Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: We're going to gather around the Word of God and we're going to trustfully allow the Word of God to read us. There are two ways of reading the Bible. We can just read the Bible, or we can read the Bible and let the Bible read us and let Him point out the points. We talked about metaphors. We talked about pictures, how they are windows letting light into a talk.

We used the motif that the Bible uses to describe fruitfulness, blessing, and life, and that was the motif in the Old Testament of the vine and the branches. You'll remember that we talked in Isaiah 5 where it says that my beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He's talking about Israel, His people, His beloved.

He dug it and He made it and He put a wall around it, and in the middle, He put a big tower. That was for the family to come at harvest time. There was a press in it, and that was supposed to be the time when the grapes were gathered and they were stamped out and the fruit of the vine was harvested. He uses this picture, the prophet, as a picture of Israel and what God had in mind that Israel would be the vine. Over and over again as we saw in the prophets, we saw that God rejected the vine because the vine had rejected Him.

How people listening to Jesus teach would absolutely make sense as soon as He started to talk about the vine. They knew all the prophets said about the vine and the sour grapes and God saying then I will do away with the vine, I'll let the little foxes into the vineyard, I will not protect the vine anymore, and it will be barren. I will tell the rain not to rain on it. This was a prophecy about Israel.

We come to Jesus in John 15 who is saying, "Listen to me. I am the vine, the true one as opposed to the false one in Isaiah 5 and the other prophecies." Then He looks at the disciples and says, "You are the branches. You are the branches." When He looks at the disciples, He looked right through the disciples to millennia of years and He looks at us here today, those who profess to be disciples of Jesus. He said, "I'm the vine, you're the branches. Now, take the picture and the motif you understand and let My life flow through you. Let My life flow through you."

If you abide in Me, if you rest in Me, if you stop trying to produce the fruit of the spirit, the character of Christ, Jesus-likeness, God-likeness all by yourself, your physical energy, and allow My Holy Spirit to indwell you and to fill you and just rest as we do our work together. Resting in the vine is not being inactive. Resting in the vine is not doing nothing and letting Jesus do it all. Resting in the vine is like, and I had this illustration years ago which really helped me, resting in the vine is like a sewing machine.

This is a lady's illustration, forgive me, men, but you know what a sewing machine is. The needle rests in the arm and the electricity goes on and you cannot see the needle, actually. It's going so fast and electricity is making that happen. Resting in Jesus, the needle is going so fast. The needle is busy, but it's resting in the power of the vine. Resting in Christ is not inactivity; it's Christ-activity.

We are the branches, He is the vine, and the Holy Spirit is the power. The art is how does that happen? How do we do that? Jesus said by obeying My words, by being obedient. I tell you to love the world and give yourself away. That's what will happen if you obey My words. You'll probably never be busier in your life, but there is a resting and you're not trying to do it yourself. You rest in the arm. I thought that was quite a good illustration; it helped me, anyway.

We're going to turn to another motif of fruitfulness, and we're going to look at Matthew chapter 21. Just to give you context of this passage, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem has just occurred. Jesus comes off that experience and the whole city is talking about Him, obviously. He goes into the temple for a day. When He gets there in the morning, He finds the tables of the money changers. Who were they? Everybody was coming to the temple for different feasts. They were coming from out of the country. They were coming from downcountry, and they brought their own money with them, just like when you travel abroad today.

They had to buy the sacrifices, and if they had foreign currency, then they had to change the money. The money changers set up business, set up shop in the outer court of the temple. They were just charging too much and all sorts of things were going on. Jesus cast them out, remember, the cleansing of the temple. He threw them out. He must have been quite an imposing man to overturn the tables, just to do it and not have the temple guard who are there and a lot of strong men who are there be able to stop him.

He did it, and it says of course in a prophecy in the Old Testament that the zeal of God's house, of His Father's house, had eaten him up. He just said, "You've made my house a den of thieves." He cleansed the temple. He taught that day. He stayed around after he'd done that, can you believe that? Great crowds came to Him. Of course, the authorities were furious, and they all came and said, "What's he doing? What authority?" and so on. It was a long, long day.

Then He went to Bethany. Bethany, as you know, is the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Remember that? It was his home from home. It was his Bethany house, I always say. All of us should have a Bethany house if we belong to Jesus, a place Jesus delights to bring His guests. Mary and Martha and Lazarus's house and Simon's house in the little town of Bethany, which was in walking distance of the temple. Bethany was not right out there. Bethany was very near, but it was a village outside Jerusalem.

