Spirit of Man—Spirit of God I

Fred R. Coulter—March 20, 2010

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Track 1: or Download

What God is doing
How He created us
Why He made us the way that we are

Now, brethren, contained in the Bible with the keys coming from the New Testament we need to understand this: The Testaments, Old and New, are the Word of God complete. However, the New Testament interprets the Old. Jesus, after He was resurrected, opened the eyes of the disciples and the apostles—by what? Showing them the prophecies concerning Himself which were written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms—correct? Those are the three divisions of the Old Testament.

In the New Testament God has given a greater revelation of His plan that finishes off what was started in what we call the Old Testament. We will see there are some passages in the Old Testament that are kind of an enigma—doesn't explain it. It kind of leaves you hanging. The answers come in the New Testament. So that's what we will endeavor to do to put it together.

1-Corinthians 2:9: "But according as it is written, 'The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'" Now that's very interesting. If you love God, you will what? Keep His commandments! Jesus said, 'If you love Me, keep My commandments'—right? Loving God involves more than keeping commandments, though. It involves your emotion, it involves your heart, it involves your mind, it involves your thinking, it involves the way that you live, all of it together.

Verse 10: "But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things—even the deep things of God.... [So we'll touch on some of those deep things of God.] ...For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man which is in him?" (vs 10-11). Now we are going to see that the spirit of man God gives. The spirit of man is not the soul. The soul is the physical life of the body as contained in the blood and in the automatic operation of the body, such as breathing, such as the heart beating, digestion, the ability to move your arms, your legs, and things like this. And then some of these also get involved more with the thinking part of the mind. Some people think the brain is the soul, but the brain is not the soul. Only certain parts of the brain keep the soul alive.

Let me see if I can explain it to you this way. In James 2 it says, 'As the body without the spirit is dead,' so it is the spirit that gives the life. The soul merely keeps the physical part of the body and the functioning of our being going. It is the spirit which gives us understanding, which gives us the ability to think, which separates us from the rest of the animals. God gives everyone that spirit.

You'll ask the question: When does that spirit come? We'll answer that a little bit later. But every human being, male and female, has the spirit of man. Now also he's drawing a parallel here. "In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God" (vs 11). And the Spirit of God has to lead us and teach us. And also let's understand what Jesus said concerning the words that He was speaking to them. What did He say to His disciples? 'The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life.' In other words, the things that are contained here in the Scriptures. And it's interesting the way that the Apostle Paul wrote about the words of God. He said, 'All Scripture is God breathed.' Or you could say, inspired or you could say spirit-originated, from God's Spirit.

That's why when you read and study the Bible and with God's Spirit in you, you understand things that you could not understand otherwise. It's something that you can't get out of any other book, because no other book in the world has the spiritual impact of the Bible. Inspired by the mind of God, the Spirit of God, written by those who were faithful, all the way beginning from Moses all the way through the end to the Apostle John.

Verse 12. Let's notice a comparison here. "Now we have not received the spirit of the world... [Isn't it interesting, there's a spirit of the world. What is the spirit of the world? John calls it in 1-John 4, 'The spirit of error or deception.' And who is the prince of the power of the air? Satan the devil! Who is the god of this world? Satan the devil! So you can't understand the things of the Bible by taking a religious approach as the world does, because unless you love God and you're obeying Him—keeping His commandments—you're not going to understand what God has given to us. A lot of these things the people who are steeped in a religion of this world called 'Christian,' think that some of the things we are going to cover today are blasphemous, are heretical. But as we will see, they're not.] ...we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is of God, so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God." But we have to search it out and we have to study it out God's way.

Verse 13: "Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit in order to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means." And as we go through in studying today, in reading these words and expounding upon them with the Holy Spirit of God with you, with the Holy Spirit of God with me, with the presence of God on the Sabbath with us, then we learn and we understand. It isn't because we have any great thing of ourselves.

So in the beginning God tells us about man, not entirely, but gives us some hints. Genesis 1:26: "And God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image..." There's a great debate among Judaism who 'Us' consists of. They say, 'Well, it's the angelic realm or the majestic whatever.' The answer really didn't come until John 17. Let's look at that, because this is the answer as to Who the 'Us' are. God didn't put it necessarily entirely in the Old Testament. Now John 17 is a fantastic part of the Bible. Actually when you come to understand it, this is the Lord's prayer, the prayer He prayed before He was led off to be crucified. It contains an awful lot. As a matter of fact, John 14, 15, 16, and 17 contain all the words of the New Covenant. And it also contains everything that we will experience as Christians, all the way from the joy of the Holy Spirit, to terrible persecution and martyrdom.

