Nathan Lewis - The Mind of Christ - Class 3: The Renewing of Our Minds

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:02

   OK. So some of Philippians is our school son, as most of you know. And so the children are going to sing that to start off study three.

2. 3:09

   All right. Thank you, young people, for that. And looking forward to then our third study. We’ve enjoyed a nice lunch together. So thank you again for all those who’ve helped with that. So this morning, brother and sisters, we considered them. We the we considered the spiritual mind as seen in our beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ, as we reflected on our own minds and how that battle is going for each one of us. We also last night considered the natural carnal mind, and how that is the natural mind.

3. 3:38

   And we now, this afternoon, will be considering the process to go from the problem to the solution, as our brother Nathan indicated last night, that we, indeed all of us, may desire and be instructed by the Divine Instructor, Our gracious Lord, as it says, be thou forever near me, teach me to love thy sacred word, and view my Savior there. To introduce the third study, the renewing of our minds, Brother Nathan’s asked that we take a Bible reading together. That’s going to be Ephesians chapter 4 starting at verse 17 through to verse 24, and I call on our brother Ash and Samuel to lead us in this reading.

4. 4:20

   Reading together, Ephesians chapter four was 17 to 24. This say, this I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darken, being alienated from the life of God, to the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over an unto the seriousness.

5. 4:58

   To work all uncleanness with greediness, but you not have not learned Christ. If be that you have heard him and have taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. That year put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfulness, lusts and and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

6. 5:28

   And that year put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now then, ask her brother Nathan to give us his third talk entitled The Renewing of Our Minds. Brother Nathan. Thanks, brother Justin, and good afternoon, everybody. Welcome back if you can cast your minds back through the vagaries of lunch.

7. 5:57

   You’ll remember that we discussed the story of Legion and the way in which that was a powerful parable, wasn’t it? Of what God promises to do for each of us to replace our carnal mind with, well, the mind of Christ himself? It was really the promise to replace an evil conscience, fear, shame, and concealment with calm.

8. 6:28

   Peace, a covering and openness. This is the power of Christ to change, radically change, our way of thinking. Evil conscience replaced with a good one. This is God’s promise, his gift to us, if we will but receive it. But last time, and partly, I suppose, because it was that word of exultation this morning.

9. 6:56

   We didn’t have time to examine just how amazing the spiritual mind is and how comprehensive God’s promise and His solution, His gift, really is, how incredible the spiritual mind really is, and how perfect an answer it is to the carnal mind. So let’s just refresh ourselves with the problem, the portrait of the carnal mind that we looked at last night.

10. 7:25

    And in case you were wondering, we will make these slides available on I think, after Thursday night’s class. All right, So you don’t need to feel too stressed in your minds about getting things down, all right? Because we will move through this relatively quickly. You’ll remember these are the OR the characteristics of the portrait of the carnal mind, alienated and isolated, hardened and proud, defiled and impure. Angry and hostile, given to excess and greed, progressively corrupted of the truth, blinded, vain and empty, doubtful and anxious, spiteful and cruel, forgetful and unmindful and unstable and easily shaken.

11. 8:25

    Now look at the portrait of the spiritual mind. We’re not going to have time to look up any of these references, but just let this wash over you. This is how we naturally think this is legion. We’re like him, isolated, unclean, angry, aggressive, unstable. But do you know what? If you look up the word mind.

12. 8:49

    In the scriptures and go through every occurrence of the word mind, which I’ve done. You will find that they very easily fall into two categories, that either bad categories or bad category or a good. It’s either blinded, proud, vain, faint, clearly, carnal, or it’s humble, peaceful, pure. Hearing clearly spiritual And here it is, a portrait of the spiritual mind we’re made nigh we are joined together, a humble and a lowly mind. We read in Philippians, a mind that’s holy and pure. Lies I 26 is that will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on the peaceful and tranquil, sober minded and self controlled, progressively grows towards the truth. Remember we referred to 1st John 5 and verse 20. In our exultation we have been given a mind to know him who is true, to grow towards him to grow towards truth. The spiritual mind beholds the glory of God. It’s renewed and large.

13. 10:14

    It’s trusting and calm, compassionate and caring, forward and ready, steadfast and confident. This is a portrait of the spiritual mind. Now you’ll get the references later, but just look at the power of this when we put these two minds side by side, one’s destined for death, the other for life and peace.

