Do We Have the Mind of Christ?

I'd like to read from an article that appeared in the South Bend Tribune newspaper. The title of it is, Snake is Unwanted Houseguest.

Doris McFarlane lives in Plymouth, Indiana. On a Wednesday in September 1999, her daughter, Nancy Rogers, heard a noise like something whipping around in the family's cellar. When Rogers pulled up a trap door leading into the cellar near the back door of her home, she could barely stifle her fear. She saw a large snake with the hidden paws of a stray cat hanging from its jaws. So this snake had swallowed a cat. She immediately called the Plymouth Police Department, which dispatched a couple officers. They could not find the creature and told her that they could do nothing until the snake surfaced on its own.

Following his lengthy inspection of the crevices underneath the McFarlane's home, a man by the name of Wilson, who was a snake and reptile expert, told Rogers some snakes can hide vertically between wall studs in a home if there's no insulation. He said some snakes flatten themselves and hide in the walls, and it's possible to make their way up to the attic. McFarlane said she had every intention of sleeping in her home Thursday night until she heard the snake thrashing in the basement once again. Rogers said when she got home from work, she found her mother in the car parked in front of the house. I just want this over, Rogers said. I just want to get back home. McFarlane and Rogers said they've heard noises in the cellar in the past, but never thought about them until they investigated. Now, how many of you have ever had a snake in the house? Look at all the snakes in the house. I grew up here in East Tennessee, and I remember I was in my early teens. I walked into the living room one day, and there was a snake in the middle of the floor. So I walked out through the kitchen, and as I was going outside, I told Mom, I said, there's a snake in the living room. And I went outside. Well, she thought I was kidding, I believe. And I came back with an axe. What are you doing with the axe? I said, there's a snake in the living room. So I went in and dispatched its head from its body. And I told my mom, I said, I think I put a little dent in the floor in there. And she said, that's fine. Don't worry about it. That was one I was able to get away with. Now, none of us would want unwanted snakes, mice, rats, possums, skunks, you name it, in our house. We're very careful about what enters into our homes, aren't we? Would you allow a pack of wild dogs into your house? Wild dogs roaming the neighborhood, and you open the door, and you invite them in and feed them? Well, you wouldn't dare do anything like that. Would you invite a rapist into your home? A drug dealer, sex pervert, or murderer? I don't think so. None of us would do that. We want to protect our families. We'd like to protect our mate, our children. We're also concerned about our health, and we don't want something coming in that's going to be detrimental. Our home should be a safe environment. We all realize that. Your home should be a clean environment. The home is an environment where your family can have privacy. Should we not at least have the same amount of concern about what enters our minds as to what enters our homes? Well, what you find is amazing what people will allow to come into their minds. What they will see, hear, observe, read, think about, and not, in many cases, even give it a second thought. And yet, we wouldn't dare let anything that we knew that was very harmful into our house.

Where is the main battle that a Christian has in order to overcome? Do we realize that there is, as the Bible says, a great serpent, and he's called the devil, who tries to influence our minds? He's like the snake that got into Doris McFarland's home. He tries to get into our mind with his attitudes, his approaches, his philosophies, his way of life, just his overall approach. We need to realize that the mind we have is a gift from God. It is an absolute gift. We have a mind because of the spirit in man that dwells within us. God created our bodies. He put a brain within us. But what is it that differentiates us from animals? It's because there's a spirit in man. There's a spiritual essence that unites, or is there, that motivates man. It gives us the ability akin to God, the ability to think, the ability to reason, to think in the abstract, to philosophize, to learn, to create, to design, to do almost anything. And yet, we find that the mind of man compared to God's mind is nothing. God is so much superior to ours. But yet, look at what man has been able to do and to devise and to create. Does it give you a little glimpse at what you and I will have in the future, in the resurrection? When not only will our bodies be changed and glorified and elevated to a higher plane, a spirit plane, glorified, but God will give us also a mind that will go along with it, that's comparable. It is through our minds that we have contact with God. God is spirit. He's a different kind than we are. We are humankind. There's animal kind, vegetable kind, but God is of the God kind. In order for God to communicate with us, there has to be something spirit there, and that's the spirit essence within man. It's like Romans 8.16 tells us, Romans 8.16, the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So God's spirit working with us bears witness with our spirit, the spirit in man, that we truly are the children of God. There should not be a doubt in our mind that we are God's children. That if God's working in us, through us, His spirit's in our mind, He motivates us, He opens our mind to understanding and comprehension. We should know that. You see, what goes into our mind determines if we're going to live forever or not. And we, I believe, want to live forever in God's kingdom. Notice the standard that God has set for us to shoot for, that we must have before we can enter into the kingdom of God. That standard is mentioned for us back in Philippians 2 and verse 5. So let's go to Philippians 2 and 5, where we read, Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus.

