Will you please turn to 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24?
Now the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly;
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is He that calleth you, Who will also do it.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we gather together in Thy name, we know that we are in Thy presence. In Thy presence is fullness of joy, and life forevermore. So, Lord, we just turn to Thee and ask Thee that, even in this afternoon, Thou wilt dispense life to us through Thy Word.
We thank Thee for Thy amazing love towards us. Thou hast done everything for us that we may be fully restored to God the Father through the work of Thy redemption. For this, we are thankful.
We commit this time into Thy hands. We pray that Thou wilt quicken our mortal bodies, enable us to really see and hear, understand and receive, what Thou hast for us this afternoon. To Thee be glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us together this afternoon. This will be the last session that I will be responsible for, and our theme is wholly sanctified.
That is to say, completely separated from everything that is not of God, and wholly, totally devoted to God. That is the meaning of sanctification. God Himself will do this work.
He is the God of peace. He is not only at peace within Himself; there is no conflict. There is perfect union, unity, oneness, and harmony. And He wants to bring us into His peace, that we may be at peace with Him—no conflict with Him, one with His purpose—and that we may be at peace with one another.
Even this whole universe will be brought back into peace with God.
God has called us to this whole sanctification. And because He has called us, He is faithful. He will be responsible to see to it that it is done, that it is being accomplished in each one of us. Thank God for that.
Now, in sanctifying us wholly, that means that He will sanctify our whole being: not only our spirit, not only our soul, but also our body.
As we have mentioned before, God has created us as a tripartite being. He gave us a body that we may be in touch with our surroundings, giving us world-consciousness. He gave us a living soul, that we may be conscious of ourselves. And thank God, He also gave us a spirit.
By that spirit, we can communicate with God. By the spirit, we are conscious of God, and not only conscious of Him, but in communion with Him.
According to God’s creation, the divine order is that our spirit should be in the highest place of authority, because it is in touch with God. It is to receive God’s thoughts and God’s commands, and relay them to our soul.
So our spirit should be the master of our being. Now, by saying that, it does not mean the spirit itself, but the spirit receiving the word from God.
Our soul is our self. Our soul is a steward. We receive from our spirit, from God; then we embrace it, ponder over it, decide to accept it, and love to do it. As a steward, the soul gives command to the body, the servant, to carry out what God has commanded.
Now, this is the divine order of man. But, as we mentioned before, unfortunately man sinned. Because man sinned, his spirit died. On the day that he ate thereof, he died. He lost his proper communication with God.
But thank God, He began to do the work of restoration. You know, in God’s working, He always begins with the center, and then reaches the circumference. It is just the opposite of what the devil does. He is always working from the circumference into the center.
So, in God’s work, you find the first thing that He restores in man is the spirit, quickening it into life.
You know, our spirit, as we find in Proverbs 20:27:
The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord,
Searching all his innermost parts.
Now, in the Old Testament, the word translated “innermost parts” points to the soul. Man’s spirit is the lamp of God. There in our spirit God enlightens us, and with that light He searches all the inner parts of our soul. He searches our mind, our will, and our emotion.
So that is how important our spirit is. When the human spirit is dead, then the lamp, the life of God, is gone. No wonder all the parts of our soul enter into darkness. The Bible tells us that our mind is darkened, our understanding is darkened, our will is perverted, and our emotion is out of control. Why? Because there is no light.
But thank God, when the Holy Spirit begets us, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The Holy Spirit comes into our lives. He brings our dead spirit into life: cleansed, purified, renewed—a new spirit.
As we find in Ezekiel 36, He will give us a new spirit. Furthermore, His own Spirit will come and dwell in our spirit. Through the human spirit and the Spirit of God, we cry out to God, “Abba, Father.”
After we have that new spirit, then we need to exercise all the functions of that new spirit. The more you exercise, the stronger your spirit will be.
