Let's open our Bibles to Galatians
chapter 5. We're going to continue our study
today in the fruit of the Spirit. Again, the fruit of the Spirit
is like a cluster of grapes all attached to the same vine, same
fruit, and it's called singular fruit because it comes from the
Holy Spirit of God. He's the author of it. And today
we are going to look at goodness. Goodness, now this is not natural
to us at all because the scripture says there is none good, no not
one. So this is something that is
absolutely foreign to us in our natural state. Now isn't it funny that man thinks
we're good? even in our natural state we
thought we were good, right? You've heard that I thought my
good would outweigh my bad when I stood in front of the Lord.
What a faulty way of thinking. Because there's none of us that's
good. None. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that understandeth his ways and who he is. And we
will look at the sixth of the nine what's called Fruit of the
Spirit today. And again, the Holy Spirit works
this in us. And this book was written by
the Apostle Paul. But remember, as we read scripture,
remember who the true author of these words are. It's God
the Holy Spirit. Whenever you read scripture,
remember, whoever penned it, is being inspired by God the
Holy Spirit to pen these words. So the true author of these words
in this Bible is God the Holy Spirit. And what does Christ
tell us about God the Holy Spirit? That he will guide us into all
truth, right? He won't speak of himself, that he'll guide
us into all truth, and we know that Christ is the truth. So
he is the focus of this book. the focus of this book. His sister
Diane and I were talking yesterday. All things occur and have occurred
from time beginning till time will end for the glory of God
through Christ. To glorify the Son and to glorify
the Father through the Son. My oh my. And The Holy Spirit
works this fruit in every born-again, blood-washed believer. It's not
something that we can muster up. We know that, don't we, Brother
Dave? We know that we can't muster this stuff up. Because we know
that it doesn't take long for us to flare up at someone. It
doesn't take long for a situation to occur that affects us. Right? And if it wasn't for the restraining,
think of this too, even as born again believers, if it wasn't
for the restraining grace of God in our lives, how would we
be? How would we react all the time? If God wasn't working this
in us. Oh my. See, that's why we're
new creatures now in Christ. We still have the flesh, right?
And we still battle the flesh. And praise God, one day we will
no longer battle the flesh, which will be absolutely amazing. Right? Sin will have no effect on us
in glory. We'll be sinless. But right now,
sin doesn't have the dominion over us that it once had. Because
we're new creatures now in Christ. We're the born-again, blood-washed
believers. And this mighty work of regeneration
is also called being born again. the Lord said, you must be born
again. And that's a work of God, the Holy Spirit. That truth,
being born again, is being taken and used in a way that people
say, well, you bow your head, you repeat this prayer, now you're
born again. Where's the Holy Spirit in that? This is a work
of the Holy Spirit. It's not the work of us. We are
the ones being operated upon, right? When I went in for surgery,
the surgeons were operating on me. Right? Brother Tom, when you went in
for your heart surgery, the surgeons were operating on you. You were
out. And they were operating upon you. We're passive in that
situation, aren't we? So that's how this operation
of God is. We're passive in it. We are born again from an outside
power, that being God the Holy Spirit, not by something we do.
And then think of this, what's the first fruit mentioned? Amen,
brother, love. And we know that love is a love
for the brethren, a love for Christ, a love for the scriptures,
a love for the gospel, right? I was listening to Tom Harden
yesterday with Vicki. No, Friday we were listening.
And he said a statement I have to repeat to you. I have to repeat
this to you. It has to do with the love of
God. When we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God and He
rots that love in us, you know what it does? It makes Christ
irresistible to us. He's irresistible. And He's irresistible
in the fact that He's the fairest of 10,000 now. He's now our all
in all, isn't He? So now we have that love brought
in us by the power of God the Holy Spirit. Christ becomes irresistible
to us. And in the day of his power,
we're made willing. And because of that irresistible love that's
brought in us, and because God the Holy Spirit makes us willing,
what do we do? Amen, sister. Run to Christ. Isn't it amazing? God the Holy Spirit makes Christ
irresistible in our eyes. I just want to run to him. Oh,
isn't that wonderful? Man, I heard that and my heart
just went, woo, and the whole rest of the message, I didn't
hear a whole lot, but I just kept going in my mind, irresistible.
