The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Now, the writer of this statement
is the Apostle Paul, of course, inspired by God to do so. Now,
he lays a heavy charge against the carnal mind because this
is the charge. Now, the charge is against somebody
or some thing, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. Now, I say that's a heavy charge,
certainly heavy and great, when we consider that the charge is made against you
and I. It's made against mankind universally. Now, it's heavy. It's great in
light of the fact of who the charge is made against us when
we consider that at one time we walked in fellowship with
God in the Garden of Eden. There was a time when man was
the companion of God. And we enjoyed God's presence
and God's fellowship. And God came down in the cool
of the day and fellowshiped with us in Adam. Now, you see, the
fall of Adam was our fall. When Adam fell, we fell in him
and we fell with him. I hope you understand that. When
Adam fell, we fell in him, and we fell with him, and it was
the ruin of our house and the destruction of the little city
in which we live in when Adam fell. Now, you see, the Apostle
Paul here says that in this charge, he says in this seventh verse,
carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be." No way can the carnal
mind be in subjection to God, not now or never. Neither indeed can be. Well, in order to find out what
this verse is saying, we have got to find out what the carnal
mind is. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. What is the carnal mind? The
carnal mind is what we are by nature. The carnal mind is the
fleshly mind. The carnal mind is every mind
that is unregenerate. Now, to get it down into language
that you and I can understand and be sure of, let me put it
this way. The carnal mind is everybody
who is unsaved. Everybody who is in the flesh
is carnally minded. Did you notice down here in the
first verse of the eighth chapter? It says, There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. There is
no judgment. There is no judgment now or never
for those that are in Christ. No condemnation. They are free
through the work and the merit of another, even the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so when they are regenerated
or given a new life or a new nature, they are vitally joined
to Him who died for them. And they are where? They are
in Christ. Those that are saved, whether
they be Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, regardless
of who they are, Those that are saved are in Christ and there
is no condemnation, present or future, for those that are in
Christ, who walk not after the flesh. Those for whom there is
no condemnation, those who are in Christ, they walk not after
the flesh. They are not fleshly minded. They are not carnally minded.
but walk after the Spirit, but after the Spirit. He goes on
and tells us in verse number 6, to be carnally minded is death. Now, in order to understand what's
being said here in this heavy charge, let's understand then
that to be carnally minded is to be without change. To be carnally
minded is to be void of the life of God which is in Christ Jesus.
To be carnally minded is to be yet in our sins. To be carnally
minded is to be in out-and-out rebellion against the God who
made us. That's what it means to be carnally
minded. Everybody outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ falls under this description. They are carnally minded. That's the mind of the flesh.
They are unregenerate. They haven't been saved. They
haven't been brought to this vital union with God in Christ. They have never been made to
see their awful condition outside of Christ. They don't know what
the result of the fall is. They think that the only problem
with them is that they're just out of sorts, out of joint, that
they've just fallen a little bit. They do not realize that
when Adam fell, they fell with him, not only just a step or
two, but they fell all the way down. They fell in him and they
fell with him. And now they are carnally minded,
carnally minded. And he says here, because the
carnal mind is enmity against God. Now we found out who the
carnally minded are, the unregenerate. Many times in the Bible it refers
to the unregenerate as lost people. They're lost. They haven't been
found. They don't have a heart of flesh whereby they can love
God or serve God. They're wayward people. Now,
it says the carnally minded. The carnally minded is enmity
against God. The man who has this carnal mind,
this fleshly mind, is enmity against God. Now we've got to
find out what enmity is. I've been around this for a long
time, you know that, and I've preached here, and I've preached
there, and I've heard other preachers preach, but very few times do
preachers stop long enough in their exhortations and in their
discourses when they're interpreting this particular portion of Scripture
to tell us what the word enmity means. They take it for granted
that everybody understands what the definition of the word enmity
is. We glibly quote this scripture
in describing men's condition before God, and we say that all
men by nature is enmity against God, but we never stop to tell
them what enmity is. Now I want to tell you this morning
what enmity is. It says, now we know what the
carnal mind is. Because the carnal mind, the
