Give Me the Mind of Christ (11/11/2001)

The Resurrection of Christ and the Opening Prayer

Dear Father, we thank you that Jesus is our Lord. It breaks our hearts as so many people in our country watch the things that are going on and they put Jesus in the same platform with Buddha and Muhammad, and yet they are still in the grave and he is not.

He is risen. And so, Father, we thank you that you've opened our eyes and brought us out of darkness into the marvelous light of your Son, Jesus Christ, and we ask you to take us to the very throne this morning as we get into the Word of God, that you would take us and show us that we are, in fact, seated in Christ in the heavenlies, and we ask it in his name.

Amen. Well, Brother Russ, I'm glad that you have developed the fine art of rebuking in such a way that people's minds will still be open and hear the rebuke, because Brother Archie had given up the guitar for some, I don't know how many years, and Russ just rebuked him.

He said, you know, God gave you that gift and you're not a very good steward. And so I'm glad Archie had ears that would hear. Hallelujah. That was a blessing to us all this morning. In fact, he's participated in the making of the Red, White, and Blue album that is just about finished, I'm sure, within the weeks or days of being ready to go to press or whatever they call it in your world, but we appreciate you being with us this morning.

That was a blessing. Turn with me to Colossians chapter 3 and verse 9, and I want to speak to you this morning. You might want to put your other hand, that's why God gave you two hands, so you have one for the New Testament and one for the Old.

Put your other hand in 1 Samuel chapter 10, if you would. But there is a perfect pattern in 1 Samuel chapter 10 for a church service. You might wonder how that could be there in the Old Testament. Well think about who wrote it and you'll figure that out.

I don't mean who the human penman was, I mean who was the author of this book. Colossians chapter 3, starting with verse 9, follow along if you would, lie not one to another. It's interesting that this passage dealing with the church starts with that.

Don't lie to each other. Don't lie not one to another. Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

Now remember that little phrase when we get into 1 Samuel in a few moments. This idea of putting on the new man which is renewed in knowledge. You're going to see this in the Old Testament in a few moments.

After the image of him that created him, we are renewed in knowledge after the image of Jesus Christ. The scripture teaches us very clearly that all things were made by him. So we're referencing Jesus here.

We're renewed in knowledge after Jesus' image. When you have a problem with your thought life, let me tell you how to cure it if you're saved today. If you're born again, this will work for you. Just say, Lord give me the mind of Christ.

Let me think about this issue or this person or whatever's going on at that instant in your life. Let me think about this like Jesus would and like Jesus does. Give me his mind. It'll work every time.

That's good practical preaching right there. Just try it. You'll see it'll work for you. Renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies. Now we're going to see some of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind. That's certainly not from us, is it?

Certainly not from our flesh, is it? This comes from the renewed man. This comes from the new you that was born again at the moment you were born again. And this comes in fact by the Holy Spirit who is within you, dwelling within your hearts, but also connected to the very heavenlies.

And that's why you're also seated in the heavenlies this morning. You ever tried to figure out how you can be both on the earth and in heaven at the same time? The Bible says you are. Do you remember the time Jesus was talking to the Pharisees?

He was somewhere in the Middle East standing on the planet earth and he looked at the Pharisee and he talked about the son of man which is in heaven. That was present tense. Now I don't know if you can figure that out or not, but Jesus was standing there on the earth talking to this man, looking him in the eyes and says, but I'm in heaven.

Do you know you're that way this morning? If you're saved, you're seated with him in him in the heavenlies and the Holy Spirit is the connector. He's the one that connects you into that realm. And to the extent that you walk and live in the Holy Spirit, you can live in that realm.

You're already living eternal life. You don't have to die to get there. You can't get there. You are there. If you're walking in the spirit, but if you walk in the flesh, you can do every evil deed that any lost person has ever done.

And that's the frightening part. So notice how he's saying to lay these things aside. If you go up into the part that I didn't even read, I skipped it, but verse five, mortify therefore the members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, et cetera.