Let's find out who the 'Us' are. So, as we're getting ready for the Passover, be sure and read through before you come to the Passover, John 14-17. John 17:20: "'I do not pray for these only, but also for those who shall believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You... [That is by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Notice, it doesn't say one thing here, and the New Testament does not have the phrase, 'The Holy Spirit God, or God the Holy Spirit.' The Holy Spirit is the power of God. If it were a trinity, it would mention it right here to answer the question of who are the 'Us.'] ...even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us [Father and Son] in order that the world may believe that You did send Me'" (vs 20-21). That's why you have to put the whole Bible together. That's why we need to understand what was in the Old Testament was a beginning, but not complete. The New Testament completes it and we have to go back and tie it together.

Genesis 1:26: "'Let Us make man in Our image... [What other Scriptures can you remember about the creation? John 1:1-3, 'In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Nothing that was created came into being without Him.' Col. 1, 'He created everything through Christ.' That's the 'Us.'] ...after Our likeness... [How close to the likeness of God are we made? Why would God make us in that way? If we are made after the image of God, then when we look at each other we know that God looks like us. Isn't that what Jesus said to His disciples? 'If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father,' when they said, 'Show us the Father.'] (Now then He gives us the whole world): ...and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that crawls upon the earth.' And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female" (vs 26-27). Very interesting!

Come here to Genesis 5 so we don't leave the women out. A lot of women think, 'Well, we're left out of that there Old Testament.' They're not. Genesis 5:1: "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them, and He called their name Adam... [Mr. and Mrs. Adam.] ...in the day when they were created" (vs 1-2).

Now let's look at another Scripture which talks about what is man. We can see all the potential that man has done, all the fantastic things that he has done. Remember Gen. 11, when God came down and saw them building the tower and He said, 'Now this they begin to do and now nothing that they imagine to do will be restrained from them.' So it shows we have great abilities. Look at all of the technology that has taken place in our lifetimes. Now we're going to see fantastic knowledge that is almost God-like because of the abilities of man.

Let's come to Psalm 8. Let's see what else it says about man, and then we will ask the question: What has God given to man to make him like Him?—even though he may be a sinner because he chose to decide good and evil—Adam and Eve did—for themselves, and therefore, cut themselves off from God, and also brought upon the whole world the nature of sin that we have within us. And as Paul writes of it, it's called the law of sin and death. That's why 'all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.'

Psalm 8:1: "O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings You have ordained strength because of Your adversaries, to silence the enemy and the avenger" (vs 1-2). You can think of many instances. The New Testament Church:

• God has called the weak
• He has called the despised
• He has called those who are counted as nothing by the important people in this world.

"...When I consider Your heavens... [Isn't it something when you get out there and you can see the stars? Today you can have those stars brought right into your living room via television or a DVD, via all of the fantastic equipment that God has given the technology to men to use for His glory. I know in listening to a thing about the universe, there was one astronomer who said, 'I do not know of an astronomer who doesn't believe in God.' So we think about that.] ....consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained…. [Now here is the question]: …What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?" (vs 3-4). When you think about that and what Jesus said: 'The Father Himself loves you.' It is the Father Who draws you to Him. Fantastic thing. God wants to be involved in our lives, but there's a way that He wants to be involved in our lives. He has given us choice; He's not going to take it away from us.

This is really an enigma to those who try and understand the Word of God. And even the translators of the Septuagint, if they were the ones who translated it, didn't actually believe the Hebrew here, v 5: "For You have made him a little lower than God... [The Hebrew word for God is 'Elohim' and that's the word that is used here. 'A little lower than God.' The Septuagint translators say, 'A little lower than angels.' That's technically true, because we're lower than angels since they're spirit beings and we're not, but a little lower than God. For what purpose? Why are we made in the image of God, after His likeness, made a little lower than God, for what purpose? And how is He going to accomplish that?] ...and have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet; All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The birds of heaven, the fish of the sea, and all that pass through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!" (vs 5-9).

• How are we made a little lower than God?
• What is it about man that sets us apart from the animals?
• Why we're especially created the way that we are?

