That is how, in the very beginning, man fell into sin.
You remember Paul in 2 Corinthians 11. He said to the Corinthian believers, “I am fearful lest the enemy should deceive you and entice you, as Eve was deceived by the enemy in the garden, that you will be enticed from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
Dear brothers and sisters, the battle today is the battle of the mind. Our mind is a battlefield. Our will, or our spirit, is the citadel.
When the enemy tries to take hold of our will—that is, our person, our personality—the way he tries to get through to our will is by the mind. So the mind is the battlefield. It is a spiritual battlefield.
You remember Paul in 2 Corinthians 10. He said:
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds,
casting down imaginations,
and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God,
and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
You will find that our battle is a battle over the mind. Why? Because the enemy has raised many strongholds, fortresses, in our mind: reasonings and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God.
But thank God, we are mighty before God to overthrow all these strongholds and lead every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That is the battle of the mind.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, what was the condition of our mind? The condition of the mind of a fallen man.
We find in Scripture a number of places that describe the condition of the mind of fallen man. If you turn to Romans 1:21:
Because that, knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks;
but became vain in their reasonings,
and their senseless heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Here you find that because men knew God, and yet would not glorify Him or give Him the glory that is His due, they were not even grateful and thankful to Him. The result was that they fell into folly in their thoughts. Their mind became foolish.
They think they are wise, but actually they are foolish. Now, brothers and sisters, we call ourselves rational beings. We are proud of our reasonings. We feel that our life is guided by logic. We think of things, try to balance them, try to see the logic of them, and do things rationally.
But are we rational? We think we are, but actually we are foolish. Why? Because we do not know God, and we do not give Him glory. We try to put Him out of our mind, and the result is that our mind has become foolish.
Our reasoning is irrational. Our understanding is darkened. We are actually groping in the dark. We think that we see light, but the light that we see is darkness itself.
That is the reason why you find what we call brilliant minds, brilliant brains, in the world. They seem to be able to probe and understand everything under the sky, but they do not understand God, because their mind is darkened. They are foolish.
Then, if you read on in Romans 1:28:
And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge,
God gave them up unto a reprobate mind,
to do those things which are not fitting.
Because they did not want to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind. Now, what is a reprobate mind? A reprobate mind is a mind that is void of moral discernment.
In other words, there is no moral standard in their mind. They cannot be straight. Today, you find people saying there is no absolute; everything is relative. Therefore, there is no moral standard of any kind.
With a reprobate mind, there is no standard. One cannot discern rightly. There is no moral discernment.
This is why you find society so sick today. People do unseemly things, and yet they think they are doing the right thing. They do not even repent of what they did. Why? Because their mind is a reprobate mind. That is the illness, the sickness, of the world today.
If you turn to 2 Corinthians 4:4, it says:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving,
that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
Who is the image of God,
should not dawn upon them.
Here you find the god of this world—that is, Satan—has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving. He has put a blind over the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ cannot shine into the heart.
Think of prejudice, pride, custom, tradition, and all these things that literally blind the eyes of men, so that the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ cannot penetrate into their mind. Blinded.
If you turn to Ephesians 4:17-18:
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord,
that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk,
in the vanity of their mind,
being darkened in their understanding,
alienated from the life of God,
because of the ignorance that is in them,
because of the hardening of their heart.
Here you find that the mind is vain: the vanity of their mind. That is the reason why people seek vain glory. Their mind is full of vanity. They do not look for reality; they look for vanity.
Then, in Colossians 2:18:
Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels,
dwelling in the things which he hath seen,
vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.
In other words, the mind of a fallen man is fleshly—a carnal mind.
In Romans 8, we find that a carnal mind cannot please God. A carnal mind is enmity against God. A carnal mind cannot do the will of God, nor will it do the will of God. A carnal mind is enmity against God; it can never please God.
So this was the condition of man. This was the condition of the mind of a fallen person.
But thank God. When the Lord saves us, what happens to us?
We all know that a person cannot be saved, or believe in the Lord Jesus, if he has not repented. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. If a person has never repented, he does not see any reason why he should believe in the Lord Jesus.
So you find that the first thing that happens in our salvation is repentance. That is the reason why John the Baptist was saying, before Christ, to prepare the way of the Lord, “Repent.”
Now, what is repentance? The very word repentance means a change of mind.
