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I just said them here when I saw that we received them. Bubbitt Padgett was hospitalized. He has an amputated foot and he's on dialysis. Stage four kidney failure, okay. So that's very serious, obviously. Okay, so then they amputated because of the gangrene. Yeah, the circulation problems, I'm sorry. All the way up to the knee. Oh, they're planning on doing more. Oh man. Malnourished. And he's not saved. Yeah, a lot to pray for here. So, and this is, you said your sister's father-in-law. Okay, your brother-in-law's dad. Okay, so Bubbitt Padgett is his name. Lots of problems, lots of health problems, and he's not saved. So please pray for all of that for him. And especially with an upbringing with a Pentecostal dad. Help, just pray that he'll be able to understand eternal life. Especially if, you know, it's not sounding very good. We pray for his health. He lives long enough to be able to hear a good presentation of the gospel. And definitely be praying for him. So if you want to write that down, Bubbitt Padgett. In addition to the other people we just mentioned, Marcus Dupree. And of course, Miss Wanda, we got the updates. Are there any other updates to people for the prayer list? Do we have any updates on? Yes, sir. Okay. Immediate. Okay. Right. The urgency is, so she. She had the surgery. And that was successful. And then she's also taken the treatments afterwards. Good. And the doctors are very hopeful and optimistic. And they think that everything has cleared up. But now, of course, they're going to continue to watch for the next five years. Just to make sure anything doesn't pop up. Well, praise God. I'm glad to hear that. Very, very good update there. And we'll remove her from the list for now. And of course, if anything changes, let us know. And we'll add her back. So we're always very happy to hear and to prayers. And very good report about Shehan. Excellent. Thank you for that, sir. Anyone else have any updates on the prayer list? Yeah. And, you know, take that to heart. If you haven't been someone who's had anyone on the prayer list, this impacts all of us. This isn't just a piece of paper that you get every Sunday to throw away. I mean, it really matters. It means a lot to the people. And prayer works. I don't know how many times we could say it. Prayer absolutely works. So please take this very seriously. And, you know, care for your fellow church members. And pray for them. Pray for their families. And it's very much appreciated. All right. Continuing on. Hebrews 10 people that finished Hebrews 10. I know you're one of them. I'm not seeing your wife. Is she here tonight or no? She's around somewhere? Okay. As long as she's around and she can hear me. If you want a prize, you could go in my office. If there's anything there, there's like a popcorn maker and tie down ratchet straps and stuff, whatever. There's gift cards to Outback, whatever. Any one of those prizes is yours for the taking. If you really just don't like any of it, then you're just going to have to be forced to wait for a while. But if you want any of the things that are on my or here, if you want some chocolate, you could have some chocolate too. But those prizes are a little bit better. You could have one of those for completing the Hebrews 10 Bible memory passage. So so you're welcome to that. And then speaking of prizes as well. And I should have covered this morning, but I didn't because I thought that I was all caught up with everyone else. If you completed the December challenge, the singing challenge. And you have not already, because I think some people then did end up getting it between services. The prizes are up here. You can you can help yourself to that if you if you didn't get a prize for December. I'm also and I should end this this morning as well, because we have more people. If you completed the January challenge Bible reading, can you just slip your hand up real quick so I could get a rough idea of how many people did this challenge? Yeah, that's why I thought there's quite a few of you. A lot of people that completed this challenge. So for this challenge, you can get three choices. All right. We got choice number one right here. OK, anything up here you can you can help yourself to pay one. You could get a ten dollar Amazon gift card. OK, or the mystery box that I don't even know is going to be in it yet. So since there's so many people, I will let you just after service, if you want either one of these, if you want the gift card, just talk to me about it. I'll send you the email. I have the I have them ready to go. I'll just email it off to you. Get a code and you get the gift card. If you want one of these again, help yourself on our system. You completed the challenge. You get to take one of these. And if you want the mystery box, I'll ask again Wednesday and Sunday to see, OK, who didn't get a prize so then I could get an accurate count to know. Who's going to take their chances on whatever it is that I'm going to bring in as a prize? All right. Very good. So that covers prizes. February challenge. So we started a new month, new challenge, one hour every day doing something spiritual. So, I mean, this this includes church attendance, praying, Bible reading, memorizing, soul winning, et cetera. Right. Things where you're spending time learning about the things of God, communicating with the Lord, all of this type of stuff. All I ask, though, is that when you're when you do this challenge, that you are focused on this. You know that this is something that you're you're really dedicating time to. It's not just in addition to doing a whole bunch of other things. Right. So like playing an audio Bible while you do a bunch of work. I think that's great. And I think that everyone should be doing stuff like that. But but this is more geared towards making sure that you're investing time in prayer and reading or what have you. These types of things where you're spending an hour. So just try to be mindful of how much time you're spending doing these things. And obviously, you don't have to have like the the second going all the way down to, you know, like just keep a good track of what you're doing in general so that you can try to achieve this goal. And new church plant mentioned this morning, we just we just continued prayer. We're continuing to expand and find more stuff. So we're not just stuck with this. It's we are looking for more places. I've updated the budget and I've updated some other things regarding this. So we're really looking forward. And there is a lot of people who are interested in this church plant. Even beyond my expectations, from when I counted up all the registrations last week for this church plant. So, I mean, it really is good. This is just going to be awesome. So just pray that God open up the door on the right place for us to find and we'll get things running quickly with that Bible memory passage. We start a brand new memory passage this week, 10 weeks, 20 verses. The first 20 verses, Hebrews 11. It's a great passage. Faith Hall. Faith encourage you to participate in this and memorize that you are in a prize being able to do that. Birthdays and anniversaries are listed there and then on the back. I'm not going to go through every single one of these. I already did this morning. If you have any questions on these, you can ask. But there's all kinds of events scheduled. HSFT is home school field trip. That's what that is for short. Just trying to fit it all on here. Shorthand. Everything else should just be straightforward and make sense. Saturday. This Saturday is men's preaching class. So we'd love to have you out here for that. If you plan on preaching, as I mentioned earlier, five minutes to 15 minutes somewhere in that time range. Depending on how many people show up and want to preach is going to determine how long you get to preach. But we'll have some some material, some instruction to help you become a better preacher. And if you don't want to preach at all, you can still all men are still welcome to attend. You could listen and learn on that day. So that concludes our announcements for this evening. One real quick housekeeping. Housekeeping. So obviously I preach sermon this morning. I kind of cover a little bit about housekeeping in general. I appreciate the response and everybody being on board. And I think we're going to change slightly, just ever