The Way We Think

Wayne Matthews

Dec. 24, 2022

Welcome, everybody. The title of today’s sermon, I’m going to give it to you first because it’s an important topic we’re going to look at today. It’s something that should affect us personally. I know Ron has said that there’s people have left the Church over the topic of how bad we are as humans and they’re sick of hearing it, well, this is a sermon they won’t want to hear.

The title of today’s sermon is The Way We Think.

Mankind has been created by God with a mind that is carnal, which means by nature we’re naturally against God’s way of thinking. Mankind has been created with a mind that is selfish, inward thinking, it always thinks to put self’s interests first.

Now, we should be able to see this from our own point of view because we’re called to see it. Some people see aspects of selfishness in the world, but they don’t see what we see because they haven’t been called to see it. Mankind’s natural intent is selfish even though it doesn’t understand or recognize this fact. Because some people do see aspects of selfishness. They will turn around and say, “Ah, that was selfish.” But they don’t see selfishness in self.

If you’d like to turn to Jeremiah 17:9—The heart, which is about the mind, the thinking, the motive within mankind, the mind, the heart is deceitful. Now, that word “deceitful” is “crooked; deceitful; not honest; polluted; sly; insidious,” which is to be cunning, “slippery above all.” So, this mind or this thinking of man, the natural way we are, is all of those things. It’s cunning; it’s polluted because it’s so selfish inwardly.

Now if we were to say that to anybody they’d say, “Well, that’s not me.” But to us we actually are called to see that aspect and then to work at it in a period of time that we have that God gives us an opportunity to see it.

This heart is deceitful above all, above everything, and desperately wicked. Now, who would believe that? That if we were to turn around and say to somebody, “Well, your thinking is desperately wicked.” Well, we’re not called to do that. We’re called to see that our mind is desperately wicked by nature, naturally.

Now, that word “desperately wicked” is “incurable if left to itself.” Because this mind is curable with the power of God’s holy spirit. In other words, it can be overcome, it can be conquered. But without it, all the people out in the world that haven’t been called to see themselves, it cannot be fixed because it’s so cunning it will twist.

Now, we’re seeing at the moment with politics how cunning and deceitful a mind can be. Because it’ll tell another person what the other person wants to hear. That’s politics. Tell them what they want to hear but underneath the mind knows that this is a load of lies, it’s just me trying to get power so that I can earn my $350,000 a year. Everyone is the same. Every job is the same. If we ever think that those out there aren’t being deceitful or they’re not being cunning, we’re deceived, because this is the natural mind that God has created us with for a purpose.

One of our greatest sins that we have without knowing it is that we defend our own selfishness. Because that’s natural, to defend self. In other words, make excuses for self and defend it, justify it, whatever we do. We make excuses why we sinned. By nature we resist God, God’s way of life, which is give. We give into our selfish nature. We work hard to please self. We love self.

Now, most people without being called would not say they love themselves. “Oh no, I sacrifice for everybody. I donate my time to charity. I do ‘this,’ I do ‘that,’” I, I, I, I, because it’s about “I,” “me,” “self.” But by nature we love ourselves and it’s difficult for us to actually see how much we love ourselves. But we do. We love ourselves first above all. Even though we might say we love somebody else, what God says, “No, the real person is we love ourselves because we will put self first.” We need God’s holy spirit, of course, to counteract that, to love someone else.

We will do anything and everything to protect the image we have or that we are building. That’s what we do by nature. That’s what happens in the world. People want to protect the image that they have. They dress a particular way. They drive a particular car. They have a particular job. They have a particular title so that it projects out an image, so that they are well thought of. The moment that a person isn’t well thought of there’s a disturbance that takes place in the mind. “What do you mean you think I’m full of vanity?” Because it’s natural, we have vanity by nature.

We have an opinion about everything. By nature we are, or we have a lying spirit. Now, we wouldn’t acknowledge that, that our natural carnal mind it lies, it exaggerates every single day. So, no matter who we’re dealing with in the world underneath they are lying. Only they don’t admit it, they don’t know it. But they lie because they know opposite. They often know different, but they will lie. So, that’s us.

Now, this sermon is about us because we’ve been called to acknowledge this and to see it within self. Deep, deep down we’re cunning liars. Deep down. Without God’s holy spirit that’s the way we live our life, only it’s difficult to see it, and people don’t.

Scripture continues…who can know it? So, all of that, who can know it? Well, only God. Only God can know it to it’s fullest extent.

Verse 10—I the Eternal, search the heart, which is the mind, the thinking, the intent, why we do what we do. I test the mind. Now, it’s talking about someone who’s been called.

Because God does not have to work with somebody in the world to know the way they think because He created it selfish. We have a satanic thinking by nature. It’s the way we are. So, God doesn’t have to test it, He already knows what’s going to happen. He knows the response. It’ll be a deception, it’ll lie, it will justify, it will do everything to protect self.

So, this is really talking about somebody that’s in God’s Church.

Now, what are trials about for us? Trials for us are about experiences to see what we will do, the way we think. So, we’re put in an environment and God looks at it and says, I test the mind, the secret parts, which are our motive and intent. So, when we’re in a particular environment what God is interested in is to see, well, what will we really do? Will we rely on the self, or will we rely on His spirit to lead us through that trial, to see what we will do. God tests our thinking once we have been called.

We’re called and then things are put in front of us. And of course, the first one that is generally put in front of us in the seventh-day Sabbath because it’s a test command. The Sabbath is a test commandment; therefore, we’re tested. Okay, called to see what will we now do on this day. Well, God will find out what we will do, whether we will put Him first and listen to what He’s got to say.

I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, based on our choices. So, our choice will bring two things – a blessing from God or a curse. We understand it’s just an automatic thing because it’s the way we think. So, the way we think has automatic consequences and we should have learned some of these consequences from examining ourselves to see what we’re really like individually.

…according to the fruit of his doings. So, it’s whatever happens in our life, our actions, what we decide, there is going to be a consequence. Often people think that “Oh, well, I’ll just do this,” and they’ve worked out the consequences. But they’ve only worked out the consequences according to what they think. It’s not necessarily the consequences to God’s word. Because we know there’s a blessing and cursing that goes with every decision that’s made in life.

Once called a person by the power of God’s holy spirit can begin to see spiritual matters, and then we must choose to think differently, which is to repent of all thinking that is against God’s way.

Now, that sounds reasonably simple, but we will be faced with this on a continual basis all of our life. This takes time and this takes experiences. We’re going to have to experience a lot in life so that God can bring us to a point that He can say, “Now I know you.” He knows that whatever trial comes ahead we will go a particular direction; we will do this, or we will do that. The only way to find out is to test us.

We are guaranteed brethren, that we’re going to be tested, going to be placed in trials, and if we try to avoid all the trials one way or the other the trial will turn up to see which way we think. God needs to know that before He says, “Now I’m going to give you life in Elohim.” He needs to know our decision.

Once called a person must come to be in full unity with the truth, with the way God thinks, with God’s government. That’s important because God’s government on this earth, the Church of God, God’s government is about God’s holy spirit. We have to come into unity with God’s holy spirit and we have to come into unity with what the government of God gives us to believe, the way to live life.

