In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of trusting God with all our hearts and allowing Him to direct our paths. He explains that this means allowing God to govern our behavior and decisions. The preacher highlights the need for our minds to be renewed in order to align with God's will. He clarifies that this renewal does not require academic knowledge, but rather a belief in the gospel and the understanding that Jesus died for our sins. The ultimate goal is to be transformed into the image of God's Son, Jesus, so that when God looks at us, He sees Himself.

Would you turn at the outset this morning to the twelfth chapter of the Epistles of the Romans, Romans in chapter 12. And in the first verse, and the second, Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, of holy and acceptable under God, which is your reasonable service. And then he goes on to say this, be not conformed to this world. Don't ape its ways, don't try to keep up with the Joneses, don't jump on its bandwagon. Above everything else, never ever allow the lifestyle of a permissive society to invade your church family. And try to be mod, or progressive, by this world's standards. Be not conformed to this world. But in contradistinction to that, be transformed. Not conformed, but transformed. Because as we have already seen, the stamp of validity of a genuine spiritual rebirth is what? If any man be in Christ, you wouldn't recognize him as the same person. He is a new creature. All that you knew him to be before, have passed away. Everything now that you recognize in him, is brand new. So we're going to be transformed. Transformed into what? Well if God's purpose in sending his Son into this world was to restore a man to his true humanity, and man through the fall has become a distorted caricature of what he was intended to be, who was made by God to reflect the glory, God's absolute likeness, into what do you think God will transform us, if we turn to Christ, that we might enter into the good of the remedial measures that he has introduced? Well we don't have to guess. 8th chapter, the epistles of the Romans. Whom he did foreknow, then he did predestinate to be conformed, in being transformed, not to the world, but to the image of his Son. That he, the Lord Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brothers. So the end product that God had in mind in sending his Son into this world, is that you and I, not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by that transformation, will now be conformed to the image of his Son, who for 33 years lived this earth in such a way that when the Father looked at him, he could see himself. And that's the gospel. That's the gospel. Conformed to the image of God's dear Son. Of course, we know that this won't be brought to its final consummation until at last we see the Lord Jesus face to face. Don't turn to it. 1 John 3, 1st epistle, 3rd chapter, verses 1 and 2, he says, Beloved, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. He says we do not yet know in entirety what we will be, but at least he says this we do know. That when he appears we shall see him, the Lord Jesus, as he is, and we then will be like him. And then forever with the Lord. And this is the end product of what God had in mind when he sent his Son to accomplish the regentive act on the cross 2000 years ago, that there might be begun in us the regenerated purpose that putting God back into the man, restores to man the moral competence to discharge the office for which he was made. Like him. And when in that day seeing the Lord Jesus as he is, we are absolutely, utterly unblemished in our likeness. Where have we arrived? Genesis chapter 1. What does it say in Genesis chapter 1? Of man as God made him. Let us make man, said he, in our likeness, in our image. So in the day that in the presence of the Lord Jesus you are restored to the absolute unblemished image of your creator, where have you arrived? Back to normality. Back to normality. Nothing new that God is doing for us. That's why in a sense, although I know it's a popular term, to talk about a deeper life is a misnomer. Because to talk about a deeper life conference gives just a suspicion of an idea that you can get saved, get converted, obey the gospel, and this is an extra, it's an optional, you know, for the fanatical. Or for the elite. There's no such thing as a deeper Christian life, there's only the Christian life. Anything less than that, of course, sells Jesus Christ down the river. It shortchanges our creator. I'm not preaching to you anything other, morning and evening, than the gospel. Not an emaciated gospel, not a skin and bones gospel, not a come-to-Jesus gospel, not a get-off-the-hook gospel, not out-of-hell-into-heaven gospel, but keep God off my back till I get there. That isn't the gospel I know from the Bible. Because the gospel is good news, it's the evangel. And it represents the restorative means that God has introduced so that a man, to his satisfaction, and from God's point of view, might once more become functional, not only when he gets to heaven, but right here on earth on the way to heaven. That's the gospel. And I'm not in business to shortchange Jesus Christ. God called me to preach the gospel when I was a boy of 15. And it wasn't until I was 19, seven years after my conversion at the age of 12, that I discovered what the gospel was. I knew that Christ had died for me and redeemed me. I accepted that when I was 12. I knew my sins were forgiven, but I hadn't learned what the gospel was about. Not until I was 19, in sheer despair. And then at last, God in his goodness, through the word of God, showed me what he was at when he sent his Son into this world. And it is that we might be conformed, and be transformed, from conformity to this world, to conformity to the image of God's Son. How's it going to take place? Because if this is what God has in mind in sending his Son into this world, the one thing we need to know is how that is going to happen. Well, it tells you, doesn't it, in that same second verse of the 12th chapter of the epistle to the rest. By the renewing of your mind. By the renewing of your mind. So we will become functional again