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 Sermon > Sunday Morning Service |
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Title |
Spirit, soul and body(23) - The 3rd lecture on - Spirit, soul and body(2) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 Jn 2:24-25, Gal 5:19-21 |
Date |
2004-09-19 |
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[Scripture]
1 John [2:24-25], Galatians 5:19-21
"Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. [25] And this is the promise that He has promised us--eternal life."
"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters, today, whether they are male or female, people are so much more interested in their appearances than before.
There are so many kinds of foods and things for diet and cosmetics with many functions. Even plastic surgery, which we used to think was only for a certain group of people, is very common.
A broadcasting company in another country selects some ordinary people and gives them plastic surgeries to make their face, skin, body shape, and teeth beautiful. Also, it provides them with psychological advice so that they can have positive personality with self-esteem.
The TV watchers envy those people who are changed, and those who are selected are so happy and satisfied as if they gained a new life.
Then, is the life of those people really changed to be more valuable? If their spirits have not changed by believing in the Lord, the value of their lives is not different in the sight of God although they have changed so much physically. It is just a perishable body.
We should realize what true value in our lives is and try to change our inner being.
God will love us not because of our appearance but to the extent that our spirit is beautified. If God loves us, we will be prosperous in everything, be healthy, and dwell in the eternal glory of the kingdom of heaven.
Furthermore, thankfully, we can gain the beauty of appearance as a bonus, as we cultivate our heart with truth.
Ecclesiastes 8:1 says, "A man's wisdom makes his face shine, And the sternness of his face is changed."
As said, to the extent to which our spirit changes with the wisdom of God, wild looks will change into soft looks and even dark face will shine with spiritual light. Even though we do not get a plastic surgery or do a diet, our physiognomy will be lovely.
Even though our eyes, nose, and mouth look just ordinary, when others see us, they will feel we are beautiful.
Therefore, both physically and spiritually, it is the best investment to fear God, become sanctified and go into spirit more than anything else on this earth.
If you learn these lessons on spirit, soul, and body well, you will be able to invest on your spiritual things and learn how to enjoy all these benefits.
I bless in the name of the Lord that you will be able to have beautiful spirits in the sight of God through the message.
[Body]
Dear brothers and sisters, members who are attending the service through the satellite all over the country, members of branch churches, local sanctuaries, Light and Salt mission, Restaurant Mission, members who are attending the service on the Internet all over the world, [children of Sunday school] This is the 2nd session of the 3rd lecture on spirit, soul, and body.
I told you that we have to learn some terminologies in the 3rd lecture on spirit, soul, and body.
We can understand the Bible clearly only when we clearly understand the meanings of the words like 'body', 'deeds of the body', 'flesh', 'things of the flesh', 'sinful body', and 'works of the flesh', which seem to have very similar meanings. Also, we can throw away this perishing body of flesh and put on the spiritual body.
In the last session, I explained about the body, deeds of the body, flesh, and things of the flesh. In brief, the body is the shape of man from which the knowledge of truth leaked out after the Fall of Adam. The deeds of the body are the actions that come from the untruth contained in our bodies.
Flesh is the combination of sinful nature and the body without truth. Each aspect of this flesh is the things of the flesh.
The body combined with each aspect of the sinful nature such as hatred, jealousy, envy, adultery, wrongful desire, pride, anger is the things of the flesh and as a whole, we call them flesh.
And doing things of the flesh is committing sins not with action but in one's mind.
For example, seeing a precious jewelry of another person, even though we do not actually steal it, if we have the desire saying, 'I want to have it, I want to take it secretly,' we have already committed a sin in our heart and committed things of the flesh.
Worldly people do not even consider these things sin and they are not punished for these either.
God, however, looks at the inner heart, not appearance. Even the devil knows our mind, so it can accuse us of things of the flesh. Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, "whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
1 John 3:15 also says, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."
Committing a sin in heart is like laying the foundation to commit a sin with action, and he who commits a sin in heart is a sinner same as a person who commits a sin with action.
Jesus wore the crown of thorns and shed His blood during the crucifixion to redeem us from these things of the flesh.