Once called a person must choose to yield to God’s government on this earth. Now, that word “choose to yield.” Because our life is about choices. It’s about choosing to do something. So, we’re either going to choose to go against or we’re going to choose to yield. Now, we have chosen to yield to God. That’s why we’re here today. The seventh-day Sabbath. It’s a choice. A person can choose not to yield. How? And how is it obvious? By non-attendance over a long period of time. That’s a choice. Excuses.

Remember, the natural carnal mind is deceitful, wicked. So, if we know ourselves we can make excuses about a lot of things in life that we want to have our way and not yield to God’s way.

Truth 9. Got a couple truths here. The reason I wanted to cover them was because we often take the truth for granted. But to understand this one particular truth, truth 9, is an absolute incredible thing that there’s only a few hundred people that actually understand it on a spiritual level. Out of the seven billion people, most people don’t understand this truth, but we have been given this gift by God. Because truth is revealed by God when He chooses to reveal it.

So, this is in the era of Mr. Armstrong being the apostle that this truth was revealed. It is so incredible that we here understand it. There’s a few of them.

9 (6) The human spirit in man.

Now, mankind out there doesn’t understand this. They just don’t understand it. They’ve got scientists, people pay big money to try to investigate this. They’ve got scans to look at your brain, looking for things. “Why? Why is somebody a serial killer?” Well, we should know these things because God has revealed it to such a few group of people over time.

The difference between the human mind and animal brain is that there is a human spirit within the human brain that gives the ability of free thought, creativity, and memory.

Now, it’s interesting that they’re trying to get animals, to teach them to count. An animal will never count to 180 because it doesn’t have the human spirit. God gave it. Animals were created differently. It’s an amazing thing. But the world does not know it. We know this, that they can spend hundreds of millions of dollars getting a chimpanzee in a cage to count to three. They’ve got some to count because of habit and repetition.

But they’re not going to have that creativity. God didn’t make them that way. God never designed animals to count. There is no purpose in animals counting. There is a purpose in us counting because we have to count fifty. So you can understand we know how to count. We know God’s calendar. Animals will never know God’s calendar because they were never created to know it.

This human spirit must be united with the spirit of God for man [mankind] to be able to come to know the true ways of God.

Now, isn’t that an incredible thing that we know? We have been connected, the human spirit with God’s holy spirit. There’s very few people on this earth that have this and know this. That’s why we know God’s truths. That’s why we’re here today because we know something that most people have no idea about, and they don’t care, for that matter.

The fact is very few from mankind have ever known this truth, this particular truth. But we know and understand it. It is God that decides when to reveal a truth. And yet we’ve been called. So, God thought about us, called us out of all those billions of people, and gave us this knowledge. Staggering to think that the Creator of the universe who has existed forever thought about giving this truth to us.

Now, there’s a purpose in that. The purpose in all of this is that we would be converted, we would change the way we think so that that mind that I’ve just covered before and then God revealed in Jeremiah, that mind that’s deceitfully wicked, that that can be transformed. That’s a staggering thing. We know it. The world knows nothing about it. They think we’re insane saying these things.

The purpose of this sermon is to explore how someone called by God can change the way they think, and I’ve been through the title.

12 (9) Only those whom God the Father calls and draws to Him can be converted.

Now, that word “converted” means “to turn.” So, when a person is converted they’re turned. Well, what happens to us? We turn. We’re living a particular way of life and we then turn to live another way of life. We’ve been converted, which is to turn. Only those called can begin to turn to think differently. We know the word “repent” is “to think differently.”

So, this mind that we have by nature, we are then called by God to turn from that way of thinking to another way of thinking, which is about Sabbath, obedience to God, Holy Days, and therefore, we turn, we start to think differently. And of course, the world loves us because we’re thinking differently. But the more we turn, the more we’re converted, the more we will be disliked by mankind because we then turn away from Easter, Christmas, and all the other things, and therefore, we’re different. True? We’re turning. We’re converting to something else. We’re changing.

The world thinks we’re weird, but God doesn’t. Because the only reason God has called us is for the purpose of being converted. Otherwise, what’s the point? Might as well just live life selfishly. No, we’re to live a different life. God calls us to live a different way of life which is about sacrificing self, sacrificing this carnal mind that we all have by nature.

Only those God calls can come into the fellowship of the Church of God.

We think, why, how? Because fellowship is about unity. Fellowship, we can get on with each other, we talk to each other, and without a calling from God we probably would have no real association with each other. But it’s the truth that God has revealed to us that keeps us together in fellowship. We believe the same thing. We can get excited about the same thing.

We mention the word “Feast of Tabernacles” and we get excited. You mention that to someone in the world and they think, “Crazy people! Feast of what?” That’s an exciting thing but there’s very few, and we often forget there is so few in this world today that have this understanding and the power of God’s holy spirit. So few out of all the billions of people. So, what a unique calling.

Continuing on with that truth:

Satan has deceived the whole world, and the Church is called out of the world. (John 6:44)

Now, you can understand why people say, “What do you mean you’re called out of the world?” Well, it’s the way of thinking. We think differently. What they seek and what they get pleasure in, what we used to seek and get pleasure in, our selfishness, they still do, and they can’t come out of it. It’s not possible. It’s only by the power of God’s holy spirit that someone can come out of that way of thinking.

That changes our relationships with others. As we were talking before, everyone out there lies. I mean everybody lies, and we do often to ourselves because we still have a degree of selfishness in us. We have a degree of pride in us that we’re supposed to be overcoming. But the reality is that the amount of God’s spirit that we have changes the way we think, but the natural carnal mind, the physical always normally comes back first, because that’s the natural mind, that’s what we’re battling, and we’ll battle it for our whole lives.

Romans 12:1. So, we can look at why we were called. Well, the real reason we’re called, other than entering Elohim, it’s a process. We’re being called to think differently, to change the way we think from what Jeremiah revealed to us, that God revealed through Jerimiah to us, this natural mind that we have by nature. Well, we’ve got to fight against it.

Now, if we don’t, there’s a scripture we may get to it (I hope we do), that the carnal mind can’t enter Elohim. Not possible. The physical carnal mind that does not have God’s holy spirit and is not changing or being converted is never going to enter Elohim. Never. The only way we can enter Elohim is through the power of God’s holy spirit where we begin this transformation.

Romans 12:1—I (Paul) beseech (urge) you therefore, brethren, by the mercies (favor) of God, because look at the mercy and favor God’s shown to us, so few we are in the Body of Christ today. What great mercy that He has called us to change. Could have been somebody else, but it’s not, it’s us. We’ve got this task in this present evil age.

…by the mercies of God, that you present, or you yield your bodies a living sacrifice. So, that’s what we’ve got to do. That’s the hard part that we have to do, brethren, is to yield the way we think to God’s thinking. We’ve got to learn to sacrifice our self. Because God’s way of life, love, is about sacrificing. Well, the opposite, which we know we were born with, is about self, pleasing self. Now we have to learn to please God, please others.

…holy, acceptable, which is pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (logical) service. And do not be conformed, which is to blend into this world, but be transformed, which is metamorphoo, to change into another form. Well, that’s what our journey within the Body of Christ is about. It’s about this transformation of the mind.

Now, how do we do it? So, how are we transformed? …by the renewing, which is the renovation, the complete change for the better of your mind. So, that’s the task we have. It’s about the way we think.

