For the past several weeks we have been talking about the fact that the God of the Bible has revealed Himself to mankind in three distinct forms—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Peter made that fact abundantly clear in the opening lines of his first letter to Jewish Christians scattered across Palestine. He wrote, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, exiles
scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:1-2a, NIV). Peter clearly viewed God as one God who reveals Himself in three forms—God the Father, the Spirit, and Jesus Christ!
The particular form of this ONE GOD about whom we are studying in this series of sermons is “the Holy Spirit.” In this lesson we will continue to examine another thing “the Holy Spirit” does in the lives of believers. He produces in us “the fruit of the Spirit.” Paul wrote, “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23a, NIV).
We have already noticed that the nine characteristics of “the fruit of the Spirit” are listed by Paul in three sets of three. The first set of three characteristics impacts the believer’s relationship with God—“love, joy, peace.” We talked about those three characteristics two weeks ago.
The second set of three characteristics impacts the believer’s relationship with other people—“forbearance, kindness, goodness.” We talked about those three last week.
The third set of three characteristics impacts the believer’s relationship with himself—“faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” We will talk about those three in today’s lesson.
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