In 1 Thessalonians 5, it's verse 23, the Bible says, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit, we already preached on that, taught on that lesson. And then it says, And soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like to talk to you this afternoon about our soul. man is made in the image of God, and we are a tri-part being. We are not God, but we are made in His image, and there's three to one or one to three. I think I said this this morning, what's the biblical Right. The biblical word for the Trinity. We don't find the word Trinity in the Bible. We see that pictured. We see that all throughout the Bible. But we find the word, the Godhead. That's God in three persons, blessed Trinity. That is important because... Okay, so we're made in God's image, but there is a teaching called modalism, which doesn't believe in a Trinity. This is most commonly found in Oneness Pentecostalism. They don't believe in a Trinity. Stephen Furtick is the big guy now who preaches and teaches modalism, and that is that God appears in different modes. He might appear as God the Father, but then he will be in a different mode, Jesus the Son. Then he'll be a different mode as the Holy Spirit. In other words, God will change modes. He'll mask and now operate as something different. The problem with that is Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus said that, I am the Lord, I change not. James 1 talks about, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He doesn't change modes, because that's not a triune God. It is the Godhead. There are three in one, one in three. There's three personalities, if you would. But we do believe in a Trinity. Let's go to John 1, and I know we're not going to spend a lot of time here, but it's fresh in our mind. John 1, verse number 1, "...in the beginning was the Word..." Who's that? the Lord Jesus Christ, right? The Eternal Word. That's His name for eternity, His eternal title. And then it says, and the Word was with God. Well, that's God the Father. Well, if they're together in creation, you can't have one mode here and one mode there. It's obvious that it's three in one. So the false doctrine of modalism is just that. It's not true. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made. The Trinity was there in the creation. So, if you have an opportunity to witness to a Jehovah's Witness, they are coming at you with the perspective that when you die, Your soul goes with your body. You don't have a soul that is absent from the body and now it goes to be with the Lord. They don't think that, I mean, they'll press you on, hey, give me a verse where your soul goes to heaven when you die. Because we don't have a specific verse that says that. Look in your Bible, bring me a verse. So, they're very good at what they know, and they're very good at laying out their argument. Look at John 14, verse 9. John 14, verse 9. Jesus saith unto him, in John 14, verse number 9, Have I been so long time with you? And yes, hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me," so he saw Jesus, right? "...hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" So it's clear that Jesus is saying, look, if you've seen me, which you can, Philip, you're standing right in front of me, during his earthly ministry, they saw him visibly with their eyes, and he said, look, if you've seen me, then you've seen the Father. That's pretty clear. Now go to John 1, because this is another one that's clear. John 1, verse number 18, and it says, No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." So Jehovah's Witness says, see, there's two of them. You have one God you can see, and then you have one God you can't see. They're not the same, except they are the same. You saw Jesus, you saw God the Father, but you didn't see God the Father because you can't see God. How does that relate to us? I'm looking right now and I can see Eric, except I can't see Eric. You're looking at me right now and you can see me, except you can't see me. Those on the earth with Jesus during the earthly ministry, they can see Jesus, they can see God, yet they can't see God. Because the real me, the real Eric, the real you isn't your body. The real you is your soul. It's what's inside your body. So you're not looking at me. I am not looking at you. You are looking at the Halloween costume that I'm wearing every day, okay? We're all wearing a costume, our body of flesh, and so it's hiding the real us. You see us, people see us, but they don't see the real us because you can't see my soul and I can't see your soul. But look, we got to get this. I am not my body. You are not your body. Your soul is who you are. And my soul is who I am. Here's the closest you're going to get that I could find in the Bible to seeing someone's soul. Go to Matthew 6. This is the closest you'll get, I think, in my opinion, to seeing someone's soul. Matthew 6, verse number 22. Bible says, the light of the body is the eye. And therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if the eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. The eye, it's like a lamp. The eye is like a lamp or a window to somebody's soul. Parents, we teach our kids to look someone in the eye, right? And it's a form of respect, but a lot of people don't, they don't want to get anybody's eyes because They don't want them looking into their soul. There's something about that. I do it with my kids. I'm talking to them and I'm like, no, I want you to look up at me. Look up at me and look away. I say, no, no, no. Get your eyes back on me. Let me see your eyes. Let me see your eyes. You remember doing that with the little ones? You want them to get their eyes on you so that you can see they're paying attention. You want to look into