Godly Character, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. So as you all by the Spirit growing in your love for the Gospel, see spiritual fruit is the natural result. Spiritual fruit happens by being swept up in a loving, intimate encounter with Jesus, with the Gospel. It is as your heart developed a felt sense of the doctrines of the Gospel. That spiritual fruit begins to pop out of you as naturally as grapes on a grapevine. Welcome back to Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian, J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. You know, at first glance, citrus trees look pretty much the same. Their leaves are the same color and their branches form similar shapes.

So what's the best way to tell them apart? You look for the fruit. And the same is true of people, specifically Christians. In John chapter 15, Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Today, pastor J.D. explains how good fruit is produced by a life that's rooted in Christ.

And if you've missed any part of this new teaching series, you can always catch up online at jdgreer.com. Pastor J.D. has titled today's message, Godly Character. So grab your Bible and let's jump in. Galatians 5 16, the development of godly character.

Here we go. But I say to you, walk by the Spirit, says Paul, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do.

But if you are led by the spirits, you're not under the law. Verse 19, now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, competitiveness or selfish ambition, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. By the way, listen, avoid the temptation to read that list and think about them out there. Because this is not them out there, these things are all present in our hearts. Okay, so don't think out there, think right here. Verse 22, but the fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Here's what we're going to see from these eight verses. Number one, we're going to see a description of two different plants with two different fruits. Number two, we're going to see a command that we are given.

And then number three, we're going to see a warning about a lifelong struggle. So first of all, number one, a description of two different plants with two different fruits. The first plant Paul calls the flesh. You see, when Paul wants to summarize the entire list, you see this there in verse 16, he uses a Greek word that is a very important word. The Greek word that summarizes the entire list is the word epithumia.

Epithumia. Now, we translate that word into English as lust. I say lust, you think sex, but lust, epithumia doesn't mean just sex. It's a deep soul craving. It's a craving for these things that we put in the place of God. And that soul craving leads to the rest of that list. Hatred, strife, drunkenness, orgies, sensuality. So see, the law, Paul says, the law, or in other words, being commanded to change, the law can't help that problem. If your problem is that you don't love God and that you're not in right relationship to God, the law or being commanded to change, you know, cut that out, stop it, don't do that anymore, that can't really help because our core problem is that we don't have the right desires to God. So when you abide in the gospel, it produces a totally different set of things.

And that's Paul's second list. Love. Love is the Greek word agape. It just means you have a general love for people, not because of what they can do for you, just because you're full of love, joy. That's the Greek word kera. And it just means a delight that you have in God that's not dependent on your circumstances. You're just overjoyed at God's presence in your life, but what a treasure he is. Peace.

That's the Greek word eirene. Peace. It just means that you have the sense that in all situations, even bad ones, that there is a loving God who is in full control and his presence with you is all that you need. These are the fruits of the gospel. And Paul ends his list by saying, listen, verse 23, against such things there is no law.

You know what he's saying by that? You don't need a law for that kind of person. As Paul says, if the gospel has produced that in you, there's no more need for the law of God, because God doesn't have to make laws for people who are filled in their hearts with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, because, see, see, they have become the law of God. They love God, they love others, and those eight ways are how they express that. That's what the gospel produces. See, it produces godly character.

So that's your description of two different plants with two different fruits. Here's your command, number two, Galatians 5 16, but I say, walk by the Spirit. Now, let's be honest for just a minute with each other. What's it mean to walk by the Spirit? How many of you hear that and just in the back of your mind you're like, I'm not really sure what that means. Walk by the Spirit. I used to think, oh yeah, I heard it all my life growing up, and I think, I mean, so does that mean like every hour you stop and think, I need spirit power? So I got a spirit, give me power, and he'd kind of blow you up like a spiritual balloon, and you go out and work in the Spirit, but next hour you better remember it and do it again.

Blow yourself back up and do, is that, no. That's always what I thought it, man, but it's not what it means. What does the Spirit do according to Jesus? John 16 14, he glorifies Jesus. So to walk by the Spirit means to walk with Jesus large in your heart. The Holy Spirit makes the gospel real to you. The Holy Spirit, to walk by the Spirit means that you have the felt sense of the truths of the gospel in your life, and as you abide in that gospel, as you're walking by the Spirit, then you are filled with all those fruits. Paul in Galatians, you go back to chapter 3, Paul says, if you want to be filled by the Spirit, abide in the gospel, and it's the doctrines of the gospel, the news of his generosity, and you're depressed. As those things fill your heart, then love, joy, peace, kindness, faithfulness, they pop out of you as naturally as grapes on a grapevine. Can I teach you two theological words? They're kind of deep, but you really need to know them, so I want you to write these down.

It's very important. Two theological words, more on justification. Justification is the act by which God declares you righteous in Christ.

