THE THREE PART NATURE OF MAN PT2
If you would please turn to - 1 Thess. 5:23
Today I would like to talk about again
The makeup of a man – the three part nature of a man
–the spirit, soul and the body
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As I had discussed at one point in my Christian walk –
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
Then I came across this scripture in 1st Thessalonians that says… …
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.
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.
So as I did last week –
(1) I want you to begin thinking of yourself in a new light.
(2) Don’t think of yourself as just a physical being.
(3) 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) – IS 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.
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".
It is through our spirit that we come to know God.
So we know that God is a Spirit.
Last week we looked at a scripture in Ezekiel chapter 36
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)
He is born again and the old man is gone.
T.T. 2 Corinthians 5:17
The old hard, stony heart is gone.
He is a new creature ---- You are borne again!!
Paul said in II Corinthians 5
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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If you would please turn to Romans 12:1
Next I would like to look at..
MAN’S SECOND DIMENSION - THE SOUL
We will now look more closely
into the second part of --- man’s three-fold nature -- - the soul.
As I stated earlier, the soul is the intellect. ----
(1) It is man’s sensibilities and will.
(2) It is the part of man that reasons and thinks.
(3) It deals with the mental realm.
In Romans 12:1
we see in Paul’s teachings that we are to do something with our bodies.
Romans 12
1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
In the very next verse
Paul goes on to say something about the mind, which is man’s intellect, or his soul.
He said that we are to do something with our mind also.
2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Paul was writing here to believers.
He was not writing to people of the world.
He was writing to born-again, Spirit-filled Christians.
Yet their Chris¬tian experience had not affected their bodies or their minds.
• He told them that they were going to have to do something with their bodies and thier minds.
Here is a interesting matter…..
God isn’t going to do anything with our body or our mind.
God contacts our spirit.
> We contact God with our spirit,
and our spirit (the inward man, the hidden man of the heart)
became a new man in Christ.
Now it is up to us to do something.
Paul said that we need to
(1) do something with our bodies - "pre¬sent your bodies a living sacrifice;"
(2) do something with our minds - "be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."
One of the greatest needs of the church today
is that God’s people renew their minds with the Word of God.
Just because a person is a Christian, doesn’t mean that he has a renewed mind.
• The mind becomes re¬newed with the Word of God.
This is one reason God put teachers (those who are really called to teach)
in the church - to renew our minds.
> Many times ministers teach only a natural knowledge that they have gained from the Bible and from other sources.
But I am referring here to one of the ministry gifts
- those who are called and anointed by the spirit to teach.
(1) God has given us His word, and we can feed upon that Word.
This will renew our minds.
(2) But He also put teachers in the church
to renew our minds and to bring us the revelation of the knowledge of God’s Word.
So our minds are renewed by two methods:
(1) feeding upon God’s Word in our own private study and meditation,
(2) being taught by Spirit-anointed teachers.
In this way we can grow in the strength and knowledge of the Word,
- and can walk in its light
- as our minds are renewed daily with the Word of God.
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I was once asked, ---
“how can I make my belief in God’s Word more than just mental as¬sent?"
First of all,
we must understand the difference between real faith and mental assent.
(1) Mental assent agrees that the Bible is true but doesn’t act on it.
(2) Real faith is acting on God’s Word.
Mental assent says, "I know God’s Word is true all right.
I know God promised me certain things and that I ought to have them.
Faith sees the object of prayer as already having been attained.
Faith says,
"God Word says it, -- I believe it, and --- I have it now,"
even though it may not be seen in the natural.
Faith says,
"I have it now –
not because I can see it,
not be¬cause I actually possess it,
but because God promised it."
Heb. 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen
Another translation of this verse reads,
"Faith is giving substance to things hoped for."
Our faith gives substance to it and so we can say, ----- "It is mine."
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MANS THIRD DIMENSION – THE BODY
Let’s look now at what the scriptures have to say about the body.
As we have said,
man’s spirit is the inward man, that part of him that knows God.
The body is the outward man, the phys¬ical, the house in which we live.
Rom. 12: 1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Paul was not writing to sinners here.
He was writing to the saints at Rome, for he said,
I beseech you therefore, brethren ...
