Carnal Christian: What 1 Cor. 3 Does Teach

The Fallacy of Unscriptural Assurance and the Birthmarks of a True Christian

0:00 This is the second in a series on an expose of the carnal Christian theory. If you have not listened to the first side of this tape, I advise that you do so in order to get the flow and continuity of the truth as I've sought to present it in these two messages.

0:20 As we have been studying together the book of 1st John, 1st Epistle of John, we have been viewing it from the standpoint that this book sets before us, among other things, the spiritual birthmarks of the true child of God. These things which John says will always be present wherever and whenever God has done a saving work in the heart of a man or woman. Now one of the great fallacies in the thinking of our present day evangelical circles, believing churches and groups, is that we have come to view the matter of the doctrine of assurance in a completely unscriptural way. People have said, well, if you know you believe Jesus died for your sins, therefore you can be assured you're a Christian. And assurance is based upon the acceptance of a certain doctrine or the certain statement of Scripture, and the person is never encouraged to view himself, his assurance from the biblical standpoint, that standpoint that John gives us. I study what the Bible says about a real Christian.

1:38 And when the Bible describes what a real Christian is, I can know that I'm saved by examining my life in the light of what the Scripture says. Assurance is then based not upon some subjective feeling, or upon some subjective thing that I have, or upon some subjective thing that I call my trust in Jesus. But here's an objective standard. John says, Hereby do we know that we know him, if, what?

2:08 We keep his commandments. There's an objective standard, obedience to Jesus Christ. He gave us the standard of light. If we say we know him and walk in darkness, we lie and we do not the truth.

2:23 John says, He that is born of God, and then he gives us the indication, of that birth. Now, we have come in our study, and have concluded the fourth birthmark of the true Christian, as found in 1 John chapter 3, verses 1 through 10. And in that passage, the meaning is unmistakably clear, that a true child of God cannot and will not be at home in the realm of sin. John says, He that is born of God does not commit or make a practice of sin.

2:57 If he sins, he's out of his element. He is disturbed and restless until he's back in the way of holiness. John is not speaking of a perfection of attainment in holiness. For then he would contradict what he said in chapter 1.

3:13 He that saith he hath no sin, John says, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. If a man say, I have not sinned, John says, that man is deceived. So John is not contradicting himself. The true child of God is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

3:27 The true child of God is honest about his sin. The true child of God is honest about his failures and his faults. But the true child of God is not content with his failures and with his faults. The true child of God is never at home in the realm of sin.

Exposing the Carnal Christian Theory: Attitudes and Results

3:46 Now, there is abroad in our day a teaching which has nullified the clear, clear statements in 1 John chapter 3. We began to examine it last week, and because last week's message and this week's message are a vital unit, I'm going to take, as I usually do, a few minutes to review. This is absolutely necessary so that we can view the thing as a whole. Now, there is in our day this teaching that I have called, for the sake of labeling it, the carnal Christian theory.

4:19 And it goes like this, that there are three groups of people, the natural man, the unsaved man, the spiritual man, the man or woman who is born again, and finished, the spiritual man, the man or woman who is born again, and finished, the spiritual man, the man or woman who is born again, and finished, the spiritual man, the man or woman who is born again, and finished, filled with the spirit, and then the carnal man, whom they say is born again but you never know it. He has no evidences of spiritual life. He lives in attachment to the world and to the flesh. But because he has trusted Jesus, he is assured that he is saved.

4:44 Now, last week we approached this whole doctrine from this standpoint. We first of all analyzed the attitudes that it has created in the minds of many. They are twofold. It's created this attitude that the salvation of my soul and the transformation of my life are not necessarily joined. I can have a saved soul and still have an untransformed life. This is not the biblical teaching. My Bible says if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The salvation of the soul and the transformation of the life are always united. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good work. It's created a second attitude in our Christian circles, and that is

5:35 that holiness is not necessary. It's to be recommended, but it's not absolutely required. Now, when I use the word holiness, let me define myself. I'm not talking about an experience. I'm talking about obedience to the will of God as revealed in the Word of God. Holiness is conformity to the character of God. Be ye holy as I am holy. That holiness consists of conformity of thought and mind and will and desire to the Word of God and to the Son of God.

6:10 Now, holiness is either optional or it's absolutely essential. Now, what does the Bible teach? The Bible says, without holiness no man shall see the Lord. The Bible declares that holiness — is a necessary proof that we have been born of the Holy Spirit.

6:29 Then we looked at the results that this doctrine of what I've called the carnal Christian doctrine has created. It has created, first of all, a multitude of people who are convinced that they are saved, but who are at home in the realm of sin. People who can unblushingly state, Oh, I'm saved, but I'm just a carnal Christian. Any doctrine that makes people feel at home in the realm of sin is not a biblical doctrine.

7:00 For after Paul had laid out the doctrine that we're justified by grace through faith and there's no works involved, he says, shall we then continue in sin that grace may abound? And what was his answer? God forbid. God forbid.

7:17 No Bible doctrine rightly understood will ever make a man feel content in the realm of sin. If there were no other reason, I'd know that this carnal Christian doctrine as it's taught in our day was not a biblical doctrine because it's created a whole generation of people in our fundamental churches who are content in the realm of sin and content with their present measure of spirituality. And then it's created a terrible blight in the pulpit. It's created a generation of preachers who are afraid to preach the clear teaching of 1 John.

7:53 They're afraid to preach on text. They're afraid to preach on text like this. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. They're afraid to preach on text like this.

8:06 And being made perfect, speaking of Christ, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him. Anything that makes man afraid to preach such clear statements of the word of God cannot be of God. Then as we closed, we were dealing in a two-fold way with this matter from the Scriptures. We always approach the Scriptures convinced that they don't contradict themselves and secondly, that the obscure should be interpreted in the light of the clear.

Clear Scriptural Refutation of the Carnal Christian Theory

8:38 We looked at the clear passage. 1 John chapter 3, which so clearly states, he that is born of God does not make a practice of sin because his seed remaineth in him and he cannot practice sin because he's born of God. 1 John chapter 3 states that the child of God is basically, one who pants after the way of holiness. Then we looked at Romans chapter 6, which says we have two masters.

9:04 Either our master is sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. We looked at Romans 8, it says there's only two spheres, either the realm of the flesh or the realm of the spirit. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. If ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live.

9:23 Then we looked into Galatians chapter 5, verses 19, 19 to 21 said this is the realm of the flesh. Adultery, fornication, murder, theft, anger, wrath. They who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Then we looked at the realm of the spirit, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.

9:44 And what's the next verse say? And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts thereof. If we belong to Christ, we have been basically liberated from the realm of flesh and been brought into the realm of the spirit. I did not say perfectly liberated, nor completely liberated, but basically liberated from the realm of the flesh into the realm of the spirit.

10:10 Now these four passages clearly teach that no man can claim he's a child of God if he's at home in the realm of sin. Now remember, my definition of sin is a Bible one. Sin is the transgression of the law. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

10:31 To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. If you willfully, knowingly are omitting duties, if you willfully, knowingly are partaking of things that are doubtful, if you're willfully, knowingly transgressing some clear precept of God and you're not disturbed, you're not concerned, you don't feel unclean, then the Bible says you are a man or woman who is practicing sin. And you've never been born of God. This is the clear teaching of these passages.

Contextualizing 1 Corinthians 3: The Corinthian Church Before and After Conversion

11:02 But now you say, well, Pastor, what does Paul mean when he says in 1 Corinthians 3, ye are yet carnal? That's in the Bible. Yes, it is, and I'm not afraid of it. But I have wanted to lay a solid Bible background of the clear teaching that holiness is essential, not optional.

11:20 That the transformation of a life and the salvation of the soul are always together. Now we move to the problem passage. This passage that has given birth to this doctrine that I have called the carnal Christian doctrine. And we find it stated in 1 Corinthians 3.

11:40 So let's turn, shall we, to 1 Corinthians. When you've found the book of 1 Corinthians, just leave your Bibles open to that place, if you will. We're just going to pause for a moment of prayer and ask God to open up this passage to us. By the spiritual illumination, we might know that, in fact, we've been taught of God this morning.

12:06 Shall we look to Him in prayer now? Our Father, we take into our hands Thy word. We recognize that there is no Scripture of private interpretation. Our responsibility is not to make the Scriptures mean what we want them to mean, but to find out what Thou didst mean when they were given.

12:29 So help us. We feel our need of Thee. Come, Holy Spirit, and illuminate our minds and minister to us in this hour. In Jesus' name, amen.

12:45 Now here is the passage, 1 Corinthians 3, basically verses 1 through 4. 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 now are ye yet able. For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying, strife, divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?

13:15 For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not yet carnal? You'll notice in the American Standard Version, in all your newer versions, since we've gotten more manuscripts, this last word should not be carnal, but men. Are ye not men? Now here's the passage.

13:34 What does it teach? We cannot understand 1 Corinthians 3, verses 1 through 4, and what they teach, until first of all we lay a solid groundwork for the passage. Now this morning, I'm going to ask you to think. I can't make this any more interesting than I've tried to, and I can't make it glamorous, but if you value your soul, and the souls of your children, and the souls of men and women in this church, then I beg of you to listen carefully.

14:06 We're going to consider what the Corinthians were before the gospel came to them. What happened when the gospel came to them, and then what happened after they were formed into a church and were saved by the grace of God. Now what were the Corinthians like before the gospel ever came to them? We're told in reading some of the history of that day that Corinth was a port city, sort of a gateway of traffic, commercial traffic, between the east and the west of the then known world.

14:42 It's said of that city that was commercial in spirit, unwarlike, luxurious, and licentious. The city was so known for its loose living that a word was actually coined which meant to Corinthianize. It meant to make wicked and foul and depraved. This city had the reputation in its day that perhaps Sodom and Gomorrah had in one sense in their day.

15:13 When you think today of a city like Paris, you think of flowing wine, and you think of loose living and the cabarets and everything else. This is the thinking. Now this is not true of every Parisian. If anyone from Paris is the Frenchman, don't go out insulted this morning.

15:29 But I'm trying to make this live to you. The town of Corinth was known for its filth and its debauchery. Paul gives a hint of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Notice that he said this after mentioning certain ones that will not inherit the kingdom of God.

15:45 Let's look at it together. 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Be not deceived, the middle part of the verse, neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind. Verse 10, 6, 10.

15:57 Thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. So when Paul came to Corinth, as we'll see in a little bit, he did not come to a city that we would say is an ideal situation for the gospel to prosper. He came to a city that had all the hustle and bustle of a port city and all the filth and the immorality that usually characterizes a port city.

16:22 This was what Corinth was like. Here were men and women, Romans, Greeks, and then some Jews. That's why there was a synagogue there and there were Jews there who were adherents of the way taught by Moses in the Old Testament Scriptures. This is what the city was.

Interpreting 'Carnal' in 1 Corinthians 3: Specificity, Not General State

16:41 Now, what happened or what did they become by the grace of God? In Acts chapter 18, we won't bother to turn to it, Paul on his second missionary journey was led of God to go to Corinth. And when he came there, God encouraged him and said, in essence, don't be discouraged, Paul. I have much people in this city.

17:00 And it says that under his ministry many believed. And he stayed there about 18 months ministering the word of God. Now, what happened? When he ministered the word of God?

17:11 What occurred under the preaching of Paul? Let's look now to chapter 2. Here's the city, a wicked city, given over to its immorality. Many of those whom God was going to save were in this same condition.

17:28 Paul comes among them, chapter 2, verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony, of God. For I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling.

17:49 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. You say, Pastor, you've departed from chapter 3. What's chapter 3 mean?

18:06 Hold back a minute now. Hold back. You won't understand chapter 3 apart from what I'm giving you. So be patient.

18:13 Paul said, here I came among you. I came not with the bombasty and the cocky confidence of the modern evangelist, with his yarn of jokes and his cute little psychological tricks to get people feeling happy and then feeling sentimental and dragging them down an aisle and getting them to pray a little prayer. Paul says, no, no, that wasn't me. He said, when I came among you, I came with fear and trembling.

18:41 He said, I had but one message. I preached the message about a bloody cross and a bloody Savior and what His death has purchased for sinners. And he says, when I preached, I did not stand in my own strength, but you Corinthians know that I preached in the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. And when you responded, he says, you didn't respond to my rhetoric and my fancy talk.

19:08 You didn't respond to my cunning persuasions. You responded to the power of God that you felt when I preached. Paul says, remember it? And of course every Corinthian had to say, sure do, Paul.

19:21 When you preached, I felt the powers of the world to come. I knew I wasn't dealing with you, that I was dealing with Almighty God. So when it says in Acts 18 that many believed, it makes a tremendous difference how we read it. Many believe.

19:36 Under what kind of a ministry? The typical evangelistic ministry of our day with the horn tooting, bell ringing, joke telling, evangelism, not on your life, but under the ministry of a little hook-nosed Jew who stood in the power of the Holy Ghost and preached the offense of the cross and preached Jesus. Paul says, when I preached, something happened. And as a result, God called out sinners to Himself.

20:04 And Paul's heart rejoices when he thinks of what happened. We go back to chapter 1 now, verse 4. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. Paul says, I have continual praise and gratitude because first of all, it was evident that what happened to you, Corinthians, happened by the grace of God.

20:29 No explanation, but divine, supernatural grace. Now, what are some of the things that happened? Verse 5. That in everything ye are enriched, by Him in all utterance and in knowledge.

