WALKING IN THE SPIRIT #13 ROSS SMITH
This morning, I want to come again around the Word and continue on a similar theme to that which we’ve followed now for several weeks and that is “WALKING AND LIVING IN THE SPIRIT” but as I contemplated the Word this week, I began to think upon that aspect that Paul referred to in:-
Galatians 2:20 THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE…..
This morning when we sang HAVE THINE OWN WAY LORD – how we love that old hymn, we sing it so often – but then I wondered how much sincerity attends the thrust of that song when it really comes to us at the point of contact. “Have Thine own way Lord, as long as it doesn’t cost me too much or interfere with my comfort or make me do those things which are inappropriate to the way I want to go about it.”
It is an interesting study to look back at the men and women of the Word of God and review what they were and where they came from and how they were able to say in the context of Paul….”THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE”…. Prior to making this statement, many of them had inappropriate backgrounds, and prior to us making that statement, many of us have had inappropriate backgrounds or experiences or hurts, so we would think.
But this morning, I want to explode this myth. If we took time today to ask and answer the question, ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE LIFE THAT YOU NOW LIVE? we would get many diverse answers. Some would say “Yes, I’m reasonably happy and content in the way I am”. Others would say “Well I would be more satisfied with more money or resources”. Then there would be another group that would say “No I am definitely not satisfied!” because they do not have the authority or the influence that equates with success in the eyes of the world, but thanks be to God that He is bringing together a people who, in a fourth category, would say “Definitely I am NOT satisfied, because I know that God intends me for better things”.
Paul’s acknowledgement in
Galatians 2v20 THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE…
This is an acknowledgement that he is now different to what he used to be and he has prescribed to us both the route and the reason. We are not going to go too deeply into both of those except to look at it. The route is “I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST,” I have shared His crucifixion, Paul says in the book “Be an imitator of me”.
Now not too many of us like to follow that prescribed route, that is, – “I have been crucified,” the REASON being, I LIVE BY FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME. That’s the reason Paul could say “I submit to crucifixion”, because Jesus Christ died, He gave Himself for me, He loved me.
I reviewed some of the people and their occupations and the areas that their occupations before they proceeded in their exploits of faith. I went back and found that Luke was a doctor, Peter was a fisherman, Paul was a Pharisee and a tentmaker, Matthew was a publican or tax collector, Rahab was a harlot, Moses was a prince and then a murderer, David was a shepherd, Amos was an orchardist, Nehemiah was a wine waiter, they came from many diverse backgrounds.
Our backgrounds, or our occupations are not the governing factor, they present us with no present disadvantage except for the years lost during that time when we could have lived more equitably for the Lord, but even then, though we have wasted years, the Lord can take that time and turn it around and use it for His advantage.
Deuteronomy 23:5 Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because the Lord your God loves you.
Nehemiah 13:2 For they met not the Israelites with food and drink but hired Balaam to curse them; yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.
Don’t think that that which you have gone through down through the years is wasted because if we will allow God to use it, He can turn it around and cause it to become a blessing.
You see, Luke benefitted from his studies in medicine because his writings then, under the inspiration of the Spirit, were so precise.
Peter’s understanding and patience for fishing were of great advantage to him then in his harvesting of men.
Rahab’s background as a prostitute would cause one to think that it would severely restrict her usefulness, society shuns the ladies of the night, but her understanding of human nature pushed her beyond the realm of the flesh and into the dimension that made her a woman of faith.
Nehemiah was a wine waiter but he became a builder of a nation. Amos was an orchardist and a shepherd and yet God picked up that man and he began to prophesy of the impending doom of the nation of Israel.
Matthew was a publican or a tax collector, and they were one of the most despised classes of people or occupations at that time, and I don’t think a lot has changed in that respect, has it? These men that were tax collectors were regarded as ceremonially unclean:
1 Because of their extortion;
2 Because of their perpetual contact with the Gentiles; and
3 Because they always had to work on the Sabbath, because much of the time that was the only time and place that they could catch up with those that had to pay their taxes.
