Wholly Sanctified #3 - the Soul — Stephen Kaung

The Biblical Call to Whole Sanctification

Will you please turn to 1st Thessalonians, 1st Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 23 and 24. 1st Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 23. 3 Now the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is faithful who calls you, who will also perform it. Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 12 and 13. Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 12 and 13. For the word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

And there is not a creature unapparent before him, but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do. The gospel according to Matthew, Matthew chapter 10, verses 38 and 39. Matthew chapter 10, verses 38 and 39.

And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He that finds his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it. And this word life is the same word as soul, so we can read it this way.

He that finds his soul shall lose it, and he who has lost his soul for my sake shall find it. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee for all that Thou has done for us, and we want to thank Thee for Thy precious word, because Thy word is truth, Thy word is light, Thy word is life.

Whole-Person Sanctification at Christ’s Coming

Lord, we do pray that Thy word will really be open to us, that we may not only understand it, but we may enter into all truth. To the praise of Thy glory, we ask in Thy precious name, Amen. Today, we have been considering together on this matter of being wholly sanctified.

Our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus, because this is the calling of God. This is the will of God for all who are redeemed by His precious blood. It is God's purpose that all who are redeemed should be saved to the uttermost.

Not just barely saved, but fully saved. Not only our spirit, but also our soul and our body, our whole being, being wholly sanctified. That is to say, separated completely unto God Himself. And that is to be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus.

Our Lord Jesus' presence is soon coming, and we shall all stand before His presence. And it is God's will that when we stand at His presence, we are preserved and blameless and wholly sanctified. This is the will of God, and this should be our passion, our desire.

Now, we have already considered this matter of our spirit being wholly sanctified, and we do not have the time to go back. But this morning, we would like to continue on how our soul being wholly sanctified.

How can our soul be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus? Now, for the sake of some brothers and sisters who may not have that basic understanding, probably we have to lay a little bit of foundation first.

The Tripartite Nature of Humanity

You know, when God created man, in Genesis 2, verse 7, He took the red earth and formed it into the form of a man. That is our body. Then He breathed the breath of life into that earthen form. And that breath of life that comes directly from God becomes our human spirit, because God is spirit, and He gave us a human spirit that we may commune, communicate with God.

And as God's breath enters into this earthen vessel, a third element came into being. So the Bible said, and man became a living soul. So you find, in the creation of man, man is created as a tripartite, spirit and soul and body.

Our spirit gives us God consciousness. Our body gives us world consciousness. It is our soul that gives us self-consciousness. This is what we are. Souls is the central part of our being. It is not the highest part.

The highest part is our spirit, because that will enable us to be in relation with God. But our soul is our very being. That's what you are. It is I, me, myself. It is the seat of our personality. So our soul actually takes a central part in our being.

According to God's divine order, we use our spirit to touch God and to receive from God His will. Then our soul will embrace it. Our soul will love it. Our soul will consider it. And our soul will will it.

And then our soul will pass what God's will to our body to act it out, to do the will of God. Now that is the divine order of God for human beings. So dear brothers and sisters, we are talking today of ourselves.

That's what you are. Do you know yourself? If we want to know God, we need to know ourselves too, because soul is ourselves. When man sinned, our spirit was dead. By dead, it doesn't mean that it's not living.

It is no longer there. As an organ, an element is still there, but it has lost its proper communication with God. In other words, when man sinned, our spirit, human spirit, was dead unto God. No more communication, cut off, alienated from the life of God.

The Lost Soul Under Sin’s Dominion

So what remains is soul and body that are still functioning. But when sin entered into the world through man, sin became the dominating power to our life. Our soul was contaminated. Our soul was dominated by the power of sin.

And therefore, our soul is lost. Now if you read Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2, in verse 1 through verse 3, and you being dead in your offenses and sins. And you, that is your soul, because soul and you are one.

Oftentimes you find in the scripture, soul and man are synonymous. When Jacob entered into Egypt, the Bible said 70 souls entered into Egypt. Because soul is synonymous to man. That is what you are. And you, being dead in your offenses and sins.

