Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message.
Here's Adrian Rogers. How to control your thought life. That is, how to have mastery over your mind. And if there was ever a significant message, this would be it. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world, now notice that's a little g and it refers to Satan, the God of this world, that is the God of this age, hath blinded the minds. Underscore that phrase, hath 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, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now this deals with the problem of the mind and a blinded mind. You see, the devil is controlling the thought life of so many, but thank God he doesn't have to.
I mean, there is a way to gain control of your mind, and I want to speak to you today in a very significant message on how to control your thought life, how to control your thought life. Now, I want to give you four principles, and the very first factor that I want to give you is what I call the salvation factor, the salvation factor. You must get saved. You see, the devil doesn't want you to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look in verse 4, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Do you know what the devil wants to do you right now? The devil right now wants to pull the veil of darkness over your mind. He doesn't want you to hear what I'm about to say. He doesn't want a shaft of gospel sunlight to penetrate the dark, murky recesses of your soul.
The devil wants you to stay in the dark. He doesn't want God to turn the light on in your soul, so he wants to blind your mind. You need to understand there's a difference between your mind and your brain. The relationship of mind and brain would be very similar to the relationship of a pianist and a piano. You see, the piano is the brain. The pianist is the mind that uses the brain.
For example, who plays that piano makes a lot of difference as to what comes out of it. You want me to tell you the most dangerous thing in the world? The most dangerous thing in the world is a man with a bad mind and a good brain. A bad mind and a good brain. He is a clever devil. Now it is the mind that the Bible speaks of that I'm talking about, not the gray matter. When you get saved, you don't get a new brain, you get a new mind. And the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not. The devil doesn't hurt your intelligence. What he does is distort your mind. He blinds your mind. Why? Because the Bible says, as a man thinketh, so is he.
It is your mind that controls you. Legendary Bear Bryant, the great coach at Alabama, had his team on the field and they were playing an arch rival. There were only two minutes left in the game.
Alabama was ahead by five points, two minutes left. Alabama has the ball and they're on the opponent's 20-yard line. They call a play and the number one quarterback for Alabama is hurt on that play. Bear Bryant pulls him out and he takes the second string quarterback and he gives him these instructions.
He says to him, now listen, I want you to go in there and run three more plays. Regardless, don't throw the ball. Do not put the ball in the air. Just try to keep from losing yardage if we don't score.
Okay? Yes, sir, coach. The boy went in and on the second down, no yardage at all. On the third down, they gained a yard. On the fourth down, the clock winding down, this rookie quarterback takes the ball and he turns to hand it off to this man coming through and there's a bobble and the man doesn't catch the ball and the quarterback still has the ball in his hands. And so he begins to move out and to try to get away from the defense and he looks over there in the end zone and there's one of his players. This boy knew he could throw the ball that far.
He knew he could put it right in there. And so he just put the ball right over there to this boy with his waiting hands. But what he did not know was the All-American safety on that other side had been watching the entire thing. And when the ball was put in the air, he zipped over there, plucked the ball out of the air and started down the field with only one person between him and a touchdown. And it was that boy who had thrown that ball. And he ran with this quarterback behind him the entire length of the field and finally on the two-yard line, the rookie quarterback caught up with him and brought him down as the whistle blew and the game ended and Bama had won.
By five points. After the game, Bear Bryant went over and was shaking hands with the other coach. And the other coach said, well, he said, I just don't understand it. He said, according to our scouting reports, your second quarterback is slow and our man is the fastest man on the field. He said, how did he catch him? And Bear Bryant in his Southern drawl said, well, he said, you have to understand. He said, your boy was running for six points.
He said, my boy was running for his life. It's the difference. It's the mind, not the legs, the mind. As a man thinks, so is he. Now, the very first principle is the salvation principle. Now, there's a second factor, not only the salvation factor, but there is this sincerity factor. Now, just fast forward, if you will, to 2 Corinthians 11 and read with me in verse 2.
