Wholly Sanctified Part 1 — Stephen Kaung

The Call to Be Wholly Sanctified

We would still like brothers and sisters to turn to 1st Thessalonian chapter 5. We shall still read verses 23 and 24. 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. Let's turn again to 1st Peter chapter 1. We will read from verse 3 through verse 12. 1st Peter chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance reserved in the heavens for you.

Who are kept guarded by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye exult for a little while at present if needed, put to grief by various trials. But the proving of your faith, much more precious than a gold which perishes, though it be proved by fire, be found to praise and glory and honor in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Who, having not seen, you love. On whom, not now looking, but believing, you exult with joy unspeakable and filled with the glory. Verse 9. Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Please be careful here, I did not read in the Chinese version spirit. Because in the original language there is no such word spirit in this sentence. Salvation of souls. Concerning which salvation, prophets who have prophesied of the grace toward you, sought out and searched out.

Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed out, testifying before of the suffering which belonged to Christ and the glories after these. To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered those things.

Which have now been announced to you by those who have declared to you the glad tidings by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, which angels desire to look into. Let's bow down and pray. Our Lord, our God, we thank you.

Because the salvation you have prepared for us, even angels like to look upon and to know. We thank you and praise you, because your grace is way more than what our eyes can see, our ears can hear, and our hearts can think.

Our God and our Father, we will that at this moment, that your Holy Spirit can reveal to us what you have already prepared for us. And lead us into your own grace. May all glory and honor be to you. In the name of Lord Jesus.

Amen. I think by this time, we all are able to recite 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 23 and 24. May these two be carved into our hearts. Because God himself will sanctify us wholly. And this is his will. And this is also his calling to every one of us.

May we all hear this calling. And also this is his own work. And yesterday morning we have shared a little about the creation and fall of the soul. So this morning we will not repeat that. We thank and praise our God.

The Creation of the Human Spirit, Soul, and Body

When God created man, he created man according to his own image. God himself is Trinity God. And he is three but one. When he created man, it is also three and one. It is not three separate persons, but three parts.

When he created us, he created us with the spirit, the soul and the body. Although these are three parts, but this is all one being, one body. In God's plan, he puts our spirit at the highest place. Because our spirit can commune with the spirit of God.

It can receive the will of God from God. And then he delivers this will to the soul of us. Because soul is us, the person. Although the spirit is the highest, but the soul is the most central. Because we, the person, is the soul.

The soul is us, the self. So we see when the spirit receives the will from God. And when the spirit fellowships that will to us, the person. Then it starts our will. And we are willing the will of God.

And also we understand his will in our mind. It also stirs our emotion to love the will of God. In other words, we now receive the will that is revealed to us by God. Then it commands our body to do the will of God.

When God created us man. And the Bible tells us that God breathed the breath of life in the nostril of man. Then man becomes a living soul. At that time our soul is innocent. And our soul is neutral. Our soul can very freely function.

And it is related to God. But when man sins, we know the day man sins, his spirit dies. His relationship with God is now severed. Now man now falls totally into his own soul and his own body. We also see that man now is totally controlled by sin.

And man becomes self-centered. The soul of man is now in a fallen condition. And this we already mentioned. We thank and praise our Lord. We see that God came to seek and deliver and save the lost man.

Salvation Beginning in the Spirit

When salvation of God came to us, it came to the center first and then it expands to the peripheral. So when God came to save us, first he wants to quicken our dead spirit. Then it will reach our soul.

And finally it reaches our body. So last night our brother mentioned especially this matter of born again. What does it mean by being born again? In John chapter 3 verse 6 it tells us, that which is born from the spirit is spirit.

And the first spirit is the Holy Spirit. The second spirit is the spirit of man. The Holy Spirit gives birth to us again. That second birth says that our spirit which was severed from God before, now is quickened.

