In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes three basic principles for understanding the Word of God. The first principle is that the Bible is a missionary book, revealing God's eternal purpose to bring people to Himself. The speaker also discusses the importance of active participation in missions, stating that it is the primary function of believers to be available for God's work. The sermon then shifts to the question of what kind of being man is, with the speaker referencing John 17:18-23 to explore the nature of humanity. The passage highlights the unity between Jesus and the Father, and the speaker suggests that believers are also called to be one with God and each other.

Now there are two or three basic rules I'd like to have you follow. One is this, when you have a question, don't wait until some other time. Raise your hand at the time and place that it occurs. I'll recognize you and you may give me a moment to finish the thought. And then I'll recognize you and you go to one of the microphones. We want to get the question and the answers on the tape, both video and audio. This, you won't throw me off track. I know right where I'm going, so the interruption won't hurt. But it may be of great help to you and others in order to have the point cleared up at that there, so that it doesn't hinder in what is to follow. We will have about 50 minutes this time and then a break and then come back and go till 12 o'clock. Will you turn please to John chapter 17. Now this is an anchor scripture. No attempt at this point to expound it, but rather to derive from it insight into the kind of beings that we are. That's going to be the theme for the morning. What kind of a being is man? Everything has to finally get back to our understanding of what we are. I begin with the 18th verse and conclude reading with the 23rd verse. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that Thou art in our midst by the Holy Spirit, that take of the things of Christ and make them real unto us. We ask Thee to touch our minds, to perceive, even as our ears hear. May our hearts be brought into the control of the Spirit of God. May everything that is said and done this morning, and in these mornings we share together, be of glory to Him and of help to us. And we'll give Thee thanks in the peerless name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Three basic principles, without which I believe it's impossible to understand the Word, the Word of God. The first principle is this. The Bible is a missionary book. It is the unfolding of the eternal missionary purpose in the heart and mind of God to bring to Himself a people who could be the objects of His love. And it unfolds that purpose from eternity past, out into the ages to come. It's a missionary book. Oh, it talks about many other things. I remember when I was in grade school, we had arithmetic. I don't think they have that anymore. They start in the pre-kindergarten with math. Or so it seems to me, with my grandchildren, they talk about math. We didn't talk about math until we got to the last year in high school, or junior year at least. We had arithmetic. And in arithmetic, I don't know what they do in math, but in arithmetic we had problems. And a problem would be such as this. A farmer has a walking plow and a team of horses with which he plows three acres a day. How many acres could he plow if he had six teams and six plows, six men working them? Now, that was not a book on agriculture. It's an arithmetic book. The Bible talks about a great many things. But it's a missionary book. It's the unfolding of the eternal purpose of God, to bring to Himself a people for His joy and for His praise and for His fellowship. The second principle is close to it, follows from it. It is this. The church, when rightly understood, is the missionary society. The local church, local group of believers. We have a great many missionary societies. Marjorie and I went out to the Sudan as members of the Sudan Interior Mission, which viewed itself to be a missionary society. But, in effect, it is not or should not be. The local church is the missionary society. After all, it was to that company of believers in Antioch that the Spirit of God came speaking, saying, separate unto me Saul and Barnabas and send them. He didn't say, go to Jerusalem, organize the worldwide missionary fellowship, and get a good board of directors and a 501c3 tax exam status, and then put out application forms, have committees. No, it was the Spirit. Is there anything wrong with those things? Not at all. As long as you understand that the missionary society is the local church, and what we call missionary societies should rightly view themselves and be viewed by us as being missionary service agencies to the local church, and not supplant or replace the local church. Now, if we insisted that the local church is the missionary society, we would have a great deal more responsibility on the part of the people in the local assembly. And the so-called missionary organizations or agencies or societies would do then what would be appropriate for them to do, which is to assist the local church in getting the message out. Now, that's very fundamental. The third principle is this. Everyone born into the family of God is expected to become part of the family business. And the business of the Godhead is to get the message of God's redeeming love and the work of Christ out to those for whom it is intended. And everyone born into the family of God is to be part of that family business. There's no room in the Word of God for spectators. Missions is not a spectator activity. It's the primary function of the believer to be available. He said here, as the Father sent me, so send I you. And every believer is to be brought into a dynamic relationship, vital relationship with God through the Holy Spirit so that he is to have an integral and an essential part in this family business of getting the witness out to those for whom Christ died. Now, I believe we have to have these three principles clearly in mind as we go