All right, if you will, let's turn to 1 Timothy 3. Paul reminds us, this is a faithful saying, if a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. And so I want to continue to lay this verse in front of you guys to encourage you to continue to study, to continue to persevere, because this is a good work. And the church, we should be praying that God would raise up more and more men who desire this position of a bishop. Last time we got together, we talked about the Constitution of Man and there are two basic main positions that are out there. One is a dichotomy, one is a trichotomy. A dichotomy says that man is comprised primarily of two parts, material and immaterial, where the trichotomous says three, and they make the distinction between the body, soul, and spirit. And so we made these different arguments last time, at least from my position. I hold more to a dichotomy position simply because just as the material part of man is comprised of many constituents, you think about the members of your body. So the immaterial part is comprised of heart, soul, spirit, will, conscience, mind, all these terms that the Bible uses to describe the immaterial part of man. We also saw that the Bible periodically will use the word spirit and soul interchangeably. And so for all those reasons I gave you the last time we got together, I hold more to a dichotomy position. Now with that being said, I still believe that man is comprised on the immaterial side, or his immaterial part, of many facets. Let's use that word. And so I want to talk about some of these terms this morning so that we have some idea of what the Bible has to say with respect to the soul, the spirit, the mind, the conscience, the will. the heart. This won't be exhaustive, but at least it'll get you started to start thinking through, well, how do I start formulating my position on what the Bible means when it says the word soul, for example? Well, let's look at the word soul. This word basically means life. The Hebrew word for soul is nephesh, and that's what it literally means, life. So turn over to Genesis 2. In Genesis 2, verse 7, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And here it is, the man became a living being. And so this teaches that man was created, a living soul, a living being. And you see this in some of the other verses in Genesis 120, Genesis 121, Genesis 124, and Genesis 30. Okay? And all other forms of life were created living beings. That's what those other verses teach. Now, you could say a person is a soul. You could say, for example, that many souls went down to Canaan, and that's how the Bible typically uses that word, and that's a perfectly legitimate way to utilize it. A soul simply refers to a person. But at the same time, it can refer to the immaterial part of a person. And so, once again, the context would dictate on what you're talking about there. So all kinds of things can be said about this word soul. It's the center of spiritual, emotional experiences of man. And so the thing I want you to understand about this word soul is that it can refer to the whole person alive or even after death. And so when we think of the soul, we think of the life principle of man. So this means you're alive. Turn over to Exodus 21. Let's start looking at some uses of this word so you can kind of see how the word soul is used in different contexts. Exodus 21, Luke verse 23. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life. And that phrase, life for life, literally means soul for soul. It's our word in Ephesh. So this refers to the life principle of an individual. And so when you deal with the word soul in the Bible, it's the center of emotional and spiritual experiences. It can refer to the individual's person, both material and immaterial. It also can refer specifically to the immaterial part of man. It can refer to the intermediate state of man. And so it can refer to those who are between death and the final resurrection. So it's a pretty comprehensive term. Turn over to Genesis 46. Genesis 46 verse 15, these were the sons of Leah to whom she bore to Jacob, and Padan, Abram, and his daughter Dinah. All these persons, here it is, his sons and his daughters were 33. And so when you read this kind of thing all throughout Genesis 46, but the word soul here refers to the person, the life principle. Turn over to Genesis 35. Genesis 35, look at verse 18. And so it was as her soul was departing, for she died, that she called his name Benani, but his father was called Benjamin. And so we've seen this before, but we see that her nephesh parted, and when the nephesh departs, the person physically dies. All right. Turn over to Leviticus 21. Leviticus 21 verse 1, And the Lord said to Moses, Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, None shall defile himself of the dead among his people, except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his daughter, his son, and his brother. Also his virgin sister, who is near to him, who has no husband. For her he may defile himself. And so when you come to this, this word dead, it actually comes from our word nephesh. Okay? So it's interesting how this word nephesh, the life principle, is utilized within the context of the scriptures. Let me give you another one. Turn over to Numbers. Numbers chapter 6. Look at verse 6. All the days that he separates himself to the Lord, he shall not go near a dead body. Now that word body is our word nephesh. And so the point here is that we need to make sure that when we talk about the soul, we keep everything in context. We also see that the soul is the center of the various spiritual and emotional experiences of man. Turn over to Job 35. Let me give you some examples of how we see this. Job chapter 30. Let me get you to Job 30. Job 30, look at verse 25. Have I not wept for him who was in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?" So notice here we see the center of sympathy comes from his soul, and the soul is the center of his grief. How about despair? Turn over to Psalm 43. Psalm 43, look at verse 5. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him in the help of my countenance and my God." So you sense something of the despair in the soul of the psalmist here. But just note that the psalmist reminds himself that all, when you despair, all hope is found in God, and that's the remedy for despair. It's not drugs, it's not medication. And as elders, you have to remind yourself of that. Because as elders, you're living in a realm where people want a quick fix for their emotional states. And the Bible doesn't ever teach that, does it? We must find our hope in God. That is the remedy for true despair. All drugs will really do is mask the underlying problem. It won't address their true issue, which is typically despair is tied to some form of sin. And so, we need to remind ourselves of these passages. Turn to 2 Samuel 5. 2 Samuel 5, look at verse 8. Now David said on that day, whoever climbs up by the way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites, the lame, the blind, who are hated by David's soul, he shall be the chief and the captain. Therefore say, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. So here in this passage, this person doesn't hate, he hates, David hates from his very soul, his very inner being, these enemies, right? So, when you think of the soul, the soul can be, depending on the context, it can be the center of spiritual and emotional responses. Turn over to Song of Solomon. Look at chapter 1, Luke verse 7. Tell me, O you whom I love, where you feed your flock, where you make rest at noon, and for wise to be as one who veils herself by the flocks of your companions." It's interesting how the New American Standard translates this because it says, tell me, O you whom my soul loves. And so when you think about the soul, it is the center of these experiences, these emotional experiences. And so we think of sympathy, despair, hate, love, and you could go around and take your concordance and look up the word soul, and you could pick these kind of things up. Now, it's interesting, when we move to the New Testament, we see similarities to what I've shown you from the old, because the word soul in the New Testament refers at times to the whole individual person. Let me give you an example of that. Go to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, look at verse 41. Then those who gladly received his word, remember this is Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost, were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them, okay? And so when we looked at this verse, when we take a look at this verse, we see that 3,000 people were added to the church that day, right? So we kind of see how that word soul is utilized in that context. Turn over to Acts 27. Acts 27, look at verse 37. And in all, we were 276 persons on the ship. And so that word translated person is the Greek word psuche, which means soul. And so in this context, we think of the whole person. Now, it can also refer only to the immaterial part of man. So we think of the whole individual, but at times that word psuche is utilized to refer just to the immaterial part, and that's typically how we would think of this word. Turn over to Matthew 10. Matthew 10, look at verse 28. And do not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." So here we see a clear distinction of the soul from the body. And so in this context, it's not referring to the whole person, it's referring to the immaterial part of a person. All right? Also, the New Testament refers to people in the intermediate state between death and the final resurrection of the body, we read of their souls. Turn over to Revelation 6, let me give you an example of that. Revelation 6, look at verse 9, when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony for which they held. So I think you begin to get kind of a fuller picture of how this word is utilized in the scriptures. It can refer to the whole person, We saw that both in the Old and New Testament. You can refer to the immaterial part of man alive or after death. And it also points to the center of emotions and spiritual emotions as well, because we see the feelings and emotions that come out from the innermost being of a person. Now what you're going to find out is you're going to see how this is interchanged with the heart at times. And so it's just a, you know, My view on this is that you see man trying to utilize the language that he has to describe something that's really only known to the Bible. The immaterial part as far as knowing anything about it with any kind of definition or with any certainty is found only in the Scriptures. This is something beyond science or the philosophical realm. All man can do is think about it, but you don't really know with any certainty anything about the immaterial part of man except from the Bible, okay? Alright, so let's move from the word soul to the word spirit. Now spirit in the scriptures, as far as I can tell, only refers to the immaterial part of man, whereas soul could have referred to the whole person. It never, like the word soul does, it never refers to the whole person. It always refers to the immaterial part of man. And so this is why you can say a man is a soul, he's a living being, but he has a spirit. So we can say a lot of things about the spirit. The spirit originates from God and all individuals will have a spirit inside of them. Turn over to number 16. Numbers 16, verse 22. And then they fell on their faces and said, O God, the God of spirits of all flesh, sell one man's sin, and you be angry with all the congregation. So here we see that God is the God of spirits. The spirit originates with God. Turn back over to the New Testament, turn over to Hebrews. Go to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, look at verse 9. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us and paid them respect, shall we not much more readily be subjection to the father of spirits and live? So who's the father of spirits? Well, God is. And so we need to recognize that the spirit originates with God. And when we talk about spirit, we all have one, but we are a living soul. So everyone has a spirit. It is the immaterial part of a person. And it's interesting, when you read the writings of Paul, he doesn't emphasize the soul near as much as he emphasizes the spirit. One writer responds to the question, why? He says, when Paul became a Christian, the experience of God in Christ became the determining factor, not only in his view of God, but in everything. Because Paul was a Jew, his attitude affected all of his thoughts. In the Christian experience, prosuche, or psuche, the soul, the term for purely human vitality became unimportant to him. Pneuma, the spirit term that began with God but proceeded to man, became central. The infrequency of the use of the word soul in Paul is key to understanding of this. Paul's knowledge of the Holy Spirit set the basis of his anthropology, and the Spirit took the leading role. And so we see the emphasis upon the Spirit of God, not because Paul doesn't think that the soul is not important or that it's not even involved in this, but there becomes an emphasis upon the Spirit's work in the spirit of man, okay. So everyone has a spirit. It's a facet of the immaterial part of man. One spirit is the center of various, once again, traits, emotions, activities. And this is where you're going to start to see some of this overlap in how the word soul and spirit is used interchangeably. Turn over to Isaiah 29. Isaiah 29 and look at verse 24. These also who erred in spirit will come to understanding and those who complain will learn doctrine. But here we see the thinking faculties cognition and understanding is related to the spirit of man. Turn back over to Psalm 77. Psalm 77, look at verse 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night. I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search." So we see here that remembering, and so you begin to see the relationship between the remembering, the thinking, the cognition of man tied to the spirit. Turn over to Proverbs 16. We see that humility and arrogance are tied to the spirit of man. Here's one, Proverbs 16, look at verse 18, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. And so this is why, so for example, when we talk about disciplining and training our children, those attitudes, the haughty spirit, how do you know when someone has a haughty spirit? It comes across in their whole demeanor. The way they look at you, the way they receive instructions. A person can receive instructions in such a way that they're still receiving it in a haughty nature. And typically when it comes to your children, they're receiving it because, well, they don't have any choice at that point. That doesn't mean that they're receiving it with humility. And so that's why it's so important when you're trying to instruct and help parents with the training of their children, you can't just wait for the overt action of sin to take place. You have to learn to watch these things because, I mean, I don't know how you get any clearer than this. Pride goes before the destruction and a holy spirit before a fall. So when you notice a haughty spirit, rebellion, a refusal to listen to sound instructions, a refusal to receive instruction with humility, Understand that child, and that goes for adults as well, but understand that child is getting ready for a great fall. You see it with adults. Adults who can't refuse sound instructions. And they have a haughty spirit about themselves. They're setting themselves up for a great fall. But notice how this is tied to one's spirit. Turn over to Matthew 5. Not only is haughtiness tied to one's spirit, but so is humility. Matthew 5. It's an attitude. This word spirit is used in the sense that it's the spirit of an individual, how one acts and behaves. Humility. Look at Matthew 5, look at verse 3. Blessed are the poor in, not soul, but poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And so when we think about the poor in spirit, we understand that's referring to humility. It's something that comes from within. So, notice here, I think you're beginning to get the point, the Spirit is shown in the Scriptures as the center of various traits, but so is the word soul, so you begin to see how they're used interchangeably. And you probably do this in your own vocabulary. You may have your own definition for the word soul, you may have your own definition for the word spirit, but periodically, I bet, you use them interchangeably, when the Bible does it the same way. And so, since the Spirit may show undesirable emotions, it needs attention, doesn't it? Psalm 51. Look at verse 10 where he says, creating me a clean heart of God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. So we're all familiar with Psalm 51, it's David's response to his sin against Bathsheba. But notice here as he is broken and contrite, what we see is a plea. that there's something wrong within my spirit and it needs to be dealt with. So Father, Spirit of God, create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast, a steady spirit within me. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. Look at verse 1. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So we need to constantly go before the Lord to ask Him to help us to become more like Him in this area. And so, one of the things that I would just encourage you, make note of where these passages are. Don't just dismiss them, because this is a key passage. This passage ought to be preached regularly within our culture. I mean, what do you think the response of most people in the church today is when you start preaching perfection of holiness in the fear of God? That message does not fly in the face of self-reliant man, the one who wants to do his own thing, the one that wants one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in this world. He doesn't want to hear this passage, okay? But nevertheless, it's there. So let me just sum up spirit by saying that the spirit does not indicate the whole person, but rather the immaterial part with its various functions and feelings. I hope you're beginning to get some kind of understanding of how the word soul and spirit, I mean, at least you've got enough, a foundation that you can build upon. You can take your concordance, you can start looking at these passages that have this word and continue to build upon this. And I'd encourage you to go do that. And discuss these issues, you know, as you think about the distinctions between the soul and spirit and how the Bible might use them interchangeably, okay? Alright, let's move from that to the word heart. Now when you deal with the word heart, once again, it's kind of an all-encompassing sort of term. It is the center and seat of life. You think of the physical and the psychological. So let me just point out here that there's only a few times in the Bible or it refers to the physical organ in your body. So when you deal with the way the Bible uses the heart, it can refer to one's intellectual life, or to one's emotional life, one's volitional life, one's spiritual life. All these things are encompassed in this word heart. And when I think of heart, I think of the person in its entirety. I think of his intellect, his emotions, his will. Thayer, in his Greek lexicon, defines kardia, the word for heart, as the soul or mind, as the fountain and seed of thoughts, passions, appetite, purposes, endeavors. Robert Morey says it this way, it's the part of man which feels, thinks, and decides. So let's look at some of this. Number one, the heart is the seed of intellectual life. It's used that way. Turn over to Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8, look at verse 5. You should know in your heart that as a man chases his son, so the Lord your God chases you. So you should know in your heart, right? When he uses this kind of terminology, what are you thinking of? You should know in the totality of your being that God does something, right? That's what he's saying there. So the heart considers. Turn to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Look at verse 11. Your word I've hidden in my heart. Why? That I might not sin against you. So the heart obtains knowledge. So we hide the Word of God in our heart. What are we thinking? I mean, how do we consider that kind of language? Will you hide it in your innermost being so that you can easily resurrect it, so to speak, in the time of need? Okay? And so these people that say, well, you know, I just kind of stumbled into sin. Well, I don't really buy that. However, a lot of that has to do with we don't know how to respond in certain situations, and we're going to be governed and dictated by our own whims and what we want at the moment if we don't have God's principles hidden within our most innermost being, in our heart. Okay. Turn over to Matthew 15. Matthew 15, look at verse 19. For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies. And so the heart is the source of evil thoughts and actions as well. In other words, it comes from within. There's this idea that, you know, my flesh is wicked, it's evil. No, no, no, no. It starts from within and comes out, okay? Turn over to Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4, Luke verse 12, For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and the joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of what? The heart. So the heart has thoughts and intentions. So turn over to Jeremiah 17. Jeremiah 17, Luke verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Well, you sit there and say, well, you know, I don't know. I guess since no one can know it, why bother? Well, the Lord knows it. And so the Lord gives you principles from His Word. You don't know it. This is why you need God's wisdom in this area. So the heart can be deceitful. And this is challenging. I hope you begin to see and start laying down the principles here of why this is important. This is not interesting facts about the heart. Because the Word of God says the heart is deceitful, and we are prone to deceive ourselves first, that has huge implications, particularly for the elder. Okay? And so, in this day and age where everyone says, well, you don't know my heart, well, all the barometers that God gives us are clearly there that tells you something about somebody's heart. So, start being discerning. What comes out of someone's mouth tells you much about their heart. How a person behaves tells you much about their heart. Their actions do speak volumes, and inaction probably speaks louder than their actions. So, once again, lay down the foundations of what this is telling you. The heart is deceitful. Where do these filthy things come from according to Matthew 15? Adulteries, fornication, lying, deceit, all that stuff. He says it comes from out of the heart. So you have to learn how to be discerning about these things so you can speak to them, whether you're preaching the Word of God, whether you're ministering to them one-on-one. All this stuff matters. and also resist the temptation for conventional pop culture or conventional wisdoms to start dictating how you conduct yourself and handling the Word of God. You see, the world doesn't want you to do these things. The world doesn't want you to handle the Word of God in such a way. And if you have folks under your care that are being more influenced by the world than they are by the Word of God, well, they're not going to want it either. You're to be fruit inspectors. expect fruit. Start in your own homes, start in your own life, so that you might be able to utilize those skills when you start ministering to those who God puts under your care. Do you see how I'm trying to get you to understand why all this matters? This also matters, and I'm going to deal with this probably more next week. It also matters because all this has huge gospel implications. Because the gospel is not only to deal with the penalty of sin. It's far bigger than that. The gospel deals with all this deceitfulness of the heart. It deals with the corruption of man that we're talking about. So