 Good morning and welcome everyone. Today we have a course in C-24 that we've been doing in the spirit of only our second lecture. That's great. So, we're talking about us being spirit, soul and what each of us speak of. And just as we spend time and effort in developing our body and mind, this course is to help us look at what the Bible teaches on developing our spirit. And so, now, for example, we are aware of people who practice black magic or those things. They develop their spirit for the wrong reasons. To contact the powers of that. To do evil things on people. They use that power for harm, so they do that. How to develop our spirit so that we can walk as the sons and daughters. And how we can be in strength and confidence in ourselves. So, let's go to Romans 7. I did some introduction last week. I'm not good to review all of that. But let's go to Romans 7 for one. We'll come from Romans. So, we mentioned, and Jesus taught us in John 4, verse 21 and 24, that God is spirit. So, God is a spirit being. Then, the primary way that we are going to interact with God is spirit. Because he made us spiritual beings. Yes, he put us in the mind and the body that we can operate on earth. But he made us spiritual beings. God is spiritual beings. Religious beings. So, Romans 7 to 1, verse 19. 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. Check. Okay. So, loose connection. Sorry. Is the audio better now? Must be better, I think. Okay. All right. Sorry about that. I didn't realize the audio was low. Okay. Thank you. Just to quickly recap. We started by mentioning John 4, verse 21 on where Jesus said, God is spirit and we worship Him in spirit and truth. So, God is spirit. He created us primarily spiritual beings. He gave us a soul and a body. The mind and the body helps us relate to this natural world. But the spirit. He created us a spiritual being so that we can relate to Him. So, you and I are primarily spiritual beings. And we relate to God who is spirit in our spirit. Now, God can and He does touch us in our soul and in our body. Sometimes you can feel the presence of God. You have joy. You know, experience that. All that is good. But the primary way we relate to God is in the spirit. Spirit to spirit. And we went to Romans after 1, verse 9. So, let's go there. That's where we paused and hopefully the audio will be fine. So, Romans after 1, verse 9, Paul is saying, I serve for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit. So, our serving God is really a spiritual work. It's something that comes out of our spirit. Our worship of God and our service to God is a spiritual work. So, when we worship God, we, you know, when we praise Him, we worship Him, it must come from our spirit. When we are serving God, like when I'm, okay, now I'm speaking to you or I am sharing the word or I'm praying for people. Whatever we do, our ministry service to God or service to people is really something that comes out of my spirit, right? So, that means the condition of our spirit affects both our relationship with God and our service to people. So, think about it. And we will talk more about this in detail. But think about this. Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart because they will see God. That means my revelation of God is determined by the condition of my heart, right? Blessed are the pure in heart because they will see God. My revelation of God is determined by this, right? Where my heart is. Jesus said, out of the heart comes all the evil thoughts and all the evil things that people do. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, right? Jesus said, out of the good deposit, good treasure of his heart, he brings forth good things. This is Matthew 12. That means what I bring forth in my life is determined by the condition of my heart because out of the deposit in my heart, I will bring forth good things or bad things, right? So, the condition of my heart also determines how I can serve what happens in my life, how I serve people, all of that. So, we need to learn how to develop a good, strong, healthy spirit in God. You're with me so far? Yeah? Okay. Now, I want to just share a thought. We're just calling it the stage of innocence, meaning we can't prove this. I mean, what do we say this? There are not many scriptures on this particular subject or this topic, but I will just share some insight, whatever we know, okay? In Hebrews chapter 12, so, yeah, Hebrews 12, he's talking to us about the fact that God is the Father of spirits. Hebrews 12 verse 9. And then he talks about the spirits of just men made perfect. So, Hebrews 12 verse 9, God is the Father of spirits. That means every human person originates from God. God created us. He creates the human spirit, right? Every human spirit. Hebrews 12 verse 9. He's a Father of spirits. He's the one who creates every human spirit. But we also know that by default, people are sinful. So, God created, God did not create the human spirit sinful. We created, so every baby that is example, every baby that is born, at some point when the baby is conceived, right? Let me say this. The moment the baby is conceived, we can say that the spirit is created. God creates, because a person is spirit, soul and body. You can't have a person without a spirit. So, there has to be spirit, soul and body. Now, the soul and the body is being formed, right? Like the slowly the brain is developing, the body is developing, but the spirit is created by God. He's the Father of spirits. But when God creates, He always creates perfect. He won't create a sinful spirit. Right? So, that means the moment the child or the baby is born, the baby is conceived, the spirit is created, is perfect. No sin. At some point. Okay. So, there are two things. One is because all the human race, by default, after Adam's sin, the entire human race is subject to sin. By default, this baby is going to be subject to sin. By default. It's going to be. At that moment, it's not. It's still in the womb. So, Psalm 51 verse 5, you know, David said, in sin, did my mother conceive me? That doesn't mean God created a sinful spirit. No, what God