He said for us to do something with our bodies –
to "present your bodies a living sacrifice ... "
PONT!! It is up to us.
If we don’t do anything with our bodies, nothing will be done with them.
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Notice: Paul didn’t say to present “yourselves” to God.
If you are a child of God, you already belong to Him.
You can’t present to someone a thing that already belongs to him.
(1) You wouldn’t have any right to take a handkerchief out of a man’s pocket and give it to him.
It already belongs to him.
(2) You cannot take a man’s car out of his garage and present it to him.
It already belongs to him.
(3) Neither can you take something that already belongs to God and present it to Him.
It is already His.
Paul said "
. . . ye (the inward man) present your bodies (the earthly house you live in) ... "
We must understand!!
We (the inward man), not God, --- is the care¬taker of that house.
> We (ourselves) must present our bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."
I like another translation which says, "which is your spiritual service."
God wants us to do something with our bodies.
He wants us to present our bodies
"a living sacrifice . . . which is your reasonable service."
Paul said,
II Cor. 5:17
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new".
(1) Many people are trying to get folks to join the church.
(2) They want them to do better.
(3) They want them to try to live right.
(4) But, you know, I never have tried to live right.
(5) I was just born again and I’ve been right ever since.
(6) Living right is good, but it won’t make you a Christian.
- Sitting in church on Sunday morning won’t make you a Christian any more than sitting in your garage will make you an automobile.
This won’t take you to heaven.
Being born again will.
Striving to be good on your own is not Christianity, it is mere religion.
Christianity is being born again.
Christianity is re¬ceiving the gift of eternal life.
When eternal life (or the nature of God), is imparted to your spirit,
it changes you.
The life of God coming into man’s heart
makes this in¬ward man (the real man) a new man.
We don’t have to make ourselves new.
We couldn’t anyhow.
When we are born again, however,
(1) we are a new man
(2) with a new nature,
The bible says
"old things are passed away (our old, sinful nature) ; behold, all things are become new."
After we are born again we will still have trouble with the flesh,
but we won’t have trouble with the real man.
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Some folks have said,
"You have to die out to the old self."
However, when we are born again
the old self is already dead
and we have a new self in its place.
What we need to do is die out to the flesh.
you may say,
isn’t the flesh the old self?
No, it isn’t.
Your flesh is the same body,
the same flesh it was before you were saved,
but that man on the inside
(which was the old self, the old you)
has become a new self, a new man in Christ.
The body is not new; however, at the coming of Christ we will have a new body.
Right now God expects us to do something with our bodies,
to present them "a living sacrifice ... "
T.T. I Corinthians 9:27
He expects us to have control over our bodies and not let them dominate us.
He does not want us to be carnal Christians, or "body-ruled" Christians.
He expects us to do as Paul said in I Corinthians 9:27,
I Corinthians 9:27
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Here again Paul is saying that we should do something with our bodies.
He said, "I keep under my body ... " I "bring it into subjection ... "
Who is "I"?
"I" is the man on the inside.
There¬fore, the "I"
Paul is referring to here is the real man,
(1) the man on the inside,
(2) the hidden man of the heart,
(3) the eternal man.
Then we might ask, "Bring the body into subjection to what?"
To the inward man.
We don’t let our body dominate us.
We don’t let our body rule us.
We rule our body.
The inward man is to rule the body.
With most folks, however, their bodies rule them.
And this is what keeps them baby Christians.
This is what makes carnal Christians.
Earlier in this letter to the Corinthians,
Paul re¬proved them for the fact that they were still baby Christians.
he says,
"Ye are yet carnal."
In one version the word which is translated here
"carnal" is translated "body-ruled."
Carnal Christians are body-ruled Christians.
They are letting their bodies rule them.
Paul said to them,
"Ye walk as mere men."
In other words,
they were doing things – and - living like people who had never been born again.
They were "mere men"
instead of supernaturally transformed men living victoriously in Christ Jesus.
The choice is ours.
We can let our body continue to dominate us if we want.
Or we can choose to keep our body under control.
Our inward man can dominate it and pre¬sent it to God, a living sacrifice.
