Walk in the Spirit

Wayne Matthews

July 14, 2018

Welcome, everybody, to this seventh day Sabbath.

The purpose of this sermon is to consider what it means to walk in the spirit. If you’d like to turn to Galatians 5:16 we’ll get there in a moment.

The world cannot understand what this scripture really means nor can they live it. Only those that have God’s holy spirit can know it’s meaning and have the power to actually live it, to be able to walk in the spirit. When we say we walk in the spirit it has nothing to do with the spirit world.

Now, when you look at the world, and they might read this scripture, they have no understanding what it really means. They might have an idea, but when you consider what they think a lot of it’s connected to the fact that they believe they might have the holy spirit. The Protestant world would say that. Possibly others might think that it has something to do with their immortal soul that they believe that they have, therefore, they’re walking in the spirit.

But, really, only somebody with God’s holy spirit can actually understand it, and more importantly, to actually live it, to actually do it, achieve it, and it’s done by the power of God’s holy spirit.

Once we are called, baptized, and received God’s holy spirit our life will now involve checking our motive and intent. So there’s two parts to this walking in the spirit. The main part of it is to walk in the spirit, means to walk in God’s holy spirit. Somebody that has God’s holy spirit has now the power to live God’s’ way of life. Now, without God’s holy spirit we cannot live God’s way of life. It’s absolutely impossible. Now, people will achieve physical things of the commandments, for example, Sabbath keeping, and they would say, well, they’re keeping the Sabbath as a seventh day, from sunset to sunset as many Jews do, some Jews do, not all, and they would say, well, they’re walking in the spirit because they’re obeying God. But that’s not true because they don’t have the power to really walk in the spirit of the matter.

So that’s the first part. It requires God’s holy spirit.

Now, the second part is what we are involved in, which is we now have to check our motive and intent behind everything, because it’s the spirit of the law (and all going well we’ll get to that), which is what Christ explained about murder. People say “Walk in the spirit. Don’t murder.” Well, Christ said, “Well, no, it’s about your intent, about ill will. Having ill will toward somebody is actually a spiritual matter of murder.” We check our motives and intent to see whether it is of God or not. So that’s what we do. So many things in life that we do we should be checking to see what our motive is.

Now, it’s something that requires God’s holy spirit to have the ability to check our motive. Because the world, nobody out there really sits down and checks their motive, “Why am I doing what I’m doing?”

People will give something (they may give a hundred dollars to a charity), well, their motive really is selfish. They can’t see it. They can’t understand it, but we can see it that deep down there’s something coming back to them. They wouldn’t think it; they’re just giving a hundred dollars to a charity, therefore, it looks good on the outside, but deep, deep down their motive is selfish. Well, when we give a hundred dollars to whatever – the highest priority, of course, is God’s Church. If you had excess money why wouldn’t you give it to God’s Church to God’s work on this earth rather than to something physical?

Well, when we give it, why are we giving it? God talks about that, Christ talks about that whatever we do we should do it in secret. If we’re going to give, give it in secret so the glory can come back to us, which is to God. Not to us personally, but to God, not to us directly.

The other day (gets difficult when you check motive and intent all the time), I was actually (my wife wasn’t there), and I was in Woolworths buying some gluten free bread and they check through and went to the check out. I realized there was something wrong. Now, this is not about me, not glorifying me, I’m just giving an example how difficult it can get when you check your motive and intent. I realized they hadn’t charged me for two loaves of bread, which were $7.00 each. So I thought I’d go back. I wanted to go back and rectify it.

Now, I thought, well, what’s my motive here? It had nothing to do with me. It was this was the right thing to do, which is my motivation – this is the right thing to do. I don’t want to steal. Because I was aware of it I can’t do it; I have to go back. Then I have to check and say, “Well, what’s the timing here?” because I didn’t want any notification or credit for it.

Anyway, I waited for someone to go through and then I went to the lady and said, “Look, I don’t think you’ve charged me correctly. There’s two loaves missing off this. And she said, “Ah, yes, I’ve made a mistake. I pressed one instead of two.” Unfortunately the people in the queue next to come in line heard it. I said, “Well, you serve them. When you’ve finished them then I’ll give you my card and you can charge me.” I stood back.

Then I heard one of the couples saying, “Oh, he’s a lovely man, isn’t he?” Of course that blew up my head: “Oh, this is great.” Credit to self. I had a battle then. This is not about me, has nothing to do with me. This is about what’s right. I believe God’s spirit’s involved; therefore, this is what’s right. Then the lady said, “Ah, yes, he’s a lovely man.” I’m thinking, “Oh, this is terrible!” Then the scripture pops in my head thinking, “Don’t be like the Pharisees when you pray,” you know, like, get all the credit. “Oh, look at them!” I’m thinking, “Oh, this is “fantastic!”

Going through all these battles all I wanted to do was actually pay for something that I knew would have been stealing and then someone is giving me credit. Then I had a battle to make sure that I’m not taking the credit. “No, you don’t know me. I’m not good at all. I’m just doing what I know is right and there is no credit to me. Don’t give me credit, the credit goes to God because He put it in my mind by the power of His holy spirit to know that this is wrong, that the motive would be wrong to walk away.” So you can see the battles that go on within a mind that has God’s spirit because you’re checking motives and intent. I didn’t want any credit. The more they said, “Oh, he’s a lovely man,” I was, “Oh, this is terrible!” It was embarrassing almost. I felt terrible about it. I didn’t want that.

Now, that is what our life is about. We don’t want credit. So if we did give money to God’s Church we don’t want credit. The glory goes to God who put it in our mind to obey Him in spirit and truth. That’s what it’s all about. So that’s just an example of how we check our motive and intent. It’s something that we should be doing every day, but I know from personal experience it’s something that I don’t do all the time, that I don’t always check my motive and intent of why I’m doing what I’m doing, and therefore, I’m failing in that area. I’m using another part of my mind that is not connected to walking in the spirit. I’m walking in my human spirit. So there are only two choices, walking in the human spirit or walking in God’s spirit. They’re the two choices.

Well, if we have God’s holy spirit we will be checking our motive and intent every day. That’s the purpose of being in God’s Church – Why am I doing what I am doing? Why am I really doing it?

So this checking of our motives and intent behind our thoughts, words, and actions, this is actually what separates us from the world. It’s only those in God’s Church that have God’s holy spirit that can check their motive and intent to see why we are doing what we are doing. It’s an incredible gift that we have, this ability.

We actually have the power to think differently because that’s the difference. Now, if you just take that two loaves of bread example, how many people would actually go back and pay for it? Well, there would be some with the natural, carnal mind that probably would, but why would they do it? It’s not about obeying God; it’s more than likely the connection to pride, which is, “Ah, he’s a good man, isn’t he?” or “good woman, isn’t she?” That’s the motive, really, deep down. They want the credit for it.

Well, God says, no, the credit is not yours. The credit, all glory goes to God. And therefore, that’s our battle, making sure that we are walking in the spirit, with God’s holy spirit, checking our motive and intent of why we do what we do. In other words, we walk or live our life based on God’s spirit, the intent of the law because we have the power to do it, which is the spirit of the law. That’s when (we’ll hopefully get there) about why it’s important to use God’s spirit every day and to be checking all the time why am I doing what I’m doing? Why am I saying what I’m saying? We have God’s holy spirit, therefore, we should be walking in the truth; we should be walking, checking our attitudes.

The title of this sermon is Walk in the Spirit.

Now, there are explanations when you turn to Galatians 5:16, and we’ll pick it up in verse 16 which is Paul talking to the Corinthians. I say then, Walk in the spirit, which is to walk in God’s thinking or to walk in love. So we walk a different way of life than the world and everything that we do has a different motive and intent. Well, it should. Now, often in life that’s not true. I know from experience that we don’t always do it; we don’t always achieve walking in the spirit. We walk in our own selfishness often, more than we probably imagine or we’d like to admit. And if we do walk in God’s spirit, which is walking in love, walking in this way of thinking, which is God’s thinking, you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.

So there’s a contrary thing here. There are two things: one is selfishness, walking in the flesh, desires being fulfilled. Now, much of our desires or many of our desires, “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” is natural to us and we fulfill it more than we would recognize. It’s just who we are.

But if we walk in the spirit and we don’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh God’s way is outgoing to benefit others. The carnal mind is inward, selfish, and benefits self. There’s two complete separate ways of thinking.

Now, we in God’s Church are the only ones on this earth of 7 billion people that have the power to walk in the spirit. Isn’t that incredible? A few that we are. And here today a very small group, we have the power in all of Victoria, bar a few that aren’t here because of health, we have the power. Nobody else can do it. No one else can check their motive and intent or why they’re doing it. If they did they’d come up with the conclusion of self-righteousness. “I’m good, really. I’m doing it because it’s me. I’m doing it,” whereas we don’t. We say, “No, it’s God. The credit goes to God.”

