The Fruit of the Spirit: Part 5 - Goodness

Take your Bibles and turn if you would to Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five. Been preaching the last several months on the Holy Spirit being baptized by the spirit which happens at salvation being filled with the spirit when we are yielded to him, walking with the spirit following the Holy Spirit's leading and the word of God in our life. And the last few weeks, the fruit of the spirit which the Holy Spirit produces in the life of the Christian. Look if you would in Galatians chapter five and verse 16.

Galatians five sixteen, Paul writes, this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law. And then they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. If you live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you Lord for your word that you've given us. The privilege Lord to walk with you day by day. The privilege to know your spirit, Lord, that you place inside our heart.

Lord, we often times don't recognize the spirit's presence there because we've allowed it, allowed your voice. You're leading in our life to be crowded out by all the distractions that we find around us. Lord, help us to spend more time in your word and more time in prayer. Listening to your spirit, growing closer to you day by day that you might produce these fruits of the spirit in our life. We should abound there.

That others might see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven. May Jesus Christ be glorified this day. In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen. One of the most important elements of the Christian life is walking in the spirit.

Paul makes it clear that we as Christians are saved. Redeemed, justified, but not yet glorified. We're not yet perfect. Praise God. We've been declared guiltless before the Lord in heaven.

We've been redeemed by his blood on Calvary's Cross. We've been saved from the penalty of sin in hell. We have become a child of God. However, we sometimes too often yield to the lust of the flesh and sin against the one who redeemed us by his death on the cross. Too often, part of our our days our hours, our thoughts, our actions.

To the point sometimes as Christians that we think, well, what's the use? I'm just going to keep on sinning. Why does it matter? What does matter? It matters to the Lord who saved us, gave us his spirit that we might glorify him.

And getting victory. Over the lust of the flesh. The fact is we can win. We can get victory over sin in our life. We can overcome temptation for the Bible declares us to be overcomers in Jesus Christ.

There is a way of escape that that sin that is holding you captive. It's only holding you captive because you're letting it because in Christ, you have been freed and you don't have to listen and follow it any longer. There is a way of escape but it isn't found in the efforts or determination of the flesh which is wholly unequipped for fulfilling the will of God. The flesh is ill equipped, unequipped, to follow God's will. It has a mind of its own, a will of its own.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is what? Weak. It's weak and fulfilling the will of God in our lives because it has no desire to do so. The flesh won't be reformed. You won't wake up one morning and go, oh great.

I don't have any of these desires anymore. Doesn't work that way. I thought it did when I graduated from high school. I thought when I graduated from high school, I would wake up the next morning. I'm a high school graduate.

I don't have these problems anymore. Guess what? Still there. Thought it happened when I graduated from college. Thought I'm I'm going to the ministry.

I was going to be a youth pastor. Certainly. Those desires wouldn't be there. They were. I thought when I got married.

Now, the desires of the flesh, the lust of the flesh aren't reformed but they can be what? They can be beaten. You can't get victory over them. You don't have to listen to them. Because God has given us someone.

Placed in our heart who is more powerful. For greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. If we are to get victory in our life over the lust of the flesh as Christians, which we can and we must, we must also learn to walk more in the spirit. Listening to his guidance. His leading than listening to the lust of our flesh.

Today, you get in a car and some of you have this thing called the GPS and you're going to go from point A to point B and so you type in in your GPS the address of where you're going. And the GPS sets up the route for you and tells you turn right, turn left, turn right, in so many feet, you're going to turn left, in three miles, you're going to turn right, and it takes you where you're supposed to go. It wasn't too long ago we didn't have GPS, we had these things called maps, and you got the map out and you followed the map to where you wanted to go. But what's sad is and sometimes men are accused of this and probably sometimes rightly so, we don't want to follow direction. I don't need to get the map out.

I know a quicker way and so we take off without looking at the map, without listening to the GPS because we know better and we get lost. Lord, it takes us forever to get where we're going. And that that's like being a Christian sometimes with the holy spirit. The holy spirit lives inside our heart. He's there to help us.

He's there to guide us. He's there to direct us and so many times that we have decisions to make every day. We look to everyone but him. We ignore the principles in God's word The sword of the spirit that he has given to us. The Bible says, there's a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death.

