Well, we're drawing toward the close of the first of the parables, the most prominent, most important of the parables that we need to understand. The parable of the sower and the seed. Jesus said, if you don't understand this parable, how will you understand all the parables? So there are some things here in this parable that will transition over into other parables and show us things about the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Now last week I began to talk to you about sowing to the spirit and not to the flesh in order to bear fruit to God and I gave you the definition of sowing to the spirit And I said to you, to sow to the Spirit is you, the Christian, taking a continual interest in your cultivating good and right spiritual thoughts in your mind and heart first, and then in your actions, deeds, and good works to bring forth good fruit unto God and men. People can say of you, he is a good man. or she is a good woman. There's some interesting wording here in the verse Galatians 5, 16 to 18, which I will read for you here once again. It says, I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. And so I've got some questions here. The first two questions that I want to bring to your attention and interact with you over them. What do you think it means to walk in the Spirit, first of all? Yes, that's a good point. That's a very good point. It's synonymous with walking in the truth. The way that those two words, spirit and truth, interact with each other is what I'm trying to get at here. That we realize that We have the Word of God, and the Word of God is something that we receive when it's preached, but it's also something that we are seeking to understand better and abide in, in terms of the truth, so that we can bear fruit to God, which is the theme of what I want to bring to your attention here this morning, bearing fruit with patience. And the second question that I have here for you is, when you do walk in the Spirit and are being led by the Spirit, what does it mean that you are not under the law? These are good questions to think about, because honestly, we need to think about the fact that in order to bear fruit to God, we need to love God, we need to keep his commandments, And we need to understand that the Holy Spirit is in our life interacting with the truth of the word in our heart and mind. on a daily basis in order that we can come to the place and bear fruit to God in our everyday lives. What does it mean? No, no, go ahead. Yes, very good. The condemning aspects of the law are what's being referred to primarily. We need to understand that we are not under the law in the sense of condemnation. we are justified by faith, the law is something that we love, and it's something that we see as good and right, righteous and true, but we also need to see that as we go about to live our Christian lives, that we aren't being condemned by the law, so that we love the law, but there isn't any condemnation for us in respect to it. And I think that sometimes we fail to recognize that. It's a very important thing if we're gonna bear fruit to God because we can always look at ourselves and see where we're falling short in terms of keeping God's commandments, can't we? But when we realize what Christ has done for us and then we go on to think about what we should be doing in terms of the things that we'll talk about here, bearing fruit with patience, it will help us exceedingly to understand that we are not under law but under grace, and that the Holy Spirit is the one who is working in us in order to bring these things out in our life, in our experience, and to the benefit of others, to the glory of God. Yes, Ed. Very good. How can we learn to please God? What we think upon is law. We're going to talk about that here in a few minutes. That's very good. So what we want to begin with seeing is that we're not under the law. And when we walk in the Spirit, we're walking in the conscious understanding that the Holy Spirit is in our heart, in our life, working in our mind, and that the Holy Spirit is working in us so that we will bear fruit to God in righteousness and good works. Let's see here. I want us to think about also Galatians 5, 22 to 26. Who would Who would read that for us here this morning? Galatians 5, 22 to 26. All right, Matt. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. All right, thanks for that, Matt. Now the question, the third question that I have for you here is, when Paul lifts the fruit of the Spirit and says, against such there is no law, what does he mean? It's a very interesting phrase, isn't it? I love the way that Paul uses these words. Dale? What comes to mind is Christ saying, I didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Okay. Can you open that up for us? Yeah. This is the fulfilling of the law. Christ is fulfilling that law in us if he's indwelling us. The Spirit of Christ is working this. The evidence that we are Christians, that we are in Christ, is the love, joy, peace, love, suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. That's the law. And it works out perfectly. Not by us, but the one who is perfect. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. As we yield to him and give up our flesh. Amen. I like the way you word that. You can do what you want. That's really good. That's that's excellent. when I read this, that I can do as much of this as I want to and I'm never going wrong. Amen, amen. You're never going wrong with the fruit of the Spirit. Yes, David. When you think about the law, the motivator there is a negative. If you do this, you are wrong. There's a punishment. There is no law that says you can't do these things. In other words, this is what you should be inclined to do as a true Christian. You should want to do this. And the Holy Spirit is working in you to bring this fruit out in your thinking, first of all, but then in your speech, your words, your actions. It's a beautiful thing, as our brother Dale was just mentioning to us. We need to see that. We need to meditate upon these qualities here and these actions that we will take, these attitudes, these good attitudes. I've written these things down in sort of a progressive way. Walking in the Spirit, bringing forth right attitudes, which is the verses that we're looking at here. Now, these attitudes, obviously, are something that result in actions, and we need to see that. We need to understand that. But they begin as attitudes of our heart, and the dwelling of the Spirit in our heart, producing these things, producing these things, actually, and then bringing, help us to bring these things out in our attitude of our heart and mind, our speech and conduct, in all of these ways, this is taking place. So I have the questions here. We answered that question three. What does it mean, question four, when Paul says that those who are Christians have crucified the flesh with its passions? and loss. What does that mean? Rita? I'm still kind of thinking back to the previous one, but tied into this question too. Romans 6, 7, and 8 all elaborate on what we're talking about. Paul gives more of an understanding as to the law hasn't changed, but our relationship to it has. Amen. And just the word, the way he says it, I think really shows a lot of light. Like in chapter 7 he says, I speak to them that know how the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman which has a husband is bound in the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband is dead, she's loose from the law of her husband. So that if while her husband lives, she's married to another, so she would be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she's free from that law. So she's no longer an adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even he that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the notions of spirits which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein you were held, that we should serve in the newness of the spirit, not in the oldness of the leather. Wow, that's good. It's very helpful. Yeah, it is very helpful. You have been made to die to the law through the body of Christ in order that you might bear fruit to God. It says there in Romans chapter 7 and verse 4. I appreciate Rita bringing that out because it ties right in with what we're saying here. It seems to be the theme of the day is related to these things that we're talking about. We need to understand that our being able to do all of these good things that we're looking at is because we have died to the law through the body of Christ. In other words, that Christ has suffered for us and that Christ has fulfilled the law on our behalf. But that doesn't mean then that we don't pursue keeping God's commandments or keeping God's law. It's on the contrary. We do so by the power of the Holy Spirit in order to bring forth fruit. unto God. So there's a living, dynamic interaction between the Holy Spirit and ourselves in terms of our bringing these things forth so that we can keep God's commandments and bear fruit unto God. But people look at us, like I said in our last time together, and they notice there's something different about us. And the thing that's different about us is Christ in us. And Christ in us is bearing, He brings us the ability to bring forth fruit unto God." So we have all listed here all of these wonderful things here. Love, joy, peace, patience or long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such there is no law and those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. This again is a very interesting phrase here that we need to think about together. What do you think that it means that we have crucified the flesh. If we belong to Christ, we have crucified the flesh. We know that the flesh continues on with us after we become a Christian, but there is a very real sense in which we have died to sin, and we now live to God when we become a true Christian. And a part of that, death to sin, is our response to what God, the Holy Spirit, has done in His work in our heart, causing us to experience a real death to sin in our heart and mind, and then He makes us alive unto God. And see, then we respond to that work, the good work of the Spirit within us, by crucifying the flesh with its passions and lusts. I'm trying to get out that phrase, what it means, David. Well, it's like the picture that baptism shows. We were buried within. We were crucified, buried, and raised up. And that's how we're supposed to respond to that, because our flesh has it. Yes, the Lord has done that work at the cross, but it also requires of us, brethren, a response to it. Yeah, Luke. That's right. The works of the flesh. Yes. Yeah, there's no longer that desire. It is alive. You see that in Romans 7, but it's not alive in the same sense as it's been crucified. This is a very interesting truth because when we're crucified with Christ, it means that when we crucify the flesh, we are, in our own mind and heart, we're agreeing with what Christ did for us on the cross, and we're responding to it. So we're actually taking the nails spiritually, so to speak, and putting them through our own flesh, spiritually speaking, not physically or literally. but spiritually so that we might more and more literally, really spiritually die to sin and live to righteousness. And wow, that is such a dynamic thing. So there is a sense in our first conversion in which we do that once and for all. In other words, this is what we did. We have crucified. the flesh with its passions and lusts, but there's also a sense in which every day that wherever we need to, we will do the same thing to confirm it. In other words, it's an ongoing death that results in progress in our sanctification and holiness and eventually, of course, our flesh will be removed from us entirely. upon our physical death, and we will be free from all of this struggle, battle, and the things that we face day by day. But we need to make