Verse 17—For the flesh, which is this natural mind that we are born with, wars for the flesh against the spirit. So there’s a battle that’s going on, and the spirit contrary to the flesh. So there’s a battle that takes place. And these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you desire or that you wish, because deep down we want another way of life. We don’t want credit to self because we know who we are. We know why we were born with this natural carnal mind. We understand it. It’s the purpose of life that God gave us.

Now, when you look at this you can say, “We have been called to see ourselves,” which God gives. So we see ourselves and go, “Ah, okay, all our motives and intents by nature are selfish.” But we’ve been called to see them and to choose another way of life. So being part of the Body of Christ, being in the Church of God is about making choices. That’s why somebody that is called into God’s Church—and Ron uses that example where somebody gets killed in a car crash; been around for a year, maybe two years, maybe three years. There is no way that the person has lived a life of choices—it takes years and years of going through different experiences of making choices. We have to make choices.

Now, when we’re first called we’re going to be challenged with little things that we see, but there’s a choice to be made. The first one, of course, is the Sabbath, and then we come into tithing. We’ve got to tithe. Well, that’s a choice.

So in all of this we see there’s a battle, and we’re in this battle, and we lose the battle more than we win it because we rely on our selfishness, we rely on self. It’s a natural thing. So in this we see there’s lust of the flesh or walking in God’s spirit, and we have to ask these questions every day. We should. Why do we or did we get angry? So, why? Now, God doesn’t get angry like we get angry. God, there is an anger against sin, a zealousness against sin. But why do we get angry? Why do we or did we raise our voice? You’ll be answering those questions because if we ever find ourselves raising our voice or getting angry at anything we are not walking in the spirit. We’re simply not. We’re walking in the human spirit.

Why do we or did we exaggerate a matter? And if you look at anything, well, why do we do that? Well, if we do and if we did it’s about pride. We’re wanting to make things sound better about us. Why did we look or continue to look, or why did we or do we look at a sex scene on TV and without fast forwarding it or turning away? Why? Why do we do that? Well, walking in the spirit versus walking in our human spirit. That’s the answer. It’s all tied there.

Why did we not save our 2nd tithe? Why? Why don’t we pay 1st tithe exactly as God says, 10% of our net income? Why? Why would we do that? Robbing from God. Why? Well, it’s got nothing to do with a decision that has to be made in the sense of God says it’s 10% and through God’s Church it’s of net, that’s what we should pay, so why would we not do that? Well, only we can answer that. We know the answer. We know the answer is if we faithfully pay our 1st tithe as God says we’re walking in the spirit, and if we don’t, we’re not walking in the spirit, God’s not involved in it because we’ve made a choice, we’ve made a decision.

That’s why it takes years and years in God’s Church to learn to walk in the spirit because we’re faced with choices. Often we make a mistake. We make a wrong choice or a wrong decision, and therefore, we learn over time, “Ah, that’s wrong and I’m going to make a new choice.” That new choice is to walk in the spirit, to do it God’s way, not to choose our own way of doing things.

Now, this is one that’s common to probably more men than maybe women. I’m not sure. I’m not a woman so I don’t know. Why did we daydream about something special in the eyes of mankind? Now, this is something that I remember. In Australia, I was playing football, used to play football when I was younger, and this daydreaming that takes place in the mind is the elevation of self for recognition, which is what the Pharisees did. Pharisees would pray a certain way and people would say, “Oh, look at them.” Well, in the mind on a spiritual component (that’s the physical, easy to see), but the spiritual component can be, well, why do we daydream about something that elevates us. We think it. For me it used to be playing football. I used to play center half-forward often or full-forward. It was about kicking a goal in football and of course Wayne runs around the side and he turns and he kicks a goal and “Wayne! Wayne! Wayne!” All up here in the mind! Everything is up here in the mind. Nobody knew it, but that was the glory... I was looking for glory or recognition from mankind.

Now, it can be whether someone sings or plays the piano, violin, whatever. It could be a thousand different things. It’s about recognition to self. Nobody knows it. It’s all up here in the mind, and everybody does it. It’s natural, pride of life; to be recognized, to get the credit to self. Now, that is not walking in the spirit.

To walk in the spirit we understand all the glory, everything we know about God’s way of life, every single thing that we know about God’s way of life was given to us by God. All the glory, all the credit goes to Him.

If we are employed and we have a good income, nothing about us – we might have put in some effort – but there’s a certain level of this that requires glory to God, credit to God not, “Me, I’m intelligent.” Well, if you’re blessed to have a level of intelligence above somebody else aren’t you blessed...aren’t you blessed by God because God gave it? It’s not something we did ourselves.

Well, these are things that we can see; we can start to evaluate whether we’re walking in the spirit or whether we’re walking in a human spirit. They’re the two choices. It has to happen every day and it has to happen over a lifetime of making choices.

So now when I begin to daydream, to realize that I’m lifting Wayne up in my mind, I know this is sin that is starting to manifest itself. I have a choice now to stop it, to stop this elevation of self in mind, and the choice is now mine. I can stop it or I can let it go and let it go so that it turns to sin. The choice is mine. Well, that’s life.

In the Millennium and the hundred years this is exactly what’s going to take place. Walk in the spirit or walk in the human spirit. Whichever choice is yours, make a choice.

Now, another one is why did we or do we talk negatively about another person? So what is that about? So we understand that’s about pride. So we’ll pull somebody else down so that we elevate ourselves. Now, there is a time within the Church, within the ministry where we have to deal with things about situations of people. Well, you have to talk about it and you’ve got to think about it and you’ve got to pray about it to come to a decision. But amongst ourselves we should desire the best for everybody in the Body. We should desire the best. Well if we do, that’s walking in the spirit because that’s God’s thinking. He wants the best. God wants us in Elohim. God wants everyone in Elohim. Should we? Shouldn’t we be the same? And people make mistakes. But the human nature, walking in the human spirit, what it does, it looks at the negative and it remembers the negative – always remembers the negative. Yet God says if they repent it’s forgotten. But we don’t. We hang onto it. So you can see the difference.

What I’m doing here is highlighting the difference between two different ways of life, two different ways of thinking.

Verse 18—But if you are led by the spirit, which is God in us, really, it’s God in us, you are not under the law. Now, what that’s saying is it’s not that the law is done away. That if we’re walking in the spirit, we have God’s holy spirit and we’re living that way of life, we’re not under the penalty of sin because we’re not sinning, therefore, were not under it. There’s no law applied to us.

In the future once a person is changed into Elohim there is no law for them. The law exists for humans because once a person’s in Elohim they can’t think sin. They can’t sin so they don’t think it. There’s no need for a law because they are Elohim, they are God, whereas we need the law.

So to come out from under the law, the penalty of the law, we have to be walking in the spirit. We’re led by God’s spirit. So there’s a component in our life where we will be led by God’s spirit and we will achieve godly things because God does the work in us. Then the other component, which I believe in my life it’s the bigger component, is walking in the human spirit, and therefore, I am under the law, which means I’m under the penalty of the law. I’m earning the death penalty every single day of my life. That’s just the way I am. I’m human. I’m like everybody else, like you. That’s what we do.

Well, if we are led by the spirit and we achieve (because God achieves it in us) godly things (because God had to do the work in us) we’re not under a penalty of sin. Can’t be, because God’s not.

Verse 19—Now the works of the flesh... Now, this is what it is. These are the works of the natural mind (from a carnal mind of selfishness) that is not checking its motivations and intents are evident. So we can tell. Now, understanding that mankind can’t understand this, they will see this on a physical level, but we’re going to look at physical and spiritual. And it can be painful to go through things like this. I find it painful because you realize how quickly you fall short, that we’re guilty of these things.

So what Paul is saying here to the Corinthians, there are two ways of life; one is you walk in the spirit and the other one is you walk with the natural carnal mind. If you walk with the natural carnal mind it’s evident. Now, that word “evident,” it means “it’s apparent; it’s manifest; shining; can be seen.” So these things can be seen. Now, they can be seen on a physical level, but they can be seen on a spiritual level. We have the power to see the spiritual component. Mankind doesn’t, we can.

Which are: Adultery... Now, adultery is an unlawful relationship in our thinking and actions. So a person can commit adultery in their thinking but not complete the act because it’s a desire in the mind.

Fornication: So, remember, there is a physical component and a spiritual component. Now, fornication is a selfish desire that needs fulfilling within the mind. It can be completed within the mind. It doesn’t have to be a physical act.

Uncleanness: Now, uncleanliness is impure motives or evil thoughts. Now, these things take place and we may see somebody that’s in the Church and we can say, “Wow, they seem to be doing well,” because it’s apparent, it’s evident that they’re not committing any of these things we’re going through on a physical level, but we have no idea what’s going on in a person’s mind.

