How can you be persuaded, how
can I be persuaded to give our lives in surrender to Christ
in utter consecration to the will of God, the glory of God,
and the cause of God while we live in this world? all brands of religion attempt
to give men and women rules by which to live, laws by which
preachers and priests and religious folks and churches try to govern
their lives and compel them to give their money and give their
time and attend worship services and do right in the world. Men
have this notion that by obeying certain rules, they can make
themselves holy and compel others to make themselves holy by pressing
those rules and regulations upon them. I've just been reading,
again, the biography of James Hervey. And he and George Whitefield,
before they were converted, joined Charles and John Wesley in starting
what they called the Holy Club when they were in university.
And they thought to make themselves righteous by doing good and reading
good books and reading the Bible some and talking about religious
things. One of the old preachers said
after God saved him, I think it was John Berridge, I can't
remember for sure. He said in his parish, he said,
I preached works constantly. I preached good works until there
was hardly a sober man left in the village. Everybody following
their works pursues ungodliness and still pretends that they
are following after holiness. How can you be persuaded? How can I be persuaded? to give ourselves utterly to
Christ our Savior. Turn to Romans chapter 6 and
we'll see how God the Holy Spirit answers that question. The title
of my message is The Doctrine of Godliness. Romans 6 verses
1 through 23, The Doctrine of Godliness. The gospel of God
declares and declares plainly, in no unmistakable terms, that
the only way a sinner can be saved is by the grace of God. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. We are saved. Everyone who is
saved is saved in exactly this way. There is no salvation in
any other way. We are saved by grace alone,
through faith alone. That is to say, we receive and
experience this grace by trusting the Lord Jesus. We're saved by
grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Saved by trusting
Jesus Christ alone. as our Redeemer, our Savior,
our righteousness, our atonement, our acceptance with God. This
faith by which we trust Him is itself the gift of God and there
is no other way for people to be saved. Both righteousness
and holiness, justification and sanctification are the gifts
of God, the operations of God, and they are obtained and enjoyed
not by what we do, but only by believing on the Son of God.
We're not justified by our works. We're not sanctified by our works,
but we're justified, made righteous before God, only by grace. And we're sanctified, made holy,
made partakers of the divine nature, made meat to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life, only by grace, not by
something we do. Now when we assert that fact,
as the Apostle Paul has done in the first five chapters of
this epistle, self-righteous legalist, will-worship Arminians,
and works-religionist, unanimously cry, Lysitchusness! That kind of doctrine promotes
ungodliness. It opens the floodgates of sin.
That's the charge leveled against the gospel of God's grace throughout
the ages of time and among all the religious world. You can't
preach like that. You can't tell people that their
works have nothing to do with their acceptance before God.
If you do, it'll cause folks to go out and live like hell.
Of course, that's exactly what God the Holy Spirit tells us
in Jude 4 would be the case. That's exactly what God the Holy
Spirit tells us to expect. In Jude 4, the Spirit of God
tells us plainly that self-righteous religious legalists, promoters
of law works religion, are really antinomians. Those who cry, live
by the law, are really against the law, and they turn the grace
of our God into lasciviousness. Those who say we keep the commandments
really are against the law because they bring down the law to their
level and call disobedience obedience. They call breaking the commandments,
keeping the commandments. Ask any of them which one kept
the commandments. Ask them. I defy any man you
know. who says we ought to live under
the law, to answer this question honestly, do you really keep
the commandments of God and Him tell you, yes I do? I defy anyone
to say so. Because what they call obedience
is really just their best effort at obedience. And your best effort
at obedience is disobedience. Now that's just fact. Which of
you, which of you, Loves God with all his heart, soul, mind,
and being. Find me the creature. Find me
the man. Oh, I can't do that, but I try. Trying is not what God requires.
God requires obedience. Which of you loves his neighbor
as himself? Find me the man. Find me the
man who dares to say so. I'll call him to his face a liar
and I'll tell him he knows he's lying. That's just not so. But I try. I do the best I can.
