Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. It's literally translated breath. It's the same word used in Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 where it says God breathed into Adam the breath of life. But the term is also used throughout the Old Testament literally meaning the inward part of man, the God conscious part of man. Solomon is not using the term here as a synonym for life or breath. He is literally speaking of the innermost part of man and that is the human spirit. Now, I want you to notice first man was created in the image of God. You and I have a body, a soul, and a spirit.
Let me explain. The body makes us conscious of the physical world. Our body is how we relate to the world physically.
Okay. The soul makes us conscious of the inner self. The soul means I'm aware of me.
The body allows me to be aware of the physical outside, the world in general, but the soul allows me to be aware of myself. That the soul is what is saved or lost for eternity. But let me explain that many times somebody will bring... What happens if a child dies young or if a special needs person that can't understand and they die, do they go to heaven? Do they go to hell? Well, you have to understand that the soul is saved with their body.
They can interact in the physical world. But if their soul has not developed, they don't have a clue many times if they're doing right or they're doing wrong. And if they've not reached what we call the age of accountability or the ability to reason that, God says that they go straight to heaven when they die. You see, that soul allows a person to understand themselves. And many times a person with special needs or certain handicaps and things, they don't fully...they're not aware of self.
They don't even really know what's right or wrong or what's going on with them. So the body obviously makes us conscious to the physical world. The soul makes us conscious of our inner self. But the spirit is what makes us conscious towards God. But that spirit is dead when you and I are born. We have a body, soul, and spirit but that spirit is dead. We can't relate to God until that spirit has been regenerated. Now, man was created with an intellect, emotions, with a will, and that was so that he could commune with God and that he could commune with others. The spirit here, the human spirit is related to the image of God. God is a Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. You and I are a Trinity. We have a body, we have a soul, we have a spirit. Everybody understand that? But that spirit cannot relate to God because it's dead.
And I'm going to explain it more here in just a minute. Notice secondly, in salvation, God regenerates the spirit of man. When a person gets saved, the Bible says he is quickened. That's a Bible word.
Quickened means to be made alive. That means that I have a body, a soul, and a spirit but that spirit is dead because of my trespasses and my sin. But when we are saved, God quickens that spirit. That spirit is made alive in Christ. And now I am conscious towards God.
If you understand that, say amen. That means this, that once I've been regenerated, I am able, and notice this, a person that has been saved is able to think on things above because he has a new mind. He is able to love God and others because he has a new heart. It means I'm able to choose to obey God because I have a new will.
Everybody understand that? When that spirit was made alive, it changes everything in my life. Now I couldn't love God before but I can now because in regeneration he gave me a new heart.
And I now, now I can love others more because I have a new heart. Now I can choose to do right. I don't have to be a slave to sin. I can choose to do right because I now have a new will.
It's not about my will, it's about God's will. If you understand, say amen. Through the human soul, man is able to relate to other human beings. It's the natural realm, listen to me. But through the human spirit, when regenerated, man is able to relate to God and to spiritual things. So your soul allows you to relate to others but our spirit is what allows us to relate to God.
Now if you're here and you've never been saved by the grace of God, you really have not yet been able to relate to God. That spirit has to be regenerated through the blood of Jesus Christ. So that is the spirit of man.
Notice what he says secondly, the spirit of man, so you understand what that is now. It is the candle of the Lord. In your life, your spirit, if you've been saved by the grace of God, your spirit when regenerated, it is the candle of the Lord.
Let me explain. This word candle here literally means lamp. It's translated even as lamp in other places. It is used, by the way, when we talk in the Old Testament, we find out about the tabernacle and there is a candle stand. There's a candlestick and there's literally a light or a lamp there in the temple. It is literally it uses this word. So I want you to note here that the candle or the lamp here in this passage does not light itself.
So number one, I want you to get this. A lamp is a light receptor. It serves to hold or contain light, but it does not produce light. A candle is a vehicle for light. If you understand, say amen.
