← The Daily Blade: Joby Martin & Kyle Thompson
The Daily Blade: Joby Martin & Kyle Thompson
#328 - Joby Martin // Three Daily Practices That Starve Sin And Grow Faith
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- [00:01]
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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.
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All right. Day five in Galatians, chapter five. We're not going to make it all the way through the chapter. Just next time I'm up, we'll pick it up where we left off. But Paul says this. But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Okay. He says, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So the old school reformers would call this mortification and vivification, that it's not enough to simply not do the bad things in your life. It's not enough to simply throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. But we've also, we have to do the things that stir our affections for the Lord. If you look at John in the book of John 15, Jesus says, abide in me and I will abide in you. And then he uses the example of a gardener. He says, my father's the gardener, I'm the vine, you're the branches, and you gotta stay close to me. And then he says, abide in my word and I will abide in you. But then he also says that God is going to prune away some things in your life. So John Owen would say, kill the sin or it'll be killing you. So there are some things in your life that are hindering you from walking in the Spirit. And as long as you keep those things in your life, you will gratify the desires of the flesh and they will war against you. They will hinder and hamper and poison your walk with Jesus. But it will never be enough to just with your willpower, say no to sin. That won't be enough. You simultaneously have to stir your affections for the Lord. Because when you walk by the Spirit, then your desires of the flesh should over time diminish and diminish and diminish. So how do you walk by the spirit? Well, here's how you walk by the Spirit. You're going to need at least three things in your life. And I Don't care what kind of discipleship program people have come up with or what kind of journey you're on, There are always three ingredients in the life of every believer that leads to having a deep and abiding walk in the Spirit. One is God's Word, two is God's presence, and three is God's people. And so do you have those things in your life? First of all, God's Word. Well, if you're listening to this, you've got a little snippet of God's Word for five minutes a day, five days a week. That's a good little start. It will not be enough to sustain you, but it helps. And so a part of the way you've got to get God's Word in you is primarily two things. Sermons and study. Sermons and study. Are you constantly listening to sermons that teach God's Word, that are founded on the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? But even just receiving that will not be enough. You've got to open up the Bible for yourself and dig in. Because the real preacher is not actually the guy with the microphone or the guy with the podcast. The real preacher is the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that he was going to send the Spirit to dwell on the inside of every believer and that the Spirit of God would remind you and teach you the things that Jesus wants you to know. So first of all, you got to have God's Word. If you want to walk by the Spirit, you have a consistent dose of the Word of God in your life. Secondly, you've got to have God's presence. Now, this is individually through prayer, and this is corporately through worship. These have to be consistent parts of your life. That is prayer for you. A first response or a last resort. I mean, do you constantly just listen to talks and listen to the things I say, and yet you yourself are not spending time with the Father on your own. Jesus says, go into your prayer closet. That just means by yourself, just you and him, make your request known to God. Most of the parables that Jesus teach about prayer are about the consistency of prayer, about asking and asking and asking and not giving up. And then you've also got to have worship that a part of being in God's presence is God manifests himself in a unique way when the body of Christ gets together and just makes much of Jesus through worship and word. So you got to have God's Word, God's presence, and then the one we talk about as much as anything, you got to have some, got to have some of God's people in your life, you got to have mat carriers, you got to have foxhole brothers, you got to have some real coin and fellowship. Life on life. You can't do the one anothers of the New Testament if you don't have the one anothers around you to do life with. And you need to serve God's people. And so if you want to walk by the spirit, you need God's word, God's presence and God's people. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. There's this old Native American proverb. You've probably heard it a million times, but it goes something like this. There was a reporter a long time ago, he goes to an Indian tribe, Native American tribe. And there was a wise man there, there was an elder, he was the most highly respected. Everybody thought he was great. So the reporter goes to him and says, so you are the most respected, the wisest, you are the elder here and everybody here reveres you. What is your secret? And this really old wise man says, inside of me, every day is a good dog and a bad dog and they are at war with one another. And the reporter asks, well, which one wins? And the wise man simply said, the one that I feed. What Paul is saying here is feed the spirit in you feed the good dog. Walk by the spirit. How do you do that? God's word, God's presence, God's people. Amen.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help, equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.