ReNEWed COVENANT Ministry

SABBATH BIBLE STUDY

10-1

(2020)

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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com

The Doctrine of Good Works

and of

The Fruits of the Spirit

Part 3

Fruits of the Tree of Life & Fruits of the Tree of Death

Prayer in the words of Isaiah the prophet

Isa_32:3-4 :

Lord let the eyes of them that see not be dim,

and let the ears of them that hear hearken.
Let the heart also of the rash understand knowledge,

and let the tongue of the stammerer be ready to speak plainly.
Amen

Rom_6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Rom 6:9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
Rom 6:10  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Rom 6:17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Rom 6:19  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Rom 6:21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Rom 6:22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 7:1  Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Rom 7:2  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
Rom 7:3  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Rom 7:4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Rom 7:5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Rom 7:6  But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Those who have been blessed with the fruits worthy of repentance, namely faith, know they have received of a gift that flows from the Grace of God’s holy throne, and after Faith is in bloomed upon the branch of the true vine bore by Jesus Christ, their are particular things of which believers are to do, and as the apostle says after cover the basics in Romans 1-5 of the wage of sin , that is the a payment sin requires of you which is death, Paul covered the grievous error of sin and where it leads and how it distorts a man so much that he is like a zombie in modern terms, a waking dead man and he by nature is destroyed and devoid of all righteousness, and then Paul wove into chapter 3-4-5 how this deadly sin is forgiven and rectified in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul said plainly this same thing in chapter 4 of Romans.

This is not hard to understand, faith is clearly a gift:

Gal_5:22 identify as a fruit of the spirit,

and

Eph_2:8 as a gift of God and not of our own self production, no but a totally free or gracious gift.

Paul said this prior in teaching what happens to a believer before any mental of physical work he commits himself to:

Rom_4:3  …Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Rom 4:4  Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Rom 4:5  But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Rom 4:23  Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
Rom 4:24  But for us also, to whom it shall be counted, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
Rom 4:25  Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
And so this concept is yet again represented in us, where we read, know and understand:
Rom 6:9  …that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Christ.
Rom 6:10  For in that Christ died, Christ died unto sin once: but in that Christ liveth, he liveth unto God.
Rom 6:11  Likewise we reckon our selves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our God is YHWH the Eternal, the covenant keeping God unto 1000 generations: the promises he made in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world to have a justified elect people by Jesus resurrection from the dead at the day he appeared from the garden tomb is the moment every believer from Righteous Abel to the present day has been justified before God, and this is how Grace is 100% absolutely free- no payment possible in terms of work.

Therefore Jesus teaches us plainly of the origin of all true fruit which we bear as having it’s origin in him the true vine cared for by the Father’s care to be manifested by us the branches in fruits of the spirit.

Even that vital and important fruit worthy of repentance which John the Baptist told of in Mat_3:8, that fruit which precedes a baptism that has any efficacy or effective power called in Act_2:38 the gift of the Holy spirit in it’s waters.
Before Paul ever spoke a word concerning the work of Baptism and the work in baptism he preached for 5 chapters on the work of God in Justification and the work of God in sanctification in the combating and forgiving of Sin.

When we commit to a work, such as Baptism- what do we do in this act of obedience?

We literally get into the water, or another puts us there, some would say this is a passive action, and it is water fully immersing you is a repercussion of your action, but it is the water that does the baptizing, but before Paul ever intended us to consider this first undisputable passive work done in the holy sacrament of Christian water Baptism, a good work in every regard Paul concluded that those people had bore the fruit of repentance by the work of the Father, Son and Spirit, and therefore they have had the power of the spirit work inside of them to bring forth fruit.
In the book of Tit_3:2-7, Titus is encouraging the people of God in fruits of the Spirit, and reminding them of these fruitless works or yielding of wickedness seen in being

foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

But then he sights the uniting Change of every believer:

Tit 3:4…after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared…

Reminding them how this preceded any thing they had done, saying:

Tit_3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Tit_3:6  Which he shed (lit. “poured” as water) on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

So Paul equates this washing he is speaking of simply ‘seeing’ the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward by his mercy, therefore he concludes that this washing which was shed or poured out like a bucket upon us was definitively:

Tit 3:7  …being justified by his grace, (that) we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We start out dead in sin: oblivious to the things of God and his righteousness, and then our blind eyes are opened to see the “Kindness” of God’s “Love” and “Salvation” by his “mercy”.

Prior we were in sin we were all too familiar with… Foolishness, disobedience, confusion, serving different lusts and pleasures, living in malice, envy, hate.

God like a farmer waters us not with physical and elemental water made of the rudiments of this world, not with H2O (Hydrogen and Oxygen), no, the Father waters us and fertilizes us with the Holy Spirit’s gift of hope in salvation through Christ…

“made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Rom 5:5 says of this work of the spirit in hope that this is a result of God’s love having been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

What a washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which the true word of Faith communicated to our heart brings as it comes by hearing the word of God, the word of truth bringing with it nutrition to produce fruit and fruit more abundantly.
A flow of energy consisting of counted or transferred righteousness from the water of the Father through the roots of the true vine, Jesus Christ, to be given to us as branches by the Grace of God- to bear fruit.

