The Body of Christ

And today I want to bring a message that very few preachers like to preach on or even preach on.

There's two subjects that you very seldom hear preached.

And I understand it because it's it's it's what I call a face-to-face reckoning with yourself and your relationship with God.

I don't know about you, but when I get up in the mirror, I mean in the mornings and look in the mirror, the pain medicine, just bear with me.

No.

But sometimes I like what I see, sometimes I don't like what I see.

And so when Paul's writing to the church of Corinth, and he's talking about the body of Christ, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, but just flip over one page and look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Paul's writing, now you've got to realize something.

In the context, if you read through the whole book of 1 Corinthians, you'd see that Paul's writing to a church that really has a church filled with a lot of carnal and lost people.

Carnal Christians and lost people.

In fact, there's three words throughout the book of Corinthians that you have to look at.

One, they're the saints.

Then two, there's the natural man.

That's the ain't.

And then third word is spiritual, spiritual saints.

So that's what he's writing to.

And he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and the sons.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Hey, and our brother, he says that, listen, what I'm about to write to you is not what I think, it's what God's told me to tell you.

And then he says, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, set apart for God, through Christ, called to be what?

Saints.

I like that word.

With all that in every place called upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.

In other words, how do you become a saint?

You get saved.

You call on Christ.

Christ comes into your heart, takes up residency.

Then he says, Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ.

So the whole context of the whole book is Paul writing, giving strong exhortation to the church at Corinth.

And he's dealing with the issue.

And I was thinking about this.

Most of us were raised under the misconception that our world was filled with many races, a difference between whites, the blacks, the Asians, the Indians.

And some of us, well, not me, but some of my generation.

Back when I was growing up, I was born in 53.

There was a lot of racial tension.

And some were even taught to hate those of different racial extractions.

And let me just say something.

That is ungodly.

That is ungodly.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God loves everybody.

Everybody.

And don't you ever forget it.

That's what I love about our church.

You walk in this building, we don't care who you are, what color you are, what social class you are, we love you because Jesus loves you.

And we all need help.

Can I get an amen?

We all need help.

And we come to help each other.

But basically, the one race of people on this planet, and I really believe that we see this in the Word of God, the race is the human race, regardless of our skin color, our ethnic background.

There's only two kind of kinds of people: the saints and the ants.

So now let's turn over to our main passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

And we see, pick up at verse 14.

Paul says, but the natural man, we got the saints, now we got the natural man, we got the lost, the unbeliever.

The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

But he that is spiritual, the saints, judges all things, yet he himself is not judged of no man.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.

The saints have the thinking of Christ, the mind of Christ.

Chapter 3, verse 1.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but at but as unto what?

Carnal.

Even as unto babes in Christ.

Now, so we got the saints, we got the lost, the ants, the natural man, and now we got the carnal saint.

So I want you to understand that.

And then he goes on, he says, I fed you with milk and not with meat.

For hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able.

In other words, he says, You haven't passed the baby stage.

You got saved, but that's good enough.

You don't want to grow.

And that's important you understand that.

And you're going to see as we go through this as we describe it.

But then he goes on, and he says, For ye are yet carnal.

For whereas there's among you ending and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?

Wow.

Now in another place we're going to look, there's 21 different sins he talks about for the natural man, that you, if you consistently stay in these sins, there's no way you can be, hey, a saint.

You got to be an ain't.

And we're going to look at that.

But notice what he says.

I can't feed you because you're still a baby.

That really spoke to my heart.

And then he goes on, they start saying, for some of you say I'm Paul, some say you're Apollos, are you not carnal?

In other words, when you start taking sides and you, hey, I like Paul better than I do Apollos, and I like Apollos better than I do Paul.

I like this preacher better than this preacher.

I like this person better than this person.

He says, all you're doing is showing your carnality.

That you're not, you haven't grown up yet.

So he's really writing to a church that hasn't grown up yet.

That's why I tell people all the time, don't take 1st and 2 Corinthians as a foundational belief system for yourself.

Because really it's a bunch of babies.

Hello, you okay?

Seriously.

They're baby believers.

So with that said, let's consider, we're gonna look at two things.

We're gonna look at today the saints and the ants.

But what we're gonna deal with, people don't like to preach on because it's not only convicting, but even Christians don't like to hear it.

But I've learned early in my ministry, you gotta preach the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God.

Amen.

I want to know the truth.

Because how can you get better if you don't know the truth?

So with that said, let's look at, number one, let's consider the saints.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 15 through 2 Corinthians, I mean chapter 3, verses 1 through 5 that we looked at.

First of all, we share a common salvation.

Saints share a common salvation that we looked at in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

The saints.

Well, let me tell you this.

Jude, the little book in the back, and by the way, we'll look at that too the second semester of our study.

