Alright, it says there in verse
16, For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct
him? But we have the mind of Christ. Now over there in Philippians
2, it says this, in verse 5, Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation, but took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of man. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." Now the mind of Christ here, over
there he said we have the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ. And over here he says, let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. The apostle
here gives us a very tall order. Something to fulfill, to obey. But also he gives us a glorious
goal to strive for. Oh, let this mind be in you. You. And you means you and me. You. Singular. You. When everybody
reads that, it says it's say you. Put your name in there and
it means you. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus. The mind here means disposition.
Disposition. So you know he's got a foul disposition. He's got a sweet disposition.
He's got a gentle disposition. Well, this mind here means having
a disposition. Have the disposition of Christ.
Have the mind of Christ. minding this one thing, to have
the mind of Christ, this disposition of Christ, to have the same disposition
as our Lord Jesus did. Now a lost man, the natural man,
he can't have the mind of Christ. He can't do it. I could turn
you over to Romans 5 and show you that, but it says, there
are they that are after the flesh, mind the things, have the disposition
of the flesh. They mind it. They have that
one thing that they mind, they follow it, it controls them.
And it says that to be carnally minded is death. And they that
are in the flesh cannot. Cannot please God. Now a man,
he's got a carnal disposition. He can't have the mind of Christ.
And if a man's going to ever have the mind of Christ and come
to know Christ, he must be given a new mind. Having our understanding
enlightened. Be renewed, and Paul said in
Ephesians 4.23, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, created
in Christ Jesus in the righteousness of true holiness. Now, beloved,
God gives a man a new mind. And before He gives him that
mind, he ain't got no mind at all. And his understanding must
be enlightened. He must be made a new creature.
A new creature. Not a half a creature, a new
creature. He's got to have a new mind, a new will. New attitude. New heart. And God said He gives
that to us. But still, right here before
us stands this great statement. There in verse 5 of Philippians
2. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now, to my heart, that's a tall
order. Tall order. A tremendous task.
Yet, I believe I speak for so many of you here that one of
my greatest desires is to be like my Master. to be like my
Master, have the disposition of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
let me say this at the outset. First, let me tell you a sense
in which we could never, ever have the mind of Christ. As well
as a sense in which we'll never have the mind of Christ, and
it tells us here what it is. He says in verse 6, who being
in the form of God. Now, we can never have the mind
of Christ as God. You can never have that mind. I mean, to have the mind of God,
who being in the form of God. As God, our Lord Jesus Christ,
comprehended all things. And then all things, not only
did He comprehend them, but all things were comprehended in Him.
And I mean, beloved, His was an omniscient mind. I mean, His
mind. I know there's people who say
they're mind readers, but I tell you what, if you keep your mouth
shut, they can't read your mind. But I can read your mind if you
talk very much. Ain't that right? But his was an omniscient mind.
He knew all things. You know, all things are naked
and open with Him with whom we have to do. And when the Lord
Jesus, you know, they brought in a man that had been sick of
the palsy, and they couldn't get to him, so they let him down
in the roof, and through the tile of the roof, and the Lord
Jesus said, Be of good cheer, son. Thy sins are forgiven you.
A bunch of fellows stood around, scratched their heads, said,
Oh, who is this man? He's blaspheming. What a blasphemer. Ain't nobody
can forgive sins but God. And the Lord Jesus, the Scripture
says, they are perceiving the thoughts of their mind. He said,
why thank ye, not what you're saying, why thank you in your
hearts, which is easier to say. Thy sins be forgiven you or say
arise and take up your bed and walk. But that you may know that
the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sin. Get up and go
to your house. And you see, he read their minds,
he read their hearts. And Don preached at our place
a couple of weeks ago about Nathaniel. Philip went and got Nathanael
and said, Nathanael, we found him whom Moses and the Law and
the Prophets spoke of, Jesus of Nazareth. Old Nathanael said,
can any good thing come out of Nazareth? So he arose and he
started coming toward the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus
said, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no God. And he said,
where do you know me from? He said, oh, before Philip come
to you, I saw you sitting under that tree. I saw him sitting
under that tree, saw everything he was doing. And he said, if
you think that's something, you wait until I show you some greater
things than this. We can't have that mind. We can't have that
mind. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He knew
everything. He told Judas, you're going to
betray me. He told Simon Peter, you're going to deny me three
times. I mean, beloved, right now, right this moment in time,
our Lord Jesus Christ knows our thoughts are far off. He knows
our going in and our coming out, our upsetting and our downsetting.
