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We live in the age of epidemics and wide ranging disease and illness. I used to not even realize that chickens and such could get the flu, but now we hear all about constant testing and spread and dread of "bird flu." I once thought that a "mad cow" was the neighbor's bull that my friends and I had to outrun across the pasture to get to the lake to fish, but now I find out that it is a disease that every once in a while causes the price of hamburger meat to go up almost as high as gas prices. This generation knows what SARS, HIV, and AIDS are. And that dreaded word -- cancer -- has become so widespread that just the mention of the possibility of receiving it is enough to strike fear in the average citizen. Kids nowadays get so many shots that we cannot even begin to remember all of them and what they are for. It seems that we are vaccinated against more diseases today than I can remember even existing a few years ago.

But there is a worst disease than even all of these things. Worse than even what you can catch from sitting on public restroom seats. Because it is a spiritual disease and it can effect and destroy much more than this life of eighty years or so. This spiritual disease is contagious. Once imbedded into your life, it begins to wreak havoc with its symptoms in a person's life. Once one member of the Body of Christ gets infected, it tends to rub off on the people around them until the entire body is affected. If left untreated, it will not only destroy your spiritual walk down here, but will eventually result in eternal death lasting an eternity. This spiritual disease -- the worst of all possible spiritual issues -- is a carnal attitude.

I will use the KJV term for the disease, "carnality," simply because the other translations tend to have a hard time doing justice with other terms to what is fully implied here in the Greek. The word is sarx, a very common Greek word that simply means "flesh" but implied in the scriptures that we read as our text is much more than just a physical body. "Fleshliness" or "carnality," as we are choosing to call it, is when a person is ruled by their own will rather than God's. It is when their thoughts are controlled by their human ambitions and desires rather than holy desires. It is when people act according to what appeals to their basic nature rather than submitting to the will of God and the Word of God. When we say "your flesh" in a sermon, I'm not referring to what causes your bathroom scale needle to jiggle and shake. But rather I'm talking about that part of you that dislikes obedience and truth. That sinful part of you that was inherited from Adam's fall. By referring to "flesh" I'm referring to that part of your being that rises up every once in a while and has to be brought into subjection to the will and ways of God. I'm referring to that part of you that grabs a hold of your tongue every so often and says things that you shouldn't. That causes you to desire things unholy and unrighteousness. The devil is not your problem, but your flesh is. That part of you that doesn't want to do the will of God is your main issue. James said:

Your flesh is the driving force behind the times that you fail spiritually. Your flesh -- when fed an encouraged -- is a driving force in your life and controlled your life until you found the power of Jesus Christ and His blood and Spirit and Word. It was the part of you that lost control of you at an altar of repentance. It was a nature that got "crowded in on" by the Holy Ghost when God's Spirit moved in your life. But it is the part of you that through the power of God's Spirit and Word you can conquer to be all that you can be in God! It is the part of you that Jesus Christ came to die and poured out His Spirit so that you could overcome! Talking about your flesh!

So the spiritual disease of carnality is when a child of God -- that's who our texts were written to: people in the church, baptized in the name of Jesus, and filled with the Holy Ghost -- when a child of God begins to listen to that old voice of the flesh's will again and begins to follow its leading and to feed it more than the things of God. Then they become infected with a subtle but dangerous disease: the spiritual disease of carnality. And for both the church in Rome and the church in Corinth to need to be taught and addressed on it, the danger of carnality sweeping in to the Apostolic church must have been very real and its threat very serious. Writing to pastors and leaders in the church in Rome, Paul wrote in our text:

Why did they need this reminder? Because obviously even in leadership positions in the church, you are not immune to this spiritual disease. It is possible to allow carnality to creep into your life and begin again listening to the wrong voices and desiring the wrong things. It is possible to even be involved in ministry and even pastor and yet have your shift and focus turn away from Jesus Christ to the things of this life and your own selfish desires. And to become infected with carnality is very serious indeed because the end of it is spiritual death not life! Because the end result of carnality is to draw you as far as possible from the things of God and from obeying the laws of God. All of us must continually fight against our flesh and fleshly desires, but I'm here to remind you that you must not only fight, but win that battle, because to give in is to become infected with that worst of all spiritual diseases -- carnality!

It is possible to be filled with the Holy Ghost and not pleasing to God because instead of allowing His Spirit to work as it desires, you feed and listen to the fleshy voice in your life -- the disease of carnality.

It is possible -- it must be or our texts mean nothing at all -- to be a child of God and yet listen to your flesh to the point that you lose out with God and reap judgment and spiritual death. The disease of carnality.