That's the flesh. But he says, put on therefore mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, those characteristics that are from the heavenlies because they belong to Jesus Christ, but they're in you because you're born again and you are in fact one with him.

Forbearing one another, holding one another up, forgiving one another, boy, that's necessary since we all from time to time do still commit sins, do we not? We don't always treat one another like we ought to every moment of every day, do we?

We're working on it though, aren't we? But this is what helps us when we mess up, forbearing and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

When you see the weakness of your brother, think about the weakness of yourself and that which Christ has forgiven you of and it helps you to forgive the brother and to go on and let love cover a multitude of sins so that we can have unity rather than the division that Satan wants to bring.

Forgiving one another as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Verse 14, and above all these things put on love, more important than any of it, more important than the kindness, than the humility, the meekness, the long suffering, more important than the laying aside of the works of the flesh, more important than all of that is that you have the very love of God for God is love.

So when you have love, you have the nature of God within you and that love will cover a multitude of sins in your brother and allow you to walk with him, but you know what's even better than that? It allows him to walk with you and me.

Think about that when you're getting down on your brother. Think about what he's putting up with. That's right. We don't like to think that way, that hurts. That's the light. When the Bible talks about the fact when you look in this book, it's like a glass and you look in it, some of us don't study it because we see ourselves and we don't like what we see.

Ooh, I think I will put that down, that's ugly. I didn't get an amen for that. The only one that can't amen, that's my wife. She could, but she won't. Now let's continue here. Above all these things put on love, charity love, agape love, that God kind of love that does not depend upon the object of the love, but depends upon the lover.

You young men ought to learn that kind of love because in a marriage, that's the kind you'll have to have. You can't just love her when she treats you right. When she does what you say, you have to love her all the time because that's the kind of love God commands and then the submission will come.

That's for Mike. But anyway, who said amen? Oh Russ, big, big uncle back there. And he says, let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you're called in one body. Now notice the unity of the body, the church, the unity.

We're called to unity. We're called to oneness. This oneness is only possible with the perfect love of God because without it, we see the imperfections in one another. This bond is called, in fact, at the end of verse 14, the bond of perfectness, the bond of maturity.

You want to see a mature Christian? He's not the one that points out all the sins. Oh, he may see some, but he's not the one that's judgmental and is quick to point out the sins and weaknesses of others.

This bond of maturity is the one that has the love of God, which brings the mercy, which brings the kindness, which brings the patience, which brings everything that God is and realizes that God does not operate on our time, but on his own in the changing of others.

We get so impatient with God because he won't make everybody be like us right now. Did you hear what I said? That's sad, isn't it? Praise be to him that he doesn't. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body and be ye thankful.

You know, thankfulness cures many ills in our lives. If we would go about from time to time throughout the day, this is something I try to practice and I hope you do, too. Everything you see, just thank God for it, everything.

Now, you have to be in the word for a while before you can thank him for everything because that includes what we perceive to be bad. When you really start to know God, you understand nothing really is bad because it originated from his hand and it will bring good.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now, this is all speaking to a church on how to be a church. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. That doesn't say just study the quarterly.

That doesn't say just read the Bible through in a year. That says that everybody that is within the hearing of my mouth today should be in this word in your house or in your car or at your place at work when you have a few minutes on a break.

You should be in this word allowing it to work itself into your hearts and minds. The renewing of the knowledge after the image of him that created you will only happen if you're in the word of God. Such an important part of a healthy church.

Not so much the preaching, although that is very important, and the teaching in the classes, though that is very important. What's even more important to be a healthy church is that everyone is doing their own in-depth Bible study to the extent this says, let it dwell in your hearts richly.

Is it rich when you get into it or is it a duty? You can kind of judge your spiritual temperature by that. When you open the word up this week and got into it, was it dutiful or was it rich? Now, if it's just dutiful, go ahead and do it anyway.

Because if you dutifully read it long enough, it'll get rich. But if you're walking with the one who created you, he will renew knowledge in your heart and mind. As you read this book, you'll see things you've never seen before this past Wednesday night.