I remember it was in this area in Victoria one time, going back in time, people that are no longer with us, I remember saying once to a particular mother and father that their son had committed adultery or fornication believing that they understood what I was referring to. It’s in the mind. Every young person, it’s in the mind. It’s got nothing to do with the physical act. And one of them turned around and said, “No, he hasn’t. He’s never done that.” Well, that told me something, because if you can’t see that this is spiritual, it was about the mind, it’s got nothing to do with a physical act; it’s to do with the spirit of the matter, what’s going on in the mind. So, a person may never commit those things, but it’s up here in the mind. It’s about motive and intent, what’s going on.

So this uncleanliness, which is an impure motive, we can do many things in life for the wrong reason, that are not godly reasons. People can pay 1st tithe for an ungodly reason. Isn’t that incredible? It’s because it’s in the mind because somebody can give a gift for the wrong reason, and that’s what the world does. Generally they can give you something and expect something in return whereas when we give we expect nothing in return. It belongs to God and we’re giving it to God and we want to give a donation or an offering to God outside of the holy days commanded, that’s a personal choice that we do from our heart because we want to please God.

Lewdness, which is uncontrolled lusts, uncontrolled desires. So a lewdness is a desire that we have that’s not being controlled, whereas someone that walks in the spirit does control their desires. We all have desires, well, we have to be sure that we’re controlling them, that they match God’s desires. We want the book to be a success. That’s a godly desire. We want people to be called. We look forward to that, not that we want it, we look forward to people being called to be given the same mind as us and we’re looking forward to that time. We want it all over. We want it all to start and all to finish and let’s get it over and done with. No more politics and all the other garbage that’s going on. That’s a godly desire. To feel for mankind but let’s get it over and done with, how much more do we have to put up with?

And if you live in Victoria you say, “How much more do we have to put up with?! When’s it going to finish!” and it just goes on and on and it gets worse and worse and it’s hard to watch. Well, that’s a godly desire. We want it over and done with because it’s for the benefit of everybody that it’s all over with and we change the whole system.

So we have to control our desires. That’s what we’ve been called to do.

Verse 20—Idolatry, which is putting anything before God. Now, people would say idolatry is idols. The Catholic Church is the biggest user of that where they have statues and idols and calendars. You name it, they’ve got it. They wouldn’t say its idolatry. We see it as purely idolatry. It’s an idol that they kneel down to. I remember growing up as a young boy and I had to do the rosary and all those sorts of things, but it was a great blessing if the statue of Mary came to the house. I can’t remember even what it was about now but I remember they used to have a statute and if you belonged to the Catholic Church this statue of Mary with the infant child would come to your house. It’d only be a day, but this was an honor. This was a huge honor. It meant nothing to them, but it meant a fair bit to my mother at that time because she was quite a reasonably strict Catholic, and it was just like incredible.

Well, we see that as idolatry, but what God says is idolatry is a spiritual matter. It’s a spiritual matter because we can put something before God – doesn’t matter what it is. It can be our work. It could be anything. If we put anything before God it’s idolatry. Now, if you said that to people in the world and said, “Look. You know, my work can be an idol.” They’d say, “You’re an idiot” beause they can’t see the spirit of the matter, but the spirit of the matter is anything we put before God, no matter what it is, any sin we do is idolatry because we’re putting it before God. We’re choosing something that’s not of God. So we can see the spirit of the matter there. So putting anything before God on a spiritual level is idolatry.

Sorcery, which is deception, because, if you look at magic and sorcery what is it? It’s trickery. It’s deception. The world is riddled with deception...riddled with deception, which the world is full of deception, and we see it. There is a classic example. They wouldn’t see it. They’d say its good marketing. You can go and buy a packet of cereal in a big box and if you opened it there in the store there’d be one-third cereal in it because the marketers know that they need the big box because it looks like you’re getting a lot for your money. But there’s not much in it. It’s only a third full. If you got it and shook it the whole thing moves up and down.

Well, as you know, they’re getting rid of plastic bags for the environment, but all the stores are full of cardboard and packaging that pollutes because everything is in things half the size. I buy certain healthy bars and that and you find they used to be long. They’re still that long in the packet, but the bar’s not that long, but it’s the same price because they’ve worked it out. You can reduce your cost by 10% in a company by reducing the bar by 10% but charge the same amount of money, but the packaging all stays the same because it’s all deception...all deception, everything. On a website that we went to for this hotel, we need a king bed, prefer a king bed, saw it advertized as a king bed. We booked the hotel, turned up, it’s a queen bed. There are no kings there. Yet on the website it clearly says king bed because they know, everything is about what you can trick in that.

Well, we’re the opposite. We have to be open and honest. There is not trickery, no deception; we are who we are. It’s pretty straight forward stuff. So we can see the difference between walking in the spirit, being led by God’s spirit, or walking in the natural mind, one of deception, which is sorcery, its trickery. It’s a trick; it’s not real at all.

Hatred, which Christ explains (which we’re going to get to all being well), hatred, is ill will or hostility. So people would say they hate something. Can’t. You dislike it. You hate another person, well, God says that’s the same as murder. People would not recognize having any ill will, not desiring a godly way that we want the best for them. They can’t see that ill will.

It’s natural to hate other tribes. Even within tribes, if you go to various places, people hate the neighbor up the road. Same culture, same everything, but they still hate them. They desire ill will. And it’s something, me, personally, I have to battle, which is to do with neighbors that drive really fast and go ballistic. Everyone in the community, every time they pull in, they say, “Where do you live?” and I say this area, they say, “Ah, you live near the ...people.” I’m not going to tell you what they call them. I say, “Yeah.” They say, “You have any problems?” I say, “Not so far.” “We had stolen, one thing, that we think might be them,” because no matter what happens in our area this family gets blamed for every single thing. I say, “Oh, we’ve had a few problems with them going ballistic up and down the road.” They say, “Ah, yeah, the best thing that could ever happen to them is they hit a tree and they all die.” Everyone says that!

I’ve had to check and stop, “Hang on a minute! In my not walking in the spirit I think that’s probably the best thing that could happen to them cause then it’d be over with and they’re going to get resurrected.” Well, that’s wrong. That’s ill will. No, I’ve got to somehow learn to be able to say, “Well, no, that’s not the best thing for them at all. I don’t think that’s a good idea.” But the natural mind says, “Yeah, the best thing could happen to them is they hit a tree.”

So last time the person said, “Ah, yeah...” “No problems.” “Well, one day they’ll hit a tree and we don’t have to worry about them.” And I said, “Well, that’s not necessarily a good thing.” I’m trying to change because I realize the spirit of the matter is totally wrong. They want them out of the way for selfish reasons. They don’t want the best for them.

When we first moved there we had a lot of trouble in the sense of noise and whatnot. I did pray about it and asked God that He would resolve the matter. Normally when we pray about God resolving the matter we’re expecting something to happen within hours, minutes, weeks maybe, but not months and months. Well, would you believe just about all of them have all moved away now and they live in a town farther away. So it’s very quiet. But then I realize, oh, I prayed about that a year and a half ago and it’s actually come to pass. Only it’s very quiet now. We don’t have any problems at all except the odd weekend, Christmas mainly when they all come home.

So we can see how our mind of selfishness thinks, “Best thing for them is hit a tree.” It’s not. That’s not the best thing for them. The best thing for them is that God called them and they have their minds transformed and they enter into this battle like us where they’re fighting against themselves like we are. That’s the best thing that could happen to them, a different way of thinking.

So we are not to have hatred. It’s evident; it’s manifest in the world. You can see it everywhere, but can we see it within our minds, our own minds? Because this is what this is about, our minds. Then I realized I still have hatred because I had thought the best thing could happen to them was they hit a tree. Well, that’s not right, therefore, I wasn’t using God’s spirit; I wasn’t walking in the spirit at all.

Contentions, which is arguments or debates. Now, this happens within God’s Church. We think we’re right in our own eyes. It can be about anything. Well, we shouldn’t get into arguments with one another about a matter. Who cares whether someone thinks something is blue or whether it’s black? Who cares! We should realize it doesn’t really matter – different eyes. If you’re color-blind something is blue, and someone else it’s black, maybe, I don’t know. I’m not color blind, I don’t think, so I don’t know. But I know they see different colors.

Now this contention is arguments or debate. So we shouldn’t be involved in that at all.

Jealousness, which is a desire for self or heat. The word actually comes from the word, covers, “heat.” Now, we know that when a person’s jealous or zealous there’s a heat. It’s a build up in the thoughts. Well, we have to be careful that we don’t make this manifest. If it’s in our mind we need to get rid of it.

Outbursts of wrath, which is anger towards others, and that’s anybody, anger towards anybody. Now, we can justify things and say, “Well, I had the right to be angry at them because they did “this.” We never have a right to get angry. This is evident about a spirit of the matter.