Now it is a new spirit. And the Holy Spirit himself comes to dwell in that spirit. So that we can call Abba Father. Proving that now we are God's children. We thank and praise our Lord. And I believe brothers and sisters here, by the grace of God we all have experienced this rebirth.

And if we have not been born again, then we would continue in this fallen condition. Then we do not even have a beginning on spiritual matters. Brothers and sisters, at the moment we were born again, in the depth of our spirit there is a tremendous change.

Because originally that spirit was dead. Having no communication with God. But now this spirit is alive again. We now start to have communication with God. Now in us there is a great change. But brothers and sisters, when we were first born again, we might have experienced a great change.

We remember in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17, if one is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are past. All things are new. And all things are from God. If one is in Christ, then there is a new creation.

We all know that when we believe in the Lord, God does a work, a new creation in us. So we now are a new creation in Christ. All things are gone. All things are new now. And all are from God. Maybe when you first were saved, and you indeed experienced this new creation.

And at that time you may really felt that although I am on earth, I am really in heaven. So many brothers and sisters gave this testimony. The day he was born again, and he was a totally changed person.

When he walked on the street, it was like walking on clouds. When he heard the sound of the birds, it was very delightful. When he saw the trees and the grass, these things are so fresh. And like he was elevated to the third heaven.

And at that time he was full of peace and joy. And he loves to read the word of God. He thinks every word in the Bible speaks to him. And he loves to pray. And he wants to continue in prayer. And when he sees brothers and sisters, everyone is lovely.

And he loves to fellowship. He loves to attend meetings. Now if God at that time has any requirement, and he would say yes readily. And he would forsake the whole world to follow the Lord. And at that time it was indeed like a new creation.

How wonderful it would be if that condition can continue. But in the experience of many God's children, and we see that even at the time we were first reborn, indeed that was a new creation. As the old things are past, everything is new.

Everything is from God. Indeed we have that condition. But good experience doesn't last very long. So after a little while, it seems we have fallen from the third heaven to the ground. And although there is new creation, there is indeed new life in me.

Although our spirit is a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, but it seems my own creation was still there. Our own life, our old life, is still in us. And we discover that sin is still powerful in us.

We gradually feel that the world still attracts us. We discover that our conditions are not as perfect as when we were saved. So even at that time, some of us doubt that we have been saved. If I have really been saved, why does it seem that I have gone back to my previous condition?

So some, when they read 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, then there is a problem. So there it says, if one is in Christ, all the old things are past. Everything is new. Everything is from God. And I remember Brother T. Austin Spock wrote it in his writing.

He said he had problems, questions about this verse. Because he felt that if one is in Christ, then he is a new creation. And if that's the case, then everything old should have passed. Everything is new.

Everything is from God. Now how come? It seems the old things are still there. Now why not everything seems to be from God? So one day he said he discovered. Because it's not so in the original language.

The original language did not say if one is in Christ, then he is a new creation. So in the original language it says if one is in Christ, there is a new creation. So here we can see that he is in Christ, there is a new creation.

If you are not in Christ, then the old things are still with you. Now for that now he saw clearly. Brothers and sisters, when we were reborn, our spirit was reborn. But was our soul also changed? Was our fallen soul changed?

Our perishable body, was that changed? Indeed, at the time we believe in the law, the Bible tells us to repent, to believe in Him. To repent is the change of mind. So when we repent, there was indeed a return in our mind.

Originally our heart and mind is towards sin. And now our heart and mind is now turned. And we want to separate from sin. Originally our heart and mind is towards death. And now our heart and mind is turned to life.

Because the turning of heart and mind, we can receive Lord Jesus as our Savior. So we cannot say that heart and mind does not matter. But that turning was temporal. And that turning is only on the surface.

It is not a big turn in the soul and in life. So sometimes we say to brothers and sisters, although we have a new spirit, we still bring an old mind. Because when we are saved, the change within our soul was not that thorough.

Now what about our body? When we believe in the Lord, was there a great change in our body? Indeed, before we believe in the Lord. And we have sorrow and we worry in our heart. And our faces are long.