Those of us, it might have been Wednesday before last, we saw a verse in the Bible that we've all read many times and never seen what it said until that Wednesday night. And we're still kind of looking into that, thinking about that.

So the word of God is rich and it's deep and we can't fathom it all, but we should be in it. Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Do you see that aspect of the church service? You know, now a lot of that's been laid aside in our Baptist churches because we're so afraid of the Pentecostals and the Charismatics. And some of the things that they do, we know are not right, but some of the things they do are right and we don't do them because we associate them with those wrong things.

And that's sad. Some of us almost had a heart attack this morning when Brenda was clapping and all of a sudden she went like that. I noticed though, Brenda, you kept that beneath the pulpit. That was good.

Only I could see it. I know what you were doing. She was singing with her hands. She was singing with her hands, but you see, the Bible says lift up your hands. The Bible says sing spiritual songs, but we're afraid of it because others among us who teach some false doctrine as if we never teach any or have never taught any, we hope we don't teach any, but I can think back to stuff I taught 15, 20 years ago that I don't even believe anymore.

So, there is no church that has a hold on the whole box that God's in. You know why? Because he ain't in one. And so, because they get off into some areas where we feel are unscriptural, then we don't want to do the things they do that are scriptural.

And that's hard. It's harder for me than any of you probably. I mean, I'm certainly not charismatic. I mean, pretty boring actually, just very common life. And my brother, Myron Golden, my black brother from another mother, as he says, same father.

He took me to a church service one time where the Lord really came down upon the place. And it is so amazing that I called my wife. We were off in another state and I called her that night and I said, you're flying out here tomorrow.

I want you to be here tomorrow night. You've never seen anything like this, and the reason I want you to come is because no one will believe me if I tell them what happened. And this was in a Baptist church, but it didn't happen the next night, so I'm glad you didn't fly out.

But that one night was incredible. I saw little children. I'm telling you, this is not a charismatic church, whatever you may or may not think about that. This was a Baptist church, and I saw little children who were sitting with their parents in the choir because it was an evening service, it was informal, and some little kids sing better than adults anyway.

So they had them up in the choir, and the choir got into, now this was after a week of preaching and worship and so forth, but it's about Thursday night. The choir hit the third note of the first song, and these children began to cry.

Now they're not old enough to even know they're supposed to, all right, now's when you cry, kids. Now's when you raise your hands. Now's when you clap. Now's when you jump. They don't know that stuff.

Besides that, they were Baptists. They've never even been taught that stuff, and they began to weep. And I looked around myself, and I wasn't the only one crying. Others began to weep. This was the third note of the first song, no preaching, nothing had happened, except for all week it had been going on, and all of a sudden I found myself wanting to laugh for joy.

And I looked around, and there were people laughing and clapping their hands and shouting, and I looked back, Byron's literally sitting back here going, look at David, he's clapping his hand. He said, Tony, you'll have his hands up there before this service is over.

They sat behind me. They wouldn't even sit with me, because they thought I'd sit here like this and embarrass them, you know, but it was awesome. But I'll tell you what, when the presence of God is there, we're the bride, we're responders.

Just like in our world, the husband is that which initiates, the bride is that which responds. That's what'll make a marriage happy. Many of the problems are because there's not enough initiated by the grooms nowadays.

But when the groom shows up, the bride will respond. You don't have to worry about faking anything. We don't want any of that in this place. And I don't think there is a musician that's up here this morning that wants any accolades or wants any, I'm sure they're going to become very famous singing in this church.

That's not what it's all about. In fact, they'd just soon get behind the screen and put the screen in front of them. Brother Otis would say amen to that probably, but he told me once that'd be the ideal way.

Put the musicians behind something, and the point is, it's about Jesus. That's a good rabbit trail, where was I? Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him, that'll solve all the problems.

Just do what you do as the Lord leads you. But I'm going to tell you that there are some things that have been missing from Baptist church services that until they're brought back, it's not all there.