Now, there are many things that we think of in life that are still selfish even within the Body of Christ because we often fall back to what we would consider, just, well, that’s just the habit that we have of thinking. It’s the way we think. We’ve been called to renew our mind, to renovate it, to change it and that you may prove, by living the truth, that which is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So obedience to God is this transformation. We have a natural carnal mind that pleases self. Well, now we must set out to please God. We have been called to change the way we think. That’s really what a calling is about.

Once called we enter this process of beginning to change the way we think. So we see that separation taking place where people are more and more difficult to deal with in the sense they don’t understand us, they may like us, they may not (doesn’t really matter), but it’s more difficult for them, too, because we’re the ones changing. It’s not that they’re changing, they can’t. They can only think selfishly, they can only be selfish because that’s the natural carnal mind.

Well, we’ve been called to fight against it. In the world’s eyes that fighting against the natural carnal mind, they don’t understand, and they see it as quite weird, the fact that we will do certain things that they think are just not normal, we’re not normal. But we’re the normal ones because we’re undertaking something God requires of us.

Matthew 18:1—At that time the disciples came to Joshua, saying, Who then is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? Now, we see from a natural carnal mind that question is the same as, well, it’s driven by pride. “Who’s the greatest? Who is going to be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Well, it’s a carnal question.

Then Joshua called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted, so unless you turn from this natural carnal mind, from pride to humility is what’s really being said. So, unless we are willing to choose to yield to others by sacrificing we have to learn this yielding and become as a little child, which is to have humility and be teachable. So, unless we’re teachable on the Sabbath and we learn to yield to what is given we cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

…you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You will by no means enter Elohim. So, it’s impossible. So, unless we set out on this journey to be converted, to turn from what we are selfishly to non-selfish, to have the thinking of God, it’s impossible to enter Elohim.

Well, we’re faced with that today. The world is not faced with it, but we here, and those listening that have been called to be converted, this is a statement from Christ. Unless we’re willing to enter the battle and to fight and to turn from the way we are naturally we cannot enter Elohim. Unless we have humility and learn to yield we cannot enter Elohim. It’s not going to be possible.

Acts 3:18—But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled, referring to Joshua. Repent. Now, we understand the word, what we have to do, repent. That word “repent” as has been mentioned often is “to think differently” in the Greek. We’ve got to think differently.

So, the natural way of responding to an environment or situation, we have to learn to think differently about it. Now, in times past I know that someone would turn around and say something aggressively about me and the natural mind would either seek revenge or justify the action or turn around and respond by saying, “Well, you’re just an idiot anyway.” We have to learn to yield to what God says, and God says we’re not to respond in kind that way. We’re to respond in a loving way. So, how do we do that? Well, it’s only by the power of God’s holy spirit that we can learn through experience not to respond that way.

Now, someone can turn around now and say, “You’re just an idiot.” I’ll say, “Okay.” Who cares what someone else thinks, really? We’re worried about what God thinks of us. He’s testing us to see what we’ll do, how we will respond. Well, that’s what we have to learn through this experience, the way we respond to environments.

Now, we’ll all be put in different environments and having to learn to yield. Because by nature we have pride, and we’ll want to take revenge, or we’ll want to respond and defend self. That’s all natural. Well, we’ve been called to learn to yield, which is about humility. Only God can give us that humility and to change the way we think so that we begin to say, “Okay,” and start to accept things.

Well, what’s going on in Australia in the moment with elections. Like they say, “Who is going to win?” The answer to it is God raises them up and God pulls them down. So, it’s going to be what God does and the way God wants it. God raises up a leader, God pulls the leader down. It depends on what God’s will is for this earth and what the end-time is going to be. So, all the voting is not going to make any difference because God can influence an outcome and raise somebody up or pull somebody down.

So, the answer to it is God’s will will be done. Whatever happens it make no difference, it’s God’s will. And if “such-and-such” winds and it’s a surprise, well, that’s God’s will. If somebody else wins, well, that’s God’s will. Man can’t influence. It’s God if it’s the right time or God wants somebody in a position that’s what’s going to happen.

Verse 19—Repent, think differently, therefore, and be converted, which is this turning, make a change, and to learn to yield that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing… Now, what’s that talking about? Well, we have to have our minds refreshed. This is about once called we have the opportunity to change, to think a different way, to refresh our mind, refresh our thinking.

…may come from the presence of the Lord. What does that say? Well, this is about if we have God’s holy spirit we can then be refreshed, we can have a new refreshed mind, a converted mind, which is a renovated mind.

God living in us enables us to change our thinking. Now, we can’t change our natural selfishness without the power of God’s holy spirit. It’s not possible, just won’t happen. That’s why we shouldn’t expect a lot from people in the world. We really shouldn’t. Because they don’t have the power to think differently. They might think differently about certain things but on a spiritual level they can’t believe the truth. It’s not possible.

15 (12) The holy spirit coming into us only begets us.

So, we are now what is considered “begotten sons of God.” In other words, we have God’s spirit dwelling in us, so we’ve been begotten. But we’ve not yet inherited anything.

God’s holy spirit opens our minds so we can understand the coded book, the Bible, [So, we then start to see things], which is otherwise locked from our understanding.

So, we shouldn’t expect others to live the lifestyle that we live because they don’t understand God’s word.

Without that spirit [holy spirit] we cannot understand the Bible. Spiritual knowledge comes from the Bible through the revelation of the holy spirit that God grants a portion of as He calls someone.

Now, the world doesn’t understand that, but we know this. This is incredible knowledge. Out of the billions of people, how many people understand this truth? Very, very few – a few hundred.

Once baptized, this holy spirit then continues to dwell in those that have been begotten of God’s spirit, so that a person can continue to grow in knowledge and understanding of God.

Now, that only happens by Sabbath keeping and listening to sermons. Like, a person can listen to a sermon without God’s holy spirit and what will happen? Absolutely nothing. It’s not possible. But if a person listens to a sermon with God’s holy spirit something will start to transform in the mind. “Ah, I didn’t hear that before.” Even though the sermon is seven years old, “Ah, I didn’t hear that before,” because it’s spiritual.

The sermons that are given are spiritual in nature, therefore, with God’s holy spirit all the more reason why we should listen to a sermon more than once. Because there is always something in there that is meant for us, and sometimes it’s years before the light goes on and say, “Ah, never heard that before.” Isn’t that incredible? And therefore, we’re all at different levels.

Somebody that is called and is doing week one is totally different thinking than someone that’s been around for thirty years. But someone that’s around thirty-five years may be at the same knowledge of someone who’s been around for two years because it’s all about the power of God’s holy spirit and the choices we’ve had, and we’ve had to make about yielding. So, the more we yield, the more we desire God’s thinking, God says, you know the scripture talks about, “Whatever you ask, it will be given to you.” Well, that’s spiritual. Well, it’s not a physical thing, it’s spiritual.

So, if we ask to have our minds transformed, we want to think differently, we want to respond differently in particular environments God will give us the power to respond differently in different environments because it’s about His holy spirit. But if we don’t desire it it’s not going to be given, is it?

This is about a desire to think differently. We want to think differently. Personally, I desire that I’d respond in a different way and not said what I said, and then you bit your tongue, “Stupid Wayne!” But it’s in the mind, it’s all in the mind. You’re not saying anything it’s just that you’ve realized you’ve done the wrong thing, or you’ve said the wrong thing and you go, “Argh!” and you want to punish yourself for it. Well, we can go to God and be forgiven and move on. And next time, it’ll repeat itself, and you go, “Experience! Learned to think differently. That wasn’t the right way that I did it last time.”

