The Fruit of Goodness
Notes
Transcript
Text
Text
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Context
Context
What did Paul mean when he said that Goodness would be a part of the indwelling of the Spirit?
Titus reminds us that goodness should accompany our testimony of Salvation.
But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
The fruit of the Spirit is again the focus of our series recently. Much of what has taken place in our world recently reminds us how much we really need godly fruit bearing Christians in our world. We live in a divisive and quarrelsome world filled with venom and guile.
Paul writing here in Titus was dealing with similar challenges. There is a direct correlation between faith and practice or at least it should be. Paul is saying that when people get ahold of this truth they will make the story of the gospel attractive in relationship to how they are living. Making the teaching of God attractive or a living testimonial of our Savior.
We must as a group set ourselves
This fruit is a product - not an imitation or not a manufactured religious identity produced by law keeping
The evidence of the believers abiding in Christ - Jesus is the vine and we are the branches
- Jesus is the vine we are the brances
It is fruit that is produced in all parts - This term fruit is a singular fruit although some may be more evident than others as our individual personalities and predispositions make some evidences more apparent. However, God is interested in creating a whole integrated Christian charafter making us like Jesus as he transforms our life into the image of his son.
Kindness and Goodness taken together
These words are often used in conjunction in Scripture although they are distinct in degree.
Kindness - Disposition of heart
Goodness - Expression of Kindness
Kindness and Goodness are both grounded in the character of God. When we make sense of what God is, it is then we can make sense of what and who we are in Christ.
Who is God and what is he like - He is good to all and faithful to everything that he speaks.
David’s Psalm of praise.
I will extol thee, my God, O king;
And I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
Every day will I bless thee;
And I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise thy works to another,
And shall declare thy mighty acts.
I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty,
And of thy wondrous works.
And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts:
And I will declare thy greatness.
They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness,
And shall sing of thy righteousness.
The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion;
Slow to anger, and of great mercy.
The Lord is good to all:
And his tender mercies are over all his works.
All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord;
And thy saints shall bless thee.
They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom,
And talk of thy power;
To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts,
And the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
The Lord upholdeth all that fall,
And raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
The eyes of all wait upon thee;
And thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand,
And satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways,
And holy in all his works.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him,
To all that call upon him in truth.
He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him:
He also will hear their cry, and will save them.
The Lord preserveth all them that love him:
But all the wicked will he destroy.
My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord:
And let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
Illustration - many times we have tripped and fallen and we need God to lift us back up - he lifts those who have fallen down. ‘
- The more God called them the more they walked away - even given this God lifted them up and led them - “with cords of kindness”
When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
And called my son out of Egypt.
As they called them, so they went from them:
They sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.
I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms;
But they knew not that I healed them.
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love:
And I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws,
And I laid meat unto them.
He shall not return into the land of Egypt,
But the Assyrian shall be his king,
Because they refused to return.
And the sword shall abide on his cities,
And shall consume his branches, and devour them,
Because of their own counsels.
And my people are bent to backsliding from me:
Though they called them to the most High,
None at all would exalt him.
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?
How shall I deliver thee, Israel?
How shall I make thee as Admah?
How shall I set thee as Zeboim?
Mine heart is turned within me,
My repentings are kindled together.
I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger,
I will not return to destroy Ephraim:
For I am God, and not man;
The Holy One in the midst of thee:
And I will not enter into the city.
They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion:
When he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt,
And as a dove out of the land of Assyria:
And I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord.
Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit:
But Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.
Song - Ive Found a Friend Oh Such a Friend
I’ve found a Friend, oh, such a Friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him.
And round my heart still closely twine
Those ties which naught can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine,
Forever and forever.
Introduction
Introduction
God is many things but one of the aspects of his character that we often hear referenced is his “goodness”. In fact, one of the most popular phrases that Christians repeat is “God is good” which is followed many times by the phrase “all the time”.
As we continue our examination of the fruit of the Spirit we are reminded again that these are attributes that are produced in our lives only through the power of Christ and in fact, describe God himself.
But what does it mean to say “God is good” How do we understand his goodness and why is it important?
O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good;
For his mercy endureth for ever.
THE GOODNESS OF GOD DEFINED
What is the goodness of God? How is it defined? What does it mean that “God is good”
Does God’s goodness mean that he always does what we want him to do?
How can this view cause us to have a shallow man centered view of God?
THE GOODNESS OF GOD DISPLAYED
What are some ways that God’s goodness is displayed for us in Scrpicture?
How might some people disagree with the concept that God is good?
Why would they disagree with this?
THE GOODNESS OF GOD DEVELOPED
Here we will look at the fact that God desires to produce this goodness in our lives in the product of spiritual fruit.
What does it mean for us to be “good” or to display “goodness toward others”?
Notes from Faithlife
II. THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF ‘GOOD’ – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF GOD IN US
II. THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF ‘GOOD’ – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF GOD IN US
what is goodness all about?we get a clue from Jesus in Matthew 19 in the incident with the Rich Young Manthe rich young ruler came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”to which Jesus replied “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good.”in Mark’s gospel it’s a little clearer: He says “No one is good—except for God alone.”why does Jesus answer the young man that way? because he needs to remove the misconception that we as human beings, on our own without the grace of God, can know what good is and can do good
A. GOD SAYS THAT GOODNESS IS CHARACTER ENERGIZED BY HIS SPIRIT
A. GOD SAYS THAT GOODNESS IS CHARACTER ENERGIZED BY HIS SPIRIT
to understand goodness, and what good is, we must come to know God"For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations." (Psalm 100:5, NASB95)in the English language, the word good has a multiplicity of meaningsin the Greek language, the word translated good in the New Testament indicates one particular qualityit refers to energized character that expresses itself in active, and beneficial – even aggressive – goodnessthe word goodness in the Scriptures literally means, an uprightness of heart and lifethis uprightness leads to a life of doing good for others even when others don’t deserve it goodness is about being good and doing good because God has made us goodthe divine goodness that God implants within you though His Holy Spirit needs to be releasedEphesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” KJVthere is a major problem with being good and letting goodness flow from our livesthe problem is this: we have not been born with a nature that seeks to do good we have been born with a nature that is prone toward evilwe are not naturally goodwe do not have it within ourselves naturally to respond in goodness to the people around us or the situations we find ourselves inwe are born with a selfish inclination, with a selfish nature that views goodness as “What’s best for me?”a lot of people go through life wondering, “Why was I born? What am I supposed to do in life? For what reason was I created?”the lost person will continually search and never find the answer to that question until he or she finds Christthe saved person has the answer for those questionswe know from the Scriptures that we were created to do good works – God’s works – in this worldwe are not saved by our good works, we cannot receive forgiveness for our sins or salvation because of our good works, but once we’re save, our life is to be lived doing good workswe can only do the works of God because the Spirit gives us the right motivation for doing them – out of a pure and good heart