Amen. Thank you pastor. Amen. Wow. It's amazing, isn't it? How great the Lord is. And I remember when your pastor was 11 years old. Oh, it's just wonderful to see how God is using your pastor and his wife and all of you. It's wonderful to see you today. And my wife Anne Marie is with me, so you can remember brother Dan and sister Anne. And if you don't have our prayer card, there's some out there you can grab there and put it on your refrigerator. We know you go there. Amen. But you know, Friday night I spoke to the young people, the youth, the senior youth, and I talked about there's whys in the road of your life. It's called decisions you make. And it's important that every one of us make the right decisions. And you're happy when you make right decisions. And usually you're miserable when you don't. And all of us have experience, we know both sides of that story, don't we? And then this morning in Sunday school I spoke about balance. The Bible says that a false balance is an abomination. It's very important that we love God and hate evil. Very important. And there's so many things about that in the Bible, a false balance being an abomination, it's an abomination to God. And we can stop sinning, can't we? The family needs to quit sinning. And I grew up in a preacher's home, but my dad and mom, they came from nominal Christian homes. They determined that when they got married, we are not going to have just a nominal Christian home. we are going to train our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord and boy they went after it all five of us boys Timmy, Tommy, Danny, Andy and Peter and four of the five of us are in full-time service and then mom and dad had 16 grandchildren and seven of them are in full-time service And I thank the Lord for that. That doesn't happen by accident. And you young people that came up and sang, and what a blessing to hear your voices praising the Lord. May every young person here understand that God is greater than anything or anybody else. And if you'll put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you will never regret it. I've known people that have gotten on drugs and they regretted it. I've known people that have had relationships with people they shouldn't have and they've regretted it. And I've seen people that were rebellious. I was even a little rebellious when I was a kid. I told my dad, Dad, I'm never going to Bible college and I'm never going to be no preacher. And he smiled at me. And I thought, why would he smile when I make a rebellious statement like that? Well, he knew that God heard me. Okay? And one day I was sitting in a balcony in a field house in Springfield, Missouri. I thought it was a youth rally, but it was a preacher's meeting. I would not have gone had I known it was a preacher's meeting. On the 15th sermon, takes a while to get through this hard art, the Lord said, Daniel, you've come to a why in the road of your life. If you make a left-hand turn and be a New York State police officer, you will be miserable. If you make a right-hand turn and you be a preacher, you'll be happy. And then it dawned on me. God was speaking to me. Did you hear what I just said? Have you ever had God speak to you by His Spirit? And I was so touched by that that I began, tears began to come from my face, off my eye, down my cheek. And I said, God wants me to be a preacher? And then I knew for sure that's what he wanted. And all the desire to want to be a state trooper, drive fast, carry a gun, pull people over, huh? Turned into wanting to get up and preach, like I'm preaching to you today. And I've never gotten over the joy of preaching. Now I want to tell you what happened right after God called me in that field house in the balcony. When I got home, my mother and dad met me at the door. They said, Daniel, what happened? I said, God called me to preach. And tears swelled up in my parents' eyes, and they hugged on me. And then dad turned and said, you see the couch over there, Dan? Your mother and I got down on our knees every day you were gone. We said, oh God, get a hold of Daniel's heart this week. Because if you don't get a hold of him this week, we feel like we're gonna lose him for the glory of God. And boy then I started crying because I knew that that was the week where God changed me and changed my direction. And I've loved it. It's been so wonderful to know the Lord. And I remember when Pastor Barker called me up and said, hey, Brother Dan, we've got a chance to be on WMCA. And we went and did that, the Fundamental Baptist Forum, and I got to see this when it was a fish hatchery. And souls are still being saved here. Amen? Souls that never die. And I'm glad to be here. Pray for my wife's family. She wasn't going to be here because her two brothers are pretty much in hospice now. Which is so sad the oldest son and the youngest son her two older oldest brother and youngest brother are going through it right now so pray for them and her only sister is Having some surgery coming up this next week where we'll be with her. Please pray for Brian Johnny and Jeannie. Could you remember that? Just ask God to save them and we'll be seeing Brian and John tomorrow. So just pray that God will help us to point them to the Lord Jesus. Amen? And we thank the Lord for Bible Baptist Church and we're glad you're here. Let's stand together for the reading of God's word. I want to take you to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We're looking in chapter 2, verse 14. Follow me. There's three types of people in this building this morning. Every one of you fall into one of three categories. And I want to read this, and I want you to identify the three different categories, or the three different types of people, okay? Are you ready? We're looking closely at 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. You ready? 