He's irresistible to me now. Oh my, isn't that wonderful?
Absolutely irresistible. My, oh my. So this mighty work
by God, the Holy Spirit, he works by his power upon the redeemed
of the Lord. And he works in us love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
temperance. Against such there is no law. Let's read verses 22 to 25 now
of Galatians chapter five. It says, but the fruit of the
spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance against such as there is no law. And
they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections
and the lusts. If we live in the spirit, let
us also walk in the spirit. So we see the next fruit mentioned. which again is like a cluster
of grapes. It's all one fruit. It's all worked in us by the
Holy Spirit of God. It's the same fruit. It comes
from God. The Holy Spirit is goodness.
Goodness. Now, there's none good but God,
isn't there? There's none good but God. None good but God. Because again, we are All fallen creatures, there's
none good, no not one. And think of how God's benevolent
kindness flows from his goodness. It's because he causes the rain
to fall on who? The just and on the unjust, doesn't
he? That comes from his goodness, beloved. He doesn't have to do
it, but he does. Because he's a good God and a
great God. And he's benevolent to those
who are in the world. We read in Galatians 6.10, just
a chapter over, look in Galatians 6.10, is we have therefore opportunity
to let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are
of the household of faith. How do we do good? Only by God's
mercy and grace. Only by the Holy Spirit working
in us. There's no other way. There's no other way. So we pray
God help us to be good to others for the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We see here the fruit of the spirit is goodness. What
is goodness? Well, it's a readiness to do
good. It's a readiness to do good. Particularly a readiness
to do good for the brethren and for those around us. First to
the household of faith, and then those around us. And the Apostle
Paul, writing as a believer, said, I know that in me, that
is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. So by nature, we're not
good. Goodness is not in us by nature. The scripture again declares
there's none good, no not one. But God alone is infinitely good.
You can't measure his goodness. You can't measure his goodness.
He's immutably good, unchangingly good. He doesn't change. See, remember that too as we
look at these fruit, the fruit of the spirit. He's rotting in
us what's already a part of him. Right? The things that are not
natural. We're being conformed to the image of Christ, remember?
So he's rotting in us the things that are not natural to us, but
are natural to Christ. Natural to the Father. My oh my. Now when God the Holy
Spirit performs his mighty operations of grace in chosen redeemed sinners, He makes them to be a people
whose lives are marked by goodness. Goodness. What is this goodness that is
the fruit of the spirit? How is it manifested? Is there ever an act performed
by or even a thought in the heart of a believer that is truly and
absolutely good and pure and perfect and righteous and worthy
of God's acceptance? Is there anything, Dave, that
we do or think that is worthy of God's acceptance? No, right?
Nothing. Not in ourselves. In ourselves,
there's nothing. No. The scriptures, in an honest
consideration of our own life experience, will tell us and
compel us to acknowledge that we're nothing but sinners. Scripture says this, 1 John 1.8,
if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. So if you ever hear someone say,
and I meant Only about four or five people have ever said this,
that since the Lord supposedly saved them, they don't sin anymore. Yeah. This fellow was married,
Dave. I said, are you married? And
he goes, yeah. I go, you ever get angry at your
wife? Man, there was silence. I said, that's a sin, buddy.
My. See how, you know? But anyways.
And then it says this, and that's 1 John 1.8. And then 1 John 1.10
says, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar.
