1 Corinthians (6)

3rd class citizens

In this passage Pual addresses the third class of people

2:13 -16

He talked about the first two classes of people Spiritual and Natural

Spiritual people are able to hear from God to receive the deep things of God and they are able to discern and to judge all things . PS 150:7-9

Then he talks about the natural man the lost man the alogians sometimes refer to as the animal man.

He can't communicate with God he can't receive the things of God he cant know them they are spiritually discerned.

And all of humanity is in one of those two groups.

2 kinds of people in this world saved and lost.

Now he further subdivides it down and he gives you a third class of people.

The carnal man.

He is a believer babes in Christ.

But he is carnal so two classes of believes as well carnal and spiritual.

Which one am I ?

Most of us are not the natural man we have been saved we can communicate with God

So I am either the carnal man

Or the spiritual man

Or I cassalate in between depending on the weather.

Now here is the thing most difficult people do not know they are difficult.

And most carnal people do not know they are carnal.

Carnal comes from the word sarkinos sarx wich is flesh

It means they are fleshy

Carnival was started in the days of lend it meant farewell flesh.

So it is a fleshy christian

When we were lost that is all we knew we were in the flesh and they that are in the flesh cannot please God

Our experience as lost men was one of flesh we did not have any idea we had a soul and we were more than a body.

Lots of christians still live that way.

They still live like they are a body with a soul and they don't live like they are a soul with a body

If their body is ugly they think they are ugly

They still have not learned this truth though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

We do not know the desire of the soul verses the desire of the body.

I thirst for you Lord

I hunger for you Lord

We do not know how those hunger pangs feel.

We know when we are hungry for food but we cannot recognize when we are hungry for God.

Thirsty for water but thirst for God we do not know how to recognize it.

And when we live that way we are not living the Life God wants us to live.

We are in that third class of people carnal.

So how do I recognize it ?

Their carnality

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

We can recognize it when we have to be spoken to in a certain way

Just like God can't talk to the natural man Paul could not talk to the carnal man.

It is not that God cant speak to them. It is muffled

And they do not understand it all the time

Or they fail to grasp the gravity and the importance.

Paul is talking to them carefully

He has to choose his words carefully.

You ever hear I am trying to be careful how I say it.

There is a difference between being careful and being kind not being rude.

And having to tiptoe

Walk on thin ice

Beat around the bush

If I am carnal there are certain things Paul can't say to me

I can't handle them.

I can't hear them it is two much for me.

If you are easily moved to emotions by what people say than they will start being careful around you.

When people have to be careful around me

Because they might set me off

When they have to avoid certain topics or the day will go south.

Do people have to be careful around me?

Does my husband or wife withhold information from me because of my reaction to it ?

Are there things I just can't bear and will not listen to or will not think about ?

Look we all know who we have to be careful around.

So there is a cranilty there.

Paul said I should be able to speak the things of God freely but I cant because you can't bear it.

We have gotten to a point in the body of Christ were what the preacher cannot preach on without causing problems is bigger list than what he can preach on.

Look we need to stop with the carnality

Know where we stand with God and not get offended if someone is wrong we disagree with them or a pastor says something that we disagree with.

Listen it is not possible to have a preacher come in that will not say something contrary to what I believe or what you believe.

So we can be careful and limit our exposure or we can stop being carnal.

Carnal people limit what they will hear

They did a study on big data and how conservative the population was determined how conservative the paper was.

The same media companies that won liberal papers own conseravtive papers

And the determining factor is the population because people do not want to hear opposing opinions.

Fox news did not make people conservative they just found the ones that were and talked to them.

If we are carnal we do not like to hear what we disagree with because it makes us think and we do not want to think we want to focus on our appetites.

The old preacher man taught us trying to teach you how to think and be secure in that He said I am going to have people come speak to you that we disagree with so you will know how to answer them

We had all kinds of people come to class.

We can recognize it when were are like babies

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

I had to talk to you like carnal people

Like babies

Had to have the right tone.

More worried about how you said it than what you said.

Babies can't control their emotions

They cry easily

They are very fragile

They have a huge need for entertainment.

They think I exist to make them happy

Babies do what ?

For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

They focus on the insignificant

They have an affinity for division.

He was making faces at me. And they were earth shattering.

They are always presenting to me their side of the case.

And they are all convising

But they never give the whole story

And they always keep going further back to justify their aggression.

It is really overwhelming and confusing and I can see both of their points so I usually just punish them both for causing me grief.

I would not have been a good judge.

I have an easy time finding out were both of them are wrong and were they need to grow but exacting out a sentence is not easy.

I have tried to standardize it. But it constantly needs to be updated.

Immature christians want to assign blame

Mature christians want to assume blame

I did it maturing when they take accountability.

Babes have strife

Mark of carnality

Do you have strife at home ?

