Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. This is Dale Jackson welcoming you to the Lamp and Light broadcast, coming to you from the studios of Central Baptist Church in beautiful Ocala, Florida. Last week in our question and answer series, we finished with question 9. Let's continue and move on to question 10 today. Okay, let's go on to our next question here as we continue in our study. Now we look at the question I got here with the answer I've written out. And it says, Dear Dr. Bloom, comment. God is sovereign. Within that construct, he allows us to make choices. He could stop all of our bad choices. He could stop, of course, by right and by power, he could stop it. But if he did, then we would actually make no real choices. He has wisdom to work the effect of all of our choices for good and for his own purposes. He retains control and has predetermined the outcome within that construct, he allows genuine free will which necessitates suffering and evil. Now, in answer to this letter, I assume that this person is probably leaning Calvinistic if they're not a Calvinist. A couple things there when they're talking about choice and free will, and so God allows them to make that, but it's really within His will. In other words, He wanted them to make that choice because He's decided who's going to go to heaven, who's going to go to hell. He's already decided that. So your election took place before the foundation of the world, and so therefore you can't be saved. A lot of times, a couple of the questions I'll answer when they say something about that, I'll just say, well look, the cross took place before I was born. The cross, but it wasn't applied, the blood wasn't applied until I received Christ. Election took place before I was born and it wasn't applied either till I received Christ But that's where they kind of really part with me on that So I believe that this person but I will say this a lot of times when I hear from a Calvinist They are really let's just say they're rude. Okay, and very speaking very condescending ways and write you like You're dummy and you need to read one of the things I get you need to read Spurgeon because Spurgeon was also a Calvinist and I always like to answer. Yeah, and then and then oh, by the way, let me add this to they tell me how ignorant I am how unlearned ignorant so forth and One of masters said how much education you have? I said More than Spurgeon, less than Calvin. They didn't like it. Because I'm Baptist, they want to throw Spurgeon at me. But I said, more than Spurgeon, which I did. Spurgeon only had three years of college. People don't realize that. And so when you put that at him, so he must be more ignorant than I. When they say well you need to be more like Spurge and I'll say well do you want me to start smoking a pipe then cuz you know, he did smoke a pipe and Business going on the side as well. Well, they of course that sets them off and I'm having fun when they're getting set off with it, but You know, I guess I've just answered in in ways on those things because it's just personal attack This person didn't use personal attack in their letters. I appreciate that, I really do. So I answered, dear friend, every saved person should believe in the sovereignty of God. Now that was a term they used. God is sovereign. So that's why I started out, the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God should be defined, however. God's sovereignty is God's right to do whatever he wants with that which is his. All things are his. Now one must remember, Genesis chapter one tells us that God created the heavenly earth, he created everything, but we also read there, he says, let us create man in our image, Genesis 1, 26 through 28. And again, our, image, he uses a plural with our image, but create a singular verb. In the Hebrew alphabet, when you have the plural, which can be two or three or more, even three or more, whatever, you have a plural, and then if it's got a singular verb, then that plural is of one essence. So, the Trinity. God, the Father, God, Son, God, the Holy Spirit, three divine persons in one divine essence. Now, in our image, he said, refers to the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost. God is followed again by that singular verb, and so, We're learning more about the creation of man. Genesis chapter two, along with Genesis one, we find, okay, man is made of the dust of the ground. In John chapter four, verse 24, we learn something about God. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now, God is a spirit. at the Trinity in our image when they created. Jesus did not have a human body. He did not have a human body until about 2,000 years ago. But at that time, he did not have a human body. The Holy Spirit is a spirit, God the Father is a spirit, and Jesus was a spirit. That's why we read in John chapter 1 verse 1. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and the same was in the beginning with God and all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. So we see the word who is God made all things. Then you go down to verse 10. He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. But the word is now in the world that he made and the world knew him not then verse 14 and the word remember and the word was gone verse 1 okay and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glories of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth not the only begotten of the father You go back in Hebrews, you'll see that God formed the baby Jesus after the Holy Spirit had come upon Mary in Luke chapter 1. And that holy thing which would be born of her would be called the Son of God, that is the huios, the actual seed of God. And so the Greek word was huios. And so now that seed, God the Father, Hebrews, begins to form that body around that seed that was in her, not sexually in her, but placed in her by God Himself and forming it inside of her through His Holy Spirit. And then God, the Father, taking that whole time, so that in Psalms 22, the Son on that great psalm about the cross is saying, Thou drewest me from my mother's womb. He did draw him from his mother's womb. Speaking of his father God and so when we see this God's image is not a body God's image is a spirit The first Adam was made a living soul the second Adam a quickening a life-giving spirit It was in Genesis chapter 2 God breathed into the nostrils of that body that was laying there With the soul, but was not an active soul was like a dead soul. No anything and and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Now, from that point, when Adam and Eve fell in the garden, they lost it all. He said, in the day you shall eat thereof, you shall surely die. They ate of that day. Now, we read that Adam lived to be 930 years old, so he didn't die on that day, did he? Not physically. You see, the word death does not mean ceasing to exist. It never meant that. The word death means separation. At our physical death, our spirit separates from our body. If you're saved, you'll go to be with the Lord. If you're not saved, you'll go to hell. It's that simple. been made in his image, God is a spirit. The spirit is the center of our, you might say, our inward man, where we make the great decisions of life. I have used it with teenagers to kind of help them understand this. There's a difference between soul and spirit. Now, theologians like to ask, do you believe in the trichotomy or the dichotomy of man? Dichotomy means two. Soul and spirit then are the same thing, and then man, the flesh, the body, the flesh, okay? Trichotomist believes that a man is of a body, soul, and a spirit, which pretty well is what the Bible teaches, okay? So you might as well go with what the Bible teaches. although they would argue with that. The soul seems to be more of a seat of our emotion. It stirs the body in its emotion. It can stir the body right. If our soul is right, it can stir the body in its emotion right. People have cried at funerals. Nothing wrong with that. People have cried at weddings. Nothing wrong with that. People have laughed about funny things. They've smiled about nice things. They smile when they see that newborn baby. So that emotion, those things that come into it, The spirit's where you go to figure out the deep things of life. The flesh reacts to what the spirit or the soul directs. The flesh can become addicted to drugs, for example, because the soul directed them to that, and then that desire gets so great that the flesh has got to have it and the soul urges it. But when, in our spirit, we make the deep contemplations of life, young man, that's where I use it with teenagers, can be seeing two girls that are really nice girls. The one is very beautiful, but she seems to also be a little bit stuck on herself, and you know, it's her way or the highway, okay? And then there's this other one. She's not quite as pretty as the first one, but she is a good girl, and he's got to ask himself, which one would stick with me when things are bad? Which is the one that I would like to be the mother of my children? You can think of that way or you can think of this way. Boy, I would really be proud to be seen with her. Boy, she's so pretty and good. Man, people think I was something, you know, and all this. Boy, if I had her, I'd be the top dog. I'd be this, that, okay. Now he's thinking in his emotions, his soul. The guy that thinks about life, making it set. We determine jobs that way. We determine places we're going to live. So many things are determined in that inner man, the spirit. This is your radio pastor, Pastor Andy Bloom saying, May the Word of God be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your pathway today. We want to thank you for listening to the Lamp and Light Broadcast. If you would like a CD copy of today's message by Dr. Bloom, send us your name and mailing address, and include the radio station by which you are listening, and the date of the broadcast. We would appreciate a gift of $5 to Lamp and Light Broadcast 1714 Southeast 36th Avenue, Ocala, Florida 34471. You may also visit us by our website and freely download the sermons by clicking on the sermon library. That site is www.sermons.org. centralbaptistocalla.org. Again, the address of Lamp and Light Broadcast is 1714 Southeast 36th Avenue, OCALA, FL 34471. and our website is www.centralbaptistocalla.org. This is your announcer Dale Jackson saying, may God's peace be with all who are in Christ Jesus. Sands from the skies.