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Fruits of the Spirit, Part 3: Goodness and Gentle Kindness

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Fruits of the Spirit, Part 3

Goodness and Gentle Kindness

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Fruits of the Spirit, Part 3: Goodness and Gentle Kindness

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This is the third in a series of sermons on the fruits of the spirit. The series is beginning at the end of the list of fruits in Galatians 5:22-23.

Transcript

[Gary Petty] The apostle John records many of Jesus' instructions that He gave on the night before He was going to be crucified. And we've read through those instructions many times. And sometimes we read through them and they almost become a cliché, especially around the time of the Passover. I'm going to read something – we read this at the time of the Passover – but it's in context of the series that we've been going through on The Fruits of God's Spirit. Let's go to John, chapter 15, and verse 1. Christ says to His disciples:

John 15:1 – I am the true vine and My Father the vinedresser. He says that the Father is the One who works with us, but you have to be connected to Me for the Father to work with you. That's what Jesus was saying to them. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit He prunes that it may bear more fruit.

It's a very important verse. We must be connected to the Father through Christ – of course, we understand that that's because we received God's Holy Spirit. And we're talking about the fruits of the Spirit. This is number 3 in the series. But He says that if you do not bear fruit, you are punished. If you bear fruit, God is going to work with you to bear more fruit. If you remember, in one of the sermons I went through and showed in the scripture where we will be pruned. God will do all kinds of things to us to prepare us so that we will bear this fruit, so that what He wants to produce in our lives will be produced. He says to the disciples in verse 3:

John 15:3 – You are already clean, because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me – interesting word – it means to literally live in Me – and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without Me, you can do nothing.

The fruit that we've been talking about here – in the passage in Galatians – the fruits of the Spirit – you and I can't do that on our own. We can't produce that fruit on our own. Many times, as Christians, we try. We think that we can do this on our own. Now we have our effort to put in, but God has to work in us for this to happen.  We have to submit to God's power, and God's love, and God's mind. We have to submit to His Spirit for this to happen.

He says in verse 6:

John 15:6 – If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned – another very important point. Once you and I receive God's Spirit, to not bear fruit – to spend a life without bearing fruit – is to end up in the lake of fire. So this is an important concept. When we go to Galatians, chapter 5, and we see the fruits of the Spirit, we must be bearing these fruits or we are in danger of becoming a tree that has no value. It is worthless.

Verse 7 I find very interesting.

John 15:7 – If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. Then verse 8:

John 15:8 – By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. So you will be My disciples.

Christ said that God the Father is glorified when you and I bear this fruit. God the Father is pleased. When we reflect Jesus Christ, God the Father is pleased. And of course, the opposite is true when we do not bear this fruit. God is not glorified. God is shamed. So this is an important way to approach and understand what we're talking about here. As we go through the fruits of the Spirit, we're not talking about, "Well, this would be nice for me to learn some of this or have some of this in my life." This is necessary if we want to have completed in each of us the work that God started. God promises to give you the kingdom, but you and I must be prepared for the kingdom. You and I cannot receive the kingdom just the way we are. We receive the kingdom because we are prepared for the kingdom. And the fruits of the Spirit – just like the components of agape – are part of what has to be part of what we are.

So today we're going to go through two fruits. So far we've discussed self-control, and meekness and faithfulness. Now, I want to cover both of these fruits today because they are connected. If you try to have, produced in your life, one of these fruits without the other, you would become imbalanced. That's what's interesting when you go through these fruits. That's why I started with self-control. I started at the bottom of the list and moving upward. If we don't have each of these – and they build upon each other – we won't become what God wants us to be. And there are two fruits that are given here together that actually, if you have one without the other, you will not be what God wants you to be. We have to produce both of these.

I saw someone this week that had a tree that had three different kinds of apples grafted onto it, so it actually produced three different kinds of apples. It produced all these kinds of fruits. You don't produce one kind of fruit. God wants you to produce all these fruits. And the sermonette was the perfect lead-in. Mr. Foster and I didn't know what we were talking about today, but it was the perfect lead-in to what I want to talk about, because, actually, as we go through today, we're going to go through the practical side of what he covered and then add something to it. Because these fruits are very practical. They're not just concepts. They are what we do. They are how we think and how we go through life.

Back in Galatians 5, the next fruit on that list is goodness. Now, we say, "Okay, I know what goodness is. It means doing good, being good, obeying the commandments." Well, that's part of it. But the Greek word here that is translated goodness is an interesting word, because it just doesn't mean doing good.