to the Word of God, because they're going to color our thinking from every point of view, because they actually give answer. Now, I said the theme of the morning is this. What kind of a being is man? What kind of a being is man? Years ago, as a student at the University of Minnesota, after having completed my Bible school, I went there thinking for a little while, incorrectly, that I might go on to take medicine and be a medical missionary. Well, it was short-lived. I tell you, it never gelled. There were very many reasons. I guess one of the reasons was chemistry and another was biology. And I figured you weren't going to be much of a doctor if you weren't happy with those. And if misery could be put into anointment, I'd have had a gallon of it. It didn't work. But anyway, while I was there, I was sitting one day on a bench on the quadrangle in some shade, eating my little lunch and reading the New Testament. A young man came and sat down on the other end of the bench, and he was reading something, and he kept looking at this little black book I held. He said, what's that you're reading? Oh, I said, that's the New Testament. Well, that led from one question to another. Why I, as a student at the University of Minnesota, would bother to waste my time to read the New Testament when everybody knew that it was just a bunch of traditions and had no authority and so on. And I said, well, everybody doesn't know that. At least if I'm somebody, I don't know that. I believe it to be the Word of God. And I began to give a witness to him in testimony, and he seemed interested. And finally I got around to the subject of sin and what was happening in the world. And he raised a question. He said, look, let me ask you. If God knew what was going to happen, if God knew there was going to be a Hitler, because that was the news that had come out at that time, that Hitler had set up all of these various camps, the purpose of which was to give the lasting solution to what they called the Jewish question by the burning of the Jews. He said, if God knew that, why did he ever make man in the first place? If God knew all the sin and all the suffering and all the misery and all the unhappiness that's been in the world, why? You say God made man. I've been taught that he was an accident, a sport that climbed up out of the primordial ooze, and he's just here as mechanistically produced. You tell me God made him. Why? Why would God, whom you say is good, ever make man? If he knew what man was going to do and the kind of creature man was going to be, well, I didn't have much of an answer, I must admit. No, I gave him the best I could, but the question lingered with me long after the answer had been given, and I kept going over, mulling over and over again. Why did God make man? Why did God make man? What was the reason for his making him? Well, that led me into the Word. That led me into search and study and meditation. I had to start where everything starts with the first four words in the Bible. By the way, while I was there at the university, they were attacking my faith. Every day they found out I'd been a student preacher and a graduate of a Bible institute, and the professors had great pleasure in slurring everything that I stood for and making fun and mocking it. I guess maybe I brought some of it on myself because every time the professor of this particular one would say, according to the fact of evolution, I'd raise my hand. All right, or he'd head. According to the theory, does that satisfy you of evolution? Yes, sir. As long as you understand it is a theory and not a fact, you can say what you will. This is your religion, and everyone has a right to their religion. But I do not like to have my fellow students think it is science. It's metaphysics. It's not science. It's your religion. Let us so understand it. Well, you can understand that that's not how you win friends and influence people. You know, it just isn't how you do it. So I can understand why he had a little bit of fun, and some of the others did too, bumping me about a bit. Well, I said, maybe it is a mistake. Maybe I have been brainwashed. And so I started to read the Bible for the end of satisfying myself that it indeed was the word of God. And I opened it to Genesis 1-1, and I read, In the beginning God. You know, if the Bible had started with an explanation of who God is and how he got there, I wouldn't have believed a word of it. But when it starts in just as it does with nothing other than the fact you are the only kind of a being that's going to ever read this is the one that knows that God is. Because you see, that's standard equipment for everyone who's been born into the human race. In the beginning God. And when I had finished, after several weeks of pondering and thinking about and trying to understand a being that was there before the beginning, that depended upon none for his existence, that required no sustenance outside of himself, who was the source and author of all that is, when I had finished and satisfied myself on the first four words of the Bible, I didn't need to read anymore. I was convinced that if Jonah had told us that Jonah swallowed the whale instead of the whale swallowing Jonah, I'd have said, well, it was a big gulp, but if God said that, that's all right with me. Because the God of the Bible is the one who depends upon no others for his being. And that qualifies him to be God. Well, why did God make man? Well, we have to find out something about this God. And as we read the Word of God, we discover that there are certain statements made that tell us something about God. And if you don't think the problem that I've just set before you is common to this generation of thinking people and students you're making, you're out of touch. Because they want to know while you understand why God made man, if man was going to be such a sinner as he is and do what he's done. Well, I found as I studied the Scripture and put pieces of it together and verses together that there are some statements about God. For instance, we read, God is