Do You Have the Mind of Christ?

Happy Sabbath! So good to see everyone. I thought it'd be good to get some light on this subject up here that we're going to cover today. My wife and I, by the way, we did return from the conference. Some of you may think we just loafed last week, but we went to San Jose and spoke to the Brethren down there last week. And we tried to, of course, make sure we keep those connections open. We had a wonderful conference, though, and I'm sure you had a report on that already, so I won't belabor talking about that. I see it moving in very, very positive directions in the church, and I can see God is going to bless eventually the efforts, the labors that we're putting into trying to do our part.

We know God is the one that gives the increase, not us. We don't call people. We're just in the business of delivering messages, and God gives us that duty to do that. And woe to us if we don't, in fact, do that particular responsibility. You know, it seems that with so many things that we examine in the world, there's an incredible complexity to it. You know, if you go take a walk on a Friday evening and look up into the sky, you see how wonderful the creation of God is.

And you look at the celestial bodies there that are in the heavens, you know, the moon, the stars, and the constellations. I think it's just intriguing the way God arranged it and what you see from the surface of the earth. But think about the fact that the physical universe is just one of the things, the physical universe itself.

The stars, the planets, you know, all the things that we see that are so beautiful. And of course, we know that beyond what we see, there is the unseen world, the spirit realm. And we have little glimpses, in fact, of this spiritual realm in the Bible. You know, the different types of angels and the creation of that.

I mean, if you and I, by the way, bumped into a carob, it would probably scare us to death, you know, to see something like that. You know, here this being has four faces, has wings, and it must be just an awesomely beautiful creature. Yeah, I don't know, maybe we shouldn't refer to it as a creature, it would be a being. But God created all of that spiritual realm. And, you know, if we come down to the earth here on this orb, the terrestrial ball that we stand on, God created every creature that exists upon the face of the earth.

I remember when I took zoology when I was in college at Northeastern State University doing, you know, preparation for pre-medicine, doing pre-medicine, that, you know, I learned then, back then, way back then, that that there were six million varieties of insects on this planet. You know, think about that. How many types of creatures that exist upon this planet? Every one of them, you know, have a method of digesting food.

Every one of them have, you know, systems, skeletal systems, or if that is the type of creature that it is, or some other type of structure to it that God designed into it. And again, it's just astounding, you know, when you begin to look on the cellular level at things, it's even more complicated. You know, it's like you, you know, you imagine that a cell is pretty simple.

You know, they draw a cell, and you, all of us did it probably when we were in school, didn't we? We went to school, we drew a picture of a cell, maybe, you know, an amoeba or something like that.

And of course, it's very simple. But when you begin to look, you know, more deeply into it, it's very, very complex. It's what God has created. How about the human being that God has created? You know, God put in us a digestive system. He put into us an endocrine system, a circulation system, a vascular system. He, all of these things that God put into us. And, you know, doctors and scientists are beginning to understand more and more about the human body and how it works. But they are still having to research into these things. And the even more difficult thing to understand is the human brain. And, you know, if it's not hard enough to understand a human brain, there's a difference between a man's brain and a woman's brain.

So there's so many complexities. Two things. You know, we used to talk about, you know, or here, I remember when I was a teenager, I used to watch the television show Star Trek, you know, with Captain Kirk and, you know, his Starship Enterprise. And what were they always doing? Exploring the final frontier. But, you know, the biggest frontier, brethren, is between your ears.

