Nathan Lewis - The Mind of Christ - Class 6: Exhortation - The Power

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Reading with you, brothers and sisters, Philippians chapter 4 and verses 4 to 13. Rejoice in the Lord away, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good rapport, If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things, those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do.

2. 0:54

   And the God of peace shall be with you. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me have flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I’ve learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.

3. 1:14

   I know both how to be abased, and I know how to be, how to abound everywhere and in all things I’m instructed both to be full and to be hungry. Both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.

4. 1:31

   Is now my pleasure to call upon Brother Nathan Lewis to deliver to us the words of exhortation. Well, good morning, my very dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ.

5. 1:45

   We come to the end of our week together, to the end of our series Looking at this. Vital subject The mind of our Lord Jesus Christ. The carnal mind has been exposed as our ultimate problem. We’ve seen our loving Heavenly Father’s promise of a spiritual mind that can replace the carnal mind that each of us fight against.

6. 2:13

   Not in a moment, not in just one day. But by the miraculous process of metamorphosis, the renewing of our minds, we’ve seen, haven’t we, the central principle of death to self that governed everything that our Lord did and spoken, even thought? And we saw the importance of practicing these things day by day as we slowly mature and grow up into Him who is our head. And now, this morning, we want to come to the power of. The mind of Christ.

7. 2:50

   Is this mind, this person that we remember this morning, really able to completely change and transform our minds, change our lives utterly. What is it about the mind of this man that made it so powerful? And we want to use the example this morning of the Apostle Paul. Could there be? A better example to demonstrate the power of the mind of Christ than to see how it was able to completely and utterly transform the most arrogant, most violent, most twisted, most cunning, most hateful man into a man that acts chapter 17, verse six says, turned the world upside down. Because of his love for this man here on the table before us, we have to look at the Apostle Pool, don’t we, brothers and sisters?

8. 3:56

   Because if the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ, fully revealed and understood, could utterly change the apostle pool, it can utterly change anyone you know. We know soul of Tacis’s story well, so we won’t go back into the Acts of the Apostles and read it together. But let just let me recap briefly for you. Soul of Tarsus bursts into the Acts of the Apostles as the self-righteous bigot who was so overcome with hatred that he was proud to be the first to cast a stone at Stephen’s head as Stephen prayed.

9. 4:45

   That their sin being not laid to their charge as Stephen dramatically exhibited the mind of Christ willingly putting himself to death. Saul is screaming hate, You know, he says in Acts chapter 26 and verse 11 that he was exceedingly mad, and he uses exactly the same word that’s used of the chief priests. And Matthew chapter 27, When they cried out, the more crucify him, he was like a raging animal, possessed, dragging brothers and sisters out of their beds in the middle of the night, forcing them to blaspheme Jesus Christ, hurling them into dungeons, throwing away the key, confiscating lands and houses, tearing faithful families apart.

10. 5:38

    Delighting and being the prosecuting council, and standing up in front of the Sanhedrin and saying these are worthy only of death. Sound familiar, brothers and sisters? That’s a portrait of the carnal mind, Hardened and proud, Angry, Bitter. Hostile, progressively getting worse and worse. Not content to just hunt down believers in his own land, he’s persecuting the Christians to strange cities outside the Jewish jurisdiction. He’s blinded, deceived, spiteful, cruel. This is the carnal mind soul of Tarsus. How could our Lord’s mind have enough power to transform this monster?

11. 6:29

    Could this soul of Tarsus ever be converted? You know, I want you to come this morning as we start our journey looking at the Apostle Paul back right back to the words of Christ in Matthew chapter 13. Because I want to ask this morning, what is conversion?

12. 6:52

    Because whilst we might think that we’re converted when we get back ties. You know, our Lord seems to indicate, doesn’t he, that baptism into Christ and true conversion to the mind of Christ are two different things. You remember what Christ said to Peter. Peter had spent 3 1/2 years with Jesus Christ and Christ said when you are converted, Peter. Strengthen your brethren.

13. 7:27

    But I’m converted. Lord, I’m already converted. I’ll die for you. I understand death to self. But as we know, despite his protestations of maturity, Peter had to go through an excruciating betrayal that would scar him forever before he fully was converted and was able to strengthen his brethren, which he did. So what is conversion? Look in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 15, because I think our Lord tells us for this people’s heart. Verse 15 is waxed, gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed.