Jesus loved to go to those places because they were the sort of places that made Him not only welcome, but He could kick His sandals off and feel at home. For some reason, He didn't go there. He didn't go to Mary and Martha, and it could have been because it was just too late by the time they walked from the temple area and they found themselves in Bethany. For one reason or another, He didn't go into a house and He did what He did so often, they slept out rough. Often they went to the Garden of Gethsemane and slept there, or they slept in another place.

They got up in the morning and He comes back into the temple again. Comes back into the temple again. That's the background to what happened as He acted out a parable along the way back to work for the day after He had cleansed the temple. He knew ahead of Him would be the Pharisees. He knew ahead of Him would be all the people that said you'd better get down there and arrest him or stop him doing what he did yesterday or whatever. It was going to be a long, hard day.

Jesus was hungry. That always touches me, actually. It says that He was hungry. He hadn't had breakfast. He slept out all evening. It was rough. Early in the morning as He was on His way back to the city, He was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then He said to it, "May you never bear fruit again." Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked him.

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don't doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself in the sea.' If you've got a modern paraphrase like the Message, it says 'Go jump in the lake,' which is quite nice. You can say to this mountain, 'Go cast yourself into the sea.' If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask in prayer."

This is a very difficult little bit of scripture, very difficult. If you remember, I told you about a tool that you can use to find out whatever is this all about? What does it mean Jesus cursed the fig tree? Who does the fig tree represent? All sorts of questions come to my mind. Your Life Application Study Bible or another study Bible will help you with this. I've spent much time in these study Bibles, and what I learned was fig trees are a popular source of nourishment and food, especially for poor people. That touches me about Jesus being hungry too.

In March, the fig tree has small edible buds. You can eat the buds. That's not the fruit; that's the buds. In April, the large green leaves come, and in May, the buds fall off and they're replaced by a normal crop of figs. This incident occurred in April. The green leaves should have indicated the presence of the edible buds that Jesus expected to find. This tree, however, though full of leaves, had no buds. Fig trees require three years from the time they're planted until they can bear fruit, and the absence of buds indicated the tree would not produce figs that year.

It was fruitless, it was useless, and it was barren. It was beautiful, but it was barren. The tree looked promising from a distance but had no fruit. What Jesus does here, He applies this to religion without life, to religion without substance. In other words, what was happening in the temple? That's what He's applying this to. Beautiful, gorgeous temple. Activity going on, the place that Israel looked to, the place that Israel came to to connect with the living God. It was empty and it was barren and it was nothing but leaves.

That's how Jesus applied it. This was the vine that became barren and sour. This was what He did not expect when He looked at the people who claimed to be truly God's people, and He found nothing but leaves. Then it is quite permissible to apply it not only, and Jesus actually does apply it to His disciples, as a warning if you wish. It's not only a picture of judgment for Israel who had rejected Him and certainly were nothing but leaves, but there is a sense in which Christians can be like that too. Disciples can be like that too.

It is pretty cutting when you hang your heart over this scripture. Am I nothing but leaves? Are you? When people look at us, do we look good from a distance? Are we keeping the letter of the law? Do we, who are expected to bear fruit, stand up under close scrutiny? Somebody comes to our fig tree expecting nourishment, what do they get? Do they get any nourishment and encouragement from us? Jesus wasn't mad at the fig tree; He could have turned the leaves into figs if He'd wanted to. He's using it as a parable. It's an acted-out parable intended to teach the disciples a lesson.

Jesus is showing His anger at religion without reality, which He's been dealing with in the temple in Jerusalem. Now, how do we know if we're bearing the fruit of the spirit? Or how do we know if we're bearing the fruit of the flesh, as we're going to look into? Beautiful architecture, fancy, a lot of showy stuff, and so on. He's getting at hypocrisy. Play-acting, the word means. He's getting at the hypocrisy He's looking at in the Pharisees face-to-face day-by-day, which will now escalate until they put Him on the cross. He is looking at hypocrisy, and that is a very searing thought for us.

He's looking at the Pharisees. I don't know when I wrote it, but years ago I wrote a poem called "The Pharisee in Me." Dear Lord, I've found within my heart someone who's been there from the start. A prudish person, self-appointed, self-sufficient, self-anointed. Though I a true disciple be, I've met the Pharisee in me. Oh Lord, I'll pray hard on my way. I'll try to do it every day. A publican to be, I'll try and beat my breast and sigh and cry. Then maybe those around will see, oops, there's the Pharisee in me.

