Producing Fruit Through Obedience

I really appreciate that. I was just thinking of how young Mr. Meininger must have been when he started playing that huge trombone. I wonder if it was smaller when he first started, because he's a big guy, but that's a pretty big trombone. But very well done. I was thinking about the Word of God marching forward and moving ahead with that particular song. Well, brethren, in the New Testament, in Galatians 5, in fact, let's go to Galatians 5 as we begin the sermon today. And this is a verse or two that most of us are very, very familiar with. But it bears reading and considering. Ephesians 5, verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of God's Holy Spirit, is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or meekness, humility, and self-control. Against such, there is no law. Well, there's certainly no law against producing the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. God wants us to produce the fruit of God's Spirit. And I don't recall ever hearing a religious person of any Christian faith really having a problem with that idea. All seem to accept this premise. They accept the validity and expectation of true Christians producing the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. That is what true Christians do. That's what makes them true Christians. Jesus Christ said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. And of course, love is the very first fruit that's listed in Galatians, chapter 5. But God's true followers are certainly also to be known by the rest of those fruits, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness, and self-control by all of the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. But isn't it ironic? At the same time, it's also a common belief and practice by many, in fact, most who profess Christ as their Savior, who believe and claim that they are true Christians, they also believe and teach that the Law, the Ten Commandments, were done away and no longer necessary for man to live by. How does that make any sense? How does that make any sense at all? The same people believe you should be producing the fruit of God's Holy Spirit, but they believe the commandments have been done away. How can this be when the producing of the fruit of God's Holy Spirit relies heavily? on living by the Ten Commandments. In other words, the Ten Commandments and the producing of the fruit of God's Holy Spirit are inextricably linked together. One can't fully produce the fruit of God's Spirit unless he is keeping the Ten Commandments. Now, we're going to examine that idea today. We're going to take a look at that. And I'm not talking about keeping the commandments only in the letter, but more importantly, especially in the Spirit. And one cannot keep the Ten Commandments properly in the Spirit if the Holy Spirit isn't guiding and strengthening him or her. And it was Jesus Christ, more than any other person, who taught his disciples to keep the Ten Commandments, to keep the Commandments in the Spirit. So today, let us see how closely related the keeping of the Ten Commandments is with the producing of the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. In fact, keeping of the Ten Commandments will produce the fruit of God's Spirit in one's life. So I want us to really think about this. I believe there's lots of food for thought here. You know, it's imperative that we are keeping the commandments of God in the Spirit of God's law if we hope to produce the fruit of God's Spirit. The letter of the law is clearly not enough. That is not the standard for God's children.

God wants us to go beyond the letter to keep his law in the Spirit in which he intended.

So the title of today's sermon is, keeping the Ten Commandments in Spirit produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So how can you begin producing more of the fruit of God's Spirit? We all want to produce more of the God's Spirit. How do we do that? We do it by keeping the Ten Commandments in the Spirit of God's law. And it's not just the Ten Commandments. It's any of God's laws that are revealed in the Bible. If we keep them in the Spirit, we will be producing the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. We'll talk about that in quite a bit of detail today.

Why did God introduce the Ten Commandments to mankind? We know that God must have instructed Adam and Eve on what he expected of them, how he wanted his children to behave and live. Now, we don't know whether he outlined all Ten Commandments in the Garden of Eden, but we know that they were expected to pass along his laws and ways to their children.

The Bible doesn't give us a lot of detail in this regard, but it seems certain that this was the case to some degree or another, that God's law was revealed, that they knew and understood what God expected of them. Of course, all of that went rather haywire when Adam and Eve disobeyed God when they sinned against him and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, in the course of time, God certainly made it clear that murder, one of the Ten Commandments, wasn't acceptable.

Remember Cain and Abel? Remember what was said? In the Bible, it says in Genesis chapter 4 that sin crouched at the door. Sin was there. Sin was present. Sin is the transgression of God's holy and righteous law, according to 1 John chapter 3 verse 4. And it's very clear that this was a great offense. The Hebrew word in Genesis 4 is cha-ta, c-h-a-t-t-a-h, or a t-h on the end, it can go both ways. It means offense. It was offensive to God to do this.

