read the first 17 verses of Romans 8. If you've picked up a copy of the book on spiritual mindedness, you will see that verse 6 of this chapter played a pivotal role in the writing of this book. And so I want to read the first 17 verses of Romans 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they, that are in the flesh cannot please God. For ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit of life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. May God add his blessing to the reading of his holy, precious, and infallible word. Let's call upon the Lord's name. most gracious, glorious, and exalted triune God. Blessed Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of Thy well-beloved Son, we draw near to Thee tonight as Thou dost give us the opportunity also in the middle of the week to gather together to receive instruction from our brother, Thy dear servant, who will speak to us about the important subject of spiritual mindedness. We have just read clear language from thy word regarding this subject. And we do pray therefore that the instruction that will be given tonight will be profitable for our own soul. What a calling we have to be a spiritually minded people. We confess with sorrow that so often our soul cleaves to the dust, that we are so profoundly impacted by the prosperous and materialistic culture that surrounds us. And O Lord, we pray, however, that by grace we might be a spiritually minded people in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation, and that so by grace something of the glory of Christ would emanate also from our lives. And so remember our dear brother as he goes before us, granting what he needs in the instruction given. We ask for thy blessing upon him and his family, but also upon the important work he may do at our seminary as he and all those who surround him. are engaged in the great and glorious task of preparing men for gospel ministry. Lord bless his labors as well. Remember us so together and give us a good and edifying evening. We ask it alone in Christ's name. Amen. So we want to welcome our dear brother Cranendonk. We're delighted that you accept our invitation to speak to us about the subject of John Owen and spiritual mindedness. Did everyone get a copy of the handout, the beautiful handout he's prepared for us? Also, there are a few copies left, I believe, of the book of John Owen called Spiritual Mindedness. They're on the table. And without further ado, I want to welcome Dr. David Cronendonk, a minister of the gospel in the Free Reformed Church, as you know, but also a professor at our Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. Dr. Cranendonk, you have the floor. Well, good evening and thank you for the privilege of being here this evening. It's good to be with you. It also brings back memories of when I served as a pastor and we had evenings like this in our congregation. And it's good to be together and to also focus on different topics. And when I was asked to speak, some of the things that were mentioned were you could introduce a book, maybe a Puritan book, or you could speak about meditation. or maybe some other topic. Well, that's very broad and open-ended. So it's those two first suggestions that led me to this book, Spiritual Mindedness by John Owen. John Owen has written a lot, and they're beautiful books. They're not always the easiest to read, but they are rich with instruction. And this one here is also in the Puritan paperback series. I'm sure you're familiar with that series of many different Puritan books. They tend to be smaller, more readable. This one is slightly abridged from the original version, but it still certainly conveys the riches of the original version. Well, John Owen, he was born in 1616 and passed away in 1683. He was a son of a Puritan pastor. He, at the age of 12, entered Queen's College in Oxford, England. You try and imagine if your parents and you see your 12-year-old go off to college and he's away from home. That was quite something in those days. We also know, or we're told anyway, that he would spend 18 to 20 hours a day studying. Now my children could maybe learn from him in terms of his dedication and his eagerness to study. So he was very diligent, very eager to learn, to study. And he obtained his master's at the age of 19. You could say, son of a pastor, studying in university, studying also theology, he must have been driven by a desire to serve God. And yet, that's not the case. It seems like he was more focused on his own honor and his own glory than the honor of God in all his studies, which is such a reminder. Two people can be diligent, and yet for such different reasons. And it was in his early 20s that he began to be convicted of his sin and of his lostness. And it was something that weighed on him heavily. It made him withdraw from others for a period of time. And over time, he began to look towards the Lord Jesus Christ and his salvation. And yet, spiritual struggles remained until he was 26 or 27. A friend said, come, let's go to this famous preacher in London. And he comes there into church, and lo and behold, some man he's never seen before mounts the pulpit. And his friend whispers, let's go down the road, because there's some other famous preacher down the road. And he says, no, I'm staying here. And the Lord uses that sermon. Why are ye so fearful, O ye of little faith, in order to breakthrough with the light of the gospel in his soul. And he never sees this pastor again, reminding it's not about the names. It's not about the great men. It's about God using his word, however simple that may be. And he uses it. Owen becomes a preacher, a leading minister in London. He also became a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell in Ireland. And he serves as a preacher to the government and a vice chancellor of the University of Oxford. But after Cromwell dies, he loses