One dictionary describes the word this way. This word is concerned with the sterner qualities by which doing good to others is not necessarily by gentle means. What does that mean? It has to do with doing good. It has to do with how you interact with other people – how you treat other people in goodness – but it means, as you deal with goodness, you make a stand against evil – which ties into the sermonette. It doesn't mean, "Well, I'm going to do good and what you do is okay." It means there are times you make a stand against evil. The perfect example of this in action – and we find this so many times – the perfect example of any of the fruits of the Spirit in action, we find in the life of Jesus Christ.

Let's go to Matthew, chapter 21, verse 12. You know, when you look at the life of Jesus Christ, you see Him surprisingly gentle with prostitutes and sinners, right? – surprisingly gentle with people like that – and surprisingly harsh with religious people who seem to do the right things, but their heart isn't right. They're spirit isn't right. They may be appearing to keep the commandments and obeying God, but their heart wasn't right. He says in verse 12:

Matthew 21:12 – Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, "It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." Then the blind and lame came to Him in the temple and He healed them.

Now there are a couple things to notice here. One, this isn't an act of just violence. This isn't just a loss of temper. Jesus went into the temple and saw where evil was taking place. What they were doing, of course, is, people would come in from all over the world – Jews would come in from all over the world – to the temple. And when you got there – unless you brought a sacrifice with you – you would buy a lamb, if you were very rich, or doves, or whatever you could that were part of the sacrificial system. And basically, these people were selling these items for a profit. They wouldn't say, "Here, let me sell you a lamb…you know, it cost me so much to raise this lamb," but they were making a profit off of the sacrificial system. And He was just furious with it. He said, "These people come here to worship God and you're making money off of them!" And He goes in…and this wasn't just, "Boy, you guys are bad. Get out of here." He drove them out! As you see in another one of the accounts of this, He actually made what would be a whip and He whipped the animals out. He starts overthrowing the tables. These men left because what He was doing seemed so violent and they were afraid. Interesting. But was He sinning? No.

This is an act of goodness. He saw an evil. He made a stand against it. Now, what's interesting is, in the life of Jesus, He didn't do this every day. When we get into the second of these qualities – of the fruits – of the Spirit, you'll see how we have to…there's another quality – there's another fruit that we have to have – that tempers this – or we'd all just run around with whips beating people. Right? "Well, you know the Christians. They're the ones with whips."

So, how do we balance this? We'll get to this in a minute. But we also have to understand: this is part of righteousness. This is part of the fruits of God's Spirit. There are times when we make our stands.

It was interesting…when was that Chick-fil-A…? Was that Thursday night? Wednesday night. On Wednesday night, we took a camera crew down to one of the Chick-fil-As and just interviewed people. And most of them said that they were there to support biblical marriage, which we found surprising, because there were hundreds and hundreds…. It'd been like that all day long. But we also found out that most of them said something that was quite correct, because we asked the question, "Well, what do you think of homosexuality?" or "Do you hate homosexuals?" And the answer was, "We love the sinner, but we hate the sin." This is what this act of goodness is about. It is about hating sin. It is about making stands when it's the right time and purpose to make a stand – for the right reason at the right time.

Let's go to Ephesians 5, because even though, in this chapter, the apostle Paul isn't talking directly about…you know, this word isn't used by him. He captures part of the concept we're trying to get across here. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 1 – this is active goodness. Verse 1:

Ephesians 5:1 – Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. He doesn't say, "Be passive." You know, it's interesting. It's not the Theological Seminar of the Apostles. It's the Acts of the Apostles. Right? These books are about how you live this.

So we have to understand that active goodness isn't sort of sitting around and waiting for God to somehow just by osmosis give you goodness. It is actively living it. It is being an imitator of God. So this is what this active goodness is about. He says:

V-2 – And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us – an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. He goes back to the perfect example. We want to know what it is we're supposed to become as the children of God. Let's go to the time and place when God became a human being. And then we'll see what we're supposed to be like!

And then he launches into…and it seems like he changes subjects here, but he doesn't. He launches into , "Here are things that we cannot do." We must repent of these things or we cannot be in the Kingdom of God.

V-3 – Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness – let it not even be names among you as fitting for saints. See, this active goodness isn't just against others.