14. 10:39

    Alienated and isolated, you just think in your mind what the opposite of that is made nigh, Joined together, adopted, hardened and proud, humble and lowly, defiled and impure, holy and pure, angry and hostile, peaceful and tranquil, given to excess and greed. Sober, minded and self controlled, progressively corrupted of the truth, grows towards the truth. Blinded, beholds the glory of God, Vain and empty, renewed and large, doubtful and anxious, trusting and calm, spiteful and cruel, compassionate and caring, forgetful, forward and ready. Unstable and not easily shaken, A steadfast mind. Isn’t that amazing?

15. 11:45

    This is a comprehensive, perfect solution to the carnal mind. God has the exact answer to all of our problems, to absolutely every part of what we struggle with. And it’s His gift, as we saw this morning. It is freely given to us of God. But you see, it’s not a gift that’s bestowed in a moment of time.

16. 12:13

    It’s a lifetime’s journey. It is a process from being born with a carnal mind. It’s about striving each day more and more towards God’s promise. For us, it’s a lifelong journey towards a spiritual mind. So by what process does God? Freely give us this gift of the spiritual mind. Exactly how does God replace our carnal mind with a spiritual mind?

17. 12:42

    Well, that’s our subject for this afternoon, The Renewing of our minds, The process. And I’d like to start and well, no surprises really. Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12. We just want to survey a few references this afternoon, most of which we’ll know fairly well.

18. 13:04

    As we look at this topic, the renewing of our minds and Well, Romans chapter 12 is the main passage that we think of when we come to this topic. I beseech you therefore, brethren, verse one, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It’s pretty clear, isn’t it?

19. 13:44

    We’re either going to be transformed or conformed. And conformed has the idea, doesn’t it, of being conformed by external influences, but being transformed. Has the idea of being transformed from within, renewed from within. We’ll see whether that’s entirely true in a moment of time. Romans chapter 12, however, is the beginning of the exhortational part of the book, and you probably know this breakup of Romans in your own minds.

20. 14:21

    But let’s just run over it together. Paul is going to deal with the journey of our discovery of the truth. In chapters 1-2 and three, he’s going to deal with the concepts of sin and righteousness. In chapter 4, he’s going to talk about faith in chapter 5, the atonement in chapter 6, baptism in Chapter 7, the ongoing struggle between the flesh and the Spirit in chapter 7:00 and 8:00. In chapters 9 to 11, he’s gonna answer where Israel fits into this grand and glorious scheme.

21. 14:53

    And now he comes in chapter 12 to the exhortational part of his epistle. And the very first thing he says in chapter 12 and verse one is that it’s an issue about our minds. We need to make a choice about the fate of our minds. Don’t be conformed, he says. It’s the Greek word. Suska Matitso.

22. 15:19

    It means same mold or same scheme. You can probably get that out of Suska Matitso, same scheme. Don’t be pressed into the mold of the world. Now you might remember that right back in Romans chapter one and verse 28 Paul had said to the gentiles or seed of the Gentiles that God gave them over to a reprobate mind.

23. 15:46

    In Romans one and verse 28 and the word reprobate means depraved or degenerate, unacceptable. A mind that is disapproved. And here he says don’t be like that, don’t be pressed into that mold. Renew your minds that you might be approved, acceptable, good, perfect. There’s a choice of thinking to be made, and you know that word, that Greek word suska matiza, only occurs twice. In the whole of the New Testament, and the other time is in the first Epistle of Peter, and again it’s about our minds. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not being conformed to your former lusts.

24. 16:41

    In your ignorance, make a decision, he says. Don’t be fashioned or pressed into the world’s mold. Don’t have your minds shaped by the world. Rather be pressed into the mold of Christ. In fact, if you’re still in Romans 12, he’s already said this as well back in chapter 8 in verse 29, for whom he did for know. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son.

25. 17:10

    This time it’s a slightly different word. Soon morfu. It means same form, but it’s basically synonymous with chapter 12 verse two. So we have a choice and mines actually are going to be conformed to something. Well, we don’t actually get a choice. We might think while we either get to be conformed by the external influences of the world or we get to experience an inner transformation, actually no.

26. 17:40

    Our minds will be conformed to something, either the image of the world or the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s our choice. We get to choose. So we need to change the way we think. We say, all right, I can handle that. How, how much? How much do I need to change the way I think? How?