If we go our way, we will end up going astray. Every time. But if we walk in the spirit, if we'll follow God's guidance and leading in our life, if we'll follow his word, then we'll never go astray. Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. You know, a GPS can be wrong. But God is never wrong. He will never lead you astray and when we do by God's grace walk in life with the spirit as our God, as our guide, following his guiding hand, responding to his conviction, listening to his instruction, yielding to the word of God, then not only will we not fulfill the lust of the flesh but we will also manifest the fruit of the holy spirit in our lives. The evidence of his working in our heart to conform us, to mold us, and to make us into the image of Jesus Christ, his son.

The first three, our love, joy, and peace. We spent few weeks ago on those fruits of the spirit. The one that just seems to keep coming up as you go through the rest of the fruits. The first one mentioned is love and it seems that love is intertwined with every fruit of the spirit. God says, there remaineth faith, hope, and love but the greatest of these is love.

Love is the underlying motivation that brought Jesus Christ down to Earth to die for our sins and the motivation for us to serve the living God who gave his life in our behalf. The next three fruits of the spirit, again, which we'll see that as we go through that love cannot be disconnected from. Are these long suffering, gentleness, and goodness. Two weeks ago, we looked at long suffering. This fruit, this is the fruit of the spirit that exhibits patient, endurance, and forbearance.

You may not use the word long suffering all that often but you probably use the word patience a lot and it's something that in our human nature, we struggle with and it's something that the world that is the lack of patience is constantly catering to. Instant gratification. Gotta have it when? Now. Gotta have it now.

But God says the fruit of the spirit is patience. Patiently waiting upon the Lord. Forbearing with the circumstances, knowing that there is reward at the end of the journey. When I think of patience, I I think of a a a farmer. Who takes care of his fields and his crop or his orchard and prunes it and is patient waiting for the harvest to come in.

It doesn't come in overnight. Sometimes, you plant a tree when I was little. We would plant fruit trees and you plant the fruit tree and and I'd want to come back three months later and find fruit on it and I'd have to wait three years to a kid that's forever, you know? Planted this new fruit tree, it should have fruit but no, it takes two or three years before it really starts to grow fruit. That seemed like forever when I was six years old.

Takes patience. I had a roommate in college. His name was Smitty. His name was John Smith. We called him Smitty and he had this little pot with this little thing in it that grew that he was constantly trimming.

It's called a bonsai tree. Anybody ever had a bonsai tree? Not me. No, that that that cured me watching Smitty mess with his bonsai tree. I can't prune a normal tree.

Drive by my house and look at the crepe myrtle bushes in my front yard and you'll see what I'm talking about. But he would painstakingly, patiently trim and trim and trim on that little tree. And I was impressed with the patience that he had. And though it's good to have patience with fixing automobiles, which I lack, and bonsai trees, which I lack. It's even more important to have patience with people and have patience with life.

To suffer long to have long suffering means to be patient with the frailties and the provocations of others. None of us are perfect as I mentioned earlier. We're not yet glorified. We're being sanctified. Praise God but we're not there yet.

We have to be patient with each other. Be patient with that neighbor. That person you want to see come to know the Lord. With that Christian brother who's wronged you, who just can't see it right now. You've got to learn to be patient, long suffering.

That is the will and the way of the Lord though it may not be the will and the way of the world. We also learn to be long suffering or patient with the inequities and unexpected trials of life. We will all face them. We will all face them. It is the Lord and the fruit of the spirit.

Produced in our life that helps us to learn to deal with them. To forbear, to suffer long, to be patient amidst those trials knowing that God has promised to take care of us and never leave us nor forsake us. He has a purpose. He's working in your life and he's working in my life and a lot of times, those trials are the very things. They're going to produce that patience in your life.

That's what James tells us. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh what? Patience. Patience. Some have said, don't pray for patience unless you're ready for trials because it's the bumps in life.

That God uses. To make us more patient. And then gentleness, we looked at last week. Kindness and graciousness is the mark of the mature and compassionate person. Who like his savior is sensitive to the needs and feelings of others rather than insensitive, rude, or brash.