favor with the new government and king, though he's allowed to continue preaching and especially writing. And he wrote a lot. Some of you may have his works. It's 16 volumes, and that's not even all the works that he wrote. But that's what Banner of Truth published. He married, and you may have heard before how he had 11 children and 10 of them died in infancy, or very young children. We can't imagine. Sometimes we think these were just theologians who wrote books, but these were real men who went through trying circumstances. And the one who lived past childhood also died before her parents. He knew what it was to suffer. Age 58, his wife passed away. Two years later, he remarried. he married a widow. In the last years, he suffered a lot from asthma, gallstones, sometimes that kept him from preaching. And at one time, he was laid on a sickbed. And he later wrote, during that time, I was every way unable to do anything for the edification of others. And he feared that he would not recover. And it was there on that sickbed that his meditations were drawn to this whole subject of spiritual mindedness. And it was a great, very edifying to him to be there and to be meditating on spiritual mindedness. When he was restored in God's mercy, he preached a series of sermons on this topic of spiritual mindedness. And if that is all he had done, we wouldn't be here tonight. But he not only preached on it, he also wrote a book on it. And that's what we have before us tonight. He felt he should not only be edified by it for himself but preach on it and also write on this theme because he found it a very important theme for his congregation in the church in his day. He found the world pressing in on the minds of people in so many ways. And he knew if the world succeeded in filling the minds of people, they would be hardened against faith and obedience, and others would be weakened in their graces. He found so much changing in his society. He wrote, the world is at present in a mighty hurry, as it throws away long established foundations. And in that context, he found people walk and talk as if the world were all. And found them coming into church crowded with all these thoughts of what's going on in the world, and that there wasn't room for the word of God. And when we hear him describe his age, you'd almost think he was describing our age. And maybe that's exactly why this topic is so relevant to us, spiritual mindedness. He says, unless we have a measure of spiritual mindedness, no grace will thrive or flourish in us. No duty will be rightly performed by us. No condition sanctified or improved. Nor are we prepared in a due manner or made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. He was convinced this is very important. So what is this spiritual mindedness? What is this contrast that we find in the text that he draws from? The carnal mind is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. There's this great contrast here, isn't there, between these two minds, the carnal and the spiritual. Carnal means fleshly. But the point is not The contrast between our flesh as in our body and our soul. But fleshly, in the word of God, flesh stands for what we are by nature. It's our natural fallen condition that where that principle of sin governs, not just our body, but our minds and our hearts and our whole being. It says in verse 7 of Romans 8, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It can't get any worse than that, can it? That's the carnal mind. Hating God. What a terrible reality that is. That's why it says those who are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh and walk after the flesh. That depravity governs their mind and their heart and their walk. The spirit That spiritual mind is a fruit of the Spirit of God, of His work in regeneration. He makes us spiritually minded. He renews that mind. He overcomes that enmity. He works spiritual life. He dispels that darkness. He gives light. He subdues that rebellion. And he gives submission and delight in himself, in God. He makes all things new. And what the Spirit works is spiritual in the sense of being influenced and governed by the Holy Spirit. Owen says, spirit here is the holy vital principle of new obedience wrought in the souls of believers by the Holy Spirit, enabling them to live unto God. And when it talks about a spiritual mind, we aren't just to think about that place where we think ideas and thoughts, the spiritual mind is a reference to our insides. In other words, where we think and where we desire. It's our heart, you could also say. Owen says the difference between these two states is great and the distance in a manner infinite because an eternity of blessedness or misery depends on this. Are we carnal or are we spiritual? But at the same time While there's this infinite distance between only having a carnal mind and being renewed by the Spirit to be spiritually minded, still the believer struggles with that carnal mindedness and needs to be renewed continually to be spiritually minded. And so the third question you have there is what does spiritual mindedness involve? And the first thing is a mind drawn to think of spiritual realities. He says, our minds are filled with thoughts like a tree can be covered with blossoms. Yesterday we thought that's coming very, very soon. And today we changed our minds. But it's what happens in the spring, right? There's those blossoms. And you see those apple trees covered with blossoms. Now a lot of those blossoms, the petals fall and nothing happens, but there's others where fruit forms. And so he says, our thoughts are like the many blossoms, and our actions are like the fruits that form from those thoughts. And not all our thoughts result in actual fruit of actions. But the spiritual mind begins with that, what we think inside ourselves. Proverbs 23, he says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. But