Introduction
Take God’s Word, and find Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22. We’re in a series, speaking about the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness” (Galatians 5:22). And then, we come to that quality of the Christ life that the Bible calls goodness. And, I want to speak to you on this subject: “What is the Good Life?” Now, the word good is an overworked word today. Something feels good, tastes good, and looks good. You’ve done a good job, or whatever. We just throw the word good all around. And, people, today, are interested in living the good life. And, for some people, what is the good life?
Well, for some people, the good life is feeling good. That means, it’s having a hot tub and a back rub. That’s the good life. For other people, the good life is not feeling good, but it’s looking good. I mean, everybody today wants to look good. And, the cosmetics industry is a very big industry today. Billions of dollars are spent on looking good. There are many here today that look as good as you ever did. It just takes you longer to get that way. And, some don’t look as good as you used to. For other people, the good life
is not just feeling good, and looking good, but it’s having the goods. I mean, you know, just accumulating. They call that the good life. If you have enough money to have enough power to do what you want to do.
I saw a red Ferrari the other day. It had a bumper sticker on it. And, it said, “The one who wins has the most toys at the end of life.” And, you know, they say, “The only difference between men and boys is the cost of their toys.” And so, that guy had a big red one. And, to him, that was the good life.
Well, there’s the good life. What is the good life? Well, in all of these things that I’ve mentioned, none of these things has a moral quality to it. But, the good that the Bible is talking about has a moral characteristic. You see, the fruit of the Spirit is goodness.
Now, what is goodness? Well, number one, it is being good. And, therefore, because you are good, it is doing good. Now, I want to give you a verse of Scripture to put in your margin. And, it is Micah 6 and verse 8. If you want, in one verse, a definition of goodness, here it is, my dear friend. Here is what goodness is. Just put it in the margin, and listen to me. Don’t try to look it up now, because the sermon will be over, and some of you will not have found Micah yet. Some don’t even know Micah’s in the Bible. You will get to Heaven, and you meet Micah, and he’ll say, “Did you read my book?” And, you’ll say, “Oh, you wrote a book?” Micah chapter 6, verse 8—now, listen to it: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8). Isn’t that good? Isn’t that beautiful? “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Now, having said that, real goodness—the good life—has a moral quality to it. It is to be good, and, therefore, to do good. And, because it is the fruit of the Spirit, our message is organized around three simple thoughts.
I. The Reasons for Goodness
First of all, I want us to think about the reasons for goodness. Why should we be good?
I mean, if you look around you, it doesn’t seem, sometimes, like we should. The young ladies, sometimes, say to me, “Pastor, you know, it just seems like we can’t get a date, unless we are less than pure. It seems like the other girls—the girls that don’t have the highest standards—they’re the ones who are getting the phone calls. They are the ones who are being carried out.” Businessmen say, “You know, Pastor, I’d like to run my business according to certain principles. But, it seems like that where I am, if you don’t hedge a little, bend a little, trim a little, politic a little, then you’re not going to make the big bucks. The big bucks are made by the guys who don’t necessarily do it the right way—that is, according to the Word of God.” And, the kids at school say, “If you want to be popular, the most popular kids at school are not always the best kids.” Does it pay to be good? You better believe it pays to be good, my dear friend.
And, I want to tell you why you ought to be good. And, I want to give you three major reasons for being good.
A. The Inward Reason
And, reason number one is what I want to call the inward reason. You see, dear friend, you will never have inward peace and tranquility until you have inward— intrinsic—goodness. You know yourself. You may deceive others. You may deceive me, and I may deceive you. But, we can’t really deceive ourselves. We know what we are. We can’t run away from ourselves. If you run away—if you leave town—you have to go with you. You just take you everywhere you go. When I was a teenager, I learned these words:
I have to live with myself and so
I want to be fit for myself to know.
I want to be able as days go by,
always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don’t want to stand with the setting sun
and hate myself for the things I have done. (Edgar A. Guest)
Now, this being able to look yourself in the eye is what the Bible calls a good conscience. Take your Bibles, and turn with me to Acts chapter 23, for a moment. I want you to see what happened in the life of the Apostle Paul. Now, Paul is held, and taken into court. Now, he’s not guilty of doing anything, except preaching the gospel of Jesus. But, it’s a very serious matter, and they are accusing him of all kinds of things. And, there’s a possibility, of course, that he may not only be put in prison, but his life may be taken from him. And, I want you to see what the Apostle Paul does here. Let’s look in Acts 23, and notice this, in verse 1. Now, here he is before the tribunal; here he is before the court.
