Message 48 - By Leroy Surface

Carnality: Enemy of God

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  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.  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

I Corinthians 3:1-3

Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth is a case study of carnality in the church.  The apostle says he cannot speak unto them as “unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.”  Jesus says in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  According to these words, we can know that everyone who is “born of God” is “born of the Spirit,” and they “are spirit.”  When the man of God cannot speak to the “spirit” of the children of God, but must speak only to their “flesh,” which is their “human nature,” it is an indication of a serious problem, either in the church, or in the man of God.  In John 6:63, Jesus told His disciples “It is the spirit that quickeneth (makes alive); the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life,” yet many of them could not receive Spirit or Life from the Son of God.   This was the day that many of his own disciples had departed, “to walk no more with Him,” all because of their “unbelief.”  They were like the Jews who, in John 8:30, claimed to believe on Him, but were offended when He told them they would be “made free” from sin, if they continued with Him.  He asked them in John 8:43, “Why do ye not understand my speech?” Then He answers His own question; even because ye cannot hear my word.”   Jesus spoke Spirit and Life, but they were not such as could receive Spirit and Life, so He tells them in the very next verse, “Ye are of your father the Devil” (John 8:44), even though they had once professed to “believe on Him.”

It is one thing when the “children of the Devil” cannot receive the words of life, but when the same situation shows up among “believers” in the house of God, it is tragic.  At Corinth, the problem was not with the apostle, but with the believers.  Paul did not say they were “children of the devil;” in fact, he acknowledged that they were born again, because he called them “babes in Christ.”  Certainly they had been “saved” long enough to be mature children of God, but they were actually “retarded” in their spiritual growth.  Their problem was that they “walked in the flesh,” and were “carnal.”

There was a time I would have said there is no such thing as a “carnal Christian” (which is a conflicting term, in that it contradicts itself) because the word “carnal” speaks of that which is “unregenerate.”  In I John 2:28, the apostle John tells those new born babes in Christ to “abide in him (Christ); that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”  He continues in I John 3:6, “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.”  The “sin problem” developed at Corinth because the congregation did not “abide in Him.”  Instead, they “walked in the flesh,” which simply means they tried to “serve God through their human understanding.”  Paul tells us in Romans 8:13, “If you live after the flesh, you shall die.”  By this we can know that the Corinthian church was in the “process” of dying.

Notice the difference in the messages which Paul sends to the various churches.  He could speak “Spirit and Life” to the church at Ephesus, but not to the churches at either Galatia, or Corinth.  Each of these churches had “begun in the Spirit,” but only Ephesus had “continued in the Spirit,” at least, at the time of the writing of these epistles.  The Galatian church had turned from Christ to “perfect themselves” by the flesh in the Law of Moses, and could no longer receive Spirit and Life from the apostle.  The Corinthian church was one that had “turned the grace of God into lasciviousness,” and was being filled with every sinful activity.  These people had been “born again,” but were well on their way to dying a horrible spiritual death, simply because they did not continue in the Spirit.  Amazingly, they believed themselves to be very spiritual, even “operating” all the spiritual gifts; but they were deceived, and the apostle had to reprove them even in that which they thought was their spirituality.  If the apostle could not speak to them “as unto spiritual,” it was because they were not spiritual, but carnal. 

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Romans 8:6-7

The word “carnal” as used in I Corinthians simply means “pertaining to flesh.”  The word “flesh,” as the apostle Paul uses it in almost all his writings, simply speaks of the “human nature.”  That which is commonly referred to as “the sin nature” is simply the human nature that has been polluted and enslaved by the entrance of sin.  Before Adam disobeyed God, he was a man that was made in the image and likeness of God.  He “breathed” the breath of God, and was adorned with the glory and honor of God (Hebrews 2:7).  He had dominion over everything God had created on earth, and continued in daily fellowship with God until the day he disobeyed God by eating of the forbidden fruit.  In that moment, he lost everything that pertained to life and godliness, and became a slave to sin which entered his heart and nature through disobedience.  It is common thinking among religious people today, that if God took the sin out of their heart and nature, they would be “perfect,” and it would be impossible for them to sin, thereby losing their “free will,” and, in their words, becoming “nothing more than robots.”  If this were true, how did Adam disobey God when he did not, at that time, have a “sin nature?”  When we understand the answer to this question, we will understand more clearly what “carnality” is, and why it is the “enemy of God.”  

