Do you Honour Your Commitments ? Malachi 2:1-6

Introduction

Illustration: I read of a man who was running a training program and gave some rules for the training. He said; before we start the training we must agree for some things. No body will ask questions until the presentation. No coffee until the coffee beak. He asked if they agree and everyone said yes. Many people violated the agreement during the training. At his conclusion he remarked that how easy is it to carelessly take commitments and carelessly dishonour them.

Several Sundays ago I asked them men to stand up and we regrated that we failed in our commitment to fellowship together. I asked those who  agreed with me that we shall start meeting on Mondays to sit down and all the men sat down. The following Monday I was there and only 5 men were present. We carelessly take commitments and carelessly dishonour them. Some sit in meetings and agree that the discussion will end there but the next second they dishonour that commitment and they are spreading gossips and messages all around.

Honoring your commitment is part of your character. It is a quality that attracts people to you and enhances your relationships and opportunities. Failing to honour our commitments will tarnish our image and have a negative effect on our reputation. It can create a barrier to personal achievements and erect a roadblock against success. Honoring your commitments makes you a  person of integrity and character- Someone others can trust.

                Do you honour commitments you make to your team, friends, family members, yourself? Do you honour the commitments you have made to God? The people of Juda failed in their covenant agreement with God. They treated God with disrespect, dishonouring His name. They treated sacred things as common, turn away from God’s law, disobeying His commandments. Some divorced their Jewish wives and married the Pagan women. Malachi provides a strong rebuke to them. Why should we honour our commitments?

1.       Responsibility: We must respond in obedience to what we say

God wants us to listen and to obey. Read Mal 2:2a

It is one thing to believe something is true. It is another thing to obey it. James 1:22 says “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Two Sundays ago we learned about young Samuel who responded after hearing God’s voice in the middle of the night the third time. “Speak, for your sevant is listening”(1 Samuel 3:10). Can you say that now? Ayre you listening to God? Are you obeying God’s instructions? Are you honouring your commitments?

To know if you are doing that, you need to test yourself and Malachi gives the details.

a.       Revere God (v.5)

Many of us play games with God. We compromise, disobeying whenever we feel like  disobeying. Revering or fearing our awesome God inspires obedience.

b.      Receive truth (v.6)

To know that you honour your commitment for God, you have to see if you teach and receive the truth from God’s word. You must maintain a steady intake of the Bible. You fail to teach Bible study or devotions at home. You fail to come and be taught the pure word of God because you don’t honour your commitment with God. Levi had the law of truth in his mouth; that is what the Bible says.

c.       Righteous living v.6

Those who honour their commitments walk in a manner that is good and upright, turning away from sin. The Bible says iniquity was not in the mouth of Levi.

2.       Warning

Malachi reminds the hearers that if they fail to honour their commitments, God will curse them (Mal  2:2).  Failure to honour your commitment will damage your personal testimony, it will impact your success in life, and strain your relationship with God.

3.       Benefits of honouring your commitments v.5

Life and peace was the Lord’s covenant promise to those who honour their commitments with God. Life here speaks of a qualitative, and satisfying life. Peace is more than a quiet soul, but also welfare of every kind.

But listen, the priests failed in their responsibility to teach the law of God. The people also failed to revere God, to receive his word and to live a  distinct life. Malachi says 5 times in this chapter that they were faithless, breaking faith, or that they deal treacherously. They did not honour their commitments. They broke their vows, God no longer had to fulfill his side of the obligation. Some of us are in this situation today and you are wondering why God is not doing something for that situation. It is because you have not honoured your commitment with God.

You alone are responsible for your life. Stop blaming others, stop rationalizing or justifying, stop excusing your failure to honour your commitment. We have a God who honours His commitments; He keeps His promises. When we honour our commitments, we are like God.

Shalom!

You are yaweh eh You are Yaweh 2x

You are Yaweh, alpha and Omega

Present our sins in dishonouring our commitment with God (Bible studies, giving, tithing, fellowship, lukewarmness, who cares attitude). Pray for the grace to stand faithfully for the truth. Desiring the truth, teaching the truth obeying the truth. Make prophetic declarations of blessings to those who honour God.