Our expectations today of being a people destined to walk and live in the Spirit are not only ambitions that are prescribed to us by the Word of God but they are supported and fuelled by the many examples of men of Scripture. We know all the principles involved, but up until now, we have only been able to say THE LIFE THAT I NOW SHOULD LIVE…. We know how we should live, so how were these men and women of old able to break that excuse cycle that we still seem to embrace?
Do you ever hear anyone say “Well, I’m trying”? I hear it often. I think that that is a good start because it indicates that there is awareness that some changes need to take place, but more often than not, it becomes a cop out for our continuing failures.
We blame what we were, we blame our occupations, we blame what we’ve done, we blame our backgrounds, and we use all these things as a vehicle of escape when instead they should be stepping stones into victory. What has gone before we can use for the glory of God. Moses could well have dodged his commission, and he did try in part, he was born in captivity, he was a slave, he became a ward of the state when Pharaoh’s daughter found him floating down the river, he then became a fugitive after he had dispensed with one of the Egyptians. He had plenty of background that was inappropriate but the Word of God tells me in:-
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus,
Not just fixed, not just refurbished, not just repaired, but:-
RECREATED IN CHRIST JESUS,
That’s exciting!
Ephesians 2:10b That we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time],
Now, I just want to stop here for a moment. Not predestined back when we were unregenerate, but “predestined (planned beforehand) for us, taking paths which He prepared ahead to time.” God never intended that we live in degradation and depravity, that wasn’t His plan, that’s not the path that He planned for us, and when people get into the area of predestination and say “I took this route because that’s what God ordered….” Rhubarb!!! God made us for His honour and His glory and He expects us to express through every faculty of our being the divine nature and we’re able then, to do those good works which God planned for us.
Paul goes on to say
Ephesians 2:10c living the good life
Back in antiquity, those men of old, Peter when he was fishing, Luke when he was doctoring, Mark when he was doing whatever he was doing, Mathew when he was collecting the taxes, Rahab when she was involved in her activities, that wasn’t the good life. The book says:-
Ephesians 2v10 [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].
Jeremiah 29:11 I have a plan for your life, a plan for good and not for evil…..
Moses ended up in a place, but not by choice. It wasn’t his first preference.
Hebrews 11:25 -26 Because he (Moses) preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life. He considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).
Moses was placed in the palace but it wasn’t his choice. The interesting thing about it is that this was Moses’ training ground, he could never have afforded nor could he have qualified to get the training he got in Pharaoh’s palace that eventually would equip him to lead the nation of Israel, he got it basically by what we would call “default.”
WHEREVER GOD HAS ALLOWED YOU TO BE BROUGHT UP AND EDUCATED IS HIS PALACE FOR YOU.
You might say “Well, my background and my experience certainly didn’t fit into the palace-type environment, if you knew where I came from it certainly wasn’t much like a palace.” Let me tell you, whatever it was, God can still use it as a “palace of preparation” if you will allow the Lord to take that background, and turn it around, and cause you to change for His honour and His glory.
For all his palace training and education, however, Moses still had one area in which he lacked, one vital ingredient, that ingredient was self-control. You will recall that he saw an Egyptian beating up one of his Israeli countrymen, and so what did Moses do, he took a quick look around, thinking no one was looking, and disposed of him. He killed him, but this component of Moses’ nature had to be dealt with, and he’s forty years old.
We look at Prince Charles, and see the training, the programming, the brain washing that that man has gone through to prepare him for his potential regal position. Moses had gone through a similar sort of training for forty years, and now the Lord says to him, “You’re still not through, pack your bags Moses and get to the backside of the desert.”
There he had to live for another forty years, going through God’s training programme, so that when he reached the time and place of leading a nation out of captivity, he would hopefully have that required self-control. Recognize the pattern? How many people just turned off? Who wants to go for another forty years through all this training?
