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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Spirit, soul and body(2) - The 1st lecture on - Spirit, soul and body(2) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1Th 5:23 |
Date |
2003-09-21 |
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[Scripture]
1Thessalonians 5: 23
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[Introduction]
Dear congregation,
Last time I introduced the concept of spirit soul and body briefly and preached about the word flesh's spiritual meaning, creation and seeds of life.
I said that flesh indicates everything that is perishable, changing or extinct.
And I told you that man was made in God's image and consists of spirit soul and body. God gave men seeds of life and let them reproduce themselves through the seeds.
Today let's learn what the biblical marriage is and how a baby is conceived and grows in a womb.
Today's message will become fundamental knowledge to help you understand how your selves are made and have been formed.
I ask you to understand God's providence and will of creating and cultivating men through today's message, to realize what you are and to do the will God is pleased with.
[Body]
Dear congregation, all church members of the whole country attending this service on satellite TV and Internet TV, all members of branch churches and sanctuaries, members of Salt and Light mission, and Restaurant mission, all members listening to this message with audio tapes, and Sunday school children.
Some couples say when they get married, "We both met and will marry in the will of God."
Wedding officiator often says, "A couple God mated."
Then, have most couples met in the will of God?
Not at all. Most of them chose their partner not because God appointed them as a couple but because they are attracted each other.
But sometimes God appoints some couples.
For example, young believers ask God to send their partner when they are to marry.
If they pray for their partner by faith and entrust it to God, God prepares their proper partner according to their faith and lets them get married.
But there are quite a few of this kind of couples. They meet if they want, but they part if they do not want.
On the other hand, some say marriage is the will of God.
They say that it is God's will for a man and a woman to get married and to give birth to as many children as possible, because God created Adam and Eve and blessed them to be fruitful and thrive.
But the situation of Adam and Eve is different from today's situation. They had to give birth to as many children as they could because it was not long since human history started.
What does the Bible written two thousand years ago in the time of the Apostle Paul say?
Paul said in [1Corinthians 7: 7], "I wish that all men were as I am." He wished all men would live unmarried like him. So, he added in [1 Corinthians 7:26], "Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are."
Of course, these two verses do not mean that marriage is a sin before God.
[1 Corinthians 7: 38] says, "So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better." It's not wrong to get married, but it is better in the eyes of God not to marry.
Why, then, is it so?
It is said in [1 Corinthians 7 :34], "and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world--how she can please her husband."
Unmarried men or women can receive bigger spiritual blessings because they are able to be more faithful for the Lord than married women and men who are liable to be concerned about their partner.
Now two thousand years have passed since the time of the apostle Paul and today is nearer to the final time of the completion of human cultivation.
For this reason, we should deeply realize the meaning of 1Corinthians 7:26: "Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are."
This verse enough reminds us that it is wrong idea for God to manage human marriage and appoint a spouse for each one.
Nevertheless, believers should ask God to guide their marriage when they want to get married. They should pray that God may let them meet a good partner to encourage both of a couple to be more faithful and share spiritual love with each other without dissipating their love for God or driving them into unfaithfulness.
Dear congregation,
A new life is conceived through the combination of a sperm and an egg if a man and a woman marry and are united.
In other words, a new baby is conceived when a sperm, the seed of life of a man is sowed in an egg, the field of a woman, just as a seed is sowed on the land, grows and bears its fruit.
If a baby is conceived in a womb, he grows for 9 months in it and becomes a whole man. If you look into the conception and growth of a new baby, you can feel the mysterious providence of God the Creator.
You may think this message a little difficult because professional terms are told, but you can really feel how mysterious and exquisite the creation of life God planned is!
Let's first look into the procedure of fertilization of a sperm and an egg.
A sperm and an egg are combined into fertilization of a life. The sperm consists of a head and a tail. The head part has genetic factors with important data deciding what kind of baby is conceived and the tail part has the strength to make the sperm go toward the egg. The head also has enzyme piercing the egg membrane when the sperm meets an egg.