So far as God is concerned, your soul is dead. Not only your spirit is dead, your soul is dead. That is to say, your soul has lost its proper function. It has lost its direction. It has lost its source.

And when the soul is left to itself, instead of under God, that soul is a lost soul. Now what are the conditions of the lost soul? You have walked according to the age of the world. You walk according to the custom, the fashion of the world.

According to the ruler of the authority of the air. The spirit who now works in the sense of disobedience. Not only you become worldly, but also you are under the authority of the spirit. And that is the evil spirit that is now working in the sense of disobedience.

And what will be our manner of life? Among whom we also all once had our conversation, that is our life, our manner of life in the lust of our flesh. Doing what the flesh and the thoughts will to do. In other words, we have fallen into our sinful fallen soul.

Dominated by our soul. By the sinful flesh. The sinful soul. The sinful eye. And we're children by nature of wrath. Even as the rest. In other words, after man's sin, he becomes a son of wrath. A disobedient child.

That is what our soul condition was. Now you turn to Ephesians chapter 4, verses 17 to 19. Another description. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the nations walk in the vanity of their mind.

Being darkened in understanding. So when your soul is lost, it becomes a sinful soul. You find all the functions of our soul. Begin to function improperly. It has lost its proper function. And it begins to function in such a way that your mind becomes vain.

Your understanding becomes darkened. And also there is the ignorance which is in you. It affects all the faculties of your soul. Now the faculties of our soul are threefold. Will. Mind. And feeling. You know that you are because you think.

You know that you are because you feel it. You know that you are because you will it. You have your will. So these are the functions of our soul. Now you know our soul is our spirit. It is immaterial.

Incorporal. It is not like a body which is a corporal body. Physical body. But the soul is immaterial. And yet it is real. It is a substance. A substance that is not material substance. And how do we know our soul?

We know our soul by its functions. So we know our soul by our will, volition. By our mind, our thought. And by our feeling, our sensation. That's how we know ourselves. You are different from anybody else because the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you will is different from the way from anybody else.

That's your individuality. That's what we are. But after we have seen, you find that that life of the soul, that self-life, is sinful, is corrupted, is under the domination of the evil one, and therefore your mind becomes bad.

You think of the vanity of your mind. Now if you have the enlightenment from above, like Solomon in Ecclesiastics, he looked at everything under the sun and said, vanity of vanity. But before we be enlightened, how our mind goes for the vanity of this world.

And our understanding is darkened. We think we know, we understand, but our understanding doesn't have the right standard. It is darkened so far as God is concerned. And how about our will? You'll find the hardness of the heart.

So it says here, by reason of the hardness of their heart, give themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness and greedy unsatisfying lust. In other words, our will is all corrupted. We will to do the things that are unpleasing to God, sinful to God.

And how about a feeling? He said, having cast off all feelings. Our feelings have become corrupted. That is to say, our whole soul has fallen. So, so far as God is concerned, this living soul is now a lost soul, a dead soul.

Christ’s Salvation of the Soul

Now that was our condition before we were saved. That was the condition of the people of this world. They may consider themselves as enlightened, but actually their understanding was darkened. But thank God, he loves our soul.

You know, Charles Wesley has a hymn called Jesus, Lover of My Soul. God loves our soul. And that's the reason why you'll find he comes to us, to save us. Not only to save our spirit and sanctify it, but he comes to save our soul and to sanctify it.

So that's why you'll find in 1 Peter 1, verse 7, there is a term called the salvation of the soul. Now, brothers and sisters, usually we think that salvation is limited to our spirit. He that is born of the spirit is spirit.

That's salvation. But remember, salvation also reaches to our soul. Our soul needs to be saved just as much as our spirit needs to be saved. In other words, after we are saved, is our soul being saved?