Healthy life and prosperous life. Quality life with maturity. Peace of the soul, peace with men; happiness, goodnesss, safety to their lives and their children in Jesus name.

Sermon series 2: Walking with the Giants: Abraham’s Obedience of Faith is expressed in an exemplary pilgrim. Hebrews 11:8-10

 

ILLUS: Last Sunday I said the world say “seeing is believing” but the word of God say “Believing is seeing”.

 

1.   Abraham believed in God.

2.   He left everything behind to do God’s will.

3.   He sacrificed things of this age for the things of the age to come

4.   He exchanged the homeland for the unknown.

5.   He went where God asked him to go.

6.   He submitted to sacrifice, in obedience to faith, the son of the promise.

7.   He awaited the coming city of God.

 

a.   Abraham had to leave his home as there his faith was in danger. If he continued there he would have been serving the God’s of his father not the creator of the universe. The demand of leaving his paternal home and moving to an uncertain place was his first proof of faith, one he overcame (Gen 12). Some of us are here today but we have not abandon the old home. We still talk and do rituals, we still send money home for sacrifices and some even carry their children home for those things. Where is your faith? Some of you say things are not going well, we need to go home. While home you accept every kind of thing because you want things to go well. Abraham did not return to his old mess. His children did not return, even though they were leaving in tents as wanderers they trusted the Lord and that is why Isaac and Jacob are recorded as those who had part in Abraham’s heritage.

b.   Lot had to abandon Sodom, the land he chose when he was separating from Abraham. He abandon Sodom to avoid being exterminated with it (Gen 19)

c.   Joseph had to leave his paternal home because only in this way could he be transformed into a useful tool in God’s hands. (Gen 37:19-36). If the brothers did not sell him into Egypt, he would not have been governor in Egypt to fulfill the promise of God in his dream. Perhaps if he stayed behind the brothers would have finally killed him as they hated him the dreamer.

 

Abraham submitted to sacrifice in obedience to Faith. Some of us say we have faith but we cannot sacrifice our money, our time, ourselves to fellowship with God. Abraham sacrificed his animals and even obeyed to sacrifice his only son of the promise because of obedience to faith. If you are not sacrificing anything for the Lord, then your faith is dead; there is no obedience in your faith.

 

Abraham waited for the coming city of God, the glorious city (Rec 21:10-27). It is our eternal and permanent kingdom (2 Pet 1:11).

That coming city is a beautiful home and paternal house (John 14:2). That is where our Father lives; the one who nourishes us, the one who protects and upholds us. That is paradise; the place of rest; a homeland (Heb 11:14-16).

 

Are you preparing for the homeland? While I have invested outside my village, I still think of investing home with the hope that I will go home one day. What about heaven our eternal home? Abraham lived like a traveler, tourist on earth because his faith was directed towards heaven. We can only invest in our heavenly home by our obedience in faith to God. If we are not obedient to our faith, it just shows that we had no faith at all. The obedience is seen in what we do everyday and how we live everyday whether we are doing what God expects of us or not.

 

 

Men of faith are men:

1.   Of prayer, like Elijah (Jam 5:17)

2.   Workers, like Noah. People who believe and do.

3.   Obedient, like Abraham

4.   Pleasant to God, like Enoch

I encourage you to develop the courage

-      To live a life that pleases God, like Enoch

-      To work for God in the middle of mockery, like Noah

The foundation of Noah’s faith was the gracious warning of God. Noah believed in the coming judgement. The Bible says they were things not seen; but he moved with fear, prepared an ark to save his house and by that action he condemned the world.

While Noah was building the ark in the area where no one ever believed they could have abundant water not to talk of flood, people mocked at him. But the motivating force of his faith was the fear of the Lord. What is your motivating force in the kingdom walk? Is it your money, salary, acclamation from people, pride? If the force behind your faith is not the fear of the Lord, then you cannot be consistent like Noah in the mist of mockery.

Faith without works is dead. Faith must have an action, if you say you have faith but you are not acting then you have no faith. Noah’s action was his obedience and he built the ark.

When you act by faith in obedience to the Lord, there is always a result. Noah’s result of his faith was the salvation of his family. What is the result of your faith? Are you having any results?

