Address—A. Roach
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Return to 1St Thessalonians chapter five, First Thessalonians 5 and verse 23. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also.
Will do it. In the 8th Psalm there is a question raised, what is man? And that's the subject on our hearts tonight. We want to see what the word of God tells us man is. Now I know in the 8th Psalm it has a little different connection. David looking at the heavens, he says, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou has to obtain.
What is man without visitors to him?
Is looking at the greatness of creation and he says how can a God with such mighty power well how could he have anything to do with puny man but I want to ask that question tonight and a little different connection what is man what how what is man what does man consist of now you know we're living in a day when all kinds of supposed scientific theories about man that he evolved from lower creatures and that he's on the.
This sort of thing. But the word of God alone tells us what man is.
And we have right in this verse that we read tonight three things that everyone of us here tonight possesses. It says Spirit.
Soul and body.
Spirit and soul are the unseen parts of our being. The body is self-evident that it's the spirit and the soul that control our thoughts and the actions of our body. And so we see here then there are these three things that man has. Now the animals we may see from some other scriptures we may refer to.
The animals do not have a spirit. Now the spirit in man.
Connects us with God, that is, the Spirit gives us the consciousness of God. The soul turns us inward and makes us conscious of ourselves. The body makes contact, it gives us world consciousness. And that we see these three things here. And the apostles desire with the Thessalonians was that their whole man might be preserved.
Blameless here unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember a dear brother used to say this. He said if your spirit is kept, your soul will be kept, and if the soul is kept, the body will be kept. And so I believe, as we'll see from Scripture, that the spirit connects us with thoughts of God that the lower animals do not have. You know, in the so-called scientific world, they speak of a missing link.
Well, one of the greatest missing links is this, that your dog and cat and any monkey you can look at doesn't have a spirit.
As a living sorrow, Genesis show that they were living soul, that a spirit is a different thing as we'll see as we go through. No animals show any religious attitude that you go down to darkest Africa or the darkest parts of the world where man is low and degraded. No matter how degraded he is, what does he have? He has a God consciousness that makes him worship an idol. He doesn't know the true God, so he worships a stone.
Spanish or he worshipped some glorified image. Why is it that men everywhere, even in in the hedonism, have something that they set before them as an object of worship? You never saw the highest type of of of monkeys that apes get together. You never saw a group of chimpanzees get together and have a religious meeting. They have no consciousness of God but what we have here.
The believer, I mean, not only the believer, but man as such.
Spirit, and that spirit makes him realize he's got to do with God, whether he wants to do it with the true God or not. And so he makes up for that with his idolatry or some other object. But he's got a conscious evenly infidel. Why is he so about and denying God? Because the Spirit gives him consciousness that there is a God. Man never becomes infidel in the conscience.
He only becomes infidel in his intellect. Romans one bears that out. And so I'd like to notice tonight.
Several scriptures. First, we want to notice several scriptures that bring out the three parts of man's being.
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And then to notice other scriptures that show the action of the spirit, the action of the soul, and the place the body has in in the in God scheme here. Now notice again your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless. Now let's go over to Hebrews 4 for our next scripture. Hebrews 4.
And verse 12 for the Word of God.
Is quick or living, and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and as of the sailor, of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now we get the same tripod of being of man. Here we have the soul mentioned, we have the spirit mentioned, and we have the body.
The joints and marrow. So here again we have the threefold being of man. I might make this remark by way of contrast. When we come to the Godhead, we have Trinity, absolute Trinity. That is, there are three persons in unity and harmony, three separate persons in one Godhead. But with us it's not three persons, it's three parts. That's why I believe if my own soul, the word Trinity can only be.
Applied to the Godhead, but triunity could apply to God too, because there were three Persons. But man is a Tri unity. He has three parts, all united together in one. The Trinity is another thing. There we have the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and there are three Persons and their wills. Another clash. Everything is in harmony. If the Father wants to send the Son, the Son says, Lo, I come, and then he offers Himself through the eternal Spirit we.