God doesn't require that you try. God requires obedience. Those who say live by the law,
Jude 4 says are really against the law. And they turn the grace
of our God into lasciviousness. They turn around and say you
can't say believers are saved by grace alone without works. That leads to ungodliness. Thus
they turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Here in
Romans 6, the Apostle Paul shows us the absurdity of the claim
of men that they live by good works and live in obedience to
the law. And that they, by their obedience
to the law, by their good works, give out godliness in this world. He shows us the absurdity of
the claim. And in these 23 verses of inspiration,
God the Holy Spirit tells us that salvation by the free grace
of God without works is the doctrine which is according to godliness.
Now let's read this chapter together. Obviously I cannot expound these
23 verses with any fullness, but I want to call your attention
to seven facts plainly set before us in this chapter. Verses one and two the Apostle
shows us that it is absurd Utterly absurd Absurd beyond imagination
for anyone to imagine that grace promotes ungodliness That is
such an absurd thought Such an absurd thing for men to say that
Paul gives no argument against it He doesn't even attempt to
prove its absurdity. He simply states that it is a
matter of absurdity. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? That's just stupid. I'll adopt one of Mr. Trump's
statements. That's just stupid. And that's all he says about
it. That's just stupid. God forbid. God forbid what kind
of insane person thinks like that. How shall we that are dead
to sin live any longer therein? Life in Christ and living in
sin is not merely inconsistent. It's a contradiction. You might
as well talk about living a living corpse as talking about an ungodly
godly person. Union with Christ is the only
source of righteousness and the only source of holiness. Christ
is our justification. We are made the righteousness
of God in Him, His righteousness being freely imputed to us in
free justification so that God declares us righteous. But that's
not just a pretense. God doesn't just pretend that
we're righteous. Christ is also our sanctification. He is righteousness imparted
to us. He is our holiness before God. He gives us a new nature created
in righteousness and in true holiness. That's the new man,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. He who is our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption is not an inspiration to ungodliness. Only a proud, prating, self-righteous
Pharisee could imagine such a thing. The reign of grace spoken of
in the last verse of chapter 5 destroys the reign of sin. The Son of God was manifested
to destroy the works of the devil. to destroy the works of the devil
even in us, God's chosen redeemed people. And that's what he does
by his grace. It is not grace that opens the
floodgates to sin. It is the lack of grace that
inspires ungodliness. The grace of God is the only
thing that shuts the floodgates. Grace reigning through righteousness
unto eternal life in Christ Jesus. So far as is the free grace of
God in Christ from promoting ungodliness. The free grace of
God in Christ experienced in our souls reigning in us by the
Spirit of God is the only thing that checks the raging beast
within us. The only thing that holds in
check the ungodliness that erupts constantly in our hearts is the
free grace of God. If Christ be in you, we're told
in Romans 8, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit
is life because of righteousness. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Now Paul does not say we are
dead in sin. That's where we were by nature. Paul does not say that we are
dead for sin. Christ died for our sins, the
just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. We're not dead
in sin and we're not dead by sin or dead for sin, but rather
we're dead to sin, redeemed, regenerated, justified, and sanctified
in Christ. We're dead to the guilt of sin.