When fertilized, more than 3 hundred million sperms enter a womb once and only one of them unites with an egg. If a sperm unites with an egg, high volt electricity is generated and shocks the other sperms so that they cannot approach the egg united with a sperm.
In this way none but one sperm that reaches an egg and unites with it can approach the egg. And at the same time the egg membrane quickly thickens lest the other sperms should pierce the membrane of the egg.
God created very mysteriously that way so that everything can progress automatically.
The fertilized egg is divided into two in a day, 8 in two days and 16 the next time. After 8 days the fertilized egg sticks to its membrane and completely begins to change in two weeks.
In 3 weeks, its hearts begins to throb and in another week its brain, spine and nerve systems come into beings. After 12 weeks of fertilization, its height is 5 cm, its weight 30g, and its arm's length 1 cm and besides, its fingerprints appear and all organs begin to be formed.
In this way the weight of a baby in a womb increases 2 millions times as heavy as when first fertilized. Its height and weight increase 20 times every a second.
It can be called "change in a blink."
Twenty fold multiplication every a second requires as much cell division, and that cell division needs as much DNA increase in a cell.
There are 3 hundred million genetic data in a DNA. Suppose that DNA is compared to a house and each genetic datum in it is compared to a brick. Then, reproduction of a DNA can be compared to building a house with 3 hundred million bricks in a second. All the bricks' ordering must be the same to that of the original house with out a single brick being moved.
All of 3 hundred million bricks must be linked one another in the same ordering in less than a second and be positioned the same of the original house. Is it possible by accident?
It is possible only with the power of the Almighty God.
Accordingly, so many life-scientists cannot but approve of God the Creator because of this mysterious fact.
Dear congregation,
A baby's nerve system begins to develop and its blood, bones, muscles, bloodlines, and internal organs begin to be formed after a month of its conception.
(Video data)
After two months of conception, a baby's heart begins to pump and throb, and its head and limbs can be recognized because it begins to have its rough bodily structure.
After 3 months, its face is made and it begins to move head, body and limbs. After 4 months, its organs necessary for life-sustain begin to work. Since 5 months, it begins to move more actively like moving muscles or ascertaining surroundings, and its audible capacity advances.
In 6 months, its digestive organs develop and it grows faster than before. In 7 months, hairs of the head come out and seminal glands enter scrotum by sex hormone if it is a boy.
If it is a girl, her sexual organ is completed in 8 months.
In 9 months, its head hair looks obvious, fluffs of the body are degenerated, wrinkles disappear and limbs become plump.
In 10 months, it comes out of its mother's body with its height average 50 centimeters and its weight 3 kilograms.
When then its spirit is given to the baby from heaven?
I already explained it in the sermon of hell. Do you remember it?
It is 6 months after a sperm and an egg are united that its spirit is given to the baby.
But you should not mistreat the life of an unborn baby at random before its spirit is not given yet in 6 months.
The life of an unborn baby also belongs to God the moment it is conceived, and the authority over the life belongs only to God.
It is after 5 months that a baby's audible organs are almost completed and closed eyes are opened with eyelids coming into beings. And wrinkles of cerebrum activating the function of cerebrum are made from 5 to 6 months.
Actually the Bible shows that an unborn baby of 6-month conception responded the work of the Holy Spirit.
It says in [Luke 1: 41- 44], "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy."
When Mary, having unborn conceived Jesus, visited Elizabeth conceiving John the Baptist for 6 months, the unborn 6 month John leaped exultantly because of conceived Jesus through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
How marvelous it was!
In this way, unborn conceived baby is already life and 6 month conceived baby is a spiritual being who can be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Dear congregation, an unborn baby grows up in a womb for 9 months. The 9 months are very important for development of its body and formation of its character, personality, and intelligence.
For example, unborn baby is supplied with what its mother eats and drinks.
If mother eats or drinks something harmful or poisonous, or drinks liquor or smokes, all these things directly influence her baby in her womb. And the baby is severely damaged when mother takes medicines improperly or is exposed to injurious circumstances. In addition, whatever she thinks and feels in pregnancy has influence on her unborn baby.