We're going to do 2 Peter, Jude, and 1 John after 1 Peter.

But Jude, that little book, it's easy to read.

It's one chapter basically.

But what's exciting in Jude, Jude chapter 3, speaks of what the saints have experienced.

And here's what Jude calls it: common salvation.

Common salvation.

In other words, all of us, regardless of who we are, how old we are, what color we are, what social status we are, what our education is, what anything that we have in life is, we have one thing in common as believers, and that's salvation.

Common salvation.

He means that it is something that every saint has experienced.

And of course, he's referring to the new birth.

John 3.3, I think it's there.

John 3.3 says, Except a man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God.

Verse 7, he says, Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again.

So what a powerful, unbelievable truth.

If you and I are saved this morning, we got saved the very same way.

Hey, everyone that's ever been saved got saved the very same way.

And that way is Jesus Christ.

Jesus says, you know the verse, quote it with me.

John 14, 6.

I am the way, the truth, the life.

No man cometh to the Father except what?

By me.

That's it.

There's only one way, and Jesus is the way.

I meet people all the time, and they'll say, well, you know, it really doesn't matter what we believe because we're really all going to the same place.

Oop, time out.

That's not true.

That's not true.

It does matter what you believe, and we're not all going to the same place unless we know Jesus as our personal Savior.

Neither is there salvation in any other.

No name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved.

Acts 4, 12.

So we see it does matter.

When you and I got saved, first of all, we were convicted of our sins by the Spirit of God.

Can I say, hey, amen?

John 16.8, the Holy Spirit's come to reprove the world of what?

Sin, judgment, and righteousness.

You and I got convicted.

Then, secondly, what happened?

Then we were called to come to Jesus Christ for salvation.

I love what he says in John 6.44.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him.

You were convicted.

God drew you through the power of the Holy Spirit of God, through his Son, Jesus Christ.

And then by faith, for by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourself.

It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

You accepted Jesus Christ through faith.

You believed that he is the Son of God.

You believed that he was crucified.

You believed he was buried, and on the third day he rose again.

In fact, Corinthians says, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

You believe that.

You believe that.

I love what he says in Acts 16, 31.

You remember the Philippian, I meant the Philippian jailer, he said, Paul said to him, he said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.

Acts 16.31.

So our surroundings may differ.

The prayers we prayed may be a little different.

The experiences we have since that time may have differed, but there is only one way for all men to be saved, and that is something we call salvation, and we have it in common.

And don't ever forget that.

Our testimonies may be poles apart, different they are, but our salvation experience is exactly the same.

Can I get an amen?

So we care, excuse me, we share a common salvation.

Secondly, we share a common sovereign.

Another thing we share, verse 16 talks about the Lord Jesus Christ, and common is the fact that we are all saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I know some people, and and actually, when I first got saved, this was something I never understood.

And as I was in seminary, it was a big discussion.

A lot of people get saved, and then later they have another experience, and they say that it was when they made Jesus Lord.

They got saved, and then later they made Jesus Lord.

In other words, I guess they think it this way.

I get saved, and then after I have control of my sins, I'm able to sin less than I do, that now he's Lord.

And I got thinking about that.

And I said, the only problem with that, and we had big discussions in seminary about that when I was in seminary.

People believe that when you're saved, you receive Jesus the Savior.

And then later date, when you finally get consecrated, your sins under control, you make Jesus the Lord of your life.

And I got to thinking about that.

Let me study this scripturally.

However, such a concept is really foreign in the Bible.

No such thing.

In fact, for one thing, you cannot make Jesus Lord.

Hello, you can't make Jesus Lord.

Look at Acts 2.36.

Therefore, let the house of Israel know, assuredly, that God has made this Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ.

You don't make him Lord.

God made him Lord.

And he already is Lord.

So you don't make him Lord.

What we do, we submit to the Lordship of Christ.

And what that means is allowing the Holy Spirit to control you completely.

And we'll see that.

That's the difference in a spiritual Christian and a carnal Christian.

A carnal Christian is living by the flesh, a spiritual Christian is living by the Spirit.

Hello.

And a lot of people don't understand that.

And that's why a lot of people live defeated.

We live defeated.

Because we don't understand that.

But we will this morning.

So we see for one thing, you cannot make Jesus Lord.

God the Father has already done that.

For another, you cannot divorce his Lordship from his role as Savior.

You can't do it.

He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not Jesus now and Lord later.

It's all Jesus Lord now.

The moment you get saved.

Yeah.

When a sinner comes to the Lord for salvation, he must be sufficiently humbled and willing to submit to all that the Lord has for him.

He may not understand all the details, and you don't, but as he grows by faith, he will yield more and more of his life to the Lord's control.

But when a person is saved by grace, Jesus Christ comes into that life, takes up residency in the throne of his heart, and he becomes Lord.