he's specific here. He says, thoughts which are voluntary, unforced, and arise naturally because they are delighted in and bring satisfaction to the mind, these are the thoughts which show us the true reality about ourselves. This is what's important. The spiritual mind is one that naturally rises upward to spiritual things like a cork in the sea rises upward rather than a stone that sinks naturally downward. So spiritual mindedness is more than thinking about spiritual things because you have to. It isn't as if a businessman is earthly minded because he has to think a lot about his work And a professor is spiritually minded because he has to think a lot about the Bible. A businessman can be more spiritually minded than a professor. If a professor only thinks about the things of God because he has to write and speak about the things of God. Whereas a businessman can be spiritually minded in this sense that when he doesn't have to think about his business, his thoughts naturally go to God. And even as he's doing his work, he's doing it in dependence on the living God. So spiritual mindedness isn't just how much you think of God, but where is the bent of your mind? We can be carnally minded while we're in church or while we're praying because our heart isn't in it. We can be spiritually minded while we're walking through a grocery store. And we see those people with spiritual eyes. If we just think of God when we have to, when we're reading the Bible after the table or after supper, or we're in church, it could just be carnal. If our hearts go out that way, That's the evidence of being spiritually minded. So this is a question for us tonight. What do you think of when you have nothing you need to think of? Where do your and my thoughts go? When you wake up, when you go to sleep, when you're driving in the car, where do your thoughts go? Do they sink down like a stone? Or do they go up like a cork? Owen says, many complain that when they think of spiritual things, worldly thoughts intrude. Well then, when you think of worldly things, do spiritual things intrude? If they do, it's an evidence you're spiritually minded. This also makes spiritual mindedness different from giftedness. A person can have a gift to teach or a gift to sound eloquent in prayer without the heart being drawn to God above. He says, when gifts stir up grace, they're wonderfully useful. But if gifts take the place of grace, they damage ourselves. He's saying, don't just trust in your gifts to be able to talk about God. It's about where your heart goes. Second, a mind that delights — a spiritual mind — is a mind that delights in the preciousness of spiritual realities. It's learned to delight in the beauty and the excellence of these spiritual realities. If your heart goes out to them, it must be because you found them attractive. It's like a magnet and so your heart is drawn out exactly because those things have become a magnet and you've seen the value of them. A spiritual mind is about having a sense of the excellency of spiritual things so that you value them. The carnal mind cannot understand the value of the things of God. 1 Corinthians 2 says the natural man doesn't understand the things of God. He doesn't see their value. He doesn't see their reality. He doesn't delight in them. And because by nature, what we are is contrary to these things of God. But when God renews our hearts, we come to delight in them. He says, all spiritual and heavenly objects are from God in Christ, and therefore have an infinite beauty and goodness and loveliness about them, which makes them powerfully attractive to renewed spiritual desires. That's what makes spiritual mindedness so rich. Spiritual mindedness gives a relish and delight in thinking of God because it flows from a love to Him. It's not a forced, I have to think about God, otherwise He will be displeased with me. It's not a bondage, it's not a yoke, but it's a delight because there's no one like God. And who else is worthy of my heart and my thoughts like God? That's what gives a delight to use the means God is pleased to bless to show himself, prayer and hearing the word and reading and meditating upon it. Spiritual mindedness, Owen says, delights to meet with God through Christ in every duty of religious worship. Whereas the tamed heart is only concerned with outward observance of ceremonies of religious worship, appreciating nothing of its spiritual significance. See, the spiritual mind doesn't just want to go through the motions, but it wants to find God and delight in God through His words. The renewed heart, he says, loves spiritual things because God is in them. So the spiritual mind delights, first of all, is drawn to think of spiritual realities and secondly delights in the preciousness of spiritual realities. We said spiritual realities. What does Owen have in mind especially? Well the first thing he refers to is the glories of heaven. We might think the first thing that would come to his mind would be The spiritual mind is focused on God. But he begins with heaven. Because the spiritual mind is heavenly minded. It's focused on those things not seen. Those who are born again have their citizenship in heaven. And so their mind goes that direction. And when he speaks of heaven, he stresses spiritual mindedness has a true understanding of it, not just as some vague better place where people are better off. But a place, he says, that's in the first place without sin. Because the spiritual mind is sensitive to sin and knows the reality of the presence of sin within, the spiritual mind has a sensitive conscience that also recognizes there's so much that doesn't fit with God. And that's also what makes heavenly minded, gives a longing for that place where sin is no more and where he is all. He says, what breaks the heart of those who are truly spiritually minded and makes them go mourning all day