Well, it's so easy to stand against abortionists, right? We should. Sometimes, when we look in the mirror, can we be actively good by looking in the mirror and saying, "Wait a minute. Was I an imitator of God today?" I know when I look in that mirror, there's many, many days it's like, "Well, there were times today I wasn't an imitator of God." See, active goodness requires us to do that. He says:

V-4 – Neither filthiness, nor sport, nor foolish talking – foolish talking? How many of us have ever thought that that was wrong? – nor course jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. He says, "This isn't what we should be." We shouldn't be just going around telling dirty jokes.

V-5 – For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, or covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. He's talking about God's active goodness.

Why does God punish evil? Because He is actively good. So he says, "Remember, if we continue in these things, then God, eventually, will actively react." That's one of the big things that's missing today's society. That's one reason why Christianity continues to deteriorate. I'm talking about mainstream Christianity today. It continues to deteriorate because people don't believe that God will actively respond to evil – just because He waits. God waits to give lots of room – if you read the scripture – He's always waiting for repentance. God give a whole lot more room than we would ever give to each other. He gives a whole lot more room to us than we would ever give to each other. But eventually, He will, through His active goodness, deal with disobedience. He says:

V-7 – Therefore, do not be partakers with them, for you were once darkness, but now you are light. He doesn't say, "You were once in darkness." He says, "You were darkness, but you are now light." …light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth) - now verse 10 is very important, because this is all part of one sentence – finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. All too many times we react to things in life. Instead of looking for active goodness, we just react with whatever our emotional reaction is. Active goodness looks at any situation in life and says, "What does the Bible tell me how to react to this?" And it's not just instructions.

One of the things we have to do is read the stories of the Bible. Right? You read the stories of the Bible. When we read about Moses and Abraham, when we read about Ananias and Sapphira, when we read about Paul, when we read about all these people, when we read about all the women of the Bible and how they lived…. There are stories about children in the Bible. Why are those stories there? Every story has a point that applies to something in your life. So, it's not just, "Okay, let me find the instructions," but, "Let me find the stories that tell me what to do, how to live." Find out what is acceptable to God. Because much of the time, when you and I think – automatically think – what is acceptable to God is not. He's thinking in a totally different way. And we can walk around through life, believing we're doing all kinds of things that acceptable to God, that are not acceptable to God.

As we seek active goodness, we are actively seeking what verse 10 says – finding out, because notice – verse 9 – is the fruit of the Spirit. In the middle is a parenthetical statement – in the middle of the sentence – this is all about the fruit of the Spirit. It is not being certain things, learning to be other things, and being active in all of it, and what is good.

Now, when we come into this active goodness, it's easy for us to fall into two ditches. Isn't that the way we are as human beings? Everything we do, we go from one ditch to the other, when the truth is, God wants us to be somewhere in the middle – between those two ditches.

The first ditch is the one that says, "I can't really judge anyone's heart." That's what Mr. Foster was talking about. "I really can't judge anyone's heart, therefore I can't judge what's right for them. I can only judge what's right for me." The problem with that is, of course, as we just read in Ephesians, that's not what God says. God says that there are things that are wrong. You and I don't get to determine what is right and wrong. He does. And when He says something is wrong, we are to be active in avoiding that, and active in communicating that it's wrong. And we're to be active in doing what is good. So this active goodness means that we can't compromise with certain things.

Now, once again – we'll talk about in a minute – there's another side to this. In fact, do you know that's one of the reasons for the law? It is to tell us the difference between what is actively evil and actively good. None of us are passive. If you lived in a room with no books, no television, no radio, no computer and never interacted with another human being, and someone just brought you food every day, you'd think, "Well, that would be ridiculous." Have you ever studied the history of monasteries? There were people who believed they could achieve active goodness by living that way. "I just won't interact with anybody or anything, study the scriptures, and sing hymns, and I will, then, be able to obtain this active goodness." No, active goodness involves living in the world. And that means, sometimes, having to confront evil.

1 Timothy 1. Here Paul tells Timothy why God gave us the law. Now this is a New Testament passage. This isn't the Old Testament – for those…you know, people say, "Well, God did away with the law," or "Jesus did away with the law." Now why would Paul write this? This is why, by the way, that people say that 1 Timothy should be in the Bible, but not 2 Timothy, because Paul would never say this. So there is – among certain scholars – a certain school of scholars – a belief that 2 Timothy should be removed from the Bible. Well, I'm sorry – 1 and 2 Timothy – this is in 1 Timothy – but 1 and 2 Timothy should be removed from the Bible, because Paul wouldn't say these things.