light. Oh, that's right. That's what it is. God is light. I am, said the Lord Jesus, the light of the world. Then we find out that he said, I am the way, the truth. God is truth. And then we have another, I am the way, the truth, and the life. God is life. Author of it, source of it. He is light and truth and life. And then we have that beautiful statement in the Word, God is love. God is light and truth and life and love. Now, we are also told about the God of the Bible that he's eternally existed in three persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I think the most beautiful expression of the unity of the Trinity that I have ever read came from the pen. No, it wasn't. It was, it came, a record of what was given after the noonday meal in a monastery in Flanders by the leader of that monastery, a man back in the 13th century in the 1200s by the name of John, J-A-N. And the place was Roysbrook, R-U-Y-S-B-R-O-E-Z-K, in Flanders, John of Roysbrook. For many, many months, every day after the noon meal, John would give an exposition of those words, Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. And it's a whole book, and it's called The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage. Beautiful. Expression of the unity and the wonder and the glory of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You understand, of course, that God is Father, but God is not God alone as Father. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son is God, but God is not God alone as Son. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. But God is not God only as Holy Spirit. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, wherever God is manifest as Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are. And wherever God is manifest as Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit are. And wherever God is manifest as Holy Spirit, the Son and the Father are. You say, I don't understand that. I'm delighted. If you did, then I would have serious questions. We don't understand, but we do know that His eternity past, God as Father wanted children. His Father, and a Father wants children like Himself. God the Son wanted brethren like Him. The eternal bridegroom wanted a bride like Himself, with whom He could share all that He is, to whom He could reveal all that He wishes to do, someone who would need Him and love Him even as He loved them. So, from eternity past, there's been, if you are willing to accept this, an ache in the heart of the eternal Father, who is love, longing for children, who are the objects of His love. The eternal bridegroom yearning for a bride. Love is incomplete without an object, and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are God. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, you say, well, the Father loved the Son, and the Son the Father. Yes, but God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is love. God is love, and so He yearned for children. God yearned for, longed for, from eternity past. Why, we are told that He's loved with an everlasting love. Not only unto, but from, without beginning. Now, it would appear from this that God's grand purpose in creation, in those first words of Genesis 1, the very first words, in the beginning God made out of nothing the heavens and the earth. There's no date on that, no time on that. The second verse could be eons of time separated from the first verse. For the second verse says, and the earth became. That's the meaning of the Hebrew word. Was it made without form and void? It became without form and void. This may get into my physics, mine. It isn't a test of fellowship, and you don't have to agree with me in order for us to have sweet fellowship in the Lord. But according to my metaphysics, you see, the reason I have to call it that is because I've already challenged the university professor about his, and I don't want to be guilty of doing the same thing I'm indicting him for. And so there's nothing to sustain this, but I would trust and devout presuppositions, and you have a perfect right to disagree. But you see, after God had created the heavens and the earth, apparently he understood and realized that he needed to have certain administrators and beings that were going to help with that beloved that was the object of his love. And so he created angels, lots of them. Oh, lots of them. We're told in Daniel that there are a million that stand before the Lord night and day, and there are a hundred million that are waiting for assignments. Now, that gets to be quite a few angels. And over these he gave one special equipment, special abilities and talent and beauty. He made him kind of a prime minister over the angels, called his name Lucifer. And in order for them to function effectively, they had to have some of the capabilities on a microcosm scale that God had. And so they had to have imagination, and they had to have emotions, and they had to have wills. Imagination is the ability to see what isn't as though it were. Emotion is the ability as to want what you see, and will is the ability to choose to get what you imagine. And so he at least gave to Lucifer that, and he gave it to angels too. And you understand what took place. Here is a company of angels. They don't have a great deal of work to do yet, because the object for their being made, apparently we're told that they are the ministers sent as ministering spirits to minister to the heirs of salvation, and the heirs of salvation aren't unseen yet. And so they got a lot of time on their hands, and Lucifer begins to speculate. He says, you know, if I were God, I don't think I'd do things the way he's doing it. It's all right, but I think I could do a better job than he does. Yeah, I do. I think if I were God, I'd run the show this way. And he imagined what he'd do if he were God. Now he was an intelligent creature, and he knew what we've established, that God is light and truth and life and love. Sure, he knew that. And he knew that if he were to be God, he couldn't be more light than God is, because God is ultimate, absolute