THE GLORIOUS FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

 BONITA ANN (LOGSDON) RICHIE

Dear Brothers and Sisters in The LORD Jesus,

I have desired to speak about the glorious fruit of righteousness that The LORD Jesus desires every believer to bear in abundance.  The LORD Jesus has led me to expound upon this by speaking from Scripture itself. 

When one believes in Jesus, repents and confesses one's sins to God, asks The LORD Jesus to save them, The LORD Jesus does a marvelous thing.  He causes one to become born again in spirit.  Until that happens, a person is spiritually dead without God's Spirit within.  The Holy Spirit coming to dwell inside of believers in Jesus gives them Jesus' eternal life.  He gives to them the desire for the things of God.  They WANT to read and study His Word.  The Holy Spirit teaches a believer.  He guides them.  He convicts them.  He bears the fruit of righteousness within them.  It is up to every believer to walk in The Spirit and die to the sinful desires of the flesh.  In doing so, one bears spiritual fruit that is seen by the world.  We are going to discuss the fruit of The Spirit.  We are going to read God's Word on the subject.  Take your Bibles and we will read from Galations 5:16-25.

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

Let us now turn to II Peter chapter one: verses 5-10 and read what The LORD Jesus wants us to add to our faith in Him. 

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity (love).  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our LORD Jesus Christ.  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:"

I feel it extremely important to zero in on two of the virtues that we are to have.  The first virtue I will speak about is patience.  Patience comes with endurance of trials and tribulations.  Patience comes by waiting on God to answer prayers in His timing and in His way.  Patience comes by accepting God's will over our own will.  Learning patience can be difficult for it is in man's flesh nature to desire that which comes quickly and easily.  The love for The LORD Jesus, however, prompts us to strive for patience.  We learn to be patient waiting on The LORD and we also learn to be patient with others as God has been patient with us.

The second virtue I want us to discuss is love (also called "charity" in the King James Version of The Bible).  We are to love The LORD our God with ALL of our heart, soul, and mind.  We are commanded also by The LORD Jesus to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  In the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians verses 1-8, we find the proofs of love that allow us to know that indeed we are loving as God loves......for God IS love.

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (love), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity (love), I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity (love), it profiteth me nothing.  Charity (love) suffereth long (is patient), and is kind; charity (love) envieth not; charity (love) vaunteth not itself (does not think highly of self and does not brag on self), is not puffed up (is not conceited), Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own (is not selfish), is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  Charity (love) never faileth;"

The LORD Jesus has told us plainly that a tree is known by its fruit.  It is important for all of us as Christians to ask ourselves this question: "When God and the world look at me, do they see the glorious fruit of righteousness of The Holy Spirit within me manifesting outwardly?" If the answer is "no" we must allow The Holy Spirit to reveal to us the areas in our lives of flesh that must die as we continue our effort to take up our crosses to follow our LORD as He so desires for us.  The Holy Spirit will help us.  He will help us bear the glorious fruit of righteousness that God so desires to harvest.

Sincerely in The LORD Jesus,

Bonita Ann (Logsdon) Richie

Father, keep us in Thy Will.  Guide us in bearing the fruit of righteousness that You desire for us to have.  Glorify Thy Name in Heaven and in earth and in our lives.  May the unsaved see what glorious spiritual fruit and treasure we have in You and seek to know You, Dear LORD Jesus.  In Jesus' Name I ask this of You, Father.  Amen.

03/06/2007