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 Sermon > Sunday Morning Service |
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Title |
Spirit, soul and body(8) - The 1st lecture on - Spirit, soul and body(8) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1Th 5:23 |
Date |
2003-12-21 |
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[Scripture]
[1 Thessalonians 5:23]
"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
[Introduction]
Dear congregation, today is the 8th session of the 1st part of spirit, soul, and body. We are going to finish the 1st part of spirit, soul, and body today. The messages I delivered to you so far are very important in viewing yourself and in changing yourself into a person of spirit with whom God is pleased.
Just as we have to understand the basic principles in order to excel in physics of mathematics, we have to understand the basic spiritual knowledge to excel in spiritual studies.
Also, even if a subject is a difficult one, if you learn the basic principles well from a very good teacher, it would be interesting. In the same way, since you are learning spiritual words from the best teacher, our Father God, how easy and interesting it is to learn about spiritual things!
Through this spiritual knowledge, you will come into spiritual realm more deeply and be able to accomplish God's good and perfect will.
Therefore, I bless in the name of the Lord that you will listen to the message with longing heart, so that you will realize God's will by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and give glory to God always.
Dear congregation, members who are attending the service through the satellite all over the country, members of branch churches, branch sanctuaries, Light and Salt mission, Restaurant Mission, members who are attending the service through the Internet all over the world, (children of Sunday school,)
Let us review briefly what we learned in previous sessions. Spirit is something that does not perish or change but is something eternal, and life and truth itself.
Also, due to Adam's sin, the living spirit came to die, and since then, untruth came into men through Satan who controls the soul, and people's hearts and consciences have been stained with evil.
Therefore, the dead spirit has to revive for a man to be saved.
It is done by receiving the Holy Spirit after accepting Jesus Christ as the personal Savior. And the spirit has to grow up by putting the word of truth in heart and acting according to it.
Today, we will see how Adam's spirit was different from that of ours and learn about spiritual body and spiritual knowledge.
Dear congregation, when God created Adam, God made him a living spirit by breathing into his nostrils the breath of life that contained God's power.
This process did not take a long time but was done in a moment.
In other words, Adam was not in the form of a child but was made as an adult and became a living being, and began to get spiritual knowledge one by one from God.
Therefore, Adam's spirit was filled with only truth, not any untruth or evil.
It was like drawing something on plain white paper.
Then, how about the people whose spirits used to be dead but were revived by believing in Jesus Christ?
They have inherited the sinful nature coming down from Adam and their ancestors, and untruths came into their hearts while they were growing up.
Therefore, in order to become a perfect man of spirit, we first have to get rid of untruths and put life and truth into our hearts.
Just like making a field with good soil by removing rocks and thorns from it, we need to clear our hearts.
And when we have got rid of all untruths in us and filled us with truth 100%, we can say we have accomplished the whole spirit.
Therefore, Adam had only truth without knowing anything about untruth or sin, but those who have gone into the spirit after experiencing the fleshly and sinful things on this earth know the relativity of light and darkness and good and evil.
Also, since they know how filthy sins and evil are and how fearful the pain of sins is, they never fall back to the flesh again.
And they thank for God's love that saved them and love God from deep heart.
That is why God created men in spirit, soul, and body, put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and began the human cultivation.
Dear congregation, now let us delve into the spiritual body. 'Frame' is a figure with which we can draw a line and have the form. In other words, it is something that makes up the form of an object.
For example, when we look at the frame of the eagle, we realize it is eagle by looking at its frame.
Also, when there is a lion, we do not say it is an eagle because its frame is completely different from that of an eagle.
It is the same with human beings.
We distinguish human beings by its shape. If the frame is lion, even if its heart is a man's heart, we can only call it a lion.
Likewise, we can distinguish between things by its frame. And when the frame has the skin and forms a certain shape, we call it a body.
And we should know that there is physical body as well as spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:38-40 say, "But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another."
Namely, if there is body belonging to this earth, there is also body belonging to heaven.