creates is perfect. But all of us human beings, by default, are subject to sin. So, you must understand it in that sense. Not that God created the spirit sinful. No. Whatever God creates is perfect. He's a father of spirits. But when the child is born, by default, being part of the human race, by being part of Adam's race, we are all under sin, subject to sin and death. Right? By one man, sin came into this world and death through sin and death passed and all men for all have sinned. Romans 5 verse 12. So, Psalm 51 verse 5 should be understood in the context of Romans 5, 12. That means sin and death has come upon the human race. It's not the problem with God. It's the problem with us. But there are two things that we want to highlight. It seems to us, like I'm saying it seems to us because there's only one verse that we can point to. So, I can't, you know, we can't say, oh, this is 100% correct. It seems to us that there is a stage what we refer to as a stage of innocence. That means the human spirit is innocent. It doesn't know sin, not yet. We find this in Romans 7 verse 7 to 10. So, let's go there. This is, to my knowledge, it's the only passage that seems to indicate this. So, that's why I'm saying, you know, we can't prove it or we can't say 100%. This is what we think. So, Romans 7, 7 to 10, somebody can read it. Romans 7, 7 to 10, please. Romans 7 verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said to not covet. But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. Once I was alive, apart from the law. But when the commandment came, since brain sprang to life and I died. So, the key verses was 9. So, Paul is describing his life under the law. That means before he became a Christian, before he became a believer. So, we know that for almost 30 years, first 30 years of his life, almost 30, first 30 years of his life, he was living like a Jew under the law until he encountered Jesus. So, he is living by the law. But he says this in verse 9, I was alive once without the law. So, it asks, when was he without the law? Because technically all his life he was a Jew. He was under the law. But when the commandment came, that means when he came of an age, when he understood the commandment, the law of God. Don't steal, thou shall not steal, thou shall not covet, thou shall not you know. So, when he understood that, it made him responsible. Now, you have to keep it. So, when commandment came, then he says, sin sprang up and I died. That means I sin, because I understood the commandment. Now, I know sin came into effect because I break the commandment. That means I am under sin. So, this is where we get the idea that he says, once I was alive without the law, before I understood the law. So, that means at early stage of his life, whether he up to 7 years or 8 years or sometimes 10, 12, some people say 12 years old, they call it the stage of innocence. Till the child understands the law. What is right? What is wrong? They are in a stage of innocence. That's why when Jesus little children come to Jesus, he doesn't say, oh, these are all sinners. They are born of Adam's race. They are all subject to sin. But he says you must be like them. You must be like them. So, let the little children come to me because of such is the kingdom of heaven. So, there is that we think. Again, I'm not saying this is 100% correct. We have only like one scripture or maybe two scriptures to give us this thought. So, I'm not saying, you know, we should don't preach it like this is the only way. This is what we think, right? That God is the father of spirits. The moment the spirit is created, it's created perfect, created innocent without the knowledge of sin and the child is growing. And at some point, the child becomes responsible. It comes to an understanding of what is right and wrong. What that correct age is, we don't know maybe whatever that age is. But when they understand what is right and wrong before God then they become responsible. Okay? So, that stage till they come to know right and wrong is called the stage of innocence. So, that is why when somebody asks, you know, when a child dies will the child go to heaven or go to hell? Very difficult to answer because you say, okay David said, in sin my mother conceived me. I mean, you are a sinner from birth. Yes, in what sense? We are born under Adam. We are born subject to sin and death. But the child has not done anything evil. The child itself has not done anything evil. In fact, the child does not understand you know, one years, two years, three years. They don't have that understanding of the law of God. So, therefore I think it is safe to say that when children die below this particular age they will go to heaven. Because they are not responsible. They don't know the commandment, the law of God. Even though they are born under Adam's race, born under sin they don't know the law. That's what we say. Again, these are things we can't, you know, we don't want to fight about. We can only say this is what we think. So, believe, let God decide but this is what we think, right? So, then what happens? For all people. For all people. Like what we are telling us like when we are from our childhood we were sinners like it is because of Adam's sin. Born under sin. Born under sin. So, everyone have to when we are preaching also gospel in most of the places most of the people will ask us why we are sinners like all the genders, we are not sinners but we are like from our childhood because of Adam's sin. So, we are all sinners. But after Jesus Christ came we were all forgiven, right? So, can we can we consider it like this? After Jesus Christ came to this on the birth all the people who were about to born after Jesus Christ were all forgiven not under any sin born under sin or any birth sin like that. So, forgiveness comes after we have faith in Jesus. See, it's like this Jesus died on the cross and he paid for our sins. People before Jesus died on the cross had to have faith. Their faith was looking ahead. So, that's why Romans after 4 it says Abraham, Romans 4 I think was 4 Abraham believed God and it was he was made righteous. So, how was Abraham made righteous? Jesus had not yet died on the cross. How did he believe God? I mean, he had faith in the future, in God and what God would do for him in the future. But that he had to believe God. Same thing we today also we have been justified by faith. How Jesus died on the cross he paid for us but we have to have faith. So, the payment is for everybody before and after for all sin. But every individual has to have personal faith. So, I can't have faith for somebody else. Meaning, I can say Lord, I have for my salvation and his salvation. No. That every person has to believe in Jesus Christ. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. But has the payment been made? Yes. So, actually this in the church has led to an error. It's called universal gospel. I don't know whether we have a course on charity. Oh, I think it was part of a policy attacks. So anyway, we talk about some of the wrong things. So, in the church, I mean the church was a Christian church. In the 1900s, there was a kind of theology called universal gospel. The gospel, what they were saying and one very famous American preacher. I mean he had a big church. This was in the 1990s. He had pictures of more than, I don't know, 5000 people plus and he started preaching this. But he was saying what he said was, I mean the argument seems very logical, but it is contradicting scripture. His argument was Jesus died on the cross for every human being. Jesus paid for all of our sins. God will not allow such a kind of price to go waste by sending people to hell. Therefore, every person is already saved. This is called universal gospel. But he started preaching like this and he was part of the Pentecostal, I think, not so assemblies of God, but Pentecostal circles, that spirit filth and they dismissed him because they said, you are preaching heresy. But he was actually a very famous pastor, very big church. Then lots of people left the church also and then he had only 200 people or something. But this was suddenly started preaching like this. But it sounds very logical because Jesus died for everybody. He already paid everybody's sins, which is true. But the conclusion he came to was it's missing one important point, the Bible says very clearly, every person has to believe. He jumped that point, he skipped it. He said, God will not allow such a great price to go waste. So every person is already saved. Whatever you do, you're already saved. So he was such a famous pastor, very influential. It was sad. Anyway, yeah, so what we are saying is going back to this that there's probably a stage of innocence where some people call it the age of accountability, something like that. They use that term based on the scripture Romans 7, 9 that after that, after you cross that age of accountability, then you are responsible. Okay, so now once we cross the age of accountability, we are under sin. Okay, because we're breaking the commandment and we know it doesn't please God. We do the wrong things. We do wrong. So we're under sin. We are responsible now for sin, for the works, for our deeds. Then at some point, we are born again. We receive Christ. Spirit has been reborn. Sin has been forgiven. We are given the life and the nature of God. From that point on Hebrews 9 Hebrews 12, 23 comes into effect where it says Hebrews 12, 23 the spirits he's talking about the church. What is the church? Hebrews 12, 23 to the general assembly and church of the first born. So he's talking about believers, us believers. We are the general assembly. That means the general gathering, assembly or gathering. We are the church of the first born, church of Jesus Christ. First born is Jesus Christ who are registered in heaven. So all of believers, we are registered in heaven. Our name is in heaven to God, the judge of all. And then what about the church? To the spirits of just men made perfect. So the spirits of just men. That means people who have been justified but we are being made perfect. So that is the spiritual condition of the church. The church assembly. It is the gathering of God's people. God is the judge. God is above us. We are the gathering of God's people and we are people who have been made just but our spirit is being made perfect. That means we are growing in our spirit. So there is the God the Father, he's the father of all spirit. Spirit is created. There is a stage of innocence but then there is a stage of sin. Because we are all sinning. Then we are born again. Right? And then we are in that place where we have been made just but the spirit is also growing. It is being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We are growing in character and grace. There is a stage of innocence. We are telling that that is the God the Father. So that's a good question. What about those who are just maybe they are mentally, physically challenged so they cannot understand. They cannot comprehend. What about them? We don't have a chapter for it. But just going by who God is, God is a good God and he is a just God. So we just have to think how would God deal with a situation like this? We don't have chapter and verse. There is no chapter and verse that says if somebody is mentally challenged and not able to comprehend, they will immediately be saved. We can't prove it from chapter and verse. The only thing we can do is try to think about the nature of God. How would God handle this? It's difficult because on the one side God is a good God. God is a God of love. But on the other side God is a God of justice. He is a God of truth. And what they are facing, it's not their fault but it is a result of sin and the fall and all of that. So how would God deal with this situation? We have to think. We can't give chapter and verse. We have to base it on what we know about God. Are you? They don't have the mind. They don't have the mind. Even if some people tell them they don't make sense to them for them to connect. They won't. They are not able to comprehend. They won't understand. So can we tell that because already even if they did not compete and ask for forgiveness but still God, Jesus paid price