Multiply examples from Scripture. The absolute unity of thought and action in the Trinity. But now with us it's different. We are one person, but three parts and we get that here. Notice another thing that the Word of God is able to divide asunder, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. Oh, it's a marvelous thing when the Word of God is ministered in the power of the spirit. Take an unsaved person, He comes.
Gospel meeting and the Word of God reaches down, reaches down into a soul.
Stars as affections reaches down into a spirit, and stars as conscience.
You know, the Lord in the fourth of John, that's what he did with that woman. God was a giving God, but then the woman was a Sinner. And so the Lord first shows God as a giving God that reached her soul, and then he speaks to her conscience. And that's where I believe the action of the Spirit comes in. The Word of God is able to sever, it's able as A2 edged sword to cut both ways toward the soul and toward the Spirit. And I believe when a person is really converted.
That has to happen if only our affections are reached with Stony ground here is that if our conscience is brought in, then that there can be conversion, they can be salvation. So that two edged sword plunged into the heart as it were, cuts toward the soul and toward the Spirit. And so we see them. We have again, in addition to 1St Thessalonians, we have the Scripture in Hebrews 4 to show.
These three things now one other scripture before we look at the individual parts of our being.
In first the first chapter of Luke, first chapter of Luke and verse.
Those 46.
And Mary said.
My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior, and her body gave expression to it.
So here we have the triunity again. Notice the order in which she speaks. She says my soul the magnify the Lord. There's worship. Notice that worship here is connected with what went on in her soul. Her soul was filled with this joy that the Lord had brought into it. And she says my soul magnify the Lord. Feelings and emotions go with the souls. We I trust we'll see from other scriptures. But notice when she speaks to the Spirit.
In the past tense she says my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. That was a transaction once and for all. It was the Spirit illuminating her. And she said, My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Well, what was the result? Her soul. My soul doth magnify the Lord. All that we can learn from this. Beloved brethren, there was a time in our lives when we came to Christ, when our soul.
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Rejoiced in God, our Savior. But now what is the state of soul? Are we worshippers? Is our soul so filled with that Christ who died for us?
That we're worshippers. Mary brings in both here, first the what she was enjoying at the moment, and that which had been brought to her home, to her conscience before my soul. Death magnify the Lord. Oh, it's a wonderful thing to go on in our Christian lives, magnifying the Lord. A happy Christian is one.
Who was walking with the Lord? Can two walk together? Except they be agreed and all they walk together. And we were in agreement with Christ as to the Father. We were in agreement with the Father as to the Son. Fellowship with the Father and with the Son. What a path we've been called into. And so we can be worshippers as Mary was with a full of truth revealed today. Now let's go over. We want to take up the Spirit first. That's the order. Have you ever noticed?
One finds oneself doing it to that. Well, whatever we mentioned the three parts of man's being, we always say body, soul and spirit.
Invariably we hear it that way and say it that way, but Scripture says spirit, soul and body.
The Spirit is that basic and most important part of our being. And I believe when man fell, when he sinned, that was where the dullness came in and where where man fell. And of course he got a conscience through God's mercy. That was a mercy in itself. But let's turn over to 1St Corinthians 2 to see something about the Spirit as to its function and what it does.
1St Corinthians 2 and verse 11.
What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God, and notices the distinction. There's the Spirit of God here, but there's the spirit of man.
The spirit of man knows the things of a man. It's our human spirit. It knows the things of man, whether it be within what, what I have within or men come forth with some learning or teaching. I have a spirit that in principle is able to apprehend that, able to understand it and believe it. I mentioned I referred to the Scripture simply to show how the spirit is connected here with.
The intelligence now in Romans 8, we read.
Our spirit witnessing with his Spirit that we are the children of the sons of God or the children of God. His spirit witnesses with our spirit. That is, it's through the the Holy Spirit teaching that our spirit joins into that. And we see we own the place that God has given us and we cry our Father. And so we see in this passage that intelligence is related to the spirit of man.
Now let's go. Go to the Old Testament. I trust our brethren won't mind turning their Bibles. You know, I I've often thought of it this way.