14. 8:07

    Least at anytime they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart. Should be converted and I should heal them. What does it mean to be converted? It’s connecting what we already know in our minds with our hearts. See, we understand with our hearts and we’re converted. That’s where the part the power lies. Do you know when God is going to convert Israel? It says in Hebrews 8, verse 10, he will give the law into their minds and write it upon their hearts. He’ll connect the two for the first time in the history of the nation, and they will be changed. Of course they’ll be changed.

15. 8:58

    They’ll be converted by the power of Christ. That’s conversion. And I think I don’t know about you brothers and sisters, but certainly for myself, conversion did not come when I was baptized. Conversion can come much later in life, but when it comes, brothers and sisters, it is unmistakable. You can never be the same. You are a new person.

16. 9:25

    And just like our Lord had a purpose with Peter, our Lord had an enormous work for soul of Tarsus to do. You know, I’m convinced, and many of you will be also that Soul of Tarsus knew the truth in his head before his Damascus Rd. experience. It was just hours after his sight returned to him that he’s in the synagogues preaching Christ. He’s got all the answers.

17. 9:51

    He speaks irresistibly. But you see, he’s been desperately running away from the truth, covering up his own doubts and fears and insecurities, covering the doubts and fears of the carnal mind with persecuting zeal that just seemed so right. Justifying his decision to enthrone self and to never listen to Jesus Christ, to reject him. But inside there was number, none of the peace that passes understanding and soul of Tarsus. His head and his mind were tearing him apart and on the road to Damascus.

18. 10:32

    Christ was going to connect his mind and his heart, convert him. That he might be healed. He’d be forgiven. Set free. What a gift. Here’s how it happened. I want you to imagine brothers and sisters coming face to face with a light far brighter than the sun at noonday and hearing the words.

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    I am Jesus of Nazareth. Why are you persecuting me so? In one terrifying moment of clarity, he realized that his whole life was just a mistake. Jesus of Nazareth alive, everything that it seemed so right, was all horribly wrong. He had been wrong, and God gave him the gift of three days. And three nights of death, darkness so that he could experience in himself the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

20. 11:49

    So there he is. He’s in total darkness. He’s blind. He’s hungry. He’s silent. He’s alone. He’s terrified. And he sat in a small chamber, and he awaited Jesus Christ’s sentence. For his crimes, he knew, Didn’t he? Brothers and sisters, he deserved it all. What would Christ’s vengeance be? Public humiliation? Execution. A public beheading in the town square?

21. 12:24

    Stoning like he had done to Stephen? He knew he deserved all of it and more. And after three days of interminable waiting, the door creaked open. And the judge’s verdict came. The words were not harsh, but gentle brother saw. I have chosen you. I love you.

22. 13:03

    This brothers and sisters. His grace, the stirrings of the mind of Christ. It’s a free gift. And all of us have been offered this undeserved, unearned. And in that room that day in Damascus, our Lord did for soul of Tarsus what he could never do for himself. He began to create in him a new creature.

23. 13:31

    He started the process of removing the carnal mind. And replacing it with his own glorious mind. You remember these words that we looked at in second of Timothy one And verse 7. Just think of soul sitting blinded and afraid and hearing these unexpected words of kindness. For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.

24. 14:06

    And that day the old soul of Tarsus learnt the power of putting himself voluntarily to death, because the risen Christ had just shown him. Christ had not exacted revenge. Christ had not returned evil for evil. Christ had not kept record of all of soul’s wrongs. He had forgiven everything freely. It was so unbelievable it had to be true.

25. 14:38

    And Paul was conquered by a power, the power of a love, the power of a way of thinking that he could not understand or resist, a power that prevailed mightily against the power of hate. And he walked out of that same room and knew man no longer the bitter and twisted Pharisee but Christ. To the Gentiles, do you know an X9 verse 18? It says there fell from his eyes as it had been scales. He was one of the generation of Vipers that Christ had referred to the scaly reptilian brain.