So the cardinal question is, do we have the mind of Christ? Is that mind dwelling within us? What would Jesus Christ allow into His mind? What would He be thinking about? What would He be seeing, observing? How can you and I have the mind of Christ? And just what is the mind of Christ? How do you identify it if you see someone who has the mind of Christ? As we've already mentioned, the Days of Unleavened Bread picture the fact that we put sin out of our lives. We overcome, but also pictures the fact that we have to put righteousness in. There's something that goes into us, likewise. So we want to take a look at that today, and in order to understand it, understand that sometimes if you have a contrast between one thing and another, it helps you to understand one because the other helps to explain what it's not like. Let me give you a contrast. And the contrast is this. What is the devil's mind like? What is Satan's mind like? How can you tell when his mind is around, or his influence is around? In 1 Timothy 3, we'll begin there because this summarizes it. Verse 6. 1 Timothy 3, verse 6. It talks here about not ordaining somebody newly converted. That's what a novice is. It says, So what was Satan's problem? It was a problem of pride, a problem of vanity. He was lifted up with pride. Now, Isaiah 14, verses 12-13, tell us what his problem was. Chapter 14, we'll begin here in verse 12.

Isaiah writes, Now notice, he has a heart problem. Now, today, people have heart problems, as we were describing with Bell. You can go to the doctors and they will fix it. Now, what you find, he had a heart problem and he wasn't willing to get it fixed. So it says, Notice all of the I words here. I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne. So notice, he had a throne. He had authority. He was ruling over something above the stars of God. Stars symbolize angels, so he wanted to be exalted above all the angels. He wasn't just satisfied with his position. He was a tremendous carob. We've often thought that he was one of the three archangels. So it says, He was not willing to do the job that God had given to him. The responsibility. As you'll notice here, he talks about ascending into heaven. So at this particular point, he wasn't in heaven. And it says, It's very possible that God put him on the earth and gave him the opportunity to help us to become members of the family of God. To help human beings. And he didn't want that. He wanted that. He wanted not only that, but to be in place of God. So I will ascend above the heights of the cloud, and I will be like the Most High. The Hebrew like means to make oneself like. He wanted to be just like God. So what do we see in him? We see vanity. We see pride. He coveted what he was never offered. The word covet means to have a wrong desire for, to lust after, and wrong way. So he said, I will be like the Most High, and yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest part of the pit.

And those who see you will glaze at you and consider you saying, is this the man who made the earth tremble? And of course, we know we have a type and an antitype here. So we find that the problem of Lucifer was one, a pride, a vanity, of wanting to take a position that was never given to him, to exalt himself. Ezekiel 28 verse 12 adds a little more information. Ezekiel 28 verse 12 says, Son, a man take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God, You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. So here we find somebody who had tremendous wisdom that God had given to him. He was perfect in beauty. You can look at him and not see very many flaws. You were Eden, the garden of God, and it talks about all the precious stones that were his covering. It says, this was prepared for you last sentence in verse 13, In the day that you were created, you were the anointed carob who covers. So apparently at one time he had had the position of covering God's throne. And I established you, and you were on the holy mountain of God, and you walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created. Now notice he had a problem. Something happened to him. What was it? Till iniquity was found in you.