fleshly mind, the man outside of Christ, the unregenerate soul,
is enmity against God. Now the enmity here is just the
opposite of love. Over in the book of Galatians
chapter 5 and verse 20, is a verse that will give us some insight
as to exactly what this means. Over here in Galatians chapter
5 and verse 20, it says, the third word is the one I want
you to see. The 19th verse says, Now the
works of the flesh, of the carnally minded, of the unregenerate,
Now, I don't think that this is to be taken universally. Not everybody outside of the
Lord Jesus Christ goes to the depth of his potential. All men
have the potential to shoot God with a gun if they could. They
have that potential. That's their nature. Their nature
is so bad that they could do that, but God restrains some
men from doing it. All men are not literally whoremongers
and adulterers who are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some
men, some women who are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ never
are taken up with witchcraft or an absolute idolatry. They do not make a stone or a
piece of god out of a block of wood and literally bow down to
it. They literally do not do some
of these things, but they have the potential to do so. That's
what I'm talking about. They have the potential to do
so. They could. Well, notice now, verse 20, "...now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, and Hatred. Hatred is enmity. Enmity. That's what it is. Enmity is
the opposite of love. Perfect love casteth out all... You know what perfect love does? Perfect love loves God with all
of its heart, all of its soul, all of its body, all of its spirit,
all of its being. That's what perfect love does.
Now, the opposite of love is enmity. It is hatred. So, we read it this way, in that
seventh verse, because the carnal mind is an enemy against God. Because the carnal mind is hatred
against God. Everybody then, outside of the
camp of the Lord Jesus Christ, everybody that has not been brought
to the grace of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
is right now, right now, is enmity against God. is an enemy against
God. Not only an enemy of God, but
an enemy against God. It means that individual outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ hates God. That's what it means. That's
exactly what it means. Now, most of the time this word
enmity is used as an adjective, and of course when using it as
an adjective, it's described as hatred or hostility. But here in this 8th chapter
of the book of Romans and the 7th verse, it's used as a noun,
a place or a name or a thing. It's used as a noun and it gives
stronger meaning and understanding to it when we look at it in that
respect. He does not say that the carnal
mind is merely opposed to God, although the carnal mind is opposed
to God, but he does not say that it is merely opposed to God. But what he is saying here is
that it is positive enmity against God. What he is saying here is
better said, if I can use this, maybe, Use some words here that
will help you to see what I'm trying to say and what I think
that it means. In fact, what I know that it
means. It is not black, but it's blackness. It is not corrupt,
but it's corruption. It is not rebellious, but it's
rebellion. It is not envious against God,
but it's total envy against God. It is not just black, but it's
blackness. That's what I'm talking about.
The carnal mind. The carnal mind, man outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ, is enmity, total blackness against
God. Well, to show you what I mean
by man in his natural state being an absolute enemy against God,
or totally enmity against God, let me ask you this question.
You be honest now, this is a question that will that will scorch your
heart, and a question that will search your heart if you'll let
it, if you'll erase any preconceived notions
or ideas that you have in regard to yourself and realize that
we're in the presence of God here this morning, we're in the
presence of the Word of God, and we've got to be totally honest
with ourself and totally honest with God. Let me ask you this
question. in order that you and I might
see what I'm trying to say in regard to the carnal mind being
enmity against God. This is the question. Did you
ever hear your heart say, I wish there were no God? See, sometime
in your life, sometime in your life, have you ever heard your
heart say that? I wish there were no God. Have you ever heard your heart
say, I wish there was no law or laws to restrain me? Have you ever heard your heart
say, I wish that I did not have to answer, or I wish that I was
not accountable to anybody? I wish that. Well, you say, yeah. I'll have to admit, these things
have crossed my mind." Well, that's what I'm trying to say
about the heart. The heart is so bad. We are so
bad that we're mean to God and against God, and we hate God,
and our heart is full of hostility against God. And left to ourselves,
left to ourselves, we'd never come to it. Left to ourselves,
we die in this hostility, this enmity against our Maker. Our Maker, He made us. We didn't
make ourselves, He made us. And right now, in our fleshly
state, in our carnal mind, in our human mind, we are enmity
against God. You remember over there in the
Psalms, the psalmist penned these words. He said, The fool hath
said in his heart, No God. You remember that? The fool.
