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 Sermon > Sunday Morning Service |
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Title |
Spirit, soul and body(31) - The 3rd lecture on - Spirit, soul and body(10) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 Jn 2:24-25 |
Date |
2005-01-23 |
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[Scripture]
1 John 2:24-25
Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. [25] And this is the promise that He has promised us--eternal life.
Contents
Introduction: You should not only be satisfied with being saved but accomplish spirit soul and body belonging to spirit. Enter into spirit and whole spirit through the word as soon as possible
Body:
1. How a man became the flesh
2. How to cast away the flesh
1) Cut off the lust of the eyes and get rid of the acts and desires of the sinful nature
- God's refining you to let you remove the untruth hidden within you
2) Ask for the help of the Holy Spirit and the grace and strength of God
3) Rely on the blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of original sin and self-committed sin
4) Real ways to get rid of sins
Conclusion:
Only when you receive the word touchingly, apply it to your real life and change your life according to it through the strength and help from above, will you be able to enter into spirit
[Introduction]
Dear brother and sisters,
In the beginning, Adam was a living being namely, a living spirit. His spirit, soul and body were all spiritual. Spiritual things are not corrupted and do not decay. When Adam was a living spirit, he had an eternal and incorruptible life. When he sinned, he was degraded into a man of flesh and his heart, mind, and body became flesh. He was no longer a spiritual being, but a mere fleshly being that ages, falls ill, dies, and finally corrupts. This has been applied to all of his descendants since he sinned.
The original cause of all these things is sin. If one has cast away all the sin from himself, he no longer belongs to flesh but spirit. If he has become a person of spirit, all blessing recorded in the Bible will come upon him. In addition, because a person of spirit shines spiritual lights, the enemy devil can never approach him for fear of his lights. As a result, all kinds of troubles and disasters, including diseases and accidents, leave him and he receives blessings whether he comes in or goes out.
Furthermore, everything goes well with him and he enjoys good health the way 3 John 1:2 says, "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well." And because a man of spirit has no barrier against God, he can receive whatever he asks so quickly. He can understand secrets of the spiritual realm through clear and close fellowship with God, feel the depth of God's heart and experience His love walking with Him all the time.
What is more surprising is that he can lead as many souls to the way of salvation as he has received the power and authority on his words from heaven. More powerfully than hundreds of or thousands of words a fleshly man speaks, can a single of word a spiritual person confesses break and change a solid mind of others and plant faith in them. When delivered the message in the work of the Holy Spirit, surprisingly thousands of people repented of their sins and accepted Jesus as their Savior.
For this reason, none of God's children who haven been cleansed through Jesus' blood should be content only with their own salvation. In accordance with the desire of God, he should throw away all kinds of evils and sins, become renewed with the word every day and finally accomplish the heart, mind, and body belonging to spirit. If you are in the titles or positions of pastors or mission and cell leaders, you should necessarily change into a man of spirit because you have the responsibility of leading many souls to the way of salvation.
Becoming a person of spirit is the very purpose of God's creation and cultivation of mankind. The messages on spirit soul and body delivered in every Sunday Morning service give us the shortcut to making our spirit, soul and body spiritual. We can tell what the flesh is and how we can cast away the flesh.
I hope through this message all of you make your heart, mind and body spiritual as soon as possible. Thus, may you join the blessed line of spirit and whole spirit by the grace of the Father this year 2005 in the name of the Lord I pray!
[Body]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, members who are attending the service through the satellite all over the country, members of branch churches, local sanctuaries, Light and Salt Mission, Restaurant Mission, those who are attending the service on the Internet all over the world, and children of Sunday School,
This is the tenth session of Spirit Soul and Body PART THREE. Until the ninth session, I have explained about the flesh in detail. I gave you clear definitions about many things such as: misdeeds of the body, sinful nature, desires of the sinful nature, acts of the sinful nature, the flesh, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of this life. All these things are corruptible and smelly flesh. Only when you have cast off all of them, will you be able to become a man of spirit.
How then can we cast off those fleshly things? Just as we throw away trash into a waste box or wash away dirt with soap, we have just to cast away fleshly things as soon as we find them. Prior to explaining to you how to cast away fleshly things, I will preach about how the flesh came into man.
Adam and Eve had no flesh at all within them when they were first created. They were spiritual beings. When they received the temptation of the serpent and sinned in disobedience, they were degraded into fleshly men. With that corruption, men's communication with God was cut off and many fleshly things were planted into them by our enemy Satan and the devil. The evil ones stained their hearts and minds with all kinds of fleshly things such as hatred, envy, anger, greed, arrogance, adultery, and so on, just as blemishes makes a piece of white paper dirty.
Sinful attributes are inherited by children and children's children. All the characters, habits and nature of parents that are contained in the sperm and eggs, the seeds of life that God gave man and woman, have been passed down to their descendants generation after generation. So have parents' sinful attributes. Thus, all descendants of Adam have inherited sinful attributes from fathers and forefathers. The have been born with those sinful attributes that is called "original sin."
