Who Is a Carnal Christian?

Transcript

GR 1303
09-25-05
Who Is a Carnal Christian?
1 Corinthians 3:1-3
Gil Rugh


We're going to be in 1 Corinthians 3 in your Bibles today, 1 Corinthians 3.  Paul is writing to the church at Corinth.  It's a great church. It's not a church without problems.  Sadly, when we think of the church at Corinth, the first thing we think of are problems.  But we ought not to forget, this is a great church.  Paul began in chapter 1 of this letter to the Corinthians, and verse 2, saying that he was writing to the church of God which is at Corinth.  This is God's church, which He purchased with His own blood, as Paul would later remark in the book of Acts.  He purchased this church with His own blood.  They are the ones, the members of this church, who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus.  They are saints by calling.  Now you remember, our words sanctify, faith and holy are all from the same basic Greek word that means to be set apart.  To be holy is to be set apart from sin to God.  That's what it means to be sanctified.  That's what a saint is, one who has been set apart from sin for God.  These are the people of God, holy to Him by virtue of the work of His Son.

Beginning in verse 4 Paul had offered an extensive thanks to God for the greatness of His grace that had worked in the lives of the Corinthians.  “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you.” Paul has no doubt about their salvation.  Their testimony for Christ was confirmed.  There was evidence that their conversion was genuine.  They weren't lacking in any gift as they continued their service for the Lord, awaiting the return of Christ.  Paul was confident, verse 8, of the work of the Lord in their lives that would confirm them to the end blameless in the day of Christ Jesus.  Here is a church that has its problems, and yet Paul can start out by speaking about the fact that some day they will stand in the presence of the Lord blameless.  Reminds you of what Paul wrote to the Colossians, that time when we will be presented by Christ before His Father as holy and blameless, without spot.  That all is based on God's faithfulness.  He is the one who called the Corinthians.  So those first 9 verses you get a sense that we are dealing with a great church, because it's the church of God, the church in which He has done His work of redemption to build this group as His people to testify on His behalf and bring Him glory in the city of Corinth.

In verses 10-16 Paul referred to a problem that was present in the church.  It doesn't take him long to get right into the issue.  He had heard a report that were quarrels going on in the church and he knew enough about the Corinthians. He had spent 18 months there ministering the Word of God, to know that there was truth in that report.  So really everything from chapter 1 verse 10 through chapter 4 is built around the theme of division in the church at Corinth.  So keep that in mind and it will be brought back to our attention again as we get into chapter 3 in our study together today.

Now picking up with verse 17 of chapter 1 and through chapter 2 Paul has been concentrating on the message of the cross and showing that the message of the cross of Christ is central to everything.  And the ministry of Paul and the ministry of the church as the people of God is to be focused on the cross of Christ.  Now that's not a diversion that Paul is on.  You know sometimes you are talking to someone and something comes to your mind and you go off on a rabbit trail and talk.  Then you say, where was I, let me get    back to the point.  That's not where Paul is.  Paul is tracking right on point.  The problem of divisions in the church at Corinth is a problem of a lack of focus and a lack of understanding of the centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ in the ministry of the church.  And so people's attention has gotten off Christ and on to other people.  So they are dividing around their favorites.  Not a doctrinal division, it is a personality division.  So Paul has been correcting that.

Down at the end of chapter 2, Paul divided the human race into two groups—those that he refers to in verse 14 as the natural group, the “natural man”.  The natural man, we have the English word soul that we carry over from English.  We have it in psychology, psychic, having to do with the soul.  There is a natural man, the soulish man is just the man who does not have the Spirit of God.  So a person who does not have the Spirit of God at work in their life, an unbeliever, is just a natural person, a normal human being.  But the Spirit of God is not at work in their life.  Then there is the spiritual person, verse 15.  The spiritual person is not a class of Christian who is above other Christians.  A spiritual person is the person who has the Holy Spirit in his life.  That happens when a person places their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. That moment the Spirit of God cleanses them from their sin and takes up residence in their life.  So the spiritual people are the people with the Spirit.  So the human race is divided between believer and unbeliever, those who are being saved and those who are perishing, those who have the Holy Spirit and those who do not have the Holy Spirit.  Those who have the Holy Spirit “have the mind of Christ” as verse 16 of chapter 2 concluded.  We have the mind of Christ because we have the Spirit of God within us, and the Spirit of God searches all things, even the depths of God.  The Spirit of God knows what is in the mind of God because He, too, is God.  So He reveals and makes known to us the mind of Christ.