See, that fellow that said that, he's making God a liar. And we
know God's not a liar, is he? No. No. We make him a liar and
his word is not in us. So that's a quick way, that's
a quick way for us to say, well, You know,
that person's not saved. They say they don't have any
sin anymore. They're making God a liar. And I know we don't usually
make judgment calls on that, but that's something where we
can say the scripture says that. Right? Because only God truly
knows who's saved and who's not saved, but he's given us an example
here that the truth is not in that person that says they don't
sin anymore. Because we're what? What are
we? Safe sinners, aren't we? That's all we are. Now the scripture
does say that the spirit that is in us is perfectly good and
is born of God and cannot sin. In 1 John 3, 9 it says, whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in
him. That's Christ in us. We're still
sinners. Now we have the Holy Spirit within
us now. Oh my. Our old nature is nothing
but sin and this body of flesh that we carry around desires
nothing but sin. How then can the free the spirit
be called goodness? Well, goodness is that indwelling
grace of God, the Holy Spirit, that attribute of the divine
nature of which we are now made partakers. We're partakers of
the divine nature, right? He's working in us. That just
means the Holy Spirit's working in us. We're not gods like false
cults say, we're not gods. No, we're the sons of God by
adoption. We're sinners saved by the grace
of God. But we do have the Holy Spirit
dwelling in us, beloved. The Spirit of Christ, right?
And it's also said, Christ in us the hope of glory. And goodness again is that in
dwelling grace of God the Holy Spirit. that attribute again
of the divine nature, which we are partakers of in the new birth,
which disposes believers to acts of goodness and to others. Turn
if you would to Matthew chapter 25. We say, well, when do we do these supposed
good works? Well, you know in the religious world, we know,
those of us who come out of religion know that in the religious world,
works are huge. You've got the HA, right? We
experienced that, didn't we brother? Just non-stop, you gotta do this,
you gotta do that, you gotta do this, you gotta do that, and
then you go to church and you come out feeling worse than when
you went in. Because you feel like a total failure because
you can't do what they're telling you to do. And you know what?
Even the false preacher can't do the things he's telling you
to do. Isn't that something? Just look to Christ, beloved.
Rest in Christ. As Brian and I were talking,
Brian said, every day, every day we need to look to Christ.
Amen. Every day. We just need to have Him set
before us. Every day. As defined by man, good works
are measured in the observance of various rules, which we've
experienced, Charlie. Various rules, various days,
various things that you had to do to even keep yourself saved,
right? You know who true antinomians
are? Works-based believers, or supposed believers. You know
why? Because they say you can believe and then you can go off
for 25, 30 years and come back and still be a Christian. That's
called antinomianism. That's a person going and living
however they want to live. Right? That's true antinomianism. Because antinomian says there's
no law. I can just go out the door and do whatever I want.
and still be saved. We're not antinomians, are we?
We don't believe in that. The love of Christ constrains
us from sin. Now we still have the same sinful
desires as everybody else, but God restrains us, beloved. And
when we do fall into sin, because we do, we're grieved in our hearts
over that sin. But I'll tell you what you do.
