Living and Walking in the Spirit

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for joining us on the program again today. We are delighted to have your company. Today we're having an interesting discussion about a wonderful topic which has to deal with our close walk and relationship with Jesus Christ. We're going to talk about living and walking in the Spirit. But just as we start our program, we invite you to bow your heads with us for a word of prayer. Gracious Father in Heaven, creator of heaven and earth, our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sustainer. It is such a privilege to come into your presence again, Father, to ask for the guidance and leading of your Holy Spirit. Lead us as we discuss these beautiful topics of salvation through Jesus Christ, the importance of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and walking in the Spirit. May we receive these promises, may we take them to heart, Father. May we trust you in all your promises and may we live according to your word. This is our prayer. In Jesus name, amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Now, I'm not sure about you, Braedan, but a number of times I have purchased some things and I've been quite disappointed. I think in the previous program we spoke about the fact I bought a Bible for like 95% off. Turned out it was a defective Bible. And the reason why it was sold is because there were pages missing out of this book. And I was quite disappointed. Thought I got a real bargain, but really it was defective and it shouldn't even have been for sale unless they said, look, the last few chapters are missing of this book and so forth and so forth, but I wasn't aware of it. Now there's another time I bought a car and I had bought a car which I'd had for about six months. It was actually sort of like a lease vehicle, which I can handbag after six months. And I'd been driving this and the kilowatts and the power. It was a luxurious kind of a car, I guess. It had leather seats and was really nice, but it just wasn't the same as the car previously. The previous car had the same amount of kilowatts, but it had a lot more torque. So I was just missing that just off the lights of you taking off there. There was just power up front, basically, where with this little car to get the revs up to about 4000 revs for me to really experience the power and the pull that pushes you sort of back in the seat when you take off. Anyway, so I heard about the special. They had a sale on the new XR six turbo, the Ford XR six turbo. And I wanted to go and take this for a test drive. And I heard about how much grunt they had. 245 kilowatt, an enormous amount of torque in it, had a nice sounding engine, which you put your foot down, you could hear the engine, the car really purged. So I had all these fantastic big expectations. So I'd got to know the guy who was the salesman and at that time he was busy and he said, Listen, here's the keys. You just take this car for a drive and then come back and then we'll talk about it. But if you want the car, it's yours. We had already agreed on a price and based on what other friends of mine had told about how nice these cars drive and how much power they have, I was pretty much sold on it before I got the car. So I jump in the car and I go around the corner and there's a bit of traffic. So I'm trying to find a little bit of open space where I can just sort of give the car, yeah, test it out. Anyway, so I put my foot down in this car and is driving pretty much similar to the car I had before and I'm feeling a little bit disappointed. I put my foot down, the engine sounds great. Only thing is there was like this big suction of air noise sort of coming through as I'm driving the car and go, okay, well, you could actually hear the turbo kicking in. It's a four liter turbo, but it just doesn't have the grunt. Now, I was pretty sure when I looked at the stats on this car, zero to 100 km an hour. Should be able to do it around about 5 seconds. This is taking me probably about 10 seconds, twice as long and I'm just not feeling the sensation of the power of this car. It's supposed to be four liter. I had a three liter car before. V six three liter. This is a four liter, it's turbocharged and it's performing about at the same level anyway. So I was quite disappointed. Every time I put my foot down. There's just no performance. And I think this car was guaranteed to do better and it's just not doing any better. I take it back to the guy and he says, so how did you find the car? I said, well, look, it sounds nice and it looks quite good. And I said, when I put my foot down, yeah, it's got a little bit of kick, but it's no different to my previous car. He goes, what's your previous car? I said, well, it's that little black car over there. He goes, no, this car goes much better. I said, well, look, I don't think it does. I mean, it sounds like it does, but it's probably about the same zero to 100 as I'm getting out of that car at the moment. And he goes, no. I said, I think there's something wrong with this car. Have you guys put the wrong petrol into the thing? Maybe it's got to run on 98. He goes, yeah, it's 98 fuel. I said, well, maybe someone put 91 into it because it's just not running like I would expect it to run. He said, Look, I drove that car about two days ago, there's nothing wrong with it. I said, well, listen, I'm going to leave the car with you. I'm actually quite disappointed. My expectations have just not been met in the car. Something must be wrong. He said, well, listen, what I'll do is I'll get someone to have a look at it and then I'll get back to you. Anyway, I drove away from there and I'd hardly