Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Guest (Male): The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: There's a great deal of difference between the soul and the spirit. There have been those who have attempted to teach that there is no difference between the soul and the spirit. The Bible says definitely that there is a difference and that the difference may be known by the word of God.

Some will argue that the two words are used interchangeably. That of course is not so. It is true that there are times when what is said about a soul is also said about a spirit, but that does not mean that they are identical.

Guest (Male): Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the weekly radio outreach which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.

The application of God's word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we will be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled, "The Human Spirit."

Have you ever known a person to say, "I just want to find myself"? People have tried to find themselves through drugs, sex, the occult, strange religions, and even leaving their families to hitchhike through Europe. But it is impossible for people to really know themselves apart from God's revelation.

So, if we do want to find ourselves, where do we turn? What do we do? Stay with us as Dr. Barnhouse answers those questions. The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is Romans 1:11 and 12. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with the message entitled, "The Human Spirit."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. We thank thee that we can come directly to thee and with holy boldness, in by the new and living way that Christ has opened up through his death, making it possible for us to be received as sons. Bless the word to every heart that listens in this hour. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

We're studying together in the early verses of the epistle to the Romans. A slang phrase has become a part of distinguished language concerning the nature of man's being. We hear people talking about the psychology of a man and they will ask, "What makes him tick?" They mean by that, why does a man think the way he thinks? Why does he act the way he acts? Why is he what he is?

A trusted banker in New York suddenly absconded with almost a million dollars. *Time* magazine, reporting the case, wrote for their headline the descriptive phrase, "The Stranger." Here was a man of 40 whom all of his associates, family, friends, and acquaintances thought to be one thing, and suddenly he was revealed to be something else.

*Time* described his normal life over the years and then said, "But overnight, all this evidence as to the mind, character, instincts, and aspirations lost its validity, and he became a stranger to all who knew him best." Now, there was nothing strange about it at all to a student of the word of God.

The most important study for mankind is the study of God, but after that, we would agree with Alexander Pope that the proper study of mankind is man. If we're going to study the nature and being of man, however, we must not follow the lead of modern scientists and confine our study to the body and the mind of man.

To do such a thing is to bring ourselves into a dead end, where nothing further can be known, and the part that we do know will not be comprehended because it is not held in relationship to the greater truths that make up the whole. Doctors have studied the anatomy of man's body. Psychologists have begun probing into the intricacies of man's mind.

But only the revelation which the Creator has made concerning the full being of man can give us the truth we need to understand ourselves and those around us. The professional psychologists, whether of the school of Freud, Adler, Jung, or some other, have made the great mistake of refusing to consider the mass of evidence which God has given us about the nature and being of man, made higher than the beasts but lower than the angels.

In our study of the epistle to the Romans, we've reached a verse that can be understood only by a study of mankind. Paul, in the first chapter of the epistle, says, "For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers."

We shall now look at the implications that rise out of the statement that his service of God was in the spirit, in his spirit. Now, that this is more than a mere expression is shown by the fact that he wrote the Corinthian church arguing against those who thought of him as if he walked according to the flesh.

And he continues, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." Or as more modern English would put it, we do not war according to the flesh or in the power of the flesh. True service to God must be in the spirit, and in this case, it does not mean in the Holy Spirit, but in the renewed spirit of the individual.

There is a great difference between the two, and we read in Romans 8:16, "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit." This proves that the human spirit is quite different from the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the best way to get at the meaning is to describe the general makeup of man's being.

If we turn back to the account of man's creation, we read, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Here, then, is the fact, the flat statement that man is a soul. When I say that I am, I do not mean that I am a body, but that I am a soul.

I have a body. I also have a spirit. There's a great deal of difference between the soul and the spirit. This difference will come out as we study. But note well that it is only by the revealed word of God that the difference can be known. For the word of God, we read in Hebrews 4:12, "is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

So we must not believe those who would tell us that the soul and the spirit of man are the same because they sometimes are used for the whole being of man. The word "everybody," if you break it in two, is composed of "every" and "body." We use it more often of the thinking being than we do of the physical being.

We say "everybody knows." It isn't the body that knows; it's the mind that knows. Thus you see our common usage tends to break down the technical meanings of the various words. Perhaps it would be simpler to explain the subject by using an analogy. Man is a trinity: body, soul, and spirit.