to God's satisfaction, when something has happened to our mind. Now, what do you think it means by the word mind there? Does it mean that we've got to be academically schooled? That we've got to have a scintillating intellect? That we've got to be theological blue-eyed boys? Uh-uh. It isn't talking about mere intellect. It's talking about attitude. It's talking about disposition. And the transformation of character, that is the only purpose which Christ died to redeem us. Not to get us out of hell and into heaven, that's purely incidental. He died to redeem us, but being reconciled to God, there might be restored to us by the presence of the Holy Spirit that divine competence, we've called it the hidden factor, God in the man, that makes it possible once more for man to function as God intended that man should function, whose presence as God within the man is absolutely indispensable to his humanity. And it's an attitude, it's a disposition that brings this into action. So where are we going to discover the mind, the attitude, the disposition that we've got to exercise so that we might once more not be conformed to a Christless world and a permissive society, but conformed to the image of God's Son? Where are we going to get that attitude, disposition from? Now, where are we going to look? There's only one place to look. The one who, though God, played the role of man, who as creator gave us a demonstration of the creature. And that's why you won't be surprised when you turn, if you will, now, to the second chapter of the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians. The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, second chapter, and you get exactly the same words. It's better translated in our normal present-day parlance, not as mind, but attitude. What is your mind in this matter? In other words, what is your disposition? What is your attitude? It's attitude. And what does it say? Verse 5. If ever you and I are to be transformed into the image of God's dear Son and no longer conformed to a dirty world, what's going to happen? Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. You and I have got to adopt that attitude, have that disposition that was characteristic of the one who, though God, played the role of man. Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. Until you and I have learned, the disposition adopted by the Lord Jesus and the attitude that was His as man toward the Father as God will never begin, begin to understand what it means to be a Christian. How to become one? That's baby stuff. You become a Christian by claiming Christ as your Redeemer, being cleansed in His precious blood and reconciled to God. But that doesn't change your character. Knowing that your sins have been given may create within you the desire to show Him in heaven that you are thankful, may create within you a certain motivation to be beautiful and be different, but it doesn't give you the moral competence to be different. Because the death of somebody 2,000 years ago, that's all he came to do, pay the penalty of your sins so that you might get out of hell and get into heaven. That's not going to change the way you behave now, except as a motivation to be different. But with what? What did you have before you were redeemed that operated your humanity? Only a fallen nature of satanic origin called the carnal mind that is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So if all you've got after your redemption is the same carnal mind, the same Adamic nature of utter enmity toward God, if that's all you've got after redemption, how are you going to live the Christian life? Let me put it in another way. If before you were redeemed, before you knew that Christ died for you 2,000 years ago, you admired a genuine Christian and you thought to yourself, not insincerely, I'd love to be a man, I'd love to be a woman like that. And so not knowing the need for redemption, you mobilize your natural resources possessing only an old fallen nature and you decide to live that kind of life. Would you fail or succeed? In the energy of the flesh. That old Adam nature that is hostile to God. You couldn't help but fail. That's what is humanly unreasonable. In the absence of a hidden factor that makes divinely possible. What is only possible by virtue of the fact that God created man to be inhabited by his nature. So in the energy of the flesh, no matter how sincere, no matter how dedicated, no matter how noble your aspirations, in the energy of the flesh, before redemption, you could not live the Christian life. You must fail. Because the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. All right, now suddenly you're awakened to the fact that you need redemption. And in response to some evangelistic appeal you put your trust in Christ and say thank you for what you did for me two millenniums ago when you took my place on the cross and satisfied every last demand of God's righteousness concerning my sin. Thank you so much Lord Jesus for dying in my place. Now I know that for your sake because of what you did then I'm redeemed. So that's all you know. That's all you know. Well quite obviously there will be a sense of gratitude in your heart, won't there? You'll want to serve him. There'll be a sense of duty apart from anything else. You'll want to recompense God for his kindness for sending his son two thousand years ago to pay your debt. But all you've got is the old admonition. You don't know that you've been provided with any other resources. All you know is according to the gospel that you've heard Jesus died. And all you've got to do is say thanks and you're redeemed. So what do you do now? Well as a redeemed sinner not knowing that you've got any new resources available to you all you can do is to mobilise your old inherent abilities. You've got to re-educate that Adamic nature to live like a good Bible believing conservatively evangelical Christian. It's got to go to prayer meeting. It's got to give money to this church. It's got to teach a Sunday school class. And what are you trying to do? Re-educate the old Adam nature to live a Christian life. Well tell me this. If after redemption you still try to live the Christian life