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Fruits of the Spirit, Part 2: Gentleness and Faithfulness

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Fruits of the Spirit, Part 2

Gentleness and Faithfulness

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Fruits of the Spirit, Part 2: Gentleness and Faithfulness

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This is the second in a series of sermons on the fruits of the spirit. The series is beginning at the end of the list of fruits in Galatians 5:22-23.

Transcript

[Gary Petty] A tree is known by the fruit that it produces. You don't go out to an apple tree and expect to pick peaches off the apple tree. You expect to pick apples. But even if it's an apple tree, and you go out and pick the apples, you expect the fruit to be good. If it's a certain kind of apple – if it's a golden delicious apple – you expect a golden delicious apple.

I know you've probably had this experience. You see an apple that you really think is going to be good – or a peach….  I have these memories of peaches when I was a kid that never quite usually get met. But you think of a peach and what it's supposed to taste like – or an apple – and you bite into it and it's absolutely tasteless, or it's rotten, and it's just bad fruit. But we expect it to be good fruit. You know, if you have a tree in your yard, you expect that tree to produce good fruit. And, if it doesn't produce good fruit, you do some things to it. You go find out what you're supposed to do. And you go talk to someone and they'll talk about pruning that tree, or giving it a certain kind of nutrition, or you're giving it too much water, or not enough water, or the things you have to do.

Well, God talks about the fruit that He wants to produce in our lives. Look at Luke, chapter 13, verse 6. Jesus speaks this parable – Luke 13, verse 6.

Luke 13:6 ­– A certain man had fig tree in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and he found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, "Look for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down. Why does it use up the ground?" But he answered and said to him, "Sir, let it alone this year also, till I dig around it and fertilize it, and if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that, you can cut it down."

Now that's a parable that He told His followers, which is – if you look at that, you would know – that He's talking about people there – that God expects us to bear fruit. If we do not bear fruit, then God is going to dig up around us and He's going to dump manure on us. Sometimes, if you say, "Wow! I just feel like I had a whole truckload of manure dumped on me!" Well, maybe, that's what happened, spiritually speaking, because this is what God is going to do so that we can bear fruit. You are expected – I am expected – to bear fruit. This isn't a matter of "Okay, I come to church. I keep the Sabbath." That's fruit, but there's other fruit that that is supposed to produce.

Now, what we've been going through – we started last week – is a series of sermons on the Fruits of the Spirit. So let's go to Galatians, chapter 5. We talked about, last time, how you can look at these two lists and you can see two trees – two trees with totally different kinds of fruit on them. The one tree, starting in verse 19, says:

Galatians 5:19 – Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like – of which I tell you, beforehand, just as I told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. These are the fruits of a wild tree – the fruits of a wild tree that is not watered by God's Spirit.
Last time I also started the sermon by going through in Psalms, chapter 1, where a righteous person is like a tree. That tree is planted – it's not a wild tree. It's planted and it's tended and it's watered – that water being a symbol of God's Holy Spirit.

We go down here a little bit more, in verse 22, and it says:

Galatians 5:22 – But the fruit of Spirit – this is the fruit that God wants to produce in your life. This is the fruit that the law of God is supposed produce. This is the fruit that the way of God is supposed to produce. This is what our obedience to God is supposed to do in our lives. So, if we're obeying God, and this isn't being produced, there is a problem, because that means that, somewhere along the line, we're not obeying God. Because this is what is produced – he says – love – agape – joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

And so, last time, we went through the fruit of self-control – what that means – and how it's interesting. It's self­-control, but you can't do it entirely yourself. It is self-control that is led by the Spirit of God – Spirit-led self-control. So, if we try to do it ourselves, we will fail. If we just say, "Okay, God, You do it for me," and we don't participate, we will fail. But it has to be Spirit-led self-control.

Well, let's look at the second of the fruits that are mentioned here – starting at the bottom and moving up. The next one is gentleness. Actually, the word here that is translated gentleness, in many translations – and I'm going from the New King James – is translated meekness.

Now, when we usually think of a meek person, or a gentle person, we think of a personality trait. "Well, that's just a gentle person." It's just a person that is very kind, or very quiet – sort of a mild-mannered person. And we think of it as a personality trait. And that is not what this word means. In fact, one of the problems we have with this word is we have no English equivalent to actually translate it into. And that's why you will see it, in different translations, translated different ways.

