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And 14214 How blessed is our portion when we looked upward within the veil? Our life is there in 214.
How blessed is our portion when we love?
All we're with in the mail, our life is there.
Our names are written in the lands on board.
Our grace has made.
All stories which by right belong.
To the emperor's worthiness is something eternal song.
We have a Father in the heavens above.
With our heartbreak, Oh, prefer my heart.
We have a stranger.
We'll be surprising, love.
American contacting for our sins to die.
He didn't order much more.
Of.
That by the same case you start and bring us safely home.
Yeah, slice there again.
Or.
The world began.
Yes, I wanna hear it. Long sovereign, and pray.
All of us are simple. There's some dying.
Blessings against.
Priceless love our hearts from sin and quality one.
Reading in Colossians chapter 3.
Start with.
Verse 8 But now ye also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.
And have put on the Newman, which is 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 elective God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.
If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body, and be thankful. 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.
And whatsoever you do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
00:05:07
Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with I service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For ye serve the Lord Christ, but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. And there was no respect of persons.
It was brought out.
And when we were in this chapter the last time?
That in verse five we're told to mortify and verse eight put off and in verse.
Ten put on and or have put on.
But there was a verse, a word, one word in verse five that we kind of overlooked. That's the word Therefore mortify. Therefore, in other words, what is in verses 5 through?
Oh 15 depends on the verse versus one through.
Four, therefore.
It means that God has given us the means to do it.
When God says therefore, it means he's already given us the means to do these things.
And that means is encompassed in the 1St 4 verses. Set your minds on things above. There's been an illustration that's been helpful to me.
And that's kind of helped keep things in my mind.
The British had a famous aviator during the 1930s, similar to his probably was to Britain what Charles Lindbergh was to the United States.
And his name was Hanley Page.
And he was flying over India one day.
And.
He realized he could hear an animal running around underneath his feet.
And he was afraid it was. He'd probably picked up one of the rats common to the plains of India, and the rat could chew through a wire or a hose or some kind of a cable. He didn't know what the rat damage the rat might do that might cause him a problem.
And he was concerned about it.
Just as we are sometimes concerned with the things we discover in our lives.
So what did Hanley Page do? Well, there was number place to land and get rid of the rat. He was over the mountains, so he ascended. He went up high because he knew the rats that lived in the plains did not live in the mountains because they couldn't deal with rarefied air. So he went as high as he could go and stayed there until the ratty noises quit.
And when he got to his destination, he descended, landed and discovered the rat dead. He had mortified that rat by going where the rat couldn't survive. And we need to do the same to enjoy what is our portion. And it gets rid. It effectively eliminates.
Things from our lives that shouldn't be there.
Thank you.
Few more comments on verse 4, even though we started a little past there.
Christ, our life.
We have we use the expression Christ is everything, Christ is all Christ our life and I want to.
Comment on the importance of the expression because it's more than Christ as an object, it is an object Christ as our life becomes the object of our lives that's true, and that's very important but here while it includes that, it's more than that and the more than that is quite important in understanding the exhortations that are given for what we mortify and.
00:10:20
What we put on.
As it says in verse nine it speaks of the old man, and in verse 10 it speaks of the new man.
All of us were born as children of Adam's race, and all of us inherited the characteristics of the race.
That race is sinful.
And we inherited that sinfulness from our parents, who did it from their parents and so on. And that it refers to what's called here the old man.
And the old man has a certain character of life, it has a certain nature connected with that life. And there is a certain, if I could put it this way, type of power that animates and directs the activities of that life.
God condemned it.
And said there's no fruit for me in that life, there's no fruit that will come to me through that, the activity of that nature or that manner of life. And So what Colossians brings out for us is that God who is done with the old creation as far as producing anything of pleasure for himself.
Has introduced a new creation.
That begins with his Son and his work, and so the Lord Jesus.
Died for us and as we've already had in previous readings, in the previous chapter it says if you be dead with Christ, we are dead with Christ. And it introduces the F. And so if you are dead, then here's the consequences. But as far as God is concerned, we're dead with Christ.
