In this sermon, the preacher discusses the threefold nature of the soul in both humans and animals. The will, which is influenced by the mind and emotions, governs behavior. The preacher emphasizes that whoever controls the mind and emotions ultimately controls the will and therefore governs behavior. Examples are given, such as commercials and political campaigns, which aim to capture the mind and stir emotions in order to influence behavior. The preacher also warns against destructive behavior driven solely by emotion or cold calculation, and highlights the importance of considering the impact of our actions on others.

You turn with me tonight to the first of Paul's epistles to the Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians, in chapter 5. This morning I talked about exposing the soul to the Holy Spirit as the eagle trims its wings to the wind and lets the wind do the work, exchanging its weakness for the wind's strength. Now that may sound poetic, but there's a whole lot more than poetry behind it. And I thought that it would be a good thing tonight if we could examine from this passage, initially, just how that operates. Exposing your soul to the Holy Spirit. Because in these days that we spend together, I want to take familiar language and in the light of God's Word, discover its true operative content. Lest our faith in the Lord Jesus remain in the area of the sentimental. Because it's very easy to have a sentimental, not insincere, but a sentimental attachment to the Lord Jesus. A genuine respect and love and regard for him. And to learn a whole lot of language with which we couch this sentimental attachment, but without really sort of taking the lid off and looking inside and discovering really what it's all about. How easy it is, isn't it, to learn language without entering into the good of it. Language without life. And we do it almost unwittingly. We get so accustomed, so familiar with the evangelical vocabulary that we use it and put it in its right context and hardly notice that we're using words that we've never truly defined. And because we've never defined them, we're not enjoying the implications of the words that we're using. A very simple illustration of that would be something like this. A man bursts into his home at night and says to his wife, I'm terribly sorry darling, I'm going to be late for dinner. Do you mind keeping it hot? Emergency. Well, she's a little bit alarmed and she says, I hope it isn't too serious. No, no, it isn't too bad. But it's going to take a little time. I've got a punctured float in my carburettor. Well, she hasn't a clue what he's talking about. Maybe you don't have either. But she looks intelligent. Or tries to. And she says, oh well, I am sorry. Yes, I'll keep it in a warm. And so he dives out of the door and slams the door behind him in a hurry. And only a few minutes later, his friend Jim rings up and says, is Tom in? And his wife says no. Though he did come in for a few moments, but actually he's just gone again. You know, a bit of an emergency. So Jim says, I'm sorry about that. What's wrong? Well, I'm not quite absolutely certain, but he's got trouble with his carburettor. He thinks he's got a punctured float. Now, has she got the words right? Oh yes. Does she know what she's talking about? No, she hasn't a clue. Now, Jim, who knows more about cars than she does, gets the message. Oh, he says, well that won't probably be too serious. He'll probably back soon and I'll call him again. Now, she's used the language and got it right and has communicated with the language that she used. But she doesn't know whether he's gone to see a doctor or a garage. Now, we can do exactly the same with the Christian vocabulary. Put it in its right place, even communicate to others who know the language better than we do, and yet not have a clue as to what it's all about. Now, that makes it, of course, quite difficult to explain to other people. And when they begin to ask us about the language that we're using, sometimes we feel somewhat at a loss. And it's very often for this reason that some very earnest, dedicated Christians keep their mouth shut and are too timid to witness and share their faith with others because they're a little bit nervous that they may be asked questions that they can't answer. Now, we're to have a logical reason for the hopes within us. Let me just, don't bother to turn to this, let me just cite this verse. It's the 15th of the 1st of Peter's epistles in the 3rd chapter. I'm reading this from the Amplify New Testament. In your hearts, set Christ apart as holy. Acknowledge him as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that's within you. And, of course, the word defense there is used not in an apologetic sense, but to give a logical explanation of the position that you hold. I can never quite understand the term, you know, Christian apologetics. It doesn't mean we go around apologizing to everybody that we're Christians. It's a logical declaration of the facts. And one of the most fascinating, marvelous things to me is the sheer overwhelming logic of the Christian faith. And the sheer overwhelming logic of the gospel. But if we're to understand the sheer overwhelming logic of the Christian faith and the gospel, we've got to detach ourselves from the mere sentiment of it, get down to some hard thinking, and define terms in our mind and relate them to the revelation that God has given to His Word so that we see that the whole proposition is divinely operative but on God's terms of reference. Now, let's turn then to this 5th chapter of the 1st epistle to the Thessalonians. And in the 23rd verse it says this. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 23 The very God of peace sanctify you wholly. Now, let's pause there for a moment. Have you ever stopped to consider the word sanctify? Sanctification, being sanctified. What would be your connotation of sanctification, being sanctified? The earnest concern that here is expressed by the apostle to these young converts, many of whom he himself has had the joy of leading to the Lord Jesus. What does it mean to you to be sanctified? Sometimes we're a little wary of the term. Makes us a bit nervous. We give it a sort of musty religious connotation. We think of a sort of religious pose, a sort of pious look on your face. You know, a Bible tucked under the arm and head on one side. But you know, that isn't sanctification. Drab clothes, you know. A little tardy. But it's quite false. Sanctification, to sanctify is a good, healthy, robust, full-blooded expression. It simply means to be set apart. To be set apart. But to be set apart for an intelligent purpose. Anything can be sanctified. You can use the term sanctification really in any connotation. To be set apart for that intelligent purpose for which intelligently created. That's what a saint is. Not a person in a stained glass window with a halo hanging around his neck. But simply a boy, a girl, a man, a woman who's been reconciled to God and on the basis of that reconciliation has become available to the creator to be applied by that creator for the intelligent purpose which he made that individual as his creature. So a real saint is somebody who's operative. Somebody who's functional. A real saint is a