Do You Mind?

16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. 18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. 19 “If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; 20 “But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 1:16-

John 20:31 NASB95

31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

I. YOUR MIND MATTERS. IT IS WHAT DISTINGUISHES YOU AS A RATIONAL AND MORAL BEING.

You are not simply a MEAT POPSICLE.

Those who argue against God and the soul do so utilizing the very gifts that could only come from God. Mere material could not produce self-awareness. They cannot claim to rationally believe or reject God. If they are merely a meat computer, they could only exist in an instinctual state. They chemicals and compounds merely respond as programmed to stimuli. The moment they interject belief or non-belief or speak in the sense of I or as of one who is self-aware, they have risen above the very ceiling the claim to live under. They have walked outside and in practice rejected the atheism and subsequent materialism they claim to believe. Not only could they not realistically know what it means to believe or not believe any more than a rock or a ray of sunshine could believe or not believe, but whatever they say would be meaningless noise as there would be no soul or mind to interact with. We would all simply be mindless soulless autonomic reactions. But everyone intuitively senses that is not true. So WHAT COULD BE THE “REASON” people spend so much time denying the soul when?

II. YOUR MIND AND SOUL ARE MORE THAN MATTER.

Let me ask you this rhetorical questions: How does evolution get from mere matter to biology? And then how does evolution convert the water of biological tissue to the wine of CONSCIOUSNESS, soul and mind?

Dr. Moreland says, “You can’t get something from nothing.” Its as simple as that. If there were no God, then history of the entire universe, up to the now, would be a history of dead matter with no sensations, free actions, choices, or purposes. There would be simply physical event after physical event merely responding and reacting to the physical laws of nature.

A. SCIENTISTS CANNOT LOCATE YOUR MIND OR SOUL.

THEY CANNOT POINT TO A MEMORY.

THEY CANNOT POINT TO A PERSONALITY TRAIT.

B. SCIENTIFIC EXAMINATION CANNOT TOUCH THE MIND AND IT NEVER WILL.

Every now and then you will get a sneaky scientist who will jump into scientism. He or she will say, well things just evolved until the brain evolved to enough complexity to take the potential in the matter to become consciousness. Now, you have just crossed a theological and psychological door. Just quickly, for matter to have the potential of a full consciousness there had to be a form of “consciousness” in the rocks, the water, the wind and the fire. You have now on some level animated matter. That is something scientists cannot know from experimentation. It also would be adding some basic spiritual existence into mere atoms. See you have to have mind to produce mind. They are trying to sneak past the problem by saying, all the parts of the mind preexisted and when the brain achieved a certain voltage, it powered the mind/soul.

i. SCIENTISTS CANNOT COMPREHEND THE MIND AS IT IS METAPHYSICAL.

If atheism and evolution were true, then you merely perform like a computer. Then you have no free thought you are merely a program. So if you had a computer that had a virus on it and it added 5% to every number you inputted, would you trust it to run your taxes? I hope not. But could it know it had a problem without a programmer to correct it or make the adjustments to the code? No.

So that’s the problem skeptics have, if they deny the soul and God, they cannot even “believe” their own conclusions because they would merely be running a program if they were right.

But, I submit that by even ASKING THESE QUESTIONS they have revealed their consciousness is above the atheistic and gnostic ideas of determinism.

You will never have a brain surgeon that can point to a cell or neuron and say, “There is Jim’s happy thought.” or “This is Jim in love with Sarah.” or this is Jim’s memory of Abbey being born, or Emma’s first steps, or Lauren having the tickets to Disneyland you forgot, or Josiah playing Mooshu in Mulan. Oh, this is Jim’s impatience. Just doesn’t happen

ii. SCIENTIFIC STUDY HAS APPREHENDED THE SOUL/MIND.

That’s all it can do. Mere matter can’t produce consciousness. We need an infinite and eternal mind to produce a mind. That is why you have the Divine Logos at the Beginning of . In the Beginning was the Word, the LOGOS the greek word for the Divine mind. And that is what God appeals to in calling you to humble yourself before Him and come to Him His way.

III. GOD APPEALS TO YOUR MIND IN MATTERS OF THE HEART. (Let us reason together)

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NASB95

11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

A. GOD HAS GIVEN EVERYONE AN AWARENESS OF HIMSELF.

A. GOD HAS GIVES EVERYONE AN AWARENESS OF HIMSELF. (There is a longing for the eternal in our hearts. That’s why atheists have to argue against God. It is intuitive to believe in God. The very act of being aware is a work of the soul. Matter plus time cannot produce an eternal soul.)

Our soul, mind consciousness long for a better world. A world where sin, evil, calamity and death do not interrupt our relationships. It is a place that is better, that is all GOOD, that is where we get the word Utopia from. Eu in greek is GOOD, topos is Place. We want to go to the Good Place. The Bible describes that place as Heaven where God reigns and all is holy.

Romans 1:19–21 NASB95

19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Romans 1:

B. THROUGH OUR SOUL, GOD GIVES US A MORAL AWARENESS. (THOUGH MORAL LAW IS UNSEEN, EVERYONE SENSES IT.)

Romans 2:14–15 NASB95

14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,

Romans 2:14-15

C. ONLY BY US REASONING WITH GOD WILL WE FILL OUR MORAL WAREHOUSE.

D. ONLY IN CHRIST DOES GOD OFFER THE SOLUTION TO OUR DILEMMA.

Isaiah 53:5–6 NASB95

5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

E. WHILE FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORK CHRIST SECURES OUR ETERNITY, THE MIND IS WHAT MOVE US TO ACTION FOR JESUS.

Ephesians 2:10 NASB95

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

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