26. 15:22

    The thinking of the serpent was superseded that day by something far, far more powerful, the thinking of the mind of Christ. Love, which he couldn’t understand, and his first vision as he looked up after three days of the darkness of death, was Ananias, the grace of Ya. This was a moment in which Paul was converted and in which his whole life changed in just a moment of time. I’d like you to come to 2nd of Corinthians in chapter 4, because we’ve been here before this week, but let’s just. Reemphasized this point, Second of Corinthians 4 verses four to seven.

27. 16:11

    The mind of Christ, brothers and sisters, is not about us. Verse four, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ was the image of God. Should shine unto them, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ their selves, your servants.

28. 16:37

    For Jesus’s sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, had shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That the Excellency of the power of the mind of Christ may be of God and not of ourselves.

29. 17:06

    This is the Damascus, Damascus road. And Paul is acknowledging, isn’t he in verse six, that his old natural way of thinking was as blindingly dark and as grossly ignorant of the truth as the pre creation. Darkness itself. But now, brothers and sisters, he had light and it’s been shined where Into his heart for the very first time. His heart is connected with everything he knew. He was converted, transformed, but before he could turn the world upside down, Christ had to turn his world upside down. Everything was different, and the mind of Christ was utterly different to everything he’d ever known. Instead of revenge, he’d received grace. He deserved only hate, but he was showered with love and compassion.

30. 18:01

    Before he had imprisoned people, but now he was imprisoned himself, but not with chains. Look at chapter 5 and verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us. Love of Christ constrains us. The word means to seize or arrest as a prisoner. Paul was held captive by the love of Christ. Do you know that the word constraineth is exactly the same word in Acts Chapter 7 and verse 57 when it says that soul of Tarsus and the rest of the sanhedron stopped the ears and they ran upon Stephen?

31. 18:51

    In this word is the whole conversion of soul of Tarsus. Before he barricaded, he imprisoned his ears on the outside so that he could hear no more of Stephen’s wisdom. But now he’s imprisoned himself by a new way of thinking, and it’s inside constrained by love. What is this revolutionary way of thinking? Verse 14.

32. 19:20

    For the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we’re all dead, and that he died for all That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again, where For henceforth no, we know man after the flesh.

33. 19:45

    Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things are become new. It’s a completely different motivation to the carnal mind which is all all out for itself, hardwired to benefit self first.

34. 20:10

    In fact, this way of thinking. Is as different to that as a Caterpillar is from a butterfly. It’s not living for ourselves. Verse 15. It’s death to self. And when we do this, we are a new creature. It’s the intersection of our willingness to put ourselves to death and God’s willingness to allow Christ to be formed in us, that a new creature is made, created, and that day in Damascus. Paul was willing and God was willing, And Paul’s life was turned upside down by a new power, a new power that could imprison without bars and chains that compelled by love. Here’s the paradigm, brothers and sisters, of not living for ourselves.

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    It’s the extent that we put ourselves to death. That there is room made in us for Christ to dwell. Our job is to create room for Christ. We put ourselves to death. Our part is to do the emptying. God will do the filling. Ephesians too says that we become dead to sins. But it is He that will quicken us, He that will make us alive. Roman 6 says that we are buried with him in baptism, but we’re raised to newness of life, not by ourselves, but by the glory of the Father.

36. 21:48

    It’s his work. We cannot be resurrected if we don’t first put ourselves in the term, but when we do, when we give space in our minds for Christ to dwell, when we bury ourselves with Christ. God works the miracle of resurrection in us, of living to the Spirit. And the more we put ourselves to death, the more and more space He has in us to dwell and to work and to transform.

37. 22:23

    We can’t just put ourselves to death and leave an empty space. We all know what happens when we do that. Luke, Chapter 11 and verse 26. Says that seven other spirits, more sick and unclean and wicked than ourselves, will enter in the space that we create, has to be filled with Christ. This is Galatians 2, isn’t it? Verse 20.

38. 22:50

    I am Co crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. There’s a power, a love, that constrains us. Constrains us to put ourselves to death so that Christ in us can grow and grow and grow. Do you know Paul puts this marvelously in Philippians in chapter one. Come and have a look in the first chapter of Philippians, this paradigm of creating space for Christ to dwell. Philippians chapter one and verse 20. According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.

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    For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. As Paul put himself more and more to death, Christ grew, grew, and grew in him. Christ was magnified in him. This is the mind of Christ in its power. It’s not living for ourselves. The more space in their minds we make for him, the more he feels it with himself.