20:43 Paul says there was clear evidence that the Holy Spirit came and laid hold of some of you. There was evidence of this in your utterance and in your knowledge. There was evidence that the Spirit of God had given them insight to spiritual truth. Verse 6.

21:01 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in or among you. Paul said, when I preached, the testimony concerning Jesus was confirmed. There was evidence that God did a work in your midst. Verse 7.

21:16 So that ye came behind in no gift. They were not only born of the Spirit, but they went on and appropriated the gifts of the Spirit. And then he says, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was evidence that these people lived in the expectancy of the Lord's return, which always is a purifying, every man that hath this hope does what?

21:39 Purifies. It's always an activating thing. When we expect His return, we will occupy till He comes. Now notice the clear evidences that God had done a saving work here at Corinth.

21:52 Paul comes in the power of the Holy Ghost into an immoral city, and he preaches Jesus. The grace of God is manifested. People are born again. Gifts of the Spirit begin to be exercised and given.

22:06 The testimony of Christ is confirmed. The expectation of His return becomes a living reality. There was evidence that the grace of God did something, and God had called out a people and put them on the highway of holiness, caused them to be indwelt by the Spirit, and they had a good start, a wonderful start. Now, what happened along the way?

22:31 Here's the problem. Paul's been away now for some time, and he receives word, look closely now at verse 11, for it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you says, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Christ, and he goes on to say, this is foolish. Is Christ divided?

22:56 Did Paul die for you? And the answer, of course, is no. And then he reverts to this problem again in chapter 3. I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but unto carnal, for there is division among you.

23:08 Now before we examine it, I want you to see the principle. What were the Corinthians before Paul came? They were like other unsaved men, some of them given over to licentious, immoral living, backbiting and cursing, and others probably religious and moral, but unsaved. Paul comes, and the grace of God is manifested.

23:30 Sinners are saved. There are positive evidences that a work of grace has been done. They begin to walk, in the pathway of holiness and obedience, but then something happens. And in their progress of sanctification, something arrested this progress.

23:49 Paul receives word that they've begun to be divided, and they've begun to break off into little sects and into little groups, claiming, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos. So Paul is going to deal with this problem. Later on it's clear that he'd heard that a man there was living in an immoral, incestuous relationship. He's going to deal with this problem.

24:12 He's understood that they have some questions about marriage. He's going to deal with this problem. They haven't paid their missionary pledge, so he's going to deal with that problem. Tell them to take up their collections, send it down to the saints at Jerusalem.

24:25 Now he comes to deal with this problem of divisions. So what does he do? All right, now we come to chapter 3. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual.

24:37 Now, what does this word mean, as unto spiritual? Does he mean, I could not speak unto you as unto super-duper, spirit-filled Christians? No, what he's saying is, I could not speak unto you as unto saved men. You say, Pastor, how do you know that's what it means?

24:52 All right, look back to verses 14 and 15 of chapter 2. But the natural man, the unsaved man, receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness is unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things. Two kinds of people.

25:13 The natural man, the spiritual man. Who is the natural man? The man without the Spirit of God. Who is the spiritual man?

25:21 The man indwelt by the Spirit. Remember Romans 8, 9? Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of Christ dwell in you. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

25:34 You see, this has been made to teach, but he that is spiritual, he that is fully consecrated to the Lord, no, Paul is drawing a contrast. The natural man, the man apart from Christ, can't perceive the things of God. The spiritual man, the man in whom the Holy Ghost has come to dwell, he has the capacity to understand spiritual truth. But now Paul says, Brethren, I couldn't speak unto you as unto spiritual, I couldn't talk to you as men indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but I had to talk to you as carnal.

26:06 I had to talk to you as though I were talking to unsaved men without the Spirit. Then he says, To change the figure, I had to speak unto you as unto little baby Christians. The baby's digestive system hasn't developed to maturity. As we read in Hebrews, they can only digest milk, can't take meat.

26:30 And Paul said, I had to talk to you like unsaved people, or to change the figure, I had to talk to you like little baby Christians. Verse 2, I have fed you with milk, and not with meat. For hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither now are ye yet able. For ye are yet carnal, in what sense?

26:51 Now get this. When Paul said, Ye are yet carnal, was he saying, You're yet like unsaved men, you've no evidences that you've been born again, no evidence that you hunger to be holy? No, no. He's going to tell us what he means.

27:04 For ye are yet carnal, ye are yet carnal for. Whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as what? Men? He says, You're acting just like unsaved people, unsaved people without the Holy Spirit.

