Man, that song right there is probably one of the most consequential songs as far as my life's concerned. And my parents used to play it when it was written on cassette tape and that imprinted that verse in my heart and mind as a child. little did I know then that the Holy Spirit would use that verse right when I needed it at a crossroads as a 15 year old I was right on the verge of just really ruining my life going out into the world and the Lord brought that phrase to mind and turned me around and it's because of really parents that play godly music in the home and if you've got godly music that contains the truth of the Word of God it's a wonderful way to get the truth into your heart and into your mind especially when you've got just really the words of Scripture there in song. Okay if you have your Bibles there turn with me to 1 Corinthians and chapter 2 1 Corinthians chapter 2 as we continue in our Sunday evening series it's been a little while since we've been in 1 Corinthians with the Christmas season and other things New Year's season but we're back in 1 Corinthians 2 and we're going to make a start tonight as well on chapter 3 because we're dealing tonight with the theme natural carnal or spiritual are you natural carnal spiritual. In the verses before us we have three kinds of people or three categories of people. The natural, the carnal and the spiritual and everybody falls into one of those three categories. And so we're going to read from verse 14 of chapter 2. down to verse 4 of chapter 3 so let's why don't we read it together on the count of two one and two but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned but he that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as under spiritual, but as under carnal, even as under babes, in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye are not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? But while one saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Let's pray. Father, we ask for your help now, for your blessing upon this time of study. Lord, help us in the heat. We pray for the removal of distractions. Strengthen our mortal bodies, Lord. Often we feel weary, Lord, and we just pray that by your Spirit you'd strengthen us in the inner man and give us that receptivity to your word. Help me tonight, need your help, your grace. we pray that you would bless in Jesus name Amen we've been dealing with this section of Corinthians 1st Corinthians concerning the theme of divine wisdom, you remember our messages on that I hope, the contrast between the wisdom of men and the wisdom of God and really Paul is continuing on that theme or continuing in the context of that theme and he now outlines three categories of people in many ways we can define them by their response to the wisdom of God, their response to the truth. They are the natural man, chapter 2 verse 14, the spiritual man, chapter 2 verse 15 and 16, and the carnal man, chapter 3 verses 1 to 4. Now I know that we often think about everybody being in two categories of people, the saved and the lost, and And it's right and it's appropriate to think about people in terms of those categories. But what we're going to find tonight is in 1 Corinthians here, we have three categories of men, three categories of people. One is lost, two are saved. And so I trust that you will get some help and some blessing. And as we study these three categories of men, these three categories of people tonight, I'd like you to have this question in your heart and in your mind. Am I natural, carnal or spiritual? And hopefully by the end of the message you'll be able to humbly answer that question. So let's look at the first of the three. Number one, the natural man. The natural man, verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And the natural man is an unsaved man. If you're taking notes there, look at letter A, the contrast to the natural man. You notice the conjunction but there, which gives us a contrast to something that has been said previously. And what has he been speaking about previously? Well, the contrast is found in verse 9 through 13, and it's dealing with a believer who's indwelt by the Spirit of God. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, Neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Dropping down to verse 12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." So he's describing someone who's indwelt by the Spirit of God, someone who's received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, someone who is receptive to the teaching and the instruction of the Holy Spirit and then in verse 15 we have the contrast but in contrast to that kind of individual we have the natural man who does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. And the next thing we consider about the natural man is the condition of the natural man. So the contrast of the natural man, then the condition of the natural man. And this word natural comes from the Greek word, psychikos. Psychikos. And the psychos is the soul. So the natural man, we could say is the soulish man. You think about it, you have a natural birth, you're born into this world naturally, the natural man does not know God, he's dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2 verse 1. He knows only life on a natural level. He lives in that realm, in the realm of the natural and the physical. In fact, this same Greek word is translated in Jude 119, sensual. So he's a man who's just governed by his senses. A natural man, a man who is still dead in trespasses and sins, he has not received salvation. And Harry Ironside gives a good illustration of the three parts of man. Remember in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, Paul wrote, I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless. And so man is a three-part or a tripartite being. You can look at the diagram on page two of your notes there just to get a visual representation of that. We have the spirit on the inner circle there, the soul with its feeling, with its mind, will and emotions, and then the body with its physical appetites. God created us with a spirit, the innermost part of man, because God in his pure essence is a spirit. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. This is what sets us apart from the animal world. The animal world has physical life, some sentient life, there's even sometimes emotions and thoughts in an animal's mind, but the animal does not have the spirit that makes the animal able to have direct contact with the living God. And that's why we were made special in the image of God, And because of sin's entrance into the world, man died first spiritually, in the spiritual realm, and we're now dead in trespasses and sins. You say, how can I be dead when I'm living? Well, you're alive physically, you're alive emotionally, you're alive mentally, but in the innermost part of your being, the spirit, it's like a dark room with no light and no life. so the natural man, he's living in the soul level, okay? He experiences emotions and thoughts and yet he's still dead in trespasses and sins. And Harry Ironside gives this helpful illustration, he says, when God created man, somebody has well said he was like a three-story house. The lower story, the body. The second story, the soul. The third story, the spirit, the highest part of man by which he could look up to God. But when man sinned there was a moral earthquake and the top story fell down into the basement. that leaves him a physical man, it leaves the soul, sorry, a psychical man, it leaves the soul in the preeminent place instead of the spirit. The soul is the self, so the soulish man is a self-centered man. Now we know clearly that he can't be a saved man from the description that follows, because we look now at the characteristics of the natural man. So we have the contrast to the natural man, the condition of the natural man, he's a psychikos man, a soulish man, then we have these characteristics in the latter part of verse 14. But the natural man, what are those next words say? Receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he, because they are Okay, so the natural man is marked by two things. Number one, an indifference to the truth. An indifference to the truth. And again, I want you to think about this tonight and I say this in love, are you a natural man? You've never come into living contact with Jesus Christ by faith and therefore many things in the Bible just make no sense to you. Are you listening? You say, how do I know if I've been born again? Well, when you get born again, the light turns on. It doesn't mean you understand everything in the Bible, but all of a sudden the light goes on and you begin to understand the wisdom of God. But if you are unreceptive to God's Word and many aspects of the truth, you're just resistant to that. It just doesn't make sense to you. In fact, it might even be worse than that. It might be like this. It just seems foolish to you. It just doesn't make logical sense to you. Then that's a very worrying sign that perhaps you are a natural man. You've never experienced the supernatural birth. So he's indifferent to the truth. He does not accept the truth. He receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. The word receive there means to take with the hand or to accept. So there's an unreceptiveness there to the truth. He does not accept the truth and he then has the wrong attitude to the truth for they are foolishness unto him. Now we get many illustrations of this in the world, I mean, especially when there is a discussion in the world about moral issues. Have you ever heard of mainstream media organisations just sneering at a biblical standard for example? I mean we've seen this, we saw this with the marriage debate just back in 2017 and there were certain Christians trying to raise a voice for biblical truth and what was the majority response? This is ridiculous, this is foolish, I mean what do you mean one man, one woman for life? makes no sense to us and that's the condition of the natural man, he doesn't realize the value of the truth of God's Word, he's unreceptive to it, doesn't accept it and views it as a foolish thing, it just doesn't make sense, it just doesn't sit well with him. So he has an indifference to the truth, but it's actually even worse than that. He has number two, an inability in relation to the truth, because it says neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So an unsaved person cannot really comprehend the truth, cannot understand the wisdom of God. So don't be surprised if you have an unsaved family member or an unsaved friend, Who just can't wrap their head around what you believe. And you think, why can't they get it? Because they're dead in trespasses and sins? Their innermost part of their being, the heart's still dark, the light hasn't been turned on yet in their heart. Okay? And you say, well what's the solution for the natural man? The natural man needs a supernatural birth. if that's you tonight, you need to be born again. Jesus said in John chapter 3, ye must be born again. And so the natural man needs to hear the gospel and the seed of the gospel needs to enter and penetrate the heart of the natural man to where they come to faith in Jesus Christ. believing that he died on the cross for their sins, was buried, rose again, kneeling as it were, bowing before Christ with that repentant heart over sin, and receiving by faith the cleansing that the blood of Christ provides, receiving the new birth by faith. You see, the natural man needs conversion, and if you're here tonight and much of the Bible just doesn't make sense to you, you really don't have much appetite for the Bible, you're not really that interested