And after we believe in the Lord, the burdens are lifted. And our faces are round. And even so, this change is only surface. This body is still a perishable body. And this body has not been changed to an incorruptible body.

So we have to believe that we are saved. The primary, the great change is actually in our spirit. A dead spirit now becomes a living spirit. A spirit severed from God now becomes a spirit communicating with God.

This is the great change when we are saved. But as far as our soul is concerned, as far as our body is concerned, we discover that there was no great change yet. Now salvation not only will reach our spirit, and salvation must also reach our soul and our body.

The Salvation of the Soul

Brothers and sisters, today among God's children, the normal, the usual understanding and they think that to be saved is just like that. That we are reborn. Our sins are forgiven. And now we have eternal life.

When we die, we will go to heaven. And that is salvation. And outside of that, there is nothing else. That is why you see the condition of the Christians these days is so weak. Because God's children do not know that God's salvation is a comprehensive one.

We know that in the scripture, we see this term. Salvation of the soul. Now in Chinese language we say the salvation of the spirit and soul. So we are not clear about salvation of soul. But in the bible, not only it talks about our spirit being saved, it also emphasizes that our souls can be saved.

Our souls need to be saved. For example in Hebrews, the book of Hebrews really talks about the salvation of the soul. And many people when they read Hebrews, they have questions. Especially in chapter 6 and chapter 10.

But they do not know that the salvation mentioned in Hebrews is so great salvation. That salvation is not a small one. That salvation is not just confined in our spirit. Here is so great a salvation. And such great salvation if you read Hebrews.

It really talks about the salvation of our soul. For example, Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 it says we will read several verses. Chapter 10 from verse 35 Cast not away therefore your confidence which has great recompense.

For you have need of endurance in order that having done the will of God for yet a little while he that comes will come and will not delay. But the just shall live by faith and if he draws back my soul does not take pleasure in him.

But we are not drawn back to perdition but of faith to saving the soul. Now in the original language it is just soul. There is no spirit mentioned. So here the salvation of the soul is contrary to perdition.

Now this perdition of falling is not referring to going to hell. Now this perdition refers to the kingdom and we have no time to go into that today. For example Peter, the first and second Peter all speak about the salvation of the soul.

The scripture we read in verse 9 chapter 1 verse 9 talks about that. End of your faith the salvation of soul. Now even James talks about that. Some say that what James said in his letter is contrary to what Paul said in his letter because Paul emphasized justification by faith and James emphasized justification by works.

So some thought that James talked contrary to what Paul said but we know James chapter 1 verse 21 James chapter 1 verse 21 which is able to save your souls and here again it is souls only no spirit dimension.

The word is the word that can save your soul. So we know that in the scripture there is this thing called the salvation of soul. It is not manufactured by man. Not only our spirit needs to be saved our soul needs to be saved too.

The Conflict Between Spirit and Soul

Why our souls need to be saved? According to our experience after you are saved and when the first love inspired you it seems your whole person has changed but gradually you discover that is not really true so although you discover that the Holy Spirit lives in your spirit and He brings the will of God and the delight of God to you but you discover that in your soul there is another old life now in your spirit the Holy Spirit now becomes the life now in your soul the fallen soul remains to be the life of that soul now you see that your spirit and your soul are not consistent and the soul is not cooperating with the spirit now you discover that in you there seem to be two persons living and we remember when Rebecca conceived and she discovered that it seems that there were two child in her womb arguing with each other and that could actually describe the experience of us when after we are safe our souls are not safe yet there seems to be two persons living there and these two persons inside do not cooperate and these two persons inside compete with each other.

The Holy Spirit and the flesh are at war against each other. The lust of the flesh war against the Holy Spirit. You discover that these two compete to live out. Now according to your inner man you are willing to do the will of God but you feel your external man is opposing to that.

