Please turn to 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 23 and 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.
I will read it again.
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, we do thank Thee that we can continue to come to Thee, not only to remember Thee at Thy table, but to hear Thy word. We pray, Lord, that Thou wilt grant to us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and open the eyes of our heart, that we may enter into Thy word. Let Thy word enter into us and transform us and conform us to the image of Thy beloved Son.
This is our prayer. We pray that Thou wilt strengthen us according to the riches of Thy glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
These days, I have been exercised before the Lord about these two verses.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, a church in its first love, and he concluded his letter with these words. You may consider these words as his prayer for the Thessalonian believers, or as a benediction over that assembly, or even as a proclamation of God towards His own people.
But whatever attitude you may take, one thing is sure: we see in these two verses the heart of God, the purpose of God, towards His own people.
He says, “The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus. Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it.”
So, in these two verses, you can see God’s purpose towards His own people. He wants us to be wholly sanctified—sanctified through and through, not just a little bit. This wholly sanctified means that your whole being—your spirit, your soul, and your body—may be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus. That is what God wills for each one of us.
These people in Thessalonica were already saved. They had believed in the gospel preached to them. Not only were they saved, but they suffered persecution for their faith. They had faith, love, and hope. It was a very healthy assembly, in its first love towards the Lord.
The Apostle Paul shared with them God’s heart for them. You know, God’s heart is not that we are merely saved.
Sometimes we can draw back and feel contented by being saved. Thank God for that. That is a great thing. So far as we are concerned, probably on earth there is nothing better or greater than this: that we who were supposed to be eternally condemned, with no hope, are saved by His beloved Son. Our sins are forgiven, we are given a new life, and we have hope. That is great to us.
But to God, this is just the beginning. He wants something much more for His people. He wants us to be wholly sanctified, and that means our whole spirit and soul and body preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus.
Now, brothers and sisters, can we say today that we have been wholly sanctified, sanctified through and through? Can we say that our spirit, soul, and body have been preserved blameless, irreproachable, holy?
If the Lord should come now, can we stand before Him without shame, knowing that we have fulfilled what God has willed for us? Can we say that?
Here it says, “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly.” Why is God addressed as the God of peace? What is the meaning of peace?
Oftentimes you find in the Word of God, “Peace be unto you,” or, “The grace of God and the peace be upon you.” Now, what is the real meaning of peace? The God of peace—what does it mean?
It means that our God is One who is at peace with Himself. That is to say, in Him there is no conflict, no division, no contradiction, and no difference of opinions. In the Godhead there is perfect harmony. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one; and in such oneness, there is peace.
This God of peace wants us to have that same peace: that in our spirit, soul, and body there is no conflict, no contradiction, no being at odds, but perfect harmony. Our whole being, in ourselves and in relationship with God, is totally harmonious. There is nothing against God.
Now, this is a tremendous work. Thank God, He says, “He who calls us is faithful, and He will perform it.” In other words, this is something that no man can do. He not only purposes it for us, but He promises us that He Himself will perform it—only if you allow Him.
What do you mean by sanctify? You know, in the Word of God, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, the idea of sanctify and holy is actually the same thing.
Holy is sanctified. Holiness is sanctification. These are synonymous. Now, what is the meaning of holy? What is the meaning of sanctify?
Just a few days ago, I was reading a book containing a message given by Wilbur Smith. We know that Wilbur Smith was so widely read that he was considered a scholar who knew the Word thoroughly.
He said in his message that we do not really appreciate or understand the word holy. We use that word very carelessly. But actually, holiness is a character of God that is uniquely His.
In other words, holiness is something that you can find only in God. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament, this word means to be cut off, to be separated from.
If you read Leviticus 24, you will find that whether it is a person, a land, or an animal, a person can separate it—cut it off—from all common use and offer it to God. That is the meaning of holiness.
In other words, holiness is to be separated from, cut off from, all that is common. Then it is separated for a solemn purpose and begins to take upon it a new character that is extraordinary, uncommon, and special. That is what holiness means.
You cannot find holiness anywhere else but in God. He is unique. He is uncommon. He is different from anything else. This is His unique character: nothing common, nothing ordinary. It is all special, unique, only one of His kind. That is holiness.
God is holy. The seraphim cry, “Holy, holy, holy.” Why? Because He is the only Being in the whole universe who is altogether different and alone.
You know, it is very strange. Another person, Dr. Zwemer, who was greatly used by God among the Muslims, asked a Muslim scholar whether the true word for “holy” in Sanskrit had ever been found in the book of the Koran. The scholar answered, “It is not there.”
Why? Because holiness belongs to God alone. He is altogether different, and yet He wants to share it with us. He wants those who believe in Him to be holy, sanctified.
