Let This Mind Be In You: humble yourselves.
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Key Verses:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
Main Thought to push forward: Humility
Intro:
Earlier this week, I attended the missionary meeting and during that meeting we discussed things that were written in the word of God.
I made a statement in that meeting that when it comes to God’s word, there are two categories that we find ourselves in, doing the will of God.
Either you are going to obey or you are going to disobey God’s will.
There is no gray area when it comes to God, no area of neutrality. There is black and white, there is hot or cold, there is obedience or disobedience.
Furthermore, when we consider obedience, it is straight to the point. God makes his will known to us by his word (The Bible), we choose to either obey it or not to obey it.
Now concerning disobedience. There are two categories in which a person disobeys the will of God.
Ignorance. Ignorance is in-advertancy it is doing something unknowingly.
For instance, the Bible says in Lev 4:2
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:
There can be sins that a person commit that they are unknowledgeable about.
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. So the fact of the matter is that there are some people who sin because they don’t know any better.
Does that mean that when a person sins that God just lets them slide? Does it mean that God says “oh you didn’t know so I’m going to cut you a break?”
NO!
It is recorded in the book of Acts 17:30
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.
You don’t get a free pass to sin, you don’t get a slap on the wrist, God is not going to tell you “Oh it’s okay you didn’t know.”
No there will be no excuse, the only thing that will save you is if you repent of your sins and turn to God!
So now, the first reason that people sin is because they are not knowledgable of the will of God. They don’t know God’s word, but according to God you still transgress the word of God.
And Romans 2:2 records:
But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
In other-words:
And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things.
What things? Sin.
Furthermore Paul writes in verse 6:
Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.
Listen carefully to what verse 12 says:
When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law. And the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it.
Paul says here that when the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law.
IGNORANCE.
It doesn’t matter if you never picked up a Bible to read what is written. If you sin, if you live in sin, if you do not repent and turn to God you will be destroyed! You won’t be able to say “LORD I didn’t know, no excuse will stand before Him.”
Furthermore, verse 15 says this:
Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
What Paul is saying in this verse is simply this:
They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.
They, those without the law, those who are unknowledgeable of God’s word. They know what is right and what is wrong in their conscience mind. You know when you are doing evil, you know when you are doing something that God is not pleased with. Your conscience will let you know whether you are right or wrong.
Then Paul writes in the next verse:
And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.
And even if you know what God’s word says and you follow it......YOU STILL NEED A SAVIOR!!! YOU ARE STILL SUBJECT TO SIN!
So what do we do? We turn to Jesus, we place our faith in Jesus, we trust that what Jesus did for us when he died on the cross is what makes us right in his sight! And then we allow God to empower us to live a life that pleases Him!
Paul says in chapter 3 verse 22:
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,
Back then, when you sinned, in order to have continued fellowship with God, something had to die........I said something had to die.....I’m going somewhere with this.
Blood had to be shed, but the shedding of blood was not enough to remove the remembrance, the consciousness of sin.
But now, God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins! Now we are made right with God when we believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood for the remission of our sins!!
Testify to someone and tell them “I’m glad Jesus came to die for my sins!”
So yes my brothers and my sisters, a person can sin because of ignorance of God’s word.
But then there is a second reason:
2. The second reason why people sin is flat out rebellion.
You know what God requires of you, we know what God requires of us, but we decide that we are going to do whatever we feel like doing!
That is rebellion.
And let me remind you that rebellion is the reason why the world is in the state that it is today!
It is rebellion that got Lucifer kicked out of heaven. He wanted to ascend to the thrown of God, he wanted to take over and sit in The LORD’s seat. He got a 3rd of the angels to follow him.
But the LORD will not tolerate rebellion. Rebellion is what caused Lucifer to be cast down out of heaven.
Rebellion will be the cause of those un-repented people who refuse to turn to God to be cast into the lake of fire!
Rebellion is what caused Adam and Eve to be cut off from God and cast out of the garden of Eden to die. And rebellion is what is going to be the cause of those who willfully oppose God’s will to die a spiritual death!
What is rebellion?
It is to be against God. It is resistance, it is defiance against God and the will of God. It is sin.
Sin is transgression. So when a person becomes knowledgable of God’s word, and when God says not to do this, but you decide you are going to do it anyway.......it is crossing the line!
God draws a line in the dirt, He tells you not to cross it, but you cross it anyway, you are rebelling against God.
Examples:
Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.
You see what God’s word says, you’ve read it for yourselves, but you decide that because you get mad at someone, you are going to curse them out anyway. That’s rebellion!
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.
Three things:
Don’t steal
Don’t deal falsely, don’t cheat one another
And don’t lie.
But you decide that you are going to do these anyway.
IT IS REBELLION!
Let’s look at the words of Jesus:
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
We can all agree that committing murder is a very bad thing. Right?
Stealing is bad right?
You talk bad about God, call God names, say some hateful things about God.....that’s bad right?
You commit adultery, that’s bad right?
You lying on someone, you cheating someone....that’s bad right?
But in 2023.....it’s okay for you to have sex with a person that you are not even married to?
It’s okay to do, because now that is the norm, everyone is doing it.....Pastor nobody marries anymore, no one wants to commit anymore. We want all the perks and the benefits of marriage without the commitment.
WRONG!
IT IS STILL WRONG.....AND IF YOU ARE DOING IT AND YOU KNOW IT IS WRONG YOU ARE REBELLING AGAINST GOD!!!