How necessary it is for us believers to have daily, continuous communion with God. How important it is. In our daily life, we need to listen to the anointing that dwells within us. The Holy Spirit dwells in us as our Teacher. He will teach us in all things—small things, big things.
If we listen to His teaching, we will abide in Christ. And it is so important that we exercise our conscience, that we always maintain before God a conscience without offence: a clear conscience, a clean conscience, a conscience that enables us to stand before God and dare to approach the throne of grace.
Not everything that comes out of the spirit is spiritual. Why? Because we find that it can be polluted. The world can pollute it. Sin can harden it. Because of this, we need to purify our spirit from all pollutions that come from outside.
Then we also mentioned that in our daily life, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be ruled by the Holy Spirit. That will enable us to live a spiritual life, to walk according to the Spirit, and to live in the Spirit.
So thank God, He begins to work in our spirit, to sanctify it, to set it apart from everything that is not of God, and to bring our spirit into union with Him.
But this is just the beginning. We find that after we are born again, then in our lifetime He will do the work of saving our soul also.
Thank God, so far as His salvation is concerned, it is finished. This sanctification of spirit, soul, and body has already been done. The work of our Lord on the cross is so complete.
It is able to save our spirit. It is able to save our soul. It is able to save our body. It is able to wholly sanctify our spirit, wholly sanctify our soul, and wholly sanctify our body. Everything that is needed has already been done by our Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross.
So far as God is concerned, it is finished. But so far as our entering into His salvation is concerned, we find that it is a progressive, gradual, increasing experience.
Even before we were born again, there was a time when we were under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit touched our almost-dead conscience.
Thank God that, when the spirit was dead, there were still some traces remaining from the past—especially the conscience. God kept that conscience there. Even though it was out of order and had lost its standard, there was still conscience there. So the Holy Spirit touched our conscience, brought us to conviction, and enabled us to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.
So we find that even at the time when we are born again, there is some touch, some change in our soul, but it is not a full renewal.
That is the reason why you find in the Bible the term salvation of the soul, or saving the soul. We find that especially in Hebrews and 1 Peter, because these two books deal with this matter of the salvation of the soul. That was what we shared together yesterday.
You remember Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus. When she sang praises to God, she said:
My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
In other words, you find her spirit rejoicing in God her Saviour, and her soul magnifying the Lord. Sanctification is the work that God is going to do in our lives.
But the work of God continues on, and it reaches to our body. So this afternoon, we will focus our attention on our body being wholly sanctified.
Now, brothers and sisters, among the heathen, according to heathen philosophy, they consider the body as evil. Why? Because the body is made of matter. So they say that whatever is matter is evil. The reason why men are evil, they say, is because they have a body.
And you know, to fallen man, it seems to be right, because out of his body come all these lusts, all these passions, and all these evils. We sin with our bodies.
So according to the heathen concept, they look at the body as evil, and they try to put that body to death, to be delivered from the body. They ill-treat their body, believing that if they can put that body out, then they will be free.
Now, that is the heathen concept. But, brothers and sisters, this is not the concept of God. If you turn to 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:
Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?
And ye are not your own;
for ye were bought with a price:
glorify God therefore in your body.
Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in us, Whom we have from God. We need to know that our bodies do not belong to us, because our body has been bought with a price. So now, while we are living in this body, we need to glorify God in this body.
What a glorious thought that is. You know, in Psalm 139, the psalm of David, when he considered the body that God has created, listen to what he said, beginning with Psalm 139:14:
I will give thanks unto Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
Wonderful are Thy works;
And that my soul knoweth right well.
My frame was not hidden from Thee,
When I was made in secret,
And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance;
And in Thy book they were all written,
Even the days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was none of them.
How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand:
When I awake, I am still with Thee.
That is the Christian concept of our body. If we really understand the body, even though it is made of red earth, made with very cheap, common, almost worthless materials, yet how clever, how wonderful, how marvellous is our Maker. He can take the poorest materials and make them into something so beautiful, so glorious, and so wonderful.