If we go make our bed in hell, He's there. If we ascend to the
wings of the morning, He's there. If we descend into the deeps,
day and night's the light to Him. I mean, beloved, He knows
what you think, and I'll bless Him for that. And we ain't got
that mind. Can't never have that mind. He
never had it. And I'll tell you something else
in which we can not have the mind of Christ. And that's His
perfect humanity. Look what it says down here in
verse 8. And being found in fashion as a man. As a man. Now when
He became a man, He wasn't a man like you and me. Only since He
was that He assumed flesh. But His flesh, His nature, His
human nature is a sinless nature. Sinless humanity. Perfect humanity. And beloved, we'll never have
a mind like that. Oh no, no, no, no. We come out
of our mother's womb speaking lies. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
the scripture said, He who knew no sin. And you know He was tempted
in all points like as we are, yet without sin. And our Lord
Jesus asked all them Pharisees who know everything that was
wrong with everybody, he said, which of you convinces me of
sin? So our Lord Jesus Christ as a
man was a sinless man, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners. Now in fact, God himself testified
to his sinlessness and said, this is my beloved son, always
does he please me. Man testified it to his sinlessness. Pilate said four times, I find
no fault, I find no fault, I find no fault, I find no fault in
this man. Nothing wrong with this man.
And Satan found no sin in him, could find no part in him. He
said, time for me to go, the prince of this world coming,
and he finds no part in me, has no part in me. And all beloved
the devil's got in his presence and they called him the holy
one There's the one that Isaiah saw on his throne high and lifted
up to whom the cherubims cried. Holy. Holy holy and the scriptures
witness to his holiness Holy harmless undefiled separate from
sinners higher than the heavens themselves And that's something
you and I'll never have look over here in Romans chapter 7.
This is us And that's what I say about having the mind of Christ
We can't have the mind of Christ because He's God in that sense.
And when we get to glory, we're still going to be finite. He's going to be infinite. We're
still going to be the creature. He's still going to be the creator.
Ain't that right? He's going to be the one that
sustains us there just like He sustains us here. I mean, we'll
stand there in His merit just like we stand in His merit now.
We'll stand there in His righteousness just like we stand in His righteousness
now. Only difference is, we won't have this flesh to contend with.
But oh, look what it says here in Romans 7, 18. Talking about
us. He had perfect humanity. Sinless
humanity. Sinless mind. Paul said, for
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, my old fallen nature
dwells no good thing. For the will is present with
me. Oh, I've got the will to be sinless. I've got the will
to honor God with all my heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit.
I've got the will to seek God. I've got the will to obey Him
perfectly. I've got the will to desire Him. I've got the will
to submit to Him perfectly. I've got the will to do exactly
everything He tells me to do. But watch this. But how to perform? Hey, it becomes a different story
altogether. How to perform. How to perform. But oh, listen.
For the good that I would, guess what? I don't. Oh, I would do
that. I would do that good thing. I'd
love to do that good thing. I'd love to do that good thing
for my brethren. I'd love to do that good thing
for Christ. I'd love to honor and magnify His name everywhere,
every time, every instance, every circumstance. Let my mind be
filled with Him accustomedly. But I don't. But the evil that
I wouldn't do, doubting, have unbelief, Have fear? Question His providence? Raise my voice at somebody in
anger? Ah, but listen. Now, if I do
that that I wouldn't, listen to me, it's no more I that do
it. Well, who is it then? S-I-N. S-I-N. Born with it. Born with it. Sin that dwells in me. Where
does it dwell at? It dwells in our nature. Oh,
listen. You know, we come to Christ without
moving a muscle. And we sin without moving a muscle. We sin without doing anything
with our hands. And we can call on God without
even moving our lips. We can sin without moving our
lips. Huh? Ain't that right? And that's
what he's talking about here. He's not talking about going
out here with a high hand sinning against God, no. He said, I find
in the law a principle that when I would do good, no evil gets
right up beside me. For I delight in the law, I delight
in the word of God, all of it from Genesis to Revelation of
God after the inward man. But I see another law. Another
principle, in my members, in my eyes, my ears, my mind, my
heart, my soul, my feet, my flesh, my memory, my words, my emotions,
my actions, my affections, everything. I see this war in my members
against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin which is in my members. And oh, wretched man! Oh, wretched
man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? And oh, listen to the next one.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, bless His name. So you see,
there's something in and out of us that never have. We can't
go have this sinless mind, sinless perfection in this world. Our
Lord never had a vain thought. He never had a moment of pride.