The gray matter between your ears is the greatest frontier of all. It's not, you know, space. It's not the ocean. It is what is between the ears of human beings. And they're beginning to crack, again, the very miniscule part of the surface of understanding about how the human brain works. You know, they know all, of course, the physical things, or most of them. But there are things that neuroscientists do not understand. I want to tell you just four of the things that they don't know and understand. You'd think they'd understand these things, but they don't. Number one, what is consciousness? They don't even know what consciousness is. They don't know why you're sitting in this chair right now. They don't understand, you know, these complexities of what makes us, again, conscious beings. You know, we know that cows are conscious, but not on the same level as human beings. You know, a cow in South Africa, by the way, is not over there chewing on his grass wondering, I wonder how the cows over in New York are doing. And I hear that the cows are really happy in California. You know, I'd like to travel there someday, despite what Larson, you know, cartoons of cows driving and all kinds of stuff. Animals don't have the consciousness that human beings do. You know, what they do know, neuroscientists know, is that you and I are not zombies, except when we go into the mall. You know, then people become zombies. But, no, they know we're not zombies, but we think and we reason and we have a self-awareness. Why? They don't know.

Now, I think, interestingly, we don't know the answer to everything, but I think that we do have something of an answer for that in the church. Do you know what it is, brethren? Why do we have consciousness? Why do we have awareness? Well, you actually have the answer to that. I won't give you the answer here. I'll make that a cliffhanger. But, number two thing that we don't understand about the human brain is how much of personality is determined by your brain.

Or, you know, is your personality something that's just nurtured by your environment? You know, maybe your family was crazy. You know, when you were growing up, and consequently, you're crazy. You know, or you've got this bubbly personality, or you've got... But, you know, I'll tell you what, though I have six brothers and... or five brothers and three sisters, and every one of us have different personalities. Same family. But they don't understand, again, how personality comes about. Or is it just simply in the DNA? You know, they've studied twins, and that they haven't been able to find the answer by studying twins. You'd think twins would have the same personality, wouldn't you? But they do not. They don't have the same personality. A third thing is, you know, they don't understand this. Why do we sleep? They don't even know why we sleep. And why do we dream?

You know, a third of your life is spent sleeping. And yet, they do not understand why. Now, of course, they know that sleep is necessary because if you don't sleep, you will die. And that sleep enables us to recharge our batteries. All of us, of course, understand that. You didn't need a billion-dollar grant to figure that out. That it recharges you. Number four thing that they do not understand is how do we actually store and access memory?

You know, this is a mystery. Why do some memories fade? And they say when you get older, you know, that the short-term memory begins to go and the long-term memory sort of hangs on. In other words, you can remember what you did 30 years ago, but not about two minutes ago. You know, and why is that so? Why is that the case? So, again, they do not understand these things. But I want you to think about this, brethren. Imagine the kind of ability of a being that is designed into the human being these complexities, along with the six million varieties of insects that exist, you know, in the world with all their complexities, along with not only I've heard it said that there's more life under the earth than there is above the earth. The life that exists beneath the earth, I'm talking about, you know, microbes and other different things are in the soil and whatnot that is beneath the earth.

You know, the complexities of life that God has made, but this being did all of these things. You know, again, God has created an incredible creation. But consider, too, a being who has such intelligence, such omniscience, that he is also infinitely merciful. And he is gracious to those that he creates. And, you know, that he, of course, has been doing this creation forever. You know, you and I were born about, you know, what a second ago, as far as God is concerned. You know, we have a shelf life, as I've often thought, of a housefly. You know, houseflies don't tend to last very long. And we're here today, and we're gone tomorrow. Solomon understood that. But this incredible being is just infinitely merciful. Why does he even consider us? Why does he bring us into existence? David wondered that. He said, God, why are you even mindful of us? Why do you care about us? Now, when we understand the greatness of this physical universe, and that compared to the universe, this earth is nothing but a... it's like a grain of sand on, you know, the seashore. And you and I exist on that grain of sand. And yet, God has an infinite love for each person that is upon this tiny orb that is in a spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy and sort of the outback, you know, of this galaxy. You know, imagine that he thought in his creation he was going to bring us into existence, and that God was going to not only bring us into existence, but he was going to give us sonship in his kingdom. He was going to give us the opportunity to be eternal beings. The Bible says that we're going to be co-heirs with Jesus Christ, because it says when he returns, we're going to see him as he is, because we're going to be like him. But these little infinitesimal beings, you know, God has such a consideration for and a great purpose for. But again, what kind of mind must God have? Well, we know God has an infinite mind. Isaiah says this in Isaiah 55 and verses 8 through 9. You know, he records this for us. He says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, he says, so are my ways higher than your ways. And my thoughts than your thoughts.

