Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 16? We will read from Matthew 16:21-26.
From that time Jesus began to show unto His disciples, that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.
And Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall never be unto Thee.
But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.
Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake shall find it.
For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?
Please turn also to Romans, Chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
And finally, the letter to the Philippians, Chapter 2. We will read from Philippians 2:5-8.
Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee for gathering us together here this afternoon.
Where two or three are gathered together into Thy name, there art Thou in the midst of them. By faith, we believe that Thou art here, and we are in Thy presence.
We open our hearts to Thee, O Lord. May Thy living Word enter into the depths of our being. Give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and open the eyes of our heart.
Allow Thy Word to become life and spirit to us. And it is all for Thy own glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Well, brothers and sisters, I believe we all know why we have gathered here this afternoon. We come together to fellowship on this matter of spiritual exercise.
Why is spiritual exercise so important? Because we believe the spiritual life is a life in the Spirit. It is only through spiritual exercises that our spiritual life will really grow.
And by spiritual growth, it simply means that we will be transformed and conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus.
But to be spiritual does not mean that we become spirits. Now, there is often a false idea that the more spiritual you are, the less human you are.
But, dear brothers and sisters, God created us with spirit, soul, and body. Surely, it is His desire that our spirit will really be in union with Him, the Spirit. But He does not want us to become spirits.
Oftentimes, we hear people say, “Oh, I would like to be an angel.” It is true that the angels are a little higher than human beings, but God does not save angels. His heart is upon man.
He created us with three parts. His salvation will begin in our spirit, but it will not be limited just to our spirit. It has to spread over our soul and our body.
God will sanctify our whole being. So spiritual life includes not only our spirit, but it reaches to our soul and our body.
He has delivered us from death, and we are being delivered every day, and we will yet be delivered.
We can look to the past and say how God has saved our spirit. Our dead spirit was quickened into life so that we may have communication with God’s Spirit.
But we thank the Lord that His salvation is not restricted to our spirit. It overflows to our soul and our body.
Now, this time, our emphasis is on how spiritual exercise will affect our soul and our body, that we may be wholly sanctified. And that will fulfill the eternal purpose of God concerning man.
We mentioned the saving of the soul. It does not mean that God is going to annihilate our soul. On the contrary, the problem is not with the soul itself.
The soul is an organ. It is neutral. The problem is: who is dwelling in our soul? Who is in charge of our soul? Whom does our soul express?
Unfortunately, we find that when the Spirit of God quickened our spirit, He gave us a new life. This new life of Christ dwells in our spirit.
Or, to put it another way, the life of our spirit is Christ. He dwells within us, and at the same time the Holy Spirit dwells in us. His work is to increase that life of Christ in us and to conform us to Christ.
But when we were first saved, we realized that our soul was still under the dominion of the old fallen self-life.
Christ is the life of our spirit, but He is not yet the life of our soul. So you find that within yourself there are two persons, and they are completely opposite.
Because of that, we go through what we may call an inner civil war. God’s purpose is that Christ may come over into our soul and displace the Adamic self-life.
He will sit upon the throne not only of our spirit, but even in our soul, so that all the functions of our soul are under His control.
Whatever comes out of our soul should express Christ instead of self. This is the meaning of the salvation of the soul.
Yesterday we spoke about how salvation comes to the emotion of our soul. We are emotional people. Some may be more emotional than others, yet we all have emotions.
Emotion, in a sense, shows off ourselves. It expresses us. I may be glad or I may be sorry. I may express my love, or I may express my hate.
So emotion, in a sense, expresses a person. It is the most active part of our soul. It can easily be stirred, and it is very changeable.
One moment you may feel very high, and the next moment you are very downcast. It is very volatile.
And yet we need emotion. It is the gift of God. Without emotion, life would be as if dead. If we cast off all feeling, then we will fall into grievous things.
But unfortunately, even after we are saved, we find that our emotion more often expresses the old self-life instead of expressing the Christ-life in us.
Our emotion needs to be purified—not to get rid of emotion and not to suppress emotion. The more you suppress it, the more forceful it becomes. Sooner or later, when it bursts, there is an explosion.
To save the emotion is to deliver us from the self-life in our soul.
Of the disciples of our Lord Jesus, who do you think was the most emotional? Very easy. It must be Peter.
You remember when our Lord said that He would go to Jerusalem and be put to death. He told His disciples, “You will all, like sheep, be scattered.”