But the life of the all self seems to be so strong and this new life seems to be still very tender. So often times you discover it seems this all life is having the upper hand. So when you are following the flesh you discover a condition of death on you and once in a while you discover this new life is winning.

And then you feel there is life and peace in you. Now brothers and sisters is that our experience. We also discover according to my inner man I want to do the will of God but my flesh is obeying the law of sin and death.

And this is just like Paul said in Roman chapter 7. Woe to me who can save me from this body of death. Brothers and sisters is it what you can feel. Not only sin still has power in you. What you want to do you cannot what you do not want to do.

You end up doing. You are still bound by sin and you still see that the world is attractive to you. Although you know I shall not love the world. But you still see the world as lovely. It is so lovely.

How can I not love. So in you there is this struggle. Brothers and sisters do you experience this condition. And have you discovered today you are a question. You shall be able to live out Christ. But you hope to live out Christ.

But what lives out is still the old self. And you do not know why. Brothers and sisters here we see our soul needs to be saved. If our soul is not saved then you see we have to live this life of conflict.

Not only that because you see the soul of spirit is in conflict and on one hand you see that there is a strife between the spirit and the soul and on the other hand you see that it seems that the spirit and the soul are all mixed together.

You do not know what is the effect of the spirit and what is the effect of the soul. Because according to the condition outside now the external sense of the external condition of the spirit and the soul seems to be same.

You can feel it in your spirit. You can feel it in your soul. Your spirit can receive directly from God His will. Now your soul can also collect from external conditions materials in your spirit you can communicate with the Lord and you know the will of God and you are willing to do the will of God.

But in your soul there is also a will a will. And sometimes you cannot distinguish that. So many young brothers and sisters often ask this question how can I tell the will of God. How can I tell that this is the will of God.

And that is my own thinking. And this becomes a big difficulty that God was not willing for us to know His will. It seems we have to force Him and force Him so that we can tell us a little bit about His own will.

Brothers and sisters when we are serving the Lord we have a zeal to serve Him. When we serve Him we cannot distinguish whether this is the strength of my soul or this is the strength of my spirit. And then the spirit and the soul are undistinguished.

So we see the life of us the Christians are not sanctified enough. Our souls are not sanctified are not separated to God. And this is our common condition. Now in that condition in that condition then you discover that I really need the salvation of my soul.

Now personally I feel that in our spiritual experience. Now when you come to a point and you discover that there is indeed a distinction between the spirit and the soul. And then you really wish and long that you can live in the spirit instead of living in the soul.

And we see this is a step forward for us. Many God's children have not that sense yet and they just live by themselves. And this is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 he says he says I brethren have not been able to speak to you.

This is chapter 3 verse 1 speak to you as to spiritual but as to fleshly as to babies in Christ. Now after we believe in the Lord we should be spiritual because our spirit is now alive. But Paul says I cannot speak to you as to spiritual.

I can only consider you as fleshly and in the original language it is fleshly. It means it is belonging to flesh. And as babies in Christ we know we all love babies and we see a baby who is innocent and very happy.

But we also know this baby is extremely of flesh and he thinks only for himself. If he is hungry he wants to eat. If you are late a little bit he gets angry even if you want to sleep at night he won't consider you.

When he wants to cry he cries now he is very much fleshly and this is the condition of a baby. Now among believers many are like that although we belong to Christ but we are just babies. On one hand all of us love babies.

Now it is ok if he is a little fleshy now we all go through this stage but that time cannot be too long. If he is too long then it becomes really carnal. It is not only fleshy but also fleshly. And then it is a problem because he refuses to grow and still wants to be a baby.

He always thinks of himself first and he is totally selfish and he is not able to display to express Christ. Now one who is a baby in Christ externally people cannot tell the difference between him and the person in the world.

So some criticize that you believers you have no difference from the people in the world. Now what these Corinthian believers did is no different from what the people in the world did. Now people in the world strive and they strive no difference from the world.