Now, a tree has a body. An animal has body and soul. But a man has body, soul, and spirit. We may liken Adam before the fall to a three-story building. The first floor is the body. The second floor is the soul, and the third floor is the spirit. The spirit and the soul were held to the body, and the body was held to the earth by the force of gravity.

Man could move only in so far as his body could move. The mind and the spirit might soar to the clouds, but the body was fastened to the ground. Now, when Adam sinned, a great psychological catastrophe took place. Man became a fallen creature. The third floor fell into the second floor, like a building under the impact of a bomb.

We've seen photographs of such houses, the walls of the second floor torn out, revealing to the eye the furniture awry and the debris of the third floor confused with the material of the second floor. And in the first floor walls, cracks could be seen, revealing the weakness of the structure. So it is with fallen man.

The body is a dying thing, though it may sustain the upper floors for a long period of time. The soul and the spirit are in wreckage. That's what's the matter with mankind today. The body is world-consciousness, and through its five senses, we are aware of all that is around us.

The soul is self or ego-consciousness, and through it, we know our own individuality. The spirit is God-consciousness, and through it, we are aware of the existence of a force that is higher than ourselves. When Adam sinned, the whole of this knowledge became distorted and confused.

The body still functions after a fashion. The soul manifests all of the faculties that may make for great charm and personality. The spirit, which should know God and be obedient to him, is fallen and rebellious. We read in Romans 8:7, "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

Now, that the mind is a part of the spirit is shown by the revelation in 1 Corinthians 2:11, "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" So the whole centrality of the life of the human race is vested in the soul. Into this soul, the spiritual being of man has fallen, so that his knowledge of God is almost obliterated in some cases, while in all cases of unregenerate man, it is false and misleading.

It is for this reason that the Bible teaches us that it is totally impossible for a man who has not been born again to understand the things of the Holy Spirit. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:14, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

When a person becomes a Christian, there is a miraculous transformation that takes place in him. God puts into his being a new spirit. There is the place where the old third floor was located, and there a new third floor is placed—a new spirit. This is not held up from beneath by the law of gravity depending on the body as the old spirit was, but may be compared with a magnetic force which suspends it and attracts it from above.

That is why the Bible speaks of the Christian as being born from above. The world around us cannot see with the five senses that we believers possess an entirely new spirit, but we are immediately aware of the fact. We know that we can comprehend spiritually what we never understood before.

It is as though we had received an entirely new set of senses, as indeed we have. When a person becomes a Christian, God does not use anything that was in the old structure of our being in creating within us the new. That's a very important fact. God does not use anything that you have in creating the new life.

The spirit which he creates within us is what constitutes the new birth. And from then on, the life of the Christian becomes a great struggle between the old soul and the new spirit. The old soul is drawn downwards to the body by the lust of the flesh, and this being is called the flesh in the scriptural terminology.

The Greek is *sarx*. The new life is the spirit, and the Bible tells us that "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other." Before we leave this phase of the subject, in order to return to the meaning of our text which speaks of serving God in the spirit, let us complete the structure of the new life in Christ.

For just as the life of the Adamic man is threefold, held up from beneath, the life of the believer is held up from above and becomes a threefold life. The spirit distills the heavenly life and knowledge into the soul, so that little by little, there is the transformation that continues in the life of the true Christian.

Paul expressed it when he said, "I—ego, the soul—am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I—the new personality dominated by Christ, the spirit—live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." And we know that the time will come when the believers shall have their new bodies.

As we read in Philippians 3:21, that will be made like unto the body of the risen Lord in his glory. At death, all that is of the old body and the wreckage of the old soul and spirit are lost to us, thank God, and are lost to us forever.

With the resurrection from the dead at the time of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ for his own, our salvation shall be made complete, and we shall have our new bodies. But whereas our present body is held to the earth and draws the soul towards itself, the new body will not be held to the earth but will be drawn to the spirit and will be fully dominated by the desires of the spirit.

That is why in the great resurrection chapter, our future being, our future nature, is described in these terms: "It is sown a natural (or soulish) body; it is raised a spiritual body." A body, it is sown a body dominated by the soul; it is raised as a body dominated by the spirit.

