that we sang. Let me get rid
of this key. I brought keys tonight. Because I got locked out, or
locked in, this morning. And then, when I brought my keys
this evening, it occurred to me, maybe they changed the locks. Right there's the guilty party
down here. I didn't tell quite all of the story. This man locked
me in. And then he nicely let me out. Now you know the rest of the
story. But I was looking at that last
song that we sang. I don't know what was in the
mind of the songwriter. I try to write a few lyrics every
once in a while myself. Sometimes I don't know what's
in my mind when I write. So I certainly can't enter into
the mind of the man who wrote this, but he said, yeah, how
or why? I cannot tell. He should have
lifted me. I know how. And I know why. I don't know
whether he did or not. He wrote some good words. But
I know how he lifted me. By the blood of his son. By substitution. By satisfaction. By the Lord
Jesus having all my sins charged to him. And he died under the
wrath of God. The sword of justice found its
mark. in his very soul. He was cursed
by the law because he had been charged with our sin. And he,
the Savior, bore that wrath of God for us. And his righteousness
that he established for us, that's ours. He's our righteousness. I know how he lifts sinners from
the dust He lifted me. I know how. He did it through
Christ Jesus and Him crucified. And I know why. He did it to
the praise of the glory of His grace. That's why. I hope that writer knew that. Don't
you? Yeah, I hope he did. I hope he did. Well, open your
Bibles tonight to Genesis chapter 1. The book of Genesis chapter 1. And let me read beginning at
verse 26. The book of Genesis chapter 1,
the book of beginnings. And God said, let us, let us,
Father, Son, and Spirit, let us make man in our image and
after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own
image. In the image of God created he
him. male and female created he them. And God blessed them. And God
said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth
and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish
of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living
thing that moveth. upon the earth. Now that's a
general record of the creation of the first man. Every once
in a while you'll hear people say, well, there were other men
who lived on the earth before Adam. No, there weren't. Because our brother read to us
from 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the first man, Adam. This is the first man right here.
The first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. Now what does man mean? The word
man means up looking one. That's what the word means. Up
looking one. No, we were never apes. We were
never monkeys. We may act like apes sometimes. And we may look like monkeys
sometimes, but we were never apes and we were never monkeys.
And we didn't come forth from some gook. Man never crawled
on his belly. He's the up-looking one. That's
what man is. You see, man was made to look
up to his maker in worship. in reverence, in adoration, and
in praise. He's the up-looking one. Man was made so as to look up
to God. We didn't evolve into one who
walked upon two legs. God made us to walk upon two
legs. Now that's the general record
of the creation of man. Let's get a little more specific.
Second chapter, verse 7. The second chapter, verse 7. And here's what we have, and
I'll give you a few points to this outline. Here's the creation
of man, body and soul. Chapter 2, verse 7. And the Lord
God formed The word formed comes from a word which means he's
the potter. He is the potter and we are the
clay. He makes vessels into whatever
he wants them to be. The Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground. Now this is getting specific
now. The first chapter we had just
kind of a general statement of the creation of man, and now
Moses is led by the Spirit of God to get specific. The Lord
God as the great potter, He formed man, He fashioned man, He molded
man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Notice two distinct
acts of God are noted. Number one, the Lord God formed
man of the dust of the earth. Here's the creation of the body
of Adam. God fashioned this body for him. God molded this body for him. God formed this body for him
out of the dust of the ground. Adam means red dirt. We know that Adam was created
in the image of God. But he was made from red earth.
In other words, God gave man a body. And if I may put it this way,
God had in mind the physical as well as the moral image of
the incarnate word when he made Adam. That One who would come
into the world some 4,000 years after this to save His people
from their sins. He would come into the world
in the fullness of time to redeem His elect. To save us from our
sins. To save us from the curse of
the law. So understand then that the first Adam was made in the
image of the last Adam. the last act. Now the first distinct
act then is that God made or formed man, fashioned man out
of the dust of the ground. Now here's the second distinct
act of God that Moses notes with reference to this first man.
