Hello! I’m Mack Lyon. I have the joy of welcoming you to the Bible study program “In Search of the Lord’s Way” to become and to be a Christian. I suppose everyone is aware of the economic crunch we’re in. It’s affecting all of us, some more than others of course, because of different emphasis or our purposes in life. Some people have never considered their soul though. Soul? What’s that? Well, Phil Sanders has prepared some thoughts about that. Listen to him carefully today; what do you say?
Hello, I’m Phil Sanders and this is In Search of the Lord’s Way, where we search the Scriptures as Mack Lyon says to find the Lord’s way to be saved and to live the Christian life. Thanks so, so much for letting us into your busy life. We really appreciate hearing from you that you are watching or listening; and we want to be a part of your life each week.
You don’t hear the word “soul” used much these days. Perhaps it’s because people focus their lives on the here and now and forget there is a future beyond this life. When people ask you how you’re doing, they usually want to know about your health or your physical circumstances or your life. People consider being happy as the most important goal in their lives. They figure if they have good relationships, plenty of money, and good health, they have reached life at its very best.
In the little epistle of 3rd John, the inspired apostle John writes to Gaius in verse 2, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” As your soul prospers! Now if your health and your pocket book prospered the same way that your soul prospers, how well would you be doing? You know while many of us work hard to build our savings and to keep our health, I wonder if we’ve given a second thought to our souls’ condition. Many live as if making themselves happy today was all that mattered, but our lives consist of more than the abundance of our possessions.
This program is now in its thirtieth year, and our brother Mack Lyon has been preaching the truth in love to all of us. For thirty years we have been offering the information on this program for free. And if you would like a printed copy, a CD or tape, mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. You can also e-mail us at searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, if you like, call our toll-free number. We’ll pay for the call. That number is 1-800-321-8633. Now, we also stream this program on our website at www.searchtv.org. Oh, I hope you have downloaded a free study sheet from our website to go along with today’s lesson.
Ken Helterbrand’s now going to lead us in song; and then we’ll read from Luke chapter 12, verses 16 to 21.
In Luke chapter 12 the Lord Jesus warned a man about covetousness and He said a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. In verse 16 our reading says, “Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops. So he said, I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” That’s a reading from God’s Holy Word. Let’s pray together. O Lord, we pray that our love for You may outgrow our love for ourselves. And may we consider that we have a life beyond this one. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Of all His creatures, God made humans unique. Genesis 2, verse 7 says, “And the LORD God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The phrase “breath of life” is never used of animals. Certainly mankind shares many characteristics with the animals of this world. Both men and animals need food to survive, both are able to reproduce, and both respond to their environment. People share with mammals the ability to breathe and to give live birth. But humans alone are “living souls.”
The Bible says in Genesis 1, verses 26 and 7: “Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in His own image, and in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Man alone is made in God’s image. And this is why God grants to humans a place that is superior to the animals. Being made in God’s image is not so much a physical thing as it is spiritual, intellectual, and ethical. Man is the only creature who has the ability to make conscious decisions affecting his future. Only people have the ability to reason and investigate the world. Only people have the privilege of knowing God in a personal way. Only humans have a conscience and feel accountable for their behavior. Man was the crowning achievement of God’s creation. And the Bible views the soul as the seat of our emotions and thoughts. At times the word soul is synonymous with the word heart. Proverbs 23, and verse 7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” And yet the soul at times has even deeper significance than the heart. Quoting from the Law Jesus told a Pharisee lawyer what the great commandment was, that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” We have got to love God with our very being, every fiber of it, with everything that makes us human.
Now, when Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, He told His disciples in Matthew 26 and verse 38, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death,” and then He asked them to, “remain here and keep watch with Me.” Here you can feel the emotions of Jesus who sweat as drops of blood and how they were so intense that it felt like it was draining out of his very soul, his very life. Our “soul” is the very essence of who and what we are. For this reason, the word soul in the New Testament is often translated with the word “life.” For instance in Acts 15, verse 26, it speaks of Paul and Barnabas, “who have risked their lives [that is their souls] for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus gave His life [that is His soul] as a ransom for many (Mark 10 and verse 45), but as Jesus breathed His last breath in Luke 23 and verse 46 He said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Now, when a person loses his life, the soul or spirit goes into the hands of the Father.
The book of Hebrews chapter twelve and verse nine, says that God is the “father of spirits.” That is God gave us a spirit and animated us to become “living” souls. This life the Lord gave us is more than physical. Our bodies will likely die one day, but our spirits do not die. Death is the separation of the body from the spirit. And the Bible says in James 2 and verse 26, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” Now, we bury a body when someone dies, but what happens to the spirit? The Bible gives us an answer in Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 7: “and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” God formed your body from the dust of the ground; and when it dies, it returns to the dust. But when you die, your spirit goes back to God who gave it. Your spirit returns to God, and He will judge you according to His Word. The Bible says in Hebrews 9 and verse 27, that “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”
Now, at this point I want to shift gears. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2 and verse 11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.” You and I are engaged in a spiritual and moral war for our souls. Now, this war lasts our whole lives through. We never know when we’re going to face a challenge from our enemy, the devil. The Bible describes the devil in 1 Peter 5 and verse 8 as “a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Even Jesus had to fight the temptations of the devil. Matthew 4, verses 1 to 10 describe the devil’s attempts to get Jesus to leave the will of God and follow after him; but Jesus, because He loved the Word of God, resisted the devil and his temptations. My friend, the devil will try to pull you away from God by appealing to what your eyes long for, what your flesh desires, or what your pride craves. And many people give in to these worldly desires, but they lose something more precious than the whole world—they lose their souls!
