Have you ever heard phrases like, let go and let God, the victorious Christian life, or perhaps the second blessing? These are words that get thrown around, phrases that have populated pulpits, that have been sung through old hymns, that have been repeated at invitations within our churches. Those ideas came from a movement that was started in England in the late 19th century called the Keswick Convention, or if you are British, the Keswick Convention. Now, it's also known by a few other names, and maybe you've seen these names in books or in teachings. It's sometimes called the Higher Life. movement or doctrine or the victorious life teaching. And it spread rapidly from there to American fundamentalism and into early 20th century Southern Baptist revivals. And it is something that has been spreading around. I encountered it early in my Christian life, for instance, right around the time when my wife and I first got married I really enjoyed it when I first started because it seemed like a much better message than the legalism I had grown up under in my previous church. It taught that there is grace available for Christians. I like that idea. And maybe you've encountered that and you had that same feeling that it's better than some of the more moralistic, priceless kinds of messages that perhaps you've gotten in the past. But it also teaches that there are two kinds of Christians. There are, for instance, the ordinary. Christians. We might call them the carnal Christians. Like 1 Corinthians 3 seems to describe. And then there are the spiritual Christians. Now some Keswick advocates even depict the carnal believer as quote only partially Christian. One teacher, Andrew Murray, elaborated on this. He described three states of mankind. So you might find yourself in one of these three states of mankind. The first is the unregenerate natural man, okay? The second is the carnal man, the Christian who is given to fleshly power. And the third is the spiritual man, allowing the spirit full supremacy in his life. He stated that new Christians are all carnal. Initially they're infants in this new found faith, but what they need to do is to grow. And in fact, there is something he said that is radically wrong. If a Christian remains in that state year after year. Now there is some that we would agree with there and some that we might disagree with. And I can't help but think about all of this as I'm reading this passage and as I was studying for it this week. This all got stirred up anew in my mind and in my heart. Why is that? Because there is something wrong with this teaching. Think about this. After you're saved, you're being taught that you are at the ground level of the Christian life and that you need to experience another moment of crisis, a second decision wherein you finally commit to surrender and consecrate yourself to the Lord that then a moment that then elevates you into a permanent higher plane of victory where you stop living in the struggles of the flesh and you now let Christ live through you. Now some of that sounds good, and there's certainly Christian language in that. But the message effectively said, give up trying to be holy, as one commentator notes, give up trying to be holy, and let the spirit lift you higher. Hmm. And hence, there we have the let go and let God say. Now this second experience was a teaching that no doubt was meant to encourage Christians who were struggling in their sanctification. And it indeed is somewhat comforting for those who, especially for those who feel like they've just been spinning their wheels in their Christian life. But many biblical teachers have pointed out the problems here. For instance, you might have, again, quoting, a euphoria of consecration. There might be this good feeling that you have initially when you say, okay, well, I just need to let go and let God. And there might be that moment where, yes, okay, I feel a lot freer, but you find out over time that this is failing to address complex spiritual struggles that you are facing in a fallen world. And there are some problems with this. First, being a carnal Christian is something that you can experience, but it's not a permanent state. You can be a carnal Christian, but it's not a permanent state. It's not a category from which you must ascend. And to put that more simply, there are not two classes of Christians. There are only Christians. There are not the basic Christians and then the super spiritual Christians. There are just simply Christians who are struggling, who are living their lives as best as they can to the glory of God. Second, this creates a problem in sanctification as it turns all of your struggles into a one-time crisis, a one-time experience, instead of this lifelong fight that the New Testament seems to describe. This is something that you must engage with every day. And sanctification, yes, does come from God progressively, but it involves our consistent application an active effort as we apply it by faith. It's not something that is received quietistically or passively on our parts. It's not a one-time deal, nor does it result in perfectionism in this life. Now, why am I going