Title: Flood Your Mind With Thoughts of Christ Meta: If your neglecting the scriptures there is no excuse, we must pray the word of God in, many times we are getting nothing because we are not praying, remember "We have not because we ask not." Pray for a fresh revelation of Jesus Christ as seen in the scriptures. Tags: bible,scriptures,Jesus,Christ,gospel,salvation,endurance,saints,Christian 1 00:00:06,001 --> 00:00:10,491 Brethren, the battle is in the mind, 2 00:00:10,491 --> 00:00:14,865 our thoughts have to be subject to Christ. 3 00:00:14,865 --> 00:00:18,347 Our thoughts have to be permeated by the Word of God.(P) 4 00:00:18,347 --> 00:00:21,077 Brethren, you know what Paul has been doing? 5 00:00:21,077 --> 00:00:22,797 Think with me! 6 00:00:22,797 --> 00:00:25,531 He's been holding up the Gentile! 7 00:00:25,531 --> 00:00:28,991 To your thinking, to your analysis, 8 00:00:28,991 --> 00:00:33,338 he put's it before your thoughts 9 00:00:33,338 --> 00:00:35,357 so that you can analyze this 10 00:00:35,357 --> 00:00:41,547 and you can look at it and you can say, "Okay, yes, the Gentile is futile." 11 00:00:41,547 --> 00:00:44,960 And then you hear a message like was preached several weeks ago on the futility of the mind; 12 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:46,401 and you begin to look at, 13 00:00:46,401 --> 00:00:48,555 "Wow, we were like that! We were futile. 14 00:00:48,555 --> 00:00:51,223 Everything we gave our life to, it was utter futility!" 15 00:00:51,223 --> 00:00:53,134 And so we begin to think that way. 16 00:00:53,142 --> 00:00:55,945 Anytime there is this temptation to go back to the world, 17 00:00:55,945 --> 00:00:59,936 go back to the temptations of all this stuff that ensnares, 18 00:00:59,936 --> 00:01:03,616 we can think, we can think logically. 19 00:01:03,616 --> 00:01:06,505 We can wake up in the morning and think, 20 00:01:06,505 --> 00:01:08,405 "I don't want to waste my life. 21 00:01:08,409 --> 00:01:10,302 I need to put on the new man." 22 00:01:10,302 --> 00:01:14,463 You see brethren, we begin to think. 23 00:01:14,463 --> 00:01:16,416 This is where the battle is won.(P) 24 00:01:16,416 --> 00:01:19,547 I can guarantee if there are any of you that are claiming to be Christians, 25 00:01:19,547 --> 00:01:21,350 and you are floundering around in life, 26 00:01:21,350 --> 00:01:23,844 you are not thinking right. 27 00:01:23,844 --> 00:01:25,621 You haven't learned Christ right; 28 00:01:25,621 --> 00:01:27,767 you have not thought about Christ right; 29 00:01:27,767 --> 00:01:29,810 you have not learned Him right. 30 00:01:29,817 --> 00:01:31,967 Something is defective.(P) 31 00:01:31,967 --> 00:01:35,935 Brethren, when you are filling your mind with the Word of God all the time; 32 00:01:35,935 --> 00:01:39,296 Thy Word is truth, brethren, we will be sanctified by that truth. 33 00:01:39,296 --> 00:01:42,939 Because that truth permeates the mind, 34 00:01:42,939 --> 00:01:45,939 it effects the way we think. 35 00:01:45,939 --> 00:01:51,139 Look, that truth comes in, and it sets us free because it starts to grip us. 36 00:01:51,139 --> 00:01:52,656 And it constrains us, 37 00:01:52,656 --> 00:01:58,056 and it drives us in directions that are right, and that God approves of. 38 00:01:58,056 --> 00:01:59,322 Brethren, this is it. 39 00:01:59,322 --> 00:02:01,105 This is how you put the old off, 40 00:02:01,105 --> 00:02:04,005 you stop thinking like you used to think.