Hindrances to Meditation, Part 1

Review: Why Meditation Matters and Its Aversion

0:00 Psalm 1, as tonight we consider the ninth message in this series of studies based upon the declarations of the psalmist in Psalm 1. whenever I feel that I'm moving very slowly through some of these sections I always take comfort when I remember that the man whom they affectionately called the doctor Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones of London, England preached 37 messages on the little phrase the wiles of the devil when he was preaching through Ephesians chapter 6

0:47 so I always take comfort when we spend three or four messages on a little phrase like in his law that he meditate day and night it's not yet spun out into 37 messages perhaps I ought not to say that till I'm done but as far as I can see we'll not be carrying it that far but I believe it's far better to focus upon one or two basic principles of scripture and seek to see them in the light of the wholeness of divine truth than to trip along like bees who never fold their wings or hummingbirds, just sucking a little bit of the nectar, picking up a little pollen from this flower and that flower, and never really pausing to extract that which God would have for our own spiritual benefit.

1:36 Well, we come again then to the first psalm, the psalm in which we have before us the way of blessedness described both in a negative and positive fashion, The blessed man in verse 1 described negatively, he walks not in the advice or counsel of the ungodly, he stands not in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. You and I are blessed men and women only to the extent that our relationship to Christ and the sensitivity to the indwelling spirit is such that we are continually refusing the counsel of ungodliness in no matter whatever way it comes to us. We refuse to stand, that is, identified with affection and delight in the sinful course of men who regard not the law of God,

2:25 to the extent that we refuse to take the place of skeptics, scoffers, spiritual smart-alecks who stand in judgment upon the word of God, but rather we ever assume the posture of disciples of the mind of God as revealed in Holy Scripture. But the blessed man is described by the psalmist in a positive way as well. And we are focusing in these past few nights have been upon verse 2. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law that we meditate day and night.

2:57 Having considered why the righteous man, the blessed man, delights in the law of God, we are seeking to understand what it means to meditate in the law of God day and night. if the way of blessedness is only found in the way of meditation, then those who are strangers to the way of meditation are strangers to the way of blessedness. No other conclusion is warranted in the light of the statement of Holy Scripture. So, if I do not know what it is in some measure to meditate in the law of God day and night, then I will not know the blessedness described in this psalm.

3:34 Oh, the blessedness, the psalmist says, of that particular man whose life is described as one of incessant meditation upon the law of God. Having spent some time discovering from Scripture what meditation means, and the word, as you remember, basically means to mumble or to mutter the word of God, speaking of an intense mental activity in which we are deliberately turning over in the mind the precepts of God, We then began last Lord's Day evening to consider some of the hindrances to cultivating the art of meditation. Now again, I confess that to even speak of meditation in the jet-set age is like trying to get people enthused about going back to the days of horse and buggy.

4:20 But though I could not drum up much interest or business if I went into the horse and buggy business, I do trust to brum up some interest in meditation because I believe some of you are dead set on being God-blessed men and women. And so as antiquated as it may sound until God comes and says I'm sorry I really should have said that the way of blessedness is the way of meditation until the 20th century then I'll have to conceive another way until God comes and says that then there's no other way of blessedness open to us but this way described. So we must understand the hindrances to the art of meditation, and by the grace of God overcome them. Last week we considered the first of those hindrances, which I called the indisposition or the aversion of the flesh to the practice of meditation.

5:10 The more spiritual any activity is, the more violent will be the opposition of our flesh to that particular activity. For as we saw in scripture, the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Paul said in Romans 7, 21, when I would do good, evil at that point is present with me. And so there is this warfare of the flesh coming on us in form of the weariness of the flesh, the mind seeming dull and distracted, the call of other duties, the suggestion that, well, we'll substitute meditation to something else, and then that subtle outcropping of the flesh saying, well, I'll attend to this at another time when I can give myself more fully to it.

5:55 We must learn to face these things as the reaction of our flesh and combat these attitudes scripturally. Now tonight we come to the second and probably the last. This could be expanded many times over, but we do want to go through the entire psalm and see something of the symmetry of the wholeness. I want to consider the second and great hindrance to being men and women who meditate in the law of God day and night.

Hindrance 1: The Competition of the World, Flesh, and Devil for the Mind

6:22 and it's what I'm calling the competition of the world, the flesh and the devil, for the mind of the believer. There is the aversion of the flesh to the activity of meditation. That's one great hindrance. A second great hindrance is the competition of the world and the flesh and the devil for the mind of the believer.

6:44 Now the premise upon which we're moving tonight is this. since meditation muttering, mumbling, talking to oneself in the law of God since it is basically a spiritual activity of the mind an uncontrolled mind can't perform this exercise let me illustrate running is an activity primarily of the legs and somewhat of the arms a man who has no control over his legs can't perform the act of running.