It is possible to be in spiritual leadership in the Apostolic church and yet not please God because you live "in the flesh" -- still talking about the disease of carnality.

I'm preaching to you as an individual that you must guard against carnality slipping into your life because if someone gets cancer in their stomach, we say "they have cancer." If someone gets throat cancer, we say "they have cancer." If one part of the body has cancer, we say "they have cancer." Such is it with the church of the living God. The scriptures say that together we are the body of Christ. The parts come together to make up the whole. And so if one of us surrenders to the deadly disease of carnality, then the entire church is affected and hurt. Such is the seriousness of the dreaded infection of living in God according to the flesh! The disease of carnality is the worst of all spiritual disease!

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When we read of the church in Corinth in 1 and 2 Corinthians, we read of an entire church infected with a severe case of carnality. Open your Bibles to the first chapter of 1 Corinthians and note the following:

In the second verse of 1 Corinthians, Paul refers to them as "the church of God." In verse nine, he speaks of their calling into the fellowship of Jesus Christ. In the tenth and eleventh, he calls them fellow "brothers." For the remainder of the first chapter, we find that they were all baptized in the name of Jesus. In the next chapter we find that they were filled with the Spirit. And yet in the third chapter we find this startling pronouncement:

The New Living Translation puts it this way:

Despite having all of the truth of God's Word and life changing experience, they had succumbed to their fleshly nature and given into until they had become completely infected with carnality! Despite all that God had done for them, they had given in to the subtle lie that they could go back to their old way of thinking and living and yet be a part of God's church. The disease of carnality had a strong hold over the church in Corinth! And if Paul had not come along and dealt so strongly with it, it would have destroyed the Apostolic church there and caused people who were God's children to die yet still lost and away from God. Such is the seriousness of the disease of carnality.

Hopefully our church is not quite at such an advanced stage, but we must realize that this same disease is trying to creep in among us and infect us and the devil will never quit trying to bring such a horrible thing about. So I your pastor stand as Paul did in Corinth in addressing and exposing this disease for what it really is. You cannot survive long as a child of God and live and think carnally! If you allow your flesh to run rampant, it will destroy you! So from the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians let me point out the symptoms of this awful disease. The end of this spiritual disease is eternal death, therefore if the symptoms are showing up in your life, you ought to let God cleanse you tonight from such things!

The symptoms of carnality as exhibited by the Corinth church are:

In our text Paul wrote:

There was some great revelations and greater things of God that Paul wanted to preach, but he could not because their carnality forced him to have to preach the basics over and over again until they got it. I'm reminded of the scripture in Hebrews 6, where the writer finally told the Hebrew Christians:

Not that all of these things are not important, but that after a time, you expect people to get grounded in the basics of things. Think of this: what if every time you went to school -- college included -- they taught you the alphabet and numbers and addition. Maybe some of you need a refresher, but even the most basic things would become old if it is all that we covered every service. The word of God is deep enough that you ought to learn something every time that you come to the house of God. There will be times that we preach on the basics or teach on the foundational things and we need that, but the preacher ought to be able to preach all of the Word of God at times also!

But when saints are infected with carnal and they are living their life their way, it binds the preacher to have to keep preaching the same basic things because God will not let him preach something that the people are not ready for until they get the first things. And so carnality leads to redundant church and frustrated preachers. When it seems that church is just ritual and the same old, same old to you, then you need to check to make sure that carnality hasn't slipped in and caused you to not be able to receive the deep things of God. Furthermore,

The church in Corinth had been founded by the dynamic and powerful preacher, Paul. They had Timothy and Silas preach there also. The Apollos -- of whom the Bible spake of as an eloquent preacher -- spent much time there preaching. They had the greatest preachers in the world speaking in their church and yet were having all sorts of issues and lack of revelation. Why? Carnality had dulled their hearing.

When it seems that the preacher's messages is no longer fresh and exciting and dynamic, then chances are what's wrong is not the preacher or God but your spiritual hearing. When this world is more important to you than God and this world's priorities are your priorities, then even an Apollos in your midst will seem dry to you. The problem is your hearing. If your flesh is in control, then a preacher can preach deep revelations from heaven and preach his guts out and you will yawn and check your watch. If you are carnal, even the greatest preacher in the world will no longer stir you. Because your carnality steals your ability to "hear" the word of God.

Jesus said that "he who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Once the devil affects your hearing, then he will be able to control everything else. If it seems a long time since you have been wowed by the scriptures and by the preached Word of God, check your spiritual hearing and do a carnality check.