I don't read into that anything, I'm just telling you there are some scriptural things. Now let's look at some of them. Going to 1 Samuel, you're going to be amazed at this symbolism throughout this passage that shows us in the Old Testament what a church service should be like.

Now I understand dispensational issues, and when Brother Roy first came, that's what we were preaching on. A couple of times we preached on the dispensations. That was for Russ's benefit, because I had to prove to him that he believed in them.

Some of them, anyway. I mean, there is an Old Testament, a New Testament, so you are dispensational. All right, he'll get me back one of these days. Let's go into 1 Samuel chapter 10 and verse 1. Now we got to go up, the chapters aren't really here.

Let's go into verse 27, they're right above it, at the end of chapter 9. It's 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 9, verse 27. And as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, bid the servant pass on before us.

So Saul had his servants with him, maybe carrying his armor, who knows. But Samuel, the man of God, says, I want the servant to go on. I want just us for a minute. I just want you. Bid the servant pass on before us, and he passed on.

But stand thou still for a while, that I may show thee the word of God. If every preacher in America could say that to his congregation, every Sunday, this nation would be back where it should be in a matter of weeks.

Stand still for a moment. Send your servant on, the ones that take care of all your physical stuff, the ones that take care of all your fleshly problems, all the worldly problems, the cares of the world, send them on for a minute.

And stand still a while, that I may show thee the word of God. Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and you need to watch for symbolism. Now, this is not something we make up. These are universal symbols throughout the entire Bible, Old and New Testament.

They're very clear and universally accepted by all theologians. You've heard them before, but just watch for them. Samuel took a vial of oil. And poured it on his head and kissed him. And he said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?

What is this oil picture of the Holy Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit who anoints people for service. It is the Holy Spirit that anoints people to do things for God that they should not do in the flesh, nor could they do in the flesh.

And without this oil of anointing, a church is not really having a real service. It is merely playing. It is playing like it's having a service. It's having one of those kind of services that God talked about in the Bible when he said, your very sacrifices make me ill.

Your very praises make me sick. I will none of them. He has said many times. But when the Holy Spirit, the oil of anointing is upon the people, upon the body of Christ, upon specific individuals who may lead in the service.

But upon everyone who is in the service, that is the beginning of a proper church service. Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, is this not because the Lord has anointed you?

The oil was symbolism. It was symbolic. It came after the real thing. The real thing was Samuel already recognized the anointing on this man's life. God had already told Samuel about the anointing on Saul's life.

He places the oil symbolically saying, I as the man of God also recognize this gift. You know that we'll recognize gifts in one another sometime before we even see our own gift, the church will recognize gifts.

Sometimes we need to tell each other we have them. Sometimes we need to encourage like Russ did that we use the gifts. We need to do that sometimes, from time to time. But we as the men and women will recognize the anointing of God.

Now let's go to verse two and we go to another stage now. When thou art departed from me today, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelza, and they will say unto thee, the asses which thou wentest to seek are found.

Now it's interesting because these are Saul's father's donkeys and they are missing. And so it is assumed by these people that Saul was out looking for them. He may not have been. But they made that assumption because they belong to his father.

And the prophet's just telling him this is what's going to happen. He says these people are going to come when you go to this place. And they're going to say to you that the asses which thou went to seek are found.

And lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses and sorroweth for you, the son, saying, what shall I do because of my son, not for my son. He's not asking what can I do for my son. He's saying, what shall I do because of the state in which I find my son?

What state does this father in the human realm find his son in? He's about to become king. And this is a vivid, vivid picture of that aspect of the cross. That occurred in the heavenlies as the father observed, as we speak as men to talk about it.

As the father looked down and saw his son suspended on the cross by men, by sinful men, for whom he was about to die. And they were spitting upon him and cursing him and mocking him. And this shows the father from the father's point of view while that was happening.