Who could, in fact, fathom the mind of this infinite being? Who could understand it?

You know, let me say, brethren, when you begin to really see the greatness of God, or at least part of the greatness of God, at best, our puny minds see only a tiny part of God's mind. Just a tiny part. We couldn't understand anything beyond just a tiny part of it. I think our heads would simply explode if we saw much more than God's revealed to us. Because we only see what God reveals to us. What he's shown us, that he feels we can handle, that we can grasp. Let's go over to Philippians 2. There's a reason why I'm talking about God's greatness, brethren. I think none of us should ever forget how great our God is. We sometimes sing a song, how great God is. But in Philippians 2, we'll sort of use this as the focal point of the sermon here this afternoon. But notice it says in verse 1, Paul, of course, reflecting upon what Jesus Christ did for us in order that we might have the possibility of having sonship in the family of God and what he had to go through, the trials that he went through and endured and the suffering. But it says, therefore, if there's any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, he goes on to say, fulfill my joy by being like-minded. In other words, Paul is saying, be like your elder brother, Jesus Christ. That's the goal. And brethren, if we're not here to do that as God's people, to be like our elder brother, Jesus Christ, we're in the wrong place. We really are. We don't belong here because that's what every sermon is about. That's what every sermon that's about. That's what every Bible study is about. Every conversation here should be about becoming like our elder brother. But it says in verse 3 going on, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. Now, don't be looking out for yourself, what you can do for yourself.

But what you need to be doing, or what all of us need to be doing, is being in the mode of trying to be like Jesus Christ. Well, how was Jesus Christ? He goes on to say, but in the loneliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. And in verse 5 he says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. You know, I talked about the fabulous creation of God. The being who did that creation was none other than the one who became Jesus Christ.

God the Father worked through Jesus Christ, and all that we see, all that we know. In fact, not only all that we see, but all those things we don't see Jesus Christ created. And Paul says, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Let this mind. Now, what I want to ask you this afternoon is number one, what is the mind of Jesus Christ? What is his mind? I've already talked about how God's mind is infinite. He's omnipotent. He's omnipresent, we know. He's, you know, omniscient. He's all powerful. But what is his mind like? Well, we know it's infinite, isn't it? But when Jesus Christ came, he did not come with that infinite mind. But what is the mind of Jesus Christ then? And the next part of the, what we're going to answer today, and I hope that you can answer it before you leave this hall today, is do you have it? Now, I hope you won't, you know, shut your book up and say, well, of course I don't have it. How ridiculous! I can't have the mind of Christ. Well, you know, I don't believe that's correct. I think we can have the mind of Christ, and frankly, we can know if we have it or not.

You know, interestingly, Barnes Notes says this about the phrase, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. He says this, the object of this reference to the example of the Savior is particularly to enforce the duty, interestingly, he says, of humility. In a way, that's the topic, isn't it, right here? In verse 4, particularly, you know, in verse 3, it talks about not doing things for vain glory's sake, and to be like-minded, you know, as Christ was. And he goes on to say, this is the highest example that could be furnished, and would illustrate and confirm all the apostle had said of this virtue. The principle in the case is that we are to make the Lord Jesus our model, and we are in all respects in frame our lives so as far as possible in accordance with his great example.

The point here is, Barnes goes on to say, that he left a state of inexpressible glory and took upon him the most humble form of humanity, and performed the most lowly offices that he might benefit us. See, Jesus Christ, as he was before, of course, he was the Word, there was God and the Word. No, they were not too hot, they were not too cold, they didn't need physical human beings, but we know that the Word voluntarily surrendered himself to come here for our sakes. He willingly came for our benefit. And so what do we see here as the mind of Jesus Christ that we must have, brethren? I can't overemphasize this enough. The mind of Jesus Christ, brethren, is humility. Humility. Now, I'm sure that probably some of you are saying, well, I know that. I know that. I know, brethren, we know things, we maybe academically know things, but do we emotionally know things? That we embrace it?

