now we want to move on now uh to our next topic what is a human being because in the Contemporary scene that is the biggest battle is to try to understand what a human being is so we want to try to get into some of the biblical material here and go Fairly deeply into this issue issue the current battle over human nature and and really the extreme form it takes is is there human nature and you can say that the official point of view on this now is there is none there's no human nature and uh you want to understand that that's an outcome of the drive to Total Liberty that was developed in the 20th century into the 20th century and this drive to Total Liberty is the essential uh uh Mark of the Babel orientation in human life the drive to Total Liberty you go ask go to a school ground uh little third graders and ask them should people be allowed to do whatever they want what will be their answer yes that will be their answer uh democracy as a political system and a social system has come to essentially mean the exaltation of the human will every should everyone should be able to do what they want to do and that's a perversion of human Liberty in fact but that's how it's that's what it's taken to mean now that can only be true if you have no nature because if you have a nature it's going to put a limit on what you can do and that's true of everything if you a wristwatch a Podium anything has a nature that limits what it's good for you can't pick your teeth with the podium can you I mean be very awkward you'd have to have a very big mouth right so you you see how nature limits Freedom if by Freedom you mean doing what you want to do right you might want to be uh movie star or something of that sort but your looks and your talents would limit that now because in the past nature was used as an argument for what people could or should could not should not do see and often these were bad arguments so for example racism was a bunch of bad arguments based on supposed nature you you see how that works or more recently in the feminist controversies the idea that biology is Destiny have you heard that and the rejection of that because of arguments that you are a woman and therefore you should or could not do this that and the other and often those were very bad and harmful arguments they were oppressive so now the swing against that you see is what we see currently and I just put the name John Dewey down here because he's the most famous 20th century American to reject the idea of nature uh but of course many many people have followed after him now the swing against nature is seen all around us for example natural law cannot be invoked as a basis for Law and uh now I don't know to what extent I you are into this kind of discussion or not but if uh the the idea has been traditionally that there is natural law that is there are things there are ways things should be that are natural and that these are laws in nature and that law in the legal system should be based on laws in nature right and now that has been rejected so for example uh justice Kennedy in his when he wrote up the decision on the sodomy case in Texas the basis for the decision that he cited was the change of public sentiment so public sentiment then is put in the place of of natural law public sentiment means what does the public like what does the public want to do now then someone might say well gee the public what they want that's wrong you see the difference there and they might say that's wrong because there is a natural law and they might also say God has declared what the natural law is in certain interesting cases so we've now now moved in the last century to where what is wanted or desired or felt to be right by the public would be the basis for law now of course you you don't have to be told where that could lead but that's I'm just saying that's what has changed here on this issue of nature nature can't be invoked to support heterosexuality you will see there a missing S I guess can't be invoked to support man woman marriage and so on so what what did the Massachusetts courts say in that case they excited public sentiment a change of sentiment now if you were to say well but you know what about Nazi sentiment suppose you had a whole society that agreed with Nazi sentiment would that make it right they would hastily say no but when ask how they could support that they wouldn't have a leg to stand on right because they've already abandoned nature and the way things are as a basis for law you see denying a human nature takes care of all the issues where desire wants free play at one Fell Swoop and turns it in at most to a social issue so if you desire what Society does not desire then you can be told that you're wrong and you can be um controlled on the basis of that but it's only because you have group desire now that's why political correctness becomes so important in our time see the underlying issue here is the difference between what is designed ired and what is good what is desired and what is good and then that redefines the meaning of love let's go over that for a few minutes okay desire can be for what is not good you can desire what is not good so you can't Define good in terms of Desire you can't Define good in terms of Desire because you can desire what is not good if you define good in terms of Desire then automatically if you desire something it is good but most people can't quite push beyond that because they know that they have often desired things that were not good that's one of the meanings of regret most everyone knows what Reg regret is now to love someone means that you will what is good for them if you love someone you will what is good for them that's the meaning of the word benevolence benevolence Ben volence will the good right now if I love you that means sometimes I'm not going to will what you desire because you sometimes desire what is not good you see how that works right so we all know this again in the case of of uh our families that to love a child often means that we do not do what they want isn't that true now frankly to love me would mean that I would often not do what I want do I need to say that again to love me would mean that I often would not do what I want so I might be the sort of person who would say if I want to if I have to die let me drowned in a chocolate milkshake I might just adore chocolate milkshakes that doesn't mean they're good for me so self-love would mean often that I not do what I desire to do and do what I do not desire to do so now this is tremendously important folks for understanding uh the kinds of things that we deal with in trying to live for God and looking at what God says because what God says is what is good for us not necessarily what we desire but self-will says I want what I want