27. 18:11

    How radically do I need to change A little? A lot, mostly. Romans chapter 12, verse two says be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It’s a complete transformation. We are a new creature and you will be aware that the word for transformation is Metamorphu. It literally means a change of form meta change morphu form.

28. 18:45

    So literally chapter 12 verse two should read be not same shaped as the world but be changed into another shape by the complete. Change of your mind. This is revolutionary thinking. Now, as you know, metamorphosis happens to caterpillars. So I thought I’d do some research on caterpillars and butterflies and present for a few minutes on the process of metamorphosis as we can readily observe it in the insect Kingdom.

29. 19:20

    And there’s some pretty remarkable facts about this process. Do you know that in order? For the Caterpillar to get enough energy to pupate and become a butterfly, it has to eat voraciously. From the egg to the Caterpillar, these little creatures increase their body weight by a staggering 1000 times. In these short weeks, they can eat 30. 1000 times their own body weight in a few short weeks.

30. 20:04

    Just think about that for a moment. We’ve all had lunch 30,000 times your own body weight in a few short weeks, which even by American standards is ridiculous eating. Then it hangs upside down. It sheds its last skin. And it pupates into a crystalline, and inside this waterproof shell, the Caterpillar releases enzymes that literally dissolves its whole body into a nutrient rich soup.

31. 20:45

    And then, using little embryonic cells, it completely reforms a new body as a butterfly. This, this boggles your mind, doesn’t it? New legs, new lungs, new antennae. New organs, a new digestive tract, a new heart, a new brain, and a new central nervous system. That’s amazing. That’s staggering. In three to four weeks, it emerges a completely different creature, around half of its previous weight, as a butterfly. Before it used to feed on solid food by biting and chewing. Now it feeds on liquid food by siphoning up nectar through a wee tube.

32. 21:33

    Before, the abdomen had pro legs. Now the abdomen has no legs. Before it used to have very simple eyes. Now it has extremely complicated compound eyes. Before it used to wriggle on leaves with its legs, and now obviously it flies in the ear with its wings. It is an utterly different creature, is different from a Caterpillar as a hamster is from a Hummingbird. Now let me tell you something which if you have wondered about the process of creation and evolution. This is going to stagger your mind. In this study recently done in the Georgetown University on tobacco hornworm caterpillars, it seems that some memories are actually retained from the Caterpillar to the butterfly, or in this case of the study, the moth. So they didn’t experiment where they exposed the caterpillars in the last three weeks just before they turned into the chrysalis. They exposed these little caterpillars to a very unpleasant smell.

33. 22:56

    And they gave the caterpillars little electric shocks to condition them to avoid this nasty smell. And then they went into the chrysalis. They completely dissolved and became an absolutely new creature. When they came out as a moth, it seems that they still reacted to that particular smell that they learned to avoid when they were caterpillars.

34. 23:27

    Now, if that doesn’t strike you as incredible, nothing in the human and biological world is going to stagger you. Isn’t that amazing? How does that happen? How does God do that? You know, I’ve always been fascinated by this process. And I thought, well, since I’m doing a talk on this very subject, I’m going to do some research into exactly what happens inside the chrysalis and then we can talk about that. And it’s just going to be amazing. What happens when the Caterpillar dissolves itself and reforms as a butterfly.

35. 24:00

    How exactly does metamorphosis occur? How does it work? So this afternoon, what I’m going to do is try and present in a relatively simple way. This carefully collated research so that we can we can look at these things together, because what the best minds and science have found after 6000 years of investigation into this remarkable process is that we have absolutely no idea how this tiny little creature can go from.

36. 24:41

    Caterpillar to a butterfly. In other words, it’s a miracle. There’s no other way, is there, to describe a new creature formed by metamorphosis except a miracle. And Paul says that’s exactly what is going on inside our heads. It cannot be explained and it cannot be investigated. It’s a complete transformation from the carnal mind to the mind of Christ.

37. 25:14

    But if you took an MRI of our skull, you will show no change. If you dissect their brain, it will reveal nothing, but we will be a completely different person. We are a new creature in Christ, as Second Corinthians 5 and verse 17 says, And brothers and sisters and young people, we have no idea how it happens. It is simply a miracle.