Okay, I know what gentleness means. It means to be gentle – not to be harsh. But it doesn't mean that entirely. Okay, well, meekness. Well, I know what meekness means. It means to be humble – not filled with pride. Yeah, it means that, but it means something else. It has a greater context. I won't go into what Aristotle wrote about it, because that doesn't mean anything for us, except it does show how it was used in Greek. Okay? Because remember, it was a Greek word. But I will read from a couple dictionaries – Greek dictionaries – about what this word means.

In the New Testament – this is from a commentator; this is from a Scottish commentator – William Barkley – it has three meanings. It means to be submissive to the will of God. It's actually used nine times in the Bible. And it's interesting…if you look up these nine times it's used…and also there's a variation of it. Okay? We're looking at it now. There's the adjective form of this, which is used a whole bunch of times. When you add them all up – all these different times – you can see that it's used three different ways. This person, who has this meekness, is very submissive to God. In fact, the word itself has more to do with your relationship with God than your relationship with other people. So it isn't a personality trait. You know, "Okay, the fruit of the Spirit is God comes in and changes our personality." This isn't a personality trait so that we all become, sort of, mild-mannered and just very soft spoken. That's not what that means. First of all, it has to do with your submissiveness to the will of God. Secondly, it means being teachable. In other words, you're so submissive to the will of God that you're teachable. You're not hardened in your own ideas. You're not a state where you believe "Well, I have teach everybody else." You're actually teachable. And third, it is often used to mean considerate. You consider other people. You consider how they feel. You consider what they're going through. Your actions towards others are based on a consideration of that person. As we go through this, you'll see that you combine all these three meanings together and you begin to understand what this gentleness – this meekness – actually means.

Vine's has a very long definition of this word. I'm just going to read a little bit of it. It's chiefly towards God. And every source I looked up said the same thing. This word is basically…it first starts with a relationship with God in which you are meek. You are submissive and teachable to God. And because of that, you are considerate to others. Interesting correlation there. "Because I'm submissive and teachable towards God, I find myself being considerate towards others." Now I find it interesting, as human beings, as we learn the truth, many times, we're the exact opposite. "I've got truth from God – God's taught me something – and you don't. And I'm either going to cram it down your throat, or say, ‘Well, God hasn't chosen you, so you're not as valuable as I am.'" The fruit of the Spirit is when God teaches us, it makes us more considerate towards others because of this humility – this meekness – before God. Vine's says: It is the temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good and, therefore, without disputing or resisting. This meekness has to do with the acceptance of God's goodness in our lives, even when things are bad. This gentleness – this meekness – has to do with accepting that what God is doing in our lives is good, even when it's uncomfortable or something bad is happening to us.

Now, I wouldn't have thought…you know, I read through gentleness, I read through meekness, as a better translation in many places…okay, meekness. Okay, I've got to be sort of a meek person. Then you start looking at this word, and you think, "This is a huge concept!" One of the fruits of God's Spirit is this willing submissiveness to God. The more we respond to God's Spirit, the more teachable we become, the more submissive we become, and, in doing so, we don't dispute with Him as much. We dispute less and less and less. And, as you go through life, when you begin to dispute with God less and less, you become more considerate of others. There's a correlation. As we go through it, I hope you can start to see the correlation.

Vine's continues: The meaning is not expressed well in English. For the terms meekness, mildness, commonly used, suggests weakness. Described negatively, meekness – the word that's translated meekness here – is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest. It is equanimity of spirit that is neither elated nor cast down, because it is not occupied with self at all. In other words – and this is where you get into what Aristotle said – Aristotle said, "The word means that you're neither angry nor are you complacent." You're neither angry nor complacent. You're neither elated or cast down with what's happening, because you're not concerned with self at all.

Submissive to God – teachable to God – so that you become considerate towards others – this is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It is basically based on that you are so concerned with God's interests that, when you deal with other people, you are concerned with God's interests in their life – not always how they're treating you. Now think about that a minute. You're so submissive and teachable that you will take God's interests, so that, when you're dealing with other people, you're not easily offended, because why? You are concerned with God's interest in their lives. You are considerate, because it has to do with your relationship with God.