when I want it or in the language of the co- Porter Musical that is now the r anything goes right anything goes as long as I want it see that's the that's the poison of self-will that corrupts the good in human life I want what I want and again we TR one of the first things you have to teach a child is it isn't always good to do what you want you would like to hit Johnny over the head with the truck that's not good and you shall not do it you ought not to do it and if you do it you're a bad boy right see those are rudimentary lessons that we have to keep in now nature that is connections of things in reality independently of what we think or desire see that's our only salvation is to Define to find out what those are and when it comes to life at large we especially as individuals are not smart enough to do that and that is where a God who speaks in love becomes Central to the well-being of human life right so now we are currently a wash and a sea of sexuality of all kinds God said certain things about sexuality but they do not conform with what people may want in the area of sexuality so when you cut loose from the teachings that God has given about it I don't mean to say that there are no difficulties with that human beings being what they are there are difficulties but when you just cut that loose and say anything goes as long as you have consenting adults anything goes right well then you have stepped into an area where things are going to have a nature and results will be there regardless of what you like because you can choose the action but you can't choose the consequences so now we have a situation if you want to see the insanity of sin we have a [Music] situation where millions and indeed hundreds of millions of people are going to die of a disease that is fundamentally tied to wrong sexuality and no one can say a word about that the Frenchman who was head of the Health Organization that's first came into Africa to deal with AIDS made the suggestion that it was related to sexual practices and he was immediately fired immediately why because will human will and desire has institutionalized itself in a culture that rejects truth and goes with desire right now those are just illustrations now nothing lacks a nature a squirrel or a brussel sprout is a definite kind of thing it has actual parts and properties because it has those parts and properties brussel sprouts for example do not climb trees and collect nuts squirrels do squirrels do not grow in gardens brussels sprouts do see that's now everything that's true and because things have the parts and properties they do they stand in the relations they do and that's true of beings so now we have to look carefully at this issue as it regards human beings because um um whenever we step over the boundary of nature then the first thing that happens is God goes first because God is if you wish nature in uh written large God's nature dominates everything and determines what nature is elsewhere and uh so now we need to take some time to look at Romans 1 I mentioned it earlier this a passage in Psalm 2 it talks about how the leaders of the earth say let's cast aside God's restraints let's get rid of them uh and um Psalm 2 is an interesting study in the rebellion of the human will but let's just go to Romans 1 now and spend some time there because uh this is a profound analysis of the human situation um Romans 1: 2123 even though they knew God they did not honor him as God or glorify him as God or give thanks but they became feudal in their own speculations and their foolish Hearts were darkened now you see when you start to deny the reality of God then everything comes loose and it's now left up to the human capacities to discern and to act and live within the boundaries of reality since reality does not fit the human will immediately the Mind becomes confused and the illustration with reference to AIDS which I gave just a moment ago is a case of this but there are many many others professing themselves to be wise they became fools and exchange the glory of The Incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man this is an issue of what you worship what you take to be ultimate and when you turn from God you take man to be ultimate and when you take man to be ultimate since that is false you begin to run birds and alligators and cows and other things of that sort uh together as ultimate so think of the phrase holy cow if you've ever known a cow you might well wonder how they could be holy but if your mind has been messed up about God you might start thinking that a god a cow was God well how does that happen that happens because with the rejection of God you have already loosened your mind from reality and once you loosen your mind from reality then again Mr Porter Take a Bow anything goes anything goes because now the mind is going to be directed by the will and it will not function rightly the will is supposed to be directed by the Mind under truth therefore God gave them over to the lust of their hearts to impurity that their bodies might be Dishonored among them you see the human body is the first thing that is under the direction of the human will so why is sex and violence so prominent in a society that is devoted to desire because that is what can be fulfilled through the body the body is what is under the control of the will and when the mind no longer governs the will through truth then the Will turns to the body and says I will squeeze out of you all the good and now good means desired I will fulfill my desires with reference to the body and so then John says in 1 John 2 there are three things that are in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life the pride of life means dominance and dominance takes all the forms that you see from Power dressing to sex in advertising to uh brutal force gang behavior and so on why because that's the body you've turned from God now your body becomes God if you wish we'll talk a little bit more about how that goes later but for now just to make that point so that's the picture God goes first then degrading passions verse 26 God gave them over to degrading passions he doesn't say he made them have degrading passions see this is the natural progression of the attempt to have good in terms of what is desired Once you turn to desire then you have no way of limiting it desire is not self-limiting and it will push further and further and further trying to get satisfaction From Desire when there is no satisfaction in desire desire only leads you on to more desire if your life is built around desire you will never be satisfied and that will push you increasingly into the perversion of Desire so you see there is a certain sense you you may know this line from from doeski uh Ivan kov if there is no God