The fool hath said where? It doesn't have anything to do
with his lips or his intelligence. But it says down where he really
is, where he really lives. The real me. Not the veneer,
not the voice that you hear, not the picture of this man that
you see, but down where he really is. The real me, the fool hath
said in his heart, no God. Now what he's really saying is
this. He knows there is a God. Everybody
knows there is a God. There's not a man that ever lived. There is not a man whose feet
was ever upon the face of God's earth that literally and really
believed there was no God. God has put a mechanism in every
man. There is a mechanism in every
man that is triggered off every once in a while that gives witness
to the existence and the being of God Almighty. Now, what the
psalmist was really saying is this. When he said, The fool
hath said in his heart, No God, he is saying, No God for me. That's what he's saying. No God
for me. I wish there was no God. That's what he's saying. He's
saying, I wish that I heard that the body of God was rotten and
corrupt in the grave. No God for me. I wish that there
was no laws to restrain me. The fool has said in his heart,
No God for me. I wish he were dead. No God for
me. Now, that is the truth about
us in our unregenerate state, in our fleshly mind. Enmity against God. Enmity against
God. Now, this enmity, it comprehends,
or includes, or what's involved in this enmity, comprehends the
acts both of the will and the understanding. It means this. It means that the carnal mind,
in its wisest thought, is rooted hostility and enmity and hatred
against God. The carnal mind, when it has
reached its highest apex, its highest pinnacle, its highest
point, is still rooted in hostility against God. Every man whose heart is set
on this world, Hates God. Let me read something to you
here in the book of 1 John. 1 John chapter 2, I believe it
is, and verse 15. Verse 15 of 1 John chapter 2. Love, not the world. You remember
in the book of Colossians chapter 2 it says, your affections on
things above." This is describing the regenerate man. The man who
is regenerate, the man who is saved, the bend of his life is
going in one direction, and that is towards God. That is not saying
that he is going in a straight line. That is not saying that
he is perfect in everything that he does. But it is saying that
the bend of his life, the thrust of his life is going in one direction. It is going towards God. The
regenerate man, the Bible says in describing him, he has set
his affections on things above. The whole scope of his life is
filled with one objective, and that's God, and God's Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He lives for him. And I'm not
saying he's perfect now, but I'm saying that he's going in
that direction. Your affections on things above.
Be ruled and controlled by things above. Remember I preached to
you here last Sunday or Sunday night, was it, about where our
citizenship was? That's the man who walks not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. He sets his affections
on things above. His citizenship is not of this
world. He uses this world, but he doesn't
abuse this world. His roots are not in this world. His roots are in heaven where
God is. He desires a better country.
He is seeking after a better country. He is looking for something
better than what he has got. He says, set not your affections
on things below, things below this world. Now, in verse 15,
love not the world, the fleshly man, The carnally-minded man,
he loves the world in all of its variations and machinations. He loves. He loves. He's married
to Him. That's all he's got. He hasn't
got anything any better. When he gets something better,
he'll let loose of these things and look in another direction.
But up to the point of conversion, that's all he's got, is the world
and what the world can give him. what he can get out of the world,
that's all he's got. He loves the world. So the Bible
says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man loves the world, any man, if he loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. So every man whose heart
is set upon this world, he hates God. Now, there's no middle ground. No middle ground. Now, I don't
care what I think or what you think, there's no middle ground.
Either we hate God or love God, one of the two. If we don't love
God, then we're over here on this side, we hate God. Now,
that's all they are to us. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Now, such men hate God in
His entirety. They just don't hate one aspect
of God, but they hate God in His completeness. They hate God. They hate the holiness of God.
The holiness of God is set forth in His perfection in the law
of God. They hate the law of God. The
law of God says, You'll love me with all your heart. You'll
love your neighbor as yourself. The law of God says, thou shalt
not do this and thou shalt not do that. And man, in his humanity,
in his unregeneracy, in his carnal mind, his fleshly mind, he hates
God. He hates God in God's entirety. All of man is against all of
God. The carnal mind is, is, enmity
against God Almighty. Now, I said such men hate God
in His entirety. They hate the holiness of God. God requires every man to be
perfect. God requires that. You say, well, I thought if you
done the best you can, everything's going to be all right. Well,
that's what you thought. Your thoughts will send you to hell.
