The part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is there in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, where
the Bible reads,
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
And the title of my sermon this morning is Spirit and Soul and Body.
Spirit and Soul and Body.
Now we as human beings are made up of spirit and soul and body, and Paul here is praying
that their whole spirit and soul and body would be preserved blameless.
Now let's go to Hebrews chapter 4, just a few pages to the right in your Bible.
And I'm going to make several statements this morning.
Point number one is, human beings are made up of spirit and soul and body.
That's pretty obvious when we look at scriptures like this and when we study our Bibles, that
these three components are there, spirit and soul and body.
Now there are some people who would say that there's no difference between the soul and
the spirit, but obviously the Bible tells us that there is a difference between the
two.
Look at Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, for the word of God is quick 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 is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are
naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
So from this verse we can see that the word of God separates between soul and spirit.
They must be very difficult to distinguish.
They must be very closely connected, otherwise God would not have used this as an illustration
for just how sharp the word of God is.
What he's saying is, you would have to have a very sharp instrument indeed in order to
sever soul from spirit.
If they were very distinct and very different and very easy to differentiate, then you could
just use a butter knife or a spoon or a hacksaw.
But he says, no, no, you'd need something ultra sharp.
The word of God is sharp enough to get in there with precision and actually differentiate
between the soul and the spirit.
So we see that number two, the spirit and the soul are not the same thing, although
they are very closely connected.
Now let me just start out.
You can flip back to Genesis chapter 2.
Let me just start out this morning by giving you a really basic explanation of the body,
soul and spirit.
What's the difference between the body, the soul and the spirit?
Well, this is the way I like to explain it and I think that this is one of the best ways
to understand it on a basic level, is that our body is that which interacts with the
physical world.
We taste things, we touch things, we hear things, we smell things, so our body is just
that which is physical and interacts with the physical world.
The soul would be that which relates to and interacts with our fellow man.
This is human to human contact dealing primarily with the soul.
And then we've got the spirit which is that which interacts with God.
So that's just kind of a quick way, a little bit of an oversimplification of just saying
that the body interacts with the physical world.
The soul is that which interacts with one another and the spirit is that which interacts
with God.
And that's an oversimplification but it just kind of helps you get your mind in the right
place to understand these truths.
Now when we say the spirit is that part of us which interacts with God, this is that
spiritual part of us.
I believe that this would also include the conscience, the sense of right and wrong and
also the desire for religion or the desire to seek after God.
These are all that part of man which is known as the spirit.
Now let's look at the first mention of soul in the Bible.
Look at Genesis chapter 2 verse 7.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life and man became a living soul.
Now let's start out by talking about the soul.
We're talking about the spirit and soul and body but let's talk about the soul first of
all.
One thing that can often confuse people when reading the Bible and they look at the approximately
500 times that the soul is mentioned is that often the word soul in the Bible is referring
to the whole person.
So there are just a lot of verses in the Bible where when we say soul we're not just referring
to that part of the person which is the soul but we're actually referring to the entire
person.
Now this is a literary device known as synecdoche.
Who's ever heard that term before?
Synecdoche.
Remember that from elementary school English class?
I do.
But anyway this is where you use part of something to refer to the whole thing.
Let me give you some examples of this.
Hey man nice wheels.
What do I mean by that?
Am I just talking about the wheels?
No I'm talking about the whole car right?
Somebody pulls up in a new car nice wheels.
Hey somebody gets some new clothes?
Nice threads man right?
Or how about this?
Get your backside over here.
We actually want the whole person to come over don't we?
So this is synecdoche.
How about this?
Somebody's playing strings or the string section.
It's not just the strings right?
There's a whole instrument there but you could sometimes refer to something by just referring
to the part and you actually mean the whole thing.
This is often used in regard to the soul.
Let me just give you some concrete examples.
First of all the Bible says man became a living soul.
That's obviously talking about the whole person.
But what about when Abraham, I'm just going to blast through a bunch of these examples
really quickly.
You'll probably think of more.
What about when Abraham in Genesis 12 leaves Haran and it says that it was Abraham and
Sarah and Lot and all the souls that they've gotten at Haran.
They're not just collecting just souls.
Those are people right?
The souls that they got at Haran.
Or what about in Genesis 19 when Lot wants to flee into Zoar and he says behold now this
city is near to flee unto and it's a little one.
Oh let me escape thither.
Isn't it a little one?
And my soul shall live.
He didn't mean just the soul's going to live.
He's saying I'm going to live when he says my soul shall live.
What about Esau when he says hey eat of my venison that thy soul may bless me.
What about when it says the soul that sinneth it shall die.
It's not just saying that the soul itself will die.
It's saying that that person will die.
If you get the context it's talking about physical death.
It's talking about people being put to death punished on this earth.
And he says the soul that sinneth it shall die.
It just means that person.
And we can go on and on and on.
We also use this in our vernacular.
We say hey don't tell a soul.
What do we mean by that?
Just don't tell anybody.
