SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY

Kevin Pearson

1 Thessalonians 5: 23, 24; Hebrews 4: 11–13; Romans 12: 1, 2

Just a simple impression, dear brethren. The thought has been with me for a while and our brother’s ministry this last weekend made me think more upon this subject. He brought forth the thoughts of what God is doing inwardly, working inwardly. He also mentioned in one of the readings that man is a tripartite being, which brought this passage to my mind. We are spirit, soul and body and this passage in 1 Thessalonians says, “Now the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly”. God is the One who does the sanctifying. He is the One who sets us apart. It is His work and He is working for the whole man, not just part of it. He is not after just our spirit; He is not after just our soul or just our body; but He wants the whole man, spirit, soul and body. That we may be “preserved blameless”, that is, ourselves, that we would be “preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Those of us who have been in the pathway for any time know that it is through experience with God and His dealings governmentally and in other ways that He effects this sanctification. He also does it by the word of God. The Lord Jesus in His prayer in John 17 says, “Sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth” (v 17). The spirit, I think, is the inner man, the one Peter calls “the hidden man of the heart”, 1 Pet 3: 4. It is where God first does His initial work, where persons are born anew, where there is a breath of God that takes place so that a work can be done there. God works from the inside out.

But there is the soul also. That has to do with what we might call the mind, the will, intellect and emotions. The heart of man is to be found there, where attachments are and probably more so with what comes out in us. The body is how the soul and spirit are expressed and it is a process that God brings us through in sanctification, but His object is that we would be preserved. I think it is interesting too that it says “He is faithful who calls you, who will also perform it.” It is God’s work. That is not negating the side of our responsibility because that is there as well.

I read the passage in Hebrews because it talks about responsibility. “Let us therefore use diligence to enter into that rest,” that is the rest of God, “that no one may fall after the same example of not hearkening to the word.” The word of God may come to us in different ways. We have enjoyed a time of fellowship this weekend in the meetings, on the Lord’s Day. The word of God can come to us in many different ways. It could come to us in the service, by the prayer of a brother. It could come in the prayer meeting through the prayer of a brother. It could come through a word spoken one-on-one to a brother or sister. It could come through reading the scriptures in our daily readings or maybe from your husband or wife being used as an instrument. It may come through the preaching. It may come at a ministry meeting such as this. But the word of God comes. He has sent it. “For the word of God is living and operative”. It has life attached to it. “And operative”, I would say, means that it works. It is working. It is doing what it was intended to do. “And sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit”: in other words God wants to get down to the heart of the matter and sometimes He may have to get through a lot of us to really expose the motives in the heart. The Word is, “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” And that is what we need. That is what the word of God is for, so that it comes forth in freshness, and you know that God is speaking to you when it has done that, when it has penetrated. You still have responsibility, though, to use diligence. You have the responsibility to be subject to the word. You have the responsibility to allow the word to have its work in you. God is doing His part in sanctification by bringing the word. We have our part to do in being subject to that word.

In the book of Romans in the twelfth chapter the body is also involved. Paul says to them, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice”. You see the responsibility there is not on God’s part. He has done and He is doing what He is going to do in sanctifying and bringing the word, but you have to present your body “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service.” I have often thought of this “intelligent service” in a sense in which God may be saying that it is the least you can do “to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”. Well, the intelligence comes into it because we have minds, we have a soul that God has given to us and He is working in us. He is using the word of God to penetrate, to get through to us, to bring conformity. So that what is expressed in our bodies truly conforms to the work of God in our spirit and the inner man, “the hidden man of the heart”, and in our soul. You see, God has, we could say, in one sense saved us and He is saving us now. He is saving our souls. He is doing it through the word of God and as we move on and we are subject to Him, we come more and more into conformity to Christ and more into His image and His likeness and then we will have an impact in the world and in the testimony to those around us.

And to be honest I do not know that I can say that I know very much of his. I do know it is a reality and I know dear brethren who have been faithful to the word and faithful to the Lord Jesus in their lives and that are living expressions of it. I desire for myself that I might be more conformed and allow the word of God to have its way with me, not set up the barriers that we so often may set up in our lives and in our hearts. We set up walls because the word of God is powerful and sharper and living and it penetrates and that penetration may hurt at times for we realise how far short we fall of God’s best for us. But He has not put on us burdens that are uneasy to bear. That is one thing we need to keep in mind, that His burden is light, and we can be here for Him, but we have to be willing vessels. We have to be willing to present our bodies, to present something. God is not going to take it from you by force. It is something you offer. You present it “a living sacrifice”.