There is information written throughout all of scripture telling us what is required of us, how God wants us to live, and if we live in any type of way that opposes God and if we don’t repent.....
I NEED TO TELL YOU WHAT THE WORD SAYS......I’M NOT HERE TO BE NICE, I’M NOT HERE TO BE GENTLE, SOMETIMES YOU GOT TO BE TOLD THE TRUTH, THE HARSH REALITY OF THE MATTER!
AND IF YOU DON’T REPENT......YOUR PRIDE, YOUR IGNORANCE, YOUR REBELLION IS GOING TO EARN YOU A ONE WAY TICKET TO THE LAKE OF FIRE!!! YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY TO ETERNAL SEPARATION FROM GOD!
NO HOPE, NO CHANCE, ETERNITY OF TORMENT!
YOU THINK YOU ARE ALRIGHT, YOU THINK GOD IS GOING TO LET YOU SLIDE, YOU THINK GOD IS GOING TO WINK AT YOUR IGNORANCE........NO!!!
“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.
BUT NOW HE WANTS YOU TO REPENT!!! NOW.......NOT TOMORROW.......NOT NEXT WEEK.......NOT NEXT MONTH......NOT NEXT YEAR......NOT WHEN YOU GET READY!!!! NOW!!!!! GOD WANTS YOU TO REPENT!!!! ACT NOW.....BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!
Question:
“So preacher what do we do?”
You’ve got to humble yourself.
Listen to what the Word of God says about humbling yourself:
And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well.
The bible declares that King Rehoboam, after he was firmly established and strong he abandoned the Law of the LORD and sinned and all of Israel followed in his sin.
And the LORD sent the prophet Shemaiah to Rehoboam. And Shemaiah to Rehoboam “You have abandoned me, so I am abandoning you to Shishak.”
The LORD was handing Rehoboam over to his enemy. And anytime you forsake God, anytime you depart from God and depart from his will, God will turn you over to your enemies.
And that is why some of you are having a hard time in life, because you have left the LORD. You’ve turned from following him, some of you barely come to church anymore, some watching this online, you don’t come to church at all.
You don’t pick your Bible up, you don’t pray anymore, you are willfully living in sin and living a life that opposes God. And you’re life is upside down, for every step you take, you seem to take three steps back.
Nothing is going the way that you want it to go. You are having problems on your job, problems in your body, problems on your home. And it is all because you left God.
Because the scripture declares:
Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.
So what do I do?
The Bible says in verse 6 of 2 Chronicles 12:6
Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous.
Verse 7 declares that they had a change of heart. They said the LORD is right in allowing this to happen to us.
And when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.
If you humble yourself and repent, if you give up your ways and turn to God. God said “I will not completely destroy them and will soon give them some relief!”
God said I’ll turn it around, I’ll give you some relief, I’ll deliver you from whatever allowed to come in your life to afflict you!
So the scriptures declare in verse 12
And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well.
You want things to go right......TURN TO GOD!!! YOU WANT TO BE DELIVERED!!! TURN TO GOD!!!
NOW THAT WAS FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN SIN.
Now a final word for those of us who are saved!
Paul says:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
We must have the same attitude that Christ had.
And that is the problem, some of we have an attitude but it is the wrong attitude to have.
What kind of attitude did Christ have?
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Although he was God in the flesh, even though he was equal with God, he did not cling onto equality with God. Because God trumps everything, he is above all, and you know how some of us act when we get a little position.
We think we are above everybody, we think that certain things are beneath us.
But the Bible declares in verse 7:
That Jesus gave up his divine privileges and took the humble position of a servant and was born as a human being.
Hebrews declares:
What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone.
Yes, Paul declares that when Jesus appeared in human form (verse 8):
HE HUMBLED HIMSELF IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD!!!
This is the mind that we must have!!! Saints of God, WE MUST HUMBLE OURSELVES IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD!!!
NOT MY WILL BUT THY WILL BE DONE!!!
Jesus died a criminal’s death on a cross. The king of Kings, the LORD of Lords......died a death that he didn’t deserve for us!!
He submitted to the will of God......and saints of God we’ve got to submit ourselves to the will of God!!!
YOUR PRIDE WILL TELL YOU.....THAT YOU ARE FINE......YOUR PRIDE WILL TELL YOU THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO DO THIS. YOUR PRIDE WILL TELL YOU, YOU DON’T NEED TO REPENT, YOU DON’T NEED TO GO TO THE ALTAR TODAY.......YOU DON’T NEED TO GO BACK AND APOLOGIZE TO THAT PERSON!!!
BUT LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS......WE HAVE TO HUMBLE OURSELVES!
The scriptures declare:
“For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble!”
I don’t know about you.....I need a little more grace!!! And the only way I can get it is to humble myself.
The only way I can get grace in my life......is to admit to God that I need help!
The only way I can get grace in my life......is to give myself to God!!
By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.
If we humble ourselves, God will turn it around, if we humble ourselves and submit to God He will bless us! If we submit to God and humble ourselves He will honor us, if we submit to God and humble ourselves......HE WILL GIVE US LIFE!!!!
JESUS SAID I’VE COME THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE LIFE AND THAT YOU MAY HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY!!!
CLOSE:
Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.
When your heart is tender, when you have fallow ground, you’ll humble yourself and submit to the will of God! When you humble yourself, you’ll cry out to God, you’ll cry out for God to save you, for God to help you, for God to deliver you.
When you are full of pride, you won’t consider your ways, when you are full of pride, you won’t admit that you need help, when you are full of pride, the word of God will not have an effect on you!