What Does It Really Mean to Have the Mind of Christ?

Okay, good to see everybody again today, and we always appreciate the fact that you come in and become part of our studio audience, and always remember that the whole television audience from coast to coast is recognizing you now, and when we go someplace, people tell us that they just feel like they know every one of you like they do Iris and I, so always remember that we couldn't do it without you. For those of you joining us on television, of course, we again just love to welcome you into our class environment, and we also appreciate your letters where you welcome us into your various rooms of the house or whatever, and we just trust that the Lord will use it all for His glory. How we thank you for letters that reveal that hearts that have been hardened for years and years, the Lord has opened and brought to a knowledge of salvation, and for so many of you who are enjoying your Bible for the first time again, we just give the Lord the praise for it. Okay, I think all I have to mention is that all our past programs, now we were just saying here in the studio, we started nine years ago with this monthly format of four programs, and so now all the past programs, which are now thirty-eight of these vehicles in which there are twelve programs, so you multiply thirty-eight times twelve, that's how many programs we've produced. But anyway, it's all available on books and videos and audio tapes, so if you're interested, you give us a call or write to us at the address on the screen. Alright, we're here for a Bible study, and we're going to buy up the time, and so we're going to turn immediately to where we left off in our last program, which is in Philippians 1, and we've gotten as far as verse 28. Now in case we do have some new listeners over just the last week or two, we always like to remind folks that we're just a simple through the Bible study. We started back there in Genesis, and we've been coming up and we are presently in Philippians, and we'll just keep right on going as the Lord tarries until we finally get to the end. Alright, so now in Philippians 1, verse 28, remembering that Paul is writing this letter while he's in prison in Rome, and as we pointed out in the first chapter, he had already won numerous of the various Roman soldiers who had come in to be his personal guard, and salvation, and as we'll see at the end of the letter, how those very same people actually became then part of his greeting to the Philippian believers. And so it was just, I think, a paean of joy that comes out of this letter to the Philippians over the fact that he was reaching right into the upper echelons of the Roman Empire. Now then, verse 28, he says, "...in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition." You know what that means? You know, we read these things and we really don't stop to think. Those who oppose the believer, those who have brought persecution on the believer over the centuries, have simply set their nose with flint to their eternal doom, and it's not going to change. Anyone who opposes the Gospel, anyone who brings persecution on the believer, short of his own salvation of course, they are headed for an eternal doom. That's what perdition means, and so this is what Paul is saying. For those that persecute you, for those that bring pressure on us, they're headed for their own perdition. But it's also an evidence when they bring persecution on us, it is an evidence of our own salvation. Because I think the Scripture says, and I can't put my finger on it, you better be careful if everybody has nothing but good to say about us, then there's something wrong. Because the unbelieving world really shouldn't be able to compliment us much, because they don't like who we are. They don't like what we're doing, they don't like what we stand for. And so Paul makes it so plain to these Philippians now that when the pressures from the outside world, whether it was the Judaizers, or whether it was the pagans, or whether it was the Romans... Now you want to remember at the time that Paul was in Rome, emperor worship had almost superseded the gods and goddesses of mythology. And so you still had that of course. There was still mythology out there, the gods and goddesses, but actually, especially the intellectual community of the Roman Empire, they had become emperor worshipers. And every emperor, Nero included, set themselves up as God, and to be worshiped as God. And so along comes something like Christianity, and that flew in the face of emperor worship. And so this is why he is making the point that whenever someone opposes the believer, it's an evidence of the two things. The opposers are headed for their own perdition, and the believer, it's a confirmation of what and who he is. Now then we'll go on to verse 29. Now that again is contrary to what most of Christendom has been led to believe in the last 50 years. Too many people have got the idea that when you become a Christian, you get a bed of roses. When you become a Christian, the money just comes in, your debts get canceled, and all of a sudden you're just rolling in wealth. Well that's not what my Bible teaches. My Bible teaches that for the most part, when we become a believer, we're going to come under the hatred and the pressure of the unbelieving world, and so we have yes, the hope of a glory, we have the hope of an eternity, but in the present life we do not have that much promise to us from the Scripture. Now I always have to remind my classes here in Oklahoma, you know we in America have