Your Mind Matters

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We live in an age of irrationalism and of relativizing the truth. And irrationalism can enter the church. Dr Rufus Jones tells of a member of his congregation who objected to intellectual preaching. So he wrote to complain and said: "whenever I go to church, I feel like unscrewing my head and placing it under the seat, because in a religious meeting I never have any use for anything above my collar bone."

There are people today who want "mindless worship" and at both ends of the religious spectrum. At one end are some people who want only rituals to go through, with their minds switched off. You then get mindless ritualism. At the other end are some people who want pure emotion with all sorts of experiences, again with their minds switched off. You then get mindless emotionalism. Now, of course, there is value in ritual when it reflects biblical truth; and in emotion when it is according to biblical truth. But the mind most certainly has to be in gear in the use of ritual and when expressing emotion. Jesus says you "must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4.24).

A concern for objective truth, though, is to go against the grain in today's world. Here is Jane Turney in an article entitled "I believe in pick 'n' mix spirituality."

"I am one of a growing number of people who feel we can no longer rely on external authority to run our lives safely ... we have to look for our own answers. This may mean that I visit an astrologer, a Buddhist meditation teacher, and a Christian mystic as part of my search ... I recognize that there are many roads to God.

The result of all this is serious. On the one hand you get bizarre claims given respectability. So David Icke wrote in his book Truth Vibrations that he had first appeared on earth at the start of the Atlantis civilization. Since then (in his various reincarnations) he has been married in ancient Greece to a woman called Lucy, in the 17th century he was the brother of Francis Bacon, then one of Napoleon's generals and then a North American Indian chief.

More serious still is when this retreat into irrationalism and relativism means people refuse not only to face the fact of truth and error, but also the reality of right and wrong. Professor Robert Simon in the Chronicle for Higher Education reports that none of his students yet deny the reality of the Holocaust. But they will not condemn it morally. "Of course I dislike the Nazis," one student said, "but who is to say they are morally wrong." He says they make similar statements about apartheid, slavery and ethnic cleansing. They have been taught that there are no absolutes and their understanding of toleration means that they must not condemn or be judgmental. James Q. Wilson reports that some of his Harvard students are the same about the Holocaust. "It all depends on your perspective," one said. And another, "I'd just have to see these events through the eyes of the people affected by them."

But modern irrationalism allows people to invent their own absolutes. These same students will assert dogmatically certain "rights" such as so called "animal rights" or so called "gay rights". In fact the current "rights" debate, tomorrow enshrined in a new way in our law, sadly may be a focus for more irrationalism. People are now talking about a "right to sunshine", the "rights of trees", and recently, the "fundamental right to choose one's holiday destination" - that is no kidding!

The concept of "rights" as we know them started in the 17th century as an attempt to find a basis for moral reasoning in post-Reformation Europe. But such reasoning became hostile to the Christian faith in the 18th century. "Rights" were then forgotten in the 19th century. Many recovered the biblical way of talking. The bible doesn't have "ten fundamental rights" but "ten commandments". It doesn't talk about a "right to life", but "you shall not kill". The stress is on duties rather than subjective rights. But "rights" language was resurrected after the 2nd World War and the horrors of the Nazis. This was to get sufficient world-wide agreement for the Universal Declaration of Human rights. These rights, however, were certainly based on agreed absolutes regarding truth and morality. Jacques Maritain, a Christian, and one of the two great architects of the Universal Declaration, said there could be practical unity, I quote, ...

provided that [people of different outlooks] similarly revere, perhaps for quite diverse reasons [listen] truth and intelligence, human dignity, freedom, brotherly love, and the absolute value of moral good.

So when truth, intelligence and morality are ignored, don't be bamboozled by "rights talk", certainly not when people claim a so called "right" to be immoral.