in the energy of the flesh but fail so abysmally before you will be redeemed how will you get on? Will you fail or succeed? Well you cannot help but fail. You'll fail after redemption in the energy of the flesh just as soundly as you failed before redemption in the energy of the flesh. So what's the difference? Well only one. Before redemption you'll fail in trying to live the Christian life on the way to hell and after redemption you'll fail in trying to live the Christian life on the way to heaven. That's all. In other words what kind of a difference would that gospel make if all you were told was Jesus died two thousand years ago and this by and large alas is what hundreds of thousands appear every Sunday morning every Sunday night prayer meeting and invitation after invitation to come to a Jesus who died two thousand years ago. Period. That's the gospel. If that's all there is to the gospel then it may make us fit for heaven one day as those who are forgiven but it will leave us pathetically unfit for earth on the way to hell. That's why so many professing Christians are so difficult to live with. You see nothing's ever changed their lifestyle. Now what's the truth of the matter? Why did the Lord Jesus die on the cross? He said I'm come that you might have what? Life. Life. We were born dead. Dead in trespasses and sins. No boy, girl, man or woman born ever since Adam fell into sin born other than in a state of total spiritual destitution physically alive soulishly active but the human spirit empty of the Holy Spirit alienated from the life of God. That's how it's written the fourth chapter of the Epistles of the Ephesians. And if you and I are alienated from the life of God before redemption and we remain alienated from the life of God after redemption then we've no more confidence to live the Christian life after redemption than before redemption. But the whole purpose of the Lord Jesus coming to this world to accomplish the redemptive act was to precipitate the regenerative purpose to get God back into the man. And you'll always find the twin prongs as it were of the redemptive and regenerative message linked together indivisibly in the word of God. Don't turn to it but Galatians chapter 3 verse 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. But that's where most people finish the gospel. They put a period right there. That's it man. That's the gospel. It isn't the gospel. That's just the introduction to the gospel. That's the baby language of the gospel. That's the premise of the gospel. That's the prerequisites of the gospel. That's the first basic requirement of the gospel. It's the door into the gospel. Absolutely essential. It isn't the gospel. Because we've learned that if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son that's not salvation. That's reconciliation. Much more being reconciled what next? We shall be saved by his life. So what was his death for? To reconcile us to God. That he might now save us by his life. That's why the next verse the 14th of Galatians 3 goes on to tell you the true gospel. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ who has redeemed us from the curse of the law. He has redeemed us from the curse of the law that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles. In other words that everything that God comprehended when he confirmed his covenant in Abraham saying in his seed all the family of the earth should be blessed might now be fulfilled in us. Well the question, the big question Mark is this. What did God comprehend in the covenant he confirmed in Abraham that would be made available to you and to me on the grounds of Christ redemptive transactions. He told us that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the holy spirit of promise that the Lord Jesus in the fullness and power of his resurrection from the person of the other comforter might reinvade a man's redeemed humanity and by his divine presence put God back into the man and give him the moral confidence to discharge the office that he never could apart from the presence of the creator within the creature. And the one his death for you is called redemption and the other his life in you by the Holy Ghost is called regeneration. Where else do you find this? 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 9 and 10 you look at it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 9 and 10 God hasn't appointed us to judgment though we deserve it wealthy as we are. But he has appointed us to obtain salvation. How are we going to obtain salvation? Well there's only one way you can obtain salvation through the Savior through Jesus Christ. Alright? That's the first verse verse 9 God hasn't appointed us to judgment he has appointed us to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Then the next verse lest we should have any ambiguity in our minds as to the nature of salvation he defines it very clearly for us just in case we should think that all that Jesus came to do was to die so we could get off the hook and escape the punitive consequence of our guilt. In other words get out of hell and one day get to heaven. And just go to church once on a Sunday pay your tithe and if it isn't raining too hard go to prayer meetings on Wednesdays. What does it say? God hasn't appointed us to judgment he has appointed us to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. There's the redemptive act. Who died for us. We had to do that 2000 years ago to pay our debts. Who died for us. That, that, that. There's always a that. There's always an end product. There's always an intelligent purpose behind the redemptive transaction. That! Whether we wake or whether we sleep that means to say whether I'm still physically alive or already physically dead. Whether I'm in the body or out of the body. Whether my feet are on this planet or I'm already in heaven. Whether it's now or whether it's then. Whether it's here or whether it's there. Who died for us but whether we wake or sleep that we should live together with him. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. That's the only intelligent spiritual significance of baptism. If this isn't the solid substance of what you had in mind when you were baptized you've never really been baptized you've simply gone through a certain religious procedure that has made you a respectable baptist. But we're not asked to make baptism. We're told to make Christian. What's the significance of baptism? Well it's simply this. You go beneath the water and by this means you testify. Some professing boy, girl, man or woman who's put their trust in Christ who say mum, dad brothers, sisters my children my neighbours my fellow citizens I'd like you to know that I agree with God entirely. That all that I ever deserved born as I was by nature a fallen member of a fallen race of fallen men at enmity with God with what took place in the person of another who as my substitute bore in his person the judgement that I deserve. I agree with God. And so to what I am and have been apart from Jesus Christ I want publicly to take my place in death. For I am crucified with Christ. I was the one who was actually sentenced to death in the person of another Jesus Christ. So I am crucified with Christ and in token thereof I go beneath the water and by so doing I give you notice right now that all the characteristics that you knew to be characteristic of me as an unregenerate sinner uninhabited by God have been buried beneath the water. That I have consigned them to the place where God in the person of his son took them. So the person you knew me to be you can forget! But when I come up out of the water what I am telling you is this. It's my affirmation unshackable confidence in this glorious fact that the one who died for me rose again from the dead so that he in the person of the Holy Spirit might come and invade my humanity and from within my human spirit by my glad consent have access to my soul so that he Jesus Christ alive has God in me through the Holy Spirit can teach my mind control my emotions direct my will and govern my behaviour so when I come up out of the water mum, dad, my brothers my sisters, my children my parents my fellow citizens my workmates my employees my employers my neighbours down the road I'm telling you this that you have the absolute right to expect only to see in what I do and say and answer the activity of Jesus Christ whose life I share because I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live but please don't get me wrong not I Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in this body I simply live through a disposition an attitude a state of mind that allows him to be as much God in me as for 33 years on earth as man then by the same disposition he allowed the Father to be God in him that's that thing was that explained to you when you were baptized? that you were giving public notice to the world that your humanity was inhabited by God are you a Christian? are you a Christian? if you nod your head if you say yes just bear in mind what you're saying don't you know 2 Corinthians 13 5 don't you know that Christ lives in you? he says examine yourselves whether you be in the faith prove your own self he says don't you know that Christ lives in you unless you're a reprobate what does that word mean? phony counterfeit he says you'd better examine yourselves whether you're really in the faith I mean it's one thing to say I'm a Christian one thing to say I'm a Baptist one thing to say I'm a believer that says Paul you'd better examine yourself whether you really understood intelligently what you're at don't you know he says that Jesus Christ lives in you unless you're a phony unless you're a reprobate he's not there to be a pedestal he's not there to be put in a glass case he's not there on exhibit occasionally to unveil him that Jesus Christ as your creator redeemer has come to reinvade your humanity and when you say I am a believer when you say I am a Christian when you say I am a Baptist if you mean anything at all by the term you're telling all the world that the God who created the universe is at this moment close in self and his activity on earth with your humanity but I'd I'd say that if it's true that Jesus Christ who threw the universe into space the stars into the far corners of the night that he the God who at this moment upholds all things by the word of his power is it true that you declare that he lives in you 24 hours a day the neighbours probably ought to know this your kids at home ought to know this the folks you work with down the road ought to know this the folks who live across the road your neighbours ought to be amazed at the quality of a life of a man woman boy or girl actually inhabited by the one who we say created the universe because that's what it means to be a Christian for he died for us that whether we wake or sleep on earth or in heaven we should live together with him how? well by the presence of the Holy Spirit within the human spirit giving access to the human soul so that he Jesus Christ living in you will teach your mind control your emotions direct your will and there'll be no other possible explanation for the quality of your life but Jesus Christ as God King in his kingdom now that's the gospel why? well because the gospel is the good news that God has provided in Christ the means whereby guilty fallen sinners can be restored to their true humanity and when the Lord Jesus walked this earth of course he demonstrated true man and of course in demonstrating true man he demonstrated true Christian because a Christian is somebody who's opted out of Adam into Christ to be restored by being made by God a new creation a member of a new order of redeemed sinners who on the basis of that redemption have enjoyed a spiritual resurrection Titus 3, 5 and 6 Titus 3, 5 and 6 not by works of righteousness which we have done according to his mercy he saved us how? how did he save us? by the washing of regeneration what's being saved then? regeneration what's regeneration? it goes on to tell you the same verse the renewing of the Holy Ghost that's what it means to be saved the renewing of the Holy Ghost the coming back of somebody God the Holy Spirit that's salvation how does salvation the coming back of God the Holy Ghost to whom you share the risen life of Christ on earth on the way to heaven how does that take place? the real end product of