1 Timothy 1:5 – Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, from sincere faith. He says, "The purpose of God's law is to produce agape." If we keep the laws of God and it doesn't produce agape, then we're not doing what the law was designed to do. We must understand that. You can keep the letter of the law your whole life and still not be acceptable to God. We have to keep the letter of the law and have it produce the fruit it is supposed to produce in us. The letter is supposed to produce something. That's why Paul always talked about the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is the fruit that is produced by this. He says, "…from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm." People were coming into the church and giving their definitions of the law, and what the law was, and decided to be teachers of the law. And Paul said, "You know, they totally misunderstand what the law is about!" So he says, "Let me tell you, Timothy, what the law is about."

V-8 – But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Now, do you know what the means? You know, it's a statement, so there's an opposite to that statement. It is possible to use the law unlawfully. It is possible to use the law against the law. So if we don't understand the purpose and meaning and application of the law, we will use the law against the law, which is exactly what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing. They were taking the law of God and it wasn't producing active goodness. It was producing self-righteousness. This is what happens when we misapply the law. We don't produce active goodness. We just feel really good about ourselves as law keepers. That's what we do! We feel really good about ourselves as law keepers, but what's it supposed to produce? See, so you can't use the law against the law unlawfully. So verse 9:

V-9 – Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person. What in the world does that mean? I mean, God gives us the law to teach us righteousness…well, let's go on. He says: …but for the lawless and insubordinate. He says, "The law is given to people who don't understand what righteousness is and don't understand what law is" – of course, that's all of us, right? It had to be given because we didn't know the difference between right and wrong, because we're insubordinate. We just don't want to submit to authority. …for the ungodly, for the sinners, for the unholy, the profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites – there's the homosexual concept right there – for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers – if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Now there is something very important here. He says that the law tells what is against sound doctrine. So, if I, as a New Testament Christian, want to know what sound doctrine is, I have to first know what the law is. And verse 11 – because this is the rest of the sentence:

V-11 - …according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. So the law helps define the gospel. People say, "The gospel and the law are opposites or are opposed to each other." Well, according to what he says here, the law tells us what is against the gospel. And he's talking about more than the Ten Commandments here, by the way. Kidnapping is not in the Ten Commandments. Neither are a lot of the other things that he mentions here. He's saying that we have to go back into the law and its whole package to begin to see what God is telling us, so that we can, then, have produced in us the spirit of the law, because the law defines what's against the gospel. Murder is against the gospel. How can you have the good news while committing murder? How can you have the good news while stealing? How can have the good news while committing adultery? How can you have the good news while worshipping another god? Well, then I could add other things to that. How can you have the good news while keeping Christmas, which is against God? So we make a stand against Christmas, which is very unpopular and very hurtful to people. Every time we do a Christmas program, I get emails from people, saying, "But I love Jesus. That's why I keep Christmas. Why are you so against it?" And they're just distraught over it. And we have to tell them, "No, that isn't really loving God. It isn't really loving Christ." Here's why. It's against the gospel. It is not the message we are to preach – that we are to live by. So there are times when God expects us to make these kinds of stands, where we understand that God has made a judgment and we stand in that judgment – even sometimes at a great personal price and cost.

Now, I just want to talk about another ditch and then we'll go into the next fruit of the Spirit, because it tells us how to deal with this ditch. The other ditch is what I call the Phineas complex. Do you know who Phineas is? Numbers, chapter 25. Phineas is an example of this active goodness in its negative sense. Remember negative goodness sometimes comes out in a negative sense – it comes out against something – not just for something, but against. If you read through chapter 25 of Numbers, Israel is on the plain of Moab and the Moabites decide, "Okay, we've got to bring these people down. Here's how we're going to do it. We're going to send in all the gorgeous women and seduce all the men in Israel." So they have a big party. You know, this will be great fun, right? This is great! You can see the Israelite viewpoint. They think the Moabites are going to attack them. Instead, they invite them to a party. So they go to the biggest party in history. Two entire nations have a big party together, with all the women having instructions to seduce all the men. Well, there's just this orgy taking place and God starts to punish the Israelites by killing them. Oh, and they also started to worship Baal. They started to turn their backs on God. So Moses gave some instructions to some of the men. He said, "Now, all those who are committing adultery and fornication and worshipping Baal, kill them. I mean, we've been following God all of this time. And for this kind of rebellion, we must react." That's what God told them to do. That's not evil. See, people will say, "Well, the God of the Old Testament did evil things." That's actually active goodness. He says, "This evil must be stopped!" Goodness must triumph. If you think about it, if there's never active goodness – if goodness is always passive – then evil will win. So there's a point where God says, "okay, we're going to do some active goodness here. We're going to stop the evil and go kill everybody."  And they did.