Kindness, gentleness, and graciousness is the mark of the mature Christian. Look, if you would, Paul talks about that person in Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four and verse 29. Ephesians four twenty nine, you can see how each one of these fruits overlap long suffering, gentleness, goodness that will finish with this morning. Overlap.

They're all intertwined. They're not disconnected from one another. To be patient is also to be gentle and to be gentle to be good. They're all intertwined with each other. They emphasize different aspects.

Of the nature of God. That now resides in our life and in your heart. Ephesians four twenty nine, Paul writes, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. That which is good to the use of edifying that may minister grace to the hearers. Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby you're sealed until the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and all evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be you what? Kind. Kind. One to another. Tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

What is Paul right? He says in verse 39, grieve not the holy spirit of God. Well, how would you grieve the holy spirit of God by allowing anger and bitterness and malice to build up in your heart. And grieve the holy spirit of God that he's put there. Choosing to allow the lust of the flesh and these negative emotions to take control in our life.

Instead of listening to the love of the spirit that God has placed in our hearts. That teaches us to be what? Kind. Tender hearted, sensitive to each other's needs and forgiving towards one another. It is expected of us and it can be expected of us because the holy spirit lives in here.

It should be apparent. In our lives. It certainly was in our savior who's mentioned here. Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. A gentle savior had compassion on people who were hungry and he fed them.

A gentle savior cared for the sick, the lame, the lepers, and he healed them. A gentle savior forgave the woman caught in adultery. A gentle savior spoke gently to his disciples even when they were hard, hard headed. A gentle savior spoke lovingly of his mother while he hung on a cross. A gentle savior opened not his mouth to condemn or lash out at his accusers.

But they were wrong. And he was the son of God. A gentle savior cried, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. A gentle savior is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. We could continue but for sake of time, we won't.

We could learn a lot from our savior about being gentle and kind and tender hearted. And we can learn those traits and we can become more like him if we will only walk in the spirit. Listen to the word of God and apply its principles to our life as the spirit guides us, convicts us, challenges us to be more like Christ. The final one we're going to look at this morning, the third of this triplet is goodness. Goodness, the fruit of the spirit, goodness.

Goodness begins in the heart which has been transformed from dead and rotten to living whole and purified in Christ Jesus. Let me read that again. Goodness begins where? In the heart. All of these fruits are produced in the heart.

They are demonstrated in our actions but they're produced in our heart by the spirit of God. It begins in the heart which has been transformed, transformed by God, has been born again by the spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ. From dead and rotten, which is all our heart is, dead and rotten in sin until living whole and purified in Christ Jesus. Mark twelve thirty five says, a good man go ahead and turn there, turn if you would to Mark 12, I want you to Matthew 12, I want you to see this and read it with me. Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew chapter 12 verse 35. Matthew twelve thirty five. It says, a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Let me look at it one more time now, everybody is there. A good man out of the good treasure his heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

If you've got two treasure chests sitting up here and one is full of gold and the other is full of rotten wood and full of worms and and all kinds of stuff. And you know that. Do you expect to find gold in the treasure chest full of rotten wood? No. You're not going to find gold there.

You're going to find rotten wood and over here, if this treasure, you're going to open it and you're going to find what? Gold. You don't find the rotten wood in this one. You don't find the gold in that one. That's all the Lord is saying.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things but an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things. As Christians who have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit God has declared us and is making us every day to be more like him, and that is the very definition of what is what? Good. It's his work, not ours. But as he changes us and makes us more like him, the good things come forth.

As we walk in the spirit and not in the flesh, the good things they come forth in our life. Jesus reminded the rich young ruler that there is only one who can be truly described as good. Who is that? God. He said, there's only one good.

And that is God. He said that to the young man to make the point to him. That the young man in himself was anything but good. Which is why he needed a savior. Jesus is good.

Jesus is the sinless savior. And by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. God gave us the law so that we would recognize that we are not what? That we're not good. We need the goodness and righteousness that comes from God alone.

It is he who is holy good and that can alone impart goodness in the heart of others by the holy spirit which he has given to us. Look at the life of Paul. When we first find Paul in Acts, he's not called Paul. He's called by his Hebrew name which is Saul. And Saul is a zealot.

