THE MIND OF CHRIST AND THE WORKS OF FAITH

Series: FaithLesson #5

Heb. 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

I. The Mind Of Christ Is An Obedient Mind.

1. “...I come to do thy will O God” (Heb. 10:7).

2. “...Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Mat. 4:4).

3. “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man...” (Mat. 7:24).

4. “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Mat. 12:50).

5. “I do only those things I see my Father do” (Jn. 5:19).

6. “The words I speak are not my own but are His who sent me.”

II. Faith Is Obedience. You Cannot Separate The Two Words, Faith And Obedience.

1. Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.

a. Abraham’s belief in God manifested itself in obedience. He did what he was told to do.

2. Hundreds of years later his family could not come into their inheritance because of their unbelief (Heb. 3:19). They refused to cross the river. That was a manifestation of their unbelief.

3. Devils believe and tremble. But theirs is a dead faith, because they do not obey.

4. The mind of Christ is the Father’s mind. Jesus obeyed the prompting and moving of the Father’s mind, and He never once failed to achieve the victory.

III. Jesus Christ Was The Pattern Son.

1. He came to this earth, as our example. He not only demonstrated in Himself all that God is, but in His human side, He demonstrated the kind of person God intends us to be.

2. He was at all times, under every circumstance, under the control of the mind of the Father that was in Him.

a. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit “the mind of God” (Mat. 4:1).

b. “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned to Jordan and was led by the Spirit...” (Lk. 4:1).

c. “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit...” (Lk. 4:14).

3. The leadership of the Holy Spirit, which in actuality is the mind of God, is the realm of sonship.

Rom. 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

4. The leadership of the Holy Ghost is the kingdom Jesus told us to seek first.

5. “The meek shall inherit (rule), the earth…” (Ps. 37:11; Mat. 5:5). The word meek means to be tamed, disciplined, controlled. Everything, all power, wisdom, knowledge, will come to the man who is harnessed; tamed and controlled by God.

IV. The First Law Of The Mind Of Christ In The Believer Is Obedience.

1. Concerning the Law of Moses, Jesus said you may perfectly keep nine points of the law, yet if you break one point, you are guilty of all.

2. The same is true under grace. If God has a controversy with you in any area of your life, nothing you do is holy.

3. When we act in disobedience to the known will of God, we are acting in our own will, and we close the heavens to ourselves. God said if you regard iniquity, (iniquity is self-will) in your heart, God will not hear you.

4. Israel’s disobedience God called it unbelief. It kept them out of the Promised Land.

5. Canaan was not a type of heaven, it was a type of the believer’s walk in the Spirit right here and now.

6. In Canaan, Israel inherited houses they did not build, and vineyards they did not plant. They sought and found the kingdom.

7. Jesus said to His own, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things shall be added unto you” (Mat. 6:33).

V. The First Law Of Life In The New Realm Is Obedience.

1. Obedience is the works of faith.

2. The order of the kingdom is always, “First the natural, then the spiritual.” That means I must act before God will act. That is the first law of faith.

3. There is absolutely no faith until there is action. That is the rock bottom line. Faith is an action based on a belief, supported by a confidence of continued action, that if God said it, God will do it. It is a continued acting or believing upon that which God said.

4. Before the promise is fulfilled, before the miracle is wrought, there are always the instructions.

5. Obedience to the instructions is the works of faith. If there is no obedience, there will be no miracle.

6. Obedience to the instructions is not a miracle. I will in myself to obey or disobey. Heaven never intervenes until I will to obey.

7. The three Hebrew children are a great example.

a. They did not know that God would save them.

b. They knew God’s will in the matter. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3).

c. Heaven never moved until they made their decision.

d. The decision to bow or burn was strictly theirs. No angel came to beg them not to bow. God has spoken; He will do no more until their decision is made.

8. This is the works of faith. To the sinner dead in trespasses and sin, God does not expect a response. But to you and I who know God, He gives His Word. There must be a response on our part, or there will not be any action on God’s part.

9. We have an example in the rich young ruler. He came to Christ, wanting to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him what he had to do.