For this reason, they have though highly of prenatal care and training, and pregnant mothers are careful about all her behaviors and try to see, hear and think uprightly and properly.
Dear congregation,
Similarly, unborn baby is affected in spiritual aspects by its mother. Many children of our church prove how much they are spiritually influenced by their mothers during pregnancy. Testimonial documentaries say that children born in the grace of God are outstandingly pretty and clever.
And many parents say that when they were faithful to the Lord and prayed earnestly during pregnancy, their children are meek and wise, and grow up very well after delivery.
God is likely to take care of those children in all their ways because He gave them His grace already in wombs. Thus, your children are healthy in spirit and body and grow wisely when you understand this spiritual knowledge and raise them in truth with faith.
The Bible gives us such examples. Samuel was born by God's grace through his mother's prayer. He could communicate with God even in his childhood and became a great prophet in God's sight when he grew up.
As preached above, John the Baptist was controlled by the Holy Spirit in his pregnancy because he was conceived by the work of God. It is said in [Luke 1: 80], "And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel." In other words, he prepared the way for the Lord's Coming into the world in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Dear congregation,
We have looked into the procedure of a life's conception and formation. Then, how can be it that the thinking power, one of the most important characteristics of man, works?
God endowed men's brain cells with the function of remembering and thinking something. This topic will be explained in detail when I preach about men's soul later. Now, I am about to preach briefly about thinking process with a parable.
Computers have memory system of storing data. A lot of data are stored in memory system and computers search for necessary data from it and work the command of users. In the same way, men have a very excellent memory system in brains unlike animals.
By the way, computers cannot function properly and process the command of users if there happens something wrong to some parts of computers' hardware. Similarly, when something wrong happens to men's brain, men cannot carry out the process of remembering, thinking and judging reasonably.
Unborn baby already has the brain during his pregnancy, but cannot store knowledge or utilize it because he has nothing to see and hear.
After delivery, he sees, hears, and feels something and inputs it one by one in his brain through felling. Meanwhile men's knowledge, characters, tempers are made and judging values are formed.
After all, this procedure explains how your selves have been formed until now. All that you have seen, heard and stored since birth have become your knowledge and help you think. So, everyone, one hundred of one hundred people, has his own thought and judging value differently from anyone else because each one's growth and education background is different and what he sees, hears and stores in his brain is different.
One's friendly action may seem rude to another man, and one's righteous action may appear uneducated to another one.
Sometimes, some couple gets married with crazy love but quarrels each other on the first day of their marriage because of different habit or emotion.
Each one's different knowledge and thought will be explained in detail later. But there is one thing for you to remember today. What you think right is not always right.
It is only the Word of God that is the absolute truth in the world. Many things that you have stored in you as knowledge and righteousness during your growth are not from God but from the world. Therefore, you should not judge others according to your judging value. Still less, you must not judge God's word at all.
[Conclusion]
Dear congregation,
Today we have learned about the marriage, and the procedure of a life's conception and birth.
We must understand how our visible body is conceived, delivered and grows so that we can understand man consisting of spirit soul and body. So, I explained it though it was a little difficult to understand.
What do you think of today's message?
I hope you realized how mysteriously and pricelessly a life is. We are all born in the ration of a few hundred millions to one. What an admirable thing a life's birth if we look into a fertilized egg' growth until delivery!
Our present selves are not by accident but by the providence of God the Creator. So, it is said in [Romans 1: 20], "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
And it is said in [Romans 11: 33], "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!"
But this fact is mere a fragment of everything God created. How wonderfully and elaborately God created our body although it exists for a short time and returns to a handful of dust.
Still more, He created our souls and spirits. The wonder about them will be preached deeply later.
You can firmly believe that God manages human beings' life, death, curses, and blessings and accomplishes everything the way written in the Bible, when you know God who designed and created all things in the universe. And accordingly, you can live according to the Word of God hoping more eagerly for the eternal kingdom of heaven.
I pray in the name of the precious Lord that you reach complete salvation and live a powerful life of meeting and experiencing God all the time by acknowledging God the Creator in all your ways. |
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