In this sermon, the preacher addresses the behavior of the people in the church. He highlights the fact that many individuals in the congregation have engaged in sinful activities such as watching inappropriate movies, getting drunk, and engaging in sexual activity. The preacher emphasizes the importance of selflessness and the need for repentance. He explains that repentance goes beyond feeling sorry for one's actions; it requires a change in thinking and lifestyle. The preacher also emphasizes the significance of having a broken and contrite heart before God and trembling at His word. He warns that those who continue to practice sinful behaviors will not inherit the kingdom of God, as stated in Galatians 5.

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ, and I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able. For you are still carnal, for where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? Here in our text, the apostle mentions three types of people, natural, spiritual, and carnal. The natural man is a person who is without the Spirit of God. They live according to their natural instincts. To them, the things of God are foolishness. They are not able to understand how anyone could actually believe all of that about God coming to earth, dying on a cross, and rising from the dead in order to save the world. All of this seems so unnecessary to the natural man. The vast majority of people are in this category. All of us were there at one time. The spiritual man is the person who has been born of the Spirit and is living according to the dictates of the Spirit. The spiritual man is sowing to the Spirit and reaping abundant life and peace. The fruit of the Spirit marks the lives of those who are spiritual. The carnal man is a paradox. Those who are carnal, in the sense that the term is used here in our text, are those who are born of the Spirit and yet behave like those who are not. As the Apostle said, for where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? Carnality among Christians has reached epidemic proportions. I'd like to read to you from an article taken from The Guardian entitled, Christian Teenagers Show Their Flesh Is Rather Weak. Church-going teenagers are dishonest, materialistic, and have relaxed attitudes toward sex, a survey by the Christian Research Association revealed. The study found that lying had reached epidemic proportions among young Christians, with more than ninety percent of the church-going teens reporting they lied to their parents, teachers, and three-quarters to their friends. Half admitted that they had recently watched an eighteen-rated film, a third that they had been drunk in the past few weeks, and a quarter confessed that they had already had sex. Christian teaching on selflessness is also disregarded by younger teenagers. The study found a solidly self-centered and materialistic attitude to life, with the majority admitting they want a comfortable lifestyle and a highly paid job, and conceding that their principal aim was to have a good time. The survey, which questioned about seven hundred people aged between eleven and nineteen from British churches, found the proportion with liberal attitudes to sex is rising. One in five approve of sex before marriage. Now, these views are not restricted to teenagers alone, of course. You can find similar attitudes among adult Christians, and also among many church leaders today. Modern Christianity is infected with carnality. I have two objections in this study today. Number one, to show you some of the ways carnality is being displayed among Christians, and by the church in general. And secondly, to set forth a remedy to carnal Christianity. Remember, carnality is defined by Paul as Christians living like non-Christians. Christians living like non-Christians. People who are genuinely born again, but yet their behavior is inconsistent with their profession. Their behavior does not match their claim to be a follower of Christ. So in order to identify carnality, we must ask ourselves the question, how do non-Christians live? Because that's what's happening. Christians are behaving like non-Christians. How do non-Christians live? Well, the Apostle answered that in Galatians chapter five, verses nineteen through twenty-one. Listen to what he said. Now the works of the flesh are evident. The works of the flesh. This is how the non-believer behaves. The works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. This is Paul's description of a life according to the flesh. This is how non-Christian people live. This is the evidence that is displayed by those people who are living according to the flesh. Now, Paul says that the carnal person is a person who is a Christian, but is behaving like a non-Christian. And we see this today, don't we? We see among Christians today all of these works of the flesh, these things that are so evidently contrary to the Christian life, yet we see many of them manifested in the lives of Christians today. Adultery is a major problem among Christian people today. It's not limited to the non-Christians. And not only among Christians in general, but there have been numerous incidents where prominent church leaders have been guilty of committing the sin of adultery. Fornication, this word fornication, comes from the Greek word pornea. It's also translated sexual immorality. And it's the root for the word pornography. And this word has a very broad application. It virtually applies to all of the areas of sexual sin. And