into all this? Because a Spurgeon said, a Spurgeon said, discernment isn't knowing the difference between right and wrong. Discernment is knowing the difference between right and almost right. We must beware lest we go astray. And if what I've introduced here to you is interesting and you want to learn more, I recommend Andrew Naselli's book, that's N-A-S-E-L-L-I, Andrew Naselli's book, Let Go and Let God, A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology. And for those Logos users, it is available on Logos. So that's where I have my copy. But if Let Go and Let God, isn't good understanding or isn't the best reading of first corinthians 3 1 through 9 then how should we read it how should we understand this passage if not through that lens well in this passage we do see that christians can indeed behave carnally and even contentiously but the solution the solution is to recognize God's work in and through us and apply that. And we'll see that in two points today. First, Christians can behave carnally, and we're going to see that in verses one through four. There's no getting around it. We can be carnal. We can be carnal. And we're going to understand that today. Second, we're also gonna see that Christians should recognize God's work and their part in it. And that's the verses five through nine, God's work and their part in it. And we'll talk about that when we get there. But first, let's look at that first point here, that Christians can behave carnally. Again, verses one through four, take another look at these verses. And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are still not able. For you are still fleshly, for since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly? And are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, I am a Paul, and another, I am an Apollos, are you not mere men? Paul, in this opening here, Stings a little bit This there's a little bit of a punch to all of this He is saying that he could not Address them as spiritual men. Now. What are spiritual men? Well, we saw in the last chapter Instead of spiritual men being this super class of Christians. We saw in the last chapter that spiritual people are simply Those who have the Holy Spirit They are simply the people who God has saved by his grace as opposed to the natural man The mere man who does not have the Holy Spirit and therefore does not understand spiritual things And so to put this more simply a spiritual person is a believer in an unspiritual person is an unbeliever a person who operates with worldly wisdom. There's a problem here, though, when we get to chapter three, verse one, because he says, I was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men. And so he is not saying that they are not spiritual people, but he did lack an ability to speak to them as such. In fact, he had to speak to them, as he says here, as fleshly, Now, if you have a King James or a New King James version, you will see the word carnal there. Carnal. And that's where we get that word carnal. It is a word which means sensual, worldly, non-spiritual, relating to or given to the crude desires and appetites of the flesh or body. That's carnal. And when we talk about a person being carnal, that's ultimately what we're talking about there. Now, can some Christians operate with carnal ways, with carnal understandings? And the answer is yes. Yeah, we can. We can still think like the world. We can still think like unbelievers. In fact, we, some of us who, especially those who came to faith later in life, you have more experience thinking as a non-believer than you do as a believer. I'll thank God for God's grace. Thank God for the Holy Spirit. Because we need that. We need his work in our lives. But Christians can't operate with the same mentality as the world. And Paul is associating the Corinthian Christians with the lost. That had to hurt. That had to hurt. Again, It's important to read this carefully. He is not calling them unbelievers, for instance. He is not saying that you don't have the Holy Spirit, that you're not saved. He doesn't say that. In fact, quite the opposite. He calls them brothers. He calls them brothers. And I had to soften the blow of this rebuke just slightly. Brothers. He affirms their faith. He's not saying that they lack the Holy Spirit. See, their problem wasn't salvation. It's their carnal and unspiritual behavior post-salvation. This one study notes, they are controlled by fallen flesh. They are controlled by the fallen flesh. And we as Christians can still live that way. Even if you walked with the Lord for a number of years, you can fall back into fleshly ways. Some have come to Christ early in their lives. And at some point they experienced temptation and then they fall into fleshly ways. And it's an unfortunate reality that we face, but any Christian can live like the world. Any Christian can live like the world. And in cases like this, whole congregations can live like the world. So maybe it was Paul's earlier visit. Whenever it was, he said he was unable to address them as he wanted. He couldn't talk to them like he really wanted to talk to them. They weren't ready. And that means