It wasn't found over here, it was found in him. Iniquity, sin, rebellion, vanity was found in him. And by the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within. So again, notice, within himself, in his mind, in his heart, he was filled with violence, a hostile attitude, antagonism, rebellion. And you have sinned. Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy you, or I will banish you, O covering Carrot, from the midst of the fiery stones. And your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom. So you'll find that what wisdom he did have became corrupted, and he was lifted up, he was proud, and in his mind he began to reason in a wrong way. Now notice, this was a heart problem. This was something that was going on inside of him, in his mind, in his reasoning. Because when God created him, God didn't create him that way. He created the angels separate individual creations. They were created individually. God gave them different jobs, responsibilities. They were all given different abilities. And here was a tremendous angel, tremendous wisdom, and yet he rebelled against God. Let me summarize his heart, mind, and attitude for you, from what we've read so far. Number one, pride. He was lifted up with pride. He became vain, conceited. He coveted. The word coveted, he wanted to take, he wanted to get. He wasn't in the giving mode anymore. He would use violence to achieve what he wanted. So there was violence present. He was lawless in his mind. He sinned. He was no longer submissive to God and God's will. He had no respect for God. He wanted to take over. He thought that he was the greatest thing since Swiss cheese. He thought he should be in charge. He should be the ruler. He exalted himself. And you could go on and on and on with this. Now, has his attitude rubbed off on the nations? When you look around the world, look at the nations, and say, Yeah, I can see that. Well, absolutely! Ephesians 2, verse 2.

It's amazing how the biblical writers can summarize certain points and do it succinctly. Whereas if you and I were to try to explain something like this, we'd probably write pages and never even get to the point. In verse 2, it says, So all of us once walked according to the course of this world. So according to the age that we lived in.

According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. So wherever you see anyone who is disobedient, Satan the devil is working there. Verse 3 clearly tells us, So all of us, before God called us, opened our minds, began to work with us, conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others.

We find that the unconverted in the world live according to the standards of this world. Its approaches, its philosophy, its government, its attitude, its economic system, its way of doing things. Do we see nations where if they want something, they just go take it? Where people kill, slaughter? Look at Africa. The hundreds of thousands who have been killed in tribal warfare between the various groups in Africa.

The Second World War, the absolute millions, what was it estimated? Something like 45 to 50 million people killed. Why? Well, because some nation wanted to rule everybody. Does it remind you of Satan's attitude? He wanted to be in charge of everything. And so you find his attitude, his characteristics have rubbed off on human beings. People live according to the devil's way. He works in people. And as verse 3 here, notice the characteristics mentioned again in verse 3. Lust of the flesh, desires of the flesh and of the mind, by nature children of wrath. So here we have violence. You find the same attitudes, the same approach that Satan has had of lust, coveting, wrath, and violence.

In 1 John 5.19, we find this summarized again in 1 John 5.19, We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. So the whole world is under Satan's influence. What we call human nature today, God created us with a nature that is human. It's not animal nature in the sense we don't have the nature of a cow, or the nature of a fish, or a bird. It's what humans have. Now, the problem is, you and I have certain desires, such as we want to eat, we want to clothe ourselves, you want to drink water. There are certain desires that you have, security, safety.

But what happens is that Satan the devil influences those desires. And so he takes things like sexual desire and misuses them. He takes things like drinking and misuses it. And so what we find human nature today is basically desires that we might have that go off in the wrong direction, influenced by the devil, influenced by society around you. And we finally begin to think, reason, and become that way ourselves. Backing up here to 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15.

1 John chapter 2 and verse 15, we find out what the world truly is like. We're told, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world... Now again, could you summarize in one verse everything in the world?

Well, John does. It says, where all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father. As it says here, but is of this world. Now this is Satan's world. Westward study again talks about the word pride that it means an insolent, empty assurance, which trusts in its own power and resources.

Now what that simply means is Satan the devil trusted in himself, not in God. He relied upon himself. He thought, I can do it. And he set about trying to overthrow God. Now what is one of the big lessons that God wants us to learn during the days of Unleavened Bread? What did he try to teach Israel when he brought them out of Egypt? Was it not, trust me, rely upon me? Here he delivers them out of Egypt. Ten miracles perform. They come to the Red Sea and God says, trust me, I'll deliver you. They go out in the middle of the desert, trust me, I'll give you food, trust me, I'll give you water.

Want meat? I'll give you meat. Clothes aren't going to wear out. And so, you know, God did all of this. He was emphasizing to them that they had to rely upon him. If they were going to get to the Promised Land, the only way they were going to arrive there is if they put their trust in God. Well, cannot the same thing be said about us?

You and I are headed for the Promised Land. How are we going to get there? Not by trusting in ourselves. See, that's what the pride of this world is all about. People think they don't need God. They don't need a God to tell them what standards to live by, how to live.