Selfish ambition, which is a desire to put one’s self forward, politics, self-promoting or one’s views or opinions. Now, we all have this as a problem, selfish ambition. Whether we recognize it or not is a different matter. I know that everybody here will be happy when there are not more politics because politics really is about putting self forward, “I’m the right person for this job.” I often think about the Millennium and the hundred years, how difficult it’s going to be for people that have come out of an environment of politics or councils, you name it, where the poster on the wall, “Vote 1.” It’s going to be really tough when you turn around and say, “Look, what you think, we’re not actually interested. The ministry or one of the 144,000 said that we’re going to ordain that person over there and you’ve just got to get on with your life and overcome yourself.” “What do you mean I can’t put a poster out in the front and ‘Vote 1’ Wayne?” It’s going to be tough.

Often we think about its going to be easy. The hundred years, it’s a lot of battles...a lot of battles for a lot of people who are used to promoting themselves or their view or opinion about a matter because it’s natural to put one’s view or opinion about a matter forward. It’s just natural. That’s what we do.

We’ve been called to walk in the spirit, which is a level of humility to realize that deep down our view or opinion is totally, totally irrelevant. It’s our view or opinion. No, we rely on God’s view or opinion, and if the decision is to do this is that, that’s what we do. We do it in humility. So we have to guard our thinking that we’re not in hostility to God’s government in our mind. Even though we might go along with things we have to be careful in our mind where we’re really at, the spirit of the matter.

So that one; next one is dissentions, which is “causes disunion or causes division.” Now, this generally comes about because of opinions, that people will cause disunion within the Body because of a view or an opinion, “I don’t think that,” or “I think that,” and they let somebody else know that that’s what they think should be happening. Well, that can cause division, which is not right; this is one body. Whether we’re the eye or the nose or the ear or the hand or the fingernail it makes no difference. It’s where God placed us in the Body, and therefore, we shouldn’t be trying to cause division in the Body by separating the finger and saying, “Look at that finger over there. Why is that in the Church, that finger?” No, we’re part of a body. Really, deep, deep down we don’t understand why we’re in the positions we are. We just don’t. We think we do, but deep down we don’t, because God places us in the Body as He sees fit; not as we desire but as He sees fit.

Heresies, which is an act of not following God or the truth. So we know what a heretic is. It’s somebody who doesn’t follow God becomes a heretic. We follow something else other than God’s way of life. We don’t follow walking in the spirit.

I shouldn’t laugh, really, when I remember certain things. I remember when there were things going on in a particular country (wasn’t in Australia), and there was division. I think it was 2013, early 2013 and there was division happening and a certain group of people were leaving. I remember I gave a particular sermon about the situation because there was a division happening and one lot, one group of people were no longer going to be part of God’s Church, in other word’s following the truth. They were committing heresy, really.

In the sermon I mentioned that people that were leaving God’s Church were antichrist. And part of the group, one of the people was there and they were really upset that I had mentioned that these people were antichrist. Whether it was wise to do it on that day, I’m not sure, but anyway then I got the feedback saying they were really upset that you called them antichrist. But that’s actually true! They’re heretics! They’re against Christ. They’ve stopped Christ working in their life now. They cannot walk in the spirit – absolutely impossible! So, once somebody has been part of the Body and has been walking in the spirit, God’s spirit in them doing the works, then they make a choice (because it is a choice) to leave and become antichrist, against Christ, against Christ’s Church – he is the head of the Church – you become antichrist in your life, anti-God, you become a heretic! You’re following something different.

I remember those things because at the time you think, it’s true. It reaffirmed doctrine. These people are against Christ. They’re against Christ, the head of the Church, and Christ living and working in their life. It’s gone. They follow something different and they left.

Envy, which is jealousy. This is really about an attitude. When you really look at what envy is it’s an unthankfulness, really. Deep down it’s about not being thankful. We’re envious. We want something else that someone else has.

Murderers, which is slander, and we don’t look at it, and the world wouldn’t look at it, that when we slander somebody else to pull them down we’re murdering them. It’s ill will to them. We’re pulling them down. Ill will by intent – to pull down by words.

Drunkenness. Well, people would look at that as intoxication. When you say a person is drunken you’d say, “Yep, they’ve drank too much. They’ve had more than two glasses, which is what the guideline of God’s Church is.” Now, there have been examples where people would say, “No, that only applies in certain environments but you can have more than that.” Well, no, because the guideline is two.

Now, why is that a guideline? Because you’ve got to go back to the spirit of it: Why is the guideline of two for alcohol, two glasses? Why is that? What is the intent of it? The intent really is so that we don’t sin; you keep control of your mind. Because the moment you have too much and you start to think a little differently you allow new thoughts in, different thoughts from another world. So, two is plenty; we don’t need more. But the intent of it is that we don’t lose self-control. That’s the real motive. Don’t lose self-control. We need to have self-control. The more you have you’re going to lose self-control. You’re going to sin. So that’s why. Well, the spirit of it, that’s one part. The world couldn’t see that. They wouldn’t understand the spirit of the matter.

What do you mean self-control? They go out to drink to lose control of self. That’s what people do. Night clubs, they go out and I know of the fact that a lot of people, especially the younger people, drink to excess before they go out. Because alcohol is so expensive in the nightclubs that you drink a heap before you go so you go out plastered because it’s a lot cheaper once you get there. You know, we go to bed 9-9:30, they’re only going out at 11:00. They’ve been drinking for four or five hours getting ready to go out. So, it’s another world, a different way of thinking.

Well, we understand that this intoxication not only talks about alcohol, but it’s about false doctrine, because you can become intoxicated in your mind with false doctrine. It will take you somewhere else; you will lose control of the environment because of doctrines or different things that people do. They get intoxicated by false doctrine.

If you look at the scripture in Revelation the false church is “intoxicated with the blood of the saints.” It’s a mindset. It’s got nothing to do with drinking alcohol at all. It’s about control – God’s way versus the natural way. God’s spirit, walking in the spirit or not walking in the spirit.

Revelrys, which is lack of self-control as letting loose, that’s what it really means, when somebody is revelry, the party’s a revelry. Well, it’s they lose self-control and letting loose. The natural mind lets loose.

And the like... Now, when you look at it, “and the like,” there’s many things that you could say that’s like. “And like.” It should be obvious. It should be evident what it is. When you go into a store it’s evident that this is not about your benefit. This is about profit and making money. Banks make, in Australia, 8 billion, 10 billion dollars. It’s evident they’re ripping you off. It’s obvious. It’s evident. It’s revealed. They’re not walking in the spirit of it; they’re walking in the human spirit which is greed and selfishness.

...of which I tell you beforehand, or had been told, just as I also in times past have told you. So Paul’s told them, the Galatians, that those who practice such things... Now, that word “practice” is “perform repeatedly or habitually.” In other words, anybody that’s not fighting self or trying to control self, it’s a habit, which we all have the natural mind, therefore, there are habits involved in our life, well, it’s somebody who repeats them without trying to control it. Anybody like that, if we’re not doing it, performing repeated or habitual actions, to exercise, to practice, to be busy with – no self-control involved here “to be busy with” – carry on, which is not repenting of or striving to overcome it will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

So, we’ve been through all of these things that we need to learn to fight for the purpose of living God’s way of life, and if we practice these other things we’ve been through habitually, which is part of our nature, and we’re not fighting against it or checking or monitoring our motive and intent we cannot inherit the Kingdom of God because God wants to know what do we really think and what choices will we make.

Those that do not fight these sins (because they’re all sins) in their thinking will not inherit the Kingdom of God. It’s not just about physical things; it’s about spiritual things as it’s about here.

Now, this practicing is really about you know it’s wrong, but you do nothing about it, which is wilful. It talks in scripture about you have to sin willingly or wilfully. Well, that’s when you know it’s sin but, ah, I’m going to do it anyway cause that’s what I want. Well, that’s wilful. That’s deliberate.

Now, the majority of people that have left God’s Church, a lot of those people have just been deceived and it’s not wilful. They believe, they’ve convinced themselves or been convinced that they have to leave God’s Church. Well, a lot of those people it’s not wilful. But this is knowing that this is God’s Church, believing it, and believing something is wrong, and then doing it and doing it with zeal, of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – not interested in self-control. The mind is going in a different direction and they’ve set their mind on that direction. It’s wilful. Well, they can’t inherit the Kingdom of God. God says that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God because it is wilful and they can’t repent – because they don’t want to. They’re not interested in repenting.

Verse 22, now we go into those that walk in the spirit. So we’ve gone through walking the natural way. But the fruit of the spirit... Now, what’s the fruit? The fruit is what a tree bears. When we look at a tree it bears fruits. So we have buds and then it bears something. Apple tree bears an apple. Pears bear a pear. Peach, a peach, unless you’ve got parrots like we have; they don’t bear much at all. Well, they do bear but they get eaten real quick.