38. 25:45

    Or at the very least, if you feel a little bit uncomfortable about the word miracle, a complete mystery, This is God’s work. This is what Brother Dennis Gillett says at the start of his book Genius of Discipleship be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Hence the use of the word genius, the dominant force which is creative in its effect.

39. 26:13

    The process is not a repair job. It’s not a course in window dressing. It’s not making the best of a bad situation. It’s not just a means of escape. Is not to enable us to endure what cannot be cured. Discipleship is a new thing, a new life based on a new covenant. Old things have passed away.

40. 26:38

    All things have become new. Discipleship is concerned with a new man, created by God in holiness and truth. It’s not fixing. What’s broken? It is a transformation. Now the word metamorphosis occurs four times in the New Testament, twice in Matthew and Mark to describe the Transfiguration. A change of form, remember a change of form.

41. 27:07

    And once in Second of Corinthians, Chapter 3. So let’s go there. Second of Corinthians and chapter 3. So this is really the the other major. Use of the word metamorphosis in the New Testament, Second of Corinthians in chapter 3 and let’s just read verse 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed.

42. 27:54

    Metamorphosis into the same image. From glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord we are changed. And the Greek is in the present continuous. It’s an ongoing process. We are being changed. What takes three to four weeks for a butterfly takes a lifetime for us. But look at the context of this little section in Corinthians.

43. 28:23

    See the contrast? Verse 14, their minds were blinded, but now verse 18, their minds are completely changed. You know it’s exactly the same when we come into chapter 4 and just read a few verses there verses 3:00 to 7:00. But if that gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom? The God of this world.

44. 28:50

    Has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants. For Jesus sake, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, it’s shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

45. 29:20

    We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. So if Blinded Minds chapter 3 verse 14 equals Veiled Hearts chapter 3, verse 15, then Enlightened Hearts Chapter 4, verse 6. Must mean changed minds. It’s the light of the knowledge of Christ that enlightens our minds. And Paul is saying that is different as light is from darkness, as different as blindness is from seeing as different as the spiritual mind is from the carnal mind. It is a complete transformation.

46. 30:07

    And just on a personal note, Can you imagine Paul writing? Chapter 4 and verse 6. Just imagine where Paul’s mind might have been when he pins the words of verse 6. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

47. 30:31

    Where is his mind except it be on the road to Damascus? And what he’s saying? Is that his old way of thinking? His old carnal mind was as black as the pre creation darkness. That’s how he viewed his old carnal mind. It’s just as dark as before Genesis one and verse one. Before there was light, that’s how different he used to be.

48. 31:00

    That’s how much he’s changed. Now he has light and vision and a complete and utterly new perspective. This process is ongoing C verse 16. For which cause we faint not. But though our outward man perished, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. It’s going on every day. It’s a miracle. It was a miracle to Paul, it’s a miracle to us.

49. 31:26

    It’s a day by day proposition. Isaiah 28 and verse 10 puts it, albeit satirically, precept upon precept, line upon line here a little. Very little. One day at a time. We are imperceptibly changed. So how does it happen? Well, I think there’s a clue in what is probably the most well known quotation in the Brotherhood about the mind, so we want to look at that now.

50. 32:01

    It’s this quotation by Brother John Carter from the Leader to the Ephesians, page 133. The mind is insensibly affected by the stream of thought passing through it. It is desirable, therefore, to have that stream as pure as possible. That’s really saying what Proverbs Chapter 23 and verse 7 says. For just as he had thought in his own mind, so he is, and minds are insensibly. Affected.

51. 32:39

    Whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we want it to or not, our minds are unconsciously, as that word insensibly means, unconsciously, affected. Now I want to share with you when I first read this quotation years and years ago when I was a teenager. I always used to think that this was a curse.

52. 33:11

    We have all brothers and sisters looked at. We have all heard. We have all said. We’ve all done. We’ve all thought things we would desperately wish to undo if we could. And we are the witness, aren’t we, that our minds are. Insensibly affected by those things, they become a part of who we are. And it is a curse I used to think. But you know what?

53. 33:48

    Now I see this principle is one of the greatest blessings that our Heavenly Father has given each one of us. Because if our minds are insensibly affected by evil, whether we like it or not. Then they are equally insensibly affected by good. Now that brothers and sisters and young people is an immense comfort to know that we can renew, we can rewrite our minds. That if we do the right things then the change to our mind is inevitable, we will be insensibly affected. That’s that’s amazing.