everything is permitted now that's not actually true but that's the way the mind works and this became a sort of slogan in Europe in the 19th century and doeski expresses it was in the n in the 19th century was when God first came under such pervasive and brutal attack from institutions of knowledge and that worked itself out in the 20th century in ways I described in the last talk but up for a long while that was just what the so-called leading intellectuals would say but then it became became more and more commonplace the ARs picked it up and it is it is true only in the sense that if you if you're not rooted in the knowledge of God then it will seem as if there is no restriction on what you might do to fulfill desire so turning to the body then men use it in every way possible to gratify desire and they lose their mental capacity to discern good and evil and I do want to look at this passage in Ephesians with you so if you would please turn to that because again you have to read Paul as if he were a university Professor talking about social and psychological reality and um if you don't read him that way you won't get the full impact of what he's saying see currently in the context of so-called knowledge sin is not a category it does not explain anything and uh so we don't understand why things go as they do because we can't introduce the appropriate categories Educators today are very like farmers who do not believe in Weeds or bugs they believe in fertilizer and so they just pour on the fertilizer and makes better weeds and better bugs right because they can't deal with evil the evil is not a category of explanation now sin is not a category of explanation now for Paul it was and for Calvin it was and for Luther it was and for most of those who were responsible for creating the world out of which the atheism of the 19th and 20th Century grows these were still categories look at what Paul says here in Ephesians 417 this I say therefore and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk now Gentiles always means people without God when you read Gentiles in the New Testament you're referring to people who stand outside of the Covenant relationships with God now of course they're being brought in but that's what the Gentiles he says the Gentiles who are the Gentiles the Gentiles are people who don't know God now they're they're getting to know him because the mystery of the Gentiles and God's purposes for them is being revealed right here you see they saying looking at the people around you so don't walk in the futility of their mind do you notice that phrase the futility of their mind means a mind that doesn't succeed in getting anywhere by thinking their minds are feudal they don't work because they have distorted reality in their premises and no matter how furiously they think away they will always come out at the wrong place being darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their heart and they have become callous now callous means they don't feel if you have a callous on your thumb and you try to use that to feel with you don't feel very well right to become callous means unfeeling but notice the response have given themselves over to sensuality now what does that mean they have become callous so they don't feel very well so they have given over themselves to sensuality to feel more feeling now we live in a sensuous age if you listen to the advertisements you will have Sylvian learning advertising itself on the basis that learning feels good no one ever learns in order to feel good I'm going to master quadratic equations so I will have a Wonder feeling h no I mean you never learn on that basis you do feel good if you learn because knowing is good right you feel good but no one learns on that basis so you should give your old car to this charitable group because you feel good not because giving the car will do good for some people but because you'll feel good now if that's the reason you give then it's irrelevant as what it does it's just you get the feeling you see but we live in a sensual culture and increasingly that's true around we even have a song right feelings whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo feelings you ever hear that song whoo feelings woo well see that's why that's why we're so addictive see addiction the condition of addiction is a condition where you say I've got to have the feeling and the only way out of addiction is to realize you have a will distinct from your feelings and you don't have to feel good see Paul Paul had observed that because this is a truth of human psychology if you live for feelings you will become callous and if you become callous and you're living for feelings you will do whatever is required to get more feeling hey am I making any sense at all see this is what Paul you have to read Paul as what he was namely a brilliant analytical mind being under inspiration doesn't mean that you're stupid see you can be brilliant and under inspiration too and it may actually help so you read Paul you see that he knows the stuff we're talking about now he knows where it leads look once you get that callous mind and you've misunderstood your nature in such a way that you're only going for feeling then social institutions and Arrangements will conform to that let's go back to Romans 1 as when you understand this then you can really see and with with understanding where we are today in our society well 28 to the end of Romans 1 just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer remember that's the Lynch pin acknowledge God if you have God then you have nature and a God who speaks tells you the truth you need to know don't acknowledge God God gave them over to a depraved mind now a depraved mind is a mind which doesn't work it doesn't work so now when you listen to the discourse in our culture today what you're listening to is a mind which does not work and this has all all kinds of manifestations for example we live in a politics of contempt I mean suppose that John Cary and Mr Bush were to say to one another I believe you're a basically good person and I'm not going to attack you anymore about being a bad person and what we're going to do is we're just going to talk about what we would do we're going to talk about policy and we're going to spend our time not trying to blow one another out of the water with a million dollar television commercial but trying to help people understand what is good and what is right and I believe that the American people will make a choice and if they choose you I'm going to be rooting for you to succeed because I want the good of the American people when this progression with Fallen Humanity where desire and will does not square with truth and reality as that progresses we see that social instin institutions