10 Jun Gas Mixed with Water
Romans 13:9-13 – For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
As I continue preaching through Paul’s incredible book of Romans, we come to Romans 13 where, just like back in Romans 8, Paul talks about the war between the spirit and the flesh. And the other day, as I was driving my son’s truck because my jeep is still in the shop (for the record, it always lives in the flesh, never in the Spirit), an analogy occurred to me.
I pulled into the gas station and there are two different hoses that you can get liquids from – one is gas, and the other is water.
Does it matter which nozzle you put into your tank?
Your soul was meant to run on the Spirit, not the flesh. If you try to run your soul on the flesh, you’re eventually going to overheat it, seize it up, and be a broken person.
If you live in the Spirit, you’re going to be healthy because your soul was made by God to live by the power and the fuel of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit and the flesh together are like water and gas together in a motor. The only way for you to live a healthy life as God intended it is living by the Spirit and to repent of any of those opportunities we choose to live in the flesh. The failure to do so causes a believer to live a life that falls short of all that God has for them. They live stuck in a sin cycle complete with guilt and shame and find their ability to enjoy God and others dulled and diminished. The key is to drain the flesh out of your soul and fill it with the Spirit in the same way that a car filled with a mixture of gas and water would need to drain the tank and get refilled to run at peak performance.
Are you living more by the flesh or by the Spirit? How can you live more by the Spirit this week?
To find the free Romans 12-16 digital study guide for individuals and small groups, hear Pastor Mark’s entire sermon series on Romans, or find a free mountain of Bible teaching visit legacy.realfaith.com or download the Real Faith app.