in reading the Bible, And as you read the Bible, it just doesn't really appeal to you, doesn't make sense to you. Could I suggest to you that perhaps you are a natural man in need of conversion? And I say that in love, I don't say that to put you down, I say that in love. You need to be born again, you need new life in Christ. And when you have new life in Christ, the Bible will come alive to you. I mean, it's amazing how many testimonies I've heard of people said, before I was saved, the Bible was an enigma to me. The Bible didn't make sense to me. I wasn't really interested in it. It was just words on a page, but now that I'm saved, oh, I just see so much. I'm understanding so many things. I don't understand everything, but I love the Bible and it's beginning to make sense to me. That's the miracle of conversion. So everyone in this room, either natural, spiritual or carnal. I wonder, are you a natural man? Soulish? It's just the five senses for you and you're really not that interested in the truth. You need conversion, you need to be saved because without salvation the Bible will not make any sense to you. Okay? Right, then we have the second category we have the second kind of man the spiritual man verse 15 and 16 but here's another contrast verse 15 he that is judge of all things yet he himself is judge of no man for who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him but we have the mind of Christ Okay, the spiritual man, listen carefully, is a saved man and he is spiritually mature. Okay, the spiritual man. Now unlike the soulish man, the spiritual man is spirit dominated. So consider the marks of the spiritual man. The marks of the spiritual man. And he's noted for three things here. Number one, he's noted for his identity. His identity. The word spiritual comes from the Greek word, panumatikos. So we have the psychikos man, the soulish man, he's the unsaved man. Then we have the panumatikos man, and panuma is the word for spirit. So the spiritual man is dominated by the Spirit, he's indwelt by the Spirit, he walks in the Spirit, he's filled with the Spirit and he's receptive to the Spirit's teachings. through the Word of God, which is described there in verse 13, So the spiritual man one who has the Spirit of God. We have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God, why? That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. So the Holy Spirit enters my life and He gives me illumination and understanding and a receptivity and a hunger for spiritual things. So if you're looking back at that diagram there, the center circle, the spirit, the spiritual man is someone who's been made alive in that spirit, that spirit that was dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2.1, but you hath he quickened, that means to make alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. So the saved person is someone who's been made alive again. That spirit that was dead is made alive by the power of God when you get saved. You turn in faith to Christ and the Holy Spirit does that miracle work of regeneration in your heart. It's the new birth. Don't get confused about the new birth. It doesn't mean falling over and foaming at the mouth. It doesn't mean some preacher hitting you on the forehead and you falling over. It doesn't mean foaming at the mouth. It doesn't mean speaking in tongues. The new birth takes place when you look in faith to Jesus Christ who died for you, was buried and rose again, and when you turn in faith and repentance to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit at that moment does that miracle work in your heart, making you alive, removing the deadness, giving you new life, and then the Holy Spirit comes and indwells that renewed, regenerated human spirit. there's no way to be a spiritual man or woman unless you have the Spirit of God. So we see his identity and then his maturity. Now I want you to see that the defining characteristic of the spiritual man is his judging. That might sound a little bit surprising because we're told today very often, aren't we, in the modern church, that to be a spiritual Christian you should never judge anything or anyone. How many of you have heard that? Judge not that you be not judged. And what are they quoting from? Matthew chapter 7, but they've misread that chapter. The kind of judgment that Jesus Christ condemns is hypocritical judgment. The Lord says if you've got a massive big log in your own eye, don't you come and try and pull a little speck out of someone else's eye. And it's interesting, he says remove the log out of your own eye so that then you can see clearly to remove the moat out of your brother's eye. So the Lord Jesus is not saying that passage never judge, he's just saying clean your own life up before you try and help someone else. actually what the Bible says here is that a truly spiritual person, someone who is spirit-filled, someone who's controlled by the Spirit, is someone who judges things. That's what it says. He that is spiritual judgeth all things. Now, what does the word judge mean? If you're getting confused, does that mean I stand in judgment over someone else in that sense? No. The word judge comes from the word anakrino. And the word krino in Greek is judge, but in this case it has a little prefix, ana, fixed to the start of the word. Anakrino, and that ana gives it a bit of extra intensity, and it means to examine, It means to ask a question or to discern. You want to see just really clearly what it means? Look at the previous verse, look at the last word of the previous verse in verse 14. What's that last word there? Discerned. Guess which Greek word that comes from? The exact same Greek word translated judgeth in verse 15. So, a spiritual person is therefore a discerning person. And really this word, anacrino, has two concepts. It has the idea of someone who examines and