so slightly, the way that we just maintain the building. It makes the most sense to me that we do the majority of the cleaning in between our church services after lunch, because really it's it's the whole eating time after service that's probably going to cause the most amount of of things that need to be cleaned. Right. So the floors and all this other stuff. So what I'm going to ask that we do is that we get the majority of our cleaning done in between the services. So then what's left over in the evening when people want to help clean? There's not that much work because it's late. People want to go home. I get it. And some, you know, there's always people want to hang out a little bit. But this way, look, we mop that floor. And no one else is going to be eating in there. And what you don't really need to mop it again. Right. And I'll just say this as as additionally, sometimes people do want to eat another meal here, like an evening. And I get it. People travel long distances. So all I would ask is that if that's you, if you happen to be someone that's going to, you know, cleaning is already done, but you're going to use some stuff. Please just clean. Just do a really good job cleaning up after yourself. And then we're good. Right. Make sure the place looks the way that that it ought to look when if you're just coming in, people come in after you and be like, wow, everything looks decent and in order that I was talking about this morning, then we'll be just fine. And just be mindful of things like when the garbage is are taken out, especially those of you that have children in diapers. If you could, if you notice that that they're all new bags and you have a diaper that needs to go in the trash, try not to leave those for the next service sitting in one of our cans, because that's not very pleasant when we come back in the dumpsters out back or take it with you. You know, we could just make sure that they get unloaded properly. It's also much appreciated. So but that's about it. Overall, things are good and I appreciate everybody stepping up and and the family out here. So with that, I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother Austin. And turn the song 63. The song 63. What a day that will be. I'm 63. The. No more. No more. No more. No more. No more. No more. No more. No more. Well, the ushers are setting up for the offering. First Thessalonians chapter five. First Thessalonians five. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you for yourselves know perfectly that the day the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. You're all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober for they that sleep, sleep in the night. And they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for in helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil, 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 called you who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that his epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Brother Jared, do you mind praying for us? Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the church, God. Thank you for salvation. I pray that the Holy Spirit come past us and let us repeat thy word. I pray that you be with that family and that you may be with God. I pray that you be with the country and that you may be safe at home. Be with those who weren't able to make it today. Be with us as we go our separate ways. Jesus, may my prayer be with you. All right, so this evening, I preached in a sermon. There's actually a couple of people brought this topic to me and I thought it was a really good one. I haven't preached on this in quite a while. And that is the subject of the body, the soul, and the spirit. And I actually did a lot, a lot of study for this. Not that I had to figure out exactly what I believe about it, but just I really want to make sure I was being extremely comprehensive. And there's a lot of nuance in this and I'm not going to be able to get into too much nuance. And I'll start off just by saying this. When you do a study on something like this, the body, soul, and spirit, context matters a lot. Because as we're going to see briefly here, I'm going to go through each of these things. But references to the soul and especially references to the spirit, what is meant by that actually matters. The context matters tremendously. And just a quick example, we'll get into this a little bit deeper. You know, when the Bible talks about the soul, oftentimes it's just referring to like a person. Like just someone dying or someone doing something wrong and just referring to them as a soul. So whereas what I'm trying to speak about tonight is the fact that we consist of a body, a soul, and a spirit as created beings. Right? As human beings that God created, we have three parts. There's a trichotomy that makes up every individual human being. So I'm going to try to cover that. But as you read scripture, you're going to find all different types of context about this, about souls, with the spirit. You know, the spirit of fear. There's a spirit of meekness. There's all these different things which don't necessarily apply to what I'm preaching about tonight. So when you're looking things up, of course, it's just another great opportunity to mention, get the context on everything that you read and everything that you're studying and everything you want to know about, and not just grab verses because you think it might apply. You know, you make sure you understand what the context is talking about. It's very important. And for this sermon, I literally looked up like every, using a digital guide, because there's a lot of, anytime the word soul or any derivative of souls, you use soul, souls, or spirit, and there's over 500 references to both of them uniquely. So it's like 1100 verses. Now, a lot of them weren't things I was necessarily going to cover in the sermon, but I really wanted to be comprehensive. And here's where I wanted to be comprehensive about. This is the fact-checking I was doing because I'd heard someone say this before, and it sounded right on. It sounded true. But I kind of wanted to just verify that, yes, this is actually, you know, with this in mind what the Bible teaches. And it's kind of a simplification of, like, why we even have the three parts of a soul, a body, and a spirit. And where I even get this from is the passage we just read in verse number 23 there, 1 Thessalonians 5, the Bible says, And the very God of peace sanctify you holy. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So right there, it's referencing three different parts. And, you know, some people will say that a soul and a spirit might be like the same thing, but they're not. And this clearly is, we start off with this just because this verse is so clear on saying you have a body, you have a soul, you have a spirit, right? And when you're comparing verses, you might be able to say, see, look, the spirit and the soul are kind of just like the same thing if you just compare two verses that make them look like they're maybe doing the same thing or the wording is just kind of similar. And in one place it says the spirit, in one place it says the soul, which is why you can't just, when you have so many references to them too, is just take two random verses or whatever and see, look, they're the same thing. No, no, they're not. They're actually different. They have their own purpose. But the way that I've heard it said, and I agree with this assessment, is that, you know, of course, our body helps us in our dealing with the world around us, the natural world, the physical world that we just are dealing with on a day-to-day body, day-to-day basis, okay? Our bodies interact with the world around us, right? Makes sense. Our soul is used in a communication with man, with mankind, with other people, having personal relations with people in general. And then our spirit is with our communication and our relationship with the Lord, with God, right? So spiritual things are things that would be like religious things, things that have to do with God. And every creature is made up of these three parts, right? So it's not just saved people, of course, unsaved people too have this religious nature or religious part of them, this aspect. They have a spirit, right? But they may worship a false god. They're just religious in different ways. People get religious about things. It's a