and to understand, to expand our minds and our hearts. You're the one who works in us both to do and to will your good pleasure. And so we are completely and totally reliant upon you. We ask then in the confidence that you are eager to help us for this ministry of your Holy Spirit. Bless our time together please today. Teach us and instruct us in Jesus name. Amen. Genesis chapter 2 where I'm going to be and right this is probably not the best way for a pastor to introduce something but admittedly there is a bit of a rambling nature to the Sunday school subject this morning. We're dealing we're looking at the ministry of the Holy Spirit and there are some very concrete things that he does that are pretty easy to to assemble a Bible picture of, He is the one who gives us new birth, right? It's the will of the Father to save people. He saves them through His Son. He is doing everything through His Son, and His Holy Spirit is the one who gives us that new birth, and the Holy Spirit is the one who baptizes us into the body of Christ, and the Holy Spirit then takes up residence in us, which we call indwelling, and the Holy Spirit teaches us the word, and the Holy Spirit gives us his anointing, or what the King James Bible calls the unction, that we understand that the Bible is true when others do not believe that it is true. We may be filled with the Bible through him, which I think would be the more technically accurate way to look at the filling of the Spirit on a normal basis. And then there are things that he does that are a little bit more difficult to, that are clearly taught in scripture, but are a little more difficult from our end to exactly quantify or understand. He does lead us individually. He is an active member of the Godhead. And we will turn our attention, probably not till after the first of the year, that because he is a real person with a real ministry to us, that there are things that we can do on our end that are impediments to his ministry. We can grieve him and quench him. And so in the course of our time together, I've received some questions and I wanted to tackle, it all came in the set of one form of question, but there are a variety of questions. And so let me just read you the questions. and then tell you that we're gonna take probably two weeks to try and work through this, in part because of just some of the things that it raised in my mind. So the questions were like this. Did we possess a spirit, lowercase use of the word spirit, that was dead? Do we have a dead spirit? And did God make that spirit alive? Or did God give us a new spirit? And to just jump ahead without trying to prove it, I think that the position I would take, in light of what I'll say today, is that God gave us a new spirit. And then under that, if God did give us a new spirit, is that new spirit the new man, and is our old spirit the old man? Or, third part of the question, is the Holy Spirit a replacement for our original spirit, which is still dead, and the quickening is more of a whole man quickening? There are several components to the question. And it just kind of sent me off along these lines. I think it's in keeping with the question, but it is not a direct answer to the question. And that is about our spirit. That is, I got to thinking about our spirit. So a little bit of a diversion this morning, not so much about the Holy Spirit, but about our spirit. There is some, and I'll get to this, there are actually three generally looked at ways of thinking about a human being. One of them, true Bible believers would outright reject, but Theological liberals would maybe not necessarily reject. And it is known as monism, and that is that man is just basically one. Right? That we're just kind of a clump of one. Another view, probably the prevailing sentiment of modern conservative Bible believing is that man is two. And a little bit older view that is not as widely held today but is held by a number of conservatives is that man consists of actually three parts, body, soul, and spirit. Just to engage in a subject study for the sake of engaging in a subject study is not necessarily of any value. But I did want to work through some of it as we look at it, folks. One of the things that at least to me emerges is that it's easy for somebody to go, I just think that we're two parts, or I think that we're three parts. But there is a complexity to it, and it really does touch, ultimately, at some level, upon the question of what kind of spirit we have and exactly what the Holy Spirit is doing. We'll look at this probably to start when we turn our attention more fully trying to answer the question. Paul says, 2 Corinthians 5.17, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And yet, I think without really even examining it, we know intuitively that there are some limitations to that statement. Because when we got saved, we did not get new bodies. We have a promise of a new body, but our salvation did not alter our physical structure at all. It didn't fix our poor eyesight. It didn't fix our bad hearing. It didn't fix our crooked bones. It just didn't, right? All things become new does not mean from head to toe we are completely renovated at the moment of salvation. So I just kind of backed up again. This is just something that I thought about as I tried to work through how to answer these questions. And part of the undergirding to it is just kind of this question, what are we? What does it mean to be a human being? So we begin then in Genesis, Chapter 2, and verse number 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul. We are at least two. And if you care, the word that is most often used is dichotomy. We are at a minimum a dichotomy. We are dirt, something that the Old Testament saints embraced. Abraham said to God, arguably Abraham the greatest character of the book of Genesis, Abraham said to God, I'm just dust and ashes. But we are also immaterial. We are made of the dust of the earth and then God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul. So what are we? We are at least two. We are at least a body and a soul. But then equally true, If you turn, for instance, to Deuteronomy chapter 10, while it is equally biblically true that we are two, it is equally biblically true that we are one. Deuteronomy chapter 10. that there is a unity to us. Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse number 12. And now Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee? But to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. or Deuteronomy chapter 11 across the page and verse number 13. And it shall come to pass if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. And this is of course echoed if you wanna just look at for instance Mark chapter 12. This is picked up in the New Testament. What does the Lord want from us? Mark chapter 12 and verse number 30. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And I just want to tip my hand a little bit on this. I am not, I don't know that I ever have been dogmatic on this. I've probably never in my life given it as much thought as I have in the last week as to whether we are a dichotomy or a trichotomy, three parts. But I've never heard anybody, for instance, come to Mark chapter 12 passage like this and argue that we are more than three parts, or potentially more than three parts, that we are a mind and a heart and a soul and a strength, but rather that we recognize that in these commands there is an expectation that we serve God with the entirety of our being, because At a very true level, we are a unified being. I am made of the dust of the earth, and I have a body, and I have an immaterial part of me that at the very least is a soul, and whether or not it is a soul or a soul and a separate spirit, we can, we will explore in a little bit. So I am at a minimum a physical and a spiritual being. immaterial or a material and an immaterial part. And yet, never ever ever does God say to me, now all I want from you is one or the other. And that of course perhaps to us seems like an absolutely no-brainer position, but I assure you folks that it really is not a no-brainer position. that the history of the church has at time been plagued with people, and I would argue, okay, I'm gonna retreat back into my uber fundamentalist enclave for a moment. I would argue that although it is not articulated as clearly today, it is equally as much a part of the modern Christian movement, which is what God really wants of me is a devotion of soul And then pretty much whatever I want to do in or to my body, well that's of no consequence. So that we have in the modern church, almost folks, a Christianity that is very much touching the heart. And the body is just completely kind of off limits. So that, right, to talk at all about where we go with our bodies or what we wear on our bodies or whether we turn our bodies into pieces of canvas even for the sake of Jesus. Those don't even belong in the equation because that doesn't count. So it is a very real dimension. But the New Testament and the Old Testament both are very clear that both our bodies and our souls, our physical beings and our immaterial beings belong to God for his use and are to be consecrated for his purposes, and we will see that in some of the text that we have. If you will go back to Matthew chapter 10, one of the things that God adds to that, right, so we are on the one hand a dichotomous being, and I mean material and immaterial, and we are a unified being. I can't I can't just, okay, because I'm really not trying to attack modern-day Christianity just for the sake of attacking modern-day Christianity. I think many people would argue, rightly so by the way, that one of the glaring weaknesses of hardcore biblical fundamentalism of the 50s, 60s, and 70s was that it emphasized the physical dimensions of Christianity. You dress right, you went to the right places, you had the right appearance, you carried the right Bible, and those were the things that constituted true Christianity, and that is equally false. And in fact, and we'll look at this in a few weeks on a Sunday morning when When Paul called the church at Corinth carnal in 1 Corinthians 3, he was not defining carnality the way a true fundamentalist would. You don't go to church, you don't read your Bibles, you don't serve the Lord. Actually, the church at Corinth was doing all of those things. They were just doing them wrongly. and Paul called them carnal. To God alone, however, back to Matthew chapter 10, to God alone, however, belongs the ability to divide them. God made Adam out of dirt, and God gave to Adam his immaterial part, his soul, and God himself is the one who can make that separation and distinction. Matthew chapter 10 and verse number 28, and fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Now, again, this is not just about, you know, getting murdered. This is in the light of being persecuted to the point of death for the sake of God. Don't fear somebody who can only take your physical life. But fear this one, Matthew 10, 28, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So again, at a minimum, we are a dichotomy and at a minimum, God still acknowledges that we are a dichotomy. And in fact, if you turn to Hebrews chapter four. And we'll come back to this verse again. But again, notice right here is something that I am not allowed to do. And at one level, I don't have the power to do. Human beings have power over other human beings' bodies. We can kill each other. Human beings do not have power over other individual human beings' souls. God has that power. And the Word of God, which, you know, to go back and revisit it, Hebrews 4.12 is probably referring, because they are in a way inseparable, both to Jesus Christ, the person, and to the words of Jesus Christ, the Bible. For the Word of God is quick, it is alive, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, immaterial parts, and of the joints and marrow, material parts and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We'll come back to this because this is one of the verses that is used to argue that man is not simply a dichotomy but is actually a trichotomy, possessing both a soul and a