Now, we would like to approach this matter from experiential viewpoint. Now, even though the spiritual experience must base upon spiritual truth, you know, but we do not have the time to deal with this matter of spiritual truth.

What Christ has done for us, that is the basis of our spiritual experience. But this morning, we would like to just focus our attention to our spiritual experience. How is our soul being saved? Because this is something that is going on today.

After we are saved, that is, our spirit is awakened, then the salvation of the soul begins. And it will continue on throughout our life, so far as our spiritual experience is concerned. Now, if you are saved, what happens?

Now, you receive a new life. The Bible calls it eternal life. In other words, the Holy Spirit will not only give rebirth to your dead spirit and quicken your dead spirit into a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit also himself comes and dwells in our new spirit, but also a new life is given to you.

And that new life dwells in your spirit. So, in other words, when we are saved, we receive a new life. And that new life is none other but the life of our Lord Jesus. It is the life of our Lord Jesus.

He himself, as it were, comes into our spirit and dwells there. He is the life of our spirit. And, you know, when his life comes into you, he brings to you his new nature. You know, every life has its nature.

The birds, the life of a bird has a nature to fly. The life of a fish has a nature to swim in the water. And you find the Adamic life, the fallen life, the life of our soul, has the nature of being earthly, natural, and even devilish.

That is the nature of that Adamic life in you. That old life in you, your fallen self, has a life there. It is the natural life. The so-called natural life is the fallen life. And it is earthly and even devilish.

That's what you find in James, the book of James. But this new life, it is the life of Christ. And this new life is in your spirit. And this new life is spiritual, heavenly, godly. So thank God that when he gave us this new life, this eternal life, that life of Christ in us, it carries with it a new nature.

And, in other words, we will incline towards that which is spiritual, incline towards that which is heavenly, incline towards that which is godly. You want to be like God. You want to commune with God.

You want to do the will of God. That is a new desire created within you. Brothers and sisters, do you have that kind of new desire when you are saved? Before you are saved, what interested you was the world.

God is no interest to you. But after you are saved, you have a new desire to know God, to approach God, to fellowship with him, to pray, even to read the word of God, in order that you may know him better.

Brothers and sisters, a new nature began to express itself in you. How do we know we have eternal life? You know, the Gospel of John tells us, if you believe in the Lord Jesus as the son of God, you have eternal life.

And in 1 John, the whole book is written for the purpose of telling us, how do you know you have eternal life? You have eternal life because you begin to see light. You begin to walk in the light as God is in the light.

You know you have eternal life because God is righteous, and you begin to practice righteousness. You know you have eternal life because God is love, and you begin to love, not only love God, but love those who are begotten of God.

Now, this proves that a new life is in you. The new nature, incarnation, expression, begins to come out from you. Now, do you have such experience? I believe you all have that. But when you offer seed, I cannot tell you how long.

With some people, it's longer. With other people, it's shorter. But sooner or later, you discover that it's not all light, all righteousness, and all love. You begin to discover that in you, that is in your flesh, there is still darkness, there is still unrighteousness, there is still unlovingness.

In other words, in your spirit, you love God. You love to do His will. But in your soul, you discover the old man, that self, that flesh, is still dragging you down. Now, you come into a conflict, a civil war within yourselves.

The Conflict Between Spirit and Flesh

Now, brothers and sisters, are you having that civil war? You feel that within you, there are two persons, as it were. So far as your inward man is concerned, you love God. You want to do His will. You want to do what is right.

You want to walk in the light. And you have some light, too. But you discover in your outward man, in your soul, in your flesh, there is another life there, the sinful, fallen, self life, and that still wants to do the old things, go the old way, and love the world, even love sin, and have no desire to do God's will.

So there is a conflict within you. Now, that you find in Galatians 5, verse 17. You find that the flesh lusts after the spirit, and the spirit lusts after the soul, after the flesh. There is a civil war going on within you.

Now, you think that after you're saved, everything will be rosy. Everything will be all right. But sooner or later, you discover there are two lives within you. And these two lives are struggling, striving, fighting against each other.