We will just do it ourselves. That's called humanism. And so, you have a humanistic approach today in society. Well, the Bible clearly says here, This is not of the Father. It's obviously of the Devil. It's of Satan, the Devil. So, where do we have our major battles as a Christian?

Well, Matthew 15 explains back here in verse 11. Matthew 15, 11. Christ had been confronted by the scribes, Pharisees. And they were correcting Christ because they said, Look, your disciples eat and they don't wash according to the tradition of the elders. Now, according to the tradition of the elders, they had to wash up to their elbows every time they ate. Now, where do you find this in the Bible?

Well, you don't. I mean, this was their own man-made tradition. So, Christ said in verse 11, It's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles the man. And then in verse 17, Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? So, you eat food. It's got a little dirt on it. It goes into the stomach.

It goes down through the colon. And it's eliminated. And that's it. So, that's what he's talking about. That doesn't defile you, he said. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come where? From the heart. See, it's a heart problem. Come from the heart. And they defile a man. This is how we become defiled. For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. But to eat with unwashing hands does not defile a man.

So, the problem begins in the mind, doesn't it? This is where our struggle is. This is where Satan tries to influence us in society. Just to give you an example, in the paper this morning, Chattanooga Times, was an article that stated by the time a teenager becomes 18, that they will be exposed to 500,000 illicit type of sexual messages. 500,000. That's half a million. That's through TV, radio, music, through written word. Anyway, spoken word, whatever it might be. Does that have an influence on how people look at sex as an example?

How they respond to it? Well, absolutely. In James 1 and verse 13, we find that it's in the mind where we begin to sin. Because it says, let no one say, when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God. God doesn't tempt us. The word here for tempt and trial are the same, parazo. God tries us. That means He'll put us to the test, see if we'll obey. Satan tempts us, which means he tries to get us to sin. God never tries to get us to sin.

So let no one say, when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted, when he's drawn away, how? By his own desires and enticed. By his own lust and enticed. The word enticed means to be baited, just like dangling a hook in front of a fish. You entice Him. And when desire or lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So you sin, and sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death.

Full grown means you allow to grow, it develops, it becomes hardened, it becomes a practice, a habit, and then it's going to lead, eventually, to death. So, temptation begins in the mind, and this is what I think we have to concentrate on. Temptation begins with the things that we think about, things that we contemplate in our minds.

It is here where the lust of the flesh began to be conceived. This is where sin is born. Now, the Bible clearly shows us that the Spirit of God does something for us. It imparts the very mind of God to us. And without that Spirit, you don't have the mind of God. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. As it is written, Eyes not seen, ears not heard, nor is injured into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. So spiritual things are revealed by God. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. And what man knows the things of a man, except the Spirit of a man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world. So there is a Spirit, an attitude, an approach in the world. That's Satan's Spirit, his influence, his broadcasting. But we've received the Spirit who is from God.

And then verse 14, it says, A natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord? That he may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ. Brethren, you and I are to have the mind of Christ. When God gives us his Spirit, that Spirit begins to impart the very mind, attitude, and approach that Jesus Christ had when he walked this earth.

And so you and I need to have the mind of God in us. What is the mind of God? How would you recognize it? Well, Philippians 2 again. Let's go back to verse 1. Philippians 2.1. We have part of a chapter here that explains what we're talking about. Philippians 2 and verse 1. Therefore, there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded.

Now, how are you and I supposed to be like-minded? Like-minded in what way? Well, notice. Having the same love. So one of the ingredients we will have, if we're like-minded, is that there will be a love that we have one for another.

The love of God. And that's not something you have naturally. That's something that God must give to us. As we read last night in the Passover, Christ said, if you are going to be my disciples, you must love one another. And greater love had no man than this, that He laid down His life for His neighbor. So we have this love, being of one accord and of one mind.

So you and I have to be of one accord, of one mind, one outlook. We can't be such where we believe everything. Half of us believe we should be here on Sunday, half on Saturday, some on Friday. We can't believe all kinds of strange doctrines.

We have to have one accord and be of one mind, be able to work together. Again in John 17. Don't turn there, just referring to that. Last night we talked about that Christ prayed that we be one, as He and the Father are one. That we be one in the same way. Now verse 3 begins to tell us how to do this. It says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition. Wasn't that the devil's problem? Selfish ambition? He had ambition. It was selfish, self-centered, ego, and He was going to do it. Or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, you and I are to have lowliness of mind.

