Let us turn now then to the reading of God's word. Continue to work through Galatians, now our last week looking at the fruit of the Spirit. So we'll read Galatians 5, 22 to 23. And we will be looking, also considering as we work through these last three things of the fruit of the Spirit, we'll also be looking at the rest of that, verse 23, that against such things there is no law. Let us hear the word of God, Galatians 5, 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of the Lord our God endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we look now at these last three parts of the fruit of the spirit, let's step back for a moment, looking at the whole of the fruit and thinking about a few of the things that unite them all together. First, one of the things, as we think about them all together and how they're all related, we know this is not an exhaustive list. And so verse 23 says, against such things there is no law. It does not say against these nine things there is no law. It says against such things, against such godly virtues, such virtues which are in accordance with the influence of the Holy Spirit upon us. It is not an exhaustive list. It is a good place to start. There is more. There are many good virtues that Christ would have us to grow in. Second, and we've thought about this a little bit over the last couple weeks, and we may even look at this again as we have a different illustration for this in the coming verses, but the second thing to note is that growing in these things is not an overnight process. It is the very illustration is that of fruit which does not grow overnight. You plant it and we're even in the season of planting now and it takes time and then it is mature in in due season. And so it is with our growth in these things. It is not an overnight process. That is true for all of the virtues that God would call us to put on. And third, another thing that is tied to all of these things together, and this one we're going to weave in especially throughout the sermon this morning, is that statement in the end of verse 23 that against such things There is no law. Our growth in the fruit of the Spirit is in no way opposed to the law of God. This is true for every godly virtue, even as we'll look at it especially this morning, and that's even part of our theme this morning. Our growth in the things of the Spirit is in agreement with God's law. So we'll look at our law-enjoying faithfulness, our law-abiding gentleness, and our law-keeping self-control. Now the word law has not been used as much in chapter 5 of Galatians, but it is certainly an important word as we've worked through the book. In the six chapters of Galatians, the Greek root word is found 32 times in this little book. And so we could even summarize how the word law has been used as a way of overviewing how we got here. And we say, number one, the law cannot save you. You cannot keep it yourself. And that's so clear throughout this little book of Galatians. And number two, that key passage at the very heart of the book of Galatians, Galatians 3, Verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. And so number two, though we cannot save ourselves, Christ does save us from the curse of the law. He died for sinners. And now number three that we've seen already a little bit in Galatians 5 is that as those who are saved by Jesus Christ, we now follow the law for him. And this is the basic movement of the book of Galatians, even as this is close to the basic movement of our confessions, of the Heidelberg Catechism, and this is how scripture so often speaks. If we think in terms of faith and faithfulness, we first must have faith in Jesus Christ alone. That is the only way to be saved. We are then to put on faithfulness. If we think in terms of justification and sanctification, we are first justified, we are first made right with God because of what Christ has done and His removing the curse from us. We are then called to grow in our holiness and our faithful service to God in being sanctified, made holy. And there is a parable which illustrates our working out of faithfulness. So we might ask, well, what does that faithfulness then look like? If we move from faith to faithfulness worked out, what does that look like? There is a parable where Jesus Christ works this out in Luke chapter 19, if you would turn with me to Luke chapter 19, a parable many of us may be familiar with, a parable about how faithfulness is worked out. And so we will read some verses from the parable of the 10 minnas. First, we remember that he, it's a parable where the master is calling 10 of his servants, Luke 19 verse 13, and he gave them 10 minnas one to each, and he said, engage in business until I come, until I return. And then we pick up the reading at verse 16. And we read, the first one came before him saying, Lord, your minna has made 10 minnas more. And he said to him, well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over 10 cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, your minna has made five minnas. And he said to him, and you are to be over five cities. Then another came, saying, Lord, here is your minna, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank? And at my coming, I might have collected it with interest. The first servant is described as faithful, faithful, dependable, taking what the Lord has given him and being loyal with it, being dependable with it, using it for good purpose and even being granted success and increasing what he had been given. Now let us take one more servant. Let us expand this parable. Imagine that there's one more servant and he comes and he says, Lord, your minna has become 12 minnas because I stole 11 more. Now, what would that servant have heard? He got more than anyone else, right? He has more than even the one who increased it by 10. He has the most. Well, of course, he gained it in an unfaithful way, in a way that was not enjoying the law, but in a way that was trying to cheat the law. He gained minnas, but he did so unfaithfully. Therefore, he would not be described as a faithful servant. He would be yet another example of an unfaithful servant. James 5, verse 1 through 6, gives not a parable of such a thing, but a real-life example of that working out, where James rebukes the rich who are opposing the poor among the exiles, among the dispersed Christians. And now, people of God, what gifts and talents, what minutes and dollars have you been given? Do you faithfully dependably, without cutting corners, without breaking the eighth commandment and stealing, without breaking any of the law of God, but rather enjoying the law of God, seeing it not as some angry barrier, but as a helpful guide rail in all that we are to do. Do you take what the Lord has given you and seek to make it grow faithfully in these ways? There is a temptation in the human heart as those who have fallen in sin to elevate