spiritual side of them. And some people, they don't say, oh, I'm just spiritual. I don't have any religion or whatever. But that would come from the part of them that is the spirit, right? The soul is dealing with, like I said, other people, other human beings around you and having that interpersonal relationships. And then the body, of course, just in general, your senses, your sight, your smell, your touch, your taste, you know, all that stuff is what the body is for. Now, that being said, it is a pretty vast simplification about these things, right? It's just a good way, I think, to kind of help you think about things and understand it a little bit. But when you dig into scripture, it's not that simple. Overall, when you start looking at this, it's true, right? Like it's generally just this is true and it makes a lot of sense. But there's more to these things than just that. And, you know, one of the things that I found, too, to be true is your soul appears to be the entity or the part of your being that is like in charge, like making the decisions. OK, you do things through the spirit, you do things through the body, right? But your body is not autonomous, doing its own thing. Your body has lusts, desires, the things of the flesh that your body wants to do, but it's not just in charge. Right. And you have a spirit that wants you to do spiritual things, but it's not just in charge either. But we have a soul. Like the soul is kind of like the brain of our consciousness. The soul is also what I would say is kind of like who you are. So when we talk about what we see, the soul is often used in place of just like a person. I think this example is actually not even in my notes, but you remember the parable of the rich guy that had all of his goods, right? And he tore down his barns, and he built more because he had so much abundance. And he was speaking to himself. He's like, soul, you have so much good. You know, eat, rest, be merry. You know, he's going to build up barns and all this other stuff. But he speaks to himself, and he's talking to his soul in reference to himself. Right. So it's just like one example there. And again, it's going to be hard. Like I'm going to be saying, making statements like I just did in this opening. It's too much to go through the volume of scriptures that kind of formulates this understanding. Because there's so many and because there's different contexts. So I'll just put it on you. I don't expect you just to believe me at face value. But when you do your Bible reading, just keep what I'm saying in mind and see if it matches up with what you see when you read the Bible. Right. Because it is kind of an exhaustive study, and we'll take some time to do it. But it appears to me that the soul would be that part of our being that's like, it's who you are. Right. Oftentimes, we're all so wanting to talk to people like, hey, like this body, that's not who I am. Right. So if you talk to people that have different skin color and different characteristics about their physical body, that doesn't really matter because it's who you are on the inside. It's who you are as a person that really matters. Right. So like the vessel that we are in, it is part of us. No doubt. Right. This is part of who I am. But it's not that important part. It's a part that I need in order to do things in this world and to do all the physical things I need and eat and drink and do all that stuff. But it's not really where my personality comes from. It's not who I am. It's not where my character comes from. That is more in the soul. My consciousness. Right. My self-awareness, knowing who I am and what I am, that's going to be contained in the soul. Okay. And that is more just to do about me and those things. I'm sorry if you went to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And I have a lot of scripture to turn to. This is not going to be a short sermon tonight, but I will do my best to keep it, to cap it. I will cap it off, of course, at some point. But I may not have you turn. I'm definitely not going to have you turn to all these different places that we're going to look at because I need to just kind of move quickly to get through all the scripture that I have to lay all this groundwork in this foundation. So one last point, though, about this soul, spirit, and body. It also makes sense that we have this three-part creation because God consists of three parts also. Now, it's slightly different, of course, because we are one person, but we are made up of body, soul, and spirit. And we're made in the image of God. There's lots of ways where God brings his truth into this world about who he even is and has many trinities in different areas of his own creation. And we are, in a sense, a little trinity, a mini trinity of body, soul, and spirit, making up one whole person. Whereas, of course, God exists as Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So we have similarities there, but the difference with God is that's three persons, one God. We're one person with three parts. Make sense? But we're this reflection, a much inferior reflection, but a reflection of the Lord, of our Creator, the fact that we have those three parts. So that kind of makes sense. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse number 9, the Bible says, But as it is written, eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For 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. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. Now, it's important just to bring this out right now as we look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The body and the soul, there's really no difference between a regenerated man and an unregenerated man. Saved man, unsaved man, right? Because a saved person, your soul doesn't change. Neither does your flesh, yet, right? Like as we exist right here on this earth. But your spirit does, because your spirit is born again. And we'll get into that in just a minute, okay? But the unregenerate, the unsaved man, they're not born again, but they still have a spirit. Now, their spirit is dead, but it still exists. And this is going to be a really important concept. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but your spirit is there. And like I mentioned before, the unsaved people, they still do spiritual things because they have a spirit. Now, their spirit is dead, but it's still there, it's still part of who they are. We can only understand the things of God, the true God, the real God, when we are born again and we have of His spirit to help us to discern and understand the word of God. So, I go to this passage because it clearly tells us, look, the natural man doesn't receive the things of God. And this is very strong evidence that our spirit is spiritual in the sense that we kind of toss around and use a lot because it's us dealing with God. And specifically for the saved person and for anybody, you can't understand the true things of God unless you are born again because it's spiritually discerned. You just can't understand these things in the flesh, your soul's not going to be able to understand them either. It needs to be spiritually discerned. So, having a living soul or living, excuse me, living spirit that's born again is going to give us that communion with the Lord, the understanding, the communication to be able to understand, to hear Him and to pray and have your prayers heard and things like that. So, that's what we can learn from 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And clearly, it's a spiritual thing. And like I said, there's so many passages about spirit. We can't go into all of them. But as you read through it, you can check and see that, like, yeah, when it's talking about the spirits, talking about spiritual things, one, it could be talking about just the Holy Spirit, which is a lot of references. One, another thing could be talking about different types of spirits like spirit of jealousy, spirit of anger, spirit, you know, all these other types of things that they call spirit, not your actual spirit itself. But when it's referring to, like, your spirit, it's always in relation to something to do with your communication with God or service to God. So, just to point that out. Now, I'm going to read through some of these verses about the soul and the body and not conflating those two things either, because there is a group, I forget who it is now, if it's the Jehovah's Witnesses or one of the cults. One of the cults just basically tells you, like, your soul and your body, it's like the same thing. And I haven't talked to anyone about this for a long time, so it hasn't come up in a while. I forget who it is that believes this, but, like, Genesis two, verse seven, the Bible says, 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. So what people do is they say, like, see, look, man is just this flesh. But then he made that flesh a soul, like a living soul. Like, that's how they see this or interpret this, is just, like, see, the flesh becomes a soul. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He became a living soul because God breathed the breath of life into him, which, by the way, another point to remember when we're looking at the usage of the word spirit is, like, the literal what does it even literally mean, and that has to do with your breath. So we believe that the that that the Bible is inspired because it's God breathed. And the spirit oftentimes you'll notice is tied in with your breath. OK, that just that like like that physically is what the spirit could be referring to other than our actual spirit. That's part of who we are. So when God we see here the three parts in Genesis chapter two. Flesh formed out of the out of the ground. The spirit being breathed into them and then becoming that living soul. So God made him a living soul, gave him the spirit and the body. So there's the three parts being created there in Genesis chapter two. A couple examples here of souls. Not necessarily referring to what's inside of you, but just as a person in general, Exodus 12 forces. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house, take it according to the number of the souls. Every man, according to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb. So it's the number of souls that are in your house, the number of people in your house. It's very basic English understanding, but. We've got to point out that this exists as a usage of the word soul verse Leviticus five, verse number two says, or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcass of an unclean beast or a carcass of unclean cattle or the carcass of unclean creeping things. And if it be hidden from him, he also shall be unclean and guilty. Or if he touch the uncleanness of man whatsoever uncleanness, it be that a man shall be defiled with all and it be hid from him when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. So it says if a soul touches or if he touches, you know, he's a person. And think about that. A soul is more of a of a spiritual thing. Right. Like like not physical. It's not using the flesh and bones. So how could a soul touch anything? Obviously, it's referring to the person. Right now, just because we have those passages that use a soul and a person interchangeably doesn't mean that the soul is the body. We've got to use some discernment here of what the Bible saying. And there's many ways in which you can use a part of something. To just be talking about the whole thing. So what's a good example of this? How about this, like nice threads? What am I talking about? I'm talking about clothing, right? Not just the actual like thread or what was the one you said? OK, get your rear end over here. Like, that's true. It's a good it's a good example. So let's say like you're obviously want the whole person to go there, but you were just referring to that part of them. Right. But you're referencing everything you see. I'm talking about like this. Just referencing a part is is commonly used in language. So I don't want to spend too much time on that because I think you get that pretty, pretty, pretty self-explanatory. Now, the definition of death really matters for understanding this concept, too. They really go hand in hand. And I'll read a few things for you. But basically, when when when a body dies, the soul and the spirit depart from the body. Like that just that happens certainly. And we have scriptural evidence for that as well. Genesis 35, 18, the Bible says it came to pass as her soul was in departing. And then it says a breath is for she died. Because she died, her soul was in departing that she called his name, but no, and I but his father called him Benjamin. Right. So someone is dying. Their soul is departing. First King 17, verse 21 says, and he 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 re vived. And that word revived means he was brought back to life. That, you know, those of you who know Spanish vivir is to live. Right. It's the same root, the same Latin root of this word revive here in English to be brought back to life again is literally what happened. And what happened was brought back to life. His soul came back in his body, but not just his soul. The Bible says in James 2, verse 26, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. So when your spirits departed, it's also part of the definition of death. Right. Someone physically dies, their soul and their spirit departs from their body, leaving the body alone. Revelation one, verse 17. So why is this important? Partially. Jesus is someone who was dead. The Bible says Revelation 117. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not. I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. And I know I hope you can follow me on this. And it's not something that's super complicated, but it is important because what people commonly think of as death is like ceasing to exist. A lot of people just have the physical death as their only understanding of death. Right. And not that it's real complicated, but really, you know, when a body dies, they say, well, I never see that person again. They're just gone. They go away. And on one hand, yeah, that is that is part of what death is about. But not really so much in scripture when we're talking about people who are dead. It's not as much even like it definitely is referred to. Again, check the context. People dying physically are referred to as being dead in scripture. But there's more than just that. Right. What death is really about. Death. Can still have consciousness. And people can still be referred to as dead. So not just gone completely like we would think a physical body has no consciousness. Right. That body is dead. But a soul or spirit being dead is not the same as the body that's just inanimate. Right. A soul or spirit that's considered dead still exists and is still there and is still conscious. And that's why it's important to know, as we're talking about body, soul, spirit. Hey, what about people who are unsaved? Their spirit's dead. Yeah, but the spirit's still there. The spirit still exists. The spirit can still be. Right. And it is it is around. But it can. But it's still considered dead. OK. Jesus is he says, I am he that liveth and was dead and behold, I'm alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. And the fact that he was dead. It's it's obviously physically he died, but he wasn't just like dead in with his body in the tomb. He was dead because his soul descended into hell. The place of death where the dead are. The Bible says in, of course, Psalm 16, 10, for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. Neither will thou suffer that holy one to see corruption. And this is quoted again in Acts Chapter two, which clearly illustrates that that verse is talking about the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell. So when Jesus was dead, he was truly dead in all senses of the word for those three days and three nights. Does that mean he ceased to exist? No. I mean, I've heard people scoff at that, say, well, how could God die? It's because they don't understand what death means, because they think that dead means you cease to exist. No. But I mean, really, nobody ceases to exist. Nobody does. There is I mean, to bring up physics, there is this conservation of energy. There's this conservation, even a matter. Nobody ceases to exist. People who die and go to hell, they still exist. They're in a real bad place, but they're conscious. And people who die and go to heaven, of course, they continue to exist as well. But the Bible defines those places. If you're in hell, you're dead. If you're in heaven, you're alive. You have life versus death. So it's you know, it's really good to have the right understanding of the word that, you know, what is the definition in the Bible? It is not cease to exist. It is