Never wasted a word. Never had an idle hand or an
idle moment. He was a man. He was a perfect
man. He was God-man. And we'll never
have a mind of Christ like that. But then how then can we have
the mind of Christ that he talks about? How then can we have this
mind of Christ? Well, back over here in Philippians,
let me see if I can show you a few things. A mind of Christ
that we can have and God give it to us and God work it in us. First of all, we can have the
disposition of Christ, the mind of Christ, as far as humility
goes. Humility goes. Look what it says
there in verse 7, "...but made himself of no reputation, took
upon him the form of a servant." Huh? Oh my! We can have that mind, can't
we? The mind of Christ to be a servant? The mind of Christ
of humility? The mind of Christ to make ourselves
nothing? To make ourselves nobody? To
make ourselves zero? Zero, zero, zero? We can do that,
can't we? By God's grace, we can do that.
We can be nobody and let everybody else be somebody. You know, and
it says here that he emptied himself. Emptied himself. Who being in the form of God,
and oh listen beloved, he emptied himself. In fashion a man that
he humbled himself. That means he emptied himself.
Now we can empty ourselves of vain glory. He said there in
verse 3, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory.
But in lowliness let each esteem others better than himself. In
lowliness of mind. Surely we can have that mind
of Christ. When you find folks that ain't got that, I get suspicions.
I really do. When somebody's all the time
bragging on their self, putting their self above other people,
I get very suspicious. Our Lord Jesus Christ made Him.
He didn't go out making Himself of a reputation. Everybody else
made a reputation. It brought glory to Him that
knew Him. But we emptied Himself and we
can empty ourselves of vainglory. And you know what vainglory is?
Anything that you do Anything that a person does to bring glory
to themselves and not glory to Christ. Anything. I don't care
what it is. It's vain. Anytime you seek glory
for yourself, it's vain. Vain. What's vain? Useless, emptiness,
nothingness. That's why they call mirrors,
vanity mirrors, vain mirrors. That's the truth, ain't it? But,
oh, listen, self-seeking, we can empty ourselves of self-seeking,
pride, exalt others, abase ourselves, empty ourselves. You know, our
Lord Jesus, when He washed His disciples' feet, He said, I've
left you an example that as I have done unto you, so also you should
do others. to others. And not only that,
but beloved, we can have an obedient mind. You know, John the Baptist,
let me go back to that a minute. John the Baptist was a man who
had no vainglory. His whole purpose in existence
was to say, they said, are you the Christ? No. Are you that
prophet? No. Well, who are you? I'm just a
voice out here in the wilderness, but does come and want after
me. And then when he come, he said, behold him. And then everything
he said about him, he's got to increase, I've got to decrease.
Never once did John the Baptist, you know, in the way they flocked
to him and all that, he said, are you that prophet? Oh yeah,
I'm a prophet alright, I'm a great prophet. But no, he never said,
I'm nothing, I'm nobody. He said, there's one coming after
me, mightier than I. He's preferred before me, because
he is before me. And beloved, that's the way.
That's the mind of Christ we need. And the mind of Christ
we can have. And then an obedient mind. Obedient
mind. And Luke says down here in verse
8, second part of that verse, that he became obedient. He became obedient. Now how did
he become obedient? Well, though he was son, yet
learned he obedience. Obedience here and our Lord Jesus
Christ to have this kind of mind being subject to the will of
another That's what obedience means here. Do he became obedient
subject to the will of another owning the authority of another
That's our Lord. Jesus took the form of a servant
He subjected himself to the will of his father when he got in
the garden He said father not my will but thy will be done
and all beloved. Listen, we can subject. Well,
he took the place of a servant And that's why we need a mind
that just subjects ourselves, submits ourselves. And I believe
God's people got that mind. I believe they've got the mind
of Christ. Under somebody else's authority, subject to Christ,
subject to His power, subject to pastors, subject to people
in a position of power and authority. And He took the place of a servant.
