Mental attitude toward self. Part 2

Mental attitude toward self, Part 2.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

He taught that the only escape for the believer from becoming the villain or the victim of iconoclastic arrogance is spiritual maturity.

The danger lies in the fact that some think more highly of themselves than what they ought to, while others think too lowly of themselves and not according to the word of God.

1CO 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am,

What I want to focus on therefore is the importance of your attitude toward yourself.

While the soul is not occupied by the old sin nature, the soul becomes the “battlefield” which the old sin nature attacks and where it is often tactically successful.

COL 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

Success or failure depends more upon mental attitude than upon anything else in life, because if you don’t have the right mental attitude then you don’t have the capacity to handle the success.

Romans 7:14-17 - the emphasis is on practicing the very thing we hate - the inability to overcome the sin nature.
ROM 7:18-21 - the emphasis is on the failure to do that which is desired in the new nature - the inability, on account of the flesh, to do right.

Salvation is opportunity to become free; however only truth can set us free.

JOH 8:32 “You shall know the doctrine and the doctrine shall make you free.”

There is a sin nature dwelling in your body which is anti-God.

You have been given the indwelling Holy Spirit to make war upon and defeat the power of the old sin nature in your life.

GAL 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Therefore, keep standing fast [residence, function, and momentum in the plan of God] and do not again become entangled in the yoke of slavery [cosmic system].

These good intentions are hindered by the overtime work of the old sin nature with its trends toward good and evil.

Doctrine is important because it helps you to recognize your flaws and the control that the old sin nature has over you.

The old sin nature is the source of temptation and also the source of inherent flaws from birth.

This means that sin lives in a person long before a person’s volition develops acquired flaws.

Paul is saying that because he has believed on TLJC, that he is no longer the one alive but Christ is living in him.

GAL 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

You cannot fulfill
MAT 22:39 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” unless you love yourself!

Because the nature of God cannot sin (1JO 3:9), and Christ is in him
(GAL 2:20), Paul has learned to separate the two natures.

Do you “think more highly of yourself than what you ought to think,” ROM 12:3, or do you think more lowly of yourself than what you ought to think, 1CO 15:10?

Before any believer can appreciate the divine solutions to the indwelling problems of the old sin nature and the magnificent grace of God, the believer must be brought to the end of himself.

The effects of sin are guilt and condemnation, and therefore there is no place for any guilt and condemnation in the life of the believer.

PSA 32:5 You have forgiven the guilt of my sin;
PSA 65:3 Iniquities prevail against me; but as for our transgressions you do forgive them.
PSA 85:2 You did forgive the iniquity of your people; you did cover all their sin.

PSA 103:10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
PSA 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

ISA 1:18 Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.
ISA 38:17 For you have cast all my sins behind Your back.
ISA 44:22 I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

In EZE 16:63 the Lord said to people who were involved with the grossest sins you could imagine, “I will forgive you for all that you have done.”

The power of sin was broken at the cross because we died with Him at the cross, both to sins and to the power of the sin nature.

As you grow in the knowledge of doctrine, there can arise a tremendous conflict in the soul, not from the temptation of the old sin nature, but from the evil and the inherent weaknesses which are there.

“Wretched” - Greek talaiporos = “wretched - through the exhaustion of hard labor”

God in His grace knows we have inherent flaws, environmental flaws, in addition to the sins we accumulate.

1CO 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The blood of Christ frees us from the guilt of our sins, and the cross of Christ frees us from the slavery of our sin nature.

That sin dwelt in him
That his self-will was powerless against it
That the sinful self was not his real self
That there was deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ

Unless and until we learn to despair of the idea that self will ever change self, we will not enter into the rest of experiencing spiritual deliverance in Christ.

The flesh will go to any degree of religious self-denial, or self-inflicted sufferings - anything but death!

But faith begins with this: we died with Christ, and now we live in Him.

Here’s a life-changing truth: mental attitudes are even more important than facts.

PRO 14:12 There is a way {which seems} right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

Your life is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the mental attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

A great mental attitude not only gives you greater discernment, but it allows you to perceive opportunities in your life that have always been there but have gone unnoticed.

Any problem facing us is not as important as our mental attitude toward it, for that mental attitude determines our success or failure.

This is why the way you think about a situation may defeat you before you ever do anything about it.

PHI 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Mental attitude is your acceptance of the natural and the spiritual laws designed by God, or your rejection of them.

We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way, we cannot change the inevitable; however, we can change our mental attitude toward these things.

Develop a mental attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

Facing new challenges, seizing new opportunities, testing our resources against the unknown and in the process, discovering our own unique potential.

ROM 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

Even spiritually adult believers can be in danger when they have a mental attitude test because it may knock them out of living the spiritual life if they are not humble enough to receive correction and recognize it.

Your alertness comes from objective, not subjective thinking.

GAL 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

1CO 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

PRO 26:12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.