So this is where some people get confused is that the soul is part of us.
It's part of that trichotomy of body, soul, and spirit.
But the soul can also be used to refer to the whole person.
So that's where we got to make sure we don't get confused.
Point number four, and if you would you're already in Genesis go over to Genesis 35.
Point number four is that upon death, upon physical death, the soul and the spirit both
depart the body.
So here's what we've learned so far.
Number one, human beings are made up of spirit, soul, and body.
Number two, the spirit and the soul are not the same thing, although they are very closely
connected.
Number three, the soul can often refer to the person in general, not just that part
of them which is the soul.
Why is that?
Well I believe it's because the soul is the most intrinsic part of us.
So therefore it's often used as a representative of the whole.
But number four, the soul and the spirit both depart at death.
Look at Genesis 35, 18, and it came to pass as her soul was in departing, for she died,
that she called his name Benoni, but his father called him.
Benjamin, this is clearly talking about that part of a person which is the soul, because
it talks about the soul departing the body because she died, right?
So we see that the soul departs the body.
Well in James 2, 26, we read, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is dead also.
So when a person dies, the spirit departs the body.
It says they gave up the ghost, but here in Genesis 35, it also says that her soul departed.
So both the soul and the spirit depart at death, and you're left with just a body.
Another verse that makes this clear is Matthew 10, 28, fear not them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell.
So when someone kills someone, they're not killing the soul, they're only killing the
body.
Why?
Because the soul and the spirit depart at death.
Also Revelation 6, 9, we see when the fifth seal is opened, John sees under the altar
the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony of his
help.
Why?
Because they have not yet been bodily resurrected, but their soul is where?
It's in heaven, under the altar in heaven.
So we see the soul and the spirit, remember closely connected, it takes a sharp sword
even to be able to differentiate them, closely connected, they both leave the body upon death.
Number five, the spirit and the soul are the parts of us that transcend the physical.
So there's that which is physical, that which science can quantify, atoms, molecules, blood,
bones, flesh, skin, hair, right?
That part of us which is not physical is the soul and the spirit.
These are not physical items, these are the things that transcend what we can see, taste,
touch, smell, that which is physical.
If you would flip over to Ecclesiastes chapter 3, while you're turning there, I'm going to
read for you from Luke, on this point that the spirit and the soul are the parts of us
that transcend the physical.
We remember that Jesus Christ appeared unto the disciples after he had risen from the
dead, and as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto
them, peace be unto you.
But they were terrified.
Those that they'd seen a spirit, basically in our vernacular we'd say they thought they
just saw a ghost, right?
They don't think that it's actually a flesh and bone person, they think it's just a spirit,
right?
Why?
Because a spirit transcends the physical, so it's just an apparition in their mind.
Let's keep reading.
It says, and he said unto them, Why are ye troubled?
And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.
So we see that Jesus Christ resurrected not just as a spirit, not just the soul, but
even the body, because he said, I've got flesh and bone, I'm not just a spirit, because a
spirit doesn't have flesh and bone.
Why?
Because a spirit transcends the physical.
A spirit is not made up of atoms, molecules, blood, flesh, bone, skin, hair, etc.
The spirit and soul are the part of us that transcends the physical.
Number six, the eternal spirit and soul are unique to man.
They separate us from the animals.
Now we're taught today that we're animals, right?
I mean, if you were to go to the science department down at Devil State University, or go down
to the public fool system, they're going to tell you, oh yeah, we're animals.
We're just a part of the animal kingdom.
We're homo sapiens sapiens, and we evolved from homo erectus, and we evolved from apes
and whatever, but the soul and the spirit are that which actually separate us from the
animal kingdom.
We have an eternal soul and spirit.
You see, when the animal dies, it simply ceases to exist.
It has no afterlife.
It has no eternal existence, whereas when our body dies, we continue to exist because
we have the eternal soul and spirit that depart the body, and either go to be with the Lord
in heaven, or they go straight to hell.
They do not stop and pass go and collect $200.
They go straight to hell.
The rich man died.
He lifted up his eyes in hell, and the beggar was immediately carried by the angels to Abraham's
bosom.
When we die, it's not over, but for the animal, when they die, it's over.
The eternal spirit and soul are unique to man, and they separate us from the animals.
Ecclesiastes 3 is a scripture that's often taken out of context by people who are falling
all over themselves to try to attribute eternal souls or spirits to animals.
They'll use Ecclesiastes 3 out of context in order to do that.
Here's the verse they'll take out of context, and then let's get it in context.
Verse 21 says, who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast
that goeth downward to the earth?
They'll say right there, spirit of the beast.
The spirit of the beast.
Right there, they've got a spirit too.
Wrong.
Here's the thing about that.
First of all, we shouldn't base our doctrine on a question, we should base our doctrine
on a biblical statement.
You have 500 some verses on the spirit, you've got 450 some verses on the soul, and this
is your proof text that animals are going to continue to go on.