Now, look at it—Acts 23 verse 1: “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day” (Acts 23:1). Now, the Apostle Paul says, “I have a good conscience.” That is, “When I look into my heart, I have a good conscience.” Well, what is a good conscience? Well, just go on, now, to Acts 24, and look at verse 16. Here’s what his good conscience was. He said this: “And herein do I exercise myself…”—now, underscore the word exercise. That is, “this is something that I diligently do”—“I exercise myself, to have always”— underscore the word always—“a conscience void to offence toward God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16). Now, that, my friend, is a good conscience.
A conscience that is void of offence toward God and toward men. Bill Gothard said this: “A good conscience is that inner freedom of spirit and assurance, knowing that you have a transparency toward everyone, that no one is able to point a finger at you, and accuse you of wrongs toward him that you’ve not made right.” Isn’t that wonderful? Do you know what a good conscience is? A good conscience is this: knowing that, if you knew me as I know me, you would still respect me. You know, I have to ask myself this question: If people knew me as God knows me, would they come hear me preach? I mean, do you have that transparency? The transparency to be able to meet anyone, and have no one be able to point a finger of accusation against you, because you have a conscience devoid of offence toward God and toward man. Friend, what a liberty there is there!
You see, the Apostle Paul is in trouble. I mean, he’s in real trouble. But, the thing that has enabled him to stand there without flinching is that he doesn’t have to run through his life, and say, “I wonder if what I did wrong has me right here today.” You see, there’s something about a clear conscience that just liberates you in time of trouble. It just removes fear. You have a bad conscience that causes that fear that we have toward God—a bad conscience.
And, when God came walking in the garden, after Adam and Eve sinned, what did they do? They ran, and hid themselves from the Lord, in the midst of the garden. Now, why did Adam hide himself? He hid himself, because he had a defiled conscience. He didn’t have a clear conscience. He wasn’t right with God. And so, Adam and Eve hid themselves. And, rather than having fellowship with God, rather than saying, “What a friend we have in Jesus,” they’re hiding from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you know why some people don’t want to come to church? Oh, there are people who just feel uncomfortable about coming to church. Do you know why some people don’t read the Bible? Do you know why some people don’t pray? They have a conscience that has an offence toward God. And, their conscience, you see, the conscience is that inner judge that God has put in you that tells you, that accuses you, or excuses you. It cannot make you do right, but it shows you what is right, or what is wrong. And, when your conscience is right, you have that tremendous freedom.
After David had sinned, and done the terrible thing that he had done by committing adultery, he said there, in Psalm 53, “My sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3). Can you imagine what it would be like for David to live that way? Can you imagine what it would be like, knowing that he’d sinned, and now, the thing that he’s done—the deed that he’s done—reverberates through his consciousness? Everybody that he sees, he wonders, “Do they know? Do they know?” Two men are whispering. He wonders, “Are they talking about me?” A letter comes. He says, “I wonder is this the affidavit that proves that I’m guilty?” If they had telephones in that day, every time the telephone rang, he’d jump. You see? But, a good conscience will do something for you, friend, that a sleeping pill will not do. And, when you get into trouble and difficulty, as the Apostle Paul did, you can say, “Look, I have lived with a good conscience.”
B. The Outward Reason
There’s the inward reason. That’s one reason. But, let me give you another reason that you ought to be good. Not only the inward reason, but oh, there is the outward reason. Not only are you looking in, but others are looking on. Our lives influence others. The Apostle Paul said, in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 13—he says, “Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend” (1 Corinthians 8:13). Now, what Paul meant by that is this: He said, “I don’t want to do anything that will cause anybody else to stumble, or anybody else to fail.”
I’ve been hearing and reading, today, about all these terrible things that are happening—some who are prominent evangelists, some who are on television, and all of these things—and it breaks my heart. It literally breaks my heart. It just causes me to weep. It causes me anguish on the inside. I’d rather die five minutes before I would disgrace the cause of Jesus. And, I think how many people are caused to fall and stumble. When a giant oak falls in the in the woods, not only does that oak fall, but it just pulls down all kinds of saplings, and other trees with it, when it falls. And, what a tragedy this is! How terrible it is for these to do this!