(P) 41 00:02:04,029 --> 00:02:07,449 Actually, how is the old man driven? 42 00:02:07,449 --> 00:02:08,656 By corrupt desires; 43 00:02:08,656 --> 00:02:12,978 and rather than being driven by corrupt desires, you begin to be driven by truth. 44 00:02:12,978 --> 00:02:14,857 By a mind that really thinks. 45 00:02:14,857 --> 00:02:16,841 by a mind that sees things straight.(P) 46 00:02:16,841 --> 00:02:19,497 Brethren, when you begin to size up the fact; 47 00:02:19,497 --> 00:02:22,665 we talked about this before. 48 00:02:22,665 --> 00:02:27,433 Brethren, there's a way people live; 49 00:02:27,433 --> 00:02:30,209 when they begin to realize, "Wow, my life is short. 50 00:02:30,209 --> 00:02:32,976 I only get one shot at this and everything I do here matters. 51 00:02:32,976 --> 00:02:36,025 And I am going to stand before Christ one day and be judged for it." 52 00:02:36,025 --> 00:02:39,213 You start letting that truth control you day in and day out. 53 00:02:39,213 --> 00:02:43,462 One of the things was brethren, when we were lost, we tried NOT to think about that! 54 00:02:43,462 --> 00:02:45,127 We tried not to think about death! 55 00:02:45,127 --> 00:02:46,753 We tried not to think about judgment! 56 00:02:46,753 --> 00:02:50,122 We tried not to think about the consequences of sin. 57 00:02:50,122 --> 00:02:52,252 We tried not to think about hell. 58 00:02:52,252 --> 00:02:54,093 We didn't want to think about it. 59 00:02:54,093 --> 00:02:57,162 Brethren, our minds have been enlightened now. 60 00:02:57,162 --> 00:03:00,220 We can take truth and we can think, 61 00:03:00,220 --> 00:03:05,202 "Wow, you know what, I never found that sin was ultimately gratifying when I was lost. 62 00:03:05,202 --> 00:03:09,962 I never found that it ultimately accomplished and gave me what it promised to give me. 63 00:03:09,962 --> 00:03:13,615 I never found that it really produced happiness in my life." 64 00:03:13,615 --> 00:03:14,575 What are you going to do now? 65 00:03:14,575 --> 00:03:15,912 Are you going to stop thinking that? 66 00:03:15,912 --> 00:03:18,707 Are you going to stop thinking about the futility? 67 00:03:18,707 --> 00:03:20,882 You see Paul is laying this out so that you can examine this, 68 00:03:20,882 --> 00:03:23,832 and you can say, "Yes, that's exactly how my life was! 69 00:03:23,832 --> 00:03:27,708 It was greedy with all its sensuality, and I was hard and I was calloused, 70 00:03:27,708 --> 00:03:33,158 and I was alienated from the life of God, and yes, I see it's all true!" 71 00:03:33,183 --> 00:03:34,933 And now you start thinking, 72 00:03:34,933 --> 00:03:36,068 "Well, wait a second. 73 00:03:36,068 --> 00:03:37,623 Jesus came into this world, 74 00:03:37,623 --> 00:03:40,964 and they called His name Jesus because He was going to save me from my sins." 75 00:03:40,964 --> 00:03:42,104 And you start thinking, 76 00:03:42,104 --> 00:03:45,436 He came into this world to deliver me from this present evil age. 77 00:03:45,436 --> 00:03:46,737 And you start thinking, 78 00:03:46,737 --> 00:03:51,409 there is an immeasurable greatness of power in me! 79 00:03:51,409 --> 00:03:52,659 And you start thinking, 80 00:03:52,659 --> 00:03:53,609 and you know what, 81 00:03:53,609 --> 00:03:57,625 if I don't have holiness in my life, I read somewhere in 2 Timothy, 82 00:03:57,625 --> 00:04:00,295 that I am not a fit vessel for the Master's use. 83 00:04:00,295 --> 00:04:02,273 And so if I really want my life to be profitable, 84 00:04:02,273 --> 00:04:03,755 there needs to be holiness here. 85 00:04:03,755 --> 00:04:06,418 I need to be striving. 