That's humility. How is lowliness of mind manifested? How would you know if somebody is lowly in mind? Well, one definition of lowliness in mind from Westward study is this. The state of mind which submits to the divine order of the universe and does not impiously exalt itself.

Were you not trying to exalt yourself? Now did Lucifer exalt himself? He wanted to, what? Be over the stars of God? He wanted to replace God? He exalted himself. The word is used in the secular document describing the Nile River. In the sentence, it runs low. Meaning there wasn't much water, so it was low. Instead of being high. When a river is flooding, it's high. When it's almost empty, it's low.

And so it's describing the way that we should be. Lowliness of mind means we're not going around thinking who I am, my position, my responsibility, my duty, any of these things. But we have lowliness of mind.

And then it says, as a result of that, let each esteem other better than themselves. So if we esteem others better than ourselves, we're not comparing ourselves with others, are we? How can you compare yourself to somebody else? I mean, I look around the room, half of you are women. How can I compare myself to you? I mean, how can you compare yourself to me? We all have different DNA, different genes. We all have different genetic makeup.

We all have a different heredity. We all have a different environment we grew up in. We were shaped and formed in different ways. We all have different abilities, different talents. We've been all given different spiritual gifts. So how can we compare ourselves? We can say, well, I'm better than this person, how do you know? You don't know what God has given you, or what God has given me. How can we compare that?

God evaluates us on what we do with what we have, what He's given us. Now, how do you know? See, the kicker with all of that is how do you know what God has given you? You may think, well, God's only given me five dollars. Remember the parable of, you know, some were given so much money, and, you know, they were told to go out and earn?

Well, what if you think, well, God's given me five talents, five dollars. So if I double it, I've got ten, boy, I'm really charging ahead, and I'm growing. Well, what if God actually given you twenty? And, you know, you only earn five. Well, you're not very far along. So, you see, we never know. We have to continue to strive, to overcome, to grow. And you can't compare yourself to somebody else. God doesn't compare you by someone else.

We're all compared to God, to His perfect example and standard. That's what we come far short of. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know, that's what we fail. So, verse four goes on to say, Let each of you look out, not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. So you find a part of the attitude that we should be having is having the outgoing concern for other people.

Our minds are not always on ourselves. We're thinking about the needs of others. Not just those who are sick, but if we know that somebody has lost his job, somebody has a tough time, and we're praying for them. We're interested in them. We're concerned about them. And then, verse five says, I think the verses leading up to this help to describe what that mind is like.

Notice how verse five is translated in some modern translations, the Holy Bible, today's English version. The attitude you should have is the one that Jesus Christ had. The International Standard Version New Testament had the same attitude among yourselves that was also in Christ Jesus. New Living Translation. Your attitude should be the same that Jesus Christ had. So it's talking about attitude, approach, mind. Beginning picking this story up in verse six, notice the characteristic, the major characteristic associated with the mind of Christ. Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

See, he was God. He had a spirit body. He was glorified. He had existed forever. He lived in perfect beauty within a different realm than we live in, the spirit world. He and the Father had always been there. But, notice in verse seven, He made Himself of no reputation, or He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

Now, can you imagine that? From being a glorified God-being, know that that implies being willing to give that up and come down here and become a man.

That would be, the only analogy I could think of would be somebody who was so rich, maybe they lived in this fabulous castle, 500 rooms, 1000 servants, billionaires, had people waiting on them hand and foot. And then one day they decide to go over to the city of Calcutta and wear burlap and lie in the gutter and try to identify with what the people in India are going through. Well, Christ came to this earth. And how would you summarize His mind? Well, verse 8. Being found in form as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Humility is one of the chief attributes of the mind of Christ. He was humble. This was His attitude and His approach. He was just like His Father. They were one-minded. Well, how was Christ's humility expressed as He lived on this earth? Well, He exhibited it, first of all, by taking on our nature, taking on flesh. Again, coming down to our level of existence. He gave up the glory of being as Spirit being, existing on that level. He was born of a woman. He was willing to submit Himself to His parents.

Now, one of the commandments is honor your father and mother. Do you think He broke that commandment? No, the Bible says He never sinned, so He kept that commandment. He was submissive to His parents. He was subject to them. He came to do the will of the Father, to offer Himself up as a sacrifice. For most of His physical life, He was a carpenter.