They now have the power to think differently, to change the way they naturally think. Isn’t this incredible that we know this? I’m sorry, the more I went over this I was just so staggered what God has given His Church and His people, and we just take it for granted. Here we are we’re just going on, “Yeah, but going to think different.” This is just incredible because nobody knows this. We do and we have to live it. That’s our choice. But we’ve been given this gift. Incredible!

From the way of get to the way of give. Almost throw away words. Mr. Armstrong used to talk about it all the time, “the way of get to the way of give.” It’s all simple. It is not simple. The way of get is the natural carnal mind. The way of give is God’s mind. That transformation, that conversion that has to take place takes years. It doesn’t happen overnight.

The natural carnal mind cannot do it because the natural carnal mind can give but it’s getting. It gets something back. It’s about pride, other things that go on in the mind, whereas this way that we have to live is the way of give, expecting nothing in return – sacrificing. Sacrifice. It’s incredible. But we know it.

So, no matter if someone is generous from the world to us (it’s a good thing), but the motive is what God’s looking at. God’s looking at the heart, why.

The politicians have all given us extra money in the bank account. What was their motive? It wasn’t the gift of God’s holy spirit that they gave us money; this was about them getting something back. It’s called a vote. I felt like ringing them up and saying, “Thanks for the money, but I don’t vote.” They’d want the money back. But that’s what it’s all about. There’s a motive behind every action in life.

Now, that’s the secret. We should be looking at our motive and our intent in every action in life. There is one, it’s tucked away in there somewhere; it’s in the mind. It’s in the mind. So, even in the Church a person can give and still sin, which I mentioned before, because it goes back to why a person’s doing it.

So, someone can pay tithes or give an offering and still sin. Staggering as it sounds because it’s given for the wrong motive. It’s given to please the apostle, it’s given to whatever reason, but it’s the wrong motive. The reason that we give tithes and offerings is to please God. It’s God’s Church. What happens with the money once it goes to God’s Church, once it’s given, it’s not our problem. Not our accountability. Not given that authority, someone else has.

We now have the power to think differently and to reject our selfish thinking. That’s all easily said but it’s not that simple to do. We need trials. We need this experience to see what we will choose. So, when we go through a trial or experience we should be able to look down a little deeper than the trial itself. We’re going to look a little deeper and say, “Well, I’m in this trial. Why? What is it that I need to change the way I think about something?” It may go on for years and years and years and not ever see the reason why because we’re not given that sight to see.

But there is something that we need to build a character, a certain way of thinking. So, we’re often in trials and we don’t understand why, but we have to go through them because it is about this changing the way we think.

Romans 7:7. This is Paul and he’s referring about God’s law. What shall we say then, is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, which is, you know, complete opposite, really. I would not have known sin except through or by the law. So, here we are, brethren, we now have the power (because mankind doesn’t), we have the power now to see sin.

The law tells us what sin is, so the law is a wonderful thing, that it reveals, “Ah, this is what sin is.” The breaking of the Sabbath, the seventh-day Sabbath, that’s what reveals sin. The law shows you what the Sabbath is, and therefore, because we see that we now know what sin is. Somebody who doesn’t keep the Sabbath properly sins. So, the law is holy. It’s good. It’s a guide. It’s clear. It shows you what sin is.

That’s what Paul is saying. He wouldn’t have known what sin was except for the law. For I would not have known covetousness (lust) unless the law said, You shall not covet. So the law is holy, as we’re going to read, therefore, the law is our guide.

When we examine the thinking we should be able to go through the law in our mind to see how we are acting. Is God first in our life? First commandment. You know, God is above all. So, do we commit idolatry during a week? And the answer is, yes, every one of us, only we just don’t see it yet. But we often put things before God without even realizing it. And what do we put before God? Self. Because we’ve got a natural carnal mind. We’ll always put self ahead of God. We need God’s holy spirit to see what covetousness is, what idolatry is. We need God’s spirit. The law tells us these things, otherwise we wouldn’t do it.

That’s why the world out there, if you were to go up to the average person and say, “You commit idolatry every single day,” they would think you’re crazy. There is no way they committed idolatry. They think you’ve got to have a statue. It’s not about a statue. Self is the biggest idol in our life, our selfishness. That’s what we put first. We please self first before we please God.

We can only know what sin is by “seeing” (and I’ve got “seeing” in brackets because it’s spiritual, we have to see on the spiritual level in the mind) the laws of God, seeing the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is love.

The moment we please self before pleasing God, anything that God says we do contrary, that’s idolatry. Because we’re putting something else, self, selfishness before God.

The spirit of our nature is to love self. The spirit of the law is to love God. They’re complete opposite. Well, by nature, of course, we know we love self, we will protect self.

Verse 8—But sin, which is the transgression of God’s law, we understand, takes opportunity by the commandment produced (revealed) in me all desires, all these different desires that we have, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” they’re all there.

For apart from the law sin was dead. So, in other words, we can’t see sin because we don’t see the law. If we don’t have a law, well, we just live life. In other words, we could not see sin, we just did our own thing.

Well, before being called that’s exactly what we did, we did our own thing. We just lived life. We had particular rules in that we may or may not have kept, but not according to God’s word.

I was alive once without the law, which we were, but when the commandment came, in other words, we’re called to see the law now, sin revived, and I died. Now we can see sin. Before we couldn’t see it, so we thought we were doing all right. Now, uh-oh, we now see sin, ah, now we’re in trouble because we brought the death penalty on us because now we see it. Now we can see sin, the death penalty that comes with it. We now see it and go, “Ah.” The wages of sin is? Death.

Verse 10—The commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. Because now we see it and go, “Oh no, the wages of sin is death.” For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. It revealed the death penalty. So, now we see the death penalty. We’re under the death penalty. We’re under it everyday. The moment we sin the death penalty is applied to us. We need to repent.

Therefore, the law, this is God’s law, is holy, the commandment holy and just and good. Yet everyone says it’s done away. Yet here clearly in scripture it says, “The commandment is holy, just, and good.” Why would you do away with something that is holy and good and just? Doesn’t make sense, does it?

Has then what is good, which is the law from God’s mind… Remember the law comes from God’s thinking because it’s revealing the sin that’s in our natural mind. So, that’s how we see it, because we now see the law and we see now, ah, we have a natural carnal mind as outlined in Jeremiah. That’s what it is. It’s hostile against God by nature. …become death to me? Ah, so now we see it, now we realize we’re under the death penalty.

Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through/by what is good, the law. So, the law revealed it and we’re under the death penalty, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

The more we see the spirit of the law the more we see sin. Because having just the law and what it is you can say, “Well, that’s sin. Breaking the Sabbath is sin. Yep.” Now you have to look deeper. We have to look deeper, brethren, the intent, why we do what we do. That’s what reveals what sin is, motive. Because there are so many things that people can do for the wrong motive, and they can appear to be good.

Example I’ve given: giving an offering. Giving an offering, which is commanded by God, and God’s Church has verified seven times in a season, so we’re to yield to that and should do it seven times in a year (not a season), in a year. So, we should yield to that. And if we don’t yield to that what is that saying? It’s same as giving first tithe or saving second tithe. We’re to yield to what God tells us. If we don’t what is that saying? We look at our motive.