Just as we have physical body that has a shape, there is spiritual body like a vessel to hold our spirit.
If there is no spiritual body, how can we distinguish between spirits?
We can distinguish whose spirit it is and recognize the shape because there is body that contains the spirit.
What, then, exactly is the spiritual body and how was it made?
God formed man with dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. 'Life' here refers to the crystalloid where all God's power is condensed.
Because this life was breathed into, Adam could become a living being although he was made from the dust of the ground.
Just as a TV shows pictures along with sounds when we plug the switch in and turn it on, Adam became a living being because God's life came into him.
At this time, the body in which this spirit is dwelling is the spiritual body.
And what we should know here is that this spiritual body does not disappear at all.
In other words, since the disobedience of Adam, the spirit came to the state of being dead as God said, "you will surely die," but the spiritual body that was holding Adam's spirit just remained.
Our physical body perishes when the spirit, the master of the body, leaves it, but a spiritual body cannot disappear because it has received the life-force from God.
It is everlasting and immortal being that cannot either disappear or perish.
Then, after Adam's disobedience, what happened to the spirit of a man?
The spirit encountered death, and instead, the soul is contained in the spiritual body.
Because animals are made from the dust, their souls disappear when their physical life ends. But even after men die, their souls are contained in the spiritual body and they exist forever.
This is the reason why God had to make heaven and hell.
On the one hand, when we believe in Jesus Christ and receive the Holy Spirit, our dead spirits get revived through the Holy Spirit. And when we keep on giving birth to spirit through the Holy Spirit, the revived spirit and soul belonging to truth are contained in the spiritual body and go to heaven.
On the other hand, those who do not believe in God have soul in the spiritual body.
Then, where would the souls of these people go, being contained in the spiritual body?
They cannot enter heaven but will be thrown into hell because they are polluted with sins, and are rotten, stinky, and filthy.
To be more precise, they stay in Hades until the Judgment of the Great White Thrown, and after they resurrect and are judged, they fall into the fires of hell.
If those who have evil heart go to heaven, how can we say heaven is beautiful, and how can God's children live there happily and comfortably?
That is why God had to make hell to keep the evil ones.
Dear congregation, those whose spiritual eyes are opened by God's grace can see the spiritual body.
And they can see different lights coming out from the spiritual bodies.
The more one changes into spirit, the more beautiful and brighter lights his spiritual body gives out.
In case of a person who has accomplished the whole spirit, his lights are too bright for others to look straight into his spiritual body.
Our God is truth itself and true light.
That is why Revelation 21:23 says, "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp."
Also, when an archangel appeared to Daniel, he could not look at the angel because of the lights.
Then, how bright is your spiritual light? We should know that the brightness of spiritual lights depend on the extent to which we go into the spirit, and according to the lights, the dwelling places and glory of heaven will differ.
1 Corinthians 15:41 says, "The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor."
Also, Revelation 19:7-8 say, "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)""
Namely, according to how much you have accomplished spirit and lived a holy life on this earth, the colors of your clothes and the lights coming out from you will be different.
And according to this light the rank of heaven will be decided.
Likewise, the Bible certainly tells us that the ones who are saved will not have the same glory in heaven.
When Jesus was crucified, one criminal opened his heart and was saved by accepting Jesus.
But since he did not get rid of any sin, his heart was still dark and his spiritual body did not shine.
This kind of person does not receive any rewards and he can only go into paradise.
Therefore, it is so important to lead a good Christian life.
Even though one knows a lot of God's word, if he does not act according to it and circumcise his heart, his spiritual body shines out black light.
Those with open spiritual eyes can see that spiritual light. Even I can feel those lights with my spirit and knows about the spiritual condition of that person.
Just by looking at the spiritual light coming out from one's spiritual body, we can see whether he is living according to God's word with true faith, whether he is just a churchgoer who does not live according to God's word, or whether he is having a hard time under Satan's influence.