Let me how you how this word is used in a couple places to show you what I mean. Galatians 5…yes, Galatians 5. Let's go to the end of the chapter here. There are three verses here and, unfortunately, there's a chapter break in the middle of the three verses. You have to put all three verses together to really get the point that Paul is saying. And he uses the same word that he used here in verse 23.  Verse 26:

Galatians 5:26 – Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, or envying one another. So the subject here is, "Don't be conceited." Conceit causes us to lead each other to anger. Right? It provokes each other. When a person is conceited, people around that person get angry. We all have trouble being around somebody that is really conceited, right? Of course, we don't see our own conceit – our own pride. But we know when other people are conceited. And it makes us very uncomfortable to be around people who are conceited. So he says, "When we are conceited, we provoke each other." And remember, he's talking to the church here. He's not talking to the world. He's saying, "In the church, we're going to have to learn no to be conceited, because when we are, we provoke one another. We make other people angry and we envy." Envy and anger are the result of conceit – both with the person who has the conceit and that's the effect that they bring out in other people. Other people get angry and envious.

Verse 1 of chapter 6:

Galatians 6:1 – Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you, who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourselves, lest you also be tempted. The word gentleness there is the same word. If your fellow Christian sins, and that person repents – because restoration requires repentance…. We talked about reconciliation a couple of years…well, about a year ago now…went through six sermons on reconciliation. Reconciliation is a willingness to reconcile with someone, even if they've damaged you – even if they've hurt you – not on your terms, but on the terms of what reconciliation is. A lot of times, people say, "Well, I'm willing to reconcile," but what they really mean is, "I willing to enforce my terms for capitulation of the other person." Reconciliation takes everybody willingly looking at the part they played in it. "Oh, I'm willing to reconcile as long as that person will own up and do what they're supposed to do." Wait a minute! Are you willing to own up to what your part in the problem is? So restoration involves repentance on the part of the person who has committed a sin. So, the assumption here is, the person has repented, because you wouldn't restore somebody who "I don't car. I'm going to commit adultery if I want to. Adultery is okay." No, you can't restore somebody that has that kind of attitude. But, if the person is repentant, it says, the person is overtaken – they are caught in any trespass – you, who are spiritual – you, who have the fruits of God's Spirit in you – restore this person – help bring them to repentance and restore them to relationship in a spirit of gentleness. It's this spirit of gentleness he's talking about – that is a fruit of God's Spirit. It is being so submissive to God and teachable to God that you are considerate to others. And that kind of meekness – because you see the forgiveness that God has given to you – you want other people to come to that same forgiveness. You actually want people to come to forgiveness. What we want is people to come to payback, especially if the sin was against us. If we have this kind of meekness, we want people to come to forgiveness! We want people to come to be restored! What's interesting is, he says: Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Whenever we refuse to restore someone who has repented, whether it's in a congregation or in our own lives, we now set ourselves up to be tempted to sin. And we will sin, if we're not careful.

Verse 2 finishes this thought. He says:

Galatians 6:2 – Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Well, let's go ahead and read verse 3:

Galatians 6:3 – If anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

See, the spirit of gentleness – the spirit of meekness – is all presented here as the opposite of conceit – the opposite of conceit – an absolute humility before God. And that humility before God is what brings us, then, to be considerate to others. See how he puts it into action? It's interesting. He talks about…he uses this word…here, this same word…it's only used nine times as a noun in all the New Testament. Twice it's used in a few verses. He uses this word to say, "This is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit." And then a little bit later, he explains, "Here's how this works. Here's how this fruit works."

Let's just use this case: Someone in your congregation commits a sin. Someone in your congregation gets caught stealing. Maybe they go to jail for six months over it. And they come out, and they repent, and they're allowed to come back to church. And do we all stand on one side of the room and say, "Uh, uh, you're a thief," or do we help restore that person into a relationship with God? Now, I'm not saying we accept everybody. You don't let everybody that comes through that door stay in this church. That's not the way it works. But, are we willing to restore if the person's repentant? If they're not repentant, then they can't come in. This is the spirit of gentleness. This is the spirit of meekness.

You and I can't do that unless we're right with God. If we have the right humility with God, we will treat other people that way, because that's how we'll think. That's how we'll look towards them.

Paul actually describes in a letter…he's trying to describe to a group of people how he tried to exhibit this. It's always a little dangerous when you use yourself as a positive example. The reason why is because everybody knows you, and it's like, "Yeah, you might have done good there, but boy, did you do bad the next day!" Okay? So, it's always sort of dangerous when you stand up here and use yourself as a positive example. Paul, here, tries to use himself as a positive example to show this kind of spirit – this kind of fruit – so the people could understand it. In other words, he had to model certain things. As a teacher, you try to model certain things. So it's interesting how he tries to model – show people that he modeled this spirit. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2. Paul had started the church in Thessalonica probably around 51 AD. And he writes this letter not long afterwards. So these people were very special to him. Most of them he had known just for a short period of time. He was excited. He started a church. And they came together and they were surviving as a congregation – because many times you start a congregation and it doesn't survive very long. Satan tries to attack a congregation immediately. But this one was surviving. And this one was doing well. And he writes this letter to them – in verse 1 of chapter 2.