Why should you, the God of grace, be forced to live here face-to-face with him who hung you up to die against an angry, anguished sky, who pierced your feet and crowned your head, who laughed and left you very dead? Forgive me, Lord, I beg of thee, deal with the Pharisee in me. Deal with the Pharisee in me. My question when I look at all of this is what do people see of reality of the Christ life in me? Or am I nothing but leaves? In Jeremiah, there's a prophecy that talks about no leaves on the fig tree, no grapes on the vine. That will be My people for Me.

That's half the problem. How many people do you know, how many people do I know that say, "I walked out of church how many years ago because they're all hypocrites." Of course, they're hypocrites themselves; they don't see that. I always say to people, just imagine what it would be like if none of us had Jesus and we're hypocrites anyway, it would be far worse. That's really not a good argument anyway. We're all hypocrites, those that don't believe and those that do believe. We all deal with this pride thing. We all deal with trying to be good in the worst way, like the Pharisees.

Jesus said in John 15:16, if you remember, "You didn't choose me, I chose you." It's a wonderful thing to be chosen. I grew up and I was never chosen for anything. I was always the next one, and it was always the girl in front of me at school or the tennis team or for whatever it was that got chosen. I nearly got chosen so many times. When I came to Christ, God said, "I chose you. I chose you. I had all the world to choose from, and I chose you."

It's a wonderful thing to be chosen, but what did He choose me for? So He would bless my little head and kiss all my hurts better and keep me safe from all harm and take me home to heaven when I die? No, He chose me to go and bring forth fruit. Not only to bring forth fruit in the sense of converts and character, Christ-likeness, Jesus-likeness, not only to do that but fruit that would remain. He told us to go and make disciples, not converts. Disciples, not converts. Bringing someone to Christ is only the beginning. It's like having a baby. You don't say, "Well, that's done now," right?

You've got a lifetime of raising that child. I know if I have fruit in my life if it's remaining. First of all, if there's fruit, if Christ's life is reproducing itself through me and people are coming to Christ through me, that's one way to find out if you're nothing but leaves. The other thing is if my fruit or the people that I've influenced and led to Christ or helped to come to Christ are remaining, are going on and on and on. That's what He's chosen us for, to be effective, for His life to flow through us to enter other people's lives and to transform them as well. That's what He chose us to do.

He didn't say, "Now go on, try and do it yourself." He said, "No, obey me, live in My word, be obedient, however hard that is, and I'll do the work through you." Another way you can find out if you're fruitless and nothing but leaves is look at your prayer life. It's an amazing thing. What connection is there? He's talking about religion without reality and then suddenly He says you can go and tell this mountain to jump in the lake. What's He talking about? He's talking about faith and faithfulness and trust and power in prayer.

If you want to know if you're nothing but leaves, examine your heart and your prayer life right now where you are. Are you seeing fruit through your prayer life? You're seeing people come to Christ for no other reason, you are doing the work on your knees. That's a good way for us to evaluate ourselves. Am I more like Jesus than I was last week, last year? Did anybody that I know say thank you? It was because of this or that or the other you set me on the way to finding Christ.

If you don't know how to do that when you're thinking of your prayer life, let me give you some questions. How do you know if you have a fruitless prayer life? Number one, don't have a prayer life. That'll do it. It's sort of obvious, but you don't even need to think about this. If you're producing fruit through your prayer life, are you having a prayer life? If you're going to be fruitless, you won't be praying. You won't be having a prayer life. Number two, have one that's nothing but leaves, nothing but words, pretty, nice words, but you're nothing but words. There's no fruit.

Do you know you can move the hand of God on your knees? Do you know you can go anywhere in the world on your knees? Do you know you can go to the White House, you can go to Iran, you can go to Haiti? Have you been to Haiti? How many times have you been to Haiti? You can do all that through prayer. Though you might never see the fruit of your prayers, we can know how effective our prayers are from different things. Certainly if there is visible fruit, if there's visible fruit.

Until we who have been chosen to produce fruit through prayer and faith figure this out, we will not see the blessing that we pray for. We have to do the work. Prayer that doesn't work doesn't work. There is a discipline to prayer. There is a work of prayer. So many times we think prayer is ecstasy, prayer is me feeling good after I've been to God. I don't know what we're expecting. But the work of prayer, the intercession that's spoken of all through the Bible, the blood, sweat, and tears spiritually that are required to see God move through us, that's an indication if you are nothing but leaves or not.

