Change of Mind Toward Oursleves

Introduction: Repentance as a Radical Change of Mind

0:05 in a series on the biblical doctrine of repentance, a theme of which Scripture is full, which I trust has been duly sounded in the regular course of exposition from this particular pulpit, but like other themes of Scripture, is rarely understood with sharpness and clarity unless we focus upon the given doctrine and seek to bring into sharp perspective the truth of Scripture concerning that particular doctrine. I would remind you that as we study it, it must always be against the backdrop of the sobering declaration of the Apostle Paul in Acts 17, where he declared that God commandeth all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world, so that our study must never drift into a mere academic exercise, a padding of our head with more facts about the world. It is a doctrine of Scripture. We must have the facts. God never comes and addresses the will or the affections directly.

1:13 He comes to us with truth to inform the mind, but his end is never the mere informing of the mind, but the transforming of the will and the possessing of the affections. And so I would remind you as we come to this seventh in a series of studies that the great and weighty issue that is before us has not lessened in its import simply because we are becoming more involved in the particulars of the doctrine. We are studying tonight against the awesome backdrop of judgment and that day when we shall be manifest in the presence of our God. And just as surely as I have preached these seven messages against the backdrop of these beautiful drapes, so you and I listen to them, and I preach them against the backdrop of that day in which he will judge the world. We have considered in our previous study that God is the judge of the world. We have considered in our previous study that God is the judge of the world. We have considered in our previous study the importance of this doctrine, showing that scripture clearly teaches that there is no saving faith without true and genuine repentance.

2:14 The only Gospel authorized by Jesus Christ is a gospel of repentance. The only gospel preached by the Apostle's is a Gospel of repentance. It is an issue of life and of death for repentance is called in Acts 11.18 Repentance unto life.

2:34 Now, as we sought to grapple with the details of the doctrine, what it is, what it is not, we have done so along two specific lines. One, a formal definition as found in the shorter catechism. The other, the extended illustration of a tree. And I hope at the end of the studies you'll have a grasp upon the formal definition and also deeply embedded in your thinking this extended illustration of the tree.

3:00 What is repentance unto life? A formal definition, repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. Repentance in terms of our extended illustration has its soil, the grace of God. The preaching of repentance is not an impingement upon the faith but a freeness of grace.

3:34 God's grace comes to light in bringing men to repentance for repentance is called the gift of our God. In three texts of scripture, without any hesitation, God declares that repentance is his gift. Then we've looked at the roots of that tree and they are twofold. Conviction of sin, repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin not a mere admission but a sense of his sin, this conviction being brought home to his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit in the light of the law and in the light of the gospel.

4:14 But there will be no true evangelical gospel repentance unless there is also this inner sight of the eyes of the soul of Christ crucified and a laying hold of mercy as set forth in Jesus Christ. So repentance unto life involves not only the sense of sin but an apprehension a laying hold of the mercy of God in Christ. Now in the past three weeks we have studied the substance of repentance. What is the main trunk of that tree and then the branches that come out from it?

4:45 And we have seen that repentance is basically a radical change of mind. It embodies everything that scripture teaches about the shift element of the gospel. Faith has relationship to the gift element, the gift of pardon, the gift of life, the gift of acceptance. Repentance has reference to the shift element, a change of mind, a radical overhauling of the whole perspective of life.

Review: Change of Mind Towards God and Sin

5:11 And this change of mind affects basically four things. God, sin, ourselves, and righteousness. We have studied the first two. It is a change of mind respecting God.

5:23 1 Thessalonians 1.9 How that ye turn to God from your idols to serve the living and the true God. Wherever there is true repentance, you will find a boy, a girl, a man, a woman, a teenager, it matters not who it be. You will find a person who has had such a sight of God that they see him as worthy of obedience.

5:45 And they turn from whatever else is the object of their love and devotion, they turn from that idol to the living God to serve him. And then there is this change of mind regarding sin. As we saw last week, the sin which we love and coddle to our bosom, which scripture says, man drinks like water. That sin is detested and hated.

6:07 There is genuine grief and sorrow for it. And the sin that's even as dear as the right hand or the right eye is plucked out and cast off in order that there might be this repudiation from the heart of that which we know to be displeasing unto God. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. True sorrow is sorrow, sorrow enough to quit.

6:34 True sorrow involves the sight of what my sin has done to God and to his Son, not primarily what it's done to me. So much for our review. Now tonight we come to the third branch in that tree. You got the picture before you?