He wants us to be completely separated from everything that is common, natural, and of the world, and to take upon ourselves a holy character, just like He who is holy. That is the idea behind it.
So, dear brothers and sisters, as I meditate upon this, I feel how much we need to pray that prayer. How much we need to really come to the Lord and allow Him to work in our lives, so that we may be sanctified wholly.
This is the preservation of the saints. Probably you have heard of this term, “preservation of the saints.” How can we be preserved? What is meant by preservation of the saints?
It means that we will be preserved blameless at the coming—the parousia, the presence—of our Lord Jesus; that we may stand before our Lord Jesus under His light and be found blameless.
This is why God has chosen us. In Ephesians 1:4, even before the foundation of the world, God chose us that we may be holy and without blemish, without blame in love. That is what we are chosen to be.
In Colossians 1:22, it says that He will reconcile us in order to present us holy, irreproachable, without blemish, in harmony with Him, to be like Him. That is the calling of God.
Do not lower God’s standard. I am afraid that today we as believers are satisfied with a very low standard. As we compare ourselves with the world, we think we are far better. That is enough. That is good enough for us.
Because of this, we do not press on. We do not seek the Lord with earnestness. We draw back. We sit back. We think that we are right at the coming of the Lord Jesus. But, brothers and sisters, if you read the Word of God, you will find that this is not true.
God has called us because He is holy, and He wants us to be holy. He wants us to be separated from anything that is common and to be special, extraordinary, uniquely His. That is God’s purpose for us, and He will not be satisfied with anything less than this.
That is the work of our Lord Jesus. The work of Calvary is so thorough that He wants to bring us to a place where we can be in perfect harmony with God.
So let us not lower God’s standard, but let us press on. Even the Apostle Paul, in his prison letters, was still pressing on. He said, “I do not think that I have already attained; but I forget the past and press on.” This should be our attitude.
God has called us for this very reason, and He Himself will work it out. But He wants our cooperation, not only in our will, but also in our willingness, so that His purpose may be fulfilled.
Here it is: “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through.” Now, what does it mean to sanctify you wholly and through and through? It means to separate you through and through. In other words, it touches your whole being. It touches your spirit, it touches your soul, and it touches your body.
Now, for the sake of some who may not have that basic foundation, I am afraid we have to go back to the very basics in order to build upon them. So this morning, probably all we can do is go back to the very basics.
God wants our spirit to be sanctified. God wants our soul to be sanctified. God wants our body to be sanctified. Why? Because when God created man, He created man as a tripartite being.
If you turn to Genesis 2:7, God used the dust of the earth—the red earth—and used it to form a body. Then He breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of that form, and man became a living soul.
In other words, you find that when God created man, first He prepared the body. He used the red earth, something very common, and shaped it into a human form. But there was no life there.
So He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. In other words, there is something that comes out of God Himself. Not only did His hand work with the mud, as it were, and form the body of man, but here you find something coming out from God Himself: the breath of life.
He breathes. He shares His life, as it were. He put that breath of life into that dead form, and as that breath entered the form, something happened. It was a creative act.
The breath of life, which is something that came out of God Himself, became the spirit of man. God is spirit. So, when the breath of life entered into that form, it gave, as it were, a new organ to that mud form, which is the spirit.
God is spirit, so He made man with a spirit. But the wonderful thing is that when the breath of life came into that form, not only did it become the spirit of man, but the spirit reacted with the body and produced the third part, which is the soul—a living soul.
That is the foundation of man. Man has a body. Because this body is made of earth, it gives us world-consciousness. We are in touch with the world around us.
The spirit came from God, and it gives us God-consciousness. We are in touch with God. When the two come together, they produce a soul—a living soul, a soul that has life.
But this life is not God’s life. This life is man’s life. It is an animated life, a created life, a life that makes man active and living. This soul gives us self-consciousness. We are conscious of ourselves.
So you see, man is made of three parts. He is a whole being. You can distinguish them, but you cannot separate them, because it is one whole.
It is like God, who is a Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. You can distinguish Them, but you cannot separate Them. They are one. It is the same with man: spirit, soul, and body, and yet one man.
Because the soul gives us self-consciousness, the soul represents man—what he is. He is conscious of himself. The soul has a will, the soul has a mind, and the soul has emotions. By these faculties, we are conscious of ourselves.
One is different from the other because the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you decide are different. That makes our individuality. We are individuals. No one is exactly the same. Our soul represents ourselves. It is I; it is me. That is our soul.
But in the creation of man, God has a purpose, and there is an order. God’s order is this: because He gave man a spirit, man is supposed to use his spirit to commune with God, to receive from God His will and His mind, and then pass it on to the soul.
You will will the will of God. You will think about the will of God. You will love the will of God. As you do that, you will pass it on to your body to work it out, to do what God’s will is.