tests, and then someone who, on that basis, makes wise choices, approves. So let me give you the way this word's translated elsewhere, just to help broaden your mind on its meaning. The same word is translated examine, Luke 23, 14. Acts 4.9, Acts 12.19, Acts 24.8, Acts 28.18, 1 Corinthians 9.3, examined. The same word is translated searched, remember the Bereans? Acts 17.11. It's also translated discerned, 1 Corinthians 2.14, I just mentioned that one. It's translated judge in a few scriptures and then also question 1 Corinthians 10 25. So a spiritual person is someone who searches things. A spiritual person is someone who examines things. A spiritual person is someone who asks a question. Do you understand the picture there? So That's the spiritual man and the Bible makes it clear that such people exist, praise God for that. Now I understand that because we want to be humble we're careful not to say well I'm a spiritual man because we don't want to sound like we're puffed up in spiritual pride and we do need to be careful of spiritual pride but could I encourage you at the same time that it's possible for you to be a spiritual Christian? God's help. You'll never be spiritual without the Spirit, okay? You've got to allow the Spirit of God to be working in you, but if you allow the Spirit of God to work in your life, to make you a spiritual person, it will fruit in you having discernment. Do you know how lacking discernment is in many Christians today? Discernment. You don't just believe everything, you examine things, you check things by the Word of God, you ask the right questions, not from a carnal attitude but you want to understand things and you look into things and you're alert and you're awake to spiritual dangers and comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So I think of Proverbs 14 verse 15... Understand that? The simple believeth every word. We see the same spirit, expressed in 1 Thessalonians 5 21, prove all things, hold fast that which is good. So the spiritual man examines and tests things in the light of God's Word and makes wise choices in the light of that spiritual understanding. that comes from allowing the Spirit of God to do his work in our lives and by following his method of teaching, which is found in verse 13, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. You've got to learn to compare scripture with scripture. You've got to learn to check things out. A spiritual person will be concerned about Bible doctrine and accuracy. Absolutely! Well, I'm just full of the Spirit, I don't worry about doctrine, I'm sorry. The Holy Spirit is very concerned that you understand His Word correctly. The Holy Spirit is concerned that you get it right. Okay? Then consider His testimony. And we have this fascinating little statement here. And that word judged is again the word discerned. So, spiritual man discerns all things with God's help, in the Word of God, but he himself is not discerned or judged of other men. Now, this verse clearly is not teaching that the spiritual man is above reproof, that wouldn't be right would it? If you're a spiritual person in fact you will be receptive to reproof and receptive to instruction. But I believe it's referring to the fact that The unsaved world doesn't really discern or understand the spiritual man. He can't discern you. While the spiritual man discerns all things, at the same time he is not discerned or understood by the unsaved world. Think of that. It's true, isn't it? If you're a spiritual Christian, you love the Word of God, you're seeking to follow the leading of the Spirit of God, you're seeking to walk with God, you make no sense to an unsaved person. He can't understand you, he can't discern you and that's the testimony there, that he is not judged rightly, he's not judged there or can't be properly judged by man's standards and opinions. You think of the Lord Jesus Christ, they accused him, they judged him falsely didn't they? They accused him of being a wine bibber and a glutton. They accused him of casting out devils by Beelzebub. You see there the world trying to judge the spiritual of all spiritual men and they got it wrong, they could not judge him correctly, they could not discern what he was really all about and the Apostles and early Christians were also falsely judged in that way. So the spiritual man exercises spiritual judgment but in return the unsaved world cannot really properly discern and understand the spiritual man. So we have the marks of a spiritual man. Then we have the mind of the spiritual man. Look at verse 16. The mind of the spiritual man. And the first part of the verse there is a quotation from Isaiah 40 verse 13 which reads, And I hope you can see the answer is very clearly implied. Is it possible for you to instruct the Lord? No, He knows all things. We've already seen that the Spirit of God searches the deep things of God and the picture there emphasizes His full and comprehensive and complete understanding of all of the truths of the Divine Person and of His work. And so it's impossible for us to teach the Almighty, who knows all things, but we have the mind of Christ. That's an amazing thing, isn't it? That we as believers, and especially if you're walking with the Lord, you possess the mind of Christ. What's the context here? Well, he's talking about the spiritual man. So the spiritual man is a man, and we use the term generically, of course, referring to men and women, okay, but the spiritual man is one whose mind is governed by the mind of Christ. His thinking is aligning with the Word of God, because where do you find the mind of Christ? You find the mind of Christ in the Word of God, in the Word of Christ. Now it's important to understand when it comes to the mind of Christ, it's not just something that is possessed by the believer, it is something that must be yielded to by the