Defining the Change of Mind Towards Ourselves

6:49 There's the soil, the grace of God. The two roots, conviction of sin and the laying hold of Christ crucified, producing this change of mind to God, to sin. Now the third main branch, a change of repentance, a change of mind with respect to ourselves. There are two texts of Scripture which will be constantly before us tonight and I want to read them before we begin to expand the subject.

7:15 The first is 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 15.

7:26 Perhaps we should pick up the train of thought at verse 14. 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15. Here we have a beautiful description of the fact that the fruit, of the fruit, of the fruit, of the fruit, the fruit, of the fruit, of the death of Christ in all to whom the benefits of that death are applied is this radical change of mind with regard to self. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that one died for all, therefore all died.

7:58 That is, all on whose behalf the Lord Jesus died, they died in Him. The truth of Romans 6. And He died for all, that is, all for whom His death was intended, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again. Here is an explicit statement that the intent of the death of Christ was this radical change of mind with regard to self, that they should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who died and rose again. You have it stated in a little different way, but essentially the same truth in Romans chapter 14, verses 7 through 9. Romans 14, verses 7 through 9.

9:02 For none of us, that is, none of us who are believers, liveth to himself and none dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether therefore we live or die, we are the Lord's.

9:22 For to this end, this was the focal point of His death, for to this end Christ both died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Here we have the statement again that the end of life of Christ's death was the bringing of a people to the place where His Lordship, His dominion over them, would be the very purpose for which they existed and lived. Now, the first thing we must do tonight in developing this theme of the change of mind, respecting self, that is always brought about in repentance, is define the term, what do I mean by self? Well, I mean the totality of my being as a creature, made up of my appetites, my abilities, my desires, my energies, my capacities for joy, for pain, for sorrow, delight, all that constitutes me, that's myself. That's yourself. You're yourself, I'm myself. You're not me, I'm not you.

10:23 All that constitutes you is yourself. Now, when there is this work of God's grace in true repentance, there is this radical change of mind about myself, that is about the totality of my being. And this is why I emphasize this definition of self. It's not something that merely respects my capacity for joy and my aversion to pain, so that I'm trusting Jesus to take me to bliss when I die and help me to escape hell.

10:54 No, no, no, no. That would be merely a surface or partial change with reference to myself. This change with respect to myself, as we've seen in Romans 14 and in 2 Corinthians 5, affects the totality of myself. Not merely my longing for joy and fulfillment and my aversion to pain, but all of my faculties, my abilities, my desires, my energies, the totality of my being.

11:22 That they should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him. So when I state that repentance involves a change of mind with respect to ourselves, I mean nothing less than the totality of my being as a creature made in the image of God. All that constitutes me, me, and all that constitutes you, you. Now, the second thing we must do, having defined the term, is describe man's relationship to himself as he came from the hand of God.

Man's Original Relationship to Self in Creation

11:56 What was man's relationship to himself as he came from God's hand in creation? Well, if you'll turn, please, to Genesis, I just want to review some things that perhaps are laying there, sort of dormant in your thinking, and I want to bring them up into the realm of consciousness that we might think clearly and biblically regarding this whole matter of ourselves.

12:25 When God made man in His image and placed him in the Garden of Eden, He made him with all the faculties, drives, desires, and abilities which he now has. They weren't marred by sin, but sin has not introduced any new capacities, nor has sin robbed man of his capacities, except, of course, the matter of communion with God. But man is a man. He was made in that original creation with all of his physical senses, eyes to appreciate the beauty of that garden, ears to hear its delightful sounds, taste buds to enjoy the great variety of foods.

13:05 And then God said, after He made man a creature with all these sensual capacities, He said, now I'm not only going to make you with those capacities, I'm going to give you everything and furnish you with everything to completely satisfy it. So God says to him, in Genesis 1, verse 29, I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of the earth and every tree in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens, to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein is life, I have given every green herb for food and it was so. God made a great variety and He gave man the capacity to appreciate the variety.

13:49 So he could pucker his lips at a sour fruit and he could lick them at a sweet fruit and he could mix them together and Adam and Eve could come up with some wonderful fruit cocktails in the Garden of Eden and maybe compare notes on how to make a better one. God made man this way with all of these physical senses, the eyes, the ears, the taste. He made him with his sexual capacities and his sexual capacities. And then he brings the woman to the man and says in this relationship of complete trust and complete involvement of two lives, the two shall be one and God gives them full right to the full expression of all of their sexuality amongst their physical senses.