spirit which have some distinction to them. So man is a two-part being. He is physical and immaterial. and yet he is a unified being, and God recognizes that, and God is sovereign over both parts, both the material part of us and the immaterial part of us. Which means then, folks, that, right, and this is to the glory of God, that we truly are complex beings. That we truly are complex beings. We are body and soul as a minimum. We are mind, heart, will, strength, personality, strengths, weaknesses, both physical, emotional, educational. We are genuinely complex beings. And that complexity really becomes even more complicated I'm not saying that we shouldn't do it, I'm just saying that now we add another layer to our complexity when we try to find out if there is a distinction between our soul and our spirit. Nobody really fights about whether we have a body and a soul, or whether we have a material part and an immaterial part. Even lost people recognize that. I'm assuming that you do. I find it perpetually fascinating that people who are unbelievers, possibly even atheistic, are reluctant to say of a dead loved one, they're dead. They're dead. They're gone. But always there is some kind of connection that lingers. They're still with me. I feel their presence. So all human beings reckon, I'm not defending that, I'm just saying that, right? I'm just saying that being an atheist is a lot more work than you would allow if you would really think about it. So let's talk about this, right? Let's turn our attention now, let's kind of narrow it down a little bit further. to a conversation, right? No conflict at all about whether we have a body and an immaterial part. Does our immaterial part exist at two levels? Do we have both a soul and a spirit? Turn back, if you would, to Luke chapter 1. I don't know that it is as cut and dried as we sometimes make it, and I don't know that the Bible is as much help. Not that the Bible is not a helpful book, I just don't know that the Bible ever had as part of its intention to chase down this kind of rabbit trail as to whether we have a soul and a spirit. Sometimes the words are used interchangeably. Luke chapter 1 in verse number 46. Although again, I guess that if you were a diehard believer in the trichotomy of man, you would make the argument that they're two distinct parts. But I think the easy reading is that they are really being used synonymously. Luke chapter one and verse number 46. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord. and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. John chapter 12 and verse number 27, Jesus says, now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour, but for this cause came I into this hour. And the Greek word soul, and right, and we're just gonna talk about the Greek because we know the English, we use it all the time. The Greek word soul is actually the word, probably the Greek way to pronounce it would be psuki, but it is what gives us the English word psyche, so that we have psychology, the study of the immaterial part of man. And this is one of the ways that secular Greeks actually use the word. In secular Greek, it is used, the word psyche or soul, psyche, is used to refer to the conscious self or one's personality, that is a manifestation of our soul. You look at my body, and I am talking through my body, but my body is not really talking, it is my soul that is talking. It is my conscious personality. And then look over at John chapter 13 and verse number 21. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. Now the context, right, the context is both the same, the crucifixion. And again, I wouldn't fight with you about this. Right? You could make the argument that Jesus is troubled in spirit and soul. Probably most likely, if we're having a conversation about the same subject matter, and you have those two different words, they're just being used interchangeably. We use synonymous terms in language, folks, without always having strict technical definitions to them. And the word spirit there is the word pneuma. Again, another Greek word that we know that gives us the word air, that which is invisible. It is active, but it is invisible. It is the word wind. or sometimes in our King James Bibles, it is translated with the word ghost. Realistically, probably a word we prefer not to use these days. But in John chapter three, Jesus describes the wind as an invisible power. That's what the Holy Spirit is like. You cannot see God's spirit. He is here today. He is invisible. We see only that which he produces. We don't see the wind, we only see the leaves move or the snow blow. That's the wind. Look, if you would, at Hebrews chapter 12. Again, I'm just tracking. There are places in which the Bible seems to use the words interchangeably and comfortably. My soul magnifies The Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, Luke chapter one. Jesus is troubled in soul. Jesus is troubled in spirit. Both words describing the immaterial part of man. Hebrews chapter 12, in verse number 23. Let's start in verse number 22. Year come unto Mount Sion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. All right, so here you have the word spirits, the spirits, the pneuma of just men made perfect. But if you look over Revelation chapter six, And verse number nine, and when he had opened the fifth seal, Revelation 6, 9, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. Which is kind of interesting at a couple of levels, right? What exactly did John see? What exactly did John see? Did he see the soul? And in seeing the soul, I mean, because obviously I think that it's safe to say that God can see that which is invisible. Was John given that? Does John mean something else? Or is he using the word synonymously, right, as the pastor in Hebrews is using it in Hebrews 12.23? Are the word spirit and soul interchangeable? And again, some of you may have really researched this and you may have studied and understand your position clearly, but one of the challenges that we have in arguing that man is a three-part being, that he has a physical