00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
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.
27 - Creation of Man
Series Elder Training
| Sermon ID | 320161558348 |
| Duration | 1:00:19 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Bible Text | 1 Timothy 3:1 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.