86 00:04:06,418 --> 00:04:07,858 You begin thinking.(P) 87 00:04:07,858 --> 00:04:13,147 You know, the apostle John puts it this way: 88 00:04:13,147 --> 00:04:15,836 We don't know what we are going to be, 89 00:04:15,836 --> 00:04:17,075 but we know this, 90 00:04:17,075 --> 00:04:21,911 we know that when we see Him we are going to be as He is. 91 00:04:21,911 --> 00:04:25,826 And he says that everybody that has this hope purifies himself. 92 00:04:25,826 --> 00:04:28,945 Well now, what is the logic of that? 93 00:04:28,945 --> 00:04:30,373 Well, the logic is this. 94 00:04:30,373 --> 00:04:37,780 Look, if I believe that He saved me to present me holy and blameness before Him; 95 00:04:37,780 --> 00:04:42,990 if I believe that He came into this world to break the power of sin in my life, 96 00:04:42,990 --> 00:04:45,642 and to free me up to be zealous of good works; 97 00:04:45,642 --> 00:04:49,867 if I believe that there is a day that I am going to have to stand before Him and give an account; 98 00:04:49,867 --> 00:04:54,306 if I believe that He is the very image of beauty; 99 00:04:54,306 --> 00:04:58,774 if I believe that the very pathway to usefulness in this life; 100 00:04:58,774 --> 00:05:00,843 and I am thinking this all the time. 101 00:05:00,843 --> 00:05:04,369 I am thinking! I am thinking! 102 00:05:04,369 --> 00:05:07,002 We have to think, think.(P) 103 00:05:07,002 --> 00:05:12,554 Brethren, think about what happens in the mind of someone who learns Christ, 104 00:05:12,554 --> 00:05:13,753 who hears Christ, 105 00:05:13,753 --> 00:05:16,045 who is taught of Christ, 106 00:05:17,355 --> 00:05:19,495 what happens? 107 00:05:19,495 --> 00:05:23,074 Well, he looks, he contemplates. 108 00:05:23,074 --> 00:05:29,181 He thinks, he thinks about what he has learned and he says, 109 00:05:29,181 --> 00:05:32,683 "This is really important. 110 00:05:32,683 --> 00:05:35,306 This is the most important thing I have ever heard, this is everything! 111 00:05:35,306 --> 00:05:36,857 This is truth." 112 00:05:36,857 --> 00:05:41,357 Not just, yes, there are other things in this world that are true, but this is THE truth. 113 00:05:41,357 --> 00:05:44,737 I have found something that is the truth. 114 00:05:44,737 --> 00:05:49,846 I have found something that is beyond every other thing to be found. 115 00:05:49,846 --> 00:05:52,432 I'll let everything else go rather than to let this go. 116 00:05:52,432 --> 00:05:56,416 I'll sacrifice everything as long as I can have this One I have learned about. 117 00:05:56,416 --> 00:06:00,376 The message of Christ, it begins to grip him, it holds him, it captures him. 118 00:06:00,376 --> 00:06:02,469 It permeates his thinking.(P) 119 00:06:02,469 --> 00:06:05,724 Brethren, when you wake up in the morning and you think about how precious Christ is, 120 00:06:05,724 --> 00:06:07,221 when you think about how beautiful He is, 121 00:06:07,221 --> 00:06:10,385 when you think about how, "I want to draw close to Him. 122 00:06:10,385 --> 00:06:12,355 I want Him to speak to me today. 123 00:06:12,355 --> 00:06:16,231 I want to know of His presence manifestly in my life, 124 00:06:16,231 --> 00:06:18,690 I want to feel it, I want to know the joy of it. 125 00:06:18,690 --> 00:06:20,894 I want to know the burning of it." 126 00:06:20,894 --> 00:06:26,364 But I realize this, there are things that I can do in my life that can hinder that, 127 00:06:26,364 --> 00:06:28,708 that can grieve the Spirit. 