Spiritual men or men of flesh

Last Sunday, one of the things we introduced was the idea that there are three kinds of men, and by that we don't mean men males, we mean men in terms of people, persons. And the first that we introduced last week out of the end of chapter 2 and then starting into chapter 3 there, was the natural man.

The natural man is the man who is not saved, He lives his life from a totally human perspective. He does not believe and therefore is not saved. The fleshly man is indeed saved, he believes, but still lives his life from a totally human perspective. It is as if he is unaware, or at least lives unaware of all the changes that have taken place spiritually. He continues to live, even though a believer, as if he had never been saved. The third kind of man, the man introduced here in chapter 3 in the passage that Bob read for us here, is the spiritual man. He is indeed saved because he's believed.

He lives life from the perspective that fellowship with Christ is what life is really all about. Now, to kind of put these three men, persons, in a similar understanding, the natural man has neither a relationship with God nor fellowship with God. Let me make a distinction here. There is a relationship that we have or don't have with God that is basically a long-term standing. We can have fellowship, if we are a believer, we can have fellowship with God at any moment. And the Lord is certainly calling us to fellowship with Him all the time. Let me give you a for instance that may help.

And I'll pick on my son Randy because I know he's right now in Wyoming and not here. Randy is my son. He will always be my son. There may be times if he were to do something that I might not wish that that be the case, but he will always, in fact, be my son.

There is, in reality, nothing he could do that will change that relationship. Now, if I have a good relationship with Randy in character and quality, we would say that Randy and I are in fellowship. We have fellowship one with another. If Randy and I were somehow to get our wires crossed with one another and be at odds, then we would say we have a relationship. He is still my son, but we are out of fellowship. That's the distinction that we're wanting to make here this morning.

The natural man does not have any relationship with God and therefore does not have fellowship with God either. The fleshly man, indeed a believer, has a relationship with God and that will not change for all eternity. But he doesn't have fellowship with God. He is not taking advantage of the relationship that is naturally there because he's a believer. It is the spiritual man, the one identified in this passage that Bob read for us here, that has both a relationship with God and fellowship with God. So those are the three men and the distinction that we made last week, and we'll continue on with that and with that understanding and build on it here this week.

You have on page one of your handout a slide that begins like this. Three aspects of our spiritual life at the very top of page one of the handout. The three aspects of our spiritual life that Paul brings up in these verses are, for the believer, the spiritual walk, and we'll talk more about what that means.

He also addresses spiritual maturity. He introduces it here. And then thirdly, a spiritual food. He brings up that also in this passage. So we'll be looking at each one of those three aspects of our spiritual life as we go through the passage. As Paul points out here, and he will expand upon it in not only 1 Corinthians but other passages, there's an interrelationship between these three things. This spiritual walk, the spiritual maturity and spiritual food. And so we'll be looking through those three things to look at what the relationship is. These three aspects of our spiritual life have a parallel, and that's I think why Paul uses the words that he does, with the aspects of our physical life by relating his lesson, his teaching, to things that we certainly understand. I mean, most of us understand food, right? By relating to things that we can understand, we can then see the spiritual truth, the spiritual principle that's in place here.

Now, about our spiritual walk. Starting from the book of Genesis, in fact we had not gotten very many chapters into Genesis, when we began seeing this use of walking. Not as a putting one physical foot in front of the other, but how we live. and what that living is by. This walking is how one lives. It has to do with fellowship with God on the one hand and expressing His life and character in our lives on the other hand. So this walking looks two ways, doesn't it? On the one hand, it looks to relationship and fellowship with God. On the other hand, it's how that life gets lived out, His life. That's what Paul's talking about here. You have a couple slides later, I bunched them together here.

Here in Genesis 5.24, as we studied some time back when we were going through Genesis, Enoch walked with God. This was the man who walked with God for 365 years and then the Lord took him, took him directly to heaven. And then the very next chapter, what do we read?

But Noah walked with God. Noah also walked with God. What does that mean? Noah had fellowship with the Lord and he lived it out. He was a preacher of righteousness. He had a relationship and fellowship with the Lord and he lived that out. So then, This walking can have a characteristic of relationship and fellowship with God, and living that out. Or, the word walking can also be used of the opposite.

Not having a relationship with God, not having fellowship with God, and therefore living like that. No relationship, no fellowship, and therefore life gets lived out, expressing that lack of relationship and fellowship. There's a character of expression of living out of fellowship with God. One who lives outside of that fellowship with God is what Paul calls walking like mere men.