7:21 Throwing a ball is primarily an activity of the arm. It involves some other things, but of the arm. A man who has no control over the muscles of the arm, they are not disciplined to the orders of his head, he cannot throw a ball. Speaking is primarily an activity of the mind in relationship to the mouth and the tongue.

7:41 Some of you have seen the painful instance of people whose motor control in the brain the part that controls the function of speech. The mind is clear as crystal, but they can't articulate their words and it comes out in some kind of meaningless gibberish. Well, in the same way, though it is not the activity of a set of muscles, meditation is the activity of the mind. And just as surely as a man cannot run who has no control over the muscles of the leg, just as surely as a man cannot speak who has no control of the muscles of the mouth and of the tongue, so a man who has no control over the activity of his mind cannot meditate.

8:24 For this is an activity of the mind just as much as running as an activity of the legs and throwing an activity of the arm and speaking an activity of the mouth and of the tongue. So you and I must come to a new appreciation of the place of the mind in the development of the life of the child of God.

The Place of the Mind in Scripture: Music, Preaching, and Heart

8:47 You see, it's this assumption that places the exposition of Scripture central in the life and worship of the Trinity Church. Why don't we seek to build up spiritual life primarily by a very scintillating, captivating, thrilling, soul-innovating musical program? Many evangelicals say that's the way to build up a church in our day. Well, for the basic reason is that music, though occasionally when you're singing hymns that have some of the content that these have, there is a direct ministry to the mind.

9:21 For the most part, singing has a ministry not directed to the mind, but to what we might call the aesthetic, or the soulish part of us. We feel good under the ministry of music, and that has a proper place. That's why we spend good money for good music and good records. And when I listen to records, I listen.

9:40 right Joel when Joel came to bother me I was listening to certain I want it quiet I want to concentrate I want my soul to receive the impress of that musical piece that author that composer had something in mind that he was conveying and I want to respect him enough to expose myself to his whole message that comes in the total masterpiece that he's produced now that has a place but the essential place or the essential ministry of music is not the edifying the instructing of the mind. But it's the encouragement, the lifting up of the spirit. As Paul says, as a man who speaks in an unknown tongue, he edifies his spirit. There is a building up in the soulish part of him that bypasses the understanding.

10:27 That true spiritual life is developed as the mind is more and more brought under the discipline of Holy Scripture. So tonight, I want us to spend a little bit of time seeking to understand the place of the mind in the life of the believer. What function did your mind have before you were converted, if you're a Christian? If you're not converted, what function does your mind have in your unconverted state? Well, the Scripture gives us some very clear instruction.

10:56 And I might say at this juncture, don't separate the mind from the heart. We separate these two things like they were two categories. Scripture doesn't. In fact, sometimes they're used as synonyms. God says, I will write my laws upon their minds and upon their hearts will I write them. Hebrews 8 and verse 10. Very well then, what is the function of the mind in the unregenerate man? Turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and then chapter 4 for just a moment.

The Unregenerate Mind: Darkened, Blinded, Given Over

11:27 Remember what we're seeking to do. We're trying to find out what is the hindrance to cultivating this attitude of meditating the law of God day and night. Well, since it's an activity of the mind, we've got to understand the place of the mind and what's battling for the mind in order that the mind might take its proper place in the will of God. Ephesians chapter 2,

11:50 Paul is describing the state of unconverted men, specifically the state of these Ephesians before they were converted. And he says in verse 2, wherein in time past, that is, when you were dead in trespasses and sins, you walked according to the course of this world. That is, you were living in keeping with the patterns and attitudes and dispositions of unregenerate corrupt mankind. Worldliness is mankind without God. And he says this was the course by which you walked. And he said not only were you walking according to the course of this world, But behind all of this is that prince of the power of the air, the devil himself, that spirit that now worketh into children of disobedience.

12:38 A most humbling doctrine. If you're not converted tonight, the devil is actively at work in you. With all your culture, refinement, education, you are a child of the devil and the devil has you as it were at the end of his strings. That's what Paul says of these Ephesians.

12:57 you were amongst that crowd in whom this spirit the evil one himself works. Verse 3 Among whom also we all had our manner of living in times past in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Now you see the function of the mind in unregenerate men? It becomes the stilling pot of unholy desires and longings.

13:27 And Paul says the mark of our lives in our unregenerate state was that we were simply following out that which was dictated to us by our flesh, that is, our sinful, sensual passions, and by our minds, our depraved, unregenerate, unilluminated minds, minds that he describes in chapter 4 as being darkened. Notice verse 18 of chapter 4. having the understanding, basically the same word used, the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of the heart, the blindness of the mind. This is the picture of unregenerate men living in ignorance

14:14 in a state of spiritual blindness. A blind man has no capacity to see things as they really are. That what Paul says our minds were like And in that state we carry out our enmity against God according to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 21 He says in Colossians 1 in you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled You were enemies and alienated in your mind. The enmity of the human heart against God comes to light in the mind.