So what happens is – in verse 6:

V-6 – And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brother a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, in the sight of the congregation, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. People were repenting. And, if you read through the rest of the story – I won't take time to do it – but this is one of the leaders of Israel and it's one of the leaders of the Midianites. She is a princess and he's a prince. And it's like, "You people just don't get this." And he brings her right through the repenting people. Verse 7:

V-7 – Now when Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest – now this is Levite – a priest. It was the Levites that were told, "Go clean this mess up and kill these people." When he saw it, he arose from the congregation and took a javelin in his hand, went out after the man of Israel, into the tent, and thrust both of them through – the man of Israel and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. It goes on, in the rest of this chapter, and God blessed Phineas' family for generation after generation – a act of goodness. Ah, that's horrible. I mean, he had to kill this man and this woman while they were embracing – killed both of them with a javelin. God says, "No, that was active goodness."

Now, if we're not careful here, though, what happens is, we say, "Okay, that's what I must do." So we spend our lives, walking around with a javelin, looking for someone to thrust through. We end up with a Phineas complex. "It is my job to slay everybody." Now, first of all, it wasn't all the Israelites job to slay everybody. It was a group of people that God said, "You do the slaying." Phineas was one. And it was a very specific thing. Now what's interesting is, Phineas just sort of disappears from the story. You don't read that, for the rest of his life, Phineas was the Levite that walked around with his javelin raised. His name was changed to the Javelin Runner, because he was just running all through the camp of Israel, all the time, looking for someone to stab. See, that's not active goodness at that point. That is self-righteousness. There's a point where we go beyond what God says is active goodness to where we're doing it because we're determining everybody's punishment of everybody's sins and we're judging everything. And that's a dangerous place to be. That's a dangerous place to be.

So we have one ditch – "Oh, I can't judge anything" – we're ignoring the law of God – and then we have the other ditch – "It's my job to stab everybody." Neither of those are active goodness. You say, "Okay, I've got this figured out. This fruit of the Spirit – I have to be actively good. I have to actively be an imitator of God. I have to actively pursue being like Jesus Christ. I have times when I have to stand against evil. But when and how do I do that?" Ah, that's the difficulty, isn't it? When do you do something? When don't you? How do you do it? Well, that actually brings us to the next of the fruits of the Spirit, because the next fruit of the Spirit helps us begin to understand when and how we do that, because active goodness isn't always positive. It's sometimes negative. It's sometimes saying to somebody, "I need to talk to you because I want to talk to you about the sin that you have," because we're told to do that. That's active goodness. Sometimes, it's actually cases where you have to sit down and correct them. I don't think anyone here thinks, "Well, God wants me to go take javelins and we just go slay each other." Right? Not a nice way to keep a congregation together. You tend to die out after about three Sabbaths.

The next of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians is translated kindness and some places it's translated gentleness. The reason you find the different translations is because it is a broad meaning to the word. We live in a society where gentleness and kindness, sometimes, are looked on as weaknesses. And so, to sort of capture the meaning of this word, I'm going to call it gentle kindness. Now that's my play on the word, okay? That's not some inspired use of this Greek word. It just sort of captures the meaning of it. It's a gentle kindness.

"Now wait a minute. I'm supposed to be actively good. There are times when I throw the money changers out of the temple and there are times when I'm Phineas."  Now there maybe times we're like that, but there's another side to this coin, where we become nothing more than self-righteous imposers of the law. And God doesn't let us be self-righteous imposers of the law. We're not allowed to go around just slaying each other.

Gentle kindness. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7 – you don't have to go there – but Paul wrote that he was a minister and he was gentle among them, as a nurse cherishes her children. We talked about that when we went through the meekness aspect. This chrestos – which is the Greek word – it means – this is from a Bible dictionary – a quality which pervades the whole nature, mellowing all that would have been harsh and austere. Now, wait a minute. We've just received two different fruits, it appears, but they're not. We'll they're different, but they come together. Okay?  If we were nothing but harsh and austere, you can never be compassionate and merciful. This is what is so amazing about God. He combines all of this together in a perfect combination of character and personality – absolutely perfect.