When I was a teenager I learned these words also:
I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare. (Howard Arnold
Walter)
Others are looking on. Why be good? None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. You’re the best Christian, and you’re the worst Christian, that somebody knows. You’re the only Bible that somebody is reading. Oh, I’ll tell you the Hell of Hell to me would be to know, not only did I go to Hell, but that I took others with me—I took my wife, my loved ones, and my children.
C. The Upward Reason
Why be good? Because, dear friend, there’s the inward reason, there’s the outward reason, and there is the upward reason. There is a God in glory. And, that God is looking down. What a joy to know that you have a conscience that’s void of offence toward God!
There are times when I get backslidden. There are times when I get cold. There are times when the things that I do for the Lord Jesus Christ seem to take the place of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I find myself studying more than praying. And, I find myself counseling with others more than talking with God. And, I find myself caring about the buildings, and the budgets, and all of these things, more than the blessed Savior. And, I know that my heart has gotten cold. And, I just have to get alone, and get with myself, and get down on my face before God, and give to God every blessed thing—give to God my health, give to God my family, give to God my reputation, give to God anything—and say, “Dear God, if there’s something that I haven’t surrendered, I want you to show it to me,” and sign a blank piece of paper, and say, “It’s yours, Lord; fill it in. Whatever it is, O God, I give it all to You.” And, I can tell you, there comes a time, my dear friend, when God’s light floods my body. And, the Bible says, “When thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light” (Luke 11:34). And, what a time that is to know, to be able to say, “There is nothing between my soul and the Savior”!
And, that, my friend, is a good reason for being good. There is that inward reason, and there is that outward reason. And, there is that upward reason, as we are what God wants us to be.
I was thinking last night, when I was with some friends, just talking, and it came to my mind about a man in the New Testament whose name was Barnabas. And, this is what it said about Barnabas—oh, I think it is a tremendous thing—it said: “For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 11:24). Now, hey folks, when I die, I’d like to be worthy to have that put on my tombstone. That would be enough for me: “He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost.”
Friend, it’s more important to be good than it is to be great. As a matter of fact, if you’re not good, then you’re not great. I don’t care what you’ve done, or how much money you have. You see, he was a good man. “He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost.” Why be good? Inward look, outward look, and upward look: all of them tell us that we need to be good.
II. The Problems with Goodness: We are Not Good
But, oh, there’s a problem about this matter of goodness. Let’s move to the second point that deals, not only with the purpose of goodness, but the problems with goodness. Now, the problem is this: very frankly, folks, we’re not good. I mean, that’s right. Amen? We are not good.
A. The Bible Teaches It
Let me give you a verse of Scripture. All of the self-righteous people, just tune in, now, and listen. Romans chapter 3, verse 12, says, “There is none that doeth good, no,
not one” (Romans 3:12). Hmm? Not one.
Well, you say, “I gave to the Red Cross. I did this, and did that.” God says, “Your righteousness is as filthy rags in my sight” (Isaiah 64:6). “In my flesh,” the Apostle Paul said, “is no good thing” (Romans 7:18).
How do we know this is true? Well, number one: the Bible teaches it—Romans chapter 3, verse 12.
B. History Proves It
Number two: history proves it. Just read the newspapers. Look around you.
C. Personal Experience Teaches It
Any of you have any children? All right, that ought to be enough to teach you there’s none good, no not one. Any of you have to teach your children to lie? No. They just lie by nature. A little child can lie before it can talk. It’ll make you think it needs changing, you come in there, and the little rascal’s lying. He just wants to be held. Before he can verbalize, and before he can talk, he can lie. The Bible says that. The Bible says, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born” (Psalm 58:3). That’s what the Bible says. Experience proves to us—human nature. You don’t have to teach little children to be selfish; you have to teach them not to be selfish. You don’t have to teach them to be hurtful; you have to say, “Don’t hurt, don’t bite, don’t do this, don’t do that.” It’s just bound up. The Bible says, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child” (Proverbs 22:15). You see, the Bible teaches it, history teaches it, and personal experience teaches it.