14:55 The thinking, reasoning faculties express their opposition to the living God. then when men give themselves more and more over to sin the scripture then talks of that terrible state in unregenerate men as we find in Romans 1.28 where it says God gives them up to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient as the mind is given over to the passions and appetites the mind becomes a very, very untrustworthy guide of conduct And then in Titus 1.15 it speaks of a defiled mind.

15:35 So we have this description, perhaps climaxing in 2 Corinthians 4.4, where Paul says, The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Is there anything unreasonable in the gospel? Is there anything so difficult to grasp in the wonderful story of Christ crucified?

16:00 Why is it then that men do not see a glory in Christ that ravishes their hearts? When God comes in grace and mercy, offering forgiveness freely, without money and without price, promising full pardon of sin, promising His presence now and His glory hereafter, you see, anybody in his right mind could embrace such an offer. Well, that's the problem. Sinners in a state of sin are not in their right mind.

16:28 The mind is blinded. They see no glory in Christ. You see a man drowning against his own will. He's not a deliberate suicide.

16:36 He's struggling against the waters. He seems to be going down for the last time and health is offered at the point of his need and he rejects it. You say the man is what? Out of his mind.

16:47 His rational faculties have snapped. He's not thinking straight. Someone lying upon a deathbed of an incurable disease. They don't want to die.

16:55 They want to live. And a doctor comes and says, Put yourself in my hands. I have the remedy and the person refuses you say something's wrong they've become irrational they're out of their mind what shall we say then when men destined for the eternal lake of fire and standing before them is the only one who can rescue them pardon them cleanse them sanctify them kick them for heaven and says come and they turn away you say what there's something wrong that's irrational exactly sin makes men irrational And behind the activity of sin, according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 4.4, is the blinding power of the devil.

17:37 So the mind, then, works consistent with that general description. It becomes the seething place of man's unregenerate designs. This is where man takes all those wonderful faculties and uses them to conceive sin and methods of uncleanness cleanness and ways to carry out rebellion against the law of God. Angry words are framed in the mind.

18:01 Dishonest deeds are conceived in the mind. Lustful plans are laid in the mind. Aboricious designs are concocted in the mind. And so we see the fruit of man's unregenerate mind.

The Regenerate Mind: God's Laws Written on the Heart

18:14 Now, what happens at conversion? When God in sovereign grace calls sinners to himself and quickening by the Spirit they are unable to repent and believe. When the blood of Christ is applied to a sinner and his sins are blotted out, Hebrews 8, 10 and 10, 16 tell us of a wonderful thing that God does to the sinner's mind. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 16 This is the covenant that I'll make with them after those days, saith the Lord.

18:47 I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them. Hebrews 10 and verse 16. Hebrews 8 now and verse 10. This is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.

19:04 I will put my laws into their mind and will write them in their hearts. Notice how the two things are used interchangeably. 8.10 says, put my laws into the mind, write them in the hearts.

19:20 10.16 says, I will put my laws into their hearts and I will write them upon the minds. Obviously the words are used interchangeably. In that place where sin was conceived, fulfilling the lust of the mind, Paul says, the mind darkens, seeing no glory in Christ, no delight in his holy law, when God regenerates a sinner, the first reflex action of that regenerate sinner is that he now delights in the law of God and in the God who gives that law in that faculty of evaluation of reasoning, of choosing there is this introduction of a new principle both of affection and perception

20:06 so that in my affection the law I spurned I can say with David oh how love I thy law and in the realm of perception I can say with David, I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right. So that when God regenerates a man, he does something with his mind so that he thinks differently. He evaluates differently. He has been restored for the first time to moral sanity.

20:36 Unregenerate men are spiritually insane. if they did in the natural world what they're doing in the spiritual world we'd commit them out of pity to the nearest mental institution wouldn't we? so when God regenerates us we begin to think rightly since we're made for eternity now we begin to live in the life of eternity well that only makes good sense doesn't it? since God made us and we're made for his glory we begin to live for the very purpose for which we were made that only makes good sense when a car does what it's made for, namely carries you from your home to church and back again, that makes good sense.

21:15 But when it comes through that door and starts chancing the jig and trying to preach, that's insanity. A car was never made for that. So when people begin to live to the glory of God, begin to live in the light of eternity, begin to live under the law of God, that's moral sanity. That's the only thing that makes sense.