And how exciting, folks, that is.

He comes in as Savior, but he also enters in as sovereign.

Can I get an amen?

So when you receive Jesus as Savior, you also receive Jesus as sovereign.

Lord of all.

Say that with me, church.

Lord of all.

He was Lord of all before you got saved, and he's Lord of all after you've gotten saved.

Guaranteed.

And that's so important you understand that.

You don't make him Lord.

You can't.

Because we see here the devotion of the person in verse 15.

Notice what he says.

He is a spirit.

He is spiritual.

He loves his church.

He loves his brothers.

He loves his sisters.

He loves the ministry.

He has a devotion to the things of God.

And let me say something.

If you are a devoted spiritual saint, you've got to love the church.

Remember, we started out in January.

I love my church.

Say it with me.

I love my church.

I love my church.

Why?

It's his church.

Jesus said in Matthew 16, 18, upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

It's his church.

He builds it.

He builds it.

We just are his workers.

We are his co-laborers.

We are his ambassadors.

And that's what it is.

And thank God we are.

So to anyone who would say, Well, I'm saved, but I control that what I do.

I'm my own boss.

I would say, My friend, you need to be saved.

That's what I'd say.

People ask me all the time, you know, and I've and I've been doing this almost 40 years, maybe 40 years.

I can't remember.

But I'd have people tell me all the time when I'd share with them and when I do now.

Well, yeah.

I say, Do you know Christ is your Lord and Savior?

Yes.

I said, Well, where do you go to church?

I don't go to church.

Why don't you go to church?

A bunch of hypocrites.

I said, Yeah, I'm a hypocrite.

Uh oh, you're gonna walk out here and say, preacher said he's a hypocrite.

Well, guess what?

You are too.

We're all hypocrites.

Saved by God's grace, gonna get an amen.

Yep.

You're the vine, I'm the branches.

Hey, you he's the vine, you're the branches.

But now watch this.

This it really gets pretty, pretty simple.

Whether we are, whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not, Jesus Christ is Lord.

In Acts 10, 36, there is, he, and I love what he says, there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

I like what he says in John 13, 13.

Jesus says, Some call me master and lord, for so am I.

Jesus said, I am Lord.

You can't make him Lord, he is Lord.

But you can submit to his Lordship.

And that is what Romans 12, 1 and 2 is submitting to his lordship.

Since this is true, we know that Jesus is Lord.

Hey, every believer in this room and in the world ought to be under his absolute control.

For God to be sovereign, to Jesus to be sovereign, we know Jesus we have in common salvation, but for him to be sovereign, write this down.

Romans 12, 1 and 2 has to be a reality in your life every day.

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

That's it.

You're not your own.

Say this with me.

I'm not my own.

You're not your own if you're saved.

So the third thing, though, we share a common salvation, we share a common sovereign, but we also share a common struggle.

Can I get an amen?

Another thing we share is a struggle.

And this struggle is what Paul is dealing with in this paragraph that we just read from verse 14 to verse 5 in chapter 3.

The struggle is what Paul is dealing with, is this.

As Paul writes to the Corinthian church or the church at Corinth, he is writing to a group of saved people, but a lot of these people are carnal.

He calls them carnal.

Now the word is sarkikos.

Sarkikos.

And the word means fleshly.

It means to be ruled by a fleshly nature, a human nature.

In fact, a lot of the great theologians call it the animal nature.

That's pretty graphic.

In other words, what that means, it's a depraved action that is out of control.

That's really what it is.

A depraved action out of control.

That's what they called it.

In other words, we, if we're in that human nature, We are living for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

That's what we're living for.

We have nothing to do with the things of God.

We have no desire to do anything with the things of God.

We just want what we want when we want it right now.

And if it feels good, say it.

Do it.

That's that philosophy.

That is the natural man.

Feels good, do it.

No control whatsoever of morality or of consciousness.

It's just whatever they can do to make their fleshly appetites be fulfilled, they will do it.

And that's where the drug addiction, the alcohol, and isn't it amazing how we in America, you know how we are now trying to deal with the drug addiction and alcoholism?

Especially with drug addiction, though, isn't this, isn't this the carnal thinking?

What's this?

And the natural man's thinking?

So what how do we solve these problems?

Well, we legalize drugs.

Hello, legalize marijuana, legalize all kinds of drugs so it won't be against the law.

We're gonna solve the problem by making the problem legal.

That's natural, natural mind thinking.

That's what it Bible calls it, foolish.

It's foolish thinking.

But here we see that the word carnal means that which pertains to the flesh or the physical appetites.

That's what it means.

They're living lives that are controlled by the appetites of the flesh.

Hey, they're not living under the control of the Lord Jesus Christ and his spirit.