So why, what is our motive that we don’t do it? What is the motive that we would desire to rob from God in tithes? What do you think the motive is, brethren? It’s selfishness. Because there is only two choices here, selfishness, get, or give, God’s holy spirit. Because it’s motive that is. It’s not about the giving, it’s about the motive of why we do what we do.

Verse 14—For we know, we see that the law is spiritual, because it’s about the intent. The intent is to do no harm to anybody. The intent is to obey God, to yield to God. That’s our intent.

But I am carnal, “I am selfish,” sold, which is like a slave, to sin. The natural mind cannot think spiritually. Simple. We know these things. But we have to learn to deal with it and to recognize it more deeply than what we have in times past.

Verse 15—For what I am doing, I do not understand. I don’t perceive. Why? Because it happens automatically. We respond to things automatically. It’s just natural. It’s the natural mind. That’s the way we were brought up, that’s the way we respond. For what I will to do… Now, he wills here, it’s Paul speaking, we will to do good. That’s what we will. We’ll say, “Okay, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not going to respond that way anymore.” I do not practice. In other words, something else happens – automatic. Argh. Off we go and do our natural mind.

But what I hate, selfishness, that I do. So even though we will not to do this we often do it because it’s just habitual.

If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So, we know the law is good, we want to do this, but we can’t because the natural mind kicks in and pride kicks in and the mind starts to go off, all the things we’d like to do to that person and sort that matter out. That’s natural. That’s what we would do. Well, we practice that. We’re then called to un-practice that and to practice something different, think differently.

Verse 17—But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. It’s natural. Sin in the mind apart from God’s holy spirit. So, it’s natural to respond a particular way or do a particular thing. The natural mind of selfishness will always be at work in us, therefore, we must learn to fight, to recognize it, and overcome it’s desires.

Now, that’s easily said, difficult to do because of the way of our nature. We must always be ready to repent once we see sin. It’s about examining ourselves and just seeing where we do fail and say, “Ah,” and willing not to do that again. Even though we might do it again we’re to continue with that desire not to do it again. And over time, over experience and time in particular, and going through that trial we will respond differently than what we used to.

Verse 18—For I know, I see that in me (that is, in my flesh), which is in the natural carnal mind, nothing good dwells. That’s a wonderful statement, “nothing good dwells” in the natural carnal mind. Just don’t tell anyone outside of the Church that or you’re going to be in trouble.

We are totally, totally selfish by nature, and it’s much worse than we recognize within ourselves. Much, much worse than we recognize.

For to will is present with me, we desire to do this good, we desire to please God, we desire to do the right thing, but how to perform what is good I do not find. Because the natural mind just kicks back in, it responds back because we’ve done it for years.

For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil, which is all based on pride, I will not to do, that I practice. So, there’s so many automatic things within us, brethren, that we don’t realize, and prejudices that we don’t realize that they’re there because the natural mind, it’s been developed over years.

For me it was thirty odd years of practicing pride, practicing selfishness. And then for God to call and to begin a process, I’ve got to learn to yield. Thirty-nine-years later, has it got a lot better? A little. Because it takes time. This is not easy. This battle will go on forever. I’ve found as I’ve got older that things are more obvious, that sometimes I think, like, this is pretty hopeless, we’re getting no where here. And I realize, sometimes I’ve gone backwards.

Anyway, we will continue on. That’s what God has called us for, to continue on, to endure to the end. The more we go through experiences the more I begin to see, “Oh, I’m not doing that well after all.” After all those years maybe things are a bit worse than what I first thought I saw. They’re worse. Well, it’s about the fight. It’s not about the length of time, it’s about the fight and staying in the fight until the very end.

Verse 19—For the good that I will to do, I do not do. But the evil I will not to do, that I practice. I think we all could probably say that. That’s what we do. It’s just natural.

Verse 20—Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, which is because we were created in selfishness, that’s in the mind, that evil (selfishness) is present with me, the one who wills to do good. Well, that’s what we can say. We desire to do good. We desire to please God. But we were created another way for a purpose. That’s the purpose.

We’ve been called at this time, very few called at this time to fight this battle. Others haven’t. So, we don’t expect much from them, do we, because they can’t. They’ll always be selfish.

For I delight, which is I rejoice in the law of God according to the inward man. Nobody knows it. Nobody knows that we’re walking around with this fight. They can’t see it. They just think you’re a normal person going into a shop. Normal. But underneath in here is a massive battle going on on particular days.

So once called we have to make a personal choice in the mind.

Verse 23—But I see another law in my members, which is this carnal mind, warring against the law (God’s) in my mind. So, there’s a contradiction here. They’re two different things. But that’s what God created us for and to enter Elohim we have to have entered the fight.

…to bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Because we could say that “Ah, it’s just, like, terrible.” We really deep down are quite evil because we’re quite cunning. We don’t even realize half those things we are. Well, who’s going to deliver us?

Well, to be wretched means that we see the pride that drives our motive and intent. Because that’s what it’s about. Why we do what we do is the most important thing. What’s the motive? It’s either two things. One is, the motive is to get back to self, get something. Now, it may be credit, it may be somebody getting, “Oh, that’s nice. Wayne’s a generous person.” Or it can be lots of other things. But every action has a motive. Or it’s based on God’s spirit which is one of sacrifice. We’re either sacrificing to please God, not to please self. There’s always that choice in every single action that we do. We see that we are wrong, and God is right, and that’s the battle.

I thank God—through Joshua the Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, he desires to be obedient, but with the flesh, the natural mind, the law of sin. Selfish. The main point here is that we are in the battle and that we never give up. Because that’s what it’s about, it’s about the battle.

Romans 8:1—There is therefore no condemnation. So, we’re not under the death penalty if we’ve repented. That’s what it’s really saying. We’re not under this death penalty that is automatic if certain things. …to those who are in Christ Joshua. In other words, God’s word dwells in us and we are obedient to God’s word. That’s the battle we’re in. We want to be obedient to God’s word.

…who do not walk according to the flesh. So, in other words, we don’t just yield to our natural carnal mind of selfishness. We stop and go, “Ah, no, I’m going to do this…” When we do that sometimes it really hurts. But that’s the point because you’re fighting the natural carnal mind. We’re fighting that mind; therefore, it hurts. You think, “Uh.” It’s a choice we have to make though.

…but according to the spirit. So, we are to walk according to the spirit of the law. What’s the spirit of the law? It’s love. We’re to walk in love to all at our own expense, and that’s the battle.

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Joshua has made me free… How? By forgiveness, repentance. If we repent we will be forgiven, therefore, we become free. …from the law of sin and death. So, we’re free from the death penalty. This ongoing repentance will mean we’re not under the death penalty. It’s a marvelous thing.

Now, how many people know that? How many people know that the transgression of God’s law is sin? How many people care about sin? Not many. Those that have been called to care about the law.

The law does not change people and it doesn’t make people sin. The law just simply reveals what sin is. We have to choose to change.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, because we are weak naturally, we’re selfish, we act selfishly, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. In other words, he paid the penalty for sin. We don’t have to pay it as long as we repent. We’re not under the death penalty as long as we repent.