Therefore, for us to become holy and sanctified, we have to get rid of things of the flesh not to commit any sin with thoughts. Eventually, we have to get rid of all sinful nature itself.
I told you that flesh is the combination of the body and sinful nature.
As the word 'combination' suggests, what people inherited from their ancestors since Adam, and the sinful nature they themselves accepted are soaked in them. So it is impossible to get rid of these sinful natures with human effort.
When we have hatred, envy, desires, adultery and things like that in our mind, it is not easy to throw them away by ourselves.
We must try our best, and at the same time we must receive the grace and power of God and the help of the Holy Spirit.
When you fast, and pray fervently sometimes overnight, the Holy Spirit in you will help you and God will give you grace and power so that your sinful nature in your heart will be removed.
Here, what you have to remember when you pray and fast is what kind of mind and heart you are fasting and praying with. It is not all just to pray with loud voice, 'please let me throw away untruth!' and to fast 3 days, 7 days or more again and again.
But you have to realize the heart of God who hates sins and earnestly seek God's help.
You have to offer prayers and fasting with all your heart and mind and seek His grace and power.
Otherwise, it can become just like a habit or meaningless as if you are hitting the empty air.
I urge you to act with all your heart when you do something in front of God, feeling the heart of the Father in everything.
When you truly feel the love of God and feel how much God hates sins and evil, you will not throw away evil with much difficulty or change very slowly but you can get rid of sinful natures quickly.
Dear brothers and sisters, so far I explained to you about flesh and things of the flesh. The things of the flesh is to commit sins with thoughts and mind.
If you commit things of the flesh, you will eventually commit sins with your action.
Now, if the things of the flesh come out as action, it is the works of the flesh.
For example, if you hate somebody in your heart, it is the things of the flesh. But if you punch that person out of hatred, it is a work of the flesh shown as action.
If you just covet somebody else's thing, it is a thing of the flesh. But if you actually steal it, it is the work of the flesh.
I told you that the things of the flesh as a whole is called 'flesh'. And the word for works of the flesh as a whole is the sinful body.
Now, which sin is more serious, things of the flesh or works of the flesh? Of course, it is works of the flesh since the sinful nature in heart is shown as action.
Galatians 5:19-21 explains to us that those who commit works of the flesh will not even be saved. "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, [21] envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
If you do not inherit the kingdom of God, it means you will fall into hell.
In the same sense, 1 Corinthians 6:9 says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, [10] nor thieves, nor covetous [k vit s], nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God."
Also, Genesis 6:3 says, "And the LORD said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.'" This means that God will not be with the person who has become flesh.
If we accept Jesus Christ and repent of our sins, God's spirit, namely the Holy Spirit comes to us.
Even though we still have flesh and commit things of the flesh after receiving the Holy Spirit, if we still try to throw them away, God's spirit, the Holy Spirit will be with us.
But if we do not get rid of works of the flesh even after we received the Holy Spirit and continue to stay in flesh, the Holy Spirit cannot dwell in us.
We will lose the fullness of the Holy Spirit little by little, and finally the Holy Spirit will completely be extinguished in us. You have to keep this in mind again and again.
It is difficult to get rid of things of the flesh with our own effort, but we can control sins committed by action with our strength.
If your mind tells you, 'shall I just take it?' seeing something, you can just say no and refrain from stealing.
Even if your hand goes up to hit somebody out of anger, you can just put it down again saying, 'oh I should not do this.'
But if you keep on committing works of the flesh knowing that it is sin, it is to commit sins deliberately before God.
Of course, a new believer at the 1st level of faith cannot throw away works of the flesh at once.
But he should not stay at the same place. He has to reduce it from 10 times to 9 times, 8 times and so on, and finally he has to get rid of all works of the flesh.
Moreover, those who have faith must obviously throw away works of the flesh.
Hebrews 10:26-27 says, "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, [27] but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries."
Even though you have faith, if you deliberately keep on committing works of the flesh, it will be a great wall of sin, and you will not be able to repent even though you want to repent.
You will not be able to receive any works of the Holy Spirit. You will feel that God is a fearful God, and your assurance of faith will faint away.