128 00:06:28,708 --> 00:06:32,014 You see you are thinking, "I don't want that to happen. 129 00:06:32,014 --> 00:06:34,271 I am going to seek to live pure." 130 00:06:34,271 --> 00:06:38,163 And all the time we are being driven from the inside. 131 00:06:38,163 --> 00:06:41,938 We are being driven by truth in the inner being. 132 00:06:41,938 --> 00:06:44,664 We are being driven by the way we think. 133 00:06:44,664 --> 00:06:47,966 Brethren, this is the heart of the matter. 134 00:06:47,966 --> 00:06:48,779 This is it. 135 00:06:48,779 --> 00:06:55,173 This is why the Scriptures are so absolutely critical to your life. 136 00:06:55,173 --> 00:06:57,989 Brethren, I'll tell you this too. 137 00:06:57,989 --> 00:07:03,581 If it is the image of God after the likeness of God that we have been created, 138 00:07:03,581 --> 00:07:04,946 if this is true, 139 00:07:04,946 --> 00:07:06,951 you wake up and you realize, 140 00:07:06,951 --> 00:07:09,088 God saved me, I am a child of God. 141 00:07:09,088 --> 00:07:12,513 He begats me and puts His image in me. 142 00:07:12,513 --> 00:07:15,399 Can you even imagine what Peter said? 143 00:07:15,399 --> 00:07:19,123 We are possessors of the divine nature. 144 00:07:19,123 --> 00:07:22,039 That is one of the most staggering, 145 00:07:22,039 --> 00:07:25,092 that is staggering! 146 00:07:25,092 --> 00:07:30,728 We are possessor of the divine nature?!(P) 147 00:07:30,728 --> 00:07:34,129 Brethren, one of the things we need to permeate our thinking with; 148 00:07:34,129 --> 00:07:38,004 if indeed God Himself, 149 00:07:38,004 --> 00:07:42,824 if God-likeness, God's image burned into me, 150 00:07:42,824 --> 00:07:45,519 and flowing out in holiness and righteousness, 151 00:07:45,519 --> 00:07:48,544 if that is really what the new man is about, 152 00:07:48,544 --> 00:07:51,640 then brethren, I need to be controlled by truth like that. 153 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:52,888 I need to come to the Word of God 154 00:07:52,888 --> 00:07:55,888 and I need to see God in all of His righteousness, 155 00:07:55,888 --> 00:07:58,327 and I need to see God in all of His holiness. 156 00:07:58,327 --> 00:07:59,655 I need to see it. 157 00:07:59,655 --> 00:08:05,435 God is holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of His glory.(P) 158 00:08:05,435 --> 00:08:10,444 Brethren, that will not capture your soul if you are not in this Book. 159 00:08:10,444 --> 00:08:13,273 And I mean prayerfully, and that makes a difference. 160 00:08:13,273 --> 00:08:15,933 You are in the Word, and you are praying it in. 161 00:08:15,933 --> 00:08:20,007 God, show me, God teach me, show me Yourself. 162 00:08:20,007 --> 00:08:24,266 You begin to let that fear of God rush in and grab hold of you; 163 00:08:24,266 --> 00:08:26,815 and God in all of His glory, and you see His holiness.(P) 164 00:08:26,815 --> 00:08:30,476 Brethren, holiness, I'll tell you this. 165 00:08:30,476 --> 00:08:34,159 The theologians, try to explain it, 166 00:08:34,159 --> 00:08:37,129 God being holy, 167 00:08:37,129 --> 00:08:42,468 there no doubt it contains a reality of purity, 168 00:08:42,468 --> 00:08:45,674 of being separate, 169 00:08:45,674 --> 00:08:50,037 but you know, everybody struggles with it. 170 00:08:50,037 --> 00:08:54,500 And I think the closest way you come to understanding what holiness means, 171 00:08:54,500 --> 00:08:58,365 is simply to look at God. 172 00:08:58,365 --> 00:09:02,897 It is to take His revealed Word and it is to find out, 173 00:09:02,897 --> 00:09:07,520 and I'll tell you the holiness of God shines probably as brightly as anywhere, 174 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:10,131 right there at the Cross. 