1 Thessalonians 2:1 – For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. Now he's talking about himself and some of the others that were with him in the party that went there. But even after we had suffered before, and were spitefully treated at Phillippi, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. When they had gone to Phillippi, they were really treated poorly by the Jews there and by the pagans there, and they had come to Thessalonica and they stand up and are boldly telling the truth, even though there is a lot of conflict. There are people outside the church. As this church formed, there were tensions inside the church. Put a group of people together and sooner or later, you're going to have some kind of conflict. When he's forming this congregation, he had lots of conflict. And he's saying, "You know how we came there, after being treated so poorly in Phillippi…we come here and we start this congregation." And he says, "You know, it was hard. It was a battle to do this." For our exhortation did not come error, or uncleanness, nor was there deceit. But we had been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. Even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts. He said, "We came and we told you the truth. We didn't try to please people. We didn't sugar coat this or we didn't try to twist it. We simply told you the truth." He says, "You know that's the spirit in which we came" – he tells those people. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness. God is witness. He said, "We didn't try to take from you people."

Now this is where he's starting to get into explaining how he modeled this gentleness – this meekness – to them. His relationship with God – his humility before God – caused him to be considerate of people – in this case, people he was having conflict with. Notice what it says:

1Thessalonians 2:6 – Nor did we seek glory from men – neither from you or from others – when we might have made demands, as apostles of Christ. He said, "We didn't even take what we could have and what we had a right to do." There are other places where Paul says that he had a right to receive pay for what he did. He said, "But we didn't even ask that of you." He says, "We had a right to do something…."

Just because you have a right to do something, doesn't mean it's what God wants you to do. We're too rights oriented in this country. It's about doing what God wants. It's about doing what's right, not defending your rights. Okay? Christianity is about doing what's right, not defending your rights. And Paul says, "You know, I had a right to come in there and I had the right to, maybe, be a little harsher – maybe use my authority a little more. I had the right to come in there and take pay." He says, "But, you know, I didn't."

1 Thessalonians 2:7 – But we were gentle – that word gentle is a variation of the word that's used in Galatians 5. It's not the exact same word, but it comes from the same root word. He says, "We were meek among you people. We were gentle among you. So let me show you how that works, so you will know how to treat each other." We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. He says, "Look how a nursing mother loves that baby, and holds that baby, and takes care of that baby." He said, "That's how we felt" – he and those other elders that were with him – "about you people." This is how this gentleness is expressed. Verse 8:

1 Thessalonians 2:8 – So affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. He said, "This meekness – this gentleness – produced…not only did we want to teach you God's way, we dedicated our lives to you." Do you see what Paul is modeling here? This is the spirit of meekness – the spirit of gentleness. He said, "God's love for you made us considerate of you at our own cost." Paul paid a price to be considerate to those people in much conflict. He said, "Now, I didn't back down. I did what was right. I said what was right." You know, he said that before. Paul never backed down from a fight, but…no, I take that back. There are many times he actually did. If you read through the book of Acts, there were times he said, "God wants me to make a stand," and there were times He didn't. God didn't want him to make a stand. The point is, here, what he's doing, though, is he is telling them, "You can see by my behavior – look at my behavior – and you will see the dedication" – Paul says – that he gave them – out of this gentleness that was genuinely driven by an affection for them – genuinely driven by a love for them. Because of his submission to God, he was considerate to them.

1 Thessalonians 2:9 – For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil, for laboring night and day, that we may not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. And you are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly, and justly, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe. As you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children. He says, "We worked night and day." You'll see other places where what Paul basically did in many of these places where he started churches is, he would work teaching the church at night and work as a tent maker during the day. He tells them, "Remember, we weren't a burden on you. We didn't demand food, or money, or a house." He said, "We came there to show you what this kind of consideration is – what this kind of gentleness is."