because Christ has taken away our sins. And taking away our
sins, He's taken away our guilt. He hung upon the cursed tree
and cried, O Lord, my guiltiness is not hid from Thee. He who
bear our sins in His body on the tree bear our guiltiness. And as He bear away our sins,
He bear away our guiltiness. so that we're dead to sin. God's
elect, when born again by God the Holy Spirit, are made to
be dead to the dominion of sin so that we have no dread of sin's
condemning power by the curse of the law and we have no sense
in which sin holds dominion over us as believers. Sin, we're told
in verse 14, shall not have dominion over you. Do you see that? Sin shall not have dominion over
you. The text does not say sin should
not have dominion over you. There's no way you can reconstruct
the Greek language and make it read that way. The text says
sin shall not have dominion over you. Here's the reason. For you're
not under the law, but under grace. condemnation to you who
are in Christ Jesus. This is what God promised back
in Ezekiel 36. Hold your hands here in Romans 6. Turn back to
Ezekiel 36 as the prophet Ezekiel describes this covenant God's
made with His people. Then will I sprinkle, verse 25,
clean water upon you and you shall be clean. He's talking
about the regeneration of God the Holy Spirit. When I When
you're born again, I'll sprinkle clean water on you, the washing
of the water by the word, and you'll be clean. From all your
filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new
heart also. It doesn't say I'm going to repair
your old heart and give you a new heart. A new heart will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, the old, cold, hard, dead heart
of flesh. And I'll give you a heart of
flesh, and I will put my spirit in you. I'll give you a heart
of feeling, a heart of passion, a heart touched by my hand. And
I'll put my spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. And you shall keep my judgments to do them. Though sin lives
in us, as every child of God, Painfully, but honestly must
confess. Charlie Mattis, sin doesn't just
live in you, it rages in you. Sin doesn't just live in me,
it rages in me. I can't describe, I can't describe
how sin rages in me incessantly. Incessantly. But though we live
in sin, though sin lives in us, we don't live in sin. There's a huge difference. There's
a huge difference. Let's see. Look at verses three
through seven. Here the apostle Paul reminds
us that our baptism And he's not talking about spirit baptism. You won't find language about
spirit baptism in this book. Christ baptized his church in
the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And when Peter preached
the gospel to the Gentiles, the thing was repeated to demonstrate
that Jews and Gentiles make up the body of Christ. Nowhere in
this book does it talk about God the Holy Spirit baptizing
anybody. That's something men have invented. It's just not
there. This is talking about baptism. And there's only one
kind of baptism, it's called water baptism. It's called water
burial, water immersion. Our baptism confesses and portrays
the fulfillment of all righteousness by Christ. And it portrays and
confesses newness of life with Christ. Look at verse 3. Know
ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death. 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 units of life. You remember when the disciples
came to the Lord and they asked for a special place in his kingdom.
The Lord said to them, I have a baptism to be baptized with. And he said, can you be baptized
with that? They said, we can. And they didn't
know what he was talking about. But the Lord said, you shall
indeed be baptized with it. When Christ was buried in the
earth, because he was put to death, we were put to death and
buried in the earth in him. Therefore, when a person is born
again, God gives them life and faith in Christ, they confess
him we are buried with him at baptism. Read on, read on. For
if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing
this, this is what baptism says. Our old man died with Christ. Our old man is crucified with
Christ. Crucified with Christ that the
body of sin might be destroyed. Not just this physical body in
which sin resides, though this body too must be destroyed. But
the whole body of sin living in this flesh must be destroyed. And we know this. The reason
for all this is that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed,
justified from sin. Baptism portrays the fulfillment
of all righteousness by our Lord Jesus Christ in his obedience
unto death. Our Lord came to John in John
chapter 3, and John said, I can't baptize you. The Lord Jesus said,
yes, you can. Suffer it to be so now, for thus
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Who was it that came to Paul
and said to him, arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins. Acts chapter 9. Now people have
the notion, Campbellites all over this part of the country,
Church of Christ folks, they have the notion, as do many others,
that by baptism, men and women wash away their sins, literally.
They really do think, Skip, that if somebody ducks you in a pool
of water, you come up and your sins are gone by baptism. I can't
even get a good stain off my elbows like that. Let alone sin. Folks have the idea that somehow,
by baptism, somebody ducks you in a pool of water, you come
up out of there, now you've fulfilled righteousness. What? What absurdity. No, but it pictures that. That's
exactly what it pictures. The fulfillment of righteousness.
the washing away of sins by the doing and dying of the Son of
God. When our Lord was baptized, he was buried in the watery grave
and rose up out of the watery grave and walked with God for
another three years as a man living by faith on this earth.
And thus, in his obedience unto death, he fulfilled righteousness
and washed away our sins. Baptism is the believer's public
confession of faith with Christ. By baptism, the believer says,
that's what I believe. Christ is mine, and I'm his.