God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became
a living soul. Until God breathed life into
that physical body. It was just a body that didn't
move. It didn't act. It couldn't do
anything. It had no life. It had no soul. Now, that body had all of the
characteristics of our bodies. But that body was free from any
contamination due to sin. Adam had a perfect body, but
the body had no life in it. It was a lifeless body. It was
a tabernacle. It was a home. It was a dwelling
place that God created for a living soul. So the second distinct
act of God, with reference to the creation of man, was that
He created a soul for the body. A soul which is the immaterial
part of man. And actually the soul is the
real man. That's the real you. And that's
the real me. We say things like, you have
a soul. Well, that's not really accurate.
You are a soul and you have a body. You are a soul and you have a
body. You are a soul, you have a body. And the scriptures teach that
this human nature, that we are composed of two distinct substances
or elements. Every person here tonight, we
consist of, we have an immaterial part, that's the soul, sometimes
called the spirit. And I know there are arguments
that there are differences between the soul and the spirit, but
I agree with John Gill who said oftentimes those words are used
interchangeably in the scriptures. But there's the soul, sometimes
referred to as the spirit, and then there is the body. the body. And this is represented to us
throughout the scriptures. Let me give you a couple of quick
references here. First of all, look at James,
the second chapter. I'll get you to go to a few scriptures
with me. The book of James, the second
chapter. Look at the last verse of the
chapter. James chapter 2 and verse 26. For as the body without the spirit,
that is, without the soul, is dead, so faith without works
is dead. So the life of the body, then,
is the soul. That's the life of the body,
is the soul. Let me give you another reference.
Look over at 3 John. 3 John, it's just one chapter to
3 John. Look at 3 John verses, well, the second verse.
3 John verse 2. Beloved, I wish above all things,
and he's writing, he's the elder writing unto the beloved Gaius.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and
be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." He is saying, I
wish and what I ask God for you is that your body would be as
healthy as your soul. Well, this is a man who is redeemed
by the blood then. This is a man who has been regenerated
by the Spirit. All is well with his soul. And
John writes to him and says, this is my prayer request. This
is what I ask God for. I want your body, I want your
body to be as prosperous and as healthy as is your soul. Is your soul healthy? Oh, I tell
you, if you're in Christ Jesus, you're healthy. You're healthy. You don't have any sickness.
You don't have any disease. You don't have any sin. If Christ
Jesus put away your sin, then they are put away in fact, aren't
they? They are gone. They're gone. They're buried
in the deepest sea. And as the little chorus says,
yes, that's good enough for me, but it doesn't have to be good
enough for me. It has to be good enough for God. And our Lord
Jesus Christ removed our sins from us. Therefore, our souls
are healthy. The Spirit of God, by the revelation
of His grace, has shown us what Christ Jesus has already done
for us. And we have been brought to faith
in the blessed Savior. Our souls are healthy. And they
always will be. They always will be. And he writes
and he says, I wish your body would be that way. That body
that's broken down, crumbling, diseased, and sick, I pray it
would prosper even as your soul prospers. So we're one. We're one person, but we consist
of the material part, the body, and the immaterial part, the
soul. Solomon speaks of this. Turn
to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Solomon is describing the dissolving
of the union of the body and the soul. The separation, that
is, of the immaterial part from the material part. He describes
it here in such unusual language in Ecclesiastes chapter 12. I don't have time to read all
of these verses because I've got some other verses I want
you to go to. But look at verse 6 of chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes. or the golden bowl be broken,
or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken
at the cistern, then shall the dust return to the earth as it
was." Hey, what came from the dust? We just read it. The body. So it's going back
where it came from. And the spirit, the soul, Well, it's going back to God
who gave it in the first place. Who gave it in the first place. See, when an animal dies, we
know there's no future life for that animal. Their existence
ceases. But when somebody dies, that
death is really a separation. But only a temporary separation
now, right? It's just a temporary separation
of the soul from the body. We know that the soul or the
spirit of man, that is what gives life to the body. And it's most
mysterious, isn't it? It's most mysterious. And you
see somebody and they're full of life and there they are and
then suddenly God evicts the soul from the body. And we call
that death. And then the body is lifeless. It's lifeless. Because that which
was the life of the body has gone. But it doesn't cease to
exist. No. Because God breathed into
man the breath of life and man became a living soul and that
soul will always exist. There is no such thing as just
dying like a dog and then you're annihilated and it's over with.