There are certain truths in Scripture that you won't find in one paragraph or one chapter. God has given us his book in such a way as to encourage diligence and searching through. And so there are many truths that permeate that go through the whole Scripture. And it isn't like a Sears Roebuck catalog that you can turn to in the back and find out where all the household goods are mentioned. Turn to that page. It's all there. No, the Bible isn't written that way. It's written for us to be diligent and.
Tonight we may have to turn to several scriptures, and I trust we don't mind using our Bibles in that way. Suppose we turn to Job 32. Job 32.
And verse 8.
But there is a spirit.
In man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding in principle. This is almost what we had there in first Corinthians 2. Man's spirit and then the God manifesting to man. But notice what Allah who brings out here. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
Now I'm I'm going to reiterate this. This is an important thing that nowhere does it say there's a spirit in the animals.
And the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them wisdom. The animals and man are widely separated. I remember dear brother HE Hayle used to use a very graphic illustration to show the difference between an animal and and a man with regard to what is religious. I remember him at a Montreal conference years ago. He says if you took a cow into the greatest cathedral in this city, so that would that.
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Cathedral would mean nothing more to that cow than the barn.
The coward know any religious feelings whatsoever, but he said if you took a drunken man in there, he'd have some census is supposed to be God's house and you'd have some kind of a reverential fear. And I believe that illustrates clearly what we have in mind here, that man has a spirit and it's through that spirit that God communicates to him. Whereas the animals, it's an entirely different thing. It says in the animals that there are natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed.
Not made to be taken and tortured, but destroyed and in the full and final sense. Here we get then that there was a spirit in man. Now let's go over to the 35th chapter for an interesting verse.
Verse 11. Well, we read verse 10.
But none said, Where is God my maker, who give us songs in the night?
Who teacheth us more than the beast of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven? Now, you know, a man is wiser than the fowls of heaven. He can lay a trap and catch them, and he knows more than the beast. He can catch them too. But I don't believe that's a thought here. What he's, what he's bringing out here is the vast difference between the knowledge that God gives to man by means of the Spirit.
Than what the animals possess they go by instinct. And here we find that he says, who teacheth us more than the beast of the earth. Oh, where does the theory of evolution fit in here? You know, if it would, every instance you read about it, it seems very quite ridiculous. You know, I might just make this side remark. I understand that. The giraffe with that long neck.
When that giraffe bends over to take a drink of water.
There's a stop valve in its heart that shuts down the flow of blood.
Because if it didn't that the giraffe would get, well, we might say apoplexy. But when the giraffe lifts its head up again, then the flow of blood continues as before. Now, how could the giraffe have ever evolved? He could never have gotten a drink of water until this thing evolved. He would have died of thirst. And if he didn't, if he didn't have that valve, and then he would have died of a of a blood hemorrhage in the brain. And so they say, we say that's just an example of how.
Foolish and ridiculous it is to think that man ever came from the animals. Well, here we get then that he teacheth us more than the beast of the earth. Now what were the Proverbs 20 and verse 27?
The spirit of man.
Is the candle of the Lord.
Searching all the inward parts of the belly, man comes to a gospel meeting. The word of God strikes down. He begins a feelings in the presence of God. God is dealing with him not simply through his soul, but through his spirit. The candle, the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. Now we we read in Luke's gospel how that woman, she took the candle and saked it all through the house.
Well, here God uses that light. He brings that light right down into our hearts. The search.
And so again we see that man's spirit is connected with intelligence, with God, consciousness rather than emotions. We'll see later to it's connected with death as well as the soul is connected with death. Well, why, we may as well go over to Ecclesiastes now for another verse.
Please ask these eight.
And his remarkable statement. I'd like to connect this with the Blessed Lord on the Cross too.
Please ask these 88 There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit. Neither have the power on the day of death.
And there is no discharge in that war, neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. There is no man that has power over the spirit. Now we're going to see how the spirit is related to death. The body without the spirit is dead, as well as without the soul. We have other scriptures for that. But notice here it says no man hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit.
There was only one man.