14:30 Man had emotional needs, the need for companionship and so God says it's not good for you to be alone. I'll make and help meet or answering to your needs. God creates man with this sense of lack of compassion, of fulfillment without a companion then he provides the companion. God created him with this sense of longing for accomplishment then he gave him an opportunity.

14:51 He said now there's the garden, you dress it and keep it. And there's no indication that God gave him blueprints as to how to do it. He made man with this quest to create, to organize, to analyze. God gave him full opportunity for the full expression of all of this so that those emotional needs might be met.

15:10 His intellectual needs, this spirit of inquiry, and investigation, this desire for knowledge. He said subdue the earth. Investigate the earth. Learn its laws.

15:19 Come to the place where you're able to master them. Subdue them. What is God doing in all of this? He's showing us that when he made man with all of these needs he also gave him the counterpart here in creation that all those needs might be fully met and after he'd done the two things what does God say about the whole thing?

15:40 We read at the end of chapter 1 verse 1. Verse 1. Verse 1. Verse 31.

15:43 And God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. God was delighted as he saw Adam sitting back and scratching his beard if he had one and his smooth cheek if he had none and trying to figure out what kind of arrangement would be nice for the garden. And when he came and took Eve by the arm if there was that much time before the fall and said honey look what I've done today. Doesn't that look nice?

16:11 And they together rejoiced in the work of his hands when they began to subdue the earth when they found great delight in each other when Adam hollered over from a tree said Eve come taste this stuff this is better than anything we've had yet. God was delighted. Can you read in between the lines? It was very good.

16:30 What? Man with all of these needs with all of his senses with all of his capacities with all that constitutes him a man with his physical appetites his emotional needs his intellectual powers and the whole business as all of this is employed to the glory of God God looks upon it and says very good. Man stands in perfect harmony with himself and with his God and fulfills his purpose. All of those capacities and appetites were looked upon by Adam as God's gifts but listen carefully as God's servants.

17:09 The God who gave them is the God who said they must be exercised and employed to not only your delight but to my glory and that hinges upon the employment of them within the framework of my will.

17:29 Hence subject to the will of God man brought glory to God in the use of all the gifts of God in harmony with himself full expression to his true selfhood and God says the whole business is good.

Man's Fallen Relationship to Self in Sin

17:45 That was man as God made him. It's hard to think what the world would be like if the world had been populated with people made after the same staff but that's the way man came from the hand of God. Now the next thing we must do is describe what happened to man in his relationship to himself when sin entered. Now what was the basic issue when sin entered?

18:11 Was it not this? It was the issue of casting off God as the end and goal of man. Of man's existence. Gratifying self at the expense of God's will and God's glory.

18:26 Notice the temptation in Genesis chapter 3.

18:30 God had said as we read earlier in verses 28 to 30 everything here may be freely indulged in within the framework of my will. I've given you every tree for you but there's one tree that I don't want you to take up. You see if God had given man this appreciation for his glory for a variety of tastes and a variety of interests and had endowed him with ambition and the sense of longing for accomplishment and creativity and then put him as it were in a four by four box with only one kind of food and no task and no ability to express that initiative if he had made him with sexual drives and brought no wife to him God would be a tyrant. This would be cruel. But for God who made him with all those needs and all those needs and made every possible legitimate avenue for the fullest expression of those needs but he said Adam your good and my glory hinges on your willingness to express those needs within the frameworks framework of my will and purpose therefore that one tree which is not necessary for food it's not necessary for the satisfaction of your capacity for variety of foods I've given all these trees it's not necessary for any fulfillment of any legitimate need but Adam that tree is to be left alone the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the day you eat thereof you will die.

19:59 The day you express your selfhood and seek to gratify your capacities and appetites outside the framework of my will death shall enter. There'll be a severance of your relationship to me and when man gets severed from his God he's cut off from himself he no longer knows who he is. And he becomes a mess. So what happens?

