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 Sermon > Spirit, soul and body |
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Title |
Spirit, soul and body(29) - The 3rd lecture on - Spirit, soul and body(8) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 Jn 2:24-25, 2:15-16 |
Date |
2005-01-09 |
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[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Peru mission report at the end of last year, I told you that I met the president of Peru. I also told you something that he had told me. Do you remember what that was?
He said that men have not only a body, but also a spirit and a soul. He also said that he respected spiritual teachers, and that he had sent his message many times that he was thankful that I had come to Peru for a crusade.
Many people recognize the fact that men have not only a body but also a spirit and a soul.
Even though they don't have a clear understanding of the spiritual realm and they can only see the things that are physical, they have a sense of the existence of the spirit and the soul.
Men consist of spirit, soul, and body. The physical and visible body is not all to men. The spirit and soul that are within is the true self with spirit being more important than the soul. All of the people who have not accepted the Lord as Savior are in the serious condition of spiritual death. These people go through life functioning with only with the soul and body.
Thus, they lead a meaningless life without having the true value of men.
They seek perishable and changeable things. When their life ends on this earth, they fall into the eternal fire of hell.
But the spirit of those who accept the Lord will be revived. This is called 'being born again'.
But just "being born again" should not be the end of it either.
Just as a newborn baby grows up to become an adult, our spirit must also grow up daily and reach the full measure of the Christ.
Ephesians 4:13 says "till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ"
As you all so eagerly hope for, reaching the full measure of Christ is the way for us to go into the whole spirit.
The three part series of the sermon lectures on 'Spirit, Soul, and Body' tell us in detail about the on-going processes of our spirit being born again and how this born-again-spirit changes into the whole spirit.
I bless in the name of the Lord that you will keep all the messages in your mind so that you will be able to quickly change from 'being of spirit' into 'being of the whole spirit'.
[Main]
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, members who are attending the service on the Internet all over the world, children of Sunday school
This is the 8th session of the 3 part lecture series of sermon lectures on 'Spirit, Soul, and Body'. I am explaining to you about the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to tell you how to get rid of things that belong to flesh.
Today's passage 1 John 2:15-16 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world."
This world and everything in this world are fleshly things that will perish. As long as we love these things, we cannot go into the spirit.
And we can see from today's passage, casting off the flesh is, after all, getting rid of "lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life".
These are the things that are the force that makes people feel good about and love the things of this world, the force that makes them so desirous of worldly things.
For example, when Eve was tempted by the serpent to take the fruit of the tree of the knowledge, Genesis 3:6 says, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."
It stimulated the lust of the flesh because It looked like it was good for food. It was pleasant to the eyes to bring about lust of the eyes. It was also desirable to make one wise so that it could bring about the pride of life.
Since Eve allowed these lusts, she came to have the desire to take the fruit of the tree of knowledge and actually ate from the tree. Before, she had never wanted to disobey God, but the fruit looked delicious and beautiful, and she had the desire to gain wisdom. These lusts motivated Eve to disobey and commit a sin against God.
Here, the power source for 'the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life' that makes sin appear good and charming, and that moves a person to commit acts and works of the flesh, namely, it is the love of this world.
Therefore, if you want to cast off things of the flesh and prevent temptation, you must first cut off the three things that motivate the fleshly desires.
Then, you should get rid of flesh from your heart.
After that you must free yourself from flesh from your heart.
So, if you realize how worthless the things in this world are, you can cut off these lusts more easily.
If Eve had known that eating from the tree meant death and the way of such great pain, the fruit would not have looked good for food or pleasant to the eyes.
Not even mentioning eating the fruit, she would not even have wanted so much as to touch or see it!
In the same way, if we truly realize what kind of pain we will suffer through the fleshly things of this world and how painful the punishment of hell will be in the end, we could easily give up any desire of the flesh.
Therefore, I hope all our members will realize, through this message, how worthless it is to love the perishable things of this world and to seek the flesh.
I urge you in the name of the Lord that you will cast off your love for the world and love only God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the 7th session of the 3rd lecture on spirit, soul, and body, I was explaining about the lust of the flesh, and let us review it briefly. The lust of the flesh is the nature that makes men follow flesh and commit sins.