Faith always have a testimony. Do you have a testimony of your faith? Noah had a testimony of his faith and that was the  condemnation of the world. So the reward of Noah’s faith was that he became heir of justice.

 

 NOAH’s FAITH WITNESSES TO A LOST GENERATION. 

Noah teaches us the third principle of a life of faith: 
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an Ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith”(v7).

“When the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water” (1Peter 3:20).

“God did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly” (2Peter 2:5). 

Noah has a good faith-report from God because believing that God’s judgement was coming, he was concerned for the salvation of the lost. He gave his life for the work of the Lord - by 

(1) WITNESSING  (despite the ridicule and hostility against him), and 

(2) by BUILDING AN ARK in obedience to God which was a PLACE OF SAFETY and SALVATION for the lost to come into and be saved (which also served as an amazing visual-aid getting people’s attention so when they asked about it he could witness to them, which would only have increased the attacks against him).   By giving them God’s Word and providing a place of salvation for them Noah removed all their excuses for rejecting God. In this way he ‘condemned the world.’

Noah is a type and example for New-Testament believers, especially for us who live in the generation just before the Rapture. 

Jesus said: "As the days of Noah were, so also will the Coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the Flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the Ark, and did not know until the Flood came and took them all away, so also will the Coming of the Son of Man be (for at the Rapture believers will disappear from view as Noah did and this will be followed immediately by the Flood of the Tribulation). 

Then two men will be in the field: one (the believer) will be taken (in the Rapture) and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one (the believer) will be taken (in the Rapture) and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming (like a thief comes unannounced with the world in darkness to take the precious things (the believers) from the earth) at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:37-44).    

To the world Jesus will come in the Rapture as a thief in the night, but He is only taking what belongs to Him. In this comparison the world-wide judgements of the Tribulation are likened to Noah’s Flood. The unbelieving world continues as if there was no God, and believers (like Noah) must witness to them, warning of the coming judgement and telling them of God’s way of salvation. 

 

But to be like Noah we also have to help build the Ark. This corresponds today to building the Church. The Ark is firstly a type of Christ - the place of protection and salvation, for those in the Ark are protected from judgement and enter into a new-life.

But secondly the Church, the body of Christ, is also called Christ because 
we are in (union with) Him. Therefore the Ark serves also as a picture of the Church. 

Like Noah, our work for the Lord involves building the Church, working to build a strong united community of love and acceptance, where people can come and be saved. By faith we know the Lord will judge the wicked but will save the righteous, removing them from judgement in the Rapture. 

 

Therefore we must warn people of sin and judgement and provide them a place of salvation. All who believe and come into the Ark (Christ & His Church) will be raptured before judgement falls. 

As God removed Noah to safety before the Flood, showing His pleasure with his faith, so God will remove believers in the Rapture before the Judgements of the Tribulation will fall. In fact the last sign the world will have before the Tribulation (the Day of the Lord) is the disappearance (removal) of believers who are lifted up high above the floods of judgement. But before God does this we must make the best use of the remaining time to witness of God’s grace and judgement and to build God’s Ark (the Church) so people have a place they can come and be saved and come under God’s shelter and provision, a place where they can dwell in His Presence with His people rather than living spiritually under the world-system. 

 

So Noah teaches us that a man of real faith will 
(1) witness to a world that will often reject his message, 
and (2) build the Church of Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:16-19). 

So, a Biblical Christian must be committed to his local Church.

 

 

 

Sermon series 1: Walking with the Giants: Enoch the man that pleased God. Hebrews 11:5-7

 ILLUSTRATION: The world says, "Seeing is believing, but the Word says, "No, believing is seeing."

That's why Hebrews chapter 11 begins by stating, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

There is another saying that "If you want to grow in your faith, walk with the faithful." So we are going to walk with people of Faith (Abel, Enoch, Noah etc).  

Surely one of the most godly, as well as interesting, characters who ever lived was Enoch. He is one of only two who lived before the Flood (Noah also, Genesis 6:9) of whom it is said that he “walked with God.” He is also one of only two individuals who never died (Elijah, 2 Kings 2:11). Little is known about him, but the Bible reveals him to be exemplary among men and special to God.
Enoch's name literally means, "dedicated one" or "consecrated one." In other words, he was "sold out" for God.

