WALKING IN THE SPIRIT #14 ROSS SMITH
Over the past several weeks as we have spent time in contemplating that provision that God has made that we should live and walk in the Spirit, it has become a very exciting experience to plum the words of God and find indeed that there is a route that we can follow that leads us on and above and beyond that which we already know and experience.
As I contemplated this week, the continuation of that experience, I found that there are three areas that are relevant and although this morning we will only get to one of them, I think they are most important.
If we live and walk in the Spirit, we will have
- An expanded life
- An expounded life and
- An expended life
None of us are under any misapprehension that we are living far below the potential that God has placed within us and has planned for us. “The life that I now live….,” Paul said in Galatians 2:20. What an opportunity it is for us to look at our current situation and to compare it with what is in store for those who will embrace the plan and the provision of God for us.
I suppose, as I looked at the subject, I was unsure of what the Bible definition of life really was. I have some preconceptions like we all do, but Paul, when he speaks in Ephesians 2:20 of LIVING THE GOOD LIFE, I wasn’t sure that I knew really what he had in mind. I went back to have a look at the encyclopaedia and the dictionary to see if that would give me some clarity and I found that the science of LIFE is called biology.
It was interesting to note the encyclopaedia definition, it says that “Biology is the science that attempts to survey and understand the phenomenon of life itself.” Initially, to me this was of great comfort, for I thought that if the scientists can only attempt to understand the phenomenon of life, then I can be excused for not being too astute about the subject.
But then, as I sat and contemplated what it was that the Lord would share, I found that ours is not a concern for the SCIENCE OF LIFE, but ours is a concern for the QUALITY OF LIFE. Our life is to be a sanctified life, our life is to be a quality life. But even when I found in the Word that we should be sanctified, that sounded a little too ecclesiastical for me, a little bit hard to understand. So I went back to look at what John penned in
John 17:17 Sanctify them
That gave me my key, but then he went on to say
John 17:17 Purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy.
When we live a sanctified life, we are living a separated life, a purified and consecrated life. How does it happen?
John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth. Your Word is truth.
I want us to hold on to that last part of this Scripture until we come to Hebrews 6 a little further on.
If we can grasp that our life, our Christian life, is to be a LIFE and not just a CREED, then the Word at work in us will produce a quality of life that is intended by Father. So often, the Christian experience is one only of profession and it doesn’t come through in the nature and the character and the activity of those who would claim to be Christian. Our profession has to become LIFE, not just a creed.
Wherever God, by His grace, implants good principles, (in other words, the Word of God), into the heart and life of a man, those principles are for the production of good works or of LIFE.
We already understand that when we speak about good works, we are speaking about good works of obedience, when we live in an obedient state, that then is the soil of relationship, it brings us into that intimacy with God.
But amongst the greatest factors limiting our attainment in Christ and that holiness, (or wholeheartedness that he requires of us) is our DISOBEDIENCE to the will and Word of God. Why do we disobey? Basically because it interferes with my comfort, it interferes with what I want to do, that is why prayer meetings are neglected. The Lord has encouraged and provoked and incited us to come to prayer but we resist the directions of the Word and the drawing of the Spirit because it interferes with our comfort.
Let me go on. All the processes of sanctification, those spelled out in John 17:17, stop, or cease during the period of a harsh word, we don’t like the word REBELLION. But these processes of sanctification stop during the period of rebellion with the consequence that the life that we now live is inferior to that which God intends.
And let me tell you, that when we live in that state of stubbornness or rebellion, it begins to show. Firstly to me! I can identify in myself that coldness, that remoteness, that insensitivity to the drawing of the Spirit of God. Usually, these areas of stubbornness have to do with what we see as outward happiness and success and comfort but we fail to see what the book says provides the true happiness.
Psalm 16:11 You will show me the PATH OF LIFE; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
The Psalmist says if we will revert back to His presence, if we will divest ourselves of our stubbornness and disobedience and comply with the directions of the Word of God, we will find not only the path of life, but we will find happiness, success and all the pleasures we need.