He's looking for fruit. Love that loves unto death and the joy of the spirit that catches your breath. There's a peace beyond dreams the same spirit bestows, the very patience of Christ that bears with your foes. There's a spirit of gentleness that waits in the door, in the garden of prayer where forgiveness is born. Then the goodness of Christ can blossom anew and a new self-control will produce a new you. The same spirit of God will help us believe and be done with this life that is nothing but leaves.

What I've done is simply take those words in Galatians 5:22 and 23, and this is what He's looking for. He's looking for love, joy, peace, etc. That's the fruit. That's the fruit He's looking for. Does He find it? Does He see it in us? Now then, after the incident of the triumphal entry, we have of course the trial of Jesus, we have the crucifixion, we have the resurrection, we have Pentecost, and then comes Paul.

Then comes Paul, and he writes to a church he's planted. If you turn to Galatians chapter 5, let me tell you the background or the context of the people the Apostle Paul is writing to. He has been running around his world, and he is not nothing but leaves. He has seen people come to Christ. He is the apostle to the Gentiles, remember. Peter was the apostle to the Jews; God called him to do that. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and he has gone to Galatia, which is basically speaking Gentiles.

In every part of that world, there was a diaspora and there were Jewish people. Some came to Christ and were mixed in the church body that had never been there before. They were mixed in these little house churches, they were mixed in these little groups. You had converted Jews, born-again Jews, and Gentiles together. Mixed in with them were Jews who had not been converted but they looked as though they had, and they were nothing but leaves. I mean really nothing but leaves, like the real judgment of God on them.

They were called Judaizers, and what they wanted to do was when they saw the Gentiles converted and in these little Bible groups or churches, these called-out little groups, they wanted to say it's fine if you believe in Jesus but you have to keep on keeping the law. Even some people that had been converted said, "Well, there are some laws in the Old Testament that you just add to your Christianity like circumcision, etc." That's what had happened in this little group of people in Galatia.

Paul says when he writes to them, "So you're saying I'm not an apostle and I don't matter and you're the teachers here, but I want to tell you something. God called me to be your teacher. I planted the church, and you are perverting the gospel and you are stumbling. You are not making it easy for these converts who are Jewish and Gentiles, and you're telling the Gentiles they have to add this ceremony and that. Yes, you can be saved, not by grace alone. You can be saved by grace alone and this, that, and the other." They were called Judaizers.

He begins this chapter by saying in this letter to this group in Galatia, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery." Which yoke of slavery? Of being bound like with a chain to rules and regulations. I can't remember how many hundred rules the Pharisees had added by this time in the history of the Bible, but there were hundreds of rules that they said, "Yes, you can accept Jesus and all of that if you must, but what you need to do is keep all of these rules instead."

What Paul says, there is no other gospel. "I am an apostle called by God, I planted the church, God has given me the gift of teaching the church. The Apostle's doctrine was the foundation of the church, and by faith, not observation of the law, not by being good, you will be saved and be sons of God."

I spoke in a very posh country club in Mexico. Stuart and I, it's a wonderful story, actually. I was up in the coffee fellowship and this elderly gentleman and his wife came, and were looking around. I was just there greeting visitors like I love to do on a Sunday. This was a long, quite a long time ago now, and this very well-dressed couple came up to me and said, "We've come to meet our pastor." I said, "Oh, really? Have you been coming a few weeks?" They said, "No, we've never been here before."

I said, "Well, who's your pastor?" and he said "Stuart Briscoe." I said, "How is that?" They said, "Well, we live half the time in Canada and the other half in this beautiful, gorgeous resort where we have bought into one of these condominiums overlooking the sea in Mexico. What happened to us was," and this man said, "I'm a Lutheran, I've been a Lutheran all my life in Canada and I've always been an elder and I've always had my church. But in this place with about 300 retired people for half the year and then they go back to Canada, that sort of situation, we don't have a church. I began to think I can't go to the Mexican church in the little village, I don't understand the language, etc., and we should have something here."

Just about that time, a doctor who lives in the next condominium to me visited Milwaukee and met a man who happened to be one of the elders here. This surgeon friend of ours, he said "I came for a medical conference, I'm a doctor. Invited me to this amazing church called Elmbrook Church. So while I was teaching in the medical college here, I went with him about six weeks to Elmbrook. I'd never really heard anything like it. There was a man speaking who didn't insult my intelligence and who made me think." He said, "He was British I think, but he was just wonderful and if we could somehow either bring him down here so he could tell us what to do about having a church, that would be wonderful."