been so spoiled, we're so blessed, and we just do not realize how much Christians have had to suffer down through the hundreds and hundreds of years since the time that Paul wrote this. Most of the time Christians suffered for their faith. Most of the time they were driven from place to place because they didn't conform. And it's only been of course since our beloved land has been blessed and we have had our constitutional rights, that we as Christians have just become complacent that it hasn't always been this way. We are rare according to the annals of history. So we better be aware that we may have to suffer for His sake, and that of course is more than compensated by the glory which shall be revealed to us, Paul says in Romans 8. Now then verse 30, having the same conflict which you saw in me, and now here to be in me. Now I'm sure he's making reference to all the times that he had to suffer for his testimony, which were the scourgings, and the beatings, and the imprisonments, even as he is now in prison for the sake of the Gospel. That's all. He was guilty of no law breaking, he was guilty of nothing but that he had proclaimed grace instead of law, and it was because of the accusations of the Judaizers. Now you've got to go all the way back. What got Paul in prison in the first place? Well when he started standing on the premise that you're not under law, you're under grace, and the Jewish people, even to a certain degree, the believing Jews in Jerusalem, came down on him to the place of trying to take his life, put him to death, and then of course while he was in prison in Caesarea and couldn't make any headway with Festus and the other fellow, what did he do? He appealed to Caesar, because Paul was convinced that as a Roman citizen he would get a fair shake in Rome, in the Roman courts. Well I imagine had it been anybody but Nero, he would have, but Nero was such a horrible personality that it ended up in his martyrdom. So be it. Now chapter 2. Now we come into the chapter that I couldn't hardly sleep all night thinking about it, and how I could comment on it, especially after we get to verse 5, because these are some tremendous, tremendous verses. Verse 1, "...if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any innermost part of our being, and mercies," that's what the word bowels in the King James really means, our innermost being. Now verse 2, "...fulfill ye my joy." Now we pointed that out in chapter 1. What was pumping this man up with so much joy and rejoicing? The fact that he was penetrating the higher echelons of the Roman Empire. He was actually seeing these Roman soldiers hardened by warfare, hardened by carrying out Nero's demands to put to death, and as one commentator that I read a long time ago, no doubt very possible that one of the soldiers that was chained to the Apostle Paul was the very one that locked off the head of Nero's mother. He could have very well been one of the soldiers that killed Nero's step-sons. He was a murderer, but he didn't do it himself. He did it by virtue of commanding his slaves or his soldiers to do it. So these are the kind of people that were in contact with the Apostle Paul, and were coming out of all that wickedness and that horrible sin background, and became testimonies of God's grace. That would be enough to make anybody happy. And so here was the sound of his joy, and so he says, "...fulfill my joy, that ye be like mine, and that ye can be as joyful as I am." Even though he was in prison right under the nose of the most wicked emperor that I think Rome experienced, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. Now again, if you compare the life of the average Philippian believer in their mundane Christian experience, compared to where Paul was, chained to a Roman soldier right next door to the palace of Nero, and they could bicker over any little thing, and we're no different today, and there he was with his life on the line. And see that's what I think he's trying to have them see, don't bicker over little incidentals that amount to nothing. Always stop and think of my circumstances. What if you were where I am? Then these little things wouldn't seem so important. Well I think it's the same message for us today. How many churches, I can never forget, Iris used to work of course nursing, and she worked with people from every background you could imagine, and she would come home sometimes and she said, Isn't it amazing what churches will fight and split over? Well the particular one that she was thinking of, that they had just split because they couldn't agree on the color of the upholstery for their new pews. And the church was split wide open. Who cares what color the pews are, as long as the gospel is going on. And so I think this is exactly what Paul is saying, that they were not to be so concerned about the little nitty gritty things of everyday life, but to consider the fact that they are not where He is. And then he goes on to verse 3, he says, Let nothing be done through striving glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Now that comes right back again to my definition of love, remember? What's the definition of love? Seeking the other person's highest good. And so this is exactly what he's got in mind when he says in verse 4, Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Now he's not advocating covetousness. Paul isn't saying, Look at your neighbor's stuff and wish that you had it. Is he? No. What he's saying is, everything that you do with regard to your friends and your neighbors and relatives, do it in the