See, the problem with the Phineas complex is, eventually, we are correcting people for our benefit. We feel good about ourselves because of others' sins. So all you have to do is look at anybody long enough, and you'll discover their sins, and you'll feel really good about yourself, because you get to slay that person. I mean, we've all known people that feel so good about their own righteousness, they end up where they can't even associate with anybody, because "I'm just better – just better than you." That's not active goodness. But there are times that we have to make our stands. There are times we have to do certain things. There are times when we can't be politically correct. There are times when we have to confront somebody over their sins. There are times in the world where we make a stand that may make us very unpopular. Believe me, I know when I get my hate mail. This message isn't always popular. Sometimes we have to make the stand. That's the reason I like radio better. They didn't know who I was. I could walk down the street and it didn't make any difference.

Gentleness is the opposite of harsh and austere. It is the opposite of being rigid. It is treating others with patience. It is being willing to take the wrong for the good of the other person. You think about God. You think about how many times you see God standing up against evil and then you see Him taking evil for the sake of us. You know, if He didn't take evil for our sakes, we would have all been wiped out a long time ago, wouldn't we? He's the perfect combination of knowing when to punish and when to show mercy. He can do that. He knows when to show compassion. He knows when to show harshness.

This goodness…let me read the definition again: It is a quality which pervades the whole nature of the person, mellowing all that would have been harsh and austere. So, if you go through life harsh and austere towards others, there's a problem with this fruit in your life. And you probably like the idea of this active goodness and running people through with javelins.

You know, I hope I would have done what Phineas…I guess we all probably would have, because we all want to obey God, but that would be a hard things – to take an actual javelin and run through two people, wouldn't it? First of all, you've got to be rather close to do it. It's not by remote control. Okay? You're not sending a missile three hundred miles away on a joy stick. You're actually killing people right in front of you. But God did require it. It was not evil. But God says, "Wait a minute. Let's also realize…." One of His attributes we have to learn is, not to be harsh and austere. Whatever we do must be for the good of the other person. It must be out of compassion.

Romans 15 – once again, Paul isn't dealing with this specific word or issue, but he describes an instance where this is how you would apply this. This is how you would make this practical. Now this has to do within the church. You can find verses that have to do with husband and wife, with how you deal with your marriage, with how you deal with your neighbor. All you have to do with this concept is, let's not be harsh and austere. Verse 1:

Romans 15:1 – We, then, who are strong, ought to bear with the scruples of the weak and not please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification, for even Christ did not please Himself, but, as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me." For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we, through the patience and the comfort of the scripture, might have hope. Now, may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be likeminded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may, with one mind and one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's telling the church here, "Look, you're going to have to put up with each other, even in the times when you disagree about certain things."

You read through the book of Romans…they had people in Rome who thought that to be a true Christian, you needed to be a vegetarian. They had all kinds of issues here. And you'd think, "Well, Paul would say active goodness is to throw the vegetarians out, because I'm a carnivore." Right? I like meat. But that's not what he said. He said, "For their sake, leave them alone. And, maybe, when you have them over to your house, don't serve meat."

You know, I've seen people do that with alcohol. They'll have somebody in the church who believes they never should drink any alcohol. Now, we teach that alcohol, in moderation, is acceptable. Drunkenness is not. But I've seen people who don't drink any alcohol, except during the Passover. I've seen other says, "Well, I'm going to invite them over to my house and I'm going to serve them a beer." Who's the wrong person in that situation?
If you understand this harshness and gentleness, if you understand what gentle kindness is, if you understand, "Okay, we have to understand them and we have to be able to live with that. That's okay." If we have to make everybody exactly the same, the church will end up, eventually, you and your best friend, until you separate. We have to all be the same in the basic core truths. We all have to be the same in the direction that God's Spirit is leading us, but we're going to have differences. Why would Paul say that if it wasn't true? There are certain differences you can't live with – active goodness, right? I mean, if there were people who came into this church – I don't want to beat on the homosexual issue, but it was brought up in the news so much – if there were people who came into this church and were active homosexuals, I would ask them to leave. I've done that. If there were people who came into this church who stopped being homosexuals and wanted to obey God, I would invite them into this church. That's the difference between active goodness and gentle kindness. You apply them to the situation as need be.

See how this has to be a fruit of God's Spirit? You and I can't figure this out. So we have to know how to apply to the situation what God would do.

Many times you and I are harsh…when people are harsh in life and austere, it's because of, maybe, your childhood. Maybe you were beat up or maybe something bad has happened to you in life and you've just become hardened. You have a hard heart, and you're harsh, and you're austere, and it's "life is unfair," and everybody else, you know, better get it. I've actually seen people…we have to make children tough…. Once again, there are two ditches. One is you make them so soft they can't face the world. The other is you make them so tough that they're harsh. The trick is walking the middle.