175 00:09:10,131 --> 00:09:11,452 I mean what in the world? 176 00:09:11,452 --> 00:09:18,404 It took God Himself to suffer under the indignation of God Himself. 177 00:09:18,404 --> 00:09:22,278 God suffering under God. 178 00:09:22,278 --> 00:09:26,597 The holiness of God in absolute utter hatred. 179 00:09:26,597 --> 00:09:29,077 He is of pure eyes, 180 00:09:29,077 --> 00:09:30,077 than to behold sin, 181 00:09:30,077 --> 00:09:31,451 and He cannot behold it, 182 00:09:31,451 --> 00:09:33,005 and it must be punished, 183 00:09:33,005 --> 00:09:38,403 and He will crush with His damning power where that is! 184 00:09:38,403 --> 00:09:40,491 And Christ becomes sin.(P) 185 00:09:40,491 --> 00:09:43,835 I'll tell you first and foremost the Cross is not about us. 186 00:09:43,835 --> 00:09:45,936 It is about God's holy name. 187 00:09:45,936 --> 00:09:49,487 It is about God vindicating His own self! 188 00:09:49,487 --> 00:09:53,209 Brethren, we begin to see that, and it jumps out at us, 189 00:09:53,209 --> 00:09:56,801 and we see. 190 00:09:56,801 --> 00:09:58,885 And how righteous He is; 191 00:09:58,885 --> 00:10:01,972 how absolutely perfect, 192 00:10:01,972 --> 00:10:05,353 how everything about God is upright, 193 00:10:05,353 --> 00:10:07,333 through and through. 194 00:10:07,333 --> 00:10:12,903 Everything He does is pristine perfection of righteousness.(P) 195 00:10:12,903 --> 00:10:17,334 And brethren, 196 00:10:17,334 --> 00:10:24,059 I wish I could just squeeze all of that out of here right now, 197 00:10:24,059 --> 00:10:25,994 but that is not the way it happens. 198 00:10:25,994 --> 00:10:32,079 It comes by a lifetime of being in this Word all the time, 199 00:10:32,079 --> 00:10:36,488 and studying, and meditating, and coming away, 200 00:10:36,488 --> 00:10:39,817 where brethren, if you come away from this Book, 201 00:10:39,817 --> 00:10:42,817 and you are not somehow swayed, 202 00:10:42,817 --> 00:10:43,990 impacted, 203 00:10:43,990 --> 00:10:45,390 influenced, 204 00:10:45,390 --> 00:10:47,143 or moved by the truth of it, 205 00:10:47,143 --> 00:10:49,846 you are not reading it right.(P) 206 00:10:51,236 --> 00:10:54,969 Brethren, if you are neglecting this book, there is simply no excuse. 207 00:10:54,969 --> 00:10:57,101 And I mean, pray it in brethren. 208 00:10:57,101 --> 00:10:59,973 It makes a big difference when you pray, 209 00:10:59,973 --> 00:11:01,183 when you seek God. 210 00:11:01,183 --> 00:11:04,674 Many times we have not because we ask not. 211 00:11:04,674 --> 00:11:07,136 One of the things, come to this Book and just plead. 212 00:11:07,136 --> 00:11:10,673 Remember, remember brethren, remember! 213 00:11:10,673 --> 00:11:14,149 What I emphasized to you about Paul's prayer, 214 00:11:14,149 --> 00:11:16,520 There back in chapter 1, 215 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:21,141 praying that we might have a revelation of Him, 216 00:11:21,141 --> 00:11:22,872 we need a revelation of God, 217 00:11:22,872 --> 00:11:27,335 we need a revelation of His truth to our soul.