The Cost of Discipleship — Leonard Ravenhill

Spiritual Infancy and Carnality in the Church

Let's read some verses from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians chapter 3. And reading from verse 1. First Corinthians chapter 3. Reading from verse 1. 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'm of Apollos are ye not carnal. Who then is Paul. And who is Apollos. But ministers by whom he believed. Even as the Lord gave to every man I have planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase.

So then neither is he that plant of anything neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase. One of the most forgotten men in the church at least amongst the so-called great men was a man by the name of Henry Varley.

He was a great preacher. And on one occasion he shot out a statement which has come a kind of become a kind of classic in the vocabulary of preachers. He said the world is yet to see what God can do through one man who is totally committed to Jesus Christ.

Well it was a kind of a narrow shot of the venture. But in the audience there was a young man he wasn't very learned his education was almost zero. But he kind of caught that thought as it went past. No no man.

The world has not yet seen a man who is a hundred percent committed to Jesus Christ. And so he said under his breath well by the grace of God I'll be that man. All he did was sell shoes in a store there in Chicago.

And some of you know him I'm sure his name was DL Moody. You know when I think of that I always take issue with it because I'm quite sure that that was not a true statement. The world is yet to see. Are you suggesting God had had to wait 2 ,000 years that Jesus had to find a man that he could totally inhabit because all self and sin had been purged out of him and his will had been surrendered.

And his personality he was a love slave to God. Why. Right. At the beginning of history Christian history there was a man who was so totally sold out to God that we I don't think I've ever seen his like sins.

Paul's Conversion and Total Consecration

You remember his story begins as far as we're concerned going down the Damascus Road. And in the 26 of Acts where he gives his testimony before a gripper. He doesn't cover the blemishes. He doesn't try to minimize the the wicked zeal that he has.

He doesn't say I'm sorry and trembling and blushing that I I have to admit that I was a murderer he says. I went down that that road and I was going to exterminate the whole Church of Jesus Christ. Being exceedingly mad he says not just mad.

He was blazing with anger to think that some people were following a man who died on a cross. To think they wouldn't go to the temple and offer sacrifices and regard the high priest and go through all the different and very wonderful things on the calendar of the church or their church.

But going down that Damascus Road God got hold of that murderer and made him a messenger. He got all of the persecutor and made him the greatest preacher ever he get. He got hold of the executor and made him the greatest expounder of the gospel that the world has ever seen.

He says giving his own testimony that when he went down that Damascus Road the the Lord appeared unto me. He revealed himself to me. That later he says he revealed himself in me. He daringly says over and over.

You remember Galatians 2 20 quote it so often that I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me. I believe that's the most awesome thing any man can say this side of eternity.

Not that he walked on the moon. Not that it in the who's who. The only who's who. I'm insisted in God's who's who. When we get up there there'll be some shocks. I think the greatest thing that could ever cross your lips is to stand and say to the world the flesh the devil the in-laws and outlaws.

Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. Not when I shuffle off this mortal coil as Shakespeare says. But the life I now live in the flesh surrounded with all the adversities and temptations and trials and all the things that can come.

And yet Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul has an amazing pedigree. He forgets it all. As he ends his letter to the Galatians he says in the 14th verse of chapter 6.

But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified to me. And I am crucified to the world. Now there's a thing you and I have never seen. We have never seen the agonizing death of a man on a cross.

Oh well of course in the days of the Romans it was a sport. Immediately a man was nailed to the cross. He lost all his rights. And if you ever get nailed to the cross you lose all yours too. Immediately was nailed on the cross and he was exalted.

The people could do as they like. They could throw a bucket of filth on him. They could throw their rotten eggs. They could stone him. He had no rights. And before he died his eyes would be gouged out his ribs would be broken.

Blood will be dripping from him. And everybody got excited. Particularly if it was a kind of a Barabbas who was there. He deserves all he gets. He's destroyed other people's lives. He's raped people. He's broken people's minds.

And and so they go on with a list of things that he'd done. And he should die a thousand deaths. But as soon as the bell told in the city they didn't stay there. They went back into the city at six o 'clock.