Some have suggested that Enoch’s ministry is not yet over. All men die, for “it is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27), and Enoch has not yet died. Perhaps he is one of the two tribulation “witnesses” (Revelation 11:3) whose messages are so much like those of Enoch and Elijah who will be martyred, resurrected, and taken up to heaven directly from Earth (vv. 4-12). At any rate, Enoch is certainly one of the great heroes of the faith whom we shall meet some day.

1. ABEL - FAITH IN THE BLOOD (v4). Abel gave us the first lesson for our life of faith. Faith must based in the Blood Atonement of Christ. Because of sin, our life and blessing in God cannot be based on our own righteousness, but only by trusting in God’s grace, available through the Blood of Christ. He paid the price in full for our salvation.

2. Enoch is an enigmatic figure in the Bible, mentioned only a couple of times. Very little is said about him, and yet he strangely appears in the “hall of faith” of Hebrews 11. Though little is said about him, the portrait that is drawn of him is actually a beautiful and inspiring one. The author of Hebrews clearly has Genesis 5 in mind when he speaks of Enoch. It is there that we learn how it is that Enoch earned a place among the heroes of the faith. Enoch was not simply a man who walked by faith; he was, in particular, a man who “walked with God” (Gen. 5:24). Enoch was pleasing to God because he not only lived his life by faith in the God of heaven and earth, but he also lived his life in intimate communion with God.

From the book of Genesis, the first sibling set in history (Cain and Abel) embody the first scene of murder and martyrdom. Adam’s family portrait is a broken one, and Eve, the mother of all living, is also the mother of the brokenhearted. But God still showed them His grace. Cities are built, music is made, and most importantly, “people began to call on the name of the Lord” (4:26).

Toward the end of Genesis 4 we encounter Lamech, an obtrusive figure who cannot be missed in any study of Enoch. Lamech is the antithesis of Enoch, yet Lamech and Enoch are intended to be viewed as actors on the same stage, continuing the tension first displayed in Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel were not only the two sons of Eve, they were also the human beginning of what would develop into two opposing kingdoms—the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. In Cain and Abel, the tension between the two “offspring” or “seeds” of Genesis 3:15 is perpetuated. That tension continues to unfold on the scene of history as Lamech, the seventh son of Adam in the line of Cain, proudly and boastfully exalts himself. He is a kingdom builder of the worst kind, as his singular goal is to glorify and enjoy himself. His loud, self-exalting claim to have killed a man in Genesis 4:23–24 makes this perfectly clear. He is Cain perfected, so to speak, as is seen in his vow: “If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold” (v. 24). Lamech, by his own proclamation, is ten times as proud, self-righteous, and murderous as Cain, and Lamech has sworn to take the law into his own hands and execute judgment as though he were God. Lamech, the seventh son of Adam, is truly in line with the seed of the serpent.

Playing opposite Lamech, however, is Enoch. Enoch is also the seventh son of Adam, but he descends from the more faithful line of Seth. In other words, if you created a family tree of Adam’s descendants, Lamech and Enoch would each be seven generations down, but standing on opposite sides—one in the line of Cain and the other in the line of Seth. One side will prove to be chosen and faithful, and the other will prove to be rejected and rebellious. Enoch clearly stands in the line of the faithful, and rather than exalting himself with the proud boasts of Lamech, Enoch is a man of humility and faith. Enoch walks with God. To walk with God in Genesis is not unique to Enoch. The same wonderful affirmation is made of Noah (6:9) and Abraham (17:1; 24:40), and the phrase clearly suggests that these godly men lived in communion with God and in accordance with God’s ways. Later in Scripture, God often referred to the necessity of Israel to walk in His ways as the means of staying in right fellowship with Him. By faith, Enoch walked in the ways of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

This leads us to Enoch’s being “taken up.” According to Genesis 5:24, Enoch did not taste death. He lived a life of faith in which he walked with God, and in the midst of that walk, “God took him.” What a marvelous statement. The text does not say that Enoch simply went to heaven (though he surely did), but rather that God took Enoch for Himself as one whose walk with God began on this earth and continued into the joys of eternity.