When David thought of what God had done, even with his physical body, he said, “I will praise Thee, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” The more knowledge you have of your body, the more you find that it was not only wonderfully built, but fearfully built.
Brothers and sisters, this is our body. So do not despise your body, because it is made of God. God made this body with a very useful, definite purpose.
In the beginning, when God created man, He put man in the Garden of Eden. God planted all these beautiful, edible trees in the garden. God put man in a garden of pleasure.
God said, in effect, “Now you can enjoy everything that I have made for you.” Your body needs food; God already made provision—the trees with fruit. I do thank God that, in the beginning, men only ate fruits.
But it does not mean that man was going to live a life of leisure, a life of laziness—just enjoy and do nothing. No. God gave us a body, and the body is meant to labour.
So God told man, “Till the garden.” You may say, “At that time there was no curse upon the earth, so why do you need to till it?” Well, God commanded man to till, to work in that garden, not because there was a curse there, not because there were thistles and thorns, not because there were germs and all these things, but God wanted man to improve upon it, to make it more fruitful, to labour for the glory of God.
Not only that, God said, “Keep it. Watch the garden.” It was a garden with a wall, and God said, “You watch it. You are the wall. Be watchful, lest evil should come in.”
Not only that: “Have dominion over the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fishes of the sea. Bring everything; subdue everything back to the feet of God.” Brothers and sisters, all these works have to be done by the body.
This is the will of God. Our body is supposed to labour. Yes, it will enjoy; it will rest. But rest in labour, labour to rest, to fulfil the word of God, to keep the word of God. That is what our body is for.
But unfortunately, something happened in the garden. They did not watch. They did not keep it vigilantly. They allowed the enemy to slip in—the tempter.
The tempter began with Eve. Most likely, even before the tempter tempted Eve, she was already near the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, without her husband. Probably she had already looked at the tree. It was such a beautiful tree. The fruit looked so juicy. “Why is it that God will not allow us to eat it?”
The tempter came: “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?” What an absurd question. It implied that God would not give them anything to eat to support their life. That was cruel.
Eve said, “No, no. God said we can eat of all the other trees, except this one, and we are not even to touch it.” God did not say, “You cannot touch it.”
Then the tempter said, “You know why God did not allow you to eat it? Because He is jealous. If you eat this tree, you will know good and evil; you will be as God. You do not need God anymore. You become God. You will not die; you will live.”
Eve looked at the tree and saw that it was good to eat. Her soul began functioning improperly. Instead of being under the spirit and under God, she began to desire something for herself.
She looked: the lust of the eyes. She desired: the lust of the flesh. She took it and ate. Why? That she might be as God: the pride of life. In other words, she was fully tempted and yielded to temptation.
She gave it also to her husband. As we have already said, Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned deliberately. Therefore, the Bible says sin entered into the world through one man, Adam.
Brothers and sisters, this body is supposed to do the will of God, and yet you find this body began to work otherwise.
On that day, the human spirit entered into death. It lost its proper communication with God. On that day, sin entered into the life of the soul. And on that day, man fell into soul and body—a fallen soul, a corrupted body.
Because man’s spirit was dead, he became dominated by the sin that was in his soul. No longer did he receive command from God through his spirit. Sin became the lord, the master, of man.
The sin that is in the soul gives orders directly to the body. So the body has fallen into a body of sin and of death. Our body came under bondage—under the bondage of sin, under the law of sin and of death.
What is a law? A law is something that happens all the time. If I drop this Bible, it will fall. Why? Because there is a law of gravitation. Whether I do it now, yesterday, or tomorrow, it is the same. Whether I do it in Richmond or in Richmond, England, it is the same everywhere.
Brothers and sisters, our body is under bondage. It is under the law of sin. It means that what you do not want to do, you do. You know something is wrong, but you cannot help it.