their eyes because that's a little bit of a window of their attitude. How does a child disrespect you? I mean, adults do this, we just dismiss people, you know, we dismiss them with our eyes. It's like, yeah, you're talking, but I'm over here and you're over there. But those eyes are a bit of a window to the soul. You know who makes the best pastors? The optometrist. The optometrist. I mean, they know details that other doctors just don't know or they don't think about. And they take a light and they look into your eye. I've got to go to one every year. I'm sure if you wear glasses or you're going to an optometrist and they're putting light on there. I'm not saying I'm for this or against this. I'm just laying it out there. There's the iridologist. I don't know if anyone have heard of iridology, but I mean, they use flashlights and cameras and magnifying glasses to look at your iris. And they really believe that your iris reflects your overall physical health. And, I mean, that's what they claim they can do. I mean, you go and you be the judge. I'm not saying I'm for it or against it. I'm just saying that there's something to looking in the eye that gives you a little glimpse. Now, our soul, go to Genesis 35. Our soul lives within our body and guess what type of shape you think it has? A bodily shape. A bodily shape. Go to Genesis 35 and we'll just run a few verses here. Genesis 35 verse 18 We're not going to get much context because I just want to key in on the soul this afternoon, but it says it came to pass as her soul was in departing, for she died. And she called her name Benaniah, but his father called him Benjamin. So when your soul, when you die, the Bible says your soul departs. So your soul and your body don't both go into the grave. Your soul and body don't stay together like the Jehovah's Witness teaches. Your soul leaves your body and your body goes to a place or stays in a place and then your soul would leave that place. Look at it also in Genesis 49. In Genesis 49, look at verse number 33. Genesis 49 verse 33, the last verse says, and when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, so he's on his deathbed, and yielded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people. When he yielded up the ghost and he was gathered unto his people, guess what stayed in the bed? His body stayed in the bed. Something departed, something left. That was his soul. The soul left. But if you're around that deathbed, you're seeing the body stay there and you know that something left, but you didn't see it depart. You didn't see it leave, but that soul left. It's just that we didn't see it. We saw the person. No, you saw the body of the person. You didn't see the person leave, but that person left. Remember we talked about on Thursday in 2 Timothy 4, and Paul's talking about, hey, and the time of my departing is at hand? Well, he's gonna die, is what he's talking about, and his soul's gonna depart. Body you can see, soul you can't see. Let's stay in the Old Testament just for a few more. Look at Leviticus 22. and get some context. The soul is used in different contexts throughout the Bible. Leviticus 22, verse 1, "...Lord, speak unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they profane not my holy name. In those holy things which they hallowed unto me, I am the Lord." They're talking about living a separate life. And if you want to live a holy life, your body and your soul are together now. You should not mix yourself up in unholy things. And if you do that, it never ends out. It never ends up good. You're always going to have consequences. Look at verse 6. Here's what I want to get to. It talks about, look, don't touch anything unclean or unholy. Now it says this, the soul which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even and shall not eat of the holy things unless he washed his flesh with water. You have soul and flesh in the same verse in verse number six. It's likened one to another. In other words, your soul, my soul and your soul, it's so stuck to our body that when the Bible references us, at times it will say soul. In other words, if your body touches it, your soul touches it. If your soul touches it, your body touches it. They're linked so close together. And so that's why we see that phraseology there. the soul which hath touched it." Well, if your body touched it, your soul touched it. They're so closely linked. Look at verse number 11. But if the priest, by any soul with his money... Now this isn't some Roman Catholic thing. If you bought a servant, if you purchased a servant to serve, they couldn't touch any holy thing. They weren't part of that family. That's what that is in reference to. If the priest, by any soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house, they shall eat of his meat. The hired servant was not allowed to eat holy things unless they were born into the family. Now, if you've trusted Jesus Christ as your high priest, you were bought with a price, you're in the family, and now you have access to all the holy things. We don't have time to open that up, Before we were saved, Jesus says to us, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. You can't eat this meat. You know nothing of it. He bought you with a price. Now you know something of it. But the soul in Leviticus 22, it's representing the whole person. And that's the context of this chapter. And I just point that out so that we can see the different ways that soul is used in the Bible. You know the expression, oh my soul? What is that? That is something that just hits you deep within your being. And it just comes over your whole person. So we even use that type of wording today to reference the whole body, the whole being. But look, when we die, our soul