They're living under the control of the flesh.

And notice what Paul says they are.

They're acting like babies.

They're acting like babies.

Now Paul said that.

Now don't go out here.

Hey, I'm with you.

I don't like this message.

I didn't really care about preaching this message.

Because sometimes I act like a baby.

One brat to the other, right?

You know how a baby acts?

Now, watch this.

I wrote some things down about me.

How does a baby act?

I wrote a question.

Well, they are consumed with self.

Everything's about them.

They want to be number one on everyone's agenda.

Sound familiar?

I'm not saying a word, Rigger.

They want to be number one.

They want to be the talk of the conversation.

They want to win.

Ooh.

In everything.

They want to be number one on everyone's agenda.

And they aren't.

Hey, and when they aren't, they make sure that everyone knows about it.

Well, I don't like this.

I don't like that.

I blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Hello.

Is that not true?

A baby is easily injured.

And when he is, he screams and lets everyone know about it.

Isn't that true?

Man, I got to thinking about it when I was reading this thing about babies.

And when he is, hey, he screams and let everyone else know what he has, hey, what his problem is and what he wants done about the problem.

Now, watch this.

A baby's only concerned about what affects him.

Ooh.

Ooh.

He doesn't care about the rest of the household.

He doesn't care whether mom and dad get enough sleep so long as they come running when he cries.

Sound familiar?

He doesn't care if anyone in the other in the whole house starves to death so long as his needs are met.

Nothing matters to him but getting what he wants when he wants right now.

Babies are self-centered, self-absorbed, and they are doing just what they are supposed to do.

Why?

They're babies.

So, thank God for babies.

We love babies.

We need babies, but thank God for maturing babies.

Thank God when they no longer have to be fed by the bottle.

They can feed themselves, they can go to their own bathroom.

Hallelujah.

They can clothe themselves.

They can, you know, they can feed themselves.

They can tie their shit.

They can do for themselves.

Now let's bring that to the church, or do I need to?

Do you get the picture?

You know where most of the time is spent in a church?

I read this.

75% of the time is spent with dealing with babies.

When I first read that, I said, I don't know if I've agreed that, but then I went and started thinking back, oh yeah, that's probably true.

Babies come into this world dependent on those who are more mature than they are to see that their needs are met.

That's why thank God we need mature Christians so that when the babies are born and people get saved, we can come alongside and help them grow.

Amen.

When a baby messes up his britches, we need to change them.

Amen.

But listen, we need to tell them too, you're not supposed to do that.

Hello?

You know, we got a potty over here.

When they start crying and wanting everything they want, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

You know?

Let's how do we do that?

How do we handle that?

This is natural for the babies.

But if it's 20 years later, we got a problem.

But if you have a 20-year-old in the same situation, something's wrong.

There's a problem.

It's abnormal.

There should be maturity.

There should be growth.

Paul's Peter says, but we grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3.18.

Boy, that's good.

Boy, that's good.

How do we bring it into the church arena?

Here's how you do it.

Paul tells us that there are spiritual Christians and there are carnal Christians.

Please do not try to make these into two separate types of believers.

We've been all guilty of doing that.

Oh, we got the saints and we got the carnal Christians.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You got a saint.

Sometimes that saint's carnal.

You with me?

You with me?

I'm telling you, this is so good.

So convicting, but so good.

In fact, I wrote this down.

Paul tells us that there's spiritual Christians and carnal Christians, but now watch this.

You can't separate them.

There's only one kind of believer, those saved by grace.

Would you agree with that?

Say amen.

So, there's no such thing as a believer who is carnal all the time.

If you're carnal all the time, I got good news for you.

You ain't a believer.

You're not a believer, you're deceived.

Hello?

And then I got something for us spiritual or Christians that are supposed to be spiritual.

We're not spiritual all the time either.

Sometimes we're carnal.

You with me?

Hello?

And there's no such thing as a believer who's not carnal some of the time.

Now let's deal with these two things.

First, there's no such thing as a believer who is carnal all the time.

By this I mean that a person who says that he or she is saved and lives every day of their life as a sinner, hey, he's not saved, but is deceived and is in fact lost.

People who will not go to church.

People who don't want to read their Bible.

People who do not want to be around fellow believers, people that don't want to share their faith.

People, and yet they say they're saved.

There's a problem there.

Listen to what the Bible says.

People say, I mean, 1 John says, if we love him, we'll keep his commandments.

That's verse 3 in 1 John 2.

Verse 4 says, He that says he loves me and keeps not my commandments is a liar.

I know that's strong.

I hate that.

I don't hate that strongness, but it's there as a liar and the truth's not in him.

So you got to realize you're either a saint or you ain't.

Say that with me.

Saint or ain't.

That's so important, folks.

Why?

