Alternative View - August 3, 2017
Carnality by Choice
In His Presence: Galatians 6:2
“Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”(Hebrews 3:12-13).
When God saved us, He saved us to serve Christ. Occasional lapses into sin do not imply carnality. Everyone sins. Carnality is the state where the person has the mindset of seeking to gratify themselves rather than please Christ.
No Christian has to be carnal. Being carnal is a decision of the will. Carnal Christians have grown up physically and should be able to feed themselves. But they can’t. That is because a carnal Christian is a person who has developed a mindset of disobedience. They willfully live in sin, controlled by the old person they used to be. They are saved and the Holy Spirit is in them, but they are not allowing the Holy Spirit to grow them.
There is a difference between a baby Christian and a carnal Christian. Baby Christians are young in the Lord and do not yet have the capacity to eat on their own. Someone else has to feed them—to give them the Word. A young Christian desires the milk of the Word of God. “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).
One Minute Please
Have you become hardened to sin in your life? Are you a carnal Christian?
Source: Sermon Notes, September 6, 1992.
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