Now, do you have this kind of experience? Now, if you have that kind of experience, actually it's a proof that you are saved, that you have the life of Christ in you. And this civil war will increase in your life when you consecrate yourself to the Lord.

Now, we often say the first Christian experience is consecration. After you are saved, what should be your first Christian experience? The first Christian experience is you are constrained by the love of God to present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.

This is your spiritual, intelligent service. Now, if, brothers and sisters, you have not presented your bodies a living sacrifice, you are still keeping to yourself, you are still the master, as it were, of your life.

Even after you are saved, well, that civil war probably will not be very intense. But also, your Christian life is not very much different from the people of this world. In other words, the more intense that civil war, the better.

Renewing the Mind Through Consecration

After you consecrate yourself, that civil war will be intensified. Why? Because after you consecrate yourself to the Lord, the Bible said your mind will be renewed. Now, what does that mean? It means that in the past, your mind loved the things of this world, conformed to the fashion of this world.

But now your mind began to prove what is the perfect, acceptable will of God. There is a change in your mind. You know, when we were saved, there was some change, but very superficial. But after consecration, the renewing of the mind began to come to your life.

And your mind began to be renewed, to begin to love the will of God, want to understand it, want to do the will of God, instead of still loving sin and the things of this world. And because of this, your civil war is intensified.

Now, that is Romans chapter 7. You know, Romans chapter 7 is the conflict between the mind, that is the renewed mind, and the flesh. Because in Romans 7, you find this man, Paul, after he was saved. We believe it was experienced after he was saved.

His mind is renewed. He knows what is the will of God. Not only that, but his will, he wills to do the will of God. But he discovers he does not have the power to do it. He said, what I want to do, I cannot do.

What I do not want to do, I do it. It is not I who do it. It is the sea in me that does it. Oh, wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of death? In me, that is in my flesh, there is no good.

So is the conclusion of Romans 7, in the last verse it says, with my mind I serve God's law, but with my flesh I serve sin's law. You see the conflict there? The conflict is intensified. Another thing, even though your mind is renewed, but because it is still in the beginning stage, therefore you also discover you have a problem.

And the problem is you do not know whether this is from God or this is from yourself. Am I doing it out of myself, or am I doing it out of God? You begin to wonder. You know, not only do you not have the power to do God's will, but you begin to be perplexed, not knowing exactly whether this comes from your spirit or whether this comes from your soul.

If it comes from your spirit, it is of God. If it comes from your soul, it is of man, of the flesh. Unacceptable to God. No matter how good it is. You know, this becomes a problem to you. So now you come to another experience.

Discerning Spirit and Soul

And the experience is the dividing of the soul and spirit. You know, the dividing of the soul and spirit actually is the second Christian experience, strictly speaking. After consecration, there will be the dividing of the soul and spirit.

Now if there is no consecration, you will not feel the need of such dividing because you are mainly living in the soul life. Everything comes of your soul. Even your worship, even your service come from the soul and soul power.

But after you have really consecrated yourself, you really want to be wholly set apart for God. Then the dividing of the spirit and soul becomes a necessity. Now do you sense the need of such a division?

Or do you think that soul and spirit are one? It doesn't matter. But the Bible says to us very clearly the natural man, that is the soulish man, does not love the will of God and cannot even know it. It's totally unacceptable.

Now how can the soul and the spirit be divided? In Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, the word of God is living and operative, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the division of the soul and spirit as the bone and the marrow, that every intent of the heart, intent and mind of the heart, will be exposed because there is nothing that was unexposed in the sight of God.

Bone and marrow. Marrow is the blood-producing element. But marrow is in the bone. You do not see the marrow until the bone is cracked. In like manner, our soul is the shell, as it were, of our spirit.

And after we sin, our spirit is completely imprisoned by our soul. It is like the bone with the marrow. And for the spirit to be released, there has to be a penetrating and a dividing. That will show us what is of the spirit and what is of the soul.