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 who? Of Christ. Verse 1 of chapter 3. I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but is unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal." Our Heavenly Father, O God, speak to us this morning by Your mighty power. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. There are threes in the Bible, a lot of threes in the Bible. You've got the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are your three arch enemies. Everybody here is being attacked by either the world, or your flesh, or the devil. Thank God there's a God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen. God sent Jesus to die for me and for you. And then when He ascended up into heaven, He said, I'll not leave you comfortless. I'll send the Holy Spirit who will guide you into all truth. I'm glad the Spirit of God dwells in those that are saved. In fact, the Spirit of God convicts people before they ever get saved. Did you know that? The Spirit convicts people of their sin, number one. He not only convicts them, but he convinces them they need to be saved. Do you remember when you were convinced you need to be saved? And then he converts you. That's when he saves you. Then the Holy Spirit confirms in you that the Holy Spirit is really living in you. Because when you start talking to other people that are saved, all of a sudden your spirit, the Spirit of God in you, bears witness with the Spirit of God that's in me. And I love to get around Christians that know the Lord, don't you? It's wonderful. Then the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ. That's one of the toughest jobs God has. is to help us to say goodbye to the world and become alive unto God. Every family needs to be dead to sin and alive unto Christ. That's a home that is going to make it through the storms of life in 2024. And don't tell me we are not under attack. We are all, our young people are under serious attack. Parents, please. Guard your children's activity on their phone and social media. Social media is extremely dangerous. There are things those kids should not be seeing. And you've got to protect them. Because what happens is children are followers of people that they are impressed with. And a lot of times there are people in our society that are doing things that are really bad. I don't know, what's that blonde lady that is a songwriter? She's more popular than anybody right now. Who is it? Taylor Swift is putting out songs that are filthy, and they're wicked, and they're anti-God. You've got to protect yourself against these celebrities. I would ask you a question, who's your hero? I hope it's Jesus. I hope it's Jesus. The Bible also makes it clear that we have six different things in our life. We have a body, a soul, and a spirit. Okay? A body, soul, and spirit. We have an intellect, an emotion, and will. These are all given to us by God. And when your preacher gets up to preach, he's preaching for two things, for your soul, he's preaching for your spirit, and he's preaching for God's will in your life. That's the key to biblical Christianity, is that God wants to save your soul, he wants your spirit to be led by the spirit of God, and he wants God's will for your life. Not your own will, but His will, God's will for your life. And I'll never forget when God called me to serve Him, my will was set aside and His will became paramount in my life. And I have no regret. Now let's take a look at these three different types of people that are here today. Number one, I'd like you to write these down as I give them to you. First of all, we see the natural man. That's a man that is born lost. It's a person that is born without Christ. The natural man, the Bible says here, verse 14, go with me there, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are what? They're foolishness unto him. There are people today that make fun of us. They make fun of God's Word. Somebody tries to tell you how to live and they, what business is of yours? People can be very nasty when you try to help them. And that's because they're not saved. They don't want Jesus. Why? Because they have a sinful Adamic nature. When Eve took of the fruit, gave it to her husband and he ate it, their eyes were opened and they found out that they were naked. They covered themselves with fig leaves, but they ran and hid from God. Lost people want nothing to do with God. They think we're wasting our time here. You come Sunday morning, Sunday school, morning worship, Sunday