The Renewing Of The Mind Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. When someone believes in Christ, he or she embarks on a journey from darkness to light.

The past must be left behind. We now run life's race toward the goal of Christ and away from the futility of our former lives. Today, teaching from Ephesians chapter 4 about the renewing of the mind.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, in your long series from Ephesians, we're learning more and more each day. Tell us why believers' minds need renewing. Isn't being saved enough? Well, Dave, let me say it very clearly that one of our goals here at Running to Win is to help people to keep their minds renewed by the Word of God. It is very critical, and it is a constant battle. I'm reminded of the book of Proverbs where it says, As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.

And there is a saying that goes like this, You're not what you think you are, but what you think you are. We're so thankful for the many of you who support this ministry. And as we come to Friday, we are reminded that the weekend is just around the corner. Hope that you have the opportunity of going to church. And at the end of this broadcast, I'm going to be reading a very encouraging letter from the land of India. And we have letters just like this because of people just like you who support this ministry. And this is a very critical month because anything that you give to this ministry will be doubled.

And furthermore, just in a few days, it will be the end of our fiscal year. But remember this, the renewing of your mind is critical in your Christian journey. You know, there are some people who are just never going to change. They're never going to change. And the reason is because they are going to keep thinking the same wrong thoughts until they die. They're never going to think differently.

And because they're never going to think differently, they're never going to act differently. They're going to keep on believing the same old lies. For some, the lies might be ones of bitterness. After all, you did this to me, this happened, therefore I can't do that, and you'll never get me to do thus and so.

So there they are in their prison. For other people, it may be lies of impurity. They bought some of the promises of the world, which have turned up to be empty, of course, but they keep on believing and hoping. For others, it may be lies of anger.

And for others, it may be something like this, I can't do anything right, so I will do nothing. And so they die living that lie and believing that lie. Others might have lies about Jesus Christ.

He can't make any difference in my life. And you cling to those lies. Many years ago, there was a woman who supposedly is a Christian. I can't judge her, but she wrote a book entitled, I've Gotta Be Me.

Well, if you know who she was, you know how tempted I was to write her a letter and say, no lady, you don't need to be you. That's why Jesus died is so that you don't need to be you. But many of us just simply say, I'm in my rut. I have no intention of getting out.

I might as well enjoy it all the way to the end of the road. Today's topic is the renewing of the mind, the renewing of the mind, a life-changing message that will not leave you the same if you listen to all of it, and especially if you apply it. And I speak on this topic, first of all, because the mind has power.

It has power. It's a very powerful thing. I read somewhere that the estimate is that everybody thinks 10,000 thoughts, at least 10,000 thoughts a day. Now, there's no doubt that you and I have met some people who think less than that. But nevertheless, let's just say 10,000 thoughts a day.

When I was a little boy and would play outside and sometimes do things I shouldn't, even as I do today, I would come in and my mother might scold me for something. And I used to think to myself, you know, it's really good I can think anything I like, and she doesn't know what I'm thinking. My thoughts are my own. And, you know, I used to think that also about God. I thought that God looked down from the sky and all that he could do is to see me. But surely he wouldn't know what I was thinking. That was hidden from him. All that he could do is to take a video, but he couldn't look inside my soul.

Oh, yes. Not only is it true that God looks inside the soul, but if I may speak imprecisely for a moment, he even sees the soul more clearly than he does the body, because your mind exists in the realm of spirit where there are angels and where there are demons. And that's why whenever people get into the mind sciences, they always bump into evil spirits, because the atmosphere is populated with them. And it is this spiritual aspect of the mind, you see, that touches God, but it can also touch that which is evil. It's the mind that goes on to heaven after you die. You say, well, I thought it was the soul. Well, yeah, the soul equals the mind.

I mean, it's your memories. Who you are. It's the mind that keeps on going even after the body collapses and says enough is enough. So the mind has power and the mind shapes your life as a man thinks in his heart. So he is, it says, you know, that old adage, you're not who you think you are, but who you think you are. So that's what we're talking about today. There was a man who came out of prison and in order to illustrate why he was having such a difficulty in reentering society, he took a jar and he took that bottle and he stuffed it with wires.

And then when it was fully stuffed, he took a hammer and he struck the bottle and it crashed into pieces, but the wires retained their shape. Just like Christians, they can be converted, they can be free in Jesus and for the rest of their life think the same old bent, worn thoughts and never change. Well, thank God that's not where you're going to end up because you're listening to this message and many of us have been praying that the Spirit of God would show us things today that will leave us changed forever. Take your Bibles and turn to the fourth chapter of the book of Ephesians. That's where we are in our exposition of this book and I hope that you keep reading it. The text itself comes to us in verse 23, though we shall back up in just a moment as we take a tour of the human mind.

Bring your video if you want. There isn't going to be a whole lot to shoot, but some of you like to capture everything. You'll notice it says in verse 23, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, that's the agenda for the next 25 or 30 minutes, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, to leave differently because God has spoken. Now, throughout this passage Paul uses the word mind and heart and he speaks about ignorance and darkness and light, all of the themes that clusters as it were around the idea of the mind.