40. 24:25

    It means that the the life of Christ was being repeated by Paul. Progressively he was being faithful with Christ’s faith. He was hoping with Christ’s hope. He was serving with Christ’s compassion. He was loving with Christ’s love. Colossians, one puts it this way in verse 27. Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is the power of a Christ like mind. It’s not just death to self, it is magnification of Christ, Magnification of Christ.

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    Enthronement of Christ and abdication of ourselves. And look how this new power changed the apostle, how it revolutionized his life. Philippians chapter 4 over the page verse 12. When we have the mind of verse 8 the peace of God which passes all understanding. When we abandon our seven fleshly credentials like Paul does in chapter 3, and we have in us the eight spiritual characteristics of the new man, true circumcision in verse eight. When we have this in us, the mind of Christ, verse 12 says, I know both how to be based and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things.

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    I’m instructed both to be full and to be hungry. Both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, and the word for strengtheneth in the Greek is endunimo empowers me. This is the power of the mind of Christ. Way, mouth says I have strength for anything through him who gives me power. Was something utterly transforming about Christ in the life and mind of the Apostle Paul? And do you know what happened in the mind of soul of Tarsus straight away?

43. 26:36

    Do you know when the scales fell from soul’s eyes? And X Chapter 9, the first thing he did in Christ was to go out and preach in the synagogues and it says he increased. The more in strength, and it uses that this exact word in Dunamo. Twice he empowered, the more in power. Straight away this man was changed the power of the mind of Christ.

44. 27:06

    The irresistible power of Christ in him was able to do amazing things. We can do anything, brothers and sisters, when we get rid of ourselves and we let Christ. Take control of our lives. Do you know? Brother John Marshall, in his book Portrait of a St. describes this inner power as a forceful, driving, throbbing spiritual energy. Is that how we feel, brothers and sisters, Driven throbbing? With the forceful, irresistible power of the love of Christ that constrains us to be here, to remember Him. This is what it was like in the life of Paul. This is the power that drove him on. He could do all things.

45. 28:03

    He could believe all things, He could endure all things because Christ was in him. Do you know in Acts chapter 20 and verse 14, when he was going up to Jerusalem to face death, just like his master. Do you know what he says? He counted not his life dear unto himself. He counted not his life dear unto himself.

46. 28:29

    Paul didn’t matter anymore. It was all about Christ. He could be in plenty or in want, in hunger or in fullness, in riches or in poverty, because Christ in him was immortal. Christ is not affected by hunger or cold. Or outward circumstances like poverty. He owns the world. And so Paul was free because Christ was in him. He might have been riding Philippians from a damp prison cell.

47. 29:01

    He might have been changed to Roman soldiers. But the things that trapped Paul’s body could never trap his mind. Christ was in him. In fact, the weaker and the more feeble pool was, the stronger. Christ was in him, You remember? He says, Christ’s strength is made perfect in my weakness. Then he adds most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. The weaker he became, the stronger the more powerful Christ became in him.

48. 29:42

    You know, sometimes brothers and sisters, when and often this happens, we’re asked, aren’t we, How are you doing? And instinctively we think to ourselves, good, family’s good, job’s good, Ecclesia’s good, my children, wife’s good. Readings are good. Prep I’m good. I’m doing good. We are not doing good. Brothers and sisters never do. We do good.

49. 30:10

    Never. Ever. We are the problem. It is Christ in us that does good. If things are good, it is not us. It is because Christ in us is good. It is all about him. And Christ in us is a power that can conquer the world, turn the world upside down. First of Corinthians one and verse 18 says, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us that is saved.

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    It is the power of God. So what is it, brothers and sisters, that makes this mind so powerful, so transformative? Because, you see, there is one last piece of the puzzle. Because it wasn’t just that Christ put himself to death.

51. 31:05

    It’s all about why. He put himself to death, and Galatians 2 verse 20 said he loved me and he gave himself for me. And the apostle Paul brothers and sisters, knew that in his heart he was converted by this power. Christ didn’t just put himself to death. He did it to save Paul from himself, and he did it to save you and to save me.

52. 31:44

    And that’s what touches our hearts. That’s the power that converts when we feel that it connects our minds with our hearts, and we can never be the same. We can’t sit in a corner, brothers and sisters, all by ourselves and feverishly practice death to self. That’s the definition. The epitome of selfishness, we have to practice it on other people.

