Talk—Bill Prost
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A God of the mind.
On the other hand, I have been to other places where they were very much like the ants and Greeks. They placed a great deal of emphasis on education, wanted to get a good education. That was the supreme thing. Put all you've got into it, and if you don't get a good education, well, what? What? What good are you?
And I have seen people, mostly Asian people, who were so obsessed with education that they ruined their health.
And I have known those who when they didn't, do as well on their exams as they thought they should.
It was such a disgrace to them and to their family that they'd grow out and commit suicide.
Gods of the Mind.
We don't want to say too much about all of this.
But I would just say that you and I in North America are in danger of embracing these gods of the mind. We are in danger of getting enamored with things, and it can be anything.
My wife likes to cook. She's an exceptionally good cook.
And she takes a magazine that features cooking. She likes to get new recipes out of it.
But once in a while, when she picks up that magazine and I sometimes take a look at it too, it's interesting to see what's in it.
But you get the distinct impression that some of those people who write for that magazine are so obsessed with cooking that that's all they can think about and that's all that goes through their minds, is putting some new concoction of ingredients together. A little bit like Virgil when he had Sunday school. We could go last Sunday.
Some of you weren't here to see that, but it was quite a quite a recipe.
But no one would eat it.
People said they they could, they thought they could stomach it until he started putting the Doctor Pepper in, and that was one too many. Well, all right, I know Virgil is a good cook, but the point is.
We can get so obsessed with that, that that's all we think about.
Other magazines treat of different things.
Decorating a home, getting a house that needs a little whoops, that needs a little work done on it, and then getting so taken up with it that that's all we think about. Gods of the mind, is there anything inherently wrong with cooking? No, there isn't. And it tells us in First Timothy 6 that God gave us all, gives us all things richly to enjoy.
I remember once there was a brother full time in the Lord's work.
I knew him well. He was at my home from my parents home, I mean. And my mother said, what does it mean, Brother Brown, that scripture he giveth us all things richly to enjoy? The brother pointed at his plate. He said this is what he meant.
And we don't need to be embarrassed about enjoying Tony's good food. The Lord gave it to us and we can enjoy it. And we don't need to feel ashamed to enjoy it.
But if it becomes a God that takes over in our minds, then we can never really get to know the true God. We can never really get to know God as He wants to be known.
We all understand that in a natural sense, don't we?
We all understand that. Suppose that.
As I said earlier, my wife is a very good cook.
But what I enjoy most about her is her cooking. And I come to the table three times a day and enjoy her food, but pay very little attention to her. Is that a normal marriage relationship? No, of course not. And she would have every right to say to me, you know, Bill, I'm glad you enjoy my cooking and I'm flattered that you like it so much. But.
What kind of a relationship do we have when that's all you enjoy? I might as well just be the servant that gets paid to cook for you.
You might as well go and hire somebody that's a good cook for all our relationship means.
00:05:02
And that is the danger, gods of the mind. And they are in danger of taking us over here in North America, even among believers, because we say, and up to a point we're right. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the good things God has given to us. But let's read in First Timothy 6.
And see what the Lord has to say.
That gets us into the right perspective.
First Timothy 6.
And notice what it says in verse 17.
Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches.
But in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. And then what does he say? That they do good. That they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come.
And I'm going to read this last phrase as it is in the Darby translation.
That they may lay hold on what is really.
Really. Life.
On what is really life? What does Paul mean by that? He means that the enjoyment of these gods of the mind will never satisfy. They may puzzle our mind, they may give us something to think about, they may make an object for us in life. But eventually.
They will never satisfy.
And more than not satisfying your heart and mind.
Deprived God of that communication, that fellowship, that enjoyment of a personal relationship with you and me that he so much wants. And so there's not much more I can say about this. Maybe others will have some thoughts on it. But the point we want to make is.
Let's be very careful that we don't.
Well, you and I would say, how could anyone ever carve up a piece of wood or a piece of metal or whatever it might be, and then look at it here, it is the work of his or her own hands, and then fall down and worship it as if it were a God. How could anyone do that? And most people here in North America, not everyone, but most people who have been.
Brought up in American, Canadian society would laugh at those that did that, and they would not worship what you and I would call an idol. But I say to your heart, I say to my own heart, Do we have idols of a different kind? Do we have gods of the mind?
Let's turn to 1St John Chapter 5.
First John, chapter 5.
Very last verse, verse 21, first John 5 and verse 21.
Little children and it should just read children. It doesn't mean young believers. It's believers as children of God.
Keep yourselves from idols.
Was John worried about their going back to paganism and idolatry? Was he worried about their going back to worshipping concrete real idols made out of various substances? I don't believe so, no, I don't think he was concerned about that. But he knew very well that already, those gods of the mind.
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Were starting to introduce themselves, John wrote later than any other New Testament writer.
He probably wrote a good.
At least 25 and maybe 30 years after the Apostle Paul did, and already those gods of the mind were being introduced.
The question of Gnosticism, and we don't have time to go into that today, was being introduced. But Gnosticism is simply pretending to have a mysterious revelation in your own mind.
That can.
In our own minds transcend divine revelation, and by the time John wrote, that was invading the Church of God. And John writes in very firm tones against that very thing without definitely naming it.
But it was coming in, and so let us beware that we don't let anything come between us and the Lord Himself.
Yes, we have to live and move in this world.
There's nothing wrong with these things that we're talking about, but let them not become an object before our minds. Let them be a means to an end rather than an end in themselves.
That's the point. Are they a means to an end rather than an end in themselves? The moment they become an end in themselves and they are introduced between me and the Lord, then I will soon find that my relationship with the Lord will start to fall off and I will lose that enjoyment of Christ that I ought to have.
Well, we'll leave it at that. And as I say, others will likely have some comments and.
We'll go from there.