Moving On

1 Corinthians 2:13-3:4
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

This passage lists the three different types of people in the world. Before you continue, go back and read those verses again, a little slower this time. Try to find the three people groups for yourself.

Did you find them? They are the natural man, the spiritual man, and the carnal man.

Natural men are the masses of unsaved people in the world’s system. According to this passage, they can’t receive or understand spiritual concepts. In their minds, our doctrines are simply crazy. These people are dead spiritually and controlled by their soul and by their flesh. Ephesians 4:17-19 gives a vivid description of the natural race - “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles [or unbelievers] walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”

The answer for a natural man is found in John 3:7, “You must be born again.” The natural man can’t change his own nature. Only the power of God and faith in Jesus Christ can do that. Once they’re born again, they enter into the spiritual life - they become spiritual people. A spiritual person may not know everything, but they never stop learning and pursuing spiritual things. You see, that’s the main characteristic of spiritual people - they desire and pursue spiritual things. Colossians 3:1-2 describes their attitude towards everything in life, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Spiritual people don’t waste all their time doing natural things. The more they learn from God’s Word and the more they do what they know, the deeper into their spiritual walk they go.

Sadly, many believers aren’t spiritual people, but carnal. The carnal man is someone who has been born again (the people Paul called carnal in our first passage were obviously believers), but then spends all his time in the natural. Even though their spirit has been recreated, they’re still ruled by their soul - just like the natural man. If you remember, Jesus used pigs to illustrate the carnal man.

Read this next passage carefully. Romans 8:5-7 says, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, [set their minds on] 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 an enemy against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.” When your mind is thinking carnal thoughts all the time, God calls it His enemy! Don’t be confused, carnal thoughts aren’t necessarily sinful or wicked. A carnal thought is any thought that doesn’t start with God and what He wants. According to the last phrase of verse 7, we’ll never be able to obey God when we have a carnal mind. But, when you set your mind and your desires on spiritual things (i.e. God’s Word, God’s people, and your eternity with Jesus), it brings life and peace!

There are two reasons for why a believer could be stuck in carnality.

First, they may never have been taught. There are myriads of churches in this nation that don’t spend any time in spiritual things. They may teach good life management skills (like how to manage your finances, how to treat your family, how to behave at work, and how to have a good attitude), but those are all natural things. Every believer needs to spend time in God’s Word to move into spirituality. If a believer is truly hungry for spiritual things, they’ll soon find out that there’s more to their Christian walk than what they’re being taught.

The other reason believers get caught in carnality is a little more serious. They were spiritual, they were learning, they were growing up in the Word of God - until they learned something that they didn’t want to do. As soon as they made the choice to ignore what they were taught, they began to slip into carnality. That little bit of disobedience is like yeast in a lump of dough (Galatians 5:9) - it spreads throughout the whole batch. Soon they’ll find themselves doing things they thought they’d never do! Why? Because when they stopped progressing spiritually, they began regressing carnally.

Carnality is a dangerous place for a believer to be. It’s a path that takes you backwards, not forwards. If you want to be a spiritual person, if you want to be used by God in a spiritual way, if you want the eternal rewards that are only given for spiritual things - you’ve got to grow beyond the natural realm. Listen to me, we will be rewarded for what we do in this life! What do you think will bring rewards, natural things or spiritual things? You only have around eighty years on earth to determine your eternal rewards - why would you waste all of your time doing natural things that won’t even matter tomorrow? It’s time to be spiritual people!

Where Did Jesus Go?

It’s been taught for years. It was in the apostles creed of the catholic church. Many well-known preachers still believe it. When Jesus died, He went to Hell for us, fought with the Devil, and took his keys away from him. Sure, this makes for a dramatic message - but it’s not in the Bible! Scripture shows us exactly what Jesus did between the cross and the resurrection, and Hell was never part of that! This has always been a man-made teaching that played on our emotions!
 
Let’s look at a little background first.
 
Whenever anyone died in the Old Testament, they went to a place called Sheol, located deep in the belly of the earth.
 
Psalm 18:5 - “The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.”
 
Psalm 116:3 - “The pains of death surrounded me, And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow.”
 