Now, here's what we're going to do and thank you for agreeing that you're going to let me do this. What we're going to do is to begin by talking about the mind we had, past tense. This is the mind of the unbeliever. Now, some of us were converted at an earlier age and all that's listed here may not apply to us prior to our conversion, but some of you who've had adult conversion experiences, you will identify with every one of the seven descriptions the Apostle Paul gives and you'll say, yeah, that's true.

That's really the way it was. You know, the Bible is an awesome book on psychology and anthropology. What an analysis of the human heart. None of this nonsense of the human potential movement that says, well, you know, everybody is really basically good and fundamentally nice.

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. Just read the scripture. Are you ready for the description? Number one, it says, verse 17, so I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord Jesus that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, read pagans, those who do not know God. Number one, in the futility of their thinking, futility. What is futility?

Futility is investing in a company that has already gone bankrupt. A few of you know what that's about. I can see some smiles. Yes, you know the story. Years ago there was a gold scam. You paid money and you got all this gold and then they said we will keep it for you. And people said, oh, isn't that wonderful?

Why should I even bother having it in my house? They will keep it for us. Well, as you know, when that tent collapsed, there was no gold to be kept and they were soliciting support for it and money for it even after the string had come unraveled and the revelations came that there was nothing backing up the system. Now that's futility. Did you know that in the world all of their thoughts and dreams and plans fall into that category because Wall Street is futility because God already condemned it and says it is coming to an end. It cannot last.

Now that's futility. Thinking, dreaming, scheming, and hoping for things that will never come to be permanently. The futility of their mind. Notice it says now, this is a shocker, verse 18, they are darkened in their understanding. Darkness.

What do you mean darkness? We all in our study of philosophy and history go back to the 18th century enlightenment. Those were days when people were enlightened, when they discovered that they didn't need Christianity anymore and they broke loose from those stereotypes. That was enlightenment, not darkness. Well, there was some good in the enlightenment because it helped bring about freedom of religion.

So there was a good part. Freedom of religion was begun by Luther when he said my conscience is taken captive by the word of God and he began to say that people had to be free in conscience. But the enlightenment contributed to that and for that we're grateful. But the enlightenment also brought darkness because when they cut off the Christianity as it were, they then began to go into pagan ideas and you remember how Hitler gloried in the fact that he could have a concentration camp Buchenwald just six kilometers from Weimar, the seat of the German enlightenment.

So much for enlightenment. But if you told the people of the world, you know, you're walking in darkness, they would say, what do you mean? It's you folks who believe that old Bible, you're in darkness. No, my friend, you're the one who's in darkness.

I have a text. Ephesians four, it says that you're walking in darkness. You know, the Bible says in Proverbs that the wicked stumble and they do not know that over which they stumble because they're walking in darkness and they keep stumbling and they say, I don't know why I'm stumbling.

What's wrong with my life? I'm enlightened. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Tell me about it. You'll notice it says in verse 18, they are darkened in their understanding, separated from the life of God. That's description number three. They say, I know God just as well as you do.

Well, thank you, but I do know this. You can't know God apart from Christ. And if you're coming your own way, Luther talked about those who want to get to God, he said, and he said they want to see God naked. What he meant was they wanted to get to God apart from Jesus. They wanted to get to God on their own. That's what you have filling the airwaves today in the television programs is everybody getting to God in his own way. The scripture says they are cut off from God.

They're wandering around in darkness. You'll notice it says verse 18, continuing ignorance. I said, no, no, no, no. The people who believe the Bible, they're ignorant. No, no, no. I'm sorry. You got it confused.

You may know a lot about a lot of things, but you don't know much about God and how to meet him unless you come through Jesus. And then it says, and now we're still in verse 18, 18 is a long verse. The hardening of their hearts because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. The Greek word is pyrosus. It is still used in medical terminology today for hardening, pyrosus.

That is to do with the hardening of joints or the hardening of the arteries or the hardening of the mind. And they say, oh, no, no, no. You know, we're so soft. In fact, we are the ones who love everybody and think that God comes in all the different sizes and shapes however we desire him.

And that's love. We are the sensitive people. You people who think that Jesus is the only way to God, you're the unloving hard-hearted ones. Well, just look at the text, the hardness of their heart. Now, I don't need to tell you that there are tons of people like that.

Let me continue to read here. It just simply says, the hardness of their hearts having lost all sensitivity, they give themselves over to sensuality. They've lost sensitivity. Do we live in a society that has lost sensitivity? Are there fathers who mistreat and abuse their children?

Are there mothers who leave their families? Are there people who simply wash their hands of responsibility and don't care who they hurt as long as number one is taken care of and you cannot get through to them? I like the old King James here, though this translation, the NIV, is very, very graphic and excellent. But do you remember the King James used to say, who being past feeling? They can't feel anymore. So much scar tissue, so much calcification of the conscience, pyrosis, they can't feel. Hitler used to teach people how not to feel.