long is that there is something in them which hates God. And if you've read his book on the mortification of sin, then you understand what he's saying here. That's what makes sin so terrible. The spiritual mindedness is focused on and desires heaven as that place where sin is no more and God is glorified. If we have a spiritual mind, we've begun to delight in God's glory. He has shown something, Owen says, of the glory of the infinite wisdom, grace, love, kindness, and power of God in Christ. To see something of that is to long for the fullness, where all will be to the glory of God. And so, Owen says, meditate on these things. these heavenly realities, he says, also meditate on their contrast of what eternal death is. And as you do so, he says, it stirs up that desire for glory. You see things in light of that glory. Second, spiritual mind is filled with the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't spend as much time on the Lord Jesus Christ here, not because Owen isn't Christ-centered, he is, but because he had written other books, for example, Meditations on the Divine Glory of Christ, where he expands this much more. But he begins with, Christ should be most in our thoughts because he is the life and center of all the glory of heaven. He asks, how can we think to enjoy Christ forever if we don't bother thinking of him here? This is the contrast. He says, it's no wonder that we have such little experience of the power of this holy fellowship with Christ when we spend so little time thinking of him? We can sometimes so easily complain. Why do we not enjoy more of Christ? Could it be that we don't think enough of him? He says, consider, consider what Christ did. Consider his sufferings. Be guided by the word to the true Christ. And he says, do not invent a false Christ, but the true Christ of scripture. Consider his sacrifice. Consider his resurrection. Consider his ascension. Consider his glory right now. Consider what his glory will be to all eternity. It is so blessed to be filled with Christ because the way to receive his grace and have those graces stirred within you and fellowship with him is by minding Christ. Thirdly, the spiritual mind is filled not only with heaven and with the Lord Jesus Christ, but also with God himself. And here he becomes most fundamental, doesn't he? A sense of God as the God who exists is powerful and all-knowing. He says all spiritual thoughts come from God and return to God. He is the center and circumference from which they begin, meet, and end. When our thoughts are not directly or by logical inference, when they don't end in God, they're not spiritual. This is the problem of the carnal man. The psalmist says God is not in all his thoughts. The spiritual man is made alive to God. God is real, and he is the infinite center of all perfections. He says, that God is what he is, is their highest joy. The spiritual mind, he says, thinks of God. with godly fear and reverence. Only the spiritual mind that knows God can have that beautiful combination of deep reverence and deep trust in this God through Jesus Christ. He says, many have no real faith in the existence of God. And that seems rather strange for someone to say in a day when pretty well everyone would have said that the God of the Bible is the living God. But he adds this, if they did, it would make quite a difference to their daily lives. The point is he looked and he saw what we might call a practical atheism. People living as if God is not God. And the cure? to know this God. Spiritual mindedness senses the reality of who God is. He says it's only the frequent retreat into thoughts of God existence that will give peace and refreshment. And he knows this can be challenging He recognizes Satan can inject blasphemous thoughts when trying to think about God. Your mind could be overwhelmed with the infinity of God. He recognizes these things. But he says, when the soul bows down in worship before God's infinite greatness and glory, finding itself to be nothing and God to be all, then it will find rest and peace in infinity. Just this basic reality, God is. Oh, what a difference that would make, wouldn't it, if we lived in light of that reality. And then he goes on, not just that God is, but that God is omniscient, God is all-knowing. He says, we can't take one step in our walk with God unless we remember that always and in all places, He is present with us, in temptation to realize God sees us. puts a fear of sin in the company of the world to remember God sees us, in the midst of sinful desires to remember God sees us, when we're all alone to realize God sees us. Owen says this will do more to cool lustful desires than anything else. In times of danger, times of fear, to know God sees it. All those dangers. all those troubles, I'm not alone. And it's not just a God who sees as a spectator, not just a God who is passively observing everything. He also highlights that we're to, our minds are to be focused on this. He's not only all-knowing, but he's almighty. Genesis 17 verse one, I am God almighty, walk before me. Knowing He is Almighty is to then compare every need, not to your own strength, but to God's power. Every danger, not to your own strength, but God's power. And joins every promise you read of in the Word of God, not to you thinking, how am I going to fulfill it, but to God's power that He is able to do what He has said. This is what the spiritual mind is filled with, Owen says, with the glories of heaven, with the glory of Jesus Christ, with the glory of God himself. What makes this, our next question, what makes this spiritual mind such a blessing? And first is this mind views everything in the light of God and spiritual realities. All the providences to see life, before the face of God. To see it with the light of the reality of the things not seen shining upon the things that you see and you go through in