In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the need for the salvation of our souls. He explains that although our spirit may be different, our soul is still the same as the person in the world, and therefore needs to be saved. The preacher highlights the importance of recognizing this need for salvation in order to fully understand and appreciate the great salvation that God has prepared for us. He references Romans chapter 8 and the crucifixion of Jesus, explaining that through his sacrifice, our sins are cleansed and we are able to experience the love and grace of God. The sermon concludes with a prayer for God's Holy Spirit to reveal to us the depth of His grace and for us to respond to His calling to be sanctified.

We would still like brothers and sisters to turn to 1 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. And let's turn again to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. We will read from verse 3 through verse 12. 1 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. I think by this time we all are able to recite 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 23 and 24. May these two verses be carved into our hearts. Because God himself will sanctify us holy. 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. 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. 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 party. In God's plan, he puts our spirit at the highest place. Because our spirit can commune with the spirit of God. 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 fallen, the lost man. When salvation of God came to us. He 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 rebirth means that our dead spirit is now alive again. 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 depths 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 are 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, 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. It was 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. That 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 all the old things are past. Everything is new. Everything is from God. Indeed we have that condition. But good experience does not 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 old creation was still there. It seems my self, my old self is still in me. And then we discover that sin is still powerful in me. And then it seems the world is still attractive to me. And we discover that now our condition is not that perfect as at the time I was just saved. So at that time some of us may wonder whether we have been saved. It seems that I am looking back to the past. If I am really saved, how come now I have a 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, then he is a new creation. 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 is 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 is not so in the original language. The original language did not say if one is in Christ, then he is a new creation. It says that if one is in Christ, then he is a new creation. So he saw that it is in Christ, there is a new creation. So he saw that it 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 toward sin. And now our heart and mind is now turned. And we want to separate from sin. Originally our heart and mind is toward death. But 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. And 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? Because we often have worries, often have worries. 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 when we are first saved. And the major change is in our spirit. A dead spirit now becomes a living spirit. A spirit severed from God now becomes a living spirit. A living 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. Brothers and sisters, today among God's children, the usual understanding is 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 Hebrew, Hebrew really talks about the salvation of the soul. And many people when they read Hebrew, they have questions. Especially in chapter 6 and chapter 10. But they do not know that the salvation mentioned in Hebrew 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 Hebrew, it really talks about the salvation of our souls. For example, Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 it says, we will read several verses. Chapter 10 from verse 35. Chapter 10. 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, you may receive the promise. For yet a very 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, 1st and 2nd 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 This is James chapter 1 verse 21 And here again it's 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. Why our souls need to be saved? According to our experience after you are saved and when the first love inspires you it seems your whole person is changed. But gradually you discover that that's not really true. So although you discover that the Holy Spirit lives in your spirit 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 this 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 against each other. And that could actually describe the experience of us when after we are saved our souls are not saved yet. There seems to be two persons living there and these two persons inside do not cooperate. These two persons inside compete with each other. The Holy Spirit and the flesh are 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 element you are willing to do the will of God. But you feel your experiment is opposing to that. But this life of the old self seems to be so strong. And this new life seems to be still very tender. So often times you discover it seems this old 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 Romans chapter 7 Woe to me! Who can save me from this body of death? Brothers and sisters is it what you can feel? Now all these things still have 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. If it is so lovely how can I not love it? So in you there is this struggle. Brothers and sisters do you experience this condition? And have you discovered that today you are a Christian. You shall be able to live on Christ. You hope to live on Christ but what lives on 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 and then you see you have to live this life of conflict. Not only that 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 there 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 separate. 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 God. 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. And sometimes you cannot distinguish the will of God. 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. If God was not willing for us to know His will He seems we have to force Him and force Him so that we can tell us a little bit about His own will. But this is when we are serving the Lord. We have a zeal to serve Him. But 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 salvation of my soul. Now personally I feel that in our spiritual experience 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 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 not alive. But Paul says I cannot speak to you as speak to spiritual I can only consider you as fleshly. And in the original language is fleshly. It means it's belonging to flesh. And as babies in Christ we know we all love babies. And we see a baby who is innocent 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. Now even if you want to sleep at night he won't consider you. When he wants to cry to then 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's 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's not only fleshy but also fleshly. And then it is a problem. Because he refuses to grow. He still wants to be a baby. He always thinks of himself first. And he is totally selfish. And he is not able to display or 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 in Christ. 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 life. 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. God has prepared 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 force cannot change. You can decorate it a little bit. You can make the outworking of the flesh to be different a little bit. In the past you sinned by your flesh. Now you want to serve God with your life of flesh. We see that the carnal 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 our soul needs to be saved. Brothers and sisters I do not know but you have seen this need. If we do not see this need and 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. We know when our Lord Jesus was crucified he has borne our sins and Peter tells us he has borne our sins himself all our sins piled 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 a cross he not only has borne our sins and Bible tells us and when our Lord Jesus was crucified on a cross he has brought all our own persons all selves and crucified on a 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 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 all 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 so no matter how you live you are still Adam and this is all the nature and 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 the 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 the barbarian king and that time was a big fight how can you fight in a big fight but this yellow emperor invented this compass now he knows the direction he beat 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 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 died then we all die we do not exist thank and praise God now in Adam everyone needs to die but when Lord Jesus comes he is the last Adam when the last Adam died 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 slaves 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 the salvation he has crucified you and me with Christ when our Lord Jesus was crucified although you and me you and I are not one 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 the believers shall never die we can sleep sometimes we sleep longer but we do not die the believers shall never die thank and praise God but there is the gospel to the believers the gospel to the believers that you do not have to live because one has lived for you brothers and sisters now is it difficult to be a Christian we want God inside and we want to live Christ out we strive very hard but we cannot overcome the law of sin and death we cannot overcome the old law so in the reformation the theologian of that reformation is that MacLachlan he said he said me the young MacLachlan 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 believe 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 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 for 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 born my sin now you have never sinned before because you were not born but two thousand years ago Christ has already born your sin now how can you get the forgiveness of sins you believe that Christ has born your sin on the cross and then your sins are forgiven 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 ask he says I believe in Romans chapter 6 my old man was crucified with Christ and I also reckon 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 have forgot in chapter 11 there is a small word now when we say we count ourselves to be dead to sin in the original language it actually says 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 from the salvation of our spirit 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 perfect 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 wholly 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