In other words, your mind was set on things below. Your mind was set on hell. Well, you may not know it, but that is what you did. But now there is a change of mind. Your mind begins to turn in resurrection and begins to be set on Christ. A change of mind—that is repentance.
But, dear brothers and sisters, can you repent? Can anybody repent? No. Repentance is the gift of God.
You may think, certainly, if I want to repent, I can repent. Well, you can be remorseful. You can regret. Why do you regret? Why are you remorseful? Because you begin to see the consequences of what you have done.
It is not because you have done something wrong; it is because of the consequence. It is not because of the thing you committed; it is because of the consequence of the sin that begins to catch up with you. That is the reason why you regret. But that is not repentance.
Repentance is a change of mind. It is the gift of God.
In Luke 24:47, it says that the Lord sends us out to preach repentance and remission of sins. Repentance is something to be preached, and as repentance is preached, then God will give repentance to men.
If you want to, you can look at Acts 5:31:
Him did God exalt with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour,
to give repentance to Israel,
and remission of sins.
As repentance is preached, as Christ is exalted, then repentance is given to men, and the remission of sins. Thank God, He is ever ready to give repentance.
He will grant repentance. As you find in Acts 11, the Jews in Jerusalem at first thought that repentance would never be given to the Gentiles; it was only for them. But when God began to give repentance to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, they were surprised.
Finally, they had to acknowledge that God had granted repentance to the Gentiles, as He had given it to the Jews. Why? Because God wants all to repent and to be saved. That is the will of God.
Repentance is through the working of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict and He will convince. When He convicts people, He touches their conscience. But when He convinces people, He convinces their mind.
He gives repentance to man. So, when we are saved, our mind has undergone a change. But remember, that change is not complete. The change has begun, but it has to be completed.
It is true: when you believe in the Lord Jesus, you find in Ezekiel 36 that the Lord will give you a new heart. He will give you a new spirit. He will take away your stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh.
Also, in 2 Corinthians 5, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new, and all things are of God.
Now, that is true, brothers and sisters. When you believe in the Lord Jesus, you are put in Christ by God, and you are a new creation. The original does not say merely “a new creature,” but “a new creation.” You are a new creation.
Old things have passed away. All things have become new, and all things are of God. So far as the work of Christ is concerned, that is true. He has done such a perfect job. He said, “It is finished.” There is nothing to be added.
Therefore, so far as the work of Christ is concerned, when you believe in Him, you are a new creation. Old things have passed away; everything is new. In other words, you have a new heart, a new spirit, a new mind—you have everything new, and everything is of God.
So far as the work of Christ is concerned, that is true. This is your position in Christ.
But so far as your daily experience is concerned, you have to appropriate it. You have to possess your possession. What God has done for us in Christ is complete. We are complete in Christ Jesus. Now this completeness is to be completed in you through the working of the Holy Spirit.
It is really unfortunate, because we have a new life, but many of us carry an old head. Some people put it this way: you have a new heart, but you have an old head. What a contradiction.
For the sake of clarity, let me retrace a little bit. If you read the book of Romans, it is a most systematic book.
I will put it in a very rough way. From Romans 1 to Romans 11, you see the mercies of God in Christ Jesus—what Christ has done for us sinful beings. The mercies of God, the compassions of God, have provided everything that we need in Christ Jesus.
That is Romans 1 through 11. Romans 12 through 16 speaks of the walk of a believer after you have received Christ. How should you live upon this earth? What will be your relationship with one another, in the world, in society? How should you be a testimony for God?
In the first part of Romans is what Christ has done for us, and in the second part is what He will live through us. You have His life now. Now let that life live out to the glory of God. That is the second part of Romans.
But unfortunately, we have the life of Christ in us, and yet we find it very hard for that life to live out from us. Now why?
You find Romans 12:1-2 is the key:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Here you find a person who has the life of Christ in him. This life of Christ is a glorious life. It is a life that overcomes; it is a life that wins. Yet, for that life to really live out in our daily living, you find there is a block somewhere. That block is the mind.
You need a renewing of your mind. If your mind is not renewed, then you will still be conformed to the world, and you will not be able to prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
Our mind needs to be renewed. When our mind is renewed, then the life within us is able to flow out. It is just like there is plenty of water in the tank, and yet your faucet is closed. Therefore, there is no water coming out. Just open the faucet, and the water will flow.