This has nothing to do with being mild-mannered. In fact, some of the Greek dictionaries point this out. This has nothing to do with being mild-mannered. Now, there are other places where meekness does have to do with it. It's a different word. It has to do with being mild-mannered. This does not. This word has to do with being so submissive and teachable to God that it produces consideration to others! It changes the way you treat others. It takes away a certain harshness that we have. When we get into some of the other fruits…one of the other fruits deals with our harshness – this human harshness that we tend to have toward others.

In the end, what this kind of submission to God brings – through His Spirit working in us – is it produces in us to be gentlemen and gentlewomen. Do you ever meet someone, and say, "That's just a gentleman?" It's just a person, where he or she can seem so…this ability, that when they're with you, you know they are considerate of you. You might have a conversation. They contribute. You contribute. They go back and forth. But you know that that person has a genuine interest in you and they're gentle about it. Even when they disagree with you, they're direct about it, but they're not harsh and mean and blunt about it. Gentle man; gentle woman – not in the sense of…you know, the word gentleman comes from good breeding – genteel. I don't mean it in that sense. I mean it from the sense of the way we know people act. We say, "Well, that's a gentle man." You know, opens the door for somebody else and helps other people. First consideration is other people's needs, second consideration is their needs. It's not that that person doesn't have needs. It doesn't mean that person ignores their needs. But their first consideration is the other person's needs. Gentleness.

Now, when we go back to Galatians 5, the next fruit – and we'll get to one more fruit here today – is faithfulness. You know, when you first come into the faith, when you first respond to God, it is easy to think…I mean, you're riding high, right? You repent, you're baptized, and you think nothing can shake your faith. "Come on world. Come on. Nothing is going to shake my faith in God!" And sometimes it's not the big things. It's the little things of life – day by day by day. And then, every once in awhile, a big thing does come along. And it hits you. And you're staggering around, thinking, "Where was God?" And then you get back on your feet and then it's the day by day by day. And then, another big thing hits you. And pretty soon, it's like, "Well, wait a minute. I don't know if God ever answers my prayers. And if He is, He always answers my prayers differently than what I want the answer to be. Does God know what He's doing? Maybe God doesn't care." So we tell ourselves, "God doesn't care about me. God doesn't love me. I'm nothing to God." Or we get angry with God. "Why did You allow that?" Those are all crises of faith. Those are all more than one crisis of faith.

We all have crises of faith. We all have times when our faith is tested. I'll never forget my dad. I don't know if I've ever met a man with more faith, in my life, than my dad. And he was in his 70s. And he said, "Gary, I finally have a trial that my faith is tested and I don't know what to do." I had seen that man do incredible things…just this faith he had in God! And what it was, my mother became sick and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. And she had a complete mental breakdown. She was mentally dysfunctional. He said, "I don't know. I stay up all night with her just screaming. And I don't know what to do." What we found out was, she had low blood sugar. She went on a diet that changed her blood sugar level and within weeks she was better. Within a couple months, she was absolutely fine. But we didn't know that at the time. And he said, "I could face my wife dying." But he said, "I can't face your mother screaming all night long, saying, ‘Help me, help me. I'm losing my mind!'" Five percent of all people in mental institutions, by the way, are there because their blood sugar got so low, it damaged their brains. Do you know what your brain feeds off of? Sugar. So you wonder why you give that kid that candy bar and they're jumping around and just haywire? You just pumped extra food into the brain that it cannot process – plus other things that happen to the body, too.

We all reach times in our lives where we have these crises of faith. It's interesting that in the King James and almost every version of the Bible – not every version – they translate this faithfulness. Now the word there is just faith – but faithfulness. In other words, what the Holy Spirit produces in us is a faith that lasts – not just an event of faith, but a faith that lasts.

I've seen people have great faith. I've had great faith in a moment and then two days later, don't have any faith at all. Faithfulness is a faith that lasts. You say, "Well, it's my faith; it's your faith," but understand, one of the fruits of God's Spirit is faithfulness. He does something with your faith that you cannot do on your own. It's just like self-control. That self-control has to be Spirit-led or it won't work. This kind of faith that you and I need to have a relationship with God isn't something we do entirely on our own. It is Spirit-led faith! You say, "Spirit-led faith?" Yes.
An example…I'm going to show you how a person can have an event of faith and not be faithful. And then we're going to talk about Spirit-led faith. Okay?

In Exodus 20, God comes and gives the Ten Commandments to the Israelites. There they are before Mount Sinai. They all hear the voice of God – all couple million of those people. They hear the voice of God. They see the cloud. They see the lightning. Understand – they know God is there! I don't know how you could have a greater event of faith than that. But let's look at how some of the elders of Israel had even a greater event of faith. Let's go to Exodus 24, and verse 9.