for them so God look at Jesus and forgive them. Can we say that? So I don't know whether we should apply the universal gospel because there is a flaw in that. The flaw is that they are skipping this important step in the gospel where it says you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. So we shouldn't skip that step. In order to be saved. What we are saying is because like innocent children they are not in a place where they can understand the gospel. Therefore they cannot believe. Therefore God would forgive them. I mean God would receive them into his care. We can say that but again we don't have chapter and verse to support. We are only basing it on like we think that this is how God put to it. From chapter 12 verse 9 we have seen that God creates the human spirit and he is the father of spirit. We also talked about that God creates the spirit in perfect condition. It's perfect. So can we also like so it's not only during like my question is like the spirit condition is perfect all the time or is it only during the stage of innocence. So that brings us to our next point in the notes which is once we go past the stage of innocence the Bible says a spirit actually dies. It has death. Life of God. That means the spirit is in darkness. The Bible uses different terms. It is in sin. It is in darkness. It is in death. It is without the life of God. So that is the condition of the human spirit of every human being after the stage of innocence. The nature of the spirit that God created got corrupted. That's right. So till the stage of innocence from the time God created till the stage of innocence till the understanding of the law of God comes till that. Like Paul said before the commandment came I was alive. I think that's fine. Commandment came I died. I was thinking about the condition of the spirit. He was alive. So that's why sometimes even children are open to God. They may not understand everything. They won't understand the Bible everything. But they open, you worship. They lift up hands and worship. Say praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Sing. They will sing. So it is not that they fully understand. Right? It's not the understanding of God's plan of redemption and salvation. Maybe they don't even understand. They're not in that stage. But they are alive to God. Something about them makes them just worship God. Praise God. Pray. They just come into it because the spirit is alive. But at some point their understanding comes, oh, this is right. This is wrong. I have sinned against God. Then when the commandment comes sin revives and I died. The spirit is dead. So that's the condition. So we look quickly. Ephesians 2, chapter 2 verses 1 to 3, Paul describes, you know what is the condition of the human spirit. One sin sets in Ephesians 2, 1, 2 and 3. Somebody can read it please. So Paul in these 3 verses is describing our condition before we got saved. That means the condition of the human spirit in sin. So what were we, verse 1? We were dead in trespass and sins. So we were dead in trespass and sins. We were dead in trespass and sins. So we were dead. Then he says we were following the course of this world. That means we were following the patterns of this world and the prince of the power of the air was at work in us. So can you imagine what basically saying as we just make it plain simple the powers of darkness was actually influencing our spirit. Because we were walking according to the course of this world. We were walking according to Satan according to the prince of the power of the air and the spirit of disobedience the spirit that is working in the disobedience. So actually there is demonic influence directed towards our spirit. Okay. So we are dead. Our spirit is not connected to God but our spirit human spirit is being influenced by the world being influenced by Satan by the spirit's demonic powers trying to influence our spirit. And then verse 3. That's why we were living according to our flesh desires of our flesh and by nature we were children means our very nature was wicked and we deserved the wrath of God. So that was our condition. Chapter 4 Ephesians 3 continues Ephesians 4, 70 to 19 again he explains some more. Ephesians 4 17 to 19 somebody can read it for us please. So I tell you this and insist on it is in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do the futility of their thinking they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hindering of their hearts having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to six sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more. Yeah. So we are talking about the Gentiles people who are not yet saved they are living according to their mind the foolish thinking of their mind but look at what he says about the spirit verse 18 the understanding is darkened they are cut off from the life of God they don't have the life of God God's nature is not there and they are ignorant because of the ignorance blindness of their heart understanding is darkened heart is blind they are ignorant they are cut off from the life of God that is the condition of our spirit basically we are in darkness we cannot see we cannot understand and the life of God is not there so it is into this spirit this kind of spirit that is being influenced by and so on that the gospel comes so Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 he says the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe then God who brought light of the darkness he has shown into our hearts so the gospel brings the light of God into this darkness that is in our spirit and then we are born again the life of God comes where there was no life of God but we were by nature children of satan are doing wickedness by nature we were like that God's light comes and God's nature comes into our spirit and then we are born again that is the next point we actually receive the life and the nature of God so our spirit was in darkness was controlled or influenced by evil spirits no life of God the light of the gospel comes so let's just look at 2 Corinthians 4 so read that 2 Corinthians 4 and we