It's from the Hebrew word, a primary word cha-ta, which is also used, this word is, this primary word is used in Genesis chapter 39, where it also talks about sin. And this is the account of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. Cha-ta means to miss the mark. And this word cha-ta is translated as sin numerous times in the Old Testament.

Sin was to miss the mark, to miss the standard that God gave to mankind. It was against God's law to commit adultery. Joseph knew that. He would not do it. He would not listen to Potiphar. He would not go, or Potiphar's wife, he would not go along with her because he knew adultery was a sin. He knew that very clearly. The overall standard regarding God's will and law as lawgiver, as given in the Old Testament, is the Ten Commandments.

Sin is the transgression of those laws as well as any of God's laws. It's not restricted to the Ten Commandments. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 10, and let's see very clearly again that God did bring the Spirit of the law to some degree in the Old Testament.

There's no doubt that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, Caleb, David, many others understood at least a good deal of what it meant to live by the Spirit of the law as opposed to just the letter. When we go to Deuteronomy chapter 10, and this is given right about the time they were going into the Promised Land.

The Ten Commandments had been given. They had been reiterated, written down again on the tablets of stone. Moses was hearkening back to that time when those commandments were given on Mount Sinai. Then in verse 12 of chapter 10 of the book of Deuteronomy, we read in verse 12, And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. That goes way beyond the letter of the law. God says we're to serve him with our whole heart, with our whole soul, goes way beyond the letter, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command you today, for your good.

There are blessings that come along with keeping God's commandments. Let's read just a little further. Verse 14, Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The eternal delights only in your fathers to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples as it is this day.

And now notice verse 16, Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. That's what God wants us to do, and he goes on to show that we should take care of the fatherless and the widows, that we should love the stranger, and that we should learn to fear the eternal our God and serve him, and hold fast to his truth and his commandments and his way of life.

So it's quite clear that there was more to the 10 commandments than just the letter of the law, even back then. For those who God was calling at that time, he was opening their minds to understand the spirit of the law of God. Now, if we go to verse 1 of chapter 11, here it says, Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God, and keep his charge, his statutes, his judgments, and his commandments always.

Now, hold your place there, and let's go back to Genesis 26. And notice the wording. Notice how similar it is to what we've just read about keeping God's commandments, his statutes, his laws. Of course, Genesis 26.5 was before the 10 commandments were given on Mount Sinai. But notice what it says about Abraham. And why did God call Abraham?

Why did he call him? Why was Abraham so special in God's sight? Notice verse 5. Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Look how similar that is to after the 10 commandments are given and they're about to go into the Promised Land.

It's very clear that Abraham understood the commandments of God. He kept them. He kept God's commandments, and he lived by them, and he lived by the spirit of those laws, not just the letter. In the New Testament, it is clear that true Christians are to be producing the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. It seems that is a premise that we can all accept. Everyone seems to accept that idea. But again, the fruits of the Spirit closely resemble what the 10 commandments were to achieve in a person's life. When you kept the commandments, you were going to be blessed. You would live faithfully because there would be a tremendous blessing from being more loving and joyful, being kind, you know, being good in how you treated others as was brought out in the sermonette. How we treat one another is important to God, and we should show honor. That's another one of the 10 commandments honoring our parents. Keeping the 10 commandments as God and Christ intended will assure us that we will produce the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. We will not only produce it, we will generate it in abundance. I think Mr. Rangel went to John chapter 15 that talked about God living in us and producing the fruit in abundance because we're tied to the vine. Jesus Christ lives in us. He dwells in us, allowing us to do the work and to generate that fruit, the fruit of God's Spirit. So, brethren, today let us consider the 10 commandments one by one. We've got enough time to go through each of these one by one, and let's see that we will be producing the fruit of God's Holy Spirit in various ways if we keep these commandments.