Let me show you a verse of Scripture. This one, I want you to turn to—Jeremiah chapter 13, look in verse 23. Many of us have decided we’re going to be good, haven’t we? All right now, look what the Bible says here, in Jeremiah chapter 13 and verse 23: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then…”—that means, if an Ethiopian can change his skin, and a leopard can change his spots—”then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:23). Friend, you could no more will to be good, and be good, than you could will to change the color of your skin, or a leopard could will to change the spots on his back. It takes something, there’s a principle within us. “There is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). And, we know that we know that there’s a problem of wickedness and sin in our lives.
III. The Pathway to Goodness
Now, let’s move to the most important part of this message. I’ve talked to you about the purpose of goodness, and I’ve talked to you about problems with goodness. Let me talk to you about the pathway to goodness—the fruit of the Spirit—and how to be good. Turn with me, please, this time, to Romans chapter 7. This time, just keep your Bible’s open, as we get into Romans chapter 7. Now, look here, in Romans chapter 7. The Apostle Paul says this, in verse 18: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18).
Have you ever come to that place where you say, “In me, inherently in me, in my flesh?” Now, when he says, your flesh, he doesn’t mean, your skin, bones, hide, and hair. He’s not talking about that. Your flesh is that old nature that you have, that Adamic nature that the Bible calls the flesh. He, the Apostle Paul, says, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:”—and continue to read in verse 18—”for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Romans 7:18). The Apostle Paul says, “Hey, I want to do good; but how to do it, I don’t know.” Verse 19 says, “For the good that I would I do not” (Romans 7:19).
Have you ever been that way? Said, “I’m going to do this, and really make a New Year’s resolution”? How many of you have kept all your New Year’s resolutions? Never mind, don’t even raise your hands. All right, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:19). Now, continue to read: “Now if Ido that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I delight in the law” (Romans 7:19). Now, the word law here means, “a principle”: “that, when I would do good, evil is present with me” (Romans 7:21).
Now, look up here, and let me ask you a question. Do you identify with that? Oh, you hypocrite, nod your head. Do you identify with that? I want to do good, and I desire to do good. I’m going to say I’ll never do that. Do what you want to do. You don’t know how. You just find a principle—a law—“that when I would do good, evil is present with me.”
Well, friend, I want to say to you that this 7th chapter of the Book of Romans is a tremendous chapter. This chapter shows you how the fruit of the Spirit will work in your life, and become that goodness that gives you that transparency, that conscience that is void of offence toward God, and toward man.
A. Paul’s Desire
So, I want you to look at it with me very carefully, now. Let’s look in verse 17. And, the very first thing I want you to see, in verse 17, is Paul’s desire for goodness. Notice, in verse 17—he says here, “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:17). The Apostle says, “The real me, true nature that I have, the one that’s been born from above, I don’t want to do these bad things. But, there’s something that’s in me that’s ugly and awful. It’s sin. And, that sin just dwells in me.” Skip on down to verse 22: “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Romans 7:22). You see, Paul—in his innermost nature—had been born again. Oh, he loved God. He wanted to serve God. This was his great desire. He said, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.”
Now, I believe that this is the testimony of a saved man. I believe the Apostle Paul was saved, when he wrote Romans chapter 7, or wrote what he is describing in Romans chapter 7. He is describing himself as a saved man, but he had not discovered the way of victory.
B. Paul’s Determination
So, you notice, not only did he have the desire—verse 22—but he also had the determination. Look in the last part of verse 18. He says, “For to will is present with me…” (Romans 7:22), “…but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Romans 7:18). Paul had not given up. I mean, he is determined. He said, “I have a will. Not only do I have a desire—I have determination to do good.”
Let me show you something now. If you take these verses, Romans chapter 7, verses 7 through 24. I want you to do something, when you go home. I want you to take a pen or a pencil—if you don’t mind marking in your Bible—and you put a circle around every time the Apostle Paul uses the personal pronoun to refer to himself—I, me, or my. And, just put a circle around it. You’ll be amazed. In these brief verses, you will find that Paul refers to himself with a personal pronoun over 40 times. He uses I, me, my, and mine over 40 times. I wish we had time, in this brief message this morning, to do that. Then, I want you to do something else. Take another word, and this time, don’t put a circle around it, but put a box around it. And, that’s the word law. And, you’ll find, in that brief passage—chapter 7, verses 7 through 24—you’ll find the word law will be used over 20 times. And then, when you go home, continue to read and reread that passage, and you’ll find out that he doesn’t mention Jesus or the Holy Spirit one time. Not once.