In Abel we see the first example not only of martyrdom, but of those who enter into heaven with God through the veil of death. Enoch, however, does not taste death. He enters into God’s eternal rest as one who lived by faith, walked with God, and then was miraculously taken up into the presence of God. These are the two doors into heaven: those who die and yet live by way of being raised up on the other side of death, and those who are alive at Christ’s coming and are simply carried into the bliss of eternal life apart from experiencing death.

The life and translation of Enoch display not only how it is that we come to please God but also what the reward is for those who live and seek God by faith. The reward is God Himself. This is exactly what God tells Abraham in Genesis 15:1. God is Abraham’s shield as well as his very great reward. What greater thing can await us in heaven than that of perfected communion with God? 

Hebrews 11:6 makes it very clear that the life that is pleasing to God is a life lived by faith and by seeking after God Himself. Faith is not meritorious. It does not earn anything from God, as God’s favor and promises cannot be earned. Yet faith receives and rests upon Christ in the gospel and apprehends the promises of God in wondrous ways. Scripture compels us to join with faithful Enoch and imitate his well-pleasing faith by seeking God and walking in sweet fellowship with Him by faith.

God Himself is our reward. While we have already begun to experience the joy of that communion with Him now by way of our union with Christ, the fullness of our reward is something we must continue to seek by faith until we enter glory either by the veil of death or by being caught up alive into heaven. Our great calling is to seek the things of God. As we do, the things of this world must, as the old hymn goes, “grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” Pride. Arrogance. Self-exaltation. These are the things that displease God and are found in the way of Lamech—the way of death. But the way of life—well-pleasing life in the eyes of God—is humble faith and a joyful seeking after God Himself. Those who seek will not only please God in this life, but they will enjoy the greatest pleasure of all: the pleasure of walking with God.

Enoch’s faith pleased God and the main way he showed his faith was in coming to God continually, believing in God’s goodness, believing that every time he would draw close to God, God would draw close to him and reward him. Enoch shows us FAITH for FELLOWSHIP, faith to come close to God and spend time with Him. Enoch teaches us that the main purpose of faith is not for healing or miracles but to have intimate fellowship with God, for we were created for this. 

He walked with God, pleasing God by his faith by coming to God with expectancy and God showed His pleasure with Enoch by taking him to be with Him forever. Smith Wigglesworth said that Enoch walked with God every day. One day he got so far out in the Spirit that God said to him: ‘We are closer to My place than yours, so why don’t you just come home with Me.’ So Enoch said O.K. He was the first man raptured in the Bible! One day he just disappeared before their eyes. They sent out search parties but he could not be found.

We will then have the same testimony as Enoch who walked with God and was raptured. Jesus said to us (His Bride): "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you...I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (this speaks of eternal fellowship, our fellowship with God in this life is just a preparation and anticipation of our future face-to-face fellowship with the Lord)” (John 14:1).

SPIRIT SOUL AND BODY

 

The human spirit is the deepest part of a person. By means of this innermost part, we can contact God in the spiritual realm. No other creature was created by God with this third part.  

“The soul is our very self (cf. Matt. 16:26; Luke 9:25), a medium between our spirit and our body, possessing self-consciousness, that we may have our personality.”

Our soul perceives things in the psychological realm. In fact, in Greek—the original language of the New Testament—the word for soul is psuche, which is also the root word of psychology. 

Our soul is our personality, who we are. With our soul we think, reason, consider, remember, and wonder. We experience emotions like happiness, love, sorrow, anger, relief, and compassion. And we’re able to resolve, choose, and make decisions.

“The body as our external part is the outer organ, possessing world-consciousness, that we may contact the material world. The body contains the soul, and the soul is the vessel that contains the spirit.”

Our body exists in and contacts the tangible things of the material world using our five physical senses. The body is the visible, external part of our being, and it contains the soul. Our soul is the vessel containing our spirit.

Below is a simple diagram of three concentric circles illustrating these three parts. It shows the body as our outer, visible part; the soul as our inward part; and our spirit as our innermost, hidden part.

Man is a triune being because he is created in the image of God. “God said, Let us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). We know that God is a Trinity. 

The two following passages from the Bible clearly establish the fact that man is a triune being composed of spirit, soul, and body:

I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow (body), and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).

 

I’ve come to know I’m a spirit being who has a soul and lives in a body. But the real me is my spiritual person. And it’s in the spirit that I’ve been totally changed and made just like Jesus.

Since God is a Spirit and He deals with me on the basis of who I am in the spirit (John 4:24), this has changed everything. I now worship God based on who I am in the spirit and not on who I am in my flesh; i.e., how I act or feel. I now understand how our holy God can truly love me, because in my born-again spirit, I’m totally righteous and holy (Eph. 4:24). My spirit is His workmanship (Eph. 2:10).

I’ve discovered that I’m redeemed from the Law because the Law wasn’t made for a righteous man (1 Tim. 1:9). The Law was given to show us our need for salvation, but it couldn’t save us (Rom. 3:19-21). But what the Law couldn’t do, Jesus did (Rom. 8:3-4), and I’m now the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

This entitles me to everything God is and has. I have His authority to use.

The Spirit

The word “spirit” when used in the Scriptures has several meanings. Whenever the word “Spirit” appears used with a capital letter, it has but one meaning. It is the name of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit of God. The word “spirit” spelled with a small letter may have one of several different meanings. It can have direct reference to the spirit of man which is as much a part of the tripartite nature of man as the Spirit of the living God is a Person of the Holy Trinity. Or it can indicate an evil spirit such as any agent of the Devil. We will confine ourselves here to the Biblical usage of the word only as it relates to the spirit of man, one of the three constituent parts of his being.

 

In the outer circle the ‘Body’ is shown as touching the Material world through the five senses of ‘Sight,’ ‘Smell,’ ‘Hearing,’ ‘Taste’ and ‘Touch.’

The Gates to the ‘Soul’ are ‘Imagination,’ ‘Conscience,’ ‘Memory,’ ‘Reason’ and the ‘Affections.’

The “Spirit” receives impressions of outward and material things through the soul. The spiritual faculties of the ‘Spirit’ are ‘Faith,’ ‘Hope,’ ‘Reverence,’ ‘Prayer’ and ‘Worship.’

 

In his unfallen state the ‘Spirit’ of man was illuminated from Heaven, but when the human race fell in Adam, sin closed the window of the Spirit, pulled down the curtain, and the chamber of the spirit became a death chamber and remains so in every unregenerate heart, until the Life and Light giving power of the Holy Spirit floods that chamber with the Life and Light giving power of the new life in Christ Jesus.

It develops then that the spirit of man, being the sphere of God-consciousness, is the inner or private office of man where the work of regeneration takes place. Dr. James R. Graham says that the main theatre of the Holy Spirit’s activity in man, and the part of man’s nature with which He has peculiar affinity, is the spirit of man. The Apostle Paul gives us the Word of God on this, a passage that is sadly neglected. Quoting from the sixty-fourth chapter of the book of the Prophet Isaiah, Paul wrote:

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

A great many people stop here, content to remain in ignorance. However, Paul continues:

But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-11).

Man in his unregenerate state comes to know the things of man by the operator of “the spirit of man” which is in him. If I have a will to know certain scientific facts, by my human spirit I am enabled to investigate, think, and weigh evidence. If I set myself to the task, I may become a scientist of world-renown and of great accomplishments. However, my human spirit is “limited to the things of man.” If I want to know about the things of God, my dead and dormant spirit is not able to know them.

The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The human spirit requires “the spark of regeneration” before there is an understanding of the things of God. Man’s spiritual nature must be renewed before there is a true conception of Godliness. Only one thing stands as a guard at the door of man’s spirit, and that is his own will. When the will is surrendered, the Holy Spirit takes up His abode in the spirit of man. And when that transaction takes place we will know it, for, says Paul:

The Spirit Himself (meaning the Holy Spirit) beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God (Romans 8:16 R.V.).