That, in fact, the knowledge of what our great elder brother did and our high priest did was so awesome, so off the charts, brethren, that we are humbled that we would even be called. You know, Paul says in Corinthians, do you see your calling? Do we see our calling? Do we understand what it means to sit here in chairs in God's church? Let's go to Romans 12. Would we consider all that Jesus Christ did for us? And he did more, brethren, to just die for us. He did more than that.

By the way, sometimes the preacher will, you know, in some of the churches, he'll say, well, he died for you. That's what Jesus Christ did for you. He did a whole lot more than that. Let me tell you. Romans 12 in verse 1. Paul says here, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. The fact that the greatest being of all, the infinite being, Jesus Christ came and he died for us for the opportunity that we would have in eternal life, brethren, our reasonable service is that we should be willingly slaves of his, for what he did for us. Paul says, reasonable. And he goes on to say, but, and do not be conformed to this world. Now, Satan is on the other side, by the way, he's wanting you to conform, doesn't he? He wants you to be like the world. You know, get this car, you know, get this clothing. You got to have this certain house, you know, you got to have all of these, and usually it's things, isn't it, that you got to have conformed to certain ideologies, you know, that exist. It's incredible some of the things that we see in the world going on now. It's just mind-boggling, you know, the gay agenda and all of that that's being pushed in this world is so incredible that is so open. But be not conformed to the world and the thinking of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You want your mind to be renewed.

To change from what it was, you know, before God called us in to be transformed.

But be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So this is what, brethren, we've got to do. We've got to transform our thinking. And again, it's reasonable, brethren, that we would humble ourselves before God, that we would be humble. You know, we'd be thankful that we're here.

Frankly, when we walk into the door, you know, it'd be if we really, of course, God doesn't want us to do that, you know, but when we walk in the door, you know, we want to hang our head low when we walk in the midst of God's people because of the mercy that God has shown us and what He's given us. To be thankful that we're here.

I am so thankful, brethren, that God called me, you know, back in the 60s when I was a teenager, God began to open my mind. I'm just so thankful for what He's done for me.

And I know you are too, brethren, what Jesus Christ has done for you. Let's go back over here to Philippians 2. Philippians 2. And again, we'll work back and forth here between these two, but in Philippians 2 and verse 6, so he said, let this mind be in you, which was in Jesus Christ. Oh, and then he goes on to show what the mind of Christ was. Who being in the form of God. In my Bible, I underline that, form of God. He was in the form of God and did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. So, he was God. He was equal with God. And you know, when we read, by the way, in John 1.1, it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And in verse 14 of John 1.14, it says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And it says, we beheld his glory, and that was Jesus Christ. So here it was a being, again, he was in a position where he was equal with God. And he came willingly, and he gave his life for us, each of us. Not just for us, but for all of mankind.

When Jesus Christ was praying that night before he was taken to be crucified, he knew the time was was very much nearing when he was going to depart from this earth. And he lifted up his eyes to heaven. He said, now will Father glorify me, together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

Now let me take my place once again, Father, to your right side.

And so he prayed for that time to occur. Jesus was equal with God, and he shared the same glory with the one who became the Father. And he didn't consider, by the way, being God, something that you grasp at, that you hang on to, tenaciously. You know, that you just don't give that up.

In fact, it means to retain something jealously. Again, brethren, do you have the mind of Jesus Christ? Sometimes when people are called, what do they hang on to? They grasp on to. They grasp on to the life that they had in the world, whatever that might have been for them. They hang on to that. Sometimes people, it's almost like God has got to grab you by the foot and the leg and drag you away from something.

We know God doesn't do that. He doesn't make people do things like that, but it seems that way sometimes. But brethren, do you have the mind of Jesus Christ, the kind of mind that doesn't grasp even at being an infinite being? It doesn't hang on to that.