Track 2: or Download

So how is man different from all the rest of the creation that we see on earth? Let's first of all come to Ecclesiastes 3:10: "I have seen the task which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised by it. He has made everything beautiful in its time; He has also set eternity in their heart..." (vs 10-11). Isn't that an interesting thing? The King James says 'the world.' But it means more than the world—eternity. Human beings are the only ones that can think in time and space beyond our existence, and even look back in history before our existence. So God put that in us and that's why men are religious creatures, even if they're atheists, because that's their religion. We also see that God has done something also entirely different.

Let's come over to the book of Job. Let's see some very interesting things there in Job 32. This is about Elihu. Elihu was the youngest of those that were there watching the ordeal with Job and what he was going through. Remember this: even though Job was righteous, all his righteousness was only what God already required, so he couldn't have righteousness greater than God, because God invented it.

Job 32:4: "Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he in days. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled. And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, 'I am young, and you are very old; therefore I was afraid and dared not show you my opinion. I said, "The aged should speak, and the multitude of years should teach wisdom." But there is a spirit in man... [That's the key. There is a spirit in man that God gave to man. That's why it's called the spirit of man back in 1-Cor. 2.] ...and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding'" (vs 4-8).

Job 33:4—this gets into something that is also very profound: "The Spirit of God has made me..." So God has direct cause and creation. Now God, even though He does it by procreation through husband and wife in the bearing of children, He has a direct hand in it and it is by the Spirit of God that human beings are created. I don't know where the book is, but I remember reading it and I remember the quote, which is this: At the point of conception of a new human life, there is an instantaneous four hundred and eighty thousand volt of electricity. My question is: Is that telling us when the spirit of man is given to that new life? James says, 'As the body without the spirit is dead,' so you can't even have the formation of human life without the spirit of man, which comes from God. And that is God's Spirit that is working and connecting with all the genes and chromosomes to bring together a new life in the womb of the mother. So God is directly involved in it. That's why abortion is such a terrible and horrible thing, because they are destroying the workmanship of God of the most innocent of human beings.

Now let's look a little bit more here about the Spirit of God/the spirit of man. Let's come down here to Zechariah 12. The spirit is something that can be molded or formed, taking care of a lot of things in the body, giving us intelligence and thought. Zechariah 12:1: "The burden of the Word of the LORD for Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him." So the Spirit of God is creating in the womb. There is a spirit given to every human being called the spirit of man and He forms it within him. The reason He does is because we're made a little lower than God and He has a great purpose for us. We already read that, that we can become one with Him.

Let's see how the spirit works. Let's see that it can become dysfunctional, too. First of all, let's come to the book of Proverbs. I think it's interesting that you think that clear back in Job's time… and the book of Job was written before the book of Genesis was compiled. The book of Genesis goes back in history before the book of Job, but the book of Job was written after the Flood and they had quite a bit of knowledge and understanding at that time.

So here in the book of Proverbs, let's look and see about the spirit of man. Let's come to Proverbs 20:27. The spirit of man becomes very important in our relationship with God. "The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD... [That's why all human beings with the spirit of man can never escape God. He knows who you are, He knows where you are, and with the seven eyes of God, etc. etc.] ...searching all the inward parts of the belly." In other words, the very internal way of thinking God can tune in to at any time. Isn't that something?

The spirit of man also does some other things for us. It gives us understanding. He's given it to us so that we can use it for thinking, for controlling our minds. Now here's a warning, Proverbs 25:28: "He who has no rule over his own spirit is like a broken down city without a wall." God expects us to use the spirit of man. God expects us to use His Spirit. We will see what happens when we receive the Spirit of God in relationship to the spirit of man, which is fantastic indeed.

Let's look and see that things can happen to the spirit of man when it's not used properly. Let's come here to Proverbs 18:14. This tells us an awful lot. "The spirit of man will sustain his infirmity... [or help him overcome his difficulty, either way. Have you heard it said, 'This person survived because he had the spirit.' Every heard an expression similar to that? Yes! But notice the second part of this:] ...but a broken spirit who can bear?" So the spirit can be broken, brokenhearted, broken-spirited, also called in some cases 'dis-spirited.' In this case we're not talking about demon possession or anything like that, we're talking about: Have you seen someone so discouraged that there is virtually nothing you can do to encourage them, they are so down? That's what it's talking about here. That's why you need to go to God. Only God can heal the spirit. God gave the spirit in man so we

• would have intelligence
• would have feeling
• could have connection with God
• can yield to Him
• have His purpose for us fulfilled through His Spirit and through the spirit in man

Proverbs 16:19: "It is better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud…. [That's something!] (v 18): …Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Now I can think of real good case of that, or two cases, one of them was Job—right? Another one was king Nebuchadnezzar—right? He got all lifted up. As a matter of fact, I find it quite interesting that in the book of Daniel we have an epistle from king Nebuchadnezzar to all the people of the world. You go back and read that. That was quite an experience that he went through. So that happened to him.