10. Jesus probed his heart, and discovered to the man himself, that his problem was covetousness. Jesus gave the man the only answer to his question. “Sell what you have and give to the poor.”

11. The man went away sorrowful. Jesus sent no committee after him, to see if they could work something out. There is nothing to work out. The man will either obey, or the man will be lost.

VI. Obedience Always Begins With The Written Word Of God.

1. God will not speak personally to any man who lives in disobedience to the written Word of God.

2. If you are living in rebellion to what God has spoken through His Word, God will not talk to you. You will have no message in tongues to give anybody. You will have no prophecy to give to anybody. You may try to prove your spirituality by doing this on your own, but unless you are walking in obedience to the known will of God, He will not talk to you.

3. If I steadfastly obey what God says to me in His word, I will become more and more sensitive to His voice.

4. Every act of vice makes me more vicious. Every act of virtue makes me a more virtuous person.

5. So faith and the works of faith are the same

6. Next we will read in James, Chapter 2:18-26. Luther threw this Epistle out because of this passage, not understanding that the work of faith is not something I do to have faith, the work of faith is obedience to God’s commands.

Jas. 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

Jas. 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Jas. 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Jas. 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Jas. 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

Jas. 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called a Friend of God.

Jas. 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

Jas. 2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

Jas. 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

7. “Faith worketh by love.” Couple with that, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15).

VII. The Works Of Faith Then, Is My Obedience To God’s Command, The Result Of Faith Is God’s Miracle.

1. But God says in James 4:8, “Draw nigh to Me...” The results of my obedience to this command is, “I will draw nigh to thee.”

2. If I don’t obey the command by drawing nigh to God, then God will not, and cannot draw nigh unto me. So the works of faith is simply my obeying the command.

3. Do you need a miracle? Then hear this, “Give...” The Holy Ghost is not going to supernaturally make you give. There is no miracle here; it is a test of obedience. Giving is a natural action you must decide to take or not to take.

4. The results of your obedience is recorded in Luke 6:38 “...and it shall be given unto you...”

5. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord...” (2Cor. 6:17). That is the command of God to me. There is no miracle connected with this. I either decide to obey or not to obey it. But if I obey (that’s the works of faith), then comes the miracle. “...And I will receive you, and be a Father unto you...” (2Cor. 6:17-18).

VIII.As We Obey The Written Word, We Soon Find Ourselves Sensitive To God’s Voice.

1. It is said of Mr. Wigglesworth that he read in the book of Proverbs where God said He hated the winking of an eye. He said, “I never winked my eye again, not even at a little child.”

2. That was his sensitivity to the Word of God. What he read in this Book, he put into practice in his life. God led him all over the world. By His the Spirit God spoke to him, and led him.

3. God led him into Sweden to the very neighborhood and house where a man lived. God said you will find a man there they have named Lazarus because of his sickness.

4. Wigglesworth found the man. God had told him exactly what to do, he obeyed, and God raised Him up. If Wigglesworth had not been sensitive to the commands of God, then God could not have spoke to him.

5. Every promise in this Bible is preceded by a command. The works of faith is my keeping those commands.

6. God says in Proverbs 8:17, “I will love them that love Me.”

7. When you read that your first thought will be that God’s love is conditional. You know that His love is not conditional. “God, so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…” (Jn. 3:16). While we were yet in our sins Christ died for us.

8. So what is God saying? “I love them that love Me?” God says, “Faith works by love.” Then He says, “if you love Me.” It is not what you say; it is what you do. “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.”

9. “I love them that love Me.” How do I love God? By keeping the commandments. How does He love me back? By making the promise real.