Exodus 24:9 – Then Moses went up, and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel. And there was, under His feet, as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. Now we know that they didn't see God in His fullness, right, because even Moses wanted to see Him in His fullness, and He covered his eyes and he just saw His back. So I don't know whether they saw this shining through the cloud, but underneath – what they described – was this, like glass. I mean, they can't…"like the heavens." They said it was hard to even explain what He was standing on. But what we do know is, they knew they were in the direct, immediate presence of God. Now, that's an event of faith. Were there any of those men, who walked down off that mountain that did not know God existed? Were there any of them that didn't walk down off that mountain, and they knew, "My faith can never be shaken! You better believe, I'm going to be faithful the rest of my life! I know. I've been there. I saw God. I know it!" So they saw some form of God.

Now, notice it says – verse 11:

Exodus 24:11 – But on the nobles of Israel, He did not lay His hand – so they saw Godand they ate and they drank. They actually ate a meal there before God. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to Me on the mountain and be there. And I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and the commandments, which I have written, that you may teach them." So Moses arose with his assistant, Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed Aaron and Hur are with you, and if any man has a difficulty, let him go to them. So Moses went up into the mountain and a cloud covered the mountain. Now the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day, He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of all the children of Israel. This is what they saw – everyday – for how long? Verse 18:

Exodus 24:18 – So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. All the elders want to go with him. Aaron wants to go with him. And Moses says look, "You have Aaron. Aaron and Hur will take care of everything. All you have to do is get with them. They'll be in charge while I‘m gone. They'll pray about it. Aaron's the high priest, so don't worry about it." Of course, he wasn't the high priest yet, but he the spokesman. He was second to Moses. He said, "You deal with them and it will be okay. God's going to give me the Commandments. You know! You've been there.! You were there! You saw God! And besides, just look up! He's on top of the mountain. You can see it!"

You read chapter 25 and what happens chapter 25 is that he lingers. He waits. Well, actually, it's not 25. You have to go through 25 and 26…all these are things here that are instructions that God gave Moses. He gave Moses all kinds of instructions. But let's go to 32, because God's giving him all these instructions. We think, he went on top of the mountain and God wrote the Ten Commandments. No. God gave him all kinds of instructions – how to build the tabernacle. There were laws about property. He told them about the holy days – not in great detail, but He gave them information about the holy days. He told them about how to do an offering – how to do sacrifices. He gave him all these instructions and then He wrote the Ten Commandments on two tables of stone. And he's up there forty days!

Aaron's down there below – after just having this enormous faith event, plus he has a daily faith event, because God' on top of that mountain. And we know what happens, right? The people came to him and said, "Moses isn't coming back. Our leader has died. We are without a physical leader. Without a physical leader, we are lost! Let's do something we know. We know that there was a mediator between the gods and human beings in Egypt and guess what his symbol was? A calf. We've got to have a mediator. God's on top that mountain."  You have to understand. They believed God was on top of that mountain. They saw Him every day – I mean, they saw the glow on top of the mountain every day. They believed God was there. But their faith would not accept…they did not have the faith to accept that God was involved in their lives. And they needed this intercessor. "So, maybe, if we make the golden calf, and we have a big festival to the golden calf, then that god will show up and intercede between us, because, obviously, Moses didn't make it." And what's amazing is that Aaron gave in! Remember, it was only a few weeks before that he had lunch with God! I don't know about you…has anybody here ever had lunch with God? Not me. Big faith event. He had faith, but he did not remain faithful, you see.

Faithfulness has to do with giving up your purpose for God's and trusting He's in your life. We can believe God exists and not believe he's involved in our lives. You can believe God exists and not believe that God cares for you. You can believe God exists and not believe that when you pray, He listens. You can believe that. You can have faith and not be faithful. Faithfulness – that's why part of it is a product of God's Spirit.

Now there's another person here that I find interesting, because there's another example. Let's go to verse 17 of chapter 32. The big party's going on. The golden calf's built. Moses is coming down off the mountain. And part way down the mountain, guess who he finds there? Remember who it said he took with him? His assistant. But his assistant didn't go all the way up.