And as far as we're concerned, I trust we recognize the truth of it, and so are we as dead with Christ. But.
Christ raised from the dead, and Christ being risen from the dead, now God imparts to us the life of Christ.
Say it again. It's important. It's the life of Christ that we have.
Each of us was born with an individual life.
I can die and you can live. You can die and I can live. Our lives are separate and independent of each other. But the life that I now have in Christ, the only way I could lose it is if he lost it. It's his life in me. And that is very significant in terms of understanding.
What nature do? What do I have in that life? I have his nature.
I participate in the very same nature that the Lord Jesus has in the life that He lives in resurrection.
That life has power associated with it. What is the power? It's the power of the Spirit of God working in that life.
That's my life, that's your life. And consequently, when it says put something to death here, it's from that perspective. It's not the old man saying I'm dead and I shouldn't do this, that and the other anymore. Rather, it's the very life of Christ that says that stuff, if you will, that nature that comes out in the activities of what's to be mortified.
I'm done with it.
Yesterday the word heiress tense was used. That is, I recognize that life is gone and all the nature that manifests itself in that life is done with, and I'm not living in that life anymore. I have a new life, the life of Christ, the Spirit of God, to give the power to that life and the nature of the life is a perfect nature.
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It loves its kind, it's forgiving and so on. And so he's saying in the exhortation, you're done with that, so leave it alone. Don't go there. Go ahead and live the life that's been given to you in resurrection life with Christ. And likewise things like anger and wrath and malice and so on.
Do they have anything to do with the Newman? Nothing.
They have to do with the old man and in myself. I didn't get rid of the old man, God did. I didn't introduce to myself a power that's greater than what was in the old man. God did. And he says furthermore.
Back to Christ, our life as an object, he says, and I've given you an object, and if you, my spirit working in you is going to focus on that object, and when you're occupied with your object, then your life and nature is going to display itself in your everyday activity. And where does it all end and where you get the life fully developed and it's teaching and John's epistle.
He says.
When we see them, we shall be like him. In other words, the end result when I get to glory and you get to glory and we see the Lord Jesus God is going to be so satisfied because.
Now we're just like Christ.
We don't have the flesh in us anymore of that old life. That flesh of the old life is still in US and still a problem. But when we see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And as Brother Clem Buchanan used to say in gatherings like this, God is so pleased with what the Lord Jesus is. He wants heaven to be filled with those that are just like him. And when you get to heaven, God's going to be so pleased with you because.
You're just like Christ.
All the character of him, his nature, will be displayed in you. And what does the exhortation of John's epistle in the next verse says? He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. In other words, it's a shortened version of the exhortations of this chapter. And it says, if that's what you really believe, and if that's what you really are, then.
You are going to desire to be more like Christ every day and put aside anything that hinders you from the fellowship with the Father and the Son.
We only look at certain truths that we are familiar with, and most of us are familiar with, say, the line of things we get in Romans or Galatians, that we have the flesh and the spirit, and the flesh warth against the spirit. And sometimes it almost seems like we have the impression that we are now like some sort of empty shell with the flesh in us, but we have this divine.
Person indwelling us which?
Believers understand.
But I just enjoy this line of things you've brought out. And I think it's it's especially brought out in Colossians that we now have the life of Christ in us. We don't have two divine persons in us. We have the Spirit of God in us, but we have the life of Christ in us, not the person. And so that's that's I'm new in that sense. I have a life I never had.
War and it's done, it's brought out. So mostly it's it's the life of Christ and and that kind of elevates me. And it's not just I'm either in the flesh or someone else has responsibility, namely the Spirit of God, but I have this new life. It has all these.
Properties, characteristics that are proper to it as displayed in Christ Himself.
And that's who we are now we've put on the new.
For all of us as believers, we all have it, but do we walk in the good of it and show the difference and sometimes the result? We see the walk. I was thinking of Daniel of old. It's reported that he had the purpose of heart not to be defiled by the King's meat. So in his case food was an important because he know the Lord will take care of him.
