Will you please turn again to Psalm 8? We will read verse 4.
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that thou visitest him?
First Corinthians 2:15:
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man.
Let us turn to Romans 8. We would like to read from verse 1 to verse 17.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
That the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace:
Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be:
And they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:
For if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the doings of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we are full of gratitude that Thou dost love us so much as to give Thy only begotten Son to us.
Lord, we thank Thee for Thy blood that is shed for the remission of our sins. We thank Thee for Thy body broken, that we may be reunited to Thee. We thank Thee for the privilege of being gathered together in Thy own precious name.
We thank Thee for access to the Heavenly Father. We thank Thee for Thy Holy Spirit, who is not only in us, but also among us.
We ask that Thy Spirit will quicken Thy word to our hearts, that we may be rooted and grounded in Christ Jesus. We want to glorify Thy name. We give this time into Thy hands. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We have been considering together this matter of what is man. In other words, we are to consider ourselves.
But we mentioned again and again that it is impossible for us to know ourselves well, because our hearts are deceitful above all things. The only way that we can know ourselves is by the light of God, and that is by the light of the Word of God. This is what we have been doing these days.
First of all, we see man according to God’s creative purpose. If we want to know who we are and what we are, we need to go back to God’s creation of man.
God created man in His own image. He gave man a spirit, that we may communicate with God, who is Spirit. He also gave dominion to man.
We mentioned before that dominion in Scripture is very different from dominion as we conceive it. When we think of dominion, of power, of rule, we think that we will sit on a high chair and give commands to everybody—that we are going to be served. That is the human concept of dominion.
But God’s concept of dominion is very different. God gave rule to man to rule over all created things, and by ruling over all things simply means to serve all things.
We find that God created man in His own image, and then God wanted man to rule over the earth for Him. Man is not only a special vessel of God; among all the things that God has created, there is not one that can really receive God into itself. Even the angels cannot receive God into themselves.
God created man in such a way, in His own image, that there is the possibility of man receiving God into his very being and becoming a special vessel of God. At the same time, God raised man to be a very special instrument in His hand. He wants to use man to defeat His arch-enemy, Satan.
It is very easy for God to destroy Satan. By the breath of His mouth, the enemy would be destroyed. But He would not get any glory in doing such a thing. So He created man a little lower than the angels, and then He uses those who are a little lower than the angels to defeat the higher order of angels. You see, that is the glory of God.
So, brothers and sisters, if we see the purpose of God in creating man, we can see that man is truly the masterpiece of God. It is noble. It is glorious.
But unfortunately, we find that man disobeyed God. Instead of taking the tree of life, letting God be his life, living by the life of God, and fulfilling God’s purpose, man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Man wanted to be independent of God, to develop his soul life. In doing so, he fell into sin. The destiny of human beings is death—not only physical death, but after that there will be judgment; and after judgment, there will be the second death, which is eternal death.
Man, having fallen into sin, was not what God originally designed him to be. Man has fallen. He became natural. The Bible calls those who have fallen into sin natural men. All who are born of Adam are natural men.
In other words, our spirit is dead towards God, and we live by our soul and our body. Man has become flesh.
Being natural men, we do not receive the things of God, and we cannot know the things of God. Look at men today. We can know everything. We can talk about astronomy, technology, science, and philosophy. We are rational beings. We are very knowledgeable.
But when you talk about God, immediately you find there is a blockage. We do not receive spiritual things; we consider them foolishness, and we are not able to know spiritual things. That is natural. We have fallen into sin, and the Bible says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
Because of His great mercy, He has sent His beloved Son. Through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, He delivered us out of being natural men. He gave us a new spirit.
In other words, our dead spirit was quickened into life, and immediately our communication with God is resumed. That is the reason why, when you believe in the Lord Jesus, immediately you can say to God, “Abba, Father.” God becomes very real to you, and you have communication with God.
Not only do we have a new spirit now, but He also put His own Spirit into our spirit. By the Spirit of God in us, He will reveal His mind to us and enable us to be spiritual men.
We have a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit. Now, if we listen to the Holy Spirit, if our spirit cooperates with the Holy Spirit, then we will know the will of God.
His understanding will be received by our soul. We begin to understand the will of God, and we love the will of God, and we are determined to do the will of God. Then our body will work out God’s will.