This results in being made free from sin, and becoming servants to God, to have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
For when we look at we did when we yielded to sin, we see that we had no fruit in those things whereof we are now ashamed? knowing the end of those things is death.

Rom 6:21-22
Rom 6:9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
Rom 6:10  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do you see how we are no alive, as a fruitful branch through Jesus the true Vine?
For we have confirmed that with out him we can do nothing, but

Rom 6:22  now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Such a powerful like figure this baptism Paul is speaking of has with in for those who have fruit abiding in the vine- a cleansing procured by the Father’s good graces just as Jesus said

Joh_15:3  we… are clean through the word which He has spoken unto us.

and as he prays for our fruit unto holiness as Paul speaks of it in Joh 17:17  we are assures of the fruits of the spirit unto holiness are first sent through his truth: for his word is truth.

as Jesus says Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

What better work can be given us, but that work which comes from above by the Spirit of truth poured upon us by Faith?

We had fruit, but it was  as if we had no fruit, being worthless fruit- hybridized and miscegenated with Lust and covetousness, Paul asked us in :

Rom_6:21  What fruit had we in those things whereof we should be ashamed?

Let us find out the origin of this corrupt fruit, Let us go to Genesis 2:

Gen 2:8  And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Gen 2:9  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant or covetous, lusty H2530 to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
…
Gen_2:15  And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Gen 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

What happened?
What fruit was chosen? Was it life and contentment in communion with the spirit of God in :

love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance?

No, the fruit chosen was the fruit of death, a fruit that has no ability to reproduce and multiply life, but only to multiply death and sorrow, like the thorn and the thistle which are distinct from the fig and the grape, the tree chosen was one which will: opened your eyes, and see as God, a fruit that in its sensation produces knowing good and evil.

Gen_3:6 said And when the woman saw that that tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be coveted/ lusted after to make one wise, she took of that fruit of death, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

What happened? Why did our first parents yield themselves as a servants of sin? why did they yield their members to be servants to uncleanness and lawlessness? as to bring corruption and death upon us?
James has one of the best break downs of the situation which cause total depravity in Adam’s sons as well as the continuance of the struggle we continue to walk in:

Jas_1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas_1:15  Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.
Therefore to the James encourages us:
Jas 1:16  Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Jas 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Jas 1:18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

We have a choice to sin like our parents, to continue to covet the knowledge that contrasts good with evil, a knowledge we have by nature and a knowledge that is present in the Law of God, as Paul plainly said in Romans in

Rom_7:7 …I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust / covetousness, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

Do you see the trouble of sin and it’s intimate connection with covetousness, lust or desire?
Lust is the seed that mingles with our temptation and it sprouts up as sin, and the tree of sin not chopped down will bring forth the unfruitful produce of death. Ye may receive knowledge in this transaction, you may know the good which you should choose and yet refuse in preference for evil and thereby we embrace the fruit of death.
This does not make the Law or the knowledge of good and evil sinful of it’s self, the law cannot be unlawful, but the knowledge of it shows us our covetousness consistently attempting to sprout in sin.
With the knowledge of sin in our body, and our renewed will delighting in the fruit of God’s Law we can:

Rom_7:25  … thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

But what of those who chose the lust of the flesh? despite the knowledge they have of good and evil transferred to them in corruption and total depravity? The Apostle said they who do the works of the flesh and do not have hope and faith in holiness through Christ, to bring forth Spiritual fruit with good works ordained by God in his Law.

But What does the LORD GOD say about those who choose covetousness conceived to fruit?

He says by Solomon
Pro_1:31  Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
Pro 1:32  For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
But of those who God pours his Grace upon in humility by the Spirit of truth he says:
Pro 1:23  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

In Deuteronomy and the Song of Moses Israel under the name Jeshurun:

Deu_32:32  … their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
Deu 32:33  Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
Deu 32:34  Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
Deu 32:35  To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
Deu 32:36  For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.

What a rebuke for those who choose the wrong fruit after they have seen the death is brings and an will bring.
God does not judge these men for what they have not chosen, no he says
“they eat of the fruit of their own way, and their bellies are filled with their own devices”.

Fools eat foolishness and love it’s bitterness, simple one drink the wine pressed of simplicity in excess like numbing poison.

Col_1:9-12
Let us desire that we might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
Col_1:10  That we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
that we might be
Col 1:11  Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
in
Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Col 1:14  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins…

It is only by this Grace and mercy of God we fools turn from our first parents choose of fruit, and it is only by Jesus Christ that we have fruit unto holiness and righteousness to show; to choose anything Good, is only by Jesus Christ and his choose of us first- that we choose the fruits of the tree of life.