we find that among Christians today, sexual immorality is rampant. Not only people being actually involved, but there is quite a lax attitude among Christians. Toward sexual immorality, uncleanness and lewdness. These things speak more of the mind, the thinking process, rather than actual physical acts of sexual immorality. So the thinking process, that's a common trait among those who are not saved, is also something that we're finding among Christians today. And then he goes on and he mentions idolatry. Idolatry, of course, does not only refer to bowing down to some sort of a carved image. That is what it referred to in the past and still in some cultures it refers to that. But idolatry is simply putting anything in the place of God. And we could say that there are many Christians who have done that today, put a number of things in the place of God. Sorcery is another thing that's mentioned here. The word that's translated from the Greek sorcery is the word pharmakia, and we derive our English word pharmaceutical from that word. And the implication behind it is the use of drugs for other than medicinal purposes. And this, of course, is an issue not only out in the world at large, but it's an issue among Christians today. There are some Christians who feel that it's perfectly acceptable to go ahead and continue to use drugs and yet can walk with God and have a relationship with God. And that's a relationship with him and contentions and jealousies and outbursts of wrath and selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies. These are the things that some of the things that Paul was alluded to right here in in our text in chapter three of First Corinthians. But then he mentions drunkenness and revelries. So this is how non-Christians behave. But sadly, this is how many Christians are behaving today as well. Now, carnality does not only manifest itself in behavior. It also manifests itself in attitudes. And I think this is where we really see the carnality within the church today. It's. It's even beyond the behavioral area into the attitudes of people. Many Christians today approve of things that God disapproves. And if a person is to take a stand. And and, you know, come come out and make a statement that that that shouldn't be done, that's wrong, then they're criticized by other Christians. They're referred to as. A Bible basher. The worst possible thing you could be in the eyes of many Christians. Because you're actually taking a stand for righteousness in some way, and so there's this pervasive attitude among many in the church, an attitude that approves of things that God disapproves of, and this is evidence of the deep seated carnality within the church today. You know, as you look at the Bible. You find that the Bible is very clear about a variety of issues, and the Bible is quite dogmatic, speaks with authority, and the Bible really challenges us to live in a certain way. Take, for example, Paul's admonition to the Ephesians when he's talking to them about sexual sin and things of that nature. He says to them, those types of things should not even be mentioned among you. How could it possibly be that the church is involved in practicing those things to some degree and condoning them when the apostle says those kinds of things shouldn't even be mentioned among you today? You see, that is evidence of this carnality that has become so much a part of the modern church. We see it all around us. We see it in the lives of individuals. We see it manifest in congregations where some of these other things that he mentioned are evident. There's the contentions and the jealousies and the outbursts of wrath and the selfish ambitions and the dissensions and the heresies. The false teaching that is so prevalent in so many of the churches today. And yet the irony is that the church goes on assuming that everything is just great. It's so wonderful that we have opened ourselves up to be more broad minded. And to be more welcoming of of new and different things. As I mentioned, when we began our study of this epistle to the Corinthians, it amazes me how we see parallels in the attitude of the Corinthians with so much of the modern church leadership today. As we get a little further on into the epistle, we'll find that the Corinthians at one point were actually proud of the fact that they had people in their church who were living in sin. They were proud of that. And you know why they were proud of it? They were proud of it because it showed them to be tolerant. They were very proud to be able to tolerate this. And of course, the apostle rebukes him for that. But isn't that so reminiscent of the church today? There's a great arrogance among a. Christians today, when it comes to this whole thing of tolerating sin and there's a great pride over the fact that we open our doors to anyone and we don't judge people and we let people live the way they want to live and we can't put those kinds of. Archaic standards on them and so forth, there's there's such a pride in this carnality. So we see it in individuals, we see it in churches. Carnality is also. Evidenced in the church in general, when I say the church in general, I'm speaking of the world of evangelicalism, if you will. The church in general is extremely carnal, and this is how you know. When the church is carnal, you know, the church is carnal when the church takes its cues from the world. When you look at the church and you find that the church is just simply following the lead of the world, that's