He used to take those SS troops and give them a puppy that they learned to love and they brought up the puppy and then they had to kill the little dog with their own hands or they had to kill a child so that that conscience that is activated could be made dead until they could do wicked crimes without feeling anything. Listen to me, the text is saying that because of sensuality that they go into, they are without feeling until they really can't see anybody else's point of view because they are beyond the feeling. Just pick up the newspapers and see what people do to one another and ask yourself whether or not this is an accurate description of where people end up. And then it says sensuality, that would be number six in terms of description and then finally I wrote also that they are dissatisfied. Listen to what the text says, isn't this an amazing description of human nature? They've given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more.

It says in the book of Proverbs that there are some things that are never satisfied. One thing is, you know, hell because it keeps burning and it's never satisfied and neither the eyes of a man. I remember counseling a woman one time who because of her singleness went to a psychiatrist who told her, you know, you have to get all of these sexual desires out and you have to be able to say, been there, done that. So encouraged her to go to a very, very terrible, terrible movie.

Not only did she vomit when she was in that movie theater but something else happened. There was an attachment to sensuality that began to work in her life, that began to twist her and she became an addict to sexual experiences she had never even known about before. My dear friend, even when it comes to curiosity, when we begin, you see, to say I have a right to my desires and to fulfill them as I wish, what does the text say?

Never satisfied, continually desiring more and something new. Now that's the description of humanity. You know what it says in the book of Jude?

It says that people get so far out, and this may not be true of everyone, but eventually they get so far out that they become, quote, unreasoning animals, unreasoning animals. You know, one of the reasons we know the Bible is the word of God, people always say, well, you know, I can't accept the Bible as the word of God because I have problems with science and the Bible. I have problems with Genesis 1. I can't accept the miracles. I find it difficult to swallow the story of Jonah, they say.

Am I going too fast for some of you there? You know what really convinces people that the Bible is the word of God? It's when they read it and they read it and they say, you know, it has an accurate description of who I am and I'm finally willing to admit it. And once they see that the Bible is accurate in terms of who they are, then they begin to say, you know, it's not hard for me to believe in creation. It's not hard for me to believe in the virgin birth because the analysis of my soul as found in the scriptures is so terrifyingly accurate.

Yes, that's who I really am. And you begin there and then the whole rest of the Bible makes sense to you. Now, what can we say? What do human beings do? They have all of this within them, just like we did before we were saved and some of us still have a lot of it in even after we're saved, but they have all of this in them and all of their energy is spent rationalizing.

All of their energy is spent trying to justify who they are and their actions. And you see, you know, people always say, well, you know, we're reasoning animals. When I studied philosophy, Daryl, they used to always say that people are reasoning animals.

I don't know if I should buy that. I'll tell you why. It's because basically human beings do not go by reason, they go by their desires. And after they've established their desires and fulfilled them, then they use reason to justify their actions. Reason is called in to pacify the conscience and the desires.

Well, that's a terrible picture, isn't it? But that's the mind of the unconverted person. That's who we were. That's the mind we had. Now we're going to transition into something much more beautiful, and that is the mind we were given. Listen carefully. The mind we were given. Now we pick up the text. Verse 20.

What a lovely break. You, however, did not come to know Christ in that way. All these things aren't true of you, are they? Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Well, something's happened. First of all, he says that we've been instructed by Christ. He says you didn't learn about Christ in this way, and there were people who taught you about him. Just like some of you who are listening today, you're now being taught about Christ. And what he says is that's not the way you learned him that he would approve of the kinds of things we just talked about. He says you have heard of him. What he's saying is Jesus Christ broke into your life and shattered your self-image and gave you a whole new viewpoint as to who you are and did something that no other religion can ever possibly do, and that is you've been converted by Christ.

Now, we read this far too quickly because I want everyone to be attentive to this. I'm in verse 23. To be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self, to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. When you accepted Christ as savior, God gave you a new self, a new mind. And as a result of that creation, and it had to be a creation of God, it says that it was created. As a result of that, there is something in you now that you did not have before you believed in Jesus.

What a transformation. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. All things have become new. But I'm sure I don't have to remind you that renewing the mind, even the new mind that God has given us is a constant challenge. And we here at Running to Win rejoice in every opportunity that we have to share the good news of the gospel, but also the fruit of the gospel. I'm holding in my hand a letter from someone who has written to us from India.

You must recognize that as a result of technology, Running to Win is heard around the world. It goes, Dear Pastor Luther, I thank my Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ for you, your teaching, your books, and your ministry. You have helped me understand the significance of the sacrificial death of our savior on the cross. May our dear God continue to bless your ministry more and more abundantly with love and reverence.

And then the name is signed. My friend, when I read a letter like this, I want you to think of it also as your letter. By that I mean, thanks to the many people who support this ministry, we can indeed be heard around the world. And this is a very special month because during this month, any gift that you give will be doubled up to $90,000. And also, in just a few days, it will be the end of our fiscal year.

Would you consider helping us? Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

I know it's the weekend. I trust that God will bless you in church, but at the same time, I trust that you'll become a part of this ministry. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Pastor Erwin Lutzer has brought part one of The Renewing of the Mind, the thirteenth message in his series, Between Heaven and Earth, taken from Ephesians. Next time, you'll hear concluding thoughts on how we as believers need to leave the past behind and live lives of righteousness and holiness. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.