Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew 16? We will read from verses 21 through 26.
From that time began Jesus 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?
Romans 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, Philippians 2. We will read from verse 1 through verse 11.
If there is therefore any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions,
Make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;
Doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself;
Not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.
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.
Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name;
That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth,
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for Thy death, for Thy resurrection, for Thy ascension, and for Thy coming again. We praise and thank Thee. It is all because of Thy undying love toward us.
We thank Thee for saving us. We thank Thee for continuing to save us, and we thank Thee for saving us to the uttermost. It is all for Thy purpose and for Thy glory.
Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we pray that Thou wilt open our hearts, give us understanding, and lead us into the truth, that we may really know Thee, experience Thee, and glorify Thee in our lives. We commit this holy time into Thy hands and trust Thy Holy Spirit to do His work. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
I believe, brothers and sisters, we are still in the gymnasium of Christ. But I wonder whether, during the past week, you were exercising in His gymnasium.
It is of no use if you just visit a gymnasium and are not involved in it. What we are going to share will not profit you unless you are willing to go through exercise. It may cost you a little sweating, a little hardship, but it is worth it.
This morning, we will continue with spiritual exercise. How does it affect our mind?
Our God is omniscient. He knows everything. In Romans 11, the Apostle Paul concludes that section on the marvelous salvation God has prepared for us, and he begins to exclaim:
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past tracing out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?
Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.
That is the wisdom of God. That is the mind of God. He is the greatest mind in the universe.
When He created man, He created man in His own image, according to His likeness. He created man with a wonderful mind. What if we lived without a mind? Life would be nothing, and life would accomplish nothing.
Thank God, when He created us, He created us with a brilliant mind. Man can do so many things. We are in this computer age. I am allergic to computers; I know nothing about computers. But one thing I know: computers can do many things that I cannot do. I do not know how they do it.
But remember, it is the human mind that created the computer. Our mind is more marvelous than a computer. God gave us a wonderful mind. It is a precious gift of God.
Can you believe that God gave us such a great gift without any purpose behind it? God is a God of purpose. He does everything according to His purpose. What is the purpose of God in giving us a mind?
Have you ever thought about that? It is a very fundamental question that we have to ask ourselves: Why does God create me with a mind? No matter how dull I may be, that mind is wonderful.
Why did God create me with such a brilliant, wonderful mind? Is it just for me, that with a good mind I can have a good living? Or does God have something more important, more glorious, behind it?
Because God has such a mind, how can we serve God without a mind? He gave us a mind that we may serve His purpose, that we may learn to understand and know Him, and that we may be able to serve Him according to His will. I believe this is the reason God created us with a mind.
But, as we have often said, God is also the supreme will in the universe. So He created us with a will. God is free in His will, so He created us with a free will.
What would free will be if there were no chance of choice? That is why, after God created man, He planted in the Garden of Eden, in the center of the garden, two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Brothers and sisters, I always say God never planted any bad tree in the garden, because the Garden of Eden is the garden of God’s pleasure.
The tree of life, we know, is the best tree there. It signifies that God wanted His life to be possessed by the man whom He created. He offered His own life to man—not only a brilliant mind and a free will, but His own life. Think of that.
God never offered that to any other creature. He did not offer His life to the angels. He did not offer His life to any animal. But He did offer His life to man.
At the same time, He planted another tree beside it: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do you think that was a bad tree? Not at all.
What knowledge is better than the knowledge of good and evil? Scientific knowledge and philosophical knowledge cannot be compared with ethical knowledge—moral knowledge, the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. That is the highest knowledge the world can have apart from knowing God.
So I would say it was a better tree—not the best one, but a better one. It was better than all the other trees, because the other trees were only for our physical needs. But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil could be food for the soul.
Above that, God gave His life to man to be the food of our spirit. When we take the tree of life, we have knowledge even better than the knowledge of good and evil, because we have the knowledge of God—to know God and to know the One whom He has sent. That is eternal life, the highest knowledge.
In a sense, God purposely put these two trees in the garden, in the center of it, to give man a choice.
Unfortunately, our forefathers made the wrong choice. When they were tempted, they began to think, “If I eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, my mind will be highly developed. I will be as God. I can live independently. I do not need to depend upon God. I am god myself.”