The problem with divisions at the church at Corinth was serious.  And the Corinthians, as always happens when there is division, there is pride, there is arrogance, there is self-centeredness, and we are making decisions on the basis of what we like, what we want rather than on the basis of the work of God in lives today.

So chapter 3 moves us back to where he was in chapter 1 when he talked about, I hear there are quarrels among you.  And some are saying, I belong to Paul or I belong to Peter or I belong to Apollos or I belong to Christ.  Where do you fit?  Let me address you.  Now, you understand the work of Christ is central, you understand there are only two kinds of people, two categories in the world—those who have the Spirit of God in them and those who don't.  But there is a problem and he's going to say some very harsh things to the Corinthians.  As I work on this I try to put myself in a setting where the church at Corinth is gathered, because they've received this letter from the Apostle Paul, and we've referred to this before.  And they wouldn't each get a copy; they didn't have copiers in those days.  So the church gathers together and now we're going to read the letter that we received from Paul this week, and Paul addresses them first warmly.  He says in verse 3, “and I, brethren”.  And we've reminded ourselves, Paul has full confidence that they are fellow believers, fellow members of the family of God.  They've experienced the life changing power of the Gospel and have come to know Jesus Christ in a saving way.  You are my brothers, those that I love, that I share a family relationship in the family of God with.

And I, brethren, I couldn't write to you as spiritual men.  What a shock.  He's just told us there are only two kind of people—those who have the Spirit of God and those who don't.  And I couldn't write to you at the church at Corinth, brethren, writing to men who had the Spirit of God.  I couldn't address you as those who were experiencing His ministry.  What a blow that would have been.  Everybody's attention in the church at Corinth, all of a sudden their eyes would be opened.  The Apostle Paul says there are only two kinds of people and he's saying now, and he's talking to the church, there's a change here, we've referred to this before.  The pronouns in chapter 3, we haven't followed this because sometimes we can get lost.  But in chapter 3, he's been talking at the end of chapter 2 in singular, talking about what happens to individuals.  In chapter 3 he goes back to plural pronouns, indicating he's addressing the church as a whole, not just individuals within the church.  He starts out by addressing them as brethren, plural.  And couldn't address, speak to you, plural.  In English we just have you, and sometimes the you is singular, sometimes it's plural.  If I'm talking to someone I may say, I'll see you for lunch this week, I mean you individually, that person.  But I can also say I'm speaking to you today, that means all of you.  But in Greek you could make that you singular or plural, they have different forms.  So it helped.  You knew when he meant somebody individually and when he was talking about a group.  Here he is talking about the group, the church as the church.  I couldn't speak to you as those who have the Spirit of God working in their lives.  Startling statement.

But as men of flesh, as fleshly.  Now he doesn't say as natural, because he's not implying they are unbelievers.  So he doesn't use the word natural that he used at the end of chapter 2 and verse 14, the natural man, the man who doesn't have the Spirit of God.  Because these do have the Spirit, but I can't write you as those that are experiencing the Spirit's ministry in your life.  I have to write to you as fleshly, men of flesh.  That means men, even though they have the Spirit of God, men as mankind here, who are living as though they didn't have the Spirit of God.  Now the King James Bible took the word that came into our English from Latin, carnal.  And carnal means fleshly, of the flesh.  And the King James Bible says, I had to speak to you as carnal, and so we have the expression, a carnal Christian that comes from this passage.  A carnal Christian is a fleshly Christian, a Christian who is, and this is where confusion is generated on what different people think a carnal or fleshly Christian is.  Some would say there are really three classes of people—there is the natural, there is the spiritual, and there is the carnal.  There is an element of truth in that, but it is not accurate from the way Paul develops this.  The carnal are not a totally separate group.  What we'll see in a moment is the carnal are those who are allowing the flesh to manifest itself in certain areas of their lives.  And you'll see, and I'll save the details, but the word carnal or fleshly referring to Christians is not referring to those who have not been manifesting any of the Spirit's work in their lives for years and have little or no interest in the things of the Lord, but they've made a profession of faith at one time.  That is not anything like the situation at Corinth as we'll see.  But we'll walk through those details as we come to them.  He says I had to write to you as men of flesh, literally as fleshly, men who lived as though they were nothing but flesh, nothing but the physical, the Spirit is not there, even though He is present.