You imagine the mind again of Jesus Christ was the same mind that John the Baptist had.

Do you remember when Jesus Christ came along and the disciples were talking about how the Christ disciples were baptizing more than John the Baptist's disciples? What did John say?

He said, I must decrease and he must increase.

You know, in the world today, by the way, if he were to Donald Trump something, or Hillary Clinton something, it would be criticism. In this political system that we live in, sort of some sort of a low blow, or John the Baptist would say, well, we do it better than they do.

But it wasn't that way. John the Baptist had the mind of Christ. And Christ said that there was nobody who was going to be greater than John in the kingdom. John had the right attitude. How about us, brethren? Do we have the right attitude about things?

Sometimes we don't. But Jesus Christ voluntarily, willingly, brethren, left the incredible glory that he had with the Father to come to this earth to fulfill his mission. How many times do people hold on to things in the world? Or how about even in the church?

How about even in the church? You know, well, nobody's going to take away from me my job of taking care of the PA system. You know, nobody's going to take that away. Or you can't take this job away from me of bringing the glasses of water to the pulpit. Or what if Mr. Willis had the attitude, well, nobody's going to take it away from me. You know, the responsibility I have of coordinating set up every day. Or whatever the job that somebody might have. Or the kitchen crew were to have that attitude. You can't take that job away from me. And if you do, I'm getting my little red wagon and I'm going back into the world. Can you believe, brethren, there have been people that have gotten bent out of shape over things like that, and they have. They were hanging on to think so dearly. They didn't have the attitude of humility that Jesus Christ had of being willing to step down from the highest, the very highest position you could be in, and to come and be a lowly human being. How often, brethren, do we consider our standing before others something to cling to in the world or even in the church? You know, we get offended if somebody says something about us. You know, and I don't know, oftentimes maybe I take a sort of a live and let-live attitude toward people. And obviously, I don't want people to say bad things about me anymore than you do. But you know, if somebody wants to say something bad about me, go ahead! It's probably true. It's probably true. I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about it. You don't lessen me. They were doing that to Paul in the first century.

And Paul said, you know, I don't care what you think of me. What I care about is what God thinks of me. And Paul, they didn't think too much of him. At least Corinth did not for a while. In other churches, I'm sure, it felt the same way. But he was in the business of pleasing Jesus Christ and the Father. Brother, if we have the mind of Jesus Christ, then we will not operate ever with selfish ambition. But we instead humbly put our own agendas aside to fulfill the mission of the calling that God has for us.

In the church, often people have their feelings hurt because they are too busy being selfish.

Some lust for power. Some want position. And you know what? In the course of it, they violate what Paul is saying right here in the book of Philippians. You know, brethren, that some of the most talented people that I have ever known in the church are not in the church now. Because they were so puffed up about their own ego that they were afraid they were going to lose whatever stature they had, and they couldn't take that. They couldn't take it. And I guess God found out something about him, didn't he?

Remember, God is always purging and pruning each of us individually. He's always shaping us and molding us. And if you get humbled, or sometimes even, as I've said, the ministry is not just humbling, it's sometimes humiliated. You know, you could take humbling easier, but when it's humiliation, that's harder. That's more difficult. But we have to even be willing to do that, to be humiliated if need be. Maybe that's good for us to grow, to develop, to learn, brethren, to be like our elder brother, Jesus Christ.

You think Christ felt like he was at the top of the world when somebody was spitting on his face before he was crucified?

You know, and yet, of all the things they did to him, brethren, he looked down from the stake when he was, you know, the blood was ebbing out of him, his life was ebbing out of him, and he said, Father, forgive them. They do not know what they're doing. Do we have that mind as God's people? Do we have that attitude as God's people? Again, brethren, humility. Humility is the hallmark of the mind of Jesus Christ. Again, not thinking about yourself, but thinking about others, just as Paul said here in Philippians 2, having our minds on other people.

You know, sometimes, you know, I've had people come up to me and they've said, you know, I deserve more recognition.