It's not what you thought I thought, it's what God said. God said,
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
And everyone throws up their hands, that is, the unregenerate,
in his hostility toward God, he throws up his hands and says,
if that's what God demands, I can't get it and He'll never get it
out of me, so let him go his way and I'll go my way. I'll
do my thing and forget about it and take my chance. So you
see, brethren, this carnally-minded man, this lost man, this man
who has never been vitally joined to God in Christ, this man who
has never been born from above, he's got to have the life of
God somehow infused in him where he is. He's got to be given a
heart that can love God. He's got to be given a heart
that can hate self. He's got to be given a heart
that can bow to God's Son. He's got to have that. Such men hate God in His entirety. They hate the holiness of God.
They hate the justice of God. They hate the sovereignty of
God. Now listen to me, brethren. Even His mercy, they hate. the mercy of God in the way that
God's mercy is distributed or dispensed. They hate it. They
hate it. You see, the Bible says that
God shows mercy to whom He will show mercy. That's what men hate.
They hate that. They say, you can't do that.
Isn't every man entitled to something from God? just by being a member
of this human race? Am I not entitled? Brethren, I don't know about
all that, and I can't explain it. But I do know this, that
God dispenses mercy sovereignly as it pleases Him. He shows mercy to some. The Bible says, "...it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy." Now, man in his unregenerate state, this fleshly
man, this carnally-minded man, you see, is enmity against God,
and he hates God in his entirety. He hates the justice of God,
the holiness of God, the love of God, the goodness of God.
He hates the mercy of God in the way it's dispensed. He hates
it. He hates it. Well, the Bible
says that these people have no understanding of what I'm talking
about here this morning. I had no understanding of this
until God saved me and began to teach me a few things. I didn't
think I hated God as bad as I'm presenting it here this morning,
I really didn't. And when I first heard what I'm
telling you here this morning, I was shocked. I kind of thought,
well, does he know what he's talking about? Does this man
really know what he's talking about? Does that Scripture really
mean that? Because I just don't think that I felt that way. Most people have no understanding
that they hate God. As a matter of fact, Most people
that actually hate God profess that they love God. Did you know
that? The church and churches are full
of people this morning that profess to love God, but down deep in
their hearts, they really hate God. They are carnally minded,
and to be carnally minded is enmity against God, hostility
in its totality. You see, they hate God, but they
profess to love Him. You see, God's testimony is that
they hate God. It's not my testimony. It doesn't
mean anything what I say, does it? When we're talking about
the Word of God, it doesn't mean a thing what I think or what
you think or anybody else thinks. The testimony of God is that
to be carnally minded, is enmity against God. Now, if you can
find that that word enmity means something else than what I said
it meant, then maybe you've got some hope. But I'll guarantee
you, brethren, upon a thorough search with the keenest of my
eyes and the keenest instinct of my heart, and the sincerity
of my heart, I've come up with the true and proper definition. It's hatred, it's enmity, it's
enemy, it's hostility against God. That's what it is. And until
you can find that word to mean something else, then you and
I, if we're outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to
have to believe what God said about us. That's the testimony
of God. And His testimony, is to be taken
against the best of men. If you ever come across a man,
a preacher, or a deacon, or anybody else that would tell you that
you're not too bad, you're not too bad, and all you need is
to fix up a little bit, and you really don't hate God, you're
just mistaken in your concept of God, but really, there is
not a deep-rooted hate in your heart, well, then you better
shun that man. You better get away from him because he's going
to deceive you and he's going to lie to you. And if you'll
believe his lie, you'll wind up in a place that you'll be
disappointed in, I'll guarantee you this. Now, this is not to
suppose. This is not to suppose that men
do not imagine that they love God. They do imagine that they
love God. but not the true God. They don't
love the true God, but they love the God of their own making. They don't love the God that
says the carnal mind is enmity against God. They don't love
the God that says, so then they that are in the flesh cannot
please God. They don't love that God. They
love a God, their God. the God of their making. They've
made themselves a God. And the God that they made is
the product of what they've heard. They've heard it from mother
and father. They've heard it from the schoolteachers. They've heard it from their preacher,
that God is just kind of a namby-pamby, sissy-like fella, or he's an
old man trying to do something but he can't do it, and this
hell-firing brimstone that's no good, and all that business. And so then, the end result is
they are a product of what they hear, and they have made a little
old God. They've made a little old God
to accommodate them, and they can be accommodated to Him. They
say, well, God won't do this. And I won't do this, or I won't
do this, so then that prohibits God from doing something." And
they put their God up on a shelf, and that's the way it is. Well,
I'm saying, brethren, it's not to suppose that men do not imagine
that they love God. They do. A God of their own making.