Adam had no sin in his heart or nature when he turned away from the “tree of life” and began looking on the “tree of knowledge of good and evil,” which God had forbidden him to eat of.  Adam’s human nature was not polluted or controlled by sin.  He did not have what is called “sin consciousness.” In fact, he did not even know what sin was.  He and Eve were, however, attracted to the beauty, nourishment, and wisdom they found in the forbidden tree.  However that may be, they would never have seen these things if it had not been for “the serpent (the devil; Revelation 12:9),” who enticed Eve to consider the fruit of that tree.  The scriptures tell us that Eve was deceived, but that Adam, her husband, transgressed when he ate of the fruit she offered to him.  In a moment, everything changed.  The “glory of God” departed from them, and they knew they were naked.  Their hearts were filled with fear and shame as they tried to hide from the presence of God among the leaves of the trees.  They were no longer the “image and likeness of God,” but became the “likeness of sinful flesh.”  The “breath of God” departed from them, and they died a spiritual death in that (first) moment of time.  God also separated them from the “tree of life,” and drove them out of the paradise of Eden to toil with their hands and earn their bread by the sweat of their brow.  The paradise of Eden was “lost” to them (and to all mankind) forever.

In the same day that sin entered through the disobedience of Adam, God gave the promise of a “seed of the woman” that would “bruise the head of the serpent” (Genesis 3:14-15).  Four thousand years passed, during which every descendant of Adam wrestled with, and toiled under, the sin that was in their heart and nature through their natural birth.  There were a few, however, like Abraham, who “believed God.”  Among these were Enoch, Noah, and Moses.  Out of their “faith” came the “grace” to love God, obey God, and to “cleave unto Him” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).  Each of these received “grace” to walk with God because they “believed God.”  The scripture  tells us that “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).  Again, we read of them in Hebrews 11:39-40, “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us….”

Jesus was born into this world as “the seed of a woman,” but not of a man, because He was the Son of God, “born of a virgin.”  Isaiah had prophesied, saying, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), which means “God with us.”  Jesus was both “the seed of the woman,” and “the Son (the seed) of God” who came to “bruise the head of the serpent,” which He did through His death on the cross.  Paul confirms this in Hebrews 2:14, saying of Jesus, “…through death, He destroyed he that had the power of death, that is, the devil.”

Jesus did everything necessary, to reconcile and restore fallen man to God through His death on the cross.  The key to understanding this is to understand that the Son of God did not die for Himself, but for us.  He did not die to “take the penalty for our sins,” because that would leave us in our sin, separated from God.  It was not our “punishment” that He bore on the cross, because “justice (and God is just; Romans 3:26)” did not require our punishment, but our redemption.  We were all sinners because of one man’s (Adam’s) disobedience, and that was not “just.”  God gave a decree, found in Romans 5:19, “For as (exactly as) by (through) one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so (in this way also) by (through) the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”  We had no part in being made a sinner by Adam, and we who believe, have no part (other than believing) in our being made righteous by Jesus Christ.  There is, however, something we must understand and believe.  Namely, it is through our death, our burial, and our resurrection in union with Christ that we are reconciled to God.  The apostle Paul tells us that this is something we must “know” if “being made righteous is to be our reality.  “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him…” (this is our death; Romans 6:6).   The Greek word “sun,” which was translated “with” indicates that our “old man” is crucified “in union with” Christ.  Why did our “old man” suffer the cross with Christ?  Paul answers, “…that (meaning, in order that) the body of sin might be destroyed….”  The “body of sin” speaks of sin in its entirety; not just a part (or portion), but the entire “body of sin” was nailed to the cross of Christ.  This speaks, not only of the sins which we have committed, but of “the sin” that entered man’s heart and nature through Adam’s disobedience.  What is the result of our death “with Christ” on His cross?  Again, Paul explains; “…that henceforth we should not serve sin.”  This phrase, given to us by the translators, is a very weak translation.  The Greek text is better understood to say, “…that we would no longer be a slave to sin.”  Paul then gives this conclusion in verse seven, “For he that is dead (in union with Christ) is freed from sin.”

Letter or Spirit?