Christ died for me, and I died in him. Christ was buried for
me, and I was buried in him. Christ arose for me, and I arose
with him. We are quickened together with
Christ. Is that what the book says? Quickened
together with Christ. You mean when he came up out
of the grave and was resuscitated and resurrected and made alive. We were resuscitated and resurrected
and made alive. Take us what it means. Quickened
together when he was quickened from the dead. Risen when he
arose from the dead. Seated in heaven when he was
seated in heaven. Baptism publicly identifies God's
people with one another and our baptism We identify ourselves
with Christ, his gospel, and his people. And this baptism,
rising up out of the watery grave, is an avowed public declaration
of consecration to Christ. Every time I think of baptism,
I think like this. Every time I had the privilege
of baptizing someone as I just have here. Every time I had the
privilege of watching a believer confess Christ in baptism. This
is how I think, like Jephthah of old. I've lifted my hand to
God. I can't go back. I'm His. The Lord Jesus arose from the
grave to live for God. and he lives forever for him.
So the believer publicly avows his allegiance to Christ. Here's
the third thing. Look at verses 8 and 9. Here
we see that the believer's union with Christ is his assurance
of freedom from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ,
if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we also shall live
with him. Knowing that is this is the reason
for this is the basis of our faith Knowing that Christ being
raised from the dead Died no more Death hath no more dominion
over him Christ Jesus has been raised
from the dead Rex yonder he sets on the throne of God. Do you
reckon he'll ever die again? I Preacher I could do think of
such thing Therefore we know that we shall live with Him.
I live, therefore you live also, our Savior says. Because death
has no more dominion over Christ. If I'm one with Christ, the death
of sin has no more dominion over me. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter
4. 1 Peter chapter 4. One of these days I want to preach
from this passage of Scripture. All I can do is just a little
bit. 1 Peter chapter 4, For as much then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind. For he that hath suffered in
the flesh hath ceased from sin. Now this is what it's telling
us. When Christ suffered in the flesh, we who are His suffered
in the flesh. And now have ceased from sin. Our sin being made Christ, He
suffered in the flesh to put away. And having put away our
sins, He has ceased from sin. Sin shall never be laid on Him
again. And we, having suffered in the
flesh, in the person of our Redeemer, have ceased from sin. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Look at an excellent line. I'm
not stretching this at all. This says, Bill Rodler, let's
talk about you. That he, you and I, who are his, should live,
no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the
lust of men, but to the will of God. We died in Christ, and
this is what that says. We're not to live, and we shall
not live the rest of our lives in the lust of our flesh, but
rather to the will of God. We're dead with Christ. When
Christ died on the cross, every member of His mystical body,
the church, died with Him. When He died for sin on the cross,
All His spiritual seed, all God's elect were in Him and died in
Him. When He arose from the dead,
we arose with Him, quickened together with Him. Because He
lives, we shall live. We live in Christ, and we live
by Christ, and we live with Christ. By virtue of our union with Him,
He is our righteousness. And we are made the righteousness
of God in Him. That's the assurance of it. We're
one with Him. Number four, in verses 12 through
16, God the Holy Spirit teaches us that godliness, godliness,
lots of folks talk about godliness. Not a form of godliness, godliness.
A form of godliness is just religious activity. A form of godliness
is just rolling the stone over your tomb and sealing it up.
The form of godliness will take you to hell. The form of godliness
won't do you any good. The more you practice the form,
the more hardened you are against the gospel of God's grace. But
godliness, godliness, godliness. For most people, that's touch
not, taste not, handle not. Godliness. For most folks, that's,
you know, make sure people look at you
and say, my, my, my, if ever there was a godly man, it was
Brother Don. For most people, that's called
godliness. For most people, godliness is Don't chew tobacco, and sure
don't smoke it, and don't dip snuff, and don't get drunk, and
don't go to picture show, and don't steal too much, and don't
lie too often, and don't act mean. Don't cuss too much. For most people, that's godliness.