believer. that's great, I have the mind of Christ, yeah, but remember Philippians 2 verse 5 that reads, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So we need to submit to the mind of Christ, don't we, in our lives as believers and how important that is today when so many believers are not thinking on a scriptural, spiritual plane. But here the spiritual man governed by the mind of Christ. And so he's a spirit-filled, just to summarize we could say the spiritual man is a spirit-filled and scripture-filled man. Okay? Spirit-controlled, scripture-controlled. Now we come to the carnal man, the third one. So the natural man, he's unsaved. The natural man needs salvation. The spiritual man, he's a mature Christian, he's saved, spirit indwelt, spirit filled, spirit taught. The carnal man, listen carefully, is saved, but spiritually immature. So, the spiritual man, saved, and spiritually mature. The carnal man, also saved, but spiritually immature. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. So, let's think about the carnal man for a moment. Firstly, the salvation of the carnal man. And I'll just say that to emphasize again, that the carnal man is unquestionably a saved individual. You say, how do you know? Well, Paul refers to the carnal believers here as brethren. Verse 1, and he refers to them as what? Babes in Christ, and you can't be a babe in Christ unless you're saved, right? So we have to emphasize that because there are some people out there, some preachers say there's no such thing as a carnal believer. I'm sorry, we shouldn't aim to be one, but they do exist and unfortunately very often in great numbers, okay? Now it can be a challenge can't it, sometimes, to discern is this person a false professor or a carnal believer? Do you ever have that challenge? Is this person saved and just struggling with the flesh or are they not really saved at all? And wisdom is needed there and prayer and we can, I believe, challenge in love the carnal believer to examine himself or herself because Paul did exactly that in his second epistle, 2 Corinthians 13 and 5. Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. prove your own selves, know you're not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. So, there is a time if someone's just really living like the world and living your very fleshy life, you can, like Paul did, exhort them, are you sure you're saved? But you know I've spoken to people and they're like, pastor I know I'm saved. they can point to a clear conversion testimony, they're clearly saved but they've just allowed the flesh to take over their lives and to dominate and so we need to remember that, that we can, if it's not very clear, we can sometimes challenge someone about their salvation but just remember that if the person is saved and carnal then ultimately they're going to need sanctification not salvation. Are you listening? Because if all you ever do is push the carnal believer back to questioning their salvation, guess what? They're going to just give up and get very discouraged. this is the danger of some churches, oh you know you're just living like this, you mustn't be saved, you need to get re... and sometimes that's what's needed, sometimes the person hasn't come through to true faith. But let's also remember that the Bible makes it clear that there is such a thing as a carnal believer and the natural man needs salvation, the carnal man needs sanctification. we've got to teach the carnal believer, if they're receptive, how to get victory over the carnal appetites and how to have victory over the flesh. So, the salvation of the carnal man, he's a saved individual but we notice next the symptoms of the carnal man. And the carnal man is marked by four characteristics. Number one, fleshliness. Fleshliness is And we say that because the word carnal comes from the Greek word sarkikos, so we've got these three words. Soukikos, soulish man, natural man. Pneumatikos, spiritual man. Sarkikos, sarkos. The word sarkos in Greek is the word flesh. So the natural man, soul-dominated. The spiritual man, spirit-dominated. The carnal man, flesh-dominated. The carnal Christian is a fleshly Christian. Instead of being controlled by the Holy Spirit like the spiritual man, he's being controlled by his carnal fleshly appetites, his desires, the emotions of the flesh, the physical appetites of the flesh. Paul says that he could not speak under them as under spiritual, so the carnal believer is not a spiritual person. and therefore he lacks the discernment of the spiritual man. Remember the primary or the identifying feature of the spiritual man is he is discerning. And if the carnal man is not spiritual, there's one thing up front, he's not discerning. And if you've lived the Christian life for some time, no doubt you've encountered that and you try and talk to a carnal believer about a serious issue and they just seem quite disinterested. I just don't see what the hype is over this whole doctrinal thing, you know? They don't have it, and the carnal believer doesn't really care about doctrine. Did you understand that? That the spiritual man, he's very concerned about purity of doctrine because he's spirit controlled, he compares spiritual things with spiritual, he's alert, he's awake, he's examining, he's got a proving mindset, he's careful about things, he's watchful, but the carnal man is the opposite of that, he's just not really too fussed about that. I'll never forget when one brother told me, he said, you know, this timing of the rapture thing, it doesn't really affect my daily life as a Christian. That's a carnal believer speaking. And I'm thinking, that's the very thing that it's supposed to affect. If Jesus Christ is coming at any moment, isn't that supposed to affect your daily life? But it amazes me how carnal believers, they're very concerned about petty fights. In fact, I've