If you turn with me to Matthew
22, that's where we'll start off. We'll talk to you today
about the mind and the mind in the Bible. You know, the mind
is all we got, isn't it? That's where we are. That's where
we live inside our minds. That's all we know as human beings. That's what we experience. And
it's a sad thing when the body goes and has troubles, When the
mind goes, it's a really sad thing. And so these are precious
things to us, these minds. So what does the Bible have to
say about them? The human mind is truly unique. It's different
than anything in the animal kingdom. And I'm sure there's studies
and knowledge out the gazoo on the human mind. We're not going
to delve into that. It's just worth considering that
our human minds are different than our animal minds. If you've
got a dog, you know that he or she thinks, probably has a personality. It's just obvious. But then there's
things you do and I do that go way beyond that. And the difference
is that God has made us with a real ability to visualize the
future, or to plan. That's where we're gonna end
up today, is looking at Proverbs about what our responsibility
is to do, to plan things, and then what happens with God's
sovereignty in that plan. But your dog doesn't wake up
in the morning, I don't think, and plan his day. Now, he may
have some plans in mind, but he doesn't plan his day like
we do. And so, you know, our minds are
able to do a lot more than the rest of the animal kingdom. I thought what we'd do very briefly
is we'd go through the major words in Greek that mean mind,
and then we'd end up with, like I said, a few passages in Proverbs
that I think are really to the point of planning. When you look at the Bible and
you start thinking of human psychology and how we're made up, it's mostly,
I think, well known among most Christians that most people believe,
most Christians believe in a tripartite human being, body, soul, and
spirit. And we get that from 1 Thessalonians
5.23, where Paul says that he wants, he's praying that our
whole mind body, soul, and spirit will all be sanctified, all be
purified. And so, if you consider that
we are made up of body, soul, and spirit, what does that mean? Well, body's easy. We can cross
that one off. Where it gets complicated is
this separation between soul and spirit. But you realize that
Hebrews in that famous passage says that the word of God is
able to divide between the soul and the spirit. So there's a
difference between the soul and the spirit. What is it? Well,
there's no definitive passage on it, but most of what I've
understood through the years is that the soul is made up of
the mind, will, and emotions. Just mind, will, and emotions.
Pure intelligence, then your will, that's kind of along the
lines of the planning part, and then your emotions. So if that's
part of the soul, what is the spirit? You know, in Genesis,
where we find out about creation, when God made the creatures,
he made them as nefesh kayem, as the Hebrew means, living souls. That word nephesh is soul, and
in the Septuagint it's translated psuche, which is soul in the
New Testament. So if the animals were living
souls, that means they've got souls, but they don't have spirits.
And so when you think of us as tripartite, Body, soul, and spirit. The animal kingdom would have
a body and soul, but not spirit. We have that as a distinguishing
factor. There are some passages in the
New Testament which just talk about man as bipartite, just
a body and soul. So it's confusing. It's not real
divinity. But the way I like to think about
it is body, soul, and spirit, and that the soul is the mind,
will, and emotions. Now there are other words in
the New Testament to further complicate matters. There's the
word heart. It's used a lot in the scriptures.
And we know that it doesn't mean the beating organ that pumps
blood. It's talking about one of these three things we're talking
about, either part of the soul or part of the spirit. So as
we go through some of these passages, together here real quickly. Think
of these things when it comes to the mind. What part does the
mind play in all of this? Obviously, we don't do anything
without our minds, so the mind is involved in the spirit and
the mind is involved in the soul. So let's look at some of these
passages. First of all, Matthew 22, 37. When they came to our
Lord and they said, what is the great commandment? Jesus said
unto them, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart
and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. Three things. Now it's interesting that in,
and this is a quote from Deuteronomy 6.5, and in Deuteronomy 6.5 is
a fourth thing added, which is all thy might. which Mark and
Luke do add to this passage. Heart, soul, mind, and might. But as far as the psychology
of humans, we've got the three heart, soul, and mind. Maybe the heart is synonymous
with the spirit there. It's hard to say. But we're told
that that is the purpose of us humans, is to love the Lord our
God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and mind. And of course,
we fall short, we sin. But that's the purpose of man,
is to love God with all of his things, all of his parts. In Luke 1.51, It says, He hath scattered the
proud in the imagination of their hearts. And the word imagination
is this word. I forgot to tell you the word.