I had to write to you as “infants in Christ”, the end of verse 1.  That is a bitter rebuke to people who prided themselves in their wisdom, who thought they had exceptional insight and knowledge.  And I can't write to you as people who know something of the Spirit's work in their life, I have to write to you as babies.  And he's going to elaborate on that.  What do you do with a baby?  You give them milk.  And you are stuck in infancy, and there is absolutely no excuse for it.  I had to write to you as infants, the immature.  Now Paul often uses the imagery of children and he compares he's a loving parent to those he has led to Christ who are his children.  But there are different words used in different contexts.  The word used here for infants, babies, is almost always used in a negative sense in the New Testament to rebuke someone.  Like something comes up with someone you work with or are dealing with or a family member, and you say, you're a big baby.  Well, it's not a compliment, that's a rebuke, that's telling them they ought to grow up.  You're acting like an infant when you ought to be acting like an adult.  That's what Paul in effect says to the church at Corinth.  You're just a group of big babies, I can't speak to you as people who have the Spirit, I have to treat you like babies.

What's an example?  I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not able to receive it.  The picture is obvious, almost so obvious that it goes right by us.  What do you do with a baby?  You give the baby milk, the baby is supposed to outgrow that stage.  Doesn't mean it won't continue to have milk, but it means it's not to continue to subsist on milk.  Milk is fine, but after four years if that baby is only taking milk and after six years, you say something is wrong with the digestive system.  It hasn't developed as it should, and you're concerned.  For some reason every time I try to move and wean it away from just the pure milk diet, it gets sick, it can't take it, it throws it back out.  Well, that wouldn't be healthy.  So the analogy is almost overly simple.  I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you are not able.  Don't have any choice, you aren't able to handle anything more than the milk.  And really what he's saying is, spiritual truth can only be assimilated by those who are submissive to the Spirit's ministry.  We covered this in chapter 2, remember.  It takes the work of the Spirit to enable us to understand the things of God, and that work of the Spirit initially, as far as our conversion takes place, it's that instant conversion when by the grace of God the Spirit of God takes the Gospel and opens our blinded eyes to understand the truth that we are sinners, wretched and condemned, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Savior who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  And by the work of the Spirit moving on our will we believe in Christ.  And now the Spirit of God takes up residence in our life and continues to unfold God's truth to us.


Turn over to 1 John 2:27.  The context is of God's work in the life of a believer as the work of the truth in the life as a result of faith in Christ.  But we'll pick up with verse 27, “as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you”.  That's the Holy Spirit who came into our life when we believed in Christ.  You have no need for anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.  The point here is not that we don't use physical teachers, I'm teaching you the Word of God.  But the point is only the Spirit of God can enable you to understand the truth of God.  So if the Spirit of God is not taking the truth that I am explaining to you and applying it to your heart and mind so that you understand and grasp and assimilate it, nothing is happening.  You're just sitting here going through a service.  But the truth is not changing your life.  Nothing is happening.  It's like someone again who has something malfunctioning in their system, they say you don't absorb the nutrients from the food you are eating.  You're getting weaker, you're getting sicker, we can't figure out.  But you take in food but nothing happens.  So here it is, you're hearing the truth, but it's just going right on by.  It's not changing your life.  Only the Spirit of God can do that. So what was happening in the church at Corinth is these believers weren't allowing the Spirit of God to do His work in their lives.  So they couldn't handle the meat or solid food of the Word of God.