So, He probably laid bricks, huge stones, built buildings. He did not try to exalt Himself or become a ruler. He could have. Luke 9, verse 58. Luke 9, 58 said, Christ said, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, and the Son of Man is nowhere to lay His head. So, He didn't have a permanent residence. He didn't try to accumulate wealth and riches when He was on the earth. With His ability, His skills, His knowledge, He could have done anything He wanted to.

But that was not why He came. He stuck true to the calling, and never deviated from it. He set us an example that we have a calling to be in His Kingdom, and we must never deviate from it. That must constantly be our focus. He was willing, if you remember last night, on the last night of His physical existence, to get down and wash the disciples' feet, and humble Himself in that way. He was exposed to suffering, reproach, contempt, and yet He was willing to go through that.

He had humility. In Matthew 11, 29, Christ, in describing Himself here, said this, And you will find rest for your souls. So Christ said that He was gentle and lowly in heart. He doesn't say He was rough, angry, violent. No, He was gentle and lowly. Christ, in John 5, 19, you might just jot it down, said, So if we're going to have the mind of Christ, we're going to have a mind that must display the attitude of humility. That's the heart and core. That's the foundation of what motivates us. Now contrast that with the attitude the Satan the Devil had. What did He do? Well, He exalted Himself. He thought He ought to be in charge.

He certainly didn't look to Almighty God for direction, but He went out on His own. Notice another attribute of the mind of Christ in Romans 7, verse 24. Romans 7, verse 24.

Paul is describing here the struggle we human beings have had to overcome. And he said, So wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of death? Well, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that with the mind, see with your mind here, I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.

So the mind of Christ is a law-abiding mind. He never sinned, which means He never broke God's law. 1 John 3, 4. He is law-abiding. The law of God reflects how God thinks. It reflects how God would live if He were on the earth. And guess what? A God came to the earth and lived, and He never sinned. He kept the law. Hebrews 8, 10 tells us something that I think is very interesting. We all know this Scripture. Especially after observing the Passover last night and reaffirmation of our commitment to the New Covenant, the God is made with us. We find that the New Covenant was based upon better promises. See, the problem with the First Covenant wasn't with the Covenant. The problem was with the people. They did not have the nature to obey. So God said, okay, I'll correct that. I'll give you my spirit. Put a different nature within you. And then what does He say in Hebrews 8, 10? That He would write His law into our minds and into our heart. God chisels it into our very nature, into our being. And so we become law abiding. The law of God reflects God's mind, His attitude.

So God did come to the earth. He did live. And He was law abiding. He never sinned. Now God lives in flesh today, does He not? Christ lived in flesh when He was on the earth. God lives in our flesh today in us. And we are His body. And as such, His body will still be law abiding. Again, contrast this with Satan the devil. He not only sinned, but He was lawless. He did not agree with God's law because God's law reflects God's nature and way of thinking. Now in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 10, we find an extremely interesting scripture. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 10. Because it tells us how to tell the difference between the children of the devil and the children of God. In verse 10, it says, In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. So now we can tell the difference.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. Nor is He who does not love His brother.

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another.

So you and I have to practice righteousness. We have to do what is right. All of God's law, all of God's commandments, are righteousness. First nine verses of this chapter actually talk about not sinning, talk about lawlessness. If you read these carefully, especially in the Greek, you'll find that there in the, I believe it's the perfect present tense, where it's talking about practicing. That if you practice sin or live it as a way of life, we'll see the same thing as mentioned here in verse 10. You and I are to practice or live as a way of life righteousness. So we are to be righteous. We're to do what's right. And you'll notice, too, that we are to love our brother. Verse 12 says, Not as Cain, who was of the wicked, one, murdered his brother. Now you go back and read in Genesis 4 and 5, and you don't find anywhere where the devil is mentioned, as far as just the one behind what Cain did. But you find that he was the inspiration there. Verse 15, if you hate your brother, you are, if you hate his brother, you're guilty of murder. No murderer has eternal life abiding within him. So another major characteristic is law abiding, doing what's right, or righteousness, and also loving one another. In verse 7 and 8 here, chapter 4, across the page of my Bible, it says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And then verse 8, He who does not love, does not know God, for God is love. See, that's what he is. He's love. He's obedient. Can we say that Satan's nature is one of love, of giving, of sharing? His nature is one of violence, taking, getting, exalting the self, lack of concern for others. Can you see the contrast between the two? Well, we ought to be able to see the contrast very vividly when we look around this. Now, the problem is, we need to look at ourselves, and not just around us. We need to be looking inwardly and ask ourselves, which one of these do we reflect? In Matthew 20, verse 25, another attribute of the mind of Christ, another characteristic.