noticed that carnal believers are usually very quick to get on the wrong end of the stick in every battle. After a while you just know they are going to be on the wrong end of the stick with this battle. When it's a petty carnal division, they're right there in the thick of it. When it comes to a real battle where a stand needs to be taken, they're nowhere to be seen and they just get all doughy and they can't see the importance of the issue. That's the carnal believer, he couldn't care less really about spiritual matters or doctrine, why? Because he's just being dominated by the flesh. Fleshliness. Fleshliness. In fact the same word carnal is translated exactly that, fleshly, in 2 Corinthians 1.12 and 1 Peter 2 verse 11. So here we have a fleshly Christian and they do exist, fleshly worldly Christians. they need to be challenged as Paul challenged them, Paul did not say oh well you know you're a bit carnal but don't worry about that you know we're all about grace and love here at Corinth and just come as you are and that's not what Paul did, Paul challenged them with it straight on said you're carnal There's envy and strife and divisions and you're walking like men and you're saying I'm of Paul and I of Apollos and he just confronted the carnality in the church and carnality has to be confronted, lovingly of course, but it must be confronted nonetheless and it has to be dealt with biblically because carnality divides the church, damages the church. So the carnal man is marked by fleshliness, number one, and then number two, childishness. Childishness. Listen to what Paul says here, verse 1, So Paul said, I can't speak unto you as unto spiritual. you're not receptive to anything beyond milk. The carnal man is someone who has not grown beyond infancy. Now, infancy is a precious thing, isn't it? I mean you look at it, I love little newborns, they're very cute and they're very sweet for a little while. They wake you up and then as they grow you begin to see the sin nature emerge. Infancy is wonderful, but what do we expect with infants? We expect that with time they will grow and if a baby stays in infancy, there's an abnormality, there's something wrong there. And let me say, if you are a baby in Christ, there's nothing to be despised there, that's a wonderful thing. If you're a newborn baby in Christ, we love to hear, as it were, the sound of newborn babes in the church. that's not what Paul's saying, Paul's not deriding babes in Christ, he's saying you should be by now... more mature than that. You should have grown beyond infancy in the Lord and you haven't. Does that make sense? So there's nothing wrong if you're a newborn baby in Christ. There is something wrong though with the passing of time if you don't grow beyond that state of spiritual infancy and that was the problem with the Corinthian believers. Time had passed and they should have grown and matured in their Christian walk but they hadn't. They just wanted to stay in spiritual In babyhood, there was something wrong with their appetite. They'd never developed an appetite for solid food. That's abnormal and it's inexcusable. You look again at children, they grow normally very naturally from milk to solids, right? And we've noticed with ours, especially when you've got a reasonably large family, the little one's looking around to make sure he's got the same thing as what's on the other plates. Me, me, you better give it to me, okay? Well, in many ways that's good. It's good to see they're starting to learn to chew and you go through the teething process and you go through all those sleepless nights for them to lose those teeth again later, but anyway, they need those little chompers as they start to learn to chew and you see that natural growth thing there, but there'd be something wrong, wouldn't there, if your 10-year-old was still only just sucking on a bottle? John Phillips writes babes are attractive enough so long as they grow up. But a babe who remains a babe for 20 years is a tragedy. Babes are self-centered. They are dependent on others for all their needs. They have short attention spans. They go for things that glitter and they have no sense of values. They are illiterate and ignorant of much they need to know. Their own wants are predominant. They are ruled by their appetites and move fitfully from one thing to another. They are unable to feed themselves or to protect themselves or to defend themselves. They cannot see beyond their own little world. They enjoy being the center of attention and soon learn how to get their share of it. They have no thought for the needs and concerns of others. They are demanding. They get themselves in the most frightful messes and seem blissfully unaware of it. Isn't that true? Little ones love mess and noise. They demand a great deal of care, but in time they grow up. The trouble with the Corinthians was that they did not grow up. And brothers and sisters, that's a choice that you make to not grow. to not develop the appetite for spiritual food. And you have the Word of God and you have the Holy Spirit, if you're saved, to help cultivate in you a desire for spiritual food and for solid food. Now, nothing wrong with milk, you need that, especially in your infancy in the Lord. And don't be surprised if the pastor's sermon sometimes is mainly milk, because there are babes that need feeding. And as an adult, you can still enjoy a glass of milk, but you don't rely only on milk, do you? I hear a gospel message and it's like a glass of milk, it's still refreshing, it's a blessing, but if that's all I was fed as a more mature Christian, I'd get very sick and very weak. You need meat as well, you need the solid food of the Word of God. And so a mature Christian is one who's interested in the deep things of God, verse 10, he wants to plumb the depths of divine truth more and more. And I found that verse