So bearing the fruit, it has to be something that generates. So we’ve seen out what’s evident of the natural mind, well, now we’re going to see what’s evident if someone has God’s holy spirit. But the fruit of the spirit, in other words, what is produced if we have God’s spirit in us, this is what’s produced. ...is love. Now, that is only available from God, which is a way of thinking towards others, which means no ill will; we desire the best for them. That’s God’s way. No credit to self. That’s God’s way, all the glory to God. Well, that’s walking in the spirit. We love one another. No matter what they do to us we love them. That’s contrary to the world. We don’t seek revenge, whereas the world would. We don’t. We put up with it. We walk in the spirit.

So to walk in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, which is a way of thinking, goodness, faithfulness. So we’re faithful to God. Now, we understand faith is credited to us as righteousness because we’ve got to become righteous. We’re not righteous of ourselves. We’re self-righteous – my opinion, my view, all about self. But we’re to become righteous. Well, the only way is God living and dwelling in us, and we believe God, therefore, it’s accounted to us as righteousness. Now, if it’s accounted to us as righteousness God will honor His word which is “I’ve credited you” like the Hebrews, where those were accredited faith. Faith was righteousness; therefore, they could be changed to spirit. They will inherit the Kingdom of God. So somebody now walking in the spirit, working on self, can inherit the Kingdom of God.

...gentleness, self-control. I find this one really interesting because really the natural carnal mind cannot control self. It will control itself to its own benefit, if you understand what I mean. It will control certain things, like people won’t swear in certain environments, use bad language in certain environments. It’s nothing to do with God, absolutely nothing. It’s for selfish reasons. Because if you did use that word you’re more than likely going to get the sack, therefore, you control yourself for your self benefit, if you’re with me. That’s why you do it. But with God’s holy spirit we control ourselves for a different reason – because we know we’re capable of these things and we’re not doing it for political reasons or selfish reasons, we’re doing it because this is what God requires of us, to control the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life – control self. Because self is a big problem, we’ve all got it.

...against such there is no law. That’s why I’ve said before, anyone in Elohim there’s no law; because if you’re under the law you’re under the penalty of sin. There’s no need for a law if you think like God. That’s why a person’s not under the penalty anymore. They’re not under a law because if you’re walking in the spirit, God’s way of life, and that’s what you are, which can only be achieved by God, and at some point in time if we’re changed to Elohim, well, there’s no need for a law. There is no penalty to be paid because we’re no longer sinning; we can’t sin.

I look forward to the day that I don’t sin, because then there is no law, and therefore, all my hand movements and all the other things that I do, doesn’t matter, there’s no judgment on it, if you know what I mean. I’m not sinning. I won’t say things that are wrong. I won’t think things that are wrong. How great is that going to be? What a relief to imagine not thinking something evil. Imagine that. It’s going to be a marvellous time. I’m looking forward to that.

As a spirit being in Elohim there is no law. There is no need for the law, no need for the 10 Commandments because we are Elohim, we think a different way. We don’t have selfishness. We don’t have pride. We have no natural mind. We don’t think the same; we have no capacity to think that way because we’re no longer physical.

Verse 24—And those who are Christ’s have put to death the flesh. So this is what we’re doing. We are now in Christ and Christ in us because we have God’s spirit. The spirit that God gave to Christ (His mind, His thinking) he had it in totality. We have the battle that’s different because we have two warring against each other. We know things are wrong in our thinking. The war is, “I recognize it. I see it. What am I going to do about it?” That’s the battle.

Now, today’s world, to live at this time is an incredible time. But in this we should consider what technology has done for mankind. It’s been good in part, but there’s a lot of evil in technology. So we live in a time where sin is so in front of us every day with a computer we’re bombarded with it all the time. And it’s there; the choice to click is ours. This will not happen in the Millennium and will not happen in the hundred years. But right now the battle is with us. 200 years ago the battle wasn’t there the same. So you can see what an incredible time this is. We’re at the pinnacle of the world’s evil, Satan’s system...at the pinnacle, right at the pinnacle of it, and it’s easy to fall because mankind can be bombarded with this garbage and they are distractions.

Pornography. Just deceit. It’s very difficult to make a living in this world without deceit. Business, everything’s corrupt. People are corrupt. So it’s very, very difficult to be honest and to do the right thing because the whole system is built against it. Well, we live in a time at the pinnacle of evil, and imagine if there’s a group of people, small as they are, that have lived in this period of time and have conquered self by the power of God’s holy spirit, how unique they are going to be. Unique.

So to live on into the Millennium the people of God are going to be unique, because after a period of time it’ll be all forgotten. In the Millennium, “What do you mean they used to click on a computer, and what was there! What?” It might not even be talked about. No need to talk about it; it’s not there. In the hundred years, in time, it’s going to be incredible. People of the 14th century are going to say, “What? You what?! You were walking in the paddock and what, somebody wrote, talked to you from America?”

Paddock is a field. I got asked that question when I was in America. I talk about the sheep in the paddock. Young boy came up to me and said, “What’s a paddock?” I realized it’s English, Australian English. It’s a field.

Someone can contact you anywhere. Now, in all of that there are huge dangers, and people of old are going to be just shocked, absolutely shocked that we walked around with devices and we can sit in a Sabbath sermon with a device and all the scriptures are there that were written by Peter, Paul, and what Christ said was there. Well, 16th century, they never had that; it just wasn’t available. Now we’ve got it. “You had what? You had all this? You had 57 Truths? You had all that?” And amongst all this evil we’ve got all this of God’s thinking. It never was in existence before, but now we have it. It’s an incredible thing that we have.

Verse 24 again, And those who are Christ’s have put to death the flesh with its passions and desires, they’re fighting against their selfishness. They’re checking their motive and intent every day, and there’ll be times when we don’t. That’s natural. Not to check our motive and intent, that’s natural. But with God’s spirit we should be checking our motive and intent. We should be walking in the spirit.

Verse 25—If we live in the spirit, which means we have God’s mind, let us also walk in the spirit. So we’re going to be different. It’s not going to be evident that we belong to the world. It should be very evident that we are different. And I’m sure that’s the case. Most people think we’re weird or belong to a cult.

Verse 26—Let us not become conceited, which is desirous of vain glory, look for the praises of others, the praises of men, provoking one another, which is irritating or challenging one another, envying one another, which is in competition.

Now, this world has the spirit of competition. Everything is about competing. What is politics? Really, what is politics? Competition! It’s about elevating self and you’ve got to compete, you’ve got to pull other people down. Now-a-days if there’s a political campaign the first thing they do is they hire a lot of people to look for dirt on a person. Go back to the day they were born and see if you can find anything! Because they want something on them that then you can drop it whenever it’s more suitable. Say, “Let’s let them know that this is what happened,” or “this is what happened.” It’s in competition.

Do you think that the supermarkets are not in competition? They’re in competition. The banks are in competition. Sport. Now, a lot of people love sport. But what is sport? Competition. Cricket. Competition. It’s about winning. It’s about competition. These sporting clubs, people say they follow sport. What’s a football club...Or use football, a different shape ball than soccer, which is what we call football, soccer. Cricket. What is it really? Business. It has nothing to do with anything but money because the club will go broke unless they can get so many members and unless they can win so many games. And the worst thing you can do, of course, is lose games, because the followers don’t follow you. Everyone wants to be a winner, therefore, the more premierships you win the more money the club has and the president can earn more.

It’s like a bank. The CEOs ear 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 million dollars a year to run a bank. And what’s a bank? How do I get money from the plebs (us), how do I get more from them without really letting them know that I’m actually taking more from them? Credit cards – 19.95% interest. 19.95? Credit cards. Most people have a credit card and most people don’t pay it off in time because the banks can just... 19% interest. Incredible.

I remember I worked for an organization that was financially starting to struggle and they came up with the idea about having a credit card with their name on it. Now, you’ll find a lot of those around. Different supermarkets have them now and different companies have their own credit card. Why? Money. Because if you can get someone to sign up to a co-branded credit card, MasterCard, Visa, whatever with another company’s logo they’ve already signed a deal with the credit card group to promote that card with their customer base and they’re taking a percentage of the credit card, which they know most people won’t pay off, which means they’re getting part of the 19.9% or whatever it is interest. That’s why! And in the end one company, retail company, made more money out of the credit card than they did retail sales because that’s where the money is. There wasn’t money in retail and having staff, and therefore, they incentivised the staff to push the credit card because every time you signed up somebody the staff member got 5, 10 dollars, whatever it was. But they knew how much money they were getting back and more money was coming back from the credit card, and therefore, that was more interest.

It’s the same with insurances and everything else. It’s all about money. You’re sure you don’t want an extended warranty? No! It’s only $400. No! Why? No! How many times do I have to say no? Why I’m adamant about that is because that I was involved in what extended warranties are really all about. It’s a percentage game. Most of the time extended warranties are fought anyway. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Each to their own. You’ve got to work these things out ourselves.