Men are not only born with the original sin, but receive many fleshly things during their lifetime as well. Just as a magnet attracts iron, fleshly people need more and more fleshly things and deem those fleshly things sweet. In this way they become more and more stained with flesh and untruth.
Children receive fleshly things one by one as they are growing up. Suppose there is a boy who did not strike other boys at first. Sometimes he saw other boys striking weaker children, and took pleasure in imitating it. Whenever he repeats it, the evil of striking others becomes the evil nature within him. As another example, suppose another boy who often curses at others. He imitated the cursing of others and took pleasure in it. Repeating it, the boy has let an evil habit of cursing at others dwell in him. Because we receive evil and unclean sins through what we see, hear, and follow, they have come to abide in us as the sinful nature.
Dear brothers and sisters,
A man of spirit who has already cast off all kinds of flesh will not commit any sin, because he deems any kind of sin unclean, even though someone forces him to sin. On the other hand, the fleshly people neither realize their own sins nor feel and consider those sins detestable and dirty even though they have unclean sins in their mind and commit sins in deeds.
Why is it so? That's because the fleshly people have already been stained with sins and accustomed to unclean things. If you find your hands have been soiled by something really filthy, you will feel very disgusted and immediately go wash with soap.
In old times in Korea, farmers often found their hands stained with filthy things because they made fertilizers out excremental wastes for crops. You might wonder how he neglects it and eats food or touches his face with such dirty hands. That's because he has been accustomed to it. In the same way, those who have been stained with sins get accustomed to terribly unclean sins and do not perceive its seriousness.
However, the word of God reveals what the sin is and how much unclean and dirty sin is. It is said in Hebrews 4:12-13, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. [13] Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
We cannot recognize dirty things when we are in a dark room, but all dirty things are revealed when the light is on. Similarly, when the light of the word of God shines, every kind of untruth and evil sin is revealed and anybody can realize his sin. With this word of truth, those who considered themselves able to live without the law or to live a good life without sinning, will understand how far they are away from the truth.
Dear brothers and sisters,
What then shall those who are stained with sins do to get sanctified by getting rid of sins and become a man of spirit? They must get rid of everything they have planted into themselves one by one. Above all else, they must cut off the lust of the eyes. In other words, they should not see, hear or receive flesh into their heart.
Unless they cut off the lust of the eyes, the fleshly things enter into them through what they see, hear and feel, and it is useless for them to determine to cast off fleshly things and get rid of sins. That's why they must cut off the lust of the eyes and then remove the acts of the sinful nature, namely sins revealed outwardly.
Those who stole must abandon stealing and those who lied must rid themselves of lying. Those who cursed and struck others must quit all those sinful actions. In fact, when they have quit the acts of the sinful nature, they begin to be deemed good by worldly people.
God our Father wants us not only to quit acts of the sinful nature but also to cast off every kind of sin and evil within us. I John 3:15 says, "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him." If you have not hated someone with deeds but hate him in heart, it is considered evil in God's sight.
On the one hand, when one commit the acts of the sinful nature, our enemy devil brings on him various disasters and lets him suffer from trials and hardships. Because the acts of the sinful nature are evident and obvious, if one does acts of the sinful nature, he lets himself belong to darkness and God cannot protect him when the devil accuses him.
On the other hand, when one has desires of the sinful nature, he will not meet with various disasters or suffer from troubles and trials unlike when he commits acts of the sinful nature. But God refines and disciplines him who has the sinful desires and helps him cast away those sinful desires. Suppose a man put your name to public disgrace and acted with rude deeds to you because he hates you. Because of his rude actions, you may feel disrespected and disgusted and desire to reject him.
In this situation, if you have become a man of spirit, you will not feel hostile or hate him. You will embrace him like loving your enemies and seek for his benefits. You will not suffer from him because you deem him lovely whatever he does. Because you embrace him and seek for his benefits, God will change his evil mind and restore peace between you and him. On the contrary, if you have evil within you and feel uneasy about others, God lets fleshly people get to you and you become refined through them. So, it is the wisest way for you to look back at yourself and pass the given trial by changing yourself into spirit with joy and thanks.
Moreover, we must realize there is untruth hidden deep within our nature. We cannot find it by ourselves. Even if a man does not sin in his deeds or thought and follows goodness, he is still found to have evil hidden deep within his inner heart, and it is difficult for him to search for and get rid of it. That's why God permits us trials and helps us find and remove it through such trials.
Suppose when someone removes a weed from the ground, he picks off its leaves and the stem but leaves behind its root. Then, the root that was left will sprout out and grow again with the passing of time. When we have uprooted the weed, it is completely removed. Similarly, even if a man has not committed sins or had evils in his heart, if he has not removed the original sinful attributes from deep within him, he may sin again.