The friends I was talking to said, "Well, we are going up to Canada and we could pop into this church on the way. We could take a diversion and meet him." The first time they came, they didn't meet us, but they saw it was videoed, okay? They got in touch with the media person and said, "Is there any way we could pay for these videos or borrow these videos so we could have a church?" Without telling anyone, he said, "Oh, yes, that's a wonderful idea."

He began sending the videos down. I don't know how long this went on until we actually met this couple who came and said, "We want to meet our pastor," okay? We went to Mexico. They came and they said, "We want to invite you to come to Mexico." It was one of the most incredible weekends of our life. What they'd done is their meeting room was the restaurant for the thing. It was the bar, actually, and the restaurant. They got a television and had a "bar church," they called it.

After Sunday brunch, they would put this television on the bar and anybody that wanted to watch did. There were no hymns, there was no service, that was it. That had been going on for quite a while, and they arrived and they invited us down. We went down to meet our congregation and it was marvelous. It was one of the most wonderful weekends of my life. They had a reception for us, I felt like the Queen of England. They were packed in that place. "Oh, you're our pastor, and you're the pastor's wife, yes, you're our pastor's wife."

Then for the next three days, every meal they divided 300 people up and invited them for breakfast, lunch, supper, and in the middle of all this, we go into one of the places and answer questions or do a Bible study or whatever. It was a wild bunch of people. It was a huge challenge. I think there was everything there that you could imagine.

One afternoon, they split the men and the women. They just kept everyone together up there and I got the women in the bar and Stuart went somewhere else and talked to the men. I remember looking out at these people and I said, "We've been talking at you amazingly for two days. Let's just have questions. Has anybody got a question?" This very well-dressed, sweet little older lady, very much older, sitting on the front row straight as a board said, "I've got a question." I said, "What is it?" She said, "How good do I have to be to get to heaven?" And I said, "Perfect."

She said, "What?" I said, "Perfect. That's all you have to be, just be perfect." "Why do I have to be perfect?" Well, I said, "God doesn't want you spoiling heaven like we spoiled His earth, and only perfect people can live there." Well, that made sense. Then she said, "Then who can go?" I said, "Only those who have been forgiven their imperfections." "What's an imperfection?" Well, the Bible calls it sin, but anything that isn't perfect. All have sinned and come short of Jesus, etc. I always remember that, the hush that fell over.

Only those and only those who have been forgiven by grace alone can go. You know, she'd been in church all her life and never heard it. I don't say it hadn't been preached, I don't say it hadn't been in the prayers, etc. How do I know? But she'd never heard it until that moment. What Paul is saying, it doesn't matter how many rules you keep of the Pharisees, it doesn't matter how hard you try, it doesn't matter how good you are, if you're not perfect, you're not going to go to heaven.

What you need is for God to forgive you and justify you. Let me split that down for you: "just-as-if-I'd never sinned," it means. He looks at you even though He knows you have and sees you just as if you'd never sinned, and only He can do that. He does it by forgiving us. Paul is trying to get all this over to a church that has been split up and decimated by these false teachers who are saying you need Jesus and. You need Jesus and you need to go to communion, you need Jesus and you need to keep these rules, you need Jesus and, you know, all the rest. He said it's by grace and faith alone that man is made justified.

He writes to his converts and says, "My dear brothers," so who are the brothers? These people I've told you about. He says, "You have been given freedom from all laws, not freedom to do wrong, not freedom for license to live as you like, but freedom and power to live as you ought." We do not have our freedom so we can live any old way we choose; we have freedom to live rightly and not wrongly, and that of course is a choice.

I remember my mom coming to visit us when we lived in the country serving a mission, and she lived in Liverpool and they would come up to the lovely country house and they'd come right past our door and she'd always stop. I remember one day, our three small children all under, I don't know, four, were just being normal, trying to kill each other, you know, just normal children's behavior. She was cooing and oohing and aren't they cute? I said, "No, they're little imps," you know, etc. She said, "Oh, no, no, don't call them that." I said, "They're just little sinners, Mom," and she was incensed.

"You call my grandchildren little sinners? Perfect, beautiful!" And I said, "Mom, who taught them to hit each other like that? I didn't. Who crept into my house and said to David, 'Now answer your mother back,' or to Pete, 'Throw a tantrum.' I didn't! They just know how to do that perfectly, right? They're born with it."