a real encouragement and I've been asking, since the Holy Spirit searches, means he knows the deep things of God, I've been asking the Lord, asking the Spirit of God, would you take me deeper into your word? Help me to understand it more, reveal more to me. That's a good prayer to pray, isn't it? Since the Spirit of God knows all things when it comes to the truth, ask him to teach you more. and to take you further in to the riches that are in Christ there. Hebrews 5 verse 11 through 14 reads, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and have become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So there comes a time when you should be able to teach others. whereas a baby is dependent always on others to feed them. So the features of a carnal believer, they're marked by fleshliness, childishness. Number three, disgracefulness. The Bible says here that they walk as men. Verse three, are you not carnal and walk as men? What does it mean to walk as men generally? It means you're basically living like an unbeliever. Your walk is your conduct, if you're walking as men, it means, as a carnal believer, you're just walking in many ways similar to the unsaved world. means your thinking is not right and therefore your conduct is not right because wrong thinking leads to wrong living. And the Corinthian believers were still thinking and acting like the Corinthian society and that's a real disgrace isn't it on the name of Christ when you have a saved person living in many ways like an unsaved, like the unsaved world, that's the carnal believer. a saint living like a sinner. The fourth characteristic here is divisiveness, the symptoms of the carnal man. Fleshliness, childishness, disgracefulness, divisiveness. So the carnal believer is a baby and self-centeredness is a feature of babyhood isn't it? True? I'll make a joke, when my wife has a baby, I say we exist for the fulfilment of that baby's desires. As parents, that's what we exist for. As far as that little child's concerned, mum and dad are here for me and that's all, doesn't matter about anybody else. I am the centre of mum and dad's universe and I'll scream the house down till they learn that lesson. Amen? Oh my, more like it. But anyway, you think of it, the cry of a baby is, me, me, me! thinking about my youngest one right now, he loves that word. Me, me, me! And I said, isn't it interesting, how come some words seem easier for a little baby to learn than others? I've had seven children so far, not one of my seven children learned the word yes before they learned the word no. It was always the word no first. You say, oh, because the letter Y is harder. Yeah, but I think the word no is more in line with their sin nature. No. What other words do babies, little babies tend to learn very quickly? Mine, me. Hmm? What about the mine? Mine. That's mine. I want. Absolutely. Me. Because that's a feature of childhood. And then because of that self-centeredness, they throw tantrums. They throw the toys out of the cot. or they collapse on the floor and throw a fit, not my little darling, I guarantee your little darling does that occasionally, okay? I remember as a single person I used to go out into the shops and I'd say, man, how come these people don't control that kid that's screaming? And then you have a humiliating experience as a Christian parent and realize that as much as you're trying to train them, your children still have the capacity to embarrass you. Embarrass you greatly. Or tell, you know, you're taking someone in the bus like Miss Melody the other day and taking her with us and one of the children decided to tell her about something that happened in the bath. It's like, don't say that, you know. Anyway, so it's all about embracing humility as a parent. But the baby, a baby is self-centered. They throw a tantrum. Why? Because I want my way and I want what I want. What is self-centered? the carnal believer is the same. You think about it, why is there envying, strife and divisions with the carnal person? Because they're self-centered like a baby. I want my way and I want it now, okay? The carnal Christian is selfish, envious of others and fights to get his own way because the carnal believer has stayed a baby. So the word envy literally means heat, heat of the wrong kind. It's essentially jealousy towards others and carnal believers get envious towards other believers in the church. They often envy the pastor. Sometimes they get the green-eyed monster towards the pastor and the pastor's salary or some other aspect. Envy towards those in leadership because they're viewing things through the wrong lens. Strife, the word refers to quarrelling or wrangling, the same word is translated debate, Romans 1.29. Contentions, 1 Corinthians 1.11. And variance, Galatians 5.20. Then divisions means disunion, sedition, a dividing in half or a dividing into groups. And for the Corinthian church, that's exactly what had happened. In verse 4, it says, For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? So the Corinthian believers, because they were carnal, they were splitting into these factions. Here's the Paul faction, here's the Apollos faction, in fact I think it's chapter 1 tells us that there was a Cephas faction, that was Peter and there was even a Christ faction. We're more spiritual than all the rest of you, we're with Christ man. you know, blow the rest of you, you know, we're more spiritual than the rest of you. Well, that's a carnal spirit at work. The carnal believer is a faction maker, they create divisions in the church and start forming a little group around them. It can happen very subtly, see it happening sometimes as a pastor and they're not really encouraging people in a spiritual sense but they're just chiseling away to get their little group on their side because they've got a carnal agenda, they're angry towards the