20:24 The tempter comes and this is what he says Look God didn't mean what he said did he? You shall not surely die you see you've been sold a bill of goods you have been told that to maintain your true selfhood you must leave that tree alone you must obey God but that isn't the real reason the reason God told you to leave that tree alone is he doesn't want you to attain to your true selfhood and so you have to as long as God is over top of you telling you what to do you'll never find your true selfhood because Eve look now I read from scripture verse 4 of Genesis 3 and the serpent said unto the woman you shall not surely die for God doth know that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened you shall be as God knowing good and evil. Eve did God make you with these intellectual thirst and appetites did he make you with this thirst and quest for knowledge well sure he did sure he did that's why he told us subdue the earth you've got to understand it before you can subdue it you've got to discover its laws before you can govern them believe you'll never attain your true selfhood until you throw off that yoke of obedience to God in the day you eat you'll attain something that will make you true women that you never can have as long as you obey God you'll never know

21:52 your true selfhood you'll never attain to your true capacity until you take that and so what does Eve do verse 6 and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food here was an appetite a capacity a sensual appetite and she said I think it will gratify that a delight to the eyes here was an aesthetic appetite you know what I mean by an aesthetic appetite the ability to appreciate art and things that come upon the eye with pleasantness and it was desired to make one wise God gave her this capacity and longing for knowledge and the increase thereof and the increase thereof and the increase thereof and the increase thereof and the increase thereof and she said alright I'll find a new measure of true selfhood I'll find a new measure of identity as a true woman if I take of this and the moment she did and gave to the husband and he took of it they plunged themselves and the human race into sin and the terrible fruits of that disobedience are with us now and shall be with the human race to eternity but when Adam and Eve sinned they cast off God as the end of their being those who sinned the one whose will and purpose was necessary to the true expression of their self and when they did their appetites didn't die their capacities weren't annihilated the mind was still able to think but now it will think without reference to God's thou shalt and thou shalt not it will think without reference to God's interpretation of life and the world

23:21 and things they had these physical appetites they didn't die they still had a hunger for food a hunger for sex they still had emotional needs the desire for companionship the desire for fulfillment they still had intellectual needs the desire for knowledge emotional needs all of these things but having cast off God as the goal of the expression of those needs the fulfillment of those needs having cast off his will as the governing principle in which they would meet those needs man has turned inward upon himself and in place of God he's put himself upon the throne so that 2 Corinthians 5.15 describes every natural man as a man who what who lives unto himself that's the description of his life have you followed me have I lost you all I'm trying to do is just give you some practical biblical perspective that you might understand this most essential principle as it relates to true repentance man as he came from the hand of God the totality of his being centered in God subject to God bringing glory to God perfect fulfillment to himself man in the fall cast off God as the goal God's will as the governing guidelines

24:51 but all of his appetites and capacities still remain though many of them impaired and perverted but they're there no longer flowing outward into service of God but inward to the gratification of himself so by nature and practice the beginning the middle and the end of the existence of all natural men is the gratification of self the totality of his capacities and appetites and desires without reference to the glory of God or the will of God it's very obvious in the baby all it lives for is itself it hollers when its belly's empty squawks when it's dying diapers are wet fusses when it's not getting enough attention and you say that little child lives for one purpose to satisfy its most basic physical and emotional needs but the most mature educated cultured adult who's a stranger to grace is at the core of his being just as self-centered as that little infant he lives unto himself that's the description of 2 Corinthians 5.15 indicating that this is true of everyone until the power of the death of Christ is operative in the heart and in the life now in some this expresses itself in a very gross

26:20 immoral kind of conduct making their appetites their goal it's very obvious that they're living for one purpose scripture says in Philippians whose God is their belly that is their animal physical appetites so you have the sensualist the immoral person in others it's the materialist as we read in Colossians 3 covetousness which is idolatry they've made the things of God's earth their gold and they'll sacrifice anything to accumulate things but with others it's not so obvious they may be living for others very benevolent they may work hard to amass a fortune in order to leave it in foundations to help people but why are they doing this? not to the glory of God not to the understanding that all of their faculties and powers are his possession simply because by temperament training and influence they happen to have a philanthropic bent and so on to gratify themselves they give vent to it they feel good when they leave a million for somebody I'd like somebody to feel good doing that to me no one has but they feel good but you see the thing that motivates them is not the glory of God the thing that motivates them is not the realization that Christ has purchased me and purchasing me he's purchased my ability to make money he's purchased all of my faculties that are employed in remassing a misfortune no no it has no reference higher than their own interest