Many years ago I was preaching a revival in Griffin Georgia.  A preacher by the name of Ray Lowe had started the church and was the pastor at that time.  By every outward indication we were having a successful meeting.  The church was full, and the services were “powerful.”  One night I was preaching a message, laying out, under what I thought was a “heavy anointing,” what the church “should be,” and what it should be “doing.”  While I was preaching my message, the Holy Ghost spoke these words to my heart, “Stop preaching what the church ‘should be,’ and preach what my church ‘is.”  This was about forty one years ago and there was no possibility that I understood what the Spirit had spoken to me.  I tried numerous times to obey the Spirit’s instructions, and soon discovered that I could preach what a child of God “is” in such a way that most would decide they were not a child of God at all.  Many would enter into a struggle to “be a child of God” by trying to “do” what a child of God “does.” The end result was the same as before, with the people continuing to walk in the “gross darkness” described in Romans 7:14-24.    

In II Corinthians 3:6, Paul tells us that God “…hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”  When the KJV translators translated the last phrase of Romans 6:6 to say, “…henceforth we should not serve sin,” they gave us the “letter” of the truth.  No one can deny that what they said was true, but it does not contain the “truth” that will make the believer thereof free from sin.  The words Paul actually used were “words of “Spirit and Life” to those of us who believe them.  We are “…no longer slaves to sin.”  We have died to sin, “with Christ” (again, our death; Romans 6:10-11); we have been “buried with Him” (our burial, Romans 6:4), and have been “quickened (made alive)…together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)” in His resurrection (which is our new birth).  Peter rejoices in these same wonderful things, saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which (who) according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively (living) hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (I Peter 1:3).  These are the essential things we must know and believe if we are to be made free indeed from sin.  We who know and believe the truth of these things, have died to sin, to Satan, to the world, and to the law (of Moses), through death “with Christ;” and we are “born again” in “newness of life” through His wonderful resurrection.

A New Creation

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

II Corinthians 5:17-18

Everyone who is “born of God” is a “new creature.”  We are “reconciled” to God “by Jesus Christ.”  Sin in the heart and nature of the “old man” was the “offence” that separated God and man.  Jesus came into the world as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).  He is “the seed of the woman” which God promised would “bruise the head of the serpent” (Genesis 3:14-15).  He is “the Christ,” whom the entire nation of Israel had expected for over five hundred years to come and “make an end of sins” and “bring in everlasting righteousness” (Daniel 9:24-25).  All of these and dozens more were fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross and raised again the third day to “reconcile us to God.”  The children of God are not only “reconciled” to God, but because they are “new creations,” they have been “restored” to what Adam was when God first created him “in His image, and in His likeness” (Genesis 1:26-27).  There are many who accept the “concept” of “reconciliation,” but reject the idea of “restoration.”  It is true that the “heavens and earth” have not yet been “restored,” but as Peter said, we “according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (II Peter 3:13), even though it will not come until after the great white throne judgment (Revelation 21:1).  There is, however, a “new man” in Christ Jesus, who is everything Adam was before the fall.  The apostle John says, “…ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.  Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him” (I John 3:5-6).   How is it possible that those who “abide in Him” do not sin?  It is because Jesus came to “take away our sin,” and we “abide in Him” in whom there is no sin.

