Matthew Stuckey here from Verity Baptist Church Manila providing you another video on the
topic of Calvinism and the perseverance of the saints.
One thing that Calvinists like to say is that there is no such thing as a carnal Christian.
R.C. Sproul is quoted as saying that it's the most deadly, ghastly doctrine, so evil
and wicked to say to a carnal Christian, if you're really a savior, you're never going
to be carnal.
Well, is that what the Bible says?
1 Corinthians 3 starting in verse 1, and I'd rather cannot speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal.
You say, well, Brother Stuckey, the church at Corinth, they're involved in so many sins,
there's no way that they could be saved.
It says, as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
When he talks about them being carnal Christians, he likens that to being baby Christians.
Being carnal and being a baby Christian, babes in Christ, these are believers, these are
saved people, but they're baby Christians.
It's very clear the carnal person's the baby Christian, and if you go on with the passage,
I fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you're not able to bear it, neither
yet now are you evil.
For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envy and strife and divisions, are
ye not carnal and walk as men?
For while one sayeth, I am a Paul, and another, I am a Paul, lest are ye not carnal?
So he rebukes them and he says that they are carnal, because there's envy, because there's
strife.
Look, no matter who you are out there, there's times when you might have some envy, there's
times when you might have some strife, and when you're not as mature as a Christian,
that's going to be a lot more prevalent.
And this was very common in this church, that people were envious and full of strife, and
he calls them carnal Christians.
But it's very clear from the context, he's talking about baby Christians.
In verse number one, then he says, I fed you with milk.
What do you feed a baby?
Milk.
Not with meat, with milk.
So they were baby Christians.
Now many of them have probably been saved for quite a long time, and they shouldn't
have been baby Christians, but they were baby Christians.
They were carnal Christians, and carnal Christians are baby Christians in the Bible.
So this idea that there's no such thing as a carnal Christian, well, I mean, the Bible
flat out says that the carnal person is a baby Christian.
That's what you see here in 1 Corinthians 3.
In Romans 7, Paul said, I am carnal.
That's what he said.
He said he has a body, he has a spirit.
Yes, his spiritual man wants to serve God, but his body doesn't want to serve God, and
we've got that battle we've got to decide each and every day, are we going to live for
God, or are we going to live for ourselves and live for the world?
We've got both sides to us, and when you get saved, your desire to commit sin sometimes
does not just magically disappear.
No, it's tough living for God.
It's not easy, and what you see in 1 Corinthians 3 is you're talking about carnal Christians.
The truth is this, that most people that are saved remain baby Christians and carnal Christians
basically their whole lives.
Most people get saved, and they never really grow too much.
Even in a church, most churches, most of the people don't really read the Bible.
Most of them don't pray.
Most churches, most of the people don't go soul winning.
They don't have a real personal walk with God, and they're not trying to fight against
sin in their life, and they could remain baby Christians until the day they die.
What they might need their entire lives is just to be fed with milk rather than the deep
end times doctrines and the meat of the word, but here's the truth, they're still saved.
That's what you see in 1 Corinthians 3 verses 1 and 2 because he says, babies in Christ
are carnal and they're fed with milk.
Thank you and God bless.