So the spirit of competition is in the world. That is the world. It’s about competition. Everything is competition. Politics is competition. Banks are in competition. Every single thing is about competition and it’s all about money.

Romans 8:1. Not getting very far, but never mind. Now, personally I love Romans 8 because it really talks about me. I understand me more because I understand more about Romans 8 that God’s revealed, that Roman’s 8 really is about me; and how encouraging Romans 8 really is.

Romans 8:1—There is, therefore, no condemnation, which is penalty to be paid. That’s if we are repenting. So we’re not under the penalty of the law if we’re repenting. But if we don’t repent, which the world can’t because they don’t have God’s spirit to do it, they’re under the penalty. But there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. That’s what we’ve been talking about; there are two ways.

So if we’re walking based on God’s spirit in obedience... and I want to touch base there quickly. Our thoughts and motives should be, “Is this pleasing to God or not?” Because when you really look at it we’re either pleasing God with the decision that we are now making or we’re pleasing self. There’s no in between. There is no grey area. There are only two; please God with the decision, the thought, word or action, or please self. They’re the only two. That’s our life - choosing.

Well, it says here that we won’t be judged under the penalty of the law, which is “the wages of sin is death,” if we walk according to the spirit, to walk in the spirit.

Verse 2—For the law of the spirit of life in Jesus Christ has made me free, which is Paul talking. We’re made free by forgiveness of sin. Because we can be forgiven, we’re free. So we can sin, go before God and repent, that we don’t want to be like this, “I’m sick of doing the same thing and it’s me; it’s who I really am. I acknowledge it,” that God is right and we’re wrong and we want to please God. Well, we are forgiven so now we’re free because it’s wiped clean. We don’t have to go back over it again in ten hours time; it’s forgotten, walk anew, start again, have another go at it. ...from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, because of who we are because the law doesn’t change us, but we have to be aware of the law.

So when it’s often talked about, do we know the 10 Commandments? We should. We may not know them in exact order, but we should know them because that’s how we’re checking our motive and intent. One of the laws says you shouldn’t lie. Well, what does that really mean? It means you don’t exaggerate. You can’t lie as an individual by living a different way of life because if we live something different we’re lying. We’re lying to God. We’re lying to everybody else because we’re not living God’s way of life, therefore, we’re liars. We’re putting something else before God. When we lie we’re committing idolatry because we’re putting our self, our exaggerated view before God, because we don’t believe what God says.

So these things are the spirit of the law, and the law itself doesn’t change human nature. You can have 10 Commandments...and Israel is a classic example. Mount Sinai, given 10 Commandments, did it change anything? Didn’t take them long. Well, it’s the same in the world, it doesn’t take long. You might know the law, but what good is it? But for us we know the law because we check our thoughts. We go, “Ah, hang on, this is wrong. This is stealing, therefore, I need to check myself and fix, rectify the situation.”

...God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. So Jesus Christ was provided by God the Father for us for sin, so sin could be covered and that God could live and dwell in us. That’s why he died and that’s the purpose of life, so that Jesus Christ could live and dwell in us, members of the Body. He condemned sin in the flesh, by his death, that the righteous requirement of the law, which is to walk in love. So if you look at what’s the requirement of the law, what was the law about? It was about walking in love. But Israel couldn’t do it because they never had God’s spirit. We have God’s spirit at the end-time for the purpose of walking in love, monitoring, checking our motive and intent. ...might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but walk according to the spirit.

So we don’t walk according to the flesh. That’s what we shouldn’t do, but because we are natural and we’re made this way we walk according to the flesh. We do. And it’s about being aware of it and recognizing it and checking it. We shouldn’t fall down and give up because we sin. We should just simply repent and more forward. There is no sin that a person can commit through weakness, through anything, that can’t be forgiven other than the unpardonable sin, which is a person who doesn’t want forgiveness.

So we will fall. We will fail. We all sin. I sin. But I do know I can go before God and He will forgive me if I’m genuine and sincere and I just don’t want to be that way anymore. God will give us the power to overcome it. But it could take time. Doesn’t happen overnight. It’d be great to be able to just sin once and then say, “Ah, forgive me God; I don’t want to be that way,” and get up and never do it again. Whew... That’d be great! Doesn’t happen that way.

Sometimes sins that we think that we’ve conquered and overcome come back after years and years. I’ve been around a while and I can tell you they don’t actually go away. What happens is you learn more about the sin and you can apply that wrong thinking to a deeper way to more things. It’s the same sin. Only before you thought it only covered this area, but as God reveals more to you you see more and more and more and more, and in the end you realize, oh, this sin, what you thought was there and you’d sort of overcome it, it applies to so many other things in life that we sin often...often, without recognizing it. Well, the longer you’re in God’s Church the more you’ll see that sin penetrates our whole life in lots of ways that we are not even are of at this moment and that’ll happen to the day we die.

Awareness is a wonderful thing. Being aware is a wonderful thing. Being aware that we’re sinning is a wonderful, wonderful thing, because the world isn’t aware they’re sinning. They don’t care. They just do it. No one checks anything. As long as it’s an advantage to self you do it. For us we’re aware that there’s a sin involved here at this time, whatever we’re doing, it’s a great blessing to have that awareness.

Verse 5—For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, which is selfishness, the world’s way. So if we’re walking in that we’re thinking about it and we desire it. But those who live according to the spirit, which is God in us, God’s way, trying to please God, the things of the spirit. So our motive and intent is different. We think on God’s way. So when we’re in a situation where we’re thinking about sin or sin may be engulfing us at that time, we have a chance here to walk in the spirit, which means we go, “Hang on a minute. This is wrong. This is sin. I don’t want to do this anymore,” and we back away. Well, that’s walking in the spirit. We focus our life, of measuring ourselves all the time, our motive and intent. That’s what we do all the time we’re walking in the spirit.

So there are two components. To walk in the spirit is to have God’s mind and God’s holy spirit, but other component is we need to be checking our motive and intent to see that it pleases God. And if it doesn’t please God we back away...we back away.

Don’t like using personal examples but sometimes it helps. I had an opportunity to do a little bit of casual work for somebody and it was driving a loader, loading trucks with a bit of dirt, little bit here and there. And in the end I left it. I thought, “I’m not going to do this,” because it didn’t last long. Because not only the back of my knee was playing up, but the language, it got to my mind. Because the language was so bad I struggled to get it out of my head. I really did. And I realized that it’s not good for me. I couldn’t conquer it. I just heard it and then all of a sudden I’m thinking driving around and it’s in my mind. This language is in my mind and I don’t want it. I’m trying to get rid of it and it’d come back, like a Christmas Carol, you end up singing them. You can’t get rid of it. But when I isolated myself from it and said, “No, I’m not going to do it anymore,” – can’t go up to the people and say, “I’m not doing anything because you swear all the time.” I said I’m not going to do it anymore. Within two days I was at peace. I was at peace.

Well, this is it. We make decisions based on God’s way of life. We don’t place ourselves in environments where it’s going to cause us problems. The most important thing in life is to be part of the Body of Christ. That is the most important thing in life. Everything else needs to be gotten rid of. “No, I choose God’s way. I don’t need all this garbage. I choose God’s way.” So we concentrate on things of the spirit. Now, you can understand what that is, the spirit of it. We concentrate on things that please God, God’s way of life. We focus on that. We focus on the truth. We don’t want to pollute our mind.

The most important thing that everyone in God’s Church has is a mind, firstly, then it’s God’s spirit. That puts us in the Body. But to have a mind that can think and make decisions because that’s what our life is about. We should do everything to protect the mind...everything to protect the mind.

Now, often when it comes to TV programs we understand that some programs we have to turn off because we can see where it’s going. You know, the language is there already or the sex part of it is there, starts off with it. We know straightaway, just get rid of it. There’s no point. We know where it’s going; it’s the world. You can’t watch modern movies because they’re all riddled with it.

Well, other ones where you can see where it’s leading to a sex scene, so that’s what fast forward is about. So we record most things and you go fast forward, and then you miss the gist of the story. What’s going on now because you fast forwarded too far. But that is a different spirit. The motive and intent is that we don’t want to get involved in all that because I know it’s going to affect the mind. Especially in men it affects the mind. Really does. So you’ve got to avoid it. So you’ve got to take action. Well, that’s walking in the spirit. You take action to not sin, not to put yourself in the environment of sin. It takes self-control. There’s ways to overcome things.

For some in God’s Church that are having problems in certain areas it’s better to get rid of it – just get rid of it altogether because your mind with God’s spirit is more valuable than anything in this world...anything! Gold, it’s all worthless. Because it’s about the mind, which Johnny says, “It’s the battle for the mind.” Satan knows that. He’s trying to pollute your mind and my mind so that we will not put God first and that at some point our mind is just so screwed up that it’s not able to be saved because it’s just gone too far.