start trying to put all these things together. Understand what the Bible has to say about the soul, the spirit, the heart, the mind, the conscience, the will. All these things have been affected by sin. And the gospel is the remedy. This is why modern man right now is a very difficult animal to get a hold of with these gospel truths. And so what has happened? What has happened within the church? The church is trying to respond to, well, you know, the psychologist says this, the psychiatrist says that, the medical doctors say these types of things. They can tie these behaviors to chemical imbalances. Well, were there no chemical imbalances before modern medicine? Remember, the issue here, God's infinite wisdom says that, you know, these things are sin unless you have a chemical imbalance. He says these things are sin, and so what ministers to the souls and the lives of men? It's the Word of God, it's the Spirit of God working through His Word. And the modern church has forgotten that. Do you understand when they have forgotten their call, why they become irrelevant? If you want to become relevant to our culture, you bring the eternal truth to our culture. Does that make sense? All right. I just want to encourage you. This can kind of get tedious, and it's like kind of doing a definition game, but it's more than that. I want you to understand what the Bible has to say about the immaterial part of man, because the gospel speaks directly to that, and we can't ever lose sight of that, okay? All right. The heart is the seat of emotional life. Turn over to Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6, look at verse 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. So the heart loves, okay? Turn to Job 27. Job 27. Look at verse 6. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let go. My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live. So the heart produces self-reproach or guilt. You can turn to Psalm 14. Well, I'm gonna let you write some of these down. Psalm 14, 15 talks about how the heart can rejoice and be glad. So it's the seed of emotional life. Nehemiah 2.2 teaches us that the heart can be sorrowful. In Psalm 37.4, we learn that the heart has desires. And so this is important, young people. Because your heart has desires, you've got to give attention to your heart. How do you corral those desires? The heart wants what the heart wants. Isn't that what we hear? Well, how do we corral those desires and bring them under the dominion of Christ? Well, we need to understand that the heart is a huge driver within your life. And the question is, what is feeding your heart? What are you giving it day in and day out? So be careful. Give guard to your heart. Know where your weaknesses are. Don't set yourself up for temptation to fall. And I would just say this, the desires and the passions of your heart only strengthen in the areas that you feed it. So if you have passions that are ungodly, desires that would bring glory and honor to the Lord, those areas you don't need to be feeding it, not least with worldly wisdom, but you need to bring that fire under control by submitting it to God and confessing it to Him and bringing it to His attention. and you feed it with the Word of God. And that's interesting, too. When you sense that the Lord is showing you that there's an area in your life where you begin to recognize that there's a desire within your own heart that is not biblical, not godly, well, make sure your devotion times deal with that. Find the place in the Scriptures that will address the sin that you're dealing with. The sins of the heart should be dealt with with the appropriate scriptures. So be careful with that, because a lot of times what happens, and you always hear about these folks that seem, well, they just seem like they know God's Word so well. They know the Greek. They know the mechanical structure of the grammar. They know the mechanics of theology. But then you hear about these men that fell, and fell hard. What took place? They're not feeding their hearts with the kind of Scripture and the Word of God that should have been dealing with their own sin. And that's another thing that I think you need to be careful of as you prepare to be an elder. Don't allow your studying of the Word of God not to ever speak or deal with the issues that you have in your own life. The heart is the seat of volitional life. So not only is the heart the seat of emotional life, it's the seat of volitional life. I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the will. Turn over to Deuteronomy 4. We'll look at a couple passages here. Deuteronomy 4, look at verse 29. But from there you will seek the Lord with your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul." So with your innermost being, right, is what he's saying here, you're to purpose, you're to will that deals with the volition to seek Him out. Okay? Turn over to Exodus 14. Exodus 14, Luke verse 5, "...now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and that the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people." So your heart can be turned. It can be swayed. And so, once again, you've got to be careful, give guard, to make sure your heart's not being swayed or turned to something that's wicked. I think we see this in our presidential election this year, right? Where you see people who say they're Christians, but they abandon principles for pragmatic response, right? You certainly don't want to vote for someone on this side of the fence that's going to lose because that person that they lose, well, it's not going to make the person on the other side, and you certainly don't want them to be in charge. I don't find that anywhere in the Bible as a reason to vote for someone who is unprincipled, someone who does not hold the values of God's Word as being preeminent, especially if that person is a known shark or charlatan. But I see this all the time right now, where a particular individual is being elevated simply because the other ones can't beat the opposing party. And so, once