That is the renewing of your mind. The reason why you find many Christians cannot live the life of Christ is not because they do not have His life. It is because their mind has not been renewed.
It is true: when we are saved, there is repentance, there is a change of mind. But still, you find that the mind itself has not been drastically changed. It was only temporarily turned. So far as the mind itself is concerned, it has not been renewed. Our mind needs to be renewed.
I believe one of the greatest problems with believers today—I am almost tempted to say the problem of believers today—is in the mind.
There is nothing wrong with life, because the life you receive is the life of Christ. It is a perfect life. What is wrong is in the mind—that battlefield.
All over the years, Satan has built up so many strongholds in your mind. Remember, these are strongholds, fortresses. I want you to have a very strong concept about it.
The enemy has built strongholds, fortresses—cement reinforced with steel. You find that the enemy has built fortresses in our minds: all the prejudices, all the pride of men, all the foolishness, all the things that lift themselves up against the knowledge of God.
You are not able to know God. Why? Because these are fortresses. They stand in the way of the knowledge of God. You think you know, but you do not.
You are hindered from the true knowledge of God. It is all your own concepts; it is all the customs and traditions of men. All these strongholds have been built through the years in your mind.
Paul said all these strongholds have to be demolished, have to be brought down, so that every thought may be led into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Can you understand? I do not know, dear brothers and sisters, whether you find there is a battle going on in your mind. I do not know whether you have discovered that your greatest problem is your mind.
How you cannot concentrate. How your mind just wanders. How you cannot think straight. You cannot think through. How your mind is lazy, and sometimes overactive. You have no control over your mind.
How sudden thoughts just come in from the enemy. How you are troubled by evil thoughts thrown in by the enemy. Brothers and sisters, you find lots of believers really under the oppression of the enemy through the mind. How many minds are completely obsessed.
I do not need to illustrate that. We had a good illustration just last week: how a person’s mind can be so obsessed, deranged, thinking that he was doing the right thing.
It shows how the enemy tries to get hold of the mind. The battle today is a battle over the mind. Think of it individually; think of it internationally. It is a battle over the mind. The battle of ideology is the battle of the mind.
God wants us to have a sound mind. It is important for our mind to be renewed. But how?
First of all, Ephesians 4. We will read from verse 20:
But ye did not so learn Christ;
if so be that ye heard Him,
and were taught in Him,
even as truth is in Jesus:
that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life,
the old man,
which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit;
and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and put on the new man,
that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
Here you find Paul mentions this matter of the renewing of the spirit of your mind. How do you renew the spirit of your mind? It is by putting off, according to the former manner of life, the old man, which corrupts itself according to deceitful lusts, and by putting on the new man, which according to God is created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
Now, brothers and sisters, when Christ died on the cross, Romans 6:6 says that our old man was crucified with Him. Our old man has been crucified with Him.
When Christ died, the old man—you and me—died with Him. Now why is it that you find the old mind still lingers? If the old man was crucified, then the old mind was gone. Why is it that you find your old mind still stays with you?
It is not because the work of Christ is not complete. It is because you do not appropriate it by faith.
The putting off and the putting on are acts of faith. When Christ died, your old man was crucified with Him. That was an act of God. You did not do anything.
When Christ died, you did not say, “Lord, I want to die with You.” You did not. God took your old man and crucified it with Christ. It is done.
But because of the truth that your old man was crucified with Christ, on your part you need to act by faith to appropriate that fact. To choose by faith, and appropriation is putting off and putting on—just like putting on clothes. You put off the old clothes and put on the new clothes.
The putting on and the putting off is just a matter of faith. So first of all, for the renewing of your mind, it has to be based upon the truth that is in Christ.
Remember, every spiritual experience is based upon something that Christ has done. Otherwise, there is no ground for us to experience anything spiritual.
So, in order to experience a renewing of your mind, you have to believe and act by faith: put off the old man that has been corrupted, and put on the new man that is created according to righteousness and holiness.
First of all, it is a matter of faith. You have to believe what Christ has done for you two thousand years ago: that old man was dead; your old mind was gone. You put it off by faith, and you put on the mind of Christ by faith. This is the first step.
Secondly, Romans 12:1-2:
Present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.
And be not conformed to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
What God has done in Christ Jesus on Calvary’s cross is the putting off of the old man. Therefore, you put off by faith the old mind and put on by faith a new mind.