27:24 Backbite and fight one another, and they get in there a little quick. He says, You people at Corinth, I have to talk to you like unsaved people, because you're acting like unsaved people in every department of life, in every department of life. No. In this area of divisions, in this specific, they had reverted to the ways of an unsaved.

27:48 So he says in verse 4, For while one sayeth, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not men? You're acting just like unsaved men in this specific area of your Christian experience. He said, If you were pressing on in the pathway of holiness as you ought to be, and acting like men who were spiritual men, there wouldn't be divisions. So in this specific area, walk carnal and walk as men.

28:21 Paul is dealing with specific. Now to take this as a general principle that a man can be nothing but given over to the flesh and act like an unsaved man and still be saved to pervert the spirit. Isn't it clear? This is the obvious sense of what Paul is saying.

The True Meaning of Carnality in a Believer's Life

28:48 What does this passage teach in 1 Corinthians 3? It teaches exactly what is taught in the rest of the scripture, that a man can be here in his sin, the grace of God can come to him and take him out of his sin and wonderfully save him, and the grace of God be manifested. There can be evidences that God has done a saving work like here at Corinth. They can get a good start in the way of holiness and obedience and they can be saved.

29:18 And then somewhere along the line, they revert to the ways of the flesh and of the world. It may be in the area of division. It may be in the area of selfishness. It may be in the area of some lust.

29:33 It may be in the area of pride. And the child of God in that area will act like an unregenerate man. When David lusted and took Bathsheba, he acted like an unregenerate man. But he was not an adulterer, though he committed adultery.

29:52 You see the difference? This was not the pattern of his life. This was one fall of life among three or four other major falls that he had. But this was not the bent and direction of his life.

30:06 At that point, David acted as an unregenerate man. He was carnal and walked as a man without the Holy Ghost. And when you and I backbite, and when you and I gossip, we act as carnal, unregenerate, men without the Holy Ghost. That's how we act.

30:23 Now, to take this thing and say it gives me comfort that no matter what I'm doing and how I'm acting, if I've trusted Jesus, I'm just a carnal Christian, dear one, that's perverting the Scriptures to your own destruction. Perverting. Because 1 Corinthians 3 teaches what the rest of the Bible teaches, that the child of God can become overcome in a certain area of carnality. And there, the progress of sanctification is checked.

Further Scriptural Evidence Against the Carnal Christian Theory

30:54 Ye which are spiritual restored who has been overtaken in a fault. Now, to show that Paul cannot teach what some make him teach here, that there are three classes of people, notice what he says over in chapter 6. We referred to this before, but I want to repeat it. Chapter 6, verse 9.

31:16 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. He tells these people at Corinth. Now remember, don't think otherwise, he tells them.

31:30 Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves of mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, what's it say? Shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Know what it says? People say, oh well, look at the people at Corinth.

31:50 Some were even living in immorality. Paul didn't say they were lost, he just said they were carnal. Wait a minute, what did he say? He says, don't you be deceived.

31:58 Any man who lives in adultery and effeminate and idolatry has no inheritance in the kingdom of God. So Paul says, I don't know whether you've ever really been born again or if you've just been overcome in this thing. Prove what you are. If you've just been overcome by a foe, purge that sin from your midst and don't be deceived into thinking that if you continue on in that thing, you're the child of God.

32:21 God says, be not deceived. Fornicators, adulterers, and idolaters shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Isn't that what he says? Isn't this what he says?

32:31 This is the word. My heart at times could cry out when I've heard people butcher the teaching of 1 Corinthians 3 and make people by the multitudes content in their sins and never turn the page and quote 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10 and tell men that if they persist in the way of sin they have no grounds to claim they're the children of God. This is the clear teaching of the word. Paul says about that man living in this incestuous relationship, what did he tell the people to do with him?

33:04 He said, deliver him over unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus. What did he mean? He says, give that man over. Cut him off from your fellowship so that he might come to repentance for if he doesn't, the man will be lost.

33:20 So turn him over, he says, to Satan. You say, Pastor, this person will be saved and lost, saved and lost. This is not the issue. I'm not dealing with this.

33:30 The issue is this, that those who persist in the way of deliberate sin have no grounds to claim they're the children of God. That's the clear teaching. Then Paul says later on in 2 Corinthians 13, examine yourself, prove yourself whether ye be in the faith. After dealing with all of this, he says, now don't any of you breathe too easy.

33:52 Examine yourself. Prove yourself whether ye be in the faith. So 1 Corinthians chapter 3 teaches what the rest of the Bible teaches, that a child of God, born of the Spirit of God by the grace of God and changed in many areas can fall and revert to a specific area of carnality and the progress of sanctification can be checked. That's a truth that's revealed in the Bible.