got to the office when I get a phone call. He goes, no, mate, there's something seriously wrong with this car. I just took it for a drive and it's not driving like it's supposed to. And what had happened is there was a big hose with an airflow intake between the turbo and the engine itself. And because that air compression wasn't able to take place in the combustion part of the engine, their pressure wasn't there. So it was actually driving without that pressure required to give it the performance. SPEAKER D So what was wrong, there was a. SPEAKER C Bracket that connected from the one part of the hose to another part and that had come loose and it just come off. And it wasn't obvious when you just look at the top of the engine, it was actually towards the bottom end of it somewhere. So this was sucking in air, but it just wasn't compressing the air like it was supposed to. So it was running like something on half the power, basically. It just wasn't delivering. So I was quite disappointed, but when I heard that, I went back and took it for another test drive and the performance was there finally. But it was all to do with the flow of air and the intake of air, which the car was designed to perform well, but there was just a small little thing, simple things, a bracket that just had slipped off and therefore the hoses slipped off and it wasn't giving me the output. So quite often in our own expectations, when we come to the Lord, we have an expectation of this new relationship. We have great desires and ambitions for how it's going to be. And we read in the Bible about, yeah, they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. So we start off with good intentions and for some reason sometimes we find the things just don't work quite as well as we'd expected. And then we go and take ourselves to a professional and someone goes nah, you're performing where you should expect to perform just fine. And you go well, is it because I'm just not taking enough high octane fuel? Is there something wrong with the fuel? Maybe I'm just not praying enough or maybe I'm just not reading the Bible enough or something. SPEAKER D You keep tweaking little things just trying. SPEAKER C To you're trying to tweak a few things. Paul, look, if that's your experience, dear listener, today there's some encouragement for you because we've been talking about righteousness by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. It's not based on what we do or don't do. The Bible actually promises us what God is able to do and if we believe God's promises and expect him to do that, that is a trust statement that we trust God fully, trust His Word fully. We're able to then walk according to his promises and through the Holy Spirit we're able to walk in the Spirit. The Bible says, and I want to read this text comes from Galatians chapter five and verse 16 where it says I say then walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So that sounds like a bit of a promise to me, but I want to unpack that further just by going to verse 17 because it says for the flesh, lusts against the spirit. Now the word lust there, it just means desire. So it says the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and then the spirit against the flesh. So whatever is against the Spirit from a flesh perspective the opposite is also true. SPEAKER D Correct? SPEAKER C Whatever comes from the spirit is against the flesh. Then it says these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. Now, when I bought my car, I wished for it to perform zero to 100 km an hour from Stansville to 100 in 5 seconds and that took twice as long and I was very disappointed. There was something wrong with this engine. And quite often we can find in our own experience that our expectations are not delivered because we are not able to do the things that we wish to do. Now, verse 17 says there the flesh loves against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another, so they do not do the things that you wish to do. Now that reminds me also of an experience that Paul records in Romans chapter seven and he talks about these good things that he wanted to do and he just wasn't able to do it. So he's trying to do zero to 105 seconds and it's taking him 10 seconds matter of fact, it's worse than that if you read it's. Not even getting there. That's right. SPEAKER D Not out of the parking lot. SPEAKER C Romans, chapter seven and verse 19. He says, for the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil that I will not to do that I practice. So here's the person that's also not meeting expectations he wills, he desires to do good things. And the things that he does not want to do, the things he doesn't want to get involved in, those are the things that he practices. Now, what would be the things that we would not like to do if we are Christians? They will obviously be the evil things because he uses the word very clearly there. The evil things that I do not wish to do, those are the things that I practice. SPEAKER D And we actually find that in verse 19 of chapter five of Galatians. Okay, so we find a list that actually explains what these things are, itemizes them. So it says. Now the works Of The Flesh are evident so the works of the Flesh are Evident? Which Are adultery, Fornication, Uncleanness, Lewdness, Idolatry sorcery Hatred, Contentions, jealousies, outbursts Of Wrath? Selfish, Ambitions, dissensions Heresies, envy, Murders, Drunkenness, Revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. SPEAKER C Wow. So that's a list and a half there. SPEAKER D That's a comprehensive list. SPEAKER C That's right. But the people who practice those things, what does he say? He says, will they inherit the kingdom of God? SPEAKER D They won't. SPEAKER C They won't. So when he says here in Romans chapter seven and verse 19, that the good that I will to do, I do not, but the evil that I will not. And that's a list of evil deeds there, those are the things that I practice. Then he goes on to say that if we do these things, we will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, how can we overcome if the requirement for the entry to heaven is zero to 100 least in 5 seconds, but I can only get close to 10 seconds or struggle to get out of the car park, like you said before, what is the promise to us? How are we able then to obtain the requirements? Because obviously the works of the flesh will not get us there. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER D With the verse that you shared before, this is verse 16. He says, I say then. So he's concluding, he says, Walk in the spirit. Yes, this is the solution. He says, Walk in the spirit and we'll unpack what that means. Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. These lusts of the flesh are the natural desires of our sinful nature. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D Which are made manifest or made practical in that big list of evil things that we just read out. So the desires of our flesh, that's what flows out. All these different jealousies, envy, all that kind of strife and all that kind of stuff. SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER D And it says, when we walk in the Spirit, whatever that is, we will no longer fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So it's very important that we understand what it means to walk in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit, is to be filled with the Spirit. And in the Book of Acts, just at the beginning, jesus actually says to his disciples, he says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, are witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The power that they lacked in their Christian experience and in their witness was because they lacked the Holy Spirit. But once the Holy Spirit filled them and this is a very practical thing this means God living inside of our heart yes. Guiding our thoughts and helping us to live holy lives, putting holy desires within us. It's very interesting, as we're talking, in planning for this program, the word spirit in both the Greek and in the Hebrew, we got in the Hebrew it's Ruach, and in the Greek it's numa. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And that's the word for air or breath. SPEAKER C Or breath, yes. SPEAKER D And it's so interesting with your car analogy. The car was functioning without the turbo, which is without the air. SPEAKER C Yeah, the compression. The air compression. So what happens is the air was not getting into the combustion chamber, which produces, obviously, the energy to move the pistons so that they can perform at optimal level. SPEAKER D It's interesting, our Christian experience, when we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, that's where the lack of power comes. SPEAKER C Amen. Well, I said, you shall receive power, spirit comes upon you. That is incredible. That's dead right. So if we receive the Holy Spirit, so we can receive that at baptism, we can receive it. I mean, some instances in the Bible even talks about people receiving the Holy Spirit before baptism, and then they baptize subsequent to that, and then some people who are baptized and then afterwards when the apostles laid their hands on them. Now, after they've been preached to by the apostle not the apostle, by the evangelist Philip, after his preaching, they were then received the Holy Spirit outpouring the Holy Spirit. So if we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, does that enable us to walk in the Spirit? SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Okay. Because one of the things I read there, I sort of liken receiving the Holy Spirit of receiving Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit said it would not speak of itself, but what it hears, it will speak. And Jesus says that the Holy Spirit, the other comforter, would testify of him. So Jesus lives within us through the Holy Spirit. And then Romans chapter 13 and verse 14, it says, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. So by putting on Jesus Christ, it allows us to put no provision aside for the flesh and the lust of the flesh would not be fulfilled. And then that goes hand in hand with what you read there in Galatians chapter five. And verse 16. It says, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So putting on Jesus and walking in the Spirit is really synonymous. And Paul actually explains it a little bit further. If we go to verse 25 of Galatians chapter five, it says, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. So living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit is actually synonymous as well. If we have received the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is in control of our life, we've surrendered our life to Christ, that will enable us to walk in the Spirit. But what I want to now look at a little bit further is what happens when we walk in the Spirit. What is the promise? What can we claim by faith if we are actually walking in the Spirit? Well, the promise is there that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now, what are the lust of the flesh? You had this beautiful analogy given to us there that the works of the Spirit are actually quite evident. Why are they evident? Because we can see that in each other. You don't have to go too far to see humanity in this natural raw state