The Bible says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.” But, brothers and sisters, we mentioned last night that very soon we discover one thing: even though the Spirit of God dwells in our spirit and enables us to be spiritual men, unfortunately we do not walk by the Spirit.
Instead, we find that in our soul, our flesh, our self is still there. Oftentimes, we follow the self-life in us instead of following the Spirit-life.
Because we are babes in Christ, the new life that is in us is still young, but the old life in us is very old. Therefore, we find that oftentimes we still walk by the flesh instead of walking by the Spirit.
It is not because we do not know the will of God. The natural man does not know the will of God, but one who is already saved knows the will of God. The problem with him is that he knows God’s will, but he does not do God’s will.
So you find in Romans 7: “What I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” Why is it? Because I discover that in my flesh there is a law here: the law of sin and death is still ruling. As long as I still try to live by my flesh, I am under the law of sin and death.
After repeated defeats and failures, Paul came to know one thing: in him, that is, in his flesh, there is no good thing.
Even after we are saved from being natural men and become Christians, we find that in the beginning we are still carnal. There is a stage we call carnality, but that stage should not be too long.
You know, a baby, when it is born, is very lovely. But if you really try to understand babyhood, you will find that a baby is very fleshly and very self-centred. He wants everybody to serve him, and he has no responsibility whatsoever.
So you find that as young Christians, when you are newly saved, there will be a period of being babes in Christ. During that period, even though you have the life of Christ in you, yet you walk according to the world. You watch what the world watches, and you find there is almost no difference.
You can only drink milk; you cannot digest meat. Everything has to be predigested for you. Even with the Word of God, you have to let people predigest it, and then you can receive it. You cannot go to the Word of God and find meat in it because your spiritual senses are yet to be developed. You need to exercise your spiritual senses.
There will be a period when you find that you seem to live in the flesh more than in the Spirit. Your spiritual life is just upside down. There are more downs than ups. Sometimes, once in a while, you follow the Spirit, but most of the time you still follow the flesh.
So there is a period we call carnality, but that period should not be long. We mentioned last night that when the children of Israel came out of Egypt into Canaan, the journey should have taken them at most two years.
In the wilderness, God showed them what they were in themselves. During the wilderness journey, they murmured, rebelled against God, and even questioned whether God was with them. That should have been only two years, but because of their unbelief, it was extended to forty years.
Now, the same thing happens to many Christians. There will be a period of being fleshly, but it should not be long. We need to quickly grow out of babyhood, because God’s purpose is that we may be sons and daughters of God. To put it another way, God wants us to be spiritual men.
God created us with a spirit, and the reason is that we may become spiritual men. Now, what is a spiritual man?
A spiritual man is a man whose spirit is alive to God. The Spirit of God dwells in his spirit. He is in communion with God, and God is able to reveal His mind and His heart to him. He responds to God.
The spirit in him is in control of his whole being. When he receives the mind of God from the Spirit of God, his spirit gives direction to his soul, and in his soul there is cooperation. He loves the will of God, meditates on the Word of God, and is determined to do the will of God.
His soul cooperates with his spirit. His soul is under the direction of the spirit. After he receives and understands the mind of God, he allows his body to work it out. That is a spiritual man.
God’s purpose for us is that we may be spiritual, because this is the way God created us in the first place. God’s will is that we be spiritual.
If we receive the working of the cross in our lives, there is a way to be delivered from being carnal. We need to receive the cross of Christ into us. By the cross, our flesh is put to death, so that the Spirit of God will be in full control of us.
Now, brothers and sisters, sometimes we have a false concept. We think that to be spiritual, we have to be inhuman, or not human.
In heathen philosophy, they always think that the body is evil, and therefore the way to be spiritual is to try to destroy your body. In human concepts, they may say that the soul is evil, so you have to destroy your soul. You become emotionless. You become will-less, without will. They think that if a person can be delivered from his soul and from his body, then he is spiritual.
So you find that many Christians want to be like angels. But, brothers and sisters, God does not want His creation to be angels. He created us to be men. What He wants is man—with a spirit and with a body. That is what God wants.
Let us remember: what God desires is that we be spiritual men. He does not want us to be angels. If you really understand God’s purpose in creating man, you will not want to be an angel. You will thank God that He has created you to be a man.