Because Jesus is Lord.

You can't, and I really believe this.

When a person gets converted, Jesus is enthroned in their hearts and they become a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5.17.

You know it.

New creation.

Old things passed away, behold, all things have become new.

There will be a change in every life that is redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I want you to see a powerful passage of scripture right here.

Turn over a few chapters of 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

And look at verse 9.

1 Corinthians chapter 6, I think.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Well there we got it up there too.

This is so good.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now watch what he says.

Be not deceived.

So what did I say?

A carnal Christian cannot continue to live in sin all the time.

He's not, hey, a carnal Christian.

He's a deceived natural man.

He's lost.

That's what he just said.

Be not deceived, neither fornicators.

That's illicit sexual sins, nor adulterers, in other words, something you love more than you love the Lord.

And that can be a multiplicity of things, nor adulterers, nor effeminate homosexuality, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor, hey, abusers and fighters and revilers, not extortioners, thieves, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Wow.

Then notice what he says.

And search and such were some of you, but you before you got saved, and then look what he says.

But now you are washed, but you are sanctified, you set apart, you got a new nature, you're a new creation, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Wow.

Paul's letting, hey, he's laying it out plain and simple to them.

This is the way you live, but if you get saved, hey, you change.

You can't keep living the way you lived and say that you're a saint after you get saved.

Can't do that, folks.

You can't.

If someone you know lives every day of their life just as they did before they made their profession of faith, then you're, hey, then you, me, are the person that's still lost and needs salvation.

It's that simple.

I've led a lot of people to Christ when I was teaching at Liberty in my big evangelism class.

Because they thought by praying a prayer at a youth camp or at an emotion, uh, had an emotional experience at a great service, revival service, crusade, or something, uh, that they had really gotten saved.

Or maybe a lot of them even been baptized, but then after a month or two, they went back to living just like they were before they got saved.

Folks, that was not a conversion, that was an emotional decision.

A conversion means you change.

My papa used to tell me, no change, no salvation.

I argued with my youngest daughter for years.

She could say the right things, get up on stage and sing like a beautiful bird with matrio.

I mean, and then she'd go back and during the week she was just acting like a heathen.

And she used to say, You don't know my heart.

Don't judge me, Daddy.

I said, I know I don't know your heart, but I know your fruits.

Jesus said you should know them by the fruits that they bear.

Amen.

Yeah, good point, honey.

She said, if you like being carnal, you're in trouble.

I don't like being carnal, but sometimes I am.

But boy, do I get whipped.

I get taken to the woodshed by the Holy Spirit of God.

And I feel ashamed.

You cannot meet Jesus.

Here's what I wrote to me.

Danny Lovett.

You cannot meet Jesus and remain as you were before meeting him.

Can't do it.

Can't do it.

But the roles of churches are filled with people like that.

If you have never changed, then you're not a carnal Christian.

You're a lost sinner.

Can I get an amen?

Now, watch the second statement, Paul said.

There's no such thing as a believer who is not carnal some of the time.

Every one of us are carnal sometimes.

Am I the only one omitting that?

Can I get can I get a little help here?

Amen.

I'm a we really are.

Now watch this.

Whether we like it or not, the redeemed are destined to live out their earthly lives, and we are in this body that still has an appetite for the world.

I still like things of the world.

I am drawn sometimes to things of the world.

I have people tell me all the time that they overcome whether it was smoking or whether it was a device, sugar for me, but uh devices that sometimes they can just smell a cigarette or they can smell this, a pipe, or and they just have that desire to want to do it.

I can walk by a bakery and want to eat the whole bakery.

Get me a cloth, a cold glass of milk and just keep them coming.

Hot now.

I'm not joking.

And what I've already asked two or three people in this church to have me something ready on that 21st day.

Making provisions.

But do you see, hey, all of us have a craving.

That lust of the flesh draws at us, and I'm getting a, I got it all laid out, but I'm so, and I can't, I'm trying to stay calm.

Man.

But what's this?

Galatians 5, 17.

Listen to what it says.

I think I have it up here.

Here we go.

Watch this.

For the flesh lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another.

Can I get an amen?

Paul goes, when you go to Paul, Paul says in Romans chapter 7 and verses 18 through 25, we're not going to go there, but I want you to read it.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

He talks about that.

He said, That which I want to do, I can't do, and that which I don't want to do, I do.

And why is that?

Because he says there's a battle going on right there.

It's the battle.

See, Christ wants to take complete control of our hearts and our lives and wants us to live yearning to please him and to do what he's called us to do.

And Satan is warned against that.

He doesn't want you to do what God wants you to do.

He wants you to do what he wants you to do because he wants you to live for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, so that he knows he can destroy you.

He even let me tell you how strong Lucifer is.

He went after Jesus.

The man of temptation.