that though they should have grown in Christ over some period of time, they just stayed in this kind of newborn state. They never really grew as believers. Now, if they're infants, if you will, then guess what? They need food for babies, right? And so Paul said, I gave you milk to drink. This had to hurt, reading this. I gave you milk to drink, because you weren't ready for tougher stuff. That had to be offensive, as these adult Corinthians who prided themselves on their knowledge and on their wisdom, As they read this, and the apostle Paul was calling them babies, infants. That had to sting their pride quite a bit, bless you. Now when he's talking about milk and solid food here, what is he talking about? He's talking about the level of teaching that the congregation as a whole can digest. Now this was an image that was used in Hebrews 5. You could take a look there, Hebrews 5, that's gonna be to the right. After all the Pauline letters. Hebrews 5, oh, that's not far enough, there we go, Hebrews 5. Verse 12 and 13, he says, for by this time, For by this time you ought to be teachers. You have need, again, for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. You know, whoever the writer was of the book of Hebrews, I think he was a close disciple of Paul, because that is very Pauline. There's a lot in Hebrews that sounds a lot like the Apostle Paul. But there you can see that they're not accustomed to the word of righteousness, and so they're just still babies. They still need the introductory elementary principles of God. You know, Peter commands this, 2 Peter 3.18, and this is a command that you should probably memorize if you have not done so, and it's this. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus, excuse me, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is a command that we must take to heart as believers, that we are to grow in the grace of the Lord. We need his grace. We need his power. We need his favor in our lives. But we also need to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. We need to know more about him. We need to know more about his ways. For now, the Corinthian believers have not been doing that. They are immature, spiritually immature. They are not yet governed by the Spirit's wisdom and love as found in Scripture. And what's more, they are without excuse. They are still struggling with some elementary principles of the faith. Now that's not to say that we don't all need gospel reminders. We do. We need them. That's why in our services, I try my best during the pastoral prayer to remind us of the gospel. In the evening services, we actually have readings of confession and of gospel assurance because we need those reminders every single week. But we need those reminders because we are in the battle. We're in the warfare of this life, and we're battling sin, we're battling Satan, we're battling the world, and we need those gospel reminders as a respite. They need the gospel because they don't yet understand it. It's more of a reminder to them. They're still getting it down. This is like a child who's struggling with His or her math problems. They're still trying to get those math facts down I'm not calling anyone out when I say that Everyone's looking I'm not calling anyone out that they're still trying to get those math facts down. That's okay. That's all right But you got to get them down before you can move on to other things This is the same thing that we're dealing with here before we can move on into some deeper theology, some meteor theology, or full exposition of the scriptures. We have to get the theology facts down. We have to understand some of the basics. And the Corinthians just weren't ready to dig deeper yet. They were not ready to handle mature applications of the word. Not only were they not able when Paul last visited, Paul says here that they are still unable. They are still unable. Goodness. Why is that? Because verse three says it. You are still flesh. You are still carnal. Now, the words in verses one and three, the words in verses one and three are slightly different in Greek, even though they're the same in English. And the variety helps us to see Paul's thrust. One word, the word in verse one, describes their state of being, as being flesh made, The other is their characteristic behavior. They are being flesh-driven, flesh-driven. To put this another way, in verse 1, he is using a term that talks about people who are just simply in the flesh, and there is nothing more that they can do. In verse 3, there is a term here that talks about a person who is being influenced by the flesh, someone who's being influenced by the flesh. Now either way, their perspective is human-centered, not Christ-centered. In fact, as Matthew Henry notes here, Christians are utterly to blame who do not endeavor to grow in grace and knowledge. Christians are utterly to blame who do not endeavor to grow in grace and knowledge. Why? Because they're being fleshless. They are being carnal. They are being influenced by their own sinful nature, the sinful nature that remains in them. And it does, it remains in all of us and it remains a pole, but we have the