The Pharisee Christian

Are we Pharisee Christians?

There are different categories of Christians in the church.

There is the Sermon-proof Christian (Matthew 13:15); the Mixed Multitude Christian (Exodus 12:38) (Numbers 11:1-4); the Compromising Christian (Exodus 8:25, 27 & 10:7); the True Worshiper (John 4:24) (Romans 8:16); the Pharisee Christian (Matthew 5:20) (Matthew Ch.23) and other categories.

The Pharisees were a religious class and were Jesus Christ’s bitterest enemies in his day. They were a hypocrite and self-righteous group. A hypocrite professes to be what he is not and a self-righteous person prides in himself while despising and looking down on others he is not better than.

The Pharisee is a whitewashed person looking beautiful on the outside while his interior is evil and rotten like a repainted grave that looks outwardly beautiful but inwardly rotten (Matthew 23:27-28). He practices outward religion and outward holiness while his inner man, his heart and spirit are corrupted, polluted and evil.

Jesus inflicted the most scathing remarks in history on the Pharisees in Matthew Chapter 23. He condemned them in Matthew 23:27-28 as hypocrites for their pride in outward show and display while being inwardly rotten at heart.

God is much more interested in our inward holiness because from the heart of man proceed the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). True worship, true service and true and holy principles come from the heart just as the evil issues of life also proceed from it (Mark 7:19-21), depending on whom your heart is submitted to –God or the Devil.

God is interested in a pure heart (Matthew 5:8); a perfect heart (2 Chronicles 16:9); a circumcised heart (Deuteronomy 30:6) that will open up to the Gospel and will love Him wholly and put Him first in life and conduct (Matthew 22:34-40).

God is also interested in a heart that will fear Him and obey all His commandments (Deuteronomy 5:29). He is looking for someone that will love Him with the whole heart, soul and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5).

God is not interested in our outward forms of worship and outward show of holiness without an inner change at heart. He does not want mere religious reformation without inner heart purity. What pleases Him more is a person’s godly living by His own standards.

The outward forms of religion are not sins in themselves but alone on their own are vain and powerless to save the soul (Isaiah 1:13-14) (Isaiah 58:1-5).

The Word in Isaiah 1:13-14 and 58:1-5 tells us that outward forms of worship are sacrifices that cannot be substituted for personal holiness and morality. King Saul sought to please God with sacrifices of animals while failing in total obedience to His instructions regarding Amalek and God rejected his kingship for this disobedience.

As far as God and His Word go, obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22).

In John 4:21-24, the Samaritan woman asked Jesus a question about the right place to worship God whether in Jerusalem or on a mountain. Jesus replies that the time has come when the true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and truth.

His answer is telling us that the true worshippers that God is looking for are those who will follow Him with their whole souls, minds, feelings, emotions and desires; and are in harmony with the full and attested truth and not in fallacies and controversies, ceremonies, rituals and offerings.

Many run about from church to church, from mountain to mountain looking for a ‘’better place’’ to worship or pray to God. Jesus answer in John 4:24 tell that true worship is that of the heart where one is and not by a particular special place.

Many are like the Pharisee in Luke 18:10, who trust themselves, trust their religion, which take pride in their denomination and despise all others who do not share the same faith with them or do not belong to their denomination. Their attitude illustrates pride and self-righteousness which are sins in themselves.

One woman said that because she visits Israel every year on Holy Pilgrimage, she is sure of heaven. Going for Holy Pilgrimage in Israel yearly without the right changes in the heart, and without fully trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour is an empty religion and a vanity powerless to save the soul.

Rather than simply obey God’s Word, many prefer to disobey by choosing their own paths independently of him and when things go wrong, they begin to seek for Him to remove the road blocks through long and endless sacrifices of fasting and prayers to appease the God whose Word they rejected.
Obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22).

The sacrifices that are acceptable to God are a broken spirit, and a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).

God has promised us that He will give us a new heart and renew a right spirit within us and has also promised to remove our stony hearts and to replace with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19) (Ezekiel 36:26).
But we have a role to play in our salvation by asking. It is when we ask that we shall receive (Matthew 7:7).

o Ask God for a clean heart and a right spirit (Psalm 51:10)
o Ask God for a circumcised heart (Deuteronomy 30:6)
o Ask Him for the grace and power to follow Him with a whole heart (Numbers 32:12)
o Ask for a heart that will fear Him and be obedient to Him (Deuteronomy 5:29).
o We need to ask God to break us down and re mould us to conform to His taste because He is the Potter and we are clay in His hands.

Ayodele Adegbulugbe.

Are We Carnal Christians?

Are We Still Carnal Christians?

There are different categories of Christians in the Church which include the following:

The Antioch Christian (Acts 11:26)

The Sermon-proof Christian (Matthew 13:15)

The Compromising Christian (Exodus 8:23, 25 & 10:7)

The Mixed Multitude Christian (Exodus 12:38) (Numbers 11:1-4)

The Pharisee Christian (Matthew 5:20) (Matthew Ch.23)

The Carnal Christian (Romans Ch.8)

The carnal Christian is described in Romans Chapter 8. He is a Christian who is not growing in grace (Hebrews 5:12-14); who minds the things of the flesh and places them above the Spirit. A person who minds the things of the flesh, who walks in the flesh and is not walking in the Spirit cannot please God (Galatians 5:16).

He cannot please God because the flesh and the things of the flesh which he lives for are at enmity with the Spirit and the things of the Spirit (Galatians 5:17). A carnally minded Christian lives in rebellion and is not obeying God because his carnal mind is not subject to the laws of God, easily submits to sin (Romans 8:7).