Don’t avoid your burning bush, for too long now, God has been confronting us by His Spirit, with His Word, in circumstance and situation, and if we took it back into Moses’ experience, we have seen the burning bush, but so often we have turned aside.
Don’t avoid your burning bush, by the way, Moses never really did get on top of that and he paid the price so dearly for it, you remember that he argued with God at the burning bush.
Somebody gave me a book recently which commented on this lack of self control and said that Moses said “Here am I Lord, send Aaron” does that sound familiar?
He argued with God at the burning bush, and
- Then when he came down from off the mountain, found that the children of Israel had built a golden calf; he smashed the Ten Commandments on the ground in front of them.
- Then when the children of Israel lacked water, he smote the rock in anger.
He lacked that self-control, that vital ingredient, and he paid the price for it, he was precluded from seeing the Promised Land first hand, because he didn’t have the self-control that was required of a man of God. You well may ask, “Moses?”
Moses was a man of God, yes, but the pattern, the examples set in Scripture are there for us that we might live and walk in the Spirit in a way that this world has never known. Jesus said, I’m going to go away from here and the works that I did, you will do greater, because we have been partakers of the divine nature.
(It feels like a library in here, it’s so quiet!!!)
God used a converted murderer to deliver the nation of Israel, He used a converted harlot to deliver the spies, God used a wine waiter to build and rebuild Jerusalem, God used an old orchardist to prophesy the impending doom to the nation, and God used a murderous Pharisee to bring the news of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.
If he did that with those men, what can he do with you and I this morning, because we have all the resources of heaven at our disposal? The Bible tells me that He has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3)
I get apprehensive sometimes when I see church notices that someone is going to give testimony of what they used to be and did in their unregenerate state. They go into all the gory details of their drug addiction or when they were Hell’s Angels and all these sorts of things.
And sure, these experiences can be used for our training and our development so that we can live in a state useful to God now, but it was never what God intended. Sometimes it is helpful to know that God has redeemed a man out of that depravity but it is a distinct disadvantage to major on the negative. The Bible says “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me,” He didn’t say “I want you to go and tell them how bad you were, how rotten you were, where you’ve been, that is not convenient, we need to lift up the name of Jesus.
You see, God is not looking for the gifts of the Spirit, God is looking for the fruit of the Spirit, God is the giver of the gifts, we get them because God deposits them within us, but we produce the fruits.
He is looking for that reproduction of the nature and the character of the Lord. Hindsight is seldom productive, it is often a cause for stumbling, have you ever been walking down the street and thought you saw something interesting over your shoulder, and the next thing, you were almost flat on your face? It happens also in the Spirit. The Bible tells me in
Luke 9:62 Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back [to the things behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.
Colossians 2:2 [For my concern is] that their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One).
Your background, your occupation, where you have come from and what you’ve done is no inhibitor to the Spirit of God and to the glory of God if you will allow Him to take you, right where you are, and transform you so that you can stand before people and say “THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE…”
There is a lovely lament of a king that is recorded in
Isaiah 38:12 My [fleshly] dwelling is plucked up and is removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life as a weaver [rolls up the finished web]; [the Lord] cuts me free from the loom; from day to night You bring me to an end.
Sound familiar, so often we think “I don’t want to go on with this”.
Isaiah 38:14 Like a twittering swallow or a crane, so do I chirp and chatter; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary and dim with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; take my side and be my security [as of a debtor being sent to prison].
Now Isaiah 38 comes to verse 17, listen to this!
Isaiah 38:17 Behold, it was for my peace that I had intense bitterness;
Could I reword the first sentence like this? “Behold THE FACT that I had intense bitterness was for my peace,” that which Hezekiah had gone through was for his peace. We think so often that that which we are going through is for our destruction, but God gives us opportunity in the difficulties that arise to glorify His name. And Hezekiah goes on… Listen to the heart of the man.
but You have loved back my life from the pit of corruption and nothingness, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
Our background doesn’t matter because when we are recreated in Christ Jesus, He puts all our sins behind His back, He loves us back from the pit of corruption.