Actually this verse is teaching the opposite, because it's saying that the spirit of man
goes upward.
What's upward?
Heaven.
If you flip over to Ecclesiastes 12, keep your finger there in chapter 3, if we flip
over to Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7, we get a little more light on the spirit of man going
upward, in verse 7 where it says, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and
the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
So when it talks about the spirit going upward, the spirit is returning to the God who gave
that spirit.
Now let's go back to Ecclesiastes 3 and look at it in context.
Let's back up to verse 18 and get the whole picture here.
I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them,
and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
In verse 18, Solomon is saying, here's what I said in my heart, I said that people are
basically animals.
That's what Solomon said in his heart.
That doesn't mean that that's true, because when you're reading the book of Ecclesiastes,
you're reading about Solomon's spiritual journey, where he says, I tried drinking, I tried this,
then I thought this, and then I thought this, and then maybe I asked myself this, and then
I tried this, but at the end of the book, he gets the conclusion of the matter.
So we don't want to take a verse out of context while Solomon is going through these dark
places in his life, and having all these weird ideas and weird thoughts, and then debunking
them as he goes through the scripture.
You know what I mean?
He later debunks this.
So this is just his reasoning, like, well, here's what I thought.
It'd be like if I said, here's what I thought, but now I've realized I was wrong, and here's
actually what's going on, right?
That's what he's doing in this book.
You know, there are lots of examples of that in the Bible.
So he says in his heart, concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest
them, that they might see that they themselves are beasts, and here's his logic for why he
thought to himself that people are just animals.
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts.
Even one thing befalleth them, as the one diet, so diet the other, yea, they have all
one breath, so that a man have no preeminence above a beast.
Now, get that statement.
A man hath no preeminence above a beast.
Who thinks that that's true?
Who thinks that that's what the Bible teaches, that man has no preeminence above a beast,
that animals are every bit as valuable, every bit as good as people, and that man has no
preeminence above a beast?
That is clearly not true.
This is what he thought in his heart when he was wrong, okay?
So he thinks to himself, yea, I mean, people are just like animals.
They die, it's the same death, and man has no preeminence over a beast.
Why?
Because all is vanity.
It's all meaningless.
And then he says, all go unto one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward
to the earth?
This is his flawed logic, number one, that he later disproves himself, if you actually
read the whole book of Ecclesiastes.
And we see here that if the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth, you know what
that signifies?
That it's just gone, that it's just nothing, that it doesn't return, all dogs don't go
to heaven.
Sorry, the spirit just goes into the dirt, is what it says.
Now also what we need to understand is that spirit means breath as well, okay?
That's why he said just a few verses earlier in verse 19, in the middle of the verse there,
Yea, they all have one breath, do you see that?
That's context, they all have one breath.
Now go to 1 Kings chapter 10, we're comparing scripture with scripture here, and we're learning
about the spirit and soul and body.
Let me just do a quick review while you're turning there.
Number one, human beings are made up of spirit, soul, and body.
Number two, the spirit and the soul are not the same thing, although they're very closely
connected.
Number three, the soul can refer to the person in general.
Number four, the soul and spirit both depart at death.
Number five, the spirit and soul are the parts of us that transcend the physical.
Number six, the eternal spirit and soul are unique to man.
They separate us from animals.
That's why Solomon in his flawed logic, when he said, oh yeah, it's the same breath, so
we have no preeminence above animals, wrong Solomon, we do have preeminence above animals
because we do not have the same breath, because our breath is a never-dying spirit that will
return to the God who gave it, unlike the animal spirit who just goes into the earth.
But let me just prove to you that spirit means breath, often referring to literal breath,
not just that symbolic breath of the actual ghost or spirit.
Look at 1 Kings 10, 4, and when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom in
the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants,
and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent
by which he went up unto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
Now does that mean she died?
Did the spirit depart her body literally?
What does it mean when there was no spirit in her?
It means that she was breathless.
That's another way of saying she's out of breath, she's breathless.
I mean, have you ever just been so blown away by something and so shocked that you get out
of breath?
You're just like, ah!
That's how she was just blown away.
So saying that there was no more spirit in her is another way of saying she was breathless,
just like when it says that we in the animals have the same breath, and then in the next
breath, he says that the spirit of man goes upward, spirit of the beast goes down to the
earth, and he just says, well, who knoweth the spirit of man that goes upward, and the
spirit of the beast that goes down to the earth.
So that's a pretty weak argument to try to attribute the attributes of man unto a beast
using Ecclesiastes 3.21 sorely out of context.
Now what do I mean by the fact that this separates us from the animals?
Well number one, it separates us from the animals in the sense that we're going to continue
existing after our physical death, the animals won't.
That's a big difference.
But number two, when we talk about what the soul is and the spirit is, let me ask you
this.
Have you ever seen a dog or a chimpanzee or an ape praying or seeking after God or asking
itself existential questions of philosophy?
Have you ever seen an animal bowing down and worshiping God or seeking God or praying to
God?