Let's see what else can happen. We saw about a wounded spirit. Proverbs 15:4: "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it crushes the spirit…. [So the spirit, it's strong, but fragile. It can also be broken.] (v 13): …A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken." So this tells us there's a connection between the heart, the mind, the spirit, and a broken spirit—brokenhearted. Many people are that way. There's a remedy for it.

All of these things have to do with the spirit of man and what God wants us to do, how He wants us to live, how He wants us to yield to Him. That's why we were made a little lower than the angels.

Now let's see concerning the creation of man. Let's come here to Psalm 139. This is quite a Psalm. It tells us about the fantastic creation that God does in creating every human life. Question: When does a newly conceived life in the womb of its mother draw breath? I want you to think that through a little bit. Obvious, it's not breathing like we are, but without the mother, it can't live—is that not correct? Yes! So the newly conceived life is actually participating and partaking of the breath of life of the mother through her blood coming to the placenta and transferring the nutrients and things to the newly conceived life. So a lot of people say, 'Well, human life isn't human life until it takes a breath of air, because Adam did not become a living being until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.' Well, then why is newly conceived life, life? Because of the spirit of man, the Spirit of God, and also because it's participating in the breathing of the mother through the blood stream.

Let's see how David wrote this here. This is quite something! He says, Psalm 139:7: "Where shall I go from Your Spirit?…. [God communicates with us through His Spirit, and through the seven spirits which are the seven eyes of God.] ...Or where shall I fell from Your presence? If I go up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in the grave, behold You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the furthest parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me shall be night;' even the darkness does not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; as is the darkness, so is the light to You, For You have possessed my reins... [Very interesting! Connected with the spirit of man are what are called the 'reins of God,' that God has put in every human being. He tries the reins—in other words, God wants to know at any time how you're doing, it's through the reins. Now someone will say, 'Well, the Hebrew means kidney.' However, if you look at the human brain, and there are two hemispheres to the brain—is that not correct?—Do they not each look like a giant bean or a kidney? So this God's way of knowing about us, knowing our thoughts. That's quite something—isn't it?] ...You have possessed my reins; You have knit me together in my mother's womb" (vs 7-13).

Isn't it interesting that by the time a woman confirms that she is pregnant, the new human life in her is approximately six weeks old. At six weeks it's about an inch high with all the features of a human being. Is that not a human being? Yes, indeed! You're a human being from conception. Isn't that a marvelous thing? "You have knit me together in my mother's womb.… ['Because You put the whole process there. And Your Spirit formed me and made me and You gave the spirit of man at conception.' Quite a fantastic thing—isn't it? Yes!] ...I will praise You, for I am awesomely and wonderfully made.… [And you look at some of these things that the athletes can do. I don't know how many of your watch the Olympics, but you see some of the things that they can do with the human body—tremendous.] ...Your works are marvelous and my soul knows it very well. My substance... (vs 13-15).

Isn't that interesting? Today they call the first conception of life of a human being yet unformed 'substance.' Now this tells me God is very active in the creation of human life. That is whether it is conceived in wedlock or not in wedlock or even invitro fertilization. That tells you life is contained in the substance that creates human beings.

"...My substance was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and intricately formed in the lowest part of the earth.... [That is in the womb, just symbolic language there.] ...Your eyes did see my substance, yet being unformed; and in Your book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them" (vs 15-16). Isn't that an amazing thing?

What are human beings trying to do with the genetic code? They're trying to map it all out. They came to a point that said, 'Well, we've got it all mapped out,' until oh, oh. The sub parts of the genes and chromosomes now have many hundreds of times different variations than they figured. So they haven't figured out God's book of the genome yet. But isn't that interesting? I think that's fantastic!

Verse 17: "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!" Because when you count it from the time that you are conceived, God is involved in your life, though you don't even know it. God has not made all human beings in vain, because He chooses just a few at this time now. Their day will come later. Everything that every human being has done, thought, acted, everything, is recorded on the spirit of man. When we are converted and receive the Spirit of God, it's all recorded on the Spirit of God, too. So then we will see how God is going to take care of that.