when you know the church is carnal. As you look at much of the church today, I want you to think about this. As you look at much of the church today, it's clear that many of its causes are just a Christianized version of what the world is doing. This. This makes me sick, it really it really irritates me, I think, come on, people, don't we have an original thought? Can't we come up with something that that we can do that's not just a pathetic imitation of what the world is doing? But that's what you see so often in the modern church, just taking cues from the world, just following suit with what the world is doing, just taking and Christianizing many of the causes that we see out in the world. Suddenly, the need has arisen for a gender sensitive version of the scriptures. We suddenly need now to have a new Bible. Because the Bible that we have. Is not sensitive to gender, it was written. By males. Who were hostile toward women. And did not recognize the rightful position of women in society and so forth, so we need a new version of the scriptures, that's what we're being told. Today, suddenly, this this great need has arisen. Suddenly, the greatest virtue of the Christian is tolerance. The greatest virtue of the Christian is now tolerance. But you see what I mean? The church is taking its cues from the world because those are the things that the world is emphasizing today. Oh, the world is caught up in this whole gender sensitive thing. And, you know, if you're going to be in sync with contemporary culture, you can't use certain terms. You know, you don't refer to to people in those masculine or feminine types of ways any longer. And all of those things are now becoming taboo in our society. And that's what's going on in society. And so suddenly the church is, oh, yes, yes, that's right. That's true. Oh, our Bible. Yes, it is very insensitive to to gender. We we need to come up with something new. And it doesn't matter if we take the words that God. Had laid down by inspiration through his apostles and change them, you know that that's OK, we we have the freedom to do that, we have the liberty to do that because certainly if God would have known about these types of things, you know, he would have made his his book more gender sensitive and so forth. It's just absurd. Tolerance. That is the important thing. The Great Commission is no longer to preach the gospel to every creature, but to bring in social justice. Oh, that's that's the important thing now. And so we sign our petitions and, you know, we're talking about all of the injustice in the world and Christians need to get out there and do something about that. This is just an example of the church taking its direction from the world. Whatever the world says, the church does. The world says jump in the church is how high. And it's a pathetic day. It shows the deep seated carnality within the church today. Christians aren't to be outdone by the pantheist. We'll set up our own evangelicals for the environment. Or Christians against animal testing. Or something like this. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not into pollution or destroying the environment, nor am I against animals. I love animals. But, you know, these things are going on in the culture. I mean, this is this is far beyond anything that Christians should be laying hold of. It's all based in pantheism. It's all based in worshiping and serving the creation over the creator. And it's, you know, manifestations of Hindu influence and Buddhist influence upon the culture. And pagan influence thoroughly. And yet the church jumps on to the bandwagon and you see Christians out there, you know, for the environment and they've got their little groups that they're developing and all of these kinds of things. Now that homosexuality is fashionable, the church is having to rethink its position on the subject. You see, again, another example of taking cues from the world. This is what's going on in the world today. And the church is right there. What should we do next? And every new thing that comes along, you can see that in just a while the church is going to catch on and follow suit. The corporate world says. User friendly is the way to go. The church suddenly sees the need to become seeker friendly. Never thought of that before, but watching big business has shown us. User friendly, seeker friendly. Yeah, we need to adopt that. The ecumenical movement. Is nothing less than preparation for a one world government, yet to many Christians and especially in this country, there is nothing more important than the ecumenical movement. And if you're not ecumenical or if you're seen to be against unity in any way, and of course, the unity we're talking about is a unity at the cost of truth, which we've mentioned so many times. Then you're seen to be a divisive person. But again, the world is just following or the church is just following along with the world, the World Council of Churches. Back in 1948, they were formed and the whole idea was to to bring all Christians under one umbrella in preparation for a one world government. The first thing that we have to do is get rid of the Bible as any type of an authority. That's what the ecumenical movement is based upon. Don't be fooled by this whole touchy feely thing of love and oh, you know, you're not a real Christian if you're not part of this. Now, Christians have to stand for truth. And that's. The real issue. It's not the issue of unity. Unity centers around truth. We've talked