boy or a girl or a man or a woman who's been restored to their true humanity. Who's discovered what it means to be a man. And is on the job. On God's terms of reference. So you see, anything can be sanctified. These glasses can be sanctified. If I put them on my nose and look through them I sanctify them because that's what they were made for. I may be deceiving you of course at this distance because I can stick my fingers through the top. Because they just happen to be glasses that have only glass in the bottom half because that's all I need it for. So when I want to read the Bible I sanctify them by looking through the glass. You see when I'm going to see you I sanctify them by looking through the gaps and I can see you and you're not blurred. Now that's the way to sanctify glasses. Put them on your nose and look through them. I could use them for lots of other things. I could stir my coffee with them. But it would be a little unusual. Every time I look at my watch I sanctify it as you probably will several times during the course of the evening. All that you're doing when you're looking at the watch is applying it for the intelligent purpose for which it was created and for which you wear it on your wrist. So that when you look at it it'll give you some information. As to the time, when I wear my shoes and walk around in them, I sanctify them. I'm applying them once more for the purpose for which they were made. I could walk down the street with them on my head and go barefeeted. Footed. You'd probably think this is a little quaint and you'd be right. So what Paul is simply saying is this. You've been led to a new relationship to God on the grounds of redemption. Having accepted in the person of the Lord Jesus the one who made one sacrifice for sin forever and pleading his name, you've been acquitted. You've been accepted in the beloved. Peace has been established between you and God. So that as a creature at one time at enmity with God, you are now reconciled to God at peace with him but, says Paul, my concern to you isn't just that you should know that. Because that would be pathetically, abysmally inadequate. Because, you see, Paul was fully cognizant of the fact that when the Lord Jesus died upon the cross and shed his blood it wasn't that sinners might simply get out of hell and into heaven because that wasn't the object of the exercise. The Lord Jesus didn't die upon the cross to get sinners out of hell and into heaven. That's purely incidental. It's in the package. It's part of our salvation but that wasn't the end product that God had in mind. By enemy. I'm profoundly thankful for the moment in my life as a boy of 12 when I received Christ as my redeemer and knew the joy of sins forgiven and had the inner witness of God's Holy Spirit to my spirit that I had been reconciled to God, had become his child and I would never perish. Marvelous! But that isn't why Christ died upon the cross. He didn't die simply that my sins might be forgiven, though my sins may be forgiven only because he died. That's true. But that isn't why he died. He died that I might be applied once more as his creature to that intelligent purpose for which he made me as my creator. That's why he died. Not just to get men out of hell and into heaven, but supremely to get God out of heaven into men. For a very good reason. That's exactly what it takes to be a man. And the purpose of the cross was to restore you and to restore me to our function so that we might once more become satisfactory to God our maker in the performance of the purpose which we were created. Now, by and large, unfortunately in our evangelical constituency we've lost sight of what God had in mind in sending his son into this world whom he did foreknow, then he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. The purpose of God in Christ was that man should be restored to that likeness that glory in which he was first made in Adam. And the measure in which you and I have obeyed the gospel is not whether or not we're on the way to hell or on the way to heaven. The measure in which you and I have obeyed the gospel is the measure in which the Lord Jesus as our creator God may once more become in us functionally operative through his Holy Spirit, teaching our minds controlling our emotions and directing our will in such a way that we are borne along on the winds of a divine power, the dynamic of deity that moral competence that only the presence of God himself within the man imparts to the man for the discharge of the office and role for which he was made. God himself putting the fist behind the punch that makes the Christian life a working proposition. And Paul says, I'm concerned that now that you've been reconciled to God, now that you do know that you're sin to forgive now that you are on the way to heaven now that you have escaped the punitive consequence of your guilt, now that you know that you're not going to hell, having claimed your inheritance in Christ, my concern for you is that you will allow the Lord Jesus as your creator to have his inheritance in you. That you be sanctified holy and become available as forgiven sinners to the Lord Jesus so that he may once more place you functionally in action to his holy satisfaction. Now, says Paul, this is going to involve every part of your being the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, I pray God your spirit, your whole spirit, and your soul, and your body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there he comprehends the total man, your whole spirit, and your soul, and your body. And you'll notice that each is connected by a conjunction because they're separate entities three parts the tripartite, the trichotomy of the man whom God made we're not a monocycle we're not a bicycle, we're a tricycle, not a one-wheeler or a two-wheeler, a three-wheeler and Paul says if you are once more to become functional to God's holy satisfaction you've got to function on all three parts of your being, spirit and soul and body now most folk are aware they've got a body because they cart it around and service it they pour drink down its mouth and stick food into it they wash it occasionally decorate it clothe it and provide all kinds of comforts for it and that's why by and large instead of speaking here as the Bible does of spirit, soul, and body we speak of body, soul and spirit because to the average individual the body is infinitely more important than any other part of his being, in point of fact so far as God is concerned, though not unimportant your body is the least important part of your being, for one thing it's only your temporary accommodation and not one of us here tonight knows just how long we're going to remain in it it may be for many years yet if the Lord Jesus Christ were to come tonight, those of us who are already redeemed would no longer need it it will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and we'll receive a new house from heaven, our new and abiding accommodation somebody may well die of a heart attack before next Friday, you may drive carelessly home tomorrow and wind yourself round a lamppost or a drunk may come out of a side turn, and they'll bury the body, it's just your temporary accommodation, not to be despised fearfully, wonderfully made