ability through the Holy Spirit to resist that pole. We have the ability within the Holy Spirit to grow in grace and knowledge. And so Paul is calling them out. He says, not that they are, of the flesh irredeemably so, but that they are influenced by the flesh." And I think it's the NET that translates it that way. They are influenced by the flesh. And so in verse three, he's explaining why they're still on milk and not solid food. Just like unbelievers are incapable of receiving any teaching, the Corinthian believers can't receive much more teaching because they're likewise in the flesh, because they're likewise carnal. But they are recipients of the Holy Spirit, is my point. They are recipients of the Holy Spirit, and they should know better. What does carnal or fleshly behavior look like? Well, Paul describes it here. Take a look down there. He says that there is jealousy and strife among you. Now, what does that mean? Well, that means that there is jealousy, which is actually a word that's spelled similarly in English. And this is the word from which we get the word zealous, zealous. Have you ever noticed that they are spelled similarly? Jealous, zealous. They are related thoughts. Why is that? Well, you can have a zeal for the Lord, but sin and twisted. Sin corrupts everything within us. And they can have a zealous, a jealousy, for sinful things as a result, even sinful ways. It's driven by selfishness. They want what they want, and so they have a jealousy. I want the church to operate this way. Well, no, I want the church to operate this way. I want this kind of teacher. Well, I want this kind of teacher. I want, I want, I want. And you might say, well, we're talking about the church, we're talking about spiritual teachers, we're talking about godly things. Yes, but you are doing so in a fleshly way. And that has to be recognized within us as jealousy. And if a Christian doesn't mortify or put to death the sin of jealousy in his heart, it will then turn into strife in his actions. And that's kind of already what we've indicated here. Well, I want this. Well, I want this. And then there's fighting, right? And contention. And it's all driven by our carnal nature. It's all driven by the flesh. James 4.1, why are there fights in the church? Is it not your desires which compete with one another? Right? As one study notes, both of these terms were characteristic of the sophists. You know, those famous philosophers that were going around courts? They operated in this kind of manner. This shouldn't be in the church. Let the world argue about these things. They argued about who the best teacher was, like we might argue about who the best football team is. We can discuss what happened to society that football has replaced the academics, but that aside, they are arguing in a way that is walking according to men. They are not walking in a way that is according to the spirit of God. And so Paul heard of these quarrels, and we talked about that in 1 Corinthians 1, 10, and 11. He heard from Sophie's people that there were these quarrels, that they were not walking properly. Romans 13, 13, he talks about that. You're not walking properly as in the day. And so to put this another way, jealousy and strife are the result. And if that's the result, if that's the fruit, well guess what? They are not walking in the fruit of the Spirit. They are walking in the fruit of the flesh. Galatians 5 gives us those two models there. Remember, the problem began with their boasting over spiritual leaders. And that's what Paul moves on to remind them. Oh, you're saying I'm of Paul and another I'm of Apollos. Chapter 1 verse 12. We saw that they had this factionalism. They had these cliques. Some of them said I'm a Peter some of them said I'm a Christ, you know as if that made it more spiritual you guys talk about men I'm talking about Christ. I'm the real spiritual one. No, you're all carnal You're all carnal. That's what Peter says here. Excuse me. That's what Paul says here mentioned Peter then I got Peter Thinking about Peter there No, Paul says they're all carnal. There's no difference between them and the people in the world who are arguing about who's the better philosopher and debater. They certainly aren't any godlier. Instead of having unity under Christ, they are jockeying for identity based on whether they're Pauline or of Apollos. What would that be? A policy, I guess, I don't know. But it's worldly. I don't know if you guys have ever thought much about worldliness. What really is worldliness? One commentator notes this, the church has often thought of worldliness only in terms of dancing, alcoholic drinking, and the like. But worldliness is much deeper than bad habits. It is an orientation, a way of thinking and believing. Basically, it is buying the world's philosophies, buying human wisdom. It is looking to the world, to human leaders, to influential and popular people, to neighbors, associates, and fellow students, for our standards, attitudes, and meaning. Worldliness is accepting the world's definitions, the world's measuring sticks, and the world's goals. Wow. Worldliness is a lot deeper than just some superficial