53. 32:14

    The mind of Christ cannot exist in a vacuum. We cannot practice it by ourselves. Mind. This is a mind that’s ultimately all about other people, not me. That’s why it says we’re two or three. Are gathered together in my name. And you notice it never says where one is gathered together in my name.

54. 32:46

    Because when we’re by ourselves, it’s impossible for us to show the mind of Christ. That’s why Christ chose 12 disciples, brothers and sisters. He chose us so He chose them because He could then wash their feet. He could serve them. He could let them go through the door first. He could serve their meals first. The power of the mind of Christ is when we realize that the objective of putting self to death is to save others. That’s the transforming power of this mind. It’s what Second or Corinthians 4 says. So then death worketh in us and life in you, verse 12. This is the power that can change us forever. Take your mind, brothers and sisters, back to the Gospels. Where do you think we will most dramatically see the power of the mind of Christ displayed by Christ himself? Will it not be when his mind is under the greatest pressure, under the greatest strain?

55. 33:58

    Think of Christ on the cross. He was hanging up there, brothers and sisters. Not just to declare God’s righteousness, but to save us. And down on the ground, the deluded, blind, ungrateful, proud, carnal mind is jeering, mocking, taunting him. Come down from the cross. Come down. If you’re so amazing, save yourself. If only they knew, brothers and sisters, that the only reason he couldn’t come down from the cross was because he was trying to save them.

56. 34:34

    He wasn’t trying to save himself, he was crucifying himself in order to save them. This is the ultimate expression of the power of the mind of Christ. Turn over a couple of pages to 1st of Timothy in chapter one, because this power, this Endunimo that Paul had is here in first of Timothy and chapter one, verse 12.

57. 35:04

    And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious, that I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. You know that word enabled is exactly the same word as Philippians 4 verse 13 in Dunomo empowered.

58. 35:37

    I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has empowered me. And what was the power that empowered Paul? Verse 14 The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this Causeway I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

59. 36:21

    Paul realized that the whole objective of Christ coming into the world was not to kill or persecute. Was not to harangue or imprison. The mind of Christ was the exact opposite of what soul of Tarsus used to be. We soul of Tarsus could think of nothing else but exterminating the followers of Christ. Christ’s only thought is to save others. And he had reached out, and he had offered this mind, this salvation.

60. 36:55

    To soul of Tarsus. You see, saving others is the exact opposite of serving self. It’s the transforming power of Christ’s mind. It’s the essence of the atonement, isn’t it? Think of Romans 5. For while we were yet sin as Christ died for us. This is his mind. That’s why he died, why he put himself to death. He enabled empowered millions to live. It was all for them.

61. 37:25

    He came to save them. Come to 1st of Corinthians in Chapter 9, because it couldn’t really be clearer than these words. This was Paul’s spirit, forever changed by the power of the love of Christ. Verse 19. He was now free from himself. What a glorious blessing. For though I’d be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law to them That I without the law, as without law being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them, that I without law to the weak became I as weak.

62. 38:24

    And I might gain the week. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. This is the essence of the mind of Christ. Putting oneself to death to do anything to save others, anything. Do you know our dear Uncle John that’s with us this morning? I was just a kid when he came to New Zealand many, many years ago and spoke on the Apostle Paul.

63. 39:02

    I would have just been probably not even 10, but I remember something that he said that has stuck in my mind since that day. And it’s this. The Apostle Paul was not the inflexible advocate of what was intellectually correct.

64. 39:25

    But the passionate champion of what was best to get men and women into the Kingdom of God, and I’ve got that written at the top of my Bible. This is the mind of Christ. And the Apostle Paul got it. He had the mind of Christ. He realized the whole object of this mind was to be so dead to self that we think. Only of serving and saving others. Do you remember in our first class we briefly discussed addiction and we said we are all actually, by virtue of our carnal minds addicted to ourselves, but brothers and sisters if self.

65. 40:19

    Is dead. Then there is only one addiction that remains in the whole world. There’s only one addiction left if we are dead to ourselves, and it’s what Paul calls in First of Corinthians 16 and verse 15 being addicted to the Ministry of the Saints. See how clear this is? When self is dead, truly dead, we can be free to be addicted to saving others. This is the power of his mind in us. Do you know this mindset?

