One of the easiest ways to tell if a young Christian is still a babe in Christ is to spend a little time around them. Even though when a man of the world is baptized, the old man of sin dies and is created anew as a child of God, the spirit and the fleshly nature with its physical desires still war one with another. A babe in Christ is still carnally minded and unless they put forth effort, their life will be consumed by sin and they will soon be serving Satan again.
Matthew 12:43-45"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation."
Jesus teaches us through this parable the doctrine of once saved, always saved is not only wrong, but if a new born Christian does not only take the sin out of their life, but also replace the evil with good their latter end will be worse than their first. How can this be? If an alien sinner is lost and bound for hell, what could be worse than hell?
The answer is really simple and I think it can best be explained through this imaginary tale. Let us imagine there is this man who is very poor and has a wife and several children who depend upon him for food, clothing, and a place to stay. No matter what he does or tries, it fails. He seems doomed to remain poor his entire life, with the creditors hounding him. He hates his life because he has given up, he has no hope.
One day as he is walking down the road, he sees a lottery ticket lying on the side of the road. He picks it up and puts it in his shirt pocket and a little later on, he checks and discovers he has found the winning lottery ticket worth over 250 million dollars. He becomes so excited, he rushes home and shows his wife and they become very busy making plans what they would do with this money. They are so excited they can not sleep so they stay up all night long talking and planning their new home, their new car, their new life, and all of the things they were going to do with their new found wealth.
The next day they climb into their old broken down jalopy with its broken windows and start off driving down to turn the winning lottery ticket in and claim their wealth. On the way the husband, still having a hard time believing his luck, tells his wife to hand him the ticket so he can look at it one more time. So his wife hands him the ticket and as he lifts it up so he can see the numbers the wind, blowing through the broken window, snatches the ticket from his hand. It is blown out the broken window and over a bridge they are crossing and down into the raging river below, never to be seen again.
The husband and wife are filled with consternation. Suddenly the only hope they have ever had has been snatched away. They are miserable. But why? They are really not any worse off than they were before. But we can all see the reason why they are worse off. Before they had not had any hopes or dreams. Now for the rest of their lives they will remember for a brief moment they were rich beyond belief, they will have the memories of all of the plans they made and they will always remember, what might have been.
The same is true of the Christian who at first walked and talked with God, but fell away for whatever reason. For an eternity in hell, they will have their memories of what it was like to walk and talk with God, and while in actuality hell is no worse than it would have been before, it is still worse because for all of eternity they will remember what might have been.
1 Corinthians 3:1-4 "And I, brethren, 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 ye 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 divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?"
Paul in writing to the Corinthian brethren is expressing concern because they have not grown like they should have. He goes on to remind them he had to be very careful with the things he taught them, because they not only had not be able to bear criticism, and they still had not grown to the point Paul felt he could deal with them with honesty. As long as they were unable to accept criticism, as long as Paul could not deal with them as mature Christians, Paul could not provide the help they needed. Until a person has grown to the point they can examine themselves honestly in comparison to the Holy Scriptures, they are babies in
Christ, they have not grown as they should have.
Paul reminds the Corinthian brethren as long as they were governed by their emotions, such as envying, strife, and vain glory, divisions would exist within the local body. As long as they were following men they were still carnally minded, they were still spiritual babies, who may throw a temper tantrum at any time. As long as this type of attitude exists within the local congregation, they would not be able to grow in the way God intended.
2 Corinthians 10:3-7 "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's."
Paul in writing to the Corinthians reminds them while we are in this world, we are in a fleshly body with its fleshly desire, but we are still not in a fleshly war which can be fought and won with physical weapons. As long as we try to fight the war with physical weapons and are governed by carnal emotions and strengths, we will lose.
But when we put behind us the carnal emotions and begin to use the spiritual weapons God has given us, we can and will win. We can pull down the strong holds of Satan. But we can only do this when we begin to bring every thought under the control of Jesus Christ. But this can only be accomplished as long as we remember we belong to Christ and voluntarily keep ourselves under submission to Him.
Romans 8:4-14 "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
For anyone to have the righteousness of God fulfilled in them, they must quit walking after the flesh and must quit fulfilling the desires of the flesh. As long as they are guided by their fleshly emotions and desires, they will be controlled by their physical desires. Instead they must turn their life over to God and begin walking after the Spirit. They must be guided by the Holy Spirit. It is only when they are truly walking and being guided by the Holy Spirit one will quit worrying about the things of the flesh and allow one self to trust in the Holy Spirit.
As long as one is allowing themselves to be controlled by the flesh they will actually be enemies of God, for the fleshly nature is not subject to the laws of God and cannot be. This is an essential fact Christians need to remember. As long as we allow our fleshly nature to guide us, we cannot win the spiritual war. But if we feed the Holy Spirit which indwells us, we can overcome.
The paradox is that to live, we must kill the deeds and thoughts of our fleshly nature. To live spiritually, our physical nature must die. For us to live spiritually, we must be led by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God and this can only happen if we mortify (kill) the deeds of the flesh.
Romans 8:14-17 "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."
If we are lead by the Spirit of God through the Word of God, we are the Sons of God. If we are walking in the Spirit, we have not been given the spirit of bondage to fear, but rather we have been given the Spirit of adoption. We are adopted sons and daughters of God. We are the children of God. The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit we are the children of God. But how does this happen? As usual with things of God, it is much simpler than mankind tries to make it.
The Spirit beareth witness simply is saying the holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost or in other words, The Bible is how the Holy Spirit bears witness and when we follow what the Holy Spirit tells us through the Bible then our spirit is bearing witness we have obeyed what God has told us to do. This is how simple it is. The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit we are the children of God when we do what the Holy Spirit tells us. We must obey the written word of God in order to be children of God. That is when we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit for the remission of our sins.
Chapter Summary
- 1. If we are carnally minded, we are still Babies in Christ.
2. If we are still controlled by our physical emotions then we are still babies in Christ.
3. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
4. To grow past being a spiritual baby, one must control the fleshly desires.
5. To grow unto spiritual maturity, one must walk in the Spirit.
6. To grow unto spiritual maturity, one must take sin out of their life.
7. To grow unto spiritual maturity, but also they must replace it with good.
8. To be able to eat spiritual meat, we must control our physical emotions.
9. A spiritual baby is one who can not accept any criticism.
10. Even though we are fleshly beings, we are not to be involved in carnal warfare.
11. Even though we are fleshly beings, we are not to fight using carnal weapons.
12. If we continue to walk in the flesh and fight Satan with physical weapons will die.
13. If we are able to kill the physical desires by controlling them through Jesus, then and only then can we walk in the Spirit.
14. To walk in the Spirit is to be guided by the Holy Spirit.
15. To be guided by the Word of God is to be guided by the Holy Spirit.
16. To be guided by the Holy Spirit is to be guided by the written word of God.
17. To be guided by the written word of God means that one follows the things written in the Bible.
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