54. 34:38

    I don’t know about you, but I’m very, very grateful for that now. Whereas before I used to read that and feel terrible about the things that I should never have looked at or said or done. And not to say that we shouldn’t feel that way, but how grateful ought we to be that our minds can also be insensibly affected for good?

55. 35:02

    Here’s how it happens. I want to just use a little analogy to explain how this works. We just read, didn’t we, in chapter 4, verse seven, that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. And I want you to imagine that our minds are really like a leaky container into which ideas are dropped like drops of ink when we start out in life. Our mind is like an empty an empty canvas, if you will. But as we go through life, it’s not long, is it, before we start dropping in drops of sinful thoughts. And this is what happens to our minds. Imagine if that was the end product. But it’s not.

56. 35:50

    Our minds actually look like this. We are leaky. Earthen vessels And out of all of these holes in our head, our mind and memories are faulty. Flow gradually the things that we’ve put in now it says this in Psalm 31 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind. I am a broken vessel. In the margin says a vessel that perishes. I’m not 100% sure that what he means is that it’s a leaky vessel, but it gives us the idea, doesn’t it? This is our minds.

57. 36:28

    And what happens is things leak out. We forget. And now what happens is if we start pouring in the good things of the word, we start thinking differently. We pour in a different colored ink. We suddenly see that this is what happens. Our minds are slowly being transformed. And it’s true, isn’t it, that if the bad thoughts are capable of leaking out, then the good thoughts are equally as capable as leak of leaking out.

58. 37:04

    But if all we keep doing is dropping in the blue ink, our minds will gradually with time become more and more spiritual. It’s just an analogy. It’s just a diagram, but hopefully by seeing this we can understand how metamorphosis happens in our minds. Do you know, I used to think that having a photographic memory would be so amazing for Bible study, and I used to be very envious, by the way, kind of mind of people who did have a photographic memory.

59. 37:42

    That was before I realized how awful it would be. To have a photographic memory for the rest of my life, not just Bible study. Well, how terrible it would be to have a photographic memory for all the things I desperately wanted to forget but couldn’t. And our Heavenly Father knows our frame. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and our faulty memories, brothers and sisters, are actually his mercy and his compassion and his love.

60. 38:15

    This enables renewal. Yes, we have to keep pouring in the blue ink at the top, but that’s how we are changed. Do you know? Scientists call this neuroplasticity, the ability to forget and to form new neural pathways to change the way we think, change the way we think so. So what do the Scriptures have to say about this renewal and how this renewal happens?

61. 38:47

    Scientists have no idea how it happens to caterpillars, but what do the Scriptures have to say about what happens in our minds? Well, the Greek word for renewing that we have here in Second of Corinthians, chapter 4 and verse 16, occurs four times in the New Testament. Once is in Romans 12. We’ve already been there.

62. 39:09

    Once is here in 2nd Corinthians 4. Once is in Colossians, we’ll go there in a moment, and the other time is in Titus chapter 3, and I’d like you to come to Titus chapter 3. How does this happen? How are our minds renewed? Titus chapter 3? And let’s just read a few verses, verses 3:00 to 7:00.

63. 39:45

    For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers, lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. This is the carnal mind. But after that the kindness and love of God, our Savior toward man, appeared not by works of righteousness, which we have done. According to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

64. 40:26

    That being justified by His grace, we should be made ears according to the hope of eternal life. See the complete transformation. From foolish, disobedient, and deceived verse 3 to justified ears of eternal life, verse 7 by the renewing of the Holy Spirit, now we know that the process of metamorphosis in our minds is a miracle.

65. 40:51

    We can’t understand it or explain it. We’re changed in the way we think. But is this power of the Holy Spirit some well, some miraculous mysterious? Operation of the Holy Spirit on our minds renewed by the Holy Spirit, a mysterious, unexplainable indwelling of God’s Spirit in our minds.

66. 41:25

    And the answer is absolutely yes, absolutely yes. But the means The method that God uses is not mysterious or miraculous at all. The effect is miraculous, but the method is not. It’s the same method that caterpillars use. We have to eat, eat, eat. We are transformed miraculously by simply and steadily digesting the Holy Spirit Word, the Word of God.

