WHO ARE WE?
I Corinthians 2:14-3:4
Society classifies people . Economically people are rich or poor. In the social realm, people are cultured or uncultured. Academically you have the educated, the intellectual, and those who are illiterate. People are always trying to classify us.
Even the Bible classifies people.
1 Cor. 10:32
Paul breaks all of humanity down according to their spiritual response to the things of God. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he refers to three types of people: the Natural Man, the Spiritual Man, and the Carnal Man. Now, every person in this church will fall into one of the categories Paul talks about. That is, you are a natural man, a carnal man, or a spiritual man. I think it is very important for us to find out for sure which one we are. I want to look into this text and ask this simple question: Who Are we? Let's examine these three categories of people and see which group we fit into.
I. NATURAL 1 Cor. 2:14
A. A person, who chooses to be influenced by the passions, desires, appetites, and senses of the flesh rather than by the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
1. Such a person can comprehend physical things but not spiritual things.
2. All people are natural, because of the fall of Adam and Eve.
3. Each person must be born again through the atonement of Jesus Christ to cease being a natural man.
B. Simply put, the natural man is a lost men!
1. He may be a church member, he may be a good, moral person, but he is lost.
C. He Does Not Appreciate The Things Of God –
1. The things of God are foolishness to the natural man.
a. The word foolishness gives us the English word "Moron."
b. To the natural man, the things of God, and spiritual things are moronic.
c. He doesn't understand or appreciate any type of spiritual expression.
2. When he is exposed to the things of God, he becomes very uncomfortable and will usually respond in one of three ways.
a. drop out,
b. move out
c. Lash out.
D. He Does Not Apprehend The Things Of God –
1. This literally means that he is not equipped to receive the things of God.
a. He is spiritually dead in his sins,
b. Eph. 2:1
i. He simply cannot grasp spiritually things.
2. A man who is physically dead cannot respond to physical stimulus.
a. Similarly, a person who is spiritually dead cannot respond to any spiritual stimulus!
E. The natural man is a sinner in a threefold sense.
1. By his connection with Adam—Rom. 5:12.
2. Because he has Adam's nature—Rom. 5:14.
3. Because he has committed sins—Rom. 3:23.
II. CARNAL 1 Cor. 3:1-4
A. Warren Wiersbe in his New Testament Commentary describes the carnal man as – “the immature Christian, the one who lives on a childhood level because he will not feed on the Word and grow.”
B. The carnal man is a believer, Romans 10:1-3
1. He has two natures just like the spiritual man, but he is dominated by the old nature.
2. He quenches the influence of the Spirit of God in his life.
a. Often, the carnal believer cannot be discerned from the lost sinner!
b. A good example of this was a man by the name of Lot.
3. When we see him in Genesis 13 and 19, we assume that he was a lost man.
a. when we read 2 Pet. 2:7, you discover that he was a righteous, but carnal man.
4. Carnality in the life of God's children is the reason the church lacks power and influence in the community!
C. Baby believers
1. Paul says that the carnal man is a baby.
a. He has started out the right way; he has been born again, but he has progressed no farther.
2. It is fitting and normal to start out as a baby, but is tragic to remain one!
a. The carnal believer suffers from "arrested development".
b. They haven't grown as they should.
i. By the way, how long you have been saved has nothing to do with your level of maturity.
3. The tragedy of this is that God did not save us to stay babies.
a. He saved us to grow into the image of Jesus,
i. Rom. 8:29;
ii. Eph. 4:13.
D. Milk or Meat –
1. The carnal believer is still on milk spiritually.
a. Milk is fine for babies, 1
i. Pet. 2:2,
b. However, as we mature, we are supposed to move beyond the milk of the Word into the meatier places of the Word,
i. Heb. 5:12-14.
2. Here is the very reason some people are not growing in the Lord.
a. They do not want to go any deeper in the things of the Lord than they already are!
b. They want to come to church, put their mind in neutral and never have to think!
E. Evidence of Carnality –
1. There are three tale-tell characteristics of the carnal believer.
a. If these are evident in your life, then you are carnal and need to change.
b. You are a baby spiritually and need to grow up.
2. Selfishness –
a. Babies are by nature selfish creatures.
b. when something is wrong in their world, they cry, whine and complain until someone does it their way.
3. The same is true in the life of the carnal believer.
a. The focus is always on themselves.
b. It doesn't matter what's best for the church, all that matters is how it affects them personally.
c. And, when a carnal believer is unhappy everyone knows it!
4. Strife –
a. Babies want their way and they are prepared to fight for it!
b. Anytime there is trouble in the church, you have a baby on your hands!
c. Someone didn't get their way and they want everyone to know it.
d. Someone got their feelings hurt and they want someone to pay for it.
e. I don't care where they are found in the church, you can count on spiritual babies to be at the center of every disturbance!
f. If you find that you are always offended at someone for what they have said or done; if you think you are always getting the short end of the stick; if you always think you are right and everyone else is wrong, mark it down, you are might be baby and you need to grow up.
i. I just want to remind any babies that are listening, if you come to me to tattle on someone else, either you will give me names, dates and specifics which I will take to the person alone with your name, or I won't listen to your whining, complaining and gossiping!
F. Splits –
1. Another trait of the carnal believer is that he brings division everywhere he goes.
2. The carnal believer always carries a divisive spirit within him. He is easily offended and always responds by being offensive.
3. As a result, the carnal believer kills everything he touches,
a. Rom. 8:6.
III. SPIRITUAL 1 Cor. 2:15-16
A. The spiritual man is one who live supernaturally.
1. That is, he lives a "spiritual" life.
2. He lives his life not in the old dead nature, but he lives his life in the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. The spiritual man, and every saved person for that matter, has two natures. The old fleshly adamic nature and a new spiritual nature.
B. The spiritual man is one who allows Christ to rule his life.
1. Jesus is not just present, He is preeminent.
2. Jesus does not just reside in the spiritual man's life, He presides over that life.
C. Discernment –
1. The word "judgeth" means "to examine, to discern."
a. The spiritual man is alive in the Spirit, equipped by the Spirit and is open to the truth of God.
b. It is not foolishness to him, but it is a fountain of life. It is like food to his hungry soul. He delights in the things of God!
i. This ability to receive and understand the deep things of God does not depend upon I.Q. or upon academic ability. This is accomplished through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the yielded believer,
ii. John 16:13.
D. He Is The Source Of Wonder –
1. The phrase, "yet he himself is judged of not man", he, and his life, are a mystery to the natural men around him.
2. He baffles and bothers the man of the world!
3. He has peace, joy and faith in the midst of trial.
4. He has standards and convictions, yet he just lives them out and isn't obnoxious and overbearing about them.
5. The spiritual man is a constant source of amazement to the natural man and to the carnal man. Could you be a Spiritual Man?
Conc: Who are you? Are you saved, or are you still a natural man? Are you spiritual? If you said "Yes" then you probably aren't! Are you carnal? We all are from time to time, Paul - Rom. 7:14. If you can see within your current situation the fact that you are lost, a natural man, please come to Jesus and be saved! If you can see that you are carnal, that you act more like a baby than you act like Jesus, then please come and deal with the problem. Let God begin to mature you. Who are you?