I remember many years ago, I was in my brother’s home. We were talking in the sitting room, and on the table there was a plate of sweets. A little boy, Kenny, saw the sweets.
What did he do? He began to circle the room, and the circle got tighter and tighter. Everybody began to look at him. He was conscious that everybody was looking at him. When he came to the table, he said, “I should not take it, but I just love it.”
The little fellow could not help it. Now, you laugh at the boy, but probably it is better that you laugh at yourself.
We are all under the law of sin and death. The law of sin is that what we do not want to do, we do. The law of death is that what we want to do, we cannot do, because we have no strength. That is it.
So, brothers and sisters, now our body is completely fallen. No wonder the heathen concept is that the body is evil. It can do nothing but sin. It cannot obey God. This body has lost its proper use. It is under bondage.
That was our past history. Thank God, God loves us so much. He not only saves our spirit and sanctifies it; He also saves our soul and sanctifies it. But He also saves our body and sanctifies it.
How does He do this work of saving our body, of sanctifying our body? Thank God, the first thing He did was send His only begotten Son into this world to take the form of a man, the likeness of sinful flesh.
If you look into Hebrews 2, beginning with verse 11:
For both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one:
for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
And in Hebrews 2:14-15:
Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood,
He also Himself in like manner partook of the same;
that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Brothers and sisters, because we partake of blood and flesh—that is what we naturally are born with—we have this body of blood and flesh. Because God wanted to rescue us, He sent His Son to take part in the same.
In the original Greek, there is a difference. To partake means something that you naturally have. To take part means something that is not natural, but which you take upon yourself. So God the Son took upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh.
Our Lord, when you look at Him while He was on earth, was a normal person. He had a physical body just as we do. But, of course, this physical body was different in one sense, because it was sinless. He never sinned; He never knew what sin was. Yet He came in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Why should our Lord take upon Himself a body like you and me? Because if He did not take upon Himself a human body, He could not die. God cannot die; God is eternal. But this body is a body of death. This body is under death.
In order to save this body, He had to take part in this flesh and blood. With this sinless body, He was able to take upon Himself all the sins that we have committed in our bodies and pay the price for them.
The wages of sin is death—not only physical death, but eternal death. Our Lord Jesus, when He was on the cross, not only died a physical death; during the last three hours, He actually tasted eternal death. He tasted hell for us:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Thank God, through His death, He annulled the one who had the power of death, who is the devil.
The devil has the power of death because we have sinned. The power of death is sin. Because we have sinned, the devil has the power to threaten us with death. When he threatens us, we are so fearful.
Through our life, we are afraid to die. That is the reason why we try to satisfy our lusts and gratify our passions. We are afraid to die, and he threatens us because he holds the power of death.
But thank God, through the death of our Lord Jesus, He annulled that power. Now, in our Lord’s hand, He holds the keys of death and of Hades. So He delivers us out of the bondage of death.
Brothers and sisters, we who believe in the Lord Jesus have been brought out of death into life. We are no longer afraid to die. To Christians, death is sleep.
Who is afraid to sleep? You long for it. You look forward to it. After a day of labour, you long to have a time when you can sleep and rest, to be restored. When you wake up, you are fresh.
Brothers and sisters, we who believe in the Lord Jesus, the fear of death is gone. Satan is defeated. We have victory over death.
Because of this, you are able to live according to the will of God. In the death of our Lord Jesus, He has not only borne our sins and paid the penalty for them; He has also annulled the power of death—that is, the devil. He has delivered us. He has set us free.
This body of ours is bought with a price. We are not our own. Formerly, we thought that we were our own and could use our body however we wanted. But even then, we were under Satan, the devil who has the power of death. We were not free.
Our body was free to sin, but not free to do the work of God. But thank God, through the death of our Lord Jesus, He has set us free. He bought us with a price.
We need to understand that today this body of yours does not belong to you. It belongs to the One Who paid such a price for you. You have no right to use your body as you wish. You need to glorify God in your body.