So, we're going to tie the 10 commandments into producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

What are some of the fruits of God's Spirit produced by keeping the very first commandment? What is the first commandment? You shall have no other gods before me. This is an all-encompassing commandment. If you put God first, you're going to produce all kinds of the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. For example, we show love when we listen to God. Christ said, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. So, when we put God first, we're showing love toward God, and we're certainly showing faithfulness toward God. That's another fruit of God's Spirit. We're faithfully putting God first in our life. Love and faithfulness are surely generated when one truly puts God first and has no other gods before the true God. God is number one in their lives, and love and faithfulness will be generated. Now, when a person obeys God, they show they have some spiritual strength to do that. They have some self-control, another one of the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. By obeying, that person is strengthened spiritually. The more one obeys, in general, the stronger that person becomes spiritually, and the more spiritual fruit is produced. On the other hand, when a person disobeys God, he sins and is weakened spiritually. Now, repentance will allow a person to continue on. If they're truly repentant, God will allow them to continue on, and they will grow stronger if they continue to choose to obey God. But if they continue to go against God, they truly haven't repented in the fullest sense. So let's go to John chapter 14 and take a look at some verses that we read every Passover.

John chapter 14 verse 15. Christ said, If you love me, keep my commandments.

How could anyone believe we shouldn't be keeping the commandments? How could they believe that the commandments are done away? It really doesn't make any sense. And what we're going through today is a greater proof that we should be keeping God's commandments. We should be keeping His laws. So if you love me, keep my commandments, Christ said, and I will pray the Father. And notice the link. Notice the link here. I will pray the Father, and He will give you another helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it nor knows it. I'm not going to use Him because it really isn't the best translation. It's not a person. It is the very power of God.

It neither sees it nor knows it, but you know it, for it dwells with you and will be in you.

So first, the Spirit of God dwells with us before we're baptized. We make changes before we're baptized. I know I made changes at age 18 because God's Spirit was working with me. Then God's Spirit was dwelling in me after baptism, after the laying on of hands. And the same is true for yourselves. So God will dwell in us. He will dwell with us and then in us.

And then if we go to verse 23, let's drop down to verse 23. Jesus answered and said to Him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, keep my commandments, keep my word. And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

How do they make their home with us? By the power of the Spirit of God, by the Holy Spirit. He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. Again, look what it says, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, it will teach you all things and will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Peace I leave with you. Another one of the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

So God is certainly with us if we humble ourselves, and it takes a lot of humility to keep God's commandments.

Because we're putting God before ourselves.

That first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. Oftentimes we put ourselves before God.

But we show humility when we don't do that and when we put God first. Again, Christ said, if you love me, keep my commandments. We see a direct link by the Savior, the Messiah, between the first of the fruits of God's Spirit, love, and all his commandments.

If you love me, keep my commandments. This is a direct commandment to keep God's commandments.

Jesus is God. He is the Son of God. He's a member of the God family, and He says, keep my commandments. If you love me in the New Testament.

He's also saying, in effect, if you don't love me, I wouldn't expect you to be keeping my commandments.

Peace and joy are also generated when we keep this first commandment. If we're putting God first, then we are going to be realizing peace and joy in our lives. We feel so much better when we do the right thing, don't we?

You know, if we're really putting God first, we're going to feel so much better. We're going to have greater peace, greater joy in our lives.

Those fruits of God's Spirit will be generated.

Again, meekness and humility is generated when we keep this commandment by putting God first.

We are humbled by putting God before ourselves.

I think it's safe to say that all nine fruits of the Holy Spirit are produced by keeping just the first commandment. If you stop and think about it, if God's truly first in your life, you're going to be producing all the fruits of God's Spirit, to the degree that you really put Him first in your life.

Let's go on to the second commandment. Do not make graven images.

The letter of the law is don't carve out an image.

Bow down, don't bow down before it like the pagans did.

That's the letter of the law, but God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth, not by venerating an image that is false and does not accurately portray God and His attributes. By keeping this commandment, we again show our love and faithfulness to our Creator, bringing further peace and further humility by humbling ourselves in obedience and not going the way of the pagan. Doing the right thing. It's very important to have a proper, true image of the true God in our hearts and in our minds. If we don't properly respect God for who He is, we are violating this commandment. If we blame God for things, we're violating this commandment because God is blameless. We have to know who God is. God is love and He's blameless. We should see God for who He is, not too hard, not too soft, not making Him in our own image or seeing Him like us, but having a true image of Him and striving to become like Him, having a godly balance and seeing that even His punishment and correction is actually merciful and loving. It helps us grow. It helps us understand when God corrects us. He chases the sons He loves, He chases the sons He loves, the daughters that He loves. He chases us for our good.