But what did Jesus do?

He said, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and Him only shall thou serve.

So there's a battle going on.

We see it right here.

As we pass through this world, we are locked in a mortal combat.

Christ is in our hearts fighting for us to be like him.

Satan is doing everything he can to keep us from being like him.

You got to see this.

Romans 6.

Do I have that?

Pull it up there.

Romans 6.

Watch this.

Here's Paul.

We'll take just a little bit of it.

Likewise, you also reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin.

Watch this.

Here's how we win.

That war's going on.

How many of you experience that battle?

I do every day.

I really do.

What I know I should eat, and what I don't, that what I should eat, I don't, and that what I and that.

Whatever, you know what I'm saying.

Medicine's got me.

That what I want to eat, I don't, no, that what I should eat, I don't eat, and that what I shouldn't eat, I do eat.

Got it out.

Amen.

Thank you.

I needed help there.

Hey, yeah.

I know that's a simple kind of elementary example, but is that not true in everything?

Huh?

I mean, I'm not supposed to eat fried foods.

But sometimes grilled chicken gets old.

Hello?

Nothing better than a good old Kentucky fried chicken.

Amen?

I know I'm not supposed to eat sweets.

But I was raised, I would, you know, I don't understand this.

I was raised with my granddaddy.

We ate ham biscuits, sausage biscuits.

We had dessert after every meal, and he lived to be 96 years old.

Hello! And by the way, there's been a study about sugar.

That is true.

Sugar will kill you.

No doubt about it.

It's more addicted than cocaine now, they're saying.

And the statistics says that it will shorten your life, sugar, eating sugar.

You know what the average after a 30-year study was?

It'll shorten your life nine months.

My goodness, give me the sugar.

Hallelujah! I'm going to heaven anyway.

Nine months.

I saw that the other day.

I said, the Bible had it right in Nehemiah chapter 8.

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

You know what it says?

Drink the sweet.

Drink the sweet.

That's good old southern tea.

And eat the fat.

That's that's cream-filled chocolate donuts.

This low-fat, no-fat diet, it ain't biblical.

My wife says, you're taking that out of context, honey.

Are you with me?

I had to laugh a little bit.

We're all a little solemn.

I got hit with the doctor, now I'm hitting me with the Bible, so I'm getting beat up pretty good this week.

But is that not true, folks?

Look at what he says.

What's this?

You got to be dead to sin.

Let me ask something.

A dead man can't react to anything, can he?

So if we're dead and the Holy Spirit's completely controlled us, when that sin comes, there hath no temptation taken you, but such as common to God.

But God is faithful and just and will not suffer us to be tempted above that we're able, but with that, hey, temptation make a way to escape.

You know what?

We're dead.

We're dead to the flesh and alive to the spirit.

Woo! That's good, preacher.

I'm about to, I know.

Calm down, calm down.

I can't calm down.

I'm getting.

You with me?

Now, what's this?

What's this?

But alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore, watch what he says in verse 12.

Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust.

There's that lust to get.

Watch the next verse.

And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

We have a choice.

And that battle goes on every day.

And the way, hey, here's the key.

How you and I and what we choose determines whether we win or lose.

We choose to be instruments of righteousness.

Righteousness, or we choose to be instruments of unrighteousness.

It's our choice.

Can I get an amen?

It's hey, if you can't blame anybody but you.

I can't blame anybody but me.

The devil didn't make you do it.

The devil tempted you to do it.

Big difference.

Big difference.

And that's good.

So, the problem is we all fail from time to time.

Can I get an amen on that?

There will be times, watch.

I wrote this to me.

We give in to the flesh.

We act carnally.

We will act like babies.

There will be times when we will hurt others and will allow ourselves to experience hurt.

Is that not true?

Come on.

I'm getting it right down to where the rubber meets the road.

Is that not true?

I've been hurt in the last few months by some of my family.

And I had a choice to react back or to forgive.

I don't want to forgive.

I want to just.

What if Jesus didn't want to forgive you?

Why, God, do you always have to bring the Holy Spirit into it?

Because I'm carnal.

And the Holy Spirit wants to do a work in me, and He's doing a work in me.

And He wants to say, remember, Jesus said, if you don't forgive me and their trespasses, He won't forgive your trespasses.

That settles the issue.

I don't have a choice.

Is that not true?

And then I read the verse, and we're going to see it here in a minute, where God says to you not just give them seven times, but give them seven times seventy.

So you know what I had to do the other day?

I had to just get on my knees and forgive them.

But every, let me tell you, but every time that something comes up and we get a piece of mail, that carnality comes back.

Seven times seventy.

Does that not get you?

Man.

No true believer can be hurt by another and allow that hurt to come between them and the Lord.

Can't do it.