That's godliness. That's just all stuff. Anybody
can do that. Anybody can do that. I was shocked
as a young man. I heard Rob Barnard preaching,
and he made this statement. This is exactly what it said.
He said, lost men can live a lot better than you do. I know lost men who live better
than I do. Lost men live better than you
do. That's not godliness. What's godliness? Godliness is
living for God. Not living to impress Larry Brown,
but living for God. There's a huge difference. There's
a huge difference. Godliness is devotion to God. Godliness is consecration to
God. Godliness is living to God's
glory. Godliness. Godliness, we're told
here, is both our responsibility and God's promise. It's both. Here's our responsibility. Let
not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Sin. Not just stuff people see. Not
just committing adultery or fornication or lying or cheating or stealing
or committing murder or that stuff. But the lust of your flesh. Covetousness. Envy. Malice in your heart. Lust in your heart. The desire
for stuff in your heart. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body. Don't let your lust control your
life that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. Some of you have
seen, I have something I printed off and taped it on Shelby's
printer back there in her office, a picture of a pelican swallowing
a frog. And the frog's head's in the
pelican's mouth and the frog's got his front hands around the
pelican's neck, said, never give up. Don't give up. The struggle's constant. Don't
give up. Don't yield your members as instruments
of unrighteousness unto sin. These things write unto you that
you sin not. Don't do it. But rather yield
yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. But I can't do that. I just can't. I just can't. I don't have in me the ability
to resist the evil that's in me. If there's any resistance, if
there's any holding back, if there's any controlling the lust
of my flesh, it's God who does it. It's God who does it. I can't. It's the Spirit of God
in me, not me, not me. When Paul says, let not sin therefore
reign in your body, he doesn't imply any power or ability in
us to keep sin under control. Rather, it is the Spirit of God
who mortifies the deeds of the body and causes us to walk in
life. Now here's God's promise. It's
our responsibility. It's our responsibility. But
I'm gonna tell you a little something about our responsibility. My
dear friend, Brother Harry Graham, who's now singing God's praise
at the throne perfectly, he used to say to me, our responsibility
is our response to his ability. We fulfill our responsibility
as we respond to his ability. Look at verse 14. Here's God's
promise. For sin shall not have dominion
over you. God says, I ain't gonna let it
happen. I ain't gonna let it happen. For you're not under
the law, but under grace. What then, shall we sin because
we're not under the law, but under grace? Well, that's just
stupid. That's just stupid. God forbid. Know ye not that
to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants
you are whom you obey? Whether of sin unto death or
of obedience unto righteousness. Therefore we might well pray
constantly as David did, Hold thou me up and I shall be safe. I will have respect under thy
statutes continually. Sin, my brother, my sister, shall never regain its dominion
over you, though it struggles incessantly
to do so, because you're not under the law. Christ paid all
the debt we owed to God's law. He satisfied all the penalty
of divine justice. When he arose from the dead,
he held the receipt in his hand, carried it into glory, and filed
it on the throne of God forever. and he sends down his Holy Spirit
as the seal of the debt paid into our hearts when he gives
us his Spirit in the new birth and declares sin shall not have
dominion over you. Grace reigning in the soul will
not let sin reign in this mortal body. God says I'll put my Spirit in you And he says,
I will put my fear in you, and you shall walk in my statutes.