We use these somewhat humorous pictures to get the point across. The natural man has this perspective on life that it's all about me. It's all about what I can see here on planet Earth. It's all about what I can figure out and what I can do, and that's really all that matters.

God, if there is one, is not terribly relevant. That's the natural man. The believer who is walking fleshly is what we have pictured here with the baby. He's born again, but his perspective is just like the natural man. He says, yeah, I believe, but it doesn't make much difference in my life.

As a matter of fact, we will find that at times this fleshly person, the one who is walking, though a believer, like a mere man, is one who gets angry at God because he wants God to do this or that in his or her life, and gets upset when God doesn't do what this person wants, as if God's supposed to make life made to order. This kind of person does not understand what God is doing here on this earth. It is not God's job to make things easy street for us. It is not God's job to be under our command and control.

Paul says that the saints in Corinth, these believers that he's writing to, they're living like unsaved men. It's visible in outward expression, and it's visible in inward expression. They don't have a dependence upon the Lord. They don't look to the Lord as the real center of their life.

But instead, the Lord's someone out there who's just supposed to do things that make me happy and make me pleased. In Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, we have this picture given of the one who is unsaved, and the perspective that Paul gives in this passage is one of those who are believers now, but he describes them before they believed, and he puts it this way. in Ephesians 2, 1-3, and you are dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked. This is the use of walking that is a walking that's not in fellowship with God. It's in contrast to Enoch walked with God, it's in contrast to Noah walked with God, and it's in contrast to us walking with God. in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world.

The world around us calls the shots instead of the Lord. According to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan. Satan calls the shots of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Notice that, how can you tell these people don't have a relationship with the Lord? They're not sons of God. They're sons of disobedience. They have a relationship and an affinity to disobedience and not the Lord. Verse 3, among them we too all formerly lived, and this is an interactive living, in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children again. Children, not of God, but of wrath, even as the rest.

So this passage describes the walk of mere men who are unbelievers and therefore unable to walk in fellowship with God. And Paul is telling The believers in Corinth says, you're walking like those who don't believe. I can't tell the difference in the way your life is being lived out between you and the unbelievers. I can't tell the difference between them having no relationship with God and you who have a relationship with God but no fellowship. He says, I'm not seeing any difference between the two.

Galatians 5.16 which we studied some months back here, but I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Walk in fellowship with God by means of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. It's one of the things we pointed to in one of the supplements that's available there from last week. The Holy Spirit has ministries among us which are intended to have us in fellowship with the Lord. Later on in that very same chapter, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let both my day-by-day, moment-by-moment dependence and reliance and fellowship be with the Lord by means of those ministries of the Spirit. And let that get lived out. His life. Not my best efforts. I'm going to try to be a good Christian.

But dependence upon Him. the one in whom we are, him, the one who is in us. So there's walking and there's walking. Remember, there's two different kinds. As believers, at any single moment, we either have a mindset and a viewpoint that is godly, being in fellowship with the Lord, depending upon Him, resting in Him, sometimes called abiding out of John, chapter 15, abiding in Him. That's one position. Or, we'll have a dependence upon the sin nature and be out of fellowship with the Lord. It's interesting, as Christians, we can sometimes kind of get a feeling subjectively that there's sort of a mixture, but Scripture doesn't lay that out.

It's either one or the other. If you walk by the Spirit, you will not satisfy the desires of the flesh. Notice it's no 50-50 deal. It's no mix-and-match arrangement. Oh, I'm walking a little bit as a Christian, but a little bit not so much. No, not that, right?

Instead, it's one or the other at any one moment. I am in fellowship with and dependence upon the Lord at any moment, or I am not. It's 100% one or the other. Either we walk with the Lord or we walk according to the sin nature in this present world. Nothing in between, no mixtures of the two.

We made available this what we call Hal's Diagram a few weeks ago as a supplement. We'll likely do it again. You can find it on the church website as you load up hollyhillsbiblechurch.org. Click on Materials and then the Will of the Believer. That diagram is there on the first page. And we'll likely make that available again.

So the place of our individual spiritual dependence, because that's really where it comes to, individual spiritual dependence and our fellowship, whether we are with the Lord, where that dependence is upon the Lord, and our fellowship is with Him, or where the sin nature in the world will be lived out with the character of His life. Christ is our life. If it is of the sin nature, it is death.

Isn't that interesting? For Christians, are we going to live forever because we believe? Yes. Do we have eternal life? Yes. But for Christians, there is the opportunity for us to be living out death. The mindset on the flesh is death. The wages of sin is death. That is even for Christians. And what is death, spiritual death? It is that which is done apart from the Lord. It is only in Him that there is life. He is the life, the source of life.