God is motivated by all the fruits of His Spirit. Those things motivate Him. That's what He is.

He's loving, He's joyful, He's peaceful, He's willing to suffer long, He's kind, He's good. He's all these things and that's what motivates Him to be the lawgiver, to give us the laws that we need so that we can be like Him. And that's His divine nature. These fruits of His Spirit, they show us His divine nature. He is loving and joyful and kind. He's all these things. That's the God that we should have in our mind, not some wooden image.

One of the most important aspects of this Second Commandment is to give the proper respect to God for who He is, both the Father and Son.

We are His children, the Father's children. We are true Christians. We are followers and disciples of Jesus Christ. So let us all bring glory and honor to our God as we reflect His character in all of our decisions and in the way we treat one another, as was again mentioned in the sermonette today. So the First and Second Commandment go hand in hand together, giving us a true picture of who God is. The Third Commandment goes right along with that because it says, do not take God's name in vain. This is primarily talking about honoring God by the way we live our lives. It's not so much how we pronounce a name. It's not that clear when it gets right down to it. The important thing is whether or not we truly respect God, we love God, and we are living by His ways, His laws. That's the most important thing. Now, I'm a Welch. That's my name. If I land in prison because of despicable deeds, I bring reproach upon the Welch name. I bring reproach upon the Welch family.

My guess is that someone way down the line actually did bring reproach upon the Welch name.

You've probably heard of the expression. There aren't many last names that are used in this manner. He's going to Welch on that promise.

Someone was pretty dishonest, or it could be that he was falsely accused.

Now, I want you to think about this because that's a racial slur against the Welsh people. It is a racial slur against the Welsh people. You should not use that phrase. You should never use that phrase because it's a racial slur. Now, the the Welsh people had enemies, and it's possibly likely, maybe, the Welsh weren't such bad people, but maybe they just wanted to bring reproach and just called them bad people. I don't know, but one day I'd like to find out. I'd like to know the true story of how that happened, but the point I'm making is we should not take God's name in vain by living in an inappropriate way. By living in a way that God would not be pleased with.

We should reflect God's character in all that we do, in the way that we live our lives.

Now, I will share that I had a really close childhood friend, one of my best friends. Later on, he became a bank president, was doing quite well in a small community in Northwestern Ohio. Then we found out he embezzled $49 million from 700 farmers in Northwest Ohio, and his name is Mud. His last name is Mud in that small community because those farmers are like 700 farmers that had $49 million basically in that bank. Now, I'm sure it was federally insured and they didn't lose all the money, but just think of what that did to that family name in that little small community. Even 30 years later, I just went to our anniversary. It was our 50th, wasn't it? I graduated in 1973. We just went to the 50th reunion, and still people talk about that. He was not there. I don't think he shows his face in that area any longer. He brought reproach upon the name because of his conduct, and we do not want to do that for God. We are true Christians. We should conduct ourselves in a proper way and not take his name in vain. In Exodus 20 verse 7, it says, "...you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold you guiltless who take his name in vain." Now, the word for name is the word Shem, and it basically is referring to a person's reputation, his fame, his glory. That is Shem, and the brown drivers and Briggs is what I use to come up with the reputation, fame, and glory. Strong's also says by implication, honor, authority, and character. So the name, it's about showing honor to the person, showing that he has authority, showing his character by respecting his name. And then taking it in vain would be in a false way, in an idolatrous, evil way.

Leviticus 19 verse 12 says, "...and you shall not swear by my name falsely." God says, "...don't swear by my name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of the Lord your God." And this is the word chalal. It's the strongest Hebrew 2490. It means to profane, to defile, to pollute, to desecrate, to violate the honor of, to dishonor, to treat as common. God does not want us to come across that way. He wants us to be honorable people, godly people, people who walk in his footsteps. And it's also about how we talk about God. We should not speak evil of him in any way. Like I said before, don't blame God, because it isn't God who's to blame. He is blameless.