Then the second thing is that you present your body a living sacrifice. You have been redeemed. Your body is no longer yours; it belongs to the Lord.
So you present your body as a living sacrifice, saying, “Lord, from now on, You have full control of my body. You can use my body as You wish. You can do anything You like with this body. It is Yours, at Your disposal.”
When you present your body as a living sacrifice, then the Holy Spirit will renew your mind. You will begin to think differently. You will begin to see differently. You will begin to evaluate differently.
Formerly, you looked at the world and found a world like the Garden of Eden. Now, if it looks like the Garden of Eden, of course you will be conformed to it. You will move yourself toward it.
Formerly, when you looked at the will of God, you found it the most difficult thing in the world. It was unpleasant. It was against you.
One day somebody asked a young person, “What do you think of the will of God?” The youngster said, “Whatever is against me is the will of God. Whatever is hard, unpleasing, unpleasant—that is the will of God.”
Now, if that is the way you look at the will of God, of course you are afraid of it. You will not do it.
How can we not be conformed to the world? How can we prove the good, acceptable, perfect will of God? When your mind is renewed, you think differently, you see differently, and you value differently.
Paul, once upon a time, looked at his past pedigree, and he was so proud of it. He said, “I am a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was circumcised on the eighth day. I was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. According to the letter of the law, I was blameless.”
You find Paul loved these things, and he was far more vain than his contemporaries. Why? Because these were his treasures. But one day he said, “I count all these things as loss, as refuse.”
Will you go after refuse? Certainly not. He said, “I now count the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as most excellent.” No wonder he pursued after Christ. Why? Because his mind was renewed.
What he once looked upon so preciously, he now despised. What he disdained before, now he treasured. Dear brothers and sisters, this is the renewing of the mind.
Why? Because Paul had presented his body a living sacrifice: “Lord, what do You want me to do? I am Yours. It is up to You.”
Brothers and sisters, if you want to have your mind renewed, you will have to present your body a living sacrifice. This is not something you do only once in your whole lifetime. It is something you do once at the beginning, and then it must be renewed day by day, morning and evening, as the morning and evening burnt offerings.
If you present your body a living sacrifice, to your surprise you will find that your way of thinking has changed.
Number three: 2 Corinthians 10. This is where the daily battle occurs.
Here you find that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. We are not fighting against flesh and blood. The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty before God to the overthrow of strongholds, casting down reasonings and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and leading every thought captive into the obedience of Christ.
Now, brothers and sisters, after we have consecrated ourselves to the Lord, you will find in your daily life that when the enemy tries to raise up some reasoning or some high thing against the knowledge of God, the Holy Spirit will immediately remind you, “This is a stronghold that needs to be demolished.”
When the Holy Spirit reminds you, cooperate with the Holy Spirit and say, “Lord, this must be delivered to death.”
As you declare by faith that this must be delivered to death, then by the power of the Holy Spirit it is delivered unto death. It is demolished, and your thought will be brought into the obedience of Christ.
Whenever the Holy Spirit reminds you of something, some thought that is not of God, do not accept it. Declare that this has to go to death. Declare that the thought has to be brought into the obedience of Christ.
As you declare by faith, the Holy Spirit will do His work. This is the way that, in our daily life, our thoughts are brought into the obedience of Christ.
Now, brothers and sisters, just a word of warning. When the Holy Spirit begins to remind you that your thought has to be brought into the obedience of Christ, sometimes the enemy tries to push you a little bit further.
When you are not attentive to this matter, he is able to build stronghold after stronghold in your mind. But when you begin to pay attention to it, then what he will do is try to confuse you.
In other words, he will try to lead you into a kind of false battle—not a real battle, but a kind of camouflage warfare—and get you involved in a battle as if you are always fighting in your mind.
Now, brothers and sisters, that will very soon send you to an asylum. So do not do that. Do not do that. Claim the protection. Put on the helmet of salvation.
When the enemy tries to confuse you with many thoughts, put on the helmet of salvation and say, “Lord, anything that is not of You, I reject. I do not accept it.”
If you take that stand, you will find this confusion soon passes. A brother once said, “You cannot forbid a bird to fly over your head, but certainly you can forbid the bird to build a nest upon your head.”
The enemy will try to throw all kinds of thoughts at you. Do not accept them. If you accept them and begin to think about them, a nest is being built.