It's dionoia in the Greek. Dionoia is the first word we're
looking at. It means thought, intention, purpose, notion, opinion,
intelligence, understanding. So, that's what God wants us
to love Him with all our mind. Dionoia. And then in Luke, he
talks about the mind of their hearts. Once again, that word
heart slips in. In Ephesians 2-3, we start seeing
what has happened in the fall. Let's turn to Ephesians 2-3. And it says, it's given us our
state as lost people before salvation. Ephesians 2-3 says, among whom
also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind."
Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. So, out
of this mind, instead of it loving God with all of itself, it starts
its own set of desires that are opposite to God. So, that's what
makes man lost. And in Ephesians 418, further
describes it as saying, having the understanding darkened. That
word understanding is this word, dinoia, which means mind. So,
the mind in human beings got darkened in the fall. It got
clouded, it got darkened, it got betrayed. And that's what
happened. In Colossians 121, it talks about
being enemies in your mind. So we are actually enemies of
God in our minds. And in And then, in 1 John 5,
20, the way out is seen. It says in the same word, the
Son of God has come and has given us understanding, deanoia, in
order that we may know the truth. So what happens is when regeneration
happens, as we all know, the Holy Spirit awakens that darkened,
depraved mind to God. So what has happened in the fall
is reversed, and we are all of a sudden able to understand God,
to commune with Him, to have fellowship with Him as a Christian.
So our minds are turned around in this process. They're unclouded. Turn with me to Hebrews 8. And we are seeing there the New
Covenant. And what does God do in the New
Covenant? Hebrews 8, verse 10. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
minds. and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God and
they shall be to me a people. So this is the deal with the
new covenant, with regeneration. He writes his laws, his ways
into our minds and heart. I have to believe the heart has
something more to do with me. the planning, and the emotions
of the mind. So he's written into our mind
and our thought process for planning his own laws. In Hebrews 10,
16, same thing, this is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I
will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write
them. All right, that's the word dianoia.
Let's go to a lesser used word, Enoia, same root. It's only used
two times in the New Testament. It means thought, notion, conception. Here we're getting into the idea
of invention. What do human minds do? Well,
the good part of it is, and the nice part of it is, they invent
things. The bad part of it is, they invent things. So what is
can be good can be bad and so, you know The Bible talks about
these devices that we think of these evil devices and evil inventions
Is part of the mind so in Hebrews 412 mentioned earlier and it's
speaking of the logos of God Which is probably more Jesus
Christ than the Word of God and the written word It says that
that word of God, logos, penetrates between a soul and spirit, joints
and marrow, discerner of the thoughts, and intense of the
heart. Okay? So here is a passage which
indicates to us that it takes a really fine knife to cut between
the soul and the spirit. So they would tend to just kind
of be muddled together, except the word of God can divide between
the soul and the spirit. What does that mean? I don't
know, except that the word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is
so into our minds, when we're Christians, that he divides between
our soul and spirit. between maybe the emotional side
and the real side of us and purely a feeling of the Holy Spirit
and things like that. He equates it to joints and marrow. That's tough to try to divide
between joints and marrow. It's all there together. And
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So the
Lord Jesus Christ, and through his word, knows our intents. Let's turn for a minute to Psalm
139, one of my favorites. And you talk about a psalm, a
piece of the Word of God, that would show you how much God knows
about us in Psalm 139. As we look through there, he
starts off by saying that he knows when I sit down and he
knows when I rise up. And he understands my thought,
far off, verse two. He encompasses my path and my
lying down and unacquainted with all my ways. There's not a word
in my tongue, but lo, Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast
beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me. So he
goes on to say, I can't escape from their spirit. If I try to
go up to heaven, you're there. If I go down to hell, you're
there. And down through, he thinks the darkness will cover him,
but that's no way to hide from God. And then in verse 13, thou
hast possessed my reins. There's another word in the Bible
that means kidney. And there was a lot of use of
it as a seat of feeling. So he, has possessed my reins,
thou hast covered me in my mother's womb, I will praise thee for
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And then it goes down into
saying that you knew my substance in the womb and you made me.
Look at verse 17, talking about the mind and thoughts. How precious
also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of
them. One of the reasons that we should
think about God during the day is that his thoughts to us are
just uncountable, his thoughts for each of us individually.
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.