Now God has given us something that we need to understand and that is free will and choice. In doing so, it puts a responsibility upon everyone, and also a tremendous responsibility on the parents and a great deal of responsibility on the mothers. When you read about a good king, it lists his mother—right? Read about a bad king, his mother was so-and-so. Mothers are important!

By the way, just a little political thing here. I know how to solve all the budgetary problems of all the states in the United States so they can balance their budget within two years: Eliminate all schools! Teach them at home! Let there be tax breaks so mothers can stay at home and teach their children, because you can get an education from kindergarten to P.H.D. on line. Eliminate the schools, keep the buildings for other activities. But, boy, you could save a lot of money—couldn't you? They won't do that. But how we learn and what we are taught become tremendously important. Because those things frame and form our thoughts combined with the spirit of man and our brains—work together. We have to choose between right and wrong, good and evil. Adam and Eve were the ones who decided that they would not listen to God and accept His instruction of what is right and wrong. No, they partook of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, so that they could decide for themselves what is good and what is evil.

So you look around the world and you see various forms of good. You see various forms of evil. You see various forms of compassion and understanding. You see various forms of hatred and killing and murder. All of those things have to do with how human beings are trained.

Let's come back here to Deuteronomy 30. God has created all of His laws. They work automatically. Remember there in Isa. where God says, 'I create evil.' Does that mean God is evil because He created it? No, that means if you're going to have something that is righteous and good, that is right, then there needs to be blessings that go with that. If there are things that are evil and wrong that men and women can choose to do, there has to be a penalty for that. Just like the law of gravity.

So that's what we find here in Deuteronomy 30:10: "If you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes... [Now as we have said how many times—the whole sum of the Bible is, 'Obey the voice of God.' It's not a religious structure; it's not following this man vs that man, or this creed vs that creed—following God, obeying His voice, keeping His commandments.] ...which are written in this book of the law... [Gal. 3: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things that are written in the book of the law.' So Judaism laws cause you to be cursed because you don't keep the laws of God, or Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, whatever other religion. This is not to pick on any single religion. There's either God's way or the way of the world. Now then, this is to cause you to do something.] ...and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul... [because that's what God wants. He wants you to be totally dedicated to Him, so that He can give you His Spirit, that you can have a personal relationship with Him. That's what God wants.] ...For this commandment which I command you today is not hidden from you, neither is it far off" (vs 10-11).

Let's put that in context of the world today. There are more Bibles being printed than at any time in the history of the world. They're being printed in languages that now encompass all that land mass from the Mediterranean clear to Asia and on up into Russia, because those are the areas that are going to suffer the most devastation at the return of Christ. So God is sending them a warning. How far it will go, how much they will listen to it, we don't know. In the modern nations of Israel, we are loaded with Bibles. Here in America we have four on average in every household. So when I'm reading this, I want you to understand how this particularly applies right now today, as well as it did back then.

"...is not hidden from you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, 'Who shall go up to heaven for us, and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?'.... [Can't you just see how much money Congress would vote for sending rockets and space ships up into space if someone said, 'Boy, the truth about God is on that star. Now if we can just get there and someone bring it here, we'll save the human race.' No, God gave it to us. It's right here.] ...Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say, 'Who shall go over the sea for us to bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?' But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it" (vs 12-14).

Now in your heart refers to conscience, that certain things everyone knows are wrong until they sear their conscience. Murder is wrong, lying is wrong, stealing is wrong, adultery is wrong. Those commandments that have to do with the inner action of human beings, they don't necessarily count the first four commandments as inherent within them to be able to understand that particular part. But they do the others. That's conscience. One of Satan's devices is to get us to harden our conscience and he has ways of doing it.

Scriptural References:

• 1-Corinthians 2:9-13
• Genesis 1:26
• John 17:20-21
• Genesis 1:26-27
• Genesis 5:1-2
• Psalm 8:1-9
• Ecclesiastes 3:10-11
• Job 32: 4-8
• Job 33:4
• Zechariah 12:1
• Proverbs 20:27
• Proverbs 25:28
• Proverbs 18:14
• Proverbs 16: 19, 18
• Proverbs 15: 4, 13
• Psalm 139:7-17
• Deuteronomy 30:10-14

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• James 2
• 1-John 4
• John 1:1-3
• Colossians 1
• Genesis 11
• Galatians 3

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 04-04-10
Formatted: bo—4-6-10