activities. And sometimes I've heard Christians condemn one another, well, you're being worldly. Why is it? Because you did this and I don't think you should do that. Worldliness is so much deeper than that. And in fact, sometimes when Christians are beating each other over the head over issues, they are acting more like the world than the worldliness they think they're condemning. This is a hard line for us to walk, and you can see why it requires maturity, why it requires us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why? Because we need to understand all of these things. We need to have a more comprehensive grasp of what God has for us so that we can walk rightly in this world. See, there have always been Christians who have taken pride in what they know. pride in who they follow, pride in whether they think they've arrived. But this is carnal behavior in its world. Instead, we should practice humility. How about this? We put others' needs above our own. Doesn't Paul talk about that in Philippians? We need to count others as more important than ourselves. We need to apply the truth of the spirit to our own lives first, before we start talking about someone else's life. Think about that. That's like removing the log from your own eye before you remove the speck from your brother's eye. Of course, you recognize that from Jesus. Jesus doesn't say, don't remove the speck from your brother's eye. He says, remove the log first from your eye. Then you can see clearly to remove the speck. We need to apply the truth of God to our own hearts and lives first. We shouldn't take pride in slogans or in celebrity preachers. Rather, we should seek growth. and seek the grace and knowledge of our Lord. We do so while we mortify sin, while we put it to death, and we worship in spirit and truth. Now that requires us to reorient our desires and our priorities. Now, thankfully, Paul gives us something here by which we can renew our minds. I don't think we need to spend quite as much time on it, but we will look at this together as we consider that Christians should recognize God's work and their part in it. Christians should recognize God's work and their part in it. Verses five through nine, he asks, what then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants. through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. Paul gives the cure to carnality, and he does it by flipping the focus. Instead of boasting in human leaders, He gives an example of how the human leaders see themselves, and he calls them to see their leaders, as well as themselves, as servants. Servants! Ha! That's different. He further wants them to give glory to God for their growth, rather than taking that glory on for themselves. And so let's consider that. First, note Paul's rhetorical questions here. He says, what then is Apollos? What then is Paul? And these almost express disdain. I mean, think about it. You don't normally phrase a question like that. The English teacher would mark your paper for that if you say, what then is Paul? What then is Apollos? It should be, who then is Paul? And who then is Apollos? But he speaks of themselves He and Apollos in the third person neuter. And it's almost like he's talking about them as things. We are things. To use a better word than things, we are instruments. Who's using the instrument? God. All right. So we're instruments in the hands of God. And he says, that their function is to help, they are not the source of salvation. They are simply a means that God is using. Now, this is modeling a humility that I think a lot of Christians and a lot of pastors, to be honest, lack. We're just instruments. This is it. And that's the extent of how we should view ourselves. In fact, he uses a term for the instrumentation here. And it's servant. They're servants. Now that's an interesting word. It's interesting for a number of reasons. First of all, this is the term that we can also translate deacon. Now some of you may know, okay, deacon is an office in the church. A deacon is a person who serves the church in a number of practical ways. And it is a ministerial position. But you might not think of a deacon and think of an apostle and think of them as being in the same category. But the apostle Paul says that he and Apollos are deacons. They are servants. And this shows us an example here of how any leader should see himself. He gives this example, he does so in other places, Romans 15, Acts 20, he talks about the deepening there. He also applies it to elders. For instance, in Acts chapter 11, He says that the elders are responsible for distributing the money there to those who are in need. Elders should not see themselves as being above deepening tasks, above, you know, the normal, the mundane. You know, there is a temptation Even though elders should, and we should, we should strive to be theologians in the residence. We should strive to know as much about the word of God as possible. We should not see ourselves as some kind of ivory tower intellectual elites. You know, those who are above menial tasks, as it were. No, we should be servant. I've shared that story. R.C. Sproul shared one guy