Chapter 20, verse 25, Jesus called them to Himself and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. In verse 28, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, see, here was His attitude, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. So, you and I then have to have the mind of God when it comes to service. God gave us His Son, His Son gave His life. He walked this earth, He served all those He came in contact with. He called the sick, He preached, He talked. And so, Matthew 25 demonstrates how to put that into action. Now, what hinders us from having the mind of Christ?

Well, you and I tend to lose focus, if we're not careful. Romans 8, 5. Romans chapter 8 and verse 5.

We read, For those who live according to the flesh, So if we just follow the dictates, desires of the flesh, Set their minds on the things of the flesh. See, that's where their minds are set. That's the direction, that's the focus. But those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, physically fleshly minded, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Our focus has to do with what we think about, what we allow into our minds, brethren. We have to guard our minds from the influence of society around us. Satan uses all the tools in society to appeal to the flesh and to the mind. And boy, in the 20th century, 21st century now, he's got them all out there. You know, everything that would appeal to a person. Remember a principle. Anything you allow into your mind that you later have to fight against, you should avoid it. You're going to have to fight against it, try to overcome it, and why allow it there in the first place? See, sometimes there are things that we know we're looking at and we think, eh, I shouldn't look at that or see that. Well, the thing to do is say no and get away from it. But the more you look at it, it's amazing. Things that are evil and wrong, you can just see it once, and it's cemented in your mind. It seems to be in there forever. Things you want to remember, you can't remember. You go over and over and over, and why don't these things stick? Well, you find that one appeals to the flesh, the other is a spiritual dimension. All the mass media today is not godly. It's geared to teach wrong values. Look at all the pornographic websites on the Internet. And you can go anywhere today and discover those. See, these are the type of things that Satan will use to try to get addictions, anything that you can think of, to get God's people. Romans 1.28 very clearly shows us that when man rejects the knowledge of God as he has, that God then gives man over to a debased mind. And a debased mind is nothing more than a mind cut off from God, that is influenced by Satan the devil, and that goes down into the depths of Satan.

In fact, the Bible talks about the depths of Satan. Some people are evil, but they haven't gone down to the bottom of the barrel. There are people who go down to the bottom of the barrel and scrape around. Well, you find here in verse 28, it says, Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things that are not fitting. So what will a debased mind be? What direction will it go in? Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, backbiters, haters of God, violent. Whose characteristics are those? The devil. Certainly not God. What are the characteristics of God? Love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness. All of these things the Bible clearly shows. So what you find is that Satan's attitude and mind is very prevalent in society. And you and I have to do something. We'll finish with this Scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. As a reminder, 2 Corinthians chapter 4.16 Therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing. So we're getting older, graying, weaker, physically. You don't have what we used to have. Yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. You and I must, on a daily basis, renew the inward man, the spirit in our minds, the attitude. We have to establish contact with God on a daily basis through prayer, through Bible study. God's way is revealed in the Scriptures, and God reveals that way to us by His Word. God's Spirit works with our minds, so as we study, we understand. Oh, yeah, I hadn't seen that before. We're able to apply it to ourselves so that we can change and we can grow. So, brethren, it is through the Spirit of God that we can escape the depravity of this world through lust and the influence of the devil. What I have given you today is a contrast. Here's the devil and his attitude and way, mind, and here's God and Christ and his way. Remember the illustration I started with, the snake in the house. There are things that we would not allow in our house, and we all, I think, agreed with that. There are items that we would not allow in our bodies because they're not good for our health. So, there are many ideas, thoughts, sights, sounds that we should not allow into our minds, either. Philippians 2, 5 says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. It is the mind of Christ that is going to go into the kingdom of God. That mind, that nature that is being developed within us. So, brethren, during the days of unleavened bread, we've gone to all of this work to put the leavening out, which pictures putting sin out. So, let's work on making sure that we put the mind of Christ in.