66. 41:01

    This way of thinking is actually described in the New Testament. It’s described as the spirit of Jesus Christ. His spirit was not to serve self. But to save others, I’d like you to come just to the Gospels and touchdown with me, as we have tried to do in all of our sessions into the presence of Christ himself in Luke Chapter 9, because there was an enormous disharmony between the Spirit of Christ.

67. 41:56

    And his disciples at this time they hadn’t learnt the power of Christ’s mind. Look Chapter 9 in verse 51. And it came to pass. When the time was come that He should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers before his face. And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for Him. They did not.

68. 42:26

    Receive him because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, we’ll thou that we should command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did. But he turned and rebuked them, and said, You know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

69. 42:55

    For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them, And they went on to another village. There was a tension, A discrepancy, between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of his disciples. They had to learn that the mind of Christ, his spiritual disposition, was never to destroy, but to relentlessly seek ways to save. It was never to break the bruised Reed. Quench the smoking flax it was to convert. Try to breakthrough so that people might receive him. Verse 53.

70. 43:33

    How grateful we are, brothers and sisters for his spirit in our lives. Some of us wouldn’t be here. Many of us wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for his relentless spirit of reaching out to us in love.

71. 43:52

    He wants to abide in all of our hearts. He seeks that we might make ready for him. But sometimes, brothers and sisters, we don’t let him in, do we? We keep the doors locked. We refuse to surrender the key. He will not destroy. There are no thoughts of revenge because self is dead.

72. 44:15

    He would gently try again. Another time, another way. Another village he will always seek to save. Do you know Romans chapter 8 and verse 9 says, now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So we’re not just talking about the mind of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, and if we don’t have it, brothers and sisters.

73. 44:50

    We are none of his. This is not an optional idea. This is not an intellectually interesting topic. This is what life and the truth is all about. If we want to be Christ, we have to have this spiritual disposition. We put ourselves to death so that we can serve and save others. This has to be our spirit. Now.

74. 45:15

    I think there’s an incredibly powerful. And comforting lesson in this idea for each one of us. And it’s this. The true measure of who we are is our spirit, our character, our mind. This incisive test of whether we are Christ is by our Spirit. It’s an internal condition, His mind in us. Brothers and sisters, we all do and have done things from time to time that we are heartily ashamed of, that if we had any chance to undo the past, we would gladly grasp hold of that we sin sometimes the same sins every week, but brothers and sisters, the external things that we do occasionally.

75. 46:15

    Are not the true measure of who we are of our spirit, anymore than the occasional good things that we might have done. Selfish men are occasionally kind, good men are sometimes bad. But our Heavenly Father does not measure us by the occasional things. He measures us by our Spirit do we have in us.

76. 46:45

    Spirit of Christ. Just think of these faithful men and see if you cannot immediately think of a time when they did things that betrayed their spirit. What about faithful Abraham, father of the faithful? He’s down in Egypt pretending that his wife’s not his wife. What about Noah, preacher of righteousness? Naked and drunk in a tent. Moses, the meekest man in all the earth, striking the rock. Elijah full of power and zeal, lying under a juniper tree, wishing he could die.

77. 47:28

    David, a man after God’s own heart. We know his sin. Peter, so strong and courageous, fleeing into the night. They all exhibit weakness. And the very thing for which they are notably strong. But our Lord, brothers and sisters, is more interested in our spirit, our minds. If we don’t have His spirit, we are none of His. The question this morning is, have we grabbed hold of this power to die to ourselves that we might save others? This is the power of the mind of Christ, and without it we are none of His.

78. 48:11

    He won’t recognize us, despite all of the good things we might have done, if we can’t grasp these things. But if we have it, if we see it, and we grasp it, if we can receive it, we are His. Have you ever wondered, brothers and sisters, whether you will be in the Kingdom of God or not?

79. 48:32

    Have you ever thought? I’m not good enough ever being racked with fears and doubts that you won’t. You you’re not going to make it. Do you know, brothers and sisters, doubts and fears are the carnal mind. Do you know when Jesus Christ was resurrected to life? Peter stood up in X chapter 2 and he said it’s not possible.