Back up to 2 Corinthians 3:18.  We're talking about the Spirit of God taking the truth of the New Covenant, the work of Christ and revealing it to people.  And here the picture of particularly contrast with Jews who have a veil over their face.  So they read and study the Old Testament, but they don't understand it, because they can only understand it by the work of the Spirit of God to open their eyes to remove the veil.  So 2 Corinthians 3:15 says, “but to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  But we all [we believers] with unveiled face.” The blinders have been taken off, the cover has been removed, “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.”  We are looking into the revealed truth of God, the Word of God.  We “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”  So you see what happens.  The Spirit of God has come into our lives through faith in Christ.  And now as we study the truth of God, the Spirit of God is doing a work of transforming us.  We're undergoing that metamorphosis to bring us into conformity to the character of the Lord of glory that is the One revealed in His Word.

Now you come back to 1 Corinthians 3, something is wrong.  The Corinthians take in solid food.  What has Paul just had to do for the last part of chapter 1 and all of chapter 2?  Walk through the basic message of the cross, the foundational truth of the Gospel.  That doesn't mean the Gospel, the facts of Christ's death, burial and resurrection is only for beginners, but you have to go on to see how this finished work of Christ permeates every area of life, and thus all the Word of God is intricately intertwined into the work that God has done in the death of His Son.  There is nothing wrong with milk, there is something wrong with being left on a diet of milk.  I was thinking this week as I went through this, it's almost to me like the alphabet.  You know we send our kids to school and they start preschool or kindergarten or whatever they do.  What are you going to have to do if you're going to deal with language?  You have to learn the alphabet, right?  So they come and have their list of letters, they're going through the alphabet.  They have a, b, c, d, g.  And you say no, no, you left something out.  They have to learn.  And then they're taught the letters, the shapes of the letters, how to write the letter, how to recognize it, what goes below the line, what goes above the line.  Because if they don't learn the alphabet, how are they going to put a word together?  And if they can't put a word together, how are they going to put a sentence together, and on it goes.  When I got to Bible college we had to learn Greek, so I'm a college student.  What did we do?  We went back to preschool because we were learning Greek.  You know what we did?  Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron...on it goes.  Just wanted you to know I still remembered that alphabet. I won't tell you how long it took me to learn.  But why?  Couldn't do anything beyond that, it was just like going to English.  Now here when you make this Greek letter, this part of it has to come below the line.  You need that little on the top, that distinguishes this.  Now you could learn to put together words.  And then you put together sentences, and on it goes.  You have to learn the basics.  Now when your child in 6th grade learned the alphabet before he got to 1st grade, you don't say, well now you know the alphabet, you just forget it, you never use it again.  It's just the opposite.  You use it in everything.  But there is something wrong if you have to keep going back in 6th grade and say to your child, now we have to go through the alphabet.  What is the alphabet?  A, b, c, d.  You're back in the basics.  Now you're going to use these basics and these basics are foundational and permeate everything from there on, but you have to move on.

The Corinthians are stuck, Paul says I have to go back to you.  You have the Spirit, but I had to deal with you as people who are not being affected by the Spirit.  That means here we are, go through the Gospel, talk about the cross.  Not that we ever tire of talking about the cross.  God forbid that we should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul wrote to the Galatians.  But we have to move on.  What does that mean?  How shall we then live?  What does this mean for me going to work tomorrow?  What does this mean regarding the rest of the work of God that He has unfolded?  You realize we have the whole book, and it's God's intention that we learn it from Genesis to Revelation.  So you study it that we assimilate it, that we take it in.  The Corinthians are stuck.  You know some churches get stuck there.  They are happy just to come and all they want to do is have the pastor get up and give a salvation message, as we would call it, just talk about the Gospel so unbelievers can get saved, and that way we don't have to be developed and I don't have to deal with things I don't like to deal with, and I don't have to think, and I don't have to have things that I don't want to hear about come up.  So just what I like.  That's fleshliness, not able to deal with the Word of God.  You understand Paul is writing to a church here that's only about five years old.  Paul spent 18 months there in his ministry, then it's been about three years since he left and now he is writing back.  I mean it's only been about five years since Paul arrived at Corinth and preached the Gospel for the first time.  And he is really directly confronting them.  You are like babies.  What do you think he'd say to us who have been believers for 20, 25, 30 years and we're comfortable in our lack of knowledge.  Those things don't interest me and don't matter.  Keep pouring the milk into the bowl, I'm happy.  That doesn't matter I'm happy, it's if God is happy, and God is not, anymore than you'd be happy if your child at 12 can't do anything but milk.  So it's a striking rebuke that Paul gives to this church.