will read verses 3 to 6 2 Corinthians 4 verses 3 to 6 please but even if but even if our gospel is valid it is valid to those who are perishing who minds the God of this ace has blinded who do not believe lays the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should sign on them for we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus said for it is the God who commanded to sign out of darkness who has shown in our heart hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ so we are in blindness but then what does God do he shines into our hearts the gospel we preach the gospel the light of the gospel comes God signs into our hearts and we receive the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ we are born again so when we are born again what actually happens our spirit goes from darkness to light it goes from being under the power of Satan now it belongs to God it goes from being dead that is without the life of God to a state of having the life of God we receive sorry, we receive the life and the nature of God in our spirit ok, so the Vatsar Bible says we are partakers of the divine nature 2nd Peter 1 verse 3 can look at it 2nd Peter 1 verse 3 we become partakers of the divine nature 2nd Peter as his divine power has given given to us all things that retain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue verse 4 also please by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that though these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust so he is saying in a God he has worked in us by his divine power he has given us his wonderful promises and as we receive that what happens, we become partakers of the divine nature that means God's life and God's nature is in you the Bible says he who has the Son has life so Jesus Christ has come into your heart now you have life so when we are born again Satan's influence over our spirit is gone we are no longer people in whom the spirit of disobedience is at work before Ephesians 2 we walked according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit of disobedience was at work before now that's over you are a child of God you are born of God your spirit is now in union with Jesus Christ and it belongs to God you have been justified so things have changed you have become a new man in your spirit in your spirit so that transformation the being born again is an experience that takes place in our spirit but our mind has to be renewed our body has to be crucified so that work still has to happen but we are focusing now on the human spirit what God does so the last part here on page 4 I will just mention it very quickly but the human spirit must grow you are born again you receive God's life you are in the light you belong to God changes happen but it has to grow so if you look at scriptures about growth spiritual growth Peter says like newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word say bye second Peter 30 18 he says grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord first on to 12 to 14 he says your children your young men, your fathers and mothers so he is talking about spiritual growth secondly the human spirit can increase in revelation knowledge that means what the spirit knows understands remember before it was without understanding before it was darkened but now the spirit is in a place where it can receive revelation God's knowledge it can receive it but it has to grow in that revelation we have to know in the will of God so the human spirit begins to understand what is pleasing to God what is acceptable to God is growing in the will of God they can become strong you can be strengthened like Ephesians 3 16 says we can be strengthened with might in the inner man the Holy Spirit gives us strength and many other areas that we can grow spiritually right so as we move forward in this course we are going to understand more and more about how to develop the human spirit and it is a life long journey you know I don't think we can ever reach a stage where enough reached Paul wrote in Philippians 3 he says you know not that I have already attained I haven't reached yet but I came moving forward you know so the journey is continued so we have to keep on going in that journey so we will continue this next week we will have some comments there about the soul and so on you have the bell ringing alright there are some questions in the chat probably I see your hand raised during the stage of innocence is the human spirit alive if so in what sense yeah so the human spirit is alive we saw in Romans 7 Paul said I was alive alive meaning open to God open to you know that awareness of God of course we are not able to understand everything but like we said children they worship God they pray there is that openness a sensitivity to God so in that sense we can say it is alive probably your question hi pastor this is regarding we were talking about the children or if they die will they go to heaven or something like that where you clarified about that but my question here is coming to adults for example we see a lot of people who will be accepting Jesus on their death bed and we believe whoever believes in Jesus and accept him will be with him after their death but I am not sure how sure it will be because as you said they have to believe in their heart but we don't know what exactly just saying a prayer doesn't mean that people really believe it so just if you could throw some light on this right so I think what we can say is even if somebody in the last minute genuinely repents and turns to God they will be saved salvation is a matter of believing in the heart believing in the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved so if they are genuinely believed in their heart they will be saved so that much we can say now as you pointed out we don't know exactly the condition of the heart or what they have done not done that part only God can see and judge so that part we should just leave it to God which we the aspect that we cannot see we leave it to God and let God determine that okay thank you okay thank you everyone we will continue this next week God bless