The Christian is to be committed to truth and morality. The consistent message of the bible is that your mind does matter. Truth does matter. A knowledge of right and wrong does matter. Our New Testament reading was so clear. Rom 12 verse 2:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

The mind and reason are needed for faith. "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Rom 10. 17). And Christian faith is not opposed to reason. Christian faith is opposed to sight (2 Cor 5.7). Christian faith is not believing against reason (that is superstition). No! Christian faith is believing according to reason. Well, so much by way of introduction. What, then, are the essentials for the Christian mind to grasp?

Tonight we are beginning a new series called Christian Essentials and our subject is Your Mind Matters. To focus on the two essentials that undergird everything else in the Christian faith, I want us to look together at the Psalm we read earlier in the service and had as our second lesson, Psalm 107. You say, why are we bothering to look at the bible? Why not try to work these essentials out for ourselves? The answer of the bible is, yes, our minds are unique; they distinguish us from animals; they bear part of the image of God. But they are also fallen. The bible talks of "the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness" (Rom 1.18). And we can all do that from time to time. That is why our minds need to be renewed by the Holy Spirit. And your mind is renewed not as you follow human ideas but as you listen to God's ideas that you find in the bible.

God communicates with men and women. He communicated first through Prophets (and you read about them in the Old Testament) and supremely through Jesus Christ (and you read about him in the New Testament). And that is why we need the bible. That is where you find God's thinking. So I want you to look at verse 43 of Psalm 107:

Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the LORD.

That says the person who is using his or her mind - the wise - needs to do two things. First, they need to HEED THESE THINGS and secondly, they need to CONSIDER THE GREAT LOVE OF THE LORD. Let's think about these two commands.


First, HEED THESE THINGS

What are these things? Obviously it is the substance of the teaching of this Psalm. And what is that? Look at verses 2 and 3:

Let the redeemed of the LORD say this [that God is good] - those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.

Probably this is a reference to the return of the Jews from their exile in Babylon. God's people had ignored him and gone their own ways, and they suffered as a result. The Babylonians in 586 BC sacked Jerusalem and devastated the land and took people away into exile in Babylon. But in time, when the Persian Cyrus defeated the Babylonians, and the people had come to their spiritual senses, they returned from exile. Now this experience had a profound impact on everyone. For a start it proved that the Prophets who had predicted God's judgment on human rebellion against him were not just gloom and doom merchants.

They were like Winston Churchill in those years before the 2nd World War who suggested that if you didn't take action there would be an almighty mess in Europe. Was that just doom and gloom? No! He was right. And so were the Prophets of ancient Israel. And this Psalm as we shall see, is not about "doom and gloom". It is about the goodness and love of God. But it says - the implication from start to finish is - that you can only understand God's goodness and love when you put your mind to one fact. And that is the fact of the mess you get into sooner or later when you live apart from God.

This is one of the great truths of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is fundamentally a philosophy of history - and the only really true philosophy of history. And it teaches these two lessons: one, the utter sinfulness and stupidity of human beings as they try to live ignoring or defying God; and two, the utter love of God who wants to help them out of their sin and stupidity. Our Psalmist says: "heed these things". He is teaching these two things in this Psalm. And he first maps out for us the human condition in a brilliant way. You've got that in verses 4-34. The Psalmist undoubtedly had in mind concrete situations but he probably realized that these concrete situations were a picture for the general condition of men and women. So in verse 4 when he speaks of "some" who "wandered in desert wastelands" probably he was thinking of people actually wandering in deserts. But he knew this was and would be the experience of many others in some way or other - in fact or figuratively. And who can deny what he is saying? Verses 4 and 5:

Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.

That is an amazingly evocative picture of the lives of millions today - wandering in a wasteland, unsettled with their lives basically "ebbing away" - all they are doing in life is working their way towards a pension. There is no bigger meaning than that. These people don't rebel against God; they just ignore him. Then verse 10:

Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains, for they had rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.

These people defy God. Who read Paula Yates' interview in the Sunday Times last week? She was interviewed just before her death. If any one was in "darkness and the deepest gloom" poor Paula Yates was - "a prisoner suffering in iron chains" - literally - with her agoraphobia.