Of the twelve disciples, it was Peter who spoke: “Others may deny You, but not I. I am willing to die with You.” He felt himself so attached to the Lord. He had so much confidence in himself.
The Lord said, “Before the cock crow twice, you will deny Me thrice.” Peter said, “I will stick with You to the end.”
And yet, before a little maid, he denied the Lord. How often, in an emotional outburst, we say, “Oh, Lord, I love You with all my heart. I am willing to die for You.”
But, brothers and sisters, is it real? Who is behind that expression? When you are saying it, what is your inner feeling? Do you feel proud of it? Do you feel that you are really better than anybody else?
Peter fell three times. It shows that it was old Simon who was behind Peter’s emotion.
You remember that after the resurrection of our Lord, He appeared to seven of His disciples. Before the other disciples, our Lord Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love Me?”
Those who understand Greek tell us that the first time our Lord asked Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” He used the word agape: “Do you love Me with God’s love?”
After his failure, Peter realized that he did not have that love. He dared not say to the Lord, “I love You with God’s love.” He could only say, “Lord, You know I am attached to You. I feel good about You. I like to be with You.”
“Do you love Me more than these?” The fire, the bread, the companions—Peter said, “I feel good about You.”
The third time the Lord said, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” And He used Peter’s word of love. When Peter heard that, he was sad, but he could not rise above himself.
So he still told the Lord, “Lord, You know. I really have good feelings about You.”
But, brothers and sisters, it was at that time that he was delivered from the self-life in his emotion. It was at that time that the love of God filled his heart.
His emotional life was purified. And then you can see how he loved the Lord. He loved the Lord.
When they wanted to crucify him, Peter said, “My Lord was crucified upright. I am not worthy. Crucify me upside down.”
This is beyond human understanding. It is the love of Christ. That is how his emotional life was transformed.
Now, some people worry about their emotion because their emotion gives them many problems. But let me tell you one thing: everyone has a different body.
The shape of our body—we are all different. There is a variety, and variety is the spice of life.
And do you know that your soul also has a shape? The shape of our soul is all different. Some people are more emotional; some people are less emotional. Some people are naturally quick, and other people are naturally slow.
Do not grieve over your situation. Thank God—it is all made by God. There is no ugly face in the world; it is just different. Everything is created by God.
Thank God. Did you ever thank God for your face? Our soul-shape is all different. There is nothing wrong and nothing to be too proud of, nothing to be ashamed of.
The only problem is: who is in charge? If Christ is in charge, then if you are a very quick person, your quickness will glorify the Lord. If you are a very slow person, your slowness will glorify the Lord.
That is the way the Lord puts people together, that we may all be perfected. So let us remember this: our emotion needs to be saved, but that does not mean that our emotion will be annihilated. Rather, our emotion must be under the right management.
Now, this afternoon, we want to say something else. In our soul there are three major functions. One is emotion, another is the mind, or intellect, and the third one is our will, or volition.
Our mind is given by God. Think of your mind. How this little mind can collect so much data, and not only collect the data, but try to figure out its relationships. Then you can draw a conclusion from it.
Our mind is a wonderful thing. The mind is the most influential function of our soul. Our emotion is the most active one, but the most influential one is our mind.
As the Greek philosopher said, “I know I am because I think.” As you think, you walk; as you think, you live. Our mind influences us most.
Again, there is nothing wrong with the mind. It was created and given by God, and God wants it to be used.
Now look at Adam. After he was created, what a mind he had. He had never been to school, and yet when God brought all the living creatures before him, he named them, and those names remain even today.
What a mind that was. When Eve was brought into his presence, God did not need to say anything to him. He looked at Eve and said, “This is me.”
How could he govern and watch over the whole garden by himself? How could he exercise dominion? You find that his mind was brilliant.
But unfortunately, the mind can become a problem too. You remember when God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God planted in the garden all kinds of fruit trees.
And in the center of the garden was the tree of life. God wanted to give His own life to man. Being made in His image, man is the only one able to receive God’s life. That is the food for the spirit.
And by the side of the tree of life was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Many people think that was a bad tree, but God would not plant anything bad in the Garden of Eden.
The fruit trees were good. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was better, and the tree of life was best. You know, the better is always the enemy of the best.
Knowledge of good and evil is the highest knowledge. It is ethical knowledge. It is higher than philosophical knowledge and higher than scientific knowledge.
It is not bad in itself, but it is bad when it is isolated and separated from the tree of life. Knowledge has to be under the control of life.