night, Wednesday night. What are you, nuts? No, we're in love with Jesus. That's what it is, amen? And you never have to be ashamed of that. And we can't get enough. In fact, the Bible talks about people that were addicted to the word of God. The house of Stephanus. Stephanos, they were addicted to the saints of God. They loved each other and they helped each other to know the Lord. A church is a family of born-again baptized believers committed to the cause of lifting up Jesus Christ and putting down sin. But the natural man is lost. Not only is the natural man unconverted, but he's religious. Did you know that? Did you know that there are people today that are lost, but they're religious? There are organizations that teach that if your good works weighs out your bad works, you get to go to heaven. Yeah. Just do the things that the church tells you to do and you'll be fine. There are many churches that teach prosperity theology where they teach you just have self-esteem and build yourself up and you're a good person and certainly God loves you because you're a good person and you'll be fine. That's not true. Jesus said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. It's not your works, it's Christ's work on the cross that brings us to have the privilege of entering into heaven one day. It's what you do with Jesus determines your destiny. Jesus made a statement that is very exclusive. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. That's exclusive, isn't it? We're living in a day of being inclusive. All religions lead to God. I was preaching up in Nova Scotia, I'll be there next week, a couple weeks from now, and I was in a Church of Scotland, I'm sorry, Church of England, and I, no, it was the Church of Canada, let me figure out where I was, okay. But they had a brochure in their church and it said, all religions lead to God. And they all get there by the same spirit. I don't think so. That is false doctrine. And you don't get to heaven any other way than through Jesus Christ. Have you been born again yet? Because if you haven't, you're a natural man, woman, boy, or girl. Not only are they religious, they think their religion's great. You know, Nicodemus thought his religion was great, but he met Jesus. Remember that? He was at the highest level of religious understanding and education. He said, Rabbi, we know that thou art a great teacher come from God, for no man can do the miracles that thou doest except God be with him. That's a compliment to Jesus, isn't it? But Jesus said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You had your first birth. Now you need your spiritual birth. You need to be going from a natural man to a spiritual man. There's a couple other things about the natural man. Many educated people think they're going to heaven. Paul was a Jew. He was a Pharisee. He was of the highest order. He was taught by Gamaliel. He followed the law. He was zealous toward God to persecute Christians. He would come into a service like this and take people out of here and then take them back to Jerusalem and throw them in prison and ultimately kill them because they were Christians. And he thought he was doing God a service, but he was a lost man. He was religious, he was educated, but he was lost. The Bible says that all natural people, natural men, the Bible tells us, it says, and ye have he quickened who were what? Dead in trespasses and sin. We were dead in sin before we got saved. Now we are no longer in sin. We've been quickened or made alive by the power of God to receive Jesus as our Savior. That's the greatest gift you ever will ever receive, is the gift of eternal salvation. You know what the second greatest gift is? This Bible is God's Holy Word. My father, when he was a preacher, he's with the Lord now, but he used to kiss his Bible. I thought, But then, since I've been opening it up and studying it all these years, this is the sacred, precious, holy Word of God without spot or blemish. And it has never led me wrong. And it will never lead you wrong either. Isn't that something? What a beautiful thing to have the Word of God. Now, I don't wanna talk about the natural man now. Let's talk about the spiritual man, okay? Now, if you've been saved, If you've been born again, you are classified as a spiritual person. A spiritual person. You say, how did that happen? Well, when you asked Jesus to be your Savior, the Holy Spirit came and indwelt you. He forgave you of all of your past sins. All of them. And when you got saved, the day I got saved sitting there in the rocking chair in the cottage on Round Lake in Sonora, New York, when I was sitting there in that rocking chair and I asked Jesus Christ to save me, He forgave me of everything that I'd done that was wrong. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from what? All sin, I was a brand new spiritual man with no sin in my life at that very moment. How do you like that? Well, I started sinning some because I have a sinful nature. How many of you could relate to that? Just because you're saved doesn't mean you don't sin. Every one of us have a battle with sin, right? See, God doesn't make us do His will. He saved us so we would want to do His will. Is your want to broken? Sometimes Christians get backslidden don't they we'll talk about that in just a moment But the spiritual man is led by the Spirit of God the Bible tells us in Romans 8 14 The spiritual man the Bible says is not of this world Watch this John 17 14 says I have given them thy word and There's our word, and the world hateth them. Did you know the world, the natural man, hates the saved man? He hateth them because they are not of the world, and the Lord says, even as I am not of the world. That's beautiful, isn't it? I want to be like Jesus, not of this world, I pray. This is what the Lord said, I pray that thou shouldest not take me out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep me from the evil. That's why I admonish the parents to watch their children and to guide them through life so that they don't shipwreck their life. It goes on to say, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. You study this Bible and you'll never go wrong because it's His truth. We don't understand why the world, people are so enamored by the world. The Bible says, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew Him not. So the natural man doesn't know the Lord, therefore he has no appetite or interest in the Lord. We know the Lord, and now we really enjoy the Lord. Have you gotten to the place where you really love Him? I did not say, have you come to the place where you really like Him? There's a lot of people I like, but I don't love. Do you love Him? Do you love Jesus? Is he dear to you? The Bible says he's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He loves us at all times. I can never get out from under his love. And why would I? A spiritual person craves loving the Lord. Can't wait to go to church. Can't wait to hear those kids sing. I love it. Boy, they were telling us how to live, weren't they? That was good. I like it when somebody tells me how to live the Christian life. Don't you? Do you care that people care about you and put you on their prayer list? And we know that they're praying for us. When I first went into evangelism in 2000, I had a piece of paper that was on the book table, and I asked every church to write their name down that they would pray for us at least once a week. I have over 1,000 people that pray for me every week. I did have a man call me one time. He said, Brother Knickerbocker, I've got a confession to make. I'm not a priest. He said, no, I want you to know that I have failed in my commitment in praying for you, and would you forgive me? And I'll start back up again. Isn't that something? He was convicted that he had made a commitment to me, and then he called me to make sure that he knew that I knew he was praying for me. Isn't that beautiful? That's what happens when a Christian is spiritual. He loves to go to church. He loves to read his Bible. He loves to tell others about what Jesus Christ has done for them. It also says in this passage of scripture that a spiritual person has the mind of Christ. The Bible says in Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Psalm 1, verse 2 says, But His delight was in the law of the LORD, and in His law doth He meditate day and night. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. He's telling us that when we are spiritual, God is number one in our lives. And I want to thank every one of you that put Jesus as Lord of your life. And you love to live for Him. You love to grow in the Lord. You love to hear the truth of God's Word. I had a man come up to me a couple weeks ago and he said, Brother Knickerbocker, thank you, thank you so much for making God's word clear for me to understand it. That's important, isn't it? He said, sometimes I hear preachers preach and when they get done preaching, I don't know what they said. but you make it practical so I can understand it. And that's the Lord. There's nothing worse than you not knowing what God's saying. And when we know God's Word and we begin to understand that we can love Him more than we love the world, we can love Him more than we love our own flesh, we can love Him more than we love the devil, it brings us to that place where we become spiritually minded. And all we want is Jesus because He's enough. Did you know the Bible says that man's eyes are never satisfied? Isn't that interesting? What does he mean by that? There's always something more you want. I remember I bought a nice Chrysler 300 for my wife and I, gorgeous car, and I thought, man, I've got the best car I could ever, ever want. And then the new Challengers came out. Aw man, see I'm never satisfied. Our nature is never satisfied. But our spirit can be always satisfied. And when you're filled with the spirit, that's what we talk about, the spirit-filled life is when you are emptied of self, all the junk in your life that you've got there that needs to go, get rid of it. so that you are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. In a marriage, it will give you joy. In your life, it will give you peace. And you won't be lusting after everything because Christ has met your need. That's what the spiritual man is. Number three, the third person is the How