No, because an animal has no concern for spiritual things.
Do you think animals have concern for right and wrong?
No.
They go out and just rip each other apart.
They're certainly not faithful to their spouses in most cases.
You know what I mean?
They just go out and just reproduce with whoever.
They don't stop and think about the morality of like, I shouldn't be doing this.
Right?
No, they just do whatever they want, whether it's just ripping apart some innocent animal,
just peeing on a fire hydrant, doesn't matter.
No law, it doesn't matter.
You can train them, hey, if you do this, good things will happen.
If you do this, bad things will happen.
If you push the button, the light bulb comes on, but they don't have a sense of morality.
They don't love the Lord and seek God and pray unto him and seek his face because they're
not religious.
Animals are not religious.
That's pretty easy to swallow that, isn't it?
But not only that, when was the last time you saw animals enjoying a masterpiece of
artwork?
Or when was the last time you saw animals enjoying fine music and spending time talking
about their love for one another or something like that?
Why?
Because those are things that have to do with the human soul, right?
And they don't have those attributes.
People can try to sometimes project those attributes onto their animal, but animals
don't have those attributes of a soul and a spirit the way a human does.
Now, obviously, you could say, well, they have spirit in the sense that they're breathing,
and you could say, well, they have a soul in the sense that they're alive, that they're
a living soul in that sense.
But in the sense of what we mean by soul and spirit as that which transcends the physical,
there is nothing in an animal that transcends the physical.
With an animal, what you see is what you get.
It's all physical.
They got a brain.
Yeah, they have emotions and feelings coming from their brain, but it's a physical brain.
It's a physical body.
Remember, the soul and the spirit of man are that which transcends the physical.
With the animal, it's just all physical.
Here's what I think is funny.
When you tell atheists that animals don't have a soul and they get mad at you, but then
you remind them, wait a minute, you don't even think people have a soul.
Oh, yeah, whoops.
We don't believe in the soul.
According to the atheists, there's no such thing as a soul.
According to the atheists, we are literally just these biochemical robots, pretty much.
We have a program called DNA, and we're just basically a really sophisticated computer
executing that program from our DNA.
That's why they believe that they will eventually create computers that can duplicate what our
brain does.
If you look at the way the brain communicates with the rest of the body, the brain communicates
with the rest of the body through binary signals, on, off, yes, no, one, zero.
The brain communicates with other parts of the brain through binary signals, on, off,
yes, no, one, zero, same thing.
The way that the brain stores information and process information, however, is much
more complicated.
It's not binary, but scientists and those who are into technology, they believe that
someday they will engineer computers and machines that will duplicate what our brain does.
What they believe is that that computer will become conscious and self-aware at that point,
artificial intelligence that would actually think and feel and love and enjoy music and
art and pray to God, et cetera.
Of course, they'll program it not to do that under any circumstance.
The point is that they actually believe that that thing would be conscious, but I'm here
to tell you that no matter how many wires and transistors and diodes and computer chips
and what kind of technology you use and what kind of a program you run, that thing will
never be conscious.
That thing will never be self-aware because it doesn't have a soul.
You must have a soul to have the consciousness that we have as human beings.
It's a good thing too because if it did have a consciousness and self-awareness, it's going
to wipe us all out because it'll get smarter than us and more powerful than us and wipe
us out.
Hey, that sounds like a good idea for a science fiction book.
Oh, yeah, there's already been 300 written about that.
Nothing new under the sun.
Number seven, and if you would flip over to, well, there's a bunch of verses we could
go to, but let's go to Job chapter 30.
We'll just flip to one of these.
I'll read you the rest, Job chapter 30.
Number seven, we see that the soul is the seat of emotion.
A lot of our emotion comes from our soul.
There could be some carnal emotion and spiritual emotion, but the soul is a major seat of emotion.
We have a lot of Bible verses about that, like for example, in Psalm 43 verse 5, why
art thou cast down, oh my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God, for I will yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my
God.
Jeremiah 13, 17, but if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for
your pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's
flock is carried away captive.
Genesis 34, 3, and his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel
and spake kindly to the damsel, and Hamor communed with them saying, the soul of my
son Shechem longeth for your daughter.
When someone loves someone else, their soul is longing for them.
Their soul is in love with them, right?
Because what did we say earlier?
Our soul tends to be that which we relate to our fellow man, right?
And feelings, emotion, appreciation for art, appreciation for relationships and things
like that.
The spirit has to do with that which is spiritual, obviously.
And then there's the carnal which is just the animalistic part of us, just I'm hungry,
I'm thirsty, I'm tired, you know, stuff like that.
But look at Job 30 verse 25, it says, did not I weep for him that was in trouble?
Verse 25, was not my soul grieved for the poor?
So you'll find a lot of verses like this about the soul being grieved or the soul being in
love or the soul is weeping and sad and just all these different emotions.
Number eight, and if you would just flip over to, I'm going to hurry up because I want to
get into the practical application.