and Arrangements adapt to that situation and we can see this all around us in our culture now and Paul spells that out in the last verses of Romans 1 where he says and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer now remember that's the root mistake God gave them over to a depraved mind remember God leaves you free he lets you go if you want to God gave him over to do the things which are not proper being filled with all unrighteousness wickedness greed evil full of Envy murder Strife deceit malice they are gossip slanderers haters of God insolent arrogant boastful inventors of evil disobedient to Parents Without understanding untrustworthy unloving unmerciful quite a list actually Paul piles those up in other passages as well and you may say does that really describe people well I leave it to you I mean of course there are exceptions thank God exceptions um but people in general um unfortunately when you look at them thoroughly you find them not too far from this though when there is a restraint by the knowledge of God that is institutionalized in human institutions then you see a knowledge that these are wrong and then people step away from them but 31 here is caps it off although they know the ordinance of God because you people do not lose this entirely they know it they just don't accept it that those who practice such things are worthy of death they not only do the same but also give hearty approval to those who practice them and that's where the inst stitutional dimension of this takes over now the situation we are in today is one where there is no recognized body of moral knowledge because this progression has moved along to the point that it has and what I'm saying here is you may not be familiar with that way of putting it but that is the way things stand in our schools generally and our professional institutions and it is that way because when Nature disappears knowledge and Truth disappear because then there's nothing to be known and what they takes over then is political correctness now what is correct political correctness it is correctness in someone's view that's political correctness and that's all that's left so now we have our pressure groups pushing for this or that or the other with the idea that the church and the way of Christ is just another pressure group right so just one among many groups of people who want certain things and implicit in this is the idea that will is the only thing you have to deal with so you have a bunch of people called Christians and their desires and wills go in One Direction you have other people and there desires and will goes in the other direction and that's the situation now with regard to all of our institutional now of course it's all a sham the truth is what is good for human beings and what is right for them to do does not change fundamentally and whenever you're in a personal relationship and for example you tell someone what is false um they will treat you as if that was wrong and they they will treat you as if this was not just their opinion and their feeling because the truth is that good and right are built into human nature and no matter what you say about it in an effort to have perfect Liberty uh you don't believe it actually but the human capacity to know the good and the right is distorted by the human will will to fulfill desire now I'm putting a lot of stuff at you some of it's pretty heavy duty but if if you can just get that one point now it will sum up a lot of what I'm trying to say to you I'll say it again the human capacity to know the good and the right is distorted by the human will to fulfill desire we want what we want and that is why of course a Divine source of knowledge is essential to human life and we've been told that over and over by people through history from the Old Testament prophets up to people today who say we have to have biblical knowledge to survive and so on and it actually is true and that's because going back to the last presentation the human capacities to know are extremely limited and consequently the things that we most need to know including what is human nature is not something that is readily accessible to us so we can have phds and great research institutes and still come out not knowing now Jesus sums up the whole law by referring to the essential aspects of the human being and he refers to the heart soul mind and strength and loving God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind with all your strength and loving your neighbor as yourself right very simple now remember what was said about love if you love something you will its good so to love God with all your heart soul mind and strength is to will what is good for God with all your heart soul mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself that's what it is that's not a simple thing because often your heart is one place and your soul is another your mind is one place and your body is another and then your social relationships may be running on a different track so that what we Pro call the problem of Integrity integrity means everything is integrated so for example simple things if you intend to do something you can do it if you don't intend to do something you don't do it and you you recognize that that's exactly the opposite of the picture that Paul paints of the person who is caught in sin in Romans 7 the things that I would that I do not the things I would not that I do that's the picture of the disintegrated self Peter is a case Peter said I will not deny you now did he mean it of course he meant it but there was something in Peter that he didn't recognize and that something was something that was going to control his behavior and of course Jesus was teaching him very carefully when he said to him you're going to deny me three times why three times wouldn't once be enough no because if it just once you could say whoops I slipped but if you did it three times you'd have a hard time explaining it right you're going to have to go that's why after three times Peter went out and wept bitterly was because he realized there was something in him that was not being directed by him but was directing him Jesus knew that see so this this is an analysis of the being if you love then that will pull them all together but you that love has to be direct towards God and then out of that come comes love of neighbor because I I would bet many of you know that if you don't love God right you'll never love your neighbor right right it it has to come out of our love for God which comes out of his love for us and then we discover love and then we find we can actually love our neighbor right that's the way it works so indeed if you do love your neighbor you will fulfill the law because as Paul explains here if you if you love your