I must get to the point of this message.  Those who Paul addressed in I Corinthians 3:1-3 had been “born again” of the Spirit of God, but Paul said that he could not speak to them as “unto spiritual.”  There was definitely a “sin problem” in the Corinthian church, in spite of the conclusion the apostle John reaches in I John 5:18 when he says, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.”  How do we deal with this “contradiction?”  Most teachers simply throw out John’s message and bring their own conclusion, which is, “…in the real world we know that believers are still sinners, and will sin everyday as long as they live in a body of flesh.”  This is a “cop out,” used by those who refuse to believe the truth.  The struggle described in Romans 7:14-24 is not the “norm” for any child of God.  In fact, that man, if he had ever been “born of God,” had already died a spiritual death, according to Romans 7:9, “…sin revived, and I died.”  The believers at Corinth ended up in their sorry state of existence because they “leaned upon their own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).  They became like those the prophet Hosea spoke of, saying, “And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding…” (Hosea 13:2).  Christ had made those Corinthians “free” from sin in their “new birth,” but they trusted in their human understanding to please God.  When Paul says to the Romans, Romans 8:13, “If ye walk after the flesh, ye shall die,” he is not speaking of a sinful walk, but of a “walk” in human understanding.  Before we were saved, we were slaves to the sin that was in our heart and nature.  Sin pulled us down into that place spoken of in Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me for the body of this death?”  We knew that we were slaves, and could not help ourselves, so we cried out to the “savior,” and He delivered us from the bondage of sin.  Being “born again” of the Spirit of God, we have no sin in our heart and nature.  If “sin” was not taken away, that “person” is not “born of God,” it is just that simple.  Sadly, for many different reasons, many people decide they really do not need the Lord any more.  They are no longer in bondage to destructive habits and the sins that once dominated their lives.  Now they can “take charge” of their own lives without the hindrances of the sin that once destroyed them.  It is in this way that they first begin to “walk in the flesh,” that is, to “walk in their own human understanding.”  Adam was not “walking in the Spirit” when he walked away from the tree of life, to the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  His “human nature” was not yet polluted by indwelling sin, but it was attracted to “other things” (Mark 4:19), in this case the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.”  The “child of God” begins to reason within himself, “I know right from wrong.  I am well able to shun the wrong and do the right,” and they set out to “live” the “good life” through their own human abilities.  It is never “sinful things” that can draw a child of God away from Christ.  The fact is, however, that whenever any person is “drawn away from Christ,” sinful desires will revive in their heart, and they will die a spiritual death.  They may never understand that they have “moved away from Christ.” “NO!” they say, “I would never deny my Lord.”  They become like those who Paul spoke to Titus about; “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him” (Titus 1:16).  They continue to attend church services somewhat regularly, maybe even to pay their tithe.  Many of them teach classes and sing specials from the platform, but it is only a “duty” that they fulfill.  They count everything they do for the church to be their “sacrifice to God,” which God rejected long ago (Isaiah 1:11-15). 

It is only after sin begins to revive in the church that the minister feels the need to preach about “what the church should be, and what it should do.”  Now, flesh is speaking to flesh, and it may appear for a time that the “church,” being condemned by the error of its ways, will “do better.”  However, the reality is, the condition of the church can only continue to deteriorate until someone or something turns it around.  That is what God was beginning in me, those many years ago, when He told me to “Stop preaching what the church ‘should be,’ and preach what my church ‘is.”  I sat under ministries (many years ago) that told me I had to “die to sin” every day that I lived.  They erroneously pointed to the words of Paul in I Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily.”  Paul did not “die to sin” every day, because he “died once” with Christ.  Instead, Paul “died daily” to his humanity, and laid his life down to fulfill the holy calling Jesus had given him immediately after his conversion.  Fifty years ago in a vision from the Lord, I received my “holy calling” when Jesus pointed His finger at me and said, “Ye give them to eat.”  Now, fifty years later, I know that I must seek the Lord daily for the anointing of the Holy Ghost, to “fulfill” that “holy calling” he gave me.  I must “die” to my humanity, and be “renewed day by day” in the Holy Ghost (II Corinthians 4:16) if I am to “finish the course” the Lord has set before me.  It is when preachers “learn how to preach” that the church suffers.  It is when the congregation “learns how to live” that it dies the spiritual death.  Paul understood the truth, that “Christ…is our life” (Colossians 3:4), and that, as Jesus said, “Without me, ye can do nothing.”

Soul and Spirit

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit….

Hebrews 4:12

It is easy, with the Word of God, to “divide” between the soul and spirit.  First we should notice the definition of the Greek words for each.  The word “soul” in the New Testament is translated from the Greek word “psuchē,” which means “breath.”  The Greek word for “spirit” in the New Testament is “pneuma,” which Strong’s Greek Concordance defines as “a current of air, that is, “breath.”  The corresponding words for soul and spirit in the Old Testament are the same, each being a “breath of life.”  It is obvious that none of these are speaking of the “air” we breathe, but of the life principle; the “soul” being the life principle of man and the “spirit” being the life principle that is of God.  The unregenerate person is just like Adam was after his fall, a “soul” that is totally separated from God.  It should be understood that the “soul” is also eternal in nature and will “exist” forever in one state or another, according to whether or not the person has been “born again” of God.  Those who are “born of God” are everything Adam was before his fall, and more, because they are, in the words of Jesus, “born of the Spirit,” and they are “spirit.”  No one is a “spirit,” who has not been “born again” of the Spirit of God.  “Now,” says the apostle John, “(we are) the sons of God” (I John 3:2).

