East Baptist Church – Denison, TX

The Road Map (GPS) to Maturity

1 Corinthians 2:14-15 (NASB77) ¹⁴ But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. 

1 Corinthians 3:1 (NASB77) ¹  And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, (carnala) to babes in Christ.

Our Bible tells us today in these verses there are three categories of people, and everyone in here today falls into one of them, in fact every person in the world falls into one of the three.

1 Corinthians 2:14 says: “But the natural man…” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Do you see that? Underscore that phrase, “the natural man” (1 Corinthians 2:14) That’s one category of people. The natural people.

And, then in 2:15 says: “But he that is spiritual…” (1 Corinthians 2:15). Underscore that. That’s the second category of people. There are natural people and then there are spiritual people.

Now, skip on down to 3:1: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal…” (1 Corinthians 3:1). Underscore that. That’s the third category of persons. There’s the carnal person.

First of all, let’s look at what the Word calls the natural man. Verse 14 The Bible speaks of the natural man. Now, why is he a natural man? Well, first of all, because he is born into the natural world. That is  He or she  comes out of the womb. All of us have the natural birth when we come into this world.

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Remember our Lord in His own Words told Nicodemus, a natural man, that he had to be born again. You remember he came to Jesus under the cover of darkness to find the truth. John 3:1-3 (NASB77) ¹ Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; ² this man came to Him by night, and said to Him, ” Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” ³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

It is from the conversion with Nicodemus we get the most known and most quoted Scripture in the N.T. maybe the whole Bible. John 3:15-16 (NASB77) ¹⁵ that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Now, let me show you something else about this natural person. Because they are born to the natural world—because they are blind to the spiritual world—he/she is bound to the material world because that’s the only world they know. He/she is a materialist. And, this is the world the natural man lives in. It is the natural world. And, he’s simply bound to it. He has no capacity for spiritual fellowship and understanding of the thing that binds us together is our second birth. 

Actually when Jesus told Nicodemus, “Nicodemus, you must be born again,” the Greek word for “born again” is actually “born from above”. That is, the Spirit comes down into you and your heart. That’s exactly what he’s talking about here. We have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

We’re not going to know the spiritual by the natural eye, the natural ear, and the natural heart. My beloved read this with me. “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). But watch this. “But God hath revealed them unto us—Not when you get to Heaven someday. No, God has revealed them unto us. How? —“by his Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 2:10). Once again not the natural ear, not the natural eye, not the natural heart, but with the eye of faith, the ear of faith, and the heart of the Spirit.

The third thing we get by the Holy Spirit is freedom. We are liberated in and by God’s Holy Spirit.  A spiritual person lives by the Spirit and they learn from the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that teaches him these things. Now, not only that but thirdly because he lives by the Spirit, learns from the Spirit, and he is liberated through the Spirit.  Look if you will in verses 15 and following: “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man” (1 Corinthians 2:15).

Remember we said that the natural man is what? He is bound to the material world. But, not the spiritual man. Why? Because the spiritual man, he discerns all things (2 Corinthians 2:15).. He sees right through it. His value system is working correctly and this world doesn’t squeeze him into its mold. He sees right through it. He understands. He is liberated. He knows the truth. And, the truth has set him free. And, what binds other people doesn’t bind him. He’s marching to the beat of a different drummer.

Bro Paul uses the word “flesh” he is speaking about the person that lives for things that please the body.  Now, there’s a third kind of person. There are many of the folks that make up the N.T. churches fall into the category of fleshly minded. The words I find most accurate are, “Worldly Christians”.

How do you think God feels when he looks over the church body and sees a person that  has been in church for years, but only came when it was covenant and did not make the effort to grow by chewing on the meat of Bible study and sees some gray-headed babies? I mean people spiritually who are supposed to grow up but they haven’t grown up. “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual”—mature people—”but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1).

My beloved, it takes a desire to grow. It is never easy to leave babyhood behind, to learn to walk, to learn to talk, to learn to love the family in a healthy way, to put aside toys and pick up responsibility. We see that the spiritual Christian looks past the material and sees the truth and not the lies of our own desires, but the will of God.

It is hard to stop and figure out where we are on the Road Map or GPS of life, but if we refuse to be honest we will drive around lost on the road of Life.