But over there in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, listen to
me now, listen to me, in chapter 11, of the book of Hebrews, in
verse number 6, it says this, it says that he that cometh to
God must believe that he is. Now, do you know what that means?
I'll tell you what most people believe that means. They believe that that means
that they must believe that there is a God and God exists. That's
what they believe. That's the scope. That's the
sum total of their understanding of that particular statement
there. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is. Now, I'll tell you what it means.
It means that he must believe that he is what he is. That's what it means. You must
believe that he is what he is. And to find out what he is, You've
got to look there. That's where it'll tell you what
He is, right there. It's the God of the Bible. Not
the God of my making, the God of my fictition, but it's the
God of the Bible. We must believe that He is what
He is. Most folks say, well, I believe
that God is. I believe that He exists, and
therefore, that qualifies me to be a recipient of all the
mercies of God in Christ Jesus. And God has gone away in Christ,
and He's prepared for me a place in glory." And I said, well,
what's the basis of your hope? You say that you just know that
you're going to wind up in the lap of Father Abraham, You're
going to enjoy God forever in the eternity. What is the basis
of your hope? Well, don't you know, preacher,
that the Scripture says that a man that comes to God must
believe that he is, and he that comes to God, God will reward
him. And that's my reward. I believe
that he is. And that's the only hope that
most people have. But I'm telling you this morning,
We've got to believe what He is as well as who He is. That's involved. Now, let's get
back to this charge. Now, this charge, as I've indicated
here, is addressed to all persons. Every carnal mind in the world
is at enmity against God. That's taken in everybody. Every
carnal mind, every man not vitally joined to Christ is what? Right
now, he's engaged in the exercise of hostility and enmity against
his Maker, against God who made him. Everybody, everybody. Listen, even the infants at their
mother's breast. Well, that's tough, isn't it? Even
the babies that have no teeth, that hang on to their mother's
breast with their tongue in their lips, and draw from that mother
that sustenance to live. Even the infants at their mother's
breast. Now, we call them innocents.
Now, listen to me. We call them innocents, and they
are. of actual transgression. And
that's the reason babies are going to go to heaven when they
die. That's the reason children, when they die, babies in their
infancy, when they die, they go to heaven. They go to be with
God. Because they have not in their
own selves actually committed a transgression against God.
You say, well, how is God? I don't know how God is going
to save them. I don't know, but I know He is. I don't know how. I know they're going to be born
again. I know they're going to have a new nature. God will do
that. He'll take care of that. We don't have to worry about
the babies. We don't have to worry about them. Just wish that
you died when you was in your infancy. That's the reason the
Bible says, except a man become as a little child. It does not
altogether mean Does that all together mean, when he says,
as a little child, that we become so in conduct, in character,
in simple childlike faith and trust? Because, brethren, the
Kingdom of God is made up of such, not necessarily those with
that kind of humility, but the babies, the babies! There have
been literally millions and billions of babies that have died in infancy. And I believe they went to be
with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I believe. I believe
it. They've never committed no actual
transgression, and where there's no law, there's no sin charged
to them. Is that what the book of Romans says? We'll talk about
that some evening. All right. I say we call them
innocents. Innocents. So they are, because
there's no actual transgression on their part. There is, though,
in that infant, the sweetest, the sweetest baby that's born. There is in that baby a carnal
mind, a carnal mind, enmity against God. It's not developed. It's not developed. It just lies
there. The poet said one time, within
the youngest breast there lies a stone. I believe it. And this
carnal mind is inmate against God at all times. Now, the wolf may sleep, but
it's still a wolf. Is that right? The rattlesnake
may be laying up there on the rock sunning itself, and the
rattlesnake may let you go by without biting you, but it's
still a rattlesnake, isn't it, Pat? It's still a rattlesnake.