Many people erroneously teach that fallen man is a “triune being,” consisting of spirit, soul, and body.  They define this by saying, “man is a spirit, which has a soul, and lives in a body.”  They are mistaken.  These same teachers believe the “spirit” in fallen man is that part of man which is of God, but lies dormant until it is awakened and developed.  Many years ago, in June of 1970, I attended a service in North Little Rock, Arkansas where Kenneth Copeland was teaching on a subject he had titled, “Becoming Gods.”  He spoke of man being “spirit, soul, and body,” and came to this conclusion:  “God is in every man; God must only be developed in man.”  If this is correct then Jesus was mistaken, when He said “Ye must be born again.” I know that some of the early reformers believed that there is a “spark of God” that remains in every person.  Again, if this is so, then Jesus shed His blood and died on the cross in vain.  The “fall” of Adam was complete.  He lost everything that was of God, His image, His likeness, His glory and honor, and His breath of life.  He became a totally depraved being that would forever walk in darkness and have no fellowship with God.

Even the title of Kenneth Copeland’s message that day was a heresy.  We are not, as Kenneth teaches, “becoming gods.”  We are, however, the “sons of God,” if we have been born again of the Spirit of God, and in the words of Jesus, we are also “spirit.”  There is only one verse of scripture in the entire Bible that mentions “spirit, soul, and body.”  In the Apostle Paul’s prayer for the believers at Thessalonica he says, “…the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thessalonians 5:23).  His prayer is for those who are “born of the Spirit” who are indeed, “spirit, soul, and body.”

Spiritual or Carnal: Which?

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  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.  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

I Corinthians 3:1-3

Paul could not speak to the “believers” at Corinth as “spiritual;” because they were yet “carnal,” even as “babes in Christ.”  The Greek word “nēpios” which was translated as “babes” actually means “not speaking,” and refers to new born babies that have not yet learned to talk.  Even though they can “hear” the “sound of words” (Romans 10:18), they cannot possibly “understand” the things of the Spirit, so the apostle was forced to speak to them on the level of human understanding, and not of the things of the Spirit of God.  In the previous chapter, I Corinthians 2:11, Paul questions the Corinthians, seeking to awaken them to the cause of their carnality; “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man (the ‘spirit of man’ is his soul) which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”  Either they have never received the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost), or, if they have “received,” they are “walking in the flesh,” and not “in the Spirit.”  Paul describes the plight of the carnal in I Corinthians 2:14, saying, “…the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 

The proof that the Corinthian church was carnal is evident, as pointed out by Paul saying, “…for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (I Corinthians 3:3).  Envying, strife and divisions are found only among the carnal; never among those who are truly spiritual.  Wherever these are found, they are the evidence of carnality, and the proof that “believers” are walking “as men” and not “in the Spirit,” as the sons of God walk.  Notice that Paul’s definition of “carnality” is to “walk as men.”  It is the carnal person who will rise up in protest; “but we are men, how else can we walk.”  If you are “born of God,” you are more than just a man; you are a “son of God,” and you can “walk in the Spirit of God.” Your spirit responds to “Spirit,” and not to “flesh.”  In fact, you “hunger and thirst” for “the things of the Spirit.”  Remember that it was Jesus who said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth (gives life); the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). 

Able Ministers of the New Testament

But our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

II Corinthians 3:5-6

It has been true, since the day Adam disobeyed God over six thousand years ago, that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”  When Adam was in the paradise of God, there were two trees that were set before him; the “tree of life,” and the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.”  It was God’s will and purpose that Adam would eat of the tree of life and “live forever” in the paradise that God had prepared for him.  The tree of knowledge of good and evil, on the other hand, was forbidden to him, and God had said, “In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.”  Adam did not have a “sin nature” that drove him to the forbidden tree.  It was, in fact, his human nature that was attracted to the forbidden tree.  It is a sad, but true fact, that most “ministry” in today’s church is focused to attract the human nature, bringing a message much like that which the “serpent” brought to Eve: “In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).  He would tell her what she must “do” to become “as god.”  Such teaching is of “the letter” that “killeth.”