life. That's why he says you're to see daily providences and happenings in light of God. And to think about what God is saying to him in daily circumstances of life. When you recognize God's hand in providences, then all those happenings draw you to God. To look to God for an ear to hear his message in his dealings, an eye to recognize what God is showing about himself in his dealings in providence. For a heart to yield to this God in the midst of all his providences and trust him. This is what also gives a willingness to suffer. Remember Paul in 2 Corinthians 4, in the midst of all his afflictions, then he says they're light. Why? When he sees those things not seen which are eternal, when he's spiritually minded, it puts a different perspective on the afflictions and the troubles that he's going through. Owen says, those who by faith have seen the uncreated glories of heavenly things, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, will find strength and comfort in times of trouble. This is also for times of temptation. When we're carnally minded, we see the attractiveness of temptation, and we're drawn by the promise of pleasure drawn by temptation as a way to escape suffering we only see the things of this earth but when we're spiritually minded we see temptation in its true light because the light of the glory of God shines upon that temptation in temptation he says Don't just think about the sin with which you are being tempted, because that can make the temptation stronger. He says, think of God, His glory, His power, His justice, His goodness. He says, meditate especially on Christ, our merciful and faithful High Priest. As you have it there, only Christ can give us victory over our temptation and keep us from falling into sin. So our great duty in times of temptation is to continually think of the love, care, compassion, and kindness of Christ with his ability to help strengthen and save those who believe. And that in such a way as will strengthen their faith and trust in him. So this mind views everything in the light of God and spiritual realities, including daily providences, including times of temptation. But this is also such a blessing because the spiritual mindedness receives richer supplies of God's grace, faith. He says meditation heavenly things will greatly increase in strength and faith because the more focused you are upon the object of faith the more that faith strengthens he says heavenly the more we discern the glory and the excellence of heavenly things and what rest in happiness they bring us the more grace within us The more will grace within us hunger and thirst after these things, and more faith will be established in embracing them." He says, hope as well. He uses a picture of setting sail for a far country, because something's awaiting you. And if you're not so sure exactly what that thing is that's awaiting you, or so certain that it's awaiting you, you'll easily be discouraged. But if you know what that inheritance is, and you are focused on it and its glory, that's what gives hope. And it's hope that strengthens to continue on, on the journey to that place. And so spiritually vague hopes are so weak and so powerless. But when you meditate and you have a sense of what awaits, that stirs up hope, also love. When we're fixated on the things of this world and our hearts are so divided and pulled in different directions, then that love of God is so weak. But the more we're focused on Him, on God, on Christ, on heaven, the more love is stirred up to this God, to this Christ. He says, worldliness is a mortal disease and will not be thoroughly cured except by spiritual mindedness." Also holiness, it fits with holiness, doesn't it? He says, the heart which has been led by faith to embrace spiritual and heavenly things is gradually transformed into their image and likeness. He says it's like a seal that's pressed upon your heart. It's the seal of these heavenly realities that are pressed upon your heart and pressed upon your life as you're focused upon them. Now if this is such a blessing, The question can come, what hinders this spiritual-mindedness? One person can say, well, I'm just so busy. I have so many things to do, so many things call for my attention, so many things fill my mind. And? So what? What does that mean? Is that a legitimate reason not to be focused on the things of God? Because you have so much things requiring your attention. Is that the problem? Owen says, I would never discourage any from working hard in their lawful callings. But with many, providing for one's family is only an excuse to hide a shameful love for the things of the world." Is that true? He goes on, he says, spiritual thoughts will do no more to hinder a person from doing his job well than will foolish, worldly, lustful thoughts. And all sorts of men find plenty of time to indulge in these while they're working, Owen says, God created the earth good, but now it's Satan's bait to tempt men from God. It's deceitful because sometimes these things can be lawful, legitimate things. It may not even be sinful fantasies that you're engaged in, but just earthly things. And that's exactly the subtlety of it, that they become all to us. And in the way scales, they weigh heavier than these things of eternal weight. But then the problem is not our busyness, and the problem is not the calling that we have in this life to work and do our tasks. The problem is the bent of our heart. That's why the hindrance is sin, isn't it? Sin. Not just earthly mindedness, which is sinful. But it can also be specific sins. When you hold on to any sin, it goes against spiritual mindedness. Because you can't find enjoyment in sin and enjoyment in God at the same time, can you? So there's something about sin that deadens all spiritual mindedness. He says, thinking it's only one sin and only a little sin, yet holding on to it is enough to keep from