34:20 And if that man will acknowledge that thing the Bible promises, our Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon Him. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. My little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin not. And the true Christian says, Oh God, that's my desire.

34:43 I want to live a sinless life. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. And the comfort of the child of God who's pursuing the course of holiness is that when he falls, there's forgiveness and mercy. Don't you dare claim the last part of that verse unless the first part is the passion of your heart.

35:05 These things I write that you sin not. And every child of God has perfection as his goal. And as he's pressing on to perfection, if he falls, he says, Thank you, Lord, there's mercy. There's forgiveness.

35:22 For the man who says, Oh well, because there's forgiveness, I don't need to be concerned about perfection. That man's never tasted the grace of God. Do you hear me? If you're content with anything less than seeking perfection, I doubt the genuineness of your conversion.

35:40 No one can talk lightly about sin when he has seen that his sin exposes him to hell and opened up the wounds of the Son of God. You can't talk lightly about it. You can't be content to live with it. Though you may not know the way of deliverance and cry out with Paul, Oh wretched man that I am, you'll be wretched in your bondage.

36:07 You'll never be content. Right? That's what the book teaches. And so as we examine this teaching in the light of the Word of God, we see that it does not fall in line with the clear passages that we've considered and with even the sense of Paul's words.

Clarifying 'Saved So As By Fire' in 1 Corinthians 3

36:28 We say yes, but the pastor doesn't say later on in the chapter about certain ones being saved so as by fire. Yeah, but that doesn't refer one bit to a man's character. It's referring to the labors of those who build in the work of God. Notice carefully as I read chapter 3 further on.

36:48 I feel I've got to deal with these things because these are some of the things behind which some of you even here this morning may be hiding. Paul says in verse 11, Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stone. Notice now, Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it be revealed by fire.

37:15 If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Paul said, I came among you as the master builder. I laid the foundation.

37:31 I laid the foundation at Corinth. Apollos and some of these others have come along and other teachers and they're building. And he says, One day they're building on that foundation which I laid by the power of God is going to be tried. And if they haven't built in the power of the Spirit upon a foundation that was laid in the Holy Ghost, all their work among you will go up in smoke, but they themselves will be saved.

37:56 This is not talking a thing about a man who's professed to be saved but lives in sin and yet he's going to be saved so as by fire. Don't ever use that phrase again. It's unscriptural. It's not what the book is teaching.

Practical Application: Confronting Tolerated Sin and Contentment with Holiness

38:13 Beloved, it is best I know my heart before the presence of Almighty God this morning. I've handled this passage as honestly and fairly as the words demand it and as the sense of the Spirit of God is revealed in this book and in other passages relating to this subject. I would ask you this morning as we seek to draw this thing to a practical climax in your life. Do you knowingly, deliberately and continually tolerate sin in your life?

38:46 What about that sin that's as precious to you as your right hand and your right eye? What about that darling love, that covetous spirit that's as much a part of you and as dear to you as your right hand and your right eye? What did Jesus say to do with such sins? What did He say?

39:13 If thy hand offend thee, cut it off. For it is better to enter into life maimed than having two hands and lose some rewards. He didn't say that. What did He say?

39:31 And be cast into everlasting fire. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. For it's better to enter into life maimed than having two eyes and to perish in hell. What did Jesus mean?

39:46 He clearly meant to teach us that sin must be cut off at any cost, even the sin that is darling as the right eye and as precious as the right hand. Now, Jesus spoke those words. I didn't put them in the Bible. Are you tolerating sin?

40:05 You say, what sin? Any sin? Have you struck up some secret truces with sin in your life? Have you?

40:16 2 Timothy 2.19 says, The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. That's a wonderful thing. But notice what the last part of the verse says.

40:31 And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart, and it's in the present tense, continually depart from iniquity. Do you name His name? Then demonstrate it by continually departing from iniquity. What iniquity?

40:45 Any iniquity that the Spirit of God reveals to you through the ministry of conscience and the ministry of the Word. I ask you a second question this morning. Are you content with your present degree of holiness? Are you?

41:02 Are you content that having been delivered from some of the grosser forms of outward sin and the things we generally call worldliness, and I almost hate to use the term because we've so limited it, are you content now and say, well, I'm holy enough? Listen. Any man or woman content with his present state of holiness has reason to question the genuineness of his experience. For whenever the grace of God is revealed to a man, it always puts in him the desire that Paul had for getting the things that are behind.