It comes from the great exchange. Jesus lived the life you should have lived, died to death you were condemned to die, he gives you his righteousness as a gift, gift righteousness. Justification, it's a legal declaration. That's theological word number one. Theological word number two, sanctification. Sanctification means literally to make holy. It is the process by which your heart begins to desire godly things. Love, joy, peace, faithfulness, that's sanctification. It's the process of you becoming holy. Now, we always talk about those things like they are separate, and they are.

Okay, you got to make sure you get this. Justification is a legal declaration that God declares over you in Christ. Sanctification is the process of your heart actually becoming and desiring holiness. So they are separate, but they are profoundly related because, watch this, growth in sanctification comes by dwelling on justification. You will grow in sanctification, you will grow in your desire to be holy the more you reflect on your justification, which is how God made you holy in Christ. Sanctification takes place as you become intimately aware of your justification. See, that's why I got like Martin Luther, his lectures on the book of Romans, made this statement, I love this, to progress is always to begin again. In other words, to progress spiritually is always to go back to the beginning.

You go back to dwelling on what God has done for you in Christ, and that's how you make progress. Growth in sanctification comes from going deeper in justification. It is only as we grow in our understanding of the fact that God's acceptance of us was not based on how good we are that we begin to desire what is good. In other words, the only ones who will get better sanctification are those who understand that God's approval of them is not dependent on their getting better justification.

Did your mind just blow? The only ones, this is the irony, the only ones who ever get better spiritually are those who understand that God's acceptance of them is not based on their getting better. The only ones who ever really learn to desire holiness are the ones who understand that God doesn't accept them because they desire holiness.

God accepts them because He gave them holiness as a gift. And when you dwell on your justification, your heart begins to desire to be with that God. Dwelling on justification is the most essential component of your sanctification. I would encourage you to write that down and think about it all week. Dwelling on your justification is the most essential component for your sanctification.

Now, I hear you tell me like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. If that's true, if that's true that God's approval of me is not based on how much I'm doing and how I'm doing these things, then we'll lose all our motivation to grow for God, right? Don't you at least say that kind of in your heart? You're like, but if God's not above me waving a stick, like you better desire holiness or I'm going to whack you.

If He's not doing that, I'm going to lose all my desire. People will not be motivated anymore to grow with Christ if they think that God's approval is given to them whether they grow or not. I may answer you the same way John Bunyan answered his critics. John Bunyan, the guy who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, put in prison by the Church of England, and they said to him, John, you can't go on telling everybody that God's approval of them is not based on how they behave. Because if you tell them that God's approval is not based on how they behave, they'll do whatever they want.

Bunyan's reply was, no. If I tell them that God's approval of them is based on a gift that is given in Christ, they'll do whatever He wants. You see, it is as you become intimately aware of your justification, you grow in your sanctification. So as you all by the Spirit growing in your love for the Gospel, see spiritual fruit is the natural result. I've used this analogy with you before, but this is, well, I think what Paul's getting at now, watch this.

I told you spiritual fruit, love, joy, peace, is produced the same way that physical fruit like a child is produced. Yesterday morning, I got up with my children and I made waffles. I'm not a good cook, so I had to go on the internet, get a recipe, and you follow it to the letter. You're like, okay, you need a pinch of salt, you need some baking soda, you need some vanilla, you know, whatever. So I put all that in there. That's a recipe. That's how you make a waffle. Producing a child is not like following a recipe. Given, right? When a man and woman come together to make a child, they're not thinking about the mechanics or the recipe for making that child. The chromosome is this, and this happens, and this other DNA gets formed, right?

No, no, no. A child, physical fruit is the fruit of a loving, intimate encounter between a man and a woman. In the same way, spiritual fruit is not produced like a recipe.

I got to have love. Spiritual fruit happens by being swept up in a loving, intimate encounter with Jesus, with the gospel. It is as your heart developed a felt sense of the doctrines of the gospel, that spiritual fruit begins to pop out of you as naturally as grapes on a grapevine. You're listening to a message titled Godly Character here on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. We'll rejoin this teaching in just a moment, but I wanted to tell you about a daily email devotional from Pastor J.D. that's delivered straight to your inbox. Couldn't we all use encouragement first thing in the morning to remind us of God's love for us?

I know the busyness of life can quickly choke out any joy that we feel in our walk with God, so why not cut those weeds away each morning with a word from the Lord? The devotionals even follow along with our current teaching here on the program, so you can stay plugged in regardless of your schedule. Sign up for this free resource right now at J.D. Greer dot com slash resources. That's J.D.

G-R-E-E-A-R dot com slash resources. Now let's return for the conclusion of today's message. Once again, here's Pastor J.D. Did you notice that fruit in this passage, that fruit is singular?