27:49 and their own desires and their own inclination so whether it's the sensualist or whether it's the philanthropist they have this in common they're living unto themselves that's why Isaiah can say as he does in the 53rd chapter in the 6th verse all we like sheep have gone astray all we like sheep we have turned every one of us to his own way now our own way may be the way of the philanthropist it may be the way of the sensualist but this it has in common it's not the way of living to the glory of God with conscious reference to the will and purpose of God so having described what man was in creation what he has become in the fall now consider with me in the third place this change of mind that comes when the grace of repentance is wrought in the heart of the sinner by the illumination of the Holy Spirit in conviction I see that I was not made to be the end of my being God made me that he should be the end of my being I was made for him it's in him that I've lived and moved and had my being as we saw a few weeks ago I've been living on borrowed capital and I've been squat I've been an embezzler God's invested all this capital of life of thought the ability to do to think all that I am my true self to what end that that might bring glory to him but I squandered it

The Radical Shift: Living Unto Christ

29:18 upon myself I've been a spiritual embezzler I've taken all this capital and expended it to my own ends and upon my own appetites and passions and desires and the Holy Spirit has shown me that this is the wickedness of my sinfulness that I've not loved this great and gracious being that has made me in his image made me to know him and to do his will and then I see in the love of Christ that which captures my heart and desires causes me to desire to want him as the end of my being so 2 Corinthians 5 15 then becomes true in the heart of the person in whom those two roots are sunk conviction of sin and a revelation and laying hold of Christ crucified look more closely now at the text 2 Corinthians 5 in verse 15 that he died for all all who are encompassed in the purpose of his death that they that live those who have spiritual life by virtue of his death should no longer live unto themselves but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again this verse teaches in a very explicit way that whenever the death of Christ is savingly embraced by a sinner it not only

30:47 changes his destiny by causing his sin to be blotted out forever but it radically changes the whole focus of his life from self to the one who died no man has ever savingly embraced the forgiving benefits of the death of Christ without experiencing this radical shifting power of the death of Christ so that all who have life by that death no longer live unto themselves as the focal point of their existence but they live unto him who died and for their sakes rose again now they have the same essential drives the same essential capacities and desires and longings here's a man before the power of the death of Christ who's been experienced in his life in his great intellectual thirst he wants to know God saves him does he suddenly become neutralized and say I don't want to know I just want to be stupid no no he has this thirst in fact with many of us we never knew we had a mind to be used until we got converted when God saved me my mind became alive never read anything before then I looked at the pictures and watched read the funny page and the sport page but I had no thirst to know now that mind many times becomes a new possession

32:15 do you lose your appetite you get so you don't like steak anymore do you get converted no you lose your appreciation for beautiful sounds beautiful sights does a man become neutralized does he become a eunuch lose his sexual drives and capacities when he gets converted a woman no no you see when the power of the death of Christ is applied to the heart and life of a man all of those faculties are still present just as in creation they were present and the fall did not annihilate them but they were present but now terminally upon himself so in true conversion they are now released from the terrible bondage of self once again to be employed to the glory of God and to the service of Christ so that even in these animal-like activities of eating and drinking what does God say whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all simply to gratify your physical appetite no do all to the glory of God does that mean as a Christian when I'm eating and masticating my food and chewing it and swallowing it I am self-consciously aware each chomp on the steak to the glory of God to the glory of God no no no that's ridiculous if you're chomping on your steak and your taste buds are getting some of the juices of it you ought to be thinking man this is great

33:43 and God's pleased when you're thinking that but now to what end just so your taste buds can be satisfied and you can go out with the energy derived thereby and expend it upon your own ends no when you bow to pray over your food you're acknowledging Lord this is your gift to me and I receive it with thanksgiving and you are glorified when I thoroughly enjoy it I have given unto you all of these things God said the great diversity of foods and the capacity to appreciate them enjoy them to the full but with the strength thereof expend your energy to my glory eating to his glory I'll not make a glutton of myself because I recognize this body is his possession and is to be kept and as much as is possible in a sinful state it's to be preserved that there might be the most miles per gallon as I seek to use it for the glory of God there's the difference this tremendous shift so that the whole focus in the gratifying of the appetites is radically changed this in a nutshell is the change with respect to myself and the totality of what constitutes me, me that comes in true repentance therefore it should be no surprise to find that the first call to discipleship is always what? a repudiation

The Call to Discipleship: Repudiating the Old Self

35:11 of that old self whenever Jesus called a person to himself here was the call look at it in Mark chapter 8 this is not a challenge to Christians who are saved and on their way to heaven but now need to get surrendered this is not a challenge so often I've heard these passages used as though they were simply a challenge to some elite few who wanted to be second mile Christians but the text does not warrant such an interpretation for we read in Mark 8 in verse 34 and he called unto him the multitude he specifically had this intention in mind that the great multitude should be aware of his claims and so calling unto him the multitude with his disciples he said unto them if any man would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever would save his life save himself what life? that life made up of all your ambitions your capacities your abilities your needs your drives the totality of what makes you you if you would say that life as you now have it by virtue of the fall with all of those capacities centered upon yourself your plans your interests your ideas your goals your thoughts if you would save that life what's going to happen?