Well, the most important thing in life is about our minds and we should do everything to protect our minds. That’s why excess alcohol is not a good thing. It’s not protecting the mind because what does alcohol do? It affects the mind. It affects the judgment, which is about the spirit of the matter.

So we understand that we walk according to the spirit. We don’t do it all the time, but we strive to and we concentrate on the things of the spirit. Now, today, what are we doing? We’re concentrating on the things of the spirit. It’s God’s Sabbath day and God is educating us, transforming our minds – the most important thing, being transformed, different way of thinking. “Ah, now I need to start checking this and checking that, watching my motive and intent, why do I do what I do.” So today is walking in the spirit. It’s a wonderful thing. We’re walking in the spirit. If we’re stopping today and not working, and listening to God, God telling us what we should do and what we need to do, we’re walking in the spirit. It’s a beautiful thing.

So there are times when we do walk in the spirit, but we don’t walk in the spirit all the time. We walk in the truth, which is walking in the spirit. We walk in the spirit of the law, which is about this motive and intent. Our intent is to please God no matter what. So we’re going to be obedient to His word, hence the Sabbath day, holy days, tithing, offerings. That’s walking in the spirit. When we give an offering to God with the right motive we are walking in the spirit because we want to please God. We don’t want to please others; we just want to please God, do it for God.

Verse 6—For to be carnally minded is death, now we understand why, cause it’s to do with sin, natural mind, sin, but to be spiritually minded, which is having God’s spirit, is life and peace. Now, that’s interesting. So having God’s spirit now gives us life, what life’s about. We’ve got life, true life. People out there don’t have life. If they’re not part of the Body of Christ they don’t really have “life.” They have a physical life, but that’s not “life.” They don’t understand the purpose of life. We understand the purpose of life; we have “life.” We’re on a path, on a journey with an outcome. They’re not yet.

“...and peace.” So, peace can happen now. Now, we make decisions everyday whether or not we want peace. Peace is God’s mind. God is peace. He has His mind. Well, we can live in peace because we make decisions to avoid sin, we watch our motive and intent, we guard it, we make decisions to please God; we’re living in peace. So we can have peace now because we have God’s spirit and we can have peace in the future when we’re changed to Elohim because we will be peace, we’ll only think a certain way. So it’s a beautiful thing. We have the capacity to live peace now, which is God’s thinking in us.

Because the carnal mind is enmity, or hostile, or in opposition against God, for it is not subject, it is not under the law; it doesn’t yield to the law (it don’t want to know the law), under the rule of the law, to the law of God, not indeed can be. So, we resist God by design. It’s a wonderful plan.

This is something when I look back when I was first called into the Body of Christ, the Church of God, that I wasn’t really aware of. I was very naive. When I look at the first ten or fifteen years I was pretty naive, and God is magnifying now this component of what this is really all about, what the purpose of life is really all about. Most of my early part in God’s Church was about knowledge. I got excited about knowledge, like, “Wow, did you know...” and tried to show people, “Can’t you see...” Just like most people tried. Well, the knowledge, it was just incredible, and the knowledge separated us from other people. Whereas now it’s more spiritual – not just spiritual knowledge but spiritual understanding and wisdom, the power of God in us, the wisdom of God in us to make right choices. We have that power. They don’t. We have that power.

So it’s an incredible thing that now in God’s Church we focus more on self and selfishness individually, looking at self, measuring self, than any time in God’s Church. Before it was more living life. We’ve been called for a particular purpose at this time where evil is at its pinnacle, and yet we know what it’s about. We understand about a spirit world. We understand the motive of a spirit world – to destroy the mind. Destroying physical things is nothing. Destroying the mind is everything, the spirit in man, making those choices. That’s what Satan is trying to do.

We understand self and selfishness more than any other time in human history, I believe. Not that that’s doctrinal. But I believe we see it. I know I see myself. When I was first called I didn’t see myself to this degree, but I do see it now. We are selfish and self-centered by design. Now, this is an incredible truth and understanding. The world just can’t see it and they’d think we’re weird if you told them that. By nature we cannot walk in the spirit. That’s impossible by nature. To walk in the spirit requires a calling, repentance, and the gift of God’s holy spirit. Well, this is what our life’s about. We can only walk in the spirit of the law if we have God’s holy spirit living and dwelling in us and that’s what Christ came to do.

Verse 8—So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So with a natural carnal mind it’s impossible to please God, because it just can’t. To please God we need God’s holy spirit. Now, the natural mind is full of lusts, But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, so we’re not relying on this natural mind, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now, I bolded that because we’re only in the spirit of a matter if God’s holy spirit lives and dwells in us; because we now have God’s spirit we now can check our motive and intent. Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of God, he is not his. He is not Christ’s. We don’t belong to the Church, another way to put it.

Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, our High Priest and soon coming King. Well, those in the body, Body of Christ, have His spirit. If we don’t, we don’t belong to Christ because we’re not subject to God’s thinking, we don’t have God’s holy spirit. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead, which is the natural mind, because of sin, well, we acknowledge that. We know that. ...but the spirit is life because of righteousness, because of God’s thinking in us. Now, we have to be righteous. To enter the Kingdom of God we have to be righteous. Well, what makes us righteous? Faith, we believe God. We strive with our motive and intent to please God. Well, that’s accounted to righteousness.

Only God in us makes us righteous, which is God’s thinking, and therefore, we have faith. We’ve been given faith. The world can’t have faith; we’ve been given faith. We know that that is accounted to us for righteousness as it says in Hebrews.

But if the spirit of Him, which is God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, which it does (that’s what makes us part of the Body), He (God the Father) who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit which dwells in you. Isn’t that beautiful? That’s our hope. We look for this transformation to take place and be completed. It’s happening now. We’re being transformed. We think differently than the world. They think we’re weird. We’re not. We’re thinking more like God. But God says that He raised up Jesus Christ, and now Paul is saying, well, if you’ve got the same spirit, God the Father raised up Jesus Christ and placed him in Elohim as our High Priest and soon coming King, well, at some point in time He will raise us up. We don’t know when. We’ve just got to endure. We’ve got to continue in the battle. We’ve got to continue to strive to walk in the spirit and that’s a choice.

So walking in the spirit is a choice because we can know when we see sin and that it’s wrong, and the choice is ours. What do we want to do? Stop it or keep going? Now, if we keep going it’s called “the temporary pleasure of sin.” I love that scripture because as we mature, not only in age but in God’s Church, you realize there is a temporary—temporary—pleasure in sin. There is. Satan knows it. God designed it this way, that there’s a self satisfaction that takes place.

So when we pull somebody else down through words there’s a temporary pleasure in it because pride is elevated. It’s a temporary pleasure. It fulfills the desire within the natural mind. It’s temporary. Temporary – that’s the big problem. Temporary. So there is a pleasure in sin. But if we were to fight it there’s a pleasure that will last forever that we can’t fully grasp. We don’t have the mind to grasp what it’s like to be in God’s Family. We might know of it but the only way you really know these things is when you experience it. We don’t fully understand it. We don’t have the mind of God all the time so we don’t understand what it’s like, really, to be a spirit being that doesn’t think evil. To be able to be able to manifest or not, all those, we have no comprehension really of that. We think we know, but we don’t until that happens to us. That’s the purpose of life, to be transformed so that we could be changed at a point in time.

Verse 12—Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. So we don’t owe the flesh anything because flesh will earn us death. Temporary. Temporary life. Death is permanent. It’s there forever. So there’s that temporary pleasure, that’s what it’ll earn us. But it’ll earn us death. For if you live according to the flesh you will die. I will die; we will die if we choose that way. That’s why we’re in the Church, to make choices to choose righteousness.

But if by the spirit, God in us, by the power of God’s holy spirit God does the works, you put the death the deeds of the body... Now, this putting to death the deeds of the body is this thinking about motive and intent. We have to choose it. So when we start to do something and we see that the motive is wrong we have to stop and make a choice – continue on or not. Choice is ours. God won’t force us to do righteousness. We have to make a choice. God will fulfill it in us if we desire it, but we have to desire it. Then the work will take place, the good work which is from God. It’s God’s spirit that does it. But we have to choose whether we want God’s spirit to work in our life or not.

But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. So everybody that is part of the Body of Christ now, those that live into the Millennium and the hundred years are going to have to live this very scripture. You’re going to have to put to death the flesh. It’s not about killing people. It’s about destroying a way of thinking that is naturally in us and choosing to live according to God’s way. And if we desire to put to death that thinking and make the choice, when we see it we know it, then God says He will give us life. Well, that’s what we’re striving to do. To sacrifice our selfishness is to walk in the spirit. So we have to sacrifice selfishness.