Now we know that the sky turned dark. And we know that the earth quaked. And we know that bodies came out of graves. And we know that the temple veil was rent from the top to the bottom and is about this thick.

And no human could have done that. And we know that the father was, in fact, having, that's just, we don't have words for it, feelings, feelings. What was he feeling? He was saying, what shall I do because of my son?

What would you have done, moms, in this room, if they had taken your son and said, we're just gonna kill him? He's here to help. He's brought nothing but light and joy and wisdom to this world. But we're just gonna kill him.

What would you do, moms? If you had the power that God had at that moment, what would you have done? Would we still be sitting here today, moms? Dads? That's why you didn't get to be God. But you think about this.

Now, we don't know. We cannot comprehend how God felt. But we know that he has feelings because he made us in his image and we have feelings. And we saw some of that as the sky grew dark and the earth quaked.

And we see here the agony of propitiation. Have you ever thought about that? Propitiation means that God was satisfied with the death of his son for the sins of the cosmos. He was satisfied. It was the perfect price to be paid, and he was satisfied with that price.

Do you know that's why you can't save yourselves? There's nothing you could do to add to that. It doesn't say that God was almost propitiated in the Bible. It doesn't say in Isaiah chapter three that he was almost satisfied with the death of his son as our sins were placed on his body, that it was almost good enough.

It says God was satisfied. Now, to satisfy the wrath and the perfect justice of a perfectly holy God who is without sin and separate from it took an amazing event. It took the death of his son, and he says, what shall I do because of my son?

At that moment, when he had to turn his own head from his son, and Jesus looked up and could not see God for the first time in all eternity, forever back and forever forward and forever present. He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

You're not here. And he was that goat that was led out into the wilderness with the sins of the people on his head, never to return. And Jesus went out into hell, if you define hell as separation of God.

If you define hell as the only place God ever created where he's not. Haven't you ever played a little game? Can God do this? Can God make a rock so big that he can't lift it himself? Those kind of silly things, let me get you to ask a serious question.

If God is omnipresent and he's everywhere at once, can he make a place where he's not? Yes, and it's called hell, and you don't want to go there. If you're born again, you can't go there. If you're not born again, is he tugging at your heart right now?

If he is, if he's moving in your heart, that's a good sign. That probably means you were his before the foundation of the world. And all you have to do is respond and receive the perfect gift. But he says, what should I do for my son?

The ultimate gift was being given by the father. The ultimate sacrifice of his own heart as he saw his son mocked and beaten beyond recognition and killed and crucified. The ultimate grief, the ultimate agony and pain, the ultimate sacrifice.

If you think of the times in history, or maybe some of you may have in your family situations where a mother lost her life while giving birth. That's the ultimate sacrifice in the physical realm for giving life.

And this was the ultimate birth pang, if you will, in the spiritual realm. This was the ultimate sacrifice of giving of spiritual life that the father was going through right now as he looked at his son being nailed to that cross.

All of that is pictured in verse two. Now let's go on, verse three. Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet thee three men going up to God, to Bethel.

Look what these men have. One carrying three kids, that's not children, by the way. Another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine. Do you see what has to be in a church service?

Do you see that we couldn't even begin one if it weren't for the anointing of the Holy Spirit? And we could not even begin to have a church service if it hadn't been for the sorrow that that father went through, that the father went through on the day of the crucifixion.

And the giving of his son as a propitiation for himself. God was satisfied with his death for the sins of his own. But there's another thing that could never happen in a church service. It would have to happen to make a church service the right kind, and that is all symbolized in verse three.

First of all, we see the three kids. It's interesting because that takes care of three of the Old Testament things that were used as pictures of Jesus Christ. The first would be the free will offering.

The second kid, perhaps, was the sin offering, which is different than the free will offering. Free will offering was given freely from the heart out of joy as a response to what God has done in life.

But the sin offering was given by necessity as a covering of the sins of the people. And perhaps that third one was the scapegoat. The one who was not killed, the goat who was left alive, and the priest would raise his hands over the heads of the people, symbolically taking all of their sins for their whole life.