a lot about that. It's not to the exclusion of truth, but these are just a number of ways where we see the church is following the world and we see this this deep seated carnality within the modern church. Another example. Would be with what is called postmodernism and the charismatic phenomenon. Now, postmodernism, according to historians and philosophers and sociologists and so forth, is is the time in which we're living. We're living in the postmodern era. Modernism was identified by. Rationality, that modern period where man thought that he could think his way through anything and and basically if he couldn't understand it, then there it wasn't legitimate and so forth. It was all based on materialism and and just so much emphasis placed upon man's mind and his reasoning process and so forth. That that was modernism. Now we're living in in what these people are calling the postmodern era, and this is a simplification of these things. But if if rationalism marked modernism, then postmodernism is marked by experientialism. And that's that's the emphasis today. It's not so much. A thing of reasoning, it's more a thing of experiencing. And this is where much of the culture is today. The Western culture is is moving more and more toward just an experienced based type of of a life. If it if it feels good, if I enjoy what I'm doing, then it must be OK. It must be right now in the church. You find that there are people who are aware of these. Changes in the culture and they have. Then. Produced or brought forth a Christianity that is relevant to the culture. And you see this with the charismatic phenomenon now, as you look at the charismatic movement, it can really be divided into two separate sections, I think there's there's the charismatic movement that has its roots in more of a traditional Pentecostal type of background that's marked by sort of a of a simplicity and an anti intellectualism and and things like that. But then there's another aspect to the charismatic phenomena that wasn't so much born out of the Pentecostal movement, but has come through some some other avenues. And in these circles, you have you have people who have been experts in psychology and sociology and philosophy and various aspects of theology, and they've come together and they've purposely intentionally developed a Christianity to suit the postmodern mind. It's a Christianity that basically says experience is all that matters. We don't need to worry about doctrine. We can't get into Bible teaching today because that the postmodern man isn't into thinking the postmodern man is primarily interested in feeling and experiencing. Therefore, we're going to give them a Christianity that is based on experience. And this this charismatic phenomena, that particular aspect of it has had such an impact on this culture. We find that so many of the young people are gravitating to this type of a thing. It's just it's just an experience. They want to have an experience. And this is again where you see the church is following the lead of the world. The world says we don't want to think anymore. We're tired of thinking we just want to feel. And whatever we feel is that's that's what's important. Truth isn't a truth. Truth isn't an issue anymore. It's just what I feel, how I feel. And that's the most important thing. And so the church is, OK, well, if that's the way people are, then that's how we need to relate to them. And we won't bother to address doctrinal issues. We won't put any sort of emphasis on having an understanding of the Christian faith. As a matter of fact, that type of thing isn't really all that important. That's just a byproduct of Western rationalism. And we're going to get back to that experience with God. And so there's much going on in many churches that. Manifests itself in a variety of experiences, but you see, there's no biblical basis for it whatsoever. And yet the church is proud. Of what they're accomplishing, look at what we're doing, look at the numbers of people that are responding, oh, look at how wonderfully God is working. But again, the church is simply following the lead of the world and not doing what God has called it to do, which is to proclaim a clear gospel, which is to teach people the commandments and precepts and doctrines and so forth of the scripture. So these are all a variety of. Manifestations of carnality within the modern church. Now we come to the remedy for carnal Christianity. Is there a remedy for this epidemic among Christians? Well, there certainly isn't a remedy. But as with all remedies, they must be applied. And if there's no willingness to apply the remedy, then there's really no solution to the problem. The remedy begins with recognition. First of all, there has to be a recognition. There has to be a recognition that this is not right. Now, how can someone who's. Steeped in this type of thing begin to recognize that this isn't right, the only way to do it is to go back to the model given in the Bible. And to begin to test these things in light of the scripture. So if there's going to be recognition, there has to be, first of all, an acknowledgment that God has spoken, he's made things clear. And he has a prescribed manner of living the Christian life. We've got to recognize that and then get back to the place of submitting to the authority of the word of God. And I think that's where all of these problems really stem from. They stem from a refusal to believe that God meant what he said and said what he meant. It all stems from