67. 42:08

    It might be a miracle how it happens. How our minds are changed into the mind of Christ might be mysterious, we might never understand it, but there is nothing in the world that’s magical. Nothing supernatural, nothing mystical, happening by smoke and mirrors. It’s not our father magically altering our thinking against their free will.

68. 42:29

    It’s as simple as eating the word of God, and the change is inevitable. We are insensibly affected. We are conformed inevitably to a family likeness. Now just look how these three phrases in Titus chapter three are used. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. This is not a magical spirit indwelling experience where we are once saved, always saved.

69. 43:03

    It’s the inevitable result of digesting his spirit word. How about the word washing? Do you know that word washing? Only occurs twice, and the other time is in Ephesians chapter 5. Husbands, love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the Ecclesia and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.

70. 43:32

    So how does washing come about by the word of God. That’s the only two places that that word is used in the entire New Testament. What about regeneration? It’s the Greek word, new birth. This is what Peter says in first of Peter. One which according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again, being born again.

71. 43:53

    A new birth, not of corruptible seed, not of, but of incorruptible by the word of God. And what about this word renewing? It’s used four times, as we’ve seen, and the last one, which we haven’t been to yet, says in Colossians 3 and have put on the Newman, which is renewed in knowledge.

72. 44:18

    This is not a mysterious mystical spirit, power that enters our broad bodies and brains and changes us against our will. This is the inevitable result of absorbing. The Holy Spirit word, Holy Spirit Renewal is from the Spirit word of God. My words are Spirit and they are life. Everywhere this these ideas are used consistently.

73. 44:47

    We have the same consistent answer. Renewing comes from absorbing divine ideas and divine principles. By reading we are slowly changed by its influence. We go from caterpillars crawling around bound to the earth, earthly things, to butterfly soaring in the heavens with Christ and all we need to do brothers and sisters, Young people is just keep eating.

74. 45:13

    Maybe not 30,000 times their own weight, but you get the idea. That’s to to illustrate the principle, eat voraciously. Consume the word of God and we will be changed. Trust God that a remarkable transformation, the renewing of our minds, will occur. We’ll come to Colossians in chapter 3. This is the last of the four times that the word renewing occurs in the New Testament.

75. 45:43

    Colossians chapter 3 and verse one If ye then be risen with Christ. Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. These are lovely words. You know the word seek way Mouth translates that word seek as Give your minds, give your minds.

76. 46:12

    And the word affections you’ll see in the margin is the word minds so. He’s saying it’s all about our minds. Give your minds to those things which are above. Set your minds on things above. Paul’s instructions are clear. We’ve got to identify with Jesus Christ in all aspects of His sacrifice and victory.

77. 46:38

    If we share Christ’s death when we were buried with Him in Baptism chapter 2, verse 12, and we share Christ’s resurrection when we arisen with Him. Chapter 3 Verse One Then we ought also to share his ascension to the right hand of God by setting our minds, giving our minds to heavenly things.

78. 47:03

    If we go from being the caterpillars of this world bound to the earth, or as Paul says and Philippians who mind earthly things and we want to be transformed into butterflies, we need to mind heavenly things. Practice. Not occupying your minds on things above, Paul says. And he says when we do that we complete the victory of Jesus Christ. We share in the ascension of Jesus Christ into the heavens above.

79. 47:31

    What an argument. What an argument for the metamorphosis of our minds. If baptism is partaking in the death and resurrection of Christ, then the renewing of our minds is us sharing in His ascension. Into the heavenly places. It’s the same power, isn’t it, that raised Christ from the dead and elevated him into heaven, That is slowly resurrecting our minds from the dust.

80. 47:58

    And Paul is going to go on to say in verses 9 and 10, lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. It’s an ongoing process of putting off and putting on.

81. 48:20

    Yes, we do this as we see it constitutionally when we’re baptized. But this is the regeneration by constant washing, the renewal day by day after the image of him who created him. It’s a miracle. And notice by knowledge, by reading the word, we conformed to his image, to the image of Christ, so.

82. 48:44

    Because we’re new creatures in him. All right, so how does reading change us? We say to ourselves. All right, so we, our minds are going to change because we voraciously read. Well, how will that change us? Well, just a thought.