But how can we distinguish it? You know, so far as our Christian experience is concerned, we come to a point where we begin to sense the need of the dividing of the spirit and the soul. We do not want to live in our soul life.

We want to live in our spirit life. We do not want to serve in our soul power. We want to serve in our spirit power. And often we ask ourselves this question, is it from the spirit or is it from the soul?

Is it from God? It is from me. Brothers and sisters, are you puzzled? The more you try to divide, the more confused you become. And it is at that point that you find your spiritual life is paralyzed. You know, I like to use that illustration of a centipede.

A centipede has 100 feet. And it can walk very fast. One day the centipede said to itself, I wonder which of my legs moves first. So he began to figure out which of his 100 legs moved first. And he got stuck.

He couldn't move anymore. So after a while he said, oh, it's okay, give up. And off he went. Now, spiritually speaking, some Christians are in this state. They are paralyzed. They love the Lord. They want to be completely in the Lord and for the Lord.

And they are afraid of their flesh, of themselves, of their soul power. And they try to analyze themselves. The more they analyze, the more paralyzed. And they do nothing. Now, you think that this is a bad sign.

No, this is a good sign. If you are really progressing in the Lord, you will come through that stage. How can the soul and the spirit be divided? So Hebrews chapter 4 tells us the secret. You know, Hebrews chapter 4 tells us that the word of God is living and operating like a two-edged sword, penetrating, dividing.

The picture is when you bring a sacrifice to God. You put the sacrifice on the altar. Then the priest will come with a sharp knife. And he is a trained butcher, so he knows exactly how to cut that sacrifice and not make a mess of it.

So he will cut according to the formation of the bones of the body. A clean cut. He will penetrate. He will divide. So everything will be exposed. The bone, the marrow will be exposed. Nothing will be hidden in the sight of God.

The Holy Spirit’s Use of the Word

What is the word of God? The Bible tells us the word of God is the sword, two-edged sword, sharp. But whose sword is it? Who is welding that sword? If you weld that sword, you'll cut up people and cut yourself, make a mess of everything.

The one who used that sword is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit today represents Christ as the priest, the high priest. And he alone has the ability, the knowledge, the power to cut a clean cut. When the Holy Spirit is using the word of God, that is a living and operating.

When we are using the word of God, we hurt ourselves. We hurt others. We are not supposed to do that. Let the Holy Spirit use the word of God. So you'll find that as we go on with the Lord and we are confused, what should we do?

Do nothing. Lie on the altar. Don't climb down. Don't struggle. Lie on the altar. Allow the Holy Spirit. He knows just the timing, just the occasion, and he knows when he will use that living and operative word.

God's word becomes living, operative. It is no longer just written word. All you have read, all there are stored in your memory, the Holy Spirit will bring it out at the moment, right moment, and show you what is of God, what is not of God.

What is of the Spirit, what is not of the Spirit. There is no more mixture. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Then the intent and thought of your heart, that is of your soul, will all be exposed. Intent is will.

Thought is mind. Everything will be exposed, naked before God. And that's the way we learn the dividing of the spirit and the soul. Brothers and sisters, we need to learn this lesson. You know, the dividing of the spirit and soul is more than something we can do.

We have to leave it with the Holy Spirit. But what we can do is be quiet on the altar and let him. That is the dividing of the spirit and the soul. And gradually you'll find through the living word of God we begin to understand what is of the spirit and what is of the soul.

Deliverance and Salvation of the Soul

That is the second step. And now the third step. The deliverance of the soul or the salvation of the soul. How can our soul be delivered from the domination of sin, from the domination of self, from the domination of our flesh?

How can we be delivered? Do we feel the sense, the need to be saved, to be delivered? The Apostle Paul said, Oh, wretched man that I am. I'm a wretched man. Who can deliver me from this body of death?

Thank God through Jesus Christ. So you see, when we come to this matter of the deliverance of the soul, before we touch upon the experience side, I have to say a little bit about the truth side, the objective side.