It still has poison. You see? I mean at all times,
at all hours, at every moment, in every day, every month, in
every year. Not just at best times, but I
mean all the time. Oh, all of it. Every power, every
passion, every part of that man is enmity. He's an enemy against
God. What part of man was crushed
or what part of man was injured at the fall and by the fall?
Well, I'll tell you, that fall crushed man entirely, all over. Isaiah says in the first chapter,
I believe it is, from the top of his head to the bottom of
his feet. He's full of putrefying sores
and there's no soundness in him. All over, the whole of man is
defaced, the whole man. He's a traitor against heaven.
He's a traitor against God. And this is his nature all over. You see what I'm talking about
here this morning? For or because the carnal mind, you know who
the carnal mind is, is what? Enmity. Enmity is an enemy, an
enemy. against God. Oh, now, brethren,
let's just think a little bit here for a second or two about
the enormity or the vast largeness of this guilt, if that's right. I've got to take God's testimony
for it, Bob. It says that the carnal mind
is enmity against God. That must be so. If that's not
so, let's quit. If that's not so, maybe John
3, 16 is not so. God so loved the world. that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
might not perish, but have everlasting life. If this is not so, maybe
that's not so. It's so, brethren. It's all so.
It's all so. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. I want you to see the enormity
of this guilt, and it can be seen when we understand who this
is against. Who's it against? Who's it against? Look at it. Because the carnal
mind is enmity against, not a stranger, but against the God who made
us. I think E.W. Johnson or John
Mitchell or someone used this illustration one time, said that an old aged mother and husband
came to their son's house one day. And they knocked on the door.
And their son was living in the lap of luxury. And they knocked
on the door and the son's wife came to the door. And they called
her by name and she said, well, probably you better talk with
your son, my husband. And so she went back and called
for her son, said, come, said, your mother and your father is
here at the door and they want to talk to you. She didn't even
invite him in. And he came out and come to the door and stepped
out and closed the door behind him. He stepped out on the porch
and they kind of moved back on the steps, an old man and an
old woman, this man's mother and his father. And the mother appealed to him.
The mother's hair was iron gray, the old mother of Israel. And
she said to him, she said, Son, your father and I, Your father and I have been proud
all of our lives. We've never been on welfare.
We've never received any food stamps. Your father's always
worked, and he's worked hard, never made a lot of money, but
he's always worked. He put clothes on your back,
and your brothers and sisters, and helped me, and worked hard
for us. But he said now, he said he's
not able to work no more, and said, we don't have a thing.
He said, we don't have a thing. We don't have any food in the
house. As a matter of fact, we haven't
even got a house. We've been put out of our house." And the son looked at him with
ice-cold eyes, and he said, I can't be of any help to you. And the
mother said, Well, I'm your mother, but I can't be of any help to
you. Get off of my property. And the old lady flinched and
just about fainted. And the old husband got her by
the arm and turned her. And before he got turned, the
door slammed, and the son went back into the house. Well, now
that would have been bad. That would have been bad, but
not quite as bad if it had been against a stranger. If a stranger
had come up off of the road there and said, give me some help,
give me some money, give me some bread, and a fellow said, no,
that wouldn't have been so bad. It would have been bad, but not
so bad. But when it's against, you see,
it's against that makes the crime so great. The enormity, the largeness
of the crime, of the sin, of the attitude, becomes insurmountable
when you see who it's against. This was against mother and father.