in an outburst of wrath. How often on the news at night do they not talk about people who've got road rage? They get upset and they get into fights or they get upset because someone's cut them off. All the news pretty much is bad news. And that's typically just a manifestation of the flesh in people. We just have to watch the news. It can be even between nations, never mind between individuals where we see this. So if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh because then it tells us that there's a war between the spirit and the flesh. It says the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to one another. And then it tells us that we're. SPEAKER D Being tugged in different directions. SPEAKER C Yes. So there's the flesh that tugs you in one direction and then the Spirit that tugs you in another, other direction. But who's going to win that battle? Because it tells us that therefore you do not do the things that you wish. What are these things that we wish to do that we no longer do? Is it the same as the guy in Romans seven? All the good things he wished to do, he couldn't do, but all the evil that he hated that were the things that he's doing. Is this what this text is saying or is there some good news for us in it? SPEAKER D There is some brilliant news. Okay, so in verse 22, it actually outlines what the life is like when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. SPEAKER C Okay? SPEAKER D This is not just theory like, it's very, very practical when we are living in the flesh. It's a very practical experience. The list is there adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness and the list goes on. It's very, very practical to live in the flesh, that is to be directed by our sinful, carnal, fleshly natures, to be led by that we will naturally, and we just cannot get around it. That's how we're going to live. Yes, but it says but the fruit of the Spirit this is verse 22. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. That's where we have the good news. In conclusion to all of that which we've just read is that the character of God can be lived out inside of us. So when the Spirit of God is directing our lives, that's what our lives look like. And it says here, if we belong to Jesus, if we have accepted Christ and have allowed him into our hearts, what happens then is that the flesh gets crucified. And what does that mean, the desires of the flesh gets crucified? This is the work of a lifetime, those times where you get convicted and we call out to God for help and he gives us strength in that crisis. And it's basically like that temptation becomes smaller and smaller and smaller as we learn to live by faith. And rather than obeying the flesh, it's. SPEAKER C Interesting, it talks about the works of the flesh and that anybody who does those things, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. But we also have the text there going back to Romans. Romans, chapter eight and verse eight. It says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So God is not pleased with those sins, those evil things, outbursts of wrath, even heresies, heresies is false doctrine. Obviously, if you put your faith in false doctrine, you'll be led astray. So we got to know the truth and love the truth and help ask God for the spirit of the truth, which is the Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth so we can understand these things and believe and accept them by faith. But it says in verse five, for those who live according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh. In other words, the desires of their flesh, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. The Bible refers to them. These are the things that control them. So the senses override the power of the mind. The mind may desire for something more wholesome, but the senses are stronger than the mind. So the lower powers, which we refer to the desires, they control what's supposed to be the higher powers. The higher powers now, which are supposed to be the mind and the conscience and reason and intellect now actually gets enslaved to what we see, what we feel, what we taste, what we touch, what we smell. Our senses are overwhelmed and it overwhelms the mind. So it says there that verse five for those who live according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. So the spirit then also has things that it teaches us and instructs us. What happens is now there's a reversal of what used to enslave us. We're no longer slaves of the flesh. We now have surrendered our will to God and therefore our appetites. And that now come under the dictates of conscience and reason. But while the vehicle, without that connection of airflow between the engine and the air intake and the turbo is disconnected, that can't happen. But when we are connected to God through the Holy Spirit, all of a sudden the new motives and the new desires that comes from the connection with God now enables us to walk a different life to what we previously walked. SPEAKER D Because it's interesting, right, with that analogy that the man who is selling the car, he's like, there's nothing wrong with the car. SPEAKER C Yeah, that's right. SPEAKER D He's like, no, you've got wrong expectations. And it's interesting. Unfortunately, sometimes preachers can be the Bible actually talks about preachers who just say, peace, peace. Yes, basically saying, everything's just fine. Don't worry about yourself. But we don't just hear it in religious fears. We also see it on the news. People crying out, everything's just fine. Peace, peace. Peace. But when we really honest with ourselves, some people say, don't be too hard on yourself. Just relax. Don't