Then, down to the end of this psalm, search me, oh God, and
know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts.
It just always is going together. Heart and thoughts. Heart and
thoughts. And see if there be any wicked
way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. So there's a
great psalm on the sovereignty of God over our minds and hearts. And how he knows everything going
on in us. The next word is noema. And the verb form is noeo, to
understand. Look at John 1240. That's an
interesting one. John 1240 says, He hath blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal So this is the blinding that is in the lost, most definitely
from God, and as a result of depravity. So he talks about
the eyes and the heart. So here again, there's something
with the heart and the eyes, and God and me, not our physical
sight, but our mind. In 2 Corinthians, there's a progression
of this word noema. I'd like to take you through
real quick. There's four or five verses.
2 Corinthians, seems to have a theme going here. 2 Corinthians
2.11 says, Ye also, excuse me, lest
Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant
of his devices. 2 Corinthians 2.11. Oh, devices is the word. So when
it talks about Satan's devices, it's having to do with Satan's
mind. Then in chapter 314, "...but their minds..." These are all
the same word, noéma, which is a little unusual word in the
New Testament for mind. "...but their minds were blinded,
for until this day remain at the same veil, untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ."
Then 4-4, in whom the God of this world
has blinded the minds of them which believe not. In 10.5, this
is a great passage, casting down imaginations and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing
into captivity every thought, that's noima, to the obedience
of Christ. That's what we're supposed to
be doing as Christians. And in 11.3, but I fear less
by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. So there's just a real black
and white description in the Bible of minds that are blinded
or corrupted or still depraved versus minds of Christians who
have been opened and should be centered on God. In Philippians
4.8, there's a list, we won't go through it here, but there's
a list of good thoughts. If you need a list of good thoughts
to have, it lists them in Philippians 4.8, the type of things to try
to center our minds on. The next word is noose, N-O-U-S,
and it's used in Luke 24.45 to the disciples after the resurrection.
Then opened he their understanding, that's the word in use, that
they might understand the scriptures. You remember up in the, after
the resurrection to the disciples. He still, even as Christians,
he had to open their understanding. We need to pray every Sunday
that God will open our understanding because we still got that old
man as part of us. Now, in Romans 128, this word
is used in the Trail of Reprobation, Romans 1, 21-23, which describes
how man without Christ sinks down lower and lower into depravity,
and he's got a reprobate mind in the end. That's in Romans
1, 21-23 with this word, noose. Then in Romans 7, it talks about
the war of the mind. And you and I know as Christians
that it's just not very simple, is it? It's just not simple to
think the right thoughts all day long. And in Romans 7, Paul
describes this from his own experience. And you know, people have debated
through the centuries whether he's describing himself as a
lost person or himself as a Christian. And I think most of us would
agree he's describing himself as a Christian. It's the war
that goes on in the mind between the spirit of being carnally
minded versus spiritually minded. And that's described in Romans
7, 23 and 25. You know, he wants to do what's
right, and he can't, and so it's a war. God's mind is described also,
who hath known the mind of the Lord, So this word is used of
the mind of the Lord. It's used in Romans 12, too,
of the renewing of the mind of Christians. We are to renew our
minds. And then there's a whole section
of the Bible, especially in Philippians, and the pastor's been leading
us specifically in that passage. about how God wants us as Christians
to be of a single mind, a unified mind. He wants us to agree. He
wants us to love each other and to be of the same mind. This
passage that he was preaching on this morning, for have the
same mind in you is the word phaneo. And we're going to get
to that next and last. God wants Christians to have
the same mind, not to be robots and automatons and not be different
from each other, but to have essentially the same mind on
important things. And he says that in 1 Corinthians
1.10, 1 Corinthians 2.16, we have the mind of Christ, we actually
have his mind. In 1 Corinthians 14, he talks
about praying and singing with the understanding. He's knocking
those who are just doing tongues by itself, and he says, look
guys, you need to be singing and praying with your understanding,
with your mind, not just tongues. Ephesians 4.17 talks about the
vanity of their mind, once again, to the lost condition. Ephesians
4, being renewed in the spirit of your mind, That's that renewal
that goes on again. And then in Philippians 4-7,
the peace of God which passes all understanding. So, there
is something beyond our minds, and that's the peace of God.
