The Fruit of Righteousness Phil 1 11 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

When you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, God gave you His righteousness as a gift [2 Cor 5:21].  That righteousness works inside of us by Jesus Christ to bring forth fruit unto the glory of God [Phil 1:11].  The fruit of righteousness is:

Holiness – Rom 6:12-22 – when you “yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God,” when we become “the servants unto righteousness,” and when you “yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness,” then you “have your fruit unto holiness.”  So, yielding to the righteousness that is in you produces holiness.  In other words, you don’t “do” right and thereby become holy.  Holiness is a fruit of the righteousness of God in you.

Furthermore, in Heb 12:9-14, we become “partakers of his holiness” through his chastening.  Chastening “yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.”  So, the Lord applies chastening to produce more holiness in our lives particularly in an area where we haven’t yielded to his righteousness.

Peace – Heb 12:11-14; Jas 3:17-18 – in Hebrews, we saw that the “fruit of righteousness” is “peaceable.”  This fruit allows us to “follow peace with all men.”  That’s because “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” [Rom 5:1].  The righteousness of God in us allows us to be at peace with God as his children and to be at peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

In James 3, we see some folks who are not at peace with each other.  That’s because they are following the wrong kind of wisdom.  You see, there are two kinds of wisdom.  There is the earthly, sensual, devilish kind of wisdom.  This is the wisdom that Paul found among the Corinthians.  And it caused strife, division, confusion and every evil work among them in their churches.  That’s because this wisdom is not founded in the righteousness of God for God’s glory [1 Cor 1:29-31].  It is founded in “I’m right.”

Then there is the wisdom of God which is first pure, then peaceable and so forth.  This wisdom is founded in the righteousness of God.  Thus, James says, “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”

Generosity – 2 Cor 9:6-11 – in this passage we see that “God loveth a cheerful giver.”  And we find that this kind of cheerful giving is the fruit of righteousness.  In other words, the more we yield to the righteousness of God in us, the more we are conformed to be like him.  He is giving [Jn 3:16; 2 Cor 8:9].  Thus, we become more generous and have great cheerfulness in giving as a fruit of his righteousness in us.

You see now why Ananias and Sapphira died in Acts 5.  They pretended to be as generous as men like Barnabas.  Barnabas gave the total proceeds of the sale of his land to the apostles as a fruit of his righteousness in God.  Ananias and Sapphira, on the other hand, kept back part of the sale price of their land while pretending to give the whole amount.  This was not a fruit of righteousness but rather the work of the devil!!

The reason that we don’t use pledge cards and the sort around here is that we don’t think people should be intimidated and manipulated into giving.  Their giving ought to be a fruit of God’s righteousness in them.

Conclusion: As you consider the truth of these scriptures, ask the Lord to help you by bringing forth the fruit of his righteousness in the areas where you have the greatest need.  If you are longing for more holiness, yield to his righteousness that he may bring forth holiness in your life.  Yield to his righteousness that he may bring forth more peace in your life.  Yield to his righteousness that he may bring forth more generosity in your life.