get along with everyone. And again, to some degree, as much as it lies within us, that's what we ought to do. And especially within the family of faith. There we ought to be able to live at peace with one another. Sometimes, peace with our fellow man, especially unregenerate man, will not be possible. And that's okay. We can't make everyone happy. And that's okay. Now again, our norm should be to peace, to be at peace with everyone, especially within the family of faith, but also with all of our non-Christian neighbors. That should be our norm. That should be what we go after. And we have to do all that is our part to do that. Those are all parts of the fruit of the spirit. But sometimes, sometimes, Maybe because people don't delight in the truth, or whatever it is, peace will not be possible. We will not be able to make everyone happy if we stand upon God and His word and that's okay. There is a condition to our peace with others that does not exist in the call to repent, believe, and be at peace with God. So, people of God, love, joy and peace. Lord willing, next week we're going to even think a little bit more about how all these fruits are tied together. They're not against each other in any way. We might even say, although This exact language is not used. There's a sense in which they're all fruits on the same tree. Certainly they're all fruits from the same one Holy Spirit. And so we don't want to pit them against each other. We don't want to elevate one so much above any other. But it is true that love is here listed first. Where in Colossians 3, the apostle says we can use the word love last because it's love that is the virtue that binds all things together in harmony. And these are the first fruits. Fruits that we can't define on our own terms, but rather we give thanks to God that He has given them to us in list form, but He's also, throughout the Scriptures, detailed to us what these fruits really are, fully are. Love, joy, and peace. And it is easy tie these together. So let us come to our conclusion by saying it simply this way. We have the love of God which sets us free from sin. That is the first reason why we can have joy in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. And having God's love, which gives us joy, is the basis by which we should then seek to love one another. Since God has loved us, let us also love our brother. Love, joy, and peace. May the Holy Spirit make us to grow in these clearly defined things, with Scripture's definition of what they are. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, God Almighty, we thank You that You shepherd us, that You lead us in the steps that we should go by the clear directions and definitions of Your Word. May we, because of the salvation that you have won, understand these fruits and put these fruits into action in our lives. May love, peace, and joy grow in our hearts. This is our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.