You can always tell carnal Christians because important and powerful actions commanded by scripture become just a tradition of them getting fleshly pleasure out of it. We saw this in the Corinth church. In the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians, we find that they were celebrating the Lord's Supper but it had become a drunken fest and a place to show off their ability to purchase fine foods and such. What began as a solemn and humble commandment of Jesus became a time to fulfill their desires and personal wants. They were still celebrating the Lord's Supper, but they were doing so without "discerning the Lord's body." They were still doing the ritual and yet God was not the focus or in the midst of it.

You can tell when Christians become infected with carnality because:

They still read their Bible, but it is to debate and prove everybody else's opinion wrong.

They still come to service, but it is for fellowship only or fun or to see who messes up something next, or who is wearing what, or to catch up on the latest gossip, and not about getting closer to Jesus.

They worship but just for the emotional high of the dance and the elation; it is no longer about what God wants. God might want them to weep for their city, but as long as they get to jig a bit, they could care less about what God wants. God might want instead of blessing them, to use them to bless somebody else, but they don't see the point of such things.

They still pray, but their prayers are short and to the point: God bless me, save my family, and meet my needs; it's all about me!

They obey the commandments of God but it has become a thing of fleshly fulfillment! Such is the sign of a carnal saint of God! Such is the sign of the cancer of fleshliness!

The vast majority of the first chapter of 1 Corinthians is spent dealing with the people who were arguing over who baptized them! They are as little children in the "my daddy is better than your daddy" game. Some were saying "Apollos baptized me." And others "Paul baptized me" or somebody else. And they forgot that it didn't matter who baptized them, but rather the name of Jesus that was called over them! Such a trivial thing became a source of dissension and disunity within the church when they got carnal.

Carnality leads to people using their mouth to elevate and argue over things that don't matter a hill of beans! When people are bitter over what somebody said, or whose church is greater, or what style singing is best, or any other stupid, trivial subject to the point that it causes dissension in the church house, there is definitely too much carnality alive in that church!

The Bible talks about the great things that unity brings. It brings the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It brings the blessing of God. The Psalmist wrote:

All of these things come from unity! And so we must realize that the opposite, disunity, brings the opposite. Disunity stops the moving of the Spirit of God. Disunity stops the blessing flow of God. It stops the Lord from commanding a blessing!

And disunity comes from carnality. Because when you are living according to your fleshly desires, each seeks their own. Every person thinks that they are right. And rather than bite your tongue and join with each other, carnal Christians tear each other down. The tongue is the weapon of the Spirit and if you are shooting at each other, then you are not shooting at the devil! When you just "feel like telling them how it is" go check to see if that infection has slipped into your spirit -- that infection of carnality! Even worse,

In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we find the case of a leader of the church who was incestuously sleeping with his mother-in-law and yet nobody was bothered by it! In fact, they apparently were very defensive in defending this man's sexual sin because Paul said:

Carnality had robbed them of the ability to see things as God sees them. And so they were able to justify even the greatest sin among them. And rather than being bothered by that sin, they got defensive if Paul mentioned that it was sin and needed to be dealt with.

The case of this man in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 seems a bit extreme to me. How could they justify such horrid sin? But the answer is obvious. "You are still carnal." Once you begin to think with the mind of your flesh and lose the mind of Christ, then you can justify anything. Here's how you can tell if you are carnal: when the clear truth of the Word of God is proclaimed and you immediately respond with "But I cannot do that because." Or "I'm a special case and God makes an exception for me." First of all, if there is an exception, you ain't it! Second of all, God would never command you to do or change something that is impossible for you to do, so what you mean when you say "I cannot do that" is "I do not want to do that." When we spend more effort to explain why we cannot obey God's Word exactly, than would have taken to just obey it in the first place, we are justifying our sin and we have become carnal! Be careful of deriding and blowing off scriptural concepts. God wants your obedience not your opinion. When we are able to convince ourselves that the commandment of God's Word is not that serious a thing, the we are definitely way too carnal! And sadly it will not be long before,

Paul had to spend the last four chapters of 2 Corinthians defending his apostleship, calling of God, right to preach the Word of God, and pastoral authority! Is there anybody else here that finds that incredible!? The man who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament and who single-handedly tore his world apart for Jesus having to defend his calling and right to preach and instruct to a bunch of carnal, low-life converts who would have never heard the Gospel if it had not been for him in the first place.

You can always tell when Christians have become carnal, because the man of God who led them to the well of salvation and who spent time grounding them in the awesome revelations of truth suddenly doesn't know anything! Funny how he could hear from God for a few months, years, whatever, and suddenly when he tells you something that your flesh would rather not hear, he doesn't know best any more!

