Thank you. Welcome to Truth for Life, where today we begin a study of the fruit of the spirit.

What exactly is spiritual fruit? How is it created? And how can we know if our faith is fruitful?

We'll think through the answers to these questions along with Alistair Begg.

I invite you to turn with me to the fifth chapter of Paul's letter to the Galatians, Galatians chapter

5, and we'll read from the 16th verse. Galatians 5, 16, but I say walk by the spirit, 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 you want to do.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law.

Now, the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,

sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies,

and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things

will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit 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.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit, that has not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one

another. Amen. Almost inevitably, you find yourself asking the question, well, why this and why now?

So let me tell you.

In that concluding study in Ephesians chapter 2, we noted the fact that Paul says that the

church universal, Big C, and the local church, if you

like, small sea, is the place on earth where God lives, so that when people encounter

those who are gathered in this way, they have the opportunity to see that this is the dwelling

...