progress in these things, as we're talking about here in the bear fruit. as a result of it. So you'll notice that in Galatians chapter 5 you have first of all the works of the flesh are evident in 19 to 21 and then the fruit of the spirit following that up in 22 to 24. and all of those good things that are being brought forth by the Christian, they're following right on the heels of it. If we live in the Spirit, let's also walk in the Spirit and not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. It's interesting, isn't it, how he puts it in the context of the church, too, in our relationships with one another here. the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit. Because this is one of the real dynamics of the local church is that you and I get to rub shoulders and fellowship with each other every Sunday and during the week as well. And when we do so, when we manifest the fruit of the Spirit and when we're putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we're going to see fruit born in our relationships with one another. And as a church then, somebody was praying individually and corporately during the prayer meeting, well that's what we do. We bear fruit individually, but we also bear fruit as a church corporately, when we understand this dynamic interaction over what the Spirit is doing in our heart to bring forth these good things. That results, by the way, in our persevering in doing what is right. And I want you to turn with me over to Romans 2, and verses 7 and 10, and I will read this. for the sake of time. Romans chapter 2 and verses 7 and 10, I'm breaking into the middle of this, but it says here, eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, but in verse 10, but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works, look at the language here, who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek for there is no partiality with God. So, really quite an amazing set of verses that we've got here, isn't it? When it talks about that there needs to be patient continuance in doing good, it says here. So we need to bring forth fruit with patience. It says there in the parable. And the word patience can be translated perseverance in this case. They're synonymous words in the sense that patience means to bear fruit by persevering in doing what is good and right by the power of the Spirit and by faith in Christ who has gone before us to show us the way how to do these things and how good it is. But I want you to take notice of the fact eternal life comes to those who by patient continuance in doing good, seek for glory. Again, it's that truth that I've been trying to bring to your attention all along, that you're bearing fruit. It comes forth not usually instantaneously and obviously, but slowly and definitely as you persevere in living your life unto God and showing forth the fruit of the Spirit, which is the beginning of these. all these good attitudes and leads to your good interaction and good works with the people around you. It says in Luke 8.15, the ones that fell on the good ground are the ones who, having heard the word with a noble or honest and good heart, they keep it, or they hold it fast, and they bear fruit with patience, it says there. So, when we think about these things, we should ask ourselves, like the question, question seven, for instance, what does it mean to hear the word with a noble and good heart? What is a noble heart? Wonderful wording here, I think. It's also worded in another translation, an honest heart, or I would say a sincere heart, a heart that will receive the word with meekness and gladness, like it says in another place, and that they will go about straightforwardly to do and keep that word. What would be a good heart in this sense that we're talking about here then? What would be a good heart? Yes, Dale? A humble heart that is more interested in others' benefit than myself. It's good, it's good. And having that holy mindset in your heart, wanting to do others good. And I wrote down here, a good heart is a heart that loves God for all that he has done for them in Christ. And that person will go about doing good to others in order to bring glory to God and to be able to share the gospel with needy sinners. J.C. Ryle, in his expository thoughts on the gospels, says this, we must carefully remember that this expression, good ground, in the parable, does not imply that anyone's heart is naturally good. or ever can become so without the grace of God. The fairest sense of the words is an unprejudiced heart, willing to be taught, such as was particularly lacking among the Jews in our Lord's time. He says the Bereans are an illustration of this expression. You remember that expression in Acts 17, 11, that the Bereans were more noble-minded than those at Thessalonica, and that they examined the word daily to see if these things that were being preached to them were so. So I think that in closing, this section, we need to think about Psalm 1, and I really haven't got time to elaborate much on it, but it says here, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law he meditates day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth its fruit there's there is the word we're looking for that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaf the profession of faith shall not wither and whatsoever he does Amen. I like that. She thinks of it in terms of aristocracy and she thinks of it in terms of our King. our Lord Jesus. That's very precious. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this time around this parable. We pray that it would benefit us all greatly, that we would bring forth fruit with patience, that we would be filled with all the fruit of the Spirit, and be able to manifest that fruit to one another, people around us, and in your sight, so that we might bear fruit unto you, that you might bless us in a mighty way, both individually and corporately. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.