I don't think you understand. Man's spirit is a light receiver. If I brought a candle and I set a candle up right here, it cannot light itself.
I'm not talking about that, okay? If I have a candle and it has wax and it has a wick, look at it. It has everything it needs to be a conductor of light, to receive light, but it can't light itself. Man's spirit was a candle dead.
It had everything it needs, but it didn't have light. And when you and I threw salvation in Jesus Christ, that our human spirit, which was dead, is now made alive. It's a candle. It means once God illuminates it, that we are now burning His light, not our light. Man's inner spirit is the vehicle through which God's light shines.
Not just for me, but for those around me. My spirit that has been made alive is illuminated because of God's light. He's the one that lit it. I couldn't light it. It was dead.
I was dead in trespasses and sin. It was a candle that had no light, but God, through Jesus Christ, lit my candle. Notice, secondly, the lamp is lit by God. It is His light. In other words, through the human spirit, it's through that, that the Spirit of God illuminates, shines, enlightens, leads, guides everything in my life. Number three.
Please get this. A lamp is used for illumination and guidance. God uses the light of His Word to enlighten the spirit of man. My spirit is His candle. It means that I had no light of my own, but He has lit it, and the reason He lit it is to illuminate, to guide, for me to see things that I couldn't see before. For me to have light where I never had light before.
Let me prove it. Proverbs 6 23. Notice what this verse says. For thy commandment is a lamp, and the law, which is His Word, is light. Psalm 119. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. What does that mean? It doesn't mean, okay, thy word, so I hold this out here, and somehow it's going to supernaturally glow so I can see where I'm going.
No. God's Word is a light to my spirit. And the Holy Spirit, through my spirit, the Holy Spirit, God in us, God is the light, illuminates. He guides.
He leads. He shows me things. But I don't see because of some physical light, that would be the body. I don't see because I had the light, that would be the soul. I see it and know it because of the Spirit, because of God's light, that's the Spirit. My Spirit is His candle. So forthly I want you to see this, God Himself is the light. Now listen, Psalm 27, we're going somewhere with all this. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Any questions there? Is that clear enough? Oh, okay, let me give you another one. First John 1, 5, this then is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Psalm 18, 28, notice we went Old Testament, New Testament, back to Old Testament. For thou wilt light my candle. The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. Guess what I had before Jesus? My darkness.
Guess what I have after Jesus? His light. Is a light bulb going off? That's your candle, okay? Listen, God Himself lights man's candle and He does it to enlighten the darkness around Him, to provide guidance, to provide light, to see, to understand, to know, to have wisdom, all these different things. Listen to this, in 2 Samuel 22, 29, listen to what David says here. For thou art my lamp, O Lord, and the Lord will lighten my darkness.
Let me prove it to you again, New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Now you look at this verse. You might not have ever understood this verse correct like you will today. I didn't.
The principle is the same but the application is different. We have this treasure in earthen vessel. What treasure?
What He said in the verse before. God hath shined His light in our hearts. Do you know what the treasure is in these earthen vessels? It's God's light. It's my candle that He lit.
That's a treasure. The fact that God, the Spirit, my Spirit, the Spirit of man has become the candle of the Lord. It's lit now. I have light now.
I have illumination now. I can see now. It used to be darkness.
It used to be dark. I couldn't see. I couldn't understand.
I couldn't know. But now God has brought His light into my life. God shines in the hearts of men to illuminate the gospel message so they can understand it.
Let me illustrate. It's like the miracle of creation. God spoke in the midst of darkness and said, let there be light. And there was light.
God does the same thing to your heart and my heart in salvation. The moment we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, He says, let there be light. He brought light out of the physical darkness. He now brings light out of the spiritual darkness. Boy, that is really good, preacher. Amen.
Amen. What is my saying that I always said? What was his name?