neighbor uh you will not steal you'll not commit adultery you will not murder so he says all of these are contained in love but wait a moment wait a moment wait a moment how about the man who says to the police I just loved her so much I I had to kill her do you know that's actually said see so what is love and how does it work and what is what else goes into the person other than what they call love so here's a picture now that draws out the essential aspects of the human being this is human nature when you look at this you are looking at Human Nature these are the parts that go into the hole of human nature and this human nature is situated in an infinite environment that has both good and evil in it mostly good and U now the parts here all have to be aligned before we can be subject to the law of God and that of course means that there's going to have to be an invasion by the word and spirit of Christ This is a living power a spiritual power in its own right it comes into the heart comes through the mind when that is accepted the result is faith in Christ which reestablishes communion with God the primary function of that center part is to trust God now it can't do that on its own it has to interact with the other part so for example what happened with Eve in the garden she received a solicitation to not trust God you understand that and that's the general form of all sin is don't trust God don't believe God take it into your own hands make sure that you get what what you want that's what Eve did and it's wonderful to see how you see in the garden there replicated the three things that John said was in the world lust of the eyes lust of the flesh lust of the eyes the pride of life and you study that story in Genesis 3 and you'll see how all three of those things show up and their effect is to seduce the individual into taking things into their own hands and not trusting God and if you will try to analyze all of the standard sorts of things that we regard as wrong theft lying so on you will find that they all come back to mistrusting God so you need to look carefully at that picture and think about it now once and this is getting a little bit into what you studied last week and what I think lutter is going to deal with in more detail in the last part of this week once that Spirit comes alive to God because of the Gospel that has lodged in the mind then the individual begins the process of working with God for the transformation of the whole celf so here's Paul in Romans 7 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God submit your bodies a Living Sacrifice don't be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind now as the mind is renewed these other parts are going to be renewed also the questions like what is in your body becomes all important I mean what Peter did when he denied Christ was in his body and in his social relations he didn't he didn't have to think about denying Christ he didn't have to ask him the question shall we deny it was already there just whoosh like that it came out now he probably thought that he was going to be facing some soldier with a sword he may have been ready for that that but the thing that tripped him up was a little girl see the social situation what the body is ready to do comes together acts on its own so now then the transformation of the body the social relationships the soul the soul is kind of like the computer that runs the whole show you're not conscious of your soul conscious of your spirit the spirit is the Executive Center of the self the soul is like the computer that runs a whole thing you don't want to hear about the computer you just want it to work right on the other hand if you do want to change it then the Executive Center is capable of going through a process of changing the computer and that same thing is true and roughly through the whole area of spiritual disciplines things like Solitude and silence and fasting and memorization and so on that's what goes in into the transformation of the whole uh self well we don't have a lot of time to talk about that and I will talk about it a little bit uh later on but I hope you get the picture here now this is human here's what I'm saying to you this is human nature everyone has this if they're dead in sin they don't have the relationship to Christ but they can still hear the word and the spirit can still move on them but if they're dead in sin they they don't have that relationship so they turn in on themselves and basically they begin to worship their own will their own desires their own body and so their whole life is devoted to themselves now that's the nature what's role and I want to take you through some scriptures here that are extremely important in understanding the Divine conspiracy you see the Divine conspiracy is not just to for the greatness of God just to Steamroller everything it is to elicit love and obedience through the development of character so that out of human history comes a certain kind of community that then is going to have a role forever in universe that's the key to understanding this this is what human history is about this is why it's worth the awful things that have happened in it so you begin with Genesis 126 what does that say that's what I call the creation Covenant that's where God says let us make man let us make his let us make him in our image and then the next Clause tells you what that is let him have dominion now if you don't like the word dominion and there's a lot of reasons why you shouldn't because it's been so corrupted by human self-will just read the word responsibility let us make man in our image and let him be responsible and then you see the assignment that is given to human beings to be responsible for the Earth that means everything on it the people it's put in terms of plants and animals and all those sorts of things of course that's that's still built into human nature that's why human beings just can't stop thinking about all the wonderful things they're going to do do you know at present at my University there are people spending your tax dollars trying to figure out how to reforest Mars did you know that and at other Schools they're going to reforce Mars how can you do that well I'm not betting on it being done anytime soon but the point is you have people why do people think about things like three whales get trapped in an ice flow up near Alaska what what do human beings down here think of doing what do they think of doing getting them out why should they why should they think of that well there are a lot of silly reasons but basically it's built into human beings to be responsible for the Earth and this is the this is the foundation of a genuine environmental ethic where you wind up not just hugging trees but actually thinking