When Moses rehearsed the Law to the children of Israel, just days before the end of his life, he set before the people both “life and death.”  In Deuteronomy 30:15-16 Moses set his law before them, saying, “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.”  This was Moses’ law, and it could not give life; it could only take life from those who disobeyed it.  The Law of Moses was a giant “tree of knowledge of good and evil” that seemed good to those who trusted in it, but the end was always “death,” even to those who trusted it most.

Only two verses later, Deuteronomy 30:19-20, Moses set a “tree of life” before the people, saying, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life….”  Their “life” was not the Law of Moses; their life was the God of Abraham, who had brought their fathers out of Egypt over forty years before.  “He is thy life!”  Their fathers had rejected “life” over forty years before, when they refused to hear the voice of God at Mount Horeb.  They cried out to Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19).  They made their choice that same day.  They chose to hear the voice of man, not the voice of God.  They chose the “letter” that would kill, not the “Spirit” which would give them life. 

It is forty years later, and Moses is speaking to the children of those who had rejected the voice of God at Horeb.  He has set both death and life before them, and pleads with them to choose life.  If they choose the Law of Moses as their fathers had done, it will be cursing and death to them as it was to their fathers.  Nevertheless, they were also given an opportunity to choose “life.” 

Over fifteen hundred years later, the apostle Paul recalls several things about the Law of Moses.  In Galatians 3:19 he tells us why it was given and how long it would be in force; “Wherefore then serveth the law?  It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.”  Israel’s “transgression” was refusing to hear the voice of God, while choosing to hear and obey the words of Moses.  It was by the people’s choice that the Law of Moses was added upon them.  They said to Moses, “Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it” (Deuteronomy 5:27).

Jesus said that the “first (foremost) and great commandment” of Moses law is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37-38).  This is not only the greatest and most important of all the commandments; it is the one that was impossible for the children of Israel to keep.  How is it possible to “love God” when you refuse to hear His voice?  Or, when you are afraid of His presence (Genesis 3:8)?  And, when you don’t love your brother (I John 4:20)? 

The Law of Moses was “added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.”  Paul makes it absolutely clear in Galatians 3:16 that “Christ” is the “seed that should come;” And, that there would be no more “need” for the Law, because “Christ” would come to “finish the transgression” and to “make an end of sins” (Daniel 9:24-25).  The Law of Moses was never intended to be a blessing upon the children of Israel; it was instead a “curse” that was brought upon them because of their transgression at Horeb.  Paul writes in Galatians 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”   Again, the apostle writes in Galatians 3:13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” 

Choose Life

There was no possibility that the children of Israel could escape the commands and ordinances of the Law of Moses.  The law would be in place until Christ, “the redeemer (Isaiah 59:20)” would come.  They could, however, “believe God,” as their father Abraham had believed God.  They could “choose life” and live under the blessing of Abraham.  God had made a promise to their fathers only three days before He spoke to them in an audible voice from Mount Horeb.  He told Moses to tell them, “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).  These great and precious promises were lost to those who first heard them, because they refused to hear the voice of God; but they are never lost to those who will simply hear and “believe God.”

I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life….

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

In Deuteronomy 30:16, Moses said, “I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God….”  Three verses later (verse 19-20), he pleads with them to “…choose life…that thou mayest love the LORD thy God.”  In verse sixteen, he commanded them to “walk in His ways, and keep His commandments.”  And again, in verses 19-20 he says, “…choose life…that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him….”

In every generation since Adam, it has been those who have “heard His voice” and “believed God” that have “chosen life.”  They have found that “His yoke is easy, and His burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).  Serving God becomes a great joy to them as they receive “grace” from God Himself to “love,” to “obey,” and to “cleave.” 

History repeats itself: Adam chose “knowledge of good and evil” over “life,” and found that “the way of the transgressor is hard” (Proverbs 13:15; Acts 9:5).  The children of Israel made the same choice, choosing the Law of Moses over the voice of God, and brought a curse upon themselves.   This same error has been repeated millions of times over as people continue to choose “knowledge of good and evil” over “life,” “law” over “grace,” and “letter” over “Spirit and Life.” 

Letter or Spirit?

Paul tells the Corinthian church, “I could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal…” (I Corinthians 3:1).  The tenor of what it means to “speak unto the carnal” is shown repeatedly throughout Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians.  I will give a short litany of their carnality for an example:

It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.                           

I Corinthians 1:11

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

I Corinthians 3:1

Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?  now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

I Corinthians 4:7

I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.         