In other words, what has Christ done for us? He not only bore our sins, all the sins we have committed, in His body on the cross, that all our sins are being borne away, carried away. Our sins are forgiven.

But when Christ died on the cross, He not only died as our substitute, He also died as our representative. Therefore, the Bible says, in Romans 6, 6, knowing, this is something we need to know, knowing that our old man was crucified.

When Christ was crucified, our old man, the old self, the old I, was included. So when He died on the cross, our old man was over. And this is what Christ has done for us. This is something we have to believe.

That's where faith comes in. So Romans 6, 11 said, Reckon yourself as dead unto sin, and as alive unto God in Christ. It is only true in Christ. If you look at your feeling, it is not true. But if you look at the finished work of Christ, it is true.

So you have to reckon, count yourself as dead unto sin in Christ, and as alive unto God in Christ. That's a matter of faith. And after you stand on that ground, you yield your body as instruments of righteousness unto holiness.

That's what you need to do. And this is the objective side, the foundation for the salvation of your soul. Now you come into the experiential side, the subjective side. And the subjective side is what Christ has said to us.

Denying the Self and Bearing the Cross

Today, if you gain your soul life, you lose it. Today, if you lose your soul life, for my sake, you gain it. Today, if you love your soul, you love your life, you lose it. If for my sake, you hate your life, you save it.

Now what does that mean? It means that in our daily life, we need to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him. That's what it means. Because if we deny ourselves, that is our will. We are willing to say no to ourselves, to our soul life.

He has his demands. We say no. You are dead. I won't listen to you. And then the Holy Spirit will arrange crosses to come into our life. Our relationship with people, our circumstances, things that occur to us, all these things are under the hand of the Holy Spirit.

He will provide the cross for us to bear. You don't need to create any cross. For others or for yourself. Let the Holy Spirit, in His wisdom, He will arrange your circumstances. We call it the discipline of the Holy Spirit.

And He will show you what the cross is. When God's mind conflicts with your mind, when God's will conflicts with your will, when God's feeling conflicts with your feeling, that is a cross. And because you have denied yourself, you are able to take up the cross and follow the Lord.

And when you do that, so far as your soul life is concerned, you lose it. Because you suffer. You love yourself. And you suffer. But if you lose it today, for the sake of the Lord, you gain it to eternity.

Why? Because a transformation begins to come into your soul. Instead of you, your fallen life, flesh, self, that is the life of your soul, that is in charge of all the faculties of your soul. So all the faculties of your soul are the expressions, the manifestations of what you are.

You are on the throne. But gradually you'll find by taking up the cross and following the Lord, self is dethroned and Christ is enthroned in your soul. This is Ephesians chapter 3. The strengthening of your inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart.

Christ comes into your soul. Not only is he the life of your spirit, that life begins to come over your soul. He is now using all the faculties of your soul. So your feeling, your thinking, your willing expresses Christ instead of expressing yourself.

That is the salvation of the soul. That is your soul being wholly sanctified. That is what Paul said, I live, but not I. It is Christ who lives in me. For me to live is Christ. Brothers and sisters, that is the salvation of the soul.

That is the sanctification of the soul. That is how the soul is preserved, blameless at the coming of the Lord. When we stand before the Lord, we are like him. Therefore there is no fear. As he is, so are we in this world.

So brothers and sisters, very briefly, simply, we put this matter before us. Our soul needs to be saved. And this is the prescribed way in the word of God towards the salvation of the soul. So may the Lord.

Closing Prayer for the Sanctification of the Soul

Dear Lord, we are touching something that concerns ourselves so intimately that we oftentimes find ourselves in dark, confused. But we praise and thank thee that thy word is clear. Thy truth is certain.

We thank thee that thou love our soul and thou desires to save our soul to the uttermost. O Lord, we want to give our soul to thee and pray that thou will by thy spirit work out thy salvation. We ask in thy precious name.

Amen.