Exodus 32:17 – And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There's a noise of war in the camp!" Now that little statement is interesting. And Moses says, "No, it's not that. They're having a big pagan revelry. We'd better get down there and fix it." What I find amazing about that statement is that that means that for forty days and forty nights Joshua was stuck on the side of the mountain by himself. Now that's faithful! He and Aaron had the same faith event. You see what I mean? The same faith event. They both sat and had lunch with God. They had the same faith event. They both knew God was on top of that mountain. If you would have gone to Aaron and said, "Is God on top of that mountain?" he would have said, "Yes!" If you'd gone to Joshua, he'd have said, "Yes, He's right there. You can see the mountain's all on fire! Of course, we were there! We saw Him." Same faith event – only one remained faithful and one did not. The one who did not…there was a lot of grief in his life and the life of a lot of people because of what he did. Joshua, on the other hand, was used by God for many, many years for a purpose. Now Aaron was, too. Aaron wasn't discarded by God, but there was a lot of grief in that nation because of what Aaron did.

Faithful. Sometimes being faithful is sitting on the side of a mountain alone for a long time. That's what it is sometimes. You know God's there, but you actually believe He's going to do something with you. You actually trust that He's going to do what He says.

There is a verse in the Bible where it says, "He is faithful to forgive you." I don't know how many times I've gone to God and said that one. I must trust in His faithfulness. How many times do you think, "Well, God won't forgive me." It says, "He is faithful to forgive you." So, if you go repent, He tells you He will forgive you." But do you believe it? How many sins are you carrying around from the past, instead of letting them go and trusting God?

Remember I did a sermon some time ago on just the faithfulness of God. Well, this is the faithfulness He wants back. You say, "Okay, that's great, but I don't know how to do that. I have these faith events, then I'm down, then I'm up, then I'm down, then I'm up, then I'm down."

1Peter, chapter 1…you know, you ask that, but remember in Luke 17:5, the disciples said to Jesus, "Increase our faith." They reached the same point where they looked at Him and said, "We finally get what you're saying. We have faith, but you know what? We can't go where You want us to go without some help here. You're going to have to increase our faith." Now you have to believe He'll do it. In other words, you have to come to God believing He'll increase your faith. You have to have that much faith. You can't go to God and say, "Look God, I have all the faith I need. No problem. Why don't You take that faith and give it to somebody else? I know some people there in the congregation. They need some faith. Why don't You take some of that extra faith and give it to them, because I'm fine." When we really understand faithfulness, there's a point where you go to God and you say, "I have faith that You will increase my faith." Just like it's Spirit-led self-control, it's Spirit-led meekness – meekness toward God produces something toward others.

1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3:

1 Peter 1:3 – Blessed the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – Peter says – according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. You are kept. This is translated – in some places – protected by God. You are shielded by God through faith. In other words, your faith isn't shielding you. Your faith isn't keeping you. Your faith isn't protecting you. It's your faith that God is protecting you, and God is shielding you, and God is taking care of you. Our faith is in what God is doing. "Oh, if I could just have more faith!" What we need is more God. We need more God. Keep a marker here. We'll come back here in just a minute and finish up here.

Mark 9 – this is one of my favorite statements made by any human being in the entire Bible.

Mark 9:17 – Then one in the crowd answered and said, "Teacher, I brought to You my son who has a mute spirit. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples and asked if they could cast it out, but they could not." And He answered and said, "Oh faithless generation, how long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me." Then they brought him to Him, and when He saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "Since his childhood. And often it has thrown him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on him and help us." And Jesus said, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes!" So people will stop there and say, "If I believe, whatever I ask, God will do." I've had people come to me and say, "God just doesn't listen. I trusted He would heal me and I woke up today and I still have the flu. And I believed! This scripture said that." Of course, we have to ask in His will. Okay? It's interesting that that's part of what that meekness – that gentleness – is, right? Submission to God. But the next statement is what I find so comforting at times. Immediately the father of the child cried out. He didn't say this calmly. He cried out from the depth of his being. It says he cried out and said with tears – he just started crying – "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!"

If we're going to have the type of faithfulness that is a fruit of God's Spirit, there are times when you will be on your knees before God, and you're going to say, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. I have the faith to come to You and my faith is that You will build in me the faith. My faith is that I can come to You and You will comfort me. You will supply me the answer." Or, "You will supply me the calmness when the answer does not come on my timetable. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief." When you pray that, you move beyond your faith and you begin to have the faith developed in you by the Spirit of God. Because remember, if it's a fruit of the Spirit, it isn't something you and I entirely do on our own. It is a fruit of the Spirit. It takes you – you know, being fertilized, and dumped on, and hacked up, and pruned – okay, it takes all these things – but it takes the "water" coming through you to cause you to produce the fruit. Without the "water," you will die. You can't produce fruit without water. You cannot produce this fruit without God's Spirit. So, it takes you – your faith – that leads you to the point where you say, "Okay, I can go this far and You have to carry me the rest of the way. You have to do the rest of it. You have to do this in me and I will submit to it. I will submit to it."