about the world and being responsible for the world very important now is this a lost thought because we fell did we are we off the hook on that one no we're not look at Psalm 8 this is a Psalm that is provoked because the psalmist is impressed with the greatness of God on one hand and the fact that God cares about human beings namely himself on the other and so he asked the question and if you haven't worked this through you find it I think intriguing to look at the psalm starts out oh Lord our Lord how maast Majestic is their thy name in all the Earth you've displayed your Splendor above the heavens from the mouth of infant infants and nursing babes thou Hast established strength because of thine adversaries this I I wish I had time to launch into that it's a beautiful expression of the inversion of the kingdom of man the kingdom of God and how infants and nursing babes testify to God in the face of those who oppose him now he says in verse three when I consider thy Heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars that thou Hast ordained now here's the big question what is the human being that you even think about him uh this is actually a large issue in in ancient thought did God think about human beings and most of the people in the Greek World thought no God doesn't even think about human beings does care about them one way or the other that was actually a big step forward because the previous stage had been the stage that you read about in Homer's Iliad and odyssey where you might just meet a god around any Rock and he might just turn you into a turtle you know how that goes right in Homer and so it was a great relief to many people to think God doesn't even think about human beings it's one of the great differen between the Jewish tradition is the Jewish tradition says God not only thinks about human beings he cares about them so now what is man that's the that's the question what is man right what kind of thing is he that you take thought of him and the son of man that you care for him you made him a a little lower than God you crown him with glory and Majesty you make him to rule over the works of thy hands okay so what is the function of the human being to rule to rule to bring good to pass in creation and so that's very natural for human beings unless you get a soured human being they want to do good and they want to share it a little child wants to do that get a little child as soon as they can do anything they want to make something then they want to give it to you and if you haven't had little children yet get ready because you'll have to have a special drawer to put all the stuff in that they make to give to you and that that's built into their nature people as they grow older they want to leave the world a better place they use that phrase over see that's built to the human being that's that's the way it is with nature you made him a little lower than God you crowned him you made him to rule over the work now in those days about all they had to rule over were sheep and oxen Beast the field birds of the heavens you don't now if it were written now it would be things like electricity computers airplanes most of you have probably never in your life ruled over a sheep we don't live there anymore do we we live someplace else the Sheep don't normally get where we live so we don't rule over them but we do rule over things and much of that is human Creations in their own right tools and instruments and things that have been made by human beings but being made by human beings is to take the stuff that God created and make something of it we don't create ex Neo we create out of things that God has already made and among those are things like atom bombs and all sorts of things vaccines that's the human role that's our that's our task so now um uh we want to understand that this is something that's to be done under God God made us in such a way that we would relate to him and then relating to him would be able to rule we can't do it on our own we still try but our efforts are thwarted by our limitations and by our lack of Good Will and you can see everywhere uh you go now part of that is acting with God in leadership this passage here Isaiah 5 6312 worth taking a moment to look at uh this is about Moses and how Moses did his work because the Cooperative aspect of our work with God is essential to what we're doing we can't do it on our own and here in U in Isaiah 63 uh you have a person who is reflecting on how God used to work with the Jewish people he hadn't been doing lately and it was because the Jewish people had rebelled and walked off from him but then verse 11 he says then his people remembered the days of old of Moses where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the Shepherds of his flock now he's not asking where is Moses he's asking where is God who worked with Moses where is he who put his holy spirit in the midst of them and then this next clause or phrase who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses now think about that for a moment there's Moses's right hand hand that means Moses acting but when Moses acted who made it happen God did so the picture is Moses's right hand and God's glorious arm going with Moses that arm goes when Moses hand goes see that is the way that we were meant to live on the earth under God God never set us out to be responsible for the Earth in our own strength before Adam sinned he didn't sweat because he wasn't acting in his own strength after he sinned he had to act in his own strength and God said to him you shall eat bread by the sweat of your brow and since then human beings have de devoted most of their time trying to figure out how to eat bread by the sweat of someone else's brow because sweating is in a manner of speaking not cool right it's not cool right well right so we didn't have commercials raise your arms if you're sure sweat is not good it's not cool but it's going to be sweat if you have to do it in your own strength right now that's important to understand so like when when Jesus in MA in Mark 4 in Mark 4 sees this fig tree that isn't doing right he doesn't send Bartholomew back to the shed to get the chainsaw does he what does he do to the tree he speaks to it now by speaking he brings into play the power of God see Jesus acted in the power of God he spoke in the power of God because he was totally aligned with the kingdom of God right now that wouldn't be good for people generally to be able to do that you can just see someone going down the street cursing the trees well probably other people would like the trees to stay there so we have to understand that when we work in the kingdom of God we work in the community of God Jesus was prepared to do that Moses had a lot of opposition but when he acted God acted