The mind can never be separated from the life of God. There are two ways that God put before man.
God gave us a free will. If you have a free will and have no choice, what is that for? God, who is the supreme will in the universe, made us with a will.
There are two ways of life. You can live by the life of God, or you can live by your own self. And if you live by your own self, the result is death.
Unfortunately, our forefathers made the wrong choice. Because they made the wrong choice, sin entered into this world, and man became flesh.
That means you have the body and you have the soul without the spirit. The life in man became the old, sinful, fallen self-life.
So what happened to our mind? Let us turn to Ephesians 4:17-18.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind,
being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart.
That is what happened to our mind. The mind came into vanity. It cannot think rightly. It thinks about things that are earthly; it cannot think about heavenly things.
There is one book in the Bible called Ecclesiastes. It was written by Solomon, the wisest of men. He said, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” Everything under the sun is the pursuit of wind.
When we were little children, there was a game where we tried to catch our shadow. I do not know whether you have done it. When we were children, we did not have so many toys, so one of our amusements was to catch our shadow.
What are people doing? Are we awakened today? People are still pursuing shadows, because our mind has become vain. It has lost its measure.
God is the standard of everything. When you lose God, you lose all standards, and your whole life becomes a chasing of the wind. Your understanding is darkened because you are alienated from the life of God.
If you turn to Romans 1, Romans 1:19-20 tells us:
Because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them.
For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.
By looking at God’s creation, you can see His power and divinity. You cannot say there is no God. That is common sense. It seems to be very clear common sense.
But why is it that people in this world, who consider themselves wise, cannot see it? I remember a fellow worker of mine. She was much older than I, and she helped us a great deal.
She was a brilliant person. We called her a Ph.D. Her Chinese was so good, and she had wide knowledge. But she was an atheist. She could not believe there was a God.
She had been the dean of a women’s school. One day, during a pestilence, the school had to disperse its students.
She took care of a few students and traveled by boat down the Yangtze River to Shanghai. While on the boat, she looked at the scenery around her, and suddenly a revelation came to her: “How could I deny?”
She was converted. We sing some of her hymns. She later became an editor of one of the most famous Christian magazines at that time.
Knowing that there is God, people did not glorify Him or give Him thanks. Their senseless heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
And what is the result? Romans 1:28 says that God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting.
A reprobate mind means a mind void of moral understanding. We not only have a vain mind, but we also have a reprobate mind. That is how fallen man was.
Now you can realize how our mind needs to be delivered. After we are saved, God begins to work for the saving of our mind.
We have already mentioned the word repentance. Repentance simply means a change of mind. We are heading in one direction—the direction toward death—but there is a change of mind, a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree change, and we begin heading in the other direction, which is toward heaven.
Now, this is repentance. Even at the time of our being saved, there was a change of mind. Otherwise, we would never see that we were in sin.
We thought that we had never changed. But when the Holy Spirit began to touch our conscience, suddenly we woke up. We began to see that we were sinful, and we wanted to be delivered.
The Holy Spirit enlightened our intuition, and we realized that salvation is in Christ. That is how we were saved. Thank God for that.
But we have to remember that this change of mind is superficial. We have not gone through the drastic change yet, but at least it was a beginning.
After the beginning, you find that the Lord begins, from time to time, to awaken our mind. His light shines upon the darkness of our mind, and He reveals to us what darkness is there.
So you find that it is through the exercise of your spirit. As you read the Bible, light comes and begins to show you how dark it was. By doing that, He brings you into more repentance.
Even though your mind is awakened and enlightened, yet you cannot do what you know is right. You find that there is a war in your mind.
I do not know whether you have read John Bunyan’s The Holy War. Those people who have read his Pilgrim’s Progress may know it, but he has another book called The Holy War.
The battlefield is our mind. Our will is the citadel, the castle, and the enemy is always trying to occupy our mind and capture that castle.
In your awakened mind, you know what is right. But you find there is another power in your soul that resists. That is the flesh.
We may say that it is the conflict between an awakened mind and the flesh. That is Romans 7.
When you read the last verse in Romans 7, you find that Paul said:
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Here you find a battle. It is a battle between an awakened, enlightened mind and the flesh.
As we go through this battle in the mind, how are we delivered? As we go through this conflict, on the one hand, the Holy Spirit continues to shed light upon our spirit.