And it's interesting that the contrast here has no grayscale. Again, it's not a mixture. It's either full 100% life or death at each moment, even for us as believers. Our walking can only be of one kind or the other at any one moment. It's either in fellowship... Oh, I'm not questioning relationship. If you're a believer here this morning, you have relationship with the Lord. That's not an issue. The only thing that's in question is fellowship. It's either one way or the other at any one moment. We either have a walk that is from His life, out of dependence upon Him, and resting in Him, and lived out that way. Or the death that comes from living out sin. It's one or the other.

In the same way that learning to walk is a key point in physical maturity, learning to walk with the Lord is a key point in our spiritual maturity. walking in fellowship with Him. A key point in our spiritual maturity, and that's what he points to here as well. Walking with Christ is really the key issue here, isn't it? Paul's concern with the believers in Corinth is that while by now they should have known how to walk in fellowship with the Lord, they weren't doing so.

He says, you guys are still like infants. It's like you ought to be grown up by now. Now let me tell you that at this point in time they were about, certainly among the oldest, about four years old in the Lord by the time he's sending them this letter. He says, by now you ought to be walking in such a way and you ought to have a diet, we'll see that soon, in such a way that it's fitting to the spiritual age that you have. But you guys aren't there yet. What's wrong? By now you ought to have grown, but you haven't. So Paul tells the believers in Corinth that they have a walk that is immature.

It follows men instead of God. It speaks of fellowship with other people, but not fellowship with God himself. It speaks of a dependence upon the sin nature in the world but not of a dependence upon the Lord. It speaks of resting in what this world has to offer and what we ourselves can offer instead of the Lord Himself, instead of the Lord of glory.

There is a connection here between spiritual growth and maturity. Spiritual growth is a process God intends for every believer and also for us all as a church body. God intends that every single believer here this morning be in this growing process and he intends that we all as a body be growing spiritually. Both of those are God's intent. As each one of us grows spiritually, we are in the process then of maturing. That is growing towards spiritual maturity. Ultimately, what is maturity? Does maturity mean that I don't laugh anymore? I hope not. Anyway, does maturity mean that all of a sudden we're arrogant and sophisticated? I hope not, too.

What does it look like? It looks like Jesus Christ. It is spiritually looking like Him. That's what maturity is. That is what the Lord is conforming us to. Romans 8, 28 and 29, this maturing process is something that the Lord is working towards in our lives. Each one of us will ultimately be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ when we go to see the Lord face to face. But it is a process that He intends to begin, not at the moment that we leave this earth, but right now. He is in the process of conforming us and will do so. How does that happen? God uses trials, and that's specifically something that comes out in Romans 8, 28 and 29. We are being conformed to the image of Christ. Why? Because God is the one who works all things together for good.

We're also being transformed by His Word as we behold the Lord through His Word, 2 Corinthians 3.18. As we behold the Lord through His Word, we are being matured. And that is a process that Paul calls transformation. It is also a work of the Holy Spirit.

The body of Christ has an involvement. By the way, that's one of the reasons we're meeting. And we meet not just here on Sunday morning in this context, but we meet in various contexts. Why? The Lord intends to use the body of Christ to mature each one of us and for all of us to mature together.

So it is a part of the maturing process that God intends, most certainly, and has eternal impact as we daily walk in fellowship with Him. Walking out of fellowship as Paul points out here, keeps a person in an infantile state. It is walking in fellowship that grows. It is possible for a person to be a believer for many years, maybe even decades, and to not grow. We'll get into that some this next Sunday as we look at the passage to follow here. So spiritual growth is the process that takes place that brings us to maturity.

Here in Galatians 6.1 is a particular instance where it says, Brethren, if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself, so you too will not be tempted. This restoration is to put someone back on this path of ongoing and continuing fellowship. Now, the other thing that Paul points out, remember we said that there's a spiritual walk and a spiritual maturity, there's also a spiritual food that goes along with that.

In the same way we don't feed humans of all ages the very same diet, We don't, for example, in the nursery here, drop our kids off and then have them sit down to a steak dinner. Okay? That's not the way we do things here. We don't have a great big steaming potato sitting in front of them and say, go for it. Right? We certainly don't hand them a fork and a steak knife. Why? Because we should not feed, Those kids, that food, that's not appropriate to their age.