He is zealous of what he perceives to be good works. But in reality are the works of the devil and not the works of the Lord. He in service to his religion, we find hunting down Christians. Having them thrown in prison, having them beaten and tortured, standing against them at execution. This is Saul when we meet him.

A denier of Christ but on his way to Damascus to bring more Christians back Saul changed. He changed. That change was immediate in his life Oh, there were still a lot of rough edges to clean up. Don't get me wrong but the people in Damascus and the people back in Jerusalem when they met Saul the next time, they met a different person. Because Saul had been born again.

By the spirit of God. And the man who was a persecutor of Christians and a hater of Christ became his greatest spokesman. His greatest missionary who suffered proudly for his Lord and proclaimed his name and was never ashamed of his savior. Ashamed of himself? Oh, yes.

The chief of sinners, he called himself. But what happened to Paul? He met Jesus and when he met Jesus, things changed. And as he walked in the spirit, he produced good fruit in his life. He became more like Christ, a good person in the eyes of God.

And he did good things for others. There was a man in our church when I was youth pastor up in Georgia. His name was Jerry Brooks. My wife would remember Jerry Brooks. We'll never forget Jerry Brooks.

Jerry Brooks drove one of our vans to pick up children on our bus route. Jerry Brooks was about, I don't know, he was over six feet tall and three foot, three three feet wide and two and a half feet thick. Jerry was a big fellow. A strong fellow as well and we had revival the first year. First or second year, I was at Hardison Baptist up in Georgia and there was a teacher in our church that somehow had met Jerry and I don't remember how but he had invited him to the revival services.

Jerry was not a very pleasant person I was told to be around. He he went to the races every weekend. He he he was prone to alcohol and prone to fights, and big dude could really do a lot of damage in a hurry if he wanted to. But that wasn't the Jerry Brooks that I knew. And that's not the Jerry Brooks that I'll remember.

And that's not the Jerry Brooks that I'll see in heaven again someday. Because you know he got saved in those revival services and Jerry Brooks changed. Because God changed him. And Jerry Brooks is a pussycat. There's nothing scary about Jerry.

He loves children. He loves the Lord. A very meek person that happened when he met the Lord and I hope and assume is still happening in his life today. And it's happening in our lives who know Jesus Christ as savior. Particularly if we are walking in the what?

In the spirit. God will be changing our heart and as he changes and molds our heart into the heart of Jesus Christ, it'll be evident in how we react to others. It will be evident in our convictions of right and wrong and our determination to follow through no matter what everybody else is doing. You see, we live in a world where everybody excuses their actions based on what somebody else did. God says that is so unwise, to compare ourselves among ourselves.

When we should be comparing ourselves to Jesus Christ, and we should be following Jesus Christ, and we should be walking in the spirit, we can become good people who produce good fruit in our lives that are to the glory of God as we learn to walk in the spirit. This same Paul that I was talking about a moment ago wrote, if you look in Ephesians chapter two, look what he wrote in Ephesians chapter two. Concerning what happened in his life, what happened in the life of the believers at Ephesus, and what is continuing to happen today in the life of every Christian who knows Christ. It says in Ephesians two verse one, and you hath he quickened who were dead, dead, dead to God in trespasses and in sins. Wherein in time past, he walked according to the course of this life.

According to the prince and power of the air, according to the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation or conduct in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and were by nature the children of wrath, wrath even as others. That's who we are before before we met Jesus. But verse four says, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened, that is made us alive together with Christ by grace are you saved by the work of God that is and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come, he might show forth the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works.

Lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. He saved us, gave us his spirit, regenerated us, is sanctifying us, that we might show forth, demonstrate. Those good works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

He's recorded those in his word, and he's placed them in our heart and given us the ability day by day to learn how to walk the right way, how to know right from wrong, and how to do it by the spirit that he has given us. As he makes us into this masterpiece. To the glory of God. And as that transformation is ongoing in the heart of God's child, especially one who is walking in the spirit. We begin to look at the world with God's eyes.

And respond accordingly. As a a person, a man after God's own heart. Seeking to please the Lord by doing good things, right things which bring glory to his name. Not by constraint but of a willing heart. Not because the law says I have to.

But because God has placed it in my heart to want to and if you know the Lord Jesus, you know what I'm talking about. God has given us a desire. A desire that grows stronger every day we walk in the spirit. To do the things which please him. Not because we have to, but because we want to.