I could not give you solid food, I gave you milk.  And you know what?  It hasn't changed right up to the present.  You are not even now able, the end of verse 2.  Indeed even now you are not able.  What's wrong?  You know Paul expects rapid growth, because that's what God expects.  We think, well I've been a Christian 15 years and you know there are things in my life that don't belong there, I guess you'd call it the works of the flesh.  But you know, nobody is perfect.  There is no room for that attitude.  There are a lot of great things in the Corinthian church, but this milk diet and their inability to move on to greater and broader truths is a rebuke.

You are still fleshly.  A little variation on the word flesh from verse 3, we were fleshly.  Now here it characterized, you're not just living like men who don't have the Spirit, you're manifesting now the characteristics of those kind of people, which are, or since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly?  Are you not walking like mere men?  So a couple of evidences here of their fleshliness, of their carnality.  They can't take in and handle the solid food of the Word, and they have evidences of the flesh like jealousy and strife going on in the church.  That means you're walking like mere men, just like men who don't have the Spirit of God.  That's what they do.  These are their qualities.

Turn over to Galatians 5.  Paul is contrasting the work of the Spirit of God in a life, and a life without the Spirit of God.  And for believers who have the Spirit, Paul's solution is simple—Galatians 5:16, “but I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.”  How do you deal with the flesh, your fallen self, what you would be apart from the Spirit of God?  Walk under the control of the Spirit. What was the problem that he deals with in Galatians?  Verse 15, “but if you bite and devour one another, take care you are not consumed...” by it.  Inner factions, inner conflicts.  Now the letter to the Galatians is a conflict letter.  He's not saying we don't deal with doctrine, we don't stand for doctrine, we don't oppose those who teach false doctrine.  But we need to be careful.  The church tears itself apart over personalities, who their favorite leader is, who their favorite pastor is, who their favorite teacher is.  I like them better, they relate to me, I understand them, they just have a way with me.  Are you a follower of them?  The church is to be a follower of Jesus Christ, as we saw earlier in our study in Corinthians.  There is no end to the number of ways we can fragment, if we're going to do it around people.  We always think there are reasons, well I just can't help it, I like them.  Well it's nice to like them, but you understand you're a disciple of Jesus Christ.  You are His follower.  So the church has to be careful.

So in Galatians 5:19, “now the deeds of the flesh are evident.”  Here is what happens when you are fleshly, these things come out.  “Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy...”  Oops, what was going on in the church at Corinth?  Strife, jealousy.  What are a couple of the manifestations that the flesh is manifesting and asserting itself in a life?  Strife, jealousy.  Jealousy naturally goes with strife, often connected together.  Because when you're jealous it leads to conflict, envy, strife.  Outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, things like these.  This is not a complete list, this gives you something of an idea of the kind of things the flesh produces.  And those who practice such things have no part in the kingdom of God.  That's the character of a life.  That's not what we're talking about when we talk about a carnal Christian.  That's just a person who has these things in their life.  A carnal Christian is someone who is manifesting some of these things, while he is evidencing the work of the Spirit in his life.  And that conflict is there.  Things that don't belong there, an immaturity that should have been outgrown a long time ago.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 3.  The example that will take us back to chapter 1.  For when one says I am of Paul and another, I am of Apollos, are you not mere men.  That goes back to chapter 1 verse 10, “now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind, and in the same judgment.  For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul’, and ‘I am of Apollos’, ‘I am of Cephas,’ and ‘I am of Christ.’”  So you see he hasn't left his theme.  Now you come to chapter 3 verse 4, when one says I am of Paul, another, I am of Apollos.  Now when we get to chapter 4 verse 6 he'll still be on the same subject and he'll say, now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos.  This matter of divisions.  Understand this is not just something that has gone on here, but the rest of the church life is okay.  The church is impacted in great ways by this.