And you know, He said, He that's going to be greatest among you,
let Him be the servant. Now, I tell you, not many people
want to walk up to you and say, now what can I get for you? That's
what they do in the restaurant. What can I get for you? And they
carry a little pad around. What can I do for you, Milton?
Don, what can I do for you? What can I do for you? Ted, wasn't
it, Ted? What can I do for you? That's
what he's talking about. I'll subject my will to your will. I'll take my place as a servant
to you. That's what he's talking about. That's what Christ did.
He became the servant. He obeyed. He was God, Jehovah's
righteous servant. And Beloved, He came here and
became obedient even to the death. And Beloved, that's what God
give us this wondrous mind to be subject to others. Submit
ourselves to others. And that's what He did. What
can I do for you? What was that you wanted? Oh,
that's what we need. That's what we got. And then,
listen. We can have the mind. How do
we have the mind of Christ's disposition? Humility. Obedient. And a mind of love, mind of love. Look back up here in verse 1
of Philippians 2. The disposition of love. It said, If therefore
be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any
fellowship of the Spirit, any vows and mercies fulfill you
my joy, that you be like minded. Having the same love, being of
one accord and one of mine. And let me show you, you know,
here we can have this wonderful disposition of love. Now, you
keep Philippians, and look with me in John chapter 13, just a
moment. John chapter 13. You know, I do know this without
a shadow of a doubt, there's no doubt in my mind, now, that
God's people They have a love for one another that's beyond
this world. Where I pastor, I love those people more than
I can begin to tell you how much I love them and how much they
love me. We truly, truly love one another. And we do for one
another, care for one another, watch out for one another, pray
for one another, bear one another's burdens, wait on one another. And when somebody gets in trouble,
somebody gets in real trouble, that's when you know how much
you love them. And something happens where you're afraid you're
going to lose them. Something happens when you're afraid they
ain't going to make it. You sure enough get troubled then. You
know your love reaches out so much. And that's what our Savior
did. No greater love hath a man than
this that he lay down his life for his... What? His friends.
And look what he said here in John 13, 34. A new commandment I give unto
you, that you love one another. That you love one another. How
are we supposed to love one another? As I've loved you. That you also
love one another. And by this shall all men know
that you are my disciples if you have love one to. And that
word to means it's active. It has to be manifest. It's toward. And you know, when he says here,
I give you a new commandment, why did he call it a new commandment?
Well, because everybody, and by nature, and the Jews, they
said, you know, love them that love you, and hate them that
hate you. That's what they taught. That's pretty much the way most
people feel here. You know, I'll get you for you get me. If you
do me wrong, I'm going to do you wrong. But that's not what
our Savior taught. He said, you love one another.
I'll tell you how you think folks would have felt towards Simon
Peter after he denied the Lord three times if Christ hadn't
have took him back. Raised him back and embraced him. They would
have said, we can't trust that fellow no farther than we'd spit.
But love covers them all to the same. And what He meant by the
New Commandment is that you know it's newly explained. Newly explained. I'm going to explain love. Love
your enemies. Oh my! That's a different story
altogether, ain't it? Huh? Pray for them which despitefully
use you. Bless them that curse you. Huh? Oh, that's a different story
altogether then. It's easy to love people that love you. It's
easy to love people when they're bragging on you. Easy to love
people when they're saying nice things about you. But, oh, to
love somebody that's speaking evil of you, love somebody that's
mad at you, love somebody that said something ill to you, love
somebody that hurt your feelings, and just let it pass on by like
it never happened. Like old Scott Richardson said
one time, I said, Scott, I said, I'm sorry. He said, sorry for
what? Just forget it. Just forget it. You know, that's
what you do. You just forget it. A fella does
something one time and he said, oh, please forgive me. And I
said, well, don't worry about that. I said, I'll lay it to
your head. I certainly don't lay it to your heart. That's
the way we do. We do things with our head that
our heart wouldn't do at all. Because this mouth kicks in gear. Emotions get involved. But love
goes back and says, I'm sorry. And love says, aw, that wasn't
nothing. Ain't that right? And oh, listen,
it's newly explained, 3rd verse from the false teaching to the
scribes and Pharisees, newly exemplified by Christ's love
for us. And how, how can it be, how can
it be that thou, my God, should die for me? To me, Him, to death
pursued? Could Christ love me? Give himself
for me? Love me like I am? God commended
this love toward us in that while we were yet, what were we? Sinners. He justifies who? The ungodly. Who was it he found out in the
field and he loved? An infant cast out, polluted
in his blood, and he covered it with time of love. Oh, He
exemplified this new commandment. He loved them. Simon Peter denied
Him, but He loved Him. Oh my, if He had to love me based
on my love for Him, He wouldn't love me no longer than that. Let all bless His holy name.