And I want you to get the picture. The apostle Paul thinks of himself as a father. He thinks of the church as the bride of Christ. He thinks of Christ as the bridegroom. And so what Paul is saying is, as a father, I am bringing you and I'm presenting you to Jesus Christ.
Now, catch the figure of speech. Paul says, for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Now, the word chaste here means pure.
I want to present you as a pure virgin to the Lord Jesus Christ. But now notice in verse 3, this fear that Paul has, this apprehension that Paul has, this danger that Paul sees. But I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Now, look at the word simplicity.
The word simplicity means single-minded devotion, a heartfelt devotion. That is, I am to love Joyce, my wife, with single-mindedness, with sincerity. There is to be no other girlfriend, no other thoughts. She is to be number one in my life, and I can tell you frankly and gladly, she is.
She's to be number one in my life. But now, listen, that's what the word simplicity means. It actually means single-minded, sincere devotion to Jesus. Because, you see, a divided mind means a perverted mind, and then it means a broken relationship. And so I am to keep my relationship to Christ sincere. That is, I am to be single-minded.
Why? Because the carnal mind must be converted, but oh, my dear friend, we need to understand that a converted mind may be corrupted. Just because you're saved, that doesn't mean that you're not going to have to battle about your thought life. Paul here is talking to Christians. He said, I am presenting you as a pure virgin to Christ, but he said, I'm afraid that your mind might be corrupted as the serpent seduced Eve with his subtlety. So your mind might be corrupted from the sincerity, the single-mindedness that's in Christ.
The salvation factor, the sincerity factor, and then there's the stronghold factor. Now, notice, go back to chapter 10, if you will, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and look in verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, that is, we're in these human bodies, we do not war after the flesh.
Now, he tells us there's a war, but it's not a war of the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. The word carnal means fleshly. A carnivorous animal is what?
A flesh-eating animal. And so carnus is the Latin word that we get our English word carnal from. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that is, they're not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now, underscore the word stronghold.
Now, let me just illustrate what some of these strongholds might be. It is a system of thought that brings you as a believer into bondage. The devil uses that system of thought to establish in your mind imaginations. Now, the King James calls it there imaginations.
The word imagination is the word that we get our word logic from in the Greek, or logistics from. That is, the devil is warring a logistical war against God, and he's very clever. He has seduced a believer. He has suddenly come into the mind of a believer. He has implanted in the mind of that believer a stronghold, a fortress. He gets inside that fortress, and with logistics, he now wars at God. Logically, with philosophies and thoughts, he wars against the idea of God. He always wants to war at God, and he wants to use your mind as a battlefield to war against God, because the devil knows if he can control your mind, he can control you, because as a man thinketh, so is he. Now, we're talking here now about Christians.
What are some of these strongholds? I don't have time to just talk about them, so let me just list them and see if we're talking about you. Compulsiveness. Do you find yourself just compulsed to do certain things? Acting compulsively, and you say, I don't know why I do that.
I just do it. Obsessions. Are you just obsessed with certain things that you think about all of the time? Fixations, fears, bitterness, and resentment. Uncontrollable lust.
I'm speaking to some men who would be embarrassed if their fellow Christians, their wives, their children knew the hole that lust and pornography have in their lives. Phobias and criticisms, distrust, the inability to trust anybody or anything. And it's not just a passing thing that comes through your mind.
There is a fortress. Satan, who has seduced you, has taken control. He's moved in, and he is logistically warring against God with these imaginations, and he's there. A carnal mind must be converted. A converted mind can be corrupted, and a corrupted mind must be conquered.
Now listen to what he says. He says that we can take back the fortress. This is what he's saying in verse 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. What are the weapons of our warfare? The word of God, prayer, repentance, the blood of Christ, the authority, the Holy Spirit, so many of them. I don't even have time to talk about the weapons of our warfare, but let me tell you what they are not.