That ever died in this world, who had power over the Spirit in the day of death, and he released the spirit.
Jacob. Moses was told to go up in the mountain and die. So was Aaron and another occasion.
We need read of Jacob. When the time came he was going to die, he got into his bed, pulled his feet up into the bed, and he and he gave up the ghost, not because he gave it up of his own volition. It was the time for him to die, as it was with Aaron and with Moses, but when the Lord Jesus died.
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I'm going to be far particularly to what it says in Matthew and in John. Now the words in Matthew and in John where it speaks of him giving up the ghost are words of authority. Mark and Luke is different. Just use the word expired. That might apply to anyone, but in Matthew, the Messiah in full power, he delivers up voluntarily his spirit. In John it goes even further. It's a different word again. And he he didn't, he commits.
He delivers it over to someone else. It's a word that means delivering over to someone else.
And so we see it. A Luke brings that out by saying, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. Here is the only man that had power in the day of death, and he did not choose to retain the spirit. In love for you and me, He dismissed the spirit.
But notice this also, He bowed his head first. The Lord Jesus didn't die and then draw his head droop. In John's Gospel we see his full authority and and his power of all circumstances, and he bowels his head. Then he dismisses the Spirit. Now those thieves, they were their heads with a drop from sheer exhaustion. Not so the blessed Lord.
And so we see again, coming down to ourselves when the day of death comes.
Not one can retain the spirit, and neither has he power on the day of death. Now let's go over to James James two and see how that's applied in the New Testament. James 2.
And verse 26.
For as the body without thee or without a spirit is dead.
So faith without works is dead also. Now we see the relation of the spirit to death. We're going to see the later on the soul is related to that too. Here James says the the body without a spirit is dead. So in the in the gospel of Luke when the Lord Jesus comes to Jairus house, his 12 year old daughter is lying dead.
What does it tell us there? It said the Lord Jesus went in, He's told to arise. And it says her Spirit came into her again.
James says without the Spirit you're dead. Now the Lord shows that in resurrection the Spirit comes back again. And so that's what we're waiting for. Those who have gone on before, those who are dead in Christ, what will happen when the Lord comes? The spirit and the soul will return again. And of course there'll be a new body involved too. And so we see then that the spirit is related then to man's intelligence before God is conscience.
And also now related here to death. Now let's go over to Genesis. We'll take up the soul. Now briefly, Genesis chapter 2.
Genesis 2 and verse 7.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became.
A living soul. Now, just so that we're clear on this, let's go over to the first chapter in verse 24.
Have the animals involved. God said let the earth bring forth the living souls that should read after his kind, cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind. And it was so. So the lower animals are called living souls. But notice the difference here. God has makes man as a special work.
He takes the the clay, the earth and the dust of the ground, and he forms the man.
And he doesn't say as he does with the animals, bring forth, come alive. God breathe directly into man's nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul. Not just the living soul in the sense the animals were, but man has a soul that is immortal. Immortal because in the 12Th of Luke, you'll find that after the body is killed, God can still cast the soul.
Hell, the soul still is still there. Man cannot destroy the soul. They cannot touch it, but they can put to death. They can put the body to death, but they cannot do that with the soul. So what we get here is man became a living soul. And I repeat that, that the only thing mortal that you and I have with us is our body. And the only thing that's ever called mortal is our body. Romans 6, Romans 8.
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Our moral bodies.
We get in both those places. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, and with his spirit will quicken our mortal body. We'd be quickened by our mortal bodies, will be quickened by his spirit which is in us. So we see that the soul is never said to be mortal. Only the body is said to be mortal. It's the only thing that's ever laid away. Now we get the we would like to turn. I'd like to turn to First Samuel 18 now to see what the soul, what the exercises of the soil are.
First Samuel 18 and verse one.
And it came to pass when he had made an end of Speaking of the soul.
That the soul of Jonathan was knit.
With the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Notice in this passage there are affections, not intelligence. There was intelligence in Jonathan recognizing what David had done. Jonathan saw this young lad go down into the valley, and he saw him go down there and win that great victory against the giant, against Goliath.