Verse 4—that the righteous requirement of the law, which is to walk in the spirit of the law in faith, the power of God’s holy spirit, might be fulfilled in us. So, it’s got to be in us. It’s got to be a choice we’ve made. We’ve yielded to it. …who do not walk according to the flesh. We don’t walk according to selfishness anymore, but according to the spirit. Our intent is to live love. And often we don’t because of our natural mind.

Verse 5—For those who live according to the flesh, selfishness, set their minds on the things of the flesh. That’s natural. So, we shouldn’t expect anything from anybody else. We shouldn’t expect politicians to act differently. We shouldn’t expect lawyers to act differently. We shouldn’t expect anybody to act differently. They can’t because deep down their motive is selfish. Even though it may look like it’s good, it’s not. It’s actually selfish. They’re getting something back. That may not be something physical straight away, it can be in the mind. There’s a pleasure in the mind that takes place. It’s called pride. It can be elevated.

…but those who live according to the spirit, which is what we’re supposed to be doing, living the spirit of the law, the things of the spirit.

Verse 6—For to be carnally minded, which is to be selfish, is death. So, everybody out there is under the death penalty. We shouldn’t be because we’re in a state of repentance, ongoing repentance.

But to be spiritually minded, which is by the power of God’s holy spirit, is life and peace. Yes, there is a peace of mind in the fact that we are obedient to God. There’s a lot of things in the world where people are stressed out of their brains, literally, because of things. We’re at peace. We can look at things and go, “Hmm.”

There’s a bit of an inquiry at the moment on about flying saucers and they’ve got a big committee, powerful people meeting in a room trying to talk about flying saucers, what they are and all that, and they will not come to the right conclusion. It’s absolutely impossible for them to come to the right conclusion because it’s spiritual and they can’t think spiritually. If we were to get in contact with them and give them the answer? “Yeah, sure. I just had a nut on the phone.” That’s what they’d say. That’s what they’d say because that’s all they can do.

So, all the money and billions of monies and all the answers and all the high-power intellects are going to come up with a conclusion that is totally and totally and totally wrong. Has to be. It’s selfish. It’s natural carnal mind. They can’t come up with the answer because the answer is spiritual.

Verse 7—But the natural mind, the carnal mind that we were created with is enmity, which is hostile against God. It hates God. The natural mind is against God, therefore, no one out there is going to believe the truth except those that are called to see it.

…for it is not subject, which means it will not yield. The natural mind will not yield to the law of God. So why would we expect anybody to yield to the law of God? They’re not going to. They can’t.

The difference is that’s our natural mind that we have, still dwells in here, still natural, but with the power of God’s holy spirit we can begin to change. It’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it? I find it exciting. I find it really exciting that we out of all the people that God has allowed to live, we at this time have this incredible knowledge of truths. There’s fifty-odd, fifty-seven truths. No one else has those truths with spiritual understanding. They can read them, but it means nothing.

Isn’t it amazing what God has done for you and me? It’s absolutely amazing. We should be in awe of it all. The fact that what we’re talking about today, we should be in awe of it, that we know the purpose of life. We’re living it! We, members of the Body of Christ, are the only people alive today that are living the purpose of life! The purpose of life is to transform the way we think.

It’s just a wonderful, wonderful thing. We’re living it. We’re going through this experience for that very purpose, to be transformed spiritually at one point, but to transform the mind now where we’re yielding to God so that at a point in time God can say, “Now I know you,” and we will have life in Elohim forever, which we don’t understand. Things that are far beyond our minds of comprehension. Trillions and trillions, and hundreds of trillions, and trillions and trillions of years in the future this will mean very little. Because it’ll have just all gone on and it will never stop. It’s just so exciting that that’s our potential, the human potential, to live in Elohim. It’s staggering!

We undervalue it. I know at times I have, undervalued what God is really doing for us, members of the Body of Christ, and what God has sacrificed and the years that have been passed (counting time, human time), in the past what has taken place with the creation, dinosaurs, spirit beings, all that stuff just to get to this point today where we’re looking for the return of Christ to solve the problems that can’t be solved by anybody else.

Because man doesn’t have the mind to solve them because all the problems are spiritual in nature. Because the mind, everything here, Satan’s mind, man’s mind is all against God. The natural carnal mind, it's intent, is totally against God and it can’t, scripture says it can’t yield. It’s not possible. We have to have God’s holy spirit to learn to yield, which is what we’re doing.

Verse 8—So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Straightforward statement. Absolutely impossible, and we shouldn’t expect them to. But we can please God because we’ve still got the carnal mind, but we’ve got something else that does please God. His thinking. So we can. We can choose to do it. Those with the carnal mind of selfishness cannot please God. They can only please themselves. That’s all they can do.

But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit. Isn’t that wonderful? This is exciting! This is us! …if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. “IF indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.” Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of God, the same mind, the same intent, that person is not his, not Christ’s. So, we need God’s holy spirit to be able to be in Christ.

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Righteousness is this obedience to God, our desire, which Paul was talking about. He wanted to do one thing, but the natural mind kicked in now and again and would go the opposite. And you go, “Ah! No!” Repentance. So, the answer is just ongoing repentance.

But if the spirit of Him, talking about God the Father, who raised Joshua from the dead dwells in you, which it does, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give to your mortal bodies life, or give life to your mortal bodies. That’s what we look forward to. …through His spirit which dwells in you. I think that’s so encouraging.

So this battle, we’re never going to give it up because we want God’s spirit living in us for that very purpose, to give us spirit life in Elohim at a point in time. That’s the purpose of life, to overcome this selfishness.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. Because there is nothing in it. It has the death penalty. The flesh, the natural mind is under the death penalty, and it will, this selfish thinking, will be destroyed in the end. There will be no selfish thinking. None. Satan and the demons are gone, mankind that wanted to choose selfishness will be gone, and in the end there is only one thinking, God and spirit beings that are in unity with God. It’s a marvelous thing.

For if indeed you live according to the flesh, the selfish thinking, you will die. Well, another way to read it, “If we live according to the flesh we will die!” If we don’t fight the fight we’ve been called to we’re going to die forever and ever, never to have life ever again because we’re not choosing the right way. We’ve been called now for this purpose.

We may have to die and be resurrected to live it for a hundred years. But the same choice, hundred years, 1,000-year time, 1,100 years, 1050 years, this is exactly what’s going to be preached the same, “The natural carnal mind is hostile against God and not subject to the law of God and indeed can’t be, and we have to enter the battle.” So, this is just a message that is going to go on for a long time until there is no more natural carnal minds. They’re not in existence.

Verse 13 again, For if you live according to the flesh, the selfish thinking, you will die, but if by the spirit, which is the holy spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. This is the key.

I’m going to read it again: “But if by the spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we will live.” We have to fight. We’ve got to put to death that carnal mind, those deeds, that habitual selfish thinking. We’ve got to sacrifice.

Once called we are required to deny our own natural selfishness. Because it’s natural to be selfish. We know it’s deeper. It’s not just natural selfishness, it’s intent. We are to get rid of the selfish intent that is behind the things we do. Once called we must actively fight against our carnal mind (natural mind). Once called we must choose to depart from evil for the rest of our life, and it’s tough.

I’m not saying here by any means that it’s easy. Please don’t think that in any way I don’t have the same battle that you have. We all have the same selfish carnal mind that has different things going on in it that have to be fought. So, we should never think, “Oh, that person’s got it easy.” It’s never easy because selfishness will always exist in this mind while it’s carnal. It’s just a matter of whether we want to fight it. So, it’s not easy for anyone. But there’s a lot of encouragement here.