A wonderful Keswick hymn, Keswick's a little tiny town in England where wonderful conventions happen. Stuart went to Keswick convention in his carrycot; his parents took him when he was a baby. He ends up, of course, preaching at that wonderful convention later in his life. But it is the place where they taught what we are teaching here. It was a place where you could come and learn about the Holy Spirit and all of that, a very famous convention.

There's a Keswick hymnbook and I haven't even started on my shelf, but a hymnbook's a wonderful place to take into your quiet time. Whatever hymnbook, whether it's your old hymnbook that's got very precious hymns for you or a new hymnbook, it's borrowing someone else's words who have the gift of words and using them for yourself. I love to take my Keswick hymnbook into my time with God.

There's a wonderful Keswick hymn that says, "Make me a captive, Lord, then I shall be free. Force me to render up my sword, and I shall conqueror be. I sink in life's alarms when by myself I stand. Imprison me within Thine arms, and strong shall be my hand. My heart is weak and poor until it master find. It has no spring of action sure, it varies with the wind. It cannot freely move till Thou hast wrought its chain. Enslave it with Thy deathless love, and deathless it shall reign. My power is faint and low till I have learned to serve. It wants the needed fire to glow, it wants the breeze to nerve. It cannot drive the world unless itself be driven. Its flag can only be unfurled when Thou shalt breathe from heaven. My will is not my own till Thou hast made it Thine. If it would reach a monarch's throne, it must its crown resign. It only stands unbent amid the clashing strife when on Thy bosom it has leant and finds in Thee its life." Wonderful hymn.

When we become, as Paul loved to call himself, a captive to Jesus, a slave to Jesus, that's when life begins. Isn't it funny? It's that paradox: you die to live, you give to get, and you become a slave of Jesus and you're free! What are you free from? That old wretched self! Free not to listen to your selfish self, but find a freedom and a power to listen to the Spirit and to start and produce the fruit in your life of Christ-likeness and stop biting and devouring, destroying, and doing all of that.

Then Paul talks about the works of the flesh. He talks about sexual works of our old nature, satanic, selfish, and sinful. But it says here, Paul's trying to talk to the people and saying if you really want to know if you're a natural man or a spiritual man or a carnal man, then it's pretty obvious. Do you see that? "The works of the flesh are obvious. They show." This is where all you need to do to figure out this list in your NIV Bible or whatever it is, starts in 19: "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious," and then it lists them: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and so on.

That's the old man. One of the things you can do is take a paraphrase like the Message, or another translation. I chose a German translation by Wuest. The Message says, just refreshing to me, "It's obvious what type of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time," that's what the self, the old nature does. This is then his list: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming but never satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes; divided lives; small-minded, lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives much the way fruit appears on a tree.

That's helping you to take that list of rather old-fashioned words, debauchery, etc., and getting at what it really means. There are many ways you can do that. Just the freshness of using a different translation is really great. Now, this is Wuest's translation. The evil nature constantly has a strong desire to suppress the Spirit, and the Spirit constantly has a strong desire to suppress the evil nature. These are entrenched in an attitude of mutual opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you desire to do. In view of the fact that we are being sustained in spiritual life by the Spirit, by the means of the Spirit, let us go on ordering our conduct. There's difference between a translation and a paraphrase.

What happens when we are convicted by the Spirit that we are living after the flesh like a natural person instead of after Jesus and being obedient and showing all these fruits? Well, we go into convenient denial. My dishonest heart won't admit it. We need to get honest, and the only place I know to get honest is on my knees, on my face, to really be forced to evaluate my heart, my actions, my life. Denial does not mean the inability to see something wrong; rather, it means the unwillingness to see that it is wrong. Denial must be overcome before we can repent. How honest are you when you're praying to God? How honest am I?

Do you go and have the whole of your quiet time, you pray for the world and pray for all our missionaries and what not, and God is saying, "Could we talk about that?" "Well, I don't have time, God, my devotional time is over, but maybe tomorrow," right? We squirm and we wriggle and we won't say, "Search me. Throw light into the darkened cells where passion reigns within. Quicken my conscience till it feels the loathsomeness of sin." Dare to say it! Go on, dare to admit it! And then enjoy the cleansing, the forgiveness. It's what we need to do.

If we're not in denial, we start the blame game, making excuses for ourselves. The devil made me do it, or she made me do it, or he made me do it. We blame others and neglect or refuse to do something about it. We make excuses for ourselves. "Well, I'm better than them." We pass it off. You might be better than them; you're not better than Him. That's the point. Who are you comparing yourself to?