worry. It doesn't satisfy. No, the deep cravings of our heart is to reflect the character of God. We weren't made for anything less. And especially when it comes to the Christian life, when we are hurting other people and living a life that is contrary to the life of Christ, it just doesn't satisfy. When someone says, don't be too hard on yourself. Don't worry. Some people are like, your expectations are too high. Don't expect too much from God. That's essentially what they're saying. SPEAKER C Like the car salesman, he said, look, your expectation is a little bit high. That's pretty much the performance you can expect. But it's not until he actually took the car and realized, well, hang on. The specs say this, the car is performing well below what it's supposed to do, that they realize there was a problem. Once identified there was a problem, they were able to go and do some investigation, and it was very easy to find. The fact that this airflow pipe had been disconnected. SPEAKER D It reminds me of the story of the woman at the well, that lady, as I've done study and preached on that story many times, she was satisfied to be unsatisfied. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D It's basically the place when we come to when we feel that there's no solution to the problems. And so we content ourselves to be unsatisfied. She never knew that there could be someone who would meet the deepest desires of her heart. She'd been through five marriages. All of them had failed. And now she's with another man. This is the 6th relationship. They haven't been married. And she has been looking in vain to find really what her heart is craving for, what her heart's truly, truly craving for an experience of love and connection. And every single person has failed her. And then she meets Jesus, the 7th man. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And he says, whoever drinks of the water that I will give will never thirst again. Be truly, truly satisfied. And I find that in our Christian experience, the devil is always trying to tell us, just be satisfied. Lower your expectations, lower your expectations. Don't expect those things from God. You won't get them. Just be satisfied to be unsatisfied. SPEAKER C Right. SPEAKER D And this is the thing. I really believe that God is communicating another message in Scripture. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D He's communicating a message so much like it's almost like the devil wants us to be content with him just ruining and running our lives. SPEAKER C Content with Mediocrity or Lukewarmus as the Bible. SPEAKER D Also, Luis, he doesn't mind if we turn up to church. That's actually a place where he doesn't mind people to go as long as they don't receive the Spirit of God. Yes. It's not about geography. Walking into a church building doesn't fix anything. But when Jesus walks into the building of our heart, that's what makes a difference. Because in Luke, chapter ten, the disciples didn't have to tippy toe around the devil, right? When Jesus sent them out, he didn't say, hey, just tippy toe around. Don't disturb the devil too much because he's really too powerful for us. This is what Jesus said, verse 19. He said, Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. SPEAKER C Wow, that's a lot of power, because we know the enemy is very powerful. SPEAKER D The enemy is very powerful. The devil is a mastermind of evil. He can whip up a plan, quick, smart, to cause us to stumble and fall. But here we have Jesus saying with his tone of confidence, I give you the authority to trample under your feet the enemy. And this is the thing. This, I believe, is not. We often think of that. As an external thing. And sure, we're called to go into the world and preach the gospel and bring down the kingdom of darkness. But what about when we look at the landscape of our own hearts? We see that the big castles, the fortresses of the devil that he's set up in our heart, the works of the flesh, the bastion of pride and all these different things that are in our lives. God says, I give you the authority to trample upon serpents and scorpions, whatever the devil's doing in your life. I'm actually going to give you the power by the Holy Spirit to actually bring the power of Satan to nothing. SPEAKER C That's right. That is the promise of God. And we are to accept this and receive this by faith. You were talking about setting expectations as high as we can set expectations. We obviously don't want to go contrary to the Word of God. We obviously want to be in line with the Word of God because the Spirit of God and the Word of God cooperate together. Because the Word of God is Spirit inspired, so the Holy Spirit will never contradict its own word. It's aligned with it and fully in harmony with it. But in regards to expectations, I just want to finish with this text. This comes from Ephesians, chapter three and verse 20. Now says now to him who's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. In other words, as high as your expectations are, god can do so much more than you even think or even ask for according to the power. And that word power is dunamis dunamis power that works in us. To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Dear listener, we pray that God will bless you. May you believe his promises, that he who walks in the Spirit will also not fulfill the lust of the flesh, because God has promised that he's able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Let's rely on Him to do what he said he would do. Until next time, god be with you. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected] You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you.