I just submit these few thoughts. I pray that we can be touched and helped by them. I hope that we can be encouraged to be here for the testimony because we need to be preserved blameless until the coming of the Lord. That is the object. He is coming and we want to be here for Him blameless when He comes. May it be so for His name’s sake!

 

DENTON

September 2000

 

 

 

 

PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD

E.Steedman

Isaiah 50: 4-9; Matthew 26: 36-45; Ruth 1: 16-17 (to “buried”); Psalm 27: 4, 5

I just want to speak about Jesus, and about His sufferings, and His committal, how He was here a perfect Man, the only Man in whom sin had no place, the only Man on whom death had no claim, the only Man who was here holy, harmless, undefiled and separated from sinners, the only Man whose will was governed by the will of His Father. He says in John 4 “my food”, that is what He lived on. Day-by-day His food was to do the will of Him that sent Him and to finish His work. How wonderfully He did it and how completely He finished the work, and how committed He was to the will of the Father. Where we read in Isaiah it says, “The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of the instructed, that I should know how to succour by a word him that is weary”. There are some tremendous things that the Lord Jesus had to face. It is speaking prophetically of Him in these portions in Isaiah - tremendous things that He had to face. He had to face the whole challenge of Satan, the whole power of the enemy, Satan’s power over the human race - it was death - and the Lord Jesus in His pathway here took account of those things. He wept in the presence of the sorrow and the anguish that came upon the souls of persons weeping over their beloved ones, and yet He had the power to rise from the dead. What a power He had, but it was as a result of Him laying down His own precious life, taking all the burden of your sins and my sins in His own body on the tree, He went into those things: it cost Him something.

The scripture we read in Matthew shows the terrible sufferings that He went through in His soul, but the start of His pathway was marked by what we have in this portion in Isaiah. Every morning you wake in God’s will - you will sleep tonight and you will wake in the morning, and sometimes you wake early and you have plans for the day. They do not always work out, but you have something in mind that you are going to do, or somewhere you are going to go. The Lord Jesus when He woke up in the morning found that the Father was wakening His ear to hear as the instructed, or disciplined one - “The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear”. There would be times when what would lie ahead of Him would not appeal, things He had to do, places He had to witness, and you think of those days at the end of His time, getting near to death, and how He shrunk from the horror of it. He was made sin on the cross. The thing He hated most, He was made to take on Himself, on behalf of you and me, and on behalf of countless other persons. How many myriads there are who have put their trust in Jesus, for He has taken the burden of sin. He bore it in His body on the tree. As His ear was opened, it says, “I was not rebellious”. Have you ever been rebellious? Have you ever kicked against the goads? That is what the Lord said from the glory to Saul, “it is hard for you”. Saul, as we know, was in a murderous spirit and He could not stand the Name of Jesus and it was coming out in persons in the way they lived and what they stood for, and how they adored their Saviour, and he could not stand it. He had this murderous spirit, but the Lord spoke to him. He must have had things that touched him, I am sure. As we often say, Stephen’s death touched him, not just his death, but he would never have come across a spirit that was made plain in Stephen. It was the spirit of the Lord Jesus on the cross, the spirit of Christ in Stephen, when he prayed for his enemies. Stephen prayed there. I often think of Saul keeping the clothes. He confessed that to the Lord. When they came to put Stephen, “thy witness Stephen”, to death, he says, “I gave my vote”. Perhaps you did not throw a stone but he had given his vote that Stephen should be put to death. His last sight of Stephen was on his knees, pleading with the Lord to forgive those persons who stoned him. Mr Taylor said that, if the Lord said to Stephen as He looked at those bruises on his face and his body, ‘Who threw that stone, and who threw that stone?’ he would say, ‘I do not know: I was not looking at them’. He was looking at the glory, looking at Christ in the glory. Saul saw Stephen’s face, as others saw his face, as the face of an angel. I think that would be some at least of the goads that entered into Saul. The Lord says, “It is hard to kick against the goads”, but the Lord Jesus was not rebellious, Saul may have been rebellious. You may have been rebellious at times, I have certainly been rebellious when the Lord is saying something that was not quite in your mind to do, and He says prophetically, “I turned not away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheek to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. But the Lord Jehovah will help me: therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint”. That is when that come into expression, when He came down from the mount of transfiguration. He set His face to go to Jerusalem, and He set His face to go to die. There was no turning back with the Lord Jesus. It was not to be put off for another month, or another year, or anything like that. If the Father had said, the time has come, He set His face to go to Jerusalem, set it like a flint, “and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me: who will contend with me?”