what God had in mind in mercy when he saved us by the washing of regeneration how does it happen? when he tells us the Holy Ghost whom he shed upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour so what did the Saviour do? when he died upon the cross made it possible for the Holy Ghost to come back so that you could be saved by his indwelling life not by works of righteousness which we have done according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration the renewing the coming back of God the Holy Ghost whose presence derives from the fact that Jesus the Saviour has cleansed you from sin now just one other verse I'd like you to refer to in this connotation and there are masses of others you can hardly find anywhere in the Bible redemption being spoken of without regeneration never to be confused as I have indicated the one for the other because one demands his death for you the other demands his life in you they can never be the same simultaneous in time indivisible the one from the other never to be confused the one for the other if I think that Jesus is the same as being redeemed it means I have become a Christian but I've never begun to understand what it means to be the Christian I have become because you cannot be a Christian in the process of time on the basis of redemption you can only be a Christian in the process of time on the basis of regeneration in other words it's only the life of the Lord Jesus in you that gives you the power to be what the death of the Lord Jesus gave you the right to become and the one is the means to the other end he died for you so that he could lead you turn to Galatians chapter 3 a bunch of Christian people who had been invaded by Judaistic pragmatists they were denominationalists to the fingertips and all that mattered to the Judaists even though they were believers and recognized Jesus as the Messiah and even believed that he died for our sins they said what really matters is not that you have a relationship a working relationship to Jesus Christ but that you're good denominationalists that you're good Jews that you tell the party lines that you conform to our religious procedures that alone and don't you remember the epistle to the Galatians was written by the apostle Paul because of this heresy that was introduced to which he speaks in the 15th chapter of Acts where the author of that book Luke who authored Luke's gospels speaks of those who said you must be circumcised if you're going to be saved no matter what you believe about Jesus what matters is that you've got the denominational plan and that was apostolically affiliated by the first crisis conference that was convened in the early church under the chairmanship of James and the whole of the epistle to the Galatians was written in answer to that heresy what was the heresy? so that you can come to Jesus and trust him as your redeemer but after that you're on your own you spread it out and do your best for God by doing this and doing that and doing the other that's why at the end the fifth chapter the first verse of that epistle to the Galatians having unraveled them from this heresy Paul says turn fast into liberty so that Christ may be free free from what? that old Adam because by the exceeding great and precious promises says Peter fourth verse second epistle in the first chapter by the exceeding great and precious promises we've been made partakers of this divine Christ has been born now as once then he was born of so what does he say to these foolish Galatians in Galatians chapter 3 I'd like you to turn to it Galatians chapter 3 O you poor and silly and thoughtless and unreflecting and senseless Galatians at the Amplified New Testament rendering exactly this what was meant in the original poor silly thoughtless unreflecting senseless Galatians he's addressing himself to Christians Christians who have suffered unfold damage and the one described in the first chapter as a perversion of the gospel and of those who thus perverted the gospel he said let them be anathema accursed because they are poisoning the minds of those who have been redeemed to adopt the mind of Christ and in these believers there was being perpetuated the mind that was introduced the attitude that was introduced when man fell into sin for then the devil persuaded man that he could be a man without God and these were persuading Christians that they could be Christians without Christ Jesus is redeemer yes of course objectively he died for us but he is now in heaven so folks it depends on folks like you and me flexing our muscles clenching our teeth mobilizing our resources so what's the difference between a Christian trying to live a Christian life apart from the presence of Christ in the Christian and Adam at Satan's behest trying to live the life of a man without God in the man what's the difference none it's the same perversion it's the same corruption it's the same satanic fraud little wonder there's so many dispirited Christians little wonder that you never expect to see more than 10% of any Sunday congregation at any meeting through the week that's by and large mostly sick of the rat race trying to be without Christ what they once became because of Christ because somebody has persuaded them that they can make it they've got to do their best to do it when their best is still as pathetically inadequate as it was before redemption so what has Paul said to these poor silly thoughtless unreflecting and senseless relations he says let me ask you this one question it's a rhetorical question because it's so obvious that they know the answer did you receive the Holy Spirit as the result of obeying the law and doing it's work in other words is the presence of God the Holy Ghost living within you a reward from God because you kept the law did you know the answer to that well of course they did I mean it's the most elementary question to ask does a man receive again the Holy Spirit who was perfected in Adam in other words does spiritual rebirth take place in the renewing of the Holy Ghost on the basis of a man's performance well the answer is a resounding no because nobody has ever performed to God's satisfaction all of sin in some sort of the glory of God so