Did you catch that? Not fruits as if they are things that you add, but the whole lot of them. Fruit, singular, because when you abide in Jesus, watch this, they all grow.

That means that when one of these things is growing but not the others, you got to wonder if it's really fruit. For example, I know people who are very kind, but they have no self-control. That's probably not spiritual growth, that's probably just personality. They've got a naturally kind disposition, because if it were spiritual fruit, all of them would be growing.

It could make it personal. Boldness is a lot of times considered to be a spiritual fruit. I've been bold since I was six years old. It's just a personality trait, often wrong, never in doubt. It's just what I am. And a lot of times I confused personality traits like boldness with spiritual maturity. Because when you looked at my life, what you would notice is that, yeah, I was bold for Christ, but I was also very judgmental, very unkind, very self-centered, and see if it were really spiritual fruit, all those things would be growing.

So I'm just trying to tell you that whatever is happening in your life, it'll be producing all nine of these things. And if there's one growing but not the others, it might be the fact that it's not spiritual fruit. In fact, I would even say it this way, you're only as mature as your weakest fruit. That stings a little bit, doesn't it? You're only as mature as your weakest fruit.

That might be an overstatement, but you get the idea. Fruit is singular. Because when the gospel is taken root in your life, all these things grow. Believe it or not, you're only as mature as your weakest fruit. Believe it or not, I know that stung, so let me make you feel better. Believe it or not, there's actually some good news in that. You want to know what it is?

If fruit is singular, I'll give you another analogy. When I was 12 years old, my head and my feet were the same size that they are right now, okay? And the rest of me was 12 years old size. How did people always encourage me?

What did they say? You'll grow into it, right? Don't worry. We can already see how big you're because your head's already that size and your feet are already that size. You'll grow into it, it'll be okay.

And so I was able just to kind of, you know, not worry about it. We'll see in the same way if these are all the DNA of what it means to be in Christ, you don't have to be overwhelmed at how little progress you're making. Because the question is not, am I ever going to overcome this or develop this? The question is simply, when am I going to grow into it? Sanctification is the process of becoming what God has already made you in Christ.

She's going to grow into it, just let it out. Last one real quick, a warning. A warning about a lifelong struggle. Paul is telling you that at every point for the rest of your life, you're going to be in a war. A lifelong to the death struggle between your old sinful nature and your new righteous one. Both of them at every point in your life, watch, are constantly calling you to plant the roots of your soul into them, into the flesh, or into the spirit. At every point in every day, you are making a choice whether to plant the roots of your soul in the flesh, something besides God or the gospel God. Which is why Paul tells you that what Christianity, what Christian growth is, is learning to preach the gospel to all the different parts of you. It's like you, there are unevangelized parts of your soul and you got to send little missionaries out to them to preach the gospel into those sections.

We talk about unreached people groups, you got a bunch of them in your heart, right? And Christian growth is sending missionaries to preach the gospel into those places. That's why when Paul gives you the spiritual armor, I showed you that every piece that he gave was the gospel, taking the breastplate of righteousness, what's that? That's Christ's righteousness given to you as a gift.

Having your loins girded about with truth, what's that? That's the truth of the gospel. He says, take the helmet of salvation, that's obvious.

Take the sword of the spirit, what's the spirit and the sword about? It's the gospel. Take the shield of faith.

Faith in what? The gospel. Because as the various parts of your life are shrouded in the gospel, you begin to desire what God wants. To preach the gospel to all the unreached people groups in your soul.

I want you to preach the gospel to all parts of you all the time. Because as you bring those parts of your life under the dominion of the gospel, that's when you grow. That's why J.C. Ryle, the Puritan, said that the true Christian is known by his constant inner warfare. At every moment and every day you are being faced with a choice of whether or not you're going to put the roots of your soul into the flesh or into the gospel.

It's a war. God has a part of this, and you have a part. God's part, you see verse 24 of Galatians 5 says you crucify your flesh. God's part of this is to afflict you.

God afflicts you. Some of you know this because he tears down an idol that you love. Because he knows as he tears it down you'll take the roots out of it and put it into him. That's why John 15 2 Jesus said that those that he loves he prunes. I told you pruning is painful. When you see a bush that's been pruned it looks like a disaster.

Pieces of it laying all over the ground it looks like it's shredded. But the gardener has just taken out of that person what was killing them. What God does sometimes he puts affliction in our lives to take out of us those things that are keeping us from growing in him.

That's affliction. God sometimes does the crucifying himself. He crucifies your flesh. You have a part of that. Your part of that is you put to death your sinful nature on a daily basis. And when you have sinful desires you take the roots out and you put them down over here in the gospel. I'll give you an example.