There are many churches, however, that do not clearly teach they must not commit works of the flesh.
So, even though they attend church for decades and become deacons, senior deacons, and even elders, they still do not throw away works of the flesh. How can salvation be present in this kind of church and how can the life of the Christ work?
The revival will stop and rather they will disgrace God in some ways.
Dear brothers and sisters, works of the flesh are so dirty and harmful. If you have to put your hands in toilet that is full of excrements, how much will you hate it?
Even if just a little bit of excrements is on you, you will hate it so much and wash it again and again. Works of the flesh are even filthier, more detestable and harmful to your spirit.
I will explain to you these harmful works of the flesh one by one. If you have not thrown away any of them yet, please repent thoroughly and throw them away. Then, you will experience how fresh and joyful your heart will be after getting rid of the burden of sins. You will be so happy that you will want to dance touched by the love of the Father pouring down from above and by His grace that embraces you so comfortably.
You will be able to march on towards New Jerusalem without any hindrance riding on the flow of the joy and inspiration.
The first thing is what Galatians 5:19 says, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness."
Adultery is when a man and a woman who are not married have physical relationship with each other. Even though they are going to get married, it is not exception.
Even though they love each other so much and are pledged, in many cases they finally break up.
If you have a spouse and still take another person, it is also obviously adultery.
When I was young, if adultery was known in my village, the person was neglected and even ostracized from the village. But today, the world is full of sins and we see adultery is so widespread.
According to a recent survey, 78% of the male respondents said they had physical relationship with another woman than their wife.
Among the married men, 15% are having inappropriate relationships.
This world in which we are living is so full of sins like this.
Furthermore, in many novels, movies, and dramas, they portray adultery something natural and even beautify those relationships.
They describe the unlawful relationships heart-rending and ardent so that people think it is a kind of beautiful love.
Many people look at these contents with interest and accept them in their heart. They then lose the ability to distinguish sins and become numb.
On top of this, nowadays, the bad influence of the Internet agitates people's adultery.
In the above survey, 72% of the respondents said they watched adult materials on the Internet. Especially among those who are in their 20's and 30's, 80 to 90% of them watched adult materials.
Through these things on the Internet, they see things that stir up their adulterous mind, and they more easily seek dirtier and more sensual things.
If any of you belongs to this kind, please do not say it is offending but turn back with joy.
The Bible warns us about adultery so much. Ephesians 5:5 says, "For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous [k vit s] man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Hebrews 13:4 says, "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."
No matter how evil this generation is, we believers must not be stained with sins but keep our body and mind holy as undefiled brides of the Christ.
By the way, adultery is not only about physical adultery between people but there is spiritual adultery as well. It is when a believer consults a fortune-teller, has a charm or amulet against calamity, or does any witchcraft or sorceries.
This is serving and worshipping evil spirits and demons. 1 Corinthians 10:21 says, "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons."
In 1 Kings Chapter 1, Ahaziah, the king of Israel became ill. Then, he sent a messenger to a gentile god to consult whether his illness would be cured.
For this, it was disappointing to God and He said, "Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?" and "You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die."
As said, Ahaziah could not recover but finally died.
Ahaziah had a very different ending compared to Hezekiah the king of Judah who received 15 more years of life even after he was told by God he was going to die.
Today, if you profess that you are God's child but try to rely on idols and demons rather than relying on God who rules over everything, it is spiritual adultery and same as betraying God.
About 'uncleanness' I will explain in the next session.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters, today, it is so near to the end, and God the Father is looking for clean and pure children and those who can be used as God's instruments during the last days.
So, He gives abundant grace and power to those children who ask Him to get rid of sins. He leads them to become sanctified quickly with the fiery works of the Holy Spirit.
God, who is pouring down grace upon us, has promised us that there will be many of you who will be on the quick flow of spirit and go into spirit and the whole spirit.
I urge all of you to become the fruit of this promise by going into spirit and the whole spirit and become powerful spiritual warriors.
I bless in the name of the Lord, therefore, that you will be able to perform the duty of accomplishing the end of the time and finally dwell in the glory of New Jerusalem. |
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