21:33 And so when God regenerates a man and he is graciously turned to Christ, God does a work in his mind that he stirs into a place of sanity that he begins to look at things in the way that they ought to be viewed. Then, as he grows in grace, the mind plays a tremendous part in the development of that growth in grace. And there are two key passages that I want to look at with you that I hope will be helpful along this line. will you turn please to 2 Peter we are tracing now the function of the mind in the life of a believer we saw what the mind was before regeneration what happens when God quickens us to life

22:19 now what place should the mind hold in Christian growth 2 Peter chapter 1 Notice what Peter says beginning in verse 12, and then I should read down to verse 15. Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, that is, call your attention to them. Make your minds think upon these things, though ye know them, and are established in the present truth. Yea, I think it neat or necessary, as long as I'm in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance,

23:07 knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ had showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. three times in those few verses put you in remembrance verse 12, verse 13 putting you in remembrance verse 15 have these things always in remembrance what's Peter so excited about? he says now what I'm writing you already know but I want you to remember it and moreover I'm writing it to you so that after I'm dead and gone you pick up this letter from old Peter the fisherman and every time you pick it up lo and behold you'll be smacked right between the eyes

23:52 with this truth again why is Peter so concerned that they'll be stirred up to remember well for the simple reason that Peter recognized this principle that that which holds your mind is that which molds your life what holds the mind is what molds the life As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

24:28 Whatever holds your mind is the thing that is molding your life. That was true in our unregenerate state. What held our mind? The lust of the mind.

24:44 And so as the mind dictated its sinful desires, the life followed. The mind was held in blindness. It saw no glory in Christ. That's why we didn't love to sing His praise.

24:55 That's why we didn't want to pray. That's why there was no delight in Scripture. Why? Those wrong thoughts of God and Christ holding the mind, they molded our lives and we lived accordingly.

25:06 We lived like blind people. Isn't that the way we lived? That's the way some of you are living tonight. Your life is a constant witness to the truth of just this fact, that what holds the mind, molds the life.

25:20 Now, Peter says, I want these particular truths that I've been dealing with. What they are now is not relevant to our study, but the fact that there were certain truths that Peter knew were vital, and he said, I want your mind to be continually held by those truths, for as the mind is held by truth, the life will be transformed by the power of truth. That's why the psalmist said, The blessed man is the man who meditates in the law of God day and night. His mind is held in the grip of truth, so that his life then is wounded by the truth.

25:55 He'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringeth forth his fruit and his seeds, and his leaf also shall not wither. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Why? Because it's a life molded by the truth that holds the mind.

26:08 But let the truth slip out of the mind that it won't be long before it ceases to have its impact upon the life.

What Holds the Mind Molds the Life: Peter, Paul, and Proverbs

26:17 Another passage that brings this out so clearly, Romans chapter 12.

26:25 We usually don't do so much hot skipping and jumping through scripture, but I felt perhaps it would be to our profit to just do a little digressive study on this subject of the mind so that we can relate it to Psalm 1.

26:40 Romans chapter 12.

26:44 Very familiar verses, verses 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or spiritual service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove, that is, that you may work out and experience what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now notice the structure of these words of exhortation.

27:19 Between the call to utter abandonment to the Lord, present your bodies, that is, the totality of your being to the Lord as a living sacrifice, just as a sacrifice was given up in its entirety upon the altar, every facet of it. So, he says, let your entire being be given up to the Lord. To what end? To the end that you might prove and experience what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

27:47 Now, what stands between that attitude and disposition, I'm utterly the Lord's, and working out in day-by-day experience the will of the Lord? Here I am, Lord, at the disposal of your will. That's the attitude, the disposition. Now, what stands between that disposition and the actual performance of the will of God day by day, proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God?

28:13 I submit that that which stands between this and this is this phrase, be not conformed to this will, but be conformed by the renewing of the mind. it's only as the mind is continually renewed that we will work out in practice that disposition and attitude of submission to God present your bodies yes that you might prove the will of God yes but now how as the mind is transformed day by day and hour by hour and how is that done? I submit this is exactly what the psalmist is talking about. He refuses to walk in the counsel of ungodliness.

28:58 What's that? Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. I'm not going to let the world dictate what my attitudes and standards should be in any area of life. Morality, ethics, home life, personal life, domestic life.

29:11 I not listen to what the world has to tell me I going to scripture I not going to walk in the counsel of the ungodly I not going to let the world squeeze me into its mold But conversely I going to have a mind that is brainwashed by Scripture

29:27 The term brainwashing, we should never have waited for unregenerate men to have used it. That's what Paul's talking about here. That's what David's talking about, being brainwashed by the Word of God. Being brainwashed.

29:43 So that all my thought patterns are controlled by me in terms of Holy Scripture.

29:51 Isn't that what brainwashing is? Where you so condition a man that you make that man think and his mind react in such a way that you pattern his behavior. Isn't that what we have here? Almighty God, the only one who's got a right to pattern my behavior because he made me.

30:08 The only one who's got a right to speak absolutely with finality about anything. And he has in his holy word. And as my mind is brought under the discipline of holy scripture, then my life is the life that will evidence that the truth that has held my mind is now molding my life. Then, if this is so, it's no wonder when Paul prays for new converts, what does he pray?