not. Romans seven, verse eight says this, but sin taking occasion by the commandment, rotten me all manner of concupiscence. For without the sin, excuse me, without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death for sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good was then that which is good made death unto me. God forbid, but sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. And this is how everybody that is born is alive without the law once. Children are born in this world innocent and they're born with a body, a soul and a spirit. Now, without the law, without the understanding of right and wrong, without without having any of that, their spirit is not dead. Just as much as Adam's soul was or a spirit, excuse me, was still alive and he was good and him and Eve were fine in the garden until sin. They were fine. They didn't need to be saved until they sinned, just like every human being does not need to be saved until they're guilty of sin. And I'm not going to get into all of the you know, all the details of that with you, you know, with with the age of accountability, because there is a point in time where God is going to start holding people accountable for their sins. And that is outside of the scope of the sermon. But the fact that the Bible says Roman seven, look, I was alive once without the law. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Right. Soon as you become aware and you know you're doing wrong, there's a commandment against you. Now you're guilty. And now because of the law, hey, you're dead. You're dead spiritually, not dead physically, which is exactly what happened to Adam. Genesis 2 16 about the Lord commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden now may is freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And of course, the devil wants to confuse things. He goes even says, well, you're not really going to die. You're not surely going to die. But he said you're surely going to die. And if God said it, it's true. Now, here's what happened. What happened? Well, even Adam both ate of the tree. Genesis 3 6 is one woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise. She took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also under her husband with her and he did eat. And we keep reading the story. They don't fall over, drop dead physically. They didn't do it. But what did God say? He says in the day you eat thereof, you're surely going to die. So either God failed. At his what he said and what came out his mouth. Or what he said wasn't talking about their physical death. The latter is true. Right. Because he wasn't talking about their physical death because in the story, they hide themselves. They make themselves aprons or trying to cover up themselves and everything else after they get this knowledge. They didn't fall over and drop dead physically. They continued. But they did die. They died spiritually. Their spirit died. That separated them. That that good relationship with God that broke their standing. Now sin is brought into this world and they've got a problem and they need to be born again. Just like everyone else throughout history then that followed after their. And like the Bible says, hey, it may not be after the same similitude, the same sin that Adam made, but everyone has their own sin. And of course, I'm paraphrasing. But, you know, the Bible says we all have our own sin. Doesn't have to be Adam's sin that he did. You've got your own sin. And that's what causes you to be unsaved. And that will cause you to where you're alive without the law once. But then, boom, you sin, you break the law and now your spirit dies. But it's still with you. Revelation chapter 20, we see references to those that are not in the book of life are called the dead. Those that aren't alive are dead. I know it's complicated stuff, but when we're even talking about things like Jesus died for every man, he was truly dead. It wasn't just a physical death. Revelation 20, verse 11, and I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man, according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever is not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. The dead are standing before God. They're conscious. They're being judged. God's opened up the books, which I believe is the books of the Bible, the books of his law, the books that says, like, hey, you're guilty of this, this, this, this, this, this, this. This is where you're judged. They're conscious. They're aware. They understand what's going on. But they just came out of hell. Yeah. Because they've been conscious there, too. Just like Luke 16 talks about the rich man. It says in hell, he lifted up his eyes. And he's having a communication. He's talking to Abraham. He's aware. He's like, hey, I'm being tormented by this flame. Can someone help me out here? Because he's conscious. He knows what's happening. And that's clear throughout scripture as well. But they're referred to as dead. And just like Jesus said, hey, you know, when you're like, well, you're not even 40 years old yet. And have you seen Abraham? He says, before Abraham was, I have. Because he said, why? Because he said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Why? Because Abraham's alive. God's not the God of the dead, but of the living. So having this is a very important understanding than to help us even just understand our own spirit, soul, and body. Okay. And what actually happens. Now the spirit, not only is it our communication with the Lord, kind of that, but the spirit over and over again, what you're going to see is the spirit gives you life. Which is why those that don't have the spirit are dead. Those that have a dead spirit, they're dead. And those that have a live spirit are alive. Because the spirit gives life. And this is something you will find consistently through scripture. Now of course there's the spirit of God that gives us eternal life. But even our spirit gives us life. That's the life-giving part of our body, of who we are. John 663 says this, I'm just going to blow through many of these verses, it is the spirit that quickeneth. Quickeneth means made alive. It's a spirit that makes you alive. It's a spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. 1 Corinthians 3, 6, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. The spirit is where the life comes from. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 45, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. The natural man, Adam, yeah, we have the image of Adam, he was made a living soul. He was made a natural man. It's going to die. But the second Adam from above is the Lord Jesus Christ. He was made a quickening spirit and the spirit gives us that life. That's the spirit's job is to provide the life, which is why people that are unsaved, that their spirit is dead, they have the soul, they have the body, right? But they're going to go to hell because they don't have life. They don't have the spirit, which makes sense because the life that we get is from God. It makes sense that the spirit is going to be a religious type of a thing, right, communion with God. So you see how that all kind of fits together and makes sense? Hebrews 4-12 says this, 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. Now this is talking about the word of God, obviously the Bible, God's word. It's quick, which means alive, and it's powerful, and it's very, very sharp. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. And it's so sharp, right, you think about something that's real sharp. So I might get like a hair and be like, see, look, I could split this hair in two. And I would be like, wow, that's really sharp, you just cut through that. Well, the word of God is a lot sharper than that. And the reference it gives to how sharp the word of God is, it says it's piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. Okay, now, one, this shows me our soul and spirit have to be like really tied together tightly, right, they're bound, like that's, it's part of who we are. Our spirit, like no one here can ever just be like, oh, I'm just gonna take my spirit out for a walk. You know, people have this astral projection and stuff, they think they're like, oh, I'm just gonna be walking around outside of my body and all kinds of weird things like that. But look, you can't just take your, you can't do that, you're bound, right, like we have this physical adaptation we're bound by, and our spirit and our soul are really tightly knit together. Now, but God's word, it's able to split the soul from the spirit. That's how sharp the word of God is. But then it also says, and of the joints and marrow. So it's likening the soul and the spirit to the joints and the marrow. And a joint, I think everyone knows what a joint is here on their body, right, like anywhere you got two bones come together, they make a joint, right, so we got a lot of them here and the older you get, the more they start to hurt. We have these joints, it becomes increasingly, yes, I know where my joints are, right. But the marrow, you may or may not know, and again, I am not an expert in this area, but the marrow is found inside your bones, right, and the marrow is what kind of provides the sustenance or the life and brings the blood to your bones. In order to have that healthy bone and for the bones to still continue doing their job and be fed, they need the marrow. And it's interesting because the scripture here refers to the dividing of soul and spirit. Soul is mentioned first as spirit as then the joints and the marrow and the marrow is that what brings the life. So I would say the marrow is like the spirit and the joint is like the soul, right, and the bone would be like the flesh. And that's what's being described here as that type of relationship and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and I'm not going to get into that, let's just keep going here. So I want to keep on throwing all these verses at you just to help prove that what I'm trying to teach here is correct. We see this in scripture and just to help give you a good understanding between the two and see that, again, the soul and the spirit are not the same thing because if you could separate the two, clearly they can't be the same thing. Some verses on the soul that I think are relative or at least representative of what you'll find in scripture and, again, will also illustrate the relationship aspect between people, right? Genesis 34 verse 3 says, in his soul, clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel and spake kindly unto the damsel. Genesis 42 21 says, and they said one to another, we are very guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear, therefore is this distress come upon us, if we're referring to Joseph, right? And we can see just at least in these two examples of the soul being used in these interpersonal type of relationships, the anguish and the things going on with the soul. As I mentioned before, your soul seems to be tied into your personhood, like who you are as a person, and your consciousness, your self-awareness, as well as your decision-making. I'm going to read for you from Leviticus 26 14, Bible says, but if you will not hearken unto me and will not do all these commandments, and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that you will not do all my commandments, but that you break my covenant. So God is warning them saying, look, if your soul abhors my judgments, because you choose whether or not you're going to listen to God or not, and this is, we see the responsibility of like, hey, if your soul is aboring my judgments, then he's going to do this, this, and this. Deuteronomy chapter four verse 29, the Bible says, but if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. And we're going to see, and here's an example as I was doing my study, you know, I saw heart and soul, heart and soul, heart and soul a lot, but then you know what else I saw? Spirit and heart, heart and spirit, heart and spirit, heart and spirit. So like, you know, if you're going to study out something like this, be exhaustive with the search, so you're not making too many connections that aren't necessarily there. And also be careful not to make a doctrine based on what's not there either, right? We want to form our opinions on what we actually see, not what we don't see. Deuteronomy 6 five says this, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. And that commandment is referenced multiple times in scripture or like kind of stated slightly different ways, but it's always talking about your soul, you know, and I would say this, you say, yeah, but I thought the spirit's the one that has that communion with God. Yeah, but your soul is deciding whether or not you're going to do something, whether or not you're going to obey the commandments, whether you're not going to love God, right? So you're being told this, hey, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might and with all your strength, right? That's the commandment for you. Now, clearly your soul and your body are bound together tightly. Let's see what else we got here. Deuteronomy 14 26 says, and thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after for oxen or for sheep or for wine or for strong drink or for whatsoever thy soul desireth. And thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God and thou shalt rejoice thou in thine household. First Samuel 18 one, and it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul that the son of the soul, excuse me, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And again, we see that interpersonal relationship there. Their souls were knit together, right? Just another example. And I'm sorry, I'm trying not to bore you tonight, but it's the best way to teach this truth is for you to see this for yourself from scripture. Psalm 19 verse seven, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. And ultimately, you know, your soul is going to decide whether or not you're going to put your trust in Jesus Christ and for your spirit to then be regenerated. Psalm 22 29 says, all they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him and none can keep alive his own soul. You can't keep alive your own soul. You need the spirit to keep your soul alive. I already we already talked about death, but the souls in hell, we always read about souls in hell. You never read about like spirits in hell. The closest thing you might be able to say about any of that, well, Jesus preached to the spirits in prison, but doesn't say help. Okay. And that's a whole nother subject I'm not going to get into, but that was the only thing that even came to my mind before even just literally going through like all these verses I had to reference here. You're always going to find out that there's souls in hell. Why? Because the spirit's dead. The spirit's not doing anything for anyone in hell. You are. Now you will find flesh in hell. We'll get to that verse in just a minute. That's coming up. But it's always, you're always reading about souls in hell. Psalm 86 verse 13, for great is thy mercy toward me and now has delivered my soul from the lowest hell. Proverbs 23, 14, thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. Proverbs 11, 30, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. Right? We do soul winning. Why? Because we're trying to win those souls over to Christ so they don't die and go to hell. Because if you die without Christ, your soul is going to hell. Isaiah 38 verse 16, the Bible says, oh Lord, by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit. Again, the life and the spirit being tied together. So what thou recover me and make me to live. Behold, for peace I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou has cast all my sins behind thy back. So receiving forgiveness of sins obviously is clearly talking about that pit of corruption is talking about hell. You're saying the reason why, you know that, why? Because you've cast all my sins behind you, you've forgiven me of my sins. So you've delivered my soul from the pit of corruption. Matthew 10, 28, here's the reference I was talking about. And 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. Because at the resurrection of the just and the unjust, the resurrection of the unjust, that's in Revelation 20, that's why there's the dead being brought forth from the sea and all these other places, not just hell. Why? Because their bodies are being brought forth. And there's this reunion of soul and body that will then continue in the lake of fire forever, and that's why you can see where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Well, what's the worm? The worm's going through their dead flesh, their dead flesh that's going to remain, but they don't have a spiritual body, right, because they don't have