36:42 whosoever would save that life shall lose it there will be a destruction of the true you and hell is God's junkie I know of no more vivid way to think of what hell is it's God's junkie for creatures who refuse to accept their place as creatures and use all that God had endowed in them to his glory God puts them in the junk heap hell is God's junk heap he shall lose it but he says whosoever shall lose his life for my sake ah there's the difference between the Christian and the philanthropist the philanthropist and Albert Schweitzer may lose in great measure his life his life of failure as a musician a theologian and the last he may lose that for the sake of some people in the poor places of Africa but if not for Christ's sake he wrote a book The Quest for the Historical Jesus he wasn't sure there was an actual Christ it's not losing your life for any cause no no this is what constitutes the true Christian whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel not a gospel the gospel

38:04 when a man gives himself to the cause of civil rights in the name of the church and says I couldn't care less if there's a heaven or hell if there's a gospel I'm concerned about man in their present need he's not losing his life for Christ's sake and the gospel's sake no no this is very limited very exclusive it's when a man seeing the intent of the death of Christ that the Son of God should become incarnate for a rebel creature like me and that Christ and that death lays hold of him and he says Lord Jesus I give up that life I was never intended to live you made me you died for me that I might be your servant you died that you might be Lord of this one and I gladly relinquish capitulate give over surrender all that I am to you to live to your praise and for the accomplishment of your purpose for the spread of your truth for the embodiment of that gospel in my life for the propagation of that gospel by my lips he says whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall save it now a man knows what to do with himself he says I've got ambition and ambition is not sin but I know that all my ambition must be channeled in terms of the will of God he's got these physical and emotional needs he doesn't try to deny them he doesn't try to suppress them

39:32 he doesn't try to act as though they aren't there but he says oh God you gave them to me I'm not going to do that but if you gave them to me I read your heart of love in the cross of Christ certainly you're more concerned for their legitimate fulfillment than I am Lord you guide me and he's willing to subject all of these desires and needs to the plan to the purpose to the will of his own God as revealed in the Lord's book the first call then to discipleship is the repudiation of that sinful tower express clear mark in these words Lord lose him that life turn to the twelfth chapter of John where they have a similar statement of our Lord couched in a different picture some Greeks have come and said sirs we would see Jesus and he sends the messengers back to them to tell them that in essence the way they must see him is as crucified as the one who's to be lifted up and die and so speaking of his own death he says in John 12 24 verily verily I say unto you except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die it abideth itself alone but if it dies it beareth much fruit speaking of his own mission he knows that he must die

40:57 he must be smothered in death as the seed is smothered in earth before the fruit of redemptive blessing will flow and be brought to men then he takes the same principle that applies to his own procuring of redemption for men and he says in verse 25 and 26 that the principle that is operative in the purchasing and procuring of redemption for men is also true in the application of redemption to men notice he that loveth his life he now generalizes you see he moves from the specific illustration of the grain of wheat that must die before it bears fruit which has specific reference to his own death and he applies that principle in a broader sense he that loveth his life loveth it what life? that life that we have by virtue of our involvement in the sin of Adam that life centered in me my ambitions my desires my thoughts as to how I shall fill my intellectual drives my emotional needs my physical capacities he that loves that life he that hugs it to himself he that cherishes it he that obeys it he that preserves it he shall lose it he'll never find the thing he's trying to find but he that hateth his life in this world he that says no I was not made

42:26 but my self and all that comprises me should terminate upon me I will repelate that I will turn from it I will not any longer acknowledge it as my master and my sovereign he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal if any man serve me that's what it means practically speaking to be brought into this sweet relationship of servitude to Jesus Christ let him follow me now notice this is not a matter of extra rewards for second mile Christians he says it's a matter of eternal life and I want to underscore that this is not a matter of a select few who are going to go the second mile and get extra rewards at the judgment seat of Christ he says the only person who shall keep life unto eternal life is the one who hates this life if any man will come after me let him say no to himself take up the cross and follow me that's just a call to repentance you see for repentance involves this radical change of mind about myself the first question called to discipleship then is that of repudiating sinful self the second thing I want to say as we try to apply the principle that we've studied is this