The fruits of the Spirit of God are characteristics of His character. That's the way He is, and those are the fruits that we should be producing in our lives. So when we live lives of love, faithfulness, self-control, obedience, humility toward our God, we bring honor and glory to Him. These are fruits of God's Spirit that are being produced when we humble ourselves before God, and we treat Him appropriately. We never take His name in vain, and we're always good examples. You may think of other fruits generated and produced by keeping the Third Commandment. I can't go through every single one, or we'll be here too long.

Let's go on to the Fourth Commandment. The Fourth Commandment, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Now, this is really the day that so many people have a problem with. I mean, this is the commandment. I mean, most people don't have a huge problem with the other commandments, but they really don't want to keep this one. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. We show our love, our faithfulness, and our humility toward God when we keep His Sabbath. When we come here every Sabbath and we put God first in our lives by being here, we take time out of our busy schedules in our lives to show honor and respect and to worship God. And what about God's Sabbath? Does it not bring greater peace in your life? Does it not bring greater joy in your life when you keep it the way God intends? It certainly does. You know, we're producing the fruit of His Spirit by simply coming here and honoring God and respecting Him on this day. By remembering this day, we are producing the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. So we should keep them faithfully. And again, another one of God's, the fruits of God's Spirit. The Sabbath are signs, signs that we are His people. In Isaiah 58 verse 13, Isaiah chapter 58 and verse 13, and these verses probably bring out the Spirit of the Sabbath as well as any other verses. Isaiah 58 verse 13, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, now I've always looked at that as stop trampling on the Sabbath and keep it properly. Keep it the way God intends.

From doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight or a joy. Call it a joy. That's another one of God's, the fruits of God's Spirit. The holy day of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor Him on this day. Not doing your own ways, not being selfish, but putting God first, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking even your own words.

Now that's really humbling a person to do that. It's humbling to actually obey that, to follow that, to live it. It's very powerful in producing the fruit of God's Spirit when we keep the Sabbath in the way God intended. He says, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. You'll bring joy to the Lord by keeping this day, and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. God has spoken these words, and there are blessings for keeping the Sabbath day. The Sabbath is a weekly reminder, looking back at creation and looking forward to the millennium, to the return of Jesus Christ, who's Lord of the Sabbath. As with the annual holy days, it is time to rejoice and have joy in what God has done for us. Now, most of us love to keep the feast days. We love it. We love to go somewhere, to keep eight days, to get away from the world, and spend time with God's people, because we have experienced the joy of keeping these annual holy days. And we again show our love toward God by keeping His commandments. We show self-control by disciplining ourselves, saving our tithes, and going to the feast days every year, and honoring God on these days. These are powerful days that we are to be keeping. These weekly and annual holy days serve to give us spiritual strength and to help us get through the difficult struggles of life. I've often said, I'm glad it's every week. It helps keep me focused spiritually. And remember Nehemiah 8 verse 10 that we talked about in a sermon not long ago, The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Eternal, is your strength.

God is a joyful, loving, merciful God. He is our strength. We draw strength from Him. When we honor Him on the Sabbath day, certainly God is with us. Each proper observance of the Sabbath and of every annual holy day strengthens us and helps us produce the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. Now, some people have been persecuted because they have kept the Sabbath day.

So they're producing another fruit of God's Spirit called suffering long. They learn to suffer long. Sometimes people have been out of jobs for months because they refuse to work on the Sabbath. So they've had to suffer long, but they've done it. They've hung in there and they've produced the fruit of that Spirit, perseverance, and hanging in there. So much can be learned and many fruits of God's Spirit can be produced by keeping His Sabbath and annual holy days. Now, the fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother. What kind of fruits of God's Spirit are we producing when we truly keep this commandment, when we honor our parents? Well, we certainly show love and respect to them, don't we, when we show them honor. They appreciate it. This produces joy in our families when we show honor and respect to our parents. It brings joy to both the children and the parents, and it brings greater peace within the family unit. When we dishonor our parents, that's not a good thing. You know, that's a bad thing, and it really upsets the family unit.