And Jonathan knew that that victory was for him.
And what was the result? He loved David as his own soul. It's related to the soul of both those statements. Jonathan loved him. The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. The affections were there. Let me pause in in the line of thought here and ask ourselves, have we seen our David go down into the valley of Eli? Have we recognized in our souls that wonderful work of Calvary that the Lord Jesus?
Went down to the dark valley of Elah on the cross, and there forever broke Satans power. You know, I don't believe that the valley of Elah and Davide victory there represents the temptation in the wilderness because Goliath never came back after the temptation in the wilderness, the devil did come back. I believe that that stone that was, that came from that slain.
That struck the giant and killed him.
That that brings us to Hebrews 2. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******. The victory in the valley of Elah was final, the victory in the wilderness. Temptation in one sense was not. It showed the Lords power over Satan. But Satan's power was not broken until you get to the cross. And so one is thought of it this way, that those 5 stones.
If we think of them in connection with the five books of Moses, David could have taken anyone of those stones to make any difference. Because in Genesis you get the death of Christ able sacrifice. In Exodus you get the death of Christ, the Passover lamb. In Leviticus you get the death of Christ, the burnt offering and the sin offering and all the other offerings. In Numbers you get the the red heifer, the heifer, there's the death of Christ again.
And so on. And then and Deuteronomy.
We have that heifer that's killed in a rough valley over running water so that the death of Christ is in each of those five books. So David didn't have to study which stone to take because it was the death, the value of the death of Christ that when when the victory. And so he just takes the stone out of the bag and and wins the victory. And so I believe that we have the the Jonathan seeing that he sees what David had done for him and his heart's affection go out.
All truly we can say, can we not? We love.
Because he first loved us, we couldn't even love the brethren. We couldn't love the Lord except Christ had not first loved us. Although I believe really in the passage is the Father. It's a Father who loved us. And so we we see here that the soul is connection with love. And I believe it's a good thing to love those things that God loves, that Christ loves. Now let's go over the second Samuel.
I think it's a fifth chapter, Second Samuel chapter 5.
Now David have been crowned king, admitted king rather, and in verse six. And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hit her thinking David cannot come in hit her. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion the same as the city of.
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David and David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter and smite of the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind that are hated of Davidde soul, he shall be chief and captain.
So on. Now instead of love coming from the soul, we find this hatred there too. Our emotions are wrapped up with our soul. So how important it is to be under the power and authority of the Word of God so that we love what Christ loves and hate what He hates, not hate one another. Paul tells the those in his epistle to Titus he speaks of that we were hateful and hating one another. Well now the grace of God comes in and saves them.
What are we going to do now? Our love to our brethren, but hatred towards sin? In the letter to Ephesus in Revelation One, the Lord credits the Ephesians Saints with hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which thing I also hate.
Now the Lord can hate, He hates evil. And so if we're in the mind of God, the current of His thoughts through the precious Word, we will hate from the depths of our soul that which is contrary to His thoughts and will, making allowance and love for the persons who may be guilty. You know, we have to distinguish, we think of some souls who are going on in a wretched way. We may hate thoroughly the evil are going on with, but at the same time our soul can love them.
And seek in every way to bring the grace of God before them so that those things will be taken away. So the same soul that can love can also hate. We get that here now. Our time is going. We might turn over to Job 14.
Job 14.
Now we learn something else. Verse 22. Joel 1422.
But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn, Mourn, give him mourn. You have a loved one taken away. Never had a sad occurrence in your in your Christian pathway.
Well, we mourn, the apostle speaks of.
The sorrow not as others which have no hope. Those Thessalonians had relatives who had died and they were sorrowful about it. What causes the sorrow? The separation. Even if I know my loved one is going to be with Christ, that's wonderful to know that, but that is what will comfort me. What will comfort me of these words of Christ is coming again and we're going to be reunited. That's what the force of First Thessalonians is, comfort one another of these words. What words that Christ is going to come from heaven.