They could see that bleeding victim. There was nobody there. At six o 'clock in the morning on the arms of the cross were the vultures. They'd pick out the eyes. They'd tear the body. The blood would run out.

Then the dogs came out of Jerusalem and licked up the the blood as they did the blood of Jezebel. Nobody wanted to photograph it. They didn't have photography. But nobody wanted to see it. A bloody spectacle.

A man whose innards were hanging out. A man whose body is so distorted you could hardly tell. It was a human frame. It had been lashed with rocks. It was covered with filth. It had only excrement and every other offensive thing.

And Paul says when I said goodbye to the world I said goodbye to a filthy thing. The world is crucified to me. It's a filthy world. It's a corrupt world. But not only that he says I'm crucified to the world.

People would say of the Apostle Paul. Here's a man. He's got acres of culture. He's got a colossal intellect. He'll be a greater high priest than Hillel or any other high priest you ever had in history.

And the fool of a man he's been so charmed with this Christianity that he's resigned all that he could have in the world. Yeah it's easy for you and I to sing with Isaac Watts were the whole realm of nature mine.

I'm afraid we don't do it love. So amazing so divine. This man had a revelation of God that I don't think anybody's had before or since. I'm quite sure he quoted with fervency. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

Paul's Gospel in Athens and Corinth

He sees the great expanse of the world. Why. Look at this man's staggering life. He began his life in the historic capital of the world Tarsus. He ended his life in the military were a capital of the world Rome.

He went to the intellectual capital of the world in the 17th of Acts. There and and and they discovered this little undersized man. When they saw him they said his bodily presence is weak. And discovered he had a staggering scintillating intellect.

They quoted poetry answered with poetry. They quoted philosophy answered with philosophy. They quoted their history. He answered with their history. This man is all round. He's fully developed man. And they're staggered by this amazing man.

And then he came to a situation that the great Scottish preacher called some years ago I'm trying to think of his name is James something. But anyhow the years ago he said they listened intently to Paul.

They were staggered that this little Jew should know much so much about Greek history Greek philosophy. I'm sure he'd read Plato all the other stuff. But then as a great preacher says he took the trumpet of the resurrection.

He went down the street. And when he saw the street it was lined with churches as we would say it was lined with places of worship. All this this this doesn't stagger too many of us does it. We just go down the street and say there's a Roman Catholic Church.

That's Jehovah's Witnesses. That's the Mormons where the Hare Krishna meet there and the Moonlyites meet there. And so what does it stir you. That those people have been treating teaching false gods. And they rape people's minds just as a man might rape a girl's body.

It says in the sleepy Elizabethan English that when he saw these people colossal intellects many of them. And yet they were tricked and duped by false religion. And it says in the sleepy Elizabethan English that his spirit was stirred within him.

I'm not very fond of the Amplified except where it agrees with me that the Amplified doesn't say his spirit was stirred within him. He says that when he saw all these people tricked seduced by by deceiving spirits he was angry about it.

Did you ever feel a holy anger. Okay. Can you push over. There's quite a lot of people wanting to come in. Would you move that way and let them sit at the end here on the end seats. If you can't move to the center.

And then they won't have to move everybody else some seats here one. Now we'll have to take another offering. They came in late where we're dealing with 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and talking about at the moment we're talking about the 14th verse of the epistle to the Galatians where Paul says God forbid that I should glory.

No man ever had a pedigree greater than the Apostle Paul of the tribe of Benjamin of the seed of Abraham. He has everything going for him again. I say I believe he had a colossal intellect. I think he had a very brilliant mind.

He he met the philosophers. I said he began his life in the ancient capital of the world Tarsus. He went to the intellectual capital of the world which was Athens and he reasoned with them there. And yet there is no epistle of Paul to the Athenians.

Why. Well I'm not going to criticize Paul. I'm just going to say this. He didn't talk about redemption. What he did say. And they couldn't believe it. He took the gospel trumpet to his lips and he sounded the resurrection.

You see they did have an altar to an unknown God. And he said that's the unknown God. I declared to you he made the heavens and the earth. His son died and rose again and he was resurrected. And they showed him the gate.

No we can't listen to that kind of stuff from there. He went from the intellectual capital of the world and he'd been also later he'll go to the religious capital of the world Jerusalem. But he steps down from the place where they worship the brain to the place where they worship the body.

