"The Spiritual Man and the Carnal Man" Kathryn Kuhlman 1 Corinthians Series Part 5

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.