again, don't allow your hearts to be swayed with that kind of thinking. Allow your hearts to be swayed by principles that don't change. God's principles don't change. They don't move. They're a foundation. They're a rock. Okay? And so start to learn to guard your heart in such a way that it's under the teachings of the Word of God, and start conditioning yourself to behave, even if it's inconvenient, even if it costs you much, to live your life in such a way that you're governed by the principles of God. Exodus 8.15 says that the heart can be hardened. In Exodus 7.22, the heart is capable of making choices. So over and over again, and these are just a handful of examples, we see that the heart is the seat of volitional life. Next, the heart is the seat of spiritual life. Turn over to Romans 10. Romans 10, look at verse 9. Now, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe with your heart that God is raising from the dead, you will be saved. So the heart of man believes, resulting in righteousness. Turn over to 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3, look at verse 15. Turn over to Ephesians 3. In Ephesians 3, look at verse 17, where it says that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you be enrooted and grounded in love. And so here, we see that for the believer, the heart is the dwelling place also of the Son. Turn over to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 1, look at verse 22. who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. So here, for the believer, the heart is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. And so 1 Timothy 1.5 teaches us that when we talk about the believer and his heart, his heart ought to be pure. And so from the Bible we see that when we deal with the heart, we're dealing with the emotional, the volitional, the intellectual, and the spiritual. The thing I want to point out there is that when we talk about the constitution of man, he's made of a material, immaterial part. The immaterial is made up of many facets, and one of those facets is the heart. Now, let me talk about the word flesh with you for a moment. When we talk about flesh, the word flesh is used in different ways in the Bible. The flesh in the Bible does not always refer to the material or the tissue part of man, although sometimes it can be. What I want to emphasize here with you is that the word flesh has an ethical use as well. And so when we read the flesh, it refers to the fallen nature or a disposition to sin. You would think of this thing that is within us that's in opposition to God. So I want us to think about the ethical use of the word flesh. Turn to Romans 7. Romans 7. Look at verse 18. For I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find." And so here Paul clearly outlines in this verse that nothing good dwells within the flesh. Now we all know he's not... I don't think in this context he's talking about the material part of man. He's not talking about the tissue. He's referring to that part that was in us that's in opposition to God. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 12. For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience that we conduct ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God and more abundantly towards you. And so we see, and I think we understand what Paul's talking about here. I don't think he's referring to something, fleshly wisdom is not this material, your tissue's wisdom as though there's wisdom in the tissue, right? I think he's referring to the inner part of man that is opposed to God. Alright, turn over to Galatians 5. Galatians 5, look at verse 17, "...for the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." So there's something that's within us that's battling, something that's in us that's warring against the Spirit. And that thing is referred to, Paul utilizes it, as far as I can tell. He's the one that utilizes this idea of the flesh. So we can look at other examples. You can look at Colossians 2.18, 2 Peter 2.10, 1 John 2.16, for some more examples of this, but we understand when we talk about man, he has a material part, he has an immaterial part. And when we come to the Bible, we see that just as the material part is comprised of many facets, so is the immaterial part. And one of the things that the Bible utilizes to describe him is there's something within you, and he refers to this worldliness that's within you, and he calls it the flesh, okay? Let's talk about the mind for just a second. The Bible has a lot to say about the mind. Our mind is part, one of these facets of the immaterial part. It allows us to perceive or understand. And we think about the word mind in the New Testament, typically the New Testament word for it. Let me back up. The Old Testament typically will use the word heart to describe functions of the mind. The Greek language utilizes this word mind a lot more. It's a lot more prevalent. Now when you read of the mind, not only does it perceive and understand, but it also can feel or judge or determine. can refer to all kinds of things, but it's certainly one of these immaterial parts or facets of man. It's the reasoning part of man. And so when we talk about the mind, for example, the mind of the unbeliever, turn to Romans 1, the Bible has much to say about the mind of an unbelieving man. In Romans 128, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate or debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. And so what we see is that a mind that is bent on opposing and rebelling against God, when God turns that mind over to itself without any restraint, it becomes reprobate, debased, and then anything goes at that point. Turn to Ephesians 4. In Ephesians 4, look at verse 17. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. And so the mind of an unbeliever is futile. The mind of the unbeliever is vain. Their thinking is useless. Why? Well, because it's only interested in things of here and now. It has no eternal perspective. Their walk is not characterized by eternal thinking. Eternal thinking is tied to godly thinking. Eternal thinking is thinking thoughts after God. And when we talk about thoughts after God, that simply means, how would God view the situation I'm in right now? How would God think about this issue? How would God think about what I'm about to do? Young children, this is important for you because how you treat a sibling, for example. You need to bring your thinking under the dominion of Christ. How would he behave in your situation? I mean, think about the excuses children and adults make when they try to make excuses for why they don't do what they know they ought to do. And they consider the Lord Jesus Christ. Was there anyone, humanistically speaking, that had more reasons to have excuses not to obey the Father? I mean, think about all the obstacles that were put in Christ's way. Have any of you, after 40 days of fasting, been brought out to the wilderness to be tempted by Satan? We can't even handle the temptations of Satan with a full belly. And think about the, well, the bad devil, you know, I was tempted to do this. My brother, he provoked me. Did anybody ever provoke Christ, you think? But yet, he didn't ever disobey the Father. It's interesting, isn't it? When you start thinking in those terms, we need to start bringing our minds under the dominion of Christ, think thoughts after God, because that's what Christ did. If you want to learn to think thoughts after God and follow the pattern of Christ, you need to follow the pattern of Christ. What was the pattern of Christ? To know the Word, much time in prayer, and to always be about the business of the Father. That's what he saw his life as being. Does anyone here have an exclusion to that? Can you think of any Christian who's been excluded from doing the will of the Father? So when a Christian gets bent on making, by pattern of life, and habitually making his life about making excuses for not following the will of the Father, what do you think happens when a fellow Christian or a pastor brings this to his attention? He's going to bristle up. He's going to push back. He's not going to want to hear it. You want to make sure you don't fall in that same place. You want your heart tender towards the things of God. And how do you keep your heart tender? With the tenderizer. We must be constantly bringing the tenderizer in our lives. When you begin to neglect this, you get to be hard. Nobody wants an untenderized heart, okay? So we want to keep it soft before the things of God. All right, so the mind of the unbeliever is futile, it is vain. That's not going to get you in the speaking circuit at Harvard, is it? But nevertheless, that's the truth. Their thinking is in vain if they don't bring their thinking under the dominion of Christ and start to bring their thinking to a place where they can give it all to the glory of God. Turn to Titus 1. Titus 1, look at verse 15, to the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and their conscience is what? Defiled. So the unbelievers thinking is defiled. In other words, it literally stinks. Okay. We were talking about this, I heard, I was telling Stephen last night that I heard some pastor this week give the sermon and he gave the example of the two skunks who walked by the paper mill. Y'all heard that story? Two skunks walked by a paper mill and one said, whoo, what is that smell? The other skunk says, I don't know, but I want more of it. And that's the way the world, worldly thinking thinks, right? Worldly thinking and those whose minds are under the dominion and the sway of the world is like a skunk who smells something worse than him and he wants more of it. That should never describe the child of God. The child of God who walks by the paper mill, I don't know what that smell is, I don't want any part of it. So if you're attracted to the things of the world, you're like the skunk who walks by the paper mill and wants more of it. Alright, Romans 3. In 2 Corinthians 4, it teaches us that their mind is blinded, right? Turn over to Romans 3. Romans 3, look at verse 11. There's none who understands, there's none who seeks after God. Well, what is the context of this? Remember, Romans 3, he's talking about both Jew and Gentile are under sin. And it's this picture of they're under the dominion of sin, they're under a huge weight, they're unable to free themselves of this burden. And because of this, Paul says they don't understand. There's not a one of them who understands. So the unbeliever does not understand the things of God because the unbeliever is totally depraved and his mind has been affected by sin. Now, the regenerate person, the Bible tells us that our mind is in complete contrast to that of the unbelievers. Now, turn over to Luke 24. Let me show you something. Luke 24, Luke verse 45. And He opened their understanding. Remember, He's on the road to Emmaus. And these men, His disciples, they're there. They're still talking about what happened in Jerusalem. And it says that He opened their understanding. Why? That they might comprehend the Scriptures. So that tells me you can read the Scriptures and understand the Scriptures and not comprehend the Scriptures. So for the mind of the regenerate, we need the sovereign work of God to Take the light of His Word and make it make sense to us. Okay? So the things that were at one time foolishness to us, they now become our very hope. Alright? Turn to Romans 12. Romans 12, look at verse 2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. And that is so important. The legalist, the fundamentalist, wants to be conformed. What does Paul want you to be? Transformed. There's a big difference between being conformed and being transformed. Conformed is something that can happen by the work of the flesh. The work of the flesh basically says, here's what you wear, here's what you eat, you don't eat, you don't smoke, you don't do these things. That's being conformed. Transformation takes place when there's a radical change in your nature. And from a radical change in your nature, all these things about