Corinth in the days of the Apostle. You didn't have to string a hundred adjectives together about a man's corruption and his licentiousness and everything else. You just tagged him with one word he's a Corinthian.

And immediately you knew he was the vilest of the vile. And the old German commentator mayor not F .B. Meyer. He was English but F. the other mayor a German commentator says this blessed and sublime miracle of God that a church of Jesus Christ could be established in Corinth.

Shakespeare said you can't make a a silk purse out of a sow's ear. God can do better than that. He can take the most depraved despised and rejected men and make them Saints to God. It says in the first of Samuel that he lifts the beggar from the dunghill and makes them princes unto God.

Amazing Grace and Personal Redemption

I remember about 15 or 16 years ago when we were working with Dave Wilkerson in those days when David was hardly known and yet we had a full house. This side of the prayer chapel was filled with girls this with men.

And a little fellow stood up and he said brother Raven he must come to preach for us. Little Puerto Rican fellow. His face was radiant and he said before he sang we stand up and sing sing the national anthem.

Oh I thought Bologna sing the national anthem right before I preach. I didn't get what he said. He didn't say sing the national anthem. He sing our national anthem. He said we sing our national anthem.

So I thought the Puerto Ricans must have one. And he stood up there and did not. He started to sing amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found. It was grace that taught my just grace.

And you know before we got to the end when we've been there 10 ,000 years he changed it to 10 million. It wasn't bad. 10 trillion would have been better. But he got there. And you know there wasn't a dry eye on those girls have been prostitutes.

Some of them are carried guns. Everyone had been changed. The tears were flowing. They used to make other people weep. Now they're weeping. Why. Amazing grace. Sure Paul loved the world. God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

And then afterwards he writes the Ephesians. He not only loved the world and gave his son. He says he loved me. But he says Christ gave himself for the church that greater than loving the world and loving the church.

He says did what he did. He loved me. Do you ever fall at his feet and say thank you Lord for saving my soul not our souls. Thank you for blotting out the horrible record of my sin. Some of you didn't have much.

And it's true that those who have been saved from much love much. Remember that brilliant King. He was mentioned this morning in Psalm 51. And in another time he says what. He lifted me up out of a horrible pit.

This hand was running with crime and and this with adultery and my history was rotten. And he isn't asking Lord just just kindly forgive my sins and I'll go about my business. He's nothing for some superficial knowledge that somehow the relationship is kind of restored and all is well.

He goes further than that. He says search me in a Psalm 139 and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there'd be any wicked way in me. He says in that 51st Psalm I want truth in the inward path.

Oh that's cutting close. Isn't it not just out of my mind and my conscience but in the inward part the central register of my being. That truth may be there. Paul finishes his letter to the Galatians.

Oh it's so beautiful. He doesn't have his tongue in his cheek and say you know I wonder if I've done the right thing. I could have had a good influence for God if I'd stayed in the old place and I don't had a worldwide reputation.

And no no no no no. I like what he says at the end of the chapter. There I'm reading from the Living Bible King James. And the 17th verse of the last chapter says this. I like it. Listen to his defiance from henceforth let no man trouble me.

I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I think Moffat translates that. Henceforth let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the brands of Jesus Christ. Oh they knew what he meant in the temple of Heracles.

In the days of slavery a man would run away from his taskmaster brutal taskmaster. And he would rush to the temple. They had priests. There they were. They were on guard there night often asleep. But anyhow that's what preachers are.

And you might have to wait in the preacher up. And you say I hopefully he says have you escaped. Yes I've escaped. I brand me. Brand me. Well choose the weapons. What. What you know like we brand cattle here.

Oh which God do you want to be branded. He chooses this stigmata. He chooses the the mark the brand of a certain God. And he's branded on his hands. Can you imagine him putting his hand out clenching his teeth.

And that flesh sizzles when that hot iron goes on it. He slips down his toga if he was wearing one. And he's branded on the back of his neck. He lifts up his foot and he's branded on his instep. Paul says don't trouble me.

I'm branded. I bear the marks of a slave. I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ. I've no will of my own. I've no rights of my own. There's an old hymn established on that very theme. Let my hands perform his bidding.