That's impossible. God has breathed into us the
life that only He could breathe and the soul will exist somewhere
forever. Now the body will go back to
the grave. It will go back to the dust to
await a resurrection. There will be a resurrection
of the just and the unjust. Those who are justified by grace. Those who are justified by the
blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall be
raised. You read for us from 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 both this morning and this evening. You read a
little further, he talks about, then shall this corruption put
on incorruption. This mortal shall put on immortality. Live forever with the Lord. But the souls of those who know
not the Savior, they will exist forever also. Because in the resurrection,
And I believe it's a general resurrection. The bodies of those who know
not the Savior, the unjustified ones, those who are the goats,
the wicked, their bodies are going to be raised also. And
their souls will be joined back to them. Where are they now?
They're in a dungeon. They're suffering the wrath and
the anger and the vengeance of God. But sometime in the future there
is going to be this general resurrection, this final resurrection of the
just and the unjust. Now the righteous will be raised,
have glorified bodies, be wonderful. beyond our understanding or comprehension
for us. But it's going to be awful for
the wicked, those who die in their sins, those who know not
our Savior, those who love not the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll
be anathema maranatha. They'll be damned when Christ
comes. final resurrection, the body and the soul join back together
to hear that awful sentence of death, depart from me. I never
knew you. I never loved you. I never set
you apart from myself. I never saved you by my grace
for my glory. I left you as I found you. Depart from me. But their existence
won't cease, will it? It'll just go on. You know, for
us, it's everlasting life. But for those who are unbelievers,
it's everlasting death. You can't hardly call it life.
It's an everlasting existence. But to forevermore be the object
of God's wrath, for God to preserve you so as to punish you, Isn't
that amazing? He preserved. You say, what's
keeping the people who are in hell from being annihilated,
from being burned up, or whatever hell consists of? If you think
it consists of real fire, which I think there's every indication
that there is, but there's more to it than that. Why aren't they consumed? God
preserves them. He preserves them to continually
damn them. That's a just God. And that's
the God we have to deal with, and He only saves in justice. Like I said, He doesn't compromise
His mercy in saving us. He honors His justice in the
death of His Son. And our Lord Jesus, in three
hours on the cross, if I can put it this way, He bore our
hell. All of the wrath of God due to
our sins fell on Him. He turned up the cup of God's
righteous indignation and He drank it dry. And He put it down
and said, it is finished. There is no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus. That judgment has been taken
care of by our Savior. We will live forever, but those
in hell have to suffer forever. Not to pay for their sins. No. Their sins can't be paid for.
Only one thing pay for the blood, pay for the sins of people. That's
the blood of the Lord Jesus. That's all. The death of sinners
in hell suffering for a million years won't pay for one sin.
It's not what it's for. Hell's not for you to pay your
sin debt. Can't be paid. Can't be paid. Body and soul. Body and soul,
you're going to wind up somewhere. That's for sure. The body is going back to the
dust. And dust in the scripture speaks of death. You remember
when Hannah, in her prayer, She said there in 1 Samuel 2, He
raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifted up the beggar
from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them
inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth of the
Lord's and He has set the world upon them. He raises up the poor
out of the dust. Do you know what that means?
He raises up poor sinners from the dust of death. Where did
He find you? He found you in the dust of death.