separates from our body. But right now, they're so linked together that we can't tell the difference. Here's something else that we'll find. Go to the book of Numbers. I'll show you another context of the soul in Numbers 31. Numbers 31. And we'll go to verse 28. Numbers 31, verse 28. and levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men of war which went out to battle. And then it says one soul of 500. It's just referencing a living man, a person, someone that's living, it's a soul. And then it says one soul of 500, both of persons, End of the beeves, now that's just plural for beef. I know we don't use that word anymore, but it's not hard to understand once you understand it. End of the beeves is plural for beef or cattle. And then it says of the asses and of the sheep. So this is a reference in Numbers 31 where it's just talking about a living being. It isn't a reference. Look, animals don't have a separate soul. So the context of this isn't that beef cattle have souls that are going to depart from their body. The context is, hey, this living animal is just called, hey, that's soul. A living person is just called a soul, and that's all that is. The Bible isn't teaching. So if Jehovah's Witness takes you to a verse like this, You have to be prepared to say, hey, look, this isn't teaching that we're just like animals and our soul goes with our bodies in the ground. Amen. Our soul. Although it is, it can be referenced to our whole being. Our soul isn't our whole being in relation to us being made in the image of God. We have a spirit. We talked about that. We have a body that houses our spirit, and then it also houses our soul. So our soul, as something that's alive, and as something that will live forever, has feelings. Go to Job 30. Job 30, and verse 25. Job 30, verse 25. Our soul grieves, it feels sorrow. It says, Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved? For the poor? It has feelings. Go to Psalms 42, verse 2. Well, verse 1, this is a good one to read both together. Psalm 42, verse 1, as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Our soul thirsts for things. It grieves. It thirsts. Hopefully for the Lord. Hopefully for the Lord. But watch what else. And this will answer some questions, I believe. Go to Matthew 25. Matthew 25, look at verse number 30. Matthew 25, verse number 30. Outer darkness is hell, and it says in verse 30, "...and cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Well, your body isn't in hell. Your soul has teeth. Okay? Now, it's not like we would think of it. But it's not like our bodies end up in hell. Our bodies go into a casket, and that casket is put in the ground, and that's where our body is. Our soul goes where? Heaven or hell, right? It's the soul that's in hell. It's not a physical body that's burning. Go to Luke 16. Go to Luke 16, look at verse 23. Bible says, this the rich man also died and was buried, verse 23, and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. Eyes and a tongue. It's not your your eyes are in your body that's in the dirt. This rich man who ended up in hell, his body didn't go with him, and his body and his eyes and his physical body is burning. It has to do with his soul. You can talk to Will more about this because he probably knows more about it. Well, he will know more about it than I would medically. You ever hear about somebody who has their arm amputated or their leg amputated and they have feeling there? I think it's the soul. I'm not going to be dogmatic on that, but that's what I think it is. I think it's their soul. That's why they feel it. Because the soul has a bodily shape. It has feelings, and we see that there are bodily shapes in the soul. I'll show it to you in Revelation 6. I think it will make it clearer. Revelation 6, verse 9. Revelation 6 verse 9 and when he had opened the fifth seal and saw on the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they had held They cried out loud voice saying how long O Lord holy and true dost thou judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell near Look at this and white robes were given unto every one of them That's the souls Well, you give white robes to someone that has a bodily shape. The soul has a bodily shape. It's in you. It's the shape of your body. And it was said of them, they that should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and their brethren should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. But we see the white robes. They're crying with a loud voice. They're opening their mouth. They have a voice. It's a bodily shape. Look, the Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth. There isn't anything new under the sun. So all these Casper the Friendly Ghost, you know, that was the thing that comes to my mind as a kid, and all these movies that have the white sheet over the ghost and all that, they got it from the Bible, folks! They don't want to give God credit, but it's a bodily shape. And there's going to be white robes as we see in Revelation 6. Go to Revelation 20, verse 4. Revelation 20, verse 4. The Bible says, And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, in which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." You might lose your head, but you're not going to lose the head of your soul. You're going to be praising God. It's a bodily shape. It's a bodily shape. If you put my body in hell, my body would be consumed by the flames. You put somebody's soul in hell, their soul is not going to be consumed by the flames. That's the soul. That's the soul. We are, by way of putting this in remembrance, we are in soul care. We are in the business of saving souls. Love to have a better economic situation. We all would, but it's coming to an end. I'm worried about the soul. A couple more thoughts. We need to get Genesis 17 and Colossians 2, and then we'll wrap this up. But get Genesis 17 with Colossians 2, and I'll show you the picture from the Old Testament. Alright, Genesis 17. Look at verse 7. We'll read a couple of verses together for some context here. Genesis 17, verse 7. The Bible says, "...And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall be circumcised. Ouch. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. Ouch. And it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations. He that is born in the house or bought with money, or any stranger which is not of thy seed. He that is born in the house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised. My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man-child, whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant." It's a picture, folks. God took Abraham and He said, I am going to give you the most dramatic object lesson ever, Abe. Here's what you're going to do. Go grab a knife. That's an object lesson he'll never forget. And it talks about that soul cut off. Because it's picturing the cutting off of the soul from the body. That's the New Testament picture that we can get out of here. And the problem that Abraham has, the problem that we all have is the seed of Adam. There's a problem with our seed. And so this circumcision is picturing a cutting away, and it talks about that soul being separate or out of the camp. You're not part of this. Now go to Colossians 2. Because Colossians 2 gives us the beautiful picture of what happens to our soul when we get saved. Colossians 2, look at verse 10. The Bible says, "...and you are complete in Him." That was great singing that hymn this morning. But let me back up because in verse 9, "...for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." There's your Trinity. And ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power. In him also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, have He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross." And you know what happens? It's like you put ice, you put water in the ice cube tray. You put it in the freezer. You take that ice cube tray out, you turn it upside down, you can't get those ice cubes to come out. What you got to do is, you got to turn that thing and that separates that ice from that, and you can take those cubes out. That's the idea. Our soul is so connected to our body that to be that there's a spiritual operation, a spiritual circumcision that has to take place where God's going to cut our soul away from our body. That's what happened when you and I got saved. So physically, my soul and your soul, if you're saved, are in two places. Are you saved this afternoon? Your soul is in your body. Are you saved this afternoon? Your soul is with Christ. It's in two places. It's been cracked. It's like that water in the ice cube tray. It freezes, and you pull it out, and you turn it upside down, and it's not going anywhere. So you take it out, and you crack it. You turn it like this, and it cracks it. Those ice cubes have been separated, but they're still sitting in there in the body of the tray. Our soul is still in our body. We haven't died yet. But when it's time for us to depart, turn that tray over. It's going. It's going. So our soul essentially is in two places. It just hasn't found its permanent resting place yet. We are seated in heavenly places. We have a reservation. We just haven't gotten them. Our soul just hasn't technically gotten there yet. But spiritually, it is with Christ. It's been circumcised. It's been cut away. We are sealed. There's no way it's not going to go and be with the Lord. It's impossible. We've had that spiritual circumcision, that cutting away, the operation made without hands. Now, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That being, that living being that sins, it shall die. That's a physical death. Because your soul and my soul lives forever. It's either going to be forever with the Lord or forever without the Lord. So that living being, that person, that soul that sins, it's going to die. The wages of sin is death. Your body dies because of sin. But before we are saved, when we sin, when our soul sins, when our living being sins, our body commits sin and our soul is judged for that sin. But after we get saved, our body sins. Our soul isn't judged for that sin. It's been cut away. Does that make sense? How are you going to go and be with the Lord if there's sins on your soul? You're not going to be saying Hail Mary's to get rid of them. You've had a spiritual circumcision to get rid of them. Two more verses and then we'll be done. Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10 and 2 Corinthians 5. Hebrews 10 and 2 Corinthians 5. Hebrews 10, the last verse, I just want you to see that any and all souls can be saved. Verse 38 in Hebrews 10, Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back my soul, shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back in a perdition, but of them that believe... What must you do? Believe to the saving of the soul. Nobody has to understand all of what we're talking about this afternoon to be saved. you'll probably just blow their mind. What they need to know is that their soul can be saved by believing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Last verse, then we're done. 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 6. Absolutely, there's a separation of the soul from the body at death. 2 Corinthians 5 verse number 6, Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him." When we die, our soul does not stay with our body and go into the dirt. It is separated and it is absent from the body and it goes and it is present with the Lord.