83. 49:06

    We have what’s called our consciousness. And our consciousness is going to affect our conduct. We can’t do things without first being conscious of what’s going on around us. And our conduct ultimately, is going to affect our character. Consciousness leads to conduct and conduct to character. Now we know what character we’re seeking. A family likeness, The mind of Christ. This is where we’re all heading.

84. 49:39

    And we know, don’t we, that this is where in the in the lives of the Saints, the angels and the work of Providence is able to act. It’s able to intervene, if you like, in the our experiences to change who we are. So what’s reading we’re just reading fit in. Well, he’s reading here. It’s our part.

85. 50:05

    This is the work of the angels. To conform us to the mind of Christ. But we firstly need to be able to read, because reading alters our consciousness. It gives the angels something to work with in their minds. It gives them something to work on. This is what Paul means when he says the renewing of our minds.

86. 50:27

    We can’t expect a Damascus Rd. experience to dramatically alter our lives without reading. It doesn’t happen. It’s a combination of both that changes us. We’re in partnership with our Heavenly Father now. Sometimes experience can teach us a great deal, but it can teach us a great deal more if our minds are being exercised in spiritual things. If we read, then the angels have something to work with in our minds.

87. 51:01

    Come to Ephesians Chapter 4. Just back a few pages. We’ve been here before, but let’s just read these words again. See the transformation, verse 17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them.

88. 51:37

    Because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness, But we have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt. According to the deceitful Luss, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. It’s the same story, isn’t it?

89. 52:20

    The old man, the carnal mind has got to be put off and the new man put on by a process, the renewing of our minds. Do you know verse 15 calls that process? Growing up, it’s not going to happen quickly, is it? Brothers and sisters, I don’t think it ever ends, unless maybe you feel like you’ve grown up into Christ.

90. 52:47

    It’s an ongoing journey for the rest of our lives. This is how JB Phillips translates a few verses, these few verses. And Ephesians, just read this with me, see if you can see how. Slightly different language gives us a sense of what Paul’s trying to say. But you have learned nothing like that from Christ.

91. 53:09

    If you have really heard His voice and understood the truth that he has taught you. No. What you learned was to fling off The Dirty clothes of the old way of living, which were rotted through and through with lusts, illusions, and with yourselves mentally and spiritually remade. To put on the clean, fresh clothes of the new life which was made by God’s design for righteousness and the holiness which is no illusion, we’re remade, reconstituted.

92. 53:44

    It’s a miracle happening in our minds, a new creation created in righteousness. What I comfort, brothers and sisters, to think is we’ve remembered this day that if we were to graph our lives. And bodies kind of look like this in terms of performance. It doesn’t take very long. Maybe by the time we’re 18 or 19 or 20, we’re almost at the peak of our powers. And for the rest of our lives, it’s a downhill slide. But think about our minds.

93. 54:21

    Think about our minds on this same graph. It looks kind of like this. This is kind of where Judah Martin is right now, about teenage years. Our brains switched off for a little while, but apart from that you can see the trend. It’s going all the way up. What a comfort to know that is everything else is getting worse. We can be renewed, remade in our minds. This is what brother Dennis Gillett has to say in his book Diseases of the Soul.

94. 54:58

    The truth is not just an arrangement whereby men who ought to die can escape. It is a superlative declaration that ruined men can be remade at the spiritual center of their life, now and hereafter, not just deliverance from a penalty, but the revelation of divine righteousness at the disposal of man. Not just amelioration, but altogether renewal. Salvation is not only deliverance from death, not only forgiveness of sin.

95. 55:38

    At last it is the power to do right to master the antagonistic forces of heredity and environment. The enfeebled will is empowered, the paralysis is healed. The bound soul is set at liberty. What an amazing thing, brothers and sisters. What a hope. What a healing from this hideous deformity as Brother Thomas describes the carnal mind.

96. 56:02

    Deliverance, forgiveness, the power to do right. This is what we all long for. Liberty. Freedom in Christ. A complete and comprehensive answer to the carnal mind. Every hideous part replaced. Who wouldn’t want this, brothers and sisters? Who of us? When we honestly look inside, our hearts and minds wouldn’t want to be remade at the spiritual center of our life. What would people pay for that?