Essential Evidence of Saving Change: A Radical Shift

43:54 an essential evidence of a saving change is this radical shift in relationship to myself no man is a Christian who lives to himself who simply tries to make Christ a part of his whole selfish focus and that's the curse one of the great curses of modern evangelism it says you're pursuing self and you're unfulfilled you haven't found the meaning of life now if you just slip Jesus into that total pursuit he'll give you that added zip he'll give you that little something that you lack and so you can go on your way basically the whole same perspective basically the whole same motivation the only difference is there's a little flavor of Jesus somehow permeating a few areas of it no no an essential evidence of a saving change is that you and I have experienced this radical change this radical shift in relationship to ourselves no man is a Christian who lives unto himself no man is a Christian who simply lives unto others but 2 Corinthians 5.15 said the Christian is the one who no longer lives unto himself but unto Christ and why does he live unto Christ? because of the power of the death of Christ that's been operative in him he lives unto Christ because he's been brought to see Christ lived and died for him for his sake and that expression of the love of Christ

45:22 in his death and resurrection has laid hold of him and has changed the whole direction of his life I want to read some comments from Charles Hodges' commentary on 2 Corinthians 5 it's amazing how some of these great masters in Israel are lauded and applauded by our own generation but they'd be crucified if they stood and preached what they wrote and what they believed listen to Charles Hodge commenting on 2 Corinthians 5 in verse 15 those for whom Christ died and on whom his death takes effect henceforth that is from the time they apprehend their relationship to him and feel the power of his vicarious death do not live unto themselves self is not the object for which they live that's the negative description of the Christian he's a man who does not live unto himself that is what he is not the positive description is given in the next clause he lives for him who died for him and rose again this presents both the object and the ground of the Christian's devotion the object Christ the ground his redemptive work he lives for him who died for him and because he died for him he is not a Christian who is simply unselfish that is who lives for some object out of himself he only is a Christian who lives for Christ

46:48 many persons think they can be Christian on easier terms than these they think it's enough to trust in Christ while they do not live for him but the Bible teaches us that if we are partakers of Christ's death we are also partakers of his life and if we have any such appreciation of his love in dying for us as to lead us to confide in the merit of his death we shall be constrained to consecrate our lives to his service and this is the only evidence of the genuineness of our faith what a classic statement if we have any such apprehension of his love in dying for us which leads us to confide in the merit of his death if the Holy Spirit has sufficiently illuminated our minds to see our sin and to see the answer to the problem of sin in the death of Christ and we've been brought to rely upon his death the same Holy Spirit has constrained us to that Christ and to say from the heart Lord Jesus I shall live unto you by your grace and if we claim to have had enough sight of Christ to bring release from the penalty of sin but there hasn't been sufficient sight of Christ to break the bond of the sinful self we're killing ourselves we're deluded we're playing

48:17 at Christianity for he died for this intent that all in whom the benefits of his death come to rest shall be seized hold upon by the power of that death to be his servants and he's not going to be robbed of the end for which he died for my Bible says he'll see of the travail of his soul and he'll be satisfied tell me if he died would the intent that men who receive the benefits of his death should no longer live to themselves but unto him if the Christian church in the unsatisfied I ask you look upon his own sufferings and say father it was worth it look at that body look at that bride look at that people amidst an evil world and with the remains of sin within them look at them father their basic longing to please me even when it means they've got the trample on the flesh when they've got to say to mother father husband look at them look at the fruit of my death he's satisfied then to look down and say now father look at all those people I entered into a relationship with you

49:43 that all that you had set your love upon I would redeem and I had as the goal of my death that they should no longer live to themselves but look at them father they claim to be partakers of the benefits of my death but look at them living unto themselves carrying out their own ideas fulfilling and gratifying their own ambitions with no reference to me and to my plan and to others he wouldn't be satisfied but my Bible says he shall see of the trample of his soul and he shall be satisfied I ask you tonight is he satisfied with you does he see that the basic focus of your life is no longer unto yourself but unto him I didn't say the perfect focus if you were listening carefully I said as he looks down he says father with all the imperfections there's the basic focus does he see that in you does he see that in you there you are young people you've got all these ambitions all these drives all these appetites as you think of them what's your purpose is it oh God you gave them to me because of the love of your own heart and the love of your dear son oh God I don't want to gratify them at the expense of trampling underfoot your holy law of dishonoring your dear son who loved me and gave himself for me Lord I'm a teenager I'm a bundle of unanswered questions