And then he would place his hands on the head of that goat, and a fit man would carry the goat into the wilderness, never to return. The sins were removed from the people. You do understand that's New Testament and Old Testament forgiveness, do you not?

Forgiveness, when it says God forgives us, it doesn't mean he says, okay, I'll let that slide, it's okay, I love him. It's not what it means. It means the sins were collected, placed upon Christ, and taken away forever.

Removed from the sinner. That's why you can't lose your salvation. That's why if you could, you couldn't get it back. Because Hebrews chapter 6 says you'd have to re-crucify the Son of God, which would put him to open shame.

Because you're saying his death was not sufficient. His blood was not sufficient. I've got to have more. I just lost my salvation. I did something that caused me to lose it. Well, did you did something that caused you to get it?

Well, you would have had to accomplish that before the foundation of the world. You'd have to be God. Why can't we just rest in our salvation? That's what the Sabbath picture is. Why can't we just rest in the fact that God has done it all?

That Jesus, when he was on that cross, when he said, it is finished, he was referring to the work of salvation. Why can't we rest in Jesus? And he says he had three kids. That covers the free will offering, the sin offering, the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for his people.

And the scapegoat is pictured as the one who was sent off to hell with the sins of the people so that the people would not have to bear their own sins. That's not all we see here. We see three loaves of bread and a bottle of wine.

The loaves of bread picture the body of Jesus Christ that he gave for the church. And the wine pictures his blood, which he said, this blood I shed for you. Now, it's interesting as we go into verse four, we had three loaves of bread.

Look at verse four. The prophet tells Saul, and then they will salute thee and give you two loaves of bread. Why'd they keep one of them? They'll give you two loaves of bread, which thou shalt receive of their hands.

Well, let me give you what I think about this. There were three loaves, one loaf and the wine were kept. I think that picture is the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. So I believe that that loaf that was kept was the living word who returned to heaven.

I believe the two loaves that were left is the written word, the Old Testament and the New. Or if it's not a picture of the Old Testament and the New, then it's a picture of a double portion of the word of God that you need in a church service.

Either way you want to look at it, it pictures the word, the written word. If you have the anointing of God and you have the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which has already been given, the perfect once and for all sacrifice, and you understand a bit of it, and you have the word of God and you get a double portion of it when you come to church, then you've been in a good church service.

So it says then that he'll give you these two loaves of bread. Now let's go on and let's see what else we see. This is kind of interesting. After that, thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison, the Philistines.

And then it just goes right on and says, it shall come to pass, da, da, da, da. Why did it mention that little parenthetical statement? This little statement that doesn't even fit in the church, or does it?

Isn't it interesting that right in the midst of this perfect picture, of a perfect textbook, Bible textbook church service, we see Philistines. What are Philistines? And a garrison of them, what is that?

That's the enemy, folks. The Philistines picture the flesh, the Philistines picture the enemy. We have three, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And unfortunately, they can be with us right here, if we allow it.

The Bible speaks of strongholds, but the Bible also speaks of the breaking down of strongholds. And much of that has to do with what we've already read, about having the mind of Christ, and when we don't, asking for it.

When we find that our mind is in the flesh, in the garbage, we should remember who we are, we should remember where we are seated. We are in the heavenlies, in Christ, at the throne of God. And we should reckon that to be true, and we should say, Lord, give me your mind right now, your blessed, sweet, sinless, perfect, innocent mind, and destroy my flesh, it's crucified with you.

And you know what? You can walk as a holy saint, in practice, at that moment. That's what the word of God tells us. And he mentions these Philistines, and a garrison of them, as if guarding Jerusalem, so you can't get there.

But you can get there, because the Bible says, if you resist him, he'll flee. And then look what it comes to, as we go on in verse five. And it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city.

See, you can get past that garrison. But did you know that even God controls the garrison? Did you know that even Satan is there, because he is a servant of God, the most high God? Satan is there as a tool in God's hand to make us grow.