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He declined to have all those good and juicy food and the King could have offered and chose to have water and hose. So he was blessed because of his purpose apart. He know that he wasn't living for the present who was living for something that is eternal and then we can go on to with his friends. It was a bit different. So it wasn't just for the food that in their case is the faith they were faced to be cast into the fire refurnished.
And they have to learn that they have to trust, trust that. And they would be able to tell the king that, well, we know we're going to be delivered from, from your hand. But then they also go, well, if by chance that the Lord didn't deliver us from you and we still won't bow to you. So sometimes we, our walk would reflect where our heart is if our thought is earthy.
Actions become earthy. Why do people want to save the whales when they can't even and when they don't even recognize the fact they need to save their own soul. First we need to think of spiritual. So here we're reminded if he be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where prices.
What might be helpful to look at an example in Joshua 10?
Of the five kings that were slain by Joshua and his instruction to the men of Israel.
In Joshua chapter 10.
We'll just start with verse 24.
And it came to pass, when they brought out these those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them. And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed.
Be strong and of good courage, for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight. It's been mentioned to us of the power of the life of Christ in US. And so Joshua gave a commandment here, an order.
For the men to put into practice. And so they came near and obedience, and it was a testimony and it was a power that they had a power, a life that was.
Capable of overcoming.
What these 5 Kings represented and so are in our chapter we're told to put off.
And to put on where does that come from? It's from the Lord.
And he asked us to do something that he gives us that life and power to do.
I think there's a contrast to that occasion in the book of Judges and you read in chapter one, verse six and seven what might sound very good on the surface, but it's not when they were fighting a king add on a basic says, but the king add on Ibiza fled and they pursued after him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his great toes and had on a visa said three score and 10 kings having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table as I have done.
So God hath requited me and they brought him to Jerusalem and there he died. Well, you think that sounds good? They conquered this guy, cut off his thumbs and his toes, and then he died in captivity. And I think that kind of speaks of people who fight against the flesh and carnal strength and just subdue it. But they're still making provision for it. They've not wrecking the flesh is dead. And so this what sounds like a victory in Joshua one was actually a defeat because they were making a provision for this man to stay alive and be mutilated.
Rather than to totally have it him mortified. And I think that's kind of a lesson to us that we're not to to just torture the flesh or torment it or subdue it, but to consider it wrecking his dead and and to put it in the place of death.
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A practical example of.
Just taken from daily experience and in how that looks when it's acted on.
We walk by faith, not by sight, and I think it's important to Faith goes by the word of God and.
Sight looks at things around us and we're we tend to form judgments upon what we see around and sometimes what we feel.
And sometimes I've heard young people say, well, I don't feel that dead.
I'm dead. I don't feel that. I feel those impulses in me.
It's not a matter of feeling, it's a matter of fact and God says ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ and God. So it's interesting this what we were mentioning about it, the heiress is that the it's to have it done. So every time there is that impulse in me to respond to some fleshly temptation.
Is to say that's not what I am now. I now have a life that delights to please God. And so it's just putting that into effect, like it says in Romans chapter six. Yeah, I better read it just to get it straight there.
It's been a help to me that.
To overcome those impulses that come up in our life. In verse 11, it says likewise.
Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Reckon means to think that way.
Scriptures told us very clearly we're dead and our life is hid with Christ and God.
OK, now here comes these fleshly impulses.
What are they going to do, think that you are truly dead? That's what God says, and that's faith. We don't go by our feelings. Feelings are very real, and I can't deny that we have those feelings, but feelings are very changeable.
Remember a sister in the Lord saying to me when she had some temptation? She says I just don't feel right. I says, do your feelings ever change?
Yeah, they do. Does the word of God change? No. What would be better, to trust your feelings or what God says in His word?