Verse 14—For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. That’s us. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Just don’t tell anybody that we’re the children of God. “Yeah, sure.” …and if children, then heirs. There is something we can inherit. —heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, who already has inherited, gone before us, if indeed we suffer. How do we suffer? By fighting selfishness.

Now, I know there are other words in there but they’re actually not in the scripture. It’s just really, “indeed we suffer.” That really is by fighting our selfishness. So, let’s suffer by fighting. Because it does take a suffering. There is a point where there’s a suffering, where we have to deny self and pay the price for that suffering, because there’s a reward that’s spiritual, that no one can see. But there’s a reward for being selfish too. It’s called “get.” But we’re to live a different way.

So, we do have to fight, and we do have to suffer, and we will suffer. If we’re denying self we will suffer because we’re going to give out to the benefit of others at the expense of our self. That’s where the suffering comes in, in order that we may also be glorified together. We look for that day.

2 Timothy 1:6—Therefore I, talking about Paul, remind you, talking to Timothy, to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Timothy now has the power of God’s holy spirit to change the way he thinks, to be converted, to be converting (because it takes time), and that converting is a lifetime experience because we were born with a natural carnal mind for this very purpose, of being transformed. Convert, change, turn.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, which is one of cowardness, which is to pull back. Because often we will see things and it becomes whether we’re going to yield or not. Are we going to now proceed and leave it as it was? Because there is a pleasure in sin. That selfishness is a pleasure. Or we pull back and we won’t do it. We see now that we have to live a different way, and therefore, we’ve got to suffer to live this other way.

Example, Sabbath keeping. There’s a suffering in Sabbath keeping. There’s a lot of jobs that cannot be had by a natural human because of Sabbath keeping. The moment you bring it up they go, “Ah, yeah. Next!” There’s a suffering. We will physically suffer for Sabbath keeping. We will physically suffer by giving tithes and offerings. So, that’s the choice. If we pull back, guess what happens when we pull back? We don’t keep the Sabbath; we don’t give tithes and offerings because we’re pulling back. Because we’re pleasing self, we’re not pleasing God.

…by the power and love of a sound mind. So, we should have sound thinking. We know the truth. The truths of God will give us that sound thinking. The truths are sound thinking because they come from God. It’s soundness of mind that we should have. We can always fall back on those and read them and study them and it does give a great energy, a spiritual energy.

A sound mind is God’s thinking. It’s incredible. So, we can have a sound mind if we believe the truth, we take on God’s spirit and believe. To demonstrate we have a sound mind we would know and believe the truth. God’s word is truth. So, we believe God, God’s word is truth, so we believe it and we live it. We’re demonstrating love. We’re demonstrating we love God by living the truth.

16 (13) We are only begotten now, not born again. We are not yet inheritors, but only heirs of God.

Because we haven’t been changed. Whereas Christ has inherited, he’s an inheritor, he’s got it, he’s achieved it. We are to follow and look forward to it.

The holy spirit begets us as children of God, but we are not yet born of the spirit of God—spiritual in composition. [We look forward to it.] Those in God’s Church can only be begotten of God’s spirit and born into God’s Family in a resurrection to spirit life.

Now, when I first said this and made this statement, it’s coming from scripture, “the natural carnal mind cannot inherit eternal life, cannot enter Elohim.” It’s just not going to because God will see what a person has done and at some point the carnal part will disappear and it’ll only be God’s thinking when a person is a spirit being.

That’s our battle. That’s why we’re in the Body of Christ. That’s why we’re here today. We’re in a battle for a purpose. People don’t know we’re in this battle because it’s personal, and only we in our own minds know whether we’re battling and how hard we’re battling.

Those in God’s Church can only be begotten now. That’s what we are. We’re begotten sons of God because we have God’s holy spirit living in us.

I won’t read John 3.

We understand that in the end not every mind will choose God. Whereas what we’re demonstrating now, we choose God. That’s what we want to, we choose God. To this point in time there have been thousands of people that have not taken up the fight against self. “Many are called, and few are chosen.” Many have been called to take up this fight, what we’ve covered today, but the reality is many have not continued in the fight. They’ve given up and gone back to the natural, carnal, selfish mind because it’s too hard.

Matthew 15:10. Because this is not an easy fight. Fighting self is not easy. We will slip up and we will get discouraged about this slipping up, but the answer is repent and move on again, have another go. “I’ll do it better next time.” Keep doing it and doing it and doing it until one day we will do it better next time. One day we will do it better because we’ll think like God on the topic.

Now, this is just a quick, while we’re in Matthew 15, there is a statement in Acts that says, “We must through great tribulation enter the Kingdom of God.” Well, that tribulation is not talking about a physical tribulation. This is a tribulation in the mind, there’s a fight that’s got to go on. Many tests and trials, many difficulties. It’s only through that that we can enter the Kingdom of God.

Because if nothing happens in our life and we just drift through life, do we really think (it sounds easy; it’d be good), but do we think we would enter Elohim? We haven’t changed the way we think. That’s what God’s looking at, do we desire to change the way we think? And I know that we do, we want to change the way we think.

Matthew 15:10—When he, talking about Joshua, had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what goes out of the mouth (words) this defiles (pollutes) a man. So, it’s about the mind. This is Christ revealing it’s all about the mind.

We eat clean foods, yes, but that’s not the point. The point is about what’s coming in the mind and what comes out, what we say. We want to change this so that what comes out is pleasing to God. That’s what we want to do.

Verse 12—Then his disciples came to him and said, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? A lot of people are going to be offended about a lot of things because once the truth is spoken some people are going to be offended. They are today.

But he answered and said, Every plant which my Father has not planted will be uprooted. So, in other words, unless a person is called to see they’re not going to survive all this. It’s not possible. It’s only those that are called to see.

Let them alone. Because at that time they didn’t have God’s holy spirit. People that are there and complaining and that, they can’t do anything differently can they? It’s not going to work because God wasn’t with them. So, they’re going to be uprooted because they’re just going to live a life and die.

Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. Well, they were blind because they had a natural carnal mind. So, the natural carnal mind is blind to spiritual things. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch. Exactly what this world’s doing, isn’t it? The world is falling into a ditch. It’s unravelling. Satan’s system that’s been set up is just unravelling. Everything is broken.

You look at the ambulance system here where people are dying because the ambulance doesn’t turn up or it takes five hours to get there. Everything is unravelling because man’s system, Satan’s system is not God’s system; and everything is unravelling what man does because his motive is selfish. Deep, deep down it’s selfish, because it’s about money, generally.

Then Peter answered and said to him, talking to Christ, Explain this parable to us. And so Joshua said, Are you also still without understanding? Yep. Natural carnal mind. That’s all they had. They had not been given God’s holy spirit at this point. God’s spirit was with them in some things but not in them. So, they saw some things, but they still couldn’t perceive because it takes God’s spirit dwelling in us to perceive things.

Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, come from the mind, about intent, they defile or pollute a person. So, if somebody says with a natural mind, coming out, words coming out, “You look good today.” What’s the motive? It was selfish. It’s hard for us to grasp these things sometimes, but when somebody says that they weren’t really caring about that you look good, they might have been thinking sexually, they might have been thinking, “They’ll think well of me.” Because the motive behind it had to be selfish. It wasn’t God’s holy spirit saying, “You look good today.” What’s good? What looks good to one may not look good to another.

