Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1878
“The carnal mind is enmity against God.” Romans 8:7.
MEN naturally mind the things of the flesh. This is as sad as if a seraph should rake upon a dunghill! It is not amazing that a brute beast cares for the flesh, for it is only flesh, but it is lamentable in the highest degree that man, in whom there is a principle infinitely superior to mere materialism, should, nevertheless, so generally give himself up to minding the things of the body—the things of time and earth.
The world’s catechism is, “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? With what shall we be clothed?” Men begin with these questions as soon as they leave their father’s roof and they often die with them upon their lips. It is said of the peasants around Nice that they seem to have no thought of anything but how they can make a living and save a little money—and I am afraid they are, by no means, a unique people—in some form, or other, the world is in all men’s hearts and thoughts. The dust of earth has blinded eyes that were meant for Heaven! You would think, from the talk of many a human being, that he, himself, was meant to walk about for a few years and then to occupy six feet of earth and never be heard of again. The creature’s life seems in consistency with such a destiny and is, by no means, suggestive of a life to come, or an existence in a nobler sphere!
Yet there is in us an immortal spirit—the very heathen were convinced of this! Man has an inborn consciousness that he is not to be extinguished by death. His strange longings, hopes and fears are, in a disjointed way, the proofs of this primeval knowledge which he can never quite forget. It was not necessary that Scripture should reveal the future existence of the soul. When you miss a clear statement of that Truth of God, you only miss that which is supposed to be already known! The existence of God and of an immortal soul in man is taken for granted in Scripture. A future state is plain upon the face of things. Every thoughtful man can see that there is a wide difference between the brute that grovels and man that aspires!
Now, if this is so, one would have supposed that this immortal being would, in thought, have projected himself into the next state and that he would have been very much occupied with the consideration of where he should be and what he should be in the world to come. One would have suspected that he would have shaped the actions of the present with a view to the future and so have ceased to be earth-bound and hide-bound and would have risen into something superior to the life of the mere animal. Yet men, by nature, do not give dominion to their nobler part, but allow the brute in them to overrule the mind in them! They are earthly-minded and then, because they are earthly-minded, spiritual things are despised by them and the great God, who is the Spirit of all spirits, is most of all neglected and treated as if He were of small account. The minding of the flesh sours the soul against God so that he who minds the flesh is soon filled with enmity against God.
Our Apostle declares this fact and declares it very positively. He does not say that the carnal mind is at enmity to God, but he gives us the solid noun—he says, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” It is enmity in essence— altogether and always enmity against God! It is a solid block of aversion to God and animosity against Him. It is very strong language to use, but so he puts it under the guidance of Inspiration and, therefore, he does not mistake or exaggerate. The mind that looks after the flesh, the carnal mind, is a mass of downright undiluted enmity to the Most High God! Such a mind is opposed, not merely to the things of God, the Laws of God and the Truth of God, but to God Him-
self! The mind which is under the dominion of the flesh cannot endure the Being of God—His Character is the object of its hate! No, such a mind is hate, itself, towards God!
Of some men this need not be stated, for they declare it themselves. There are men, (God be merciful to them and change them!), who deliberately say that they do not believe in God and who use all kinds of opprobrious epithets towards our Lord and the Divine Truth which He has been pleased to reveal. These men’s sins “go before them into judgment.” They will need no witnesses against them at the bar of their Maker—they themselves have testified against themselves! Their mind is evidently, confessedly, intensely enmity against God.
Many others would not care to confess their enmity so distinctly and yet their lives proclaim it. Their outward conduct shows that they are not only enemies of God and His Christ, but that their heart is a mass of enmity to Him—their speech betrays the fact that they are not reconciled to God. Some of these even make profession of being His friends and yet, of such, Paul said, “Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ”—the enemies beyond all others, for they have entered into the Church by treachery and thus have attacked the Lord in His own house—where they can do most mischief. They blasphemously misuse their profession of faith to comfort them in their sins—and while they vow that they are God’s servants, their lives show that they are the willing slaves of a very different master!