Now, the problem is that the only way to have this faith…well, let's go back to 1 Peter and pick up where we left off here, because we read through verse 5. So verse 6:

1 Peter 1:6 – In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials – grieved, sorrowed, hurt, distressed, worried – that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, who, having not seen, you love, though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls.

What that means is, for you to have the fruit of God's Spirit – for your faith to be a fruit of God's Spirit – God is going to have to take you to points in your life where you are going to have to pray, "I believe. Help my unbelief. I've gone as far as I can. This is all that I have and You have to do the rest." In order to have this kind of faith, you have to be tested. Your faith has to be tested. The trials have to come. They have to! Because if they do not, you will never get to that point. If you can ride through life on your faith – that is not a product of the fruit of the Spirit – it's not a Spirit-led faith, but simply your faith…I suppose it would be possible to do that if you never had a trial – if everything was always and perfect and good – but that's not life. To be a fruit of Spirit means that God's Spirit has to produce it – that "water" has to produce it – and we participate. And that means that you and I have to get, at some point in our life – and usually it's multiple times – where we say, "I believe. Help my unbelief." And we have this crisis of faith. And we say, "See God, I am not worthy of this, because I don't have it. I have to come to You to get it." And what God is saying is, "You never had it to begin with."

You don't have the fruit of the Spirit unless you receive the Spirit. Of course we don't have that. We don't have the self-control that it's talking about. I don't care how self-controlled you are, you don't have the self-control it's talking about in Galatians 5, because that is a Spirit-produced – Spirit-led – self-control. You don't have that gentleness – that meekness that's described. You can't, because it's Spirit-led. So you didn't have it before. If you have it now, it's because you're submitting to God's Spirit. And it's the same way here with this faithfulness. This faithfulness is your faith takes you so far, and then God produces it through His Spirit the next step.

So don't give up when you get those places where you say, "I believe. Help my unbelief." Or, you go to God and say, "I don't even know if I believe. This is so hard that I don't even know what to do." Just like my dad said, "I had to go to God and say, ‘I don't have anything to give on this one.'" He didn't. And what happened was, my mom was healed. But he had to go and reach the point, "I have no faith to give. I have no answers, no strength, no nothing!" Here was a man that raised people from the dead – or God raised people from the dead through him – in anointing people. It's going to happen in your life, too. It's Jacob wrestling with Christ all night long. "I believe. Help my unbelief."

God wants to produce this fruit in your life. It's why He called you. Yes, He called you to learn to obey Him. He called you so that you would stop stealing, and stop lusting, and stop coveting, and start honoring your mother and your father. He called you so you would give up worshipping crosses. Right? It's interesting – the whole cross argument – because it comes out of paganism. Beside, how would you – I was thinking this when Mr. Isaac was giving the sermonette…. The absurdity! "I am going to honor my Savior by somehow participating in this worship in which His instrument of death is involved. I mean, really, if you're going to do that, you'd have a spear. He was killed with a spear. Of course, what if He'd been killed with an electric chair? Would people walk around with electric chairs on their Bibles? What if He'd been killed with a gun? Would we all have machine guns on our Bibles? I mean, they didn't have guns then, but…. Although, the Romans did have a machine that would shoot about a dozen arrows like a Gatling gun. They turn this thing and shoot. What if He'd been killed with one of those? Would we all have this Gatling gun arrow thing – machine gun – on our Bibles? When you start thinking about the absurdity of this…. We were called to get out of that. But internally, you were called to become this. These things are what we bear in our lives. And to do that, God is going to test you. God is going to test you so that you learn self-control – and I learn self-control. He's going to fertilize us till we learn meekness. And He's going to water us until we produce faithfulness. And then He will continue into the next steps.

So next time we will talk about the fruits of goodness and kindness.

Comments

  • KARS
    Once again I thank you Mr. Petty for your insight to our physical problems and how much we need the God family to help us grow in a more positive direction for the good of all. Have a blest week Mr. Petty. Warmly, K.
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