So, we often in our own thinking get deceived about things because everybody has a motive. And guess what? It is totally, totally selfish, only they don’t know it. Well, we should start to perceive these things amongst ourselves.

Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, the mind, and they pollute a man, because it’s selfish. For out of the heart, out of the mind, the thinking proceeds evil thoughts, murders, which is ill will and hate, adulteries, unlawful desires, wrong relationships, fornications, which is unlawful relationship, thefts.

Now, often a person you wouldn’t think is stealing but when a person says something they can actually steal because they can take something from somebody. You can take somebody’s character. True? We can take someone’s character from them so it’s a theft. We’re stealing from them. They might have a character and say, “Oh, that person is just an idiot.” That’s actually theft. We’re stealing from them. And why would we say that? It’s because we’re not idiots, are we? But they are.

You can see how spiritually we need to be careful about what we are like.

…false witness, which is lying, and blasphemies. The way we blaspheme in God’s Church is we don’t live the truth. That’s how we blaspheme. We blaspheme God’s word, God’s name because of that.

These things are the things which defile or pollute a man, but to eat with unwashed hands, which the Pharisees were carrying on about, does not pollute or defile a man. So, we are worried about our intent. That’s the key to that.

The carnal mind of selfishness will not enter the Kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9—Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Now, we should know that, that unless a person has entered this battle they will not enter the Kingdom of God. So, we can know that certain battles have taken place through the time, 6,000 odd years of mankind, that there have been a lot.

We know there’s going to be 144,000 soon that will be sealed and set that have taken on this battle to one degree to another. Some had very little truth, some had a lot, like we have a lot. But some have taken on that battle and endured to the end, and there’s going to be 144,000 that will inherit the Kingdom of God very soon. That’s exciting to know, very exciting.

Well, we have that same potential, to enter Elohim at some point in time.

Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, which is anything we put before God, nor adulterers, unlawful relationships, nor homosexuals, that’s active. Now, a lot of people talk about this statement was said by a footballer in Australia, that “No homosexuals would enter the Kingdom of God.” But if a person has been born with a genetic disposition he’s got a natural carnal mind either way. So, isn’t it the same as a man that desires a woman that’s unlawful? Same thing. It’s a sexual thing. It’s wrong thinking.

So really this is talking about active people. Because some people are born with different disabilities and different proclivities. Well, that’s what has to be overcome. A person who’s a thief or a liar is exactly the same, has to be overcome. It’s about overcoming what’s in the mind, the thinking. It’s about resisting.

…nor thieves. So, anybody robbing God cuts themselves off from God. They rob God. …nor covetous, which is lustful desires, nor drunkards, which means excess alcohol. Excess alcohol is rebellion to God’s government because guidelines have been given. If a person chooses to think they know better and drinks in excess, becomes mind where it’s not in control, it’s rebellion against God, absolute rebellion against God. Because the guidelines have been given from God’s government, which is God’s thinking. It’s about controlling the mind, of course, it’s about the mind.

…nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God. So, none of those people unless they’ve entered the fight to overcome. Whether they’re liars, or whatever they are, we all must enter the fight. Now, we’re all often some of those things.

Verse 11—And such were some of you. “Me.” But you were washed, but you were sanctified. We’ve been called to change. We’ve been set aside for holy use and purpose. …but you were justified in the name of the Lord Joshua, through Passover, by the spirit of our God. It’s exciting, very exciting!

We’ll work to a conclusion. So, the issue that we all have in our life is a proclivity that we might have. It can be a sexual proclivity, it can be robbing from God, it can be exaggeration, lying, it can be many things. But that’s the proclivity that’s in the natural selfish mind. We have to enter that fight, to fight to not be like that. Because everyone is different; not everybody thinks the same. Not everyone has the same fault to deal with. That’s why we don’t judge others. Because they could be going through a battle we know nothing about. We would focus in on the self to see the battle we have.

Ephesians 4:17—This I, which is Paul, say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the gentiles walk, referring we shouldn’t walk like anybody else in the world. We’re going to walk differently. Because why don’t we walk that way? Because we don’t want to be selfish. They’re all walking in selfishness. Everybody that isn’t called to overcome selfishness is simply walking in selfishness, and everything has a motive that is selfish, and it may not be obvious and seen.

We’re not to walk as the world walks in the futility of their mind. It’s futile. That mind is so futile it’s empty. It has nothing to do with God in it. Even though it may demonstrate it, thinks it does and big protestants go on Sunday and it’s close to God and people go off and want to find themselves, and what’s the other, there’s another word. It’s very spiritual. They go to a place and say this is very spiritual and meditate. You think, it’s a load of garbage. There is nothing spiritual about it at all. It’s just a physical sensation of pleasing self. That’s all it is. To be spiritual is to believe God. It takes God’s holy spirit to be spiritual.

They’re waking in the futility of their mind. That’s not us. We don’t walk in the futility, we walk to do something, to fight self.

…having their understanding darkened, which it is, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. They can’t see anything spiritual. …who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to walk according to uncleanness in greediness or with greediness. Hey, have a look around the world. What do we see? Exactly that.

But you, but we have not so learned Christ. We’ve learned Christ. We know how Christ walked. So, we now have learned what Christ did. He did everything powered by God’s spirit of love, the intent of the law. That’s what he lived. He showed it. It revealed it.

…if indeed you have heard Him, which we have, and have been taught by him, talking about Christ, as the truth is in Joshua. He lived the truth. He revealed truth. Everything he did was done in truth.

…that you put off, concerning your former conduct. We have to change. We have to change the way we think. We have to change the way we act. We have to change. …the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts. That’s exactly what’s happening. Well, we’re putting that off. We’re getting rid of that.

…and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So, it’s about the mind, the battle that Johnny has said, the battle is for the mind. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about the way we think. We reject Satan’s thinking, which we have by nature. We reject it and we want to think like God. Because if we do and we take up that battle at some point in time we will enter Elohim and God will say, “Now I know you.”

…and that you put on the new man which was created according to God. So, this new person, this new way of thinking can only be done through the power of God’s holy spirit. And who does it? God! God does it. God is the one who will transform our mind if we’re willing to yield. We’ve got to desire to think differently. We’ve got a desire to repent, and if we do God says, “Now I know you.” Isn’t it a wonderful, exciting thing? I yearn for that day, for that time that God thinks that “Now I know you. You will always yield to Me.” With that mind that you have, you’ve fought it. You can never overcome it totally but now we’re going to yield to it. God says, “Now, that will never exist in you ever again. Now, you’re spirit. You think differently. You think like Me.” So exciting!

So, we’re to put off the old man and put on the new man, which was created according to God. So, God’s doing it. …in true righteousness and holiness.

This is the challenge God has placed before us. Us! Not the world, us. It’s our challenge. They know nothing about it. They don’t care about it. We do. But that’s the challenge we have. We are to fight self and fight against self until the day we die, no matter what happens.

Once called it’s our choice to think differently or to continue to think differently. We have to choose everyday. Because we can choose not to think differently, because thousands and thousands of people have been called to think differently and have chosen to go back to thinking selfishly. Hard to imagine that we would do it, but it’s possible because of wrong choices that we would make. So, brethren, all we have to do is continue to fight.