that. It all stems from a weak view of scripture and inspiration of scripture, not believing that God has spoken to us through this book and given us all things through the knowledge of him that pertain to life and godliness. So there has to be, first of all, the recognition. This is true for Christianity in general. This is true for congregations. This is true for us as individuals. When we find that there's manifestations of carnality in our own lives, we have to recognize that God has a prescribed way of behavior for his people. And it's found in the pages of scripture. This is how my people are to behave. And he tells us that over and over again. So recognition, number one. Number two is repentance. The word repentance is often misunderstood and assumed by many people to mean that you're sorry. Sorrow is not necessarily repentance. Godly sorrow leads to repentance, Paul said. But repentance means change. It means to literally the word means to have a change of thinking. A change of thinking results in a change of lifestyle. Your thinking is wrong. You're basing all of your conclusions on your own beliefs about things. You need to have a change of thinking. You need to recognize that what God has said is what's important. What God has said is what is right. So I have a change of thinking that produces a change of direction in my life. I begin to submit myself to God and to his revealed will. And then the third thing is that we need to resolve to live under the authority of the word of God. As long as people. Want to. Put up how they feel. Alongside of the word of God. And conduct themselves based upon how they feel. Carnality will remain. You see, we have to put aside how we feel. We might feel very passionate about certain things, but the question is this. Are our feelings accurate? Are they right? Is this what God said about that particular thing? See, I have to bring my emotions and my thinking process into harmony with God's word. I have to resolve to do so. And whenever my emotions or my thinking process. Is inconsistent with what God has revealed, I need to humble myself and recognize that I'm wrong. You remember what it says in Proverbs, it says there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death. We can be totally convinced about something in ourselves. Oh, I just feel so passionate about this. This is right. And and that's what we see happening in the church. Again, it goes back to this this loss of authority because man has rejected the word of God. There's no authority. So like it was. In the days of the judges of Israel, every man was doing what was right in his own eyes. And you had utter pandemonium in the land. It's chaos. And that's what we see happening all around us today. It's complete chaos. Why? Because everyone's doing what is right in his own eyes. And the sad thing is that the church is saying, well, that's right. That yeah, that's how you feel. You feel passionate about it. You're sincere. That's all that matters. Sincerity is the is the standard now. It's not truth. Objective truth is revealed in God's word. It's just sincerity. If a person is sincere about this, if they're passionate about it, if this is the way they really feel, then who are we to say that they're wrong? Well, I'm no one to say anyone's wrong, but God. Has spoken and he says that there are certain things that are right and there are certain things that are wrong. And we, as God's people, need to realize that there's an objective standard for righteousness. And that's the word of God. We need to apply it to ourselves individually. We need to make sure as we're leaders within the church that we apply it to that area where God has given us leadership. And the church in general needs to get back to this simple reality of the Bible being the final authority. You look at all the things that are being debated today in the church. Now, there are some issues, no doubt, that are debatable. But the amazing thing is that many of the issues being debated are not really debatable. They're clearly addressed in the scriptures. I was just reading last night a quote from the archbishop and he was talking about the debate within the church on homosexuality. Now, what is the debate? Why is there a debate? Is not the Bible crystal clear on the matter? It certainly is for anyone who has eyes to see it. For anyone who is capable of reading the English language, it's very clear. It's very clear in the Greek language and the Hebrew language as well. It's a clear issue. There's no need to have a debate on it within the church. And there are a number of areas where there is no need for debate. The whole issue of women in ministry, we addressed that a few weeks ago. And, you know, my position, I'm glad to have women in ministry in the place that God has allowed for them. But this debate that's entered into the church and all of this debating that's going on. God did not give us the Bible so we could sit around and debate. He gave us the Bible so we would obey it, live the way he wants us to and be able to do what he's called us to do in the world. And that's have an impact on the world for good. And to, of course, ultimately try to bring the knowledge of Jesus to people. But like the Corinthians. So much of the modern church is carnal in that the behavior is that of mere men. Now, I must say this, we looked at Galatians chapter five. The works of the flesh. Paul continues in that verse and he says this. Having listed those manifestations of the flesh, he says, I