with him now in Luke 16 and 19 you see discussions for example of the parable of the talents or the the money that was given and how it worked and uh uh let's see 16 is this interesting case of the so-called unjust Steward as I recall that and the language here in Luke 16 is very instructive um you remember the parable of the unjust Steward the fellow who was wasn't doing right by his boss and the boss fired him and the and the steart then found a way to help himself and help his boss so he cut deals with the people who owed the money and the boss at least got something rather than losing everything and the boss was glad for that and then the unjust Stewart at least had a possibility of a job with the people he had cut deals with now you may think that's a pretty shabby way of talking about the reality of the kingdom of God but Jesus uses real life circumstances to illustrate important points and so here he says now we're talking about ruling okay ruling because ruling is the vocation the calling of man verse 9 of Luke 16 he says make friends for yourself by means of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when it fails they may receive you into the Eternal dwellings now the friend that you're making to yourself here is God obviously so you should use money as a way of advancing God's cause that's how you rule he that is faithful in very little thing what's the very little thing money money and prayer are the two First Steps in Kingdom acting we'll come back to that later he that is faithful in very little is faithful also in much he that is in righteous in very little is unrighteous also in much see that's ruling you rule in the little things you use what you have and among the smallest things you have is money you may say that's me because you may not have much of it but if you had a lot of it it would still be the smaller things in and you would use that in a way that you advance the cause of God for good around you as you ruled in that aspect of your life now Hebrews 2 um shows us how this calling carries over in relationship to Jesus uh Hebrews 1 and 2 as you may recall is a passage where Jesus is being put in the right place uh in um the cosmos starts out the book um talking about how in times past uh God spoke to the prophets second verse in Hebrews 1 in these last days he spoken to us in his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom he also made the world now see that's standard teaching we looked at it in Colossians you can see it in John 1 and elsewhere and he is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature and he upholds all things by the word of his power so Jesus is a glorious being is what the long and short of it is much greater than the Angels but skip to chapter 2 and verse 5 of Hebrews God did not subject to Angels the world to come the future of the cosmos the one the world we're speaking about and then in those following verses you notice he goes right back and quotes Psalm 8 and that's to make the connection now between the place that God had appointed human beings to and how that relates to Jesus so he quotes Psalm 8 what is man that you remember him and so on put all things in subject into in into under his feet now that eth verse is key for understanding where we are notice what it says for in subjecting all things to him now him there is human beings not Jesus in subjecting all things to him he left nothing that was not subject to him but now we do not yet see all things subjected to him would you agree with me that as the world now runs it isn't in subjection to human beings would you even agree that it's probably a good thing right and what you know about human beings might make you hesitate to say let's just let human beings have charge of everything now that the Babel imperative is driving Humanity in that direction you understand what I'm saying there see that's what the whole thrust of research and development is among human beings but not yet and if you share my view of human beings you'd be thankful there are a few things that aren't under human control now when I was a child if someone had sell had said to me there are going to be multi-million dollar operations selling water to drink I was said you're crazy what did I know you want a bet on air so I think you might I'm glad that we do not yet see all things subjected to him and until there's a huge change in humanity I don't want to see that folks I don't want to see that next verse but we do see him now that's Jesus who has been made for a little while lower than Angels namely Jesus because of the sufferings of death crowned with Glory that he might the grace of God might taste death for everyone and see Jesus comes into the human scene and now he's going to pull them up eventually where everything can be subject to them because they're subject to God now remember what I said to you that God's intention for each of us is that we should grow to the point where he can Empower us to do what we want that's what this verse is talking about are you with me you see what I'm saying see this is the role for for the human being this is what God made them for he made them so that this whole Cosmos would turn out to be something that is subjected to God through them now Revelations 22:5 and we're done with this particular part of the lesson they shall see his face his name will be on their foreheads and there shall no longer be any night and the ey shall not have need and they shall not have need of the light of the lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God shall illumin them and they shall reign forever and ever is that talking about anyone in this room who's the they well that they is you that right they is you so Jesus said in Matthew 11 among those born of woman there's none greater than John the Baptist but anyone in the CH in the Kingdom of the heavens is greater than John the Baptist well add that to your list of things to think about when you're thinking about human nature do you know that verse should we turn to it I think maybe we'd better so look at Matthew 11 excuse me here's what he says in the 11th verse of Matthew 11 Matthew 11 111 you can remember that one truly I say to you among those born of women there has not Arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist yet he who is least in the Kingdom of the heavens that's plural by the way the kingdom of the heavens in Matthew it's always plural and that has there's an important point to that is greater than he so now what about this fellow sitting down here with the backwards cap if you met him in the hall would you be inclined to think he was greater than John the Baptist he wouldn't even think that if he met him in the hall right but on the authority of the scripture what are we to say about you can you