I remember Don, Big Don tell me sometime, a young preacher
called him. I'm going to tell you about this. Don't know who
the preacher is, he never said. Young preacher calls and said,
Don, I fell into grievous sin. I'm just, I'm just, I don't know
what to do. And you know what Don said to
him? I thought some of the best advice, repent and carry on. covered in the blood, repent,
said it before our Savior, say, God, I'm so sorry that I did
this, right? And move on. Are our sins forgiven
or not? The message this morning, for
Sunday morning, is called sins blotted out. And they're blotted
out, beloved. They're blotted out. The ordinance
that were against us is gone. Our sins are totally blotted
out. Repent and move on. Right? Amen. I thought that was
some of the wisest advice. My, oh, my. So good works are
defined by and measured by man's observance of various rules of
conduct relating to dress code. Dave, you and I have talked about
that, dress code and even diet. There's Gentiles who are trying
to be like the Jewish folks and follow the Mosaic laws and stuff
and not eat certain foods and all that. They're just putting
themselves back under bondage. They're double bondage. They're
actually, because they're in bondage anyways to the law of
God already, and then they're just double bondage to themselves
again under the traditions of man. My, oh my. So man looks
at the outward, right? But God looks at the inward,
doesn't he? Man, we see somebody, oh man, he's a fine fellow. He's
a good fellow. No, God says he's not good, and
neither are you. Unless you're in Christ, and
he says, oh, there's my beloved son. There's one clothed in the
righteousness of my beloved son. Oh, I love him. I love her. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. So look at this. Look at this
in Matthew chapter 25. In the word of God, good works
are always connected with acts of brotherly love. Think of that
too. Good works are always connected with acts of brotherly love,
kindness, self-denial, and sacrifice. The total opposite of what the
world would think. such as visiting the sick, feeding
the hungry, helping the needy. Look at this, Matthew 25. Look
at this portion. We're going to start in verse
31. Matthew 25, verse 31. And this is it. This is the great
white judgment throne. And when the Son of Man shall
come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall
he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be
gathered all nations, And he shall separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. He
shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, look at this, this is us, look at
this, look at this marvelous, come ye blessed of the Father. We're blessed of the Father.
Come, ye blessed of the Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungered,
and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. Naked, and you
clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me.
I was in prison, and you came unto me." Now here, then shall
the righteous say, this is us. This is all the born-again blood-washed
believers of all the ages. Right here. A multitude that
no man can number. Look at this. What do we say? And notice we're called the righteous.
That's only in Christ, beloved. But that's what we're called.
The sheep are called the righteous. And we can only be called that
in Christ. Nowhere else. Then shall the righteous answer
him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered and fed thee?
Or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? Or
when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? Now remember the union between
Christ and his body. Paul was persecuting Christians,
and the Lord stopped Paul on the road to Damascus and said,
Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me? Remember, he's the head. It'd be like somebody attacking
our arm. Or our leg. Or our foot. Right? Look at this. And the king. I love that title. And the king. That's our savior.
He's a king. He is the commander in chief.
He is the king. And the king shall answer and
say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Insomuch as ye have done
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it
unto me. Then shall he say unto them on
the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and
you gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me
no drink. I was a stranger, and you took
me not in. Naked, and you clothed me not.
Sick in prison, and you visited me not. Then shall they also
answer him, saying, Lord, When saw thee wee and hungered, or
thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did
not minister unto thee, then shall ye answer them, saying,
Verily I say unto you, insomuch as ye did it unto one of the
least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. I ask you this, Who made the
sheep and the goats to differ? Amen. God and God alone. Praise his mighty name. My, oh my. Good works, works
acceptable and well-pleasing to God are works of faith, works
by which faith is shown. James said faith without works
is dead. That's these works right here. We don't even know when
we're doing them, but we're doing them under our brethren and we
have no clue. My oh my. Good works are never
spoken of in the scripture except as manifestations of the faith. Think of that. In our natural
state, we say we're good. But scripture says we're not.
But after we're saved, we do good works and we don't even
know when we do them. And you know, God has ordained
us to do those things. He's ordained us to do those
things. Scripture says this, but without faith it is impossible
to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Our good works are acceptable and well-pleasing only in Christ. Only in Christ. Outside of Christ,
God won't accept nothing. Nothing we do. As a matter of
fact, outside of Christ, our works are like filthy rags. He won't even, he doesn't even
want to look at them. They disgust him. But in Christ, these things
that we do that he mentioned, that we just do naturally, right?