It's a very kind thing to do when we show honor and respect to our parents. It's a good thing to do. It's a humble thing to do. Honoring our parents shows self-control, even when our parents may do things that try our patience in various ways. I know that we have tried their patience, no doubt, so what goes around comes around sometimes. So we have to be willing to show honor and respect. We have to be willing to suffer long, if necessary, to do the right thing, to honor our parents. Keeping this commandment shows faithfulness to our family unit. It produces faithfulness in us when we do it, when we keep it. This commandment doesn't end when you grow up and leave home, or even after your parents die. You should still show them honor and respect, the way you talk of them. Now, I know it may be much harder for some people than others, because some parents have not been good parents. Some people have been abusive. Some parents have. They've been horrible parents. So, you know, we don't honor them because of the bad deeds, and we don't just whitewash it and say it never happened. It's unfortunate, but that's Satan's way. It's his world. And so, sometimes parents have been influenced. Maybe their parents were not very good either. There's lots of reasons why this might happen, but to the degree that we're able, we should show honor and respect. We wouldn't be here without them, so at least we can be grateful that they had us and they must have, you know, took good enough care of us that we survived. And so, be grateful for what we can be. And also, parents, what do your children think of you?

Make it as easy as possible for them to honor you. Set the right example for them so that it will be easy to honor you. All right, let's go on to the sixth commandment. You shall not murder.

When a person murders another, they're obviously not showing love toward that person. Murdering someone brings great sorrow to somebody. It doesn't bring joy. It brings great turmoil, not peace. When someone murders another person, it's often because they've lost patience. They're not willing to suffer long. They get angry and they lash out. They've lost self-control. So when you maintain self-control, when you do the right thing, obviously that's a good thing. You know, you're going to be growing. You're going to be producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit if you don't go down that path. They're not being, certainly a person isn't being kind, good, or humble when they rise up to kill someone. You're not being faithful toward your fellow man. You know, one of the great commandments is love your neighbor as yourself. You know, don't kill them, but learn to love them. Now, this is not a problem that most of us have in the letter of the law. I seriously doubt that we have many murderers among us here today, and hopefully no serial killers. Don't think so. However, what about the Spirit of the law?

If we dig deep into the Spirit of the law, you know, Christ helped us dig deep in this one. In Matthew 5, verse 21, Jesus said, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. Yes, that's one of the Ten Commandments. You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. There's great judgment upon someone who murders another. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother, without a cause, you know, and I suppose Jesus would also say, you know, even if you have a cause, be careful, because your anger should not be so great. Even if there is a cause, you should keep self-control and not kill someone, not murder someone.

He says, but I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother, without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raka, or Eufuel, shall be in danger of the counsel, but whoever says you fool, shall be in danger of hellfire. So there are degrees, obviously. You know, the Bible says we're to learn to love our enemies. That's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, 6, or 7. It's the Sermon on the Mount. We're to love our enemies, chapter 5, I believe. Love your enemies. Love those who despitefully use you and persecute you. Don't murder them. Don't rise up and murder them. So the spirit of the law, again, penetrates deeply into this commandment. You know, if you harbor resentment, if you harbor hatred, if you're envious and jealous of other people, you know, Cain was jealous. He was envious. He rose up and killed his own brother. So it is important that we certainly keep this commandment, not just in the letter, but in the spirit. There are, you know, it's, there are other fruits that are produced, certainly when, when we don't rise up and murder people, but instead we're kind to them.

You know, if you're kind to someone that you really have a hard time getting along with, you are producing a fruit of the Spirit of God. You're being kind. You know, the Bible talks about the law of kindness, about the virtuous woman who, in her tongue, was the law of kindness. She was that type of person. She would think well and talk well of people. We should be like that.

The scripture talks about not hurting nor destroying in all my holy mountain.

Don't, you know, there's not, murder is not going to be happening in the kingdom of God. When things are straightened out in due time, it says, the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea and no one will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. They won't be murdering. They will be loving and be compassionate toward one another. So the law of kindness shall be kept throughout the land. People will stop hurting one another. You know, when you hurt another person, you have broken the law of God. If you hurt someone unnecessarily, you know, maybe you could have done it done something differently. So it wasn't so hurtful. That's what you should strive to do. Because when you hurt someone, you're not being very kind, are you? And you're not being very loving. And there are many fruits of the Spirit that you're not producing when you treat others in the manner that they ought not be treated. God wants us to treat each other properly with love, with honor, as was mentioned in the sermon at with respect. All right, so let's go on to another.