Paul had the same issue here in this passage. He says, by now I should be feeding you some different food, but you guys are still stuck in this infantile stage. I can tell because there's all this bickering and arguing and I follow this one and I follow that guy. I can tell that's not mature.

So you guys, I've got to keep with the milk. I've got to keep appropriate food for those who are still babies. He hoped to be feeding the believers something more substantial at this point in time. Solid food by now, but he has to stick with the spiritual milk.

Why? That's all they can handle. He says, you guys aren't ready for the next one. There is the right food for the level of maturity that they have. The believers in Corinth have not grown as they ought, as evidenced by their divisiveness. Paul could look at them and tell, you're not ready for this solid food. Why? Why aren't you ready for the solid food? Well, because by now, four years old in the Lord, I ought to be able to get you some real solid food. But it's very evident by how you're living that you're not growing at that stage.

You know, when parents have children, they're just delighted to see this little infant. And everybody's rejoicing. Family and friends are rejoicing. And that's a wonderful thing. But, you know, it's quite natural that we would get very concerned that if after, say, you know, five years, the kid isn't walking, you know. if after they're 10 years old, all they can handle is milk. That would be a problem, right? You'd probably get concerned a lot sooner than that, would be my guess. This growing is a natural thing. And as delightful as it is to have an infant, what you want as a parent is to see this infant grow. Paul's doing the same thing here. He says, it was so great to have you become believers. He tells them in the first chapter, you guys, there's no question. You guys are part of the church. You are saved.

But here I've got to address this issue with you folks. And you're all arguing with one another and divided up. And it's a serious problem. And I can tell that though by now you should have grown, you've not. And by now I should have given you more solid food, or you should be ready for it, but you're not. I can tell you're not. Because there's all this arguing and squabbling, and look at me, and I'm better than you.

I'm part of this group. I follow that guy. And all those distinctions, those are all the evidence they're not ready for the solid food. They're not ready for the more substantial teaching. There is a right food for each level of maturity. And it's interesting, as you go through Scripture, each of these levels of maturity and the food that goes along with them are pointed out.

In 1 Peter 2.2, Peter uses a word there for newborns.

And he says, give them milk. The milk is fitting for this newborn. Several passages, including the one we're in here right now, Look at an infant still needing milk, beyond the newborn stage, but still needing milk. And so we see that here in this passage, Ephesians 4 and Hebrews 5, both also make reference to that spiritual milk appropriate for that age. Is it maturity above the newborn?

Yeah, but it's still talking about being an infant. There is then reference to the food appropriate to a youth as they get older than the meat, the more solid food. And in 1 Corinthians 14, we'll see that as that comes up. And 1 John 2.13 also has a reference to that. Meat and solid food is appropriate to that later stage of growth and maturity. And finally, there's this mature Again, we'll see it in 1 Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4 and Hebrews 5, reference to solid food, reference to a diet of more spiritual substance. And so, Paul lays this out before the believers there quite clearly. As he talks to them, he says, by now you should be ready for more solid food. In the stage of growth that you ought to be at, I ought to be giving you more significant spiritual food, a diet from God's Word. I ought to be able to do that, he says, but you guys aren't there.

And I can tell that you're not there because of all the squabbling, because of all the look at me, because of all the I follow this one and I follow that. In the last portion of this passage that Bob read for us here in verses 5 through 9, One of the points that Paul is trying to make because each one is trying to claim credit. I get credit because I lead this group. Oh, look at me. I've got this group and aren't I great?

And they were following all the examples that they saw out in the world there among the people in Corinth. You couldn't tell the difference between all the rest of the people in the culture of Corinth and the Christians because they were all trying to gather a following. especially those who are of the upper income levels and social levels. The Corinthian believers were divided by aligning themselves with certain leaders.

Paul continues to make reference throughout this book from the very first chapter to, I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Peter, I follow Christ, I follow this one, I follow that. Paul is clear that anyone who is doing any real good is serving God's purpose and is God's worker.

Anyone who is truly carrying out what the Lord intends is not going to be saying, follow me, or I follow that guy. They're going to be working so that people look at the Lord, people behold the Lord, that people are looking to Him. In the church, which is the body of Christ, Our occupation is not to be with any mere human being, giving him credit. God is the one who, he makes clear, essentially says it more than once here, causes the growth and is truly worthy of all glory and honor. There are workers in the field, but God is the one who causes the growth. He's the one to whom credit is due. The others are workers, the others are servants. God's the one who's really pulling this off. He's the one who really has ownership. Paul says, I am of, and he points here to I am Paul, I am of Apollos. He particularly doesn't want them to be saying, I follow Paul.