Was it Seitler? He who tooteth not his own horn will forever have a horn in the state of untootenness. Listen, look at me. God shined in your heart so that you could be saved. God lights the lamp of the believer so that he can direct his steps. I want you to notice fourth, it means this, the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. Man's innermost being, the human spirit, is the receptacle for the light that God gives. Okay. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.
If you understand it so far, I've tried my best. Can you say amen? Amen. Yeah.
Okay. If you understand it now, it's a fantastic verse, by the way. So what's the purpose of this? We'll look at the second part of the verse. Searching all the inward parts of the belly.
Searching all the inward parts of the belly. Want to read you a verse, Psalm 7 verse 9 says, the righteous God trieth the hearts and reigns. That word trieth means to test by means of examination.
That word reigns literally means kidney. It's the innermost part of man. So we have to understand from this verse that the spirit of man, my spirit, is the candle of the Lord.
I didn't have my own light. He lit my candle and he did it so that we could search all the inward parts of the belly. So we see first God examines our innermost being. He does so through my spirit that he has illuminated. Remember, my spirit's how I communicate with him.
It's how he communicates with me. That's why you say, well, I don't understand the Bible. I try to read it.
Keep reading it. Because the more you read the Bible, God communicates with your spirit through his Word. He brings a light there. You can't explain it, but you begin to understand it. You've got to stay in it. God examines our innermost being.
Listen to this. Psalm 77, 6. What did David say here? He says, I call to remembrance my song in the night.
I commune with mine own heart. And my spirit made what? What does the verse say? David said, my spirit made what?
Diligent search. David wasn't searching. God was searching David. And God was searching David through David's own spirit. You know what?
Look at me, folks. I want you to understand this. Before I was saved, I had body, soul, but my spirit was dead. But the reason I have conscious now, I have conviction, that Holy Spirit ministers to me.
What is going on? Oftentimes, I'm sitting there and I'm examining my own life. I'm looking at things. I'm asking questions. It's what you would call, you meditate, you ponder. I need time to think, however you want to call it. What is going on, if you and I are not careful, is we will begin to try to search our own life.
And that's not the principle here. What happens is I've got to be in God's Word so God can search my heart. You see, my spirit is the candle of the Lord so that God can search my heart and show me what I can't see. Sometimes the Bible speaks of God searching our hearts. Sometimes, it speaks about the human spirit searching our hearts.
What did David say here? I searched my own heart. I communed with my own heart. All these things. They're not contradictory.
They're complementary. The Spirit of God searches our hearts through our spirit. Secondly, I want you to see this. God illuminates our spirit so that we might know the condition of our hearts. Apart from God's… Listen to me.
You've got to get this. Apart from God's divine light, we would never really know our own heart. The Bible says that it's desperately wicked who could know it. I can't even fully understand my own heart. You ever done something like, why in the world did I do that? You ever had somebody ask you, why did you do that?
You're like, you know, I really don't know. I'm ashamed. I can't believe I ever did that because we don't know our own hearts. Apart from God's divine light, illuminating our inner spirit, we would constantly imagine ourselves to be better than we are. Apart from God's light, darkness prevails. Look at me, folks.
When your spirit's dead, there's no light inside. And I can't see how bad I really am. I can't see how bad a sinner I am. I can't see how bad my choices are.
I can't even see how bad my own attitude is and all of those things. But when we get saved, God brings light to our spirit. It becomes a candle of the Lord.
Not a candle for me, a candle for Him. And He begins to now have light where there used to be darkness. I don't have to walk around and not knowing that I'm doing this and not knowing that I'm doing that and not realizing my own attitude. Listen, if I'm in God's Word, God begins to show me. This is who you really are.
This is what's really going on. You've talked to yourself and convinced yourself that you're fine, but let me show you through my light what's really happening. That's where revival begins to happen in a church, is when people start God's light and their spirit all of a sudden start showing the real them. Instead of us now judging ourselves, we're allowing God to search our heart. Number three, God illuminates our spirit to search us inwardly. Now look at this verse, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11, for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? So my spirit only knows the things of man. Notice what it says, even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. God has to illuminate my spirit for me to even understand me. And God does it, look, please get this, God lights his candle in my life to search me, to search the innermost parts of my life. Let me say it this way, only God's spirit knows all about God.