He loved me before I was, He loved me after I was, and He'll
love me till I won't be anymore till I'm with Him. There's nothing
I can say, do, that'll cause Him to ever stop loving me because
nothing I said or do caused Him to start loving me. And that's
what it means. It's newly exemplified by Him.
And it's newly, newly enforced, called the New Commandment. Newly
enforced by the argument. And John says this, How can we
love God and not love our brethren? If any man says he loves God
and loves not his brethren, he's a liar and the truth ain't in
him. How can we be new creatures in Christ and not have the mind
of Christ and be like Christ in this business of love? Huh? And oh, let me give you this
one. Look in Matthew 11 with me. Just a moment. Oh, the mind
of Christ. The mind of Christ. How can we
have the mind? Humility. Humility. Humility. And oh, love, obedient mind,
humility. And look over here in Matthew
11, verse 28. I'll get there myself in a minute.
He says this. Our Lord Jesus says this. Verse
28. We can have the mind of meekness,
you know. He says here, Come unto me, all you that labor and
are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Now, beloved, I don't
know about you, sometimes I labor and I get very heavy laden. But
I, Lord, say, come to me, you that are laboring, and those
of you that's laboring under sin, laboring under false pretenses,
laboring under hypocrisy, laboring under false professions, laboring
under the Armenian doctrine, laboring under false professions,
and all you that are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. I'll give
you rest. Now watch this. Take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. Now, you know to take a yoke
upon you, you got to get up beside them. You ever seen anybody in
a yoke? Down in Mexico, they made yokes,
didn't they? They make yokes for them oxen. They got yokes
for mules and they put them together. Horses, they put them together.
And that's what our Lord says, take my yoke Yoke, it goes around
your neck. It's something to keep you pulling
together. And of course, we don't do any
pulling. He does it all because watch what he said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. That's the only reason it's on
us, to learn, to teach us. We're not going to do any work
in the yoke. You know, I put a yoke on a calf
one time. He kept getting out, kept getting
out, and I couldn't keep him in. I went and found me a big old
limb and it had a big Y in it and I cut that thing down and
I got him up and I put it around his neck and I wired that thing
up good and he never got out again. He's learning something. And
that's what Christ is. We learn of Him. Learn of His
grace. Learn of His love. Learn of His
power. Learn of His majesty. Learn of
His love. Learn of His Godhead. Learn of
His justification. Learn of His grace. Learn of
His mercy. Learn of His eternality. Learn of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He says, for I'm meek, and
this is what you're going to learn. I'm meek and lowly in
heart. And then what he says, when I'm
meek and lowly at heart, I ought to have the mind of Christ meek
and lowly at heart. He said, I beseech you. Paul
used this to talk to the Corinthians. I beseech you by the gentleness
and meekness of Christ. And Lord, beloved, this is something
we must learn. And what does meekness mean?
It's that temper of Spirit in which we accept whatever He does. as good and right and just and
true without dispute or argument. Huh? Lord, it's You. It's You. That's what meekness
is. Just take that yoke and learn of Him and submit. And that's
something we must learn. and can only learn as we look
to our Master. And as we learn, and as we learn more about our
Master, and His nature, and His mind, and His will, and His work,
and His person, the more rest you find. I have more rest now
than I had when I first started. A heapsight more rest. Don't
you? A lot more rest. Why? Because I know more about Him.