what does a guilty sinner need a redeemer who can cleanse him pay the price so the only way a person can receive the Holy Spirit is by the alternative which he poses in this question did you receive the Holy Spirit as a result of obeying the law and doing its work or was it by hearing the message of the gospel and believing now think objectively about that did you receive the Holy Spirit by trying to keep the law or did you receive the Holy Spirit by hearing the gospel and believing so what does Paul the Apostle understand will be the consequence of your hearing the gospel and believing receiving that which you could never receive by trying to keep the law what did they receive that they couldn't by keeping the law but did by obeying the gospel what did they receive the Holy Spirit and this to Paul this to Peter this to the thought of Jesus of course was the gospel but the whole purpose of the redemption act was to reciprocate the regenerated purpose that was the purpose of the life of God why well because he made it that way he just made it that way God is soul and spirit human spirit be inhabited by our creator God through the Holy Spirit through whom the Lord Jesus as man offered himself as man to the Father and whom the Father as God offered himself as God to the Son of Man and we saw yesterday that the Holy Spirit's activity was absolutely imperative to his birth he could only become the man he was to be by the action of the Holy Ghost in precipitating the divine conception so that a woman though betrothed to a man by a wedding that had never been consummate because of a disposition an attitude of mind that she adopted towards God that let God be God is the human vehicle of that divine conception so that the Lord Jesus might be presented by the Father with a body just like yours and mine fashioned in the borrowed womb of that virgin girl uninhabited by sin inhabited only by God but it beholds him in all points to be lost like unto his brethren it beholds the Lord Jesus with whom our flesh and blood and to this end he had to set aside the prerogatives that make God God and deliberately submit himself to the limitations that make man man he didn't come to behave as God though God he was God he is and God he ever will be he came in this world to behave as man but man as he is God created man to be well it took the Holy Spirit for him to become the man he was to be what did it take for him to be the man that he had become because in discovering death we shall know the mind that was in Christ Jesus don't be conformed be transformed by the renewing of your mind let this mind attitude be in you which is in Christ Jesus back in Philippians just for a moment that passage that we were looking at just now what was the mind what was the disposition what was the attitude of the Lord Jesus you'll find it so diametrically opposed to the spirit of the age in which you and I live that of course it's almost shocking being essentially one with God verse 6 in the form of God possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God he did not think this equality with God was a thing to be easily grasped until he came he never once thought it rather he claimed total equality in deity with the Father and the Holy Ghost the Father and I are one but the amazing thing is this that when he came into this world he adopted a disposition an attitude whereby he didn't consider that equality with the Father and the Holy Ghost in deity needed to be retained so what did he do verse 7 emptied himself made himself though the creator of God has no reputation the New English Bible says he made himself nothing nothing he stripped himself of all privileges and rightful dignity so as to assume the guise of a slave in that he became like man and was born a human being born a human being and in being born in becoming a human being conceived of the Holy Ghost and presented by the Father with that sinless body soul spirit mind emotion and will just like yours and mine for it behold him in all points to be like unto his brethren the amazing thing is this that he emptied himself and made himself all that a man is as he made man without God what is all that a man is without God nothing man without God is as useful as a lamp without oil man without God is as useful as a car without gas so when the Lord Jesus came to play the role of man though he himself is the maker though he behaved as creature though he himself is the creator he made himself in his disposition to work the Father nothing he said Father having become man as we God created man to be I know that apart from who you are living where you do now in me by the Holy Spirit I am nothing I have nothing I can do nothing for no better reason Father of course than that we made man that way we made man in such a way that the presence of the creator within the creature is indispensable to his humanity so Father without you I am nothing I have nothing I can do nothing but this mind being used is in question think of all the ingenuity think of the millions of dollars think of the promotion that men engage in to earn a reputation and make themselves something and the creator coming into this world the way the behaviour of man made himself nothing nothing there being made nothing of his own privilege how was he going to be what by the Holy Ghost he was born to become it tells you in Luke 4 Luke's in chapter 4 and Jesus being just the first two words that's all you need in Luke chapter 4 and Jesus being being what man what kind of a man you say man no it's man man is he as God created man to be Jesus he he was born to become man man is going to be the man he was born to become what it takes to be as in the same verse what does it say full of the Holy Ghost so the Holy Spirit was imperative to the birth of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit was imperative to the life of the Lord Jesus full of the Holy Ghost what does it mean when the Lord Jesus we're told was full of the Holy Ghost do we have some ecstatic academic exotic soul stirring emotional experience no of course not do we have to grow his hair long dongle his hair or speak in tongues or go high on Jesus oh no no no he was just being normal a man full