light. He couldn't be more truth than God is. He couldn't be more life than God is, and he couldn't be more loving than God is. But he was an intelligent creature, and he knew something that you know. Maybe you haven't thought much about it. He knew that every thesis has an antithesis, or he knew that every positive has a negative, or he knew that every front has a back. If you see the front of what looks to be a hand, you run quickly around behind, there's no back, you didn't see a hand. You saw an illusion of a hand. Now, let's think for a moment. Here is an intelligent creature who's come to that place that he has said, no longer is it imagination, he's made a choice. I will set my throne above the throne of the Most High. Now, how's he going to out-God God? He can't be more light, or truth, or life, or love. But if he knows that every thesis has an antithesis, that every front has a back, he's got some weapons. Now, what's he say? God is light, okay. I'll take darkness. That's equal in power to light. Swallows up light. God is truth, I'll take the lie. God is life, I'll take death. God is love, I'll take hate. So here's a being now that has seduced from among this vast host of angels a fairly substantial company. I don't know what percentage, but if it's only one percent, it's quite a few. A hundred million. That'd be a million. If it's two percent, that's two million. If he got three percent, he got a lot, quite a few. I don't know what percent, he doesn't tell us. But he got quite a lot. And they said, hey, that sounds good. We'll just go along with him. After all, we've had to do what he told us, and he's pretty smart. And so they rebelled with him. And they made war. Now here is God having civil war among the beings he's made. Now, I suppose God could have said, oh, here comes Lucifer with these angels that have revolted. I hate them. But you see what would have happened? God would have lost his character. He had to meet Lucifer with his weapons. With love. With light. With life. With truth. Light had to defeat darkness. Truth had to defeat a lie. Life had to defeat death. And love had to overcome hatred. Well, there was a battle won. It wasn't all over, but there was a battle won. And God prevailed. And we are told in Isaiah that the Lord said he saw, in Messianic prophecy, statement, I saw Satan cast out of heaven down to earth. Now I said you're coming to read that metaphysics. I think that's what happened in verse 2. That God picked out one planet, and he said that's going to be devil's island in the universe. And he cast Satan and all that fell with him down to this planet. And listen to look what happened. And the earth became without form and void. Now, and darkness covered the face of the deep. Why? Because its new God is darkness. Very opposite of light. And death, so this was out form and void. No life. The sterile dead planet where all that had existed before died. Say well I'm not sure that's the way it was. Well neither am I for that matter. I'm not sure of it, but it sounds pretty logical to me. And I'm here and you're there, so let's not fuss over it. And darkness reigns. Now a funny thing happens. Very strange thing happens. God says I'm going to put man where? This being I'm going to make in my image. Do you want to speak to me? Well let's get along with it and turn her down or turn her up. Yeah it'll be fine. Real perfectly fine. Easier by you. See all he had to do was stand there long enough and I'd recognize him. Told you. He should have just raised his head. You know that's what we prescribed. That's more interesting what I think. Very good. So he said in the council of the Godhead we will put man right down there where we cast this ancient foe. Now let's look at the problem. Suppose God had said hey we got devil's island. We got them all put down there. We're going to go clear off in the other direction and find us a nice planet and we're going to put man there. And we'll never let this foe get to him. Is that right? You understand what would have happened don't you? God would have had a creature that loved him because he didn't know any alternative. Didn't have any other choice. Let me illustrate it. Suppose you as a father have a great longing for children. And in due course God gives to you and your wife a son and a daughter, perhaps more. And to make sure that they love you from their earliest capability you hypnotize them. And you keep them hypnotized so that they become mere moral automatons or machines. When they see you their cold dark staring robotic eyes say father I love you. And they come over and put mechanical arms as it were around your neck and plant an unfeeling lips on your cheek. Father would that satisfy the ancient longing in your heart? I don't think it would, wouldn't mind. I'd rather the children have the capability saying no I won't. So when they did it meant something. And have to mechanically control them like a wind up toy. So what did God do? He said we're going to go down to that planet where we've cast them. And we're going to recreate it. And make it a place for our beloved. So that's what you have here is the recreation. First thing he said was as the spirit of God brooded over this world of death. Was darkness covered the face of the deep. What's the first thing we have? And God said let there be light. My character, my nature. In contrast to the darkness of the God of this world. The one who's there been cast there in his prison. And so now you have the day and the night. And the light bearers that give light. And then even in the night time one that gave light. And let it be known that the light was still shining. Because the moon shines with reflected light. So even at night time they would know that light is. And then he recreated it. And made it a fit and a proper place. For this being. That he had longed for. From eternity past. Father yearning for children. Bridegroom for a bride. And so we find that. After he fitted. The environment to perfectly meet the need of the creature he's to give. He then set about. To make. Man. Verse 