The only difference is their spirit is now alive. They indeed have eternal life but they did not live according to that eternal life. And that eternal life could not live out because the life of that fallen soul surrounds that life of eternal.

So what they live out is nothing but self. It is not Christ. Brothers and sisters so here we have to see one thing that our souls need to be saved prepare salvation for our souls. But we do not know. We have not accepted that.

For that reason we live in our soul life. We cannot live Christ out. Brothers and sisters it is impossible if we want to live out Christ according to our own life. What is born of the flesh is flesh. Our flesh cannot change.

You can decorate it a little bit and you can make the outworking of the flesh to be different a little bit. In the past you sinned. Now you want to serve God with your life. We see that the carnal man the corrupt man he cannot submit to the will of God and he cannot submit to the will of God.

A man of flesh cannot please God. And this is what we were told in Roman chapter 8. So you see one who has not been saved by grace he is of the flesh and blood. He is a natural man. And natural man does not know the will of God.

He thinks the will of God is foolish and they do not want the will of God. But a Christian a believer when he was a baby he was of the flesh he was a carnal Christian although in the spirit he is different but in the soul he is totally the same as the person in the world.

So brothers and sisters I do not know but you have seen this need if we do not see this need. Therefore if we do not see that need then we will not pay attention to this great salvation God has prepared for us.

But today if you sense that need and then we want to see the salvation that God has prepared for us. So great salvation. And this morning we want to examine this matter from an objective truth and Lord willing tomorrow morning we will emphasize on our subjective experience.

Christ's Death for Sin and the Old Self

We know when our Lord Jesus was crucified he has borne our sin. And Peter tells us he has borne our sin himself. All our sins pile upon him and for our sake he bled his blood cleansed all our sins. So the Bible tells us that Christ loved us and he gave himself for our sins.

If that can praise our Lord this we have accepted. But when our Lord was crucified on the cross he not only has borne our sins but he has given. And Bible tells us. And when our Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross he has brought all our old persons all selves and crucified on the cross together.

So the Bible says that Christ loves us and he gave himself for us. He not only gave himself for our sins he also gave himself for us. Now on the cross not only he became our substitution and on the cross he also has become our representative.

So when our Lord died on the cross you and I are crucified dead in him. So the Bible says our Lord Jesus he is the last Adam. We know that the first man is Adam. All that was born of Adam is in Adam. So we have all received that fallen life of Adam and the nature the character of his fallen life is now distributed in us.

Now Adam has his merits. Now Adam has his bad points. So we who are born of Adam the good points of Adam and bad points of Adam is all mixed in us. But we are still Adam. So no matter how you live you are still Adam.

And this is all the nature and the character of the Adam's life. Now God established our Lord Jesus as the last Adam. What does it mean by the last Adam. It means he is the concluding one of Adam's race.

If he dies then the race of Adam dies. This continues now. I often like to use to use legend of China. We know that we are the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. Once the Yellow Emperor had a war with a barbarian king and that time was a big fog.

How can you fight in a big fog. So the Yellow Emperor invented the bullet. So the Yellow Emperor invented this compass. So now he knows the direction he beats the barbarian king. Now assume if in that battle that day the Yellow Emperor did not invent this compass then he was defeated and he was killed by this barbarian king.

Now think we the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. Would we be here. We would not be here. Now in this world there were no Chinese but now we have one billion Chinese because the Yellow Emperor won the victory.

So we say if Yellow Emperor dies then we all die. We do not exist. Thank and praise God. Now in Adams everyone needs to die. But when Lord Jesus comes he is the last Adam. When the last Adam dies on the cross God says Adam's race is concluded.

So Roman chapter 6 verse 6 says. So knowing that our old man is crucified with him on the cross. So that sinful body now has lost its job and we do not belong. We are no longer the slave to sin. Now this old man is singular.

There is only one old man which is Adam. This old man is in you and in me. It is just one man. We all are in Adam. But that old man now is crucified with Christ. Because in Christ on that cross he has finished the old generation the old creation.