41:32 I press to the mark. And this truth alone can save people from two soul-destroying errors. First of all, the error that having accepted Jesus, my attitude to holiness does not mean anything. Oh no.

41:42 If I have received Christ by the grace of God, then that grace will cause me to be restless and spiritually distraught from the things that are behind me. And if I have received Christ by the grace of God, then that grace will cause me to be restless and spiritually distraught from my present degree of holiness. I want to press on. At the same time, it will keep us from laying false claims to experiences of perfection.

42:04 Paul never claimed to have any experience that kept him from pressing on. I don't care how glorious God met you. I don't care how glorious that meeting with God in your life was. If it hasn't resulted in a day-by-day panting after God, I don't care how glorious that meeting with God in your life was.

42:27 If it hasn't resulted in a day-by-day yearning for the things that you see and don't fear to live in it. If it hasn't resulted in a day-by-day vision of the God that God has made in you, then it's not going to be good ever after that meeting that good to you, and perhaps I will need to have more heart and mind than when I was when I'd been a mussie the last know that I can't answer the way I ought to to the pastor's question. I can't honestly say that I'm warring against sin in my life. I can't honestly say that I'm discontent, but I'm not going to get too disturbed because, you see, I know that I'm inside the gate. Oh, sure, I'll lose a few rewards, but what's a few rewards? You're still in heaven and you've missed hell. Well, so what if you've

43:27 lost a few of the benefits and maybe don't have quite the capacity to know God and to praise Him that other saints will have? I've missed hell. I've taken Jesus. I've sneaked inside the gates.

43:39 I'm content. Is that the language of your heart this morning? It's the language of the heart of many a deceived soul that will end up in hell. Mark me, man or woman, fellow or girl, and I would far rather that this truth strike home and send you out of here if you'd get up out of your seat right now and say, Pastor Martin, I don't want to hear it. Clench your fist and spit in my face.

44:06 In God's name, don't sink into hell. Descend into thinking you can cling to your sins and still be called a child of God.

Pastoral Burden and the Necessity of Holiness

44:21 Frankly, I go home some Sunday mornings perplexed and broken in spirit. I say, oh God, what's the matter? I'd far rather that half the congregation rise up and curse me and say I've had enough of this holiness preaching. I've had enough of this. I don't want it. I want polite, nice, easy religion that will really get a hold of my sins. And I'll go to hell with it. I would far rather you say this than sit week after week and month after month and be content.

44:56 This is not true of all. I thank God for the evidence of growth in some of you and the renewed sensitivity to sin, things that you're not even aware of. But as a pastor, you discern in your dealings. I thank God for it. I praise his name that some of you now look on things as black that you once called gray. I thank God for that. I thank God that some of you can blush and weep over things that never bothered you before. I thank God for that. But I can't say this of all of you.

45:29 And it concerns me because my Bible says without holiness, no man will see the Lord. If you'd go to heaven simply because you listen to me preach once a week, I could be happy and say, thank God you come and you listen to me. But you won't enter the gates of heaven apart from holiness. But without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Paul said, whether we be sober and for your sake, whether we be beside ourselves, it is unto the Lord. If I've been beside myself this morning, it says unto him, if I've been sober and sought to be careful in proclaiming the truth, it's because your soul is going to be required of me. If you're hiding behind this damnable heresy, that there are three kinds of people, natural people, spiritual people, and this big block of gray called carnal. Beloved, may God drive you out from behind that terrible, deceptive wall until you stand out in the full blazing light of the

Confirmation from the Puritans: The Marks of True Conversion

46:47 truth of God, that blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. May I, in closing this morning, and this has been a real joy to me, I thank God that God taught me these things from the Word. And then I began to think, I'm going to go to heaven. I'm going to go to heaven. I'm going to Lord, am I crazy? I can't swallow what I hear these Bible teachers telling me, that a man can be saved and still have no desire to be holy. I can't, I don't see this in the Word. And God crystallized these convictions through the Word, and I began to think, well, maybe I'm just, maybe I'm just crazy. And then God would put into my hands literature, some of it like this book written back in the 1600s, some like the little pamphlet here written back, oh, 20, 30 years ago, confirming almost to the Word, what God had shown me from the Word. Now, I don't believe it because these men said it. I believe it because the Bible teaches it. But then the fact that other men say it assures me that I'm not a nut.

47:53 It assures me that what I see in the Scriptures is what the Holy Ghost has shown others in the Scriptures. Listen to what this godly man said who lived back in the 1600s. Speaking of true conversion, Before conversion, he had light thoughts of sin. He cherished it in his bosom as Uriah, his lamb.