magnificent piece of engineering never to be despised, and nothing sinful about it in itself there may be something very sinful about the way it's used, but there's nothing about nothing about the body in itself which is sinful, God thought of it, he created it, he provided you with it, it's magnificent, so it's not unimportant but it's the least important part because obviously something that you could lose within 24 hours or 10 minutes or 50 years couldn't be all that important but so long it's entrusted to you, take care of it, you should service it and keep it in working order most folk by and large have an idea they've got a soul, they couldn't define it if you'd ask them what their soul was they wouldn't be able to tell you, by and large but they do reasonably feel assured that they've got a soul and a body, and they'll tell you that they go to work to keep body and soul together because they feel they should remain attached they've got a horrible suspicion that if the body gets detached from the soul, somebody's going to bury the body, so we try to keep the two reasonably in contact now the vast, vast bulk of people are totally unaware they've got a spirit at all, and yet of course, so far as God is concerned, your spirit is the most important part your soul is the next important part of you, and your body, though not unimportant, is the least important part and we need to understand what is involved in each of these three recognising that although the soul may never be detached from the spirit, for it is indivisible, the one from the other, it must never be confused to the human spirit, that's why in the fourth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews in the twelfth verse, we're told that the word of God is quick and powerful, it is sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing asunder, this is how sharp the word of God is, it divides asunder between soul and spirit it's the Bible, the Bible that discerns between the two as between bone and marrow two distinct functions but bone and marrow are indivisible, the one from the other, as spirit and soul are indivisible, the one from the other, and we need to come to understand the essential difference between the two now, in view of the fact, of course that the body is the more familiar part of this because it's the tangible, visible, touchable part maybe we should begin with that just for a few moments, we don't need to linger long upon it, but it is the means that God has given to us whereby we may communicate the one to the other, and with the outside world, it's described literally in the terms that I used in fifth chapter, the second epistle to the Corinthians first verse, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands in heaven in this house we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house the new house, which is from heaven if so that being clothed we shall not desire naked we walk by faith, he says verse 7, not by sight we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from this body and willing rather to be present with the Lord now, that's how little importance the apostle Paul attached to the body as a permanent possession he says, I'm willing rather to be absent from this body, and present with the Lord, but then of course he knew what life was all about he knew why and how God had made it wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him because, he says, that's all that really matters, whether we're in the body or out of the body, that's a matter of considerable irrelevance, if only whether in the body or whether out of the body we're acceptable to him you remember how in the first chapter of his epistle to the Philippians he explains his dilemma he says, to me to live, to be alive is Christ not just to have physical life like an animal he says, for me actually to be alive is Jesus Christ to die physically is gain because that which is now my life Jesus Christ is only to be fully enjoyed by me when I am delivered from the limitations of this corruptible immortal body, so he says I'm in a straight matrix too because to me to live is Christ and to die is gain, because when I die physically I will be liberated from the last limitations that encumber my full enjoyment of the new quality of life that has become mine by virtue of the presence of my creator God Jesus Christ through his Holy Spirit within my human spirit so I'm in a straight matrix too he said I'm very happy to hang around so long as in this body the Lord Jesus can minister to your joy and further your faith but just as soon as the Lord Jesus who inhabits this body no longer has any job to do which will be to the furtherance of your faith and the undergirding of your joy, he says I'm off I'm not hanging around, I'm going where I belong because you see the life of a Christian is a person Jesus Christ himself and whether I enjoy that life the only quality of life which is eternal in this body or out of it is a matter of total irrelevant and I've got to get so accustomed to sharing and enjoying the life of the Lord Jesus on earth in this body that actually when I leave this body and get to heaven I will have become so accustomed to sharing his life on earth that I will continue to enjoy in heaven that I won't even know that I've arrived except that my circumstances will have changed the scenery will be different I'll simply look around and say I don't think I've been here before, now that is about the only, only repercussion that should be yours and mine when we get to heaven if we've learned to be Christians on earth the body is simply the house temporally in which this new life which is yours in Jesus Christ is housed it's called in the 4th chapter that same 2nd epistle to the Corinthians in the 7th verse, an earthen vessel we have this treasure in earthen vessel that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us in other words whatever the quality of my life as a Christian may be, it will never to be it will never be to the credit of this physical body, this physical body was simply the means whereby that life that I now possess in Jesus Christ may be communicated to the outside world, but the excellency of the power will be of God that is the treasure, the divine life, the divine dynamics, the indwelling presence of deity clothed with my humanity that is being given spontaneous expression in terms of my physical bodily behavior, and the only reason why God has entrusted me with this physical visible body is that by everything I do and say and am, all creation may look at me and know what God is like, for when God first made man he said let us make man in our image and in our likeness, and in the likeness of God making him, and when God looked at man he said good very good for when he made man, he made man functional and in the physical visible body with which he was provided, there was a physical visible expression by everything he did and said and was of an invisible God that was normality that's what he made us for, that's when, that's why when you and I have been sanctified wholly the inevitable consequence is a revolutionary transformation in character you see the Christian gospel is primarily concerned not with a change of destination, heaven instead of hell, that's incidental, that's