Title: The Destiny of the Soul
Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:7
‘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.’
Good morning, friends, we are going to examine the soul systematically, taking all the Bible has to say on the subject of the soul and putting it together as best as possible.
Man consists of a flesh which is your physical body and soul and spirit.
This is found in Genesis 2:7 where it says, ‘and God formed man of the dust of the ground.’
Then God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
As a result of that man became a living soul
Now who did this? The bible says it is the LORD God.
The phrase ‘the LORD God’ is literally YHWH Elohim
The Rabbis assert that they refer to the characteristic of deity.
- Elohim as creator, provider and sustainer of all life on this planet
- YHWH as savior, redeemer and covenant making deity.
- The value of the soul
The soul is that immaterial part of man.
Ecc 12:7 says, ‘Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.’
The Hebrew term for ‘spirit’ can mean the ‘spirit’, ‘wind’ or ‘the breadth’ of God.
We must understand that the soul is eternal in nature. Once man becomes a living soul, he will always have his soul. The soul can never die
The soul is the real you.
The soul must be the a most valuable and precious possession, for it is worth more to an individual than all worldly possessions put together.
The Lord reveals here it is possible for us to lose ourselves. When we lose something, we no longer have it; it is gone. Whether this rule applies in regard to the soul, I leave it to your serious consideration.
The soul stands for the individual.
Matthew 25:46 is so clear as to the future of the soul. It says, ‘ And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.’
Matthew 10:28 says, ‘And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell’.
To destroy soul and body is to bring permanent ruin. The soul can be in permanent ruin when it is cast into hell. Hell is the Hebrew term ‘Gehenna’.
In Dictionary.com, the soul is defined as the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body. It is the spiritual part of humans and believed to survive death and be subject to happiness or misery in a life to come. Wow, that is a secular definition but it is so biblical.
The soul is the seat of your memory, and your feelings, and your imagination, and your conviction and your desires and your affections.
There are five reasons why your soul matters:
- Your soul is breathed into you by God.
- Your soul is the source of all your achievement.
- Your soul is the cause of all your sin.
- Your soul will last forever.
- Your soul will have everlasting joy or misery.
Every soul is unique. There is no two souls alike.
We all have a soul that came from God; therefore it is our most precious possession. And God loved this soul of yours.
- Redemption of the soul
The bible says, ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ The salvation of our souls is the end and aim of God’s divine revelation in the Bible. The Bible reveals that the reason Jesus left heaven and appeared on earth was to save the souls of mankind. This necessarily implies that the souls of mankind are in some kind of danger from which they need to be saved.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus could redeem the soul. Blood is required to atone for souls. Leviticus 17:11 says, ‘for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’
John 16:7-8, ‘it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. And He, when He comes , will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment.’
Today the world (means the people of this world, mankind, human beings) has been
- Wrong about the meaning of sin
- Wrong about the meaning of righteousness
- Wrong of about the meaning of judgment.
John 16:9 says, ‘concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.’
John 8:24 says it so clearly, ‘I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.’
Concerning righteous means Christ’s upcoming redemptive work on Calvary and the Resurrection seen as a unit.
Concerning judgment means there is a day coming when both fallen angels and sinful mankind will stand before the righteous God
- The Destiny of the Soul
The soul exist in three realms:
- The earthly realm
Matthew 7:13-14 says, ‘Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. ‘
- The Hadean Realm
Acts 2:27 says, ‘because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.’
- Tartarus
- A great gulf between paradise and Tartarus.
- The Eternal Realm
John 5:28-29 says, ‘Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. And shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.’
In the eternal realm there is heaven. Philippians 3:20 says, ‘for our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the eternal realm there is also hell. Mark 9:43-44 says, ‘And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’