“My knowledge makes me god. It puffs me up. Why should I take the life of God and remain dependent upon Him? Why not be myself?”
So man chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life. They would rather be great themselves, be gods themselves, and be independent by themselves, instead of submitting to their Creator and living a life on the highest plane.
That is what man chose. What happened when man chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
You remember that God said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Was God jealous of us, as the enemy suggested? Did He forbid us to eat of that tree because He knew what would happen if we became independent of Him?
Our forefathers ate of the forbidden tree. They immediately discovered that they were naked. Glory had left them. They tried to make aprons with fig leaves to cover themselves, but the weather changed. When the wind blew, all that nakedness would be discovered. It was no use.
When God came into the garden, they hid themselves among the trees. They dared not face God.
Adam is the first man. All of us who come out of Adam inherit his nature and become selfish and self-centered. All who are born of Adam are born with a fallen nature. We are born men and women of flesh. We live by our soul and body because our spirit was dead toward God.
The life within our soul is a fallen life: self-life, self-centered, self-interested, self-exalted.
What happened to our mind? Man fell, and the mind fell. That does not mean all the abilities or capabilities of our mind are gone. No. But all its moral sense is gone.
That is why, if you read Romans 1, the writer begins to list all the things men commit. In Romans 1:28, because they did not want to know God, their mind became a reprobate mind.
Something happened to the mind. It became a reprobate mind. Reprobation simply means being void of moral discernment. They are able to discern everything except what is really of God.
They put God out of their mind. Therefore, in all their considerations, God is not there. The supreme standard of morality is no longer there. Everything is relative; nothing is absolute.
When people have a reprobate mind, what will they do? They do all kinds of unseemly things. The source is a reprobate mind.
So, dear brothers and sisters, do not think your mind is all right. By that I mean, do not think that because you have a brilliant mind, you can depend upon your mind to live your life.
No matter how brilliant you are, your mind was a reprobate mind. It has lost its moral standard and its moral discernment. That is what we inherited from our forefathers.
In the Bible, there are many places telling us what happened to our mind in our fallen state. For instance, in Romans 8, we find that the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
If you set your mind according to your flesh—that is, according to the life of your soul—it will result in death. Only when you obey the Spirit, the Holy Spirit in your spirit, is there life and peace.
Why? Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. Our natural mind is an enemy of God. It cannot obey God; it does not understand God. It is an enemy of God.
That is what you find in the world today: brilliance on every side, but when you come to the matter of God, there is a blank.
Man’s mind becomes vain. Ephesians 4:17 tells us that our understanding becomes darkened because we have been alienated from the life of God. We become high-minded, as in 1 Timothy 6:17, trusting in uncertain riches. We become double-minded, as in James 1:8, unstable in all our ways.
That is the condition of our reprobate mind, whether you acknowledge it or know it or not. The question is: How do human beings make use of their minds?
The more you exercise your mind, the sharper and keener it becomes. But in what area? Self: self-pride, self-assertion, self-centeredness. Everything is simply expressing what our self is.
Thank God, the Bible tells us that He has not only delivered us from so great a death. By His Spirit, He has enlivened our spirit. He put His own life in us.
So we who believe in the Lord Jesus are saved. Our spirit was quickened from the dead, cleansed by the blood of the Lord from an evil conscience. His life became the life of our spirit, and the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit to teach us how to allow the life of Christ to grow into maturity. Every provision is there.
The Bible says we are being delivered. In other words, those who believe in the Lord Jesus will have even their reprobate mind delivered. This is what should be going on today.
People may say, “When I believed in the Lord Jesus, did I not repent?” Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. If you do not repent, how can you believe in Him?
You can talk with people about everything under the sun, and they know everything. But when you talk about God, there is a blank—no understanding, no penetration. By searching, no man can find God.
We may come to the point of knowing that there must be a God somewhere, but there will be no contact and no personal experience—not until you believe in the Lord Jesus. Then it happens. Thank God for that.
Can our reprobate mind repent by itself? No. We can regret. If I did something that brought evil consequences upon me, of course I regret it because I suffer for it. I may change my mind, but even though I change my mind, it may still be for my own profit.
No matter how you change, it is still within that original scope of the reprobate mind. Only the Holy Spirit can convict our dormant conscience.