Now, what is happening here is this: that here is Paul, who knew the law of God, then he got saved, and he’s like so many Christians. He says, “Well, now that I’m saved, I’m going to keep God’s commandments, and I’m going to live for God. I’m going to be a good man.” Do you remember how you felt, when you first got saved? You said, “Wonderful, I’m saved. I’ll never sin again, never. Praise God, I’m saved.” And then, you sin. You say, “Oh, hmm. That was a mistake. I won’t do it again, God.” And, you promise God. And, you fail again. You say, “Well, Lord, I’ve got to learn.” And, you get clean again, and then you fail again. And then, the devil says, “Hey, you probably weren’t saved at all”; or, “There is no God”; or, “All of that they’re preaching in the Bible is not true”; and, “There is no victory for people, especially there’s no victory for you”; and, “Why are you going to go back down there to that church? You’ll be a hypocrite, if you go down there. Why don’t you just stay out of church, and think it over for a while?” And, boy, he’s already got you backsliding, already away from God.
C. Paul’s Despair
And, you had a desire, but that wasn’t enough. Then, you had a determination, and that wasn’t enough. I hope you came to the third place that Paul came to, which was despair. Look, if you will, now, in verse 24 of this same chapter, and look at it. He says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).
Now, you know what happens to a lot of folks? A lot of people read Romans 7, and they use that as, somehow, as sort of a pillow to rest their sinful head on. And, they say this: “Well, if the Apostle Paul couldn’t be victorious, neither can I. And, if the Apostle Paul couldn’t do good, neither can I. So I’ll just settle back in my sin.” Well, I want to tell you, the Apostle Paul didn’t settle back in his sin. Friend, Romans 7 doesn’t stop in Romans 7. Bless God, it goes on to Romans 8, and it goes on to victory. And, this is not the place you’re supposed to stop. And, this is not a place you just sit down and make a pillow for your head. The Apostle Paul not only had a desire, and a determination, but that desire, and that determination, when it failed, led to despair. And, would to God, that there are many today who would at least come to the place of despair, where you realize that you can’t do it, and you throw up your hands in one final cry of desperation, and say, “O wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:24)—“O wretched man that I am!”
Now, I’m going to tell you something very inelegant. But, Bible scholars tell us that, what Paul is referring to, is one of the most ironical forms of punishment that the ancient people ever had upon a murderer. When one man would kill another man, sometimes, they would take the corpse of the man who had been murdered, and strap the corpse to the living body of the murderer—foot-to-foot, hand-to-hand, and face-to-face. And, that living man would carry about the rotting, decaying, putrefying corpse of the man he had killed, until the putrefication of that corpse, and that dead body, would eat into his own body, and bring his own death. Face to face with the man he had killed, strapped hand¬in-foot. That’s what they say is the figure of speech that the Apostle Paul is using, when he says, “O wretched man that I am!”: “Who’ll get this corpse off of me? Who will deliver me from this dead body? This old flesh that I’m carrying around with me—who will set me free?” (Romans 7:24).
Friend, that doesn’t sound to me like a man who’s made Romans 7 a pillow for his sin. You see, here was a man who had a desire; here was a man who had a determination; and finally, here was a man who came to despair. God wants to bring you to that place. You know the problem with many of us? Do you know what most of us think? Most of us think that we are too weak. But, that’s not our problem. Do you know what our problem is? We’re too strong. We’re too strong. We still think we can do it. It’s still us, and the law. So we just resolve, one more time: “Lord, I’m going to do it.” And, we fall, one more time.
Watchman Nee tells of a Chinese man who was drowning. Some men were standing there on the banks. This man was floundering. He was going under. None of the other Chinese knew how to swim. Finally, there was one man. They said, “Can you swim?” They said, “Rescue him.” He said, “No, wait.” And, the man went under, and he came up again, and said, “Help me.” And, the man who could swim just stood there. They said, “Help him.” The man said, “No.” Again, he went under, and he came up, and he said, “Help me.” But, this man simply stood there. This is a true story. It really happened. Finally, when it looked like the drowning man was going under for the last time, this man went into the water, and pulled him out to the shore to safety. The friends around did not brag on the man who rescued the drowning man. But, one man said, “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a man so much in love with his own life as you. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a man as cruel as you are. You let that man almost drown. And, then, reluctantly, you saved his life. Why did you do that?” Well, he said, “You don’t understand. You don’t understand at all. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to save his life. But, I’m not a strong swimmer myself.” He said, “If I had gone out there, that man would have drowned us both.” He said, “I had to wait till all his strength was gone, before I could rescue him.”