I don't. Only God's spirit knows all about God and only man's spirit only knows about man. God uses the human spirit to search what is hidden. My human spirit knows me. I know me better than other human beings do.
Look at me. I know me personally better than you know me. But God knows me more than I know me.
This is what this verse is saying, the spirit of man only knows man. So I know myself, you might think you know me, I know me better than you. I know things about me you don't know, we're going to keep it that way. But as much as I think I know me, God knows me better than I know me.
And I can't be trusted to know myself. That's the candle of the Lord. It gives me light instead of me fooling my own self. It shows me who I really am.
Please get this, we're almost done and you're going to understand. Fourth, I want you to get this, God through the human spirit shines deep into the inner parts of the belly. What does this mean? It's a way of saying the nook and crannies of your life. This speaks of inner motives, intentions of the heart, the hidden things of darkness the Bible calls it. God, look at me, God does not light the candle of your spirit so that he can find that out. Look at me, God already knows it's there.
All the worst things in your life, in your heart, God already knows it's there. He doesn't need a light to know that, he already knows. So what's the light for? For us to see it. God doesn't need that light, he already sees it, he knows all. But he has lit our spirit, he has brought light to our life so that we can see it. And until we can see what he shows us, we'll never be revived.
We will continue to operate like we've always operated, convincing ourselves that we're fine. Let me read you this verse, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, for the word of God is quick and powerful, 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 intense of the heart. Light from God's word digs deeply into my life. Let me make this statement, the light of his word is able to distinguish from what is spiritual and what is carnal. Proverbs 20, 27, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
Do you know that in Bible days when they would sacrifice at the altar, when a priest would sacrifice a lamb, look at me, I don't know if you know this, but he would have to know how to cut that animal and he would have a knife so sharp that he would have to know where he was not cutting muscle but he was cutting tendon or he was certain areas and this is what this verse is describing. This is what God's word does. God's word knows how to get into your life. It knows how to discern between bone, between marrow, between soul, between spirit. God's – look at me, the light of God's word gets to where you can't get to. It shows you what you can't see. The light of God's word shines into our hearts to reveal what is really there from God's perspective.
Let me say this. We often mistake the natural or the carnal for the spiritual. Do you know we live in a day where people can go into a church and they can say, oh, that was a wonderful spiritual experience and it had nothing to do with God? So when God begins to light our spirit, He begins to show us what we need to see. So what does this mean for me?
How do I respond? We're about done. Number one, let me read you this verse and we'll go home. Psalm 139 verse 23 says, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Now notice this, search me, know me, try me, test me, see me, He says, see if there be any wicked way, point it out to me, lead me. That's the work that God does.
So what does this mean for you? Number one, has your spirit been illuminated by the Holy Spirit of God? Have you ever been saved? Have you ever truly trusted Christ? I've always been in church, preacher, well good for you.
Pews have always been in church, but they're not going to heaven. I'm asking has He lightened your human spirit? That only happens at salvation. First question you've got to ask yourself today, has my spirit even been regenerated? Second thing you've got to ask yourself is this, are you willing to see what the light of the Spirit of God shows you? Can I tell you something, when the light of God's Word starts digging around in there, are you willing to see what it shows you? I know a whole lot of Christians that are in denial.
God is showing it to them every day, but they don't believe it. It's because of everyone else. I don't have the problem, they have the problem. And yet the only common denominator in every problem you have is you. You've got conflict with 50 people, you're the only common denominator.
But it must be the 50 people, it's not me. Look at me, when you got saved, God illuminated your human spirit. And He did it not because He needed to see what was there, He already knew. He did it so that now He could show you and that your life could shine to others.
If He shows you, are you willing to see it? Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.