If you read Romans 6:6:
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be done away,
that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin.
Sin, in the singular number, is a law; it is a principle. Sin dwells in our soul. Instead of our spirit, with God’s Spirit in our spirit, being the master, our soul was under the domination of sin as a principle and as a power.
This sin that dwells in our soul commands our bodies to commit sin. The members of our bodies were members of uncleanness and lawlessness unto lawlessness. That was what it was before.
Maybe I have to say a little more for those who may not understand. In the Bible, you have the word sins in the plural number and the word sin in the singular number.
When you find sins in the plural number, it means the individual acts that you commit. When Christ died on the cross, He took all the sins that we have committed and bore them in His own body, and He died in our stead.
But sin, as a principle in the singular number, is a law that dwells in our soul. Because sin as a power is still there in our soul, even after we are saved, we find that we continue to sin. We should not, but we continue to sin.
How can we be delivered from this power of sin? Some people say that the way to be delivered from this power is that you need a second blessing. The second blessing, they say, is the eradication of sin. One day you go through an extra Christian experience, sin is rooted out, and from then on you will not sin anymore.
It sounds good, but it does not work. When I was saved, I was saved among the holiness people, and the holiness people believed in eradication of sin. You needed to seek a second blessing, so sin would be rooted out and you would sin no more.
But when I was there, the founder of that mission lost her temper in public. The explanation was, “It is not sin; it is just a weakness.” Now, is there any difference?
The Bible does not teach eradication of sin. The Bible teaches isolation of sin. As long as we live in this body, sin as a principle is always there. But God has a marvellous way to deliver us from the power of sin.
How? By isolating it. Sin dwells in our soul. It can only command the body to act through our soul. In other words, sin talks in our mind, twists our will, and stirs up passions and lusts in us. By that, the soul passes on the order to the body to act and not obey God.
Sin itself cannot directly give command to the body to work. So what God does is wonderful—wonderful. Instead of letting sin be rooted out, God lets that old man, that soul-life, die.
When Christ died on the cross, He took our old man with Him. Remember this: our old man, our soul-life, died with our Lord on the cross. That does not mean the annihilation of our soul.
Some people teach the annihilation of the soul. No, the Bible never teaches it. Our soul is given by God. It is beautiful; it is wonderful. God means that we will be a soul, not a soulless person—a soul with emotion, with thoughts, with ideas. God loves to see us that way because He created us that way.
It is not eradication. It is not annihilation of our soul. But it is the soul-life, the fallen life in that soul, that was crucified with Christ on Calvary’s cross.
He took that soul-life away. Because the soul-life is taken out, the sin that dwells in the soul has no one to command. It is isolated. Even though it is there, it is almost like it is not there. It cannot function anymore.
That is the reason why the Bible says that the body of sin might be annulled. Now, the word annulled does not mean annihilated. Our body is not annihilated. It means unemployed.
This body of sin, this body of death, was employed by sin. Now sin is isolated. Nobody is passing on the order. So this body is unemployed. Thank God for that.
This body, which used to be employed by sin, with its members yielded to lawlessness and uncleanness, is now out of employment. I think this is the only unemployment that is wonderful. The body has lost its job—no sin to commit, no death to do. Out of employment.
But thank God, it does not mean that from then on the body does not work anymore. The body is re-employed under new management.
In Romans 12:1, it says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.
This body that has been redeemed, this body that has been bought with a price—who owns this body now? Who has a right to use this body?
The former employer is isolated. We are out of that job. But now we belong to God. He has bought us with a price. We are not our own. Your body belongs to Him, and He wants to use it.
But God is such that He will not force anyone. Even though He has every right to demand that from now on our body should do His work because He has bought us, He will not do that.
He lets us go until we are constrained by His love. Then we come back to Him and say, “Lord, I love You. I will not go out free. I want to be under Your employment forever.”
I remember a story. In the old days in this country, there were slave markets. One day there was an auction of slaves. A little girl was standing on the block, waiting to be purchased.