Life cannot be produced by us, neither in a test tube or in the fulfilment of its existence. Many people today don’t live, they just exist. Without Christ in our life, it is not LIFE at all, it is simply the duration between the cot and the grave where we fill in time. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have LIFE and have it more abundantly”.
LIFE is presented to us, He is the giver of LIFE, our only prerogative is how we live it out.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God (His unmerited favour and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind.
If I translate that into terms that I understand, it says that the grace of God has come forward – that means in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ has appeared that we might live. Life has been imparted and for those who have responded in faith to that life that Jesus has brought forth, it has been imputed to us.
Imputed? = Transmitted or transferred, it’s given to us. That life is a DIVINE LIFE, that life is Godlikeness, that LIFE is holiness. It is not something to be looked forward to, but it is something to be received right here and now.
So often we think, one day, I’m going to be holy, one day, I’m going to be beautiful and righteous. This life has come and it is a LIFE that will change us. It is come to instruct us, to school us, to discipline us, to train us to live godly, that we might ALL become teachers BY EXAMPLE.
How is it outworked? How is that LIFE EXPANDED? We’re all familiar with the Scripture and we’ve used it frequently in
John 10:10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).
Now it is unusual for human nature to be so reticent to take something that is offered to them freely particularly when it is of considerable value.
Sometimes, I have occasion to go down to the Supermarket and they regularly have some particular commodity on special, and when I come down the ramp from the car park, I find that there is a line of people coming out of the door to the Shopping Centre right out into the car park. I go in and wend my way in through the crowd and I find that this line goes right down into the checkout area, and I couldn’t believe my eyes until I found that they were selling sugar and margarine at half price, and the line extended from the supermarket, right out through the shopping centre into the car park.
But God has offered us a commodity far more valuable, far more freely, far more lavish, and there is not line up for it simply because we, as God’s people have not evidenced that life in the way that He intends so that people know the value of it.
What we are offered in Christ Jesus is a LIFE THAT IS EXPANDED. The Greek word that is used in John 10:10 for abundantly means “superabundant in quantity and superior in quality.” But the Greek dictionary didn’t stop there, it went on with another long list of descriptive adjectives, superlatives such as exceedingly abundantly above. These are all the colours, the shades of the one word that we have in John 10:10 that says “You shall have life abundantly”. It sounds so bland in English, doesn’t it? When we get back into the original, it says exceedingly abundantly above, more abundantly, advantage, exceedingly very highly, beyond measure, superfluous. I like the last one, because He gives me life, so much life, such an abundance of life that some of it is even superfluous.
I must ask myself, “Why is it that such an offer is so obviously refused. You see, a life spent living and walking in the Spirit would seem to be so superlative, that it should be highly sought after by those to whom it is offered.
Paul, when he wrote to the Hebrews, stated it like this. [Remember what we saw in John previously] Now we come to
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore let us GO ON
Every time I read that I think that so much of the church of today misinterprets this. They think it reads “Let us therefore CARRY ON.” That is not what it says.
Hebrews 6:1 let us GO ON and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah),
When the book refers to the teachings and doctrines of Christ, that is talking about the academics.
Let us go on advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity.
The teachings and doctrines are the academics, the spiritual maturity is the application, that’s the difference. Today, we have too much theological knowledge and understanding, but we don’t have the maturity of spiritual character through application.
Hebrews 6:1 Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned] to God,
The two words that Paul used there that are so important to us this morning in a life that is expanded to COMPLETENESS AND PERFECTION. This is such an expansion of our present state as to be almost unbelievable. And Paul suggests that we are not there because of one thing and that one thing is that WE RESIDE IN THE ELEMENTARY.
He said “Let us go on and get past the elementary.” We’re still in kindergarten. I think in America they call kindergarten “elementary school”, let’s get past the kindergarten. Paul suggests as I said, that we haven’t yet attained to it because we reside in the elementary.