Rather than explain this to you let me just give you an example some of you identify with. You're a guy you're a dude you're walking through the mall and by you going the other way is just a really hot girl who's dressed totally inappropriately. Which the last time I went to the mall was all of them okay. And as she walks by you suddenly have this desire I want to turn around check her out right. What do you do at that moment?

You say well the law is useless. You know I could change my heart if I make myself not do it. So I might as well just say God why don't you change with the gospel but for right now I don't want to be a Pharisee so I'm just going to turn around and look.

No no you don't that's not what you do. What you do at that moment is you say God why is it that I still desire impurity and you take the roots of your soul up out of that and you put it to death and you drive them down into the gospel and say God would you show me more about a God who loved me so much and went to a cross to die for my impurity so that I desire what you desire. Think of it like this there's some sins that I could throw out here right now that almost all of you would find disgusting right. Child molestation just about everybody in here would find that repulsive.

You don't need the law to command you not to molest children because you just never want to do that. The goal of the gospel is that you feel that way about all sins. So when impurity is desirous to me I take my roots out of the flesh and I say God I put them in the gospel and I dwell on the fact that God died to make me pure and that makes me desire what he desires. That's crucifying the flesh and putting my roots in the gospel.

Does that make sense? That's what it means to preach the gospel to yourself every moment of every day you have that choice. Let me end just by sharing with you something a story of a girl who is here at our church who went through this process. Girl says and I got her permission to share this I was raped my freshman year of college within the first couple of months by the boy that I was dating.

I denied that this happened to myself and for the rest of the year I spent my time in a Neverland with the assistance of drugs and alcohol and even worse men. She then talks about going through a time of questioning asking God why. She got involved in professional counseling therapy. She said I still woke up even after the counseling every single day with this heavy burden on my heart and it became obvious that I needed something that even counseling was not giving me. My friend invited me to the summit one Sunday and I remember walking out the doors and thinking about the sermon for days after that much to my shock you actually said the word rape during the sermon. I went through this process of discovery she talks about until one night she said I cried out to God on my bed and that was the last night I've ever spent laying in my bed crying in despair over what happened.

Something special happened that night. I prayed to God for forgiveness for what I had done for the strength to carry on and for his help to get through this. It was the most raw and desperate prayer I'd ever made. I can't explain what happened but immediately I felt this presence, his presence inside of me. It physically came in and took the burden off my shoulder that I've been carrying around all that time and I'd never suffered through since remembering again. I stopped viewing myself as a broken and ruined girl that nobody would ever want and giving myself away to other men to try to feel worthy. I stopped feeling that way because God wanted me.

He proved it to me that night. I trusted him and I've left my old lifestyle behind. I dropped the drugs, alcohol, and group of people I've been hanging out with. I don't have any desire to ever live that way again because this new high, the spirit, is much better than any drug has ever given to me. Seeing all those choices I made and the things that happened those couple of years, I stand amazed at God's plan. It was at work and all what happened to me even in my rape because it contributed to a situation where I had to live off campus.

Something otherwise not allowed in my college. That led me to my roommates. That led me to counseling. That led me to a friend of the Summit Church and then to God. That process is happening with some of you right now and what's happening is the flesh, you're seeing the fruits of it.

You've got to make a choice where you're going to put the roots of your soul and the good news is that Jesus made a way for you to put your roots into him. It's called the gospel and if you will receive it and if you will follow the way that he has opened up, your life will be transformed. A powerful real-life example of how the gospel transforms lives from Pastor J.D.

Greer here on Summit Life. Pastor J.D., we have your eight-session gospel Bible study as our featured resource this month and it's a video-based curriculum so tell us how it's meant to work. So over eight sessions, maybe that's eight weeks that you're doing with a small group or maybe it's just you on your own, the videos are about 10 to 15 minutes long where I teach and then based on that teaching you will open their study guide and your Bible and you'll work through questions and prayers and ideas for how to put these things into practice. I think this might be the most overlooked and yet one of the most important concepts in the Christian life and so we're going to have four sessions going through the different elements of the gospel prayer. A prayer that I've tried to teach people to pray daily to center themselves on the gospel. For a gift of $50 this month, we will send you the DVDs and five study guides and the book Gospel to get you started.

It's a great thing to use yourself with your family or with a group so take a look at jdgreer.com. Thanks, J.D. The main objective of this Bible study is to help you simply abide in Jesus. When you are captivated by the love of Christ, the natural results are patience, generosity, self-control, passion, and kindness.

You become more self-disciplined and less selfish. Get your study guide kit today when you support Summit Life with a generous financial gift. Call 866-335-5220.

That's 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vidovich and tomorrow Pastor J.D. describes another important aspect of spiritual growth. We're looking at the role of the church in spreading the gospel and helping us towards spiritual maturity. So be sure to join us Friday for Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.