Oh, well, you know, if you've got to ask for recognition, you probably don't deserve it.

And I know there are people, brethren, that serve behind the scenes. We may not see what they do. We're thankful for what people do.

Some serve for a long time without recognition. But, you know, one person that you should want to please, one being you should want to please, is God at the end when He says, and this is going to be the most important if He says to you, well done, thou good and faithful servant. That's the recognition you want. Really, that's the only one that counts, isn't it? It's the only one that counts for us. Some get their feelings hurt when others get opportunities they don't.

The Bible says we should mourn with those that mourn and rejoice with those that rejoice. You know, I know how we feel like, well, you know, I would like to have those opportunities. You ever thought about the fact, brethren, this is something I've thought about through the years, that when some people get opportunities and others do not, have you ever thought about the fact that you may not need that opportunity?

Maybe God says you've got that quality in you already. You don't need that opportunity.

Look at it positively, brethren.

Look at it from the standpoint of rejoicing and taking things, again, in a positive manner, in a positive way. You know, Jesus Christ, by the way, again, did not clean too and grasp out the greatness that He had.

He was willing to walk away from it.

Let's go back to chapter 2 now down to verse 7. But made Himself of no reputation, no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant. And that's a slave. And coming, and the likeness of man.

Look at it. Who would want to trade a body that didn't have any pain or suffering to it?

You know, you couldn't be too cold, you couldn't be too hot, you didn't need to breathe air. You didn't need to do it for this human body. How many of you feel on top of the world this afternoon? How many of you have an ache right now?

You got an ache? I hope it's not in the south end of your posterior, but I'm finding that it seems the older I get that that part of me hurts more than anything. Maybe I don't have the padding I used to have.

I need to do those exercises, you know, to strengthen that area. But anyway, but, you know, again, think about the fact Jesus Christ emptied Himself, made Himself of no reputation. He came in the form of a slave, in the likeness of a human being with all the foibles that we have. That's what Jesus Christ did. He divested Himself of glory that He had with the Father, and He took upon Himself the form of a servant.

You know, think about the fact that the Word or the Logos, who is God, as John 1, 1 says, became human Himself. He was born into the world, you know, as a baby.

He started as a fetus in the womb of Mary. You know, He had to, you know, eat and be fed by Mary. He could not get around, like babies cannot, you know, infants cannot. He grew, He developed. It's like, I think the thing I remember most about being, you know, growing up was the aches of my legs when I got taller. You know, your bones start growing, and at night my bones would ache, you know, as you're getting taller and taller.

Jesus had to do that. He had to go through all of those things. He had to go through fellows. He had to go through puberty. He had to go through all of those things. He had to learn to speak, you know, beyond the, you know, that babies do. He weighed like everybody else. You know, He, again, grew and developed. And as He went through the course of His life, he had to learn, you know, what it means not to touch something that's hot. He had to learn, you know, about things that all little kids have to learn. And I'm sure there were temptations that were there. He had to eat. He felt pain. He needed to sleep. He wasn't a superman.

And Jesus Christ emptied Himself. That's what it means when it says, if you look in the Greek, the word, reputation, there it also means that He emptied Himself.

Even though, by the way, prior to coming in the flesh, He knew this was going to happen to Him.

And He knew not only that, but He would grow into manhood, and then the last thing He would have to go through is the most grueling thing a human being would ever endure.

And that is His own crucifixion and His own death, so that He was marred more than any man, as Isaiah 52 says. You couldn't recognize Him as a human being when it was all over. Let's go on here, verse 8. And being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. You know, so He went through the gamut, didn't He? He experienced it all for us.

And it was for our purpose, ultimately, brethren. And so Paul in this context is saying, let this mind be in you, which is in Christ Jesus.

The mind of Jesus Christ, brethren, is number one, humility. Number one, humility. Number two, sacrifice. Sacrifice. A willingness to sacrifice, to give of yourself, and to give, sometimes, brethren, until it bleeds.