I've seen people make their children so tough that they grow up and their just mean. And then I've seen people take on the other side, and take their children, and let them do anything. Then they can't figure out why they all grow up to be lawless. The wisdom is not to do either of the ditches. That's what we try to do. The one will keep us out of the other. Active goodness will keep us from letting them be lawless. Gentle kindness will keep us from making them harsh. See, both of these fruits have to come together.

I've had people in life that I thought, "Wow! If I'd lived that kind of life…if those things had happened to me, I'd be harsh, too." But there's a comment that I go to every once in a while that someone said. Listen to this: "Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness. Carry a vision of heaven in your hearts. You'll make your name, your college, the world correspond to that vision. Your success and happiness lie within you. External conditions are accidents in its outer trappings. The great enduring realities are love and service." You think, "Wow, that's a wise saying. That's profound." But the reason, to me, it's profound is because it was written by Helen Keller – blind and deaf. Now, if anyone had the right to be harsh in life, it was Helen Keller. She grew up like an animal – was treated, as a child, like an animal by her own parents, by society. And when she was able to be reached, and tapped into her intelligence – tapped into the spirit in man that was in her – her conclusion was, life isn't about controlling everything that is around you. Life is about love and service to others. It's about kindness, gentleness – gentle kindness. It's remarkable because it came from her.

The fruit of God's Spirit will take away that hard heart. Some of us have hard hearts because of what's happened to us, because of what life does to us. I don't know about you, but I couldn't have planned this journey. If you would have asked me at fifteen what my life would be at fifty-six, first of all, I would have said, "Wow! You might as well die, you're so old." (Laughter) I'm thinking, "Man, I wouldn't want to be fifteen for anything in the world again! Fifty-six is better than fifteen!" – except I hurt a lot. But outside of that…. But you couldn't plan this. Life is full of things that Satan throws at us. It's places where God takes us. It's messes we create ourselves. That's what life is. And we get where we are and we can have a certain harshness to us.

I find it interesting – something that Christ says – in Matthew 11. Let's go to Matthew 11, verse 25.

Matthew 11:25 – And at that time, Jesus answered and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes." When God calls us we really are the weak of the world. We can never forget that. God didn't call us because we were the brightest and the best. God called us because we can be proof of the fruit He can do. We can be, if we'll allow it to happen, the proof…we can glorify God by how? The fruit He produces in us – not the fruit we produce ourselves. We have to work at it. We have to submit to it. Yes. It's not just by osmosis, but it is through His power. Jesus Christ Himself said, "I can do nothing of Myself." So where does that leave us? Well, where do we start? In John, where He said, "You can't do anything by yourself, folks." We've got to be connected to God through Christ. He goes on and says:

V-26 – Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. For all things have been delivered to Me by My Father. And no one knows the Son, except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That is a promise. To become a disciple of Jesus Christ is to receive rest. You and I are here every Sabbath. We rest. We physically rest. We give up our jobs – we don't work on this day. We give up all this entertainment. We give up doing our shopping. We give up all this stuff. We don't go to Six Flags this day. We don't go to Wal-Mart and just go out and do our shopping this day. This is a different day – a different time. We don't work on this day, because it's rest. But it also teaches us about spiritual rest. On this day we are to renew our relationship with God and with Jesus Christ. We come together to renew our relationship with each other. As I said before, if church, to you, is just coming once a week to meet with a group of people for a couple of hours, hear a sermon, and go home, then you are not understanding what the Sabbath or the body of Christ is all about – because the body of Christ is us becoming a family and it's understanding this rest. He says:

V-29 – Take My yoke upon you…. You know, the reality is we think we want freedom, but there are two yokes you can carry in life. You can yoked to Satan or yoked to Christ. It's your choice. That's it! People say, "Well, I'd like another choice. Isn't there a third choice or a fourth choice here?" Nope, that's it. There are two. The one yoke drags you down until you die. The other yoke lifts you up until you receive eternal life. But you're yoked to something. He says: …and learn from Me – Christ says this. Now remember…I want you to stop for a minute and think. This is the one who comes, stands on the Mount of Olives, and fire shoots out from Him, and He kills millions of soldiers who have amassed against Him, as part of the beast power. That's active goodness. But you know, He doesn't emphasize that here. Look what He says: I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. He says, "I also want you to realize that if you'll just be humble enough to accept that you're a sinner, too, to come and I'll carry you through this. I'll help you through this. I'll take you to the Father. And the Father will help you. The Father will listen to your prayers. The Father will interact with you. I'll take you there."