For example, in the heart of a new believer who has not quit drinking yet, there is the thing of flesh that wants to get drunk.
If the lust of the flesh is stimulated, his desire to get drunk will work strongly.
The lust of the flesh that wants to get drunk triggers the man's desire and leads him to the work of the flesh to actually drink alcohol. But even though he is a new believer and has weak faith, if he prays fervently, receives grace from fellowship with other members, and is full of the Holy Spirit, his lust of the flesh will not be stimulated easily.
Even if the lust of the flesh arises at one corner of his mind, he can immediately drive it away with truth. But if he stops praying and loses the fullness of the Holy Spirit, he would give room for the enemy devil and Satan to stimulate the lust of the flesh.
So, what is important to cut off the lust of the flesh is to keep the fullness of the Holy Spirit so that your desire to seek the spirit will remain stronger than your desire to seek the flesh.
We should always be awake spiritually as said in 1 Peter 5:8, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
Those of you who think you have faith should be cautious and keep this verse in mind.
Even though you are very busy doing God's work, you will lose the fullness of the Holy Spirit if you stop praying, and the way will be opened for the lust of the flesh to be stimulated.
Because they do not pray, they choose the wrong way even though they try to do God's work. That is why even Jesus, the Son of God, set a good example of praying without ceasing during his life on earth.
He was so busy that He did not even have time to eat or sleep, but He never stopped praying to communicate with the Father and accomplish His will.
Of course, if you cast off sin and reach sanctification, there will be no lust of the flesh emerging even though you do not completely fulfill your praying.
However, those who are sanctified will not stop praying.
Because those who are sanctified are able to control their body with their spirit, they do not lose the battle against their flesh and commit sins. Their physical bodies will also be more healthy.
Because they are filled with the Holy Spirit, they do not pray to cut off the lust of the flesh but only need to pray to accomplish the kingdom of God through His inspiration.
I hope you will not stop praying but cut off the lust of the flesh so that you will quickly come into spirit and the whole spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, next we will look into the lust of the eyes. 'The lust of the eyes' stimulates the heart with hearing and seeing and makes a person seek fleshly things.
The lust of the eyes comes into men's heart through the process of seeing, hearing, and feeling as they are growing up.
Namely, what they see and hear moves their heart to give them feelings, and through this they gain the lust of the eyes.
If they have not had a feeling about a certain object before, they would not have any feeling about it even if they see and hear about it. For example, let us suppose you hear somebody exclaiming, "The apple was red and so well-ripened and the taste was so soft and sweet!" By this, if you have never seen or eaten an apple before, you would not have any appetite.
But for someone who had eaten a delicious apple before and knew the taste, just hearing these words would make their mouth water.
You would remember your past experience and feel you want to taste it once again. if that desire is strong enough, it will come out as actual action to go to the market to buy and eat it.
It is the same with the lust of the eyes. When you see something, if you accept it along with feeling, you will have a similar feeling when you see something like it again.
Even without actually seeing it, if you just hear about that particular thing, you will be reminded of past experiences so that your lust of the eyes can be stimulated.
If you continue to comply with the lust of the eyes, it will stimulate your lust of the flesh, and finally you will end up committing a sin. In the Bible, we can see King David complied with his the lust of the eyes and caused himself to have a great trial.
David walked up on the roof of the king's house and from the roof he saw a woman bathing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
Even though he saw the woman washing herself, if he had turned his face away not to see it any more, it would not have developed into a sin.
But David did not do that but accepted the lust of the eyes through his seeing.
His lust of the flesh was motivated through this and he came to take her knowing that she was another man's wife. Later, to hide this fact, he plotted to have his faithful man killed at the hands of the Gentiles.
What was the result? After his repentance, he still received God's rebuke as well as a lot of shame and trials as a punishment. Because he could not cut off his lust of the eyes for a moment, he had to spend many days in great pain.
Also, Achan, in Joshua chapter 7, is a person who went to the way of death due to his lust of the eyes.