You know, and none of us, by the way, have battled with sin and spilled our blood in the process, but Jesus Christ did. And He never sent one time in all of His life.

So the mind of Christ, brethren, humility and sacrifice.

Let's go over here to Hebrews 2. But, brethren, if we have the mind of Jesus Christ, can we remember we've got to think about other people? I know, though, you're sitting there and maybe, you know, you're tired, you're thinking about yourself.

But do we have our minds, again, on other people? Not that we don't ignore our own needs, but we should always, brethren, be thinking about and making room in our lives for the needs of others. And that requires us to sacrifice. Sacrifice of our time. If Jesus Christ willingly gave up Himself, the role He had in heaven for our sakes, brethren, isn't it our obligation to sacrifice as well, like Jesus Christ did? To humble ourselves and to sacrifice like Jesus Christ did. Let's go to Hebrews 2. I wanted to show you a few verses over here. But in Hebrews 2, in verse 9, Hebrews 2, I don't know what happened to my Bible. Sometimes, you know, my Bible is like my computer. I don't know if you have a computer like I do, but my computer has a mind of its own.

Sometimes it is just up and decides it's going to erase everything I have written down.

I'm always having to correct the error of my computer. I think they've designed into these computers so much intelligence. It's like, you know, your computer is saying, as you're typing something, if you're changing something particularly, the computer is saying, I'm way ahead of you.

Besides, erase the things you don't want it to erase. I look down, if I'm doing an email, and I'm wondering, where did that go? Where did it go? I think that, unfortunately, I hate to think what computers will do to us in the future when they gain control of our lives, you know, more and more. And that's a very distinct possibility. But in this modern world, we're living in where people live in their telephones. Hebrews 2 and verse 9.

But it says, we see Jesus, it says, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone.

So Christ endured that for our benefit, brethren. And it says, and it is fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons the glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. So when Christ was going through these sacrifices of his own life and the sufferings of his own life, brethren, he was doing it for us, but it was for his purpose as well. On over here, let's notice in verse down to verse 14, it is much then, as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him, who is power of death, that is the devil. And it says going on, verse 15, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Jesus came, brethren, to do away with death. For indeed he does not give aid to the angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brother, that he might be merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. So Christ went through these things, brethren, so he could be a faithful high priest for us. And he knows what we're going through. How many times, brethren, when you have been praying, do you say, I know I do this, I say, if I feel like it's something that Christ I know has gone through, I will say, Lord, would you please convey this to the Father? My sincerity with this, or whatever it is that I may be battling against, this flesh, this human life that we have.

Jesus endured these things, brethren, to be an example to us and a faithful high priest. So Christ went through all of these things, and we know he was perfect in obedience to the laws of God. He was a perfect, obedient servant. The mind of Jesus Christ, by the way, is to do that as well, to be obedient to the laws of God. Again, he never violated those laws ever. No matter what, in fact, happened to him, how he was put in unusual circumstances, he never violated the law of God. He was perfect and pure as the driven snow. Chapter 5. Let's go to chapter 5 over here in Hebrews, in verse 7, because it says further over here in verse 7, "...who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to him, who was able to save him from death, and was heard because of his godly fear." He had to learn to have a fear of God as well, a great respect for the Father in heaven. Though he was a son, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And, brethren, we also have to learn this quality that was in the mind of Jesus Christ, and that was the mind of obedience. So, his mind, basically, again, was humility, sacrifice, and obedience. He was obedient to the Father. In fact, to the death, he was obedient. And Jesus himself said, "...he that endures to the end." He meant, of course, in that if we endure an obedience to God until the very end. The same is going to be saved. Again, he was not a superman. He was a man that experienced the same passions that we do. It wasn't easy for him, but we know he was successful. And he's ascended to the Father. He's been exalted high above. In Romans 15, it says that he did all this to bear our reproaches, by the way. Our reproaches. In other words, the things that we deserve, Jesus Christ, bore for us. When Jesus Christ was strapped to that stake, and the lasher was using the cat of nine tails to beat Jesus Christ, to flail him, to tear at his body, brethren, such that he began to bleed profusely. He did it for us.