Like, let me give you a personal illustration. When I was a young mom with three kids and Stuart was on the road all the time, I would lose it with my children. I used to shut all the windows and then just let them have it. I'd scream. I hope the Bible students wouldn't hear. It was the sort of time when somebody would come down to the house and I would say, "My kids are driving me crazy. My kids are driving me crazy." No, they were just revealing what was in here. Children don't create your spirit; they reveal it. "My kids are driving me crazy!" No, they're just bumping up against me and rage is coming out. Rage is a fruit of the flesh.

I remember my famous illustration you ladies know it well, in fact you use it yourself, which is great in your talks to the young moms, is of being desperate to find a space because we lived in a tiny little house. There was no room, and I'd read that Jesus said, "Enter the closet." We didn't have any closets. There wasn't even a cupboard I could get into away from my three small little children who were driving me crazy. I knew I had to find a place, and so I said, "Lord, where am I going to go? Where can I go?" and my eye fell on my playpen.

I got in and put them out! And it was wonderful. I could see what they were doing, and as soon as I put them out, they wanted to get in. What is this about us? They were rattling the bars to get at me, and I was safe from their sticky little fingers just for a saving 15 minutes. I took my Bible and I took my cup of tea in there and I said, "Mommy will get out and play with you in a minute, but just let me meet with Jesus."

I remember the conversation. David and Judy were rattling the bars trying to get at me. Pete was still in my tummy. I'm sitting there with my Bible and my cup of tea, and it was the best I could do. They began to have a conversation. David said to Judy, "What's Mommy doing?" "I don't know. What you doing, Mommy?" "I'm meeting with Jesus." "Judy, can you see Jesus?" "No," says Judy.

Anyway, I would get out of the playpen and we'd go on with life. I had absolutely no idea this was registering with David and Judy. Well, why wouldn't it? If you were sitting in their playpen, you probably would! It just never occurred to me it was. We grew up and we immigrated to America and David went into seminary. He became a pastor in his little church up in—it wasn't that little—up in the Upper Peninsula. First church.

I went up to hear my son preach, and it's different from being the pastor's wife to being the pastor's mother. It's just a whole different thing to have your children minister to you. You can't buy that. It was such an incredible time. I would always be excited to go and hear him preach. I drove all the way up to Menominee in the Upper Peninsula, and I was sitting very proudly on the front row. To my horror, he began to tell this story about his mother sitting in his playpen.

Immediately, I became very aware of all these sweet people in this church. I thought, what's he going to say? How could he remember? What's he going to say? I listened, of course, very closely, and he said, "My sister and I learned to leave my mother alone when she was in our playpen because," and we were all like this, he said, "she was a whole lot nicer Mommy when she got out than when she got in."

Children always do to what is their advantage. Have you noticed that? "Nicer Mommy when she got out than when she got in." Those little children, I assure you I was not modeling anything. I was desperate. That's why I was in the playpen. But what I was modeling, not knowing it, was something happened in there with a Jesus they couldn't see, a cup of tea—very important—and a Bible. When Mommy got out, she was such a nice Mommy! Right? Such a nice Mommy!

My kids stopped making me produce the fruits of the flesh and fly into a rage, etc. They put it together that the fruits of the Spirit—a nicer Mommy who was patient and kind and loving and all of that—is connected somehow with this marvelous book and the Jesus it talks about. Of course, as they grew up, I was able to explain more and more. Paul warns the acts of the flesh, the old nature, are clearly identifiable. They are obvious. Denial does not mean the inability to see something wrong; rather, it means the unwillingness to do anything about it. We're not to live in denial.

Let me just wrap this up by talking about how this happens. How then do we live by the Spirit? How do we walk in the Spirit? How are we led by the Spirit? How do we keep in step with the Spirit? My book of the day is a book called *Life on the Highest Plane*. This is a classic. This is an old-time missionary to China who influenced people that you know by name, very famous Christian people in this country. She was a missionary that had a teaching ministry to leaders in the end all over the world. Ruth Paxson was her name.

It's really God's plan for spiritual maturity. The difference of this book is the subject and what she does is divide it into the person and work of Christ. Part two: the relation between Christ and the Christian. Part three: the believer's response to the Holy Spirit's in-working. It is an incredible book. I used this book with my kids who came to Christ on the streets. I've used this book in universities, I've used it in seminaries, and specifically the third part of it. I used the first part, actually, for the kids on the streets; it's just straight doctrine but done in a wonderful way. The second part's about the lordship of Christ, and then the third part is about the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit.