the spirit, their spirit's dead. And again, maybe I would say it's not that they don't have a spirit, their spirit's dead. It provides no life for them whatsoever. The spirit brings life. Hebrews 10, 39 says this, but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. First Peter 1, 9, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, right? So over and over again, we see the deliverance from hell, that salvation is talking about your soul. Your soul is saved. Now references about the spirit, and I mentioned before, there's a lot that I'm leaving out, and I tried to make a list, and this is definitely not complete because I was going through some of this. The Bible talks about the spirit of God a lot, okay, but that's not necessarily relevant to us being comprised of body, soul, and spirit. It talks about the spirit of wisdom, it talks about the spirit of fear, it talks about the spirit of jealousy, it talks about the spirit of sleep, it talks about the spirit of judgment, it talks about the spirit of prophecy, it talks about the spirit of truth, it talks about the spirit of error, it talks about the spirit of meekness. Okay, now the spirit is tied into also, besides just giving life, kind of your will and what you're going to do, and it works hand in hand with your soul, right? But they're not exactly the same, and this is why all of this being said, as much as I'm trying to provide clarity on the subject, there's only so much I can provide because it's still, at least to me, somewhat of a mystery on how everything just works perfectly together. I don't feel like this is a dogger, and you could just get absolutely nailed down to have all of the answers on like how everything exactly is going to fit together and work. I mean, maybe it could be done with more knowledge that I don't have, okay, and I liken this similar to even understanding the Trinity, which, hey, great is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh. Do I understand every single aspect of that? No, absolutely I don't. There's a lot of things I don't understand about how God can become a man and how he can put on the flesh and have even limitations to himself. I don't understand how all of that works. I believe it. It's true. The Bible says it's true, and it absolutely has to be. I just don't fully comprehend all the ins and outs of how that can work, okay? But such is, and we're given enough information that we need to know about, and here I would similarly say, like, I can't just deliver, oh, this is exactly soul, this is exactly spirit, this is, you know, flesh is a little bit easier, but, you know, the inner workings of our soul and spirit, there seems to be a little bit of overlap there. But the Bible talks about a faithful spirit, a hasty spirit, a haughty spirit, a humble spirit, a meek and a quiet spirit, right? That's how you're carrying yourself and stuff, but it's not necessarily your spirit, right? You could walk in a spirit of pride and of haughtiness, or you could walk in a spirit of, it's a manner, it's a manner of, you know, but that's what it's being referred to as, not your spirit. But it's a common usage in scripture, and when you search this out, that's what you're going to find a lot of these references. Even talking about people, like, losing their spirit. So you read about, especially in the Old Testament, the battles, and they lost their spirit. What does that mean? They lost their will to fight. Like, they just, they were deflated. They lost their, they're just like, oh, right? They're defeated. They don't have that will to keep going anymore because they just feel like they're done. And it's referred to as losing your spirit. And look, this is common language that we use again today. Genesis 45, 27 is a good example of that. It says, and they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons, which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. So his spirit came back. He was really down. He hears about Joseph, and he sees everything. He's like, oh, okay, he is alive, because he didn't believe him at first. Judges 15, 19 says, but God, clave, and hollow place that was in the jaw, talking about Samson, and there came water there out, and when he had drunk, his spirit came again. Again, this makes sense, because the spirit brings that life, right? So when your life force is abating, that part of you that is your life, your spirit needs to be revived to give you that strength again. Not your soul, your spirit. So when he was receiving what he needed, that little bit of water to bring him back to life, his spirit revived within him, and came back again. 1 Samuel 30, verse 12, the Bible says, and they gave him a piece of cake of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins, and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread nor drunk any water three days and three nights. And that's, of course, talking about King Saul, when he fasted for three days, and they gave him food, and then he just came back. What came back, though? His spirit revived. His spirit came back. I might skip over just a little bit. Yeah, I'm running out of time here. All right, this is a good point. So let's, Proverbs 25, verse 28. Sounds like a big problem. We better get connected to the internet. Proverbs 25, look at Proverbs 25, 20, I'll read for you from Proverbs 20, verse 27. The Bible says, the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Your spirit shows, it's kind of a glimpse into you, and shows everything about you. It's God's candle to see inside of you. Verse 28 of Proverbs 25, the Bible says this, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down without walls. And this is where I was talking before about the soul kind of like being in charge over your spirit. The Bible says that the spirit of the prophets is subject unto the prophets. So there's obviously something besides the spirit that's just ruling. Now we ought to walk in the spirit, but again, that's a choice. We could walk in the flesh, we could walk in the spirit. Spirit's the right way, flesh is the wrong way. We have both. We want to walk in the spirit as much as possible. But we have this rule over our spirit that we need to make sure that we are then choosing to walk in the spirit. So if I'm going to sum all of this up here, there's one place, well there's two things that are worth mentioning. Let's look at Ecclesiastes 3 first. Or I'm sorry, Ecclesiastes 12. And I want to bring this up, I'm a little on the fence on what I think about this, but I want to bring it up anyways. Something that's worth mentioning. And specifically just about this one verse in Ecclesiastes 12. Now it's clear that the most we see in hell is soul and body. Never see references to spirits in hell, it's just not there. Souls go to hell, but we do know that when the soul and the spirit depart, a person's body is dead, and we know that we have a spirit that's alive, because we're born again. And of course a saved person, their soul and their spirit will still be joined together and go to heaven, and then one day we get a new body and we're back having a three part being. Body, soul, and spirit, but they're all redeemed, they're all holy and will be with the Lord. And of course in heaven we're with the Lord. Now what happens to the spirit of the unsaved when they die? It's still considered dead. Is that in hell with them? I don't know. Ecclesiastes 12.6 says this though, it says, or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel be broken at the cistern, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. So good argument to be made that the spirits of the unsaved, those dead spirits just return to God, and their soul and their body is going to burn in the lake of fire for eternity. And I'm not opposed to that view because it seems like that could very easily just be the case, but I also just feel like maybe there's something I'm not quite understanding just about what this verse is intended to mean also. Either way their spirit's dead. It's not alive. It's not providing any life. They're still conscious. They're aware because they have that soul which is our awareness, but they don't have life. And then the other point I want to make is this because this was something that I thought was kind of interesting that I was challenged on a while ago. But turn if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. The very first verse we looked at in this