Is there such a thing as a carnal Christian? Let’s begin with the definition of carnal. Translated from the Greek word sarkikos which means “freshly” and written by Paul expressly to other Christians. Paul is referring to other believers as carnal, so yes, there is such a thing as a carnal Christian. Let’s go now to what that means.

When you fall into sin, you are in a state of sin and rebellion against the Lord. This is recognized as carnality, or “being carnal”. However, to remain in a state of sin or maintain a lifestyle of sin, you are not a carnal Christian, you are not saved and you do not know Christ. You see, to be saved means that God has created a new creature. One who no longer boasts of his sins and is proud of his rebellion against God. You no longer despise God and his laws because they are written in your heart. There is a great and powerful thing done when a man is saved. It could be compared, and even said to be greater, than the power used to create the world. God brought the world into existence from ex nihilo, “from nothing”. But a man he must make new from a corrupt mass. 2 Cor. 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life has gone; a new life has begun! (NLT) After the transforming power of the Holy Spirit enters your heart you begin to hate the things God hates and love the things God loves. You begin to desire Him above all other things.

 There is a story of a man who had not been to church for a long time. His pastor had noticed and went to him and said “Sir, I have noticed that you have not been in church. I have noticed that you practice sexual immorality. I have noticed that you drink too much. Please come back to the church and resume your work for God.” And the man looked at his preacher and said “yes, you’re right, I have been drinking too much and have been sleeping around and have not been in church. I will stop drinking, I will stop sleeping around, and I will begin coming to church again.” As we look at this conversation what do you see? Do you see a man who loves the Lord? No, what you see is this man saying “I will start doing the things that I hate, and stop doing the things that I love.” He loves his sin and boasts in it, and rebels against God because he does not know him! 1 John 2:19 These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us. With this verse, we see that there are those who are in the church who are not of Christ. Also Heb. 12:7-8 As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own Children. Whoever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? 8 If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.

As followers of Christ, we can and will fall into sin. All Christians will sin. It is a struggle laden upon us from the beginning. I would find it easy to believe that every Christian falls into sin every single day. Pride, anger, lust, disobedience, lies, putting idols above God, cursing, hatred, being unforgiving; there are a great many things we must not do, but do anyway. You must know that as men, we are fallen and desire things of this world and desire that which puts us above God. We must know that even our thoughts are judged. Who are you when you are alone? Don’t think about the person you show to others. Take the person you are when no one else is around, when no one else can see your actions, when no one can hear your thoughts. Is that person sinless? Is the person you show everyone even sinless? No. It is not that we strive to be sinless, because that goal can never be met. It is that we are continually looking unto Jesus and desire Him and desire to be obedient.

Now I must confront what is called being “judgmental”. These people may also claim Mat. 7:1 Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. When this verse is used in this manor, it is an inaccurate interpretation of scripture. We must continue to read. Mat. 7:2-5 For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. There is a righteous kind of judgment we are supposed to use. John 7:24 Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly. This is not judging, but rather pointing out the truth in hope—and with the ultimate goal—of bringing repentance in the other person and restoration to the fellowship. Eph. 4:15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. We are to proclaim what God’s Word says about sin. 2 Tim. 4:2 Preach the Word of God; be prepared whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke and encourage your people with good teaching. We are to “judge” sin, but always with the goal of presenting the solution for sin and its consequences—the Lord Jesus Christ John 14:6 Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the father except through me.

We must examine ourselves. 2 Cor. 13:5 Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit and Paul Washer

Last night, Journeymen spent time in then lessons of forgiveness. I am constantly amazed that every Tuesday topic is exactly what I need. It was brought to light that I had not forgiven someone in my life and it was eating at me. Pastor Brian says it’s like taking a poison pill, hoping the other person dies. Only I am the one dieing, only I am filled with poison. Thinking about this I thought about how poisoned I really become when I hate someone. And I say hate because there really isn’t another accurate word to use. I am certainly not indifferent. And I am not showing love to the person by being angry at them and harboring anger and resentment. And I remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:22 But I tell you, if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be judged. If you say bad things to a brother or sister, you will be judged by the council. And if you call someone a fool, you will be in danger of the fire of hell. The hate I feel is more than just emotional poison, it’s spiritual as well. If I maintain anger towards someone my relationship with God becomes terribly ill. I cannot come to Him with a clear conscience nor a pure heart. It is difficult to request things from God during disobedience.