or so weaken spiritual mindedness. And the worst problem is just our carnal heart, isn't it? Maybe that's something as you've heard tonight about spiritual mindedness is something that's weighing on you. When you hear of what we ought to be, and you reflect on what you are and you can discover after a topic like spiritual mind it is just how carnal you are. How can I be this way? Treating these infinite glorious realities as if they're just shadows and these earthly trinkets and dust as if it's more value and sin as if it's Say, how can this be that my heart doesn't flow out to God like it should? We ask them, what is the cure and way to be renewed? Owen says, start by thinking how weak and foolish your mind is not to be able to meditate on spiritual and heavenly things. This ought greatly to humble you. These things are so precious. How can we think it's a waste of time to be focused upon them, and it's better to be focused on other things, or even sin? He's very honest. He says, say to yourself, I began to think of God, of his love and grace in Christ Jesus, and of my duty to love him. But after a few minutes, I found my thoughts wandering to the ends of the earth, Instead of thinking of God, I began to think of useless earthly things. And oh, how difficult it was to drag my thoughts back to God. Oh, wretched man that I am. What a cursed enemy I find in me. I am ashamed of myself." Is that what you find? He says, confess that. And then he says, consider next your own inability to stir up your mind to think rightly and steadily of heavenly and spiritual things. He says, the problem is often we think we can do what God asks, and so we postpone it. But on our own, we can think of God, but we cannot be spiritually minded and delight in the things of God. He says, as the streams of a mighty river run into the ocean, so the thoughts of the natural man run through self into hell. To build a dam to try and stop this mighty river is useless. We need the fountain healed. We need the Holy Spirit. We so need Him. Whether we still only have a carnal mind, then we so need that Spirit of God to work spiritual life. And if we are plagued with the carnality of our minds, even as believers, then we so need that same Spirit to renew us, to confess that before God, to seek that grace from Christ. That's why I've also added to what Owen said at this point, seek Christ and His grace to cleanse and renew. There's only one place for us to go with the carnalness of our mind. And that's to that one who became a curse as if he had a carnal mind. He whose mind was holy and pure and bent on God and delighted in God in all that it was. And yet he suffered as if his mind had been enmity against God. He bore the curse that our carnal mind deserves. in order to deliver from that curse, in order to secure the blessing of His grace that cleanses from sin, and that also renews by His Spirit, so that we might have that spiritual mindedness. And therefore, every discouragement about your carnality, bring it to this Christ, because that's where the cure is. And then Owen says, set aside time for holy duties, prayer, reading, meditation. He gives specific instructions. He says, choose a time which is free from all worldly concerns, not just the sleepy remnants of the day. He says, take time to prepare your mind for spiritual thoughts. He says, do not come to meditate on heavenly things only out of a sense of duty. He says, cry to God for help. He says, don't be discouraged when you are not as successful as you would desire to be, but persist on. Seek also reminders of God throughout the day. He says, to think of Christ as we should, we must pray that the Holy Spirit may abide with us to remind us of Christ, for this is what he came to do. And how important it is to have those reminders also in the midst of the busyness of our days, wherever we are, whether as a mother in the home or at work or whatever else it be. Because this is life and peace. This spiritual mindedness is life. Owen says, life is a cheerful, joyful life, a life worth living. That's because spiritual things are lovely and of great value, because they flow from the infinite fountain of divine goodness, and so they alone can fully and eternally satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts. These things are peace. A gracious peacefulness and calmness of the mind, and all difficulties, temptations, troubles, and all other things that are apt to fill us with fears, depressions, and anxieties." Or peace. He says, this life and peace is worked, he says, by knowing Romans 5, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, this is the foundation of all that life and peace. His spiritual mightiness fixes our thoughts and desires on the grace and love of God. It enables us to treasure up in our hearts every hint and pledge of His love to us. And so our hearts are continually filled with love and gratitude to Him for His mercies. That's life. That's peace. In life and also in death. He had these meditations on a sickbed, which he feared might be his deathbed. But he recovered and he was able to preach for a number of years yet. But the time came when he did lay on a deathbed. And the day in which he died, in the morning of that day, a fellow pastor came to him and told him that his book, Meditations on the Glory of Christ, had passed through the press. And he lifted up his hands and he said, I am glad to hear it. But oh, brother, the long wished for day is come at last, which I shall see that glory in another manner than I have ever done or was capable of doing in this world. Spiritual mindedness is just a little foretaste. of that eternal weight of glory. And so in the midst of a hectic world, in the midst of all the things that call for your attention, in the midst of all the directions that sin would draw you, remember this, to be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace.