1 Thessalonians 5, the Bible says in verse 23, "...and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole..." This holy and whole means entire, by the way. "...I pray God your whole spirit..." That's number one. "...and soul..." That's number two. "...and body..." That's number three. be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23 tells us that we are a trinity. We are a trinite created being. Tri meaning threefold, right? Trinity, triune, trinite. That's a three-part. And so we are made up of a spirit, of a soul, and of a body. Now, are there three of you? No, yes. Are there one of you? No, yeah. You see? You're looking at me, I'm one person, but I consist of a soul, a spirit, and a body, the same as you. That is the threefold nature of man. You know, there's a lot of trinities in life. What is a family made up of? A father, a mother, children. That's three parts. What is your life made up of? Well, look back. You've got a past. What's happening now? Well, it's your life in the present. Guess what you're planning for? Guess what's coming? Something's ahead of you. What? The future. Our life consists of a past, present, and future. We have Isaiah. He's an artist. When he draws, his drawings consist of a threefold part. If he draws a line, there is a length to it. If he draws that line, there's going to be a width to it. When he draws that line, if you look and tilt your head sideways, or even if you get a little microscope, you're going to see that there's some height to it. He puts chalk or lead onto a piece of paper, there's going to be a raised surface. What is that? That's three parts. Let's start off by saying this, I would not, nor would I suggest you, and you would make the same suggestion to me if you were up here, to never ever take advice, counsel, or direction from anybody that doesn't believe man consists of a spirit, a soul, and a body. You know who that rules out? A lot of self-help gurus, a lot of psychiatrists. Why would you talk to a psychiatrist as a Christian when they don't even believe foundationally how we were made? Never take advice from someone who doesn't believe this verse. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23. Because if they don't understand this, they don't have the most basic understanding of who and what man is. Genesis chapter number 1, verse number 26. We'll read very carefully Genesis 1 verse 26. And God said, this is God speaking, that's singular, see that? God said, God, singular. Let us, us is what? Plural. And then he says, make man in our image. Our is plural. after our likeness. So God creates man in his image and his likeness. He refers to himself as God singular and then he says let us plural. What is that? That's the Trinity, the triunity of God. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. Well that's three gods. No, it's one. Well, 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 3. Yeah, but you're doing it wrong. 1 times 1 times 1 times 1 is 1. You've got the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. That's the us. That's the plurality. And so we are made in His image. When it says image, it's the representation of God's threefold or triune nature. It's not about hair color. It's not about skin color. It's not about a physical nature. This is why we all have to be careful about picture books we read to our children, or even movies or shows that we watch, or art that we would purchase, because if we constantly immerse ourselves in that, it's hard to get away from, that's how we view, or we think Jesus looks like that. We were told to not make any images of Him for a specific reason. We would get confused about the image. The image doesn't have to do with His skin color, or His hair color, or His eye color. It has to do with this likeness, this image that's represented in a three-fold nature. It's a spirit, a soul, and a body. Colossians 1 describes Jesus as the image of the invisible God. Hebrews 1 says He's the express image of His person. God's representative image expressed in a body of flesh. That's who Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was. Jesus walked around the earth for 33 1⁄2 years. And when people looked at Jesus, This is a trick question. When people looked at Jesus, did they see God? No. God's invisible. But yes, what did they see? They saw a body that hid and veiled God. 1 Timothy 1 talks about the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. People saw what God was wearing when He was on earth. That was the man, Christ Jesus. He was 100% man. That's His humanity. Genesis 1 not only talks about Look at verse 26, not only talks about image, but likeness. Now, that's our character. You know, dad's like when they hear, you know, somebody compliment their son, say, man, you're just like that. What are they talking about? We just you've got dad's character. Well, you and I lost that. We lost that when Adam fell. We Adam had it. But he lost the likeness. He still has the image. You and I still have the image. How? Soul, spirit, body. A trinite being is who we are. One day, one day, we are going to be made perfect. But right now, you and I are not made perfect. This is why we have the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, Body, Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and then God the Father, Soul. So I don't know about that one. We've got a couple of verses we're going to look at. Now you look at these verses and tell me this isn't deep. Leviticus 25. We're going to read them, it's even hard to comment on them other than say, wow, I didn't know that was in the Bible. That's pretty good. Look at Leviticus 25. We're going to set some context with just one verse. Look at Leviticus 25, verse number 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, so we know that the Lord is speaking, and then he's going to say all of these things through chapter 25, and then he's going to say all these things through chapter 26. So get Leviticus 26. God says a whole lot, and then he gets to verse 11 in Leviticus 26, and he says this. Leviticus 26, verse 11. God says, "...and I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you." Who was speaking? God the Father, the Lord. What's the reference that He makes? He says, My soul. Now isn't that something? I mean, doesn't that make you think? It can't be a soul like ours, like it has to be saved and redeemed. I mean, He's God. But you've got to admit, that's a pretty powerful verse. Let's see if there's another witness. Go to Judges 11. Judges 11. Look at verse number 10. Judges 11. I'm sorry, Judges 10. Judges 10, verse number 11. Let's set some context. Verse 11 of Judges 10, And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, We know the LORD is speaking. Let's see what he says. Verse 13, Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods. That's not good. Go down to verse 15, And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned? Do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee? Deliver us only, we pray thee, this day. and they put away the strange gods from among them and served the LORD, and his soul was grieved." Whose soul was grieved? God's. Isn't that a powerful verse? His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. Now, you imagine creating a man to call out and start a nation with, and they go after other gods. and it grieved the soul." Who's the soul? Seems like it's the Lord, God the Father. You can read Jeremiah 32, 41 later, but jot that verse down, Jeremiah 32, 41, that'll be your third witness regarding God the Father when He refers to Himself as the soul. So we have a trinite God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We are made in His image. We have a spirit, a soul, and a body. You know, the Old Testament can be considered a trinite book. You have the book of the Law, or the Pentateuch, that's the first five books. It can be broken down to the books of literature, the historical and wisdom books. And then finally, you have the book of the prophets, major and minor prophets. The Old Testament consists of three major books, the law, the literature, and the prophets. You know, if you go to the New Testament, you've got the same thing. You've got the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You've got the acts of the apostles. And then you have the letters or the epistles. Those are broken down in Pauline epistles, general epistles. And then finally, the book of Revelation is a letter. It's a letter. It's both a prophetic and apocalyptic letter of destruction in the New Testament. What do you got? The Gospels, the Acts, and the letters or the epistles. I think we understand. So we have three parts. The first one, 1 Thessalonians 5, we're going to look at tonight, it says spirit. We are a spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, the first verse we looked at. So let's understand the spirit of man. To understand the spirit of man, we have to understand that there are five different spirits mentioned in the Bible. We need to know which one we are. The first one that we'll look at goes to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Right after the book of Proverbs, you'll find the book of Ecclesiastes chapter number 3. Ecclesiastes 3. In verse number 21, the Bible says, Ecclesiastes 3.21, Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward? We're going to address that toward the end of the message. So we see actually the spirit of man first in this verse. We'll come back to that thought. The thought I'd like you to get now is the second part of the verse. And the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth. Our spirit, when we die, goes upward. Spirit of a beast, that animal has a spirit, it goes downward. You're not going to have, you know, your Doberman pincher named Spike, you're not going to be with in heaven. Spirit of dog goes, that animal, downward. Spirit of man, it goes upward. What do I want you to see? Number one, the first spirit that is mentioned, that we're speaking about tonight is that animals have a spirit. Animals have a spirit. But it's not ours. As a matter of fact, the verse makes a distinction that man's spirit is not the same as an animal's spirit. Hebrews chapter number 1. You ever wonder why your dog senses that something's wrong? I don't know, it's just... they got a spirit. I'd like to know more about that, but But we won't know all these things. Go to Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1. Watch what else is mentioned. Hebrews 1. Alright, let's look at verse 7. The Bible says, And of the angels he saith, who maketh his angels, what's the word? Spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. That's one that's a little easier to understand, right? Because we understand angels as spirit beings. So that one's a little easier to digest. But obviously, the spirit of angels is not the same as the spirit of man, nor is it the same as the spirit of animals. Go to Matthew 8 and be very, very weary of this next one. Matthew 8. Look at verse 16. Matthew 8, 16. The Bible says, "...when the even was come, they were brought unto Him many..." They're bringing people to Jesus here. "...many that were possessed with devils, and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick." If somebody is possessed with a devil, what they have is an evil spirit. That's clear from the passage. You say, that person's full of the devil. Yeah, they've got the spirit of the devil in them. There's a spirit. By the way, it's in control of, right now, temporarily, this world. And we need to be very, very, very cautious of the spirit of devils. Look, you've got the Holy Spirit if you're saved. But if your children aren't saved, guess where those evil spirits want to get into? I am not convinced for one minute that this crowd that has their whole bodies contorted and messed with through piercings and surgeries and the tattoos all over... I'm just not convinced that that's not from the devil. Because no normal, natural person would think to do that. No one reads their Bible and says, you know what, I'm going to go out and mutilate my body. A lost person who isn't saved wouldn't read the Bible and come up with that. There's an evil spirit behind that. Please, please be aware that that is a real thing. You know what they call alcohol? Hard alcohol? Wine and what? Spirits. Because the process of distillery is to capture the essence or the spirit of the liquor. That's what distilleries do. That's what they believe. It's alchemy. And they consider that vapor that it produces to be the breath of life, that vapor. And so it's the spirit. Be careful. Be careful. They have thou on the sign for a reason. In the New Testament, ten times the phrase, unclean spirits, is mentioned and it all refers to the devil. And they're out there. We have the spirit of animals. We have the spirit of angels. We have the spirit of devils. Go to John 4. Let's get some good news. John 4. Verse number... John 4, verse 24. We all know this verse, I trust. The Bible says, God is a spirit and they that worship Him must, it's a command, worship Him in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit. He is a living personality who is completely invisible and we are commanded to worship Him not only in truth but in spirit. By the way, God must be invisible in order for Him to be eternal. Why? Because everything we see with our eyes is not eternal. It's not. It's all going to pass away. Not God. He's eternal. Now look at this verse real quick, or real closely in the beginning of the verse. you need to have the indefinite article A when you look at this verse because if it says God is spirit that would be wrong because well we just looked at the fact that there are other spirits God isn't spirit. God is a spirit. That's very, very important. He is a living yet invisible personality, but He is a spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the one that is from God. So we see we have animals have a spirit, angels have a spirit, there's a spirit of devils, and then God is a spirit. Turn back a page and you'll see John 3. Check it at verse number 7, Marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must be born again. And then it says, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. How many of you were saved this afternoon? You received a spiritual birth. Now, I know that's basic, but that's something to give God glory for. You and I received a spiritual birth. Before we were saved, it was a body and a soul that is alive. Our soul is going to live forever in one of two places. We'll get to that next week. But our soul is alive. It's where is it going to be alive at? In heaven or in hell. Our body before salvation is alive, but the spirit was dead. And so when Adam died, well, he didn't drop dead physically. What died? It was a spiritual death. And there was that separation now between him and God. Well, after salvation, we have a spirit and our spirit's alive now. So our spirit and our soul is alive, but our body's dead. Now that's wild. Pinch yourself. That's wild. We have to qualify this because that's a pretty bold statement. Let's go to Romans 6. Romans 6. The way God works miracles, it's hard to understand sometimes. But look at this in Romans 6. It says, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." If you're saved this morning, your body has been crucified. Did Christ offer His body as payment for our sins? Was He crucified on the cross? Did His body die? The body of flesh was buried, was crucified. Our body's dead. Verse number 7. For he that is dead is freed from sin. So if your body's dead, if your body is crucified, here's the question. Why in the world would we serve a dead corpse? You know that 1 Thessalonians 5 verse that we started with? Spirit, soul, body? If we don't look at the verse and read it from the Bible, typically we'll read the verse wrong. And guess what we'll read and put first? Well, we're a body, soul, spirit. Why? Because we think of our bodies first. Folks, our body's dead. Don't serve a dead corpse. Serve the living God. Serve the Spirit of God. In John 3, verse 8, we saw that the wind bloweth where it listeth. And the Spirit of God is likened to what? Wind. It's likened to air. Go to Ezekiel 37. I like Ezekiel, this chapter especially. It's going to be the restoration of Israel. And what God's going to do, it's the same thing He did for the church. He breathed life into it. It's the same thing we did for Adam. He breathed life into it. You know what he's going to do to that nation? It's a valley of dry bones now, but God's going to gather them all together, and then all of a sudden, he's going to breathe life into that nation that's going to come alive. Now, that's a powerful truth. That's the Spirit of God. It's likened unto wind. And in Ezekiel 37, we see that in verse Look at verse 9, Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." That nation is a dead nation right now. They have been set aside for a time. But God has a plan for that nation and it's going to come alive spiritually speaking. And it's going to come through the Spirit or the breath or the wind of God. It's a beautiful doctrine. Look at verse 14. to sum up this thought. God says, "...and I shall put My..." What? "...Spirit..." That's it. "...in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land..." They're going to get that land. "...then ye shall know that I the LORD have spoken it and performed it, saith the LORD." That's the Spirit of God. It's identified as a wind. As a breath. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11. The fifth spirit, we mentioned at the very beginning in our Ecclesiastes verse, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11, it says, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God, capital S. So you can see the distinction between the Spirit of God, capital S, and then the Spirit of man, lowercase s. Man is a spirit as well, and our spirit is given to us from God. Our spirit, it's what gives us a God consciousness. Every man has a God consciousness, because when God created man, He gave man a spirit. So in your spirit this morning or this afternoon, the question I'd like all of us to answer before God Are we honestly worshiping God with our spirit? I know that our hands can pass out tracts and our hands can fold for prayer. I know that our lips can sing praise to God. I know that our mouths can speak of the truths of God. I know that our feet can walk and be the boots on the ground to go ahead and give labor for the Lord and do all of that. But the question is, truly, honestly, in our spirit, all that stuff's material, we can see it. Are you honestly, honestly worshiping God? That's a question we should put in front of ourselves and our families daily. Material things we can see. Worshipping God with our spirit isn't things made with man's hands. Our spirit. Flip over to 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. Verse number 1. We have a problem. And obviously the Bible and God has a solution. But look at the first verse, 2 Corinthians 7. It says, "...having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Notice it doesn't just say filthiness of the flesh. The spirit is in that verse as well. So man needs the Holy Spirit for the perfecting of our own spirit. That's the doctrine that's being taught there. And man's spirit plus the Holy Spirit, the math equation is, equals the perfecting of our holiness. And without that equation, it's not going to come to fruition. Man's spirit needs the Holy Spirit. Amen. We're going to look at two more verses and we're going to close this thought on the spirit of man. We need to go to Ecclesiastes 12 and Hebrews 12. Ecclesiastes 12 and Hebrews chapter 12. And then we'll close out. We'll do Ecclesiastes first. Ecclesiastes 12 and Hebrews 12. Watch what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter number 12, verse number 7. The Bible says, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, That's going to be our bodies. Now watch this. And the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Remember that Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse when it talks about the spirit of man that goeth upward? It ties in with this Ecclesiastes 12 verse in verse number 7. Your spirit, when you die, it is going to return unto God. God gave you that Spirit, and all that die, when they die, their body's going to go into the ground, their soul's going to go to one of two places, heaven or hell, and their spirit's going to return to the God who gave it. That's Ecclesiastes 12, verse 7. The Spirit that you and I have comes from God's breath. It's like He breathes life in, and when we die, it's like, It's like God inhales and He takes the Spirit back. But the Spirit, we're a trinite being. The Spirit isn't the soul. The Spirit is separate from the soul. And the soul, therefore, is not your spirit. But the Spirit of man returns to God after death. Look at v. 8. It says, "...vanity of vanity saith the preacher, all is vanity." I'm speaking right now. And as I'm speaking, breath is coming out. There's a spirit that ministers as I speak. There's a spirit that ministers when you speak. You ever get with somebody and you kind of sense, man, yeah, that spirit's connecting. It's bearing witness to each other. Anybody ever say that or think that or be in a situation like that? Why? We talk about this spirit and breath and wind and air. When we talk, there's air, there's wind, there's breath coming out. And when somebody ministers, they're going to have one of three spirits. Obviously, we're not angels or beasts. But when somebody's speaking, they're going to either minister, A, their own spirit, man's spirit, B, the spirit of devils. Or if you're a Christian, it should be the Holy Spirit. Which one you think is, it's an obvious answer, right? This is why when ministers speak, you must follow in obedience 1 John 4 which says, beloved, he's speaking to believers, believe not every spirit. They're ministering and a spirit's coming out, a breath is coming out. The Bible says, but try the spirits. That means judge them. whether they are of God. Because just because somebody is ministering to you, that does not mean they're of God. If you have to try them, obviously it could be just their own spirit, or worse, the spirit of devils. This is why 1 John 4 gives the reason why we must not believe every spirit and why we must try them. because many false prophets are gone out into the world. So we've got to try. We've got to test. Spirits. As Christians, when we preach or we teach or we minister to somebody, something spiritual should be taking place. That makes sense. You're ministering to someone. It's a spiritual transaction. By the way, it says it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching. It should be a spiritual thing. Last verse, and then we'll understand, I think, the spirit of man. Hebrews chapter number 12. Hebrews chapter 12. This is good. Hebrews 12. Man's spirit plus the Holy Spirit, the math equation equals the perfection of holiness, right? Perfection is to be made complete. None of us have been made complete yet. So when we die as Christians, when we die, our soul is going to be absent from the body. There's a separation. We'll learn more about that next week. Our soul is going to be absent from the body. That will mean it will be present with the Lord. Our body goes into the ground. And then our spirit, Ecclesiastes 12, says it goes where? To the God who gave it. Right now, in the twinkling of an eye, in the snap of a finger, the church could be called out. When that happens, guess what's going to reunite? There's going to be a meeting in the air, and guess what's going to reunite with our soul? We're going to have a body that becomes glorified. The dead in Christ are going to rise first. They've already died. Well, guess what? Dead body that's corrupt in the ground is no longer going to be having effects of sin. It's going to meet up and the body is now going to be one with the soul. But there's still one part left to the nature of man. What's left? Well, Ecclesiastes 12 said, where does our spirit go when we die? To the God who gave it. Check out this Hebrews verse. Look at verse 23. Hebrews 12, verse number 23. The Bible says, "...to the General Assembly and the Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven..." That's what the church is called in heaven. They're all getting along, by the way. And then it says, "...and to God, the Judge of all, and to the..." What? "...spirits of just men made perfect." You know what is also going to happen? The spirit that when you die returns to God? Your body, your trinite being is going to be made perfect because not only will your body now be glorified, But now your spirit comes back and comes with your soul. And now you have a trinite being that's made in the image and the likeness of God. And it will be the completion, it will be the perfection of our salvation and who we are in Christ. Now isn't that something to just, I mean, just get a hold of? Amen. That's good. We are going to be made like Christ. He is going to make us, the spirits of just men, are going to be made perfect. Look, Hebrews is all about Jesus Christ is better than anything and everything we can think of. And when it comes to our spirit, we don't have to worry, God's going to take care of that.