If there is someone that has offended me severely, there is a great cry for justice! But we must recognize that only God can dispense justice. And even though you may be justified in reacting or retaliating, it is not God’s will for you to do so. God has shown me that I must forgive in order to obey, and I very much want to obey!

If you are a believer, could you imagine God taking his love away from you? Could you imagine what it would be like to lose the love that God has for you, and to lose the peace and joy that fills you constantly? What a wonderful gift to have been chosen by God as a child of His family! Now think of a person who is not saved. I look at that person and I have pity for them because I know that they have not felt the love of God that I have. What a sad moment it is knowing someone that has not let the love of God touch their hearts! I feel bad for this person because their lives are empty without God. I would not wish Hell on my worst enemy, and I must realize that without God, this person stands before God condemned. This is no reason to rejoice. Look at what is in store for this person without God and weep for them. Hope that their souls become saved so that they too can know the love of God in their lives.

And pray. Cry out to God and tell him you are filled with hate. Cry out to him and tell him you are hurting. Tell God you are poisoned and need his healing. Go to God and beg that he take the feeling of anger and hate out of you and fill you with his love and forgiveness. Pray for God to show you his will on how to overcome this sin in your life. I continue to do all these and thank God that He allows me to bring my burdens to him!

Forgive and forget; forgive enough to never use what one has done as a weapon against them, but do not forget so much that you put yourself back in the same situation.

As I have grown in my spiritual maturity, I have also grown more aware of my joyous obligation to serve the Lord. I have many nights sat alone with God in the dark and waited for Him to tell me his will, all the while telling myself what I wanted His will to be. I have heard a call for obedience from God. It is a call that my life is required to be given to Him.

Durring Journeymen this Tuesday God took control of our discussion and called many of us there to serve. To me, God was demanding that I stand as a man. A man of humility, a man of the church, a man who can be relied on as a faithful servant of God. It was revieled to me that I had been working for myself, and that my faith in God had far less impact on my personal life than it should. Specifically in the area of tithing. I had been sure that I was able to have what I wanted each week, but I was not making sure that God had what he required of me each week. A heavy weight of conviction lay on my heart as God opened my eyes to this. To know the love of the Father, it pains me to do wrong by Him, to disobey. To obey, I must commit to him what is rightfully His. For it is by His grace that I can live at all. So I prayed that God show me His will, and that He make it clear to me what I must do.

I joined with Jay Kinney, who also heard the call. We were told to stand! I was lead to contribute a full 10% of my earnings to the Lord, so that I may obey Him and give back what is His. I Also have a feeling of duty. A duty to be a part of this church and contribute more than my money. I am not sure what this feeling is leading me to, but I pray that God would show me his will.

With this call to serve, I call you men to serve with me, for Christ! To become a faithfull member of the church and serve the Lord with the days you have been given. With the time you have been given, and with the things that you have been given. Give to God and grow with Him. Stand as a man should stand. Stand as Christ stood. Reach out to the church to find a need and fill it. Love others as you love yourself, and obey the Lord. I pray that this message reaches all of you in good spirits. God bless you all!

Derik Jenkins

There are so many beautiful things in this world that warm our hearts and shock our eyes; things that inspire us and things that we marvel over. The Rocky Mountains in Colorado are one of the most surreal landscapes I’ve ever seen. Their sheer mass is staggering, but their beauty is staggering still. To look upon those snow capped peaks is to witness the splendor of God. These things do not change in character, or value, yet after some time, surely because of a fault in us, the mountains lose their luster. Their ability to mesmerize us fades into clichés, and the awe once inspired in us becomes mundane and common place. Sadly, for many of us, such is the case in the death of Jesus Christ. The powerful truths, made so by God, are reduced to tracks by men. “What Would Jesus Do?” “Love the Lord.” When we review these words it’s easy to see that they’re watered down and simplified for the busy Christian. “Jesus Died for you”, “Redemption.” And we wonder why these once mighty words don’t warm our hearts. Why don’t these words have the power to move us anymore?