I guess it'd be better to trust God. Yeah, I think you're right, I said. And so it is. We have to go by God's Word to recognize that it has been done already. It's interesting. You go back in the book of Ephesians, you have the same thing in chapter 4. I'm going to read it, Mr. Darby's translation, because it's the same thought. I think it is helpful to see in Ephesians 4, verse 22.
Namely.
Your having put off, according to the former conversation, the old man which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lust, and being renewed in the spirit of your mind, and your having put on the Newman, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness.
So it's something that has been done.
That's what God has done for us and now it is for us to train our thinking to think that way. Don't give place to just any thought that comes helter skelter into your mind. Think God's thoughts later on in this chapter in Colossians. I love what it says here about let the word of Christ.
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Dwell in you richly, O brethren, if we would absorb God's word, God's thoughts, it doesn't say, now I want you to be reading the Word of Christ, the word of Christ. No, let it dwell in you richly. There's something so full about that. And so it's not merely just reading it, it's letting it dwell. Let it be a part of us.
Maybe others can help better more.
Mr. Garvey in French state he uses.
Word I translate renounce, but not renounce also all these things. And that's really saying no to that isn't when it comes up in our hearts, we can't keep it from coming up, but we can refuse it when it comes up. We can say no. It's very short word, but so powerful, no.
I found another thing that has been helpful to me and I just like to suggest especially for our younger brother. If you look in Romans chapter 8.
You get our position.
Explained in verse eight it says this. So then they that are in the flesh.
Cannot please God.
Are we in the flesh?
Look at verse 9. But ye are not in the flesh.
But in the Spirit, and so the flesh is in US.
But we are not in the flesh, and that's something to think about. We are in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. The Spirit of God is the power of that new life in Christ that we have. So think about that, young people. The flesh is in US, yes, but we are not in the flesh, so we are not to obey it.
Verse in the Old Testament.
Have a ****.
I think it's chapter 2, verse four. The just shall live by faith. It's repeated three times in the New Testament.
And.
Repeated. It was in the gospel that Bob gave in Romans one the just shall live by faith.
And there the emphasis in which it's used is the word just.
It's repeated in Galatians when it's a matter of living.
And in Hebrews, when it's a matter of the faith itself, in Hebrews chapter 10, I want to apply that verse to the comments about practical experience and the matter of the flesh in US, and so on.
Everyone of us who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Ultimately, perhaps imperfectly at first, but eventually at least, as the truth was presented to us, came to the point where we recognized that we could not save ourselves.
What that we needed saving? That we were guilty and there were consequences to our guilt?
And.
The end result was ultimately we stopped looking at ourselves.
And we look to the Lord Jesus as Savior.
It may have taken a while after that before that truth or before the doubts that sometimes come with people came into it, and we had to, whatever scripture God used, God used to bring us to peace that God was satisfied with the work of His Son, and so we had every reason to be satisfied as well.
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The second part of the verse is shall live.
We're now in that phase of our lives. We're in the living part. We already know what it is to be just with God if we've enjoyed the gospel messages that have been given at this conference.
But there is inevitably in most lives struggle with the living and there's difficulties, practically speaking, with a chapter like this one because.
The new man in US wants to please God, it wants to do right, and it's confused and upset when it does otherwise.
And very often there's the failure.
There's the acknowledgement of it to the Lord. There is in some measure judging of self that this is not to be and this is not appropriate and this is not the new man, and so on and so forth.
And.
I'll just be bold and dare say there are people in this room that have done that 100 and 200 and 300 times in their lives and gone through that experience.
But this to me, brethren, is the very practical.
And from a personal standpoint, incredibly helpful.
Sometime in your life.
You may come to the point where you say I give up.
I give up.
I can't do it.
In the matter of being just with God, there had to come a point when you said.
I can't do it.
And you turned away from yourself to the one who could.
In a practical sense, sometimes there's the need to come to the point where there's an honesty with the Lord between your own soul and the Lord.
When you say to him, Lord, I can't do it.
In it, there's Deliverance.
Himself.
Because at that point.