The very slogan.  It would be just like if people here would say, who is your favorite pastor at Indian Hills?  Oh I like so-and-so, I like so-and-so.  And we all would have people, whether a Sunday School teacher, a pastor, somebody who has been used in our lives.  And we'd say we have great appreciation for so-and-so, the way that the Lord has used him in my life.  We have to be careful, though, that our eyes don't get off Jesus Christ and what He has done on the cross.  And that's the person that we are following.  And I appreciate the way the Lord has used other people, and that's where Paul is going in the next section that we're not going into.

We can understand Apollos and Paul and all the rest are just servants, slaves, serving one master.  The honor, the attention, the focus is to be on the master, not on the slave.  Everything the slave does is to direct your attention to the master, not to him.  And something is wrong when you think you've become a follower of the slave and not the master.  So you see it's the flesh at work and the flesh takes attention off Christ and it manifests itself in the divisions and the conflicts.

Let's back up and overview some of this material and say some comments.  Carnal Christians, and you can get tracts that draw pictures of what a person is unsaved, what a spiritual Christian is, and then what a carnal Christian is.  And a carnal Christian has ego sitting on the throne of a life.  Let me read you what one person wrote that I thought was very good, very clear.  Paul does not have in mind someone who has made a profession of faith, carried on in a Christian way for a short while, and then reverted to a lifestyle indistinguishable in every respect from that of the world.  After all, these Corinthian believers are meeting together for worship, we'll see in chapter 14.  They call on the name of the Lord as he said in chapter 1 verse 2.  They are extraordinarily endowed with spiritual gifts.  He mentioned that in chapter 1 verses 5 and 7, he'll develop it in detail in chapters 12-14.  They are wrestling with theological and ethical issues.  That will be in chapters 8-10.  They are in contact with the apostle whose ministry brought them to the Lord.  Far from being sold out to the world, the flesh and the devil, they pursue spiritual experience, if sometimes unwisely.  Now we sometimes get an idea about the Corinthian church, they are carnal.  Well in one sense they are because they are allowing the flesh to manifest itself and in those ways they are resisting the ministry of the Holy Spirit and they are not continuing to develop and grow as they should in their grasp of biblical truth.  You understand, the Corinthian church did not abandon the Lord.  There is abundant evidence of the work of the Spirit in their lives.

Another person wrote, a person who seems never to submit to God's will is more likely the natural person of chapter 2 verse 14, than a carnal Christian, regardless of what profession he or she has made at some time in the past.  We as parents need to be careful.  We say well, I know my child is saved, because when they were 6 years old they made a profession of faith.  Now for the last 20 years they haven't been walking with the Lord, and they don't have any interest in the things of the Lord, but I know they are saved because they made that profession.  They're just carnal Christians.  That has nothing to do with what the Bible is talking about when it talks about the carnal church at Corinth, or the fleshly church.  The church at Corinth has great interest in the things of the Lord, and some of the issues that they are dealing with are serious matters.  And they're meeting together regularly.  He's talking about the church that meets together.  In fact as one person wrote in his commentary that I shared with you before, the New Testament just knows nothing of a Christian who wasn't identified with a local church.  Some of our own concepts, I mean, when you're saved you're placed into the body, the family of God, which is the church.  And the physical manifestation of that is the local church.  I meet people periodically who say, we used to attend Indian Hills many years ago.  I say, where are you going now?  Well, we don't go anywhere.  My first thought is, you didn't get saved while you were at Indian Hills, I guess.  Because saved people are part of the church, the church of God.  Well, I am, the universal church, I don't need the local church.  Well, the church of God is manifested at Corinth.