Let's go on to... Oh, I will just mention that, you know, in the kingdom of God, of course, we will learn war no more. Now, war is murder. You know, the aggressor nation certainly is out to murder people because they want their land, or they want their money, or they want their people, they want to make slaves of them. You know, history is littered with war and people murdering one another. It's... War is premeditated murder.

War is indiscriminate, and many innocent people are murdered. You know, over in the Gaza right now, many innocent people are dying because of this type of behavior, hatred, resentment, all of that. You know, it makes no sense. It's just a horrible thing that's going on in our world today.

You shall not murder. Let's all keep that commandment and produce the fruit of keeping that commandment by going far and beyond that by actually loving our enemies and doing good to them. All right, the seventh commandment is you shall not commit adultery.

Committing adultery causes all kinds of problems, doesn't it? It causes all kinds of problems in the family, in human relationships. It's certainly not showing love to one's mate. Much joy and peace in a relationship, if there was any in the first place, is lost when adultery is committed.

Not being able to suffer long in a relationship could lead to one committing adultery. They justify their behavior. You can never justify that. It's a sin against God. It's a sin against our mate who we promised. Adultery is certainly not kind, good, humble, self-controlled, or faithful. Toward one's mate, to whom vows of love and faithfulness have been made. So, you shall not commit adultery. On the contrary, keeping this law in the letter and in the spirit builds trust and faith in your mate. It produces a deeper joy in the relationship and a peace and feeling of safety, security, is there. Jesus Christ made it very clear that simply keeping the seventh commandment in the letter of the law wasn't enough. Hopefully most of us in this room have not physically, in the letter of the law, committed adultery. But Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse 27, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And it goes the other way, too. If a woman looks at another man and has those kinds of thoughts of betrayal against her husband, then that's sin. You shall not commit adultery. Now, we should have the right attitude toward women in general, whether they're married or not married, whether you're married or not married. Fornication is another aspect of all this.

We shouldn't be committing fornication either. You know, prior to marriage, God wants us to be faithful to the mate that we marry when we marry them, and anything before that is not godly. It's not the way God intended it. It's not sexual purity. God says, flee fornication for any young adults or others. You know, flee fornication. Don't go down that path. But when you do that, you generate faithfulness toward God. You know, when you keep the commandments, there are fruits that are produced. So we might ask ourselves, how many times have we been unfaithful in our thoughts and in our hearts toward other people, toward our mates? This is something that we need to remedy and learn to live more by the spirit of this law.

God says, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. This is in the book of Hosea. Hosea chapter 2 verse 19, he says, I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, and in loving kindness. This is the Hebrew word has said in God's loving kindness, which is about His covenant love, the kind of love that He has for us.

God keeps His promises. We should keep ours. He says, I betroth you to me in faithfulness, and we should be faithful to God as well. The eighth commandment is, you shall not steal. Stealing from another doesn't really show much love, does it?

It's not very kind to steal the shirt off someone's back.

That's not very kind. It's not very loving. It's not good. It's not humble.

It's not self-control. It's certainly not being faithful toward your fellow man when you're fellow man, when you're stealing things from him. So, again, when we do just the opposite of this, when we don't steal, but instead we're generous to people. We give to people. Now, God tells us to be generous. He certainly doesn't want us to steal from people. He wants us to learn to be just the opposite, to be giving, to be generous, to be loving. You know, that's another aspect of this commandment. You shall be generous to one another.

God doesn't make that a commandment, but in a way it is a commandment.

We should all—God loves a cheerful giver. God wants us to learn to give cheerfully.

So, when one faithfully keeps this commandment, you shall not steal, they're going to produce all sorts of the fruits of God's Spirit. When they do break this commandment and they do steal from others, then certainly they're tearing down character, and it needs to stop. Number nine, you shall not lie. Keeping this commandment, again, when you're faithful and true and honest to people, you show to them love, you show patience, you show kindness, you show goodness, you show meekness or humility. Faithfulness, you show self-control by not lying to people, by telling them the truth. Usually, we lie because we're trying to cover something up that we've done, that we should not have done, and we're caught.

That's oftentimes when people lie. Some people lie all the time because they're pathological liars, and they've just learned to lie. But most of us just lie because we don't want to be found out, because we've done something else we shouldn't have done. And again, it's a cover-up.