People lose their lives to get a bigger house, a better car, more power, more land, and more possessions. And for what? They can’t take these things with them. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6, verses 7 to 10, “For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
The Bible says in 1 John 2, verses 15 to 17, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” My friend, if you love sin, your love for God begins to disappear. Sin will cause a man’s heart to grow cold; his heart that loved God doesn’t love Him anymore because it’s filled with so much selfishness.
Now, the rich farmer was full of himself. He had no thought for anyone but himself. His land was very productive. “And he began reasoning to himself, saying, What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops? He said, This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” Was he thankful for how God had blessed him? Why no! Did he consider the poor? No! God said to the rich farmer who wanted to build bigger barns, “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who is going to own all of these things you prepared? [My friend,] so is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12, verses 20 and 21). This man seemed to have everything a person could want on earth, but his soul wasn’t close to God. He was impoverished in soul. He put all of his effort into this life and was not prepared to live with God in the next life.
The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 16, verses 24 to 27, that “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father and with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.” What of your soul, my friend?
One day you will have to give an account to God for the deeds of your life, and your soul is at stake. Romans 2, verses 6 through 11 says that God “will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, [He will give to them] eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”
If you seek eternal life, glory and honor and peace, then you must live a righteous life and obey the truth. Love for God rather than self will lead you to turn from a worldly way of life and live a godly life. My friend, you will either live for your desires or live for God. You can’t live for your desires and expect to be in the grace of God.
The Bible says in Romans 8, verses 5 to 8, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” My friend, how you live and what you choose to serve matters greatly. Many of us fear for our lives, but we don’t fear for our souls. My friend, there is more to life than the here and now. The Lord Jesus who loves you said in Matthew 10, verse 28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Jesus spoke of hell, because He loves you; He loves you enough to warn you of the real dangers to your soul. He speaks because He cares. And if He didn’t care, He would tell you a lie or just let you fall into sin with no remedy. The Lord Jesus is in the saving business. He saves souls.
And He was willing to die for you, to shed His blood for your sins, so that you could turn from a way that destroys you to a way that blesses you. Jesus “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age” (Galatians 1 and verse 4). Jesus “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2 and verse 14).
And we must for this reason set our minds and our hearts on God. “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3, verses 2 to 4). Where is your heart and your mind, my friend? Are you like the rich farmer, or do you have the Lord Jesus in your heart? Let’s pray together. O Lord, may our love for You grow stronger and stronger; and may we never forget that one day we must give account of ourselves to You. This is our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen!
Recently a viewer asked me the difference between the “soul” and the “spirit.” Now there are two Scriptures that contain both words. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23 says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The second Scripture is Hebrews 4 and verse 12 which says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
The spirit is that inner person inside of us. Now, God gave each person a spirit. The Bible uses the word soul, however, in a variety of ways. Sometimes it refers to the whole person. Acts 2:41 says, “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.” Sometimes the word “soul” refers to the essence of our lives. Jesus said, “For whoever wishes to save his life (that is his soul) will lose it; but whoever loses his life (or soul) for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16, verse 25).
And then sometimes the word “soul” is synonymous with the word “spirit;” there isn’t any difference; referring to that inner person that lives on after death. James 5, verses 19 and 20 says, “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death [that is eternal death, separation from God] and will cover a multitude of sins.” Now, the death that we are talking about in James 5 is that eternal separation from God. You don’t want that, and I don’t either.
Christ Jesus wants to transform your life by offering a better way to live than selfishness. He opens His heart and salvation to all who will accept Him by faith and love. Now, if you believe in the Lord as the Son of God; you love Him, turn away from sin, confess Him as Lord and Christ, and be baptized so that your sins will be washed away. Why not set your heart on serving Him today and be obedient through repentance and baptism, just as they did in Acts 2 and verse 38?
For a free printed copy, or CD, or tape of this message, “More Than Flesh,” mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Or you can e-mail us at searchtv@searchtv.org.
Or, you can call the Search office toll-free at 1-800-321-8633. Now, all of our programs also appear on our website at www.searchtv.org. And you can access them in a printed, audio, or video format. Now we also are offering free study guides to go along with our programs. You can download them free at our website or call and request them. They will help you to study God’s Word.
Please visit one of the churches of Christ in the area served by this station or network. The church of Christ loves guests, and you’ll be glad you went. Mack and I will be back next week, Lord willing; so keep searching God’s Word and remember that we love you. God bless you and we love you from all of us at In Search of the Lord’s Way.
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