48:18 He nourished it up. It grew up together with him. He did eat, as it were, of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was to him as a daughter. Speaking of sin, this is what sin was to us.

48:31 But when God opens his eyes by conversion, he throws it away with abhorrence, as a man would. He loathed some toad, which in the dark he had hugged fast in his bosom and thought it had been some pretty and harmless bird. When a man is savingly changed, he is deeply convinced not only of the danger but the defilement of sin. And, oh, how earnest is he with God to be purified!

49:00 He loathes himself for his sins. He runs to Christ and casts himself into the fountains set open for sin and uncleanness. If he fall, what a stir is there to get clean again! He has no rest till he flees to the Word, and washes and rubs and rinses in the infinite fountain laboring to cleanse himself from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit.

49:27 The sound convert is heartily engaged against sin. He struggles with it. He wars against it. He is too often foiled, but he will never yield the cause nor lay down the weapons.

49:38 while he has breath in his body. He will make no peace. He will give no quarter. He can forgive his other enemies.

49:45 He can pity them and pray for them. But here he is implacable. Here he is set upon their extermination. He hunts it as it were for the precious life.

49:55 His eyes shall not pity. His hands shall not spare, though it be a right hand or a right eye. Be it a gainful sin, most delightful to his nature, or the support of his esteem with his worldly companions, yet he will rather throw his gain down the gutter, see his credit fail, or the flower of his pleasure wither in his hand, than he will allow himself in any known way of sin. He will grant no indulgence.

50:22 He will give no toleration. He draws upon sin wherever he meets it and frowns upon it with this unwelcome salute. Have I found thee? O my enemy.

50:34 That's the description of a true convert. That's the language. That's the meaning of a man who has been born of the Holy Ghost. Is this true of you?

Conclusion: The Misnomer of 'Carnal Christian' and a Call to Salvation

50:47 Is this true of you today? I don't have time to read this morning from a little pamphlet that's been a great help to me. I plan to have it printed up and leave it for your own reading, which deals with this very subject. Are there carnal Christians?

51:02 Are there Christians who may be overcome in a certain thing that is carnal? Yes. It happened to carnals. It's happened in your life.

51:13 It's happened in my life. But can a man be given over to carnality and no evidences of a renewed heart and still lay claim to being a Christian? You see, that's why I don't like the term carnal Christian. It's a misnomer.

51:30 You talk about a man being a zealous Christian, you mean that zeal characterizes his Christian experience. You talk about someone being a gentle Christian, you mean that gentleness characterizes his whole bearing. When you talk about a man being a carnal Christian, what you're saying is, here's a man who belongs to Christ, but carnality characterizes his whole being. This cannot be so.

51:51 For the Bible says the man who's born of God has been basically delivered from the realm of carnality into the realm of the Spirit. Now, in a given area he may revert. Yes. May God help us to be scriptural in our thinking, in our speaking, lest we put in the hands of men a false hope that will seal them in their sins.

52:14 If you're here this morning and you say, Pastor, you talk about warring against sin, you read it from that book, I don't know anything about that, then, dear one, you better cry to God to save you. You better fall down at the feet of Jesus and cry out for mercy and seek His forgiveness for the sins that caused His death. God willing, next week we shall go on to the fifth birthmark of a true Christian, a walk in love. Please read through at least once the book of 1 John, and you will come to discover that this is the primary characteristic of the true child of God, that he's one who's experienced real love to the brethren in his heart. You study it, you come prepared to seek God and to hear His voice, and I'm sure God will lead us. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word.

53:17 We thank Thee for the Holy Spirit, who has breathed its truth into the pages of this book. And we pray that Thou will help us to not allow ourselves to be deceived, but to accept the judgment of the Word of God upon our own spiritual condition. Father, for those among us who've been hiding behind this wall, for parents who've been covering their children behind this cloak of false teaching, God, get us out into the blazing light of Thy truth today. Grant that this Word shall yet issue forth from the salvation of some soul, from the enlightenment of Thy people. Lord, make us as a church a people who understand what real conversion is. We don't believe, Lord, Thou art going to entrust us with an ingathering of souls until we know and have been taught of Thee what it really means to be saved. We're so tired of having to be told about people who made a trip to the altar years ago and we've never seen them.

54:26 Oh, God, we long that Thou will break in upon us that men shall not merely make a trip to an altar but make a trip to Calvary and there be broken before the Son of God and be renewed by the Holy Ghost and come away new creatures in Christ. Lord, hasten that day, we pray, for the praise and honor of Thine own dear name. Amen.