10. Every command of God is followed by His promise. So the works of faith is obedience to the command of God.

I was in a revival meeting a many years ago in Houston, Texas. This was back in 1954. We began a revival meeting on a Sunday night, in a little church that seated about 300 people. They had maybe a hundred, but by Wednesday night there was standing room only in that church. In fact, the fire marshal closed the doors every evening by 6 o’clock so aisles would be open in case there was a fire. We went through one week, and there was such a move of God that the pastor asked us to stay another week. I agreed to stay on with him because we were having such a move of God. When we woke up on Monday morning, after the first week, my wife was sick. Her mouth was completely covered with blisters. I looked down her throat. All the way down her throat she had these blisters. Her fever rose so high she was semiconscious, kind of comatose, just in and out. Well by nine o’clock, our baby daughter came down with the same thing. By noon, our boy was also sick. They were just 4 and 5 at that time. I prayed all day long. I didn’t know what to do. They were all there laying on the bed hardly knowing anything.

That night I locked them in the motel, and went to the church. I told the church to please pray for my family. After church I asked the pastor to go with me. He claimed to have the gift of healing, that he could feel it in his hand. So I asked him to come to the motel and pray over my family. He said he was too tired, he would come the next morning. I said, “they are very ill, please come tonight.” He said, “I will be out early in the morning.” I went back to the motel and found them exactly like I had left them. I prayed all night long. The motel gave us a little army cot for our children. They were just babies. All three were on the bed with my wife. So I made that cot into an altar. I prayed all night, and all day the next day. About nine o’clock in the morning the preacher came. It was one of those old motels that was not air-conditioned. When the pastor came in the screen door, he had one look at my wife and babies, and he almost tore the door off that motel getting out into the street. He said, “You

better get a doctor! I have seen that, I know what that is. They have diphtheria.” I said, “It doesn’t matter. You have the gift of healing. Lay your hands on them. Heal them. He said, “I’m not coming in there. You need to call a doctor. They will quarantine this whole place.” I said to the pastor, “I called the only doctor I know, that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. So come in here!” He drove off and left me, and it seemed every demon in Houston, Texas came and settled on that motel.

I prayed all day. I went back to the church that night and the house was filled. I preached on the subject “Are Demons Real?” Nobody could know more about it than I did. In the middle of the sermon, about 15 or 20 minutes into that message, 18 young people, 15 to 20 years old, jumped up screaming, running to the altar to be saved. When they fell on the altar, crying out to God and the people came to pray with them, I went out the side door of the church and drove back to the motel. All the way I was weeping, so hard I could hardly see the road. I said to God, “I’m no different than any other child of yours. I am not holier than anybody else, but we do live what we preach. We believe you. You don’t have to heal my family, they are yours, and you can take them or heal them. If you take them, I’ll praise your name while their soul goes out the window. If you will heal them, I will tell it everywhere. Whatever you do I know it will be right, I am not telling you what to do, but you must talk to me, tell me what you are going to do. I will never leave this motel room until you tell me what you are going to do with my family.” I don’t recommend that to anybody, but I tried to live by this book. I believe God will talk to us.

I arrived at the motel at ten o’clock. I knelt down by that cot, and began to pray. No man ever prayed more desperately. I had been praying for what seemed like a few minutes when I became aware that there was somebody in the room besides me. A fear came over me. I stopped praying. I had been praying so loud, so long, I had nearly lost my voice. As I waited there with my heart beating, I said to myself, “How did they get in here? The door is closed and the only window had a big fan in it, one of those fans that pulls air in. How did he get in here? Who is in here?” As I knelt there, my heart pounding, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a voice said to me, “Go to bed son, it’s all right.” It seemed like I had been praying only a few minutes, but I looked at my watch and it was two o’clock. I had been there 4 hours. I had not slept in two days. It was two o’clock when I climbed upon that cot and died. I woke up with the cot shaking. When I opened my eyes, there was a little 5 year old boy standing there. He said to me, “Daddy, I’m hungry.” There was an old stove in the room. I heard it rattling, and my baby girl was pulling the door to see if there was anything to eat. About that time my 24-year-old wife sat up in bed, and she said, “Honey I am starving to death.” The long night was over. He did talk. He did tell me. He did come.

11. If we will obey what He says, that is the works of faith, then He will fulfill His promise to us.

12. The miracle is not in the obedience. You naturally decide whether you are going to bring that tithe into the storehouse or not. That is not a miracle, but the miracle occurs when you do, then the windows of heaven are opened.