And he's going to raise your loved ones and you're going to be brought together. And so the morning will cease. You know, there's another sense. We need not turn to it. But in Matthew it says, blessed are they which mourn, for they shall be comforted. I believe the mourning there is those have a sense in their souls.
How everything around about is dishonouring to the Lord. You know, Paul speaks of us. We have the face roots of the Spirit. We groan within ourselves. We're going to groan in creation. We're in a scene that's contrary to the God that's sent his Son to save us. And so this morning, don't we mourn as we see the name of Christ dragged down, we see wickedness abounding on every hand. Well, those that mourn in that way are going to be comforted because God is going to.
Millennial Kingdom and he's going to purge Christ the purge out of his Kingdom. All things that offend and so that's related to his appearing but so we see then that the soul mourns its connection with with mourning. Now let's go to the 23rd of Joel and the 13th verse that he is in one mind and who can turn him and what his sole desireth even that he doeth.
For a perform of the thing that is appointed for me, so forth. Here we find desire.
And in Deuteronomy it says, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after desire, lust, hatred, love, these are things that have their seat in the soul. And here is who can turn him. Here's a one mind who can turn him for what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. You know that's how we were in our unconverted days. You know, everything our soul desired. We were thinking only of a soul thinking of our own.
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Just like that man in the 12Th of Luke, who could say sorrow us much goods laid up for many years, eat, drink, eat and be married. He didn't even say tomorrow we die. He left that out. That was part of the Epicurean saying. He just says eat and be married. And So what happened this night thy soul shall be required of thee. That man was holding nothing back from his soul's desire. The same way with a rich man in the 16th of Luke. He felt sumptuously every day.
There wasn't a thing he he could could deny himself. He had the means that to supply it and everything is sold as I had after but now we're saved. Not only we know Christ, what desires that we have now what's desires to our souls now all I believe the most important one of all is to be obedient to his will cost what it may it will cost you and me something.
If you're going to be obedient to the Lord, you know.
I know it was in a little different connection, but Barack said the Barack in the book of numbers, he said to Balaam, the Lord has kept me from promotion. You know, the Christian sometimes is faithful on the job and they they don't want to promote him in too high a position. You know, he he brings the religion into it, you know, and so sometimes the lab will keep you from promotion. But the main thing is what does our sole desire is it to do the will of God.
Or is it to please myself? The soul desires the soul lusteth the soul.
Lusted. And so we get that here, the desire. Let's turn over to Matthew 10, to the New Testament now.
To the 10th of Matthew and verse 28.
We're going to find again, this is the voice I would refer to in Luke 12, but here we have its counterpart in Matthew 10, verse 28.
Feel not them which kill the body that are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body.
In Hell or Gehenna Lake of Fire, notice that the body can be killed, but the soul cannot. This is an important thing. Here's a scripture that shows the immortality of the soul. It shows that the body can be killed, but the soul is not killed. It tells us here.
Rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now destroy here does not mean putting out of existence.
Or to use another word, it does not mean annihilation. Now the same word that we have here for destroyed is the same word in the original for the word lost, the sheet that was lost. I'm not a Greek scholar, but I looked it up. I found that the word Apollo me and it means lost is in the 15th of loop. Does that mean the sheep was annihilated? No, the shepherd went out and found it. So when it says that he's able to destroy.
Both soul and body in hell. It does not mean that that is the ceasing to exist.
Destruction does not mean annihilation, and one is often illustrated in this simple way. Here we have a table. Now I might take an axe or a saw and cut off those legs. I've destroyed it as a table, but the material is still there. But as a table is destroyed.
That God made man upright, He made man as his creature to be the one to worship him and serve him. And these who have sinned against him will find their way in hell, the purpose for which they were made and brought into beings. In that sense, there's destruction, but it does not mean ceasing to exist, or there'd be no, there could be no resurrection. Now let's go over to Genesis 35. We want to see the connection of the soul with death.
Just as we saw the Spirit, the connection of the Spirit.
Genesis 35 and here we have Rachel Jacobs wife.