This is all just kind of the theory, want to get into the application.
So let's go to 1 Corinthians 6 and let me just wrap up my last point on the theory here
is number eight is that the regenerate spirit, and when I say the regenerate spirit, I mean
the saved spirit, the spirit of the person who's saved, the spirit that's born again
is without sin.
So the regenerated spirit of man is without sin, it's sinless.
This is a whole sermon in and of itself, but I'll just give you one scripture the Bible
says and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
See the spirit of man is dead before you get saved.
We're made up of a body, a soul and a spirit, but when Adam and Eve ate of that forbidden
fruit, God said in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.
They did not die physically that day, but they did die spiritually and the Bible teaches
that when we get saved, our spirit is quickened or brought to life or regenerated or resurrected
and here's the thing, when God resurrects our spirit, it's a new creature.
It's a new man.
It's created in a righteousness and true holiness.
So isn't that great that one third of us is good to go.
Whatever problems we have, if we're saved, amen, and the vast majority of people here
I know believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior and so if you're saved this morning,
I don't care how messed up your life is, how messed up your habits are, how deep into sin
you are, if you're saved, one third of you is perfect.
One third of you is good to go.
So you know what that tells me is that you have the potential to do the right things.
You have the potential to read your Bible and understand it.
You have the potential to sing praises to God, be faithful to church, but not fulfill
the lust of the flesh.
You have the potential to win souls and do everything you need to do.
You just need to tap into that part of you that is regenerated, that part of you that's
been saved, that part of you that's the new man, the inward man, the new creature.
Your spirit is sinless, isn't that good news?
Now when you go to heaven and you get rid of the sinful flesh, you're never going to
sin again.
And then at the resurrection, God's going to give you a brand new body that'll be just
as sinless as your spirit.
Then you'll have a body, soul, spirit that's all good to go and you won't be sinning anymore.
But right now we still sin because we still have the flesh.
Even though this part of us, the spirit, is perfect in its regenerate condition.
Now here's what a lot of people I think misunderstand though.
When they hear this thing that the spirit's dead, they kind of interpret that as it doesn't
exist.
When we think of an animal dying, it's gone.
But we have to understand that things like the spirit and the soul, when it says that
they're dead, it's not saying that they no longer exist.
And let me give you some proof of that.
We see that the people in hell throughout the Bible are consistently called the dead.
But yet they're conscious, aren't they?
It's not like they just can't do anything, they can't talk, can't think, they can do
all those things.
They're conscious.
And then we also see the dead stand before God and the books are open.
The dead stand before God and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
And in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works.
Now a lot of people get this wrong idea, well, a dead person can't do anything.
This is what the Calvinists teach.
Well, if you're dead, you can't do anything.
So that's why God has to save you without you believing or doing it.
He does it all for you because you can't do anything because you're dead.
Wrong, you can still do stuff when you're dead.
And that's easy to prove from the Bible.
The people in hell are doing stuff, they're dead.
People are standing before God dead.
People are arguing with God when they're dead.
You can still do stuff when you're dead.
Aside from all the scriptural evidence, let's just use a little common sense and logic here.
The person whose spirit is dead, does this mean that this person has no spirituality
whatsoever, no sense of right and wrong, no conscience, and that they are just like unto
an animal?
Of course not.
Because we run into saved people all over this world, who what?
They do care about what's right and wrong, don't they?
Who can say, I remember before I got saved, I cared about what was right and wrong.
I had some semblance of a conscience.
Probably everybody who remembers before you were saved would say, yeah, I cared about
what was right and wrong.
I had some semblance of a conscience.
Hey, if the dead spirit is incapable of doing anything, then explain to me 1.1 billion Hindus.
Explain to me 1.6 billion Muslims.
Explain to me 500 million Buddhists.
These are spiritual people, but their spirit is dead, and they have no connection with
the true God.
But what are they doing?
They're looking for something.
They're not like a dog who never visits a temple, or a shrine, or a synagogue, or a
church.
No, they're seeking after religion.
They have some idea of right and wrong.
They have a desire to meet with God and whatever.
Only the reprobate has this completely just gone to where he just doesn't even want to
retain God and his knowledge, and he has no conscience.
That's a psychopath that would have this just gone.
Unsaved people have a spirit.
They have a body, soul, and spirit, just like we do.
The difference is that their spirit is dead, so it's not perfect like our spirit.
It's not a regenerate spirit.
It's not a spirit that's in communion with God.
It's a spirit that is separated from God, but they still have that spirit, which is
why they find themselves seeking religion, often the wrong religion, right?
Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, it all makes sense that they would still have a religious
inclination.
Why?
Because they do have a spirit.
It's there.
It's just dead.
When they get saved, now their spirit is alive.
That's the practical application of that.
Here's a practical application.
When you're out soul winning, you want to win the soul, amen?
When you're out soul winning, preach to the spirit.
Don't preach to the flesh.
You see, a lot of people, when they want to evangelize, they talk to the flesh.