King Hezekiah in this part of Isaiah is well aware of the value of his life now, and that was just his natural life. How much more should we be acutely, intensely aware of the value of the spirit nature that God has imparted to us. The life that I now live is not intended to be a waiting game, sitting out the duration of our natural life until Jesus comes again.
2 Corinthians 4:11a For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake,
Been handed over this week? Paul says we are constantly experiencing being handed over to death. When we see that sort of experience coming, our Harley Davidson can’t go fast enough, we’re off! Who wants this? Who needs it? But Paul says
2 Corinthians 4:11b that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be EVIDENCED THROUGH OUR FLESH which is liable to death.
Are you listening this morning? We are being handed over to death so that the resurrection life of Jesus, that recreation can be evidenced, not through what I say, not through what I know, but through my flesh. That means that I live it out. THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE!
2 Corinthians 4:12 Thus death is actively at work in us, but [it is in order that our] life [may be actively at work] in you.
There is a purpose to it. I die to self, my body is being handed over to death so that that life of Jesus Christ can be actively at work in me.
There is a purpose. Notice that it is that LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE that has to be effective, no longer can we afford just to tell people about it. The church has done this for generations, they’ve said “This is how it should be; this is how it must be”, but now we must reach the point and say “This is how it is, look at me”, not for any ego or massaging of our personal ambition, but because Jesus Christ is evidenced through the life of our flesh.
We all want the life of Jesus Christ and we all want to be like Him, but the power of God is manifest when others can see in us the character and nature and life of Jesus Christ emerging through our pressures and our trials. It’s easy to be lovely when everything is going smoothly, but when the pressure comes on, when the difficulties start to happen, that’s when the nature of Jesus Christ should begin to be evidenced. We should carry it like an aroma, like a redolence of the person of Jesus Christ, not only in the easy times, but in the hard times. Remember back in
Colossians 1:11 [We pray] that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, [to exercise] every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance) with joy,
The last part of the prayer is what we need the “ALL POWER” for in so many cases we ask for “O God give me power so I can go and change the world”. The book says so that we can exercise every kind of patience and endurance with joy.
So how do we manifest this life of Christ, to show that we are indeed partakers of the divine nature, to be able to live and to walk in the Spirit? To get to the place where I can say with the heroes of old, and stand beside the Apostle Paul and say THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE, and be sure and guaranteed that it is different to what it was previously.
2 Corinthians 4:10 Always carrying about in the BODY [not in my briefcase] the liability and exposure…
And I like to use or add another word here because it seems so much more relevant – “the liability and exposure” plus THE “VULNERABILITY”.
…to the same putting to death that the Lord Jesus suffered, so that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be shown forth by and in our bodies.
Why should I carry about with me that “vulnerability” so that if some turkey decides he wants to crucify me…? Why? SO THAT the resurrection life of Jesus also may be shown forth by and in our body! In other words, THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE…..
We’ve inherited this ability to live in a new dimension and I so often wonder why I refuse to adopt it. So firstly, I want to confirm that it is ours and then try to describe why we don’t live in it.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, I am [Myself] the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live;
2 Corinthians 4:11 For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death.
You see, we so often protect and preserve and cosset ourselves in cotton wool so that we don’t come against these things that would interfere with my comfort. “O God, preserve me, they’re after me”. The Bible says we are being given over to death for Jesus sake so that the life of Jesus Christ might be revealed in our mortal body.
2 Corinthians 13:4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He goes on living by the power of God. And though we too are weak in Him [as He was humanly weak], yet in dealing with you [we shall show ourselves] alive and strong in [fellowship with] Him by the power of God.
That’s here and now, that’s not off in the never never.
Philippians 1:21 For me to live is Christ [His life in me], and to die is gain [the gain of the glory of eternity].