who came in Um, he said, okay, you know, you're, you, you want to be a pastor here. Uh, we're, we're going to have this study coming up. Great. And the guy and, and RC said, okay, we need to set up chairs here for the study. That's about that. Oh, I don't do chairs. And he said, okay, well, I guess you don't not here anyway. That was the end of that young man's career at that church. Yeah. We shouldn't see ourselves as a ball. Did that kind of stuff. Now, on the other hand, there's something else that we should see here because he's not talking about just any kind of service, even though we shouldn't see ourselves as above any kind of service. He is talking about a specific kind of service and that is teaching. And this might be something that also challenges you because you might not see teaching as an act of service, but it is. It is. Now I can tell you as, as, as. You know, pastors, as we're dedicating some 15, 20 hours to each and every sermon, and so you can do the math on that, and we're staying up late to try to get everything done. It is a service, and it is something that we are trying to do for the benefit of others. All manner of service is important, but God is using teaching. And God uses other kinds of service as well. But in this context, God is using teaching. And Paul wants us to see that that is a kind of service as well. And God is using that for the benefit of the people. And so it is not just the people who are doing this. It is not just the ministers. It is not just the pastors. And it's not just the apostles. It is God who is using this. And that's what Paul is getting at here. Now there's one other thing that stands out with this term. I'm getting a lot out of this word. Maybe I'm getting too much out of it, I don't know, I'll let you be the judge of that. But, in calling themselves servants, he's also saying this, they're not the masters. Who's the master? Christ, that's right. What then is Paul? What then is Apollos, right? They're servants. You know, some might be tempted to put ministers on a pedestal. But they cannot take the place of God. Men are gonna let you down. People will let you down. either because of sin or just because they're limited. But people cannot take the place of God. It's the Lord who gives gifts to his servants, and it's the Lord who should be our focus. And so Paul then shifts to an agricultural image here in their service. And in verse six he says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. You know, planting and watering are real labors. That involves initially sharing the gospel. And that's what Paul was doing on his missionary journey. He went and he shared the gospel with them and he stayed with them. And then Apollos came later and he followed up with them and helped to plant that church there. And that's important, they had the planting there, they had the watering there. But the new birth, And the moment by moment change that Christians experience is the work of God alone. That's God's word. That's why Paul repeats the ideas in this verse that God increases. And then in the next verse, God causes the growth. All success is God's. It is not Paul. It is not Apollos. Why are you following them? Why are you following people? This is all about God. This is all about God. In fact, Paul says, so then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything. Now he's engaged in some self-effacing there. He is saying, look, I'm on the same level as a policy off. And in fact, we're nothing. We are nothing. We're nothing. It's all by God's grace. 1 Corinthians 15, 10. And without the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, there's not going to be any reason for someone to come to Christ anyway. So what then is Apollos? What then is Paul? They are just the instruments that God used to bring about that war. If there's any sanctification, if people are growing in Christ, then it's God, it's his word, it's not the people. Now this is an example to modern day ministers where none of us should strive for glory on our own. Paul puts everything in the right perspective here. He is reorienting the focus properly, and he is saying this is God's work, it is not his, and he is just simply there to do what God has commanded him, as a servant of the Lord. That should be the way we all view ourselves. If that was our view, wouldn't the cardinal thinking leave us? Wouldn't we think differently? We wouldn't be thinking according to the flesh anymore. Paul says they're united in purpose. That's another example to ministers. He who plants and he who waters are one. You know what, if they're one, then why are the Corinthians trying to elevate one above the other? No, we're on the same level here. We're doing the same work. The same is true for the congregation. No Christian should think he has a higher life than another. Oh, well, yeah. Brother Joe over here, he's a cardinal Christian. Thankfully, I have a higher life now. I would hope no one would put it in that way, but I mean, that is kind of how that thinking leads. We should see ourselves as instruments in the hands of the Lord. Each worker, in fact, is going to receive his own reward for his