I Corinthians 4:14

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

I Corinthians 5:1

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

I Corinthians 6:1

But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.  Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?  Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

I Corinthians 6:6-8

What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

I Corinthians 6:16

The “tenor” of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is one of rebuke and reproof.  Their only “relationship” with the Lord was through “human effort.”  They could not receive the things of the Spirit of God; neither could the apostle speak them, because the congregation was carnal, and “walked as men.” 

While the church at Corinth was an example of “lasciviousness” which comes from carnality, the church at Galatia was an example of “legalism,” which is also rooted in carnality.  We will see the tenor of Paul’s letter to them also.

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

Galatians 1:6

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

Galatians 3:1

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Galatians 3:3

Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

Galatians 4:8-9

I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Galatians 4:11

Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

Galatians 4:16

Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Galatians 5:4

Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

Galatians 5:7

But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Galatians 5:15

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Galatians 6:7

We may read these epistles, but if we do not understand the matter of carnality and spirituality, we could believe that these churches are the normal of what the Christian experience is.  We see fornicators in the Corinthian church, so “what is the big deal if there are fornicators in our churches?”  Some believe the Corinthian church was the most “spiritual” of all the New Testament churches because of the “gifts of the Spirit” which Paul wrote about in chapters twelve and fourteen of I Corinthians.  The reality is that the Corinthian church was the most carnal of all the churches.  It was a church that was dying the spiritual death.  False teachers and false apostles were involved in its ministry.  Another gospel was being heard, and another spirit was being received (II Corinthians 11:4).  Paul even warns in the same verse, about “another Jesus” that was being preached at Corinth.  If they could not be “turned” at the reproof of the apostle, and “return” to the same gospel of Christ that Paul preached, they would shortly cease to be a church.  How sad is this prospect?

Words of Spirit and Life

Jesus said, “The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).  No one but the spiritual, on the one hand, or those who know they are lost, on the other hand, can receive such words.  The “carnal” absolutely cannot!  Harlots and publicans came to the words of Jesus, and found them to be spirit and life.  They were delivered by His word.  The scribes and Pharisees, according to Jesus in John 8:43, could not even hear His word.  It is very unusual to find those who can receive words of “Spirit and Life” today because of the “pollution” carnal religion that has blinded the minds and closed the ears of the people.  It is not a strange thing that in atheistic nations, like communist China, there is a hungering and thirsting for the words of life; words that have been rejected in “Christian America.”

Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus gives a good example of those things of the Spirit that can be spoken to the spiritual.  It was a good church in the day Paul wrote his epistle to them.  I will give one more “litany;” words of “spirit and life” which the apostle spoke to them. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace….

Ephesians 1:3-7

Notice that Paul’s words to the Ephesians are not “measured words” as he spoke to Galatia and Corinth.  They seem to “gush forth” out of a fountain of life.  It is the Spirit, speaking through the apostle to the “spirit” of the Gentile believers at Ephesus.  Paul established that they had been “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” after they had first believed.  They continued in the Spirit, and the apostle was able to speak to them “as unto spiritual,” words of “spirit and life.”  These “words” could not be given at either Corinth or Galatia.  There is very little, if any, “reproof” in his letter to the Ephesians.  

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints (is), And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,  which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Ephesians 1:15-23

Notice Paul’s first prayer for the Ephesians; that they would “know” the hope, the inheritance, and the power of their calling.  There is a expectation of receiving, because these believers are spiritual; not carnal.  He gives them an understanding in verse twenty three that the “church” is the “body of Christ” upon this earth, and is, “…the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”  The churches in Galatia and Corinth had no expectation whatsoever of ever becoming such.  That is not what they were, and certainly not the “way God saw them.”

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Ephesians 2:1

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Ephesians 2:5-6

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain (2) one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

Ephesians 2:14-18

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:19-22

The next reference is Paul’s second prayer for the saint’s at Ephesus, which concludes with these words; “that ye might be filled with (into) all the fullness of God.”  Oh, how marvelous the thought!  But it is more than a “thought;” it is the reality of what is prepared for those who “love Him (I Corinthians 2:9)” and “wait upon Him” (Isaiah 64:4).