When the people of Israel attacked Jericho, God told them to give all the plunder of the city to God.
But, when he saw a beautiful coat and the silver and gold, the lust of the eyes overcame Achan and he hid them.
Because of the crime of this one person, God turned His face away from Israel, and they lost the following battle with many casualties.
Achan was put to death after his sin was found. He stole something following momentary greed, but the result was death that cannot be reversed.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if children watch cartoons or movies with a lot of violence, they tend to show violent acts like hitting others or breaking others things when they play.
Because they see something evil, the evil in them is motivated.
It is the same with adults. Let us suppose you are trying to quit drinking. What will happen if you go to a pub with your co-workers, see them drinking, and smell the liquor?
Won't your mind be moved when you see the glasses and smell the liquor?
That is why Proverbs 23:31 tells us to cut off the lust of the eyes by saying, "Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly."
If we keep on accepting the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh will gain more strength, and you will find it very hard avoid sin. Therefore, in order for you to get rid of flesh, you first have to cut off the lust of the eyes. You must not see or hear what is not the truth, and you should not even go to a place where you can have contact with untruthful things.
No matter how much you pray, fast, and pray overnight to pull out your flesh, if you do not cut off the lust of the eyes, your lust of the flesh will get even more strength and be motivated more strongly.
Thus, you cannot throw away flesh easily and you would feel that it is hard to struggle against sins.
For example, in a war, if the soldiers within the city walls receive supplies from outside the city, they gain the strength to keep on fighting.
It would not be easy to destroy the enemy force within the city wall.
Therefore, we first have to surround the city and cut the supply lines so that the enemy force will not receive any food or weapons. If we keep on attacking, maintaining this situation, the enemy force will finally be destroyed.
If the enemy force in the city is untruth, namely the flesh in us, then the reinforcements from outside the city would be the lust of the eyes.
Just as we stop the reinforcement, we must cut off our lust of the eyes so that our prayers and fasting to throw away sins will quickly bear the fruit.
Let me give you an easier example. If we keep on pouring clean water into a vessel that is filled with dirty water, the dirty water will finally become clean.
But what if we put clean water, and at the same time put dirty water as well? The dirty water in the vessel will not become clean regardless of time of pouring clean water.
In the same way, if we keep on accepting flesh through the lust of the eyes, our change will be slow even though we try to become sanctified. If any of you feel it is hard to throw away sins, please think about this.
But, wasn't it said that it is hard to get rid of sins if you continue lusting through the eyes by seeing and through the ears by hearing?
Cutting of the lust of the eyes is a simple matter of how hard you are willing to work at it..It is not that you cannot throw away, but a matter that you really do not want to throw it away.
But if you truly long for sanctification and for the love and blessings of the Father God, I urge you to cut off your lust of the eyes completely.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will not either see or hear anything that is flesh, or even if you come into contact with those things in the world, I hope you will not accept them in your heart.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in Genesis, we can see Sodom and Gomorrah was punished with fire and sulfur due to their sins.
God saved Lot and his family just before He destroyed Sodom, hearing the prayer of Abraham.
God brought them out of Sodom in a hurry and told them not to stay around Sodom or look back, but go to a far away place. This means we should cut off all the fleshly things completely and go away from flesh.
But Genesis 19:26 says, "But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."
Because she could not give up the fleshly things that she used to enjoy in Sodom, she went to the way of destruction along with the people of Sodom.
Then, how about you? Haven't you looked back on worldly things experiencing the greatest power of God and hearing the warnings about the end in this church where God lets us know about spiritual realm so clearly?
Isn't any of you hesitating because you don't want to give up worldly fame, honor, pleasure, delicious food, or your fleshly love for your family members, or lust for opposite gender, and all other fleshly things?
I urge you to completely cut off lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh.
Also, I urge you to get rid of all the sinful nature that is in your heart and even the delicate fleshly things that are placed in your nature.
I bless in the name of the Lord that, therefore, you will be able to enjoy the love and blessings of the Father God that He has prepared for those who accomplish the whole spirit in this year 2005, the year of blessings and glory! |
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