IDENTITY CRISIS
1 Corinthians 2:14-3:4 (NLT)
( for an audio and visual of this sermon go to www.thecreekmonroe.com)
Back in the late sixties and the early seventies there was a TV show called “To Tell The Truth”. They would have a panel of 4 celebrities who would attempt to identify a particular person that they did not know out of three contestants. The contestants would try to mask their identity by lying and making up things about the person the celebrities were trying to identify. Example, one of them would be an airline pilot but the other two could be anything else but a pilot. The celebrities would ask questions and through this they would attempt to identify the pilot. At the end of the show, the celebrities would guess who the pilot was. The three contestants would get money for every wrong guess from the celebrities.
. The object of the game was to search for an identity.
. Our scripture this morning talks about a person’s identity.
. The world is made up of over 6 billion people. By the year 2040 we will peak at 7.2 billion people, and by 2050 we will be losing 150 million people a year. All sizes, types, shapes, colors, etc. But there are only three kinds of people in the world, no matter where they are from. Everyone falls into one of these three categories.
. There is the Natural Man, the Carnal Man, and the Spiritual Man.
The natural man is incomplete with a dead spirit. The only way he can find completeness is through Jesus Christ.
. The carnal man is one who clings to the flesh.
. When we see or hear the word “carne” we think of chili con carne or chili with meat. This word carne was derived from the same Latin word that means meat or flesh.
. In biblical terms, it means a person who still clings to their fleshly desires.
. Then there is the Spiritual man.
. The spiritual man is a person who responds to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and has the mind of Christ.
. Paul speaks of all three types of people in our scripture this morning.
. As we look at these people, allow God to convict you of your identity.
. Our world today faces an Identity Crises.
. What is your identity this morning, we all fall into one of the three categories.
. Lets read our scripture. 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:4
14But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
15Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.
16For, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?”But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
1Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life.
2I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,
3for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
. The first type of person is the:
I. Natural Man. (We must realize that when Paul uses the term man, he is talking about persons, both male and female.)
. Look at verse 14 again: 14But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
A. This person is lost
1. The natural man is the Lost Man. (there is nothing spiritual about him)
2. This man has no relationship with God whatsoever and lives by nothing but his base urges and desires.
3. He has absolutely no understanding of God.
B. He does not receive the things of God. He values only what he can see, feel or count.
1. The things of God seem foolish to him.
2. He has man’s wisdom. Only the knowledge of the things of the world.
. He is like a man in a foreign country who can’t speak the language.
. I was stationed in Germany while in the Army back in the seventies. I was there for two years and I was lost when it came to understanding the German people. You see, I did not understand what they were saying to me. All I learned while I was there was how to count to ten and to ask where the bathroom was. I could ask but when they answered, I couldn’t understand what they told me.
. The natural man, the lost man, will never understand the things of God as long as he stays in that base condition. This is where the majority of the world exists.
C. The Natural Man can only be changed through Jesus Christ.
1. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to be changed.
. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit must convict him of his need for salvation. In John 16:8, Jesus tells us that this is one of the reasons the Holy Spirit exists.
. 8And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment
2. When he is convicted of his sin, he can seek God’s wisdom and be saved.
II. Next Paul describes the Carnal Man
. Look at chapter 3: 1-3: 1Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life.
2I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,
3for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
A. The carnal man is a babe in Christ.
1. He hears the gospel and accepts Jesus.
. That is where they stay. They never grow up spiritually.
.All he really hears and understands is the basic gospel and no more.
. He does not crave spiritual food. He does not want to grow in his relationship with God.
2. Just like a baby, he needs constant nurturing and really makes no productive contribution to the family of God.
B. He is controlled by the Flesh.
1. He is carnal and craves the things of the flesh.
. When we are saved, we are forgiven of our sin and are told to repent or change the way of life that we have been living.
2. The carnal Christian has not progressed or has regressed.
. He has regressed into what the flesh desires rather than what God desires.
3. He is controlled by his sinful nature, not by God’s wisdom.
. Paul is telling the Corinthian Christians and us that we must grow into spiritual maturity and stop feeding on nothing but the basics of the gospel. We must learn the wisdom of God.
. We can no longer be controlled by our sinful nature.
. This is easily preached, difficult to do.
. No one ever said that living this Christian life was going to be easy. You see, we will always battle with this nature that we have within us.
.Paul the writer of our text was not immune to this either.
. He talks about this struggle in Romans 7: 21-25
. 21I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
22I love God’s law with all my heart.
23But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
25Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
4. The carnal man never progresses past knowing that he needs Jesus. He believes but never moves past this stage.
. He never strives for spiritual maturity.
. In our next sermon in this series, Paul will tell us why we should move out of this milk phase of our lives.
. We should all strive to become the next person that Paul is talking about.
III. Spiritual Man
. Look at verses 15&16 of chapter 2:
. 15Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.
16For, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
A. The Spiritual Man can evaluate all things.
1. Unlike the natural man who is guided by his sinful nature, the spiritual man Has God’s wisdom.
. He has a personal relationship with Jesus and knows the ways of God. He has allowed God to speak to him through prayer and study of his word and knows that this sinful nature can be overcome through the power of God in him.
2. Unlike the carnal man, he realizes that there is more to the Christian life than just faith.
. Yes we are saved by our faith and faith alone but we are saved to Grow the family of God.
. The Spiritual man understands what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10
. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
. We were saved, created anew by being born again, to do the good things God has for us to do.
. To live the life that is pleasing and honoring to God.
. Others may think that we are peculiar or different, that’s what Paul writes here . He writes that we cannot be evaluated by others, by people who do not have the wisdom of God, because they don’t understand.
3. The spiritual man is different from the world.
B. How to identify the Spiritual Man.
1. He honors God with his life.
. As people see him and get to know him, he is easily identifiable as someone who is different. The way he lves his life is a projection of Jesus Christ.
2. He is a person of integrity.
. His life is guided by the principles that God has given him.
. He refuses to compromise those principles.
C. How do we become a Spiritual Man
. That depends on your identity. Where do you fit. God’s desire is that we all become spiritual men.
1. If you are the natural man, you must accept what Jesus did for you and move toward spiritual maturity.
2. If you are the Carnal Man (Christian) move away from only milk and move to the meat of What god desires for you.
. Where do you fit this morning? Everyone in this room is one of these three types of people. Search your heart this morning.
. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you.
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Ed Wood, Three Kinds Of Men, sermon central
Jerry Shirley, Three Guys, sermon central