26 and God said. Let us make man. In our image. After our likeness. No. In God's image and after his likeness means that this creature has to have. Certain. Abilities. Certain capacities. Remember we already have established or at least I've stated. And you have a challenge that he made the. Angels with. Intellects. Which includes imagination. And so it make man in his image and likeness man is going to have intellect. Which includes imagination. Imagination is the power or the ability. To mentally perceive what isn't as though it were. And then to take the. Set out in order the necessary steps to bring into being. What is and so that it may be. There but imagination is where everything begins. Begins with an idea. And so he had to give to man. The ability to imagine to think. If you please. Then he had to give to him emotions. Which is the ability to feel. To want. And then he had to give to him volition. Which is the ability to choose. Now these were natural endowments that God gave. To this being that he made in his image and likeness. The ability to think. The ability to feel. And the ability to choose. And you notice I drew in the air a triangle. This is the mental aspect. The emotional aspect. And the volitional aspect. And everything that a human being does. That becomes an experience. Includes those three powers. Let me illustrate it. A few moments ago. You saw the pastor bring a glass of water. And set it here behind the pulpit wall. Right in front of me. Now I see that. I know that I can have a drink. I know the water is there. I know the water is pure. I understand the procedure. I know that I have to reach out. And put my hands around it. Grasp it. Lift it. Bring it to my lips. Tilt it. Swallow. And thus I have a drink. But I cannot have a drink on the intellectual level. All I can do is picture the process of having a drink. That's not a drink. Emotionally I can want a drink. My mouth can feel like cotton. I want it so badly I can taste it. Only once or twice in my life have I been so thirsty. That my tongue swelled. And filled my mouth. I wanted water. I could picture it. Close my eyes and see it. I wanted it. I knew how to drink if I got it. But it wasn't there. And I had miles to go through the hot sun in Africa. To get where there was drinking water. So emotion didn't give me a drink. And volition won't give you a drink if there isn't any water. You can choose to get it. Now in order for there to be just a simple thing like a drink of water. Your mind has to tell you there is water. And it's drinkable water. But I don't want it. So it sits there. But I do want it. I still haven't had a drink. I will reach out. And take it. And bring it to my lips. Now I've had a drink of water. But it took the mental. The emotional. And the volitional aspects. To make it a totality experience. And so God had to give to this person that he made. And his image and his likeness. Those are powers. The mental power. The emotional power. And the volitional power. The power to choose. To act. He also gave to this being. Certain appetites. Or urges. Or drives. Or propensities. Maybe there are some other words we can contribute. But I think those will start us off anyway. For instance. He gave us an appetite for water. Because that's how our bodies are going to be sustained. You can live 40 days we're told without food. But only about 3 days without water. So he gave to us an appetite for water we call thirst. He gave us an appetite for food we call hunger. Those are basic fundamental appetites that are so essential. They're there. He gave to us an appetite for knowledge. Because we learn in sequence. Oh you know that. You went to school. They told you as they told me. That 2 and 2 makes 4. And the next day they messed everything else up. Because they said 2 and 3 makes 5. And I was satisfied to let it stand with 2 and 2 makes 4. But they just kept going and complicating the thing from then on. And I had to learn in sequence. You learn one thing and you add to it something else. And you keep building like a bricklayer lays bricks. One follows another in course. Then he gave to us an appetite for pleasure. Then he gave so many marvelous things to satisfy that appetite. Oh think of it. Just looking down the gorge and seeing it. Or looking out at Magic Valley and seeing it. Or looking at the falls and seeing it. You got so many wonderful things here. And then have you ever wondered about the watermelon? It's not necessary for health. There's no essential mineral, vitamin, or nutritive factor in it. That you have to have watermelon. But God made it. And he gave to it a most beautiful color. And remarkable odor. And a pleasant taste. Wasn't that sweet of him? Wasn't that lovely? Just a little extra thing he threw in, said here have fun kids. Wasn't necessary. But he gave it to us. An appetite for pleasure. And so many ways to satisfy it. He gave to us an appetite for sex. Because that's how his beloved was going to be completed. From the first pair was to come his family. That were to love him. And he would love. And then he gave to us an appetite for security. For protection. To be safe. He gave to us an urge or an appetite for status. Why? Because he said our task was to govern over everything he'd made. To rule it. All of these drives. And all of these urges. All of these appetites. Were there. And when God looked at what he had made. And he saw the birds in the air. And the fish in the water. And the animals in the land. And the green grass growing. And the seeds to feed all. And then he saw man made in his image and likeness. What did he say? It is good. You mean to say that God said. That the appetite for sex is good. Uh-huh. He said it. And the appetite for food is good. Uh-huh. He said that. All these drives and urges are good. Yeah. He said it. There's nothing wrong with the appetite. God gave them. And God gave in his economy. The appropriate way and means of satisfying every appetite. Consistent with man's joy and blessing. And God's glory and honor and praise. We'll resume again at 11 o'clock.