THE THREE PART NATURE OF MAN
If you would please turn to - Heb. 4:12 (and) 1 Thess. 5:23
Today I would like to talk about
The makeup of a man – the three part nature of a man
–the spirit, soul and the body
is an important subject for the believer to understand.
When I was first born again and knew there was something different.
Something different on the inside.
What happened was - My spirit came alive to God
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Before I was born again – I really only saw myself as a 1 part man.
I didn’t know that I had a spirit soul and body
But when I became born again
I clearly saw there was something more
than the single dimension that I had lived in
So I began to seek to learn the new dimensions I was experiencing.
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LISTEN: It was easy to distinguish between the body and spirit.
But it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the spirit and the soul.
Nothing but the Bible can do that.
1. At first I thought my spirit and soul was the same thing.
2. I had always thought they were the same.
Then I came across this scripture in Hebrews that says…
Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)
12 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, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The problem was ---- if they were the same, ----- they couldn’t be divided.
Now I was intrigued! – The Spirit of God caught my attention.
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Then I found another scripture in 1st Thessalonians…
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV)
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
After much prayer and study
- I arrived at the conclusion that there were 3 dimensions of man.
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Number 1
I knew without argument that - with the physical body we contact the world.
We know that the body deals in the physical realm.
No one will dispute that.
Then… as I studied
I saw that….. it is the spirit of man that contacts God, for God is a Spirit.
Only a spirit could contact a spirit.
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The new birth ---- is a rebirth of the human spirit!
Jesus told Nicodemus, .... Ye must be born again" (John 3 :7).
Nicodemus, being natural, could only think naturally, so he said,
1. "How can a man be born when he is old?
2. Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?"
3. Jesus answered,
4. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
5. and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
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Then I found where Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14
1 Corinthians 14:14 (NIV)
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
The Amplified Trans¬lation reads,
1 Corinthians 14:14 (AMP)
14 For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody].
Then in Verse 18 Paul said,
1 Corinthians 14:18 (KJV)
18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
NOTICE: Paul used the (terms) "my spirit" and "I" interchangeably.
Seeing that we have knowledge
1. with the body we contact the physical realm
2. With the spirit we contact the spiritual realm
That left only the soul to locate.
1. Since the body deals with the physical realm
2. and the spirit deals with the spiritual realm,
3. That left only one other realm
4. that man is involved in
5. - the mental realm.
So with the soul we contact the intellectual realm.
This is, simplifying it in the extreme.
As we go further we will dive into it more deeply.
What I am trying to accomplish is laying the foundation.
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Briefly, The 3 parts of a man’s nature is this:
(1) Spirit - The part of man which deals with the spiritual realm.
The part of man that God has redeemed.
(2) Soul – The part of man which deals with the mental realm.
Man’s intellect.
His sen¬sibilities and will.
The part that reasons and thinks.
(3) Body - The part of man which deals with the physical realm.
The house in which we live.
I want you to begin thinking of yourself in a new light.
Don’t think of yourself as just a physical being.
Think of yourself as a spirit being who possesses a soul and lives in a body.
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MANS FIRST PART (DIMENSION – FACET) – THE SPIRIT
Man is a spirit who possesses a soul and lives in a body.
Man’s spirit is that part of him that knows God.
He is in the same class with God because God is a Spirit
…………. and God made man to fellowship with Him.
God made man for His own pleasure.
Man is not an animal.
In order to fellowship with God, man must be in the same category with God.
Therefore, just as God is Spirit, so is man a spirit.
By way of illustration….
1. did you ever try to fellow¬ship with a cow?
2. We can’t fellowship with cows
3. because they are in a different class than we are.
4. They are not human
But we can fellowship with one another,
and we can fellowship with God
because we are the same type of being.
We call ourselves human beings
But the bible describes us as spirit beings!!
Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria,
(John 4 :24)
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth".
We can’t know God or touch Him physi¬cally.
He is not a man.
He is Spirit.
We can’t communicate with God mentally, for He is a Spirit.
But we can reach Him with our spirit,
And it is through our spirit that we come to know God.
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So we know that God is a Spirit.
And God, - who is a Spirit, took upon Himself a man’s body.
In the Book of (John 1:1-3, 14).
Slow
1. Jesus was God mani¬fested in the flesh.
2. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
3. The same was in the beginning with God.
4. All things were made by him;
5. and without him --- was not anything made that was made
6. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us .... "
POINT!
When God took upon Himself human form,
He was no less God
…than
when He didn’t have a body.
POINT
Man, -- at physical death, --- leaves his body.
Yet ----he is no less man --- than he was ----- when he had his body.
We see this in Christ’s account of Lazarus and the rich man at death (Luke 16:19-31).
So we see…our spirit is who we are…our spirit lives forever!
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If you would please turn to Ezekiel chapter 36
More than one Old Testament prophet prophesied…. concerning Israel…
that God would establish a new covenant
with the house of Israel.
This new covenant – is - the New Testament as we know it.
Through the prophet Ezekiel God said,
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (KJV)
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Ezekiel was prophesying ---- concerning the new birth.
When a man is born again,
the spirit (which is the real man)
is born again and the old man is gone.
The old hard, stony heart is gone.
He is a new creature,
Paul said in II Corinthians 5
T.T.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
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T.T. 1 Peter 3 and 2 Cor. 4
Referring to man’s spirit, Peter talked about the "hidden man of the heart."
The words "heart" and "spirit" are used interchangeably in the scriptures.
Your heart is your spirit.
1 Peter 3:4 (KJV)
4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
He was telling us not merely to be concerned with outward adorning,
1. But let it be the hidden man of the heart,
2. be ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
3. which is in the sight of God of great price.
This is the real man.
(1) It is not the outward man;
(2) it is not the body.
i. -------- It is the inward man.
Paul – referred -- to this "hidden man of the heart"
- man’s spirit - as the inward man. ". . .
Paul said in II Cor. 4: 16
2 Corinthians 4:16 (KJV)
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish (another version says ’is decaying’), yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
The outward man, is decaying
But (the real me)... the inward man is renewed day by day."
(the real me…) “I” will never be any older than I am right now.
Then Paul went on to say,
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NIV)
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
You may be going through some kind of trial
which is making your life miserable
from the natural standpoint.
But remember, it is just for a moment.
v:18 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen
Too many people are defeated in life
because they are looking at the wrong things.
All they ever see is the physical.
Smith Wigglesworth once said
I’m not moved by what I see.
I’m not moved by what I feel.
I’m moved only by what I believe.
The only way we can look at the unseen is by faith.
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The first verse of the next chapter what Paul was saying here.
Talking about things that are not seen – and - about the inward man,
Paul said,
2 Corinthians 5:1 (NIV)
1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
The "earthly house" that Paul talks about here is, of course our physical body.
He says that if our body is "destroyed...
if it dies and in the grave,
it goes back to dust, that is not the end.
... We have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens ...
Paul continues in v:6
2 Corinthians 5:6-7 (NIV)
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
7 We live by faith, not by sight.
In Verse 6 Paul said, "we are always confident;"
then again in Verse 8 he said,
"we are confident ... " Paul knew what he was talking about.
2 Corinthians 5:8 (NIV)
8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
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Living in the natural, physical world as we do,
it is difficult to realize that the spirit world is far more real than this natural world.
We think of people as existing only in their physical bodies,
and when they are dead as no longer existing.
However, the scriptures tell us
that the real man is the inward man, the hidden man of the heart,
and he is an eternal being.
He will live on long after his "earthly house" has returned to the dust.