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Ephesians 5:30

The Christ

Over five hundred years before Jesus was born, God sent the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel with the promise of one called “The Messiah (the Christ),” who would come “to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness.”  The “revelation” of “the truth that makes men free” is that Jesus of Nazareth is “the Christ” whom Gabriel said would come.  Jesus never told His disciples that He was “the Christ,” but they received that understanding by revelation from “the Father” of Jesus Christ, “which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-17).  It was Peter who first dared to say it out loud, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  With that understanding, Peter knew that Jesus was “sent from God” to “make an end of sins.”

The Son of the Living God

Immediately after sin entered into the world through Adam’s disobedience (Romans 5:12, 19), God gave the promise of a “seed of the woman” who would bruise the head of the serpent.  When Peter and the other disciples first met Jesus, they assumed that He was the son of Joseph the Carpenter.  This is shown in the words of Philip when he first carried the wonderful news of “The Christ” to Nathanael.  The scripture, John 1:45, says that “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  That same year, the entire Jewish nation was expecting the appearance of “The Messiah (The Christ),” whom they believed to be a man who would be born in the royal line of David (as Jesus was), and would restore the throne of David in Jerusalem.  The Jews refused, however, to believe that their “Messiah” would be anything more that a great Jewish Rabbi, who would come to fulfill all that was spoken of him in the law and prophets, as filtered through their traditions. 

It was Jesus who first hinted at the truth of whose “son” Christ would be.  Without telling them that He was “the Christ,” He asked the Pharisees one day, “What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?”  They answer, “The Son of David.”  He responds to their answer with two more questions, and in so doing He confounded the Pharisees to the point that they could not answer; neither did they dare to ask Him any more questions.   His first follow up question was, “How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?” And His second; “If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” (Matthew 22:42-45).  Verse forty six tells us “...no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.”  The Pharisees knew very well the scripture that Jesus was referring to (Psalm 110:1). 

Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

This was a very obscure prophecy that could not be fully understood until after the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Paul says this, in Romans 1:3-4; “Concerning his (God’s) Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”  If an unmarried virgin (like Mary), who was promised in marriage (betrothed; engaged), but, had never “known a man” (Luke 1:34-35), conceived by the Holy Ghost, and gave birth to a son; that son would be the “seed” of a woman, but not the seed of a man.  Jesus was conceived of the Holy Ghost, (which He refers to in Matthew 10:20, as “the Spirit of your Father”), and as such, He was the “seed” of God.  If we understand that Jesus is “The Son of the Living God,” then we know that He is also “The Seed of the Woman,” who, through death on the cross, “bruised the head of the serpent (the devil).”  This is what Paul makes reference to when he writes in Hebrews 2:1, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.”

John the Baptist received the revelation that Jesus is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  The apostle Paul received the revelation of the gospel which details how Jesus did all He was sent to do through His death on the cross and resurrection the third day.  Through death, He “bruised the head of the Serpent,” and thus “destroyed the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).  It was through His death on the cross that He “reconciled us (all who believe) to God” (Romans 5:10).  We are “baptized into His death (Romans 6:3)” where our “old man is crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6).  According to Peter, we are “born again” by “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3).  Being “born of God,” the apostle John says, “…now are we the sons of God…” (I John 3:2).  We are a “new creation” (II Corinthians 5:17).  The prophet Ezekiel foretold that we would have a “new heart and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 36:26), and even promised that God would put “His Spirit” in us (verse twenty seven).  Paul says we “have the mind of Christ” (I Corinthians 2:16), while Peter says we “are made partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4), and John says “…when He shall appear, we shall be like Him” (I John 3:3), and further explains our “…boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world” (I John 4:17).

Conclusion

Paul gave the definition of carnality in the text for this message: “…are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”  No one on this earth has the opportunity that God has set before His children.  We can “walk” as “sons of God” because we have been “born of the Spirit of God;” or we can “walk as men” because we have been “born of the flesh.”  Paul told the Galatians, “…thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7).  Why would the sons and heirs of God choose to receive their inheritance from men?  That is the question Paul asked the Galatians.  “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?” (Galatians 4:8-9).  Oh, people!  Hear the voice of God!  Believe the report that God has given of His Son!  Turn to Him with all your heart, and abide in Him always.  If you will seek to be “filled with His Spirit,” and come into His presence every day of your life, you will “walk in the Spirit” and enjoy all the wonderful riches of Christ each and every day of your life upon this earth.

 

Message 48 - By Leroy Surface - Carnality, Enemy of God 

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