97. 56:39

    It’s not for sale, can’t be bought, can only be received as a gift. But you know there is a catch. Because. Whilst it’s a free gift and it’s freely given, to delude ourselves, brothers and sisters into thinking that there are no conditions would be absolute foolishness, there is a condition. There is one essential thing that we must have for this astonishing renewal to take place.

98. 57:18

    I was going to go to Psalm 51, but we don’t really have time. But if we want renewal, you’ll remember Psalm 51, the change that comes over David from his great sin. If we want metamorphosis, if we want transformation, Psalm 51 and verse 12 says in the English Standard version, uphold me with a willing spirit. All we have to be brothers and sisters is have a willing and ready mind.

99. 57:49

    First of Chronicles 28, Solomon. Serve him with a willing mind. The Bereans with all readiness of mind. What did they do? They searched the scriptures daily and 2nd of Corinthians 8. If they be first a willing mind. This is God’s promise. His will for us is an amazing transformation. He’s offered for us to leave these Caterpillar suits behind and to soar into heavenly places to have our minds miraculously changed over time.

100. 58:21

     Slowly but surely, to be like our Lords. It’s a miracle, and all he asks us to do is keep eating, keep eating, keep eating and be willing, willing to watch a miracle happen in our lives and in our minds. I just want to detour back to the Gospels for a couple of minutes because I said we’d do that for each of our sessions.

101. 58:44

     And let’s go to John Chapter 6. Just a few more minutes, brothers and sisters, and we’ll be done. Let’s see the wonderful process of this at work in the lives of the disciples, the renewing of their minds. John chapter 6 and verse 16. And when even was now come, his disciples went down into the sea and entered into a ship and went over the sea toward Copernium, and it was now dark.

102. 59:17

     And Jesus was not come unto them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. And when they had rode about 5 and 20 or 30 furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship. And they were afraid. And he saith unto them at his eye, be not afraid. Then they willingly received him into the ship, and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. In this parable, the parable of this story, Christ was on a high mountain in heaven, watching them toil on the chaotic waves of life waiting for his return.

103. 59:58

     Their experience is a picture of the carnal mind, doubtful, anxious, afraid, alone, desperate, vainly rowing by their own strength and getting nowhere. It’s our lives, brothers and sisters, without Christ, wave after wave of trouble. Almost overwhelmed. And then he comes and Mark chapter 6 verse 48 says he would have passed them by. He would have passed them by.

104. 1:00:29

     See the point? Salvation and renewal is never forced. We have to willingly receive him into our ship. Into our lives, into our minds. And as soon as we do, a miracle happens. Immediately there is calm trust. They receive peace. This is the effect that Christ can have on us when we are willing to let him renew our minds.

105. 1:01:01

     Of course, in real life it’s never immediate, is it? But the principle is there when we invite Christ into our minds. Miraculous things can happen. Do you know what the most marvelous thing is? Brothers and sisters, just quickly come in conclusion to Philippians. In Chapter 3, we’ve been talking about renewal, transformation. And look what it says in Philippians chapter 3, verse 18.

106. 1:01:43

     For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end destruction, Whose God their belly, whose glory, their shame, who mind earthly things. These are the caterpillars of the world, for our conversation is in heaven. Citizenship is above, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. One day, brothers and sisters, it won’t be just their minds that are renewed.

107. 1:02:32

     He will transform our bodies. Do you know that word change means to transform shape and the word fashioned? Well, it’s the same word as verse 10 conformed. This is our hope. If we are conformed to the same form mentally in our minds now to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can totally and absolutely trust in God that he will one day. Can form our bodies to be like Christ’s glorious immortal body one day if we just keep eating.

108. 1:03:15

     Just keep eating, brothers and sisters. Let’s just keep eating, absorbing the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just see how God is able to work in our lives to transform us from ourselves. So what does this new renewed mind, the mind of Christ, look like? What’s the essence, the embodiment of this mind in us? Well, that’s the subject of our next class, the mind of Christ, the principle.

109. 1:03:55

     Oh my dear brother and sisters, we’ve been considering together, haven’t we? And been encouraged. That lifelong process of being transformed, choosing to be conformed to the image of his Son of the Lord Jesus Christ, constantly to be digesting the word of God, which is living an active in the discerner of the thoughts and the intents of our hearts. And it’s possible And each one of us here, if we have that willing attitude, and then we can then have that certain hope. By his grace to have life eternal.