What Kind of Christian Are You?...
I. Carnal Christians...
a) Different Levels of Maturity...
1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 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.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
How many know that when you were saved,
The very minute you accepted Christ as your savior,
That you became a part of God’s family?
You received a Spirit of adoption,
and became joint heirs with Christ Jesus.
At that instant we became sons and
daughters of God. Amen?
You received salvation as a free gift from God,
We weren’t saved by our good works.
It wasn’t because we deserved it.
It was only because God loved us. Amen?
And it’s because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross,
That we are or were able to claim
salvation through faith in Him,
And be baptized into the body of Christ. Amen?
1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free;
But how many in here tonight know that
even though we may have all been
baptized or placed into the body of Christ,
That doesn’t mean that we are all equally
mature as Christians.
Just because we’re Christians doesn’t
mean that we’re a finished work. Amen?
We’ve all still got some growing up to do. Amen?
If we look back in 1Corinthians 3:1 we see
that Paul recognized that many of the
believers in the Church of Corinth,
Many of the Christians there weren’t growing up.
They weren’t maturing.
So what did Paul do?
He labeled them carnal Christians. Amen?
1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
He didn’t refer to them as goats.
He didn’t call them unbelievers.
Or the tares sown in with the wheat.
He said that they were babes in Christ. Amen?
b) Baby Christians...
And as "babes in Christ", these carnal
Christians are Christians,
They are members of the body of Christ. Amen?
They have experienced the new birth,
But they’re still new borns.
They’re carnal because they haven’t grown
in spiritual things.
And because they’re still baby Christians,
Because they’re still teething 1Corinthians
3:2 says they need to
be fed milk instead of meat. Amen?
They aren’t ready for the meat yet!
How many in here tonight have children?
When your baby was born you didn’t take
him or her out for a steak to celebrate did you?
No! You fed them milk. Amen?
And even as they grew older you still fed
them milk and cereal,
And formula and all types of different baby food. Amen?
Peaches and pears and apricots and
whatever else Gerber couldsqueeze into a
jar because you knew that your baby
wasn’t ready for steak and potatoes. Amen?
Well that’s what Paul was saying about the
Christians at Corinth.
He said I’ll feed you baby food because
spiritually you aren’t ready to feast on
meat and potatoes.
Smith Wigglesworth, when speaking to the
Plymouth Brethren about the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, said that they had no
Business quoting the Pauline letters to try
and refute the Baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost.
He said that because they were distorting
the scriptures to prove their belief instead
of being taught and led by the Spirit.
Jesus said the spirit would lead us and teach us. Amen
Jn:14:26:
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance...
Smith Wigglesworth was telling them that
they needed to grow some spiritual teeth
before they could chew on the spiritual meat.
He told them they didn’t have any business
past the book of Acts.
And how many know that he was right?
He realized that they needed to go back to
the book of Acts and recieve that Acts 2:4
experience before they could grow spiritually.
He identified them as carnal christians
because they had not grown up in spiritual things.
He was saying go back and eat some baby
food so you can grow up big and strong. Amen?
1. Baby Food...
See, milk is good when you’re a baby Christian.
A little bit of milk with your meat can be good too. Amen.
But the problem today is that there’s too
much milk and not enough meat.
The Church needs something to chew on!
See, the reason there’s so much baby food
being handed out in the churches today is
because there’s too many overgrown
babies in the body of Christ. Amen.
Too many men and women of God who
want to remain girls and boys in the Lord.
Even a lot of the ones doing the leading are
toddlers in the Lord.
If Christians today would only grow up
and work for God instead of being cry
babies who only want to be fed,
I believe the world today would experience
a great spiritual revolution.
A mighty out pouring of the spirit.
But the first thing we have to do is grow up!!!
Half the church isn’t fit for service today.
And you know why?
It’s because babies can’t work!!!
Has anyone in here ever tried to take your
baby to work with you,
Or make him or her go out and get a job
and start pulling their own weight around the house?
Have you told your new born to start
paying their own way,
Or to come up with their half of the diaper money?
The answer is no!
Because you know that that would be a
waste of your time because babies can’t work!
They just complain and cry for comfort. Amen?
We’ve got alot of Christians today that are
only good for complaining,
and crying because they aren’t fit for service.
2. Weening...
It’s time for these babes in Christ to be weened. Amen?
We need to start eating some solid food.
When you parents were weening your
children off the bottle or the breast you
would start to give them a little bit of
solids with their meal. Amen?
Maybe you just started making their
cereal a little thicker at first.
But then you started feeding them meat.
You might have been cutting it up real small,
But they were getting some kind of meat. Amen?
Well it’s time for the preachers and
teachers to start feeding the Church a little
bit of meat! Amen?
We need to be edifying and building up the saints of God!
It’s time for the the preachers and teachers
to stop talking to the saints like they are a
bunch of babies.
You know they say you aren’t supposed to
talk to your child in baby talk because they
look to you to learn how to talk and if all
they ever hear from you is ga ga goo goo,
Or aww whadda pwetty widdle baby,
Then they’re not going to learn how to
speak proper English.
In the same way the more we treat these
carnal Christians like babies the more we
contribute to their child like behavior
in their walk with Christ.
Pastors world wide are partially to blame
for the infantile state of the Church today.
They’ve diagnosed what should be men
and women of God as babies,
And therefore only taught them
elementary truths.
The result of their actions has caused our
congregations to be unfruitful for Christ.
Unfruitful because only the Spirit of God
can make us fruitful,
And just like the Church at Corinth the
church today is lacking in the Holy Ghost department.
Now I know many scholars from many
different denominations might argue with
me over this statement,
But let’s get back to the Greek and see
what the Word of God says. Amen?