Philippians 1:22 If, however, it is to be life in the flesh and I am to live on here, that means fruitful service for me; so I can say nothing as to my personal preference [I cannot choose],
Today we are being assaulted on every side by the cult of human potential, seminars on how to do everything from making money to, would you believe it, how to give a word of knowledge. There are organizations that call themselves Christian, that for a few hundred dollars, they will teach you how to give a word of knowledge!!!
Systems developed to try to tap that fountain of hidden resource that will enable you to develop the confidence and ability to handle life. Oh, it looks so good on paper!
Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?
People on every side are flocking to these seminars, and for some it works. They find some new confidence or some new ability to function in the emotional areas, and they’re able to make impressions on other people, but this is where the whole system breaks down.
The measure of their success is the degree to which they are recognized by someone else, that’s the world’s gauge. There are even Christian organizations that are taking up versions of this method and they’ll take the words of hymns and of Scripture and they’ll glaze them over and present them to you “This is the way”.
But it is still the same old thing, working out to the glory of the individual, calling him to rely upon his natural resources as the very thing which the cross of Jesus Christ puts to death. The carnal mind is at enmity with God, we must come to that place where we divest ourselves of dependence upon self and rest upon the willingness of God to work within me.
Philippians 1:6 And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.
He’s begun a good work in you and He’s going to keep it going until Jesus comes.
We have to do it without any exhibition, without any demonstration until we come in quiet and loving ways to see our character change, till we become like Jesus. And we have to be able to do it in the midst of rejection and in the midst of a lack of recognition.
The human animal thrives on recognition, but we have to prove ourselves to one person and one person alone, and that is to Jesus Christ, and that is where we struggle. We want the power of God, but we want the recognition for it as well, we want the credit. If God does anything through us, we want to be sure that every Christian publication around gets a copy of the press release. We have the television cameras and the radio stations come to find out how much time we spent in prayer or how we got to that exalted place.
Let me tell you, Zacchaeus had the same problem. It says he couldn’t get through for the press!
Galatians 2:6b God is not impressed with the positions that men hold and He is not partial and recognizes no external distinctions
We want the life of Jesus but we also want the satisfaction in the flesh. We want to be serene in our spirits and gentle and compassionate of heart, but we still want the licence to tell people off when they are out of line. Amen???
We want the kingdom of heaven and we want to insist on our own rights as well but we cannot have both because the new covenant where Paul says “Always bearing about in the body, the dying of Jesus Christ, so that the life of Jesus might be manifest. Not Ross’ life or Eddy’s life, but the life of Jesus would be manifest. THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE….
That’s where 2 Corinthians 4:11 helps.
For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death.
Because it is at that point that God takes over, Paul says, “while we live”, not after we live, so we who live are constantly experiencing being handed over.
If we go back one verse, we have to make that conscious choice where we give up our desires or our ambitions or our excuses, our little barriers – little barriers, some of them are mountains. We’ve got to relinquish that need for recognition and significance in order that God can elevate.
2 Corinthians 4:11 says that God places us in circumstances where we have to die whether we like it or whether we don’t. Remember Moses, don’t rely on how you feel, just see that what you are going through complies with the demands of the Word of God. No one feels like being inferior or rejected or second rate but beloved, I have been crucified with Christ and dead men don’t have too many feelings. When we are partakers of the divine nature in reality, then we will not accommodate those feelings of inferiority. No doubt, Moses felt isolated and rejected and alone and wasted and hurt and despairing and all those other emotions which attend a man who walks in the carnality of his mind, but if we can recognize, that through these things, Jesus Christ is working out His will in us, that others will be given life because of the death I’m going through, then it will be worth it all. THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE…. Is it in line with the Word of God, and the nature of God and the purpose of God?
This week as we go about our duties, we can ask ourselves “Can I stand before this congregation and say, THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE I LIVE BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME?”
oOo
Ross Smith 