We must never think of a spiritual body as being an ethereal body, wispy and diaphanous, ghostly, but rather as a material, tangible body, like unto the body of our Lord which could be handled and which did eat, but which was fully dominated by the spirit. It's now possible for us to return to our text and see the tremendous implications of Paul's statement that he served the living God with his spirit.

The center of all his life and being was henceforth from the new spirit which he had received in his regeneration. And he did not live his Christian life, he did not serve the Lord with the mere natural faculties of the mind and the personality. A definite example of the two kinds of service in the same life can illuminate the point for us.

In the life of Peter as recorded in the Gospels, we have indications of his speaking from the human spirit, from the Holy Spirit, and also from the devil. Peter was an effervescent man; today he would be called an extrovert of the highest degree. He was the first to talk on any occasion, and the disciples themselves must have learned to discount much that he said.

By the very first time he ever met the Savior, he said, "Lord, how often should I forgive my brother?" Now, that's a pretty good indication that he was frequently in the midst of quarrels, for no man who's a peaceful man has to ask such a question. Throughout all of the developing story of the Gospels, we have the same portrait drawn stronger and stronger.

It was Peter who lumbered into the Transfiguration scene and asked if three tabernacles should be erected for earthly worship. It was Peter who blurted out to the first one who asked him that Christ paid taxes, "Oh yes, my master pays taxes." It was Peter who said that the Lord would never be allowed to wash his feet, and when told that it was an absolute prerequisite to association with the Savior, cried out that he wanted his head and his hands washed also.

Here is a revelation of the big-mouthed fisherman who talked first and thought afterwards when he did think. But once, in the course of the Lord's ministry, there was a difference. The Savior asked the disciples concerning public opinion about himself. Jesus answered, "But whom say ye that I am?"

It was Simon Peter who answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Christ immediately pointed out that Peter had not thought that out by himself and intimated that the disciples were not to compare that answer with Peter's usual line of thoughtless wordiness. That truth of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ was a divine revelation to Peter, and the confession must be thus construed.

The Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ is the rock on which the church was to be built. Americans should understand this and never be deceived into thinking that Peter was the rock. Because America is the land of funnies, of the comics, and you're used to seeing hundreds of comic strip characters day by day, and out of their mouth coming what is known as a balloon, the little circle around the words that are spoken.

Now, Jesus you might say put his hand on Peter and said, "Thou art Peter the man," and then putting his hand upon the word said, "But upon this rock—not Peter the man, but this rock, my deity, the thing you've just said—I will build my church." Now, that which follows allows us to reconstruct Peter's train of thought for the next few moments.

It seems as though he were completely overwhelmed by the fact that he had been the channel of a divinely inspired statement and that he immediately began to desire another such compliment. When the Lord Jesus announced that he was about to go to the cross to die, Peter thought that his chance had come and attempted to tell the Lord that such a course of action should be far from him.

At once, the Lord turned upon him and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan." Here, then, we have the same human lips used by the human spirit, the Holy Spirit, and by the devil. It should give us pause and make us consider our own speech and tongue most carefully. It should cause us to see also that we must not take just anything that comes from any man, no matter who he may be.

If the devil and God and the human effervescence can speak from the same lips, we must realize constantly that we must have a standard to check everything that we hear and learn. The standard is, of course, the word of God. Paul even complimented the Christians from Berea, we read in Acts 17:11, because they were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they heard the word with all readiness of mind, but that they searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Oh, what a difference it would make if the people of our land observed this principle and checked everything by the word of God. Now, when we hear false theology come from a pulpit, we know that it is Satan speaking through human lips, denying the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nature abhors a vacuum, and into the spiritual vacuum left by the move away from the gospel, anything can come to take its place.

That's why a great many men preached nothing but pacifism before Pearl Harbor; they had no gospel to preach and so they preached pacifism. The Japanese bombs at Pearl Harbor destroyed many a sermon barrel, and the poor men drifted around until one of the bright boys thought up the idea of a just and durable peace. Throughout the war, these men preached no gospel but instead talked about a just and durable peace.