People surrounded her and began to bid for her. She was crying, but secretly she raised her eyes, trying to see who was bidding. As she looked around, she saw men who appeared cruel and hard.
Suddenly, a man came and bid the highest. The girl did not dare to look up again. This man asked for an ironsmith to come and break the chains.
He said to the girl, “I bought you to set you free. Now you can go.” Then the man began to walk away.
The girl looked up. She saw that he was so gentle, so lovely, so kind. She ran after him and said, “I want to be yours.”
Brothers and sisters, this is what God does for you and me. We have no right to live for ourselves. He has every right to demand us to work for Him, but He will not force us. He sets us free until we are touched and constrained by His love.
Willingly, we present our bodies a living sacrifice. We want to be a sacrifice offered to Him. From now on, we live not for ourselves, but for Him and for Him alone. We are His willing love-slaves.
How sad that many who have received such mercies and grace from Him, yet live for themselves and not for Him. We hold on to our rights and will not let go to Him.
This is the first Christian experience after we are saved. If you have never presented your body a living sacrifice—holy, separated, devoted to God, acceptable to God—then you have not entered into your reasonable service.
You cannot serve Him if you hold back yourselves. It is your spiritual worship. You cannot worship unless you present your body a living sacrifice. Brothers and sisters, have you done that?
Why the body? Because it is through the body that we do the will of God. Yield the members of your body to righteousness unto holiness. This is what we should do.
Then we will be re-employed under a new Master. Thank God, this body of ours can be useful and profitable to the Master, and bring glory to God in our body.
What should we do with this body?
During the First World War, there was a story of soldiers on a train going to the front. They had nothing to do, so they began to play cards. They needed one more to join them.
They turned to a young soldier sitting nearby and said, “Will you come and join us playing cards?” The young soldier looked up and said, “Sorry, I have no hands.”
They looked at him. He had two hands. They said, “What? You have no hands?” He said, “I have no hands, because these two hands do not belong to me.”
Is that your case?
What should we do with this body? This body is the temple of the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse our body.
Just as our Lord Jesus cleansed the temple twice in His life—at the beginning of His ministry and at the end of His ministry—how we need the Holy Spirit to cleanse this body of all commerce, all merchandise, all human profit, and so on.
Cleanse us, that we may be a holy temple, set apart for God’s use.
What should we do with this body? This body is the Lord’s. The Lord is for the body, and the body is for the Lord. Because this body belongs to the Lord, we should take good care of it.
Do not abuse your body. Take good care of your body for God’s sake.
Paul’s exhortation to Timothy is that bodily exercise profiteth a little. This body needs to be exercised. It does give us a little profit. It makes our body healthy and strong.
Even though it is only for this age, bodily exercise is profitable. So I would advise young people especially: you need to exercise your body. Do not sit before the computer day and night. Do some physical exercise. Keep your body well for the Lord.
I regret that, when I was young, I did not observe God’s word. But we need to take good care of our body for the Lord’s sake. Eat properly, rest properly, work properly. Keep a healthy body for the Lord’s use.
But on the other hand, do not indulge. Do not give in to your body. Do not let your body rule over you.
The apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9, says, “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage.” I will not allow my body to be my master. It is to be my servant. The body is to be used fully for the Lord. I am not to be controlled by the lusts and passions of the body.
In the original, it means, “I beat my body black and blue.” Brothers and sisters, we need to exercise discipline over our body.
Especially young people, I advise you: do not abuse your body for the Lord’s sake. Do not ill-treat your body, but put your body under subjection.
You go to bed at twelve o’clock or one o’clock. Then you cannot get up early enough to have a quiet time with the Lord. You have to rush to your work or to your study, and you neglect your daily communion with God.
Young people, early rising is profitable. It is exercising unto godliness. It is profitable not only in this age, but even in the age to come. We need to buffet our body, rise early enough to have a time with the Lord before we go out into the world.