51:09 a bundle of ambitions and drives but Lord one thing I know you made me and I know this Lord I want to live unto you is that the expression of your heart in your life teenager is it is it if the power of Christ's death has been applied to you it is maybe not in those words but in your heart of hearts you were able to say yes pastor that's me by God's grace that's me oh would you have to say no I've got these desires I've got these itches these urges these longings all that constitutes me and I'm going to do what I want with it oh you are God says you do and you'll end up in the junk heap he that saves his life shall lose it what about you adults you've got just enough smattering of respectability and Christianity to make you socially acceptable in the church is it just a little bit of an incorporation of the ethics and the moral standards into a total spectrum and focus of self-centeredness or has there been this radical shift no longer living unto yourself but unto him who died and rose again what is it with you you answer in your own heart of hearts what is it with you I submit to you that the essential evidence of a saving change is this radical shift

Conclusion: Two Kinds of People

52:35 in relationship to ourselves living unto him who died and rose again the Christ of scripture living unto him because he died for us living unto him out of gratitude for all his mercy as we close tonight I would bring this into the sharpest focus possible that I know how by saying every one of you present in this pew just as surely as you are as every one of you as either a man or a woman a boy or a girl there are only two sexes here tonight not three not four all men all women all male all female in the absolute same way there are only two kinds of people here tonight those of you who are living unto yourselves and those of you who are living unto him who died and rose again only two now which one are you I know what you're trying to do you're trying to find some middle ground there isn't any if I ask you how many of you are men males how many of you are females I'd catch all nobody be exempt in the same way when I ask how many of you are living unto yourself how many of you are living unto him that's the great divide here tonight every one of you is encompassed in those two areas for those of you that in honesty before God would have to say I fit that first category I'm living unto myself

54:05 oh I would remind you that you weren't made to squander all those faculties and capacities upon yourself for your own self-worth for your own self-worth for your own self-worth for your pleasure and for your end it's spiritual thievery may God the Holy Ghost break your heart in the light of it may you see that in God's offer of mercy in Jesus Christ there are sufficient motives to show the folly of all of this may you fall at his feet and cry for mercy and say Lord Jesus I've heard your call to say no to myself to take up the cross and to follow you and to you who by God's grace can say well I wish I could say it more emphatically I wish I could underline it in red and say yes that's me living unto him but I'm afraid I have to say it softly and maybe even leave out a letter or two but I do believe I'm living unto him the Lord willing in our studies on the fruit of repentance we'll see that this change of mind though it's radical and in a sense in principle is all pervasive in true conversion the outworking of it is part of that struggling process that we heard about this morning but take courage child of God if it's put it into your heart that you've been able to say Lord with all that you've given and all that constitutes me it's yours by right of creation by right of purchase now I want it to be yours in practical everyday experience

55:33 right down to my eating and drinking I want to glorify you and to do you well and I won't believe the devil's lie that to find my true self I've got to break your rules and your law but I find myself I find my true self in obedience to your holy law child of God take courage the time is coming when that principle that's been implanted will come to its fullest expression and the God of peace shall sanctify you wholly and you shall be preserved blameless and entire at the coming of the Lord Jesus and through all eternity scripture says you're going to follow the Lamb with us whoever he goeth he'll fill your vision his will and his word will be the sole object of your direction the sole object the sole source of your direction his glory the sole object of every pursuit take courage the time is coming when that for which you long will be realized in full and the Lord Jesus will have the final and complete fulfillment of all that he purchased by his death but don't you comfort yourself with any hopes of its fulfillment unless there's evidence of its beginnings here and now repentance is this radical change of mind not only in your life but about God and about sin but about myself has the grace of repentance been offered to you have you had this change of mind if not you fall before Jesus Christ who lives tonight

57:02 seated at the right hand of the majesty on high to give repentance and remission of sin and you call upon him to have mercy upon him and don't rest until you know that that change has been wrought in your heart for the day is coming the curtains are still here the backdrop is still there the day is coming and the only thing that will matter is did you repent let us pray