spirit that you're going to seek their highest good. Verse comes to mind, 1 Corinthians 13, the great love chapter. Maybe this is an appropriate place to go back and look at it again. Some of these things bear repeating and bear repetition, but 1 Corinthians 13, the love 1 Corinthians 13, dropping down to verse 3. All got it? And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Now then here it comes. This is exactly what he's telling the Philippians and what he's telling us. Love suffereth, or endureth, long, and is kind. Love envieth not. So back here in Philippians when he says, Look on the things of others, he's not telling them to look on it with an envious look, but with a look that you're going to promote that which is their highest good. So again, love does not vaunt itself, it is not puffed up. Verse 5. Love does not behave itself unseemly or unnaturally. Love never seeketh her own. Love is not easily provoked. Love thinketh no evil. Boy, when I read it like that, you almost think I got an NIV, don't you? But I'm not. I still stick to my King James. All right, back to the Philippians. Back to Philippians. And so this is exactly what he has on his mind in verse 4, and the Holy Spirit inspiring it. So look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others, with that attitude of love. Not with an attitude of covetous. Now I wish I had more time, I'm sure I'm not going to finish these next few verses in the time in this half hour, so we'll probably have to carry it into the next program. But beginning at verse 5 now in Philippians 2, and this is the portion, like I say, I just about lay awake all night mulling these verses over, and how I can bring it out clearly, so that anyone, whether they're 5 or 105, can understand completely what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us. "...Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Now to put that in plain English, how would I put that? Have the mind of Christ. Think as He would think. Now I always have to remind people, now that's why I don't admonish someone to say, walk in the footsteps of Jesus, because I say tongue in cheek, what are you going to do when He gets to the shore of Galilee and He keeps going? So it gets kind of hard to walk in His footsteps at times, but nevertheless, how can we think as He thinks? Well there's only one way, and that's to be saturated with the Word, literally saturated. My goodness, I was talking to a lady again last night, and she said there was an elderly gentleman in her community, and I'm almost trusting that he'll be passed off the scene before this program hits the air, but she said he was as hard as nails for years, way up in years, nobody could ever talk to him. And finally he was in the final stages of chemotherapy, and it wasn't working, but nevertheless this lady said she talked to the guy's wife, and wanted to know if he'd ever softened up on spiritual things. She said, yes, he's all of a sudden doesn't want to do anything but read his Bible. And so she started to tell this lady about my little books, and she said, now wait a minute, there's only one guy that my husband started listening to. And see was it a real tall fellow that just teaches from a music stand? And she said, yes, he was the only one he would ever listen to. And she said, if he finds out that these are his books, I know he'll read them. So anyway, to make a long story short, the Lord opened the old boy's heart, and he had just literally begun to saturate himself with the Word. Now isn't it sad that some people waste a whole lifetime of perhaps 90 some years, and then finally in the last few months of their existence, they can begin to do what they should have been doing for a long time. But see this is the secret of having the mind of Christ. We just literally saturate ourselves with the Word of God. Now you've heard me say it on this program before, and I'll say it again. God doesn't expect us to get so heavenly minded we're no earthly good, and that's possible. I mean people can just simply get freaked out, and can think and talk about nothing else. Well that isn't what God wants, because we're still functioning in old terra firma. We're here on the earth. But when it comes to having the mind of Christ, there's only one way, and that is to just be in the Word, and the same way with witnessing. You know I tell my Oklahoma class this constantly. You know why most Christians don't witness? They're so ignorant of this Book, they're scared to open their mouth, because they know that if somebody asks a question, they're immediately backed into a corner and can't answer. Now that's not God's fault. God has given us the wherewithal to study and to become skilled in the use of the Scriptures, and I don't care who it is, if they know their Bible, and if they can at least show people where a few things are written, they don't have any trouble witnessing. They don't have any trouble talking about the Lord, because they're confident. But the average believer doesn't have that, and so consequently he clams up. But isn't that sad? And all we have to do is just simply get into the Word. You've heard me say it on this program probably dozens of times. If old Tyndale thought that he wanted the copy of the Scripture in the hands of every plow boy in England, what does that mean? You don't have to be college educated to understand this Book. The Holy Spirit gives us what we need, and so whoever we are, don't just say, Well, I can't understand it anyway, I'm not going to spend time reading it. No, you get into the Word and the Holy Spirit