You begin to see the Lord Jesus as your daily Savior.
Saving you each day with himself as the object of your soul.
That no longer turns back to self for that deliverance.
But is truly occupied with himself and can get up in the morning and say Lord, you saved my soul. You're my savior today and I need you today to save me every bit as much as I needed the work that you did for me on the cross. That's always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. And so I just present that to you. I don't know if you've experienced that in your life or not, but.
There is a point sometimes where the true deliverance of the soul comes. When there is, you get to the end of self and say, Lord, I can't do it.
And then you're free to see him as your savior.
To live the life of faith as you were made just by that same faith.
A dead man doesn't struggle, does he?
He's dead, huh?
To accept the fact of our total ruin and and then the second step is to.
Accept that the power of Christ is more powerful than the enemy they were resisting and to be able to walk and so we need to I it's been helpful to me or enlightening to me in in going to prisons to see.
How men struggle against temptation and one of the things they fear is when they get out.
They will be confronted with those temptations that brought them down in the beginning, and they're afraid.
Until they lay hold of what Don was speaking about, trusting in themselves.
When they give that up and then learn to take that step of faith and obey the word of God and trust the Lord to give them that strength and power, and that's the victory.
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They put off those things. It's not confidence in self, it's confidence in the Lord. When Joshua told them, put your feet on the necks of these kings, they had to obey that. It must have given them some assurance. We're on the victor side. We can win this battle.
I'm talking about practically putting it into effect daily. Take that step of faith.
Probably someone has used this example.
Somebody has a drinking problem, we get into therapy and.
Gets back his job and so when he goes back home.
He goes on the street, he walks back home and he goes by this drinking place.
And every time he goes back there, he's having a real struggle.
And in the summer, his buddies are out there and they're hey, come on over and.
What if he has done with his drinking and he is conscious that he's so weak he can't take that street anymore to go home?
It takes another street where there's no, there's no bars and he gets home and he hasn't been tempted and he didn't didn't have struggles. And so we need to be simple concerning that which is evil. And if we think we're strong in allowing ourselves to be exposed to temptation, we're wrong. And we're going to find out that sin is stronger than you and me and the devil is stronger than you and me. The Lord is strong, but he will give us simple hearts to say, oh, just take another St.
Don't hang out with these people.
You know, and that's a simple solution and it might not be the one that you chose, but it's the one that's safe.
I had a relative with a serious drinking problem and his wife told me that when it was really bad that he was afraid that drinking buddies would come by and knock on the door and have a bottle. And so he said, please, please, if you see one of my old buddies come to the house, please you be the one to answer the door because I don't have the strength to say no. Please answer the door for me and say he's not here. Well, a better example, the Christian life, the Lord Jesus is abiding in our hearts.
Stopping with him and our life is His dwelling place. And we tell him when temptation comes, you answer the door. And what he would say is to the devil or to the sinful temptation, he's dead. He went with me to the cross. He's dead, He's gone. Now you deal with me. And that's the thing that we do is we turn her over to the Lord Jesus. The old man is gone. He is our life. And let him be the one to answer the door when temptation knocks. But we have to be abiding in Him.
You've got to be communion with him if we're away from him, if we're a day's distance away. In the chapter, knocks at the door.
Than the one who has no strength is going to lose the battle.
Probably sometimes have is called pride.
I know what you're saying is true, but I know in my own heart, often I think that there is one more thing I can try, just one more thing, and I can solve the problem. There's one more word I can add on. There's one more this. And when we get down to the bottom, we'll always say I think there's one more thing I can do instead of as what we've been exalted to do is to commit it out to the Lord.
Unbelief, even though we know, we say we believe, unbelief sets into our hearts too, doesn't it, that we don't have to trust that the Lord would deal with the problem. When we think we can fix whatever problem. What we're really seeing is, Lord, I don't need you. I can solve this problem. And we need to acknowledge that we can't. We can't. And the other thing to us, we are not, I don't believe we're we're not here to solve.
This world's problem.