80. 49:01

    That the grave could hold that man It was a moral impossibility for God to leave him there. And so it is with us. If we have this spirit, the power of the mind of Christ, in us. If Christ is magnified in us, if we die daily and we make room for him to dwell in our hearts richly by faith, it’s impossible for us not to be in the Kingdom, brothers and sisters. It’s a moral impossibility.

81. 49:31

    Not by our greatness. We’re all dust and ashes, not by our accomplishments. We can never earn it, otherwise it wouldn’t be called a gift. That’s so obvious to us. We won’t be there, brothers and sisters, because of self. If we have already put self to death, we’ll be there, brothers and sisters, because we’ve tried to save other people, because we’ve realized the power of this mind.

82. 49:59

    We will be there, brothers and sisters. Because in us there is something immortal, something that cannot die. It’s not an immortal soul, like the Church’s teach. It’s what Peter describes in first of Peter One and verse 23, the Word of God that lives and abides forever. And if that word, this word, has been planted in our minds and it’s grown.

83. 50:29

    And it’s brought forth fruit in us. In our minds, it’s actually Christ living in us, the Word made flesh. And if Christ is in us, then Peter says it’s not possible for the grave to hold him. He can’t stay dead forever, brothers and sisters. It’s a moral impossibility if Christ is truly in us, his mind, his thinking, his spirit. We will absolutely be in the Kingdom. God cannot allow his Son to mold it into dust. It will be his good pleasure to give his Son in us the Kingdom. Isn’t that why we get baptized?

84. 51:17

    Because there’s only going to be one man in the Kingdom and we want to be in him? And isn’t that why we desperately want to have the mind of Christ? Because unless he’s in us, we are none of his.

85. 51:34

    We’ll be there, brothers and sisters, not because of ourselves, but despite ourselves. That’s grace. What? What a hope. Let’s assure ourselves in this hope. Let’s be what Paul calls more than conquerors. Let’s have absolute confidence, brothers and sisters, not in ourselves. It’s got nothing to do with us. But that God can work in us great things. What God has begun, He will complete. It’s happening, brothers and sisters. It’s happening in your minds and mine. Invisibly, imperceptibly, almost impossibly. We are being changed into new creatures. Christ is in us.

86. 52:23

    I want to close using the words of. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 3, Paul was converted from a raging monster, the carnal mind rampant into Christ’s salvation to the ends of the earth, transformed by the power of a Christ like spirit. Passionate champion of whatever it might take to save some, any, any whatever it takes. A man who died daily that his Lord could live in him. There was anyone, brothers and sisters, who understood the power of the mind of Christ.

87. 53:20

    It was this man and the last few verses of Ephesians. Chapter 3 is the Apostle Paul’s prayer for each one of us. Right here and right now, today in 2017, as we finish our week together, Ephesians 3, verse 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family. And heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, give you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love.

88. 54:29

    May be able to comprehend with All Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God, the question we all want to ask ourselves, brothers and sisters, as we now come to the emblems.

89. 54:57

    Symbols of this man that we love, who is our life, is this question. How big is the space that we have created in our hearts for him to dwell in? How much space are we keeping back for ourselves? The breadth, The length? The depth? The height is the intangible volume of space in our minds where we can enthrone Christ, magnify Him in our minds and lies, and as much room as we can make for Him in any dimension, he will fill it with His love. A love that cannot be understood or explained. It passes knowledge, but a love that imprisons. Love that constrains us.

90. 55:59

    A love that connects and minds with our hearts. A love that Paul felt that day in Damascus. A love that creates in us a new creature. A love that empowers us to do all things for him. A love that drives us to sacrifice ourselves, that we might be free to serve and save others.

91. 56:23

    This is a love that can fill us with all fullness. It can fill every hole in our hearts. It can satisfy every need if only we let it. This is our hope, brothers and sisters, and our high uphill calling. If the Apostle Paul can be completely transformed by the power of the mind of Christ, who are we, brothers and sisters? Who are we?

92. 56:51

    Who do we think we are? That we doubt what God is doing in us. We are going to be in the Kingdom, brothers and sisters, not because of ourselves, because he lives forever and he is in us.

93. 57:08

    Let’s not let our feeble minds, brothers and sisters, limit the power of the mind of Christ in us now unto him. That is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask, or think according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the Ecclesia by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end, I mean. It’s not just me.