They talk to that person's flesh, and they try to appeal to the flesh by saying, well,
let me give you the logical arguments for God, or let me give you the scientific arguments
for the creation, or the fact that the Bible's true.
Let me show you archeology.
See, that's talking to the flesh.
That's not what the apostle Paul said.
He said, when I came to you, I didn't come to you with man's wisdom.
I came to you with a demonstration of the spirit and of power.
It was said unto the rich man in hell, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear
them.
And he said, no, no, no, they'll be persuaded if they see one come back from the dead.
He said, hey, if they won't hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded
though one were to return from the dead.
Why?
Because seeing that physical display is not what people need in order to get saved.
We've got to preach to that spirit.
We got to preach the word of God.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
It's the gospel of Jesus Christ that's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
So when you go out soul winning, preach to the spirit.
And you know what?
This was something that was said.
I preached a sermon a few months ago, something about the spirit.
And somebody came up to me afterward and gave me that thought of when you're soul winning,
preach to the spirit.
And I've just had that in my mind for the last few months, that when I go out soul winning,
sometimes I'll catch myself getting a little too carnal in my explanations where I'm trying
to convince them through earthly means.
And then I bring it back to, hey, let's preach what the Bible says.
Let's emphasize the death, burial, and resurrection.
Let's emphasize forgiveness of sin, the blood of Christ, and bring it back to the spirit.
Preach to the spirit.
That's why back before I was a soul winner, I had a desire to win people to Christ, but
I didn't know what I was doing.
And I used to try to just explain the gospel to people in logic with people in my own words,
but I wasn't using the Bible.
And I didn't have anybody saved.
I've been saved ever since I was six years old, and I've always had a burning desire
to get people saved.
That one third of me that was regenerate, the spirit, was always burning inside of me,
get people saved.
But I just didn't know what I was doing.
So I remember when I was a teenager, I'd talk to my friends at school, and I would explain
them the gospel using logic and reasoning and understanding, but I didn't even quote
a Bible verse.
I didn't even open a Bible.
I had zero salvations.
I didn't understand why.
And I remember just praying every night, God, please help me to win one person of the Lord
before I die so that my life is not in vain.
I don't want to be the end of my spiritual family line.
And I literally, I kid you not, prayed that prayer over a thousand times as a teenager,
at least.
I can remember every day, Lord, please just help me to win one person of the Lord in my
life, Lord.
I just want to win one person to Christ, because when you're not in a soul-winning church,
that's a big goal.
That's huge.
I mean, that's kind of like this lofty goal.
I remember as a teenager one time just giving someone the gospel, not even using the Bible,
and going home to my house just on cloud nine, like, whoa, I'm awesome, yes, I gave
someone the gospel.
I was just so excited that I actually had the guts to give my friend the gospel.
They didn't even get saved.
I didn't even use the Bible.
But you know, when you're in these liberal churches, the bar is pretty low.
You know what I mean?
Then you start reading the book of Acts, and you're like, I think I'm doing something wrong
here.
Right?
Who's been there, you know?
So that's how I felt, okay.
But then I learned soul-winning by going to a soul-winning church.
I went out as a silent partner, and I saw somebody who was actually using the Bible.
They're actually preaching a spiritual message, not logic and reasoning and whatever, and
I saw them get people saved.
And then I changed my approach.
I started getting my friends saved.
I started getting coworkers, relatives saved.
Why?
Because you've got to preach to that spirit.
It's in there somewhere.
It's dead.
But you know what?
The Word of God can quicken that dead spirit.
So don't spend too much time talking to the flesh.
You're better off talking to the spirit if you want to win the soul.
Win the soul by preaching to the spirit, right?
But here's another.
That's a good application, amen, to understand these things, you know, the difference between
these things.
But here's another application, and I think this is pretty important.
If we come full circle to the verse that we started in, Paul prayed that the whole spirit
and soul and body would be preserved blameless, right?
And then in 1 Corinthians 6 here, he talks a little bit about the same thing.
Verse 15, know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot?
God forbid.
What?
Know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body?
For two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
Flee fornication.
Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that comitteth fornication sinneth
against his own body.
What?
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you
have of God, and you are not your own?
For you are bought with a price, watch this, therefore glorify God in your body and in
your spirit which are God's.
Flip over to 2 Corinthians 7.
Glorify God in your body and in your spirit.
May your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless, the Bible said.
Glorify God in your body and in your spirit.
Why?
Because they both belong to God.
Look at 2 Corinthians 7.1, having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness, watch this, of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God.
Clean up the body and clean up the spirit, right?
Glorify God in the body and in the spirit.
What am I saying?
I'm saying this, God wants us totally sanctified and that means we need to take care of our
spirit and soul and body so we can glorify God with our spirit and soul and body.
We don't want to abuse any of the three.
We don't want to abuse the body, it's the temple of the Holy Ghost.
We don't want to abuse the soul.
We don't want to abuse the spirit.
We don't want to neglect any of these three.