They are not carnal, and you listen to me. The weapons of our warfare are not education. You'll never control your mind by education. I'm not against education, but you educate a man without Christ, you make a clever devil. The weapons of our warfare are not psychiatry and psychology.
They're good as far as they go, but they do not dispossess Satan and take him out of his stronghold. It cannot be done with psychiatry and psychology. They have their place, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Carnal people can use psychiatry and psychology.
Carnal people can use education. I'll tell you the weapon of our warfare is not positive thinking. Many Christians get hooked on positive thinking. Did you know that many Christians don't know the difference between positive thinking and faith?
Did you know that? They think that faith and positive thinking are the same thing. They're 10 billion light years away from each other, not positive thinking. Positive thinking is fine, but it doesn't always work. A little boy came home and he said, Dad, I think I'm going to fail my math test. He said, Son, don't say that. Think positively.
He said, I'm positive I'm going to fail it. Now, positive thinking is not going to release you from the stronghold of Satan. They all have their place.
They're all fine, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are mighty to God, to the pulling down of strongholds. Now, what you need to understand is this, that when you use your spiritual weapons, the blood of Christ, the Word of God, the authority that's in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can take back that conquered ground that you gave to Satan and conquer it yourself and dispossess Satan. But the only way you're going to do it is with the authority of Jesus Christ and the Word of God. My dear friend, I want to tell you that when you get right with God and you bring the weapons of our warfare against Satan, legally you move him out.
That's the only way you're going to move him out, is legally with the authority of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I give you authority over all the power of the enemy. And what you can say to Satan, if you have that stronghold that is there, you can say to Satan, Satan, I'm not asking you. I'm not pleading with you.
I'm not reasoning with you. I am telling you in the name of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Word of God, my heart belongs to Jesus Christ. I've confessed those sins. I've repudiated that stronghold.
I put it under the blood. God has forgiven me. You have no right, no authority. You are trespassing on my Father's property. And in the name of Jesus, be gone. You're going to have to take back the stronghold.
I mean the weapons of our warfare. There's a battle. And you're going to have to go in there with the Word of God and the authority of God and take back that stronghold that you've let Satan have. Then, my dear friend, the surrender factor. Listen, it's not just enough that you take back your mind.
If that's all you do, before long you're going to be back in the same difficulty. Now look here, if you will, again. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 5. Casting down imagination, that's what we're to do. Say, devil out. And every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, now watch this.
It doesn't end there. But notice what else it says. It says, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
That's the surrender factor. You cannot be neutral. Not only must Satan be dethroned, Christ must be enthroned in the thought life.
You bring that mind back to Jesus Christ and you enthrone Jesus Christ. You cannot be neutral in your thought life. No man can think two things at one time. And if you're thinking what is right, you cannot be thinking what is wrong. You can choose your thoughts like you can choose your friends.
Did you know that? You can refuse to let things into your mind. You go to the airport and you walk through that little door, you know, that's got that sensor that tells whether you have any metal, you know, whether you're packing a gat. You walk through there and if you've got too many keys in your pocket or too much change in your pocket, that senses it and you back out and she pans that little dish and you take everything out of your pocket and put it in that dish and then you go through. You go through.
And it checks to see whether you're clean or not. Now, my dear friend, you ought to have something like that on your mind that just screens out the thoughts. It keeps you from thinking these things. You can choose your thoughts like you choose your friends. Bring every thought to obedience.
Let the Lord Jesus Christ screen your thought life. Now, you may think that what I'm saying is just sanctified psychology, but that's where you're wrong, mister. It's the Word of God.
It's the Word of God. The carnal mind must be converted, not enough. You must beware lest the converted mind be corrupted. But if the converted mind is corrupted, the corrupted mind can be conquered, and the conquered mind can be controlled by bringing every thought to Jesus Christ. You can choose your thoughts just like you choose your friends, and you can say with the apostle Paul, we have the mind of Christ, and as a man thinketh so is he, and be like Jesus. Isn't that wonderful? If you would like to learn more