Dear congregation, if we know about spiritual body, we can easily understand and believe resurrection and rapture.
Spiritual bodies seem to have no weight but do have it, and they seem to have weight but do not have it.
For example, just think about air.
Does air have weight or not?
Although we cannot see it or touch it, it surely has some weight.
But still, it is so light as if it does not have any weight.
It's the same with spiritual body.
So when a believer dies, his spiritual body goes up to heaven. At this time, not only the spirit but also the soul goes up being contained in the spiritual body.
Jesus prayed to God on the cross, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." 'Spirit' here refers to the spirit along with soul. So, believers' spirit and soul go up to heaven being contained in the spiritual body.
Then, when the Lord comes back in the air, their bodies will change into bodies that will not perish and be caught up in the air. At this time, their bodies will combine with the spiritual body that comes with the Lord to make up the perfect resurrected body with spirit, soul, and body.
The Lord who resurrected in 3 days had flesh and bones, but it was an imperishable body.
Luke 24:39 says, "Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."
Furthermore, he came into the room without passing through a door.
When the imperishable body is combined with the spiritual body, we can move beyond time and space.
Dear congregation, when we say the spiritual body is the frame that enables us to distinguish between spirits, the contents that make up the spirit can be referred to as spiritual knowledge.
Just as we must have necessary knowledge to live in this world, spiritual knowledge is necessary for spirits to live eternally.
When Adam was first made as a living being, he was at the state of nothingness without any spiritual knowledge, like a newborn baby.
For example, if a person has five senses to feel but does not have any basic knowledge that a man must have, is not able to express his own opinion, or cannot understand others or distinguish things, how can we call him he is a complete man?
He is just like a moron.
In the same way, even though Adam was a living being, he was like nothing when he had only the basic God-given spirit without any contents, namely any spiritual knowledge in it.
It's the same with you.
Even though you have received the Holy Spirit and your spirit has been revived, now you have to fill your spirit with spiritual knowledge and accomplish the whole spirit.
What, then, is this spiritual knowledge?
Spiritual knowledge is all the words in the 66 books of the Bible that are related with God's spirit, and with this spiritual knowledge our spirit can grow.
For example, when we keep God's word that says, "Love one another," our sinful nature such as hatred and jealousy are removed, and the spirit in the form of love dwells in our heart.
If we keep on acting according to God's word in this way, our heart will change into the truth itself and we will be able to accomplish the whole spirit quickly.
[Conclusion]
Dear congregation, by this session, we finish the 1st part of the spirit, soul, and body.
I explained to you about the difference between Adam's spirit and our spirit, and about the spiritual body and spiritual knowledge.
We cannot understand the spirit not just by learning about spirit itself, but we need to learn about the spiritual body that contains the spirit and soul as well.
Also, I explained to you about spiritual knowledge because we need to know about spiritual knowledge contained in spiritual body, in order to understand spirit fully.
Since spiritual world is endless and limitless, we cannot measure the depth of it.
Therefore, as said in Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up," we should never stop but continue to go into spiritual realm.
We should not become discouraged when we find our weaknesses, but become constructive persons who can stand up on those weaknesses being thankful to God for letting us realize them.
If we keep on going until the end with faith, having the eternal hope that God gave us, we will definitely harvest the fruit.
Going into the spiritual realm is just as a farmer has to endure and put his efforts from the moment he sows seeds until the harvest.
That is why the Bible tells us to struggle against sin even to the point of shedding blood.
Also, 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!"
Spiritual realm is endless, and we can never understand the whole depth and width of it. And if people become lazy and stay in the same place in this limitless spiritual realm after having come into it just a little bit, they are such foolish people.
Even if you come to realize about spiritual realm and experience it, you should know it is only a beginning.
Therefore, I hope you will humbly find out about yourself more through this message on the spirit, soul, and body, and feel the love of God more deeply.
I bless in the name of the Lord that you will go into deeper and deeper part of the spiritual realm in overflowing love of God. |
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