Spiritually dead in trespasses and in sins. And He raised you
up. He lifted you up from the deep
miry clay. And He set your feet on the rock,
Christ Jesus. He did that. Because He raises
up the poor out of the dust. That's where we came. We came
from the dust. We died in sin. The Lord finds
us in our place of death, but He doesn't leave us there. He
doesn't leave us there. Once a story is told about, oh,
I don't know, some great ruler. I can't remember who it was,
man. He came across a century who was supposed to be alert
and awake and guarding the camp. And he
was asleep. And the emperor killed him and
said, I left you. I left him as I found him. I
left him as I found him. God didn't leave you where he
found you. We raised up from the dust. And
he makes us to sit among the very princes of his people. Oh,
what grace is this? Body and the soul. Consider this. Here's something I want you to
consider also. The sin of the body and the soul. Go back to
Genesis chapter 3. Consider the sin of the body
and the soul. Alright, God made Adam. He made
a body for him, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and man became a living soul. And we don't know how long it
was, Sometime after that, Adam fell into sin. Look at chapter 2, verse 15,
Genesis. The Lord God took the man, put
him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. The Lord
God commanded the man, saying, If every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And we know what happened
in the third chapter. Adam sinned. It had a devastating
effect upon all of his posterity, for he was the representative
of the human race. We talk about the federal headship
of Adam. We became lost through a representative
through no action on our own. You're born a sinner. You didn't
do something to become a sinner. You're born a sinner because
of the disobedience of somebody else, even so. you become righteous
by the obedience of somebody else. Another representative
man, even the God-man, who represented all of his people, and by his
obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, we're made
the very righteousness of God in him. Adam, our representative, he's
faced with this situation, and he sinned. He sinned. Now remember the two distinct
acts of God in creation. He formed man out of the dust,
breathed in his nostrils the breath of life. So he got a body
and a soul. When Adam sinned, there were
two distinct elements to his transgression. Number one, he
sinned from within. That was the first sin. Look
here in chapter 3, verse 6, Genesis. When the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree to be desired
to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat,
and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat," or
literally, he willed to eat. Before he put that fruit, that
forbidden fruit to his lips, he had already sinned. the immaterial part of him sinned. He willed to eat in his soul. In his soul. He made an inward decision to
rebel against God. He wasn't deceived. No. We know that from 1 Timothy chapter
2 and verse 14. Eve was deceived, but Adam was
not. He willingly He deliberately
rebelled against God. He defied God. He broke God's
law. He said in his heart, I know
what God has said, but I am going to do what I want to do. He willed
to eat. The sin took place in the soul. And then that sin manifested
itself outwardly. Because that's what sin does. You read what our Lord said in
Matthew chapter 15. He talked about all those things.
He said they come from within. From the heart. Isn't that what
He said? All the outward manifestations of sin, they come forth from
within. From within. Soul and body. Well then what
happened? Death. And guess what? Death of the soul, death of the
body. God had said, in the day ye eat
thereof, you'll surely die. Well, Adam didn't just drop dead
physically, but he did spiritually. He died. For as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned, that is, all sinned in Adam."
Romans 5.12. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
When Adam died, we died. His soul lost the life of God. He died spiritually. He was immediately
separated from God. And there's the evidence of that.
He hears the voice of God and he runs. And he's ashamed of
his nakedness. He sews fig leaf aprons together. He's now a self-righteous sinner.
And man's been sewing fig leaf aprons together ever since to
try to hide his shame. That's the evidence of what sin
has done to his soul. He died spiritually. He became
a self-righteous sinner, thinking he can make himself acceptable
to God. Men still feel that way today.
We all think that way naturally. It's just the way we are. Well,
why are we like that, preacher? Sin. Sin. We're dead spiritual. That's
why the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. You must
be born again. You're dead. Life must be breathed
into you. The breath of life. Like the bones to which Ezekiel
preached. You know those bones all came
together to make a mighty army, but they didn't raise up a sword.
They didn't throw a spear. Because there was no breath in
them. It's got to be the breath of
God in us, right? It's got to be the breath of
God. The quickening work of the Spirit
of God. Adam died spiritually. And in
a matter of years, he died physically. He experienced what we read in
Ecclesiastes chapter 12. His earthly tabernacle that supported
and housed the body died. The soul moved out. Because it's appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment. The death of the soul and the
body. And yet the Bible talks about
another death. A third death. And that death is that death
that lasts forever that I was talking about a while ago. That's why James says, let us
know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of
his way shall save a soul from death. Save a soul from death. And hide a multitude of sins. Not that we are the efficient
cause of salvation, but the instrumental cause in delivering the Word.
Because it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. to
save them that believe. Somebody tells you the story
of Christ Jesus and Him crucified. Well, we died in Adam. The soul
is dead. In time, the body is going to
die. Well, how then is man to be saved? Well, turn to Isaiah
chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. Stay with me a little longer.
We'll get to the end of the story. Isaiah chapter 53. If sinners
are to be saved, a suitable substitute must come, and he must be as
those for whom he comes. That is, he must have body and
soul. Body and soul. Brother read to us from Hebrews
chapter 10, Christ said, a body thou hast prepared me. I wonder why? Well, because a
man in a body rebelled against God. Another man, a perfect man,
the righteous man in a body is going to have to satisfy God.