You know, the problem with many of us, dear friend, is this: It’s not that we’re too weak—we’re just too strong. We’re still struggling. We’re still trying, rather than trusting. But, the Apostle Paul came to the place where he says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). Notice, he didn’t say, “What?” He’d been trying what for long enough. And now, he decides he’s going to try this word: “Who shall deliver me?” And then, God gives him the answer, and he says, in verse 25, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25). Goodness—he learned—was not the work of the flesh. “In my flesh dwells no good thing” (Romans 7:18). Goodness is the fruit of the Spirit.
Then, dear friend, when you leave Romans 7, and you get into Romans 8, it changes like darkness to light. In Romans 8, you pick up a word, two words that are used over and over again. The Spirit, and Christ Jesus; the Spirit, and Christ Jesus; the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit. And, he says, in Romans chapter 8 and verse 2—look at it: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).
Yesterday, I was in Florida. I landed here at the airport. I thought I’d come to Siberia—all that snow. It was wonderful. But then, when they I got on that airplane down there, that big airplane, these incredible big airplanes which seat maybe 25% of this congregation this morning, just one of these big airplanes. And, you know, those things are so heavy. And then, they put all that luggage on there. Then, all those people get on there. And, that airplane is sitting there on that runway, on that tarmac, and the law of gravity just is holding it there. But, that pilot gets behind there, and he moves that throttle, and those great engines begin to roar loud, and that airplane starts to move slowly. And then, faster and faster and faster, and it begins to bump like that. And, the first thing you know, up it goes. I mean, all that weight, all that luggage, all those people, all that steel. It’s just flying.
Question: Has the law of gravity been cancelled? No. But, there’s another law. We’ll call it the law of aerodynamics, which is a greater law than the law of gravity. And, friend even though the law of gravity was still working, there was the law of aerodynamics that made me free from the law of gravity. That’s what the Apostle Paul is talking about. When you get saved, and right with God, that old flesh is still there. And, the law of sin and death has never been cancelled. It’s still there. But, there’s a new law. It’s the law of life in Christ Jesus that makes you free from the law of sin and death. It doesn’t cancel the law. It’s not sinless perfection.
Now, suppose, when I was on that airplane the other day, and I decided this is getting boring, so I stepped off for some fresh air. The law of gravity is still there. But, you see, as long as you abide in the Lord Jesus Christ, then, as you abide in Christ, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes you free from the law of sin and death.
Now, there are a lot of people today who would like to have an experience that would free them from sin, and eradicate the old nature. God will never allow it. Do you know why? He wants—it’s imperative—that you abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, He’ll never give you an experience that you could rest in, but He gives you a relationship that you abide in. That relationship is to abide in the Lord Jesus, just as you abide in that airplane. And, the Apostle Paul said, “I have tried and I can’t; ‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death’” (Romans 8:2).
D. Paul’s Deliverance
And, you have Paul’s desire, Paul’s determination, and Paul’s despair; and then, you have Paul’s deliverance.
Now, what he’s said is this: “In my flesh is no good thing” (Romans 7:18). In Galatians chapter 5, Paul mentions the works of the flesh. But then, he says, “But the fruit of the Spirit…” (Galatians 5:22). Do you know how to be good? The Bible says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). God gives the desire and the dynamic, but you must abide in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The fruit of the Spirit is goodness. May I say one more time—listen to me—the best thing that could be said about you, when they put it on your tombstone, is this: “He was a good man—she was a good lady—full of the Holy Spirit.” And, if you’re not full of the Holy Spirit, you won’t be full of goodness.
Now, you’ve tried and tried and tried to be good. Haven’t you? All right now, let me tell you what to do this morning. Are you listening? Quit trying and start trusting. The fruit of the Spirit is goodness. You don’t produce this fruit. You bear it. He produces it, as you abide in Jesus.
Conclusion
Let’s pray. Heads are bowed, and eyes are closed. O Father God, I pray, today, that you’ll make good daddies, good mamas, good brothers, good sisters, good employees, good employers, and good citizens out of bad people, like we are. Lord, we know that we have been created by Christ Jesus unto good works that You have before ordained that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). In your name we pray. Amen.