Sometimes we use an illustration. Our spirit is like the master or mistress; our soul is like a steward in charge of the house; and our body is like a servant or slave.
The master communicates with the steward as to what he wants done in the house. The steward accepts that order—not rejecting it, but accepting and agreeing with it—and passes it on to the body to live it out and act it out. That is the way God created man.
God created man not just with a soul. Strangely, in the Chinese Bible, Genesis 2:7 says that man became a living soul with a spirit. In the English versions, you do not have that wording, but you find that the idea is there.
Another thing you may notice is that in the original Hebrew, “the breath of life” uses a plural number. It is the breath of lives. There are two different interpretations. One interpretation is that in the Hebrew language, sometimes the plural is used for emphasis. That may be so.
Or it may mean that in the breath of life there are actually two lives: one life gives the human spirit, and one life gives the human soul. But anyway, this is the way we are created, this is the way God made us, and this is the order in which God wants us to live before Him.
Then God put man in the garden of Eden. Our brother this morning already said that it was such a beautiful garden, a plentiful garden. There was nothing bad in that garden—only good, better, and the best.
I often think that God planted all kinds of fruit trees in that garden for man to enjoy. At that time man lived by eating fruits. How good that was to maintain his physical body. This body is created with need; it needs to be nourished. God provided all the nourishment there for that body.
When you think of the body, the psalmist says in Psalm 139 that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. In the world, people go to extremes. Either they indulge their body and worship their body, or, in some religions, they look at the body as evil.
But in Scripture, we are told that our body is fearfully and wonderfully made. It is a masterpiece of God. God has a purpose for our body. God wants our body to be wholly sanctified. That is His purpose.
In the garden, you have the tree of life. The tree of life is symbolic of the life of God—eternal life, uncreated life. God put that tree in the midst of the garden.
Why? Because God has a reason. He created our spirit, but our spirit needs food; otherwise, it cannot live. Our spirit needs life. God created our spirit in such a way that it can receive the life of God. No other creature can do that.
Man is created uniquely for God. So He put the tree of life in the midst of the garden, as if He were saying to man, “Take it. Eat it. Then you will be united with Me in life, and that will fulfill My purpose.”
But beside the tree of life, God placed another tree: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Some people say that it was a bad tree. I do not think so. I do not believe God would put anything bad in the garden of Eden.
I believe it was a good tree, better than all the other trees except the tree of life. We can say it was better because this tree speaks of knowledge—the knowledge of good and evil.
Now, brothers and sisters, in the whole world there is no knowledge higher than this kind of knowledge. Scientific knowledge, technical knowledge, philosophical knowledge, ethical knowledge—the knowledge that you may know the difference between good and evil—is the highest knowledge in the world.
In other words, it would be good for the soul. Knowledge is soul food. Fruits are body food. The tree of life is spirit food. The knowledge of good and evil is soul food.
God put these two trees side by side because God created man with a free will, just as He is. If you have no opportunity to exercise your free will, who knows that you have a will?
So God put man in the garden and gave him the opportunity to exercise his free will. He could choose.
He could choose merely to eat all the other fruit trees to maintain his body and forget about his soul and spirit. Or he could choose to nourish and build up his soul to such an extent that he could be independent of God, having no need for God and making himself god.
Or he could choose the tree of life, that he might live by the life of God and fulfill all God’s purpose for him. So, brothers and sisters, you find that God gave man a chance to choose.
How does he want to live? Does he want to live just for the body and make his body his god? Or does he want to live by his soul, with his knowledge, independent and totally self-sufficient, with no God? Or can he live by the life of God and fulfill God’s purpose of creation? He can choose.
Unfortunately, our forefathers made the wrong choice. Now, what happened?
In Genesis 2:17, God said to man, “Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
God knows that knowledge without God’s life is the most dangerous thing. Knowledge without God’s life means death. I think that for these twenty centuries, this has been proven.
It is not that God is jealous and does not want man to grow up. It is because God knows that life is the most important thing. With life, knowledge can be used rightly, and you can have the power to control knowledge. Otherwise, it is deadly.
But man chose to live by knowledge, mental knowledge, not by the life of God. So what happened, brothers and sisters?
The Bible says, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” But Adam lived hundreds of years afterward. So far as his body was concerned, he lived on and on—nine hundred and some years. The Bible says that he begot sons and daughters. In other words, his soul was very active.
How, then, was God’s word fulfilled? On the day they ate, their spirit died. Their communication with God was cut off. The human spirit as an organ was still there, but it was in a coma.
In a sense, this is symbolized by their immediate discovery that they were naked. I do not know, but I think that probably there was a kind of glory as a covering over man’s body. When they sinned, the glory disappeared.
You remember Moses. When he was with God for forty days and forty nights, even his face shone. There was a glory covering there. But when man sinned, the glory was gone. They were naked.