So that the believer's reverence for God, being constrained by
the love of Christ, continually controls his life by the gift
of God's Spirit. Now look at verse 17. Verse 17. I've got to come back to this
another day, but just look at the verse and learn what great
reason saved sinners have to give thanks to God and live for
His glory. But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin, that ye have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which was delivered you. Now I'll give you a challenge. Look up every word in this verse
of scripture as it is given in any Greek text. In any Greek
text. Any of them. Look up every word
as is given here. And there's no way on this earth
these words can be properly translated But God be thanked that though
you were the servants of sin. That's not what it says. That
is not what it says. That is not what it says. And
I have only read one commentary in my life that didn't try to
make it read that way. Robert Hawker is the only commentator
I've ever read in my life that reads the text exactly as it's
stated here. And this is exactly the right
translation. God be thanked. that ye were
the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered to you." What on earth does the
apostle mean by that? Let me give you Hawker's words
on this text. For myself, if I know anything of my own heart,
I hope that I can truly say I hate sin. I would not willingly and
willfully commit a single sin for the world. Yea, I loathe
myself in my own sight for sin, the sin of my poor fallen nature. And sin becomes more bitter to
me as Christ becomes more precious. But with all this I say, I would
rather be a sinner saved and saved in such a way as I am saved
by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ than
to have never known sin, neither to have known Christ
as my Savior. Oh, God be thanked. God be thanked. Through all of this, torturous
thing called sin. That which we knew before God
saved us and that which we know now constantly since God saved
us. Through all of this, God made
a way for sinners like you and me to know his darling son as
our Savior. We could never have known God
as God has fully revealed Himself in the face of our crucified
Redeemer had we not known sin and deliverance from sin by the
gift of His grace. And this we have by obedience
to this form of doctrine which is according to godliness by
the gift of our God. Faith in Christ is the obedience
Paul speaks of here. Will you obey that form of doctrine
set before you in the gospel? Trusting Christ alone and be
saved? Or will you go on trusting yourself,
your goodness, your righteousness, your works, your will, your resolutions,
your religious activity, until you find yourself forever damned
in hell? God help you to trust his son. Read verses 18 through 22 and
learn this. saved sinners, really are the
servants of righteousness in true holiness. Being then made
free from sin, free from sin's curse and free from sin's dominion,
ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men
because of the infirmity of your flesh. That is to say, this is
the only way I can express it to you and you get any understanding
of it. For as you have yielded your
members, servants, to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity. That's where God found you, isn't
it? Delightful, willing servants
of uncleanness, serving iniquity to more iniquity. Even so now,
yield your members, servants, to righteousness unto holiness. For when you were the servants
of sin, you didn't know a thing about righteousness. You were
free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those
things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. That's what sin brings. But now being made free from
sin, Now being justified by Christ, made righteous in Christ, and
become the servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness. Not fruit that will make you
holy. Fruit connected with holiness. Fruit with reference to holiness.
And in the end, everlasting life. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace. long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. The fruit of the Spirit. Isn't
it amazing? Isn't it amazing? If there's anything talking about
godliness, this is it, the fruit of the Spirit. And Mark, it doesn't
say a word about whether you wear that beard or not. Not a
word. When I was in college, people
in my Bible college in Western Salem, North Carolina, We weren't
allowed to wear mustache or sideburns below the middle of your ear,
because that was ungodly. That was worldly. We weren't
allowed to wear shoes with buckles when I was at school at Springfield.
That was ungodly. Very stylish, but ungodly. Couldn't
even wear shoes with those little tassels on them, you know. Oh,
no. That was ungodly. Ungodly. I remember when the Federal government
first passed a resolution, or law, whatever they passed, and
schools were no longer allowed to receive students on the GI
Bill unless they were integrated. They started, all of a sudden,
Piedmont decided to integrate. Suddenly all the stuff was over
with, and they're going to start taking black folks in. So sweet. And they took them in. And the
black fellas wore mustaches. And nothing was said. So some
of us decided to wear a mustache and see what we said. And I started
to wear a mustache. After two or three days, I got
called in to the office of the dean of students, whatever they
called the fellow. And he said, you can't do that.
That's against the rules. It's right in the rule book. And I said,
but these black boys wear mustaches. You know what his answer was? Well, that's natural to them. You think I put fertilizer on
this? That's ungodly. Oh, no, no, no. No, no. Those
things got nothing to do with it. They got nothing to do with
it. The fruit of the Spirit, godliness,
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. And one last thing. I'll quit. This great salvation that we
have in Christ is God's free gift of grace to poor, needy
sinners in his Son. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, may God now open the
windows of heaven, stretch out His mighty arm, open
your heart, and drop into you the gift of life, giving you
faith in His dear Son. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. Amen.