only the baby talk of the Christian life God's purpose in redemption is the transformation of our character so that we may once more discharge that office and fulfill that role for which he first made us let us make man in our image and in our likeness so that by what he does and says and is in his physical body everybody in his presence will know exactly what God is like now the soul to the outside world now the soul well the soul is that behavior mechanism that distinguishes the animal kingdom from the vegetable kingdom for you see every form of created life has a body vegetable animal and man between the animal kingdom and the vegetable kingdom, in the word of God and the distinction that the bible gives between the vegetable kingdom and the animal kingdom is that vested in every form of animal life in varying degrees of sophistication, there is a behavior mechanism which the bible calls the soul that comes as quite a surprise to some folks for so long they have imagined that that which distinguishes man from the animal kingdom is the fact that man possesses a soul, but that's erroneous the fact that you possess a soul does not prove that you are man, it simply proves that you're not a vegetable which in itself is encouraging in the first chapter of the book of genesis and the 30th verse to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life i have gridden every green herb for meat and it was so every beast of the earth every fowl of the air, everything that creeps, every form in other words of animal life god says i've given the vegetable kingdom every green herb for meat, for nourishment but this is how he defines the animal kingdom, wherein there is life now you may have a marginal translation in your bible and you'll notice that the word there is a hebrew word, living soul it's identically the same word that is used throughout the earlier verses of that first chapter but translated for instance in the king james version as living creature it's exactly the same word that is used in the 9th chapter when god commanded noah to take two out of every species of the animal kingdom into the earth and in each case, soul it's the word that is used in the 7th verse of the 2nd chapter the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became same word a living soul exactly the same word that which distinguishes the animal kingdom from the vegetable kingdom is a capacity to behave physically motivation and the soul this behavior mechanism is also three fold in character it's also tripartite it also is a trichotomy the soul involves the mind or your calculator emotions or your reactor and an executive agent which operates under the influence of the mind and the emotions, it's called your will in other words, a mental an emotional and a volitional capacity that's the three fold nature of the soul whether in man or animal and the will the volitional capacity operates under the influence of mind and emotion, the mental and emotional capacities to precipitate behavior by motivating the physical members of the body into action governing behavior now quite obviously if the will is exercised under the influence of the mind and the influence of the motion whoever controls mind and whoever controls emotion, controls will and whoever controls will governs behavior, that's quite obvious that's why you have commercials on television they're calculated to capture your mind and stir your emotions so under the influence of that impact, you exercise your will and next time you go to buy something, you buy their product that's why you have political campaigns that's why when you have a presidential election or any other kind of election the politicians talk up and down the country they distribute literature, they give radio broadcasts, they have television interviews they have whistle stops and the whole object of the exercise is to capture people's minds, stir their emotions so that under the influence of their minds now captured by that candidate and their emotions now captured by that candidate they govern the will and on polling day they govern behavior just as simple as that that's how you function all the time see if you got terribly angry with me, that would be an emotional response if you got very angry it's just possible that your emotions might say you will hit him and if at that moment your emotions captured your will you'd hit me but in all probability your mind would come into action and say it shouldn't do that if I were used twice as big as you are he'll hit you back or he'll call the police now your will may be captured by mind or emotion or both if you impair the mind of course the chances are your will will be operated by your emotions when I was serving in my regiment in Berlin commanding my battalion at that particular time a young cold stream guardsman was marched in at the age of 19, 18 charged with murder he wasn't a murderer he just killed someone he was just an overgrown schoolboy one of the finest footballers in his regiment but he was charged for murder and I had absolutely no option but to remind him for Field General Cork Marshall charged with murder he'd gone down the streets you see and filled his system with alcohol so that now his mind no longer functions and when some disturbed him in a flash of anger a man lay dead at sea you can destroy the effectiveness of your mind you can shoot it with drugs but don't expect to operate rationally the other man of course will deny his emotions and operate purely in the area of his mind cold blind calculation that'll send millions to their death or the big business man will just be about to sign the deal that's going to destroy a man down the road and somebody might tap his arm and say excuse me sir, I realise that this is a very profitable concern but you know that man's been working there for 35 years he's built that little business, this'll destroy him overnight you can't do that oh can't I? says he puffing his cigar that's his funeral, not mine I'm out for the dollar and if that ditches him, that's his funeral now that's how human beings operate, because they're distorted because they're perverted because they're corrupted all animals behave in the same way functionally except they're a whole lot more intelligent did you ever see an alcoholic dog? no, they're not that stupid did you ever see a drug addicted horse that wasn't injected by some evil human being? they're not that crazy only human beings not the animal king mind, emotion and will if you don't believe that here's a little experiment you might like to engage in when the spring comes find a wasp's nest get a stick and poke it then hang around for a bit you'll discover that those wasps have a very highly developed emotional capacity and they'll come buzzing out in anger you'll discover to match their emotional capacity they have a very highly developed intellectual capacity to discover who did it and to match their emotional and intellectual capacity they'll have a very highly developed volitional capacity to wreak vengeance upon the culprit but if you are wise enough you wouldn't be hanging around by then probably retreating in a hurry with some smart reminders on the back of the neck that your experiment had been usually successful you may have a dog at your home that perhaps