Seeking to please the Lord, but also noticing and considering the needs of others. And seeking to help to be good people, to do the right thing, the good thing. There was a a person ran out of gas on the corner out here yesterday. I was inside studying and somebody came in and asked, can you get me the key to the to the building out here? We can give this person some gas.

Couple of the men in the church had pushed them around the corner and around here and into the driveway. They had called someone. Fortunately, for them before we could get to the gas, they, somebody else showed up to help them with gas but but that should be automatic when we see somebody in need. To help them Matthew chapter nine beginning in verse 36, Jesus said this, but when he saw the multitudes He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous.

The laborers are few. The laborers are few. Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. When Jesus saw people, he saw souls. He saw souls that needed a savior.

He saw souls that needed guidance. They were confused. They were without leadership direction, and we live in a world that is full to the brim and running over with people who need Jesus. Do we see them as Jesus saw them? Do we pray for God to send more more laborers?

Are we willing to be used by him? Or are they just in our way? Are they an aggravation? How do we see them? And what are we doing to help them?

Looking for opportunities to do good to others, not just to return a favor, but out of a heart of love as our father in heaven has done the same for us and everyone else. Matthew five forty three, Jesus said, you have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that terse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. That you may be children of your father which is in heaven for he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good and he sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love them which love you, rival word have you.

Do not even the publicans do the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans, the sinners, do so. Be ye therefore perfect even as your father which in heaven is perfect. What does that mean?

It means do good because it's the good and the right thing to do, Not because of what you might receive from somebody in return. Do good even when they return to you evil. It says in Romans twelve twenty one, be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with what? Good. Good.

And we can do that if we will walk in the spirit and draw close to the Lord. While the flesh seeks that which is only personally expedient, the love of God shines through in the actions of God's children who overcome wrong with right, injustice with goodwill, even toward his afflictors. I think of a man who got saved and his family and who knows how many others in Philippi. He was a jailer That was his job. And he was given the responsibility of overseeing certain prisoners in the prison.

Some who had been mistreated and abused. Among those were Paul and Silas who had been beaten simply for daring to open their mouths and tell others about Jesus. He was the enemy and yet, as he listened that night, Paul and Silas weren't cursing. They weren't griping and complaining. They weren't screaming and moaning.

They were singing and praising the Lord. And when he realized the doors were open and he would have taken his own life, it was Paul that spoke up and said, we're still here. And the Philippian jailer came to know the Lord that night That was the fruit of the spirit and the life of Paul and Silas. That wasn't the works of the flesh. That wasn't them.

That was God doing a work through them. That he wants to do through us. As we reach out to others First of all, you need to come to know Christ as savior. Remember what Jesus said to the rich young ruler, there is one good and who is that? That's God.

And if you've here this morning, you've never received Jesus Christ as your savior, you're still in your sins. And you'll pay for those in hell. The God who is love and God who is good doesn't want you to spend eternity there. He's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance so much that he sent his only son to die for you. We'll give a hymn of invitation in just a moment.

Would you come? I'd love to show you from God's word how you can be saved tonight today and know it. How you can be born again by his spirit. Delivered from the slavery of sin and its penalty in hell and given God's spirit that will change your heart, your life, and your desires, and your eternity forever. And Christians, God wants to do a work in your life.

He is doing that work, but are you helping? Well, how do you help? By the determination, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.

No. By walking in the what? Spirit. By walking in the spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Confess your sins.

He'll forgive you and empower you and help you, change you, give you victory. He is able. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean on unto thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. Lord, thank you for this day that you've given us this opportunity to worship you today.

We thank you for your word and we pray Lord As we leave this place that we would leave it Lord having been drawn closer to you and Lord, we would draw closer to you that we would stay in your word, be vigilant in prayer, that we would listen to your spirit and not shut out your voice. Lord, that we would look to you. To do for us which that which we cannot do ourselves. To mold us into the image of your son. To your glory for the good of the world around us who needs to see Jesus and Lord, we pray if there's one here today that's never trusted you.

Pray as we sing this hymn of invitation that they would come. Today, and be saved forever. In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.