labor on this. And God is going to judge, God is going to parse our lives, and he is going to show us exactly how we have done in this regard. Now, we're gonna get into that deeper in the coming verses, as we talk about gold and silver and precious stones and wood and hay and shovel. We'll get into all of that in just a little while, so I'll save a lot of that for them. I'll just say this, that we should not be judging ourselves based on our popularity, based on faction, based on whatever else. We need to understand that God is the one who's gonna judge. God is the one who's going to give out the rewards. And so Paul then is helping us to understand how we should view this. And he ends here with an identification that should change the way we think. He says, for we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. And so if there's work to be done, it's done by people who are striving to work with God according to his will, according to his plan and his purpose. They are one and they are really nothing. They are just instruments. They are just servants. And so they are just working with God. Why are they doing that? Because they are tilling a field. They are working in a field that belongs to God. And that's the people of God. That's the people of God. You are God's field. He doesn't say God's fields, plural, right? Are there two kinds of Christians? Are there the, you know, Christians and then the, oh, Christians. No, just you are God's field. Everything is leveled out. Okay, that's a much better way of thinking about this. Then Paul moves to a slightly different image. And this image is going to be important in the following verses. He says, you are God's building. God is an architect. And he is raising up a house. He is raising up a temple. He is raising up a sanctuary. And you are living stones in that sanctuary. We're going to talk a little bit more about that as we get deeper into this chapter. Christians shouldn't see themselves as divided into groups then. The carnal and the spiritual, the level one and the level two Christians, the conquered and the victorious. No, we are just Christians who are struggling with sin every day and we need to be putting it to death in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can do so through the Holy Spirit and through his word We shouldn't see ourselves as a private property, as a pastor, or a personality. We're all united in the Lord. So this shifts our thinking, and this adjusts any carnality, any fleshliness that might have crept in. And that brings us here to the conclusion. Paul's words are sober, but they are also, in addition to being a warning, They are also summons. We can behave carnally. We can be jealous. We can be divisive. We can be preoccupied with our own desires rather than Christ's. But that doesn't mean that we must undergo some mystical point of crisis to commit to achieve a higher life, a higher level that is above the carnal nature. And it's just not teaching that's found in scripture. We do need to commit to Christ. We do need to repent of our sins when we find them. And guys, as much as I would love for it to be a one-time experience where we could just commit and then we get to some kind of glorified state here in this life, this is a moment by moment, day by day struggle. Hour by hour, minute by minute. There are times where you may put a sin to death, it seems, in one moment and it comes back in the next moment. That is the Christian life. But with the power of God, you can be victorious and you can overcome, you can rise higher than that sinful desire. Why, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. But that's something that we have to apply. Yes, sanctification is all of God, but God calls us to apply what he has taught us in our lives. And that has to be done every day with every choice that we make. We're either gonna choose the path that is easier for now, which is the fleshly path, or we will choose the path that is harder for now, but easier down the line because that is the spiritual path. And every choice we make really comes down to those two options. As believers, we should be choosing the spiritual path, even though it's harder. It's more difficult right now. If you find that you never make that choice, it may be that you have never turned yourself over to the Lord in the first place. And if you pray, if you ask the Lord for forgiveness of sins, if you trust in the work of Christ and tell him that you want to be saved, he will save you. And he will send you his Holy Spirit who will help you to overcome these struggles. And I hope that you will do that. If you are a believer, know that you have that ability to overcome sin every day. And it's not by going away for a weekend for a super spiritual experience somewhere. It's by applying the word every day in your life. God will carry you along. You have to trust his word and you have to trust the process. And so, Let's commit to repenting of sin as believers, to pressing forward in full faith, so that we can finally, if we haven't already, move on from milk to solid food, so that we can finally grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.