Let my feet run in his ways. Let my eyes see Jesus only let my lips speak forth his praise all for Jesus. All my beings ransom powers all my thoughts and words and doings all my days and all my hours.

The Cross, Sacrifice, and the Marks of Christ

This man is no professional preacher. Preaching is not a profession. It's a passion. I'm gonna preach with passion. He shouldn't preach at all. Not a profession a passion. There's no breath of professionalism anywhere in the ministry of Paul.

And thank God there's no breath of commercialism either. Peter said in his day there are some will make merchandise of you. That couldn't be more true than the day in which we're living. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

I bear here at the back of my neck a brand which tells you that this part of my being my thinking my philosophy is that of Jesus Christ my teaching my feet. Isn't it staggering how how far this amazing man went.

Look at his mystery journeys without airplanes without trains. God put something in him. The stupid world tried to get it out of him but God put something. There's something in him. And they lashed him 195 times and they couldn't whip it out of him.

And he hung on a piece of wood in the Mediterranean for 36 hours. And they couldn't wash it out of him. And they tried to threaten it out of him. But Almighty God put something in there. You see they were not trying to kill the Apostle Paul the idiots.

They were trying to kill Jesus Christ because Christ lived in him. And he says I don't know whether to desire and depart or be here because it's not much better off up there. In one sense I still got Christ inside.

He says his life is head with Christ in God. So you see this man moving establishing churches. One amazing thing. I often say this to young preachers who asked me about preaching and I don't know much about it.

I've been trying to do it for about 60 or just over 60 years now. It's still a mystery. I think as dear pastor said this morning you see some people have got everything out in one two three four. If they have I throw the book away.

The older I get the more. I realize great is a mystery of godliness. Why isn't God brooding over our stained-glass windows in America this morning. Why isn't he brooding on our super multi-million dollar TV and radio programs with all the flash and show they have the greatest air is where God is breathing.

This morning is amongst people that are in poverty and in need. The Africa in the gar upon me the the revival in Nagaland which is north northeast India. I read a report a brother sent recently. He went expecting a finite like like revival.

We think we're gonna make a carbon copy and say Lord double it that way now. Now you know don't rock the boat in the 11th of July in the Wall Street Journal which I'm sure many of you take because of your interests and investments.

That in the Wall Street Journal for the 11th of July it says I was going to bring the document and I forgot it. But it says there an evangelical revival is moving over America just now but it's having little effect.

That's like saying there was an earthquake from California to New York last night eight point six on the Richter scale. But nobody felt it. You talk about the fullness of God. What. What Paul did. You know right after he was born again after that miracle happened on the Damascus Road.

I'm glad one man stayed to listen what God had to say that morning. He didn't just pray. He listened and God said Ananias get up and go to the street called straight. And that's the house. Isn't it great to know that God knows your name and address.

Postman may forget it but God knows it. And he goes down and says to him brother Saul that must have startled him. I mean he was going to kill that man. And he goes and says brother Saul the Lord has appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister.

And you know only God can make you a minister. Nobody else can do that. They may teach you a few things in Bible school but they never make you a preacher. The Lord has appeared to thee and then he disappears.

He goes into the wilderness. God revealed himself in him. I hope you understand my language here. I believe in that period of three and a half years that Paul became spiritually pregnant. I believe the Spirit of God birthed all these epistles which afterwards he would give birth to.

I believe he birthed all those churches because he writes afterwards. Doesn't he to the Galatians. And he says for whom I travel in birth. You talk about out of him shall flow rivers of living water. 14 epistles.

If you give him Hebrews. And I think he wrote Hebrews as well. 14 matchless epistles. I remind you again Christianity was not served up to the world on a silver platter. Christianity was served up. Or it was born in a sophisticated totalitarian society.

And yet Jesus never said anything about slavery. All these boys are rushing to Washington. They then put God's house right. But they want to put the White House right. The answer to our present moral and political and every other dilemma we have in the nation will not be solved in the upper room at the White House.

In the oval room at the White House. It'll be solved if it's solved at all in the upper room in God's house. The way the preachers are rushing to Washington. You think that the politicians were the salt of the earth.