Now when I went back and looked at the word in the early part of Hebrews 6:1 where is says “Let us get past the teachings and DOCTRINES of Christ.
The word DOCTRINES in the Greek is the word LOGOS, and we appreciate that the Logos is the written word of God. So, Paul is saying that we must progress, expand, intensify our position in God aiming for and growing into that Christ likeness which in so doing will enlarge our lives in every dimension.
John said in 1:17 “Sanctify them by the truth”. Now that’s what sanctifies us, but so many of us stop there in the elementary. Paul says “Now, let’s get on past just reading the Word, just appreciating the Word and become spiritually mature.”
We were made holy; we’ve been consecrated by the Truth, but Paul is now saying, “It is not sufficient for you just to be holy, I suggest you be Christlike”. But I thought holiness was the ultimate! No, Paul says “I want you now to come to completeness and to perfection – not just to be sanctified; not just to be set apart”, Paul says “Now become Christlike.”
When he says, in that same verse LAYING AGAIN THE FOUNDATIONS, the intention of this expression is a violent one. It means a throwing down, a hurling, a deliberate hurling which means that Paul is saying to us here that every so often we’ve got to come back, and because we have been disobedient and stubborn or whatever, we have to hurl down again, that foundation of repentance. He says “of dead works”. We have to get past the elementary. How do we do it? Peter says in
2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace (undeserved favour, spiritual strength) and recognition and knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (the Messiah). To Him [be] glory (honour, majesty, and splendour) both now and to the day of eternity. Amen (so be it)!
Paul says we should grow in grace, but how do I do that? My mind began to agitate. So often we take a plant and we put it in a pot in potting mix, we grow it in potting mix, God’s grace is my potting mix, He says “My grace is sufficient for you”. I can reside in the provision of God, His undeserved favour for me, but I grow because of His grace towards me.
If He was vindictive or acrimonious about my activities, then He would not afford me grace and I would be compressed until I would be squeezed to death. But God says “My grace abounds to you. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound”. He pours in so that I might grow in grace, “Expand”! But Peter didn’t stop there, he gave us four distinct areas in this verse.
He said 1 1 Grow in grace
2 Grow in recognition
3 Grow in knowledge
4 Grow in understanding
A first, superficial glance would say “I know what that means”.
To grow in recognition is to grow in awareness of God
To grow in knowledge is to grow in astuteness
To grow in understanding is to grow in alikeness
When I think like God thinks, then I will feel like God feels, and then I will act like God acts. The only way I can be like that is when I understand the nature and the character of God, the only way that I am ever going to understand that is to come close to Him.
Grow in grace, grow in awareness, grow in astuteness, grow in alikeness. In other words, we need to become significant in our capacity for God and our likeness to God and we do so as we go past the elementary.
Now I know that that might offend some people, for there is in this the suggestion that there has not been enough energy or effort or concentration expended. Some will say “I have been trying to get close to the Lord now for however long. I have done everything I know.” I thought about this and asked Father “Why?” and then that Scripture came to me which says
Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment.
And my only retort this morning, if you are offended because of what Paul says in Hebrews 6:1 is, do you “love the Lord with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind and with all your being”, or do you still have some other preferences? The book puts it in very simple terms. In
1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.
Let me go back and ring the spiritual connotation. When I was a child of God, I thought like a child, I spoke like a child, I acted like a child, but now that I am a SON OF GOD…..
You see there is that degree of maturity that comes through relationship with Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:14 So then, WE MAY NO LONGER BE CHILDREN, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead.
Ephesians 4:15 Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things,
That’s quality, that’s the Word lived out, that’s the Word coming through in my nature and my character.
Ephesians 4:15 Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly].
Then Paul finishes off with a real upper cut.
Enfolded in love, LET US GROW UP [LET US GROW UP!] in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
When we went into Hebrews 6:1, we saw that we get past the elementary and we come to spiritual maturity. When we are IN HIM – that is the Christ likeness, don’t just be Holy, be Christlike, let us grow up into Him in every way and in all things.