modesty, all these things, they do take place. But what was the problem of the Pharisees? It was all outward. It was an external show. And so we want to make sure that we don't walk in their footsteps. We want to be transformed. How are we transformed? By the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. So the believer dedicates his life to a renewed mind so that he might know what? Why does the believer dedicate himself to a renewed mind? To know the perfect will of God. Well, we can't know everything about God. Well, we don't know the secret things of God. But there is some kind of expectation that we know the perfect will of God that's been revealed to us. We are to have our minds transformed. So how long does that process take? I suspect until we leave this planet. But our minds should always be under the transforming power of the Word of God. Turn over to 1 Peter 1. Let's see if this verse is still in your Bibles. It seems to be pulled out of most. But in 1 Peter 1, 13, Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So what does this tell us? Our mind should pursue holiness. That's been lost somewhere in the church, and so we should be pursuing after holiness. Ephesians 5. It's very interesting, whenever you start teaching on that, for some reason somebody wants to say, Nowhere does the... when you start talking about 2 Corinthians 7 and 1 or 1 Peter where it says, be holy for I am holy. There's never a yes, but that follows after it. So we've added something to the scriptures in our culture, haven't we? Ephesians 5. Look at verse 17. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So the mind of the believer is to be resolved to do something. It's to be resolved to understand what the will of the Lord is. Do you give your mind to that? And it's interesting, what is the greatest command of God? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, but not your mind. It doesn't say that, does it? We're to give our whole to the love of God. We're to give our minds to pursue after what? According to this text, to know what the will of God is. Give our minds to be transformed to know the perfect will of God, Romans 12.2. 1 Peter teaches me I'm to give my mind, I'm to gird up the loins of my mind so that I might pursue holiness with it. The Bible's not silent on what we do with our minds, okay? 2 Corinthians 10, here's another important verse. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5. Well, verse 4, look what it says, "...for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." Well, we don't want to be too offensive out there because we don't want to go after people who disagree with God. I mean, everybody has their... I mean, listen, everybody has a right to their own opinion. No, they don't. They may have rights by the laws of this land to their opinion, but they don't have rights by the laws of God to have their own opinion, especially if they go against the opinions of God. So we need to understand that we are to cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And we are to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. I don't know how most churches would ever teach this. So guess what? They don't teach it. But it is there in the Bible. It's an important verse for the believer to understand. We're to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Why? Well, part of that is so that we might bring everything and cast out arguments that go against the knowledge of God. That's not popular in our day. But remember, you're never called into the kingdom of Christ to be popular with the world. That's never been your call. That's not even in the top 10 purposes for why you've been brought into the kingdom of God. I don't even know anywhere where the Bible would teach that. Well, we want to be popular with the world. We've never been called to that. Okay? So when we look at the Scriptures, let me just stop here. One of the facets of the immaterial part of man is the mind of man. The unbeliever has a mind, but his mind is at opposition to God. It's at enmity with God. while the mind of the believer has been given understanding, so he may pursue after God." And anytime you see someone give himself not after that end, who is not pursuing after that end of giving his mind totally to God, red flags need to go up. Yeah, but I go to orphanages. Yes, I give to missions. Yes, I feed the homeless. If you're not bringing your mind under the submission and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's a problem. At best, you're a Pharisee who externally has cleaned himself up. He's given himself over to a social gospel, but the transformation has not taken place. That should be a concern for anyone, any Christian, but especially for an elder. So I go through all this with you not to just teach you neat facts about the immaterial part of man, But you need to know what the Word of God says about the immaterial part of man so you can minister to it. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you that when it comes to this side of man that we know very little about, your Word is not silent and you don't leave us without a guide. So, Father, we pray that you'd help us this day. We pray that you'd help us bring all all this wisdom to bear in our own lives first, that we might minister to ourselves, that we might first pull any planks out of our own eyes because we are, by our own admission, prone to be given to sin, and we need your help. And so, Father, help us to walk in the grace that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that we walk in his strength and his strength alone. Father, I pray that even from the youngest child in here this morning that is represented, we pray that you would help them bring their thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. We pray that for the older ones as well. Lord, we pray that you dismiss us this day. You dismiss us with your blessings and that even this day we're preparing ourselves to come and worship you tomorrow. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.