What I find really interesting, though, is verse 30:

V-30 – For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Easy there is chrestos – the same word in Galatians 5 – gentle kindness. He says, "My yoke…." He says, "You want to be connected to Satan? You'll be connected to evil. You want to be connected to Me and you will find gentle kindness." This is person who casts people into the lake of fire – because remember, all judgment is given to Christ by the Father. See how He's the perfect balance. He says, "If you'll just be in a relationship with Me, you will find I am gentle kindness. My yoke is gentle kindness. And if you don't, there is a point where I will carry out active goodness." I don't know how many times I've sat with people and said, "I can't save you from where you're going. You have to make that decision. And I love you too much to participate in what you're doing to yourself." – just trying to get them to change from where they're going, trying to get them to understand that that path won't work – that that sin is destructive. Sometimes it's easier to be Phineas. "I will slay everybody!" and then I'll have no more problems in my life. His way – His yoke – is gentle kindness.

I wasn't going to turn to this passage, but let's go here – Luke 5. This morning I put this, sort of , in my notes and then said, "Ah, I won't go there." It was a footnote to what I was covering. But let's go to Luke chapter 6. Another use of this word…Jesus said – we're in the middle of a thought here, but:

Luke 6:35 – Love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return, that your reward may be great that you may be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the unthankful and the evil. The word kind there is the same word that is part of the fruits of His Spirit. Wait a minute. He is kind to the unthankful and evil?

V-36 – Therefore, be merciful, just as your Father is also merciful. Active goodness requires punishment. Gentle kindness requires mercy. And God is both. It's just remarkable! He's both in a perfect sense. You and I are supposed to become that in a perfect sense. There are times when we are to be kind to the unfaithful and evil. And there are times when we are to confront them. And if God ever tells you to go slay them, go slay them, but make sure the message is from Him please! Make sure you really know who's telling you to do that! Usually what He wants us to do is confront them. He doesn't ask us to slay people, but there are times when we must confront. And there are times when you don't confront. And there are times when you show mercy. And there are times when you punish. As a parent, you do that all the time, don't you? As a parent, you have to do that all the time. As a Christian, we have to do that all the time. As we balance these two qualities into a perfect character.

It is interesting, when you go through the Old Testament in place after place, where it talks about where God pours out His Spirit. He says over and over again, "I will give you a soft heart." In Ezekiel, He says, "I will remove your heart of stone. I will take that harshness out of you – that hard heart I will take out of you.  Many times, I tell people, "I don't know what to do. You better pray that God removes that person's hard heart" – you know, your wife's hard heart, or your husband's hard heart, or your boss's hard heart. "Pray that God removes their hard heart, because you can't do it. I can't do it." God is going to remove our hard heart and we'll find a perfect balance between active goodness and mercy and compassion – standing up for the right – punishing – taking sometimes…there are scriptures that say that we're supposed to take mistreatment, sometimes, for a greater good. So we will take, sometimes, mistreatment for a greater good. How do we know when to do those things? Because of these fruits. We go ask God, we search the scriptures – we said in Ephesians – and we find the examples. Everything we face in life, there is a scripture that tells you how to handle it.

Self-control, meekness, faithfulness, goodness, gentle kindness – all these are aspects of the character of God. It's funny. You can separate them, but only so far, because each one eventually depends on another one to come together to create this perfect person. It would be, actually, easier if we could separate them. "Okay, today I work on gentle kindness. Tomorrow I work on active goodness. The next day I work on self-control." The problem is, if you haven't worked on self-control, you probably won't do well with active kindness. So we have to put them together – to work together. They are not the fruits of human nature. They are the fruits of God's nature. So they can't be developed in us simply because we are "religious." They are developed in us because we are in an active relationship with God, where His Spirit is leading us and guiding us. And we're in the Bible, and we're in prayer, we're living it, we're thinking about it every day. All day long, this is what we think about. This is what we do. And we allow God to lead into that Spirit. They are the fruits of everyday life. These are the qualities that God is going to look at – that God is going to develop in your life, so that you truly are His children.

Next week, we'll go through another of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Comments

  • Sabrina Peabody
    Hi Friend, I have forwarded your message to the appropriate person who should be contacting you via email with information about congregations in Kenya!
  • Suleiman Atitwa
    Its good and may God help you to improve more...... and where can i get this church in Kenya? Good luck...
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