The whole concept of carnal Christian, my concern is we don't want to give people a false idea.  You're on your way to heaven, because you did make a profession, that took care of it.  I sometimes think people are looking for confirmation.  That's why we don't baptize children at Indian Hills.  At one time we did.  The concern came that it might be confusing, a lot of reasons, we won't get into it.  But one of the things that surprised me was how many people were upset when they found out their four-year-old wasn't going to be baptized.  You say, if they're saved, they're saved.  Baptism doesn't save you, or lack of it doesn't unsave you, but we want the church to confirm my kid is saved.  And the church wouldn't baptize them.  We talk about the Catholics and baptism, Lutherans and baptism, confirmation.  We want the seal of approval, as though salvation were trusting Christ and having the church's seal of approval.  Salvation is trusting Christ.  And that all leads, then, to faulty ideas on that.  Oh that's settled, that's confirmed, now the rest of life, whatever they do is all right, they're saved.  I'm relieved to know that.  I realize some of you come out of backgrounds, if the infant doesn't get baptized, doesn't get rid of original sin and you have parents or relatives who are aghast that you didn't get your baby baptized.  And they think, what if it dies..........  Well, you know, we have our own evangelical version of that.  We think if someone makes a profession somewhere along the way, no matter what the rest of their life is like, and there are some evangelical professors who have written along that very line.  If you make a profession, you're saved. That's it.  I believe if you are truly saved, you are truly saved.  And I can't explain where the line will be and who is saved and who isn't ultimately.  But at the end of his second letter, Paul will write to the Corinthians and tell them, “examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith.”  Do you know that the Spirit of God dwells in you, unless you haven't truly believed.  So there is genuine salvation, there is inconsistency.  You know what? If I lose my temper, I am manifesting the flesh, that instant I have been fleshly, I have been carnal.  It needs to be dealt with, not allowed to continue in my life.  Because one thing about sin, it spreads.  And you know you have one sin in your life, it spreads to another.

I sometimes watch programs on TV where they solve a crime.  They'll find a person who is committing immorality and to cover their immorality, they were being deceitful and they were lying to their spouse.  Then they embezzled through their business to keep their dual lifestyle going.  And then somebody gets murdered and friends say, well, they could never murder anyone.  You can be immoral, you can lie, you can deceive, you can steal, but you could never murder.  You know, we just don't realize when sin takes control, it begins to take more control, and pretty soon its goal is to destroy a life.

So the carnal Christian is not a person who is just living in sin and there is no evidence of the Spirit's work.  All he has is a profession that he hangs onto from sometime in the distant past.  A carnal Christian, a fleshly Christian is a Christian who is allowing the flesh to manifest itself in certain areas of the life.  And to that extent is not allowing the Spirit to work.  A carnal Christian is someone who is not taking in the Word of God and growing in that knowledge of the Word, and so able to handle more and more of the truth that is revealed regarding the work of God and His Son which is at the heart of it all, maturing in Christ.  Turn over to 2 Peter 2.  And the feeding on the milk and not allowing the flesh, they go hand-in-hand.  When you get a certain kind of disease in your body, it can begin to affect your appetite, and if it affects your appetite, then you don't eat right and then your problems begin to multiply.  What do they say?  You're sick or something and they say, you need to take in nourishment, you're going to get weaker.  And sometimes they take you to the hospital and give you intravenous feedings because you just can't quit eating.  Your body begins to shut down and the problems multiply.  If we have sin in our life, we're allowing the flesh to manifest itself, it will affect our ability to take in the Word of God, because we are resisting the work of the Spirit in closing His work out of our life.  So He doesn't have the freedom to work.

So the Corinthians' inability to handle the more mature things of the Word and their manifesting the flesh and inseparably joined together.  At the end of 1 Peter 1, Peter is talking about that we're saved through believing the eternal Word of God, verse 23, “you've been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring [abiding] word of God.”  Chapter 2 verse 1, “therefore, putting aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, all slander.”  What is that?  All the manifestations of the flesh in your life.  Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you might grow in respect to salvation.  Now here he uses the milk of the Word in a positive analogy, and babies, uses a different word than babies that we used back in Corinthians negatively.  Here it's a positive analogy, that all of us in one sense are like new babies who want more of God's Word.  What I want you to see here, to take in God's Word you have to deal with the works of the flesh, and not allow them to manifest themselves in your life.  That's what enables you, at the end of verse 2, to grow in respect to salvation, so that the Spirit of God as we saw in 2 Corinthians 3:18, can be transforming us into the image of Christ.