of the Holy Ghost is simply one who recognises that he was given a body and a soul and a spirit his soul being his mind his emotions and his will and his human spirit being the place the residence for the Holy Spirit so that he is God by his moral consent from within his heart or soul complete his mind control his emotions so direct his will that God by the Holy Ghost totally controls his behaviour and the moment I'm prepared to settle for that not now and again not in some spectacular moment but every step I take every decision that I make every word that I speak every activity in which I engage I simply maintain a disposition towards the one who is God made me as man so that he is God can be God in the man because if I trusted with my whole heart mind, emotion and will not leaning to my own understanding but acknowledging feeling bringing his kingdom in all my ways what would he do from the 3, 5 and 6 direct our path trust in the Lord with all your heart leaning not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledging him he will direct your path that means he will govern your behaviour you give in your mind to think with your emotions to react with so that his will to decide with and then your body to behave with and he God from within the man governs your behaviour why? because he left you because he left you and when it says the Lord Jesus was being full of the Holy Ghost it means that he allowed the Father as God in the man at all times to call the shot and his sinlessness as we saw yesterday was not that he didn't lie it wasn't that he didn't steal it wasn't that he didn't get drunk the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus was that he allowed the Father as God by the Holy Ghost at all times to tell him what to do where to go and what to say and he never lied because the Father who told him what to say isn't a lie he never fell because the Father who told him what to do isn't a thief he never got drunk because the Father who told him what to do isn't an alcoholic and the Lord Jesus said as my Father sent me so send thy ears so you better have a good look see how I function because you see you will only be transformed into the true image of God so that I looking at you will see myself as the Father looking at me sees himself when you adopt that mind that I now adopt as man towards my Father let this mind be in me which is in Christ Jesus so being full of the Holy Ghost he was told by the Holy Ghost what to do and where to go goes on in that verse to say he was led by whom the Holy Spirit but didn't Jesus Christ have the right to do as he pleased make up his own mind promote his own activity do things for God no, never couldn't he please him first no, never as God, yes as man, never don't turn to it to save a moment but you'll find it in Romans 15 3 that you need you need to make it there in the margin look for one put Romans 15 3 because this is a man being full of the Holy Ghost you know what they say even Christ could not please himself even Christ could not please himself why not because he was man and man you see was created by him who played the role of creature for 33 years to please God that's why the Lord Jesus said do only those things that please him so he was full of the Holy Ghost he was led of the Holy Ghost and of course being tempted return verse 14 in the power of the Holy Ghost so the devil did everything that he knew to persuade the Lord Jesus to be tempted as God but James chapter 1 tells us that God neither tempts with evil neither can he be tempted with evil so the Lord Jesus couldn't be tempted as God he had to be tempted in all points like as you and I are and yet without sin but he had to be tempted as man but as man refusing to be tempted by Satan as God he related everything every temptation to the resources that it is by virtue of the presence of God in the man and he came back 14th verse Luke 4 in the power of the Holy Ghost so who is inherited to the life of Jesus Christ as man on earth Holy Spirit how do you get along without the Holy Ghost go to many churches and you talk about the Holy Spirit they think you're fanatical they withdraw hide behind their hymns the Holy Ghost is God in total equality with the Father and the Son there's no jealousy in the Godverse he is that member of the tribune Godhead through whom a man offers his humanity to God as the Lord Jesus offered his humanity to the Father and the agency whereby God in the fullness of Deity presents himself and shares his life with a man as the Father shared his life with the Son and if you can get by in your Christian life apart from the Holy Spirit if you can run a church apart from the Holy Spirit if you can organize evangelistic crusades apart from the Holy Spirit if you can bust your kids in apart from the Holy Spirit if you can do anything apart from the Holy Spirit then you're on the devil's side and you believe that a man can be man without God and a Christian can be a Christian without Christ because the only way that Christ can indwell your humanity and share his life with you on earth on the way to heaven is through the same Holy Spirit through whom the Father shared his life as God with the Son on earth and if you can get by without the Holy Spirit you can get by without Christ call yourself a Christian to life say you're converted say I'm saved say I'm baptised say anything you like but you're perpetuating the satanic thought he said Philip show us the Father it suffices and the Lord Jesus translated it would you please in John 14 he said the Lord Jesus to Philip verse 9 have I been so long time to you and yet hast thou not known me Philip you that have seen me have seen the Father how sayest thou then show us the Father where else do you need to look Philip except in my direction but don't misunderstand me Philip you don't see the Father in me because I'm God because God is invisible the 6th chapter the 1st epistle of Paul to Timothy tells us that God dwells in a light that no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see and John in his gospel chapter 1 verse 18 says no man has seen God at when any time so don't misunderstand me Philip if I were behaving as God you couldn't see me in point