Let’s chew on the meat that is set before us.
c) Fleshy or Fleshly...
The Greek word for carnal is sarkikos.
And that word is derived from sarks
(or sarx) which means flesh or body.
The King James concordance has the word
sarkikos translated 9 times as carnal,
and 2 times as fleshly.
So sarkikos appears a total of 11 times in
our King James Version of the New Testament,
But there have been a variety of different
renderings found in modern translations.
The confusion starts in the Greek text.
The Textus Receptus, which is the Greek
manuscript that the King James Version
was translated from, has sarkikos in all
four places where carnal appears in 1Corinthians 3,
But the Textus Criticus, which is derived
from the oldest and best Greek manuscripts,
Only has sarkikos twice in verse three.
In verse one when Paul addresses the
Corinthian church as carnal,
The greek word translated there is sarkinos.
And in verse 4 the Greek word is
anthropos which means man.
And you say well brother JB what’s the
difference between sarkikos and sarkinos?
Greek words ending in -inos implys the
material make up of something,
and words ending in -icos implys the
character of something.
So sarkinos would simply means fleshy,
Whereas sarkikos means fleshly.
But both words are correctly translated carnal.
Knowing what we know now let’s look
back at verse one.
d) Fleshy Christians...
1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
Paul wasn’t saying in this particular verse
that they were sinful or worldly in their
behavior. Or that they were fleshly.
He was simply saying that they were fleshy .
And because they were fleshy, because
they hadn’t received the Holy Ghost he
couldn’t minister to them in spirit.
He was saying I can only speak to your flesh.
I have to teach you as a baby because
without first becoming spiritual you can’t
understand spiritual things.
Paul said they were sarkinos, or made of flesh,
So therefore they couldn’t grasp all of
what He wanted to say.
They weren’t ready to discuss spiritual matters. Amen?
We are all sarkinos. We’re all made of flesh.
Paul even said in
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal...
He called himself sarkinos.
So long as we are in this body we will
always be sarkinos but it’s through
sanctification that we crucify the sarx or
flesh and we become ready to receive the
Holy Spirit
Who will bring with him understanding of spiritual things.
e) Fleshly Christians...
1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 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.
Did you get that?
Paul is saying in the past they couldn’t eat
the meat because they were fleshy and
because they were babies in Christ.
But now they aren’t able for a different reason.
Look in verse 3
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
See before they had just lacked spiritual
understanding.
Before they had been babies in Christ like
some of us today,
But now they were fleshly Christians.
They are now sarkikos,
They were doing what the flesh would do.
There was envying, strife, and divisions
arising in the Church.
And I truly believe that it’s because they
had delayed their growing up process.
They delayed the sanctification process
and therefore they never received the Spirit.
And how many know without the spirit to
lead you and guide you,
You’re cruising for a bruising.
You can’t fight off the devil because you’re
unable to engage in spiritual combat. Amen?
We can’t just sweep the house clean. Amen?
We have to fill it with the Holy Ghost or
else that unclean spirit will come back
with seven others worst than him,
and the last state of that man is worse
than the first. Amen?
I said last week that the Holy Ghost is
God’s housekeeper.
He cleans us up so we that we can be used,
But if we don’t have the spirit we can’t
conquer the flesh or sarx.
And if we let the flesh take control we can
go from fleshy, to fleshly, and ultimately to backslidden.
How many know that Paul was correcting these Christians,
so that they might straighten up their act
before things got worse?
He was saying get a hold of yourself
before things get worse.
And how many know that things could
have gotten worse?
As we look at verse 4 we see that the devil
wasn’t even the one causing division in the church. Amen?
It was the Church members.
It was the Christians!
A lot of times we want to go blaming
everything on the devil,
Every time something goes wrong we start
point the finger at the devil.
But how many know that sometimes it’s
not his fault.
Sometimes it’s you.
It’s your flesh or your sarx rearing it’s
ugly head. Amen?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
See, the church at Corinth were caught up
in the flesh to the Point that they were
arguing over who was a better Christian.
The divisions and strifes weren’t coming
from the devil they were caused by the flesh.
It was the flesh that made them say that
one was better than the other because they
had been baptized by Paul.
Or one was a better Christian because they
had been baptized by Apollos.
See Paul said are you not carnal?
Looking at the Greek we see that that word
is anthropos in the Textus Criticus or
sarkikos in the Textus Receptus.
Either way it’s right.
One means man and one means to have
the characteristics of a man.
See their fleshliness, Their manliness
caused envy and strife.
And there was division in the Church
because in their carnality they
had put there allegiance to Paul or
Appolos before their allegiance to God.
They were just like men taking off after
what they could see Having no desire for
spiritual or unseen things.
In the same way today too many
Christians put their trust in
men or denominations,
They would rather be disobedient to God
than go against their Denomination or
their Pastors teaching.
Well, let me ask you something.
Who died for you Jesus or your Pastor?
It’s good to be comitted to something or someone,
But you can’t let that come in between
your relationship with Jesus. Amen?
II. Spiritual Christians...
a) Exact Opposites...
We have to pursue Him, and His Holy Spirit. Amen?
Because He’s called us to be spiritual Christians.
And as spiritual Christians we are to be
the exact opposite of Carnal Christians.
We are to grow and mature instead of
acting like babies.
And we are to crucify the sarx or our
fleshy man so that we can walk in the Spirit.
Paul said He was Sarkinos.
He said He was made up of flesh
But he also said he died daily.
He crucified his flesh daily so that he could live.
But he said it wasn’t him living but Christ in Him.
Not him in all his carnality, but the Spirit
in Him Allowed him to live as a spiritual Christian.
I want you to ask yourself tonight,
What kind of Christian are you?
Copyright 2008 Rev. John Butler, Jr.
All rights reserved.