Verse 14—For as many as are led by the spirit these are the sons of God. Now, we underestimate this scripture, because the honour of being and being called by God a son of God is just incredible. We live in a physical world, but to be called a begotten son of God? How can you even describe it? Like God, Almighty God, All Powerful Almighty, which we underestimate in our life anyway, we’re called a son? Why are we called a son? Well, it goes on and explains. Why are we called a begotten son of God? There’s a reason for it.

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage, which is to be held by a natural mind. So we’ve been given God’s spirit. If we have the natural mind, the natural spirit, the spirit in man, we’re held in bondage. It cannot think spiritually. It’s held in bondage. It’s impossible for anybody out there to think spiritually. You have to have God’s holy spirit to do it.

So we did not receive a different spirit that’s going to hold us in bondage. This spirit is going to make us free. We’re now free. Because this other spirit we have is about prejudices and it’s all about self, what we judge as right and wrong.

...again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption. Now, that’s what it’s about. This is about being called a son of God (which includes male and female), begotten sons of God. Why? Because we’ve been adopted.

Now what happens in an adoption? A child that is born in the world, doesn’t have a mother or father, or may have but may have been put off for adoption. Often they’re orphans, so to speak. Well, that’s what we are in the world. That’s what God considers us. We’re different. We’re over here. We don’t have a family to belong to. So a child in an orphanage, what it’s really saying, there is no family that wants you or can afford you or there’s a reason why you don’t have a family anymore, therefore, you’re up for adoption. Another family could take you and make you part of their family. That’s physical.

Spiritually it’s exactly the same. We are all in the world and really, we don’t have a mother or Father. We don’t have the Church, mother of us all, and we don’t have a Father that we’re aware of called God the Father. We don’t know of Him; we’re living our life. But God says when He calls us and makes us sons, begotten sons, by the power of His holy spirit we become that, we are now being adopted into a family, the family of Elohim. What a beautiful thing.

So we here, brethren, have been called and we are now begotten sons of God for what reason? We’re now heirs of a promise. We’ve been adopted by God and Jesus Christ. We’re now part of the Church, the mother of us all. So we now have a mother called the Church and we now know God the Father. We have a Father, a spiritual one. Isn’t this exciting? The world knows nothing of it. All physical. This is spiritual.

But you receive the spirit, God’s holy spirit, of adoption by which we cry out Abba, Father. So nobody can do this unless they’ve been called and been baptized and receive God’s holy spirit because they can’t cry out, “Abba, Father,” because they’ve not been adopted. We’ve been adopted; we are begotten sons of God. We’re now in a new family called the Church, and God’s spirit makes us part of the family.

Verse 16—The spirit of God itself bears witness with our spirit, the one we have, the spirit in man, that we are children of God, because it’s God’s spirit in us that makes us children of God. What an honor! We’ve been adopted out of a world from a mind of bondage. ...and if children, then heirs, now, this is the key. This is why we’re part of the Church. We’re heirs. We’re heirs of a promise—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Now, why are we joint heirs? It’s because Jesus Christ has already received the inheritance, which is life in Elohim. Well, we’ve been adopted so that we can receive the promise – eternal life (or life everlasting is probably a better way to put it) with God forever. Wow.

When you look at this on a physical level you would say, well, here’s a child, he’s adopted by a billionaire (not a millionaire, a billionaire) that owns a lot. Now, you would look at that and say, “Wow! Isn’t that incredible? That child is lucky.” That’s what you’d say. “That child, how blessed is that child.” Physical. To be in an orphanage and then adopted by a billionaire and you’re now going to inherit that billionaire’s fortune when they die. It’s like winning the lotto. That’s incredible isn’t it?

Spiritually we’re nothing, we’re human. God placed us on this earth and we out of 7 billion people have been adopted, by not the billionaire but the being that owns it all, everything! He says all you’ve got to do (sounds easy doesn’t it?) is trust in Me, believe in Me, and yield to Me, yield your spirit to Me (which is what it’s about, fighting), and I will give you life with Me. And you will own everything that I own, basically. Everything. The world’s the world, but life everlasting? Whew!

Now, when we hear the words “sons of God,” “begotten sons of God,” it should really shock us into reality of what’s happened to you and me compared to all the others it hasn’t happened to yet. Heirs of a promise?

So we’re joint heirs with Christ, and he’s already received it, if indeed we suffer... So what are we suffering? Well, we suffer because we’re human and we suffer when we destroy our selfishness. Because there’s a suffering involved. When we stop self and its desires and its lusts there’s a suffering. It’s called denying self. Now, we suffer because of the world. We suffer because we’re Sabbath keepers.

I was going over the sermon last night and there were a couple of things that came into mind and one of them I won’t really mention, but I remember, and I don’t know whether I’ve told you this, I might have, but there was a Jewish company (there was a few of them in Victoria when I was in retail). I knew it was a Jewish company and that the two bosses were Jews. I didn’t know whether they were Sabbath keepers or not. At this point I can’t remember whether I’d put it down or they weren’t aware of my resume that had it I’m a Sabbath keeper.

Anyway, I’m going through this interview and doing really well and everything is going really well and I felt like they were going to say everything was fine. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes and it’s going really well for an interview and, like, this is going good. They said, “Yeah, like when could you start.” I could start right away, basically, I’ve got to give a bit of notice first, but normally if you’re in certain levels they chop you off straight away once you resign. They just want to get rid of you so you don’t influence anybody. I said, yeah, I’d probably within a week or so more than likely because the company will just axe me. They said, okay, when. I said, yeah, just a reminder that, you know, I don’t work Friday night and Saturday.

I’ll tell you, that interview, it was within ten seconds I was walking out that door, yet I had thought it was a Jewish company, they’d probably understand it. There is no way they’re going to have a Sabbath keeper with that mob. The busiest day of the year, of course, is the Sabbath and they’re not Sabbath keepers. Well, they think they are, but they’re not because they trade.

So that is a persecution for righteousness sake, because it’s not my righteousness. It’s God in me that gave me the conviction that I was never going to work Friday night and Saturday ever again. And when I raised it, a good job, I was out the door. Persecuted for righteousness sake. That’s only a minor part of it, but there are hundreds of things in our life, brethren, where we are persecuted because of righteousness.

Another example would be tithing. Here in Australia it’s not a tax deduction so the government taxes you depending on what level you’re on. It can go up to 47, 46 cents on the dollar I think it is. 46 cents on the dollar and, you know, down to 30, down to 18 or something. But 46 cents on the dollar, first tithe 10%, second tithe 10% - that’s 67% of your income is gone. Offerings? So you’re persecuted, I’m persecuted because of righteousness sake. Because taxation is not God’s system, it’s Satan’s system. As Ron has said, those Israelites said, “Give us a king!” Wow, you want to come to Australia and pay 47 cents on the dollar. We don’t want a king! Honestly, we don’t want a king. You learn all the other taxes, the tax for your license, the tax for your road, all the taxes that are all hidden everywhere. We don’t want that king, we want the King of kings where the law and truth, fairness, and justice takes place, and greed and competition doesn’t take over.

So we can see we suffer. I haven’t got time to go through all the areas of suffering that we suffer, but the biggest suffering we have is denying our selfishness. We have to live in this world, which Jesus Christ did, but we have to deny our selfishness. We have got to deny it and that’s the suffering. It’s suffering. We’ll pay penalties. This is Satan’s system and he is out to destroy our minds, and the moment we start to think wrongly about things or think that that way is fair, listen to Neil Mitchell on the radio and you hear people ring up and you think it’s got to be over soon because this just can’t keep going on because people are so confused about things. You know, you bash people up and you get off because the judge says you had a bad childhood or you have a mental illness. It just drives you crazy.

So we have to suffer. It’s part of life. If something is happening to you individually or me individually don’t worry, it’s part of suffering for righteousness – that is if it is suffering for righteousness and not stupid decisions on a physical level. ...that we may also be glorified together. So that’s why we’d be called begotten sons of God or sons of God because we have been adopted so that we can inherit something. The billionaire’s fortune, we’re going to inherit something greater than that. Elohim, we’re going to inherit it and everything that goes with it, which we don’t even comprehend. It’s a pearl without price.

So with that, brethren, we’ll finish up. I was going to go through Matthew 5 (you might want to do it in your own time) where Jesus Christ explained the spirit of the law, where he goes through and says to them, “You might have heard ‘murder’; well, I’m telling you it’s ill will.” “You might have heard ‘adultery’; well, I’m telling you an evil thought for self-gratification is wrong.” Well, that was new to them. They all just looked on the physical, as long as you don’t kill someone you’re doing pretty well.

Well, now for us it’s the way we think, it’s the way we live toward each other. It’s about relationships. In the world, in the Church, within family, it’s all about relationships. It’s about our motive and intent, why do we do what we do.

With that we’ll bring it to a conclusion.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1