We're not here to do that, but we are here to follow to listen what he would have us to do So even when we pray, we we think of the the the the Lord's Prayer. So call it really is how the Lord taught the disciples to pray. What did he say to them? They have to learn that thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do we believe that the Lord is in control of all situations.
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Even though on the surface they look dim and it looks like he needs my help, but really he is in control and sometimes he let things go a little longer but there's a reason and we don't know his purpose, but we can trust in him that he will take care of it.
It's a real help to souls that struggle.
In seeking to keep your focus on the Lord Jesus.
And that's why in the first verses of the chapter it's.
Christ is our life, so it's outside of us. It's looking up to that man in the glory of God. That's my life. I find so often that people start looking in and boy, I got all these struggles and this filthy stuff in there and I can't figure out why it's still rolling around in there. Don't be occupied with what you are be occupied with.
Who you are in Christ.
That's so important in the Christian life. It's keeping the right focus. So in verse eight, it's having put off.
Verse nine, it's that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. Verse 10 and having put on the Newman, which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of him that created him.
And verse 12 put on, therefore having put on as the elect of God.
Holy and beloved bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. So it's having done these things. And the focus is in verse 11, where there is neither Greek nor Jew. There's no distinctions of nationality, circumcision or uncircumcision, religious distinctions.
Barbarians.
Bond nor free, but Christ is everything and in all that's what's to be before us, that glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we keep that focus in mind it it really does help us in putting off in recognizing that we have put off and recognizing that in Christ we have put on.
C2 and verse 12. The first thing is holy. If we don't speak much of holiness anymore, we are in a world that defilement is throughout, and often we don't even recognize defilement. The Word of God must stand still. If the action or the activities of the things they do do not stand up to the Word of God, well, that's not holy, is it? Holiness must come first, and then I'll let other comments on the rest of it.
I.
In action with the practical side of these things, I'd like to turn for us to notice for a moment of verse in Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12 and verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove that which is good and acceptable and that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I'll read the new translation. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
We've talked about the old man and the new man.
And.
We'll talk about it. Supposed person that this afternoon came into this room as an old man, accepted the message of the gospel given to the children this morning and all of us this morning and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
00:50:03
And is now a Newman in Christ Jesus with a new life, a new nature and a new power.
They enjoy fellowship during the course of the day and now, as the day starts to go on, it's time to go home.
They go out the door.
Is there anything more that's needed? Yes, there is. They went out the door with the same mind that they came in.
The mind itself is not identified with the nature that we have. It is a part of our being.
And consequently, part of the difficulty that in practice, in the practical sense of it, long after we may have learned the doctrine of it and can explain the doctrine of the matter, there's the matter of our mind, the mind.
And everyone of us has accumulated over a period of time thought patterns.
And the mind goes back to those patterns of thought even after we're saved. The man that had his habit to go down the street to the local bar, when he walks down the street, if that habit was formed over a period of 10 years, he's got 10 years.
Of thought pattern embedded in his mind. And that's a problem.
It's a problem to the soul because unbidden hated. Use whatever words you want. Those thoughts come back because they're part of the memory, they're part of the mind. And not only that, as part of the mind there are lots of things that we do almost by habit without making a conscious choice. Everybody probably here got up in the morning and by long formed habits of mind, you put your clothes on and your shoes on and.
Your socks on and so on. And part of that process, you weren't even thinking about it. It was just a part of your mind and the pattern of your mind and how you do things. That's why Romans 12 Says.
Being renewed.
In the spirit of your mind means you have to form new thought patterns.
The patterns of thought that are embedded in you need to be removed, or shall I say replaced with a different set of patterns of thought.
And I want to suggest this.
What's the best place? What's the best way to have those patterns of thoughts changed? It's the word of God.
You never in your life have opened the Word of God and received from it a single thought that would tempt you to lust. Not one. It's an absolutely pure source of proper thought.
And we need to develop the pattern of daily life, of going to the source of pure thought.