Every once in a while I have someone come to me with tears in their eyes after a powerful move of the Spirit of God and they say "Pastor, if you ever see anything in my life that needs changing, just come tell me bluntly." The problem with that is that when something does pop up in their life and they need something pointing out they are carnal as mud and no longer soft to the things of the Spirit. It has been very few people in my ministry that I could really do that to and they receive it.

Think back to the Garden of Eden: God was their pastor and yet they believed the lie of Satan who told them "God didn't really mean that." Suddenly the very one who created them and got them into such a blessed place didn't know anything! Listen carefully to your pastor: when your pastor suddenly is spiritually stupid and doesn't know best in your life, you've been listening to the wrong voice. And chances are it is your flesh!

How much more could Paul had done if he didn't have to spend valuable years of his life dealing with carnal Christians who had justified their sin and their carnality and were attacking his calling of God and his right to preach and teach the Word of God? How much more could Moses have accomplished for God if he had not had to deal with the Korahs and the murmurers? How much more could I accomplish in my ministry if I didn't have to worry about people getting their feeling hurt because the truth was too truthful, or have to walk on egg shells around people when I preached or taught!? Be careful when you hear people deride the man of God in their life, because they are Christians who have become carnal!

Three chapters of 1 Corinthians is dealing with people correctly using the gifts of the Spirit. These people spoke in tongues. They had the gift of prophecy and healing. They had learned to yield mightily to the gifts and pick up on people's spirits. Paul outlines the various gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, and then corrects many of their errors in 1 Corinthians 14. In between is 1 Corinthians 13 which is known as the "love chapter." In context, Paul was teaching of the importance of love mixed with the things of the Spirit. Because when Christians become carnal, they begin to use the gifts of the Spirit for their own agendas. There is a difference between being used of God and using God. And you can always tell a carnal Christian because they use the supernatural and revelatory things of God without love for their fellow man.

You can have the gift of prophecy and use it to totally destroy people's walk with God. You can have the gift of discernment and use it for gossip fodder to spread everybody's trash around. You can have a great knowledge of the truth in scripture and use it to bash people's heads in and do nothing but point out what everybody else is doing wrong! You can have gifts without love and that's what carnality does!

I remember once a guy telling the story about a person at work who had contradicted him on a scriptural principle and in front of all of the other co-workers the guy had carved him up with scripture and proved him wrong and himself right. The guy finished with a satisfied smirk, "that'll show them."

The problem with that is everybody knows you are right and yet nobody wants any of it for themselves because of the spirit that you dispensed it with! We must remember that it is not about just "being right" but it is about "winning souls." I like steak, but not raw upside my head -- presentation and preparation and how you dish it out is very important! Carnality causes us to talk down to people and attack them with the gifts of God. But a spiritual man is able to lead and guide a person to truth. Oh, that disease of carnality!

After addressing and fully teaching of the principles of short, cut hair on men and long, uncut hair on women, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul had to finish by saying this:

He said, "I'm not demanding anything from you that I do not demand from anybody else!" And it is not even worth arguing, this is how the Apostolics live. To those of you who don't think the scriptural commandments -- yes, how we live on the outside are scriptural commandments -- don't matter, I would remind you that the Apostolic church does not do anything different. All of God's churches have a separation from the world. You cannot be a part of God's church and not look and dress differently on the outside! That doesn't mean that the inside is not important also, but the scripture gives commandments as to both! It is a result of carnality that causes people to even debate the issue. When Christians become carnal is when it no longer seems important to dress modestly and wear their hair according to the command of scripture. But it is a disease that leads to death! And finally,

Paul had to spend two chapters of 2 Corinthians (chapters 8 and 9) to trying to get the Corinth church to give sacrificially for a special offering for the Jerusalem church in need. When you are carnally minded then your money is all about what you can get for you, but when you are spiritual minded, suddenly you see the need and profit in giving to others.

What of your mission giving? What of your financial situation? Are you so much in debt over things that will burn up one day that you cannot give liberally to a missionary or such? What of your tithes and offerings? What of placing yourself in a position to be able to minister in finances? When carnality infects a Christian, then anything other than George Washington looks large in the offering plate.

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The cure for carnality is best applied when the symptoms first begin to show up. There are things that you can do to kill the infection and recover. Try:

But in its advanced stages, carnality requires a spiritual heart transplant! We need God to soften our heart once again so that we are sensitive to His Spirit and so that His kingdom is the most important! We must think with the mind of the Spirit and not the will of flesh! Carnality is the worst spiritual disease and it will lead to death, but thinking with a spiritual mindset will lead us into everlasting life! Come get healing over the disease of carnality!