Do not think that to be spiritual is to be inhuman. As a matter of fact, to be spiritual is to be a real man. Man as we know him today is subhuman. The salvation of God is to restore us to be the man that God created.
Look at our Lord Jesus. When He came to this earth to be a man, He was the spiritual Man, because His whole life was governed by the Spirit.
He was born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit overshadowed the womb of the Virgin Mary, so He was born that holy thing. When He was baptized, the Holy Spirit came from above as a dove and dwelt in Him.
He was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness to be tempted. After He overcame, the Bible says He came back full of the power of the Holy Spirit.
When He first began to preach, He opened the Bible and went to Isaiah 61, saying, “The Lord hath anointed Me.” Throughout His whole life on earth, He was led by the Spirit of God. He always cooperated with God’s Spirit.
Even when He offered Himself as a sacrifice on the cross, the Bible says that by the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without blemish unto God. He was raised from the dead by the Spirit. The whole life of our Lord Jesus was under the Spirit’s control.
Even though our Lord is a perfect human being, He needed to eat. He became tired. You remember how, in Samaria by the well, He was tired and thirsty, and He asked the Samaritan woman to give Him a drink.
After He worked hard, He commanded His disciples to go to the other side of the sea, and He was resting in the stern, completely asleep. Even though there were waves and winds blowing and the boat was sinking, He was still fast asleep because He was too tired.
Our Lord Jesus wept. He had emotion. When He saw people as sheep without a shepherd, He was moved with compassion. He was called a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
Our Lord Jesus had His own will—His own human will. Our human will is imperfect and sinful, but He, being the perfect Man, had a perfect will. If He wanted to do something according to His will, it was perfect.
But if you remember in the garden of Gethsemane, He cried to God, “Not My will, but Thine, be done.” Throughout all His life, He put His soul-life under His spirit-life. He was a perfect Man, and He was perfect God. He is the representative of what a spiritual man should be.
So, brothers and sisters, if you desire to be a spiritual man, do not think that being a spiritual man means that you will have no mind, no will, and no desire. Instead, you will find that your will, your desire, and your thoughts will all be purified.
Under the Spirit of God, your whole soul will express God Himself, and your body will do the will of God. Then you will be a spiritual man.
Now, brothers and sisters, what are the signs of being a spiritual man? First of all, a spiritual man is a man in Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul mentions a man in Christ. In verse 2, he says, “I know a man in Christ”; in verse 5, “Of such a one will I glory; yet of myself I will not glory, save in my weaknesses.”
If you read carefully, you know that he is talking about himself; yet, on the other hand, he seems to be talking about another person. He says, “I knew a man in Christ fourteen years ago,” who was caught up into heaven and taken away into paradise, and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
He says, “Of such a one will I glory; but of myself I will not glory, save in my weaknesses.” This is a spiritual man. A spiritual man is a man in Christ.
He knows the glory of Christ. He knows the revelation of Christ. Yet, so far as he himself is concerned, he knows his own weakness. A spiritual man is a paradox.
On the one hand, he knows Christ in such a way that he can glory; yet, on the other hand, he knows himself in such a way that he knows his own weaknesses. He knows his weakness, but he also knows the power of God.
If you read on, you will find that Paul had a thorn in the flesh. We do not know what that thorn was. We only know that, in the original language, it was something very painful. Because of this, he felt weak.
Some people say it was malaria, because he travelled in malaria regions. When you are attacked by malaria, you tremble. Malaria also affects your eyesight, and it is thought that Paul’s eyes were very poor.
When Paul wrote letters, he usually had someone write for him while he dictated. But Galatians was written by himself, and he said, “See with how large letters I write unto you with mine own hand,” because his eyesight was very poor.
Now, a servant of God with such weakness, preaching the power of God—does that not seem a contradiction? How can I preach a powerful Christ with such a weak body? Paul wanted to be strong, and the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
So Paul said, “I will glory in my weaknesses, because when I am weak, then am I strong.” This is a man in Christ.
Brothers and sisters, it is not easy to glory in your weaknesses. We are ashamed of our weaknesses. We try to hide them. But one day, by the grace of God, you really know that you are weak; at the same time, you experience the power of God.
You glory in that man in Christ as if you are glorying in somebody else. You are not glorying in yourself. Sometimes we may say, “Well, it is God’s grace,” but actually we mean, “This is me.” No, you are not a man in Christ. You are carnal; you are not spiritual.