many remember when we read it, which one was it? Say it. The carnal man. You say, what in the world's that? Well, the carnal man is like we are sometimes. We can become carnal. You say, what does that mean? The word carnality has the meaning of fleshly things, things that I want that God doesn't really want me to have. The Bible says, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. If I am lusting, I'm sinning against God. That's something that makes me carnal, earthly, worldly, sensual. And we're living in a sensual world, aren't we? We're living in a world where you can find anything on your phone. You can go anywhere and you can see anything. And it's dangerous because it pulls you away from God. And that's what we call a carnal Christian. Some people are carnal and they're just glad that they're saved because they want to make sure they have their ticket for heaven. They want a fire escape from hell, but they don't want the Lord to really rule and reign in their life. Ah, Sunday morning's enough. I hope you'll come back tonight. I'll be preaching on the family again. I think it's vitally important that we come to the place in our life where we hate carnality because it takes us away from God. On Fox News, I was listening to an article, and this young girl went off to a college. It was a ladies' college, and she got hooked in with these other ladies. And they tried to keep her from going home, and they tried to keep her away from her mother. Now, her and her mother were really close friends. They were very close. But that group of people pulled her away from her mom. And her lifestyle started changing in ways that it shouldn't. And guess what? The mother finally found out what was going on, why her daughter wasn't calling, why there was no contact, why she didn't come home for Thanksgiving, didn't come home for Christmas. And so they got someone that deprograms people. And they hooked that person up with her and deprogrammed the stuff in her life that was wicked and ungodly. And then her relationship was united with her mother. In fact, she was even on Fox News and told about it. Pretty amazing. I got thinking about it. When you're carnal, you are open for bad advice. And you can get all the bad advice you want right on your phone. It's dangerous. There are people that are doing things they really cannot believe they're doing now. And if you had told them a year or two ago that they would be doing that stuff, they would have said, you're nuts. But they're hooked. And that's what Satan likes to do. He doesn't mind you being a Christian, just don't be a spiritual one. Be a carnal one. I was preaching in a church up in Indianapolis. I was preaching about staying in the hedge. Staying protected by God. Now let me tell you what happens when a spiritual man is in the hedge, he's protected by God. But when he steps out of that hedge, he's a target by the devil to destroy you. And there are two, three, four, 5,000 different things that Satan can do or the world can do or you can even do to yourself that will destroy your life. You say, I'm a Christian, that won't happen. Better than you have fallen. Better than I have fallen, pastor. I've got five preachers on my prayer list right now that are away from God. I said pastors that told you how to live. That's scary, isn't it? Don't try to think that you can step out of the hedge of God's protection without being attacked. And I like to stay in the hedge. Because I've got protection. Don't let your eyes wander. Don't let your mind wander. Don't let your feet take you to places you should not go. Don't let your hands do things you should not do. Amen? Why? Because if you're carnal, you are an attack waiting to happen from the devil, or the world, or your own flesh. Now, the carnal man, he's a Christian. He even has a testimony. But he follows his flesh too much. He kind of likes worldly stuff. I remember hearing of a father that sent his daughter to a good Bible college, a good Bible college. She, his daughter, was really in love with a guy in their youth group, and they were thinking about, after college, getting married. But something happened. She met what was going to be her future husband's roommate. He was a little wild. How many know what I'm talking about? He was a little wild. How many know what I'm talking about? Can you wave at me? He was wild. And she liked it. She liked him being wild. And so she broke up with the godly young man that she was going to marry. And she hooked up with that guy. He took her somewhere he shouldn't have. She became with child. Like to destroy her life. You've got to be careful. You've got to be extremely careful to be a spiritual person. You've got to stay close to the Lord. Let me tell you something. Every one of you know this. There's pleasure in sin for a season, but the end is the way of death. You know what that father told me when he told me about his daughter and what happened? You know what he told me? He said, I told my daughter, you sowed to the wind, but you reaped a whirlwind. You got into a tornado. You talk about destroying a person's life. Better than I have fallen, so it scares me. One thing I fear, that I could no longer be a preacher anymore. Is it possible? Yes. But by God's grace, it won't happen because I'm going to stay in the hedge. I want all of the protections I can get. So that when I stand before the Lord, He will say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Let's bow together in prayer. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, this is a very important meeting right here, right now. Because either you're the natural man, or you're the spiritual man, or you're the carnal man. When I say man, I'm talking about everybody. Mankind is either natural, spiritual, or carnal. Here's what I want you to do. Let's stand together, may we, before the pianist begins to play. I want to challenge you to meet God, meet God today. If you're not saved, Pastors right here will have some people that can show you how to be saved. You could be a lost man, your soul's lost. You're a natural man, but you're not saved. All you've gotta do is step up. The pastor will be right down here in the front. Pastor, you come and stand down here, and you just walk over to him and say, I wanna get saved. I want Jesus to be my savior. I need, I'm tired of being a natural man. I wanna be a spiritual man. I want victory in my life. Now, for you that are saved, But sometimes you're carnal. And every one of us could raise our hands that we are sometimes carnal. So there's no one better in here than we are. We're all the same. But you know you need to be spiritual. And you know that you'd be happier. I'm going to ask you as soon as she begins to play, for you that are saved, but you're going through some carnal things in your life. All of us do. I would like you to slip out of your seat and come and find a place here and get on your knees if you can, if you can't sit on the front row, but pray to the Lord. Take a stand and say, oh God, I'm sorry for the times that I have been carnal, and I want you to forgive me and cleanse me. And for you that feel that you are spiritual, you're not struggling right now, why don't you come and ask God for His continued protection? As she plays, you come right now. Would you come immediately? Come ahead. Don't wait. The Lord wants you to come. I would come. Come and just say, Lord, help me. I want you to help me. God bless you. This is so important. When you identify where you are with God, you can be right with God. You can have all your sin forgiven. If you're not saved, come and just say, Pastor, I've got to get saved. I'm not sure I am. Would you come right now? You don't have to be afraid. We love you. We want you to know Jesus. Amen. Oh, everybody pray. Would you please pray for those that have come Pray for yourself. Oh God, help us to fall out of love with the world, the flesh and the devil. May we so much fall in love with you by your Spirit that we could be spiritual people that walk with you, that love you, that we don't have to gratify our flesh with the world. We can just stay right in your presence where there's fullness of joy. Take this time to pray to the Lord and then we'll let you go back to your seat in just a moment, okay? Maybe you know somebody that's struggling right now. Maybe you have a family member that's away from God. Why don't you come and say, Lord, I pray that you'd bring them back to you. Wouldn't you want somebody praying for you if you weren't where you were supposed to be? Send a revival to our churches, Lord. Give people such a hunger for you that they would always say no to sin when it comes its way. Make us spiritual people, people that are thoroughly right with you. Pastor? so so Amen. Amen. You may be seated. You know, it's a blessing to understand the reality that we can be spiritual because we have the Holy Spirit. He wants to lead us to guide us, but are we willing to surrender and commit ourselves to him? I hope this morning's decisions that were made that We continue to look to him and trust in him. I want to just echo briefly the warning he gave about opening yourself up when you go down the road of living a carnal lifestyle. Just this week, there's been a tragedy of a former college mate of my wife, a young girl, a young lady about our age that grew up in church, went to a good Christian Baptist college, met a young man, got married, had a son, and ended up getting divorced. And that husband, in such a rage during the divorce, he went over to that home and shot and killed his wife. Then he drove a mile down the road and shot and killed himself. Now there's a little boy that's an orphan. It's just a mess. And we were watching some of the funeral. Now again, say it'll never be me. But when you go down the road of following the flesh, that's where the flesh leads you to wickedness. And so that ought to be a warning for all of us that I have the power of the Holy Spirit, the protection of the Holy Spirit. Why would I want to forsake that, open myself up for any attack? And so may God help us, keep us on that path of following him, trusting him. And I don't know all the details of people's hearts. Only God knows all those details. But the warning is for the rest of us that we need to maintain our spiritual walk with Christ. And may God give us that strength to do that.