will begin to open the understanding. So let this mind be in you, the very mind of Christ. Even though we can't attain unto His perfect righteousness, we can attain unto who He was because He was God. But we're to endeavor to be more like Him tomorrow than we were today. We're to endeavor to have more of a mind that thinks like Christ does than we did yesterday. And so this is the whole thing. In fact I can go look at another verse, I'm dragging now because I don't want to get into verse 6 if I don't have to until we get the next half hour. Come back to Romans chapter 12, starting at verse 1, verses you've all heard over and over. You've heard sermons by the dozens. Romans 12, verse 1, I beseech you therefore, because of everything that he has just written in these previous chapters, especially in the first 8, because 9, 10, and 11 are parenthetical. So what he wrote in the first 8 chapters is what I think he's referring back to with the Therefore. So I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body, the flesh and blood, the here and now, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy. Now the word holy doesn't mean sinless perfection, remember. The holy doesn't mean you sprout wings and a halo. Holy just simply means you've been set apart, you're different, you belong to God. You're no longer a part of the world, you're His. And so this is what we're to be, holy, acceptable unto God, which is reasonable. God isn't unreasonable. God knows our frame, He knows we're made of dust, He knows that we're sons of Adam, and He knows all these things, but all He expects is that which is reasonable service. Now verse 2 is the one I want to come to, and be not conformed to this world. Don't be molded according to the world's mold, we're to be different. So don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed, changed, by the renewing of your mind. Now we've got to remember that everything we say, everything we do, everything we see comes and goes into and out of the mind. The mind is the core of everything. You look at me, and the first thing your mind tells you is my name, or whatever the case may be. You can look at a wall, and the first thing your mind tells you is what you're seeing. Now it's the same way spiritually then, that if our mind is lined up with the things of God, and according to the teachings and the exhortations of the Holy Spirit, then our mind is going to think as God wants us to think. So be transformed by the renewing of your mind, the way you think. Now the thinking goes right back to what part of our being again? The mind. And so if our mind is full of the world's garbage, that's what we're going to think. If on the other hand the mind has been saturated with the Word of God, that's what we're going to think, and it's going to start showing. So be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may now, because your mind is right, your mind is operating as it should, then you can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I suppose we get letters periodically, asking how we can know the will of God. I'm sure every one of us has asked that, how can we know the will of God? Well I think you put all this that I've just said in the last 25 minutes, put that into one little category of thought, and what is it? We know the will of God by being saturated in the Word, and when we're saturated with the Word, God operates through our minds, which is now the mind of Christ, and we will begin to fulfill the will of God. Now I for one have never gone out and just knocked down doors so that I can do something for the Lord. That hasn't been my style, and still isn't. I wait until the Lord opens doors, and I think that it's still the proper way of doing it. And as we wait for these open doors, and we wait for go-ahead signals, then we end up in the will of God. And as long as we don't rebel and say, I won't do it, God will get us where He wants us, no doubt about it. And remember that this is the reason He's left believers on the earth, is that we can function as emissaries of His grace, and that we can constantly be promoters of the gospel of grace. So coming back to Philippians chapter 2 for just a few seconds that are left in this half hour. Verse 5, "...and let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Now I'll go on into the next verse, and we aren't going to have time to comment on it. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, "...who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery," He did not think it was something that He was grabbing that was not rightfully His, not at all. So He thought it not robbery, "...to be equal with God." Why? Because He was. See? He was God. My, the Scriptures are full of it. And I know there's one particular group that that's their big hang up. They can't believe that Jesus Christ was God. And you show them some of these verses, and they'll say, "...well that isn't what it means." Well you know, that's hard to deal with someone when they say that. But I guess the one that I really threw at one of those people here some time ago, and they just stuttered and stammered, and they had no answer, and it was the verse in Titus chapter 2, verse 13, where we are to be looking for the appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I'll tell you what, that just stomped them cold, because there was no argument to the fact that it called Him the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures, and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. Or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.