you do, well, when you get back does it recognize it? of course it does, it has a mental picture and there's mental recognition by different means it hears you before it sees you and knows it's you knows what your shape is like and though it may not flat you it knows exactly what you smell like so by your shape and sound and smell the dog knows that you're on the way home and on the basis of mental calculation there's an emotional response because it's lonely it's been in the house all day it's hungry when you come back you play with it you feed it, you take it for a walk you throw a ball in the garden and so on the basis of the mental recognition and the emotional response there's a volitional activity demonstrated by the behavior patterns of its body when it springs and barks and wags its tail and so it communicates to the outside world that it knows who you are is glad to see you furthermore it has no objection whatever to your coming into the house if somebody climbs through the bathroom window at three in the morning the dog reacts in a quite different way because it says to itself my master doesn't usually come in through the bathroom window at three in the morning not too often I'd better go and check and see whether this is one of those rare occasions and making an investigation it neither recognizes the shape nor the smell and its reactions physically are quite different, they're at the other end of its anatomy instead of wagging its tail it bares its teeth and probably the man in the bathroom window disappears in a hurry with less pants on than when he arrives now all that is taking place in the behavior mechanism of the dog that's all its behavior of course is taking place as yours and mine does in the soul the behavior is simply being communicated through the body you see we behave on the inside we may or may not communicate on the outside we may make a valid communication on the outside or we may of course camouflage our true behavior pattern by a deceptive process on the outside the words of his mouth were smoother than butter Psalm 55 21 but war was in his heart that's where he was behaving his words were softer than oil yet were they drawn sore that's how Governor Wallace got nearly assassinated a man camouflaged his behavior patterns by cheering, waving flags and wearing badges so that he could get near enough to shoot while he was applauding with his lips he was getting to take aim with his hands that's all human beings do that too but where you really behave is in the heart another word for the soul that's why of course John says in his epistle, if you hate your brother you've already committed murder don't kid yourself the only reason why you haven't yet shot him between the eyes is you don't want to go to jail or sit in the electric chair says the Lord Jesus if a man look upon a woman to lust after her he's already committed adultery where? in his heart hasn't yet had the courage to do it or the opportunity that's why you see God tells us plainly he doesn't look on the outside he judges you by the place that you're really behaving the place where you're behaving right now I might judge by your physical behavior patterns that you're looking at me with a half intelligent look on your face and actually listening to what I'm saying and you might say that's a very reasonable deduction well it might be except that I've been preaching far too long for that the idea that everybody sitting in church looking at me is actually listening to what I'm saying would be sheer self-deception where you've been behaving is within your heart your body's been behaving as though you were sitting in church listening to the preacher but in point of fact without a shadow of a doubt there are some of you who've been looking at me and you've been doing a thousand and one other things working out your income tax planning next year's vacation thinking of that problem at college or school having an awful row with the neighbor next door or a fellow student I wonder how far you've traveled since you've been in church where have you been? who have you visited with? wouldn't it be interesting to know? well that's where you've been behaving your body may or may not communicate the soul, mind, emotion and will now God has marvelously protected the animal kingdom in their behavior pattern by built-in impersonal instinctive thrust that's what we like to call it we don't fully understand it it's really a computerized program that was built into every individual member of each particular species by the creator and the behavior patterns that it produces are repetitive in character generation after generation decade after decade century after century it governs the migratory paths of birds and fish and animals it governs their feeding habits their building skills their mating seasons that's why the fisherman and the hunter know exactly where to go they know that these particular species will behave in a certain way at a certain time almost to a day and it's fantastic and God has chosen in his wisdom to protect the animal kingdom that way for their preservation and for their reproduction and it's one of the most fascinating things to watch and I'm sure many of you know far more about it than I do when I was in Oregon at Portland conducting a series of meetings one weekday we went up to the Columbia River and we went up until we got to the dam and then beyond the dam where the electricity is generated to the fishing to the salmon hatcheries and there the salmon the famous Columbia salmon are placed in the river when they get to a certain size and immediately they swim downstream until they find the open ocean they travel north off the Alaskan coast where they swim around for three and a half to four years and after three and a half to four years they return to the mouth of the Columbia River do you think you'd find your way back to the mouth of the Columbia River after three and a half years in the Alaskan Ocean? not only do they find their way back to the mouth of the Columbia River, there they remain for three to six months, double in size and then fight their way back against the stream, reach the dam where the engineers have produced a fish ladder of 167 steps and you can stand looking over the rail, watching them as they fight their way up, step by step against the torrent of water, until finally half exhausted they reach the top where there's a funnel shaped device with plate glass and men on either side counting them as they go up, and then they will proceed until they come, not approximately but precisely to the place where they were placed in the little fish over four years before and there they spawn and die how do they find their way back? you can take a trout or a salmon out of any stream anywhere in the world and put it in the wrong tributary when it's going up to its spawning grounds, but it won't be deceived, it'll come back to the main stream and find the tributary where it was spawned itself you can stand off the San Diego coast and watch the whales go down to a bay off the Mexican coast where every year they reproduce and then go back to their normal habitat when I was in Northern California in the Los Altos area I was shown a clump of trees where every single year without exception there's a