Our enmity, our hostility, our ungratefulness, our unthankfulness,
our attitude of, I'll do it, I'll go my way, I'll do it alone,
I need no help from nobody on earth or in heaven. I'll go my
way. I'll do good my way. I'm independent of anybody. I'll curse God if I want to.
I'll damn God. I'll take His name in vain. I'll
live as though He never existed. I cannot free His Son. He sent His Son here and His
Son died, they said, and suffered and was buried. I don't care.
I don't care how much blood he shed. I don't care the anguish
of his soul. I don't care the anguish of God's
soul in sending his son. I don't care. That's our attitude. You know, it's against God. It's
against God. That's the reason hell is going
to be so great. That's the reason the penalty of being carnally
minded is so heavy. The penalty is so heavy. See,
a man's not going to get by with it, just get the back of his
hand slapped. You know, when you went to school
years ago, you was in the first, second, third grade, if you'd
done something wrong, they took the ruler. You had to put your
hands out like that and the teacher slapped you with the ruler. And
it didn't amount to much. That didn't amount to much. In
just about two or three minutes, you forgot about that and was
right back at it again. But you see, it's who it's against. It's who it's against, and therefore
the punishment is heavy. The punishment is great. Some
people say, well, God must be terrible. He must be awful to
send men into a place that's described like it is in the Bible. of torment, a place of torment
where the worm doth not. The worm continually claws and
bites and scratches and eats. Where the worm doth not. Where
the shout of their torment are sendeth up forever. Do you know
why? Do you know why that penalty
is so great? Because it's... Who is it against? Who is it
against? It's against God who made it. That's who it is. God made you. You didn't make yourself. God
made you. You say, well, I don't need Him. You made a mistake in sending
Jesus Christ down here. You made a mistake. I don't need
Him. All right. You're welcome to it. You're
welcome to that attitude. Thank God that I've been delivered. That's all I can say. Thank God.
Listen. He stands to us. God stands to
us in the relationship of a Maker and Creator. He's the ruler of
providence. It is Him who keeps us from day
to day. God Almighty. You don't keep
yourself. It was up to you. You'd have
both legs cut off a long time ago and be maimed. Maybe you'd
have all your limbs cut off. It was up to you. You don't know
how to walk. You don't know where to step. You don't know the pitfalls
out there. You don't know anything. It's
God in His providence. You see, the providence, the
blessings of God fall upon all men alike. The rain falls upon
the just as well as the unjust. The sun shines just as strongly
upon an infidel as it does upon the greatest believer that ever
lived. You see, it's the providence of God that rules us, that directs
us, leads our steps day in and day out. He keeps us from day
to day. He supplies our need. Did you
ever think, brethren, that He's the One that keeps the breath
in your nostrils? It's Him. It's Him. It's God. You see, He causes the blood
to pursue its course. through our veins, it's God. He holds us in life, and He keeps
us in death. And I want to tell you right
now, if you're one of whom I've described here this morning from
the Scripture, that you're carnally minded, you're fleshly minded,
you're unregenerate, you're lost, well, I'll tell you this morning,
brethren, you're fighting a losing battle. because you can't win. You're fighting against God,
but you can't win the battle. You can't win. You're hurting
yourself. You're committing suicide. That's
what you're doing. You're committing suicide with
your own soul. Your pride will not permit you
to bow. God's got to break you. He's
got to break your heart, and He's got to strip you. He's got
to put you on your knees. And I trust The things that I've
said this morning may be used for that means of stripping you
of your pride and bringing you to your knees that you might
see Him with whom you and I have to do. Well, you say we're in
a terrible mess, a terrible mess. Well, that's right. We are in
a terrible mess. But just let me spend a few minutes
here and try to tell you how I think there's a possibility
that we can get out of it. Look over there in John chapter
7, if you will. John 7. And I believe it's verse 37.