To really understand the true message of the cross we have to begin with what should be known as the Great Dilemma in Christianity. This seems to defy the very character of God. God’s nature is Holy and just and he is the perfect creator of all things. God is righteous in his will; for it is the will of God that all men are saved from his wrath. God is love, and in Him there is power and grace and mercy. God is perfect in all his attributes. But in his righteous love there is hatred. Hatred for the wicked and for the vile and for sin and for perversion. But this is no hatred like the hatred of men. There is no reckless, egotistical, self centered, uncontrolled fury. It is the pure calm awareness of his justice and what must be done against those who are vile. If God loves those things that are Holy in his nature, then in his nature he must hate those things that are unholy. If I love righteousness I must hate that which is unrighteous. If I love children I must hate abortion. The Great Dilemma is this: If God is Just, He cannot forgive you. How can God be just and at the same time the justifier of wicked men? God, to be Just, must condemn wicked men. A Just God cannot simply pardon your sin. There must be Justice; therefore the wicked must die under the Holy wrath of God. In Proverbs 17:15 the Bible teaches that acquitting the guilty is detestable to the LORD. When we see a person acquitted of a crime that we know they committed, something even in you demands justice. And the judge who pardons the crime, we deem more wicked than the men he sets free. But how is it that the Gospels teach that God is the justifier of the wicked? Someone must interpose. The debt of sin must be paid, and it must be paid in full. Justice must be satisfied. And God, in his immeasurable love for his children, has provided a substitute. Not an angel, not a holy man, not a million angels, not a million holy men; But Jesus Christ. God in the flesh; sent down to live among the filth and wretchedness and sin of earth as a perfect man to redeem his people.

The perfection of Christ is almost too difficult to explain. It’s so deep, and pure and vast, this language falls far short of communicating it. Let’s look at the life of a Christian. A true believer and follower of Christ. In their life, they have never, not ever, for even a single moment, given God their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Even to lay his life down as a martyr for the Holy trinity, he could still not declare himself to have loved God as God deserved to be loved. Not a single moment in any man’s life does he love God with his heart, soul, mind and strength, and love Him as He deserves to be loved. Now, let’s look at the life of Jesus Christ. In his life, he has always, at all times, in every single moment, loved His Father God, with all his heart, mind, soul and strength. In every moment in His life, Jesus loved God as God deserved to be loved. Jesus spent His entire life doing what no man could ever do for even a moment. What a standard men must be compared to. These are the standards by which we must be judged. Can the standards of men reach the mark set by the deity of Jesus? We may profess to be good men and judge ourselves on our own actions, but every idle thought will be judged. What rotten immoralities lay within the hearts and minds of men? Where is the hope for the depravity of our souls?

Let’s go now to the Garden of Gethsemane, and the prayers of Jesus. In Mathew 26:39 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” In this verse, we see Jesus agonize over a cup of suffering. He so fears this cup that he prays to his father three times to show him a way out, but if there was none, he would do as his father willed. If there was ever a time when a man felt agony, it was then in that garden. There are many teachers and preachers who speculate as to what was in the cup? What did the cup contain? What, in that cup, put Jesus in on his face to pray a means to avoid the drinking of it? Was it the roman whips, the beatings, the crown of thorns, the nails of the cross? Was it the cross itself? Was it the pain of the flesh? Many people view the crucifixion and the pain inflicted by the Romans and the Jews, to be the real meaning of the cross. I don’t want to undermine the vicious, bloody and violent ordeal that Jesus endured; it is crucial, it is important, it had to be a bloody sacrifice; but are the wounds from the Romans and the betrayal by the Jews the meaning of the cross? No.

Hundreds and thousands of Christians died upon crosses after the death of Jesus. Many of them singing hymns of joy, then to be crucified upside down, covered in tar and burned to light the streets of Rome. Yet Jesus is in a garden praying because he doesn’t want to go? Do you truly believe the captain of our salvation feared a whip? Jesus feared the wrath of God. The perfect justice of God cannot pass over sin and the perfect response to sin is the fierce anger and hatred, the wrath of God, poured out on the wicked. God will judge the wicked, and on that cross, Jesus bore our wickedness. The question is: How can anyone be saved? And the answer is the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ became a man, lived a perfect life under the law, hung on that cross and died the death of his people. And in doing so he satisfied God’s justice and appeased the wrath of God. We were redeemed!