success above faithfulness. This is a temptation that we can have. And so, you know, maybe stealing the 11 minas, maybe we recognize that that's wrong, but what if it had just been kind of, you know, cutting corners or this or that, not doing things quite right? We tend to think, you know, as long as I'm increasing, you know, that's what matters. We can elevate success. Or what about the one who sought to be faithful? Let's add one more to the parable. One who sought to be faithful, but it didn't work out. And he lost it all and he ends up with nothing. What would the Lord say to that one? People of God, the Lord would be happy. with that one. If he sought to be faithful, if he sought to be faithful, even though he lost what he had, the Lord would be pleased. We know this because the virtue of faithfulness is what we are called to. The Lord cares about our faithfulness along the way more than he cares about our success or failure in material gains in the end. This is then one way that we are to test our faithfulness. We must make sure that we have not elevated anything in our hearts like success above the virtue of faithfulness. There are other ways to test our faithfulness. One of these ways is to make sure that we do not use excuse words. I think we know what excuse words are. I'll give an example. One common excuse word is to say something like, I'm not angry, I'm just frustrated. Well, what is an excuse word we might use when it comes to our faithfulness in things big or small? We might say something like this. I'm not unreliable, I'm just forgetful. And so when someone has asked us to do something, maybe it's even a very small thing, we say, oh, I just forgot. I just forgot. Well, we We can forget things. Our minds are not perfect, but people of God, we should seek to remember. We should seek to remember when husbands, when our wife asks us to do something small around the house or in bigger things, when we've been given a task at work or whatever it is, we should remember what we've been asked to do. And we can't use excuse words like, oh, I'm just forgetful. No, we should recognize it for what it is. We are being unreliable, undependable. We should seek to be intentional about being faithful in tasks small and big. We are called to faithfulness. We are called to be God's faithful, dependable, loyal people. Now let's consider gentleness, our law-abiding gentleness that we are called to. We are surrounded by macho mania. Our culture is big on the image of the strong person, the strong man and or women who save the day, often through brute strength and bold speeches. Think of it this way, Marvel movies, they pit incredibly strong enemies against forces for good that are just strong enough when they're united together to defeat the enemy. There is a elevation of even the body image of strength that we can literally measure the muscles of G.I. Joe dolls and see that they keep getting bigger and bigger over the decades. We can get sucked into this macho mania way of thinking. That strength of body and big, bold speeches, that is the way to go. Just as we can be tempted to elevate success over faithfulness, so we can be tempted to elevate the way of strength over the way of gentleness. People of God, it's true that there's a time to go to war, it's true that there's a time to display strong zeal, but the general mode of our existence is to be a mode of gentleness, of reasonableness, not a virtue that is often elevated in our society around us. Let us not get sucked into that way of thinking. Let us know that real power is to be attended with, united with real tenderness. We could think of even the description of God himself. We can think of how the might of God and the tenderness of God are spoken of in the same breath. We could think of Isaiah chapter 40, verse 10 and 11. And verse 10, emphasizing his might. Behold, the Lord God comes with might and his arm rules for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. And now what is the very next verse given through the prophet Isaiah? Isaiah 40 verse 11. He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young. There is no opposition between real might and real gentleness. The person who has both strong body and strong Christian virtue will look for opportunities to be tender, will only be tough when necessary. We know that God brings final judgment and wrath against all who remain in rebellion against him. But people of God, The Lord calls people to repentance in his kindness, as it says in Romans 2 verse 4, and God assures us that when we come to him, he is gentle to his people. That's the language of Matthew 11, isn't it? Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you find rest for your souls. To come into the presence of God is to find rest because God is gentle. God leads us to repentance in his kind firmness and when we come out of rebellious sinfulness, repenting of our sins, trusting in him, We find God's gentle, loving care. This is part of the very character of God. This is to be part of our character as those who are called to be Christ-like. When the apostle speaks about how he dealt with the church in Thessalonica, he compares himself to a nursing mother. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse seven. People of God, how do others feel when they are around us? What is the tension level in the room when we enter? Does our speech, does our body language display a gentleness that helps to put others at ease? Lee Strobel, the famous convert, he speaks about how before he was converted, When he would come home from work, his daughter would run to her bedroom and lock herself away because she knew that the tension level in the house had just been raised. Her father was present and that meant there was now an atmosphere of anger. After coming to Christ, he slowly learned to be gentle, to love his family well. People of God, that is the extreme example, but many of us can struggle with this in more subtle ways, can we not? Perhaps we're so strong in our opinions that others feel uncomfortable around us, especially if certain topics come up. Do we express things in such a way that when anyone disagrees with us, it's difficult for them to speak to us? Perhaps we don't do this when we're sitting down with others face-to-face, but maybe we do it behind the protection of a computer screen. We punch out words into our keyboards, forgetting that Facebook is a public place. I know I got sucked into a debate page on Facebook. This was maybe close to a year ago now. You know, I thought I was, you know, really standing for good things. I was really slinging those stones out, man. I was giving all those zinger arguments I could give and I was just loading up and letting it fly. You know, when I reached a point where I realized this thing had consumed me for a few days and slowed down and eventually stopped, if I now look back at that, I can realize that I