told you in the past and I'll tell you once again, those who practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So you see, here's an issue that we must also address. There's a very fine line between a carnal Christian and a person who is not actually a Christian at all. How do we distinguish between the two? I think the only way to distinguish is this, that a person who is truly a Christian will come under chastisement by God for living the way they're living. For behaving the way they're behaving. But if a man is without chastisement, if there is no divine discipline brought to that person, then I think the conclusion is that it's not a problem of carnal Christianity. It's a problem of. A natural man. Dressed up in religious garb. That's all it is. So the only real guarantee that any of us have. That we are truly Christians. Is that. We believe the scriptures and we obey them in the Bible never gives us any comfort or assurance or security if we choose to live in sin. You don't find that anywhere in scripture, you never find the scripture encouraging anyone in their sin. You never find the apostles or Jesus saying to someone in their sin, Oh, God loves you, it's OK. Oh, I know you're having a problem in that area, but but understand that God is love. Now, that that's a modern misinterpretation. Whenever whenever sin comes up in the Bible, there's only one response from the Christian that's called for, and that is to get out of sin, to repent from it, to get away from it. Jesus tried to make the seriousness of the matter so clear when he said things like, if your hand offends, you cut it off. If your eye offends, you pluck it out. Now, I don't think Jesus was telling us to maim ourselves, actually, what he was doing was showing us the severity of sin. You would be better to live maimed than to be cast into hell whole, because if you continue in sin, that's where you're going to end up. So this whole thing of carnality among Christians is something that. We cannot be comfortable in. We cannot be passive about it. We have to recognize that this could be an indication really that we're not Christians at all. If we are Christians and living carnally, God is going to chasten us and he respects a response from us. He he expects that we turn back to him in repentance and resolve by his grace to follow him and to serve him. And so the remedy, once again, recognition, repentance and resolve to submit ourselves to the authority of God's word and thank God for his grace, his mercy, his compassion, his love, his patience. All of those things are very real. And very much available to to those who have a broken and a contrite heart. Remember what God said through the prophet Isaiah, he said, this is the man to whom I will look. I will look to the man who is of a broken and a contrite heart and who trembles at my word. Not stands in judgment over the word. Oh, I don't believe that part of the Bible. Oh, that no, that was just Paul's opinion. He was a chauvinist, you know. See, that's not the attitude. That's that's not an attitude of fear and trembling at the word of God, is it? No, it's standing as a judge over the word of God. That's the man that's in a dangerous position before God. So I trust that we are seeking to live spiritually as we find ourselves occasionally being carnal. I think all of us do at one time or another. We certainly find ourselves at times behaving like mere men, don't we? This isn't the attitude that Jesus would have. This isn't the attitude of the spirit. I find that with myself frequently. But what happens? The Lord convicts me. I recognize and acknowledge this is wrong. This is unacceptable behavior. And I come to God and say, God, forgive me and help me. And by your grace, enable me to live the way you want me to live. That's the attitude. And that's the confidence that we have as God's people. God is calling us to be spiritual. He's calling us to be spiritual. And let me remind you just in closing of what that means. The spiritual man is the person who has been born of the spirit and is living according to the dictates of the spirit. See, I'm no longer in control of my life. It's no longer my will or my desires, but it's the spirit who's dictating to me how I'm going to live. The spiritual man is sowing to the spirit. You know what it means to sow? It means to plant. The spiritual man is planting to the spirit. The spiritual man is doing things purposely to enhance his spiritual life. He's sowing to the spirit and reaping abundant life and peace. The fruit of the spirit marks the lives of those who are spiritual. What is the fruit of the spirit? You remember Galatians 5, the fruit of the spirit is love. And then that is manifest in the joy and the peace and the patience and and all of those things that the apostle mentions there. So that's the place. Three types of people, the natural, the spiritual and the carnal. The natural man is outside of the grace of God, not in the sense that God doesn't want to reach them, but the natural man is outside the grace of God in the sense that he hasn't applied God's grace to his life and therefore he's dead in his trespasses and sins. The carnal man is one who's applied those truths to his life, but is behaving as though he didn't. Both of those positions are unacceptable with God. God wants us to be spiritual people, people who are living according to the dictates of the spirit, sowing to the spirit, planting to the spirit, cultivating the life of the spirit. God help us to do that.