We're told in this chapter put on certain things and goodness long-suffering.
Kindness. Humbleness.
Where can you get?
A thought pattern that puts that in your mind to practice it.
Go to John 4.
Read The compassion, the humbleness.
Of the way in which the man went to psycho as well.
Sit down and be an observer when Nicodemus comes by night in John Three to talk to the man.
And justice absorb the thought pattern.
And God will take care of the rest of taking the life that He's given you, which is that life, and bringing it into practice. But brethren, sometimes.
You can fight and fight and fight against wrong thoughts and not be delivered.
But what's necessary for practical deliverance is to be occupied in your thoughts with that which is pure. And God will transform, as He says, the mind, so that those patterns of the old man's thoughts drop off and are replaced by those patterns of thought and practice which are consistent with your object, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So in Matthew 11.
Verse.
When the Lord has refused.
His remark is verse 26. Is Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Think of accept your repent and becomes a little children.
See. Is it the Kingdom of God? Here's here's the dependent, blessed Lord Jesus the Son, looking up to the Father.
In this time then he says, Come unto me, all ye that labor.
And their heavy laden. Now we often use this for the gospel, but I think in this that we've been.
Here is our blessed object.
And he is.
Giving himself.
As the one to look to.
All ye that labor, are you laboring with bad thought patterns?
And are heavy laden. I'll give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you. Think of that yoke between father and son.
And.
Here is the place to learn. Learn of me.
For I am meek.
Lowly in heart.
And you shall find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
So this.
Humbleness of mind in our chapter and the meekness.
Here we have the chief example.
Hebrews, chapter 10.
The third time that it says the just shall live by faith.
That is the introductory verse to the 11Th chapter where we have all the examples of people who lived by faith is referred to in the case of Noah this morning in the Sunday School, and Abraham is referred to at these meetings. These were people who are given to us as examples of the life of faith.
But then in chapter 12.
It goes beyond that.
And presents the Lord Jesus to us as the perfect model of a life that is lived by faith.
And so we are taken on in the 12Th chapter looking on under Jesus, the author and finisher of that life of faith. It's not his atonement that's being brought out there in chapter 12. It's his life and the character of how he lived it. He lived it by faith. You're speaking a few minutes ago about the Word of God. How did he live his life with respect to the word he says he opened?
Somebody may have to quote it for me more accurately, but.
The morning by morning, he opened my ear to hear the fear of the learned. In other words, I'm not quoting it quite right, but the thought in it is every morning he got up.
To listen to the word of God for his life for that day.
And he had the ear of the learned. Did God give him impure words, impure thoughts?
Abomination to even think so. No, he began his day before his father is God with the perfect.
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Mind.
Food for his soul for that day.
And as he went through his day whenever there was a matter that required, What shall I do now? We find him as a man of prayer, because prayer is the true expression of dependence.
I can do it. We our hearts tell us we can't. And so we have to come to where we acknowledge it, recognize that I can't do it. But when we learn what prayer is, we recognize it is the expression of our confidence and one that can do it. And so instead of depending on ourselves for wisdom and knowledge and power, we turn to one and say.
As it were, Lord, you know what's needed and you know how to do it. And very often the answer is stand still and see.
The salvation of the Lord.
And sometimes the very best activity is standing still and seeing the salvation of the Lord. At other times Lord says do, and there's an act of obedience that is in keeping with His will for us, and so on. But still, it's the perfect pattern of the life that overcame is given to us in Hebrews 12.
In the person of the Lord Jesus.
And we do well to go to the Word of God and daily meditate on that person and his life. And it has a transforming effect on our own thoughts, and God uses it to transform our lives in practice.
There are times that we have, we feel that we have the mind of the Lord and we go on and do something and then we find that perhaps our brethren doesn't understand why we do this and we find that others may be opposing to it. But yet we feel we have the mind of the Lord and we insist on it. And I believe this portion give us a few more tests to see if we truly have the Lord's mind, doesn't it? So we go on and tell us more things to hear that.