pastor, they've got heat towards the pastor in some way, they've got the wrong attitude and they just start chiseling away and very soon if you have that sort of situation you can end up with carnal factions within the church. You want an illustration of factions? Just look at the major political parties. And they try and present to the media, at least in front of the camera, a united front, but behind the scenes, they hate each other. And you've got, within the one party, you've got the Conservatives, and you've got the Moderates, and you've got the more left-wingers, and they stab each other, and there's power plays and power struggles in both major parties. Okay, and what is that? Well, it's just the flesh nature on display, jockeying for position, pushing and shoving, pushing others down, and that's the carnal believer. So, are you carnal? It's a searching question, isn't it? Now, a spiritual person I think can sometimes lapse into a bit of carnality, okay, and we can just repent of that and deal with that, we can have an uprising of the flesh, I think that happens to the most spiritual people. That's different though to being just a carnal person in the sense that that's just really the bend of your life, that's the overall testimony you have, lack thereof and that's just the way you live, you're just living a fleshly life as a Christian. So the symptoms of the carnal man and then I just want to briefly end on this, what would be the solution for the carnal man? The natural man, what's the solution for the natural man? He needs salvation. The carnal man needs sanctification and the solution for the carnal man is to become the spiritual man, correct? Out of the three groups, which group do we want to be in, folks? The spiritual man. He's saved and he's mature and maturing, okay? He's spirit-controlled, spirit-filled, spirit-dominated, spirit-led, and that all is tied in with being scripture filled because we receive the things of the Spirit of God which are found in the Word of God. So if you're dominated by the flesh, you're living a fleshly life as a Christian, you need to learn what it means to become a spiritual man allowing the Spirit of God to give you victory over the carnal impulses of the flesh, embracing your co-crucifixion with Christ, allowing the Word of Christ to dwell in you richly, allowing the Word of God and minister to you by the Spirit of God to dominate your life and to control your life and that will begin to fruit and manifest itself in discernment. Wise choices. Harry Ironside included this little poem about the spiritual man in his commentary. I think it gives us a good little picture of what the spiritual man is like. It says this, there is no glory halo around his devoted head. No luster marks the sacred path in which his footsteps tread. But holiness is graven upon his thoughtful brow and all his steps are ordered in the light of heaven even now. He often is peculiar and oft misunderstood, and yet his power is felt by both the evil and the good. And he doth live in touch with heaven, a life of faith and prayer, his hope, his confidence, his joy, his all are centered there. That's a good little thought there. So in which category are you? If you're natural, you need salvation, you need the new birth, you need conversion, if you're carnal you need sanctification, if you're spiritual by God's grace overall you're living a spirit-filled scripture-filled life then you need continuation and by that I mean keep on growing keep on maturing because the spiritual man understands he never arrives, he goes on discerning, examining, proving, saturating his life in the Word of God and yielding to the Spirit of God. So let's think carefully about that tonight, which category are we in? Let's bow for prayer. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Are you natural? Are you carnal? Are you spiritual? I trust tonight if you... just be honest, so look past if I'm honest, I don't really get the Bible, doesn't really make sense to me. A lot of what you preach doesn't really make sense to me, doesn't resonate with me, I find there's a resistance in me to it, there's a resistance to the Bible, I'm not really interested in the Bible. May I suggest to you that perhaps you're a natural man and that's not to be demeaning to you, God loves you And He doesn't want to leave you a natural man, He wants to give you a supernatural birth. The natural man needs a supernatural birth. You need to be born again, you need to receive Christ by faith and I trust that you'll do that. You'll turn to Christ in faith and receive Him, call upon Him, ask Him to forgive you for your sins, to come into your life, to give you the new birth, to make you a new creature in Christ. If you're spiritual, by God's grace, you're endeavouring to live a spirit-filled, spirit-controlled life, then you need to, by God's grace, continue on in that. Because you might be spiritual now, but in a year's time you could slip into carnal. It's got to be an ongoing walk. And if you're carnal tonight, that's you, you're self-centred, creating division and strife and problems in the church, you need to, by God's grace, become a spiritual person and learn victory over sin and allow the Spirit of God and the Word of God to to control your life so Lord help us now help us to be spiritual men and spiritual women we pray that we would be in the true sense of the word a spiritual church filled with the Word of God and filled with the Spirit of God and Lord allowing that the controlling work that allowing the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God to produce in us that discerning spirit where we can judge all things Lord not carnal judgment but spiritual judgment where we can weigh things against the Word of God and make wise choices wise judgments wise decisions we pray so that we look to you now to help us in Jesus name Amen