He is able to touch the dead person and raise the dead from the dead. So the Holy Spirit touches our conscience, which was dormant. When He touches our conscience, repentance begins to dawn upon us.
Then He touches our intuition, which was dormant, and we begin to see something we have never seen before: that truly Christ Jesus is the only Saviour, and how He died for us. Then you believe.
Repentance is called a change of mind. But remember, that is only on the surface. It is superficial and only for a time. Your reprobate mind, basically, has not changed, because the life directing that mind is still flesh and self. It has not changed yet.
After you are saved, do you realize that you have a new heart but an old mind? Your mind has not been renewed yet. Renewing simply means that the life directing your mind is changing—from you to Christ. It is an exchanged life, and that must happen in your Christian life.
Let us use an example from Matthew 16. Peter, Simon, received a tremendous revelation from the Father.
When our Lord Jesus asked His disciples, “Whom say ye that I am?” Simon Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” So far as His person was concerned, He was the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God. So far as His mission was concerned, He was the Christ—the One sent with a mission from God to save us.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Simon Bar-Jonah, thou art blessed, because no human being can tell you that. It is My Father in heaven who has revealed it to you. Thou art Peter, a little stone. From dust, becoming stone. A new life, a new character, a new nature has come into you.”
“And I will build My church upon this massive rock, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
But immediately after that, beginning from verse 21, our Lord Jesus began to share with His disciples how He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, die, and on the third day be raised from the dead.
Do you know what Peter did? He laid hold of the Lord. He did not merely say it. I can almost imagine how he took the Lord with both hands, held Him, and shook Him up: “Wake up, Lord! Never! Do not do that. You do not need to do that. You can have the kingdom without a cross.”
If Peter did that to me, I would appreciate it very much. “Now you really love me. You want to save me.” But the Lord knew that Satan was using Peter, trying to persuade Christ away from the cross. If He did that, there would be no salvation.
But our Lord Jesus had spiritual discernment. He turned around and said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.” It was not Peter; it was Satan in Peter. “Because thou mindest the things of men, and not the things of God.”
Brothers and sisters, here was a man newly awakened, having a new life and a new spirit, but the old mind was still in charge.
Do you think Peter really loved the Lord so much? Behind it, he loved himself. If the Master went to the cross, how about me? “You can have the kingdom without the cross—so can I.”
The Lord Jesus said, in effect, “If you are willing to lose your soul-life, you will gain it. But if you try to save your soul-life today, you will lose it. What does it profit if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?”
Peter is a very clear example for us who have been enlightened and saved, but whose old mind is still holding on.
Do you think we are able to live a Christian life with an old mind? What is the reason that we cannot really live a real Christian life? It is so hard to live a real Christian life. What is the reason behind it?
Within the soul, it is still your fallen Adam trying to reassert his authority over you. He is using your mind to keep you away from the things of God, from the mind of God.
I believe this is what is happening to every one of us after we believe in the Lord Jesus. At first, it is as if we are walking in a cloud. Everything is blue, and the birds sing sweeter than ever. In that moment of first love, there is nothing you are unable to give up for the Lord.
But that does not last long. Gradually, you find that old Adam begins to raise his head. He has been in charge for so long, and he wants to keep his dominion.
Then begins the so-called battle for the mind. If you do not love the Lord, if you do not care, you do not feel the fierceness of the battle. You can live an easygoing life. You can live against your conscience and against what God has revealed to you.
You can live without sweet communion with your God. You can live your whole life that way. But I believe that is not you. After you are saved, somehow you want to please God, because there is a life within you that keeps telling you about God.
You begin to say something you have never said before. Even in your speech, when you are trying to say something, perhaps you exaggerated everything in the past, and it made you feel good. But now you are about to exaggerate again, and somehow you find a check within you: “Ah, is it true?”
What do you do? You say it anyway. But after you say it, you feel bad. In the evening, when you try to pray to God, you know you have to confess first. Otherwise, there will be no contact.
Therefore, young Christians are always faced with one question: “Tell me, what is the will of God?”
Why are you concerned with the will of God? You know what you want to do, but now it seems you do not know whether you should do it or how to do it. So you begin to ask, “What is the will of God?”
Have you ever come to an older brother or sister and said, “Now tell me, can I do this? Can I go there? What is the will of God?” That becomes the question.