30:33 He pray that they'll get all blessed up and feel good? No, he prays in Ephesians 1.18 that God would grant you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. He prays for the illumination.

30:50 Oh, he said, God, help them to see right. Let the mind be transformed. That's what he prays. He prays in Philippians 1, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

31:03 It's amazing how Paul's prayers for the new converts, and we did a study on them some five years ago, shortly after I first came here into the area. We went through the prayers of Paul for his early, for the new converts. And it's amazing what he prayed for. And again and again it focused upon the mind and upon understanding, upon illumination that would lead in turn to vital experience.

31:26 We find him in Ephesians 4, 22 or 23 speaking of the mind of the Christian being removed. He speaks in Philippians 4, 7 of the mind being guarded, the heart and mind being guarded.

31:40 I trust we see the principle. Truth is that molding influence. What holds the mind molds the life. And meditation is the way by which truth comes into its molding position.

31:56 The truth you hear in sermons is not yet in molding position. It's out there. Now it needs to be brought close by meditation. The truth that you read in Holy Scripture is not in molding position yet.

Over-Involvement in Legitimate Concerns: Martha's Distraction

32:09 It needs to be brought near by meditation. And it's meditation in the law of God that brings the word into its molding, shaping influence. Now I said that the great problem in experiencing this day by day is the competition of the world, the flesh, and the devil for the mind. Because, you see, if the mind can be set upon things that are earthly, things that are sensual, things that are devilish, then it's utterly unfit for this art of meditation.

32:45 So all the sermons we hear never get into the molding proximity to the life. All that scripture we may read is utterly dissipated for the great part. Most of it is because there is this competition of the world, the flesh, and the devil for the mind. Now how does that competition come to light?

33:06 May I suggest several things quickly. First of all, by an over-involvement in necessary legitimate concerns. You see, if your mind has to plan tonight's meal It's obvious that you've got to put your mind to how you plan I don't want a meal that's been served up without any thought Because what's been served up without any thought Won't go down very well if it goes down at all Won't look very nice A housewife must give her mind to the planning of her meals A father, a breadwinner must give his mind to the planning of how he's going to provide for his family. In everyday life, there are these legitimate, necessary concerns.

33:53 But now, the way the world and the flesh and the devil will attack the Christian and render him utterly ineffective for meditation is to get him over-involved with legitimate concerns. Now, I made some reference to Mary and Martha last week, and then in my own devotions this week, I got fascinated with that passage. I couldn't get away from it. And so I got my Greek testament out and began to do a little in-depth study in this passage in Luke 10.

34:22 And this is interesting. That the thing that our Lord is rebuking in Martha is not concern about worldly things. But an over-concern that distracted her mind from spiritual things. Because this is where we could literally translate that passage in Luke chapter 10 And in verse 41, and Jesus answered and said, And the many things in this case is found back in verse 40.

35:02 But Martha was cumbered about not serving, but much serving. And it's forceful in the grief. You see, to serve the Lord when he needed a home and needed hospitality, that was an expression of love. That was a legitimate thing, to be concerned about the Lord Jesus and his temporal needs, to put a roof over his head and food on his table.

35:24 What more practical way could you show your love for Christ if he came to your house in the flesh? But now, you see, Martha's problem was she got so over-involved with a legitimate ministry to Christ that her mind became distracted from the one thing needful, namely, sitting at the feet of Christ. Now, could it be that there had been no rebuke if Martha had come in while Mary sat at the feet of Christ, listening to his words? If Martha had put her ear there, caught a phrase of the saying of Christ, then went back to her serving with her mind, upon the words of Christ?

36:02 I believe there would have been no rebuke. But the problem was, she got so involved with her serving, she had no moment even to catch a word that fell from the lips of Christ. Or if she caught a word, it was immediately dissipated in her distraction with much serving.

36:22 I think it puts that whole passage into a much more realistic setting. See what it says to the housewife? Your mind's got to be occupied with planning meals and planning the clothes as the different seasons come. you know you can't be wearing clothes that are fit for this weather six months from now fall and winter come you've got to be concerned about those things go into a home where a wife is not concerned and her mind is not working on planning ahead and you see nothing but a mess a disordered home ah but you see when those concerns become so intense that there's no time to maybe prop the Bible up by the sink and catch a phrase of scripture so that when the hand is working on taking up or putting down would be better the hem of the dress.

37:06 It can be turning over the words of Christ. See? To get so involved in a legitimate concern that there's no sitting at the feet of Jesus. That's what our Lord is condemning.

37:20 The kind of concern that comes to you as a father and a husband, a young person. Sure, you've got a plan about college, about the future. You've got to think about these things. You've got to make plans.

37:29 but when they so fill the mind that there's no time to sit at the feet of Christ to have the mind molded by his word this is what our Lord is condemning.