I want you to see this. Verse 37. It says, In the last
day, that great day of the feast,
Jesus stood and he cried, and this is what he said, If any
man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And he that believeth
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water, if any man thirsteth." You know what that reminds me
of? That reminds me of that statement in the Bible that says that there
are many called, but few are chosen. If any man thirsteth. If any man thirsteth. As if he had said, most of you
do not thirst. Most of you do not thirst. Do any of you thirst? If any man thirsts. Remember now, it was the great
day of the feast. There was a multitude of people
there. As a matter of fact, the majority
of all Israel was in that crowd. There was hundreds of thousands
of people that went to Jerusalem from all parts of the known world
at that particular time to offer or to go to worship, to be instructed,
to go through their rituals and what have you. And our Lord Jesus
Christ stood at the last day of the feast, the last day. They
went through all the ceremonies, all the ceremonies. Everything
was over with. Packing their horses. They're camels. The children
said, well, Mother, we've got to go home. Yeah, yeah. They
all stood there, and Jesus stood, and He looked down over into
their faces, and He said, if any man thirsts, as if to say,
is there anybody in that crowd that's really thirsty? Are there
really anybody that's thirsty? You see, when He looked over
that crowd, He read their indifference and spiritual death in their
faces. He could see that. And he expressed,
I believe, his fear that none or at least only a few of these
that he spoke to were really thirsty. You see, he could see,
he who was the reader of thoughts and the reader of their hearts,
he seen that self-contentment. possessed the majority of that
crowd, and it wasn't too many, was thirsty. Well, let me tell
you, just a second, and I'll quit. Hold with me for just a
minute now. Just a minute. What does it mean to thirst?
Jesus said, if any man thirsts... Well, it means this. The thirsty
know what thirst is. If you're thirsty, you know what
it is to be thirsty, don't you? Well, in other words, brethren,
it is a self-explaining pain. It's a self-explaining want. It's a self-explaining need if
you're thirsty. If any man thirsts, it wasn't
for physical water that he was talking about. Anybody thirsty
after me, Anybody in that crowd out there, that great crowd,
is anybody? All of these that are enmity
against God, these that are carnally minded, anybody out there? Anybody
thirsty? Well, what does it mean to be
thirsty? Well, it means are you dissatisfied with yourself? Are you really dissatisfied with
your life? Are you dissatisfied with the
purpose of your life? Are you dissatisfied? Are you
grieved on the account of your rebellion and your sin against
God? Are you grieved? Listen, are
you anxious to be right with God? I mean anxious, thirsty,
anxious. I'm anxious that somehow I might
be right with God. Oh, I'd hate to die. right today
or tomorrow, I'd hate to die in the condition that I'm in
and go out and meet the God who made me. And I've been a rebellious
creature against Him all my life. I've been moral, I've treated
my family good, but down in my heart, that's what bothers me.
In my heart, I've done as the preacher said, I've wished many
times that God would be dead. I wish that I'd never be accountable
unto God. I wish there was no God. I'm anxious. I'm anxious. Really,
I'm anxious to be right with God. Are you pining? Are you longing to find a Savior? Have you some weariness in your
heart after the Lord Jesus Christ and the rest which He alone can
give? Do you desire to be made pure? Is there something in your heart
that longs after better things? Listen to me now. Do you long
for mercy? Do you long for forgiveness?
Do you long for covering? Do you long for a righteousness
that will stand you in good stead with God? Do you long for something
that will make you accepted with God? Do you long for that? Are
you ashamed? Are you guilty? Are you heavy-hearted? Are you burdened down with your
guilt and your shame? Are you? Well, listen. If you
are, listen to this now. You see, the sense of your need,
the sense of your need is your thirst. That's your thirst. That's
your thirst. The sense of your need. I need
this, I need that. The sense of that is that you're
thirsty. Our Lord said, Come unto Me if any man thirsts. Anybody thirsty? Anybody thirsty? What can He do to have His thirst
quenched and His thirst relieved, that pain relieved? If He needs
the peace, if He needs joy, if He needs to be made fit to die!
Huh? Jesus said, Let Him come to Me.
Let Him come to Me. He's come to Me. Where is He?
He's nearer than the breath that you breathe right now. He's there
where you are. That's where He is. The Word
of Peace! The Word of Faith is there. You
trust Him. You come to Him. You cast your
soul for Him. Lord, here I am. Lord, here I
am. That's all I am, Lord. I'm nothing.
But here I am. Here I am. Lord, accept me for
Jesus' sake. All right.