Why do you have this question? Because you have the life of Christ in you, and the question comes from your spirit.
Unfortunately, when you ask older ones, “What should I do? Where should I go? Can I do this or not?” that elder brother or sister may become your teacher and say, “Yes, you can do this. No, you cannot do that.”
If you are obedient, you will do it, but you will find yourself under law and bondage. When I was first saved, I was told that I had to keep Sunday. Sunday was a holy day.
On Sunday, I could not study. So I was always in fear if an examination came on Monday, because I could not touch my book on Sunday. But if I did not touch my book on Sunday, how did I spend Sunday? I played ball.
On Sunday, I never dared to go to a theater. I did only once, because it was a holiday. It was bondage. Outwardly, I was a good Christian, but it was all under law—no freedom.
Brothers and sisters, there is a battle for the mind. God wants to save your mind. The enemy wants to keep your mind under his control.
Just as the Apostle Paul said, he has built strongholds in your mind—high-minded reasonings, things built up through the years in your mind, telling you that you are all right, that you are on the right track, that you should be yourself.
These strongholds need to be torn down through the Word of God and through prayer. Our mind needs to be renewed. You cannot live by your own mind.
How can our mind be renewed? God has made every provision for us to renew our minds, but there is one thing you have to do: consecration.
In Romans 1 through 11, God has made every provision for our full salvation. But then He says, “Brethren, I beseech you by the compassions of God.” May the love of Christ constrain you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. That is your reasonable service.
Do not love the world. Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
Naturally, our minds go after the fashion of the world. We want to be conformed to the world. We do not want to be out of fashion or old-fashioned. We want to go on with the world. That is natural.
We look at the will of God as something hard, harsh, and difficult. That is natural. How can we despise the world and love the will of God? We cannot do it ourselves.
But there is one thing we must do. As we are constrained by the love of Christ, we must be willing to give ourselves as a living sacrifice.
It simply means that you hand yourself over to God and say, “Lord, I cannot save myself. I put myself in Your hands. I am Yours. You can do anything You like with me.” That is consecration.
Why should we consecrate? How can we consecrate? It is because we are constrained by the love of Christ. He loves us so much, and we are willing to give up our right to ourselves and let Him have the right over us.
As a matter of fact, that is what we should be. But God is so gracious that He never forces us to do anything without our consent. It is as if God says, “If you give your consent, I will do the work to save your soul.”
If you really present yourself to the Lord and say, “Lord, I am Yours. You can do anything You like with me,” strangely, the Holy Spirit begins to work. He will renew your mind.
By renewing the mind, it simply means that He can change your mind in a real way. You will find that the life of Christ comes into your mind, and out of that life you begin to see things differently.
You begin to see the world as trash. You begin to see that God’s will is perfect and precious. Now it becomes easy for you to lay down your mind and allow the mind of Christ to work through you.
I remember many years ago, I was in Albuquerque. A few of us were sitting in a room talking, and in the center of the room, on a table, was a vessel full of candies.
While we were talking, a little boy came in and began to wander around the room. He went nearer and nearer until he reached the table, picked up a candy, ate it, and went away.
Then he came again and did the same thing—going around and around, picking up a candy. Then he said, “I know I should not do it, but I just love it.”
I see a picture of myself in that. I see a picture of one whose mind has not been renewed. It is awakened, but not renewed, because it is still the same old flesh that is in control of the mind.
So we need an exchanged life. By an exchanged life, I mean that the life of Christ becomes the life of your soul instead of your own life.
Older brothers and sisters, how true this is. As we recall our lives, we go through many crises. The crises come as a cross between the mind of God and our own mind.
God wants one thing, and our mind wants another thing. There is a conflict. The Spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh lusts against the Spirit. It is the battle for the mind.
Who has the mind—Christ, Satan, or you? You are in between. Brothers and sisters, it is very real.
The more you consecrate yourself, the more your whole viewpoint changes. What you considered very precious—even your very life—becomes trash. What you considered hard and terrible becomes your treasure.
This happened to the Apostle Paul. In Philippians 3, he tells us that he could boast as much as anybody else, even more, because he was such a brilliant, religious, and zealous young man.
He wanted to make a name for himself in Judaism. But when Christ met him on the road to Damascus, He changed him.
When Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, he was in a Roman jail for the sake of the gospel. Yet he could declare, “What I considered as treasure before, I now look upon as trash. I am willing to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
It was not something forced. It was supernaturally natural, because his mind had been so renewed. He looked at things heavenly, not earthly, anymore.
Why is it that we emphasize consecration so much? It is because that gives God the chance to complete His deliverance.
As we continue willing to lose our self-life and allow Christ’s life to be seated on the throne of our soul, then we begin to take on the mind of Christ.
The mind of Christ is simply this: He emptied Himself. He humbled Himself. He gave up Himself, being obedient to the Father, even unto death on the cross. It was absolute surrender.
He gave up Himself completely, never thinking of what would happen to Him. His life was governed by the will of God.
What salvation He has accomplished for us! He is glorified. He has a name above every name, and at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of the Father.
Brothers and sisters, we need the mind of Christ.
If we have the mind of Christ, what will happen? As we find in Philippians 2, if there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any tender mercies and compassion, then we fulfill the apostle’s joy.
If we really want to be of service to our brothers and sisters, we will be able to think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking one thing. Nothing will be done in the spirit of strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other more excellent than himself and regarding the things of others also.
Why is it that we cannot really be one with our brothers and sisters? Why do we think so differently? It is because we all think highly of ourselves.
Each wants to have his own way, and the result is that we cannot be one. But if we have the mind of Christ, we do not think of ourselves as anything and are willing to yield to our brothers and sisters.
Eventually, you will find that only in Christ do we have the same mind. Outside of Christ, we always have different minds. That is the only hope, and I believe the Lord is working in that direction.
Finally, I would like to mention a true story. In the nineteenth century, a girl was born in 1800. When she was nineteen years old, she came to the Lord.
She was married into nobility and inherited the title Lady Powerscourt. That was in Ireland. She had a beautiful palace. Powerscourt Gardens are world-famous, one of the greatest gardens in Europe. We visited it even today.
She was saved and really gave her life to the Lord. She was very pious. At that time, the matter of prophecy in the Bible was being revived, and people began to talk about prophecy.
So she opened her palace, and in it held sessions where famous preachers were invited to come, fellowship, and discuss the matter of prophecy.
She came into contact with J. N. Darby, and they fell in love. They were engaged. But then the brothers in Dublin felt that God was beginning to use Darby in a marvelous way, and that he should not be tied down with a family.
They expressed their feeling to Darby, and it was made known to Lady Powerscourt. We do not really know what happened. Some say their letters crossed each other.
For the sake of the Lord, they were willing to lay down their lives. Darby sent a letter to Lady Powerscourt saying that he felt he could not go on; he must give himself totally to the Lord. Lady Powerscourt had the same feeling. She felt that she had to lay down herself and give herself totally to the Lord.
She lived to thirty-six years old. Some people said she died of a broken heart. But people spoke of her as one who was always looking down instead of looking up, because she lived in the heavenly and looked down upon the earth.
It seemed as if her feet barely touched the earth. She was such a heavenly-minded person. She was like what Colossians 3 says: seek the things above, where Christ is seated. He is your life.
She literally lived like that—a most heavenly-minded person. Oftentimes we say that if you are heavenly-minded, you are earthly no good. But that was not true with her. God used her to do many things.
When I think of T. Austin-Sparks, I sense the same thing. His mind seemed to be so taken up with the heavenly that his feet could hardly touch the earth. To him, whatever touched the earth changed its nature.
In my contact with him, he was always afraid of touching the earth. But what revelation God gave him concerning the spiritual nature of the church and the ascendency of Christ!
So, dear brothers and sisters, do not go to extremes. Do not think, on the one hand, that your mind is everything and does not need to be saved. Neither go to the other extreme and think that you should not use your mind.
There is teaching like that. We have the phrase, “Never mind,” and some people say, “Never mind—never use your mind.” No. The mind is the gift of God.
God wants to purify and sanctify the mind, that it may be used for God. A great mind serving a great God. Brothers and sisters, this is salvation.
Dear Lord, as we bow low before Thee, we acknowledge the need for the saving of our mind.
We willingly present ourselves as a living sacrifice to Thee, allowing Thee to work out Thy salvation in renewing our mind, in bringing the mind of Christ into our life. And we give Thee the glory in Thy precious name. Amen.