We can walk through this life of sorrow. This
veil of tears. Of heartbreak. Knowing that we're
in your care and your keeping. Overshadowed with
your love. Knowing to whom we belong. And one
of these days, when our last day's work will
have been done, we'll stand in your glorious
presence of thanks. Now then, I hope you came
all prepared with your Bibles. The third chapter
of 1 Corinthians. And... I might just as well
tell you that before I will have left your home
today, we will have talked about something that
is vitally important. We will have answered a
question that has been discussed, has been argued,
more sermons have been preached on it than any
one portion of the Word of God that I know anything
about. Few can agree. we will see what God's
Word says. And it's the question as to what is
the difference between the spiritual and the
carnal. What is the difference? There has to
be some difference because Paul clearly... states
the fact that there is a difference. Let me read
just the first three verses of the third chapter
of 1 Corinthians. And I, brethren, could not
speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal. There's a difference. Paul was very frank.
I 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 you 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 decisions, are ye not carnal and walk as
men? He's asking them a question. Now, what does
Paul say about the divisions with which he has
already been dealing in the Corinthian church?
First, he addresses them as brethren. Get that
straight. Let's understand that once and for
all. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you
as unto spiritual, but as unto babes in Christ.
Whatever he's going to say, whatever he's going
to write, he is writing, he is saying to them
as brethren. Those who are his fellow believers.
Those who have been born again. He's not talking.
He's not writing to those who are dead in trespasses
and sins. He is not addressing those who are
unbelievers. He is not talking to those who have
never been born again. Always in the Word of
God. When one is addressed as brethren. That
one is accepted as one being a Christian, born
again. What was the matter with these people?
I quote Paul, I could not speak unto you, even
though you are born again, even though you are
members of his church, even though you are Christians.
I could not speak unto you as spiritual, but
as unto carnal. Now, some place there we have
an underlying truth. What is it? The trouble
with them is that they are not spiritual, They
are carnal. Now comes that question. What is
the difference between the spiritual and the
carnal? I want you to turn to a portion of the
Word of God that gives us the answer. I could
talk to you for the next five, six hours, and
yet... With all of my talking and all of my explanation,
I still could not give you a better answer than
Paul himself gave when he was writing to the
Thessalonians. Oh, this is wonderful. Believe
me, he certainly understood men. Paul certainly
understood human nature. Turn, if you will, please,
to 1 Thessalonians, the 5th chapter and the 23rd
verse. And here you have the answer. And the
very God of peace sanctify you wholly. Every
word is potent. And I pray God, your whole spirit
and soul and body. be preserved blameless unto
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He prayed
for their spirit. He prayed for their soul. He
prayed that their body be preserved entire without
blame at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Man is a trinity. body, soul, and spirit. That's
the reason he begins by saying, and I pray God
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want you to see something for just a few minutes.
The essential thing in human personality is not
the body. We put so much emphasis on the body.
But in reality, the essential thing is not the
body. It is not the mind. We put such emphasis
on the mind. And yet, when you study the Word
of God, You'll find that the body, the mind,
are both secondary when it comes to the things
of God. The important thing is the spirit. God
is a spirit. And man is made in the divine likeness
of his great creator. And man must worship God.
In spirit. I know. I have brought a heart -to
-heart talk on the fact that God has a body.
And there's no denying it. We have scriptural
proof God has a body. For when he said, to Jesus,
to the Holy Spirit, let us make man in our image
and after our likeness. When he spoke of his
image and making man after his image, he was
talking about the body. God is both body and
spirit. Man is a combination of body, soul, and
spirit. But when we worship God, God is also
a spirit. Man is also a spirit. And we worship
Him in spirit and in truth. That is the reason
that the most important part of man is the spirit.
And God is the spirit. And man is made in the
divine likeness. And man must worship in spirit.
Of every person, every human being, whether in
the church or outside, the supreme fact is the
spiritual fact. What's wrong with the world today?
What's the matter with the world today? Why are
we in the mess that we are in? Why are human
beings in the mess that they are in this very
hour? There's just one answer. They have forgotten
this. They have forgotten the spiritual side
of their life. Now let's take the body. An equally
definite fact. But remember something. The body
is there as the instrument of the spirit. Through
the body, the spirit receives and makes contact
with others. Through the body, it expresses itself
to others. When we receive that wonderful experience
of being born again, I can stand right by the
side of a man, a woman, who's receiving a wonderful
experience, that new birth experience. I could
even be praying for them and with them. My hand
can be resting upon their shoulder. And yet...
I cannot see that experience take place. It's
something that's very personal between their
spirit and his spirit. And when it takes place,
his spirit bears witness with their spirit that
they have passed from death unto life. But the
manifestation of that experience takes place
through the body. That's the reason I state to
you that it's through the body. The spirit receives
and makes contact with others through the body.
It expresses itself to others. I express what
I had spiritually. On the inside of me. Through
my body. And so do you. Then we come to the soul.
What is the soul? The consciousness. The mind.
The intelligence. I want you to see something.
What does the Bible actually say about man? Because
we're talking about man as he exists, body, soul,
and spirit. The Bible says that God formed man
out of the dust of the ground. That is the body.
But that is not man. And he breathed into his
nostrils the breath, the breath of life. That
is the spirit. And so man became a living conscious
soul. Now here we have three planes. The spirit,
the mind, the body. And every man, every woman,
every person is that is living this hour. I don't
care who you are. I don't care whether you are
rich. you're poor, I don't care whether you're
Jew or Gentile, if you are a part of humanity,
if you have breath in your body, if you are a
living human being, you are mastered by either
the body or the spirit. And it's just like that.
Let me say it again. We have three planes. The
spirit, the mind, the body. And you are either
mastered by the body, which is the lower level,
or by the spirit, which is the higher. And the
mind is affected by that. part of personality
to which the mastery of the person gives himself
over. And it's just as simple as that. If I descend
to the level of the material, if I consent to
that, then all of my thinking is fleshly, is
carnal. On the other hand, if I lift my whole
personality to the spiritual, then my thinking
is spiritual. And I'm mastered by the spirit.
Now, where are you? Are you being mastered by
the physical? By the body? Then you are living
on the lower level. But... If you have so surrendered
your life, you have so given yourself over to
the spiritual, to the things of God, then you
are being mastered by the spiritual and you are
living on the higher level. Your mind then is
being mastered by the spiritual. If you are living
on the lower level and allowing the flesh, the
body to control you, then your mind will be controlled
by the flesh. I pray to God. you shall have his
best living on the higher plane. Amen.