37:41 The same way we might say the news and concern about the political movements of men and nations in our own country I don't believe God wants us to be ignorant of what's going on in the world but oh I've seen in my own life how easy it is to allow this legitimate concern to know what my heavenly Father is doing in the kingdoms of men. That's why I read the newspaper. My hope is not in men. I just want to see what my Father is doing.

38:05 In arranging all the events and circumstances, you let those temporal concerns begin to so fill the mind that there is the absence of meditation upon the law of God. What's happened? The legitimate thing, the legitimate concern. The Lord told the people of his own day, ye can discern the face of the heavens, But you cannot tell the signs of the times.

38:29 He didn't condemn being able to understand a little bit about the face of the heavens, having a little bit basic knowledge about what was going on in the realm. I don't know what the technical word would be now, but when you understand about the weather. But these things then crowd out and render the mind ineffective for true holy meditation. It's the same thing our Lord condemned in Matthew 6 about the anxious care for food and clothing.

38:57 And we come back to the parable of the sower at this point. Remember the seed that fell into the weed ground or the ground where the weed sprang up with it. How does our Lord interpret that? He says that those weeds are what?

39:14 The cares of this life entering in and do what? choked the word and it became it untruthful. You see, there's been exposure to the word. But somewhere between exposure and fruit it's choked.

39:32 No meditation. Right? Exposure. That the word was brought, not brought near by meditation until it was absorbed into the life.

39:42 Remember? The stomach. The stomach. It was brought into the mouth but never swallowed into the stomach.

39:48 so that it could be absorbed into the life. And he says the cares of this world choke the world. What cares? Making the bills, getting the bills paid, making the ends meet, keeping clothes in the back?

40:00 Legitimate cares! But they become so pressing, and we become so over-involved in them. Our Lord issued a very sober warning to his own disciples in Luke 21, 34. He said, Beware, lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, That is banqueting and drunkenness and the cares of this life so that that day take you unawares.

40:24 Well, isn't that strange that the Lord shouldn't warn about blasphemy? He doesn't warn about immorality. He warns about banqueting, getting so occupied and filling your bellies.

40:39 And drunkenness, intemperance, and the cares of this life. You get so wrapped up in legitimate things that you lose your spiritual perspective. Can't meditate in the word of God. Can't meditate and bring near the day of judgment.

The Hidden Persuaders: Advertising Targets the Mind

40:56 Bring near the hour when we'll stand before him. Some of these great themes that should be the object of our meditation. Well, this is one area I leave you to work out the details. The second area in which there is this, what I have called, competition of the world and the flesh and the devil is what we might call the injection of illegitimate things.

41:19 I read a book this past week. I've had it for a number of months and been wanting to read it. It was a bestseller a couple of years ago called The Hidden Persuaders. And this man has done an in-depth study of the whole modern technique of advertisement.

41:33 And this book is a shocker in that sense. or it doesn't have immoral language, doesn't have anything that makes most paperbacks called shockers, not that. But it's a shocker in that you realize that you and I are really the objects of the studied attempts of the whole advertising system of the American way of life. And you know what part of you is the object?

41:57 Listen, I shall read, quote, What the persuaders are trying to do in many cases was well summed up by one of their leaders, the president of the Public Relations Society of America, when he said in an address to members, quote, The stuff with which we work is the fabric of men's minds.

42:19 The stuff with which we work is the fabric of men's minds. Your mind and my mind is his fabric. That's what he's looking to work upon. As the seamstress works upon the fabric that came off the bolt of cloth, as the carpenter works upon the fabric of the wood and the nails so they say our fabric upon which we work men's minds in many of their attempts to work over the fabric of our minds the professional persuaders are receiving direct help and guidance from respected social scientists several social science professors at Columbia University for example took part in the seminar at the university attended by dozens of New York public relations experts In the seminar, one professor, in a sort of chalk talk, showed these manipulators precisely the types of mental manipulation they could attempt with the most likelihood of success.

43:15 An advertising columnist, and then they mentioned his name, commented on this up-to-date line of thinking by reporting that merchandisers were seeking ways to precondition the customer to buy their product by getting the product story etched in his brain. now those two statements frighten me the fabric upon which we work men's minds we must precondition them by getting the product etched in the pain the whole fabric of the American way of life from the human standpoint is held together by the marketing of products things well there ceases to be a market for things there ceases to be an American economy

44:01 And where we have long since come to the place where we're the most affluent society in the world, the problem that these marketers face is how to get people to buy more things. If we don't have things, our economy collapses. We've got to sell things. Only one way to do it.

44:15 We've got to etch in their minds our product. And your mind and my mind is the studied object of the hidden persuaders. And then the book goes on to say how that they'll take psychologists, bring them in to analyze, market analyze something, and spend up to $25,000 just to have a certain product analyzed as perhaps how it could sell better if you change the color of the box in which it was sold. And then it gives case studies.