Many people confess that they get nothing out of the Bible even though they attend church and read their Bibles regularly. Perhaps they do not know that they are not regenerated and that they need to yield their will to the Spirit of God so that He can renew their human spirits. The deep things of God never will be understood by the world outside of Jesus Christ. Our Lord warned His disciples,

No amount of religion or church activity can change the spirit of the unregenerate man. “Remember,” says Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, “if out of false charity or pity you allow men of material ideals and worldly wisdom to touch holy things, to handle the pearls of the Kingdom, presently they will turn and rend you. This is the whole history of Christendom’s ruin, in the measure in which Christendom is ruined. We gave holy things to dogs. We cast the pearls of the Kingdom before swine.” The ministry of Christ’s Church dare not be entrusted to any man who has not been born again, for “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).

The Bible says; “There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job 32:8). Here we are told that it is the spirit of man that is given understanding. The materialist tells us that the spirit of man is the air that he breathes, and that man’s body is all there is to his personality. Such is not the case. The spirit of man is his personality and it is that which differentiates him from the lower animal creation. If “spirit” meant merely “breath,” God certainly would not deal with it as a personality. He is called “The God of the spirits of all flesh” (Numbers 16:22), and “the Father of spirits” (Hebrews 12:9). It is by his spirit that the Christian both serves and worships God. Paul testified: “For God is my witness, Whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel” (Romans 1:9). Jesus said: “God is a spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

The Soul

Man not only has a living soul but he is a living soul. The Bible says: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). We must be careful not to confound that which is truly spiritual and that which is merely soulish or psychical. We have seen that the spirit of man is the sphere of activity where the Holy Spirit operates in regeneration. Just so is the soul the sphere of activity where Satan operates making his appeal to the affections and emotions of man.

Satan knows full well that he dominates the psychical or the soulish man. Therefore he does not care if a man goes to a church where the Spirit of God is not in evidence. He knows that his victim is a creature of emotions, and it matters not if the emotions are stirred to sentimentalism or even to tears, just so long as man’s spirit does not come in contact with God’s Holy Spirit. Personally, I believe that Satan would rather have man go to a modernistic church where there is false worship than he would have him go to a house of prostitution. The soul is the seat of the passions, the feelings, and the desires of man; and Satan is satisfied if he can master these. F. W. Grant has said that the soul is the seat of the affections, right or wrong, of love, hate, lusts, and even the appetites of the body.

 

Hamor said to Jacob, “The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter” (Genesis 34:8). Of David and Jonathan it is written: “The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul” (1 Samuel 18:1). These passages show the soul to be the seat of the affections. But as the soul loves, so it also hates. We read of those “that are hated of David’s soul” (2 Samuel 5:8).

It is in the soul where fleshly lusts, desires, and appetites arise:

Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul (Peter 2:11).

As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country (Proverbs 25:25).

It shall be even as when a hungry man dreameth, and behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite (Isaiah 29:8).

The soul of man, that is, his affections and desires, are never directed Godward until after the spirit has become regenerated. Man can never love God nor the things of God until he is born from above. He may have a troubled conscience or be so stirred emotionally that he may weep bitterly, and still remain dead in trespasses and in sins. We do not feel that we are guilty of judging men when we state that some who have answered an altar call and shed tears never were born again. Man’s desires and affections are turned toward God when he realizes his sinful condition and God’s grace in salvation. When the Spirit of God illuminates the spirit of a man with divine light and life, that man begins to yield his affections and faculties to God.

The Virgin Mary said; “My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46, 47). She could not extol the Lord in her soul until she had recognized God in her spirit as her Saviour. The initial triumph is in the spirit when Jesus Christ is acknowledged as personal Saviour.

In that immortal classic of the Psalms, David says: “He restoreth my soul” (Psalm 23:3). The Hebrew word translated “restoreth” is said to mean quite literally “turneth back.” At no time had David lost his salvation, but there were times when his affections and desires were turned from the Lord, as in the case of his sin with Bathsheba. Having become one of the Divine Shepherd’s flock, he testified: “The Lord turneth back my soul.” The Christian who is enjoying unbroken communion with his Lord will then be able to say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name” (Psalm 103:1).