They're giving birth to Benjamin and in verse 18 it says it came to pass as her soul wasn't departing before she died.
That she called his name Banana, but his father called him Benjamin.
Notice in James we had the body without the spirit is dead. Now we learn that upon death, not only does the spirit depart, but the soul departs that unseen part of man which is so intricately linked together in some way that's beyond our comprehension, that when death comes in, the spirit is gone, the soul is gone, and so here when she dies.
I don't know for Satan, but I believe in most places where.
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Soul is associated with death. It has to do with the actual condition of death itself when the spirit is brought in as intelligence. The Lord Jesus didn't say, Father into thy hand I commend my soul. He says into thy hand I commend my spirit. Yet in another place He could say, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades. I believe scripture is more accurate than we often give it credit, and I not that one can understand every passage where these differences occur, but here we see in her case.
Soul and it says it came to pass as her soul was in departing for she died.
Now first Kings 17. Here we have the death of a young a young child.
And the days of Elijah and the mother of the child cries after Elijah in verse 20.
Of 17th chapter and in verse 21, he, that is Elijah, stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord, and said, Oh Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
Now we notice before that when Jarrah's daughter was raised, her spirit came into it. Here the child's soul comes into him. Now we we, we can put these scriptures together. We know that the soul and spirit do not act independently. That one we can release, 1 can be released and the other not. Not in resurrection. We come back to that again in resurrection body.
Soul and spirit, spirit, soul and body, whatever order we put it in will be reunited. Those who have died in Christ, the soul and spirit are in heaven. They're with with Christ.
Glory all apart from mortality. They'll never have to do with mortality again. They're they're gone. They're out of a scene where death exercises its power and they've been introduced into one where it has no power. And so that their body still in the grave. What are they waiting for in heaven? Or they're waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus, when the whole man will be reunited here the soul comes back into the body.
And the child revived.
Now we've noticed thus far then the spirit and the soul, perhaps it may seem unnecessary to even talk about the body because we know quite a bit about that. We know about his aches and pains and his, his shortcomings, and that is a body of humiliation. But Scripture speaks of it. Let's go over to 2nd Corinthians 12, Second Corinthians 12 and here is this is a very important principle here too in this chapter.
The apostle says in verse two, I knew a man in Christ.
About 14 years ago.
Whether in the body, I cannot tell.
Or whether out of the body I cannot tell. God know it. Such a man caught up to the 3rd heaven, and I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth Twice the apostle says that what do we find here? That man, man's being here, can be separated from his body.
Forces, whether in the body or whether out of the body, I can't tell, but he was there. He was consciously in the presence of God.
I personally believe for myself that in one way Paul experienced the death of a believer in this passage.
In heaven it was in the body out of the body. Oh, I believe that he what he heard there when he wrote to the Philippians, ladies is having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is very far better or it heard things unspeakable there, but he had the experience, whether in the body or out of the body. Again I point out that our spirit and soul are seen as can be separated from the body. The body only gives us outward identification here and.
World Consciousness.
As we say now, we turn over it back to Joe, if you don't mind. Job 33. Some of these things we don't even need scriptures for in one sense, but it's good to have the word of God before us.
Job 33.
And verse 19.
He just chastened also with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain, so that his life abhorrent bread and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out. And so we have man here.
Seen as chasing with pain, what is it that feels the pain? The spirit and the soul?
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The body, it's the body that's subject to pain. When man fell, when man sinned and he brought everything into the world connected with sin, pain, suffering, and death. But think of what the blessed Savior, the one who upon whom death had no claim, the holy sinless One, When you read the 22nd Psalm and you read there those sufferings.
I may tell all my bones.
And he speaks of being out of bones, being out of joint, and the pain and anguish and suffering that the blessed Lord passed through. Who can measure that pain and suffering that the Lord Jesus in that human sinless body passed through for you and from me on that cross I sink in deep mild, that there is no standing. The water floods overflow me. He speaks of that too. And in Hebrews he speaks of His.
Body, a body. Has thou prepared me? Think about that holy sinless body that is the babe in the Manger, and that is the one who sat at Psychos well to bless that poor woman, and the one of the Man of Gethsemane, and finally the Man of the Cross.