part, body, and his immaterial part is spirit and soul, is getting a grip around exactly the way in which the Bible differentiates between our spirit and our soul. How is my soul different from my spirit? And how is my spirit different from my soul? Isaiah says, and of course Isaiah is using Old Testament language, but there are two distinct words for spirit and soul in the Old Testament. That Jesus poured out his soul unto death, Isaiah 53, 12. In Psalm 31.5, a prediction about Christ says that he committed his spirit to God, which is quoted in Luke 23.46. When Jesus cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit, which is not the Holy Spirit. I commend my spirit. And having said thus, if you're looking at a King James Bible, Luke 23.46, he gave up the ghost Which again, because of our exposure to the word ghost being associated with the Holy Spirit, we might assume that that's what is used there, but that is not at all what is used there. And you might have a note, and I think I didn't look, but if you're using a different version of the Bible, it might say something like breathed his last, because that's actually what it's referring to there. The ghost that it is talking about there is his breath, not the immaterial part of him. He stopped breathing. Jesus said this and he stopped breathing. He died. So there's a material part and an immaterial part. And then it is further complicated by the fact that sometimes, not very often, but once in a while, the Bible actually uses the word soul to refer to the unity of man. You're in Revelation, you can turn back to Romans chapter 13. While you're turning to Romans chapter 13, let me just read to you Genesis 46, 26, and 27. And again, the Hebrew is going to use a different word, but it has a clearly distinct word that is one is soul and one is spirit. Genesis 46, 26, and all the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt. which came out of his loins besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six. And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and 10. Or Romans chapter 13, which you, I believe, have turned to in verse number one, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. And I would not say that this is not true because, you know, in my history of dealing with people, there's always somebody somewhere who holds an off-the-wall position. But I've never heard anybody come to Romans 13.1 and go, well, what God is requiring there is my immaterial part to be subject to the political world but he's not requiring my body to be subject to the political world. And again, I'm not saying that nobody's ever taught that because I just have lived a long time and I think probably there's somebody that teaches everything at some point in time. But I don't think any of us would understand Paul to be making that kind of a distinction. He is simply using the word soul the psyche to be completely subjected to God. And I think that we could make a good Bible case that if our psyches are truly in subjection to somebody, our bodies are going to kind of go along for the ride. On the other hand, right? On the other hand, there are at least two instances or the Bible itself seems to be making a distinction between our soul and our spirit. If I could just draw a line right where we are and stop, I would make the argument to you adamantly that you are a physical being and an immaterial being and that immaterial being is your soul and the synonymous language would be your spirit and they are virtually indistinguishable. Now, I would be fairly comfortable even now saying that But again, there are at least two New Testament passages that call that into question. One of them we've already read is Hebrews chapter four and verse number 12. So you can kind of work your way backwards to that. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. dividing asunder, even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. Now I would be very comfortable in taking Hebrews 4.12 as not trying to introduce a division between soul and spirit. And I would just point out to you that what the pastor is doing there is kind of balancing the physical and the immaterial, right? He's not trying to make some technical distinction between your immaterial part, right? But you have joints and marrow. Those are clearly physical. And you have soul and spirit. Those are clearly immaterial. And it is true that joints are not marrow and marrow are not joints. So it may be true that soul is not spirit and spirit is not soul. But again, where the real challenge lies for us is in articulating through the scriptures how they are different. And probably the clearest or the most questionable is gonna be 1 Thessalonians chapter five. First Thessalonians chapter five and verse number 23. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, or obviously completely, the way the word holy is used there. The word holy is there. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is probably, folks, the single verse that is the most expressly lending itself to there being some kind of a distinction between soul and spirit. Now, John Piper, and I like John, I mean, there are You know, my standard disclaimer about John Piper is that I don't know that he is a particularly great model for fundamental pastoral ministry. He is way too unseparated in some areas. But he is excellent in explaining and dealing with difficult texts. But I am not at all satisfied with his explanation here. And again, because I don't know how to go to the Bible and establish it, but he would argue that it is not really making three parts to man, but that he is using there the word soul. So you have a spirit which is immaterial, and then soul, he would argue to be soul to be the animating life of the body. So that you have a body, but your heartbeat is a part of your soul, and the blood coursing through your veins is a part of your soul. And again, I could live with that if I could build a solid case for the Bible teaching that, but I can't. And it is possible, folks, and if you can, and I have made this recommendation numerous times, and I would stand by it. Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology is a book worthy of your library. You can buy it in a Kindle version. And one of the beauties about a Kindle book, right, they're not old books with paper pages, but you can very easily go to the search bar and find words and phrases and you don't have to thumb through looking at miles and miles of highlighted ink hoping to stumble on the right place. Wayne Grudem would make the argument that what's going on in 1 Thessalonians 5.23 is common to the New Testament and it is just simply piling up a list of attributes to make a point, right? The point being total sanctification, which really is the point of the verse, folks. The point of the verse is that God wants our total consecration. And if to that extent we are a body and a soul and a spirit, he wants all of that. And if to that extent, if we are just simply material and immaterial, he wants all of that. There is no part of us that is immune or exempted or overlooked By God, we will be judged, Paul says, for the things that we have done in our bodies, both good and bad. So then finally, the difficulty lies in distinguishing between the two. If my soul and my spirit are different, in what way are they different? And a common explanation is that our spirit possesses a purity Right? It's almost, right? Sometimes it is taught like this, right? Lost people have a body and a soul, but they do not have a spirit. And then God gives us a spirit at salvation, or there is something higher and purer and nobler about the human spirit than there is the human soul. And again, I'm really not looking to fight over this, But let me just make some observations to you. Turn back, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 7. First Corinthians chapter seven and verse number 34. Well, let's read verse number 33 just to have a little bit of the context. But he that is married cared for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. All right, a married man is going to have more preoccupation with the world than an unmarried man in the context of Paul's argument because he has earthly responsibilities. I mean, Paul here is not being critical, he's being realistic. Married men have earthly responsibilities that unmarried men don't have. Verse number 34, there is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The same thing is going to be true equally when it comes to the ladies. A married lady is going to have responsibilities in the world that an unmarried lady doesn't have. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. And then if you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse number 1. 2 Corinthians 7.1, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So the argument, folks, that there is something more sublime or more pure or more spiritual about the spirit that is not true of the soul simply will not bear the weight of scriptures when it is possible to sin with your spirit. And on the other hand, and we will not go back to it because we've already looked at it a couple times, but Luke chapter 1 and verse number 46, your soul is capable of worshiping. So to think of our soul as only the inanimate part of us that is preoccupied with this life, that doesn't work. So again, I would not, and right, I didn't spend 45 minutes to talk to you about what my position is and why you should embrace it. I wouldn't fight with anybody over this position unless the conclusion that you drew was unscriptural. But it doesn't seem to me that the body provides clear enough distinctiveness between spirit and soul And God is certainly not giving me the right to define them as to how I would view them, but that they are words that are generally used to describe the immaterial part of man that can be separated when our bodies die, our spirits and our souls go to be with the Lord, or in the case of unbelievers, our spirits and our souls go to hell, where according to Revelation chapter 20, they will be pulled out, right? Our bodies, all human bodies remain on earth. All the immaterial parts of dead people are either with the Lord or experiencing judgment. When the great day of judgment comes in the great white throne, they will be reunited, have their final judgment, and lost people will be cast into the lake of fire. And it appears from 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse number 12, that what we are, what we were as human beings, even though we will get new bodies, is still recognizable. The body will be recreated, refashioned into a sinless, never getting sick, never dying, never falling apart kind of body, but it will not be unrecognizable as such. So to go back, Right to the questions, I haven't fully answered them yet, but I guess I'm kind of formulating a part of the answer. Did God give us a new spirit? Yes. Because it appears that we had a spirit, and if I have a spirit that can sin, 2 Corinthians 7.1, then that obviously cannot be the new man or the new spirit. because 1 John is very clear in telling me that he does not sin. So, and then part of the question is this, is the Holy Spirit a replacement for our original spirit? I do not think so. I think the Holy Spirit, I think that, right, in no way does our spirit and the Holy Spirit ever meld into one, at least not into this life. distinctive. You know, Paul talks about serving God in his spirit. And Jesus himself had a spirit. And that's a whole other subject is understanding the humanity of Christ. But he had his own distinct human identity that died. And he died like a human being dies. His heart stopped beating, his lungs stopped functioning, and the immaterial part of him went to be with his Lord. So that's partial answer, right? I want to try and tackle the question more specifically and give positive answers, but it's going to be a couple of weeks. Next week is the Sunday before Christmas. We'll do something a little bit different. The 29th, Leafy and I will be gone, and we will not be here. So it will be after the first of the year, and I'm going to stop taking up all my time We'll be back at 11 o'clock.