It goes beyond our understanding, if we have it. Being, so, which
passes all understanding. So keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. So the peace of God keeps our
hearts and minds. So we don't have to keep the
peace of God, the peace of God keeps our hearts and minds. Then
this verb, and now phroneo and phronema, which is, the word
used in Philippians 2. One's mind, thought, purpose,
will, feeling, pride, arrogance, presumption, in the bad sense. Romans 8 talks about being carnally
minded versus spiritually minded. And as we said in Philippians,
multiple times, being of the same mind. Okay, let's end up
in Proverbs. If you turn to Proverbs, I want
to show you some passages here, once again, on the lines of... So, we know that mankind is fallen,
depraved, and everyone's mind is darkened before they're saved.
Doesn't mean that you can't have great minds as far as capacity,
you have inventors, you have scientists, all that can be lost,
not know God. They do fantastic things with
their minds, but they're darkened in the true understanding, and
that's where the heart comes in probably, in the true understanding
of what this universe is all about, Creator, and where we're
headed, and what this whole thing is that we're looking at. is
the experiment they're doing, or the thing they're inventing.
And they do a good job of that, but they don't see the big picture,
because their minds have not been renewed and regenerated,
and the darkness and the veil dropped in those minds. So, Proverbs,
in many places, talks about guarding our thoughts. Let's look at just
a few of those first. Proverbs 4.23. So what is our
responsibility as Christians? And where can we end up with
something to take away today? 423 says, keep thy heart with
all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. There
is a real strong passage on using the heart as the center of all
of our thoughts and emotions. It's the heart, and we need to
keep the heart. 16.3, Proverbs 16.3, Commit thy works unto the Lord,
and thy thoughts shall be established. That's a great one. If we will
commit our works unto the Lord, then our thoughts will be established. Proverbs 23, 19. Hear thou my son, and be wise,
and guide thine heart in the way. Now, I want to take you
through one, two, three, four, five, six passages in Proverbs.
That's all we'll do today. And this is along the lines of,
and it's said six different places that I can find, I probably missed
a few, that our responsibility is to plan our way and the Lord
directs our steps. Wonderful concept. People without
the Lord would plan their way and get terribly frustrated when
that plan could not be accomplished, right? We plan our way, and then
we understand that the Lord directs our steps, and we have to be
attuned to that, have our radar out for it, but this is the whole
business of seeking the will of God. You know, as Calvinists,
believing in the sovereignty of God, we are not fatalists. That means we have a responsibility
in this life, to plan our way ahead of what happens. But we
have to understand that that plan may need some guidance,
or will need some guidance from the Lord to direct it to the
real way He's going to look this thing out that we're concerned
about. We all have things that are very important to plan in
the future. We've got to plan things that
involve finance. We've got to plan things that
involve relatives and our our work, and all of these things
are very important to plan. But the Lord directs our steps. And if we will do what Proverbs
says in the beginning, that is, commit our ways to the Lord,
and He will direct our thoughts, then even our plan should be
in line with what He wants to do. That's what prayer is, is
getting our prayers circled around in His will. Okay, Proverbs 3,
5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Wonderful verse. Most of us probably
have memorized it. Read it again. So you will trust
in the Lord with all thine heart. and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths. Then 16.1, the preparations of the heart
in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. So even our preparations are
part of his plan. 1609, a man's heart deviseth his way,
but the Lord directeth his steps. Once again, it's the heart, so
it's the component of the mind that's the whole thing. You might
say the soul. The mind, will, and emotions,
all involved. And then 1921, There are many devices in a man's
heart. There's that thing we were talking about. Nevertheless,
the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. We got lots of devices
inside our own pea brains, don't we? But only God's counsel stands. We want to be part of that. And then 2024, man's goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand
his own way? How can you even understand your
own way? You've got to understand in your life that it's God-directed.
Man's goings are of the Lord. And then finally, 21-1. You know
this one. This is a good one. The king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turns
it whithersoever he will. That's our president, and that's
the king of Prussia that's everybody in this world Their hearts are
in the Lord's hand. There's nothing going on. He's
not in control So commit our plans to the Lord and then make
them Best you can use use your intelligence full capacity, but
understand that the Lord may turn your steps a little bit
process. You might even have to go backwards if you thought
you were going to go forwards. So that's our function as Christians. Mind is a terribly complicated
matter. And the Bible has a lot to say
about it.