They're not. They can't put their own house in order. Never mind us. God strictly forbid that Israel should go down to Egypt for help. And all these boys are rushing to the politicians. You want to get the Bible back in school.

Well I'm not too worried about that. I'd like to see the Bible back in every home. Then forget the school. Some of us want the school teacher to do what daddy and mommy should do. Do you wonder when he'd surveyed the wondrous cross.

I think we slip over that way. You ever see a surveyor on the road in how meticulous he is. He gets that. Well there are many names for it. Let's call it a telescope. But he gets it. Then he looks and the wave to each other.

And he goes this way that oh a man's very very careful when he does a surveying job. No man surveyed the cross. The wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died like the Apostle Paul my richest gain.

I count. But last. Yes sir he did it over and over and over again. After all if you laid a cross on the ground it points north south east and west. It has a message for the whole world. If you stand it up it points to a topless heaven and a bottomless hell.

And the arms as Charles Wesley said the arms of love that compass me with all mankind embrace. Paul has no fear. You know what he did. I would to God. Some of you fellows would do it. You know what he once did.

He said. I bow the knee to the father. And because he bowed the knee to the father he never bowed the knee to anybody else. Neither demons or politician or kings. He stood there regal. Isn't it something that there's a man there swarming in his gorgeous robes and his beautiful rings.

And all society gasping. When Felix walks in. And before he finished Felix's knees were knocking together. It says Felix tremble. He goes to one of the most distinguished men of the day. And what does he say.

You almost persuade me to be a Christian. I'm on the very verge of it. Paul says I would to God that you are even as I am except for these chains. Isn't that lovely. He has his chains on. The difference between Paul and the man on the throne.

The man on the throne had chains but they were on the inside. Paul's chains were on the outside. He had none. On the inside. He was free. Free from the fear of men. Free from the fear of consequences.

Free from anything the devil might put on him and other people from henceforth he says let no man trouble me. For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I'm afraid that Paul would look on with compassion and real pity on our feeble faith.

Carnality, Spiritual Maturity, and the Need for the Cross

I sometimes say this is a day of thin theology and fat preachers. I'm sure it is. There's no sentimental Christianity with the Apostle Paul. There's no such thing as coming to the cross and just getting your sins forgiven.

Oh no no no no no. The man who only wants his sins forgiven is trifling with Christianity. He needs more than his sins forgiven. He needs more than that horrid record. Maybe you sin enough to damn a thousand people.

I'm God in his infinite mercy. When you confess and you plead and you're brokenhearted and you're penitent and you repent. He takes that record and flings it into his eternal backyard. Is like never to be remembered against us anymore forever.

The man needs more than forgiveness. He needs cleansing. He needs more than cleansing. He needs indwelling. He needs to get to reach to the bondage of sin. He becomes a bond servant of Jesus Christ. Now I said Paul came to the in the intellectual capital where they worship the brain.

And he came down to Corinth where they worship the body. The continual talk in Athens was wisdom. The continual talk in Corinth was wickedness. I don't really sent out a letter asking for support to get there.

I don't really made reservations in the Holiday Inn or somewhere. This man is prepared to follow the step of Jesus every way as far as possible. Somebody said to a friend of mine recently who might be doing some building for God.

He said listen get me give you a word of advice. Don't build anything that will embarrass you in a few years. That's a very good point. I see God's money going in stately buildings and swimming pools and tennis courts.

And I want to vomit with a world starving with a mission field needing money. Paul attacks Corinth. Well he doesn't go with his philosophical stuff. He doesn't dazzle them with his knowledge. He says listen.

He begins the epistle. Doesn't it by saying I'm not coming to you with enticing words of man's wisdom almost saying I just tried that out at the last place. And those those philosophers and stoics and epicureans and others they marvel.

They open their eyes. They were they were staggered by what I said but I didn't get through to them. And so I'm going right back back back to the foundation. Some years ago there was a professor in America.

His book has recently been republished. I think I'm not sure if it was at Yale. No Princeton. He was only in his forties when he contracted a terrible disease. His body began to droop. He began to shuffle.

He tried to get an answer to his problem and he couldn't. And so one day somebody said to him you need to go to Paris. There's a doctor there now. This was when ships were slow not even fast ships and certainly no planes.