Do you have strife at work?

Do you have strife at school ?

It is a mark of carnality.

Divisions

God did not create divisions in the church man did.

They did it by Paul and apollos.

The only example I have of this is the two places I have been amish

And independent baptist.

Lewis and simon over buggy wheels collars and buttons and chainsaws.

Personality prevailed rather than reason or doctrine.

And independent baptist. It pains me to have the conversation where did you go to school.

Just like it does not make a difference were you went to elementary school it does not make a difference were you went to bible school.

That is determined by geography and who your pastor was usually.

Who are you Do you love God ? We are not enemies. The battle is out there not here.

It is not good to think of yourself as better nor to make enemies out of other christians.

That is a mark of carnality.

And as we grow we recognize that.

And most of the times it is preachers that need to grow in this area, not the members.

Most of you have no problems loving christians you work with.

All this division does is hurt you and the body of Christ

We do not have to be the same.

Most of the books that have helped me grow in my marriage in my family as a pastor as a preacher. Were written by people that were not independent baptist.

Did not use the same bible I have.

If you go on our recommended reading sources you will find a disclaimer and a whole lot of help.

Dave ramsey for getting out of debt gettin on a budget is great he does not use the kjv. But he will help you.

The best people to help you with your marriage are not independent baptist. And we have created an environment that it is less damage to suffer in our marriage than it would be to have them in.

What is that carnality time to grow up.

And that is ok for a time.

Nothing wrong with being a baby.

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.

But it is wrong to stay that way these guys should have grown a little by this time

They been saved 4-6 years

And he had an expectation of maturity at that time.

When I read the bible and I read church history men like branard and mccheyne I think in our modern era we have arrested development.

The spiritual maturity of those men that died before thirty was in many ways beyond my own even now.

Every generation now matures slower than the last one no in areas of sin but in areas of responsibility.

Most people had wife job and a church and a few kids by thirty back in the day now we hope they will move out of our house by thirty.

And in the church most young christians do not think I want to be a deacon I want responsibility.

When kids are young they fight

They are selfish.

They cry when you tell them the truth.

But you are not supposed to stay that way.

Something is wrong arrested development

we can recognize it by our diet.

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.

Do you have a baby diet?

Do you still have to have it all ground up for you and processed down to were you just have to swallow you do not even have to chew.

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

1Pe_2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

Milk is the starting point in your chrstian life I am a sinner Christ died for me I trust that and he saves me.

Milk is about what God has done in your life

Christ died for me

Meat Christ lives in me

From what he has done for me to what he wants to do with me what he is doing with me.

Future growth.

There is more to the christian life than salvation that is the starting point.

That is were babies stay that is all they know and all they want to know.

What is your diet ? is it studying your birth re reading your birth certificate or have you went forward and learned your purpose your responsibilities ?

With babies you tell them about salvation and tell them what they want to hear

What they already know and do not give them new ideas they will choke on that

Just go over and over the same thing

Like teaching a child math. Sometimes they cant get it sometimes they do not want to get it sometimes they need a whipping or a break.

Their Cure 3:5-8

A proper diet for one

Proper diet Paul’s rebuke was step in the right direction.

They took it.

Learning the hard truth

For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?

And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.

Forgive the Sinner

But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.

Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.

So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.

Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.

For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.

For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.

Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.

Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

But furthermore

Proper view of self

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

servant , busboy

How many monuments and statues and buildings are named after buss boys and waiters.

We are just servants

If paul and apollos are just servants how much more you and I

That is littlerall how he viewed himself

Christ to

Bow tie and serving platter.

And furthermore God gave every man a servant

I am yours but he has many many of them. I am not special I am a servant and there are thousands of busboys thousands of waiters in thousands of restaurants

I am yours that is all.

That is all I am nothing special other than the fact that I am your servant here at this church And God gave me to you. And he gave me to you

And he gave us to this body. Just serve were he put us.

Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

Farmer,

Farmer no one looks as as special besides himself or another farmer.

Always referred to as lowly simple farmers

All I am doing is planting watering

Are one

I am a family man we are one

Paul and apollos we are one.

How many of you have been ministered two by a preacher on TV or the internet or a cassette ?

Or another pastor ?

We are one working for the same God. If you got help it was God.

We are a family

That reduces carnality when you stop viewing as me versus him

Us versus them

And start looking at it as a team effort.

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Proper view of God He is the one does the changing

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

He makes the seed he gives me the seed

He makes the earth the water the soil

I just plant he does the rest I am dependant on him.

That will help you grow depending On god

Proper view of The judgment own reward.

Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

Talk about this next week

But The cure is this I have to stand before god

No one is there to point fingers at

I think only children understand this

No one to blame

Listen up there there is no one to blame

If I did not work I will not get a reward

Live in light of the judgment