It is not by human strength that we remove the hidden sinful attributes from the heart. We can get rid of the acts of the sinful nature with steadfast determination and efforts and throw away the desires of the sinful nature with our own strength and energy. However, we can neither find nor throw away the sinful attributes and untruth hidden in the nature, nor can we be forgiven our original sin with out power.
To completely remove the sinful attributes does not need only our own efforts but three other factors as well. They are the grace and power of God and the help of the Holy Spirit. Success in receiving the three factors absolutely requires our efforts. Only when we eagerly petitioned to God with sincere prayers and fasting to truly get rid of sin, will God give us the grace and power and the Holy Spirit help us do it, so we will be able to completely remove flesh with the work of the four factors.
The most fundamental reason that we can remove our sins is because of the door through which we are forgiven our sins by faith, through the blood of Jesus Christ. Some nonbelievers say that they can control their hearts through heart cultivation and that they have given up all the greed toward the world. Some of them are called "saints" or considered to have gained "A True Way." But they cannot escape from being declared to have the flesh within them because they are born with original sin and have fundamental sinful attributes hidden within their nature even though they can control their hearts and have not sinned with their own will.
But believers in the Lord are declared to be righteous and their original sin as well as self-committed sins is forgiven by faith. Only within the heart of those who are forgiven their sins, can the Holy Spirit dwell and help them get rid of all the sins and accomplish their sanctification. I will explain how we can receive the grace and power of God and the help of the Holy Spirit when we try our best to throw away sins.
Suppose you listen to the message on "peace" among the nine fruits of the Spirit. Peace is the heart that can be harmonious with everyone. Peace considers this or that right without insisting one's intention if it is not against the truth. Even if his way is more reasonable, he follows his partner's measure of faith and situation first and does not show off himself.
If you pray about one by one before God, remembering these words, the Holy Spirit leads you to find out yourself. With His help and gunidance you come to realize when and with whom you did not live in harmony, and to understand what kind of heart you had at that time. "I had this kind of arrogance. I led my brother to fall in trouble due to my evil and self righteousness. Although I thought my partner was wicked and did not have faith at all, in fact it was I who had the heart of crying out." In this way the Spirit leads you to find out about yourself in detail. You naturally want to immediately cast off the evil in you because you feel hateful at the evil and ashamed of it.
When you find out about yourself and repent this way with the help of the Spirit, it is said that God's grace has come upon you. Now you seek for power based on what you have understood. "Father God, please help me cast off my arrogance that broke peace, my self-righteousness and crying out, and so on. Please let me have peace with anyone later on." You pray one by one this way.
The more ardent heart you have, the more firmly you make up your mind in praying for a specific period of time, praying all night, and fasting. When you pray with all your heart in this way, you can change your heart because power of God comes upon you from above. Just as dirt is washed away by clean water, sinful attributes within you are cast away and your heart changes into clean spirit.
Suppose you have the heart of spirit and meet a situation, in which you would harm your partner due to your self-righteousness before you have changed. Now you will think once again, and talk to the partner in a graceful and virtuous manner because the Holy Spirit leads you not to "act in that way." In a situation you would vent out your anger before, you now control yourself, saying, "If I act that way, it is very wicked."
This way, your heart of today is very different from your heart of one month ago. One month later, you will change more and this way you are able to produce the fruit of peace. At last, you will always produce the fruit of peace without even a moment of unrest. If the fruit of peace is produced in you this way, you are very happy and joyful of the very fact that you can be peaceful even if a situation does not fit for your benefit and your opinion is not accepted. Even if somebody forces you to break peace, you cannot break it because you already hate fleshly things like venting out anger, greed, obstinacy, and arrogance, all things which break peace.
It is the same with other wickedness. If you receive the grace and power of God and the help of the Holy Spirit while trying to cast it away, you will finally cast off all wickedness and accomplish the heart of spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, James 1:23-25 write, "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does."
When you look at your face in a mirror, if you find the dishevelled hair, you will comb your hair neatly and if something dirty is on your face, you will wash it away. If you simply say, 'something dirty is on my face,' and go away and forget it, there is nothing changed even if you look at yourself in a mirror. It is spiritually same. If you learn the word of truth, you should try to change into spirit. If you find out about yourself through the messages just as you look at yourself in a mirror, you then should receive power and change.
Longing for the level of spirit does not let you be a spiritual person. Even if you have listened to the Word more than 5 years, or 10 years, or even if you have found out many things about yourself, it does not lead you to be a spiritual person. Only when you find out about yourself by looking at yourself in a mirror of truth, make it yours and cast off fleshly things in you, is it beneficial to you.
I urge you not to be like a man who looks at himself in a mirror but forgets what he looks like, but to keep in mind what you find out through the Word. Thus, I bless in the name of the Lord you may change to be more beautiful and holier every day in the power of God and belong to spirit. |
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