Redemption; what other word has more power on earth? With this word, the debt of an eternity in Hell is paid. In this place you cannot die. In this place you must suffer. Suffer the agony of blistering temperatures that would turn the bones of a man on earth to ash. You must endure torturous, grotesque, hateful demons that tear open your body and shred the flesh from your bones. But you will never die. You will be engulfed in flames that melt your skin into ribbons that hang from your tattered muscle, never to die from it. You must breathe heat and rancid stench and poisonous sulfur that cause a perpetual sensation of suffocation. As though your mouth and nose were covered and your lungs drew no relief. Maggots will feast on you forever, never to fully devour you. You will feel more terror than you can ever imagine. Your trembles will cause your very bones to crack. There is such darkness in this place that you can feel it almost crush your body, and you fear to look at the light from the flames because there you will watch others burn. There is no end in this place. After a billion years you will be no closer to relief, and there is no salvation in this place. From here, we have been redeemed. And those who have not, are given a last sorrowful glance by God. What terrible hurt must God feel as he watches those whom he loves be cast into the pit? If we were to sample the smallest measurable amount of His grief for those who are lost, we would cry out with far more pain than we would find in hell.

God did not create Hell for men. It is his greatest desire to walk as a father with all his creation. The love of God for all men is seen here in the word “Redemption”, and it’s offered to them all. It will not only pay your debt, but it will also bring you to heaven, to seek the glory of God for all eternity. There is an immeasurable joy that will consume your soul every instant in heaven. The increase in joy every day spent with God will be compared to seeing him for the first time. Every day you will grow so much closer to the Lord it will be as if you had never encountered him before. And after a billion years you will still not understand the majesty of God. What have we been given? What have we been saved from?

And so from the garden Jesus went into Jerusalem and was betrayed. He was beaten, mocked and whipped, and a crown of thorns was laid upon his brow. And he was made to drag his own cross to the place of his death. Heavy nails were driven into his body to hold it to the cross. He was made a spectacle, and as he hung there, he pleaded on the behalf of those who rebuked him. Then Jesus cried out “Lord, Lord, why have you forsaken me?” Many have said that God looked down at his son and saw his pain and could not look upon him out of grief. What does this mean? What this means is that God, looking down from heaven at his son being crucified, didn’t have the moral fortitude to watch his son die. Absurd! God was watching His son drink the cup of His wrath. Someone had to die outside the favorable presence of God; outside of his love and grace, and in his wrath. Jesus Christ, the son of God, who knew, fully, the glory of God, was cast out and made a curse. Someone had to bare sin. Jesus bore those sins and what he had feared was now upon him. He became a curse, a worm, an object of wrath. The filth, the shame, the guilt that Jesus bore before his own father; for us! He was cut off from God and left to die without him. “Lord, Lord, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22:4-5 Jesus issues a complaint. Our ancestors trusted in you, and you rescued them. They cried out to you and were saved. They trusted in you and were never disgraced. Jesus is saying this: “There has never been a time in the new covenant of the people, when a righteous man called out to you and you did not deliver him, But I, your son, the messiah, I hang here on this cross, I have done no wrong, why have you forsaken me?” Here is the answer: Verse 3 you are Holy. Verse 6 But I am a worm.

To close I will take you to the testing of Abraham. Abraham was told by God to bring his only son, whom he loved, up a mountain. His son, submissive to the will of his father, followed him. He built an altar and laid his son upon it, and by the instruction of God, Abraham laid his hand on the brow of his son and raised a knife to sacrifice Isaac. At that very moment God sent word to Abraham that He had provided a ram for the offering in place of his son. Here ends Act 1 and the curtains close. Many thousands of years later the curtains re-opened and presented to us is the final Act. The blood of sheep and rams cannot forgive sin, so a body was prepared. And now, on this cross, God placed his hand on the brow of Jesus and took the knife from Abraham and slaughtered his only begotten son. Whom he loved and was well pleased. Isaiah 53:10 And it pleased the Lord to crush him… It is not that there was joy for the death of Christ, but it was the will of God that he may know you. That his justice had been satisfied. That you can stand before God pure. Are you beginning to see the meaning of the cross? Are you beginning to see the meaning of “Jesus Died for You”? The meaning of “Redemption”? When we hear these words, let them warm our hearts.

Derik Jenkins