I know about what He accomplished. Know more about myself. And I
ain't fixing to find no rest in me. Can you? And then we can
have a mind back over here in Philippians. We can have the
mind, the mind of Christ of sympathy and compassion. Sympathy and
compassion. It says here in Philippians 2.4, Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Sympathy
and compassion our Lord didn't look on himself and the things
of himself. He looked on the needs and the things of others
When Mary stood weeping over Lazarus the Lord Jesus Christ
wept with her And when he came upon Jerusalem and he stood over
Jerusalem and he stood there and he wept it says two places
He weapons. He wept over Jerusalem. He said
Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem How oft would I gathered you how often
I'd gathered you? And all wept over their sad state
of unbelief. And all he was moved, moved with
compassion. And seeing no multitude of sheep
without a shepherd. And to have sympathy. And to
have compassion on people. Have sympathy and compassion
when they're in trouble. Have sympathy and compassion
when they're hurt. And have sympathy and compassion
when they're in need. When you see them in need. And
I may not just say that I'm sorry that you're in this situation.
Not just say, I hate for you to be in this condition, but
I mean, you know, God give us hearts that we can be touched
with other people's troubles. You know, really touch with them.
Really touch with them. Our Lord was touched with our
infirmities. Touch with them now. Touch with them now. And then we can have the mind,
the mind of Christ, the mind of devotion. You know, our Lord
Jesus told His disciples when they found Him talking with the
woman at the well, He said this, they said, what's He doing talking
with this woman? They brought Him something to
eat. He said, I have meat to eat that you know not of. My
meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and finish the work
which He gave me to do. He was missing from His mother
and father for three days and they finally found Him. sat and
disputing with the doctors and the lawyers and the Pharisees.
They astonished at his wisdom. He's 12 years old. And his mother
says, Son, why are you troubled? And he said, Don't you know I
must be about my father's business? Twelve years old. I must be about
my father's business. And oh, the mind of devotion
to God's will. To God's will. What's God's will?
To glorify Him. To honor Him, to call on Him,
to trust Him, to honor His Son, to bow to His Son, talk of His
Son, magnify His Son. Oh, to have that mind of devotion
to the will of God, to have that mind of devotion to God's work
in this world. God's gospel, God's word, God's
church, to be devoted to the church, God's people wherever
they are. Find yourself with your heart
and soul involved in that church. Now, I'm going to tell you something
right here. I don't want to make you mad. I wouldn't make anybody
mad. And you're the ones here and other people ain't. But I
do know this. If you are a believer in Christ,
if you're a believer in Christ, and you know Christ, You're gonna,
the way you confess Christ in one of them and have his devotion,
have the mind of Christ, you join yourself to a local assembly
someplace. Now that's what you do. You don't
play around with that. You will find sheep and sheep
get together. You find a sheep out by itself, a wolf got him.
If he ain't got him, he's gonna get him. Ain't that right? Oh, listen, everybody wants to
love Jesus, and everybody wants to go to heaven, everybody wants
to go here preaching, everybody likes to go to conferences. But,
beloved, it's the local church. It's the local church that God
set up for people to gather to worship Him. And when I first
started out, where I'm at right now, there was lots of times
that I preached to four people. Lots of times I'd go on Wednesday
night and it didn't look like nobody was coming. I'd start
for the door and somebody would walk in. And I'd say, well, I
guess I've got to say something. And I'd come up with something
to say. But what I'm telling you is that there was people
that was there. And that's what you do. You find
you a local assembly and you pitch camp right there. Everybody
wants a preacher to come to them. There may be five of them. Let's
get a preacher to come over here and preach to them. No, it's
easier for five to go where one preacher is than for one preacher
to go where five people are. Because if you get the preacher
to come and there's five of you, he's going to have to work. And
if he has to work five, six, seven days a week, he ain't going
to get to preach much anyway. Ain't that right? Are you with
me? Oh, listen, I wouldn't give you
two cents for somebody that will not unite themselves to a local
assembly. I wouldn't give you two cents
for them. And then, beloved, we're devoted to God's people
wherever they are, whether they're in Rescue, California, whether
they're in Danville, Kentucky, Ball, Louisiana, the Dalles in
Oregon, whether they're in Southern California, it don't make no
difference. You're devoted to God's people wherever they are.