He continues to touch our intuition, and He continues to touch our communion with God. As we are in communion with God, His love begins to constrain us.
Through the constraining of His love, we know that we have to present our bodies a living sacrifice. The body here does not mean merely the physical body; it represents our soul and body.
We begin to be constrained by the love of Christ, and we begin to present ourselves as a living sacrifice.
Consecration is the first Christian experience. Consecration is not only a door; it is a way. We have to enter through the door, and then we have to walk in the way.
So it is continuous. It is daily. It is increasing. The love of Christ continues to constrain us, and we offer ourselves more and more to Him.
As His light comes into us, we realize that we ourselves cannot fight ourselves. We have to look to Christ, because He is the Victor of Calvary.
Then we begin to realize that when Christ died on the cross, He not only died for our sins, but He did more than that. He carried us with Him to the cross. Our old man was crucified with Him.
When He died, we died. When He was raised, we were raised. He has already put away the old man, and He has already put on the new man.
That is in Ephesians 4. You can read it from Ephesians 4:20.
But ye did not so learn Christ;
if so be that ye heard Him, and were taught in Him, even as truth is in Jesus:
that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit;
and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
In other words, you begin to see what Christ has already done on the cross. It was more than just bearing your sins; it was putting your old man to death.
When He was raised from the dead, you were brought into the new man. It was something that He did; it is not something that you are doing. But He has done it.
Somehow, light comes to you. Instead of trying to struggle over sin and the flesh, you look at the cross of Christ and find that it is already done.
It is finished. You believe it, and you reckon it. As you stand by faith in the finished work of Christ, you find that you overcome. You find that your mind has been renewed.
Brothers and sisters, every time we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, the result is transformation. Our mind is renewed.
With the renewing of the mind, your outlook is completely different.
I often tell young people, “The Bible says we should not love the world. We should not be conformed to the world.” Young people will say, “You are old. You know the world, but we have not seen it.”
But if your mind is set upon the flesh, it is impossible for you not to love the world. The minding of the flesh is death, but the minding of the Spirit is life.
If your mind is not renewed and you try not to love the world but to love God, that is impossible, because the world is lovely to you.
But every time you offer yourself to the Lord, your mind goes through a renewing. The spirit of your mind is changed, and you are able to prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
So it is not human work; it is the work of the Holy Spirit. From an awakened mind, you gradually enter into a renewed mind.
With a renewed mind, the struggle seems to fade away because you look differently. What you loved before, you now see as vanity. Why pursue the wind?
If this process goes on and on, what will be the result? You have the mind of Christ.
Here you find in Philippians 2: “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” In Chinese, it is translated “heart,” but in the original it is “mind.”
How can the mind of Christ become your mind? A renewed mind results in the mind of Christ.
In the mind of Christ, there is no self. He took the place of a bondservant, and being found in fashion as a man, He became obedient to the Father, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
This is what the Lord is doing. You remember Matthew 11: “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
When you come into having the mind of Christ, you begin to seek the things above.
If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.
For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory.
Maybe you want to ask a question: “Is this possible?” It seems too good to be possible. With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
We have an example in the life of Paul. Paul was an intellectual man. I think everybody knew it.
He learned all the traditions of the fathers. He drew the conclusion that Christ had to be persecuted, and he put his whole life into it.
But God met him. God revealed His Son in him, and Paul yielded himself completely to God.
He was completely transformed. He could say, “For to me to live is Christ.” He could say, “I have the mind of Christ.” He could say that he thought only of things above.
In other words, you find that a great mind is purified. God did not take away Paul’s mind, as if having a great mind makes you a great sinner.
Some people today try to make you a mindless person. No mind at all. That is not the will of God.
The mind is a gift of God. The question is: under whose life is it? If it is under the life of Christ, it is most useful. If it is under your own head, it will bring great harm.
Thank God, He wants to save our mind. He wants to sit on the throne of our life, and He will use the mind He has given for His glory.
Of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament, many were written by Paul. Even Peter said that there are things Paul wrote that are hard to understand. Do not try to twist them.
This is the saving of our mind. It is a process that goes on every day.
How much do you look unto Jesus, trusting in His finished work? And how much do you yield yourselves to Him? That is the question.
So may the Lord help us.
Dear Lord, Thy Word is truth. Thy Word is living and operative. We do not ask Thee merely to allow us to know some doctrinal teaching.
We are willing to take the yoke, to be yoked together with Thee, and to learn of Thee, that we may find rest.