The truth of the matter is that you, brethren, and I deserve to be tied to the post. We're the ones that deserve to be there. But he himself did it for us.

When they were spitting in his face, he did it for you and me. We deserve that.

When they mocked him, we deserved that, brethren.

That's why Jesus Christ did it, brethren. He bore our reproaches and sins and took the penalties that we deserved. That's what it says in Isaiah 53 as well.

He did it, brethren, for us. So Christ was humble. He gave sacrifice. He was obedient.

Do you have the mind of Jesus Christ? Do you have an obedient mind? Do you have a mind of desire to sacrifice? If God says, I want you to do something, are you there like some of the patriarchs were who said, here I am. I send me. Let me do it. I will do it. Do you have that attitude, brethren? Do you have the mind of Jesus Christ? We have the mind, brethren, of Jesus Christ if we are looking out for others, willing to sacrifice. We have the mind of Jesus Christ if we're humble. We don't bond ourselves. We don't exalt ourselves. Again, we don't look for somebody to praise and aggrandize us. If we're willing again to sacrifice for others, brethren, and give to others, if we're willing to do these things, brethren, and the Bible does say that hereby we do, we perceive the love of God because He laid His life down for us, that we ought to lay down our lives for one another. There was a spirit of sacrifice, an attitude of sacrifice. If you have those things, brethren, you have the mind of Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ was that kind of a mind. He, of course, because He had that kind of a mind, He was exalted above all in heaven.

The Bible tells us that. We know that His is the only name in heaven and earth by which anybody can be saved. He's in that exalted position.

Over in the book of Revelation, in Revelation, let's go over here to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation 5 over here. In Revelation chapter 5, verse 11. This is your Lord, brethren.

That because He was again a being who was humble, because He was obedient, because He sacrificed, brethren. He's been rewarded the highest honor anyone could receive. But in chapter 5 and verse 11, it says, Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne. This is John, of course, recording this for us. The living creatures, the elders, the numbers of them, was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. Can you imagine again this scene here He's describing where you've got millions gathered on the sea of glass before the throne of God.

And notice verse 12, it says, saying with a loud voice. All of these are saying in unison, Worthy is the Lamb who is slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. In every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that is in them I heard saying, blessing, honor, and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne to the Lamb forever and ever. And then the four living creatures said, Amen. And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.

This is what happened to Jesus Christ, brethren, because of His mind. Because of His mind. So, brethren, we've seen here, described particularly in Philippians 2, the mind of Jesus Christ. Do you have the mind of Jesus Christ? Do you have humility? Is that your mind? I mean, is that the way you are? Are you looking out for other people? Not trying to exalt yourself.

You're trying to, in fact, do your calling, perform your calling.

You're striving to serve other people.

How about obedience? Are you obedient? You're striving to obey God's laws and commandments and statues as God has revealed them to you. You compromise those laws. Jesus Christ never did. How about, brethren, sacrifice?

Are you a sacrificer? Do you give yourself? Do you offer yourself? Do you have an attitude of, God, I don't have anything, but I'll give myself to you. I'm yours to do with as you please. Well, brethren, if you have those three elements, you have the mind of Jesus Christ. And with those three elements, brethren, you will have great reward in the kingdom of God. Do you possess the mind of Jesus Christ? Well, brethren, we should be developing this kind of mind. And this is a lifelong process, but if we can develop, brethren, the mind of Jesus Christ, we're going to see Him as He is because we're going to be like Him. And this is the key, brethren, the mind of Jesus Christ of sharing glory together with Jesus Christ for all eternity. And so, brethren, let's develop that mind. We can know what it is, and we can know what we ought to be doing as God's people. Let's make sure we're about the business of doing that in our daily walk with God as we walk according to to the faith that God has given to us of what God's truth is. So, develop that mind, the mind of Jesus Christ, because with that mind comes great reward in the future.