say it greater than John greater than John the Baptist why because when you live in the Kingdom of the heavens as a disciple of Jesus you are related to something greater than John the Baptist was related to now you can quarrel with this that's up to you what you do with it but you want to keep that in the back of your mind when you're trying to think about your nature so here's here's the truth about you who you are and why you're here you are a never ceasing spiritual being with an eternal Destiny in God's Great universe can you say I am a never ceasing spiritual being with an eternal Destiny in God's Great Universe can you say that with me I am an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal Destiny and God's Great Universe could you say that to one another you you are an unceasing spiritual being Universe see this is the true Dignity of the human being this is why they were worth dying for this is why Isaiah 53 says he shall see the travail of his soul can you finish that verse and be satisfied because of that see so you're spiritual in substance you're never ceasing in duration you are ruling or creative in Destiny see your life as a spiritual being is completed only by living in and from the kingdom government of the heavens that's why Jesus is message is repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand the best way to translate that is has drawn near that was his message and you and I face the challenge are we going to preach that or are we going to preach something else and everything else that comes out of our work is going to depend on the message we preach and when we look at the church as we see it now visibly what we see is the result of the message that is preached and it isn't this one now we're going to have time to worry over this particular point tomorrow in Greater detail but I pause at this moment just to say what do we tell people what is our message dare we preach the message that Jesus preached see repent means think out think of how think about your thinking metano think about your thinking have a thought about your thoughts in the light of this new fact that the rule of God is now immediately available for you to live in immediately then you look at the gospels and you see that that's what's being presented over and over and over again people pushing their way in because they've discovered the presence of the kingdom in the presence of the King Jesus was a king right I mean that's what pilate put on his cross wasn't it why did he put it on the cross because he understood that was what was being claimed in Ephesus was it not when they come there they say those who have turned the world upside down elsewhere have come here preaching one King Jesus you don't have a King Without a kingdom and one of the deep sicknesses of our theology is that we preach a Jesus without a kingdom that's why we have a lot of Christians that believe in Jesus but don't believe in God they don't understand who Jesus was and so they don't really have confidence in God repent for the kingdom of the heavens is now available that's like walking along here with someone who knows this Auditorium and someone who doesn't the person who's looking at the building for the first time and the the one who is here says turn because the auditorium is at hand that doesn't mean it's about to come into existence and didn't quite do it it means it's there and that's what Jesus now then the whole all of the gospels are a manifestation of the presence of the Kingdom to people who will turn to Jesus we've talked some about love already just remember that to love is to to will the good of the Beloved and to know what God Wills for things then enables us to know what is them love can't be separated from God and if we're going to fulfill our role we're going to live with love for all of creation and um if you ever have time to read Jonathan Edwards old Trea us on virtue it's not long and it's a wonderful treat of love as the principle of the kingdom of God and of what we are to live in and when we come to the place where we are possessed by love then we are ready to rule if we love God with every dimension of our being now go back to our Circle diagrams that puts us into position to be a fully functioning human being for the first time human beings because they are loved by God love God and through that love others they are in a position to be a fully functioning human being for the first time and so the partial versions of love that do so much to harm life where love is confused with desire and anger results when desire is not fulfilled and so on uh that is done away with and every part of our being now love God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind with all your strength that is something that is increasingly true of us and as that personal reality of love which is God after all possesses our being it enables us to live a free and joyous life beyond legalism so we don't aim at doing the right thing we aim at being the kind of person who would do the right thing and that's the kind of person who is possessed by love and who loves indiscriminately with everything they come in contact and we fulfill the law because we're that way and then that's where the teaching about perfect love casting out fear uh takes hold we are able to live without fear because we know we are loved by God and that we love God and through God we love others and that provokes others towards love of us now they may be so messed up that they won't but generally speaking they will love those who are possessed by love and so they come to the place because where they can live without fear because they are secure in the love of God and they themselves are loving others in contrast give you here a line from CS Lewis's again if man is made ultimate causal force will eventually Rule and thereby abolish Humanity by making everything subject to the thrust of Desire the desires of some few who are able to gain the upper hand by force and if you've never read CS Lewis's abolition of man I do encourage you in the context of the discussions today to read it because he had absolutely prophetic insight into the meaning of the bab imperative that it meant to abolish human beings as Free People devoted to good through love and replace them with people who are under domination of um uh people other people who live only in terms of their own desires so the Divine conspiracy then is God's aim to defeat this Dreadful declen from God's world and God's kingdom by bringing out a world and history-wise community of people who have the character and power of Jesus Christ himself human nature is built for that the nature we have is built to become like Christ to live in the kingdom of God and the process of spiritual growth is the process of doing that