When you glory, you glory in Christ. You glory in your weakness. That is a sign of a spiritual man.
A spiritual man is a man in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. Therefore, you are rich in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead in Christ bodily is available to you. In Christ, you are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It does not say, “Blessed are the poor-spirited.” It says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” There is a difference. We find that many Christians are poor-spirited, but a spiritual man is poor in spirit because he sees God so much that he sees himself as so small. He is poor in spirit, and his is the kingdom of heaven.
Number two: a spiritual man is a treasure in an earthen vessel. Second Corinthians 4 says:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
A spiritual man is an earthen vessel with a treasure in it. We are earthen vessels, made of earth—very common, very fragile, easily broken. That is what we are.
But the wonder is that there is a treasure in an earthen vessel. Nobody would put a treasure in an earthen vessel. If you have a treasure, you will either put it in a safety box or in a golden box.
But the wonder of the gospel of Jesus Christ is this: the treasure is Christ Himself. Christ is that treasure. He is more precious than anything else. He is God’s treasure.
God put Christ in us—poor, cheap, common, fragile human vessels. That is the wonder of the gospel.
Not because the treasure is in the earthen vessel does that earthen vessel become a golden vessel. No, you are still an earthen vessel. You are still a man.
Not because the Spirit of God is in us do we become God. It is true that we will be transformed and conformed to the image of the Son of God, but that does not change us into God. We are never God. We are always human beings.
Remember this: because God is in you, and because the character of Christ becomes your character, you do not become Christ or become God. Never. You are always an earthen vessel. You are always a man. In yourself, there is always weakness. But in you is Christ, the hope of glory.
Now, for His radiance and His light to shine, there is something necessary: that earthen vessel has to be cracked. If that earthen vessel is intact, then the treasure will be hidden within it, and the surpassing power of the treasure cannot be manifested.
There is the principle of brokenness. The Holy Spirit will arrange our circumstances. Either He will put you with certain people, or He will put you in a certain environment, and by these things He is going to break you—to break down your soul-power and your soul-life.
The Bible says:
We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair;
Pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed.
I like Phillips’ translation: many times God will bring us to our wits’ end, but that is not God’s end. Again, I like Phillips’ translation: knocked down, but not knocked out.
Many times you find that you are knocked down, but you have not been knocked out. You bear in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in you and manifested in other people.
This is a sign of a spiritual man. He is still a man, and he is a broken man; yet the treasure is able to be manifested through him. You look at him, and you see Christ. You see a broken man. That is the sign of a spiritual man.
Number three, Romans 8: a spiritual man is a man who lives by the Spirit of God and walks by the Spirit of God.
He that is led by the Spirit of God is a son of God. In other words, you allow the Spirit of God to be in control of your life. Then you become a spiritual man.
So, brothers and sisters, you see the cycle. When God first created man, He created man in His own image. He wanted to put His own life in that man, to express Himself, and that man might be used by Him to subdue all things.
Yet man fell and became natural. He no longer knew God. But God raised up the second Man. In Adam all die; in Christ all are made alive.
We are still fleshly and cannot be used by God. But by the working of the cross in our lives, we gradually return to God’s creative purpose.
Brothers and sisters, when you see this, you cannot but praise God, because it is all of grace. You remember Paul said, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
So far as we are concerned, we have only weakness and failure. But thank God, He does not give us up. By grace, He has delivered us, and He makes us what we ought to be.
This is full salvation: in Christ, Christ in us. And it is all for the glory of God. May His name be magnified.
That is the reason why, when David wrote Psalm 8, he began his psalm and ended his psalm with this expression:
O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Thy name in all the earth!
We should manifest the glory of God.
Dear Heavenly Father, we bow with gratitude, because Thy high purpose concerning man is so noble.
Even though we rebelled and fell into such a low state, yet Thou wilt not give us up. Thou didst send Thine only begotten Son into this world. By His death and resurrection, Thou hast saved us.
Thou hast put Thy Spirit in us. By Thy Spirit, we may be led to be spiritual men and women. Thou hast restored us to be the man of Thy heart.
We praise and worship Thee. We want to give Thee all the glory. We want to say, “It is all about Christ.” Glory be unto God. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.