HOW TO DO THE ACCEPTABLE

Ephesians 5:8-10 (KJV)

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

Let me take a few minutes to go back through the groundwork for the book of Ephesians.

This is the primary document on the doctrine of the church.

We learn things concerning the church throughout the New Testament, but this is the where the Bible focuses on the subject.

What a church is and the doctrines surrounding it are so important that Paul claims in chapter that it is these doctrines that have landed him in prison.

When you look through history, it is the doctrine of the church that has kept more Christians in trouble and any other single thing.

·   Who is the head of the church

·   What is the nature of the church

·   What church has authority to baptize

·   What authority does a church have over individual souls

These subjects were the issues between the Anabaptists and the Catholics and became the issues between the Baptists and the Protestants.

The doctrine of the church is still the most challenging issue a Baptist preacher deals with today:

·   Whose baptism is scriptural?

·   Who may partake in the Lord’s Supper?

·   Who leads the local church?

These are the subjects of church splits and of pastoral grief.

The subject of Ephesians is the church.

The progression of doctrinal travel has been

·   The most important thing to God is Jesus

·   The most important thing to Jesus is the church

·   The most important thing in the church is unity

In the church God is making of two historically different peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles, one new man.

Ephesians 4:3 (KJV) might be viewed as the hub upon which the doctrines of this book revolve:

Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

After devoting the majority of chapter four and the first part of chapter five to things that need to be removed from our lives in order to promote unity, Ephesians 5:9 begins to develop more positive and actionable measures to “[endeavor] to keep the unity of the Spirit” in the church.

We begin by pointing our that it’s not you but something God’s Spirit produces in and through you…

Unity will be first and foremost a “fruit of the Spirit.”

In order to proceed I think we have to look at

Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Galatians tells us what the fruit of the Spirit is. It is:

·   Love

·   Joy

·   Peace

·   Longsuffering

·   Gentleness

·   Goodness

·   Faith

·   Meekness

·   Temperance

When the Spirit of God lives in you and is working in you, this is what He produces.

Now look again at Ephesians 5:9 (KJV)

(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

·   If it is good, and

·   If it is right and

·   If it is true

Rest assured that it is the product of the Spirit of God and it is marked by:

·   Love

·   Joy

·   Peace

·   Longsuffering

·   Gentleness

·   Goodness

·   Faith

·   Meekness or

·   Temperance

I just want to tell you that these are acceptable to God.

I. GOODNESS

This is kindness and uprightness of heart.

It is good to be kind.

I probably wouldn’t have taken this point the direction I did except I found it to be interesting that the New Testament only uses the word “kind” in this way three times:

A. A basic principle

Ephesians 4:32 (KJV)

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

God simply tells us to be kind one to another.

What else do we need?

Why do we need to be told why we need to be kind one to another.

Being kind is good

God tells us to be kind

That ought to be enough.

But we are told the reason to be kind and forgive is because God did that for us.

B. An enduring principle

1 Corinthians 13:4 (KJV)

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

If I should be kind and forgive, how long should I be kind and forgive?

A long time.

Matthew 18:21-22 (KJV)

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

What exactly is the spiritual significance of the number seventy times seven, isn’t really known for sure.

It’s interesting to me that it is the same length of time spelled out as the time of Jacob’s Trouble in Daniel chapter 9, seventy weeks of seven were determined upon Israel from the time that they were allowed to leave Babylon until the time when God will give them their promised kingdom.

By the time God is finished with His seventy times seven, Israel will have their promise from God.

Whether Matthew 18:21-22 has anything to do with that, I sort of doubt – what I do know is that if I try to count out 490 times of forgiving the same person – I am probably going to have gotten over the problem way before then.

Seven is the number of perfection

Seventy times seven is perfection seventy times

If you have completely forgiven someone seventy times, you will have perfectly forgiven them.

Just be kind for a very long time.

C. A Godly Principle

Luke 6:35-36 (KJV)

But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

One reason I ought to be kind and forgive people is because God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven me.

Another reason is because God has set Himself as my example.

You ought to be kind because God is kind.

He is kind, the Lord said, even to the unthankful and to the evil.

II. RIGHTEOUSNESS

Thayer’s dictionary gives an interesting definition of righteousness.

“The state of the man who is as he ought to be…”

Righteousness is just how you ought to be.

·   It is how God created Adam and Eve and

·   It is how God intends for us to be

But it is not what we are on our own account.

·   Because of the fall and

·   Because of the sin nature

Even our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God.

We don’t do the right thing very often and when we do it is often for the wrong reasons.

Righteousness is what the whole plan of God is about.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV)

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

III. TRUTH

We live in a day when most people think truth is relative.

What is true for one person might not be true for another.

I like the color red.

That is true for me but that might not be true for you.

Just because I like the color red does not mean I have the right to insist you like it too.

Some people think that is an equivalent to Christianity:

I believe the Bible is truth

That is true for me, but it might not be true for you.

Just because I believe the Bible is true does not mean the Bible is true for everyone.

I say that because I found in Thayer’s dictionary this definition of truth, “What is true in any matter under consideration.”

There are some things that are true

·   Every time for

·   Every man in

·   Every age

2+2=4 period.

·   You don’t have to agree

·   You don’t have to know it

·   You don’t ever have to prove it for yourself

It is true in every case under consideration.

That’s the truth of the Bible.

Conclusion

That which is good, and righteousness and truth is acceptable to the Lord.

But these things are the result of the fruit of the Spirit and not in my own efforts.

So how do I endeavor to be

·   Good and

·   Righteousness and

·   Truth?

The secret is to yield - Romans 6:13 (KJV)

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

It is a matter of surrender.

When we decide to stop fighting God, trying to be Christians our own way, and just obey what He teaches in the Word of God – That’s when fruit happens.