But they will have to forgive their offender and leave the matter in the hands of the Lord.

He says in Luke 17, 3 and 5, that's it, 7 times 70.

And he says, if your brother reprove you, watch this.

Take heed to yourself.

If your brother sins against you, what does he say?

Rebuke him.

Now, some of the other translations say, you know, forgive him.

Go to him, talk to him, consult with them.

Now here's what we do.

Let me tell you where we mess up on this verse.

We get mad.

We get upset.

We start harboring bitter bitterness, okay?

Without saying anything to them.

Hello.

Now that's not what Jesus said to the disciples.

He said, take heed, he says, be cautious.

Here's how you handle it.

That's what that means.

If your brother, your wife, your husband, your children, your nephews, your uncles, your aunts, you get the picture.

Sins against you, talk to them.

Talk to them.

Don't be in there super spiritual.

Talk to them.

Talk to them.

That's what he's talking about.

That's what we do.

To keep that bitterness.

I think I heard a preacher start talking the first message of Healthy Church about react.

Remember those three things?

Who remembered them?

How we act, how we react, and how we interact.

Remember that?

So see how it fits together.

Man, that's good.

So there is no shame.

Watch this, write this down.

There's no shame in falling, everyone does.

However, the real shame comes from walling in the mud when you do fall.

Amen.

Don't stay there.

Don't stay there.

The righteous fall seven times and they get back up again.

Proverbs 24, 6.

Amen?

We're all gonna go down.

We'll get back up.

Why do you think I love my church?

I love my church.

That's what we're trying to do.

So I'd ask every single of God today look carefully at your wife.

Is everything right between you and God?

Is everything right between you and your fellow believer?

Your husband, your wife, your children?

Your uncles, your aunts, your nieces, your nephews?

Is all that right?

Are you guilty of sometimes being a little baby?

Hello.

I am.

Are you guilty of being carnal sometimes?

I am.

But we need to learn how to recognize it and deal with it, and that's what we're doing.

Can I get an amen?

Because we got a lot of spiritual babies in this church that have been born.

Babies not a bad connotation only if it's 20 years later.

Okay?

You with me?

So don't take that as a bad connotation.

As newborn, say it with me.

Babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

1 Peter 2.2.

Okay.

Now with that though, let's go on.

Got to finish the second one.

I'm hungry.

You know what we got today?

Ham and sweet potatoes.

So hurry up, preacher.

Number two.

And I'm through.

Let's consider the ain't.

Verse 14.

Look at what we share.

We share a common description.

The word natural.

So kikas.

Sensual.

It means a sensual heart and mind and soul.

Animalistic.

That's what it means.

There are men who are exactly the same as they were when they were born into the world.

They're natural men.

They're lost.

These kind of men are also called lost in Luke 19.10.

Jesus said, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

They're called sinners in Romans 5.8.

But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

That's it.

You got it.

Now I know these aren't very flattering names, but they describe the person who is outside of the relationship with Jesus Christ.

While a person has come to Jesus by faith to be saved, a person has to do absolutely nothing to be lost.

Every person who enters this world comes in that way.

For all, say it with me, for all have sinned, come short of the glory of God.

Romans 3.23.

Yes.

I was, David said, Behold, I was formed in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Yes.

So we share a common description as the natural man.

We're lost, we're sinners.

B.

We share a common denomination.

Look at what Paul says about the natural man.

He says they don't grasp spiritual things.

They're not capable of doing so.

They do not possess the Spirit of God.

Only the Holy Spirit can make the spiritual truths of the Word of God clear and come to life.

Look at 1 John 2.27.

But the anointing, that's the Holy Spirit, which you have received from Him, abides in you, the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.

You do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in him.

Therefore they could not believe, but they were able to believe because of the Holy Spirit.

Now watch this.

Look right there in that chapter in 1 Corinthians 2.

Look at this is really good.

Look at verse 10, what he says in verse 10.

But God hath revealed them unto us what?

The things of the word, what he wants us to do, our purpose, hey, our position has revealed them unto us by his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

Look at verse 11.

For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.

Look at verse 12.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, praise the Lord, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but with the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Folks, if you are a spiritual-filled saint, a spiritual-filled Christian, you're going to be talking about the things of God.

I can be around a person five minutes, and I can have a keen sense whether or not they're saved or possibly carnal and spirit-filled.

Now, do I go around saying, well, I, and that's, or are you spirit-filled or you're carnal?

No, I don't do that.

But those things which proceed out of the mouth, what did Jesus say?

Come forth from the heart.

Hello?

See what I'm saying here?

So this is awesome.

We can see the difference.

The denomination is that there's nothing natural about them.

Paul speaks of this in Ephesians 2, 1 through 3.

Listen to what he says.

This is good.

I think I have it up there.

Do we have Ephesians 2?