certain species of butterfly to be found in the summer but they don't reproduce there, they reproduce an incredible distance away for they fly off from that clump of trees and they lay an egg and that egg becomes a caterpillar and that caterpillar finally turns itself into a chrysalis and that chrysalis finally turns itself into another caterpillar and then flies back to that clump of trees do you think you'd find your way back? if you were once a caterpillar and then an egg and then a caterpillar and then a chrysalis and then another butterfly, do you think you'd find your way back? some of you can't even find your way around town how do they do it? instinct just as simple as that a computerized program that relentlessly protects them in their behavior patterns I used to keep sheep at my home in England, Cape and Ray which is our international headquarters we've got about 170 acres there and it was a most fascinating occupation then I had to choose between the sheep and my wife as they insisted on eating her roses so I thought it over and finally decided to sell the sheep and keep my wife but ever seen a little lamb born suddenly drops into the world within a very few seconds it hikes its way to its feet do you know the first thing a lamb does when it gets to its feet? it raises one paw in the air and with an inquiring look on its face it goes around the park and says anybody seen the milk? could somebody tell me where the milk is? ever seen a lamb do that? the amazing thing is the lamb immediately goes to where the milk is straight to the milk bar how does it know where? well somebody said it can smell it who told a lamb what milk smelled like before it was born? and the mother you will turn round and lick a membrane off the mouth of the lamb to fail to do which would be to leave it to die of suffocation who told the mother you to do that? social health service? prenatal clinic? uh uh and yet if it weren't governed by that computerized program that teaches a mother you that never had a lamb before just to do that, there would be no lambs there would be no sheep for God in his mercy sought to protect for the preservation and reproduction of the species by the built in instinctive thrust I could go on, it just happens to be my privilege to travel in many parts of the world and it fascinates me to see these things, in the jungles of Africa or South America, in Ecuador Peru, up in the mountains or in the valley in a thousand and one marvelous ways God has protected the animal kingdom, one of the most sensational I suppose and with which many of you will be very much aware especially if you've seen the very excellent film produced by the Moody Institute of Science The City of the Bees is the bee fantastic only one bee lays eggs, the queen bee and it's produced from exactly the same egg as any other bee except it's fed on royal jelly they produce several of them so that they have a really buxom sort of queen bee and if they hatch at the same time they have a tremendous fight and the strongest survive, if she happens to come out before the other she stings the other egg which takes them to their advantage but they end up with a really buxom, you know, queen bee with muscles, like elephant's kneecap because she's responsible for the population and in any bee swarm there may be anything up to 80,000 bees and they control the population in conformity to the economic situation obviously if it's cold winter they don't need a large worker force that costs a great deal of raw materials to feed so they reduce the number down to as many as 9,000 only when there's work to do in the factory do they increase the worker force, how do they do it? well by the amount of rations they give the queen bee, when the winter comes they put on hard rations and she goes on strike, but when the spring comes and the sun shines through blue skies and the scouts come back and explain that there's lots of raw material they begin to need a worker force and they begin to pump food into the old lady and she really goes to town, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80,000 that's something for one bee but you know that the egg of a bee will die if the temperature varies by more than 3 degrees I was an Ethiopian, dusty 8,500 feet right over the equator came down in the morning water was frozen in the tap, 10 o'clock in the morning 80, 90 degrees in the shade how would you keep your eggs within a tolerance of 1.5 degrees either way under those conditions bees do it they do it very simply they have two squads of worker bees half face out half face in one lot flapping suck air out the other lot flapping suck air in air condition they've been doing that for thousands of years so you see when the temperature rises they flap faster and faster and faster until when it's really hot they're really in a flap and when they're flapping just as fast as they can flap and they can't flap any flappier what do they do then real emergency, other bees go out and they bring water into the hive and by that latent heat of evaporation they augment the air conditioning cells and when towards the evening and it drops pretty rapidly the temperature falls then they slow down their flapping until finally there's no flapping at all but the temperature is still dropping, do you know what they do then turn on the central heating message goes round to all the inhabitants of the beehive eat a little honey, eat a little honey, eat a little honey so they all eat a little honey and the sugar content increase their blood temperature central heating is on and although outside the temperature will be going up and down like that, inside never varying by more than three degrees and they don't even have a thermometer how do they do it? very simple, instinct a computerised built in instinctive that preserves the species for if that weren't so they'd be dead and not only that pollination wouldn't take place for God created the bees to be the instrument of pollination so that you and I might have food but it's important of course that the bees should go to the same species of plants and the fantastic thing is this that once one worker bee begins to collect raw material from one species of plant it will always go back to the same species otherwise there wouldn't be cross pollination who tells them to do that? are they interested in your food supplies? no they couldn't care less but God for your sake and mine built in that computerised program nurse bees feed a little baby egg that's their job the scout bees come back and dance in front of the worker bees and tell them exactly by that dance how far to fly how much to lay off the wind how much fuel to take with them just to give them enough energy to get there and back even the quality of the raw material demonstrated magnificently in the city of the bees by four scout bees taking the four artificial food supplies and each allowed to dance before four separate groups each with a characteristic mark identifying the group with the scout bees then they're all mixed together and only those worker bees go correspondingly to the sources of supply that corresponded with the scout bees that danced in front of them communication is 100% and a honeycomb to a mathematical specification maximum tensile strength because it