You love them, you care for them, and you've got your heart, mind,
and soul involved with God's people. And that's what we say,
not my will, but thine be done. And then, oh beloved, let me
tell you, in what sense we have the mind of Christ right now. Right now. Now look back with
me over here in 1 Corinthians 2, and I'll wind it up. 1 Corinthians
2. Oh, to have the mind of Christ.
We have the mind of humility. Let this mind be in you which
is in Christ. Humility. Mind, obedient mind. Mind with love and a meekness. Sympathy, compassion, devotion. And then, look what it says here
in verse 16 of 1 Corinthians 2. Last part of that verse, but
we have the mind of Christ. Now, in what sense do we now
have the mind of Christ? Well, we've been taught the truth
as it is in Christ Jesus. That's why we know. Look what
he said here in verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 2. For God hath revealed unto us
by His Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God. So the Spirit of God takes the
things of God and teaches us these things and reveals the
truth to us and we have the mind of Christ concerning the gospel. We have the mind of Christ concerning
the gospel. What was our Lord's mind concerning
the gospel? I'm the one way. There ain't
but one Savior in this world. There ain't but one Gospel in
this world. There ain't but one Redeemer
in this world. There ain't but one Mediator in this world. There
ain't but one Sacrifice in this world. There ain't but one High
Priest in this world. There ain't but one justifier
in this world. There ain't but one forgiver
in this world. There ain't but one person that God Almighty
will have anything to do with, and that's His Son. And if He's
going to speak to you, or you're going to speak to Him, you're
going to speak to Him through His Son. And if Christ Himself
does not come and make Himself known, you'll never know Him.
And that's why we have the mind of Christ concerning the gospel.
Our Lord Jesus said, except you believe I'm he, you'll die in
your sins. I'm that bread which came down
from heaven. I'm the water of life. No man comes unto the Father
but by me. I mean, if there's one thing
to tell this generation, that there's only one way, and it
ain't Buddha. One way, and it ain't Confucius.
One way, and it ain't Mary. One way, and it ain't the landmarkers.
One way, and it ain't the Church of God. One way, and that's the
Lord Jesus Christ. One person that God has anything
to do with, that's His blessed Son. One person that cleanses
His blood, cleanses from sin, and that's Christ. One person
that justifies us and makes us successful. One righteousness
that we'll ever have. And here's the law. One God we'll
see in eternity. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, listen. You've got that in mind, don't
you? Oh, my. We know the mind of Christ
when it comes to salvation. Oh, yeah. He died for His people. He died for His elect. I love
that word election. I love that wonderful word of
election. I mean, beloved, God chose us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. He has saved us
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ before the world ever began. Huh? I know this, that
if He had not chosen me, I'd have never chosen Him. And I
tell you, when men and women find out that God Almighty does
not owe them salvation, that God saves sinners on purpose,
then they don't stand up and say, well, one of these days
I'm going to show you folks what it is to be a Christian. One
of these days I'll come up there and show you hypocrites how to
live. How many times have you heard that? Oh, if I ever become
a believer, I tell you, I'm going to show the rest of you folks
what it's like. Oh, whenever they find out the salvations
of the Lord, it's not of them, It's not of him that willeth,
it's not of him that runneth, but it's of God that showeth
mercy. They'll shut their mouth or else they'll hit the door
and say, I don't like that. I don't like that at all. And which,
you know, going or coming, it don't make any difference. You
know, God's going to get His. He's going to get His. That's
what makes preaching the gospel so glorious. I'm not on a fool's
errand. Don's not on it. He ain't. You
ain't. I'm not trying to twist anybody's arm, talk anybody into
anything. I'm telling you that salvation
is of the Lord from Alpha to Omega. And that if God Himself
sits on your trail, you just will throw up your hands because
He's going to get you. Huh? Oh, His purpose. Oh, man, we
have the mind of Christ and His purpose of redemption. And the
salvation of His elect by His Son. And, oh, beloved, we have
His mind concerned the will and purpose of the mystery of the
gospel, hidden in God from the foundation of the world. And,
oh, beloved, I'm telling you, oh, God, help us to preach that
gospel, have this mind of Christ, have this mind of Christ, to
bless His holy name, to be Nobody let everybody else be somebody
let you know just to be nothing just to be nothing. Let me close
with this Let me give this a little stretching to you, and I'm done
Let me show you something if I can How much is that right there
can you see that I How much is that? Now what do we got? One million. You know what made them zeros
worth anything? One. You know what makes us worth
anything? Christ. I don't care how many zeros or
DDDs or jobs or money or anything else you've got, how educated
or ignorant, it don't make a bit of difference. You are a zip,
zero, not a nothing, nobody without Christ. Ain't that right? And I like it like that. I like
it like that. He's everything, we're nothing.
He's everything, we're nothing. Appreciate your attention.