But if you do not accept them—“No, it is not mine. I do not want it”—you do not even need to ask the Lord to forgive you, because it is not your sin. The enemy has done it.
So, brothers and sisters, how important it is to have our mind renewed. Now, what is a renewed mind? When a mind is renewed, what happens to that mind?
Of course, in Scripture you can find many things said about this new mind, but this morning we are limited to one thing, and I think that sums it up:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters, a new mind, a renewed mind, is the mind of Christ. In other words, you think the way Christ thinks. What Christ is thinking about is what you will think about.
Because of such a mind, it affects your whole being, your whole walk before God. Now, what is the mind of Christ?
In Philippians 2, you find Paul—oh, that is a wonderful chapter. Of course, every passage is wonderful, but this is the wonder of wonders. Here Paul says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
What is the mind that is in Christ Jesus? What is He thinking about? What does He think about? Here Paul shows us:
Who, existing in the form of God,
counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself,
taking the form of a servant,
being made in the likeness of men;
and being found in fashion as a man,
He humbled Himself,
becoming obedient even unto death,
yea, the death of the cross.
Here Paul shows us the divinity of Christ. Our Lord Jesus subsisted in the form of God. The word form in the original does not refer to outward form; it refers to inward quality.
In other words, He subsists in the inward essence of God. In essence, He and the Father are one. Whatever the Father is, He is—nothing more and nothing less.
He subsists. He is eternally existing, and He subsists in the form of God, in the very essence of God.
This equality with God is not something to be robbed. He does not need to rob it, or steal it, in order to be equal with God, because He is equal with God.
Now, you remember that once somebody tried to steal that equality. You remember who that was? That archangel Lucifer. He tried to steal that equality with God, but it is something nobody is able to steal.
The one who tried to steal it turned himself into a devil. But so far as our Lord Jesus is concerned, He is equal with God, and this is right. This is His birthright. It is His unalienable right. He does not need to grasp it, steal it, or rob it. It is His by right.
And yet, what is the mind of Christ? He emptied Himself. Oh, brothers and sisters, He emptied Himself.
Of course, our Lord Jesus, being God, the Son of God, could not empty Himself of His deity. He could not do that. Some people misunderstand and think that He emptied Himself of His deity, so that when Christ came upon the earth, He was no longer God. No. He is God forever.
He emptied Himself, not of His deity, because that is what He is essentially. But He emptied Himself of all the glory, honor, majesty, position, and worship that belonged to His deity.
He laid aside His glory, His honor, His majesty, and His rights as God. He laid aside all these; He emptied Himself of all these. Why? Because without emptying Himself, He could never become a man.
There is such an immeasurable distance between God and man that He could never become man if He did not empty Himself. How much He must have emptied Himself.
Taking the form of a servant, He took upon Himself the form of a slave. The word form there is the same word: He subsisted in the form of God.
It does not refer to outward appearance, because in outward appearance He was not a slave. Even though all Jews were slaves to the Romans, they would not recognize that. Outwardly, He was not a slave.
But He took upon Himself the form of a slave. In other words, in essence, in His inward quality, He took upon Himself the form of a slave.
No wonder that when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He was a perfect slave. He said, “I can do nothing of Myself. I do it because I have seen My Father do it. I can say nothing of Myself. I say because I heard Him say.”
Here you find that our Lord Jesus never for a moment thought of doing anything on His own. His whole life was under the principle of the will of His Master.
Lo, I am come to do Thy will.
Thou hast prepared for Me a body.
I am come to do Thy will.
And Thy law is my delight.
The form of a slave. Being equal with God, He emptied Himself, and inwardly He took a slave attitude. Think of that.
Voluntarily, He took that low position, a position that could not be lower. Then He took His place in the likeness of men.
“Likeness of men”—that is the outward aspect. He came in the likeness of men. He is a man; He was a man, except without sin. In every way He was a man, except without sin.
Now, this is only the first step. After He had done that, it was not enough. Having taken the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men, He further humbled Himself.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember that the glory of God is to command, but the glory of man is to obey.
Here our Lord Jesus, being made a man, took the position of man. He humbled Himself and became obedient to God, even unto death—yes, the death of the cross.
He went all the way in His obedience. That is humility. Dear brothers and sisters, humility is not just an outward appearance…