Christendom, and notice I use the word Christendom, not Christianity. By Christendom, I mean everything that the world tends to look at and say, that's Christianity. And remember that some of the people in the world consider, or many people in the world consider those who come knocking two by two on your door to be part of Christendom. Christendom has many names for its following after this person or that one. Denominations, individual churches, often being identified by the name of the group's founder or the current leader. Sometimes it's on the sign out front. Sometimes it's simply a matter of that's how people in their minds identify that church. We even have instances where people don't know the name of the church, but they know who the pastor is. And you'll see his name on the television program or on the radio.

We'll focus on individuals and we'll slip that direction rather than recognizing Look, the focus is to be upon the Lord. The attention is to be upon the Lord. One of the really weak points, the Achilles heel, if you will, of that approach is when that person either stumbles or the Lord takes them away, disaster can strike. Things can fall apart, either catastrophically or a gradual disintegration. Paul will point out in this passage, God is the one to whom we ought to give glory and honor. God is the one who gets the credit. All these other people are just workers.

I remember when Hal asked me, he says, how would you like your name out front on the sign? I said, I wouldn't. I would rather it not be there. Because when it's all said and done, I'm not to be the focus. I'd rather the focus be on the Lord. Only beholding the Lord Himself will transform us from glory to glory.

2 Corinthians 3.18 Only beholding the Lord Himself will transform us from glory to glory. Beholding any other person of history or of the present or maybe even of the future. Beholding any other person will not be an instrument for transforming you from glory to glory. It won't work. It won't work. Only the Lord Jesus. Only the focus on Him. Everyone else, if they're doing anything productive at all, are workers. To God be the glory.

Paul's point here, as you get into the last part of the passage, one plants, another waters, but whose field is this anyway? He says it's God's field. It's a point that's made repeatedly in the New Testament regarding the church. Paul speaks in Acts chapter 20 to the elders at Ephesus and he says, the flock whom he purchased with his blood. God's flock. 1 Peter chapter 5. God's flock.

It's the Lord's, not some particular leaders or pastors or any group of men. It's his field. It's his field. One person does something, another person has another role, but it's God's field and God's the one who does the growing. One of the things he's going to start to do here, he's kind of introducing the next turn and subject. Because those who work in God's field, the body of Christ, are workers in that field, They will get their reward for their work in the field that is God's field.

There will be a time of reward. There will be a time for every believer here this morning to stand before the Lord. And the Lord is ultimately wanting to reward you to the maximum, as we'll see. He wants that. Even Revelation chapter 22, the very last one, one of the last things the Lord says in the whole Bible, I am coming and my reward is with me. He wants to reward us. That is his motivation, his desire. Paul is about to shift from an agricultural to a building analogy and will speak of rewards. He will talk about rewards here in this next section.

And how are believers judged? Even the possibility of a person walking through heaven's gates, spending eternity with the Lord, but having no reward. Even the Lord is motivated to reward us to the maximum. You see, ultimately, it's all about our relationship with the Lord. Paul talks about the three men, but it's the spiritual man, the one who takes advantage of that relationship and the fellowship with God, beholding Christ the Lord. That is God's intent. That is what Paul was desiring for these believers.

Oh, he is thinking, oh, he is saying that they would walk in fellowship with the Lord. They have relationship with Him. Oh, but I wish that they would walk in fellowship. That way I could feed them the kind of food that's fitting for how mature they ought to be for believers who are of this age. The spiritual man has both a relationship with God and fellowship with God. This morning, every believer here has a relationship with God. So what he's calling us to is fellowship.

And that's not a work. It's not something you earn. It's by grace. If you want life, that's free. The wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life. If you want life, that's free. If you want death, you're going to have to work for it. Life is free. Fellowship? That's easy. If you want relationship but not to have fellowship, that's going to be a lot of hard work. And the pay isn't very good. How much better to choose fellowship?

How much better to walk with the Lord, to behold Him, and to be transformed as we behold Him? How much better that is? Let's pray. Lord, as we look at what Paul is discussing with these believers here, we pray that You would draw our hearts to fellowship with You, that You would draw our hearts to take advantage of the relationship that is eternally there. We are indeed your children. We are indeed your sons. How wonderful that fellowship is. And as a matter of fact, the various ministries of the Holy Spirit are directed towards that fellowship, enhancing it, increasing its value. And Lord, we just ask for hearts drawn to you, hearts open to the wonderful discovery of moment by moment fellowship with you. We just ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.