At first glance, it seems like Sheol is actually Hell. This gives support to the belief that Jesus went to Hell, since Psalm 16:10 prophesied about Jesus, “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” So we can clearly see that Jesus was in Sheol...so doesn’t that mean that He did go to Hell?
 
Well...no. When we read the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), we find out that there are two parts of Sheol. There is “Abraham’s Lap” - also known as “Paradise.” It was where the righteous dead went. It was a place of comfort. It was a place where the righteous went to wait for the resurrection. The other part of Sheol was “Hades” - also known as “Hell.” It was where the wicked went after death. It was a place of torment, a place of fire, where a single drop of water was considered comfort.
 
The Bible says in Ephesians 4:9 declares that Jesus descended to the lower parts of the earth after His death. So which one of these compartments did He go to? The answer is so simple, everyone knows it. In fact, Jesus tells us in His own words! When He spoke to the repentant thief on the cross, do you remember what He said? “This day, you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Jesus went straight from the cross to Paradise! He never went to Hell!
 
While Jesus was in Paradise, the Bible says in 1 Peter 4:6, “For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit” and again 1 Peter 3:19-20, “He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient...”
 
While Jesus was in Paradise, He preached the Gospel, the Good News of what He just did, to the Old Testament saints. He let them know that the promise that they were waiting for had come to pass at last! But remember the story of Lazarus and the rich man? There was a chasm between Paradise and Hell that no one could cross - but there was communication going on back and forth! So while Jesus preached to the righteous dead, the “spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient” were also able to listen. For them, though, it was anything but good news! The promise that they had rejected had come to pass...and they were still on the wrong side.
 
After three days of preaching the Gospel to the righteous men and women in Paradise, Jesus broke the power of death by rising up from the grave! He “led captivity captive” according to Ephesians 4:8. When He resurrected, He brought all the righteous men and women with Him! For a little while, until He went back to Heaven, the saints of the Old Testament were walking around on earth! Don’t believe me? Look it up for yourself - it’s in Matthew 27:52-53!
 
Now, the only part of Sheol being used is Hell. 2 Corinthians 5:8 tells us what happens to the righteous dead now, “to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” Now we go straight to Heaven!
 
This may not seem like a crucial issue. And as I said before, many good preachers still believe that Jesus went to Hell. But it strikes at the heart of Jesus’ sacrifice - was the cross enough? Did Jesus do everything He needed to do on the cross, or did He still have to go to Hell and beat the devil?
 
Colossians 2:14-15 is clear about where Jesus’ victory over Satan and his army took place, “Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” It was at the cross! When He bore our sin, when He bore our sickness, when He died in our place - that was the victory He came for!
 
As He breathed His last breath on the cross, He told us that was enough! Remember what He said! “It is finished!” Everything He was going to do for us was done at that moment!

The Lost Art Of Fear

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom

If you were to ask churchgoers today what the “fear of the Lord” is, I honestly am not sure what the answer would be. You would probably get a lot of vacant stares. Maybe you would get an answer like, “that's something from the Old Testament that God used to keep His people in line.” But the truth is, the fear of God is often mentioned in the New Testament – not just the old!

If you were asking a pastor, he would probably say, “it's a reverential respect of how big God is.” This is a little closer to the point, but it's still only partially right. The simple fact is, we haven't been very clear about what it means to fear God.

That's a shame, because there is so much in our Christian life that depends on the fear of the Lord!

Divine protections is a result of a person fearing God. Psalm 34:7 says, The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them. Being delivered from trouble is a direct result of a believer's fear of God!

Long life is another benefit. Look at Proverbs 10:27: The fear of the LORD prolongs days. Now look at what Proverbs 22:4 says: By humility and the fear of the LORD Are riches and honor and life. In that verse we see that not only is your life attached to your fear of God, but so is your wealth and reputation! Psalm 128:1 echoes that by saying, Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways. (By the way, Psalm 128:1 also has a clue to what Godly fear is all about – you'll see it again later.)

And we can't list the benefits of fearing the Lord without going back to our starting verse! Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. How often do we need wisdom in our life? How often have you wished you had more? The way you start getting wisdom is by learning how to fear God!

So what is the fear of God? Proverbs 8:13 says it in the simplest way: The fear of the LORD is to hate evil. That's the bottom line, fearing God is hating what God hates.