I shouldn't say finally, because he also was a man that rose from the toll and the Son of man in glory head of the church. So here we see them that Joe brings in the fact of pain related to the body. Now let's go over to the New Testament just for a final scripture. You want to end in a note of joy and blessedness. There are many other scriptures about the body but.
It is a passage in Philippians 3 that I must like to notice. Philippians 3.
And verse 20.
For our conversation is in heaven from once also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body. All we know it the correct reading is our body of humiliation, that it may be fashion like unto His body of glory.
According to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself. All that a change awaits us our body of humiliation. Think over the day.
All the effort we have to spend on the body, we wash it, we feed it, we give it rest, give it transportation. Almost everything we do has some relation to sustaining the body. That's about it. Humiliation. Even if some of the younger ones don't have the pains or drawbacks and some of the older ones have, still it's a body of humiliation. And think of how that body deteriorates and how.
He's a man. He's in the prime of youth.
He's strong and he can run the race, you know, and then he gets older and he has a hard time getting up and out of a chair into an into a chair and out of it. What a body of humiliation. We have another cast is the more on the Lord. I realize and I'm sure that the Lord allows things to happen to our bodies to cast us more upon him. But he is a coming day. Why does it say we look for the Savior?
Paul, didn't you know the Philippians are already saved? They've already got the Savior. So have you.
What are you looking for the Savior for? Ah, the Savior of the body here. It's the Savior of the body trying to hold our place here. And look at Romans 8. That just occurs to me. Romans 8 and and Rose 23 and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the face roots of the Spirit, even we ourselves learned within ourselves.
Waiting for the adoption to whip the redemption of our body.
For we are saved by hope, our own hope. That hope that is seen is not hope for what a man see if why don't he yet hoped for that? If we hopeful that we see not, then that we will patience wait for it. What is it that that we see not the redemption of the body. We still we still have the have a body that's subject to, as we already pointed out, the pain and ailment. But here the apostle says we're waiting.
Adoption to what? The redemption of our body now the work that the work has already been done on the cross.
But the redemption of the body is future. Now the apostle Peter distinguishes that in his first epistle. He says receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. That is, Peter says, you've got the salvation of your souls. Paul let's us know here we haven't got the salvation of our bodies. Or this may be a little amusing in a way, but I remember a dear old Christian man in New York years ago, someone came up to him shouting, I've got full salvation.
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And that we know it was one of those sites, you know that.
They get excited about things and the asking of their saved eternally. They don't they don't believe that, but they've got all kinds of miracles. Full salvation. Most Christian man knew. He says he said you've got full salvation. He said what do you wear? What did you get false teeth for? He got false teeth. If you got full salvation. You see, when we get full salvation, our bodies are not going to have any of the marks of sin or deterioration that we have down here. And so when the apostle says we look for the Savior.
Savior of the body, the one who's going to change our bodies. And as it says, he had noticed how wonderful this is. He's going to take the body of humiliation and fashion it like unto his own body of glory. Christ is glorified in heaven. Back in Corinthians and another connection, if we want to see the glory of God, we look up and see it in the face of Jesus Christ. He's glorified in heaven. And that's one thing in that chapter. Satan doesn't want the people of the world to know that.
Glorified Savior in heaven, but we know it, we have it according to the Word and so here it's looking for the Savior and he will change our body of humiliation. Fashion it like that. His own body of glory according to what? According to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. When Christ comes in glory, He's going to subdue the whole creation.
There's going to be the putting down of all that offend. He will purge out of his Kingdom all things that offend.
By his power He subdued the whole scene. But when does He first use that power to subdue everything in you and me? That would be contrary to that place up there? He uses that power on us 1St And he has the power to subdue all things unto himself, and he's going to take us there in in accordance with those wonderful purposes of God, and which the cross of Calvary is the foundation of our blessing. So let us remember that spirit, soul, and.
May we be preserved as the apostle prayed, be preserved in our souls as we await his coming.