Because we want to. And they're done in Christ as
believers. He honors them. And all they are, they in no
way, and I'm going to say this, I'm going to say this right now,
they in no way justify us before God. In no way. No works of ours can justify
us before God. But they're manifestations of
our faith. They're manifestations of our
faith. Turn, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians
chapter 4. Again, our works are only acceptable
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way. Why? Well, because Christ alone
is our righteousness, right? We don't have any righteousness
outside of Christ. We have none. Because scripture
says there's none righteous, no not one, well that includes
me and my natural state before the Lord saved me and you too,
right? And it says that the law comes
and shows that all are guilty before God. That's what the law
does, it shows us that we're all guilty before God, we have
no hope. Oh my, but in Christ, what a
hope we have. What a hope we have, beloved.
I hope we can't see, we can't see Christ, but one day we will. One day we will. Our brothers
and sisters who went before us, they're seeing Christ right now.
Sister Sylvia, face to face. Brother Joel, face to face. Brother Jim, face to face. Face
to face. Just like you and I are looking
at each other, they're seeing Christ. Isn't that glorious? All because of Christ. All because
of what He's done. All because of what He's done.
Look at this, Ephesians chapter 4. And this, God has to work
this in us. Look at this. Ephesians chapter
4 starting verse 31 and then we'll go to Ephesians 5 verse
2. It's all one. This is where chapter breaks
don't help because this is all one statement here. Look at this. 431. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. See now, all those things listed
there are natural for us. It's natural for us to be angry.
It's natural for us to be bitter. You know, a long time ago, and
I'm going to tell you something somebody told me a long time
ago, when the Lord was working in my life, and take it to heart. I took it to heart, and it's
helped me so much in my life, in my walk with the Lord. He
said, in every situation that we find ourselves in, we can
either get better or bitter. And you know how we get better?
Looking to Christ. In every situation we find, we
go through. I'll tell you, it works. It's
amazing. You can choose to be bitter or
you can choose to get better. And when someone comes against
me, you know what makes it easy for me to forgive them? When I look to Christ and I see
how much he forgave me. I can't be bitter at them. I
pity them then, right? You pray for them then. So we
can either get better or better. We can either move forward in
Christ or we can sit in one spot and have a pity party. And we've
all done that. I've done that before. I admit it, I've done
it. There's been sometimes when I haven't put that into practice
and I know now I need to put that in practice. And that's
only by God's grace. You pray, God give me grace to
not get bitter. to get better in this situation.
Oh, my. It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. Look at this. Let all bitterness
and wrath that is unnatural to us and anger and clamor and evil
speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, look at
this, for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. That's the key
right there. That's the key to not getting bitter. To remember
that we have been forgiven for Christ's sake. Nothing in us. But we've been totally forgiven
for Christ's sake. God has forgiven us for Christ's
sake. For what he did for us. Redeeming us. Saving us. Raising for our justification.
Remember he said, no one takes my life. He gave his life, beloved. Willingly. Look at this, be ye
therefore followers of God as dear children. You ever see a
child? You tell them something, they
believe you right away, don't they? You know, we adults, we complicate
things sometimes. Lots, yeah, not sometimes, sister,
right? I like that, sometimes? No, not
sometimes. All the time. But when you see
a child, you know, that's why the Lord tells us to just be
like children. And we are God's children. We are his children. We will never ever obtain what
he knows. I think we're gonna learn when
we're in glory. I think we're gonna find out things. We'll understand more with a
sinless mind then. Our eyes won't be veiled, we'll
see clearly then. But oh, let us just approach
God as a child. That's what he tells us here,
as dear children. In walk in love, look at that, the fruit
of the spirit. The first fruit of the spirit mentioned, walk
in love. Love for Christ, love for the gospel, love for the
Father, love for your brethren. Right? Look at this, as Christ
also has loved us. How has Christ loved us? With
an everlasting love. See, but it's the love of the
Spirit. It's the love of the Spirit.
It's the love for the brethren. Walking in unity in Christ. Rejoicing
together in Christ. Praising Him for the great things
He's done for us. And look at this, look at this.
And walk in love as Christ also has loved us and has given himself
for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.