44:44 Beloved, you and I, as Christians, are the object of this. And it comes screaming out at us. In every newspaper we read, every time we turn on to just get a little bit of news, get the weather, it's screaming out at us. If you have a TV, every time you turn that knob, the whole thing that keeps that thing in operation is the commercial enterprise.

45:05 Here is the screaming out to do what? To fix in your mind the conviction that you must have a certain product. and I'm convinced beloved and this conviction deepens with me unless we as believers can master our exposure to the advertising brainwashing going on in our society we're going down under spiritually for I have seen in the brief years of my ministry people sell their souls for fools because they became convinced by this manipulation of the mind that these things were vital for life.

45:47 And they'll cut corners on their time with God. They'll cut corners on their involvement in the life of the church of Christ. They'll cut corners on domestic responsibilities. These are why must have crews and shun their souls for pittance.

46:05 oh may God help us to see that whether we've been aware of it or not they've been aware of us for a long time and they've got their sights set on you and on me that's their own confession this is not someone saying it about them several of those were quotes right from their own masters and so the way the world and the flesh and the devil compete for the mind not only by over-involvement in necessary concerns but by the injection of illegitimate things. This idolatry of obsession with materialism, covetousness which is idolatry and the whole aim of the marketing thing is to make you long enough

46:51 for this thing to be willing to pay the price for it or to stick yourself in hock long enough for it. Travel now, pay later. Buy now, pay later. Live beyond your means.

47:04 but you dare not live without that trip to Bermuda you dare not live without this gadget and this that's the injection of illegitimate longings into the mind and once the mind begins to get eroded by those things it's unfit for the art of meditation then in the whole area of course of the suggestiveness you and I are witnessing a society that is living out Romans chapter 1 if you were to read the article in the section on the theater in this week's Time magazine excuse me, on movies. Prediction was made by one of the Italian movies the last line of that movie was by 1970 everyone will be a homosexual and this goes on to say if you were to look at the products coming out of Hollywood now

47:49 you'd believe that this prediction was accurate. The theme of the best selling movies some of the best attended movies in the past six months has been raw, unadulterated focused homosexuality. what is it doing? It's spawning on the American public.

48:07 But this is all right. As I quoted a few weeks ago, that's why in an evangelical seminary, a group of senior students, half of them, said, homosexuality is not sin, it's just pure sickness.

48:21 How'd that come? Did that come by meditating with the Word of God day and night? It came as the mind was sold at Bill of Woods. by all of this screaming at us.

48:34 You see?

48:38 Sexual innuendos in all forms of advertisement screaming at us to take the edge of sensitivity off the biblical ethic where we look upon that which God has given is pure and holy and any prostituting of that is wicked and hated with holy hatred. Takes the edge off. Takes the edge off. We lose the capacity to blush.

49:00 we lose what a dear friend of mine calls that holy veil that ought to mark the child of God. Well, this is how you see the world competes for the mind of the Christian. Other ways, but now I close tonight because it is a warm night and if you think you're warm I've been working harder I'm a lot warmer.

How to Win the Battle: Conviction, Exposure, Discipline, and Prayer

49:21 How are we going to ever hope to win the battle? If the word blessedness is the way of meditating in the law of God there might be a night and if meditation is essentially a mental activity and if the mind must be renewed if we're to prove the will of God if we're to have these things in remembrance if they are to mold us how can we against this aversion of the flesh and then this competition of the world the flesh and the devil how can we become those who meditate in the law of God day and night?

49:50 Well the first thing like everything else you've got to be convinced you need to when does a person get saved? when by the Holy Spirit he becomes convinced that getting saved is the most important thing in life. Until you're brought to that place, no hope for you. Christ said, I came not to call the righteous, but what?

50:09 Sinners to repentance. The first work of the Spirit is that of conviction, of probing, until a man says, I don't care what happens. If the kids die around me and the bulls go unpaid and the world crumble, I've got to get saved. When the man gets to that place, he's well on his way.

50:27 All right then, when you and I as Christians come to the place and we say, I don't care what happens to me financially, I don't care what happens to me domestically and all the rest, I see that the path of blessedness is laid out before me, my Lord walked before me, I see His life, a life in which it is obvious He was steeped in the Word of God in every encounter with sin and the devil and even the blindness of His disciples. What sayeth the Scriptures? The Scriptures must be fulfilled. He was a living embodiment of a man whose life was one of meditating the law of God day and night.

51:00 And I want to be like him. The conviction must come. I must learn this art at any cost. When that thing comes, then we run on our way by the grace of God.

51:10 Then there must be those long, systematic, consistent exposures to the word of God. There's no substitute for them. The public preaching of the word consistently, line upon line, precept upon precept. personal family devotions where we read the word of God, where we get the minds of our family and our own minds exposed to Holy Scripture.