study was from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And I didn't spend a whole lot of time on this point of the spirit, but from 1 John, the whole book of 1 John really, but 1 John chapter 3 specifically, we get the understanding that about the new man and the new creatures, what so ever is born, who so ever is born of God doth not commit sin. And that's stated clearly in scripture. And how do we believe this to be true when we're still sinners? We still do things that are sinful. Well if we believe as we do, well hey we have a soul that could choose whether or not we're going to walk in the flesh or walk in the spirit. And in that context, it's talking about the spirit, why does whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin? Because he's born of God and his seed remaineth in him. Right? So the seed is the word of God that brings forth that new life, which is what makes our spirit born again. So that part of us, we have that new spirit that is born again, has the life and doesn't sin. Right? And this is a common, I've taught this a few times at least in the past here, that the spirit is the new man, it's the regenerate man, it is the part of us that has that eternal life, and the spirit of course has a life, we have a life given from God. When we walk in the spirit, when we walk in the new man, we are serving the Lord, we're doing what's right. When we walk in the flesh, we're not. Right? Our soul is kind of making that decision back and forth. So then, if that's the case, this is what was challenged to me before, and I'll admit I had a lot for a while, I didn't have a really good answer for this, I knew the question was kind of faulty, but nonetheless, I didn't have a good answer for it, and in verse 23 where we started in 1 Thessalonians 5, you're in 2 Corinthians 7, but the verse says, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, like, you know, wholly, completely, and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the question to me was, well, hey, if the spirit is sinless, right, and can't sin, then why would it need to be preserved blameless? That was the question, right, it's a fair question, right, to people, you know, and we ought to be open to answering questions about our faith, right, hey, what do you believe? And if you're wrong about something, then get it right. Now right off the bat, though, when it's talking about being preserved blameless, we see the word blameless used in other contexts, and it's even referred to people who are not sinless, but it's just kind of a standard of living, like, like, Job was blameless, or Abraham could be blameless, right, they were just without blame, this isn't referring to any fact of, like, a part of your body being without sin. What I can see now, and especially after doing this study and just really thinking about it, everyone has the body, soul, and spirit. There's things that you do in your flesh, right, there's things that you can do with your soul in your inner communication with people, we ought to love our brethren, we ought to do these things that all these different commandments can apply to, right, so loving your brother as yourself is going to have a little bit more to do with your soul, but the way that you love God and keep his commandments and keep spiritual purity is going to have to do with, you know, not having any other gods before him and not having any false idols and things like that, right? Now because we're a sinner, we can do, we can commit a spiritual sin, right? Even though our regenerate spirit is without sin, we can still have what we consider, like, like tarnishing your spirit because you're committing, you're bringing your spirit through the mud. I was talking just briefly with Brother Devon before, you know, he brought up, like, a diamond is still a diamond, but if you get it all dirty in the mud and stuff, right, that's still pure, the purity of the diamond, but now you've kind of, you know, just dirtied up that, that, what's there, and we could do the same thing, a similar thing, you know, with our, with our spirit, you know, spirits still without sin, hey, we want to be blameless in all areas of our life, in the physical sense, in the soul, and in the spirit, right? We know that the spirit's good and without sin, and we know that one day we're going to get a new body, but we want to be blameless in all of our areas of life, and this kind of sealed the deal for me when I read this in 2 Corinthians, chapter 7, because it also references a filthiness. In verse number 1, the Bible says, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Wait a minute, I'm saved, what do you mean filthiness of the spirit, right? Same type of argument could be used here, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And we read this verse of going, okay, well, having therefore these promises, wait, this is referring back, so right off the bat, this verse, verse, you have to get, the context goes back to chapter 6, right? So let's tie in where this was coming from and see in context, what is this talking about filthiness of the flesh and spirit? Well, in 2 Corinthians 6, 14, which is written to save people, right, people who are in church, people who have the new spirit, people who are regenerated, it says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness, and what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And understanding the way that our soul and our spirit work, and just in general, we could do spiritual things and spiritual sins, you know, that's going to bring filthiness on our flesh and spirit. And as we see here, you know, getting involved with idols, or eating that which is offered unto idols, and that type of thing, that would be more of a spiritual sin, because it has to do with you and your relationship with God. But it doesn't imply that the new man is not sinless. Does that make sense? I hope it makes sense, just seeing that, like this is, you know, an understanding how all parts of our body are kind of framed together, and what their functions are, will help us understand some of these smaller things, I would call it a finer point, right, of what we believe. Because here's the thing, you can look at a couple of these statements, and like I said, I wasn't too worried about the challenge, because 1 Thessalonians 5 23, there's a little bit of ambiguity there, and the way it's worded doesn't sound like it's something that's just as explicit as say, 1 John 3 is, right, 1 John 3 is extremely explicit, and when we're looking at getting our doctrine from scripture, you got to go with the clearest verses, just be like, yeah, this is flat out exactly saying this, versus things that are questions and other parts of scripture, so I don't know. I hope this helps with your understanding of how we are and were created. As I mentioned, there's, I don't claim to have all the ins and outs, and I can't nail everything down, and I don't think we ought to just be thinking like, wait, is that my soul? Is that my spirit? You know, like we don't need to get caught up with that at the end of the day, just do right, and don't get all worried about what part of your body is doing what, like that's not that important, just serve God, do right, and you'll be good, right? You're already saved, you got the new spirit, walk in the spirit as much as you can. So let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, thank you so much for making us the way that you did, for giving us the ability to know you, and to communicate with you, communing with you, dear Lord, as well as our fellow man, and I pray that you would please just help us and increase our knowledge and our understanding and our wisdom of your creation, of us, of all around, all the things around us, dear Lord, and just lead us in the way of truth, help us to be able to reach other people, and lead them to you, and it's in Jesus Christ's name we pray these things, amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we are dismissed, Brother Austin, will you please lead us? All right, church, if you guys could grab your hymnals, turn to song 127, that is song 127, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," song 127. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take it as his word, just to wear as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear. Just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear, just as the one you wear,