They had to hide themselves from God. Their conscience began to accuse them. They could not face God. They tried to use fig leaves to cover their nakedness, but they could not, because the wind blows.
Their spirit was dead.
Brothers and sisters, in Adam all died. We were all in Adam before. So, when we were born, we were born with a spirit in a coma, with no communication with God.
It does not mean that we do not have a spirit. We have one, but our spirit is in a coma. Sometimes there are still some activities. Sometimes our conscience will wake up. Sometimes, intuitively, when we are in danger, we think of God. But we are in a coma.
You know, the scientific definition of death is the cessation of communication with its proper environment. That is death. What is the death of the body? When the body ceases to communicate with its proper environment, which is the world, that is bodily death.
Spiritual death is the same thing. Communication with its proper environment, which is God, is cut off.
Because our spirit is dead, man becomes flesh. In Genesis 6, God said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man for ever, for that he also is flesh.”
The word flesh has different meanings, but one meaning is this: flesh means soul and body without the spirit. When man lives by his soul and body without the spirit, man is flesh. The natural man is flesh.
Man lives by his soul and by his body. Sometimes we live by our soul, by our intellect and our thinking. Sometimes we live by the passions of our body. But whatever way we live, it is within the fleshly realm, because our spirit is alienated from the life of God. That was our condition before we were saved.
Then, when you are saved, what happens? The Bible tells us, “You must be born again.” You must be born from above.
What is it to be born? Nicodemus said, “Can I go back to my mother’s womb and be born again?” No, it is not in the bodily sense, nor is it in the soulish sense. It is in the spiritual sense.
John 3:6 says:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Our parents, being men and women of flesh, bore us also as men and women of flesh. That is natural birth. Spiritual birth, the new birth, is the Holy Spirit touching our dead spirit, cleansing it, renewing it, bringing it to life, and making it a new spirit.
In Hebrews 10, it says that our conscience is cleansed by the blood of our Lord Jesus. His blood cleanses our conscience. You know how conscience accuses us.
The blood of the Lord Jesus not only speaks for us before God; it also cleanses our conscience from our sins. It also stops the mouth of the accuser, Satan.
With our conscience washed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, a new life—even the life of God—comes into our spirit. That spirit is renewed. The Bible calls it a new spirit.
If you read Ezekiel 36:26-27, you will find that God said, “I will give you a new heart. I will give you a new spirit. I will take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh. Then I will put My Spirit into your spirit to cause you to keep My ordinances and My commandments.”
So, brothers and sisters, that is what happens when you are saved. Not only are your sins forgiven and your conscience cleared, but the Holy Spirit brings a new life into your spirit and makes your dead spirit alive again.
Not only that, the Holy Spirit Himself comes and dwells in your spirit. Romans 8 says that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God—not born of flesh, not born of man, not born of blood, but born of God. That is initial salvation.
So when we say, “What happened when you were saved?” it means that your dead spirit is renewed and becomes a new spirit. The Spirit of God comes and dwells in your spirit, and your communication with God in spirit is resumed.
I think that is our experience. We may not know too much. We may not even know the Bible, but communication with God has begun. What happens when we are saved is that our spirit is reborn.
Now, how about the soul and the body? If you believe in the Lord Jesus, one thing is necessary: repentance. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.
Now, repentance means a change of mind. That is in the realm of the soul. Formerly, your mind was set upon sin. Now your mind wants to turn to God. There is a change of mind.
Actually, when we are saved, our mind is affected. There is a change of mind. But unfortunately, it is not a complete change. It is a change at the outset.
Very soon you discover that your old thinking comes back. You begin to love what you loved before. You begin to want what you wanted before. In other words, your soul has not been drastically or completely changed.
The life in your soul is still your own natural, fallen life. It is still your own Adamic life that controls your soul—your emotion, your will, and your mind. In the spirit, the Holy Spirit comes in to be in control, but in the soul, your soul-life—animated, created, fallen life—is still in control.
So the change is superficial, not thorough. Your soul needs to be saved.
What about your body? Your body is affected. Before you believed in the Lord Jesus, you may have had a long face. But when you believed in the Lord Jesus, somehow you became more radiant. It affects you, but it is superficial.
It is still the mortal body. You have not yet been changed into an immortal body. It is still the corruptible body, not the incorruptible. It is still that body, right? So your body needs to be saved.
Now, that is our situation. But, young brothers and sisters, remember: it is more than being saved. It is to be wholly sanctified. That is what is before us. That is what God has put before us.
So this morning, that is all we can say. Hopefully, we will seek the Lord concerning this blessing, this benediction, that God desires for every one of us who are saved. Otherwise, He will not be satisfied, and we cannot see His face.
May the Lord help us.
Dear Lord, we pray that we may hear Thy voice and that we may respond. In Thy precious name we pray, amen.