Do those things show?
Whatever it is kindness, that's a test, isn't it? It's kindness in that action that we feel were so right is humbleness of mine. Meek suffer meekness and long-suffering and then even go on and say forbearing one another we're so right in everyone else is so wrong.
Are we answering some of these tests here for bearing one another and so on, and even having florals with others?
Instruction to you for us to isn't there that we need to truly seek what the Lord want us to do and above all we if we do have our heart and mindset and heavenly things, He will guide and direct us to the right things.
So give us all a little homework.
Each one of us can have the.
Read the Word of God and find an example of every one of these things in verse 12 in the life of the Lord Jesus.
Open the word.
And.
See From the Word of God an example of mercy.
Kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering.
See if you can find it in the record of God and the person of the perfect man. Live the perfect life.
Enjoy it and let God do the transforming.
I just want to give one example. I enjoyed it and even in saying it, it says verse 13 forgiving one another.
Perhaps the most supreme example of all eternity of those words are the words on the way to the cross.
And the man Christ Jesus said.
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Said Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Never find a more perfect example of that expression. I don't think that you will find.
As the Lord Jesus walked from pilots judgment hall to the cross and passed those people and said those words.
And if you think of the flesh, you can think of how impossible it would have been in the flesh to feel that way.
Have that attitude of heart toward them.
Disciples asked the Lord, how often do I need to forgive my brothers?
We know the answer from that right 70 * 7 times that's.
490 And we think about that, how Israel were forgiven in many ways, because for 490 years they didn't wrest the land, and they were sent into captivity for 70 years.
What we would think of that as punishment, which it is, but that is the grace of God, that they were not forsaken, they were still going to be brought back into a blessing.
On the 11Th verse, we find that there were many differences that could be identified between these believers.
But in the 15th verse that the peace of Christ I have an infringement to which you were called into one body rule in your hearts.
That collected piece isn't it, that we should be enjoying together as we are all different, of course. Yet in Christ we've been made one body, and that peace of Christ should be presiding over us. That should keep us from putting forward.
Unless it was for really the glory of the Lord putting forward something that would trouble that peace among the Saints.
That word rule.
If I remember correctly it's it's got the thought of a referee.
So if the peace of Christ is ruling in our hearts.
But the referee does. When something is done that shouldn't be part of the game, it just blows the whistle and it stops it.
So we should.
Signal of the Spirit of God when we're involved with something, when the referee says, well, this is not going to bring peace but discord among the Saints.
Verse 14 is extremely important too. I like to think of it after all the things that are we're told to put on.
Here is the overcoat.
Put on charity or love, which is the bond?
Of perfectness.
This is the Agape lab.
Put it on and it's interesting, brethren. And John's Gospel and John's epistles. I think you can find 7 times when we are told to love one another.
It's a command. He doesn't say if you can do it. No, do it. This is what characterizes Christianity. Love doesn't overlook those principles that need to be addressed. But this love is sacrificial of and I I think so often we tend to think that it is something.
That's connected with our emotions. There is a lot of emotion and love, but it's not that.
It's the settled disposition of favor. That's what this love is. It's it's a command. And so we are commanded to love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. If you have love one to another. It's the bond of perfectness. That's that's so beautiful. And I like to think of it as the overcoat above all these things put on charity.
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Erlab, which is the bond of perfectness, O brethren.
Here we need to listen to scripture and to seek to whatever wake we can to sacrifice ourselves.
So that we can fulfill this command.
We might say, we might ask, well, how is it the bond of perfectness?
But we're talking agape love, which is a love of commitment.
And so we're committed to one another. It's a bond of perfectness.
3/28.
Lord Jesus, to tell of thy love.
For Jesus to tell.
Forever.
He like.
Glory.
Of love and praise us by day and by night.
When I wherever we love.
Which was stronger than death?
Lord without limit and free.
Descending from glory on ice weighs.
Shame the resources on the cross.
All the way. Not for something slow.
And out the world's glory, but lost.