You need to put your body under, and not be controlled by your body.
Thank God, this body belongs to Him. You do not need to worry or be anxious about what to eat, what to drink, and what to be clothed with. Do not worry about this natural life. You need these things, but you do not need to worry about them.
Look at the birds. They do not sow, they do not reap, and they do not gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. How much more precious are you in your Father’s sight than the birds?
Look at the lilies. Consider carefully the lilies of the field, how they are clothed with such beauty that even the glory of Solomon cannot be compared with them. Yet they are here today, and tomorrow they will be cast into the oven.
Why do you worry about what to eat, what to drink, and what to be clothed with? Your heavenly Father knows your need.
But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Brothers and sisters, do we live in this way? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
Your heart is no longer on what to eat, what to drink, or how to be clothed. Your heart is on Him. Because your heart is seeking His kingdom and His righteousness, God will take care of you. He is faithful. He is your heavenly Father.
Brothers and sisters, we can live a carefree life because we have Someone Who cares for us. But remember: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Then, brothers and sisters, remember: this body is still a mortal body. Even though this body has been redeemed, the full redemption of the body is yet to come.
We who believe in the Lord Jesus still have this old body with us. It has changed a little bit, of course. Because our heart is joyful and peaceful, our face gets rounder. There is some change there. But it is still this mortal body.
Being in this mortal body, we are exposed to sickness and weakness. Sometimes we will be sick; sometimes we are feeble.
This mortal body is just a tabernacle. That is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 and 5. This is just a tabernacle, a house we live in temporarily. One day we will be clothed with a permanent house not made with hands.
One day this mortal body will be changed into an immortal body. This corruptible body will be changed into incorruption. This body of humiliation will be changed into a body of glory.
Remember, as long as we are still living in this world, this is a mortal body. Take good care of this body. Do not abuse it. Take care of it for God’s sake. Keep healthy.
But unfortunately, we are still exposed to bacteria, viruses, and all kinds of things. Do not think that whenever you are sick, you must have sinned. Not necessarily. Sometimes it does happen, but not always.
Do you remember the man born blind? The disciples were natural theologians, so they asked the Lord Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The Lord said, “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”
Thank God, I cannot go into this whole matter of sickness because it would take too long. But anyway, thank God, even in this mortal body we can experience a quickening of our mortal body by the power of the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us.
Romans 8:11 tells us that this mortal body is mortal, and yet when God wants to use it, the Spirit—the power of God that raised our Lord Jesus from the dead—the same Spirit will quicken our mortal body and enable us to fulfil His will.
We can experience resurrection even now. Hallelujah!
Brothers and sisters, what are we waiting for? We groan in this body. We are waiting for that day: the day of sonship, the redemption of our body.
Romans 8 tells us that the whole universe is waiting for that day. The whole universe is groaning to be delivered from corruption and emptiness, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.
We who have the Spirit of God are also groaning. Brothers and sisters, we groan in this mortal body, waiting anxiously for the time when this mortal body will be changed into an immortal body.
Philippians 3 tells us that this body of humiliation will be changed into a body of glory by the power of God, Who is able to subdue all things unto Himself.
One day we will be changed. One day the dead in Christ will be raised, and those who are living will be changed. We will put on a body of glory.
That is full redemption. That is wholly sanctified. Our body will then be so changed that sin as a principle no longer exists.
With this glorified body, as our brothers already mentioned, we can serve Him eternally. Glory!
Brothers and sisters, how wonderful, how beautiful, how glorious is this body that God has given to us.
Dear Lord, Thou hast redeemed not only our spirit and our soul, but also our body. Oh, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast bought us with a price. We are not our own.
Joyfully, we give our bodies to Thee. We pray that, Lord, our Master, our Love, Thou wilt use this body for Thy glory.
Keep us and preserve us—whole spirit, soul, and body—blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Thy precious name. Amen.