has to carry much more than its own mass maximum cubic capacity so that there may be minimal material use worked out by mathematicians by pure science comes out exactly that specification of the shape of a honeycomb fed into a computer exactly the shape of a honeycomb and yet bees 3000 years ago when David was feeding his sheep on a hillside were building honeycombs to that mathematical specification with absolute accuracy ever go to school? have a textbook? something to copy? no ever see a spider go to school to learn how to spin? now let me ask you a very simple question if God can produce animals, birds, fish, insects which with mathematical precision for the preservation of their species will behave repetitively year after year generation after generation decade after decade millennium after millennium don't you think he could have built a man governed by instinct who with the same mathematical precision by everything he did and said and was governed by instinct would have given a valid expression of God's character of course why didn't he? for a very simple reason when a bee behaves that way, that bee is not adopting any attitude to what it's creating it's not saying God I love you, God I hate you or God I couldn't care less it's not God conscious it's impersonal it's functionally satisfying to God but it's not morally satisfying to God because by its behavior patterns it's not taking any position and God is love and when God created man he created man to satisfy his nature for the only thing that satisfies love is to be beloved the only thing that ultimately satisfies friendship is to be befriended but neither love nor friendship can be compelled love, friendship, stems can you get a wife that way? you can keep them that way but you can't get them that way when God created man, he created man with the capacity to love God back so that man might not just be functionally satisfying but morally satisfying so that by what you do and say and are you will say something to God and whether you like it or whether you don't by everything that you've done and said and been today since you got up you've said something to God by your by your behavior at all times as his creature you're saying God I love you or you're saying God I hate you or more often than not God for all I care you might just as well be dead whether you like it or whether you don't by everything you do and say and are you are adopting an attitude toward God so God created man differently and we can only take a very few moments now to make brief reference to this we shall have to pick up the threads and continue God gave to man what he didn't give to any other form of animal life and it is this that distinguishes man from the animal and lifts man out of the animal kingdom makes man uniquely and essentially man God gave to man the human spirit that unique capacity that allows God as creator actually to take up residence and live within man his creature in the person of the Holy Spirit indwelling the human spirit in the prophecy of Isaiah and in the 57th chapter 15th verse Isaiah 57 15 thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabited eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and the holy place but I dwell with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit I dwell there now to revivify, to revive the spirit of the humble, I dwell there to revive, to revivify to quicken, to bring to life the heart of the contrite one for I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wrong for the spirit should fail before me in the souls which I have made and the amplified Old Testament renders that 16th verse rather more helpfully, here it is I will not contend forever, neither will I be angry always, for were it not so the spirit of man would faint and be consumed before me and my purpose in creating the souls of men would be frustrated God says if I am not prepared in spite of man's sin to come again and re-inhabit his human spirit, the God who inhabits eternity then his spirit would perish and my purpose in creating the souls of men would be frustrated so we see that God's willingness to restore his holy spirit to the human spirit and as God re-inhabit as creator man, the creature, is that his purpose in our creation might not be frustrated but we might be restored to function and once more be man again as God intended man to be, that's the meaning of the gospel, not to get men out of hell and into heaven which is purely incidental as glorious as it may be, legitimately as we may rejoice in the fact of it, but that is not the purpose of the preaching of the gospel, it's to get God back into the man so that man inhabited by God might once more be restored to function and live to his holy satisfaction, for God chose to dwell within man by the holy spirit that from within the human spirit, the holy spirit might have access to the human soul and play the role in man's soul that instinct plays in the animal soul for you see in the animal kingdom there's a rigid interlock between the instinctive thrust in the animal soul from which the animal the insect, the bird, the fish cannot escape it's kept on call the bird just keeps flying subconsciously direct to arrive at a little tiny island in a trackless ocean to miss which would be to perish out of sheer exhaustion, a rigid interlock from which it cannot escape because that rigid interlock protects the species but when God made man given a human spirit to be indwelt by the holy spirit there was not to be a rigid interlock between the holy spirit and the human soul but a moral interlock a moral interlock which would demand the exercise by man of that moral option that gives man the capacity to be a moral being and adopt an attitude and be God conscious that lifts man out of the animal kingdom and makes man man for God in his unchallengeable sovereignty has chosen so that he might have a man who can reciprocate God's love for man by man's love for God to limit himself in that sovereignty by the law of faith, faith which consists of the twin ingredients of my dependence on and out of that dependence on my obedience to God, that's it dependence on and obedience to but a dependence on him and an obedience to him that I yield out of my love for him because as we shall see as the week goes on it's only out of my dependence on him and my obedience to him because of my love for him can I let God as God be God in me in action playing the role by the Holy Spirit in my soul that instinct plays in the animal let me know the nature of my humanity that I've been given a mind and an emotion and a will, a will that I will exercise under the influence of my mind and my emotion, let me know that God created me to be inhabited by God for God so that God can be God in me let me of my own free volition out of dependence on him and obedience to him as an expression of my love for him give him my mind and say God you can think with that mind, it's yours to think I give him my affections and say God you can shed abroad your love in my heart by the Holy Ghost and control all my desires then my will will be exercised under the dual influence of a God taught mind and God controlled emotions and if God controls my mind and God controls my emotions, God will control my will and God will control