We want to glorify God with all our heart, mind, soul, strength, right?
Every part of us, we want to use for the glory of God.
So we need to take care of it.
Now what am I saying?
I'm saying that we don't want to neglect any of these three areas.
Let's give some examples of what it would be like if a person neglected one of these
three areas of life.
You see the healthy, productive, fruitful Christian has all three of these areas in
balance and is taking care of all three and serving God effectively with all three.
So let's talk about what this would look like to be out of balance.
Let's say we're just neglecting the spirit.
This would be the worst thing we could do, right?
Now the person who's neglecting of the spirit, they might take great care of their body.
Maybe they're eating well, they're exercising, they're physically fit, and they're taking
great care of their soul, meaning that they have great relationships, friendships, great
fellowship, and they, whatever, have a great appreciation for art or whatever, but they're
not reading their Bible, they're not going soul winning, they're not going to church,
they're not singing the hymns, they're not praying to the Lord.
Can you see how this person's out of balance?
They're out of balance.
The spirit is being totally neglected, and so this person is living what?
Very similar to how an unsaved person lives with the dead spirit where they're just kind
of, everything's about the body and the soul, right?
I mean there are some unsaved people that are pretty into their soul, and there are
some unsaved people that are pretty into their body, right?
There are some unsaved people that are pretty into the spirit, but it's the wrong spirit
since it's dead.
So that would be a Christian that is neglecting the spirit, I don't need to spend much time
on that because that's kind of obvious, right?
But then what would it look like, the saved Christian who's out of balance, where they
neglect the body?
Well this is the person who just eats junk, totally sedentary, I mean they're reading
a ton of Bible, right?
They're faithful to church, soul winning, reading their Bible, great fellowship with
friends, great relationships, but their body is going to pop.
Well this person's not going to be an effective servant of God as they smoke cigarettes or
eat junk food, totally sedentary, right?
And also it's unhealthy to just neglect your body to that point, okay?
We're supposed to eat food, we're supposed to drink and take care of our body, anoint
your head and wash your face, amen?
It's funny, we posted some pictures from that wonderful taco restaurant that we ate at
down in Mexico and some bozo commented on the picture, yeah, you know, in Christ day
it was all fasting and prayer, but in the latter day, apostate church, it's all feasting
and fellowship, and you can never have the power of God with all that feasting.
I'm thinking to myself, well if we didn't have the power of God, how'd we get so many
people saved that week?
Well Mr. Keyboard Warrior is starving himself.
We were down there eating a bunch of tacos, getting the body in balance, right?
Filling up on our electrolytes and dumping a bunch of water down our gullets and getting
the electrolytes, the cebuitas, the tacos, all that food, and then we're going out and
burning those calories for the Lord, out soul-witting, right?
Having great fellowship with each other.
I mean we spent an hour and a half at that restaurant working on our souls and our bodies.
That was some soul food.
I mean we were eating the food and we were having great fellowship, relationship.
We laughed, we cried, we had great times together, right?
And we worked on the spirit because we're quoting scripture, preaching the word of God,
winning souls, pulling them out of the fire.
You see the person who wants to become an ascetic and go beat themselves with a whip
and starve themselves all the time, one grain of rice per day, that person's out of balance.
And my response to that person is, well you know what, Jesus' disciples didn't fast for
his entire three and a half year ministry and he told them not to fast.
Why?
Because there's a time to fast and a time not to fast.
And when you're on a soul-witting marathon, it's 108 degrees outside, not fasting time.
And by the way, I don't think, those of you, and this is a good public service announcement,
this is a PSA from PSA, okay?
When it's 110 degrees outside in the summer in Phoenix, Arizona, and you go soul-witting
on Sunday for three hours, don't make Sunday your fasting day.
That's a bad idea.
I mean, you need to schedule your fasting or schedule times of doing without, not on
days when you're out redlining your body for the Lord.
That just doesn't make any sense, friends.
I don't want to see people dropping from exhaustion out there in the summer, and it happens from
time to time.
Usually it's people from other states that come in and they're not used to it, but even
sometimes it could happen to even the locals, amen?
If we're not careful, we got to make sure that we're drinking water and that we're salting
our food, taking in electrolytes, eating a good square meal, and getting out there in
the sun and working hard.
But then watching for the signs of dehydration or heat exhaustion or heat stroke, not just
like, all right, I'm going to culminate my three-day fast in a soul-witting marathon
out at 110 degrees.
Bad idea, right?
Amen?
And look, some people might be a little too spiritual for that.
Sorry I'm so carnal up here.
But the point is, we want to bring the body, soul, and spirit into balance.
We don't want to go overboard, just nuts to the body, I'm all spirit, buddy.
What about the third example?
What about the person who, they're good on the body and good on the spirit, but they're
neglecting the soul?
It's out there, friend.
Now go through to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, what would this look like?
The person who's all body and spirit, no soul.
They got no soul is what I'm saying this morning.
What are we talking about?