You know there is a terrible thing happening in the evangelical church, and it's simply what happened 2000 years ago in Corinth.  You know what?  People aren't growing and maturing as they like, so they aren't interested in the serious doctrines of the Word.  I read something this weekend about a person in a church that is established, just deal in love and grace, not going to get into doctrines.  I mean, what are we talking about?  We're just going to deal with milk all the time?  I mean, not going to deal with the rest of the teachings of the Word of God?  So the church, if we're not dealing with the flesh as God's people, we're not growing and developing in the Word and pretty soon I don't want to hear what I'm not assimilating and taking in, it doesn't interest me, I don't want to be bothered with it.  So we're going to have services that just deal with the milk, and that way it doesn't bring the same conviction to the life, doesn't make us uncomfortable, doesn't require of us that we make changes in our lives to conform to the character of Christ through the power of the Spirit.  And so we're happy to have the church, oh yes, we're evangelical and we give the Gospel out every day, and we just continue to give out milk and the flesh is allowed to manifest itself because we're not dealing with the Word in its breadth so the Spirit can bring us into balanced maturity and conformity to Christ.  And we're going to live where we are.

Paul is not willing to let the church stay where it is at Corinth.  It's sin to remain in infancy, and they were only five years old in the Lord.  What should we be taking in?  You understand, as I get older, I shouldn't have less interest in the Word of God.  I've noticed, after 40 years in the ministry, a pattern often develops.  People get saved and they take off like a rocket and they can't get enough of the Word.  And then there seems to be a period of flattening, they don't have that same drive, they sort of level off.  Then it seems like there can be a decline.  You know for some 40 years I've had the privilege of studying the Word of God, preparing myself in ministry, teaching week by week, preparing various studies in the Word, taking in the Word.  Have I come to the point now, I say, I just don't need the Word as much as I used to, I just don't need to take in the Word like I used to.  I've been taking in the Word for so many years, I don't need to take it in like I used to, and I don't even need to be on the flat plane, I can get by with a lot less of it now.  That's just not a biblical pattern.  We need to be careful that we are looking at our lives and seeing that the focus indeed is what Christ has done and the impact of what He has done that began at our conversion when we placed our faith in Christ, but it's an ongoing work and to be a growing work.  As I'm walking with the Lord, you know what I realize?  I need more of the Word than I ever did, I need to be in the Word more than I ever have been, I need to be grappling with things that I didn't grapple with seriously enough the first, second, third or fourth time through.  Because it's unfolding the revelation of the infinite God and His work of redemption accomplished in His Son, a work that I will spend eternity examining and coming to appreciate in a greater way.

So we need to be careful that the church at Corinth doesn't become our pattern, even though we talk about their failures.  Are we a maturing church, that we love the truth of the Gospel.  That is the heart of what we are about and what we teach.  That we are growing in our understanding of God's revelation and the impact of the work of Christ that permeates every part of the Word, carrying me back to the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation.  And I delight to dig into the truth and be stretched in my spiritual thinking, to have the Spirit of God take this truth and enable me to appreciate it in greater ways and to learn what I didn't learn before, to be convicted about things in my life that oughtn't to be there.  That's not just an inconsistency, that's a manifestation of the flesh, that's sin, that ought not be there.  All the reasons we come up for it, it ought not to be there.  Division, strife, jealousy, envy, there is no place for it.  That's a work of the flesh.  I can't help it, we're just...........  You can help it, if you're a believer, the Spirit of God is sufficient.  We need to be the church that indeed is characterized by that commitment to Jesus Christ, proclaiming the truth of the cross, grappling with the solid food of the Word of God, growing to maturity and manifesting the beauty of His character, the fruit of the Spirit, because we walk by the Spirit, not by the flesh.

Let's pray together.  Thank You, Lord, for the power of our salvation.  Lord, thank You that our conversion happened in a moment, in an instant of time, that that was the beginning of an ongoing work as Your Spirit brought us into Your family and began a work of molding and shaping us, nurturing and nourishing us, that we might continue to grow to maturity in preparation for the day when we will be presented in Your presence as holy and blameless and without spot.  We'll be privileged throughout all eternity to grow in continual knowledge and understanding of the God who has saved us.  Thank You for the church at Corinth. Thank You, Lord, for our church that You have raised up for Yourself in this place.  May we take these lessons to heart and allow Your Spirit to use them in our lives personally and in the life of our church.  We pray in Christ's name, amen.