You see some people grow out but they never grow up. That’s the difficulty in this day and generation, it seems that it is cultivated. You can tell if a person has never grown up by their behaviour, children want their own way, children are immature, children are generally smaller with all that that infers.
I’m not just talking about size here, I’m talking about understanding, appreciation, intelligence, academic skills, emotional stability. Children are generally smaller, children need discipline, children are irresponsible, Paul said “Let us grow up”.
God has an ambition for us, God said “Through Jesus Christ, I am come that you might have life and have it more ABUNDANTLY. He wants us to live and to walk in the Spirit and we only have to look at Ephesians to get some specifications to see what is involved.
Ephesians 4:13b that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality
(with no aberration – that means all my preferences, all my desires, all my ambitions are submerged in what Jesus Christ wants through my life. He wants first place.)
Now, here it comes, this is beyond the dimension of holiness, this is beyond the dimension of sanctification.
Ephesians 4:13b (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.
Wasn’t Paul graphic? Wasn’t Paul eloquent as he penned the specifications for the life of those who will accept the abundance of that which Jesus gives us?
The word PERFECTION here by the way, is the same word used in Hebrews 6:1 where it says, LET US COME TO COMPLETENESS AND PERFECTION, the same Greek word is used.
The term STATURE – the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ – means same age as, as big as, until we become just like Jesus Christ, in other words. He wants me to expand until I’m as big as Jesus Christ, I’m talking in terms spiritual. The initial pattern for growth started out, as we are well aware in
1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto [completed] salvation,
Today, the Word of God is being watered down and compromised and adjusted and bent to fit. And God said “NO WAY! I want you to have the pure unadulterated spiritual milk of the Word that you may be nurtured and GROW!
After having the milk then we get on to strong meat. Paul said “I need to feed you with meat but you still need to be fed with milk, but then he went on in
Hebrews 6:3 If indeed God permits, we will [now] proceed [to advanced teaching].
This advanced teaching of course, only comes through and by the Spirit of God and it only comes to men and women who are large enough to carry the responsibility that God gives. Today, we need a multitude of men and women who are large enough to carry that responsibility.
You see, every victory expands our life. You might think “Oh if you only knew what a week I’ve had this week brother, you wouldn’t speak like this, I have had such a week you wouldn’t want to know about it!” The book tells me that everything that has happened in this past week, month, year, is intended to enlarge us.
Romans 5 tells me that we come to maturity of character through the trials, the troubles, the responsibilities, the sufferings and the afflictions. They’re there to expand me, to make me grow. Just like nature hates a vacuum, so the Holy Spirit rushes in to fill the nature that has been emptied by separating itself from the world.
I close with two references:
2 Thessalonians 1:3 We ought and indeed are obligated [as those in debt] to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith is growing exceedingly and the love of every one of you each toward the others is increasing and abounds.
How could he tell? We’ve only got to go back to Mark 16, haven’t we? These things will happen when our faith is placed squarely and precisely in God. Your faith is growing exceedingly and the love of every one of you each toward the others is increasing and abounds.
I asked the question a minute ago, “Do you still love me?” I got some silly grins.
The time is coming when we will, indeed be the recipients of such an accolade, when the Spirit of God through a man who will recognize God at work will stand and say, “Because your love towards the others is increasing and abounds…” It will be obvious.
Can I give you an instruction from Isaiah 54:2, so that you don’t live in straightened places, restricted, constrained, incarcerated.
Isaiah 54:2 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes,
Why? God is looking for a people, looking for a company, who will have a capacity which as He pours in of Himself, they will have the ability to replicate the life of Jesus Christ in such a way that the world will look upon it and say “They’ve got LIFE and I want it”. When I am lifted up, I will draw men and women to me. How do we do it? By living the LIFE, an EXPANDED LIFE, by living and walking in the Spirit in a way that will glorify God, will satisfy our hearts and indeed will extend the kingdom. Do you want to be part of it?
oOo
Ross Smith 