"The past two years [she said] have taught me that your future can vanish overnight. In my case, my past vanished as well when I discovered that Hughie Green, not Jess Yates, was my biological father ... There's a horrible dark place inside me now where nothing matters any more".

Then verse 17:

Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death.

The folly of defying God is now quantified and measured by social science. For example, defying God in terms of sex and marriage has serious negative outcomes for everyone, especially children - that is an unassailable fact. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are a terrible proof of the truth of this verse. And then verse 23:

Others went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters.

And while at sea they nearly lost everything in the storm. These folk are not wandering aimlessly. Nor are they in darkness or in sickness through rebellion. They have got a purpose - to make money. These are "merchants" or businessmen. And they are not doing anything positively wrong. They don't live a Paula Yates life-style. They are responsible and respectable. But they too can forget God. And then the unexpected happens - there is a disaster, not of their own causing. But they cannot cope. Isn't all this the real world - men and women ignoring or rebelling against God and suffering for it - later if not sooner, in eternity if not in time? That is the first fundamental message of the bible and of this Psalm. And you are told to put you mind to this fact. "Whoever is wise, let him heed these things." But,


Secondly, "whoever is wise" is to CONSIDER THE GREAT LOVE OF THE LORD.

That first message about sin - for that is what we have been talking about - is rather depressing. Moralism usually is. Humanly speaking people cannot get out of the cycle of sin. We are just not good enough. But that precisely is why the bible is "good news". God is good and he provides a way out. That is the second message of this Psalm. So the Psalmist says, "consider the great love of the Lord." Four simple comments.

First, it is so important to realize that God is good and that he shows unfailing love and that he works wonderful deeds for men and women. It is so important that this theme is repeated in verses 1, 8, 15, 21 and 31

Secondly, God's goodness and love are shown through his guidance. Look at verse 7:

He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.

Do you need guidance? Well, God is wanting to guide you. Then God's goodness and love are shown through his giving light and freedom. Look at verse 14:

He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains.

Do you need to have some chain that is on your life broken? God can do that. He does it first through breaking the greatest chain of all - Satan's bondage through sin. On the cross where Christ bore your sin, the chains formed by the guilt and power of sin were broken. So Charles Wesley could write in his great hymn, "And Can It Be" these words: "my chains fell off, my heart was free." How tragic that Paula Yates did not turn to Christ. And God's goodness and love are shown through the healing and life that he gives. Look at verse 20:

He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.

Jesus is not only the way and the truth, he is also the life. By his Holy Spirit he wants to give you new life. Spiritually apart from him you are dead. That is why Jesus says, "you must be born again". And God's goodness and love are shown in his control of the natural world. Look at verse 29:

He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.

God is sovereign not just in history but over nature. When necessary he can over-rule natural forces. So God's goodness and love are shown in various ways.

Thirdly, God's goodness and love go hand in hand with his holiness. This Psalm makes it clear that God judges sin. His is not a sentimental love. For example, see verse 12 and verses 33-34. Verses 33-34 allude to Genesis 19 and to Sodom and the judgment on the sin of the men of Sodom:

He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, and fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there.

Fourthly, the experience of God's goodness and love, however, was (and is) not automatic. There was a condition for all these people mentioned in the Psalm. But they didn't really have to do anything. They didn't have to try harder or perform rituals. No! What they did was very simple. They just "cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress" (verses 6, 13, 19, and 28). It is still the same today. And with this I must conclude Today we can see God's goodness and love more clearly than at the time this Psalm was written. We can see God's goodness and love in Jesus Christ.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3.16)

Who needs to "believe" in Christ tonight? When you apply your mind and are honest, you know that this Psalm is right. Life without God is a mess. Well, now apply your mind and realize that God is good and that his love does endure for ever. And he wants you to have eternal life. So then why not "cry to the Lord" tonight? And you simply say, "Yes, Lord, I have made a mess of my life and I will make a mess of it without you. But I now come to Christ in faith, for guidance for the future, for forgiveness for the past, for new life for the present and for you to overrule all my circumstances until the day I die."

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