Mark 2:22 (King James Version)
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5, 6.) What is the thing that that text shows that the mind of Christ does? What did it do in Him? It "emptied himself." When that mind is in us, what will it do there? The same thing, it will empty us of self. Then the first thought that that text gives is that the mind of Christ empties of himself the one in whom it is (it emptied Paul.)
When that mind that was in Christ emptied himself, then what came? God filled Him. When that mind that was in Him is in us and does in us what it did in Him (Paul)--empties us of self--what then will fill the place? God in Christ will fill us. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know
that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me (John 17: 22-23 .)
. Then God in Christ dwells in us. But that takes self out of the way.
Now what mind is in us to start with? The mind of self, (the carnal mind) what does that mind do? It exalts self. What kind of mind is it we have to start with? The natural mind, what is of flesh is of flesh. A man has a natural mind, and he must have another mind, he must be born of the Spirit and of the water. He must have the mind that was in Christ, but that mind that is in Christ only empties of self the one in whom it dwells. Therefore as we have a mind to start with and must have another than that, while that other empties of self the one in whom it is, does it not follow inevitably that the mind which we have to start with, is a mind only of self? Romans 6:16
God made man to start with, at the real start in Eden. Did God put in that man the mind of self? ["No"] Whose mind was it in that man? The mind of God, in Adam was the wonderful wisdom of God. It was reflected in the life of Adam--his mind, his thoughts, his whole make-up reflecting the Maker. When God said, "Let us make man in our image," it meant a great deal more than the shape; it meant that if you and I could have seen Adam and Eve as they came from the hand of God, we would have seen the image of God reflected and would have been caused to think of somebody back of them, far back of them and far superior to them. Who is that? God,
But they did not stay as God made them. Satan came into the garden. God had said to them certain words, his words, the expression of his mind, his thought concerning them. If they had received those words, had retained those words and the thoughts of God in those words, whose mind would they have retained? God's, when this other one, Satan, came and told them other words, expressing his thoughts and the product of his mind and they accepted that and yielded to that, then whose thoughts did they receive and whose mind did they receive? "Satan's", therefore they were transformed in the garden after Satan's mind it reversed; they were emptied of God's mind and filled up with Satan's thoughts when they yield to it.
We need not go back into the depths of Satan's experience; we all know what it was that caused his fall. What was that? ["Pride,"] But self was the root of the pride; self is the root of everything; pride is the fruit of self only. Satan looked at himself before he got proud of himself. If he had looked into the face of Him who sits upon the throne he never would have become proud. He would have reflected the image of Him who sits upon the throne, as that image is manifested in Jesus Christ. But when he turned His look from the face of Him who sits upon the throne and turned it upon himself, then it was that he became proud of himself. Then it was that he considered how beautiful he himself was, and his heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and he began to give himself credit for what he was. What he was came from God. But Lucifer gave himself credit for all that he was and for what he was. Did he not in that count himself as self-existent--in fact put himself in the place of God? But it all came from self, and that is the thought of it all. He said, "I will be like God. I will be like the Most High." He would be in the place of Christ, and anyone who puts himself in the place of Christ puts himself in the place of God, because God is in Christ.
Then that being so, that being Satan's mind, when he came to our first parents and they received of that mind, what mind was that? The mind of self, because it is the mind of Satan who is self, and the same ambition was set before them that he set before himself that made himself what he is himself. "Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise." To be desired to do what? To make one wise, Wise as what? Like God. "Ye shall be like God," knowing more than you know now. Knowing such and such things, O yes, then that tree is a tree to be desired to bring to me that knowledge, to give me that wisdom, and this tree is the channel through which I can accomplish that object of being like God. That is it. Then what is the mind that is in us? "Self," The natural mind is the mind of Satan. That is self always.
Now the Lord did not leave it there alone. The Lord did not stop right there. If He had stopped there, there never could have been in any man's mind in this world any impulse other than that of Satan himself, because the whole natural mind is of self and Satan only. But God said, I will break that up. "I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed." God put the enmity there, the hatred against Satan's power, the hatred against the things that are in that mind even. God has planted that hatred there, and that is the source of every impulse to good, or to right, or anything of the kind that ever comes into any man's mind in this world.
But when God put that hatred of evil there, it also begets the desire for something better than this evil which we hate. But what is that better thing? What is the object of that desire? [ "Jesus Christ."] Because Jesus Christ and His presence, God's mind, comes back to the place whence it has been taken away. God's image comes back to the place from whence it has been banished by this deception of Satan. Christ is the image of God, the express image of His person, and when we receive Jesus Christ in His fullness the image of God is returned to the place where it belongs. Therefore His putting that enmity sets the will--the choice--free, so that man can choose this other mind. This is that Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. If a man will follow that light he will find Jesus Christ, as Abraham did, as Cornelius did, as everyone does who will follow that ray of light. So He is the Desire of all nations. Haggai 2:7. Christ is that.
The man who finds that hatred of evil, that desire for something better, that will to do well, is that that man doing of good? ["No"], Can He do the good that He is drawn to, by that impulse? ["No."] Let us read in Romans and see what is done. Rom. 3:10, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one." And the 12th verse: "They are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Is that so? ["Yes sir"], then how can we talk about a heathen doing good? Does he do well? "There is none that doeth good, no, not one." [A voice: "If a man has Christ, he can do well."] But if he has Christ, he is not a heathen.
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