of fact Philip if I were behaving as God you couldn't even approach me but you see from your faith deliberately I set aside the attributes of deity and submitted myself to the criteria of a man's humanity and you see as God Philip we I my Father and the Holy Ghost created man to give his physical visible body a physical and all in the visible expression of an invisible God and you see I'm presenting my body to my Father Philip as I once created you to present your body to me which is God that's why others don't see you in you as others now see my Father in me because you're no longer man you're subhuman you're abnormal but I came to restore you through the gospel to function and then he went on to explain it a little more fully in the next verse don't you believe don't you believe that I'm in my Father and the Father is in me don't you believe that Philip that a unique relationship exists between me and my Father as God a relationship Philip that we intended should always exist between you and ourselves and when you're redeemed when you've eaten my flesh and drunk my blood you will be in me Philip and I will be in you Philip as now I am in my Father and my Father is in me so don't you believe don't you believe Philip that the words that I speak unto I speak not of myself they don't have their origin in me but the Father that dwelleth in me he does the work do you get that on the line you're buying the words that I speak I speak not of myself the Father who dwells in me he does the work everything I do my Father does everything I say my Father says everything I am my Father is so there's only one person to be congratulated by anything that you see the quality of life that you see displayed is that quality that derives from the presence of my Father as God being allowed to be God in the man and I made you that way Philip and when I die upon the cross in the sinlessness of my humanity the only one who can because I alone as we shall see tonight am both physically and spiritually alive it's to the end that I risen from the dead might then come back to indwell your humanity and be to you as God what I am allowing right now Philip my Father to be to me any questions Philip furthermore furthermore verse 12 when you're prepared to adopt towards me Philip the attitude that I adopt towards my Father it's called faith Philip it's called believing it's not just raising your hand and say I'm not going to hell I'm going to heaven it means a disposition an attitude that never ever dares to take one single step except in total dependence upon the fact that God inhabits the man and he as God by the Holy Ghost must motivate what we do and say and are that's what it means Philip to believe and he that believeth on me adopts that mind towards me that I adopt towards my Father the works that I do till he do and greater works than these not qualitatively but quantitatively because I'm going to be with my Father when I've accomplished the redemptive act I'm going back to where I belong in total equality with my Father and the Holy Spirit and in that day in that day Philip I will come to you once you've been cleansed in my blood and in that day Pentecost you will know verse 20 that I'm in my Father and that you're in me and what? I'm in you and that hasn't happened yet Philip because I've got to accomplish the redemptive act before ever the Holy Ghost can come back in spiritual regeneration and put God back into the man and of course any last word before we conclude this morning's lesson but it's fantastic and exciting this was the discovery that completely revolutionized the life of Peter and John and James and all the other apostles who have been such abysmal failures Peter denying his Lord to his faith repudiating the needs of the cross ridiculing the women he said that Jesus was alive on the day of Pentecost he stood up after he had received the life of Christ imparted by the gift to him of the Holy Ghost through whom the Father had lived in the Son and he stands up and in his Pentecostal address Acts 2 22 says you men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth I see it now a man a real man that's what he was trying to tell us all three years a man approved of God what are the characteristics of a God approved man a man who says approved of God by miracles signs and wonders listen very carefully that God God God God by him I see it now that's what he told us the Father who lives in him he did the work who raised Isaac from the dead God by him who fed the five thousands God by him who healed the blind man God by him who walked on the water God by him I see it now and if we will not be prepared to adopt that disposition toward him that he adopted toward the Father he now in us will be given the things that he allowed the Father in him to do I see it now a God approved man that's the gospel that's why the bloody Jesus was saved to make us God approved in him how was it that God by him could do these things he left him when will he Christ be all to us that the Father was to him when he left him that's when you obey the gospel not when you opt out of hell and into heaven but when you are prepared to let Jesus Christ be God in your life from now on God now listen now I know you want to thank again for the sublime Jesus of the Christian faith all you are asking is to get oil back into the lamp gas back into the car and by your presence Lord Jesus in the Christian God back into the man it would be too it would be too heavy to see it it would be too hard you are still convinced by the devil that we have got what it takes that old abdominal nature is still hostile presented with the faithful claims of Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives that old adamanture the calmer mind still clenches its fist and says I won't because for many of us we never really repent only just enough to get out of hell sorry for what we have done because of the consequences that never truly stop for what we are we have never realised that what we do is the result of what we are so we need not only what we do because of what we do but who you are because you play with what we are bring it to fruition and have it available in your own dear and precious amen