So in the scripture in Matthew He goes on into the place where the whole terribleness of what He has to face is concentrated in this cup. It says as to that, “Then Jesus comes with them to a place called Gethsemane”, the place of His suffering, and he says to His disciples, “Sit here until I go away and pray yonder. And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and deeply depressed. Then he says to them, My soul is very sorrowful even unto death; remain here and watch with me. And going forward a little he fell upon his face, praying and saying, My Father”. Think of a prayer like that, the Lord Jesus almost entreating the Father - is there no other way to go that sinners might be saved? “If it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt” - “I was not rebellious”, “not as I will, but as thou wilt”. And he comes to the disciples and finds them sleeping, not able to watch for one hour, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation”. The second time it says, “he prayed saying, My Father, if this cannot pass from me unless I drink it, thy will be done”. Does it not affect you? Does it not touch a chord in your own soul? The whole human race lies under the penalty of sin. You say, perhaps this one has not done something very bad, or that one has not done something very bad, but it says, “all we like sheep have gone astray”; then it says something that sounds very simple to everyone, that we have turned everyone to his own way. They did not go God’s way, they did not go Christ’s way; they went their own way. Have you ever gone your own way? Have you ever done your own thing as the world speaks? That is made much of now, to be able to do just what pleases you, but the Lord Jesus could say that He always pleased the Father. His appeal here is, “And leaving them, he went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he comes to the disciples and says to them, Sleep on now and take your rest”. The following verses touch on His betrayal, touch on the terrible hatred that there was against Him on the cross. They mocked Him, they said, “you saved others”, think of that, that they actually acknowledged that He had saved persons. There had been a living testimony in person after person, He touched someone, He raised the dead, He opened the eyes of the blind, He caused the dumb to speak, He caused the paralysed to walk. All those things epitomise some feature of sin that the enemy had brought in to this world that was very good before sin came in, but He was able to show something of the love of the Father in the way that He came in with solace for the sorrowing and comfort for persons who had lost their way, He wrought that. Every time someone was healed, it took something out of His body. Remember the woman that touched the hem of His garment; it was faith that saved her. She had faith that if she could just get near enough and just even touch the hem of His garment something would come from Him that would heal what had troubled her for many, many years. Sin operating, all those illnesses, all those things that relate to what He came into in the way of healing, they all speak of the result of sin, but He said, “power has gone out of me” - the crowd was pressing in, but He knew that power had gone out of Him. It suggests that everything that He did, either healing or caring for others took something out of Him, He felt it; He felt it when He wept because He saw the effect of sin, He saw death coming in on the human race.

I want to speak of the cross. Those of us who have sat under the sound of the gospel from childhood know what it was for Jesus to go to the cross, but to apply it to ourselves and to say, He died for sinners, but we have to come to it that He died for me.

Precious, precious blood of Jesus,

Shed for sinners, shed for rebels,

Shed for me.

“I was not rebellious”. I remember when that word touched me when the preacher spoke about it, and then we sang the hymn:

Shed for rebels, shed for sinners

And it stopped you, was I ever rebellious? You heard the word, but you went your own way,

Shed for me.

The glad tidings are going out tonight that there might be an answer from some heart to say, He died for me. What a thing that is and what a change in the lives of persons who have known when they came under the sound of the word, when something was touched by the Holy Spirit, told them that all the sufferings on that cross were because of me, and they joined the ‘me’ and what a wonderful change and transformation has been in the life of sinners, when the gospel entered into their heart. It came home that the suffering that Jesus bore was that we might be free from the penalty and power of sin.

I wonder about this rebelliousness and I wonder what the answer is. I believe it is in committal to Christ and Christ’s interests here. We know the story of Ruth; I suppose everyone here, even the youngest, could tell us something of the story of Ruth. It is a sad story. Naomi came with her husband; he seemed to lead them away from Bethlehem-Judah. There had been blessing in Bethlehem-Judah, and yet it says, “there was a famine in the land”. That was in the days when the judges ruled, not quite the best time, but they went to journey to Moab and that was a downward, not an upward way, but a downward way to go to Moab. Naomi had a husband and two sons; Ruth was married to one and Orpah to another. But, during that journey her husband died, then one of the sons died, and then another son died, and there were left three widows. You might say, they might be bitter against God; why had that happened? But Naomi held on to something and she kept contact. She represents the people of God, and she kept contact with Bethlehem-Judah because it came to be known to her that God had visited His people and given them bread. Where did it come from? There was a famine there. It is like persons, and I have been one of them, who leave a sphere where the Lord is being made much of. It used to be said, why is there not more food for the saints? The food is in Christ, and you find that you go hither and thither and there is nothing to feed on. If you have had a taste of Christ there is nothing that can take its place, and Naomi’s thoughts were going back to Bethlehem-Judah. She heard that God had visited His people and He had given them bread and she decided, I am going back there, and she said ‘good-bye’, you might say, to her daughters-in-law. Orpah kissed her. Beloved Mr. Lyon spoke of kissers and cleavers. Orpah was one; she kissed her mother-in-law, she was sorry perhaps to part with her, but she kissed her and went away. Jonathan did that with David, others did that. A certain appreciation of what might be there amongst the brethren, or dear Christians trusting themselves to Christ and there is something comes into the meetings, and it can fill the soul and be a guidance in your life, but perhaps the pathway would be too hard - to go back to Bethlehem-Judah to say I have been wrong in going away. You have come back and there is food there. There was more than food there, far more than Ruth ever expected, but she would not go back. She kissed her mother-in-law too, and her mother-in-law said, Orpah is going back, you go with her: she had nothing to offer her. Ruth said, “Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried”. She was prepared to die. That is the answer to all the problems in each of us; you are to be prepared to die, to go down, to give up self, to give up your own will, to give up your own mind and in any things that come in that might be disruptive, you go back to Christ, and you find out the mind of God. What is God’s will in a matter, not what is my will or the will of another, but what is God’s will and Ruth accepted her.