A carnal Christian is like the natural man in 1 Corinthians 2:14 described as a person who lives under the control of his fleshly passions, which are the sensual and depraved part of man. He has no sense for spiritual values and has no delight for them. He counts it wisdom to live for the world and its carnal pleasures. Therefore, spiritual things are foolishness to him and he is spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-9).

TAKE NOTE, that all carnality is not sinful. Natural desires such as food, water, sleep and sex are carnal but are not sinful carnality. It is natural to have them but in moderation not to break God’s laws. They can become sinful carnality when we indulge in them to the point that God’s laws are broken.

A couple who are fully dressed for church and are ready to go, who suddenly change their minds and begin to undress for sex because one of them developed a sexual urge at that point; and ended up having sex first and going late to the service or eventually not going at all are carnal Christians. 

They are carnal Christians who cannot deny themselves their fleshly desires for a few hours to give attention to God and the things of the Spirit.

Jesus Christ preached self-denial (Matthew 8:34) and without self-denial, there is no victorious Christian life !  In 1 Corinthians 7:5, a couple can suspend sexual activities for a while in order to focus on the things of the Spirit which is self-denial.

  

Other characteristics of the carnal Christian include:

 

§  The works of the flesh have full rein in the lives of carnal Christians (Galatians 5:19-21)

§  They have obsession for various kinds of lusts such as sexual lusts – an obsessive sexual craving and an uncontrollable desire for sex. Other lusts are material lusts, fleshly lusts (Romans 13:14); youthful lusts (Titus 2:12); pleasure lusts (Titus 3:3) and monetary lust – an insatiable lust for money at any cost.

§  The Carnal Christian is a casual but not a committed Christian; he seeks for convenience and is not a covenanted Christian; he seeks for comfort and is not ready to carry his Cross and follow Christ, and prefers carnality above Christ-likeness. In essence, the carnal Christian is not ready to pay the relevant prices required in Mark 8:34-36 to follow Christ to the end.

§  The carnal Christian is delinquent in spiritual activities –cannot pray, cannot fast, cannot preach the gospel, cannot study the Word of God because they have no time for the things of the Spirit. Some Christians cannot fast for a single day because they cannot sacrifice food, water, sex and pleasures. 

Some cannot conduct a personal prayer vigil because they cannot sacrifice a few hours’ sleep. Many cannot have a prayer vigil even for once in a week either personal or church vigil. They always have readymade and convenient excuses to avoid it.

Carnal Christians can read the newspapers and junk gossip magazines, browse the net and watch television for many hours but cannot find the time to study their bible for an hour daily or read one chapter daily. They have been in the church for many years but have never for once read the whole bible from Genesis to Revelation. They cannot quote at least 52 verses in the Scripture off hand.

 A Christian should study the bible on daily basis, memorize at least a verse in a week and endeavor to read the whole Bible once in a year. He should be able to devote at least 10% of his daily 24 hours i.e. 2 hours & 30 minutes to the things of the Spirit – bible study, fellowship, prayers, evangelism, meditation etc. that are relevant to spiritual growth.

 The carnal Christian cannot devote 10% of his time for God but has abundant time to devote to the vanities of life that have no eternal values.

§  The Carnal Christian is not a disciple and eternity with Christ is for committed disciples. Because he is not experiencing spiritual development, he is still spiritually dead and walking in spiritual darkness. He is not serving God in Spirit and in Truth, thereby making his spirituality to be a false one.

§  The carnal Christian is a lukewarm person, neither hot nor cold that God has promised to spue out of His mouth (Revelations 3:15-16) and he is content to be lukewarm.

§  A carnal Christian has no power for self-denial, lacks self-discipline; lacks power to resist temptations; lacks power not to compromise; cannot resist his carnal appetites; cannot de-emphasize self and lacks the power for holy living.

§  The carnal Christian loves the world and is in infinite fellowship with it which makes him an enemy of God (James 4:4) (1 John 2:15-17). 

§  A carnal Christian delights in associating with the scornful that scoff at God’s Word and ridicule it (Psalm 1:1) (2 Peter 3:3-4). He is offended when he hears the Word of God rather than try to adjust his life by what he has heard. He is quick to condemn the speaker as having a ‘holier than thou attitude’ or accuse him of ‘judging others.’

§  Further, he is not abiding in Christ and cannot bear any fruit.

In conclusion, the carnal Christian is a counterfeit Christian who cannot make it to eternity with Christ in this state. Heaven is for those who are ready to take it by violence and by force (Matthew 11:12). 

One may be or call himself a Pastor, Bishop, Archbishop, Prophet or Evangelist and still be a carnal Christian. These titles do not make any one a Christian.

Are we still carnal Christians? 

If we are, the choice is ours to remain carnal or to come out of it. Remember that God can beckon on us to draw us closer to Him but He will never force anyone because He gave us the freewill power of choice.

We have a role to play in our salvation, to come out of carnal Christianity and become true worshippers in Spirit and in Truth. We need to repent afresh and be genuinely converted and grow to become a Christian in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and not merely a Christian in the church.

It is not by our power or might but by the Spirit of the Lord (Zechariah 4:6). We also need the power of prayer to come out of carnal Christianity.Then pray as follows:

Ø Lord, empower my spirit man to grow stronger and stronger and my flesh to become weaker and weaker in Jesus name.

Ø Lord Jesus, crucify my flesh.

Ø Anything in me that God the Father has not planted, that is drawing me to Hell, be rooted out by Holy Ghost Fire in Jesus name (Matthew 15:13)

Ø Pentecostal fire of God, fall on me as on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 1:8).

Ø Spirit of God, reveal to me the areas where I am failing and empower me to break away from them in Jesus name.

Ayodele Adegbulugbe.