When he got to Paris somebody said to him no no no. We don't have the answer. I think you'll find it in Geneva. And Geneva they said no. We don't have the answer here. The answer is in Austria. He got to Austria and somebody said no.

The answer is in France. He got to France. He said it's across the channel in England. In England they said no no no no no. We don't have the answer that the physician who has the answer is there in Scotland.

When he got there the physician said I'm sorry I don't have the answer to it. We've done some investigation but we've got no answer. Like our day. We can diagnose cancer. We can't cure it. We're so busy putting billions into armaments.

We let folk die on our doorstep. So we'll have enough stuff to destroy other countries. Isn't that wonderful. Don't have the answer. He came back. He was tempted on the ship almost to throw himself overboard.

One day was going down the street not far from Princeton. A man said to him excuse me sir. Aren't you professor James. He said yes. Well you're very sick. Isn't amazing. People state the obvious. I was lying in plaster from my chin to my toes.

I jumped out of a burning hotel in 1951 broke my back in three places. My left leg was in three pieces. My feet were in both broken up. Hey I'm lying in bed you know can't turn can't do anything can't shave can't feed myself.

My darling wife watched me day and night. And somebody walks in and says hello brother. Aiden are you sick. No I'm just getting ready to play tennis. Can't you see I've got my my tennis things on. It's pouring rain and you're soaking.

So I said oh it's raining. Oh thanks for the news. Shivering with cold. It's cold. Yeah. That's why I muffled up to my ears. It's cold. You're sick. You need to find a deliverer friend. There's no deliverance.

I've been all over Europe. I've spent a fortune. So he said if you go down the street knock on the door of so-and-so and tell him John sent you. Why does he have the answer. Mm-hmm. The professor went and knocked at the door.

Just a little laboring man came. His hands were not. You know those smooth gentle hands that could take a scalpel and do surgery. They were. They were all knotted and gnarled and and the man obviously wasn't very well educated.

The professor said as you see I have a terrible disease. And it's it's galloping. It's getting hold of me quickly. And I I do want to get rid of it. And I understand. You have a cure for it. The man said well I can pray for you.

The professor said what he said. I can pray for you. I I can. I can put some oil on your head. And Professor James said my psychology was saying that won't work. And my pride was saying you can't kneel in front of this ignoramus.

You with a couple of PhDs. No but you see the PhDs didn't do anything for him and all his philosophers didn't do anything for him. So he went in the house and he said sir whatever you say I'll do it. The man said kneel down.

He knelt down. A little fella got some oil put it on his hand. Papa would have enjoyed doing this. Put some oil on his head. I've done that thousands of times I think. But it's alone or two. Some of us brother.

Yeah. The professor's waiting. He thought some flash would come from heaven or something. The man put his trembling hands on the head of the the great professor and he said a few things. And then he said in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth be made whole.

The professor jumped out. I thought there's all 10 ,000 volts of electricity touched me. Oh yeah. My legs are all right. Yeah. I'm great. I don't know how it happened. A little man said I don't either.

Except that God was faithful to answer prayer. The point is he went halfway around the world in order to answer. Find an answer. And we're going all around the world. We're trying to find an answer through psychology and paradise and paradise and heaven knows what.

And the answer is in the old rugged cross so despised by the world it's got every answer to our human dilemma or even sickness and mental disorders. I don't care how you emphasize the tragedy that Adam brought into the world.

Are you going to suggest to me that there is no way whether human heart can be cleansed. Did Satan pollute the very foundation of human society. And God has no answer to that pollution. I like that hymn break down the bread of life.

I like the phrase in it says that then shall all bondage cease and all fetters fall. Paul had seen men and women redeemed from corruption. It's seen them transformed. And now he's writing to them 18 months afterwards.

And he says you're carnal. Yet carnal. He uses two different words in the Greek here for carnality. And I'm not going to struggle with them this morning. I'm sure you're not too interested. The point I want to emphasize is this.

He says you your babes in Christ. You know when a man is going to split a diamond he he has to be very steady. He look at it from different angles. He'll he magnify any little crack. It could split the wrong way and just be no more valuable than much glass.