The World Council of Churches came up with the idea that it's the duty of the churches to fight the twin evils of communism and capitalism. Now, any minister who follows that line is serving God in the flesh and not in the spirit. It is possible to fight communism in the flesh, for it is a godless, unbiblical system.

But anyone who comes up with ideas against capitalism is fighting against the principles that are set forth in the word of God. The Ten Commandments include commandments against the taking of life, the breaking up of the home, against the spoiling of private property, and against false witness.

Not only do these commandments tell me that I am not to take your life and break your home, take your property, and defame your reputation, but they are also my guarantees of my life, my home, my property, and my reputation. "Thou shalt not steal" is the biblical basis of our whole business structure and our national way of life.

The fact that multitudes of men chisel on the fringes of business is a breach of the divine word, of course, but that fact in no wise nullifies the biblical basis of the right of private property, and most certainly there can be no communist trend that is compatible with the word of God.

The unregenerate man, of course, lives his entire life in a soulish, carnal way at enmity against God and animated by nothing more than his own principles of greed, tempered at times by enough altruism to feed his pride and exalt his ego and satisfy his conscience. Any religion such a man has is an opiate for his being.

The true Christian, on the other hand, possesses the new life that comes from Christ, and he can follow the domination of that life or can fall back into the old ways of the flesh. If he does the latter, he is walking according to the flesh. If he serves God in his spirit, it will mean that every part of his being is surrendered to the divine plan, and that he is not seeking to walk in the dim shadow of mere human wisdom but in the clear light of divine revelation.

The Bible will be the supreme court from which there is no appeal. The true Christian will surrender his own will to the will of God as revealed in the word. God's will will be his delight. The Greek word that is used by Paul to describe his service to God in his spirit is very interesting. It originally described the service of a menial servant.

In the New Testament, it's everywhere used in the sense of the highest worship of God. To serve God is to worship him. To worship him is to serve him. This must be done in his way. In the first sentence in the epistle to the Romans, Paul speaks of himself as a bondslave of Jesus Christ, *doulos*, and here as a mere menial hireling, *latreuo*.

When Paul says that he serves the Lord in his spirit, he is answering to that which the Lord Jesus taught in his encounter with Satan in the temptation, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt shalt thou serve." And with all of our renewed being, with the implanted spirit yielded to the Holy Spirit, would we bring to our God the whole of our worship in spirit and in truth.

And our God and Father, we thank thee for the great privilege we have of exalting thy name, and we pray thee that we may approach thee this day in spirit and in truth. We ask thee for each listener. If there be any who have not been born again, we pray thee that thou shalt accompany them with restlessness, that they may know no peace until they rest in Christ.

But upon all who are thine own, may thy grace, thy mercy, thy peace abide and a new sense of the necessity of worshipping thee in thy way according to the Bible as thou hast set forth. And unto thee be the glory and the majesty, the dominion and the power, now till our Lord Jesus come again and forever. Amen.

Guest (Male): The Bible is the only infallible source of truth about God and man. As we grow in knowledge about ourselves and God, we can rejoice that he has made peace with us through Jesus Christ. We hope you have benefited from today's message entitled, "The Human Spirit." Listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via the internet.

Visit us at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is also available by calling us toll-free, 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled "The Human Spirit" or simply request message number R1-12. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, "Temptation and How to Meet It."

Temptation comes to us by the world, the flesh, and the devil and pulls us away from God towards sin and disobedience. How can we effectively fight against its powerful influence? This free booklet traces the history of temptation, identifies its various sources and manifestations, and outlines the biblical strategies for effectively dealing with temptation in whatever form it takes.

Ask for your free copy of "Temptation and How to Meet It" when you call or write. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is the radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of Reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

The Alliance also produces the radio broadcast, *The Bible Study Hour*, featuring the teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and *Every Last Word*, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. For a full listing of stations carrying our programs, visit our website, alliancenet.org.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of listeners like you. If you have benefited from the broadcast and would like it to continue, please prayerfully consider a donation to help us keep this ministry on the air. For more information or to make a contribution to help further our work, contact us by calling us toll-free, 1-800-488-1888. That's 1-800-488-1888.

Write to us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103. Visit us online at alliancenet.org. Be sure to ask for a free resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding Reformed teachers and theologians, including Drs. Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Martin Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken. Thanks for listening. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.