When she went back, God had far more in mind for her than she would ever have expected because Boaz was there, “a mighty man of wealth”. What I am trying to say, beloved hearers, is that God has a way of working and He has an end in view and the end in view - one of the reasons that the Lord Jesus came here as He told that woman in John 4 - is that the Father had a heart, the Father sought worshippers, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. There had to be a change. That woman went through that change; she told others and they went through a change and I believe she was used to add to the worshippers. The worshippers comprise those who are in Christ’s assembly. She brought them back as worshippers.

It was a long journey, we know the story – Ruth went back with her mother-in-law, she met and married Boaz, had a child called Obed, which means worshipper or servant and “He is the father of Jesse, the father of David” (chap 4: 17). The worshippers had a line that has gone right down into our day and as we feed on that blessed One, on Christ, it stirs up a spirit of worship. We touched some of those things this morning, to remember Him in the scene of His absence. How it affects you that He went into death and He just asked one thing when He left on that night of betrayal, “remember me”, when He took that bread and that cup and spoke of His body and of His blood poured out, and He said, “remember me”. There are types of Christ through the scripture and Joseph was one. He was falsely put in prison and he met the two men, the baker and the butler and told them, as they asked him, what would happen to them. The butler was restored to his position, and Joseph said “when it is well with thee”. Joseph was in prison for quite a while after, “when it is well with thee”. Oh soul, forgiven sinner, is it well with thee? Do you have a sense and knowledge that your sins are forgiven and you have been set free at liberty, the power of sin is broken through Jesus’ death of scorn, is it well with you? He said, “when it is well with thee, remember me”. It was not much to ask, but it says, “afterwards he forgot him”. But Joseph was called to mind and Joseph was liberated. What a thing that was, but Boaz is the mighty man of wealth, and the fruit of his word with Ruth was Obed the worshipper. I think it is a time for committals to Christ, committals to Christ’s assembly, committals to what is true and living, to what is for the heart of God.

I touch briefly on the Psalm. It starts with “Jehovah is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (v 1). You may think that if you commit yourself to the pathway, it is a narrow path, that there will be opposition to it and how will you stand? It says here, “whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid”. In the verses that we touch on, there was committal. How many persons throughout the scriptures made committals! What a thing it is! After any time like this, on a Lord’s Day, it is a good time to make a committal before the enemy is able to turn you aside with the things around in the world. It says, “One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in the temple. For in the day of evil he will hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tent will he keep me concealed: he will set me high upon a rock”; the secret of His tent, to be there just in the presence of God. Matthew’s gospel speaks about going into your chamber and shutting the door, and just alone with God and tell Him your troubles and your difficulties, tell Him about those things that concern you in assembly sorrows, and He will bring in an answer, “in the secret of his tent will he keep me concealed”. Then it says, “he will set me high upon a rock”, the rock which is Christ. In another Psalm it says, “set me in the rock which is too high for me”, and as the note says, ‘higher than I’, on a level of things that is above the sordidness and the greed and the vicious hatred that is around in the world, or even the fair face that some can present, and yet the heart hard against Christ. What a wondrous thing to know the way of being on the rock “which is higher than I”. We are lifted up out of our own small thoughts and our hearts are opened to see the glory of the greatness of the Saviour, but it is all as a result of His sufferings. He died for you and died for me; He laid down His life and suffered for you and for me, saved sinners.

May it be so for each one of us in this room and wherever the gospel is preached. For His Name’s sake, Amen.

 

EDINBURGH

25 February 2001