That's right. And he has a soul. He's a soul. He's a quickening
spirit. You read there in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. He's a quickening spirit. And He had to come into this
world in a body and a soul that God prepared for Him. He had to satisfy God. He had to suffer physically.
His body had to suffer. His body had to suffer to save
his people from their sins, to save his people from our sins.
His body had to suffer. He had to suffer physically because
of man's transgressions. He must give life for life, body
for body, because the penalty for sin is
death. Christ died for our sins. Look at chapter 53 verses 4 and
5. See here how He suffered physically. Isaiah 53 verse 4. Surely He
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. The penalty for
sins is the death of the body. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. He was buried and rose again
the third day according to the Scriptures. He must suffer in
our stead, which means He must suffer physically. Because Adam,
part of the transgression was that he sinned physically. He actually, literally, really
took the forbidden fruit and ate of it. To be the perfect sacrifice,
he had to lay down his life. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I have the power to lay it down,
and I have the power to take it again. And praise his name,
he laid it down. He laid his life down for sinners. But that's not enough. He must suffer the curse of the
law in his soul. If we were to be saved, He must
give His body for our bodies and His soul for our souls. That's
exactly what He did. Look at verse 8. He was taken
from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation?
For He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression
of My people was He stricken. Say, why did these things happen
to Him? For the transgressions of His people. That's why. Not
for the transgressions of everybody, but he's got a people more numerous
than the stars of the sky. A multitude which no man can
number, but he's numbered them because he wrote our names down
in the Lamb's Book of Life for the foundation of the world.
It's an elect from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. But
the transgression of my people, he's got a people. He came to
lay down His life for these people. Look at verse 9. He made His
grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death, because
He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. It satisfied God to bruise
Him. Remember reading over in Ezekiel,
the Lord hath no pleasure, no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. What does that mean? No satisfaction. That's why I held forever. No
satisfaction. Has God's justice ever been satisfied? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. On the cross, justice was satisfied. It satisfied the Lord to bruise
him. He had put him to grief. Watch
it. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for or
because he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because why? He hath poured out his soul,
his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the
transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and he made intercession
for the transgressors. Our Savior suffered, bled, and
died for us, suffered body and soul to save us. And I'll tell
you one more thing. His people must be saved spiritually
and physically. Spiritually, we're regenerated
by the power of the Spirit through the preaching of the gospel of
the grace of God. We're made alive. It takes place
within us. It's a miracle of grace. I was blind and now I see. I
was deaf and now I hear. I was dead and now I live. Well,
you can't attribute that to anything else except the marvelous, free,
and sovereign, effectual grace of God. We live spiritually. But the
body is going to die. It's kindly dissolving now, isn't
it? And all those aches and pains
that we're beginning to feel, they're forerunners of what's
to come. The body's got to die. But wait
a minute. He redeemed us, body and soul. The body's got to live again. And though these bodies must
be laid aside, laid in the grave, like Abraham said of Sarah, I
must bury my dead out of my sight. The ashes of Sarah, probably
nobody could find them today. I don't know. I'm not in the
medical community. I don't know how long it takes
for bones to dissolve and go away and turn to dust and all
that kind of stuff. She's been long gone. She's like that home run over
the fence. Long gone. She's been long gone. But wherever
her dust is, God knows where every speck of it is. And one
of these days, the Almighty Savior is going to come back. And He
who spoke with a voice that raised Sarah from spiritual death will
speak with a voice that's going to raise Sarah's body from the
grave. And mine, and yours, and everybody else who died in Christ
Jesus. Because He bought us body and
soul. We're His. And body and soul,
we're going to be with Him forever and ever and ever and sing His
praises and we'll shout salvation to our God and unto the Lamb
and we'll do it bless His name in these bodies. In these bodies. Job said in my flesh I shall
see God. In my flesh. Can you imagine
that? In your body. The body you've got right now.
You'll see the Lord. But in that day it will be a
perfect body. There won't be any more rheumatism
or arthritis or cancer, no more heart, all that kind of stuff.
All that stuff that's the result of sin will be in the past. And then together we'll just
bless the name of Christ Jesus forever and won't it be wonderful
there? Oh yes. Alright. God bless you.