51:33 You can't meditate upon the word if you're not exposed to it. Exposure must precede meditation. And then there must be the deliberate attempts to fix the mind upon the truth to which one has been exposed. And this takes a deliberate attempt.

51:49 I tried to work on it yesterday, cutting the law. And oh, what an undisciplined mind I have. I find it fairly easy to meditate when I'm up in my study and I've got the air conditioner on so it cuts out the noise of the neighbors and the children and I've had a good night's sleep and all those favorable factors.

52:08 But why should I waste that hour and a half or two hours pushing the lawnmower just using my body? You can get a trained chimpanzee to do that. So I've been preaching my own sermon to me. Now I'm trying to fix the mind.

52:19 I'm going to meditate. So I'm going to fix that phrase that I'm going to preach on tomorrow. I'm going to fix it in my mind. oh my it seems like I can't it's like trying to nail something to the wall with celery sticks I just can't nail it it just won't stick don't give up and I stand and make this personal testimony confess to you dear ones I know the struggle I know the struggle it seems thoughts come like a flock of migrating birds and just fly around the head continually but the scripture says Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose what?

52:55 Whose mind is stayed upon thee. Don't get weird. Just like any other physical exercise is learned in practice. So as we fix the mind, think back.

53:05 What did I read in my devotions this morning? What did the pastor preach on Sunday? What does that say to me? Fix the mind upon that truth.

53:12 Refuse to allow that open mind to be a welcome resting place for some satanic bird to come and to make its nest. And then there must be the resolute refusal of those distracting influences. When the scripture says, put off the works of darkness, beloved, I believe for some of us that means we may have to put certain magazines out of our home. We may have to put certain electrical instruments out of our home.

53:47 frankly any of you parents who allow your children unchaperoned watching of television I think you'd be far more consistent to stop praying that God will save them and just tell the Lord Lord I'm willing to give them up to the devil and this will prove it you use your television for a convenient babysitter and you let your children watch the child I don't care if it's an hour and if you're not there to check the commercials they see oh you say that's narrow yes it is now softly now when I refuse to have one little ounce of poison put on the table when my children eat

54:32 their physical food that's being terribly narrow but I'm concerned for their bodies enough to make sure that no poison comes across the table and should I express a concern for the body and be less concerned for the soul should I?

54:50 I'm sure some people think it's now when I run up from the breakfast table and quick turn the radio down at about six minutes after when the cigarette commercial comes on and about sixteen minutes after I don't want those jingles being fixed in the minds of my children those promoters have their own minds as their object and they say well I'll get those minds and etch our product on their minds Am I going to sit back as a responsible parent and say, go ahead? I'll be broad-minded. Extra product on his mind. Extra thought patterns on the mind.

55:23 Go ahead. God have mercy on us as parents. We have no more jealous concern for our children to say, as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. We're not going to bow down to mammon.

55:35 We're not going to bow down to the God of things.

55:39 And show a holy violence at every influence. if it means that we refuse to allow our children to look at the paper,

55:49 tear out the movie page before they do, by the grace of God, let's do it. You see, that's sheltering them. Yes, it is. Sheltering them from poison.

55:57 And remember, there's enough poison in the depraved human heart to rise up of itself without the necessity of having external exposure to know what sin is. How far do we know what sin is? They've got our Adam's heart. they're all they ever need to know about sin.

56:13 Too much. Too much. Oh may God help us as parents to prove to ourselves and to our families that we want them to know the blessedness that comes by the man who medicates in the law of God day and night.

56:30 So that they don't know the scars of a mind that has been given over to these things we read about earlier in Ephesians than in Colossians chapter 1. Well, the way of blessedness is before us. It's certainly not a way of passivity, is it? I wish I could say, by one great big leap of surrender and faith, you're going to enter into this way of blessedness.

56:57 It won't be done. This is holy violence. It's holy warfare. But thank God the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

57:08 And he can give us the grace and power to wage a war of holy violence in our own hearts, in our families. He can give us the grace to take a mind that has been a catch-all for everything that has come and make it a mind that's disciplined, that learns how to meditate in the law of God day and night. And I just wouldn't be surprised if a few of us learn in a new way what this means, to see some new evidence of blessedness. For, oh, the blessedness of that man who meditates in the law of God.

Gospel Appeal to the Unconverted

57:38 day and night. If you're here tonight as one a stranger to grace, I'm sure much of this has sounded strange to you. You see, it's because your mind is blind. That's the only reason.

57:49 It's blind. And I pray that you might seek the Lord, that He'd open the eyes of your understanding, give you such a sight of yourself that will make you see your need of Christ, and give you such a sight of Christ crucified and risen that will ravish your heart with love to Him, write His law upon your heart, and then you'll say, ah, now I know that we're what the preacher talked let us pray

58:37 Psalm 1