So we see this is the salvation that God has prepared for us. We have to separate from this old man. We have to be separated from this corruptible flesh. And we want to separate from this law of stansing and death.

God prepares for us this salvation. He has crucified you and me with Christ. When our Lord Jesus was crucified although you and me you and I are not born yet but in the eyes of God you and I were all in Christ.

He was the last Adam. So his once for all death becomes the grace of redemption. And this is the salvation that God has prepared for us the Christians. And often when we preach the gospel and we tell them believers you do not have to die because someone died for you.

And all people in the world are afraid of death. They are under the terror of death. They cannot escape it. Now according to this determination everyone has to die and after that there is judgment. So we preach the gospel to them.

You do not have to die because Christ has died for you. We thank and praise God. We the believers shall never die. We can sleep. Sometimes we sleep longer but we do not die. The believers shall never die.

We thank and praise God. But there is the gospel to the believers. The gospel to the believers is that you do not have to live because one has left for you. Brothers and sisters now is it difficult to be a Christian.

We want God inside and we want to lift Christ out. We strive very hard but we cannot overcome the law of sin and death. We cannot overcome the old self. So in the reformation the theologian of that reformation oh is that neglect.

He said me the young neglect cannot overcome that old Adam. And that's our condition. But we thank and praise God. Today we do not have to live ourselves because we have been crucified with Christ. No longer I will live but Christ lives in me.

Today we live in my flesh. It is I live by his faith by the faith of the son of God. He loves me and gave himself for me. Brothers and sisters now that we have been crucified with Christ then how shall we do.

Reckoning Ourselves Dead and Abiding in Christ

So in Roman chapter 6 verse 11 we have to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin in Christ. We have to reckon ourselves to be living to God in Christ. Now that Christ has accomplished the salvation of us saved us out of this fallen soul.

Now how shall we live today. That we have to believe as today we believe that Christ has borne my sin now you have never sinned before because you were not born before. But two thousand years ago Christ has already borne your sin.

And how can you get the forgiveness of sins. You believe that Christ has borne your sin on the cross and then your same principle. And you see that I two thousand years ago have been crucified with Christ and this is what God has accomplished the salvation in Christ.

What you need is to believe. You believe that I have been crucified with Christ no longer I who lives Christ lives in me. For that reason Romans 6 chapter 13 and we offer ourselves to God and we offer ourselves as the slave to righteousness.

That is to say that we now let the life of Christ to live out from us. Some asked he said I believe in Romans chapter 6 verse 7. My old man was crucified with Christ and I also reckoned myself to be dead.

But no matter how I count I still alive. And the more I count the more I get alive. What's going on. I think this is very simple and because you may have forgot in chapter 11 there is a small word in Christ.

Now when we say we count ourselves to be dead to sin in the original language it actually said we count. We count ourselves in Christ as dead to sin. If you are not in Christ no matter how you count you are still alive because death is only in Christ.

Now we in Christ are alive to God. Now if you are not in Christ you cannot be alive to God. So on one hand we have to believe on the other hand we have to abide in Christ and let's not think I only have to believe once and then everything will be fine.

And this is different now the salvation of the spirit is once and for all but the salvation of the soul. You have to believe and you have to continue in Christ. If you continue to abide in Christ now this fact of dying together and living together shall live in you express in you.

So this is the salvation that God has prepared for us. Lord willing tomorrow we will share more about experience. Let's bow down and pray. Lord we thank you and praise you because your salvation is so perfect and complete.

Not only you saved us from such great death you still want to deliver us and forever you shall deliver us. Lord you not only have delivered our spirit and you shall deliver our soul and you shall save our body.

Lord your will is for us to be holy sanctified and at the day of your reappearance that we can be preserved blameless our spirit and soul and body and holy without blemish. Lord that will be done on us in the name of Lord Jesus.

Amen.