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THE MIND OF CHRIST (PART 1) July 1, 2008 INTRODUCTION: Romans 12: 2 1- Just suppose that Christ broke through the veil that separated the physical from the spiritual and said to today! 2- I’m going to require you to have My mind in all its fullness! 3- And suppose that He said; But That they may know what a miracle of change I can work! 4- I’m going to reveal to your church what your mind is like right now! 5- Next Sunday Morning, I’m going to take over the morning service! 6- And I’m going to play back for all to hear every thought you had last week! 7- Would it appall you or delight you in Christ revealed your thoughts?
UNCONSCIOUSLY WE ASSUME: 1- That our outer, physical, visible actions are going to be the basis for our judgment! 2- But God places emphasis on the inner, invisible actions of the mind. 3- Most men would protest that we have never committed adultery for example. 4- But Jesus said; “But I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart”. Mt. 5: 28 5- We’d never have considered murder! But Jesus said; Mt.5: 22 6- But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment! 7- Christ equated the sin of anger with that of murder! 8- How about Ahab’s greed? 9- A mental sin preceded the stealing of Naboth’s Vineyard. 10-Jezebel, Ahab’s wife carried out the murder of Naboth; but it all started with Ahab’s greed. 1St. kings 21: 15- 16 11-Cain’s inner anger and jealousy all anchored in his mind before his outward act of murder of Able his brother. Genesis 12-Martha’s mental sin of anxiety led to the visible sin of quarreling. Luke 10: 38- 41
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT: 1- The heart was always used where we’d use the mind! 2- Solomon said: “apply your heart to discipline”! Pr. 23: 12
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT; JESUS USED THE WORD HEART IN THE SAME SENSE: “And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts”?
ALMOST ALWAYS WE ARE SATISFIED IF: 1- If we satisfy the expectations of society and the requirements of God! Amen? 2- He said as early on as Samuels’s day: “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”! 1 St. Sam. 16: 7 3- Friends; we really can say; “God looks at the mind!” 4- QUESTION: “Do you like the current condition of our mind? 5- More importantly, would God like the state of your mind right now? 6- What if it were possible to have a mind like Christ’s?
WHY IS HAVING THE MIND OF CHRIST SO IMPORTANT FOR BELIEVERS? 1- Well! “God created us in His image”! A Real good reason to have the mind of Christ! Amen? 2- The Old Testament emphasis was the difference between God and man! “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways declares the Lord”. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts” Isa. 64: 8
BUT THE NEW TESTAMENT MAKES A RADICAL SHIFT IN EMPHASIS: 1- Here, God in Christ is made like us. For verily He took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Heb. 2: 16- 17
THEN AFTER REDEMPTION WAS ACCOMPLISHED: 1- Once more we are to be like God! 2- Paul said: “Put on the new man (self) which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness”. Eph. 4: 24 3- And the purpose of the new life is “GOD-LIKENESS”. 4- He told the Colossians 3: 10 “You have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” 1- So in Redemption; we are again in the image of God! DURING THE EARTHLY DAYS OF JESUS AND BEFORE THE WORK OF REDEMPTION: 1- He told the disciples; “It is enough for the disciples that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord”. Mt. 10: 25 2- So now specifically; we are to be like Jesus, who was God made human! 3- He became like us so that we might become like Him. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren”. Rm. 8: 29
THEN JOHN PICKS UP PEN AND PARCHMENT AND SEES AN END TO THIS: “But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as He is” 1St. Jn. 3: 2
JESUS INVITES US TO: “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of me” Mt. 11¨29 FRIENDS; 1- Jesus went from birth to death living our kind of life to give us an example of what God meant man to be! 2- He suffered our kinds of temptation. 3- He knew the pangs of hunger, thirst, exhaustion, denial, and betray by friends. 4- And in all of that; He invites us to learn from Him!
WE ARE TO BE IMITATORS OF CHRIST; TO BE LIKE HIM: “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you” Jn. 13: 15 1- He suffered for us, leaving us an example for us to follow in His steps. 1St. Pet. 2: 21 2- We are to love for He was our example in Love. Eph. 5: 2 “And walk in love, just as Christ also love you, and gave Himself up for us, and offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma”.
BELOVED; THE PURPOSE OF OUR FATHER WAS TO: “Bring many children into the perfect image of His glorious Son”!
FRIENDS; OUR SPIRITUAL MIND WILL DEVELOP IN THE SAME FASHION AS DOES A LITTLE CHILDS MIND DEVELOPS: 1- Even at Spiritual Birth, we “have the mind of Christ”. 2- But with subsequent growth; that mind must contend with established habits, 3- We have to contend with the culture with which we live; and the work of Satan! 4- In us; The Mind of Christ matures in a process of growth! 5- And we must contend; fight for; and stagger not at the promises of God! “For it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure” Phil. 2:13 1- We are the subjects; God is the active agent; He is the potter; and we are the clay.
“But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image form glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”. 2nd. Cor. 3: 18 FRIENDS; 1- God fully intends that we become like Him in the process!
BUT NOW LISTEN TO ME ON THIS VERY CAREFULLY! 1- Five Characteristics of God, man can never be like Him in nor can we assume the duties of! 2- His Omnipotence; His Omnipresence; and His Omniscience! 3- And neither His infinity nor His immutability! 4- These have to do with His Divinity! 5- No man will ever be Divine but God Himself!
ON THE OTHER HAND: 1- We can grow in Him in qualities given us by Him in “mercy, love, long-suffering, Holiness and grace”! 2- He invested these qualities in us as Redeemed Humanity!
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