People who bear the fruit of the spirit know that they are worthy of condemnation.

They know that if they're going to deal with God or man in terms of pay, they're going to get paid wrath.

And so, you know what they've done?

What we've done, we quit relying on self and turn to mercy.

We've thrown ourselves on the mercy of the court.

And the judge has become a father and said not guilty. I've come to realize that

the people I most admire, the ones who really display love and peace and patience, are the ones

most aware of how much they've been forgiven. I'm Dan

Kroover. In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper takes us to Galatians 5 to show that the

spirit grows his fruit in people who've stopped pleading their innocence and started pleading for mercy.

This message was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church on August 7, 1983.

There's a danger here in Galatians 519 to 23, isn't there?

There's a danger when you take a morally depraved human

and present them with a list of don't and do's.

And if you've been tracking with me in Galatians for the last five months,

you'll know what that danger is.

It's the danger of law.

It's the danger that instead of letting those lists be a impetus to cause us to seek transformation at the root so that our

depravity is transformed, we will instead use those very lists as expressions of our depravity.

For example, if our problem is that we are proud and self-sufficient people,

and along comes a moral authority like the Apostle Paul and says,

faithfulness and kindness are virtuous and admirable qualities.

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