my behavior watch that man behave who do you see behave? God for God in the man will be the origin of human behavior under those circumstances as instinct in the animal is the origin of animals he made it that way that's why the presence of God in the soul of man is imperative to the likeness of God in the character of man God within the man is to be the origin of his own image the source of his own activity, the cause of his own effect the dynamic of all his own demands God in the man will be as imperative to the man as oil is to a lamp or gas is to a car you can detach the lamp from the oil but it will still be a lamp but it won't behave like one you can detach the car from gas and you've still got a car but it won't behave like one you can detach a man from God and you've still got a man but he won't behave like one just as simple as that that's why the preaching of the gospel is primarily concerned with getting God back into the man not just getting men out of hell and into heaven we've cheapened the gospel and may Jesus Christ simply a doormat over whom we wipe our feet in order to get out of hell and into heaven that was never in God's mind loving, compassionate, marvellous as he may be and God will never relieve any boy, girl, man or woman of the solemn responsibility of exercising their own options that's why I told you this morning every man is at liberty to be lost as every Christian is at liberty to be carnal God will not carnal and God will not for to do so would be to dehumanise would be to destroy your humanity that which lifts you out of the animal kingdom and makes man man is your moral capacity to exercise the option that let God be God in the man you've been very patient could you imagine what would happen if in a bee swarm of 80,000 bees suddenly calamity would strike and simultaneously in time the rigid interlock between the instinctive trust and the bee stall was suddenly to be severed so that 80,000 bees suddenly became ego bee centric no longer governed by instinct each one to live for themselves as they please doing what they consider to be their own self interest you know what would happen those responsible for air conditioning of course would stop flapping they can stand there and flap for themselves 80,000 have stopped flapping already the nurse bees of course would say to the little eggs little suckers they can go and get their own food serve them wait on them day and night I'm sick and tired of the whole show the worker bees of course would march up and down under a red flag and say food for the workers every man for himself mastered by none see what would happen to a beehive if the rigid interlock between the instinctive trust and the bee stall were to be severed exactly what has already happened in human society it would peril in anarchy that's why brilliant as man is fantastically clever he can walk in space and drive geeks round the moon like he's on the threshold of self annihilation few responsible scientists can look beyond the turn of this millennium that was the solid consensus of opinion of a conference held quite recently no hope for man beyond the year 2000 because of his own pig head built in inherent self interest and pride for you see in the day that man in Adam repudiated the relationship between man and God and God and man that lets God be God in the man God did exactly what he said he would he withdrew the Holy Spirit from the human spirit and only the animal part remained physically alive soullessly active he was spiritually destitute but man without God is neither protected by instinct nor governed by God so he doesn't know how to behave like an animal and he doesn't have what it takes to behave like a man so he behaves like a man there would only be one possible solution to that beehive and its dilemma the restoration of the rigid interlock between the instinctive thrust and the bee soul there is only one possible solution to the human dilemma the restoration of the moral interlock between the Holy Spirit and the human soul the exercise in the part of every boy girl man and woman whose intelligent enough to recognize what has gone wrong to accept in the person of the Lord Jesus who died upon the cross in the perfection of his humanity that forgiveness through his shed blood that allows a holy God to seal that redemption by the restoration of the Holy Spirit to the human spirit of that boy that girl that man that woman that by their free choice he God the Holy Spirit might once more reinvade the human soul and they expose their soul mind emotion and will to the Holy Spirit as the eagle trims its wings to the wind and exchanges its strength God says my strength is made perfect in your will that's why the Christian life derives from repentance a willingness to recognize our weakness and his strength then we'll be as wise as the eagle and let God seal God have you ever exercised that option that's what the gospel is all about that's what the cross is all about that's what the bible is all about and if as yet you're unconvinced of the need of it better look around in the world in which you live there may be a response there to get saved on God's terms and be restored to your true humanity functional airborne and that would be a fact now let's pray we're surrounded Lord Jesus on every hand with the evidences of man's depravity greed, lust, pride, murder adultery, fornication avarice, drug addiction alcoholism, dross man's inhumanity to man terrorism murder assassination, murder on every hand man created in your lap does vile to your image and we realize Lord Jesus that we don't deserve your mercy your compassion utterly unmerited but we just want to say thank you just want to say thank you if you didn't blot us out write us off as a total deadlock but somehow thought it worth your while as our creator God to assume our humanity unsullied unscathed unblemished and then on that rugged Roman gallows to be made thin and whore up all the dirt and the filth and the muck of a human race that lost God shunned upon you, made thin for us whom you know so that we might become the righteousness of God in you so many of us can look back to the day we exercised the option to receive you as our redeemer we've known the inner witness of your Holy Spirit restored to our spirit that we have become the children of God that we pray that we may never ever settle to heaven one day when we're dead recognize that his gracious and loving office from within our human spirits is to reinvade our human souls and capture every area of our personality that you might once more be king in your kingdom for the kingdom of God is within us we were made that way if there's any boy or Jesus any girl tonight in this building any man or woman still physically alive soullessly active spiritually dead give to them the desire to come alive humbly to plead your Holy Name cleansed in your blood acquitted, forgiven become the recipient of prayer of your resurrection life through the gift to them of your Holy Spirit to live life in a new dimension more abundance heaven on the way we ask it for your name's sake, Amen this message is brought to you by Good News Tape for a complete list of messages and tapes write to 10812 North May Avenue Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73120