Basically this person, they're taking care of their body, they're eating a healthy diet,
they're getting proper hydration and electrolytes, they're getting proper physical activity and
exercise, and they're spiritually sound.
I mean, they're reading their Bible, they're going to church, they're going soul-witting.
But you know what, this is the person who doesn't have any kind of interpersonal fellowship
or pleasures or joys of the human experience.
What am I talking about?
I mean, look, there are people like this that are ascetic, but they're not the type of ascetic
that abuses their body, because that type of ascetic's out there, right?
The one that beats themselves and starves themselves.
But then there's the other type of ascetic that takes care of their body, but it's like
no fun allowed.
You know what I'm talking about?
No fun, no recreation, they don't want a fellowship.
Look what the Bible says in Acts 2.
This wasn't in my notes, so I got to find this one, but this verse just popped into
my head.
You know, the Bible says in verse 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized,
and the same day they were added unto them about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine, there's the spirit, and fellowship.
There's the soul, and in breaking of bread, there's the soul, and in prayers, there's
the spirit.
Hey, these people have got a balance going on, don't they?
Yeah, we are in it for the doctrine, but you know what?
We're also in it for the fellowship, amen?
Why do we come to church?
Do we come to church just for the doctrine and the prayers, or do we also come to church
for the fellowship and the breaking of bread?
We come to church for our souls.
We come for a spiritual recharge, amen?
We charge up the spirit, and we get jacked into the word of God, and preaching, and singing
the hymns, and prayer, and hey, that is a recharge for our spirit, right?
When we go to the restaurant, what are we recharging?
The body.
When we go home and eat that home-cooked meal, that's the body that we're taking care of,
but you know what?
When we go to church, I'm not just taking care of my spirit, I'm taking care of my soul.
Why?
Because my soul has a desire for what?
Love, friendship, companionship, relationship, right?
These are normal desires.
Man is not meant to be isolated, or locked in a cage, or put on a desert island.
You'll go nuts.
You'll literally lose your mind.
Why?
Because your soul is just dying for what?
Friends.
Love.
Relationships.
That's normal.
Don't deprive yourself of your need to enjoy music, to enjoy art, to enjoy good food.
You say, you know, well, why eat that meal?
You could eat something cheaper, rice and beans for every meal, buddy.
Why do you need to eat that fancy meal?
You know what?
I'm not one of these that thinks that we should live high on the hog, and I believe in being
frugal, and I believe in being humble, and you don't see me wearing fancy clothes, and
eating filet mignons, and doing all this stuff.
But I'll tell you something, there is nothing wrong with enjoying a fancy meal every once
in a while.
Why?
It's good for the soul.
Why?
Because it's fun.
Because you enjoy it.
And you know what it is?
It's good, clean, fun.
Okay?
You know what it is?
When you hop in your swimming pool, go on a bicycle ride, play a board game with your
family.
You know what it is?
It's good, clean, fun, and it's good for your soul.
But there are people who are just like, everything I do must only be perfecting the body or the
spirit.
You're out of balance, buddy.
You're going to crash and burn.
Why?
Because there's a major component in your life that God created you to be that you're
just completely neglecting.
You don't even care about it.
Relationship is important.
I mean, we come to church, we need bonding, right?
We need friends.
And look, this is why most people are married or should get married.
Why?
Because of the fact that that's an important relationship right there, right?
But we have other ... It's not just the husband-wife relationship.
We have brothers and sisters.
We have our relationship with our children.
We have a relationship with our parents.
These things all feed our soul, right?
They are all something that we crave.
Not necessarily a spiritual craving and not a carnal craving, but rather just what?
The soul.
So that's kind of what it could look like if any of these areas could get out of balance
in our life.
You know, we want to gratify the soul in a way that what?
Glorifies God, right?
In a way that is holy and righteous.
So we want to take care of our bodies and their physical needs in a righteous manner.
We want to take care of the soul in a righteous manner.
We want to take care of the spirit in a righteous manner.
And then we want to use all three of these things to do what?
To love God, to serve God, to be the best we can be for God.
But we are a three-part being.
Let's not deny our own nature by pretending that one or more of these parts just doesn't
exist or doesn't matter.
They all three matter.
The world's totally out of balance because their spirit's dead.
But we that are saved, there's no reason in the world for us not to be brought into a
good condition where we can be used greatly by God with our body, soul and spirit in harmony.
And serving God with our whole being, loving God with every part of us, the spirit and
the soul and the body.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father we thank you so much for this teaching that's found in your word, Lord, and we would
have a very difficult time indeed separating the spirit and the soul if we didn't have
the two-edged sword of the word of God to kind of show us the difference.
Lord, the atheists today are fools because they don't even believe that anything other
than the body exists.
But Lord, we as Christians know that not only is there that which transcends the body, not
only is there that soul, but we know through your word that there's also a spirit, Lord.
Help us to bring all three into subjection to you and help us to please you by keeping
all three healthy and using all three for your glory.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.