was saying things that I wouldn't say if another person was actually right in front of me. At least I hope I wouldn't. And I probably wasn't slaying as many giants as I thought I was. No, we can use an excuse word here too, can't we? We can call harshness boldness. In another place, the apostle says, Philippians 4 verse 5, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Are we those who are gentle and reasonable in our dealings with others, both in our face-to-face speech and our social media interactions? Surely, people of God, if we pull all of this together and think of it in relationship to the commandments of God, it all relates to that sixth commandment, does it not? We are not to commit murder. We are not to fall into anger. Surely against gentleness, there is no law. Surely the way of gentleness and seeing gentleness as the high virtue, which it is, is a way of putting away anger. To grow in gentleness is to be one who is abiding in the law of God. Now, people of God, let us move to our third point, our law-keeping self-control. The call to be faithful is a call to enjoy and agree with the law of God, especially in that we are not to steal anything, but rather to be honest, to be dependable in every way. The call to be gentle and to abide and agree with the law of God especially relates to not committing murder in our hearts. Well, now we come to self-control and this easily connects to many of the commandments of God, does it not? The Greek word here, it relates especially to having self-control in sexual matters. It relates especially to the seventh commandment that we would cut off even at the desire level, all of the lusts of our heart. But the Greek word also has a wider use, and it also has many broader applications. This takes us into then the 10th commandment. We shall not covet, not anything that is your neighbor's. We are to grow in self-control, not only as it relates to lustful desires, but also in any of the temptations that come across us. through any moment of the day. We are called to exercise self-control all the time. And we are called to exercise self-control in our eating and drinking, that we would not fall into gluttony or drunkenness. Sometimes self-control means not having a scoop of ice cream every single night, even though you know there's a big tub of ice cream in the freezer. You see, self-control relates to our very desire, level, and it relates to every part of the day. It relates not only to eating and drinking, it relates to being diligent in our work, that takes self-control. Should we seek to work hard without falling into laziness? Certainly, and that takes self-control. for hard work. Children, do you remember the example of the snail as a visible lesson for our patience? Well, Solomon spoke long ago about the ant who teaches us about self-control in our work. And so Proverbs chapter 6 In Proverbs 6, we read this. Proverbs 6, verse 6 to 8. Go to the aunt, O sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. Now, we sometimes speak about a queen ant, but that's actually not the best term. The queen ant is just, she's not an ant who rules. She just has a very specific task within the ant hill. They actually all have their various tasks. There's a division of labor in the ant hill. It's really a beautiful thing. And they are, they're moving. They're these active little creatures. One of the great blessings about having children is that you can literally stop on the sidewalk and get down on your hands and knees and look at the anthill. Because you're doing it with your children, people don't look at you strange. Because now you can say, I'm doing it with my kids. They're so busy, they're always moving. One of my favorite things is when you find the ant that's carrying some big piece of food back to the hill. That's my favorite thing to watch. I zoom in on that one. They're moving. They can lift so many times their own strength, and they do it. They bring it back. They're busy. They're working. This is an example God has given to us of how we're called to be self-controlled, to even if we don't have a taskmaster, and this is hard for me. I always work better when I'm surrounded by co-workers, When I was in seminary, I always studied in the library because I wasn't alone. I could be working with someone else. But they just work. They work on their own. They work without a taskmaster. That's hard to do. They are diligent. They're an example to us to be hard working. And the first words there, go to the ant, oh slugger. Well, that's our excuse word by which we can test ourselves on our self-control. We might call something procrastination. That's really laziness. We can label things in a different way in order to pretend that we're not having the difficulties that we really are having. And people of God, at the very desire level, the call to self-control is a struggle. We are fallen sinners, and our fallen nature does not like self-control. And so the apostle in another place speaks about how we have corruption that we must put off from our old self. We have deceitful desires, Ephesians 4. James speaks about how we're all tempted, we're all lured by our own desire, James 1.14. The Apostle Peter speaks about how we must abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against our soul, 1 Peter 2.11. People of God, this is a war zone. Self-control is a war zone. And we are called to self-control on the 7th commandment and on the 10th commandment and upon everything that the 10th commandment includes. Let us, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, put away all those sinful desires. Let us battle against them, calling it what the Apostle Peter calls it, recognizing this is a war zone. and let us then, by the Spirit, grow in the things of God. In the course of this sermon, we've mentioned the 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th commandments. People of God, to grow in the Spirit is to be those who are abiding in, agreeing with, loving the law of God. Our growth in these things is not what saves us. It is the fruit, it is not the root. But because of what Christ has done, we will seek, however slowly, because it is a slow image, we grow like a fruit, we will seek to grow in all of these things. and any such things like them. This is what God calls us to do. This is what the Holy Spirit will work out in His people. Be filled then with the Spirit. Grow in obedience that agrees with the perfect law. of God. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, you have set us free from the curse of the law. In that freedom, let us grow in obedience to that law. Let us grow as you have called us to do. Let us put on all of these things. Lord, we know that you are perfect in every good virtue. Make us, Lord God, by your Spirit, to become more and more like you. This is our prayer in the name of our perfect Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.