I'm going to end just by reading you a little taste of how do you know when you've grieved the Spirit? How do you know when God is tapping you on the inside of the shoulder and saying, "Come on, let's talk." You can only grieve somebody that loves you. It's a love word. Once the Spirit is in there, if we are living after the flesh like a carnal person, He is grieved. He has chosen not to leave you. It's pretty miserable. We can make the Spirit of God pretty miserable. We can grieve Him, we can quench Him, we can resist Him.

Grieve is a love word. How do I know if I'm making God sad? How do I know if His heart isn't filled with pain as it says in Genesis chapter 6? When He saw the evil of man and the world that it was only evil all the time, His heart was filled with pain and He was sorry He'd made us. Remember that passage? But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is how you'll know.

He is the Spirit of truth, so anything false, deceitful, or critical grieves Him. He is the Spirit of grace. Hebrews 10:29 says we can insult the Spirit of grace. That means we think little of the cross. That which is hard, bitter, ungracious, unthankful, malicious, unforgiving, or unloving grieves Him. You're living after the flesh instead of after the Spirit.

Dr. Smedes, who wrote a wonderful book called *Forgive and Forget*, says deep hurts we never deserved flow from a dead past into a living present. A friend betrays us, a parent abuses us, a spouse leaves us. These hurts do not heal with the coming of the sun. Forgiveness is coming to terms with the world in which, despite their best intentions, people are unfair to each other, hurt each other. He began by forgiving us and invites us to forgive each other. Dr. Smedes says forgiving is love's toughest work and its biggest risk.

Forgiving somebody else who's done something deeply hurting to you is love's toughest work and its biggest risk. For this we need help, or the helper, the Holy Spirit, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Someone's hurt you, misused you, or one of your children. Are you harboring a grudge? Nagging is unforgiveness showing. Do you hear that? Because you keep bringing it up. Nagging is unforgiveness showing. I would have to say us women find it easier to nag than to get round to forgiveness. You have to get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and every form of malice.

He is the Spirit of holiness. So anything unclean, defiling, or degrading grieves Him. Don't download porn if you want a modern application of that. Someone comes through your computer and wants to dump garbage down your well, press the delete. Wholeness, holiness, same thing. He is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so ignorance, conceit, arrogance, and folly grieve Him. He is the Spirit of power, love, and discipline, so that which is barren, fruitless, disorderly, confused, and uncontrolled grieves Him. He is the Spirit of life, so anything that savors of indifference, lukewarmness, spiritual dullness, and deadness grieves Him. He is the Spirit of glory, so anything worldly, earthly, or fleshly grieves Him. He wants us to be like Jesus. As long as we are indulging in known, unconfessed, undealt-with sin, we're grieving God. We grieve the Spirit when we say no to God and yes to Satan when he lures us into sin.

Think about it. What a wonderful thing that God convicts us when we grieve Him. What to do with all of that? You walk in the light as He is in the light, you let the light shine in, He shows you all the dirt and muck, and we confess our sins and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us. Wouldn't you like to be clean? Want to be clean from all unrightness. We begin to find out how to walk after the Spirit when we begin to recognize the works of the self, or the flesh, or the old man, or the sin principle, that nature. That changes your prayer life, folks. We can't pray for the world until that is dealt with. It's called confession. I think the evangelical church knows little about it. Our denominational sisters and brothers know a lot more about the necessity of confession and forgiveness and cleansing before we do the work of changing the world from our knees.

Pray with me. Heavenly Father, it's a full study. It's such an inadequate touch on this, but it's so important. I pray that You would take the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, take it home. We don't want to be nothing but leaves. We don't want to have religion without reality and life without substance, religious life. We want to know what it is to be full of the Spirit and see the fruit of the Spirit, Jesus-likeness and these wonderful graces You talk about in our life. But there's such a war, Lord, there's such a battle. We're defeated so many of us, so much time. We lose our temper, we fly into a rage, we deny it, and we make excuses and we blame people. Would You keep us honest? Can we dare to be honest? Lord, help us to keep thinking through this passage of scripture. You promised, talked about it last week, You are our teacher, You are the interpreter of Your word. You will give us light, You will help us have wisdom and insight. You've given us all these wonderful, wonderful helps. Now, help us to get to work, greatest work on earth: living like Christ after the Spirit. Change us so we can change our world, our families, those we love, and our enemies, those we hate. Listen to our hearts, Lord. Answer our prayers. Jesus' name, Amen.