Paul goes a little bit deeper in 2 Corinthians 5:10-11 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the rewards for things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences. Did you see that? The fear of God is knowing something. It's knowing that one day you're going to stand before Jesus and give an account of what you've done on earth. Keeping that knowledge in the front of your mind is going to make you hate evil. Why? Because you shudder at the though of having to give an account for those things when you stand before Jesus!

That's the fear of God! The fear of God is when you know that you're going to give an account of what you do here, so you keep yourself away from sin. 2 Corinthians 7:1 agrees with this: Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

This brings us back to the second part of Psalm 128:1, Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. Psalm 112:1 says essentially the same thing: Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments.

Fearing God will even deliver those weak believers out there who are struggling with sin. You see, when you know someone is watching you, you tend to straighten up, right? That's why most of a Christian's sin is done in private – because we don't want anyone to see us! But when you understand the Fear of God – that He's always watching you, and you will have to stand before Him one day – you find the strength to resist! That's what Proverbs 16:6 says: In mercy and truth Atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil. The way you depart from evil is by fearing God! No wonder David says in Psalm 19:9, The fear of the LORD is clean...

I feel like I need to repeat yesterday's post a little bit. Don't think this is about getting saved. There is only one way to be saved, by grace through faith. Obedience isn't going to get you into Heaven. And, for a believer, the judgment of Jesus isn't about Heaven or Hell. When you believe in Jesus Christ - His death, burial, resurrection, and Lordship – you're going to Heaven. Jesus paid the price for you, it's not about your obedience. But, the judgment seat of Christ is where your rewards are going to be given.

We are going to be rewarded for our obedience here on earth. Wouldn't it be a shame to have Jesus say to you, “Son, you believed in Me and I saved you. You're going to Heaven. But I'm sorry - you didn't do what I asked you to do while you were on Earth. You didn't listen to the men and women I gave you (Ephesians 4:11) who were trying to instruct you. You never picked up My Word for yourself, you never asked Me what I wanted done. So, you can go in, son...but you won't get any of the rewards that I wanted to give You.”

I don't know about you, but that put's godly fear in me! I want to make Him proud of what I do here! I want to see what the rewards He has for me are. His rewards are going to stay with us for eternity – but so is the lack of them. Just making it into Heaven isn't enough for me, is it enough for you?

Loving God's House

Genesis 28:16-17 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

There's a growing problem in the Church of God today. It's an issue that strikes at our very heart. It's a problem that, if not solved, will destroy individual believers as well as local churches. That problem? Apathy.

We've lost our passion for God's house. We've forgotten what coming to church is all about. In a very true sense of the word, we've been asleep. Just like Jacob, we've wandered into Bethel ("the house of God") without realizing Who's here with us! Why else is it surprising to us when there's a "great service"? During those moments, we wake up like Jacob and say "God is surely in this place!" But too often we fall right back asleep again. It shows on our faces...we're bored. In God's house, the very gate of Heaven...we pay no attention!

The answer isn't more exciting church programs. It isn't attendance drives or more "relevant" messages. It's God's word, people...if a preacher just got up and read three chapters and sat down, it would be relevant! The answer is for us to realize where we're at!

"How awesome is this place!" That was Jacob's realization, and it needs to be ours too. This isn't just a building. I know that we've been taught that over and over, but we've been misled. Sure, you and I are the church of God - that's part of the truth. But the rest of that truth is found in 1 Timothy 3:15 "I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" I know that we are the Church, but when you and I (the body of Christ) meet together - wherever we meet becomes the church of God - God's house on earth! Where we meet together with God is Bethel!

Now listen to what else Jacob says! "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven!" Are you wanting more from God in your life? do you want to see God do more in your life? Do you feel like Heaven is closed up to you? I would examine your attitude toward your local church! Where you come to meet with God is the gate of Heaven in your life! Everything God wants in your life has to come through the gate of Heaven - the house of God!

Now...concerning your attitude toward your church. Are you fussing with your brothers and sisters? Are you eating your pastor (God's gatekeeper, if you will) for dinner on Sunday afternoon? Are you always half-awake, half-hearted, and a half-hour late? How would your friends feel if you showed up to their house like that all the time? How would your boss feel? Why do we reserve that kind of indignity for the gate of Heaven?

The bottom line is this, if you want what Heaven has - you have to treat its gateway with a little more respect.