Maybe we don't.

I was looking.

But just listen.

And you have the quickened who were dead in trespasses of sin.

That's the natural man.

Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, according to the prince and the power of this air, Satan, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

So you're either children of God or children of Satan.

There it is, right there.

Now watch this.

Then he says, Among whom also we all had our conversation, our behavior in times past in the lust of our flesh.

Look at it.

He's telling us, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us.

Wow.

Wow.

That's good.

That's good.

Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 4.

Ephesians 2:1–4

Actually, 1 through 6.

So what is sad is this.

We think we're living life on our own turns.

You know what?

Here's what's sad.

We'll wrap it up.

Here's what's sad.

People that are lost think they don't have to worry about the Lordship of Christ.

They don't have to worry about anybody telling them what to do.

They don't have to worry about that Bible stuff.

They don't have to worry about the church stuff.

And what they don't realize, they're nothing more than puppets of Satan.

Isn't that what he just said?

Deceived?

He's the angel of light.

And really they're being totally controlled by him.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes.

And the problem with that, there's only one destination.

Satan's come to kill, steal, and destroy.

But thank God for the truth.

Thank God.

Thank God for the truth.

Romans 1 talks about that.

That he gives them over to their carnal, really bad nature, he calls it.

Because they want to do what they want.

They serve the creature more than the creator.

That's another whole message in Romans 1.

So, thirdly, lastly, they share a common destination.

Wow.

You know what that destination is?

It isn't a pleasant thought.

Every person who's passed through this world and does not receive Jesus Christ as their Savior will go to hell when they die.

This is what the Bible teaches.

When's the last time you heard a message on hell?

Carnal Christian, hell, you won't hear it.

Preachers are afraid people will not like them.

And I had somebody tell me the other day, I don't want to be beat up when I go to church.

I don't either.

But let me tell you what the way Jesus preached and he told Paul how to preach.

He said, preach the word, be instant in season.

Now watch this, out of season.

Reprove, rebuke, exhort with long, all long-suffering doctrine.

Every message ought to have some kind of correction in our lives.

Some truth.

Maybe I don't even point it out, but God's Holy Spirit points it out to you in that word.

But as a pastor, my job is to preach the whole truth, nothing but the truth, and let the truth do the talking and the convicting.

And do it lovingly and compassionately, because I do.

I love you with all my heart.

But let me promise you, it's convicting me as it is you, and I need that.

I need that to stay right.

I could go astray very easily if I didn't have that accountability.

But at the end of that message, there ought to be an exhortation.

An exhortation of taking this truth right here.

In fact, the Bible very clearly says in Psalms 9, 17, the wicked shall be turned into hell.

Mark chapter 9, verses 43 through 48.

Mark 9:43–48

When you read it, it says, it'd be better for you to pluck your eye out than to go to hell.

It'd be better to cut your hand off than to go to hell.

You with me?

And then Jesus put it this way in Matthew 10, 28, fear not those who kill the body.

And that's all they can do.

But fear those that, hey, have the power to kill the body and the soul and turn them into hell.

Wow.

Wow.

That's pretty strong.

And then when we go to Luke 16, I will, that's a whole message.

But I just want you to get the gist of it.

The rich man died and went to hell.

You know what he said?

He said, Oh Lord, Abraham, will you send Lazarus?

Remember the rich man died, went to hell, Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom.

What did he say?

Would you go tell my five brothers about this horrible place?

So they won't come here?

Wow.

Wow.

Folks, I don't want anybody to go to hell.

I mean that.

It's real.

It's a place of pain.

The scripture says a place of pain, where the worms never die.

And you know what that word worms there means?

It's the maggots.

Never die.

Place where the fire never ceases to burn.

A place where thirst will be forever and you can't quench it.

That's a horrible place, folks.

Well, that's where the natural man's going if he doesn't come to Christ.

So this morning.

You know what?

You're either a saint or you ain't.

Amen.

And if you're here today and you're a saint, hey, sometimes you ain't all that you want to be.

So whether you're a saint or an ain't, if you're a saint and you want to get better, today's the time.

If you're an ain't, you want to get saved, today's the time.

You that watching online, a lot of you.

I said I'd holler to my buddy, Gary Dillard and Judy.

Gary played steel guitar for the Kingsman for years.

He's got stage four colon cancer.

We're praying for you, buddy.

Love you.

They've been watching us faithfully.

Actually been giving to our church online.

Maybe moving here.

Or back to spoon.

I'm trying to get the loof here.

We love you guys.

And all the other people that are watching right now, we love you.

We love you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

But let me ask you this morning.

Many of us have loved ones and we know them a lot.

Do you want them to go to hell?

Absolutely not.

I'm thinking several people right now.

Been thinking all morning.

I want you to lift them up in prayer.