Look at that. Christ offered himself up to
God for us. Isn't that wonderful? Now, here
are some things to ponder about God's goodness to Israel. And
remember, Israel is a picture of the church, right? Israel
in the Old Testament is a picture of the church. And a picture of all of God's
elect of all the ages. God's goodness, in God's goodness,
they were chosen. And God had been pleased through
grace to make them his people. Chosen not for any good in them,
not for any good in them, but as monuments of his mercy. What
are we? God didn't choose us because
of anything good in us, did he? But now we're monuments of his
mercy, monuments of his grace, beloved. My, God's goodness was
manifest when the Israelites were preserved for 40 years.
40 years. His long-suffering patients
bore with their murmurings and unbelief, and yet they were kept
from perishing. How much do we murmur? God keeps
us, doesn't he? He don't destroy us. We're his
people. We're his people. Oh, my. They had a place already prepared
for them. They had a place. There were seven sinful Canaanite
nations that were cast down and destroyed that they might have
a possession. And the forces of iniquity have
all to overcome ere the children of God can enter into their inheritance.
Left to ourselves, we're defenseless. But by the power of God, we move
through. And we have a place already prepared for us, beloved.
We're journeying through the wilderness right now, through
the desert. But we'll soon find ourselves
in the promised land, won't we? That's glory with our King. And
then think of this, he supplied all their need from his goodness.
He gave them judges, a prophet, a king, then he raised up David,
a man after his own heart. So his goodness was manifested
then. And David was a type of Christ as a man raised up by
God to do his will among the people. And lastly, let us consider
God's goodness manifested through Christ, through our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ was given
by God's goodness according to promise. According to promise. He was the rod of the stem of
Jesse, prepared in eternity. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, raised up in the fullness of time as
our Savior, sent into this world at the exact time. Died on the
cross at the exact time appointed by God. Raised from the dead
at the exact time appointed of God. And now seated at the right
hand of glory in heaven. A king right now, reigning and
ruling. He's not waiting to become king, beloved. He's king already.
King of kings and Lord of lords. And he was condemned by the rulers.
Paul makes it clear that Christ was slain by those who found
no cause of death in him. No cause of death in him. What
does this bring out? This brings out the awful enmity
of man towards God. My, oh, my. The natural heart
is against the holiness of God. See, that's why we need a heart
operation, eh? That's why we need a new heart,
the hungers and thirsts after Christ. And then he was, God
in his goodness raised Christ for our justification. He sent
him to the cross to die for our sins according to his mercy and
his goodness. And then he raised him from the dead for our justification,
beloved. My, how good is our God. How
he's manifested his goodness to us, eh? It's been overflowing. And then he is preached by eyewitnesses
of his resurrection. He died to redeem. He died even
to redeem the people that God gave him. And we're included
in that number. Praise His mighty name. It's
amazing. It's incredible. We've not followed
cunningly devised fables, have we? No. We're following the truth. The scripture, the truth, speaks
of Christ. And the Old Testament says, He's
coming. He's coming. And the New Testament says, He's
come. And He's a conquering king. And He saved His people from
their sins. Oh, and one commentator said
this, Christ's death and resurrection are two pillars of the bridge
of grace. Oh, I like that. Two pillars
holding up the bridge of grace. My oh my, isn't that wonderful?
And the goodness of God planned salvation through his son. The
goodness of God sent Christ into this world to die for our sins.
And the goodness of God caused Christ to shed his precious blood
to redeem our eternal souls. And the goodness of God raised
him for our justification. And the goodness of God will
bring us to glory one day. My, what do we have left to say
but praise his mighty name, eh? Isn't he so good? Isn't he so
wonderful? My, what a great Savior. Brother
Dave, can you close us in prayer? We thank you for the blood of
Christ. We thank you for the sanctuary, Lord, that we can
come in and hear this word today. Thank you for waking us. Thank
you for inclining our ear that we can hear more of thy precious
Son, Jesus Christ. And it's in his name I pray,
amen.