We shouldn't have to cover up for ourselves. If we're true and faithful, we won't need to. So don't lie to one another. The seventh, eighth, and ninth commandments are all about faithfulness and self-control. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Don't lie. Instead, learn to love people by not lying, by not stealing, and by not committing adultery. Show that you are a loving, kind, and faithful person by keeping these commandments, by always being faithful to these commandments and living them. You'll learn greater self-control. You'll learn greater faith, and you will produce the fruit of God's Spirit. All right, let's go on to the tenth commandment. You shall not covet. Keeping this commandment shows, again, it shows love and patience and kindness. You know, when you're not wanting something that belongs to someone else, when you're not coveting something that belongs to another person, you are showing love toward them. You're showing that you're being kind toward them, and you're not having these bad thoughts about wanting something that they have. You know, Paul said he learned to be content in whatever state God allowed him to be in, and he was in some pretty rough states. You know, shipwrecked, he was in the deep for a couple nights. That would be awful. Worried about sharks, no doubt. But he learned to be content, and he trusted God, and he didn't covet other people or other situations. He learned to be content in whatever God allowed. So we should learn to do the same. When we do learn to be content, then we will have greater peace, we'll have greater joy. You know, things will go better for us when we learn this. So the 10th commandment is something, is a commandment we should keep because it will produce wonderful benefits in our lives. So let's not covet somebody's bass boat, you know. I've tried not to covet people's bass boats. You know, I've seen these beautiful bass boats, and I've really tried not to covet one. And for the most part, I've done pretty well. I've known some guys who've had some nice bass boats, and you know, whatever it is that might tempt you, just back it back it down and be grateful for what you do have. The only boat I ever owned was, I paid $500 for it, never got it in the water. I could never get the engine started. I bought it from a church member, too, and I thought it was going to work. Never worked. So that's such his life. Okay.

All right. When we keep the commandments of God, certainly there are rich blessings for us.

There are just so many fruits of God's Spirit that are produced when we do it God's way. In fact, it says that Christ is the Prince of Peace. Now, that's a fruit of His Spirit, and He wants us to learn to be like that as well, to learn peace and joy and faithfulness. Christ said in Matthew 19-17, if you want to enter into life and keep the commandments, why would God do away with His commandments? Why would He do away with His law? Paul says God's law is holy and just and good, something that we should all keep. Christ said, unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of God. And they prided themselves on being law-abiding, because they were all into the letter of the law. But even then, they were breaking that at times. You know, they were unfaithful in so many ways.

We should not break the laws of God. One last scripture, actually two scriptures quickly. 1 John chapter 3, because it really ties things in together well here. 1 John chapter 3 verse 22, and whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. This is 1 John chapter 3. This is John talking about long after Christ had died, that we should keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing to God. Verse 23, and this is His commandment that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another. So that's clearly talking about God's commandments, the Ten Commandments, and other laws that He implemented. We should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave us commandment. Now He who keeps His commandment abides in Him and He in Him, and by this we know that He abides in us. How does God abide in us? By the Spirit that He has given us. The Spirit of God dwells in us. We should be producing the fruit of His Spirit. When we keep His commandments, we will automatically be producing the fruit of God's Spirit. When we keep it in the spirit of the law, the way God intended, we will be producing the fruit of God's Spirit. Brethren, God is good, and we should all strive to be more like God. Keeping His commandments in both the letter and the Spirit of the law will allow us to be more like our God, and it will help us to be pleasing in His sight. Thankfully, we will be much more like God at Christ's return because we've been applying ourselves now. We've been keeping these commandments. Let's continue to keep God's commandments. Let's do even better as we learn to keep them in the Spirit of the law more faithfully and fervently. Hopefully, we can all clearly see that in order to produce the fruit of God's Spirit in abundance, we all need to strive to do our best to keep God's fundamental 10 commandments, both in the letter and in the Spirit of God's holy and righteous law. We shall be saved by God's grace. There's no doubt of that, but we are to be overcomers. And when we overcome, we produce the fruit of God's Spirit, and God grants us entrance into His eternal Kingdom. That's where we're headed, and it's a good place.